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!