We are getting ready for Christmas...

The King he will be........

So, I got my very first gift after finding out we are having a boy. I love it! And it's BLUE! My dear cousin surprised me with it after stopping by with this gift that had a blue bow. I have never gotten a gift with a blue bow. I was anxious to see what was inside. The shirt says it all!

He will be the King of the Castle!!! And of course, filled with lots of princesses....

Today....

Today was the due date of our child we lost this Spring. I mourn the loss of our baby but rejoice that I have been blessed with a son. Losing a child is something we will never understand but I do know that one day I will be reunited with the child I once carried.
God is amazing in how He works. The baby that I am carrying now is due the exact same day that I lost my baby this past Spring.
I am thankful for both children...............and I can't wait to meet Stone!

Today Is A Day Of Celebration....

I must start by saying that I am so thankful for another baby. God entrust us with His children. We have the privilege of loving them and sharing the gospel with them. We are created in His image to love Him and enjoy Him forever.

At my 15 week ultrasound, my doctor said that it appeared that we were having another girl. We are excited no matter the gender of the baby. So, adding another girl to our family is a blessing. We went home so thankful that baby is healthy and so thankful He blessed us with another baby. (and everything stays pink)

HANG ON.......

So, I went just this week to my 20 week ultrasound and saw something that I have never seen on an ultrasound before. A BOY!!! A BOY!!! A BOY!!!

Deep down in my heart, I just did not think the doctor was right at my 15 week ultrasound! I just kept thinking boy, a son that I have always dreamt of. And there he was right before my eyes. My own precious son. Words cannot even describe the joy that has filled my heart. I can hardly wait to lay my eyes on him.

I have been praying for another child if it was the Lord's will for us to bear another child. I had been praying for names way before my 15 week ultrasound. I want to be on the same page as my Lord. He named my child and I wanted to be sure I listened to Him with my heart to give my child the name He had already chosen.

With that said, I was driving my girls to ballet, when the name Stone was placed on my heart. I had never heard of Stone. So, as soon as I dropped the girls off, I pulled up the Bible on my iPhone and started researching the name Stone. What does this name mean? I was brought to the book of Joshua Chapter 4.

When God saved His people and brought them over the Jordan River, they were to make a memorial of 12 stones, one from each tribe. Joshua told his people that when your children ask what do these stones mean, you will tell them v.24 " that the people of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever."

Our God is mighty indeed! Having miscarried this Spring and bleeding for four weeks this pregnancy, God kept His child safe! The hand of our Lord was with this child and forever will I fear Him. I will always remember the work of our Lord through this pregnancy and the AMAZING, WONDERFUL SURPRISE He gave to us.

I can't wait to meet Stone, the little boy God chose for our family!

I am so thankful.....................and I get to add BLUE to our family!!!

Announcements...Announcements...

We are thrilled and blessed to announce we are expecting our sixth little bundle of joy. I believe we are just as excited about this pregnancy as we were for our first.
We have had a rough roller coaster this year. You never know what the day holds when you wake up! God is in control of each day and we were made to honor and glorify Him forever. We found out in February of this year that we were expecting our fifth baby this Christmas. At about eight weeks into our pregnancy, I started bleeding and miscarried our little baby. We were devastated but trusted in the Lord for His goodness. You never understand the "why" but you do have to understand to "trust". And that is what we did.
We took time to heal and prepare my body again for another possible pregnancy. In July, we found out we were expecting our sixth baby. We know just how precious life is and how easy it can be taken away. We are so thankful that the Lord gave us another baby. He chose us again to entrust us with His child. At about six weeks into my pregnancy, I again experienced bleeding. I cannot go through this again! But, again, there is nothing that I can physically do. It is not in my hands. He is the giver and taker of life. I know that all I can do is trust and pray for this new life growing inside of me. I went to the doctor, and baby is great! I bleed for four weeks and continue to go to the doctor each week to peek at the baby to only see that the baby is continuing to grow and is perfect. God is good! He protected His child. I am now almost 20 weeks and I am doing great! If it is the Lord's will, we will welcome a new baby GIRL this Spring. A GIRL!!!! Did you read right??? We now will be blessed with FIVE GIRLS!!! God has some special plans for our family! We can hardly wait to hold our blessing and welcome her into a house full of joy!

Ab's Birthday pics.....

 Our sweet baby girl turned 2. She is a sweetie and loves Minnie Mouse! Having gone to Disney World just one month earlier, of course, we had to have a Minnie Mouse celebration. There was fun had by the whole family! To keep the kiddos busy, we had silly string in the back yard. It was so fun!

 Amy, Gabs, me and Nana are stuck together like super glue!

 We were so excited that our Mimi flew in to celebrate the big birthday!

 Ab and her favorite cousin Molly.

 Em is my sweet and adorable helper. She is my little Hen who oversees everything. She helped Ab open up her birthday gifts.

 All the cousin enjoying silly string!

 Mimi and Nana with Ab and Molly.

 Lou and Wyatt.

Broken....

So, me and my hubby had what we thought an amazing trip planned for mommy and daddy time! We had Mimi fly in and Nana to help out with the kiddos while we hopped on a plane to West Palm Beach. The trip in itself was with hubby's company and for pleasure. Wives got to tag along! We have yet to leave all four gals to go anywhere, so we were so excited!
We flew out Monday and flew back Thursday morning. Remember those two days are spent mostly traveling. So, on Wednesday night, we had just sat down for dinner and "ring...ring" it was Nana and Mimi from home. Immediately, my heart stopped! You could only imagine! Guess where they were, at the emergency walk-in clinic and headed to Children's Hospital next. My youngest, Ab, had fallen out of her crib and broke her arm. What??? None of our kids have ever broken a bone. So, of course, we head home the next morning because she was due for surgery to have two pins put in followed by a bright pink cast. Never a dull moment with four kids!
My family was and is amazing! Everyone stepped in to love on us while we were in transit to get home. We were so thankful for the love that the family embraced us with.

Ab did great with the surgery! The cast stayed on for three weeks...no swimming...no getting it wet in the tub...and remember she just turned two! The three weeks went quickly I thought. I could hardly wait to get this thing off that also started to stink! Oh my, did it stink!

I have to tell this funny story that goes along with the stink. We were all sitting in church and I got a "whiff" of this smell. It was an awful smell! I had just had my dressed dry cleaned, but I leaned down to smell myself, is it me, no...what is it? So, I was holding Ab and I leaned down to smell her, and no it was not her. I just could not figure it out! When we got home, I some how held her where I got the "whiff" of the smell. It was her cast! Gross! It smelled like vinegar. Then, when she got the cast off, the nurse asked if we wanted to keep it....NO!!!! Who wants their cast? Not me!
Ab got the cast off, pins pulled out, holes are sealed and she is swimming again!

(Of course, with four girls, we had to put some bling on the cast)

It's that time again.....

Pine Cove

Since having moved to a new state last year, we are starting a family tradition that we hope will be continued to be carried out with our children.

Family camp is a camp where families come together for seven days, stay in a cabin (each family has there own cabin) and are served daily by a staff who love the Lord. Each day is filled with activities for both the kids and mommas and the daddies.

This is Em and her sweet and adorable counselor, Falls. Each night is them night where everyone dresses up and is so much fun! Each year, the camp has different themes.

The counselors do not give out their real name, so each of them have a camp name. It's a fun catchy name that the kids will sure to remember. Above is Dr. Clutch, this sweet boy was assigned to our family during family worship and devotion.

This is Mj and "Bizcat", one of the counselor's hanging out! There are not enough words to describe family camp! It is amazing, awesome, wonderful, fun, exciting, swimming adventure, rope jumping, skeet shooting, paint ball shooting, eating, talent show night, ice cream parties, picnics, game nights, date nights, carnival nights, golfing, wake park riding, hoot tootin' horse riding, canoe riding, fishing, cheering memorable camp that you walk away blessed and spiritually fed! If the Lord wills, I cannot wait until next year.......

Spreading the Gospel

Upon arriving at Epcot, there was a plane over head writing in the sky. I have no clue how a plane does this? So fascinating and so amazing! Obviously, you could not miss it! The person behind doing this is spreading the Gospel to thousands at Disney. It could be seen from all the parks. 

What is the Gospel = Good News!

Dreams Really Do Come True....

Where all your dreams come true.....well, almost all of them....Disney World

This is our first trip to Disney for the family. We had the most amazing time together. Everyone enjoyed every single second of it!

Minnie Mouse was Ab's favorite character. The little girls could not believe she was "real".  Me either...ssshhhh.....

Who knew Tangled played "ring-a-round the rosie". That was a delightful experience. Watch out for the hair...

Tangled is Lou's favorite!

Look who we found at Epcot. Jasmine took the girls on a little walk. So fun and she is so pretty!

Sweet Ab loved it all! Almost 2, never did she fuss and have a sad face. She rode every ride just like a big kid. She amazed us all! Great job Ab!!!

I don't know about you, but our vacation included indulging a little. Well, not really a little, can you see the size of that homemade chocolate chip cookie ice-cream sandwich. Yummy! That's at Epcot for those who are wondering. If only I could just have just a little taste right now!

Speaking of sugar...."a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down"....This was Mj's favorite!

Well, I took over 500 pictures and these are obviously just a few. This was a much needed vacation for all of us. Hang on...I mean...we need a vacation now...

16 hour days for five days is just a little EXHAUSTING!!!

Back for a few.....

I know, I am soooooo far behind on blogging. I do check my blog daily and I am daily reminded that I need to update it quickly. It just seems that with a lively, busy family that sometimes, it's just difficult!

This is AB, so precious sporting her adorable pigtails.

Love, Love, Love them!!!

This is Dads and Dolls weekend adventure. Lou was too sick to go and still is a little bit! Dad took the two big kids along with their cousin Chlo and Uncle J to Pine Cove. A VERY cold weekend sleeping outside in a tent. My heart broke for my girls sleeping outside. But, they could care less! They loved every single minute of it! They made so many memories with each other and with new friends!

OK, this is Clay and MJ, can they get any cutier??? She is "in love" with Clay. Let me first say, they have known each other since birth. That is because his momma is my dear best friend. We were pregnant together and they have grown up together. Now, that we live a hop skip and a jump from each other, we are blessed that we get to see them often! We met at Sea World and enjoyed a fun weekend together a couple of weeks ago.
I am having to force quit my computer, so I will come back. It is doing something crazy!

A Few Pics to Recap the past few weeks....

We enjoyed a wonderful warm day at the park this month.

AB had a slide just her size!

MJ started playing Upward Basketball. She is awesome!!!

AB is playing dress up in shoes and a hat pushing her baby around the house.

Our Buddies....

We had a blast visiting with our friends from back home. We hold them very near and dear to our hearts. I guess you could say we consider them "family". We met in 2001 and were pregnant together with two of the four kids we each have. The two oldest are only 2 weeks apart and the 2 next oldest are only 1 week apart. Then, our thirds are almost 2 years apart and then our fourths are 2 years apart. We have always been close friends and I am so thankful for their friendship.

Our kids are just as close!

Mj and Clay are 9 (almost 10), Em and Ava are both 7, Lou is 5 and Olivia is 3 (almost 4), and Ab is 18 months and her baby is still cooking in the oven!

Everyone has a "buddy"!

Friendships are indeed a blessing!