Is it May ALREADY?

Let me try to recap a little of the first few months of 2011 for you (if you're still reading... tap,tap,tap... you in there?)

January:

Exciting news! We may have been expecting a child of our own, but there's another birth that's happening...

For some time, Scott has been sensing a call to be a senior pastor. Over time, we've prayed and the Lord has confirmed a calling to start a church. A new church. A Church "Plant", as in planting the seed and growing a new church body.

We prayed through where we were supposed to do this, and we began to realize that all the roads we'd traveled with their interesting experiences and trials, along with many ministry opportunities that never panned out, had been part of God's plan to get us to our current town. We might or might not have chosen our location were it left to ourselves, but it became evident that God wanted to plant a church using us, right here where we already live.  We began meeting with a small "core" group in January, and a very generous couple who owns a small local restaurant let us meet there on Sundays (restaurant closed) for free!  Very exciting times, to be sure!  You can check us out here or on Facebook here.

February:

Our little church is growing, and we've been blessed with several large families with young kids.  That means we're out of space for our church meetings!  We are very grateful, as a local public school has allowed us to meet there on the weekends.  It's a super location.  Be praying for us as we determine how long the Lord would have us there, as well as that we would be a blessing to the teachers and staff there.

Our family is about to officially grow, because my pregnant belly is almost at it's growth limit!!!  For whatever reason, I tend to carry babies large.  By 36 wks, I was measuring full term  (as the tape lies... w/ the doctor's measuring tape, a belly-height, top to bottom, in inches should equal the number of weeks near the end)  Baby S would be arriving soon!  Nesting was in full swing, but with the church things happening, nesting couldn't accomplish enough quickly!

At the same time, Spring Soccer began.  Both C & A1 were playing again, with Scott coaching C's team.  It may have been crazy, but that's such a good thing for the kids and a great way for us to get to know families in our town.

C got some dental work done.  Check him out!

March:

Aaaah!  The weeks are short, and baby S is coming soon! Planting on the farm is in full-swing, and planting as in the church is going well.  We're so grateful for the families who are a part of CC Community Church.

My wonderful doctor (I love her!  I'd recommend her highly!) has measured my belly again, and at 40 wks gestation, I measure 46 weeks... like I would if I was 6 weeks past the due date.  Good grief! We are a little concerned that S will be huge, and since I want to avoid a c-section if possible, we set an appointment to be induced in case I don't go into labor early.

Seth Josiah is born on a Wednesday evening after we start the induction that morning.  He's precious, and we feel so blessed.  Check the next post for pics and info.

The end of March brought challenges and blessings... challenges as we tried to balance Scott's work on the farm with work for the church plant, balancing life as we know it with a new little one and an 18 month old, and many others.

April:

April started with a bang!  We all took turns battling a nasty cold.  Me first, then a mild version for A1, a yucky version for A2 and Scott, and it appears that C and S2 avoided it altogether (Praise the Lord!). 

The rest of the month was consumed by farm, church, soccer, and planning for Easter.  We had a great group at church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the risen Lord!  New faces and familiar faces were all celebrating together!

The month would end with Scott, S2, and I taking a few days to go on a pastor's retreat made possible by Central Baptist Church in Bryan/College Station, where we went when we were at A&M.  (was that just 6 "w" words in a row?  wow!)


So, for the most part, you're caught up!  Be watching for more posts focusing on S2 and a couple of other things I wanted to highlight on their own.  Thanks for your patience, knowing that I WANT to post, but will post-pone :) it if we're just super busy. 

Mensiversary

Old McAbby had a month, e.i.g.h.t...

Sweet baby girl had Mensiversary Oct(if Latin annum is year...anniversary, then Latin mensis for month would be month anniversary, right?)

Over the course of the prior month, Abby Grace had fully mastered rolling (quickly) in either direction and became a sturdy sitter on her own instead of needing constant support. 

She said goodbye to this:


We began to hear some intentional babbles, beginning with a sort of /thuh/ and morphing into /duh/.  There were occasional /nnn/ sounds, and a scant few /muh/s (only when she was crying to be picked up, of course). 

Abby would turn immediately to find a family member when named by one of us:  Daddy, Caleb, Anna, Mama.

Baby cereal with fruit was becoming a hit, and stage 1 foods were all the rage... except when she didn't feel like it, and there was no chance that even prying her jaws open gently with a spoon would work. We had no progress with introducing a cup, yet she'd take water from a an elevated straw if I let it drip into her mouth. (me holding it with a finger over the upper end)

Then with two days left to go in the month, as though some inner deadline just had to be met, sweet Abigail Grace clapped, waved, army-creeped, and wore her first real hair bow in the span of those two days.  What an overachiever! :)

Buttercups and Bluebonnets, aka Hooray for Spring!

Seven

Seven - (n.)  1. a cardinal number following 6.  2.  a symbolic number in Judaism and Christianity that indicates completion or the infusion of Godliness into creation  3.  numerical cannibal Why was six scared?  Because seven [ate] nine!  4.  a scary movie with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman  5.  the perfect first name according to George Costanza   6.How old Abby turned this month!

See Ree Uhl.

Ah, it has begun.  The relative ease of only nursing has given way to the somewhat tedious, but exciting process of solid food feedings.  Abby had an appetite switch that got flipped somewhere around the 6 month mark.  She was already very interested in everything we were doing at mealtimes.  She would watch so intently and with wonder as we would repeatedly raise food to our mouths and it would disappear.

Hmm.  This could be good.

Ummm

wait

a

minute

Stop

the weirdness

get it away

look cute and she'll forget the cereal

it's working...

Do we have to keep going?

But you told me...

Up until her 6 month appointment, Abby had not tried any cereal or baby food.  I wasn't withholding this from her, but the doctor was amazed enough at her rate of growth by 4 months and the nourishment she was already receiving that she told me that unless her appetite increased, there was no real reason to introduce those foods unless I just wanted to.  I told her that I might just wait, then. 

So, a few days before the 6 month appointment, I introduced rice cereal.  I'll post those pics shortly.  During the preliminary developmental check by the nurse in the doctor's office, she asked if she was on Stage 2 (not so soupy) foods yet.  "No," I replied, "we just tried cereal this week."  The nurse was shocked.  "Why?" she exclaimed.  I told her that the doc said we could wait.  She started to argue, but kindly (albeit quickly) finished the checklist instead. 

Even the doctor, when she arrived for the remainder of the checkup, expressed surprise that I hadn't begun the solid food journey yet!

So weird!

Half Birthday!

Six Months

17 pounds, 27 inches (65%ile, 85%ile)

Cute as can be and ready to go places

Happy Half Birthday, sweet Abigail Grace!

No similarity. None at all. Nope.

0.333333333 Years Old

My dear sweet third child turned 1/3 year old on Christmas Eve!  Our first check-up of the new year showed her growth to be on track, but still in the upper percentiles for her age:

Sweet girl (or "chunkers", according to our nurse) is nearly 16 lbs, 26 inches at 4 months.  That's almost double her birth weight, and 6 inches taller than her birth height!  Way to grow!

Random thought:  Why is it that when you're pregnant/have a baby, you count by weeks, but if you switch to months, the count isn't consistent? 

Here's my point.  Abby at 4 months was already 17 1/2 weeks old.  It would be nice if 1 month = 4 weeks.  Full term pregnancy is 40 weeks (give or take), but we cling to 9 months, when it's actually closer to 10!

Moms out there:  When did you switch from telling people your child's week-age to month-age instead?

We are the Aggies, The Aggies are We

By the beginning of December, Abby was only 3 months old and had already been to TWO Aggie football games! Such a trooper! Anna got to go to her first two games this year as well! Caleb was a pro by now.

Our first game was in October. I must say they all did well. While we were dubious as to whether we could handle all 3 at the game BY OURSELVES, the world didn't end, and the experience was surprisingly pleasant, all things considered.

We had begun the adventure by visiting some friends in Houston. THAT was a great experience until, as we were walking out the door, sweet Anna threw up all over the entryway of their house. Thank goodness for wood floors! Our gracious friends helped us clean her up and even sent us with towels and washcloths just in case it happened again. Sure enough, a little further down the road to the Lego store, she had a repeat episode. Imagine our dread at having potentially exposed friends and their kids to a virus, and trying to figure out what to do next on a trip that had just started! Much to our surprise, she had no further trouble from that point on! No one in our family got sick either! Phewww.

We spent the night in a hotel there that night and proceeded on to College Station the next morning. No trip to Aggieland would be complete without a few stops:




Caleb had his first Freebirds burrito -- the Hybird (formerly known as the half-bird). Way to go, big boy!






Anna is not quite ready. Quesadillas were the thing for her.








Abby could only dream of the day she could join in on the fun.








We even got to hook up with my cousin Gary, who lives there in town.

Then it was time to visit Kyle Field... Whoop!


We walked the tunnel to the stadium.


We took pictures in front of E King Gill's statue. He's the original 12th man. Click here to read about him.

Anna and Caleb posed with Daddy just before we walked the spiral ramps all the way up to the third deck where our seats would be. (The bottom of the third deck can be seen at the top of the picture, and you must walk the ramps to the very top to get to any of its seats! Huff...puff...)


The game went well (I missed all of the 2nd quarter and halftime trying to feed Abby...long story) Abby did great with the earplugs I found for her at the grocery store.


We even got to go on field after the game!





Gig 'em!!
We went again at Thanksgiving. I'd say it's worth it, and I'd do it all over again!