Big Sibling Class!

Before we get to the class... I came across these pictures of Melissa and I at her baby shower for baby Eli! I was due a month BEFORE her but Lainey and Eli are just a week apart in age! Little Lainey called upon her "betrothed" and he answered ;-). But i love these pics of us together!

Before we had Rhyan, Jeff and I attended a birthing class and a breastfeeding class at our local hospital. I didnt take any classes before having Mack because, well, I had just been through them all less than 2 years prior. And with Lainey, i had no desire to take birthing or breastfeeding classes but thought i'd be fun for the kids to take a big sibling glass!

We were living with Jeff's parents as renovations were being done on our house so it was kind of nice that the hospital was just 10 minutes away as the class was at 6:30 and lasted over an hour!

When we first arrived the kids made name tags and colored a card for their new baby sister!

We watched a video and answered a few questions about what babies eat, why they might cry, etc and then we got down to the real fun! :-)

We got down on mats and practiced caring for a baby! The kids were told to each bring a babydoll or favorite stuffed animal for this part of the class... it was SO cute!

Rhyan was so diligent in diapering her babydoll!

And mack was SO proud of his diapered monkey! HA!

Then, we practiced swaddling! This was much easier for the kids to practice so they liked it more!

I HAD to take this pic because Jeffs hair was driving me CRAZY! He needed it cut badly but he did NOT believe that it was too long... so i had to take this to prove it! HA!

After class, mack just wanted to clean up the mats for everyone! My big helper boy!

Then we took a tour of the mother baby wing where the kids would be coming after Lainey was born to visit. They got to check out the room and all the equipment so they would understand what everything was and they seemed to like it. Overall it was a great experience and I think it helped them feel really involved and made them look forward to becoming big siblings!!

One Year...

Its official. As of Sunday, we've been one year without Mommie. Its been an absolutely crazy year and honestly, I think the business of it has kept me from realizing just how much I miss my Mommie.

So,I let myself just "have a day" on Sunday. I cried. A lot. I just felt heart broken. Jeff and I are getting ready to do some more remodeling to the house and part of this next phase includes tearing down the barn. So we went out to the barn for  a bit to look around at what needs to be trashed/saved/donated/sold. And I choked back tears the entire time. Looking around at what, in my childhood, was a fantastic shop for Daddy to do woodworking... it was almost more than I could bear to see the shape its in now. The ceiling is falling in because the roof leaks. Its filled with junk; old broken tools, boxes filled with useless stuff that needs to be gotten rid of, dust and dirt.

How did a place that was once so alive with Daddy working and whistling away turn into such a sad, sad place?

We finished up looking through it and I just had to get out of there. I have SO many happy memories in that shop with Daddy... sitting under the covered area in a lawn chair, listening to the rain fall on the tin roof with a glass of lemonade. Or sweeping the dust for him with the same broom that I use today to clean up outside. Theres just so so many sweet memories. And the thought of tearing it down breaks my heart! But seeing it in its dilapidated state is even more sad.

Its like death in so many ways. There comes a point when you've seen someone suffer for so long that you know its more merciful for them to pass on, but them passing takes away any hope of them ever being what you imagine and remember them being when they were healthy and young (not that there was ever a chance of that happening, anyways). Its painful to watch and painful to let go. Just painful.

So we came inside and got to rearranging some things in the attic so as to get ready for the installation of our new HVAC unit... only for Jeff to come across an old mothers day card that Daddy had given to Mommie. Which, of course, caused more tears.
They loved each other so much. They were married almost 57 years before Daddy passed away. Wow.

And so of course as I was up there, all I could think of was the hours I had spent up in the attic with mommie... getting down Christmas decorations or cleaning out for a yard sale. Hearing her complain about how all of the kids needed to get their stuff out or she was going to do away with it all (idle threats ;-). So many memories are in that attic, too.

Even now, as I sit in our living room which once was my bedroom growing up, I am surrounded by memories of my Mommie and Daddy who will never sit in this living room with me. And it hurts SO so badly.

So Sunday, I had a day to reflect on how much I miss them. On how hard it is to see my sweet 5 year old draw cards for her "Mayer" and ask if maybe an Angel could take it to heaven for her. It was an ugly, sad day.

But today, I am choosing to focus my mind not on myself and how sad it is to live life without her and Daddy, but instead I choose to focus on what life must be like for them now. OH, how amazing it must be to be reunited again after their 7.5 years of separation. I wonder what its like to be in the presence of Jesus and with so many of their family and friends who have gone on before them. I wish I could see each of them with their restored, fully healed, HEALTHY bodies! Man, my Mommie was BEAUTIFUL and Daddy was a STUD when they were younger! I bet they are enjoying life... pain free.

Even knowing this truth, I still cry. I'm still sad. But my sadness is for myself and for my family who misses Mommie. Its not for Mommie (or Daddy). Because truthfully, neither of them would come back here even if they could. It is they who are "home" now. And thankfully, I will join them one day... all because of the sacrifice of Jesus that allows me the opportunity to have a relationship with God despite my failures, and the gift of eternity with God and all the others who have chosen to accept Christ as their savior. What a gift.

Till then, though, I'm sure there will be hard days. I'm simply hopeful that they will get farther and farther apart. And I trust that in time, the memory of her laughter will bring smiles rather than tears to my face.

33.5 years with her, 1 without. I'm blessed to have had her as my Mommie.

Swim Atlanta Lessons!

For 3 years now we've done swim lessons at Swim Atlanta. The kids LOVE the water and neither of them have ANY fear of the water, so they need skills for sure! This years lessons were unfortunately AFTER our beach vaca but we decided to do them regardless... because we do go to the water park weekly and so the skills would still be put to good use!

I really wanted (and still want) to put the kids into survival swim classes. But O.M.G.... talk about EXPENSIVE! The place I checked into for lessons do 10-15 min lessons and want you to preschedule 20 lessons I think. And its $600. PER KID. We were in the middle of renovations on the house and there was NO way I could justify that amount of money when we were already spending so much! So we stuck with Swim Atlanta and while I still would have prefered the survival class, I was happy with what they learned!

Rhyan was, of course, a great listener and did awesome in her class. She follwed directions and learned a good bit about paddle/stroke swimming!

Mack, on the other hand... pulled a "mack". Jeff was the one taking the kids to their classes (I was working) and on the first day apparently Mack pitched a fit to not have to swim. So Jeff didnt make him. I was upset for sure! I asked Jeff why he didnt just make him and jeff explained that he felt like since Mack didnt ASK to take swim lessons we shouldnt make him. I explained that if Mack wants the privileged of getting to go to the water park and play in the pool, he WOULD take the lessons and learn some safety skills if nothing else.

So I had a BIG talk with Mack that night and the next day went much, much smoother! :-)

Mack had one other day that he refused to go in the water... ugh... but overall he did well.

I like to get pics with the kids on their last day with their teacher, so this is Rhyan!

And this is macks picture. He REFUSED a pic and ran away from his teacher when I tried. Oh, Mack!

Maybe we will do survival swim courses this year... idk... i'd LOVE to do all 3 kids (they can start with babies at 6 months old and teach them how to float! its amazing!) but idk. I'm still shocked at how much it COSTS! I mean, if we had a pool in our own back yard I'd pay it, period, and consider it part of the cost of the pool. But since we dont its just a hard amount to swallow... i mean for 3 kids... thats the cost of a family vacation! Whew!

2014 Family/Maternity Pics

Terrilynn Bayne of Orpheus and Aphrodite Music and Photography is not only a fabulous photographer, but also an amazing friend! She is such an inspiration to me as a mom and wife and its such a JOY to have such a sweet friend who makes my whole family so comfortable take pictures of us! She always gets the kids to cooperate... because they LOVE her! So I just wanted to share a few of our family pics (which we also did a bit of a maternity session with... I've never done maternity pics so I figured this was a good opportunity!.  She captured some amazing pictures that I"m PROUD to display in our home!

Mack wasnt as cooperative as I would have liked... I would say that its just his age but we've pretty much been dealing with him refusing pics for about 2 of his 3 years so far. HA! So I was grateful for the couple she captured of him! These are just my favorites :-)