"Blessings"

Have you heard this song? This is one of the songs that I would bawl to while driving to or from the NICU back at the beginning of the year.

What if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are your mercies in disguise.

  I think the lines that are not heard the first time we listen are these:

We cry in anger when we cannot  feel you near

We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love

As if every promise from your Word is not enough.

All the while you hear each desperate plea,

and long that we'd have faith to believe.

Go ahead and listen to the song after you hear the story behind it .(sorry you might  have to stop the band perry song below).

Say an extra prayer for some friends of mine. They've got another baby on the way & found out about some medical issues regarding his heart. Pray for peace for mom and dad until the baby comes. Pray for healing! Pray for the doctors, nurses, and surgeons who will be working with the sweet boy shortly after he enters the world. We love you guys!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28

We LOVE summer!

You might not be able to see, but Lucy got her ears pierced last week!

HALF OF A YEAR!

MY SWEET LITTLE BABY GIRL HAS BEEN HERE A HALF OF A YEAR!

Wow. I'm trying to balance celebrating her, and not getting too emotional about this being my last baby. I'm so happy she is thriving and growing, but I want to snuggle with a baby for a little bit longer! I'm glad she is a little bit behind so I can still have a little baby around =) She is currently 10 pounds and 5 ounces. She is 22 and 7/8 inches long, and I forget what her head is. I DO know that her head is on the growth chart!!!5th%! That is funny to me because Landon's head just recently got above the 5%. With her corrected age, she would be about 20% in weight & 50% in height--a place that Landon is still not at. This little girlie has some potential to pass him up. Everything is going great with her health and development, and we will be starting some cereal in about a month, shortly followed by baby food. She goes back for another hearing test in a few months, and she will continue those 1-2 times per year until she is 3 years old. She did have a little issue with some *skin* growing together--an issue that we hadn't dealt with from having a boy, and hadn't really ever heard of it. It is common though, and for now we will just put Vaseline on her once a day. If the adhesion doesn't clear up, then there is a hormone cream they can put on her. Gross. Look it up if you want to though,I guess we learn something new everyday. We will not have to go back to the Dr. for a well visit until she is 9 months old. I hope the next 3 months are VERY slow, and that we can take the time to enjoy both of these kids!



Don't you think these sweet little ears need to be pierced?



We never made birth announcements. I was really really bummed that we didn't get the 'normal' hospital pictures, I love all the ones at Baptist. I certainly was in no shape to be sending out pictures of my baby with cords and wires and tape and tubes. By the time she was discharged and almost 2 months old, I figured it was too late--everyone already knew.I have been trying to figure out what picture I can at least take up to the NICU, Dr. W, and Dr. M. So I had a coupon for some free cards that printed on my receipt at Target, and came up with this! I love it =)

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

I heart Lucy

Lucy had another 3 month follow-up appointment at the cardiologist Thursday. After about a 5 minute echo cardiogram Dr. M. said, " It looks perfect"!

Sweet Sweet Summertime

A life without love is like a year without summer. ~Swedish Proverb

So it's not officially summer yet, but school is out. That is close enough!

I decided to ride along with my sister & niece to Orlando last week. OK, so we took my Nitro, and I drove some (for like the FIRST time I drove), but I went with them so they didn't have to go alone. We weren't planning on leaving until Saturday, but headed out Friday evening around 6pm. We drove until we were sleepy, and stayed the night in Perry, G.A. Landon ran around the hotel like crazy until 2AM, and both the kids loved eating breakfast there. :) It is a much longer trip when you are nursing a baby, but it  gave the kids chances to get out and play. We only stayed until Thursday morning,pulling out and heading back home before 6A.M.

While we were there we got to relax with family,swim, & soak up some sun.



Our cousins are just about the same age as our kiddos.



My cousin Benjamin & Landon.

There is a random jellyfish invasion on the beaches on the east coast of Florida, so we only went once. I didn't even venture down to the wet sand to see because Lucy was a little on the fussy side that day. I stayed under the umbrella with her most of the time. BUT my sister, son, and niece decided to make the best of it. In turn, they made the local Fox station. The story then went to the National Fox News, and then Good Morning America ! If are my friend on Facebook, I'm sure you've seen it. If not, here are the links!

 http://video.foxnews.com/v/968602743001/jellyfish-spoil-beach-vacation

 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/florida-coast-falls-victim-jellyfish-invasion-13731585

My niece caught these.

Landon on cloud 9 with his Great Uncle Tim & Aunt Becky

Lucy with her Great Aunt Becky

I hear my parents might be heading back down in July, maybe we can hitch a ride then too. ;)

If I die young....

A few weeks ago this song came on, so I decided to talk 'funerals'. I had never brought this subject up before. You always hear that story of the couple where one passes away, and they think it's so ironic that they had JUST been talking about death, family, & how they wanted their funeral. No, I don't believe in jinxing things or superstitions, but that's just not something I wanted to happen. After my parents drove as quickly as they could to Nashville anticipating their daughter being dead,  after Luke and Amanda witnessed the nurses/doctors asking each other if anyone had found a pulse on me yet, and after Luke had been pulled into the hallway by Dr. W. letting him know I'd most likely have brain damage the rest of my life, I figured maybe we should discuss funerals.

I asked Luke what clothes he'd dress me in, what songs he'd have sung/played, who he would have hold the service, where the funeral would be, and where I'd be buried. He had some thoughtful answers.


Music Playlist at MixPod.com

This isn't my typical running song, but I did add this to my play list when I ran in Louisville the other week. It got me over the first big hill in the park. Running gives you  plenty of time to think and clear your mind. It also gives you time to pray. I'm so thankful, especially with everything that happened, that I am still here and am able to enjoy my sweet babies. I probably won't forget any of the Dr.'s faces that I saw that day, even though I don't remember too much. I can't imagine my kiddos having to grow up without me. I know their Daddy could take care of them & love them, but I want to be able to love on them too as much as I can! The first time we took Lucy to the pediatrician after she was released, he was speechless. He told us he had read through my Dr. report again, and was just so happy things turned out the way he did. He stammered and stuttered a bit and finally got out how bad it could have gotten & we could have even lost Lucy too. I enjoy having Christian doctors. He came back to check on Lucy for the first few days, and even came in my room to see me. He came in right after all the 'excitement'. I always try to look decent when I do to Dr. appointments now, because I feel bad at what they had to look at those few days ;)

On another note, we took a family vacation to Orlando a few weeks ago. We spent Mother's day with some of  my mom's family. Here are a few pictures:

So HAPPY to be a MOMMY to these 2!

Family beach picture! (I'm still working on getting back into shape).

Running with purpose!

The Derby Festival Mini Marathon and full marathon were April 30th. I ran with the Run with Purpose relay team. It was a great day, and I had a wonderful time! the legs were split up into a 10k, 5k, 10k, 5k, and a little over 7 miles.



About 2 miles into my run, still smiling because I hadn't hit the 3 miles of hills yet ;)



I had a long blog posted about it, but am not quite sure where it went! I would love to do the relay again, and train a little more next time. My 10k time was not even close to 'good', but the experience was good, and it was all to raise money for Will and Audrey's mission work, and it was worth it all. I had a great time meeting some new people at my leg of the race, and also meeting some G.O. ministry people too.



Waiting after leg 5 to join the rest of the team across the finish line!

The team, minus Ashley, after the race.

After the race I went home and took a nice long nap. I didn't get much sleep the night before from driving in from Nashville & feeding Lucy throughout the night. After I woke up from my nap, my grandpa was out our house and we ate a good steak dinner! We hung out on the patio talking about everything with him from air conditioners ( ours had just gone out) to his training in Ireland. At that point it was getting late, and I hadn't had any caffeine yet in the day, so we took a short trip to Starbucks before hitting the hay! We went to church Sunday morning before meeting up with Audrey and Will for a few minutes,eating lunch, and heading back to Nashville before we left for Florida the next day. The marathon weekend was great!

And if you'd still like to donate money to G.O. ministries, let me know! I will let you know how to make that possible.