things i have learned...

1. The state of mind you have in the begining that makes you believe you could stay up all day and night with little sleep goes away a lot quicker by your 3rd child. With Emma, if she had a rough night I could slimply sleep while she napped during the day. For all 3 children to nap at the same time, certain stars would have to align and I'm not sure I am that lucky.

Along that line, what happens to you in your early 20s that allows you to go to school and work full time plus stay out all night hanging out with your friends only to get up the next day and repeat it all over again? If I could talk to my young 20s self, I think I would tell me to get more sleep.

2. You have more credit with the pediatrician when you have 3. When we went to the doctor today and told them all of the signs that Lila had for having acid reflux just like Ava had, she said she thinks we are right. It's nice to know that when you talk to the doctor, they finally trust you as a parent even if I did have to have 3 to get there.

3. It really doesn't matter how much cleaning/sanitizing you do, sometimes kids just get sick. We have made Emma and Ava wash hands before they touch Lila and Lila still caught her first cold. Nothing like having a winter baby.

4. At home 3 kids hasn't been that bad. However, in public, that's another story. I am really wondering if I will ever go by myself anywhere with all 3 children.

5. I think our car is shrinking. When we bought our Durango we really thought it had so much space especially with the 3rd row. We thought we could easily fit more than 2 children in the SUV. We were wrong.

6. During this phase of life, the key to the whole thing is to keep a sense of humor. So I leave you with this.

Ava came out of the bathroom saying, "Look Mommy and Daddy! I have a tail!"

random images in film

I really do love the look of film.

The only thing that bothers me is that when we have an event worth blogging about, I post the digital images as soon as Jason can get them to me. Then, fast forward to weeks maybe a month later after his film has been processed. I end up with a bunch of pictures that I love but have already blogged about.

So that brings us to this post: random images in film.

The following 2 pictures are from a day when we got the bright idea to take the girls outside and do some belly shots of me with them. They would not even come near or touch my belly. During my pregnancy, I could not keep them from touching it or kissing it. That's my girls.

A typical scene in the morning watching cartoons.

This is when we made Christmas cookies.

A sleeping Ava, very unusual.

I love this pic of Emma. So sweet.

This is when we celebrated Christmas with the Stockdale family at our house. Can you tell the girls are ready to dive into the presents?

These are a couple of pics from the Ole Miss homecoming game. The girls had a blast!

some pics in film from our snow day

a snooze

The other day I walked into the the den and saw this:

I had to grab a camera and take a picture. Of course, I am camera illiterate so I used the camera on my iPhone.

Then, today I realized that this is the only picture we have of Jason with Lila.

I really need to learn how to take pictures. Otherwise, the scrapbook is going to look like she has an absentee father when really he is just always behind the camera:)

some pictures of Lila

my view

This is what I get to look down at and see now. I love the way she has crossed her arms and laid her head down. So precious. I don't know how we did life before she came along...

rewind back to new year's day

In all the the hustle and bustle of having a baby, I got out of order with my blogging. New Year's Day we celebrated Christmas with Grammy and Pop-Pop and the rest of the family.

With 4 little girls in the family, you can imagine the multitude of gifts that filled our house. My girls were so excited to see all the dress up clothes that they got from Grammy and Pop-Pop. In fact, they have lived in them everyday since then.

Who's the big pregnant girl? I am now cringing at my uncomfortable self.

Aunt Rebekah and Cousin Olivia

Cousin Ella
This is Pop-Pop receiving the gift from the kids. We all got him tickets to Eric Clapton.

Princess Emma could not resist putting on the new Christmas present.

the first night

The first night at home was a pretty good night.

We were slightly disappointed that Lila woke up and wanted to eat as often as she did, but we do realize that she is only 4 days old.

As we were sitting there in the bed feeding Lila at 4:00 in the morning, Ava came downstairs. Ava is our light sleeper, and we were afraid that she would be waking up at nights now because of Lila's crying.

Ava bounced into our room and plopped down beside me and asked if she could feed Baby Lila. I placed the boppy around her and laid Lila onto her lap. I handed her the bottle and she finished feeding Lila.

Ava kept saying, "Mommy, am I a good big sister?" or "I am the big sister!"

It was such a sweet touching moment with 2 of my girls that makes getting up at 4:00 in the morning well worth it!





I love the big yawn on Ava's face because I totally get it. It says, "I love you Baby Lila, but I really wish we could share this moment more during the day time."

coming home

Baby Lila

yesterday, we were blessed with another amazing little girl. Lila Kate has already captivated our hearts and we are treasuring these precious moments. to everyone that has prayed for us, thank you. here are a few from lila's first "birth-day".

lila's room

This room has been a labor of love for all of us. It really turned out cute. We reused, repurposed and made so many of the items in the room.

The theme and inspiration for the room started with this quilt. It is Jason's grandmother's quilt. When we were in Louisville, I fell in love with it. Jason can remember sleeping on it as child when he would go visit. It's around 40 years old.

The bed. All of our children at one point in time have slept in this bed. Jason painted it black for Lila's room.

I actually made the pillows for the bed. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but trust me. I am not good with sewing.

I made this canvas for her room.

One of her night stands.

The door hanger I made.

Jason's grandmother made both of the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls by hand. I made the blocks with Lila's name on it.

Jason also redid Ava's old changing table in black. The mirror came from my mom. I recovered the lamp in the material from her pillows on the bed.

These were some bottles I found at the Salvation Army for a quarter. With the help of the girls, we filled them up with little colored styrofoam beads.

This is the rocker that Jason painted black. It was my mom's rocker. She rocked all 3 of us in it.

I have a few more things I will place in the room, but for the most part it is finished!