I Heart Faces- Smiles

The theme this week over at iheartfaces is SMILES. The pictures are always amazing but this week they are just so bright and happy! Here is a picture of our second daughter with such a cute little smile. I just love the softness of this photo but also how it draws you in to her amazing eyelashes and her cute little teeth. I know I am biased:)
I love the iheartfaces challenges but now they are getting so hard! There are so many entries now and all the photos are incredible. Maybe one day when I get out of this raising babies stage my pictures will be half as good.

Head on over to the website to check out the SMILE photos!

Alphabet Soup Letter "I"

Some of our favorite things that start with the letter "I"

This was a hard one!!!

1. Ice Cream-Graters Raspberry Chocolate Chip is my fav!
2. Iced Coffee-Dunkin Donuts Decaf Iced Coffee with cream and two splenda's
3. Intelligent People
4. Idol (meaning American Idol!)
5. Italian Food-Spaghetti, Lasagna...I love all things covered in cheese:)
6. Imagination-It is amazing to see the thing the girls come up with.
7. Isaiah - I love the book of Isaiah in the Bible. One of my favorite chapters is Isaiah 61. I think I am going to work on memorizing it soon! And then maybe I will teach the girls!
8. Ipod (or I phone if I had one...I want one SOOOO bad! ) And an I Pad. Ok I am obsessed with Mac products
9. Internet-I mean seriously, how did we ever live without it!
10. Italy-I have never been but it is one place that I would love to go someday!

Big Girl Room...No BOYS allowed (with a few exceptions!)

We got this bookshelf off craigslist for the girls (for $70) and I LOVE it. It is handmade and solid wood. When we went to pick it up the guy that made it also had a few other pieces of furniture that I really wanted (a buffet and this awesome high back bench). I just love that all their books can be in the same place now. We still have more to put on it!
Here is a picture of the girls bed in their new "together" room. I just got them the quilts at Target for $29 each and the new painting in the middle of their beds. They are too cute together.

Truth

Every single week during church, I get teary eyed. I am normally not really a crier, but through some pregnancy hormones, the non-anticipation of Matt leaving, and a few pretty songs..I have to hold back the sobs. A few weeks ago, I literally almost lost it. An entire family was baptized together, the dad, mom, 3 kids, and a cousin....it was beautiful. I looked at that family and in that moment God spoke to me. Sometimes His words are so soft, that we have to stop and really focus to hear what He wants us to hear. Other times, as in the this instance, it is as loud as a train in your backyard.

Your life is empty, dark, and void without ME....and so our your children's lives. I have blessed you abundantly, now champion their eager, young hearts for ME.


Ummm...Wow! It doesn't matter if I feed my kids carrots for breakfast, give them 8 glasses of water a day, teach them all the presidents by age 5, master 2 languages, introduce different cultures, buy them fun and interesting toys, or even if I love them with everything I have in me.....

It will never ever be enough if they don't know Jesus. It wont' be anything if they don't find Him. I am fully aware that I can't dictate the choices my children make somewhere down the road. I don't know when they will give their young hearts to service of the almighty. I do know however, that right now they are sponges, they are impressionable, they are eager, they adore their parents, and there is a huge hole in their hearts that can only be satisfied by Him.

May I never lose sight of my role in this life. I want my life to be living example of selflessness with one goal in my mind. I want my babies to look straight through their earthly mommy and only see their heavenly Father.

OH God, live in me, reign in me, so my life will only shine for you.


"Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons."

Deuteronomy 4:9 NASB

Our other pretty girl:)

Sorry they are a little blurry, I was too lazy to go upstairs and scan the pictures in...so I just took a picture of the pictures:)

She was going to town on her hands. It was so cute!

Pretty girls

20 weeks

HELLO BABY BUMP! I am definitly showing now. I even had someone ask me the other day how far along I was!!! Seriously???

Things are going pretty well.....

Good things:

1. I am half way done! WOO-HOO!
2. I am hardly ever sick anymore. (Maybe once a week!) So awesome!
3. This little girl never stops moving. The ultrasound tech said I have an anterior placenta so I might feel her more. (I looked it up and some info said I might feel her less...sometimes google is evil) Either way, I feel huge movement all through out the day. I can push on one side of my stomach and she will usually kick back. It if fun for now, but I have a feeling in a few weeks she will be driving me crazy!
4. She is a whopping 11 ounces (and 38 percentile for gestational age!) I hope she stays on the small side....maybe I will have a baby in the 7 pound range:)
5. She was sucking her hands on the ultrasound and it was so cute.
6. Everything looks great. The only thing they could not see was her lips (to check for cleft lip) because she would not stop eating her hands:) Silly girl!

Not so good...

1. Matt left today for up to 4 months:( So not fun. I am not looking forward to this time but I am just going to go with it. If I don't choose JOY then it would just be miserable for all of us. And plus we still have such an abundance to be grateful for.
2. My exhaustion is back full force. I want to sleep all day.
3. Heartburn is here to stay and it is miserable. Period.
4. If I forget to take my medicine for "regularity" I am miserable. TMI
5. The girls seem to like to jump on my stomach and elbow me in the upper chest area. It does not feel good.
6. Back pain. Is. Horrible. Always.


Well that is it for now.......oh one more thing....our precious 3rd daughter will be named......

Corin
Annalise
Major

Blog Break

OK, so I think I am going to put the 365 project on hold. I really LOVE the idea, I just don't like the pressure. I also feel like I don't get the pictures I really want either, I just grab the camera to get the photo of the day. So anyways, I think I am just going to take a breather from the blog. I am not cutting it out, I just need some time away.

I think that is all.

85/365

I really have no idea where I left off (and I know I was a few days behind before I left, so I am just going to start at 85/365 and go from there.


We had a bunch of our Navy family friends over for Easter lunch on Saturday. Matt was supposed to be working in the afternoon all weekend, but his shedule got changed at the last minute. (Typical!)

Here are some photos of the kiddos:

From left to right: Clara, Gabby, Naomi, Walter, Ethan, Ellison, Reimer

75/365-???

I went to visit the Haling's for a few days and I have completely lost count on my 365 project. I also didn't get any pictures of the the girls while I was gone:( I did however get some great shots of the newest Haling. He is just perfect and beautiful, just like his brother and sister. I miss then all already.