Eden 1 month

Eden, you are 1 month old now! And what a month is has been around our house! Unfortunately the past month has been one sickness after another for our family, so I feel like I haven't had time to enjoy you being a newborn very much. Two days before you were born your brother, Corban, had tubes put in his ears in Murfreesboro. You were born two days later. Less than a week later your dad and Corban got the flu and were sick for a week. Everyone got better for Christmas. Christmas was so much fun, but a whirlwind. Bala came to stay for week in the first of January. Bala, Mama, and Aaron all got a nasty stomach bug a few days after she got here. In between those two sicknesses, your dad had a vasectomy and ended up having a major complication and is now in bed for a solid week or until he gets better. I sure hope your second month is a big improvement! YOU were so lucky to have avoided both sicknesses. You have been healthy, a great nurser, and growing like a weed. You are a very good baby and are showing all signs of being a 'snuggler.' You are the first of our children to take a pacifier and a bottle. The only complaint I have is that you don't sleep well at night. I am still waiting on the '5-6 hour stretch' to kick in, but that has yet to happen. I am hoping that will come soon. So far having a girl is not that different from having your brothers. I do change your clothes more because we have so many different cute outfits. I have tried putting bows in your hair but you pretty much hate them. I put them on you for pictures anyway:) So...happy 1 month Eden! Hopefully next month I will have a more detailed post on you...as long as we don't have another family crisis. Your brothers are so in love with you. They ask to hold you all the time. They want you to interact with them so badly. We love you sweet girl and can't wait to see you smile for the first time at us!

Eden Rachel Adams is here!

Our sweet baby girl was born on 12-12-13 at 3:23pm. She is healthy and beautiful. We are blessed beyond measure. Praise the Lord!

Update

Yea, so it's been two months since I blogged. I thought it would be good to give an update on our family before we add our sweet baby girl...which could happen anytime now!!! I am currently typing this blog on my new computer Mark got me for xmas. He gave it to me early so that would have it before the baby comes. He is so sweet...our old computer has been on it's last leg for right at a year. It's a chrome book and I love it. It's light weight and is exactly what I need. So here goes the update...

1. My boys are growing like crazy. Aaron is 4 going on 10. Last month he started asking if I would 'homeschool' him. I am sure it's because two of his closest friends, Aiden and Cambree, started homeschooling this year and he hears them talk about it. I told him that he would go to school soon but that we could do a few things at home if he wanted. I have been letting him control the speed we go but folks he has absolutely taken off with his reading and writing. He can read simple sentences, write all his letters and a lot of words, and write his numbers up to 20. He always asks to keep doing reading lessons and then asks if he can write on his dry erase board the 'really hard letters.' I am so proud of him. Mark and I are trying to decide whether he will go to kindergarden next year or go somewhere else for another year. Tough decision folks....tough decision. He is so excited about his little sister getting here. I am loving the more grown up things we can do with him now. He is such a great big brother to Corban and I know he will be even greater with this sweet girl...who still has no name.

2. Corban is just straight up fun. He is at the best age of discovery and his vocabulary has exploded over the past month. He is definitely our funniest child yet. Not a night goes by that Mark and I don't repeat what Corban said that night or a facial expression he made. He is very confident, opinionated and loves his big brother. I think he would do anything Aaron asked him to do.Hopefully I will be able to do an 18mo. blog post on just him. I think he will have a more difficult adjustment period because of his age. He is VERY attached to Mark and I. His strong opinions are currently expressed by screaming, which is pretty much unbearable. He is spending a lot of time in time-out or getting a spanking these days. We aren't huge on redirection. He has had a lot of ear infections of the past 6 months and we were referred to an ENT for him to get tubes. Because of the baby, we have already met our deductable for the year, so we are trying to get any and all procedures done before Dec 31st. The only appointment available before January for him was this coming Tuesday. My due date for baby is Thursday. Nothing like cutting it as close as possible! I'm just KINDA stressed right now.

3. This pregnancy has been the best one out of the three for me. I have gained just under 25lbs and felt much better than with the boys. She is smaller than the boys too. My blood pressure has done awesome. I hope that I will be able to go into labor by myself and stay at home as long as possible before going to sit in that awful hospital bed like I did before. I have no idea when she will come, but I am crossing my fingers that she will wait until Corban has his procedure. I would love to be there with him and won't be able to at this point if I have her before Tuesday.

4. Mark has been working like crazy over the past couple of months. He goes in before the boys get up (which, if you know my kids' sleep schedule you know that means it's REALLY early when Mark leaves) and comes home about 6pm. Not a fun schedule for anyone in our house. Especially with me trying to keep this baby from coming right now. Thank goodness for family and friends! We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Melber this year (even though I was 38 weeks preggo) because of the amount of help I had taking care of children. Our Tullahoma family has been so awesome to help out. From random meals brought by, to helping me take Corban to Murfreesboro for an entire morning of tests/dr visits etc, watching one or both kids, or just being understanding and helping me while I go crazy in nesting these past few weeks....we are blessed for sure!

That's all I've got for now. We are just in preparation mode now for our little addition. Please say special prayers for our family over the next few weeks as we have a full schedule leading up to a huge transition in our lives. Here are a few pictures of our happenings since the beach vacation...

Busy October

I know, I know....blogging updates are scarce. We have been BUSY this month. We have had something going almost every weekend. Whether it's a wedding, a Melber trip, a beach vacation, or camping...I feel like we've done it all! Greg and Megan are in for furlough right now and we are excited about them coming for their Cedar Lane time soon!! Last week we went on our very first beach family vacation. I have never been on a beach vacation before, so the boys and I had all new experiences together. Mark is an old pro at the beach so we counted on him and the Abrahams family to help us out:) That's right, the Abrahams family went with us! We had so much fun. We have been talking or a long time about vacationing together but haven't pulled it off until just now. We are so thankful the hurricane that threatened to hit our town fizzled out too...that could have been bad. We hiked, had date nights, and swam until our bodies couldn't take anymore. Aaron really enjoyed playing on the beach with Aiden and Liam. He is getting more comfortable in the water...still not the little fish that Corban is. Corban LOVED the pool. He would jump in even if no one was there to catch him. He got used to the sand on the beach but wasn't a fan of the waves. Maybe next time. We stayed the perfect amount of time. We got back on a Wednesday night and left for a Phillips family camping trip Friday at lunch. We camped at Pennyrile State Park in KY. Aaron and Corban LOVED playing with their cousins and we always enjoy our time with siblings and parents. We even rented some canoes and went out on the little lake that was on the camp ground. Gloria and Ryan HAVE to come next time...seriously! We missed them! Both boys did great sleeping in the tent. I am very grateful that my kids adapt really well in most situations. It makes traveling a little more enjoyable. I think if I wouldn't have been 7 months preggo...I would have slept better too! Our family loves to camp. It's a lot of work, especially while pregnant, but there is nothing like being surrounded by nature and sitting by a camp fire at night. The rest of October is just as busy as the beginning and November brings Thanksgiving:) Then it's baby time!!!

Teach me Lord

So this is another reflection post:) Over the past few months I have literally been studying like crazy. God has also been putting people in my life who have been challenging me to get outside my comfort zone in ministry. I welcome it, really I do. I am excited and energized by new ideas and new people I meet all the time. I also find myself struggling with confidence. I am almost tempted to run the other way sometimes.
I am very thankful for my parents and their strong influence throughout my entire childhood to be about God's mission. Ministry is something we took very seriously and I believe that is where I got my zeal and drive to learn and challenge myself to know God better so I can share him with everyone. Now that I am more grown up, I have learned how to better use the gifts God has given me (and identify them better). I have struggled with confidence pretty much as long as I can remember, and while I have improved significantly in this area, it still brings its ugly self up sometimes.
I am getting ready to teach a class on Wednesday nights. I have been preparing and thinking about this class for over 6 months now. Up until now, I have been nothing but excited and very vocal to people about how awesome this study is and inviting people to come on this journey with me. Now that it is here...I am getting pretty anxious. That stupid lack of confidence is creeping its way into my head. "What if you do a sucky job, Diane?" "What if you have promoted this class too much and it's a HUGE disappointment to the people you have formed relationships with and have invited who DON'T even know Jesus.?" "You don't have very much experience teaching, other women do (or men for that matter)..let them do it." All these questions/statements and MANY more flood my thoughts and cause me to doubt. WHY!!! Seriously, why can't I just let things be. And it doesn't stop there....I even start questioning what I feel like God is calling me to do. Why would I feel such a strong call by God and feel so insecure at the same time? Why would God want to use me to do this particular thing or have these certain relationships when there is a perfectly capable (and well trained I might add) person to do it...better than me...or at least not mess it up like I would? Even more, why can't I keep those stupid thoughts OUT of my head!!!!
This afternoon my wonderful husband asked if I would lead the discussion for small group tonite. "Sure." "Ask the girl who talks too much and cries about everything right now." Not only do I start questioning myself, but now I have to lead a discussion in front of my husband who in my opinion is MUCH more intelligent than I am, and doesn't fumble over his words to get his point across. "sure honey." I started looking at the material. It's on confession. Oh good. Now I can confess to everyone and blubber through my talk. Great. Another way to show my insecurities.

STOP.

I spent some time in prayer after Mark and I talked. I read over the material and prayed some more. Instead of letting myself feel pressure to be EVERYTHING to everyone I decided to just STOP. Spending time emptying myself of all that stupid stuff that gets in my head and letting God fill me with his Spirit I was able to at least hear something other than Satan. Here is the direction I want to head:

God is not calling me because I am fluent with my words. God is not calling me because of my level of confidence. He is calling me because He is confident in me to show others who HE is and what he is about in this world. God isn't using me because I am perfect or even close. I think about His story in scripture. God isn't about using those who have it all together. He uses the broken. He uses the imperfect. I realize that those thoughts that flood my brain are too much about ME and not enough about HIM. Let God do his thing. He is good at it.

So my prayer today is for God to give me confidence. Not in my own abilities, but in His. He chose to put a fire in my that is just getting stronger and stronger every day. I need to trust that. I want His ways to be my ways and I want to get all of those thoughts that produce doubt OUT of my head. I pray for all of this pressure to be released and have peace. I want people to see me living Jesus and not just talking about him. I'm working on it...God's working on me!

First Day of school

Today was Aaron's first day of school. He was so excited that he wore his backpack the entire morning.

Trail Ride 2013

Well, we are back from another 9 Day Trail Ride trip. We had an excellent year this year and had NO serious accidents or problems. The weather was PERFECT! It was in the 80's most of the week and there was a breeze almost every day that made riding very enjoyable. Aaron and Corban took almost every ride every day no matter then length. Corban took a day or so off because of an ear infection but was right back in the saddle with his Papa after that. His longest ride was 7 hours! Aaron was riding his own horse by the end of the week (this mama was slightly nervous about that) and did great. He rode a very sweet, and very gentle mare who he named Mary/Suzie/or Sally, depending on which day it was. He has become and riding fool and is so proud that he can ride by himself. We had such a great time together and can't wait til next year. We will be adding a little girl to the mix!