8 Months

Harper Grace, you are 8 months old (well, I'm not positive when exactly to consider you 8 months old considering February does not have 29 days in it, so we will just go with today being your 8 month birthday). Any who, I say this every month, but our lives are so much sweeter with you in it! You, my love, are such a sweet, precious, go with the flow baby!
What are you up to at 8 months old?
Weight: 17 pounds
Wearing size 6-9 months clothes
Size 2 diaper (although we will not purchase any more of those, your chubby little thighs suggest we should bump you up to a size 3. I desperately don't want to move you up in diapers though because you will no longer need the "baby" swaddler diapers and now you will be in the Pampers Cruisers. Prepping us for you to be cruising around. NO!! I want to keep you my sweet itty bitty baby for so much longer)
You eat 4 or 5 seven ounce bottles a day along with 1 or 2 meals of solids
You are now on the similac sensitive formula and you haven't skipped a beat
You had ANOTHER ear infection and just got off your antibiotics. Sheesh, you are only off your antibiotics for a few days before you get another ear infection. I will take you back to the doctor next week to make sure all the fluid is in fact draining off your ear. They won't suggest tubes for your ears until it is summer time. The weather is just too crazy and any type of cold can make you get an ear infection, there just isn't any where for all those fluids to go
You are easily sitting up all by yourself and you love to sit and play with your toys.
You have started getting frustrated when I have to take something away from you. You chomp your gums together and make a fist with your hands and start to shake your head a little. It is SO funny (I am certain it will not be funny in a few months)
You are finally a wonderful little sleeper. You go to bed between 7 and 8 and you often sleep until about 9am (if we are able to stay at home....most mornings I am getting you up so we can take your brothers to school)
When you wake up in the mornings or after a nap you lay in your bed "talking" until I come and get you and you smile at me with the biggest ear to ear smile! Such a major difference from your brothers.
You are starting to get a little vocal and the sweet, girly sounds that I hear from you brighten my day. Such a sweet little voice you have

Oh sweet Harper Grace, we love you so so much!!

Friends

There are days when the two little boys in our house fight from the second one of them wakes up in the morning until the minute they finally fall asleep at night. There are moments when all I can picture are black eyes and broken furniture from the fights that will break out during their teenage years. THEN, there are days, like today, when the stars all align and the boys play together like the best of friends. Sure, they are different as night and day. One follows directions, prefers order, likes to have people watching him, while the other marches to the beat of his own drum, uses his imagination, and prefers to be alone; however, when the put their differences aside, they have SO much fun together. They laugh, giggle and make more noise than my ears can handle sometimes! I am so thankful they have each other and it is my daily prayer that they will have such a close relationship all throughout their lives!!

Blizzard

Lubbock is under a blizzard warning. Yup, we have our typical nasty 50mph winds but instead of the usual dirt blowing around, we my friends, have snow! Sheesh, you've got to love West Texas weather, just yesterday it was 70 degrees outside and now we are experiencing a blizzard. 

What are we to do when we are cooped up inside attempting to keep warm......

We eagerly anticipate our upcoming trip to the beach!!!

Sweet Harper Grace sporting my very first swim suit when I was a baby!


The boys joined in the fun as I was gathering up all our goodies to take with us. These two brothers are ready for some fun in the sun and some snorkeling!!

Plans

There are plenty of times in our lives when we beg and plead to our Lord for things. There are plenty of times when we make up our our minds, set our own plans and go about our lives. Oh my mercy, I am so thankful that our Lord loves us enough to not let us have our own plans. I am thankful that he steps in and guides us to new places and challenges us. I am thankful the Lord has different plans than my own for many reasons, mostly because HIS plans made sure that this adorable baby girl was added to our family when we certain we were finished having babies! Oh what a blessing she is to her brothers, her daddy and to me! 

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Random

A whole lot of random! Today was a pajama day for my crew. I have a ton of house work to catch up on and the kiddos enjoyed playing and relaxing today!

These two are so fun together! 

Sweet Paxton watching his letter sounds DVD 

My view for the day. Can you believe the boys played together for a good while with NO fighting!! And Harper played with her toys while I folded laundry!

When the boys play well together, they are amazing! Oh my goodness, step back when they start arguing. EEK. So thankful for times like these when they giggle, play, laugh and play together!!

So, to add to the randomness, Harper is getting too big. We had to bump her up a size in her jammies and now she has the little grippers on the bottom of her footed jammies. It makes me so sad because I realize we will soon need those little grippers on her jammies because she will be standing, walking and cruising along. I am so sad for my baby girl to get too big too fast. She is such the sweetest and easiest baby and I don't want to take a minute of it for granted.

XOXO

Happy Valentine's Day!! This little angle baby showed me some love this week by FINALLY sleeping through the night! Yippee! We are on night number 5 of 12+ hours or peaceful sleeping!! Thanks Harper Grace for giving mommy the best Valentine's Day present ever!!

One super cute story I have to share, after I gave to boys their Valentine's Day presents (a new puzzle and a soccer ball), Maddox took his gift bag and headed to his room. He then came to me with the same gift bag and he had put a picture of me and Brad and a set of spare keys in this bag. He told me it was my Valentine's gift from him!! So precious. He knew the day was about showing love to those we love. So precious. He said "well, Mommy, you gave me a gift, I had to give you one too."
Such a sweet sweet boy!!

I need to Change

I wish it weren’t true, but I can be a lecturer. I can nitpick. I can see all the things that need to be “fixed” in my kids. I can worry about the bad decisions they “could” make. I can take the smallest misdeed and magnify it. But what wants a mom like that? Does anyone do anything but wither under a watchful eye?In every situation I have the choice to beat down the weaknesses I see in our kids or I can faithfully call out their God given strengths.I want to be a mom who constantly sees and calls out the good things in my kids. I want to see in them what they might not yet see in themselves. I want to model looking for and calling out the good in others.Even in moments of discipline, I want to remind them of who they are, who God made them to be and that their misbehavior is never indicative of who they truly are.I recently had an amazing talk with Maddox about this. I apologized for lecturing too much and listening too little. I told him all the incredible qualities I saw in him. It was one of the sweetest conversations we have ever had.Everyday I am speaking identity over our children, whether I intend to or not. What am I saying?Am I calling my boys “wild, crazy, and-can-you-just-calm-down?” Or am I calling them to be “bold, brave, made to be a superhero for Jesus to rescue those in need?”Will I call my baby girl “emotional and overly sensitive” or will I call her “tender-hearted and compassionate?”I can speak identity over our kids based on how they are behaving right now, or I can speak identity over our kids by who God made them to be. One will make them wither, one will make them rise up. 

May we as Mothers be the faithful ones to see and believe and declare.

In Abundance

I am not sure my writing will do justice to what I wish to express on this blog today! I am full of JOY. PEACE overwhelms my soul and I am in awe of the hand of our Lord and Savior. Brad and I tried a new church today. It has been far too long since we've been to church. We had a list of excuses not to go....kids would get sick, Paxton was so shy and terrified of the nursery, we didn't feel like we really found a place we fit in....excuses, excuses. Yes, some are valid, but just an easy way to keep us from going. Well, last night we decided we would go. All throughout the night I prayed for an easy morning getting everyone up and ready. I prayed over Paxton. I prayed he would have confidence and absolutely no anxiety about going to his big boy class. I prayed that Maddox would like his class as well. I prayed over the kids health. I prayed for a good experience for Brad and I.
I am embarrassed at the simple fact that I just don't pray specifically nearly enough!! God answered every single one of my prayers in abundance! The morning started off a little later than I anticipated, but we just rearranged and went to the later service time. This provided enough time to go get pancakes. Yummy.
We arrived at the church and Paxton was so eager to go to his class. We waited for our time to enter into the children's area and Paxton just took off. Ran to find something to play with and never looked back! Maddox of course was chatting it up with some boys he knew from school and was excited to go to his class as well! Brad and I took Harper with us to the service and she was an absolute doll!
The service was great. Harper was fantastic. There is no greater joy in my soul than singing and worshiping our Lord while holding my youngest, our baby girl, in my arms with  my amazing husband at my side and our two boys playing and learning about their Savior! I cherished every second singing praise songs softly in the ear of Harper Grace. I soaked up the sermon while looking down at my sleeping baby girl in my arms!
The best part was when we went to pick up the kids. Maddox came running out saying "Oh mom, I LOVE it here." Then the girl at the door said "Oh my goodness, Paxton had a GREAT day today. He played and sang songs and danced. He really had a wonderful time!" My jaw dropped as I heard these fantastic words about our unsocial, shy and anxious littlest boy. I expressed that he was super shy and she said "I would have never guessed that....he was so fun and had a great time."
I get teary as I write this out. The Lord heard and answered my prayer in abundance. I am in awe. I am thankful.