Blooming

I feel like we are in a season of blooming. God has been at work in our lives in what feels like both big and small ways. We're in a new state, a new town, finding new spots to call our own.

a beautiful view of some blossoms with the gas station in the background from my run this morning ;)

Our kids are growing every day. Learning new things, growing out of clothes, becoming their own little people. Asking questions about God, and stating truths about Jesus that I didn't even know were stored away in their hearts.

Luke is in a new job, a different position that is giving him an updated skill-set. Building relationships with co-workers.

I'm in a season of making friends. God is giving me a sense of bravery as I go to a house full of women I've maybe met once. Or going to hang out with a group of moms who already know each other at least a little bit.

God is beginning to provide a sense of community. As an introvert, it's hard to put myself out there, but God is giving me a desire to be with people. To meet with other moms. To come alongside them and pray for them.

And He's giving me a desire to be in His Word. Every time I have a baby, I go for the first nine months or so of their little lives never sitting through a complete sermon. I'm either nursing or pacing around with my littlest love in my arms. I know it's a season, and as we begin to get to a point where Clara should probably be put in the nursery, God is giving me more of a passion for the Bible. I want to be in it. The more I read it, the more I see of God, and the more I want to keep coming back to it.

I'm thankful for this season that we're in. It's growing us and stretching us. It's not necessarily easy, but it's more fun than some of the other seasons we've been through. It's learning to lean into God in a different way. There are others around me walking through valleys and climbing what seem to be impossible mountains. As I navigate this season of blooming, I want to be aware and come alongside those who are in a harder season and love on them through the love of Christ. And I'm praying that God continues to keep us blooming!

Egg Hunts 1, 2, and 3!

On Saturday we had planned on joining some new friends for their neighborhood Easter egg hunt, but the threat of rain postponed that hunt until the next day. I had noticed a sign in front of one of the assisted living places we drive past to go to Noelle's school saying that they were having an egg hunt on Saturday, so we headed there instead! Noelle and Jonah were very excited and had their Easter baskets all ready to go.

Unfortunately, I don't think they were prepared for the number of kids who showed up. Jonah was able to grab two eggs, and Noelle got four. Part of Jonah's problem was that he was so excited when he picked up the first egg he found, he ran over to show us before looking for more. They were both a little upset, but we tried to distract them with a cookie and trip to Books A Million. And Jonah was of course all about the candy, and finished all of his before we got back home.

And Clara just hung out in Luke's arms the whole time we were there. One of the residents came over to say hi to her and Clara just grabbed on to her finger and listened as the lady talked to her. It was so sweet! I also had a moment where our new town felt like home- we saw people we knew outside of where we normally see them! In MD, almost every time I went to Walmart (which was multiple times a week) I saw someone we knew- from MOPS, from the neighborhood, from preschool. Well at the Easter egg hunt, we saw a teacher from Noelle's school who has a son in Noelle's class, AND I saw a mom who is in my Friday Bible study. Definitely makes it feel more like "our" town!

On Sunday, we snapped a quick picture after church, and then headed home for an even quicker lunch before heading to meet our friends in their neighborhood for the Easter egg hunt. (We also put Clara in the nursery for the first time, and when I went to get her after the sermon and communion, she was a crying mess. So jury's out on what I'll do with her this coming Sunday!)

All the moms had provided a dozen stuffed eggs per kid, so there were a lot of eggs! Noelle and Jonah were quite excited about all the eggs and candy that they got, and I had fun being able to chat with one of my new friends. (Also, I again saw someone I had met once before at the very first MOPS Bible study I went to. She happens to live in that neighborhood as well!)

Also, the more hunts we do, the more they learn how to get their game on and focus on the egg searching! No distractions!

Monday was Noelle's first day of Spring Break, and there was an Easter egg hunt and picnic planned for the moms and kids from our church. Noelle was awake a little after 4 a.m. because her poor nose was just a faucet. She was miserable, and crazy girl refuses to take any kind of medicine that would help her. The snot was all clear, so our best bet is that it's allergies. Luke ended up working from home so that he could stay at the house with her (movies all day for Noelle!), and Jonah, Clara, and I still got to go meet our friends.

Jonah of course enjoyed having more eggs to look for, and getting more candy. It was a bit windy, so instead of eating at the park, a few of us headed to someone's house for lunch. Then we headed home and had a low-key rest of the day!

Clara Irene: 9 Months

Only three months away from having a one year old!! Despite her lack of interest in sleeping, she is a mostly content baby. Multiple people have said that if they were guaranteed an easy baby like her, they'd have more! (Me too, people! And maybe if I was younger...)

This past month has been a good one for her- slightly more mobility (she can sit and spin herself in a circle), her first tooth popped through, and she has somewhat consistently slept through the night. She's tried lots of foods (I'm horrible and don't track what new foods I introduce to her!), and she's even eaten bits of the meals I make at home. Luke also has given her little bites of his ice cream, so dairy and sugar are already on her radar.

Height and Weight: When sitting her on the scale at home, she's 15.4 pounds. We have a well-check scheduled for the beginning of April, so we should get a more official weight and height then. :)

Diapers and Clothing: She is in size 2 diapers and just in the last week I pulled out her 9 month bin of clothes. I don't have much in just size 9, but I pulled out spring/summer things that are 9 month or 9-12 month. If she's like Noelle (which so far their growth charts are looking pretty similar), Clara will probably be fitting the 9-12 month things at the beginning of the fall. But who knows- maybe she'll have a major growth spurt and jump up on the scale! She also has no problem fitting in her six month sized things at this point.

Sleep: Oh sleep! In the past three weeks or so, she has had quite a few nights of sleeping ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT! When I only get up once to pee, I feel so much more rested than when I'm up for 20-30 minutes to feed a baby! However, there are nights where she is up, and I'm  trying to figure out if it's actually hunger or if it's because of teeth coming in. But at least we're headed in the direction of more sleep!

Naps are still usually very short. Every once in awhile, like maybe every 10 days, she'll take a nap longer than half an hour. She even took a three hour nap the other day that I had to awake her from so we could pick up Noelle. Many days, her only naps are in the car. A couple of times when the weather has been warmer, if she falls asleep in the van, I'll leave the garage door open and van doors open and let her keep sleeping. Thankfully she generally functions well on little sleep!

Eating: Every month I think, this is it, we're done with nursing. But we keep making it through another month. The other morning, I tried nursing her first thing, but she was very distracted by Jonah. Then, because we were out and about most of the day, I didn't end up getting a chance to nurse her again until bedtime. I could tell there was a decent amount for her, and she fell asleep nursing instead of with a bottle. She gets 5-6 bottles a day with 3-4 ounces in each one.

I try to feed her "meals" at least twice a day, and this past month she got oatmeal with almond milk, italian chicken and potatoes, mashed up beans, goldfish, and she had her first taste of a Chick Fil A nugget and french fry!

Social/Milestones: Sleeping through the night and her first tooth are probably the most exciting! I feel like she's been teething for most of her life, and I can finally see the first little tooth on the bottom. I cannot remember if it took this long for the other two to get teeth! Lately I've been giving her a dose of Tylenol before bed to hopefully help with any teething pain.

She still doesn't move much. She'll stretch her arms out as far as she can when she's sitting to reach for something, and a couple of times has fallen forward on to her stomach. She gets so upset whenever that happens! If she's sitting near a table or chair, she'll grab on to it and pull herself closer to it, but is nowhere close to pulling herself up. When she's sitting, she can spin herself in a circle so she can at least see what is going on all around her.

Likes: She still likes bathtime, watching her older siblings, eating food, being out and about, and being held. She is pretty much held or entertained all day long. Clara loves watching Jonah be a goofball and will often laugh out loud at him. She likes being dipped backward, and any little animals (Zoe, a dog at the house we go to for Bible study) walking around.

Dislikes: Clara does not like being made to sit by herself for long periods of time. She has been known to last close to 40 minutes sitting and playing with toys while I workout on the treadmill, but usually she's fussy after 20-30 minutes. It does help when the big two are also playing in the room to keep her focused on something else.

Fun things: She went to her first Easter egg hunt today! She really just watched everyone else do the running around and collecting, but it was at an assisted living home, and one older lady in particular came over to say hi and Clara just held on to her fingers. It was so sweet! We had house guests this past week, I took her on a stroller run when she was awake awfully early one morning, she sits in the stroller without the car seat (and seems much happier that way!), and has been on all the little stops for treats around town.

Pictures from the last month

from her first Easter egg hunt

napping in the stroller at the mall

pulling herself toward the table

visiting The Factory in Franklin with the Rogers

talking to me when she's supposed to be going down for a nap

sunny walk to Dunkin Donuts

Saturday Fun (aka a post I've been trying to write for a week!)

Saturday was another day full of family fun! I woke up when the baby got up around 6:45 (sleeping in for her!) and then did a walk/run on the treadmill while she (mostly) happily played on the floor. The big kids came upstairs towards the end, which helps keep Clara happier for longer. Once we were all ready for the day, and the kids had colored for a little while, we headed out for an early lunch at a little local place Luke found online called Katiepie's Country Kitchen.

Luke and I had egg and biscuit dishes, and the kids had chicken tenders and french fries (surprise, surprise!) The food was delicious, and Noelle and Jonah were especially excited that they had honey mustard to dip their food in. :)

Clara even ate little bits of my biscuits (we're making a true southern baby out of her!) 

Afterwards, we headed further south to make sure we got to the pie place before it closed. Ever since Pie Day, we've been thinking about pie! We perused the available pie choices and happily settled on a slice of peanut butter chocolate pie. I ate a few bites in the way home, and Luke finished it off that night. So good!

We made sure to get home to meet up with Caleb and Alyssa. While Luke and Caleb took the big kids to the neighborhood playground, Clara and I did our grocery shopping. Practically a holiday with only one kid. ;)

After feeling guilty about not doing anything for St. Patrick's day, I made sure the kids had green pancakes with rainbow sprinkles for dinner, and picked up some St. Patrick's day sugar cookies at the store.

They were both pretty excited about it!

Sunday was quieter, but we did go to OUR church, and Clara and I went on a nice long walk since napping is not her favorite.

Also, Jonah's Sunday School teacher told us about a conversation she had with Jonah:

Teacher: "Jonah, do you have any allergies?"
Jonah: "I don't know, but God does!"

So true, Jonah, so true!

Some Pictures and Words

So in college, one of my closest friends/roommate received catalogues with hunting/outdoorsy things, and there were little camo clothes for babies. She joked that when we all started having babies, she would get us some baby camo. Well, after Noelle was born, she sent me a little camo sweatshirt that she knit herself. Clara wore it the other day, and now all three of my babies have worn their baby camo! I just love the pointy hat!

I've been following an up and coming bakery opening in our town on instagram for a little while and they had their soft opening this week. Jonah and I decided to go check it out, and brought home a cinnamon roll! I worked on my self control and waited for Luke to get home to try it. It was absolutely delicious, and we want to go back and try more of their food! Luke says the cinnamon rolls I made for Christmas two years ago were still tastier, but sadly I have NO clue what recipe I used!! I'll keep trying a different one each year until we get another one hopefully close to it.  :)

So we've gotten into the habit of celebrating Noelle taking a math test by getting something sweet after school. She complains about her homework and going to school, so we are trying to make things as positive as we can. They chose McDonald's this time and Jonah enjoyed his hot fudge sundae while wearing his Thomas the train robe, and I snitched bites of Noelle's Oreo Mcflurry. She got her test back yesterday and got 100 percent on both parts! Go, girl!

Yesterday morning, Jonah, Clara, and I went to a women's Bible study at the home of one of the ladies in what we are now calling "our" church. It was SO good. We stayed for three hours and I got to talk to mamas in different stages of life while Jonah played and Clara hung out with me and eventually fell asleep. They are reading through the Old Testament, and for each day's reading, the husband of one of the women types out a summary of the chapters, which made it easier for me to jump in. 

After school, we drove up to Franklin to Babies R Us to spend the gift card Clara got for Christmas. (We wanted to make sure to spend it before they are officially out of business!) We ended up with some cute clothes and Pez dispensers for the big kids. Jonah keeps asking for all sorts of things for his upcoming birthday, including a bike. We went to look at their options, but nothing seemed like the right thing for him in our price range.

Afterwards we met Luke at the mall food court for dinner. We walked around a little bit afterwards and of course had to go the American Girl Store. Every time we go there it takes me back to getting the catalogs in the mail and circling everything I wanted. Noelle gets excited when we go to the store, but doesn't really play with the dolls (not American Girl brand) she does have the home. Maybe some day!

Baptism and Chick Fil A

Sometimes we get to lose an hour of sleep to the time change AND an hour when this little one decides to be awake for awhile. At least we got to see the clock change from 1:59 to 3:00 together.  :) I think the bags under my eyes just keep growing and getting darker. It's a season, and someday I'll sleep more!

This morning we drove up to Nashville to be able to witness the baptism of the daughter of some of our close friends from MD. We've known this Jack and Jess since right about the time we got pregnant with Noelle, so it was special being able to see their sweet girl get baptized. Even though we choose to not baptize our littles as babies, we understand the importance of praying and coming alongside the raising of our children in the Christian community. It takes a village for sure, and I'm thankful that our main village is the church! I couldn't resist snapping a  few quick pictures of our kids in front of a blooming tree as we walked back to the car.

And Jonah's face in this one! Luke says it's a keeper for sure for his graduation or wedding day.

Rewinding to yesterday, Luke was feeling pretty blah from the cold that seems to have wiped us all out over the past few days, so I took the kids to Target for some grocery shopping. There was also an event being put on by the Our Generation doll toy collection. They had little craft kits for each child, and Noelle and Jonah colored a little bookmark to bring home. We've also discovered that Target has a free cookie for kids, so made sure to hit those up.

On Friday, Clara took a TWO HOUR NAP! It was a miracle! Although I'm also thinking it might have to do with the Nyquil I took the night before. It has yet to be repeated, and I did take more Nyquil. Oh sweet girl, you need to learn how to nap! 

Last week Noelle's school had a fundraiser at a Chick Fil A in Franklin so we headed there for dinner once Luke got home from work. The parking lot was packed and we ended up in another parking lot, I was wearing my slippers, and we started off at a two person table. But it was good to see more of the kids from her school, and meet the mom of one of the little girls she talks about all the time. Clara, oh third child that she is, was given bites of a chicken nugget and french fry. I mean she eats healthy most of the time, right? :) There was also a face painter, and Noelle and Jonah were excited to get their faces painted!

Pancakes and Church

God has continued to be SO good to us in our move! I'm so thankful for His faithfulness in this season of life. While I've had a MOPS meeting or MOPS Bible study pretty much every week and the occasional play date with my sister-in-law, my human contact is mostly with Luke, my favorite little people, and the cashier at Target. :)

Two Saturdays ago, we hosted what we hope will be an annual pancakes and pajamas party. We did this party in 2015, cancelled it in 2016 when we were wiped out by the norovirus, and finally did it again. We invited pretty much everyone we knew before we moved down, and all three couples and their babies came. It was a mix of family, college friends, and small group friends from MD, and we had so much fun! Since it was a small group of people, we just had pancakes, one casserole, fruit, and bacon. And our college friends brought a pan of delicious made from scratch brownies! There were three baby girls including Clara, my two year old niece, and my big two. Jonah held down the fort as the only boy child. :)

Last Sunday we tried a church that my SIL recommended. Their church in Nashville is the sending church for this newish church plant, and while it's in Franklin and a little further away than we were hoping, we decided to try it since we knew we trusted the ones giving us the recommendation. :) My SIL connected me with her friend who was a part of the plant, and when we went on Sunday, she and her husband figured out who we were, and everyone was SO friendly. It's still new- they meet in a local elementary school and are on the smaller side (perfect for us!), but it was so evident that people there love the Lord and love people.

Noelle and Jonah enjoyed the kids program, the sermon/teaching was straight from the Bible, and on Monday we attended the community group that meets in our town. I made plans to meet up with one of the other stay at home moms, the pastor's wife texted me to get me added to their women's ministry facebook page, and I had hoped to go to one of the women's Bible studies tomorrow but we woke up sick today. Luke met with the pastor for lunch on Tuesday (and they saw Jeremy Camp!) and was able to talk more with him. We're praying that this is our new church home!

After church on Sunday, we headed to a local park and "forced" our children to walk on their very tired legs around the path before playing on the playground (where miraculously their legs were no longer tired.) It was a beautiful day, and somehow Clara managed to stay asleep in the stroller for the whole walk. The kids played for quite awhile in the giant sandbox and on the playground. Clara watched all the kids playing around her and got to swing for a little bit. I am so looking forward to more of these spring days!