First bath

July 28

You can't tell it by his first bath experience, but this little water baby quickly came to love his bath time and cries whenever it's over and he's pulled out.

Too precious for words

July 27"Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of Lights."

James 1:17

Our Reno .1

July 22Tearing down walls. We're removing the walls in the formal living room, family room and kitchen to make a more casual, open floor plan.

Getting to know you

July 26

July 17
July 23

Dear baby Oliver,

We're so glad you're our baby brother. We'll keep you and love you forever.

Coming back

I'm sitting here with my cup of coffee (enjoying this beautiful fall morning) thinking about how to come back to blogging.

I've missed you and our daily visits.

Somewhere along the way I lost the drive to press on. It could have been packing up one home and staying with mom and dad while we waited for our new home. It could have been the end of a pregnancy and the addition of a fourth precious child. It could have been poor health. But it was likely the combination of everything at once.

This past year has been a challenging one in many ways and in order to cope, some of the things that make me *me* got pushed aside. Well, maybe just gently packed away and stored until things settled down a little.

Bit by bit, I'm unpacking.

We moved into our new home two {seven, actually. . . it's been awhile since I started this post} weeks ago so I'm unpacking that too.

So, thank you for waiting for me. Maybe you didn't and have moved on! But if you did wait, thank you.

I just realized that with this post I am back! That's one less thing to think about.

Baby Boy

When you have a new baby, you flood your blog with his pictures because you can't get enough.

His Baby Blanket

Aunt Jayme made him a sweet, soft blanket

Helping

Baby brothers are the best.

Sprout

The perfect bow of his lips

The delicate, soft wrinkles of his feet

I'm smitten

Babymoon

Do I need to say more?

Blessed day

A son is born!

Oliver James

6:43 a.m.  July 17, 2009

What we do while we're waiting

We take pictures of my expanding belly.

We make special art work for baby Sprout.

This has become a much anticipated tradition for the older two. Annabelle got to do this for the first time.

We get the birth room all set up.

The smell of the clean room and the brand new vinyl bring back sweet memories of preparing for Annabelle's arrival. It was precious that she helped me set up for Sprout.

We get a weekend away . . . just mama and daddy.