More little things

Ashley loves to make jewelry.

I think this little hobby started when we bought her friend a jewelry making kit for a birthday party. Ashley loved that kit and wanted one for herself so badly. So for Christmas I made sure to get that exact same one. It has beads, elasticy jewelry string, little clasps (which we don't actually use, I usually tie the string together), a felt board thing with a curved inlay to lay out all of your beads before you string them, and even a pink velvet display "neck" thing like you'd see in a jewelry store. And she loves it. She also got a couple of bead sets from other people for Christmas too, so she's really set.

And now, in our kitchen, she's a got a little cubby of all her jewelry making supplies (so the little ones can't get to it). She could spend hours making bracelets and necklaces for herself, her sisters, and her friends. Nothing fancy, just cute "little girl" beads. Every now and then she'll come across a pearly or diamondy looking bead, and treat it like treasure. ;)

I have the official job of bracelet-tie-er-up-er. Which can be irritating when she stops me constantly to tie up another bracelet or necklace, no matter what I'm in the middle of. And if I don't tie it up, it means, it'll get left "out for me", which really means one of the kids will find it first and, of course, slide all of the beads off and onto/all over the floor. Which means, no matter what I'm doing, I stop and tie up bracelets. But the fun part of being the official bracelet-tie-er-up-er is that I get to see every one of her creations.

And last night she brought me this tiiiiny little one.

Its for Avery. :) Ashley said, "You know how people have 'best friends forever' bracelets? Well, this is like a 'sisters forever' bracelet." {Que the tears.}

She's going to take it to the hospital and put it on her when she's born. {Que more tears.}

So to keep it safe, she found this little box and we're keeping it in here until I have Avery.



What a priceless little treasure that Avery will always have from her oldest sister. Absolutely. Precious.

Adventures in Motherhood: diary entry #5642

Today I cleaned up dripping red fruit slush from Taco Bell off of the ceiling. And no one seems to be able to give me a clear story of how it got there. Hmm. Well, thats a new one.

(Note to self: red slush does not wipe clean from the ceiling, even if cleaned immediately. It'll need to be painted. Awesome.)

Spirit vs. Flesh

I should be locked up til the end of June.

I should not be allowed to speak much less have conversations, talk on the phone, give advise, be a friend, date my husband, discipline my kids, update Facebook, text, email, explain... anything... to anyone. In fact, I shouldn't even be blogging right now. (I'm only slightly exaggerating.)

I definitely should not be allowed to watch commercials, read my blogs, hear songs, watch movies, or hear my children's prayers.

I am pretty much a wreck right now. I hope that I've been able to hide this protect you all from my madness. It would be wonderful if somehow I've been able to mask all my craziness and none of you had noticed and are surprised by this post. And if you have noticed, and hadn't told me, bless you for pretending I'm normal accepting me as I am and loving me anyway.

Right now (even at this very moment) my hormones are going completely hay wire. Or so it feels to me. I am on an emotional high one minute, loving life and motivated and great. The next minute I'm balling like a baby over some car commercial. The next minute I'm furious over something my kids did. Furious. And this is what its like to be Amy right now.

I firmly believe that as a woman of God, one of my... responsibilities? duties? no. I don't know what the word is, but as a Christ following woman, actively growing in her faith, I need to be able to rightly divide spirit and flesh. What does that mean? (Especially for women?) It means I need to be able to tell when my tears are spiritual and when my tears are hormonal. (And if I have any men readers out there, let me just tell you- be glad you don't have to deal with this.) Its bad enough... in general. Monthly, ya know? But when I'm pregnant, boy, watch out.

Constantly, I find myself regretting the words that come out of my mouth. Or things I've done. Its like it all jumps out there so much faster than I can catch it. Like my filter just broke. I think I need to go put myself in time out. (And I'm 28, which means I need to sit there for 28 minutes. Yep, that sounds about right.)

Its not an easy thing to divide spirit and flesh. To know if the high I'm on is the Lord, or the 1/2 box of Valentines candy? And I can only assume that its so much harder right now because of the extra hormones, being pregnant.

So should we stifle our emotions? No not necessarily. Sometimes we need a good cry to let it all out. Or 3. Don't back that stuff up or it could explode! Just so long as we know that its only our emotions, not our true heart on the matter. For example-

When Abby was born, I was upset. And confused. And kind of hurt. Things like this happen to "other" people, not to me. (Totally Godly, selfless point of view, right?) ;) But if I'm being honest thats how I felt. Now, my spirit wanted to put my trust in the Lord. And so I did. But sometimes, I needed a good cry. NOT because I wasn't putting my faith in Him in those moments. Not because I wasn't fully relying on Him to get me through that difficult time. But because I'd just been through a (for me) traumatic experience and had a touch of postpartum depression, and needed to just cry on my bed. I even remember praying as I cried "Lord, I don't know why I'm crying, I fully trust in You that You are sovereign and have this all under control. But I can't help but cry." And I know that He spoke back to me that it was ok. To let it out. That He was big enough to handle it. That He created me as an emotional being. And now I really believe that the bigger deal is that WE understand when our crying is just crying for crying's sake. Or when our crying is out of fear. Or untrust. Big difference.

Anyway, that was just using the example of tears, but right now my issues are tears, filters, anger, funk, elation, and bummed-out-ed-ness. Thats a lot of issues. And I'm trying. Not trying to fix them. Because I know it won't be enough for me to do it on my own. But trying to lay it at Jesus' feet. Crucify the flesh. That's Christian-ese for take the junk, bow your head, give it all to Him. Let Him clear the muddied waters. Because it has to be laid on Jesus. Sometimes you've got to keep laying it down. It wants to jump back on your back. But its a daily thing. (Or hourly in some cases, ahem.)

For me clearing the waters looks like- crying over a commercial, okay. Getting furious over dumb stuff someone says and making a federal case over it, creating emotional chick drama, not okay. Time to go back to Jesus. In fact I pretty much need to say a quick prayer before ever opening my mouth. Lord go before me!

Because I either need to separate flesh from spirit, and crucify the flesh... or someone's gonna have to lock me up until the end of June.

PS. Some of this is probably not even said the way I want to say it. But you get the point. :)

Sometimes its the little things...

... that put a smile on your face. Yesterday a friend of mine brought me this little gift.



I've realized that every time I look at it, I can't help but smile :) and my breath catches in my throat just a little, with excitement. And that's just if I see it. If I think about it and what it means-- that I have a daughter coming, another little person, a member of this family-- my eyes well up with tears. Because its hers. Its so much more real. And in the next little while after those glimpses of this sweet cup, the rest of the day's problems seem a lot less important. Avery's coming. :)

(Thank you, friend, for this precious little gift. :))

Development Alert- Abby

Abby has a new trick. But first let me give some really quick Abby history.

Anyone who knows Abby personally or has been reading this blog for a while, knows that Abby's strengths are her cognition and health. From the time that she was born, Abby has always been super healthy. Which a total blessing. Heart problems, GI problems, hearing, speech, vision, etc etc etc... there can be lots of medical issues associated with that tiny little extra chromosome. But to date, Abby has had none. We thought she might have Celiac Disease for a little while, but to make a long story short, she does not as of right now. (If you just went and read that post, no, we are not doing the gluten-free diet. It was suggested, but its an extremely difficult diet to maintain in a large family if its only "suggested". And so far she seems to be doing just fine with her love affair with bread. Though we will continue to monitor for Celiac every year.)

And her cognition is... well, its a little too good sometimes. ;) Just kidding! Abby's a pretty sharp and witty kid. She might not be able to fully, verbally express her thoughts, but boy are those wheels turning. At her first IEP meeting they told me that she scored so high on her testing that if she'd hit even one point higher that she would not fall within the range of "mentally delayed" and wouldn't qualify for special education services! lol! (If her speech were better than it is, there's no telling where she'd land.) She knows exactly whats going on and whats being said to her, most of the time. Her comprehensive vocabulary is really high, even though the expressive is lacking. Even her delayed speech (which is improving almost daily) she makes up for with signs, expressions, and whatever other creative devises she can use to help us understand what she's thinking. Very bright girl, my Abby. :)

But for Abby, her struggle has always been gross motor skills. Abby was the most limp little rag doll you ever saw. I didn't think she would ever bare weight (is it bare or bear? hm) on her legs. If you can believe it, she didn't start walking until after Micah came home. Its been exactly a year and a half. The thing I'm working on the most with her right now is stairs. Its so incredibly hard for her to find the strength to put weight on one leg and push up the rest of her body. And when she's laughing, you might as well forget it. Completely limp! lol!

Did I say really quick history? Sorry about that.

The last few days though, she's got a new trick. And she's so proud of herself, she's doing it all the time! She's walking around on her tippy toes! But bless her heart, I can tell it makes her tired because she'll walk around on her toes saying "Mommy, uh-aa ME!!!" (*Mommy, look at ME!*) For which I'll squeal and cheer, much to her delight. Occasionally she'll even bow a couple times and give a "Thank you... thank you." And then she'll go sit on the couch for a while and I'll notice her looking at her feet or touching them. Abby doesn't very often tell me when she's hurting, I have to watch for it.

I have a feeling she learned this new trick at ballet. "Yaa-yay." But I haven't had a chance to talk to her ballet teacher about it yet. ;) I'm wondering if she's been doing it for a while at ballet and just recently thought to show me at home.

Is it just me or is that a really cute gut?

I'm so proud of my big girl for this new accomplishment. :) Having a child with Special Needs isn't easy. I feel like we fight daily for Micah and Abby to accomplish new goals, just to try to keep up with their peers. But when they do reach little (or big) accomplishments, oh the joy! Way to go Abby Grace!!!!

Love is in the air

Warning: Picture heavy post ahead!

So, besides Christmas, Valentines Day is probably one of my favorite holidays. And Easter. And 4th of July. And New Years. Ok, so I like holidays I guess.

This year, we kicked off the "pink" festivities on the 3rd with a batch of pink pancakes for dinner. They were in honor of our dear friends' baby girl, Kennedy Spencer. Yes, I fed my kids artificial coloring for a meal. Life is too short not to have pink pancakes when baby girls are born!

The pancakes were actually quite delicious. Or should I say- Pinkalicious. (Sorry, I couldn't resist. And if you don't get it, you must not have little girls, click here.) :)

Then we had a snow day... or was it two? Anyway, the girls decided they needed a spa snow day, so they took a long hot bath. (Which involved mini water guns, screaming, and more water on the floor than in the tub. Not my kind of spa bath, but whatever.) Then they wanted their nails painted for for Valentines day. Ashley requested red with pink hearts...





and Emily wanted (get ready) clear glitter polish first, then a red heart, followed by pearlescent pink, then white dots for snowflakes around the hearts, and completed with more clear glitter polish.





I didn't notice until looking at these pictures that their fingers and noses look orange. Maybe we need to cut back on the carrots! Gee! lol Ok, so back to Valentines...

Somehow, over the years, giving a Valentine at school changed from being a cute little home-made card cut out of construction paper and white paper doily's into... some sort of commercialized character (often in holographic form) on a card accompanied by either candy, tattoo's, stickers, or some combination of the above. Now, don't get me wrong. My kids love these! And are still treasuring each and every valentine they got from their cutie little friends at school. (The candy was gone in no time.) But this year I decided to bake a cookie for each classmate and make scrapbook paper cards. Cheap, better than candy, and fun. Right? Well, all but the last part maybe...











What I thought would be a quick cookie bake turned into an all day event. First, I got all my stuff ready and figured out I didn't have egg. But then I got resourceful (thanks to some friends' last minute advise!) and used applesauce. Then I went to frost them and realized I didn't have enough powdered sugar to make the frosting. So I got resourceful again, found some chocolate chips and made a chocolate drizzle. The girl classmates still got pink frosting with hot pink sprinkles. It was VERY important. And thankfully there are way more boys than girls, so we were okay. Whew. ;)







And I will say, the girls did a great job cutting out their little papers and writing all their friends' names.

Emily's:


I'm not sure where Emily learned to make those fancy A's. I didn't teach her and I can't imagine she learned it at school. I asked her why she was making her A's like that and she said "I just like it better." Hm. Ok.

Ashley's:


Each of Ashley's had a little picture that had some special meaning for that friend. So cute.

The finished product:




I realized after the party that poor Libby can't have gluten and wouldn't be able to eat her cookie. :( I'm sorry Mindy!!



And as if 3 or 4 dozen cookies wasn't enough (we made enough for Micah and Abby's classes too), the girls' school was having a little contest for best Valentines box. It had to include their name and a scripture. So given that I'm slightly obsessed with scrapbook paper, these boxes were kind of fun to me. :) The paper was really stiff so we had to hot glue it (we used Capri Sun boxes). So the girls designed their boxes, cut out their names and hearts, and I hot glued my night away.





Not sure why they felt the need to make these crazy faces while holding their boxes, lol! Not sure why they are wearing these random clothes that don't match or fit the season either.....











For the record, neither of them won. :/ But I'm okay with that. The winners were super cute and way more creative than ours. Emily's class winner's box was a huge sword made out of boxes and foil with the scripture "above all else, guard your heart". How cute is that?!



So, to further complete the beautification process from their spa day, they decided that they wanted me to curl their hair the morning of their Valentines Parties at school. And because magical things happen when school is delayed 1 hour because of left-over ice and snow, I actually did it. And they both looked adorable!

Behold the super-cute curls:


Emily's hair is super straight and I didn't think it would hold, but it even lasted into the next day! I could tell during her party that when she would turn, she'd give an extra-dramatic twist because she could feel the curls bounce. ;) lol Yep, thats my girl. (You can't really see the curls from this shot, but it was the best one I had.)



And because I've already added a bzillion pictures, I'm gonna show you this one. How is it that I have to wear eyeliner to look like my 7 year old who (obviously) has zero makeup on in this picture?! Look at her eyes! I didn't even use the redeye tool thingy that sometimes (and irritatingly) makes your whole eye black. She's just naturally gorgeous. :)



So how about MY Valentine? Mr. Jake Spencer? Weeeell, he and I are going out tomorrow night. We've got a baby sitter lined up and I'm going to have a romantic dinner out with the hottest guy around. I won't be blogging or posting pictures of our Valentines night. Sorry folks, thats where the show ends. ;)

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!

Introducing Miss Avery Kate

Well... the name at least. :) It'll sure be fun to introduce her *for real* in June though. ;)

Thanks to everyone who gave us lots of ideas and input. It was fun hearing all of the suggestions!

It seemed that every name I would come up with, Jake would say "Mmm, its okay". Or "yeah its alright". But I didn't want it to be okay OR alright! And he came up with a couple of names that I liked but... didn't feel like they fit this baby. Several times I thought to myself- how on earth did we name 5 children (first and middle names) together?! Thats 10 names. And the last couple weeks, we could barely agree on one.

But we did agree on just one, and that was Kate. But the only problem was (and any moms who have named their biological babies, will understand this) I didn't feel like we were supposed to call her Kate.

So I was still holding out hope for a "dropped down from heaven" name.

And I got it. :) Actually I guess it all started with Emily puking in the middle of the night. (Didn't expect that, didya?) I was up almost all night with my sick little girl because I am not only a professional barfer, but Jake will indeed throw up himself if he see's, hears, or smells it. So while he has changed more than his fair share of diapers that were just.... wrong... and deserves major Daddy points for that, I am the one who handles any digestive upheavals in this house.

So, after being up all night with poor Em, I was exhausted. But I got the other kids ready for school the next morning, packed lunches, fed them all breakfast (including Emily who was fine by daybreak), got them all out the door, did some laundry, laid Mabry down for her morning nap, set Emily up on Starfall (which is awesome and you should check it out if you haven't already) with some reading, and *whew* took a nap on the couch.

Thats when it happened. I dreamed we were naming the baby. Go figure- not like I've been obsessed with naming her lately at all. ;) And in the dream, it was so clear. "She's Avery." I woke up, thought about it, and really liked it. Then I did my tester- talking to myself. Go ahead, laugh, but it works. I walked around my kitchen making lunch and talked out loud to no one, "Avery is kicking." "When I was pregnant with Avery..." "These are our children, Ashley, Emily, Micah, Abby, Mabry, and Avery" "You take the big kids and I'll take Avery with me." Yep, thats it.

But what about a middle name? Well, that only took about a fraction of a second to figure out. Avery Kate.

So I immediately contacted Jake.

Me:"What do you think of Avery Kate?"

{Please say you like it, please say you like it}

Jake: "I actually really like it" were his exact words :)

SCORE!

So after very minimal conversation, we both knew that was it.

YAY! She has a name!!! I might have been dancing around my kitchen. (Which I'm sure you don't find weird now knowing that I was minutes earlier talking to myself. I'm okay with that.)

And so she is. My little Avery Kate. The funny thing is, if I'm honest, it isn't my very favorite name that we've thought of. I mean, I think its ADORABLE, but there were others I did like more. But the thing is, when I say it, I know that she's Avery Kate. Its that simple. Theres not even a question in my head. And that makes me really happy. I want our kids to be who God has called them to be, starting with their names.

So... everyones first question: What does it mean?

Weeeeeell.... Avery actually means "Elf counsel" on a lot of baby names sites. :/ Hm. But my baby names book says: "Avery: see Audrey" and Audrey means Noble. So I'm going with that. :) Also, BabyCenter (which I kind of live by when I'm pregnant) says that Avery means Wise. :) Like that too.

And everywhere I look, Kate means Pure. Which I thought was super cool because of this message that I spoke to our youth girls a long time ago about the difference between innocence and purity... its a long story (or message) but, anyway it has a personal cool meaning to me. :)

Baby Avery, you are loved. You are so special. And now that I know your name, I'm having so much fun getting to know who Avery is. Right now, thats a squirmy little baby that was unexpected but is treasured. And kicks mommy constantly. :) I love you baby girl of mine.

Pesky visitor

Dear Contractions,

I think its a little early for you to be visiting me so often. I know you're trying to be sneaky by using the medical term "Braxton Hicks", but I know who you are. If I hadn't already had four babies, I might not know it was you, but I have and I do. And I know that its way to early for you to be visiting me this much. I appreciate that your visits are not consistent and that you likely are NOT "changing anything" when you come, but they are way more frequent than is appropriate right now. When I get to 37 weeks, by all means, come back. I will gladly embrace you. Until then, please leave me alone. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Amy

20 weeks

So that my mom and mother-in-law don't freak out ;) and because this blog is kind of a journal for me to look back at, I'd like to reiterate that my "Braxton Hicks" aren't regular. As in, not every 10 minutes or anything like that. But I have been having at least 2 or 3 a day for the last several days. Which is way early for 20 weeks. I've spoken with my doctor about it and she basically just said as long as they aren't consistent that "you know what to do". :) Meaning, take it a little more easy, drink more water, etc etc. She's right, I do know what to do. And for now, it is okay, but if it continues or becomes more frequent... yeah, not cool. :/

The voice in the backseat

I took this while driving Abby home from school one day last week. Obviously I couldn't drive and video tape, so I just pointed the camera over my shoulder. The audio is all I really needed to capture anyway. (She probably wouldn't have kept going if I'd been turned around, she would have been yelling "CHEEEEETHE!" But you can definitely tell she was aware of the camera on my shoulder.) I really just wanted to record what I hear every time I play this song in the car. I've never "taught" her this song, she just hears it and loves it. Abby gettin' her praise on in the backseat comin' home from school.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(Whats really beautiful to me, that I didn't know until I got home and watched this, is that at different points Abby does her signs for pray and cry. Which tells me she exactly what this song is about.)

Jesus, Laundry and Blogging

Its bad enough that I'm not doing the things that I should be doing around the house (like folding the clean laundry) right now, but instead I'm blogging. Its worse that I'm not blogging about the things I should be blogging about (like naming my sixth child today), but instead I'm gonna talk about the random things in my head. But I promise to make my next post about AVERY KATE. ;)

I love blogging. Ok, most of you already knew that. I've told you before that its therapeutic to me. But have I told you that I love reading blogs? In fact (this is serious folks, hang on to your seat) I'm strongly considering ditching Facebook. It sucks away time I don't have. And whats sad- in the evenings it sucks away "Amy time" that was previously spent reading blogs. Which I adore. And no longer do. Much.

Blogs are great because you get to hear great in-depth stories and really get to know who people are. Instead of small snippets and random news quotes. I find myself drawn to the "networked blogs" posts more than anything else. Thats where the good stuff is. Unfolding stories of God's redemption... and great crafts. :)

Now, I'm gonna get all "Jake" on ya for a second and also argue that none of this is really relational. I do not know personally some of the fine folks who's blogs I read. Many I do, but not all. I'm not finding out the heart-matters of these people over a cup of coffee, but over the internet. But here's my argument for that: A) So much of it is encouraging, inspiring and uplifting. It makes me want to be a better mom, wife, home-maker, faith-liver-outer. (Ya like that one?) And B) I don't substitute my girls night outs and coffee with friends for blog reading. By any stretch. (Phone calls? Maybe. I'm not very good at being relational on the phone. My very closest friends will tell you that they might talk to me once a week.)

The types of blogs I read are mostly comprised of either real life friends, adoptive buddies, mommies of kids with DS, big families, or some combination of those. Mixed in with a couple of devotional or craft blogs. :) I really encourage you to peruse my blog roll below. There are some amazing people walking out real faith. Not glamorous, just honest. Good stuff. I'm not big on fancy, showy, business looking blogs. One rule of thumb is that its better if it doesn't have its own .com address. But thats just my taste.

I will tell you there is the occasional blog that inspires me to the point of guilt. Which isn't really inspiration at all, come to think of it. Like a Holy Experience. I love this blog but posts like these, the enemy uses to make me feel like I'm not good enough and that I need to pull all of my kids outta school and homeschool them. (Partially because thats what my heart longs to do, but right now its not practical, realistic, or even the best thing for my kids at the moment. Thats for another post.) Some of you might love it and you should definitely check it out. And let me clearly say that I don't believe that guilt is the point of the blog! She's trying to be encouraging. But I have to be careful of overly cool stuff like this (as weird as that is). When someone tries to make them self seem down to earth and relatable by saying she lives on a farm and tries to find "Christ in the clothespin"... I honestly can't relate. I'm over here trying to find Christ in... well, I'm not sure you want to know. But I do think that site is beautiful.

I know that there are people in our church who think we did this huge, heroic thing by adopting a child with special needs. Which is... sweet... but if they only knew! Any time I feel tempted to pat myself on the back for accepting God's call to raise kids with special needs, I think of Meredith. She has 8 kids under the age of 9 and 6 of them have special needs. And she's such an awesome, humble mom that she's probably be upset that I'm even writing this about her. :) But she has got it together and lives to blog about it! Christine and her husband are raising 15 kids, most of them adopted. Talk about sacrifice. I really could go on and on about the incredible families I've come across but I encourage you to go read these blogs for yourself.

Real people. Real faith. Some of them are creative writers, some of them just tell it like it is in their own words.

And thats what I hope to have here on my blog. The point is really a place for family updates, but I'd love for it to be a place where you can read about the real me. Raw. Because when you see how imperfect I am, Christ is glorified. And thats the whole point anyway, lifting Him higher.

2 Cor. 12: 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Now. If I could just figure out how to glorify Christ through the folding of the laundry next to me....

New Mercies

Today was exhausting. The couple of days before today weren't much better. I have a sinking feeling this is the way weekends are going to look for a while until we get this house sold.

Let me tell you, its no small task to get a house cleaned up for showings, much less keep it that way, with 5 kids. Does it help that the two oldest are 5 and 7? No not really... they can be helpful but its usually accompanied by lots of whining and drama. Do you know how many times I've said "Please just clean up your stuff and don't complain about it" or "I know you didn't make that mess, but we're a family and we help each other out" or to the little ones, stuff like "Micah, I said put the toys in the cabinet, Buddy, not take them all out." Oy.

It also doesn't help that I'm pregnant. Trying to not breathe in cleaner fumes, but also trying not to hold my breath and pass out. Can't lift the vacuum cleaner because this pain strikes across my side and can't carry boxes to the attic because I don't want to lose my balance and fall. (I've had a few contractions this weekend which tells me that I'm overdoing it anyway. Great.)

We've had a showing almost every day since it went on the market. I feel pretty good about that. I'm trying to be realistic, that it could be a while. And just praying that it sells in God's good timing and to the right people. But Lord, before June would be great. :)

Today I skipped church so I could clean up for a 1pm showing. I mopped, moved laundry through, finished the dishes (believe it or not!), scrubbed a couple of stains out of the bedroom carpets, organized some shelves so they didn't look so cluttered, swept the porch, etc, etc. At one point one of the kids (who wishes to remain nameless but starts with an E) ;) somehow got all of us but Mabry locked in Micah and Abby's bedroom. Its a long story but I creatively got us all out and lived to tell about it. :) Anyway, by the time we left, I gotta say, the house looked pretty good for today's showing. Sparkly even.

Tonight we went to some good friends' house to watch the super bowl. They have 5 kids of their own so I don't think anyone did much superbowl watching, mostly just crowd control. But nonetheless, it felt great to hang out and just be. Then we came home, got kids in bed and got backpacks, uniforms, and lunches ready for school tomorrow. All the stuff I didn't feel like doing but knew I'd be glad for in the morning.

And right now... I'm thankful. I'm tired, but not an "over it" kind of tired, ya know? I'm thankful for the Lord's provision through this season of life. Thankful that I can feel His mercies... I like to think of it as Divine anesthesia. Like- I should be feeling stressed right now and panicked and worried and and and.... But instead I'm just tired. Ready for bed. Thankful for a new day tomorrow with new mercies.

Thank you God for Your fresh mercy, good friends, and Divine anesthesia. How would I get through without these?

Family and House Updates

Wow that was an incredibly boring title. But I'm too tired to come up with something more creative. You love me anyway, right?

I'll start with myself and baby bun-in-the-oven. AKA- the nameless one. :) We're still taking name suggestions. Nothing is striking us, like, at all. Just waiting for that supernatural, almost audible voice to speak it out of heaven (which is how I got Abby's name). Any time now, Lord. ;) My morning sickness is preeetty much gone. A lot of mornings I still take a half a Zofran just to ensure a good day... I might still have the occasional morning "heave", which I'm sure has nothing to do with waking up to 3 stinky, explosive diapers. Anyway, I haven't thrown up food in a while, which is great. And the crazy cravings have kicked in which is always a good sign. If any of you ever want to go get some fried pickles at Applebees at any time, hit me up. My belly is really getting bigger too. That point where anything but sweatpants are uncomfortable. And I refuse to put on maternity jeans because they make my butt look flat aren't very flattering. The three littlest kids have noticed my baby bump too. Every now and then, they'll look over at me, poke at my belly and give me this half-disgusted look like, "uh... what is that?"

Miss Mabry is doing well. Saying a few more words. Mostly... "no". But she's also started this great thing where she acts like she's laughing when other people are laughing. Like throwing her hands up and smacking her legs kind of laughing. Its hilarious, but mostly because she has no idea what she's laughing at. :)

Abby. Well... with mixed emotions I report to you that Abby Grace is going to start riding the bus next week. Its hard, obviously because she's my baby. (Not my littlest baby but, whatever, you get it). She'll be riding it with Micah (I'll explain that more in Micah's update) which makes me feel so much better about it. Actually I wouldn't be putting her on the bus at all if it weren't for the fact that she's riding with Micah. But as my belly grows, its becoming increasingly harder to lift Abby and Micah in and out of the suburban. The fewer times, the better. And of course the bonus of not bundling Mabry up for a 5 minute round trip car ride. Also, a few of her friends from her class ride the bus. So ultimately, I think she'll be fine and even enjoy being a "big" girl. :)

Mr Micah will be riding the bus with Abby because, he's now going to pre-K 5 days a week! When the school suggested this after his last IEP (individualized education plan) meeting, I wasn't the least hesitant. Because Micah is bored at home and I don't feel like I can do enough to keep him busy or stimulated enough. I think he'll benefit from the additional speech therapy and will love the structure of daily school. They also decided to keep him in pre-K 5 days/week next school year as well. Which I'm also happy with because 1) He's such a little guy. SOLID as a rock, but little. :) 2) His speech is still so behind 3) He's still not... uh, "#2" potty trained and 4) He's just generally so developmentally behind I can't imagine him keeping up in Kindergarten class by the fall. So for now, I'm happy with this arrangement, and I think he is too!

Kindergarten has proven to be awesome for Emily this year though! Love love love her teacher and her classmates. One of her best-friends-from-birth buddies started coming to her class after Christmas and she was really excited about that. :) She's such a little peanut but she sure packs a punch, so she's keeping up well! She's still doing ballet after school once a week (with Ashley) and loves that. Its been the perfect activity for the girls, what a blessing.

Ashley's doing well in school too. We had a little time before Christmas when she was getting stressed out about "friend drama" at school. But with a little mom and teacher intervention and some new rules in place about trading toys and "clubs" ;) things seem to be going much better. She's been having lots of playdates after school and sleepovers on the weekend, which I think keeps them focused on schoolwork during the day. I guess they don't feel like they need to cram all of their conversation into one 7 hour period. And trust me, 1st grade little girls have LOTS they NEED to say.

Jake now has both of this years winter retreats (Jr and Sr High) under his belt and his home for a while (can I get a hallelujah?!) He also preached in "big church" ;) twice in December, which was cool. You can check those messages out here and here. He's been playing basketball on Tuesday nights, which is a great physical outlet for him, he loves sports. And if its an early game, he picks up Ashley and Emily after school and they hang out and go to the game together. Its awesome for the girls to have that Daddy time and its nice for me to have an evening with just the little ones.

Last but not least, the Spencer HOUSE is for sale! WHOO HOO!! It is officially listed as of last night. Its definitely bittersweet. When we moved into this house, my belly looked just like it does right now... but with Ashley. This is the only house any of our kids have ever known. And part of me is really sad that we won't be bringing this last baby home here too. But I keep telling myself that bringing the baby home to our new house (where ever that might be) will make that house feel like a home. And of course, it'll be so nice to have some space. In case you missed it, you can read more about our space/sleeping issues here. And that was before we found out about baby bun-in-the-oven. (We have got to name this kid...)

Please pray with us that Lord would orchestrate buyers for the house as well as a new house for us. It was so clear when we bought this place that it was directly from the Lord. I really want that for our next place too. Also please pray that its a smooth transition for our young but large, growing family. I'll keep you updated!