What Makes Him Special

Your Daddy loves you a lot little Bee.  You make him so happy just like your sister does.  When you are happy it makes him happy, and when you are sad, his heart hurts too.

Your Daddy can't wait to get home to you every single day and he just loves when you snuggle up against his chest.  When you were born, he was the first one to hold you.  He put you up on his shoulder and I remember his smile.  It was perfect and so content.

Your Daddy tells me all the time how much he loves you.  He has big dreams for you and he hopes that the world will give you many opportunities.  He tells me all the time how beautiful you are, and he knows you will go far.

Your Daddy gives a lot of himself to make sure the 3 of us girls are taken care of.  He sacrifices his time to make sure you have the best.  He prays constantly that you will find Jesus and know His grace.  Most of all though, he prays that you will love others above yourself, that you will learn how to resolve conflict peacefully and that you will always remember that being like Jesus is not about you.  He prays you will be compassionate and hopes that when you see someone hurting you will hurt with them too.

Your Daddy will always be there for you, no matter what.  He will always be on your team.  There is nothing you can do to make him love you less, his love for you is unlimited.

You and Lily are his girls and he is your Daddy..... thats what makes him special.

It's Busy and Beautiful

Well, slowly but surely I am figuring out how to do this stay at home thing with these two little ladies.  Some days are harder than others and some days one or more things gets forgotten, but overall, we are slowly settling into this new version of our life.  I LOVE IT!  Its busy and beautiful.

Enjoying out backyard and new Patio furniture!

Evie is growing so fast.  I remember it happening with Lily, but it seems even faster with this little one. We are working on smiling right now and every now and then I can get one out of her.  Oh it delights me when I do.  Her little eyes are so blue and there are moments where, if I look hard enough, I can see into her little soul.  I know, it sounds cheesy, but I am connected to this little girl in ways only a Mother could be.

There are days when all that I want her to do is sleep so that I can sleep.  I try to put her down and she fusses.  It is exhausting until I decide everything else can wait.  Once I pick her up and cuddle her she drifts off into a deep peaceful place.  She just wants to be near my heart I suppose.  Sometimes its hard to stop in the moment and just enjoy her nearness.  But when I do it is healing, refreshing and peaceful.  I simply love her.

My Lily is doing well too.  Evie demands so much of me that it is hard to save special Lily and me time.  I must say, I miss her.  Even when we are together, I have to commit so much energy to the baby and rely on Lily to be fairly independent.  Bob has been wonderful with Lily.  He calls her "his charge."  It seems a little objective, but it is so sweet.

He plays with her, wakes up in the night with her, watches Mickey Mouse for the 31st time with her and just simply loves on her.  She knows she is loved, even if she doesn't get all of the attention.

The job is busy, sometimes stressful and not always the way I want it to be, but I love it and thank the Lord, and my husband daily, that I have the privilege of being home.  I just couldn't imagine dropping my girls off every day.  My heart would break.

Evie and Lily are beautiful girls, part me, part Bob.  Every time that I look into their eyes I see a little bit of us both and its amazing.  I only pray that as they grow up and away from us, that they will grow closer to the Lord.  They may look like us, but I hope their hearts look like Jesus.

Goodbyes are Hard

Well, we said goodbye to Gramma Jill this past week after 5 wonderful weeks together.  I honestly don't know who it was harder on, Me and the girls or Gramma Jill.  The time was wonderful and I simply cannot believe it is already over.

We did so much together over the past few weeks and I simply have a boatload of pictures to post.  One of the highlights of the trip was the ZOO!  Lily loves the zoo, but more than anything she loves the carousel at the zoo.  We also took a moment to take a picture on the cow and wagon.  I have many pictures on that little wagon growing up and it was super fun to snap one with me, Lily and Evie.

One of the really special things we got to do was to spread Grandma Fran's ashes.

All of the family met up in the mountains one day and celebrated her life.

We roasted marshmallows, sang songs, rode horses and did all sorts of fun things.  It was hard to bring up the emotions of missing Grandma, but a wonderful time with family.  Lily even got her first haircut from Memaw!

Plus, Evie got to meet Jessi!  I simply love that girl and miss having her around!

Just last weekend we had an extra special treat when Great Aunt Sue came in for a quick weekend visit!  It was so special especially because Lily and Evie have never met her!

I was eternally grateful to have some extra help because I came down with a horrible bout of mastitis and was in bed for an entire day.  Yuck!  After getting over that hump, we took a trip up to the Golden Gate State Park and did some hiking.

We took Sue up to the Forgotten Valley homestead, enjoyed the pond and the great mountain air.  It was wonderful.  I was still a little under the weather, but Evie and I had a great time.

We said our sad goodbyes a couple of days ago and now I am doing this Mother of two kids thing all by myself.  I miss the commraderie of Gramma Jill, but LOVE having my girls all to myself.  It's gonna take some getting used to and finding our routine may take a few weeks...

but the chance to spend every single moment with these little ladies is something special.