From my phone

Wrapping up May!Last time playing in the sprinklers on Monroe!  Childhood!!!

The big and the little

Jack is so good with Margaret!  He loves to play with her and entertain her.  He can make her smile quicker than any of us and is so helpful.  He loves her so much, and the feeling is mutual.  Love seeing this sweet little relationship!

Last day of school

Time for summer!  Yaaayyyyy!  So happy for a mostly schedule free summer ahead to play and enjoy these boys.  They both had great years at Eastminster.  Jack finished the fours with Mrs. Regina and Mrs. Jeanne, and Sam finished the twos with Mrs. Emily and Ms. Theresa.  Loved them all and am so thankful for how they helped our boys learn and grow!  And now, SUMMER!!!

Before school-And on the way out!!  Look at that big-boy smile!Here’s the first day and the last!  Our babies!We went out for frozen yogurt after school to celebrate.Oh, and Jack asked for breakfast in bed for his very last day of pre-school.  Ok buddy! :)Looking forward to lots of fun this summer!

Six Month Well Check

Praise God for a healthy baby girl! (Who did not like the scale today!)

Weight:  14 pounds, 11 ounces (20th percentile)
Height:  27.3 inches (90th percentile)

Last box!

Unpacked our last box, and I LOVE what I found!

First sleepover

Jack had his first sleepover last night-with Uncle Doug and Aunt Rebecca.  Sam went, too, and almost made it.  I picked him up at 10:45!  Jack had the best time-ice cream making, movies, donuts!  All kinds of fun!  Thanks, guys, for loving on our boys!

2411 Monroe Street

Sweet, sweet home.  You were so good to us, and we’ll miss you so!

Moving day!

The movers got here bright and early this morning.  It was pouring or raining for so much of the day, but they did such a wonderful job!  The Thomases were here, too, and they were sooo helpful!  Thank you!!  I wish I would’ve taken some pictures of the process, I had to turn my eyes as they were carrying some really heavy things down and then back up the stairs!, but it was such a busy day that I only caught a couple. 

Last picture in the nursery…Looking empty!Jack was at school and then a friends house most of the day, but when he got home, he helped right away!  He loved that they included him!They finished up around 10 at night.  Our first night in the new house called for a slumber party!Here’s to new memories soaking the walls of this house!

Six Months Old!

Happy FIRST half birthday, little one!  Six months already and you get sweeter every single day!  You are just the best and we’re SO thankful for you!  Your sweet, gummy smile lights up your whole face-I just want to eat you up!  We moved in to the new house today, and you were such a good girl through it all!  So easy going!You’ve been eating solids for a couple weeks now, and you love it!  You've loved everything we’ve tried so far and you eat it all up!  Yay!  You still nurse every four-ish hours, and you’re still waking once at night.  You slept through the night at five weeks, but then just after four months, you started waking up again.  No problem!  While waking up at night is not the best, I know I’ll miss our sweet, quite time when it’s over.  And it only takes about fifteen minutes from when I get out of bed to when I get back in!  Then we’re both back to sleep!You play with your teeny toes all the time-you love your toes, and I do, too!  I just love baby toes!  Any time you see them, you grab them and in to your mouth they go!  Actually, pretty much everything goes into your mouth right now!  Your brothers still adore you-how could they not!-and it’s such a blessing to watch.  Jack, specifically, loves to hold you, carry you around, get you things, and just plain entertain you!  Sometimes my heart skips a beat when I watch you three play, and sometimes I still can’t believe you’re all three ours! Your little personality is really starting to shine through and it’s just the cutest!  You’re so funny and so sweet!  And happy, happy!  You very rarely cry, and when you do, it’s usually a quick hug and snuggle and you’re happy again.  Thank you, LORD!  We love you more than words can say, sweet baby Margaret!  But Jesus loves you the most!

Last bath

We’ve been having lots of lasts the past few weeks.  Tonight-the last bath in the tub.  Countless “Keep the water in the tub!”s while they were in there, but they loved it!  So many games from their imagination, learning to put their faces in the water, a handful of movies watched while soaking, bubble baths as deep as can be-oh, I’ll miss that tub.

The chair and our girl

This chair in this corner.  I’ve spent some really sweet time there with these three babies.  Jack wanted to take some pictures, so I asked him to take some of Margaret and me in the chair.  I love this nursery!

Strikers!

We had another super fun soccer season!  Jack loved it, and Sam wished he could’ve played.  Next year!Silly boys (and girl!)!

Our home

So, goodness.  It’s two days before moving day and I’m beside myself.  Memory upon memory is seeped into the walls of this great house and so many of them are flooding back to me right now.  Like this door. 

That’s the door we opened to walk into our home as parents for the first time.  And the second time.  And the third time.  The door that they ran to countless times to welcome daddy home from work-Sam stopping short to collapse on the ground, fake crying that he wasn’t first and Jack sometimes letting him win.  The door that we welcomed family and friends through to help us celebrate first birthdays, and second and third and fourth and fifth.  The door that they stood in front of for first and last day of school pictures-and so many more!  That’s also the door I wouldn’t go out of if I saw a lizard perched on that banister out there!  Ha!  That door.  Oh, I’m gonna miss that door!The nursery.  Where could I even begin.  Our babies’ first room.  So many sweet times rocking them, nursing them in the middle of the night.  Reading to them, playing on that floor.  I loved watching Mark wrestle them in there and read to Sam while Jack jumped off his back.  I remember when we first brought Jack home…we went up there, laid him in his crib for the first time, and Mark showed me all the baby boy clothes he bought, washed, and hid from me until that moment.  Oh, goodness.All the “today from the chair” pictures of Sam!  Silly boy!  I can remember him crawling for the first time in there and hiding in the closet so many times.  I remember Jack teaching Sam how to make a fort for the first time in there and Jack taking his first bath in that tub.  You know, Sam nor Margaret never did bathe in there!I love that sweet, sweet nursery, and I think all our babies did, too!  Sooooo many hours of sleep in there.  So thankful God gave us good sleepers!And then there’s the boys’ room.  (I already took down the matching valences hoping to use them in the new house-we’ll see!)  I love, LOVE that they share a room.  Countless hours of imagination and best-friend-in-the-making moments have happened in there.  They’re learning to count on each other, comfort each other, and of course wrestle and fight with each other being together like that.  I once read that one way to help your kids become best friends is to have them share a room.  Oh, that is my prayer.So many ‘games’ played in there and books read in there.  Pony rides, basketball games, games of army men, hide and seek, red light green light and on and on.  They would look out the window sitting on that window bench.  I remember when Jack saw a squirrel pretty close in the tree and named him and kept watching for him to come back.  That window seat was my secret storage place for the silent night candles and wreathes I would hang every day after Thanksgiving in here and in the nursery!  Most of all, what a blessing it was to check on these two each night and see them sleeping side by side.  Takes my breath away. Oh, there is so much more to say about this sweet home of ours, but I’ll save that for another time.  Otherwise this will go on forever!!  I’m so thankful and so grateful that it belonged to us for almost seven years during such a sweet season of our life.  It will always be so dear to me, but as Mark says, it’s just a pile of bricks.  We’re taking the memories and the magic with us!

Mother’s Day

“It’s both a daunting responsibility and a glorious opportunity.  The divine role of Motherhood is a gift from God…”  I LOVE being their mamma!So, so grateful God chose me for them, even in moments like this!  One out of three thought Mother’s Day pictures sounded good!I wish I had the words to describe how intensely I love mothering these three.  It’s not always easy, sometimes it’s hard!, but I’m so thankful that being home with them was part of God’s plan.  Thank you for working so hard for us, babe!  We all love you so, so much!

And Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms in my life, most especially my own!  Love you so much, mama!