Corin's announcements turned out SOOOO perfect. I LOVED them. I ordered them on watercolor linen paper.

This is the front.

They open from the side and this is the inside left. (I did notice that I somehow don't have a quotation mark at the beginning.) Oh well.
This is the inside right.
And this is the back.
Did I mention I LOVE them!

Books: What to read first???

I just went crazy on amazon and now I don't know where to start! Any suggestions?

1. Radical by David Platt

2. Plan B by Pete Wilson
3. One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda
4. Forgotten God by Francis Chan
5. Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
6. The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Diva's

We now have a house full of diva's!

Gabby cracks me up with her "looks." I have a feeling this won't be very funny when she is around 15!
Our youngest diva:) Who is now a MONTH old!

School

The girls started school a few weeks ago. School is one of those double-edge swords around our house (as is anything that has to do with Matt and I leaving the girls.) I was so looking forward to some time to get a few things done around the house but also was dreading the whole separation anxiety both our girls seem to have (Naomi is 100x worse than Gabby!) I just don't know what it is about our girls. I mean yes, lots of kids cry at 12 or 18 moths....maybe up to 2. But seriously Naomi will be 5 in February. The pictures below are from the first day of school....and don't let the cute little smiles on their faces fool you.

Gabby went in to her class much better than Naomi. She does this "fake whine/cry" thing. Her teacher said really as soon as I was out of sight she was completly fine. I really don't think Gabby would have ever cried at the separation thing, but I think since all she has ever seen is Naomi's reaction, she just thinks that is what you are supposed to do.

Naomi was SOOOO excited about the lunch box we found. (Her pirate look in this picture cracks me up...she said it was too bright to take a picture!) I also am totally LOVING her ridiculous amount of silly bands. She is such a kid now.
So anyways, we are all talk in the Major household. We can promise no tears will be shed, no pulling of mommy's clothes. no high pitch shrieking, no running down hallways, no kicking, screaming, or any other ridiculous behavior will happen....but up until this point, it has all been just talk. The first day of school was like every other time I leave Naomi somewhere or leave her with someone other than me. She FREAKS out. Like you can not even imagine. All the kids in her class were looking at her like, "what is the deal with that child." All the parents were looking at me like, "why is that child acting like that?" Believe me, if I knew, well then it would not be an issue. We have done counseling, discipline, bribery....and so forth. NOTHING seems to work. I have these mix of emotions. I feel horribly guilty, sad, frustrated and angry all at the same time. I am just SO over it. I don't understand why my kids like me so much???? I am serious. I mean Matt and I feel like we are pretty good parents, we shower our children with love, but we also feel like in some ways we are pretty strict. We expect obedience. We do not pamper or let things slide.

It is just SOOO overwhelming. And school is just one place. Church is pretty bad too. WE do have ONE teacher that Naomi likes and most of the time can go in and hold it together. Baby-sitters are pretty much out of the question, bc they would be FREAKED out.

I just don't know what to do. Naomi is going to be in Kindergarten next year and seriously HAS to go to school. I don't want to have to drag her to school every day for the next 14 years. And homeschool really is not an option for Naomi right now. I honestly think it would be detrimental to her. As much as some kids need that environment (which I totally support) Naomi needs to be away from me. She needs to know that she can be safe, and have fun apart from mommy.

Well, now I am tired. I should go to bed. Suggestions for our crazy mommy/daddy loving daughters????

Birth Story

I hate not being able to remember exactly how the day went that our beautiful girls came into this world....so I started writing it out.

Wed August 25th

5:30 am- Since our girl decided to be stubborn I had to be induced at 39th week just in case she was really big like her sisters. My alarm went off at 5:30, (even though I had been waking up all night), I hoped in the shower and finished getting ready before I woke Matt up around 10 til 6. We got all the stuff in the car and headed out to the hospital around 6:15. When we walked in there were 3 other pregnant women checking in front of me. I started to get really nervous that they were going to tell me they did not have any rooms and send me home. I would have been SOOO upset.

7:00- I finally get checked in and sent up to my room. The nurse came and had me get changed and hooked me up to the monitor.

8:30- I finally got an IV started. It took forever to get things going:)

9:30- Finally got an epidural. They did not want to even start the induction process until after my epidural was placed.

9:45-My pitocin was started.

10:40- Finally saw my doctor and he came in and broke my water. I was 4-5 cm. The nurse checked me around 11:15-11:20ish and I was 6cm. And then ALL of SUDDEN I was in some serious PAIN.

11:25-11:40- I was having contractions and DEFINITELY feeling them. I started tearing up pretty bad at when the contractions would start. Matt had to sit down bc he was starting to feel really bad for me. About 11:35 I started to feel really nausous in additon to the pain. It is hard for me to measure the pain on the scale from 1-10. (With both Naomi and Gabs I felt the pain of contractions bf my epidural (probably a 3-4) but after the epi I had NO pain, absolulety none. I was smiling, talking, pushing...and felt fine. ) I would say the pain was around a 5 compared to what the pain would be with no pain meds. I started getting sick around 11:40 and the nurse had to give me bucket. It was about this time that I looked at Matt and said, "I don't want to do this anymore." The nurse checked me at some point during my pain/nausea/throwing up attack and I was 9 1/2! She went and grabbed the doc and when he walked in she told me I could start bearing down during contractions. Ummm Ouch! It did not feel good. The doctor turned and looked and said "NOOO, stop, the baby is right there." Great. He got his gown on super fast and turned back around.

11:45- I started pushing, and approximately 22 seconds later her head was out. She got suctioned and i pushed again and there she was.

11:46- Corin Annalise was HERE. I felt horrible bc for the first minute or so I could not even think about the baby. I just kept thinking "thank goodness, the pain is over." Then I looked at our sweet girl and I was in LOVE. She was just perfect and looked so much like a newborn compared to our other girls. She weighed in at 8 lbs and was 20 1/4 inches long.

Pretty girl at 2 weeks!

Important things in life...

Matt and I have talked many hours about what we really want to teach our children....

There are so many things in this world that we want to protect them from. We would love to wrap them up in a bubble and never let them out of our site.

More than anything we want them to know JESUS. We their lives to glorify Him. We hope to instill foundational truths at a young age so that when the are older they will not depart from it. We pray they will run towards Him, cling to Him, and to never look back.

"Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Proverbs 22:6

We want them to know the importance of family. We have chosen to be proactive in our parenting style and to limit the opportunity for our children to disobey. We want them to honor and respect us and we want to love them abundantly and fully as God has called us to.

We want our babies to know how important humanity is to its maker. We will shower our children with love and in turn/time want them to learn to shower others with the same love God has shown them. We want to raise little ones of integrity, kindness, and selflessness. We don't ever want to do our children the horrible injustice of teaching them that life has anything to do with them alone or the "American Dream."

We want them to be passionate, righteous seeking, and abounding in love.

WE know we have a lot of work ahead of us. The calling on parenting is not an easy one. It is a long road, of sacrifice, compromise, and most of all of unconditional love. We know to be prepared we must commit to seeking Him above all else. He alone can guide and teach us to parent our babies as He would desire.

There is one more thing that we want our babies to know.....

It is OH SO important.....

Very vital to their life.....

And well, I will...

Just...

Let...

the...

Pictures....

Speak....

for...

Themselves....

AWWWWW...

Love me some daddy and baby pictures.....