the reason you dedicate a baby, not a toddler...

all kidding aside...

it was really important to us, to stand before our families and church community

and dedicate the girls to our Heavenly Father.

I wasn't raised a Christian.

So teaching my children about God is something I'm learning as I go.

I don't know all the words to every praise song.

I still learn new things when i read Finley's children's bible.

but even so, my daughter is already loving God.

She initiates praying.

She loves to read her bible.

and she asks questions that absolutely amaze me.

We're not promising to be perfect parents {far from it!!}

or know the answer to every question.

But we are promising to do our best

to raise our children to love Jesus,

and to follow His teachings.

thankfully we aren't asked to do it alone.

we have the most amazing families,

the best church community,

and the most awesome kids ministry {shout out katey!}

Finley has been counting down the days until her third birthday,

because then she gets to go to the big kid room at church

SUNDAY SCHOOL!!

I remember picking her up from the nursery as a baby.

They told us, "that girl is going to be a CEO or something.

She really knows what she wants and goes for it!"

the first time we picked up adalaide, they gushed on and on

about what a "sweet spirit" she has and how laid back she was.

it makes me laugh, because they have our kids figured out pretty well.

i know this is a photo overload, but i loved all of these.

none of my pictures from the service turned out.

thankfully our good friend photographed the event,

so lets hope he got something good, tantrum and all :)

i feel the need to mention:

:: adalaide weighs T.W.E.N.T.Y pounds. that puts her in the 95% for weight, and she is off the charts for height. i was wondering why i was having such difficulty hoisting her carrier around. now i know. and now we leave it in the car.

:: we are moving! within the next month we'll be packin' up our house, getting renters in here, and moving into one of my parents properties. my mom and dad are giving us a great family discount, so that we can maximize our saving and speed up the building process {cause we're crazy and paying cash for everything-ahhh}. the house is much smaller than ours, and it's...shall we say..  a "vintage" home. but we don't care. we are so very excited to be in our ideal location...close to family, friends, cousins, and good schools! thanks so much mom and dad!!

:: finley will be having a birthday next month. she has requested a "farm party" so we'll be giving her just that. since we have a lot on our plates next month, we'll be keeping it small and simple. but, i couldn't resist putting together an invitation. i'm still learning how to use photoshop, but i'm loving that it can be used for things other than photo editing. here's her invitation, front and back.

now that i look at it, i'm slightly worried that brown and yellow looks a little poopy. oh well.

and finally...

:: i've been telling brian that i feel twice as pregnant as i actually am. i'm getting up at night to pee, my organs {?} feel like they're already migrating around, and despite my best efforts my stomach is definitely protruding. turns out my uterus "is like a snow plow on a mission, pushing everything out of way"-my midwife's words. i've been warned that i will "probably look and feel like i'm carrying multiples "!!! {you know, because it's my third pregnancy, and because my body hasn't had a lot of time to recover from no. 2} didn't want to hear that. not one bit. maybe she'll be wrong. probably not, but maybe.

that's all for now!

teeth, tabbouleh, and a lot of pictures

This post is going to be really random, i can just sense it...

........

The big news around here is that the babe got two teeth {bottom front}. 

Bless her heart, she was really only fussy for about 24 hours.

But, boy was it a doozie of a day/night!

perhaps, now we won't have so much of this..

{drool & chewing on lip}

she is very pleased to be sitting on her own.

......

i'm having the same pregnancy craving that i did last time.

tabbouleh.

lemon + salt = yum.

have you ever had it?

you need a lot of parsley. and i mean A LOT.

This picture is after brian had already picked for a few hours.

luckily, i had this cute picker to help me.

it makes a HUGE bowl.

but, between brian and i, it only lasts a few days.

ok, just took a break to have my third serving of the day.

thank goodness it's healthy!

........

you know how you have those parenting moments where your child

does or says something really inappropriate...

and you know you shouldn't,

but a teensy, weensy part of you wants to laugh.

we've been having a lot of those moments lately.

sometimes it's really, really hard to keep a straight face.

especially if Brian is there too.

normally we're really careful about what we listen to and watch.

but, i needed a break from listening to the same baby praise cd's over and over and over. so for about a week we listened to lady antebellum in the car.

I hadn't paid much attention to the words of the songs,

and all the sudden i heard little miss finley sing...

"it's a quarter after one,

 i'm all alone and i need you now.

and i said i wouldn't call,

 but i'm a little drunk and i need you now"

absolutely shocking to hear come out of her mouth.

so very wrong.

she's been repeating other stuff too. some stuff she's picked up from us,

and some stuff she hears from older kids {like the word fart, and kill-oh dear}.

it's good, because it's forcing us to watch our words,

even with things that don't seem that bad...like country music. 

......

i like this picture of adalaide,

because she is laughing at her big sister.

that's pretty much her favorite thing to do.

and i like this photo of finley that i took on my phone,

because, well she's so stinkin' cute.

i love my girls.

finding out

Thank you for all your well wishes. Sharing the news of this pregnancy with our friends and family has been a hilarious experience. I think most everyone {including us} is a little surprised, quite a few people respond by laughing, like, oh-boy-you're-in-for-it-kinda-laughing, and some people assume that we must be devastated about having babies 13 months apart {we're not}. Looking back, our own reactions to the news were pretty stinkin' priceless.

.......

I'm not sure what made me load the girls in the car and run to Walgreens for a pack of pregnancy tests. But, I did, and as we drove home I remember saying out loud, there's no way! I took both tests and both came back positive.But, before I jumped to any conclusions I made a very shrill call to my midwife.

Hey, Sally. I'm good. Heeeey, I was just wondering if, perhaps, there were any hormones in my system left over from Adalaide that would make me have a positive pregnancy test?

She laughed, kindly told me no, and congratulated me. Somehow, I was sane enough to ask her if the baby or I would be at any greater risk because of the closeness between births. She assured me that there was no greater risk {thank God} but told me to anticipate this pregnancy being much more difficult than the last. Boy, was she right...but that's another post.

I ended the call with my midwife, and ran to the computer to plug in the dates and determine my due date. After figuring out that Adalaide would be 13 months old {!} i got a little hysterical and called my husband.

I'm pregnant!

what do you mean?

I . AM . PREGNANT. !!!

{laughing} are you serious?

yes, i am serious!!!! {and then i heard a familiar sound} are you hammering? ARE YOU HAMMERING?!

{more laughing} honey, what's the big deal? We knew we were going to have more kids?

THEBIGDEAL?!! They're going to be 13 months apart!!!

I can't remember how the rest of the conversation went, but I do know that i said something along the lines of , how could you do this me! before hanging up on him.

{since that day, we have laughed a thousand times about that line}

Since i got the most nonchalant reaction from Brian, I called one of my best friends. She laughed too, but at least she validated that this was something worth getting crazy anxious about. She said all the right things, and in the end I felt MUCH better. 

I sat in my bed for a few minutes in utter disbelief. 

how can this be?

i still look 5 months pregnant from the last go round...

my belly line hasn't even faded all the way.

we just got our bill in the mail for adalaide's delivery, like last week!

my baby doesn't even sit, or eat solids, or have teeth. how can there be ANOTHER baby? 

And then I started to get really sad thinking about how it would effect Adalaide. Would we have to rush her out of being "the baby" in the family? I went into her room and woke her up {unspeakable!}. I held her, cried, and promised her that she would still be my baby, and that she would be smothered in her parent's love no matter what.

she looked up at me, and busted up laughing. as if my crying was the most hysterical thing she'd ever seen. if she were able to speak, i really think she would have said, "you're being silly, mommy. i know this already".

nothing like being called out by a 5 month old.

in that moment i felt God whisper, "your children are such a blessing to you. they are your joys, and this one will be too. you will have more than enough love for all your children. adalaide will never be without. i'm not taking anything away from your family, i'm adding to it. you will have two babies now".

I can't tell you how much peace that perspective gave me. Two babies. Enough love for everyone. No one going without. I suddenly felt much better, dare I say even excited.

Since that day, since that conversation with God, I've gotten really excited about our newest addition. I know life is going to be C-R-A-Z-Y, but i think it will be a good crazy. There's such a thing, right? I hope so.. 

surprise!