Happy 8th Birthday my sweet little Ashley Noelle!

My sweet little 3-days-after-Christmas-present Ashley Noelle (otherwise known as "Ash Bash", "Ashley Noellie Belle", "Ash Bug", "Ashy Boo Boo".....you get the idea, we like nicknames!) : ) turned EIGHT years old today! Eight years ago today, December 28th, 2001 at 4:44 pm my precious little Ashley was born! I became a Mommy again for the second time & my dream of having little "sissies" came true! I love & adore my big sister so I longed to have that same relationship for my girls! When my sweet little Ashley was born I had TWO sweet little girls! A life-long friend & baby sissy was given to my sweet little 2 year old Amy that day! Seeing my two little girls together just absolutely melted my heart! I loved seeing Amy cuddle her new baby sissy & be SO excited that her "Ashy Baby" as she used to call her was finally here! My precious little newborn weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces & was 19 1/2 inches long! She had light brown hair (which quickly turned blond!), beautiful little blue eyes, the adorable little Palmer button nose, cute little dimples AND the sweetest little dimple right on the END OF HER NOSE! It was one of the first things that I & Randal's Mom "Gram", noticed when she was put on my tummy right after she was born! Sometimes I will still say, "Ashley, I still remember what I said the first time I held you right after you were born, "Awwwww, she has......." & Ashley will say, "I know, I know Mommy......a cute little dimple on her nose!"! It makes me laugh that she knows exactly what I'm going to say but it's true, I still remember that day like it was yesterday! : ) I also still remember the sweet emotions of the first time I held my Ashley in my arms! I was one of my most favorite things....... MOMMY......... AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! My heart was overflowing with such amazing & deep love for my new baby girl! I was so grateful to God that He chose to bless me, once again, with my new baby, my precious little gift! Being the Mommy of TWO was definitely different. I learned to divide my attention between two little ones, that I really DID have enough love for both (actually an overflowing amount!) & that I needed God's grace even more to care for my two precious little girlies! I LOVE being the Mommy of my little girls! I am SO grateful!!!!!!!!!! As part of Ashley's birthday gift, we went on a date to Kohl's, Target & Starbucks a few days before her birthday! As we walked around Target sipping our Starbucks & giggling together, I had the same feelings, emotions & thoughts that I did when my Amy turned 10 earlier this month.......amazed at how my sweet Ashley is growing! She is a young lady now who has her own thoughts, dreams & wants to really "talk" to Mommy! She's my little girlfriend! It was such a sweet but emotional day for me! I kept thinking how tiny she used to be, how much she "needed" Mommy to do things for her & now she is growing into such a beautiful, amazing, godly, precious young lady who loves to do things for ME (& her Daddy & her 4 sissies!)! Ashley is an amazing help to Mommy! One of the things I love the most about my Ashley is how nurturing she is! God has given her a natural gift for caring for her sissies! She is also HILARIOUS! She has a great sense of humor & perfect comedic timing! She always knows how to keep us laughing & her little one liners are just classically funny! I just can hardly believe how blessed I am to be my Ashley's Mommy, to be her friend, to have her in my life everyday, to get to experience her hilarious sense of humor, to enjoy her eye for fashion, to watch how she loves her sissies & to see how sweetly & selflessly she serves her sisters, to watch her grow in her relationship with God & to watch her growing everyday into an amazing young lady who glorifies God & blesses her Daddy & Mommy! Wow, this precious little girl is MINE! I love my sweet little girl SO much & I am SO grateful to God for my Ashley! Happy 8th Birthday my Ashley Noelle! Daddy, Mommy & your 4 sissies love you with ALL of our hearts!

Happy 10th Birthday my sweet little Amy Rose!

My sweet little firstborn Amy Rose turned TEN years old today! Ten years ago today, December 6th, 1999 at 1:06 pm my precious little Amy was born & my VERY much longed-for dream came true when I became a Mommy for the first time! My precious little newborn weighed 6 pounds even & was 19 1/2 inches long! She had light brown hair (which quickly turned blond!), beautiful little blue eyes, the adorable little Palmer button nose & cute little dimples! I still remember the emotions of the first time I held my Amy in my arms! I was a MOMMY!!!!!!!!!! In that very moment, my heart was full of such deep, sweet & fierce love for my new baby girl & gratitude to God for my precious little gift! I can hardly believe that my firstborn baby girl is a DECADE old & that I've already been a Mommy for a decade too! I am SO grateful!!!!!!!!!! As part of Amy's birthday gift, we went on a date on Friday night. As we walked around Target sipping our Starbucks, giggling & talking I was just amazed by the fact that I was spending time with my "young lady" & my little "companion"! It was such a sweet but emotional day for me! I kept thinking how tiny she used to be, how much she "needed" Mommy to do things for her & now she is growing into such a beautiful, amazing, godly, precious young lady who loves to do things for ME (& her Daddy & her 4 little sissies!)! Amy is an amazing help to Mommy! She is SO good & sweet & so nurturing to her 4 little sissies & she can & does do SO much to help me! I just can hardly believe how blessed I am to be my Amy's Mommy, to be her friend, to have her in my life everyday, to get to experience her cute & quirky little sense of humor, to enjoy her talent for art, her love of animals (especially dogs!), to see how sweetly & selflessly she loves her little sisters, to watch her grow in her relationship with God & to watch her growing everyday into an amazing young lady who glorifies God & blesses her Daddy & Mommy! Wow, this precious little girl is MINE! I love my sweet little girl SO much & I am SO grateful to God for my Amy! Happy 10th Birthday my Amy Rose! Daddy, Mommy & your 4 baby sissies love you with ALL of our hearts!

Every day life.......

Okay, I'm the kind of person who loves to share what's going on in our lives & I LOVE details..... giving AND getting them! : ) (I know sometimes it's all WAY to much for most people! Ha!) but somewhere along the way I started only posting on my blog when something really special happened in our lives! I have noticed that I go from one extreme to the other, I either share every.......single.......painstaking detail (which probably leaves you hoping that I'll just hurry up & get on with it already!) : ) OR I go for weeks on end without a peep! Well, I realized that it's okay & even FUN, to share just everyday stuff. So.......for the sake of our family & friends who actually follow our blog & want to know what's going on with us, I'm going to try to be more consistent with blogging about just plain ole everyday life! : ) Having a Hubby & 5 sweet little girlies 9 years old (very soon to be 10 years old!) & under including a newborn, a toddler & 3 schooling girls, we have PLENTY to talk about! Trust me.......there is NE-ver a dull moment around here (& that's just they way we LOVE it!) : ) (uh, I also just noticed how much I like to use all caps to show enthusiasm AND those little dots too! Ha!) While I will be trying to share more of our everyday life, I will try my very best (which will have to be super duper hard!) to give what my Hubby calls the "Reader's Digest" version! Which, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not very good at! : ) Hopefully I'll be blogging again very soon!

Our little Anibella's newborn photoshoot!

These are a few pictures from our precious little Anibella's newborn photoshoot taken by our very sweet & talented friend Molly! Anibella slept the entire time & she was SO sweet! Here is a taste of her amazing work!

Our sweet little Anibella's first week!

Here are some pictures of our sweet little Anibella's first week!

She is such a precious, content & lovable baby girl! As you can

see, our 4 big girls absolutely adore their new baby sissy! We

are all so in love with our sweet Anibella, she has truly

captured our hearts! We are amazed & so grateful to God

for our sweet new baby girl! There are a LOT of pictures

here! We have put them ALL on our blog because this is

how we share life, what's going on with us & our girlies &

what is the most important to us with our family who

we love, miss & don't get to share daily life with! Also,

we just REEEEEAAAALLLY love our sweet girlies & we

are just SO excited, happy & grateful to have our new

sweet precious baby Anibella! : ) Love you all!

Our sweet little Anibella Hope Palmer

Our precious little Anibella Hope was born today, October 28th! She weighs 6 pounds & 7 ounces & is 19 1/4 inches long. She is a tiny, petite, sweet & content little baby girl! We are already SO in love! Anibella was born at 11:19 in the morning! Hard contractions started at 3:15 am & after timing them for about an hour & a half, I woke my Hubby! I got to say those amazing, wonderful words he (AND our sweet girlies!) had been longing to hear & I had been longing to say.........."It's time......!" : ) YAY! Miss Gordon got to our house around 5 am to stay with our girlies & Daddy & I got into OB triage at the hospital at 6 am. When we got there I was already 5 cm, fully effaced & my water bag was ready to break "at any moment" the nurse said! After only 5 hours (of hard labor) & 1 & 1/2 pushes, our sweet baby Anibella entered our world & captured our hearts forever! It has been an amazing privilege & a sweet blessing to spend the day with our new sweet baby girl! God has been so kind & so good, beyond anything we could have ever asked or imagined! I will post more about Anibella's birth later but I wanted to share our sweet news with all of our family & friends who have been excitedly waiting to celebrate with us! I will post more pictures later but here are just a few from labor & delivery.

Our new baby girlie's nursery!

I love our new baby girls' nursery! It is such a sweet, feminine

& happy room! We actually didn't have to DO anything to it!

The only new thing is the adorable crib bedding which was a

gift from close friends! We did the painting, wall stickers,

dresser & rocker for our little Abby when she was born

almost 6 years ago & our little Ava has used the same nursery

& now our new baby girl will too! That is so sweet to me! I love

that the crib bedding matches so perfectly! It is such a huge

blessing that we didn't have to spend any money or do lots of

work! I love it! We can't wait for our sweet baby girl to arrive!

Our sweet little Ava Grace's 2nd Birthday!

Our sweet little Ava Grace, our littlest baby girl, turned 2 years old on August 10th! There are so many things I love about my sweet little Ava!!!!!!! She is a little sweetie pie & she is just so amazingly lovable! Ava has a gentle, sweet, happy & very funny personality! She LOVES kissing & loving on her sissies, Daddy & Mommy! If for some reason when she is trying to kiss us, she gets our cheek instead of our lips, she will use her cute little hands to turn our face, with all her might, so she can square up & give us a big, juicy one right on the lips! It is so cute & really funny too! When Ava tells us she loves us she doesn't just "kinda" love, she always says, "I love you MUCH, Mommy, I love you MUUUUCCCHHH!"! : ) She is very compassionate too! If one of her sissies are hurt or have received correction for something, she will run over, throw her little arms around them & comfort them with lots of lovin! Ava is very girly but also happens to be very tough! She LOVES "persons" (purses), "lick gloss", jewelry & doing our hair! That's right, she already tells her big sisters, "hold (s)till, I gonna put you haiw up Sissy...."! Ha! It cracks me up! It is so cute to watch our big girls let Ava "do" their hair! : ) When Ava falls down or hurts herself she might cry for a tiny bit & come to Mommy, Daddy or one of her big sissies for comfort & love but then she pops right back up & is back to playing! Ava also speaks very well (& a LOT! Hee hee!) for her age, which I'm sure has lots to do with having 3 big & very conversational big sissies! : ) The other day Ava came over to me & said, "Mommy.......I have a question.......is that a bug?"! She spoke so clearly that Daddy actually looked up from his laptop to ask, "Was that Ava & did she say........"? It was so funny! Another cute thing Ava does is that if anyone from our family is not in the room or where she at least knows where they are, she'll ask where they are! She'll say, "We're (she means WHERE but she says it like "WE'RE" : ) !) is........Mommy....." or whoever she's looking for! Last week Daddy watched all our girls for my OB appointment. All morning long Daddy said Ava kept saying, "We're's Mommy.......I give keeessss (kiss)!" then sure enough, the second I walked in the door she said, "there Mommy is, Ava give keeesss to Mommy!" Oh, how it melted this Mommy's heart! : ) Ava LOVES to "help" all of us do what ever it is that we're doing! She always says, "I help you Mommy, I help you", it's really sweet! Ava is becoming such a big girl but she still lets her big sisters "take care" of her & teach her to do things! One of my very favorite things is watching her cuddle with her big sissies, hear them giggling together & hear Ava say their names! I absolutely LOVE to see & hear Ava stand at the bottom of the stairs (waiting patiently at the gate) & calling her sisters names! Aaammyyy....... Aaassshhlleeyy....... Aaabbbyy ...... ~ SO precious! She loves her buddy girls so very much! : ) Ava also understands that Mommy is going to have a baby soon & that she will be a BIG SISSY!!!!!!! Ava loves to kiss Mommy's tummy, zerbit my tummy, call her baby sissy's name & talk about being a big girl! Some of the new things we are working on with Ava are potty training, sleeping in her big girl bunk bed & being passy-free! She is very interested in potty training & will tell us when she has to go.........Mommy getting her up the stairs & onto the potty in time is a whole other thing! : ) We're working on it but I have a feeling she is going to be very easy to potty train like her big sisters were......I hope! We have decided to move Ava to our big girl "bunk room" before her baby sissy arrives so that it is a happy & fun transition all about Ava being a big girl! So far she has taken her full 2 hour afternoon nap in her big girl bunk bed (on the bottom & with a safety rail, of course!) three days in a row now! After 2 weeks of doing well with her naps, we will move Ava into her big girl bed in her sissies' room totally! So far, when she wakes up Ava has called out to Mommy and/or her sissies & has waited patiently for us to come get her from her bed & hasn't tried to get out herself! That's the kind of sweet little girlie my Ava is & I'm SO very grateful to God for that! She has her moments of testing her Mommy & showing me my need for Jesus' patience & grace but she is such a sweet little girl! : ) Every night when our big girls are going to bed & I am taking Ava to her nursery, Ava happily runs into their room to hug & kiss & say "night night" to all of her "guulies"! : ) She pats on her bed & says, "Ava's big guul (girl) bed!" so I know she's excited & happy to be moving in with them! Ava still ADORES her passy! So, we're gonna be working on that soon! : ) On Ava's birthday we had a little birthday breakfast for her with just our girls & I after Daddy went to work. We have a tradition of singing "Happy Birthday" pretty much all day long for every meal so we did that all day for Ava & she loved it! That night we met Daddy at Red Robin for Ava's birthday dinner, it was so much fun! A few days later we had Ava's sweet little family dinner party at our home with just Daddy, our girlies & I! It was so sweet & SO much fun to see how happy Ava was! : ) Our little Ava Gracie is such a sweet & precious & lovable little girl! We are SO grateful to God for our little 2 year old & we thank Him everyday for her! Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet little Ava! Daddy, Mommy, Amy, Ashley, Abby & Baby Sissy A love you with ALL our hearts our yummy little baby girl! : )

Our sweet little Abby Kate's 5th Birthday Pizza Party!

Our sweet little Abby Kate turned 5 in January & even though we had a family party for her on her birthday we were just able to have her "friend" party in June! Abby was SO incredibly sweet & patient about having to wait so long! She wanted to have her little friend Chloe at her party & it took Chloe's mommy & I months to coordinate our schedules! (I felt SO sad for making my little Abby wait so long!) We had a pizza party, played games, opened presents, ate yummy cupcakes & Abby gave little goody baskets to Chloe & her little brother, Levi. Amy, Ashley & Ava had so much fun celebrating with their sissy Abby & helped Mommy & Daddy make Abby's party very special for her!

There are so many things I love about my little Abby! She has such a sweet, quiet & gentle personality! She is very girly but our toughest by far! When she was a baby & toddler we nicknamed Abby our "tiny tuff stuff"! She was & still is very petite. She only weighed about 17 pounds at a year old but she would run, climb onto things, jump off of things, tumble & do anything her big sissies would do! When Abby was two years old she tumbled down our 1/2 flight of stairs, literally head over heels all the way down! I was absolutely terrified when I saw her fall & before I could even get to her to scoop her up she sprung up & said in her cute little voice, "I'm OOOOOO-kay"! It was hysterical & scary all at the same time! Once again, I was amazed at my sweet little girl! One of my favorite things I loved when Abby was younger is that she loved Cinderella & named every baby doll or stuffed animal she got "Ella"! One day when Abby was about 2 & 1/2 she got a pair of Daddy's white sport socks out of the laundry & put them on her tiny little hands all the way up to her shoulders (like Cinderella's white gloves!)! We couldn't figure out what she was doing until she climbed up onto the coffee table, started going around in circles, holding her arms out like she was dancing while she was singing, "Ella, Ella, Ella...." in her cute little voice! It was just so precious it melted our hearts! She loved doing that all the time! Abby is adventurous & loves to try new things! She loves to be a big girl & do anything & everything that her big sissies do! She is a sweet friend & she is always thinking about others! While we are eating dinner Abby loves to "secretly" get everyone's attention (except Mommy, of course!) so that they can all together say "thank you Mommy!"! I love it everytime! Abby is a sweet & patient little sissy, letting her big sisters "teach" her things about life & she is a loving & nurturing big sissy too! Out of all of the "big girls", Ava said Abby's name first!!!!!! Abby was SO happy about that! Starting about 11 months, Ava would stand at the bottom of the stairs & call "Aaaaaaaabbbbbyyyy!" it was SO sweet! Of course, Abby would come running to play with her little buddy girl! When I think of my Abby I think of the word LOVEABLE! She is just precious & so easy to love! I thank Jesus every day for my sweet little girlie! Abby is 5 1/2 now & I can hardly believe how she is growing & changing every day! Happy (late) 5th Birthday my sweet little Abby Kate! Mommy, Daddy & your 4 sisies love you with ALL our hearts! : )

One, Two, "Free"......."BAST OFF".......

.......as our sweet little Ava loves to say as she jumps off of anything she can climb her cute little self up onto to! : ) That's pretty much how it has been around here! Starting in June, we pretty much "blasted off" with a whirlwind of busyness & fun! There has been a lot going on in our home over the past month! We are grateful to God that even though we are busy it is with the things we love & enjoy most in our lives! In the middle of June we found out that our baby #5 is another precious baby girl & we surprised our girlies by telling them with a special Build-A-Bear for Baby "A"! We aren't trying to keep her name a secret, we just haven't chosen one yet! The next week we had our sweet & incredibly PATIENT little Abby's 5th birthday pizza & Abby Cadabby party (her birthday was January 21st but it took Abby's little girlfriends' mommy & I THIS long to coordinate our schedules!)! It was SO much fun to watch my sweet little Abby enjoy her special day! : ) June 20th was our Daddy's 35th birthday & our girls & I gave him a Dallas Cowboys surprise party! I highly doubt that he was actually surprised but he made a good show of it for our girlies & it was so much fun! The next day was Father's Day with another family celebration all in honor of our sweet Daddy! On July 2nd my hardworking & very studious ( I SO could NOT do what he has done!!!!!!!) Hubby completed his last (unless we decide for him to go on for his Master's but we're still seeking God about that one!) college class & he will get his diploma in September! That same week my sweet sister, Emily & her wonderful kids visited us from Germany for a week! We packed every day with something fun for the kids! It was great but we (the adults : ), were exhausted! : ) Randal had the day off from his regular job on the 4th of July but he worked at a firework store to make some extra money for our family. He got lots of free fireworks as part of his pay! : ) All the kids (including the cousins) decided that they wanted to give Daddy/Uncle Randal a surprise Graduation party which we mixed with a July 4th party! They spent ALL day decorating & running around trying to make it special for him, it was really sweet! So when Randal got home that night the kids all surprised him & then we had our family party & BBQ. We had a special "flag" cake that Emily & I made for dessert & then Randal did TONS of fireworks with all the kids in our yard! It was really fun! Emily & her kids left on Monday to go to Florida & will be back on the 24th of July. We will go to North Carolina with them to see my Grandpa for 3 days then Emily & her kids will come back to stay with us for another week or so! All the while my precious little Amy, Ashley, Abby & Ava have been doing & saying funny things, growing & changing every day & teaching their Mommy that I need much of God's amazing grace to be the kind of Mommy (& Wife) that I long to be! : ) It has been busy but we have had lots of fun & special times! I have TONS (which is literally no exaggeration!) of great pictures I can't wait to get on my blog to share with our family & friends! SOON....... I think! : ) I can't help but thank God for making our lives so full of such precious people & things ~ He is SO good!

Happy Father's Day ~ We love our Daddy!

We have been blessed with the most amazing, gentle, kind, strong, sweet & lovable Daddy & we want to honor him & tell him how much we love him today!

Father's Day is a very special & emotional day for me, probably way more so for me than even for my Hubby. Since I was 9 months old, I grew up without a Dad in my life. I always longed to have a Daddy to cuddle with, be thrown up in the air & feel safe in his arms. I DID get all of those things I had always desired.......not for me but for my little girls. I always say that Randal is the kind of Daddy I always wished I had! Not only did God care about a desire deep in my heart which "felt" & seemed unfullfilled for years but far & overwhelmingly exceeded that desire way more than I could have ever imagined!!!!!!! Isn't God amazingly kind & good?! : ) I absolutely LOVE to sit & just watch Randal play with our girls. It just makes my heart happy! I am so grateful to God for my Husband, the man he is, the way he passionately loves, longs for & seeks our Savior, the gentle yet strong way he leads our family & the tender & sweet way he loves, cares for & trains our little girls!

Just to give you a glimpse of how adored our Daddy is.......we are "working" on an issue in our home, having SELF-CONTROL when Daddy gets home from work! Ha ha! It makes me laugh to even think about it! (No seriously we ARE trying to work on it but it's just so stinkin cute I can't help but love it!) : ) I mean these little girls go absolutely crazy when they hear Daddy's keys rattling in the door! The drop whatEVER they are doing & run squealing with all their might to attack, I mean, greet him with love & affection! Even little Ava runs up to Daddy, grabs him by the knees, buries her face in his legs then looks up & says, "hold you Daddy?!" When he picks her up she grabs his face & nuzzles her face into his, wraps both her little arms around his neck as tight as she can, sighs & says, "I luf you Daddy!" : ) SO precious! Amy, Ashley & Abby are getting older & growing in their maturity but they still have absolutely no hesitation about lavishly loving all over their Daddy as they giggle & tell him how much they love him! It is so sweet! That is just one small taste of how much our Daddy is loved, appreciated & respected!

Randal (of course God most importantly) has made me something I have longed to be my whole life, a Mommy! I can't imagine a more wonderful & perfect person than my Randal to spend my life with, have & raise our baby girlies with & love with all my heart! He is God's perfect choice for me as my Hubby & for our 5 sweet girlies as their Daddy! He is an AMAZING Daddy & we are so grateful to God for him!

Happy Father's Day Daddy ~ we love you with ALL of our hearts!

We love you Daddy,
Amy, Ashley, Abby, Ava & Baby "A"

I love you Babe,
Erin

Happy 35th Birthday my Randal!

Today is my amazing Hubby's 35th birthday! Our girls & I want to make this day very special for Randal & let him know how much we love & appreciate him! Sooooo, it is the wee hours of the morning & in an attempt to "orient" myself to my amazing man, I have just finished decorating the house in Dallas Cowboy blue, silver & white for my love! : ) I made cute little (if I do say so myself : ) !) chocolate cupcakes with white icing & silver stars which I (painstakingly) cut out of aluminum foil to stand up on top. Our girlies & I got a bouquet of blue, silver & white star-shaped helium balloons today & they are tied to his "birthday" chair. We also got a whole set of blue, silver & white paper goods, streamers & ribbons & I already have a perfect blue tablecloth to use! Since we are going to be gone at our church picnic while my Hubby studies tomorrow : ( , my girlies & I are getting up early to make Daddy a special Birthday Breakfast! My Hubby LOVES breakfast & could eat any kind of breakfast food at any time of the day! We will make eggs, bacon, link sausage, hash browns, flaky biscuits & toaster struedels. I don't really enjoy breakfast, eating early or breakfast type food at all but this all sounds really good even to me!!!!!!! : ) We bought him his favorite kind of Starbucks frappuccino today, peppermint mocha (minus the whip) & we froze it. I'll thaw it out early in the morning & add fresh whip. I've done this many times before & it tastes as if it were just bought! We got him several little gifts, one from each of our girls & then a bigger one for Father's Day on Sunday. I hope & pray that my Hubby is so blessed today on his birthday! I'm not sure if the day will go as planned but we'll see! I'm sure I'll have more to say later & pictures too!

I HAVE to say how much I love & respect, appreciate & admire my Husband, Randal! He truly is the love of my life & my very best friend! He is an amazing Husband, a preciously tender Daddy, a fun & lovable best friend, a good, strong but gentle leader & he is a man who seeks after God!!!!!!!! I still can't believe he chose ME & asked me to be HIS! I am still amazed at God's amazing grace to bring us together! I love this man with all my heart! Our girlies absolutely adore their Daddy! He brings a sparkle to their sweet little eyes & he truly is their "Prince Charming"!

We love you Babe & we hope you have an amazing 35th Birthday! : )

Love Forever,

Your 6 Girls ~ Erin, Amy, Ashley, Abby, Ava & Baby Girl "A"! : )

Baby Palmer : )

Today at our ultrasound we found out that we are having a....... NOTHER baby GIRL!!!!!!!

We are so happy & grateful to God that our precious little baby girl is healthy & strong! And, I have to say, she looked absolutely adorable, even on the ultrasound! : )

Instead of getting an outfit at Target, Daddy & I decided to go to the mall & get our new baby her 1st Build-A-Bear! We picked out a sweet little bunny with a pink heart nose. We dressed her in a cute little pink t-shirt with bright pink bows around her ears. We brought it home in the "cub condo" for our girlies to open. Amy, Ashley, Abby & Ava sat around the box giggling excitedly waiting to find out what their new baby is! They all closed their eyes as Mommy opened the box & when they saw the bunny dressed in pink some of them said, "pink....?.....again....?" still happy & excited but almost confused since they thought for sure this was their brother! The others jumped up & down yelling, "another sissy!", "it's a baby girl!"! They were all so adorable & sweet! : )

The ultrasound tech & the doctor both said she is doing great &, as far as we can tell, she is compltely healthy! We are SO grateful to God!!!!!!! The tech kept commenting on how wiggly & active she is! When we were trying to see that she is a girl, she had her little legs open in a "V" but she had both hands down in between like she was being modest. It was so cute!

Our little baby is about 12 ounces & is measuring only 2 days off of my due date, which, according to the tech, is just perfect! Anything within a week is considered great so she & my doctor were very happy about that! So are we!!!!!!! My technical due date is October 29th. I have been 2 weeks early with all 4 of our girlies so we are thinking possibly mid to late October!

We are so grateful to God that our sweet little baby is healthy & strong! Our girlies, Daddy & I are SO excited to meet our precious little sweetie pie!

FIVE girls! God is SO good! : )

I wonder what we're having.......?

We have "the" ultrasound scheduled for Wendesday, June 10th at 1 pm. : ) Our girlies aren't allowed to come in with us so Miss Gordon will watch them here at home. We've always been allowed to have our girls in the ultrasound room with us before so we are a little sad that they won't be able to be a part of this special experience with Daddy & Mommy! But, I am so happy & grateful that my amazing Hubby, the most awesome & tender Daddy & my very best friend will be there to hold my hand & that we will be able to find out together! We are all SO excited to find out if we will be having a (nother) precious little baby girl : ) or our 1st sweet baby boy : ) ! As soon as we leave our appointment Randal & I are going to Target to buy our baby's 1st outfit. We will wrap it in a neutral color & let our girls open it when we get home! I am so excited to see the look on their faces when they find out what their new baby is! : ) We will share with y'all as soon as we can tell the rest of our family in Germany, NC & AZ! Although we are very excited to find out if we're having a boy or a girl, most of all we pray that our precious little baby will be healthy & strong! : ) We are still amazed that our kind & gracious God has blessed us with another sweet little baby! We are so grateful for His amazing grace in our lives in every way! We can hardly wait til Wednesday! : )

Our 15th Anniversary Disney Cruise to the Bahamas!

In May, Randal & I went on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas for our 15th Anniversary & Randal's graduation! It was an absolutely amazing trip! It was so romantic & relaxing & I had SO much fun with my amazing Hubby! Our girlies stayed with the Kryger family & they did amazing! We got to talk to them everyday since our cell phones got service on the ship! They were a little sad at times but I think they had almost as much fun as we did! We were so happy to have our little girls back in our arms when we got home ~ we missed them so much! It was such an awesome
experience & opportunity to have 6 days of romantic time alone together! There are a LOT of pictures here so don't feel obligated to see them all but we just wanted to share a fun & special moment in our lives with you!

On the way down to Florida my sweet & amazing Hubby uploaded a lot of our favorite romantic, fun & worship music to his MP3 player for us to listen to on our trip. One of my favorite songs that he picked out for us kind of became our "theme song" for the week. It is just so sweet & romantic & I loved it! It is called "1, 2, 3, 4 (I love you)" by the Plain White T's! If you would rather see our slide show without the music you can just mute it.

I have to explain one thing you will see in the pictures. When I got my hair braided I got to pick out the color beads I wanted. Since we have 4 little girlies & since we don't know what our new baby is, I just picked all pink! Randal asked if I would do blue beads on the last braid "just for fun"! : ) So, that's why there are four pink & one blue. NO, we don't know what our baby is yet!: )

I am SO grateful to God for my amazing Hubby, my very best friend, the most sweet & tender Daddy to our 4 sweet little girlies & that I have been so incredibly blessed to spend the most wonderful 15 years of my life with my Randal! (We met 19 years ago. I fell in love with & knew he would be the man of my heart 17 years ago!) I am also so grateful that God has given us our precious friends, the Kryger family! Our girlies had so much fun with them & the Kryger's took wonderful care of our precious little ones for us! Lastly, I am so grateful & overwhelmed that my kind & generous family would bless us with this trip! It truly was the trip of a lifetime & we will always remember it! We would love to take our girlies on a Disney crusie some day.....! : )

Our Disney Cruise! : )

Randal & I are leaving for our 15th Anniversary Disney cruise to the Bahamas tonight! I'm sure anyone who knows me has heard that we are going but in case you haven't heard, for our Anniversary & Randal's college graduation (in July), my amazingly kind & generous family is sending us on a cruise!!!!!!! We are all packed & ready to go so we can spend the whole day with our girlies today! Since we will be gone for Mother's Day tomorrow, my babies want to do some special things for me today : ) & have a special lunch together! I can't wait to be with my favorite little girls all day long! We will drop off our girls at the Kryger's house around 6 pm & leave to drive through the night to Florida where we will board our ship, the DISNEY WONDER! OOOOOOOOO! : )

Brian & Amy Kryger are some of our very best friends & they are some of the most kind, caring & generous people we have ever known! They are a gift to our family & we love them! I have to say that the second they heard that we were going on a cruise, they offered & practically begged to keep our FOUR little girls for us! WOW!!!!!!! They are awesomely amazing! They have FOUR children the exact same ages as our girls so they will have 8 children 9 & under (two 9 year olds, two 7 year olds, two 5 year old & two 1 year olds!) for an entire week! I told you they were amazing! : ) THANK YOU BRIAN & AMY!!!!!!! We love you & we are so grateful for you! Thank you for taking such amazing care of our precious girlies while we are away! You make it easy for us to relax knowing they are having fun & being loved on by you! : )

We will get to Port Canaveral in Florida some time on Sunday (Mother's Day (without my most precious gifts that MADE me a Mommy! : ( !) & we'll just have lunch & hang out until we can "embark" as they call it sometime between 1-4 pm. We will set sail around 7 pm & arrive in Nassau, Bahamas on Monday morning. We will spend all day Monday in the Bahamas & return to our ship around 7 pm. We will sail through the night to Castaway Cay, Disney's private island & we will spend all day Tuesday there. We will spend all day Wednesday at sea & just doing fun things on the ship. I don't know personally but I've heard there is tons of fun stuff to do! We will return to port & leave the ship early Thursday morning. We are going to drive to Orlando & spend some time with some of our close & very sweet friends, Chris & Stephanie Jessee! We will leave Thursday night after hanging out with Chris & Steph & drive through the night to get home on Friday. After all that fun & amazing romantic time with my awesome Hubby we will get to be with our sweet precious little girlies again! : ) So, that's how our week will look & we are so excited!

I get very seasick & I've gotten advice & suggestions from many people about how to not get sick. One of my friends encouraged me to find out where our room is on the ship & get it changed if possible to a low deck in the middle of the ship where we will feel less movement. I decided to check it out & discovered that God had already taken care of that for us & we didn't even know it! When we booked our crusie we didn't ask for anything specific but God knew what we needed! We are on the SECOND deck (counting from the bottom!) at the very CENTER of the ship! WOW, God is so good! : )

Also, I have to say how ridiculously excited I am about the yummy food! Anyone who talks about a cruise talks about the food which I think is so funny! I am just hoping & praying that I feel well enough (general pregnancy nausea & motion nausea) to enjoy it all! : ) It will also be strange to be pampered all week but I think we might be able to get used to that! hee hee! : )

My heart is already aching for how much I will miss our Amy, Ashley, Abby & Ava! I know this will be an amazing trip & I am so excited but it is a little tempered by the thought of being away from my babies for almost a week. Our Amy is 9 1/2 & we haven't been away as a couple, even for one overnight, without our girls since then! I know we need this time & I am ready for it but please pray for me & our girlies! I know I will miss them very much but I want to & need to focus on my Hubby this week! My girlies will have so much fun at the Kryger's! I'm sure & I'm hoping that I'll miss them more than they'll miss me!

Most of all I want to say how grateful I am that God has blessed me with my amazing & wonderful Husband & best friend, Randal! He is the absolute love of my life & I am just still amazed that he asked me to be his! : ) I am so excited to have this romantic getaway with my Hubby! He is the most wonderful Husband & Daddy & he works tirelessly to provide for all of his girls! I hope this week is relaxing & a huge blessing to my sweet Randal! : )

WE'RE GOING ON A CRUISE!!!!!!! (Sorry, I'm just a little excited & I still can't believe it!) : )

We'll have lots of pictures to share when we get back!

Sick little ones & God's grace!

On Sunday night my little Ava was having trouble sleeping & kept waking up crying. This is very unusual for her because she is an awesome, champion sleeper & she has never been a wake-up-crying-in-the-middle-of-the-night-baby! Well, she was that night! I kept going in to check on her, comfort her, give her her passy, tell her I loved her but I just assumed she had been startled out of her sleep.......for the first 4 or 5 times. Then I felt her little forehead &, yep, she was warm! My heart sank. I picked her up, cuddled her for a minute & I realized that she was warmer than just a little warm. I kept encouraging myself, she's just teething, it's a little warm in her room, maybe she was just covered up too much....you know, talking myself out of fearing that she was getting sick! If you don't know me well, I get very anxious & fearful when my children get sick. I really wanna be that Mommy who can just calmly, fearlessly deal with my sick child & not let my very sinful & very emotional imagination run away with me! But, oh man, does it RUN! Once again, I try with all MY might (uh, I think the problem lies therein, don't you!?) to focus on God, trust in His sovereignty & all the stuff I know I'm supposed to "do, think & feel"! In my exhausted state all I can muster is "Jesus, please protect my baby, God please don't let my baby be sick".......etc & so on & so forth! I know this all sounds terribly silly but when it's 3 am & I'm very tired it all seems very real, at least for me it does. So, down we hunker in Ava's rocking chair, blanky or "bucky" as she lovingly calls it, passy for Ava, blanket for Mommy, footstool for Mommy & lots of praying or at least trying in my half awake state. I could tell my sweet little Ava really didn't feel good, she was rubbing her teary eyes, pulling at her little ears, nose running all over the place & hot as can be. She was laying on my chest finally falling asleep. While we were rocking I coughed. Just a normal, regular, dry, I have crazy allergies kind of cough & I hear the sweetest, most adorable little voice say, "Mommy? K?" which is how Ava asks if someone is "okay" anytime they sneeze, cough, say "ow" or anything! In that moment, my fearful, tired heart melted. It was unbelievable but I started to cry. I couldn't believe that although my little baby was sick & feeling terrible, she was concerned about her Mommy's little cough. It was precious. In that very moment God did something amazing in my heart. In just an instant all the amazing things God has done in my life starting flooding my mind. I started thinking about & praising God for all of the blessings He has poured out for me. Here I am, this sinful, wretched person, yet, my amazing, loving, gracious God has chosen to love me, to save me through His beautiful Son, Jesus, my Savior! All of my fear, anxiety, doubt & worry just melted away. God gave me His peace, His peace that defies understanding. My sweet baby was still feeling pretty yucky & I was so sad for her but trusting in God that it was gonna be okay. That was totally NOT my doing, it was God, a work of His amazing grace grabbing a hold of my sinful heart & setting my gaze straight upon Him, again.......where it should always be in the first place. I continued to rock my little Ava & eventually slept on a cot beside her crib because she would wake up sad & crying every 30 minutes. I could comfort her by talking to her, sticking my arm through her crib slats & holding her hand & we finally slept! Although I really WAS exhausted, I knew God's peace & fell asleep thinking about all the amazing & awesome blessings He has given me! I wish I could remember to remember these things all the time! : ) I'm starting to wonder if God brings me to the end of "me" like when I'm half sleep deprived at 3 am to speak to my heart because then I have no strength of my "own" to try to work it out! : ) I love God, I love that Jesus saved me, I love my amazing Husband, I love our 4 precious little girls, I love our new sweet little baby, I love our extended family, I love our church & our care group, I love our many awesome friends & I love that God provides for our every need, being spiritual, physical, financial & every other way! I love that God loves me enough to show me my need for Him & that He continues to surprise me every day with His grace! Just wanted to share what God is doing in my often tired, sinful & needy (of God's grace!) Mommy heart! : )

Our sweet little Baby!

I had my first ultrasound today! I got to see & hear our sweet little baby's beautiful, strong, amazing little heart beating! It was so precious! I am 13 weeks 4 days & our baby is 7 centimeters long, which is almost 3 inches long & weighs about 2 ounces. This is a very wiggly little baby & the ultrasound tech even commented on how active she/he is! Our baby was moving it's arms & legs, turning all around & opening & closing it's little mouth! My heart absolutely melted! We are thanking God that our new little baby is healthy & strong! When I got home & showed our girls the pictures of "their baby" as they love to call it, they were SO excited! It is very sweet to see how happy they are about our new little baby! Actually they were a little sad that there is *ONLY* ONE baby! They were hoping & praying for twins or triplets! Um.......I have to admit that Daddy was a smidge relieved to hear that our ONE baby is healthy & doing awesome! : )

My Girls' Haircuts for Locks of Love

My girlies had their hair cut this week to donate to Locks of Love. If you've never heard of it, Locks of Love is an organization that receives hair donations & makes wigs for children who have lost their hair due to illnesses like cancer. My girls all know that my Mom, their Grandma Rose, died of cancer & lived her last few years with no hair, which makes them very sad. About 3 years ago my girls heard about Locks of Love & in the same week we saw a little girl about 4 years old in Target who had no hair. They were surprisingly affected by this sweet little girl & wanted me to tell them all about her. All I knew to say was that she was very sick & that we should pray that God would protect & heal her. Their compassionate little hearts were so sad for her & they asked if they could cut their hair & give it to HER......"right now!" : ) ! I said that we couldn't do that but that we could send their hair to Locks of Love. They have always had long hair & I was surprised that they wanted it cut. Last week they asked if they could do it again! I am so happy & grateful to see what God is doing in their sweet little hearts! Our very special & amazing friend, Vivian, cut their hair for us & she did an awesome job! THANK YOU my Vivi ~ We LOVE you! : ) It was so much fun & even more sweet because our adored Auntie Raigan is here visiting & was with us when they got their hair cut! I love my sweet little girlies so much! : )

Our new puppy Aiden.......kind of.......???????

As you know, we had planned to surprise our girls & bring home our new puppy, Aiden, on Easter morning. So Randal/Daddy got up early, drove over the breeder's house to get him, who also happens to be our really good friend, Pam. Her teenage son (sleepily) met Randal at the door with a sweet little puppy in a carrier. Randal brought the puppy upstairs before all of our girls were awake & we put the puppy in an Easter basket with a blue bow & put a blue bow around the puppy's neck. We woke up our girls, brought them into our room where the puppy was waiting for them in the basket & we took some really sweet pictures of their sleepy but VERY excited reaction to seeing their Easter present, their new puppy! We played with the puppy for about an hour & took lots of pictures of our girls playing with & cuddling their puppy. After getting the puppy settled back in the crate for the morning so we could get ready for church, we got a phone call......... it was our friend, Pam, the breeder. She said, "um.......you have the WRONG PUPPY!" Her son had accidentally given Randal Aiden's sister, Paisley who we had been loving on, taking pictures of & playing with all morning!!!!!!! I heard Randal answer the phone & he said, "Hi Pam. What......we have the wrong puppy? Are you serious?" I ran out of our room & said, "What did you just say?" I thought he was totally kidding! Sooooooo, we don't have any pictures of Easter with our little Aiden but lots of his sister Paisley! We were shocked but Randal & I could see the humor in it. Our girls, on the other hand....... one of them burst into tears & said, "I want my Easter puppy!" through her sobbing! It was so sad but kind of funny at the same time! So, Pam brought Aiden over around 3 pm after lunch & our MANY egg hunts & we exchanged Paisley for our little guy! On the way to church our girls, including the one who had the meltdown, started laughing & said, "it's kind of funny & it's great that we actually get to play with TWO puppies today!" I love my sweet girlies.......emotional (sinful
; )!) but oh so lovable! : ) Our girls are totally in love with their new puppy! He is so sweet & very smart! Now that we have had Aiden for a few days my camera is doing strange things so I can't seem to get any good, non-blurry pictures! I'm working on figuring it out so hopefully we'll post some pictures of our girlies with their new puppy very soon! (I know, Susan, I know, but I really promise this time! : ) !) We had a wonderful, very sweet & memorable Easter as a family! Hope yours was great too!

Mommy & Ashley's Date!

I am so happy that I got to go on a date with my sweet little girlie Ashley yesterday! We went to Starbucks, got a frappucino & a snack, had fun talking & just being together, played some games & just had silly time together ~ it was so much fun! Then we went to Target & bought Ashley's new bathing suit. It looks really cute on her! She was so sweet ~ she was thinking of her sissies & she was concerned that they might feel left out. She said, "Mommy, I hope my sissies aren't sad! Can we get them new bathing suits too or should I wait until we are all together?" It made my heart so happy to hear Ashley thinking of her sisters & being so sweet & unselfish! I'm so grateful to God for what He is doing in her little heart! In Ashley's classic funny way, she lounged on the patio furniture at Target with Mommy's sunglasses on. She looked really cute & it was so funny! While we were talking & playing tic-tac-toe & hangman at Starbucks I looked across the table at my sweet & very mature acting little girl & I got very emotional thinking about what a big girl she is! My Ashy is already SEVEN!!!!!!! We had so much fun just being together! Although this has nothing to do with our date, when we got home we had tacos for dinner. Ashley's very loose tooth fell out WHILE she was eating her taco! She & her sisters were very distraught at the fact that she most likely swallowed it! That only lasted about a second before she got excited that it was finally out! : ) I love my little Ashley girlie so much & I am so grateful that we got to spend the afternoon together! : )

Streeeeetching the budget.......

Like every other family in this economy & more importantly out of a desire to honor God with the time, money & resources He has given us, we are trying to do more with less & live life more simply. One of the ways I can help my Hubby make this work for our family is by being wise with our grocery budget. My goal is to feed my family healthy, budget friendly but delicious meals! It makes me ridiculously happy when my Hubby & my little girls love what I cook for them & especially when they continue to say how delicious it is the whole meal through! I LOVE to hear, "Mommy, this is the BEST dinner you've ever made!" which happens almost every night not because I'm a great cook but because I have a very sweet & grateful family! Although there are plenty of times when Mommy's "creativity" doesn't quite agree with everyone....... : ) As I said before, I get very excited about this so I wanted to share how we did this week. When I say this week I mean the week to come. This morning I made a crock pot full of boneless skinless chicken breast that is the foundation of most of our meals this week. Here are the meals I made & the breakdown of each item & how much it all cost. I only made 4 "real" meals this week because we eat a more simple dinner on care group night, on Sunday nights, our tradition is breakfast for dinner & we will go out for a date night one night & our girlies will eat something "fun" with our babysitter that night.

Meal # 1 ~ Roasted garlic parmesan alfredo sauce w/ shredded chicken & rotini pasta

Meal # 2 ~ Shredded "crock pot chicken" over rice

Meal # 3 ~ Shredded chicken tacos and/or "Scoopie"

Meal # 4 ~ Homemade chicken noodle soup

I made all of these meals for 6 people with one 3 pound bag of boneless skinless chicken breast. We had veggies and/or a fruit to go with each meal which I already have on hand so I didn't include it in the cost.

3 pound bag of chicken $7.00

Alfredo sauce 1.88

Rotini pasta x 3 boxes 1.12 each = 3.36

Chicken stock x 2 boxes 1.50 each = 3.00

Crm chicken soup x 2 cans 1.40 each = 2.80

Toast (for entire loaf) 1.00

Rice 2.30

Taco seasoning x 2 packs .75 each = 1.50

Shredded cheese 1.70

Sour cream 1.00

Tortilla chips/taco shells 2.00

Total: $27.50

$27.50 divided by 4 meals = about $6.85 per meal divided by 6 people = about $1.15 per meal per person!

I was so excited to see that God can & does make our budget stretch & also allows our family to eat healthy & delicious food! Yippee! That makes me so happy! : ) I know all you other Mommy's desire to do the same & probably are already doing the same thing for your family. I want to encourage you that it is worth the effort, love & time you put into clipping coupons, actually USING the coupons, meal planning, cooking ahead if you need to & doing the very best with what God has given you, be it little or much, for the amazing people God has put in your life, your awesome family! Obviously this can & should extend into serving the other people God has put in our lives too through sharing hospitality. I am RE-convicted not to let our budget be an excuse for not practicing the art of biblical hospitality! Nothing makes me happier than to see my amazing family happy & showing God my gratitude for all He has given us! Happy cooking, budgeting & simplifying! : )

Pictures, Pictures EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

Okay, I have this problem & it's a really big one! I take bazillions of pictures of my precious little girlies & then I get so overwhelmed because I can't decide which to use for my blog, facebook & to print out for myself & family, which to delete (oh my goodness, I can't believe I just said that! ; ) !) & which to just leave in my folder unnamed to look at "later"!!!!!!! I think I should tell you exactly how bad it is! We were out as a family this past weekend & I grabbed my camera to take a picture of an adorable moment (I guess that's part of my problem, I think ALL moments with my little girls are adorable ones! Hey, I'm their Mama, what can I say?!) : ) ANYWAY.......I grabbed my camera hoping to capture this amazing moment & the "memory card full" message popped up onto my screen. I was very annoyed (um, I mean angry, let's call it what it is, why don't we!) & I thought, WHAT??????? how can this be, I didn't take THAT many pictures! So, I handed my camera to my awesome & very gadget savvy Hubby to fix thinking that it had to be messed up! He looked at me with.......you know.......THAT look & said, "Baaaaaaabe, you have taken 1400 pictures!" YES, let me spell it out ~ fourteen hundred pictures! YIKES! Needless to say, I was a little embarassed! UGH! Me & my obsessive picture taking! So, it's gonna take me a while to get the pictures up that I talked about in my last blog! I really don't know where to start & I'm praying for lots of God's grace! : ) I'm VERY open to suggestions on how you other picture taking Mommy's do this!? : )

Needing & Loving God's Amazing Grace! : )

We've had so much going on that I don't even know where to start! Randal, our girlies & I are doing well & even though we've been busy God continues to give us His amazing grace!

My pregnancy is going well & I'll already be 8 weeks tomorrow! I have been feeling great besides a little queasiness in the early morning, late afternoon & before bed. It is not bad at all & I am SO grateful! Our girlies & I have enjoyed our weekly updates from "babycenter.com" about our new baby. Let's see......so far our baby went from the size of a poppy seed to a sesame seed to a lentil bean & last week he/she was the size of a blueberry! We look forward to our updates every Thursday & our girls can't wait to hear how big our baby is in terms of something they can see & understand! I still laugh when I think of our girls going around Walmart telling people, "my baby is the size of a jumbo shrimp" when I was pregnant with Ava! It totally cracked me up! : ) They are such cute little girlies & they always make Mommy laugh!

On March 1st it SNOWED!!!!!!! Our girlies had SO much fun playing in the snow, "sledding" on a toy box lid (you gotta make do when you don't get much snow & you aren't prepared : ) !), building their own & quite amazing igloo (all by their cute little selves!) & building adorable little "snow people"! Since we don't own snow bibs we had to stop playing 4 different times to come in, warm up with some yummy hot chocolate & change clothes! I was thoroughly surprised & impressed that my girls could play out in the snow for hours on end & never complain about being cold or wet! They have WAY more stamina than Mommy and YES, they had THAT much fun! : ) Mommy had to MAKE them come in to warm up! I have lots of fun pictures of our girls' fun in the snow that I can't wait to share! : )

Randal's parents, our girlies' very loved Poppy & Gram came for a visit the 2nd week of March. We had so much fun with them! Randal was only able to take 3 days off while they were here but we totally loved having him at home with us!!!!! While Daddy was at work, Poppy did a lot of things around the house to help Randal! What a huge blessing that was! One of our girlies most special treats was that Gram took each of them on their own special date with her! They had SO much fun & they are still talking about their dates! Randal & I got to go out for an awesomely fun date night with Dad & Mom while our girlies stayed with some of our favorite babysitters (we love you Alexander Girls : ) !) ! We went to a really cool Carribean restaurant in downtown Greenville called "Chicora Alley" & then we had ice cream too! Our week with them came to an end way too quickly! Once again, after they left, I found myself with 4 very sad, very emotional, very teary eyed little girlies who miss their Poppy & Gram!

On Sunday, March 15th, my very loved Grandma passed away. She had a major stroke the Wednesday before which left her in a coma. She died very peacefully on Sunday night & went to be with Jesus. I got to drive up to Franklin, NC to spend some time with my Grandma in the hospital on Friday night/early Saturday morning. I got to hold her hand, love on her & tell her how special she was to Randal, our girls & I! It was a very sweet but sad time for my Grandma & I alone in the quiet night of the ICU. I couldn't control my tears as I said goodbye. Since my Mom died 15 years ago, my Grandma has been like a mom to me. She stood in my Mom's place at our wedding as my Grandpa gave me away & she was there to celebrate when each of our babies were born. It is hard to put into words what my sweet Grandma means to me. My heart aches that she is gone! My girlies were very close to my Grandma too, she was more of a Grandma to them than a Great Grandma. They have greived for her too & I am sad to think of how they will miss her being a part of their lives! One of my very favorite memories is that my Grandma used to call our girls her "doll babies" ~ I used to love hearing her call them that! She was an absolutely amazing wife, mom, grandma, great grandma & woman of God! She loved & served the Lord & her family with all of her heart! I am so blessed that I was able to have such an amazing woman in my life! I am so sad to think about my sweet Grandpa trying to live every day life without his love! They were married for 65 years! He fell in love with my Grandma when he was 15 & a soda jerk at a drug store where he would make her favorite drinks. He has loved my Grandma unendingly for the past 72 years! I am comforted knowing my Grammy is with Jesus but she is deeply loved & terribly missed!

I have LOTS & I DO mean LOTS of pictures to share but I will be busy for the rest of the week with my Grandma's memorial service. I can't wait to share them with y'all as soon as I can! My sweet girlies are such an amazing gift to Mommy (& Daddy!)! They make my heart happy, keep me laughing & they make me need Jesus to be a better & more godly Mommy every day! : )

Unfortunately our sweet, amazing & extremely hard working Daddy has been missing a lot of fun lately! He works SO hard at work & he is taking a very intense & difficult school load this semester! He got straight A's last semester & all of his girlies are so proud of him! Randal just started his last semester & will graduate in May! We are SO excited!!!!!!!! Our girls & I are sad when he has to miss special family times but I am so grateful to God that he is working so hard to provide for our girls & I! : )

That's what's been going on at the Palmer Home! I know it's long & I'm working on being more concise! Sorry y'all!!!!!!!! I tried, I really did! Hope you still love me anyway! : )