Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

 

Many Hands

My parents always taught me, "Many hands make light work."

 

Just The Beginning

I suppose my finding fun pictures taken by my girls on my phone is just beginning...

Here are some I found the other day taken by Caroline and Tracey...

Sneak Peek

We had family photos taken a few weeks ago in the beautiful autumn weather and they turned out really well.

A few of them will go into our Christmas cards, and the rest will end up printed and framed around our house.

Here is a sneak peak. 

 

God's Got Me

Well, welcome to today's episode of "A crazy view into the life of a sleep-deprived mother of four, but no need to worry, God's got me."

I am very excited for our children to be involved in the Christmas pageant at our church.  I know this church has a Christmas pageant, but we were not attending this church a year ago, so this will be our children's first year to have the opportunity to participate.

Our church is currently hiring a Director of Children's Ministry and the position has been vacant for four months... so as we creep close to the Holiday season, I have been getting very nervous that I've received no word about the Christmas pageant.

So, on Monday I contacted a friend who teacher Sunday school and asked if she knew if anything was in the works.  She said she has heard nothing.

So, I emailed the church office.  I greeted the secretary by name, I said how excited I was for our children to participate in the Christmas pageant and how I would love to help in any way I could.  Could she please share any planning details with me or let me know how I could help.

That was Monday.

I heard nothing back.

Finally on Friday I received a reply telling me that the church was not going to do a Christmas pageant this year but they would do a Christmas Eve service which would be open to the whole town of (she named a town 15 miles away).  She said there were no plans to have the children do any sort of show for the Christmas Eve service either, but thank you for the offer to help and she would save my information for the future.  Signed, a different name than the secretary I emailed.

I was really bummed for less than a minute to hear they weren't doing a Christmas Pageant.

Then I started connecting some dots.

Why would the Christmas Eve Service be for a town 15 miles away?

Why would a different secretary email me back.

Oh, well because I emailed the wrong church, that's why.

I emailed the church we were attending a year ago, a church that does not put on a Christmas pageant and has as much smaller Christmas program than the church where we currently attend (which is 1 mile from our house)

Both church offices have an email that starts with:

office@new....... .com

They are about the same length, but just a few letters different there in the middle.

I am incredibly glad that this church did not take me up on my offer to coordinate a Children's Christmas Pageant for the church where we no longer attend, 15 miles from our house.  I am a little worried about their saving my information but I haven't quite figured out how to explain the mix up and ask them to disregard my email.

All that being said, God's got me.

He knew where my incorrect email was sent -- and, Praise God, He did NOT put me in charge of a Christmas Pageant 15 miles away.

And, now that an email has been sent to the CORRECT church office, hopefully I can get some details in how to help with a Christmas Pageant that WILL happen this year at the church where we CURRENTLY attend, which is 1 mile from our house.

Oh my.  Thank you, Lord for having my back.  I clearly need it.

Cuties

Look at these three cuties...

 

Blurry Objects

I wanted to post a cute picture of our four kids with their four carved pumpkins... and maybe I will in the next week.

But, last night when we got all the pumpkins carved, Addallee was in bed asleep because she was sick.  And, the rest of my crew had no interest in sitting still.

That is why these pictures are full of blurry objects instead of cute, smiling children.

 

Three to Four

On Sunday we took our crew to the pumpkin patch which was so much fun.

As we were leaving, the kids wanted a picture in the "pumpkin house" so we piled in there and tried to get a family picture.  The family right in front of us were struggling to get their three children to smile (or stand still) for a picture, and we were joking with the mom about how we understood her pain.

As we reached the car, the mother specifically came over to us and asked how hard it was to "go from three to four."  She was expecting their fourth, and was a little nervous about it.

Hubby told her our situation, which was that we had our oldest, and then had twins.  So, for us, the biggest challenge of parenting was going from one to three, and adding the fourth really wasn't a big deal.  In many ways it seemed to balance out our family.

I don't think this was the answer this mother was looking for, but what Hubby said was completely true.

Looking back over the (less than) five years that Hubby and I have been parents, going from having one child to having three children overnight was a tremendous adjustment.  Our twins are amazing, and they complement each other in so many ways.  But there is no denying that raising twins is HARD.

Having Addallee, was, of course an adjustment because was had another child... but she was just a breath of fresh air.  Addallee -- our number four -- was the first baby that I felt like I got to breathe and just enjoy.  She wasn't scary because she was our first.  She wasn't overwhelming because she was twins.  She was just our extra blessing, our Lee Lee.

She is the first baby, that has just come along for the ride wherever the big ones go, and is happy to be held or worn by Mama the entire time.

She is so happy to be included by her big siblings and they just love the stuffing out of her.

For us, going from three to four was one of the best things that ever happened to our little family.

 

1000 Words

1000 Words

 

Happy Birthday Addallee!

Happy Birthday to our precious, wonderful Addallee Marigold!

We have absolutely loved having you in our family the past year.  It was been the best year thus far and you are such an important part of that.

We can't wait for so many more years of getting to know you, and the joy and unity you bring to our family.

What a change one year has brought for our family...

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Lee Lee from the past year.  What an awesome year it has been.