Bless all of you who have refrained from asking me if I'm pregnant or just gained weight. As it turns out, both are true. (Eating my way through my feelings of a hard 2018 turned out to be a bad choice. But that's not the point of this blog post.)
*We* thought we were done with the baby stage. Sleepless nights, teething, anxiety, worry...we potty trained our last this fall and we did REJOICE. As it turns out, God's plans were not our plans and now we are looking forward to one more round of baby laughs, first smiles, midnight snuggles, and milestones.
We are honored that God thinks we can handle five. Though unexpected to us, this baby is wanted, loved, and part of His perfect plan. Of this we are certain.
Also, we tried to do cute announcement pictures with the kids and it turns our kids are uncooperative beasts. LOL. Their faces pretty accurately depict their feelings about adding one more to the chaos.
Zayden cried because his words washed off in the shower so his dad wrote his name on his feet for him...because what you learn when you get more than a couple is to let the little stuff go and live for the moment.
First appointment today...little swooshy heartbeat.
Dear #5,
We are loud.
We love Jesus, like a lot
We are kinda weird.
We like being together, which lots of people find strange.
We are imperfect.
We live humbly.
We are part of a beautiful village of large extended families and the sweetest friends.
We think you're gonna love it here.
Welcome to our journey.
Tonight ended our homeschool ballet class. The girls learned so much these past few months and made so many memories. Several of the moms from the homeschool co-op (+ one friend whose daughter was able to join in) paid an experienced high school student of dance to come to town and teach the girls on Mondays. We're thankful they had this opportunity.
Since tonight was the girls' watch night and little performance I tried to make it special and gussied them up. Lil powder, lil mascara, lil lipstick. Natalee has seen Emma's dance recitals. There were expectations (he, he, he).
Mia was difficult to get a picture of, but we finally got a couple okay ones.
We watched the little ones warm up and run through their exercises and then got to watch their little dance routine. Tiny ballerinas are the cutest.
Mia and Nora.
After the little trio went, it was the older class's turn. They are such a lovely bunch of young ladies.
Natalee and her friend, Elizabeth. These girls have gotten to know each other through co-op activities and are growing a sweet friendship.
We invited grandmas to watch the little performance. We missed a picture with Grammy Sara - she was in the kitchen with Papa Phil and we didn't catch her. Grandma Num has been to many a dance recital in her day (thanks, Emma) and brought flowers for the little performers.
Dance sisters...
All the sweet dancers...
Thank you Olivia for the time and effort you poured into the girls these last months. We appreciate you very much.
