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! : )