Brothers

The Lord has done great things for us . . . and we are filled with joy.
Psalm 126:3 Pin It

A Glimpse

Things I want to remember about today . . .

Finley squealing with delight as he opened each package.

Avery having a peaceful, happy heart and being grateful for each gift even when he thought Santa didn't bring him a light saber.

Avery saying "this is a great Christmas" on our drive to Grammy's.

Avery saying "this is awesome" about every gift.

Cuddling a sleepy Sawyer on this, his very first Christmas.

Finley saying, "Oh, I have to put my slippers on so I don't get cold" right before our Christmas lunch.

Discovering once again how much my husband loves me and wants to spoil me.

Reading the Christmas story (again) at breakfast.

The boys delighting over each gift, no matter how small.

Feeling humbled by God's blessings to us this year. We are all healthy and our hearts are full.















































































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Eight Years, Babe!

This is A.J., Sara's husband. I have hijacked Sara's blog. Sorry, babe. You can delete this literary mess anytime. You have my permission.

Eight years ago yesterday, God gave me Sara for as long as we live. When we got married, it was a pretty selfish thing because we just wanted to be happy together. Throughout these eight years, I have seen Sara make sacrifice time and again for me and the boys. She does not complain. Her love has made her experience plenty of pain and frustration (mostly from her thick-headed husband). But she loves me and she loves the Lord. She is not moved. She does not change her mind about me.

Before Sara, I took marriage for granted. I thought that when two people love each other, they get married and that is forever, the end. But from the beginning of our relationship, I watched Sara make a steadfast commitment to us. She worked extremely hard for us. As a testament to hard work, we both forgot our anniversary yesterday!

I am so proud to be married to her. I'm in. Forever.

**From Sara:
Thank you Honey! You are so thoughtful. I am so thankful to be married to my very best friend. I never knew life could be this good. You are my favorite and I am crazy in love with you.

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JOY

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Can you even stand the cuteness???

Sawyer is 2 weeks old! Avery LOVES to hold his baby brother. He is so sweet with him.



Do you love that hairy, wrinkly back?? I sure do. There is nothing better than that velvety soft skin. Pin It

the new man in our life

Just wanted to share a few pictures of our new little man. He is so sweet. I love his arms hanging out over AJ's shoulders. :) The last picture is today. We got out for the first time today not counting the doctor's appt. 4 days after he was born. I have been cooped up in the house for 12 days! It was nice to get out, although, it felt strange at the same time. It was nice to breathe some fresh (albeit cold) air. Sawyer slept through it all. Since I'm not supposed to drive yet, my friend, Erin came and picked me up and took me to starbucks to have some girl time and then to Target. Walking around Target was the most walking I've done since I had him. I was a little slow but it felt good. I still feel kind of out of place somehow, but I know we'll fall into a routine and life will start to feel normal again. I'm treasuring these days with our little Sawyer.


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Our Sweet Sawyer Daniel

Sawyer Daniel is 10 days old and we are adjusting to our new life as a family of 5. Today is AJ's first day back at work so that has been tough. The last 10 days have been an absolute blur. Although I am looking forward to getting out of the house someday soon and feeling "normal" again, I am enjoying my new baby boy. He is such a sweetie. Avery and Finley have done AMAZING. Better than I could have hoped. They both love their baby brother and want to hold him and touch him all the time. They are great helpers and so sweet. Here are some pictures from the hospital . . .

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So Very Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day. We are so blessed by the Lord for His gifts to us. We have a healthy, beautiful, peaceful baby boy. He is more than we could have imagined. We have family and friends who have lavished us with love & care. We have 2 "big boys" who bring us such delight. Our cup overflows.
I wanted to show a few snapshots of our day today. I promise to post about Sawyer's birth very soon! We have been spending the week adjusting to having a newborn and becoming a family of 5. I am slowly recovering from the c-section. I will post more as I can. :)

Here is my sweet Daddy holding his newest Grandson. . .


















My little sister could not get over Sawyer. She wanted to hold him or at least be near to him at all times.


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Baby Sawyer is here!

Baby Sawyer arrived this morning at 7:47 a.m. He weighs 6 lbs. 11 oz. and is 19 1/2 inches long. He is adorable, of course, with LOTS of long dark hair like his mom. While Sara is "busy", I (her mom) am writing up her blog for her. The boys are very excited about their new brother...especially Avery!

He's very healthy...he's eating, kicking, making dirty diapers and has good vocal cords.

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TOMORROW

So I'm having a baby tomorrow. No big deal. I'm going to bed now because I have to get up at 4:30 a.m. I'm excited, and nervous, and anxious, and just feel plain weird. Like the night before the first day of school times 100. My c-section is scheduled for 7:30 am. I would love your prayers!

We'll try to keep you updated as soon as we can! :)

good night peeps. . . Pin It

Fun Things

Last Saturday we were able to attend a fundraising gala for Avery's school. It was a really fun date before the baby comes (in 2 1/2 days by the by). It was fun to dress up even though I was considerably more uncomfortable than I would normally be in my sassy boots. They had a silent auction. There were a lot of great items up for bid...most of which we could not afford. However, Avery had been telling me about this canvas they made in Art class and he really wanted me to get. I just told him, "we'll see" because I wasn't sure how much it would cost and if it would be something we'd have a place for. He said it had handprints of all the students in his art class, but I didn't imagine that it would look this cool. I love it! When I saw it, I really wanted it. I love the saying (from an Audio Adrenaline song) that his teacher painted on it. That pretty much sold it for me. :) You can't see it in the picture, but each handprint has the student's name written in small black letters. Avery's is the red hand right under "be your." The next morning when I showed Avery what we got, he started jumping up and down & screaming. He was so excited. That made it even more worth it. It was neat to talk about what the words on it meant. I pray that these words will sink into his little heart and take root.
2nd fun thing . . . I made this blanket last night for our 3rd sweet boy. I decided I needed a nice warm fleece blanket to put over the car seat or stroller. I wanted one to match his coming home from the hospital outfit....because that's just the way I am. I had made a couple of these before for baby gifts. It's a super easy, no sew blanket and I think it turned out pretty cute. I wanted to do a little embellishing so there was little bit of hand sewing, but altogether a really simple project.
I am getting antsy pantsy for this little one to arrive. I am counting down the hours practically. I am really trying not to wish the days away but it's hard. I am trying to just enjoy quality time with my 2 big boys and make memories. I know our life will forever be changed on Friday and will also get significantly more difficult. It's just a strange feeling knowing that I will hold that sweet boy so soon. It's really hard to think of anything else. This week is passing slowly! I appreciate any prayers you want to send my way! Pin It

nursery for a sweet boy

The nursery is all ready and waiting for a little sweetie pie to move in! The nursery has a lot of chocolate brown with muted shades of red, blue, green & mustard yellow. Chocolate brown and barn red is my absolute favorite combination. In fact, I bought some fleece in those colors today to make a blanket for said baby. :)
I love the polka dots on this sheet. . .

Avery's teacher paints custom canvases and she is so talented! I had her paint this for the room. Do you love it? I do. Check out her website.





I just have to get one more curtain for the room and then the room will feel complete. Okay, I take that back, my friend Emily is making a name plaque for the room that will have his name, birth stats and verse. But, mostly done anyhow. I am getting so excited to actually use them room instead of just staring at it!

So, we have 4 days to go...okay actually 3 1/2...okay, I'm a little excited! Pin It

a momma and her boys

So.....I feel a little weird posting a bunch of pictures of myself...but I want to document this stage of our lives and my pregnancy. I am 9 months pregnant and counting down til my scheduled c-section in 13 days!!! We went out to take some pictures today of the boys and I. We also tried to take a few of our whole family. But, by then we were all getting cold and just took a few shots, none of which I'm thrilled about. I mostly wanted to get some pics of the boys and I. So I count it a successful picture taking experience. I have pictures of me pregnant with each of the older boys, so I wanted to get some with this sweet one as well. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Our new camera really makes it easy. Also, AJ has a good eye for taking photos.

Me and my 3 boys . . .









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