Full Circle

I had a full circle moment today.  Like a really big one.  Let me explain.  Last year on this exact day was the day I kept thinking I didn't feel quite right, almost a little nausous throughout the morning.  Every fall we have a women's event at our church called Mugs 'n Muffins.  I love to try and go so that I can get to know some of the older women at church that I don't get to see as often.  So, last year I went and felt a little off the whole morning and thought maybe I was getting sick. 

Jordan had taken John Michael and Matthew our for the morning so I met up with them at Best Buy after my morning at church.  I just happened to metion to Jordan that I was feeling nausous all morning and he gave me THAT look.  He knew better.  He told me to go buy a test pronto.  I remember laughing it off, thinking, NO WAY.  No. Way.  Well, as we all know, that little test and those little symptoms were eventually this little guy:

As I dressed him up this morning to go to Mugs 'n Muffins with me, I couldn't believe it had been a whole year since I first found out about him.  Since I first let myself start realizing there would be 3.  Since I first got on my knees and begged God to bless my pregnany with a healthy, beautiful baby. Since I realized our lives were going to be changed forever; as it always happens with adding a precious one to your family.

So, I dressed him up this morning and said a special prayer over him.  It felt like an anniversary of sorts for me.  I knew we wanted a few children, we just never knew we would be so quickly and lovingly blessed by the Lord.

What a fun, crazy year it's been since I first found out there was another little heartbeat growing inside me.  We've truly come full circle.  I endured a pregnancy with 2 other small children around (exhausting!!!), had another not-so-comfortable birth, found out we had another boy, got through the really hard newborn stuff, and I feel like we're on our way.....sort of.

Oh goodness how I pray for these sweet boys everyday.  I am so grateful to be their mother! 

So yes, it's been a whole year, a full circle kind of year.  A good year. A blessed year. What will the next year hold for our family??!!!

For The Beauty....

 

For the beauty of the earth,
For the glory of the skies;
For the love which from our birth,

Over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow'r,

Sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye,
For the heart and mind's delight;
For the mystic harmony,

Linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

 

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child;
Friends on Earth and friends above,

For all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

For Thyself, best Gift Divine,
To the world so freely given,
For that great, great love of Thine,

Peace on earth and joy in heaven.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This, our hymn of grateful praise.

"For the beauty of the Earth", one of my favorite old-time hymns.  Just beautiful!

 

 

A blog post about (wait for it...)Chicken!!

My friend, Jessica, got us loving these mesquite grilled chicken breast from Sam's.  I wouldn't normally be attracted to precooked, grilled chicken, but let me tell you, we LOVE them around here.  I love them so much I decided to dedicate a blog post to frozen, grilled chicken!  What in the world?!

Jessica always makes me a chicken wrap if we're ever over at her house to play and so I started buying the chicken and making my own wraps.  Here are some ways you can use this chicken.  I like that I can make a super-easy lunch or an actual pretty nice dinner out of them!  I zap them for 3-4 minutes and I can make almost anything out of it!

Hello Sam's chicken!

-We cut the chicken up and put ranch, lettuce, tomato and cheese on a wrap and have a really yummy lunch out of it.

-Jessica cuts hers up and makes a quick chicken alfredo dinner with the chicken.

-I also shred it really fine and throw in on a quesadilla on my griddle.

-Although I haven't done it yet, you could cube it and put it on a salad!

Here's my very favorite meal that I have made with it.  I modeled this meal from Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken.  I just made this up myself and it is almost like what you can get at Applebee's!  My mom got my recipe and also made it and they LOVED it as well!

Here's what I did:

I cooked my chicken in the microwave first.  I then layered Mexican rice, chicken,

I made up some Mexi-Ranch by mixing some leftover homemade salsa with ranch!

Next, I threw on some of those little tortilla crunchy strips...

And added some cheese on top....

And then I threw it under the broiler for just a few minutes.  It really was SO easy!

Jordan declared that it was one of the best meals I've ever made.  I just like that it is so easy to make and pretty fast too!

Cabin Fever and Croup

We noticed the boys might all be coming down with a bit of a cold this week. I had to take Noah to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon after I picked the boys up from preschool.  It was totally fun taking all 3 of them to the doctor at naptime!  It ended up Noah didn't have an ear infection.  I was SURE that he did, but he was fine, just a small cold!  Our chunky monkey weighed in at 15 pounds 10 ounces and 25.5 inches long.  he is getting SO big!

I think the boys have  all passed this cold around but John Michael's turned into croup overnight Thursday night.  We had a really long night Thursday night.  We sat him outside and I pondered if I was making the right decision not taking him to the emergency room.  Jordan slept in the den with him and then he took him on (so I could stay home to feed Noah) around 7:40 or so.  They luckily had an opening so he was seen around 8:30 Friday morning.  He weighed in at 36.5 pounds.  We're afraid Matthew might overtake him in weight soon!

We've had a long few nights and franky, it's starting to wear on me.  Honestly, I just don't deal well with not getting much sleep.  Having 3, 3 and under does not go well with this.  Sometime I dream of what it might be like to just go to sleep at night and get to sleep for like 10 hours.....I can't even imagine!  Oh well, we'll all sleep one day when our kids are grown and out of the house, and then I know we'll be sad.  This is just a season in life!

We've basically been homebound since Wednesday afternoon.  ALL of our boys wore these precious Alabama outfits on Wednesday.  I could just die of the cuteness!

We've just been playing and watching way too much TV.  I slowly feel cabin fever creeping up on me knowing that another hard, cold, icy winter is just a few months away.  I also do not deal well with ice and cold, I am from Alabama after all. I pretty much hate winter and just grin and bear it until Spring eventually rolls around!

Noah's been sitting in the Bumbo so he can "play" with his brothers!  And Matthew has been teething like crazy lately!  He's been chewing things and having some pretty bad diaper rash.  He never has rash!  I am loving his sweetness during the day.  He always is saying thank you or giving Noah TONS of hugs and kisses or asking where his brothers are.  He's a sweetie!

And John Michael has been pretty pitiful.  He's gotten croup about once a year and it's no fun!  We've just been snuggling and watching a lot of movies the last few days.  Unfortunately, we totally forgot about how AWFUL steriods are on little kids.  Steriods for us=whining, crying, screaming and fit throwing.  It's been pretty bad!  I know it won't last long though and he'll back to his normal, sweet self!

Jordan caught Matthew sitting in the Bumbo watching Lassie on Netflix today!  He loves the Bumbo!

Well, I've got to go get some sleep.  It was very odd, none of our 3 slept well for nap.  We don't know if they heard something outside or what.  So, they were up early from their nap and then it took us 3 hours to get them all down for the night.  We are exhausted! 

It ended up being a great day because Alabama beat Arkansas.  We wish we could have gone back to Alabama to go to the game.  Not this year!  I know my family had a great time at the game though!  We wish we could be in Tuscaloosa with them!  Roll Tide!

Sittin' Up!

Look who is sitting up like a big boy?!

I finally realized it was time to pull out the old Bumbo.  Noah did so well sitting in it.  Onwards and Upwards Noah!!

And just for fun, I just found this picture of Matthew sitting in his Bumbo for the first time!

Man, they look so much alike!  My blog post shows that Matthew was right around Noah's exact same age (right before 3 months) when he first sat in his Bumbo!