New Addition

So, I'm sure most of you are aware (because of facebook) that once again our family is growing, but thought I would share over here too! We are very excited and know that God intended for this little one to be in our lives, we are looking forward to meeting him or her and finding out whether the girls or boys are going to be taking over the house. I am 19 weeks right now, my due date is January 5th, 2013. It was a pretty rough go the first 15 or so weeks, and I have never been so sick at the beginning of my pregnancy. Luckily, my amazing husband was able to fill in for me, and I truly am blessed to have him in my life!! I hope to start blogging more even if it's just a picture post and keep you all updated. We have also been making some changes around the house, so I will do a house tour little by little. Pinterest has me constantly crafting and decorating! I hope that you are all enjoying the summer and that the last few weeks of it go by a little slower than normal, and that I am able to enjoy the moments of having my children home with me!! I truly love that time!!

Snow Days!

Today was fun!
With school and work both cancelled due to the snow, we made the best of it.
We slept in, stayed in PJs all day (except for when we ventured outside to play), played with legos, drank hot chocolate, watched movies,played the wii, went sledding, attempted to build a snowman, and just enjoyed being "trapped" at home.

I love days like this, I love glancing around the room and seeing all of my family together. I think we should make one day a month an official "snow day" in our house with or without the snow, where we stay home all day in pjs and just have fun!

Happy New Year

Okay, so I know we are halfway through January and I'm a bit behind with the whole Happy New Year, but I am so excited for this year.
We have a lot of changes and some big events going on this year! My little sister is getting married at Disney World in April, I will be reopening my photography business in the spring, and Steve and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary in May!!

This year we are planning to

Get More Organized (we are both seriously bad at this!)

Take more pictures and video (you have no idea how bad I was at this last year, I guess having 4 kids and one of them being a baby makes life just a bit more hectic).

Enjoy the everyday moments and record the moments that make us laugh and smile on paper

Follow Dave Ramsey's plan and really stick to a budget, (food and gas prices are killing us!)

Get back in shape and eat clean. (Steve and I are both back at the gym and it's been fun, we took before pictures and maybe will share them next year when we look smoking, haha)

Grow closer to God

continue to work on our house (I know I still need to share pictures).

I'm also going to try to become more of a morning person, but I know that this night owl part of me is deep in my blood, because it's so hard for me to go to bed early and wake up early!

I am doing a couple photo challenges too, a 52 weekly picture of my 4, a 52 weekly changing theme challenge, and a once a month family shot! We will see how it goes, I hope to share and post those every week!

So here is to an amazing 2012, may it involve less complaining, more gratefulness and contentment, lots of laughter and taking in and appreciating these days where my kids are little with all that I have!!

Here is a moment Steve grabbed for me one night last week, I treasure these moments at night when Gray is nursing before he goes to bed. He is getting so big, I swear this is my most favorite age. He makes us all laugh a lot during the day, and his brother and sister's adore him. We are very blessed!

I'm Back!

So I honestly cannot believe that the last time I posted on here was in December,and it is now August. However it seems like just like that time flashed by before my eyes, we went through winter, spring and now summer is quickly coming to an end.

There were so many times I tried to sit down and play catch up but life with four really is a bit more crazy than the crazy we previously had.

The biggest changes right now in our lives is that Gray is growing up way too quickly this first year with him is going by quicker than I feel like it did with the other three. He is such a happy little guy, and we are all still incredibly smitten with him!

Right now he is doing his best to try and crawl, I'm thinking it will be any moment now, however in the back of my mind I really don't want him too mobile because i just know it will be that much harder to get things done (honestly the load of darks in my washer are about to go through their 6th wash cycle because I keep forgetting about them).

The other big change is that on Monday we are getting keys to our new house!! We are beyond excited to have our own place again. It is the perfect size for us not too big and not too small. The yard is great and it's in a great neighborhood that I'm excited to go trick or treating with the kids in, as well as a flat cul de sac for them to ride their bikes in! I love decorating, painting, etc and I'm so excited to be able to have a new canvas to work with. Have I mentioned I'm excited?

Oh and it has a farmers porch, I always wanted a big porch on my house. Okay, enough of my excitement ramblings!

It's late here and I know I need to get sleep but I just couldn't put off getting back into the blogging world one more day, I hope to be back to some more regular or close to regular posting.

Moments

I'm trying to find my camera's memory card reader so I can post some of the moments captured the past week and a half, like Gray's first bath (he loved it). I'm trying to capture more of our everyday moments, and focus less on the state of the background, do I have makeup on, do Gia's clothes match (okay that one is a long shot on any given day). I realize even more now how quickly time passes. We will have had this sweet baby boy in our lives for 3 weeks on Tuesday night and he is changing so quickly.

My heart keeps screaming grab this moment right now as it is, don't try to fix it or make the background better just pick up your camera and snap because before you know it the moment is gone and you want to freeze it, remember it just as it is, maybe it's not perfect in terms of rules of thirds or maybe your lighting is terrible and the shot is gonna be grainy but this moment is yours and that reason alone makes it absolutely perfect.

So I'm making a point to just pick up my camera and shoot, no thinking, no fixing just snap. It's the pile of laundry that is peaking in the corner of a picture, Mateo's bed head, Gianna's purple striped leggings, blue flowered dress and converse, and the spit up on ratty tank top that I have on that makes us "us". Our life is loud, crazy and wonderful, it's a messy house a lot of the time, dishes from breakfast on the table at lunch time, but it's full to the brim with laughter and love and I want to capture us exactly as we are in these moments.

I want my kids to have books full of memories, to be able to look through them and remember playing Blokus with their dad on the coffee table after dinner, reading Charlie's Super Hero Underpants and laughing every time when we see the Yeti in his undies even though we have read it a million times, cracking up over daddy's Darth Vader spiky kisses (or any of the other 70 made up kisses). I'm going to jump on the 365 photo a day band wagon starting Jan 1st, and my theme will be "the everyday". I'm sure with a full house there will be more than plenty of everyday moments for me to grab.

How Wonderful Life is ... Now You're in the World!

He's Here!

For those of you that might not know, we had our sweet baby two weeks ago and it's a boy!!! After lots and lots (seriously) of searching, we decided on naming him Grayson Charles.

He's perfect and amazing and fits in perfectly. He completes us so amazingly well! He is such a blessing, a perfect miracle from God. He has yet to learn what it means to be put down. In fact, there are wars in my house right now over who gets to hold him (although the biggest feud is between Nana and Ava). There is not a number big enough to count the times he has been kissed in the short time he has been here.

I am so in love with my littlest man, I can't tell you the number of times in a day I try to soak in and memorize his smell, his sweet newborn noises, the softness of his skin, and all his newness. I didn't realize how much I missed nursing, but I did and that bonding time is something I'm so thankful for. I just wish I could stretch out time and make it go by a little slower.

Our family is even more complete now.

His birth story and pictures to come soon.

2 days old



2 weeks

38 Weeks

My sweet little one,

38 weeks! Can you believe time has gone by so fast!! We could meet you any minute now, in fact we cannot wait for that moment. Your brother and sisters can't stop talking about you, they already have plans for what they want to do when you are born. Gianna and Ava want to cut your cord, Mateo wants to put on your hat. They make me smile talking about it.
I am trying to take in every second I have left feeling you move and kick,being pregnant for one last moment.I'm not sure how much room you have left, in fact that ribcage that you have been hanging out in, could use a bit of a break if you don't mind. I cannot wait to hold you in my arms, to kiss your sweet face, to see if this mega heartburn I've been having means you will have a full head of hair. I can't wait for your daddy to announce "boy or girl". I hope you know you are so loved, you have been loved from the moment we decided we needed you in this family. You are the blessing that completes this family, so meant to be!

I hope you are ready to be a part of this crazy life of ours, we are so very ready to meet you so come whenever you are ready!!
XOXO
Mommy