Monday, January 29, 2007

One Year Old. . .

I am several days late with this birthday post to Jack (it was on the 23rd) but better late than never. It is so hard to believe you are ONE year old! My memories of the day you were born are still so vivid. I remember being so surprised at how FAST you were born! I had Oprah on at 4:00 and I was visiting with Poppy and daddy and at 4:30 I started feeling LOTS of pressure. You I only had to push a few times and you were OUT by 4:57! I remember the fear in my heart as the nurses suctioned out all the junk in your mouth over and over and told us they needed to take you to the NICU. You just looked SO perfect and I just wanted to hold you and not let go!!! Daddy and I prayed over you before we handed you over to the nurses and as quickly as you got here, you were gone. The next 3 hours were so strange not getting to be with you. I remember being so thankful that you were going to be okay and crying for my friends who have had to give their babies back to the Lord for good. The Lord used that moment in my life to give me a window into the hearts of these friends. Although I have never had to experience giving one of my babies back to the Lord, I had a very small glimpse of how much it has to hurt. My heart hurt so much giving you to those nurses, and that was a fraction of what my precious friends have felt.

What a BLESSING you are, precious Jack. Your little smile appeared within your first month and hasn't gone away! You have such a sweet disposition. My favorite memories with you during the past year are lots of nights rocking you (one of the last things my grandma said to me before she went to be with Jesus is, "You rock those babies!!" so sometimes I even go in and get you after you are asleep and rock you some more!), watching you suck that thumb and play with your ear with your other hand, seeing your face light up when you see your sister and your daddy, hearing you take deep breaths and seeing that big smile when a cool breeze (sometimes a cold gust) hits your face, watching you army crawl EVERYWHERE (crawling on your hands and knees is SO overrated!), putting you to bed at night and having you be fidgity and fussy until I start singing and you immediately relax and snuggle up to me EVERY time. My list could go on and on. You are a joy to your dad, sister and me and to SO many others. God has such a great plan for your life. You will be such a mighty warrior for Him and I am confident that the Lord will use you to bring multitudes to know and serve our Almighty God. Like the scripture says on your wall, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6 The Lord will direct you and lead you in ways that are hard to understand at times. It won't always make a lot of sense in your mind and you might not want to follow His lead. Follow Him. Seek HIS face ALWAYS. TRUST HIM COMPLETELY. He is the only one in your world who will NEVER let you down. He will NEVER fail you. Take time to BE STILL before HIM, and LISTEN to HIM. As much as your dad and I love you, HE loves you even MORE!!

What a wonderful, fun first year! I love and adore you more and more every day. Next to your dad, you and Hayley are the greatest gifts in my life. I'm looking forward to year #2 with you! Walking, talking, talking back----not YOU???!!! I love you forever. . .










Wednesday, January 24, 2007

My New Hobby. . .

I think I've finally found a hobby that Tra will not steal from me. . .online scrapbooking!! I have never gotten into scrapbooking. I tried when Hayley was born and got through her 8th month or so. I just have a really hard time really getting into scrapbooking---getting ALL the stuff out, making a huge mess and having to clean it all up before the kids get into it. Take it out, put it up, take it out, put it up, etc. For Jack's birthday (which was yesterday. . .birthday post coming soon) I made a Kodak Easyshare book for him on the internet. I did his whole first year in 3 days or so. It was probably a total of 5-6 hours that I spent on the whole thing. And I LOVE it. Well, my friend Ashley told me about a website that is online scrapbooking---backgrounds, tons of layouts, places to journal, etc. It is www.picaboo.com and I cannot begin to describe how excited I am about it! I've already started on a little 1st Birthday book for Jack and it is so much fun! No scissors, no bits of paper, no mess!! I was so excited I had to share! Also, you can email the books out on this website and you can't on Kodak's (as far as I can tell). So for anyone out there who is interested in this stuff (Courtney), you have to check it out!

Friday, January 19, 2007

Cousins. . .

I should be in bed, but was just looking through some pictures and had to post some of these. It's wild to think that this time last year we only had Hayley and at Christmas this year we had Hayley, Jack, Adalyn and Scout! These little cousins have so much fun together and love to play with and on each other! What a joy they are to us all!

Jack (11 mos.) and Adalyn (8 mos.) smiling for the camera.

"What are y'all lookin' at?" This is Jack's favorite thing to do with Scout (6 mos.)

Hayley (2) is reading everyone a bedtime story. We did not make this happen---we looked over and yelled, "Get the camera!"

This is what happens when we try to line them up for a picture. Notice Jack is crawling over Scout AGAIN. Will we even be able to make all 4 stay still long enough to get a picture of them together next Christmas??? : )