Remember Us? We have a lot to catch up on!

In the four years I've had this thing, I've never gone more than 6 weeks without writing here and I hate that I've let so much time pass. Mostly because I LOVE going back and reading about my kids. Even after just a few months, the stories are like new to me. It's amazing how fast they grow and change and how things you never thought you would forget...you do all too quickly.

Let's start with the fall, shall we? Over the next few days, I plan to try and catch up to the present time, just hitting the highlights of our life the past 6 months.

Fall was great fun. I say this about every age, but this truly SUCH a fun age with the boys. I'm not going to lie, age 3 has been a real doozie in some ways, but we just won't talk about that. It's also been a TON of fun. Eli and Landon have such great personalities. They are full of life and energy and the things that come out of their little mouths are hilarious.

Here are a few pictures from our fall:

Carving pumpkins:

 

My dad came to visit for a whole week and we tackled a major project that kept getting put off: painting the exterior of our house.

Before:

After: (Yes, I realize you can't see too much, but this is all I have. It's grey with white trim and a red door and while the outside of our house will never be beautiful, this is a HUGE improvement!)

 The boys helped me make their costumes for Halloween this year which was fun. They were pretty hesitant to wear them though. We went to the Halloween party at the library with all of our storytime friends and they wouldn't even walk in the room with their costumes. Guess we should try something a little less...overwhelming...next time. They also insisted on taking them off in between each house we trick-or-treated at (this wasn't annoying at all).

A sweet friend from church made Harper's costume. It was a tad big, but she wore it all night and was a big trooper that night. 

We went to a fall festival:

Landon had a few accidents in a row. The nose injury was caused by jumping off the couch and diving into the coffee table. This one really scared me.

This injury was caused by Eli "helping" him off the porch and right onto the cement headfirst. 

 Harper started going to Bible class like the big girl she is (never alone because she's quite the momma's girl and that's okay).

Harper got her first two teeth...and then the next six right after it. She now has eight teeth and will gladly bite you with them.

So that's a start at least. I'm not even proofreading this because it's almost 2:00 a.m. and I can't be bothered with silly things like that. Stay tuned...more on the way...maybe ;)

Reflections

Life with three little ones at home is all consuming, especially since two of those no longer nap. It leaves absolutely no time for frivolous things like blogging, which can be a little frustrating at times. Not that I love blogging that much, but sometimes my soul just longs for a few minutes to do anything I want. More on that later...

It was a year ago this month that we found out about Harper's heart defect and that combined with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching has left it ever present on my heart these past couple of weeks. So much has happened since then, but it is still so vivid in my mind that I could swear that it was just last week. I can't help but reflect on the road we've been down and rejoice that the road ahead is wide open and full of promise. This has certainly been a life-altering year for us. You don't go through something like that and come out the other side the same person. And while I can't exactly pinpoint the ways that I have changed, I feel so different from the person I was. It's something about seeing your baby...the baby that you love so intensely with every fiber of your being...go through something so horrific. Your heart is never the same again.

I remember the despair I felt as we learned what exactly we would be facing. I remember thinking that we would never get past this. Because when you are facing something that you've never faced before, something that terrifies you, something you just know you're not strong enough to take, that moment...that struggle, it's totally consuming and you can't imagine life being normal again.

But yet, here I sit, one year later, and it's all just a memory now. God is so very, very good.

The love and generosity of others was so intense and so overwhelming that I could FEEL the arms around us, the hearts aching with us, the prayers for us, the joy and thanksgiving at good news. If you were a part of that - a kind or encouraging word, a hot meal for our family, a simple prayer, a visit, a gift card, snacks at the hospital, financial help, a text, email, comment, or phone call, please know that you have impacted my life in a way I will never forget. It has given me a whole new perspective on how to minister to others and the importance of our Christian family during trials.

We still aren't completely sure of what lies ahead, but we are hopeful that Harper won't need any more major surgery. I would like to think that if, perhaps, Harper requires another surgery, I will be so full of faith and hope that there won't be any room for fear. After all, the Lord has showed me over and over again his love and mercy. But I know myself better than that and when it comes to my babies, my crazy, lunatic side almost always wins. I'm working on it.

In the meantime, Harper is progressing and developing normally (just a little behind schedule, but who cares about that?). She is scooting around in a army crawl type fashion. She's SO close to sitting up on her own. She has two teeth. She's eating cereal and a few vegetables. She's extremely vocal. She's got a ton of personality (super sweet, but a little ornery). Being normal is what we're about now. I love that she's well. I relish in the mundane-ness of our life. And while I would love to forget the past year, I hope I never do. I hope those images of my struggling girl are forever ingrained in my mind so that I never forget the helplessness I felt then and the gratitude I feel now. And most of all, I hope that I can be an encouragement and blessing to someone going through the same thing. For even if nothing else good came of all of this (which it did), I am now in a position to understand and help those who might have to travel down this same road.

So happy November to you and thank you for listening to the ramblings of my heart. We have so very much to be thankful for.

Boring

Just for the sake of keeping records around here, we went to the doctor last week and here's how big our children are:



Harper
Age: 6 months
Height: 24 inches
Weight: 12 pounds
Head: 16 1/2 centimeters



Eli
Age: 3 years
Height: 38 1/2 inches
Weight: 29 pounds

Landon
Age: 3 years
Height: 38 3/4 inches
Weight: 31 pounds


Here are a few pictures of Eli, Landon, and Harper as they were all playing on the floor together. I love how sweet and gentle (most of the time) Eli and Landon are with Harper. They really love their Popper!

I just love this picture. It cracks me up.

Eli & Landon's 3rd Baseball Party

Life has been so busy that I haven't even had time to get all sentimental about how my boys turned 3 years old a couple weeks ago. Time really does just speed by and it seems the older I get, the faster it goes. You probably know by now how I love parties. And Eli and Landon have kind of had a rough year...it hasn't exactly been all about them around here lately, which made me want to have a big party even more. They also LOVE baseball, so I thought why not have a big baseball game, grill some hot dogs, eat some cupcakes, and have fun?

So we reserved a baseball field here in town and we had ourselves a party planned. Bonus points for not having to decorate much since it was outside.

side note: it hasn't rained in Snyder in over a year.

It POURED from early in the morning until late at night. And even though I was a little disappointed, we were all much more grateful for the blessing of rain. We need it so desperately.

Because of the rain, we had to move the party indoors and we didn't get to play baseball after all. A sweet friend offered to let us use their "party barn", so that's just what we did.

Basically, the party was high blood pressure, anxiety, and a headache all rolled into a few hours, but I think the boys had a lot of fun with their friends...so much that they are still talking about it. I love that.

Here are a few pictures from the party.

(Can you tell how effective my "no presents necessary" was?) If presents are any indicator of how much a child is loved, my boys are very, very, very loved.  And we are so thankful!

Look...I was actually at the party. I'm kind of bummed that we didn't get a family picture, but oh well!



Can I just say that a pinata at a three year old birthday party is NOT a good idea...especially an indoor party. There were some pretty nervous parents in the room at this point.

Grammy, G-Pa, Kristin, Madison, Katelyn, Chip, Eva, Nemo, Papa, Lance, Kathy, Shawn, Cameron, Amy, D'Laney, and Brynna all came from out of town to help us celebrate. It always makes me feel so loved for our family to drive all this way to see us.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest boys this world has ever known! We're two weeks into it and I can officially report that the behavior of three year olds really is worse than two year olds. It will get better. It will get better. It will get better. (This is my mantra right now).

Happy Half Birthday Harper!

Harper is SIX months old today. The magnitude of this is unbelievable. I can't quite grasp that she has been with us for half of a year already and I often find myself wondering what in the world we did without her.

At 6 months, Harper weighs 12 pounds, is finally moving into 3-6 months clothing (although she still fits in most of her 3 month clothes...I'm just so sick of them!), is rolling over from her back to her stomach (finally), takes 2 to 3 naps a day, still gets up a few times in the night to eat, absolutely adores her brothers, is very vocal when she wants attention (not crying, just really loud talking), is in size 1-2 diapers, loves her toy giraffe (Sophie), her glow-worm, and her light wand, eats a little bit of rice cereal twice a day, loves to be laid down in her bed with a blanket and paci for naps, has taken exactly ONE nap in the crib in her room, gives the biggest smiles when you come to get her out of bed, and pretty much spends most of her day smiling and playing.

This past Saturday, Harper and I took our first shopping trip to Lubbock. She did great all day and I had so much fun hanging out with her. We went to the bank, Hobby Lobby, JCPenny, Babies R Us, Sam's Club, and Kohls and Harper did not cry one time. We talked to everyone we saw and I agreed when they told me that she was the most precious thing they've ever seen. She pretty much is. I think the best part of the day was that I just felt so....normal. There is nothing about Harper (other than her small size) that would indicate to people what all she's been though and it's nice to just go on about life so normally now.

Harper really is such a joy and I always find myself wondering or asking Dustin how I got to be so lucky to get to be her mom. She really is something special.

At her last cardiologist appointment, we mentioned that she wasn't using her right arm very much or at all sometimes. This really bothered Dr. Robinson, so he ordered an MRI of her brain, which we had done on Monday. I was hoping to get results Tuesday, but didn't, so hopefully we'll hear something today. I fully expect everything to be fine, but it will be nice to get that confirmation. She did go about 6-8 weeks with a very noticeable lack of movement in her right arm, but has since begun to use it just as much as her left arm, which is a relief. I'll let you know what we find out.

Happy Half Birthday, Popper! Here's hoping that the second half of your first year is MUCH less eventful than the first half!