To get back into the swing of things, I’m going to update on each kiddo, one by one. Then I’ll try to get back to just blogging about the day by day. I know that thrills you to no end, especially after the glimpse at our day-to-day you got in that highly entertaining Texas Macaroni post.

So, here we go. Oldest to youngest.

KJ (3 1/2-years-old)
Here are a few of my favorite summer pics and some info on our oldest son.

Potty training, oh potty training. It may kill me.
I really don’t have anything encouraging
to say on this topic.
So…moving on…

Just a funny story. One day, at the height of potty training frustration, I lost my cool and said “KJ, only animals squat in the corner to poop instead of using the potty” (I know, I regret it) to which KJ replied “Can I be a monkey?”. Nice.

The rock wall.

KJ LOVES rock-climbing and several of the parks in our area have great walls at the playgrounds. Now, KJ has his very own in our backyard. He thinks it is the coolest. He also LOVED helping his Daddy put it together.

One of KJs favorite things to do is read. He has several books completely memorized and loves to read to others. Here he is reading “Go Dog Go” to his Great-Grandmomma when we visited her this summer. Other favorites include “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” and “The Cat in the Hat”.

Fun in the sun is right up KJ’s ally. From the summer foods like popsicles and watermelon, to summer fun like the splash park and swimming pool, he LIVES for summer.

He’s also quite the ham. To the right, he was eating his lunch under his towel because he was FREEZING (it was probably 100 degrees outside).

Another favorite thing about this summer was lots of time with family. Since I was off on maternity leave we got to spend an entire month with my family. A highlight was time we spent with Uncle M, who is currently living in my grandparents old house. I loved getting to watch KJ do some of the things I treasured in childhood, working in the garden and riding the tractor. SO FUN!!

KJ takes his role as Big Brother very seriously. He is a protector and informer (doesn’t that sound nicer than tattle-tale). We’ve been working with the boys on sticking together and watching out for each other when we are in public (I need all the help I can get). I say “We stick together because we are…” and they say “TEAM LEWIS”. Its funny, but also effective.

KJ started school in September. Nothing ever suited him better than going to school. He LOVES to learn. I know I am biased, but this is one sharp little cookie so I’m glad he’s getting some attention and challenge at school.

Recently, he went with a friend who is in graduate school for speech path to do some mock-testing. No shocker, his verbal skills tested well above his age. When you combine his advanced verbal skills with his small stature people are always amazed at the way he talks (usually thinking he’s even younger than he is). It is so funny to see their reactions to things he says.

His “smarts” are also the source for many battles at our house these days. He can rationalize ANYTHING and always has an answer. If he doesn’t know the answer, he’ll make one up. For example, when I cut my foot open on his matchbox car on the ground and said to him “KJ, we really need to work on putting toys back where they go” and he responded “Or, you could work on stepping over them”. Thats pretty standard for how our conversations go. But we are working on being respectful, obeying on the first time, and not arguing. Sometimes its tough not to just laugh, though.

And finally, a real treat if you made it to this point.

Two videos of some of my favorite things about KJ.

The first is him singing to his sister. Love the choice of song
combined with his sweetest lullaby voice!

and the second is him telling Cbug a joke.

I LOVE that KJ loves to tell jokes, but Cbugs reaction is really

what makes this hilarious and they do it OVER AND OVER AND OVER!

Joke translation:

Q: Why does the golfer wear two pairs of pants?

A: In case he gets a hole-in-one.

That’s the latest happenings with our big kid. He’s a joy!

ABL

When you haven’t blogged in months and your first post back was heavier than the norm for this spot on the www, you gotta follow it up with something fun and light, right? Here’s a quick post to get the ball rolling because, lets be real, this ball is gonna have to roll pretty stinkin’ far if I’m ever going to get all the pictures and updates up that I would like to (doubtful). In the meantime…

Its been more than 3 months. My poor neglected blog has sure gotten backseat these days to well…LIFE. I sincerely hope that someday I’ll get back to writing about the hilarious things KJ says or tell stories about our “bull-in-the-china-closet” of a middle child, or maybe fill you in on our diva of a daughter. I really do want to get some of their current goings on down on cyber-paper soon so that I can remember details of these days. I know if I don’t try to document some of it, I’ll remember it only for what it seems at a glance…a BLUR.

Today, though, I just needed to stop and take a moment to use this blog as a spot for perspective. When things are crazy and time-consuming and just plain BUSY (like life is when the oldest of your three kids is 3) sometimes I feel like…in the words of my wise friend Tara…I WANT OFF THE CRAZY TRAIN! But as soon as those words are out of my mouth, I also feel a strong pull to live in the moment, remember details, absorb the joy of my children and remember to stop and Praise the Maker of the Universe!

Today, my heart is turning easily to PRAISE. I’m particularly praising Him as healer. He’s been reminding me this week that He is the one who holds our health in his hands. As of this week, I have been blessed with 5 years (and 3 babies) of living pain-free and medication-free. WOW! When I had surgery for Crohn’s disease during this week in 2004, the doctors HOPED for a few years of relief. But God has been so good to not only provide relief, but to provide COMPLETE relief even without medication and even through 3 pregnancies. I just didn’t want this week to pass without taking time to thank HIM for that. CAN I GET AN AMEN?

But, it seems when the Lord is showing me something he sometimes has to emphasize it over and over to get me on my knees. As another reminder of His faithfulness in healing, He has been so good to our Cbug this week. What started as a “cold” took a scary turn on Tuesday night when Cbug woke up unable to get a breath. RRL and I heard a gasping sound from the boys room and ran to him. He was panicking and in respiratory distress. Thankfully, we still had an inhaler from when he had RSV nearly a year ago and thankfully RRL had the strength of mind to find it and administer it while I called 911. RRL was able to get him breathing better before the ambulance arrived so we took him in ourselves. A shot of steroids, some antibiotics, tamaflu and several days of rest later he’s running around like his crazy self again today. As a mom, it doesn’t take much to send me down the “what if” path. What if we hadn’t been sitting in the living room so close to his room to hear him, what if we hadn’t had the inhaler, what if, what if, what if. But praise HIM who is able to take care of all of the “what ifs” and the ones we can’t even imagine. I’m so thankful that it wasn’t any worse. As I lay beside him everynight this week, just watching him breathe, I’ve definitely been mindful of so many others who are struggling through health issues with their babies. PERSECTIVE.

I typed the above earier today. At the time, I was pretty proud of myself for the “perspective” lesson that I had gleaned from this. Oh silly pride of mine. Here are tonight’s thoughts…

I spent a couple of hours visiting this afternoon with one of my dearest friends and I realized that the Lord has indeed being speaking to me this week about healing. But maybe that wasn’t the only lesson. It is about so much more. He’s been showing me about relinquishing control. As Mel and I talked this afternoon, it was one of those “AH HAH” moments…OH NOW I GET IT…or at least I’m beginning to. You actually want me to LET GO of EVERYTHING? Oh. EVERYTHING- right down to even the things that are most precious- the health and well-being of myself, my husband, my children. Oh. And not just in a big way, but in all the little ways, too. In every moment, every decision, ever life-stressor (and there’s been a lot of them lately)…EVERYTHING. Oh. Gonna have to go ahead and admit, this is tough for me. These days I’m pretty much drowning in my own need to control things and inability to do so. So while this is a very freeing thought for me, I’m gonna have to update you later on how its going in reality!

Boy, I sure liked it earlier this afternoon when I could tie this post up with a pretty bow and move on with a warm and cozy vibe. Should have known better. In the meantime, on that topic of healing, lots of others have been on my heart for prayers for healing (maritally, physically, emotionally, spiritually). Some close to my heart, some complete strangers. I’d love to make a list of the stories, but they are not really my stories to tell. Just wanted to throw out there that its interesting to me that when I started thinking and praying about relinquishing control my first thoughts were of others. Perspective.

*Originally posted on facebook, August 2009. Just moved to blog for “safekeeping”.

The “tag” instructions:
If you have little ones, ask them these questions and record their responses.

Here are the answers from Korben (age 3 years, 3 months):

What is something mommy always says to you?
KJ: “To obey.”

What makes mommy happy?
KJ: “When I go pee pee in the potty.”

What makes mommy sad?
KJ: “When I be in trouble. When I tell Cbug things to do.”

How does your mommy make you laugh?
KJ: “Make jokes.”

How old is your mommy?
KJ: “4 or maybe 5.”

How tall is your mommy?
KJ: “Big.”

What is her favorite thing to do?
KJ: “Eat.”

What does your mommy do when you’re not around?
KJ: “Cry.”

What is your mommy really good at?
KJ: “Go to the zoo…and go to the park.”

What does your mommy do for a job?
KJ: “Trains.”

What is your mommy’s favorite food?
KJ:”Pink and Purple.”

What do you and your mommy do together?
KJ: “Play.”

How do you know your mommy loves you?
KJ: “I want to make a garage.”

Where is your mommy’s favorite place to go?
KJ: “Chick Fil A.”

What is your mommy’s favorite thing to say?
KJ: “KJ, don’t do that.”

Short commercial break-I finally added a photo of me at 40+ weeks, visiting the stork at the zoo! See previous post.

Now back to the program-

Isn’t it amazing that a date can just be a number on the calendar and then all of a sudden, it can take on so much meaning. I’ll never again hear someone speak “June 16th” without automatically thinking “that is the day that the day my baby girl was born.” A day that before was just a date, now is one of the most significant days of my life. AMAZING. I love this picture of our first meeting:In this moment I could care less about the state of my makeup, the fact that someone is taking my picture in the adorable hospital gown, what my hair looked like or what is going on anywhere else in the world. Even more amazing is the disgusting “mess” that is just beyond the cropped edges of this photo yet a million miles from my mind or the pain that I screamed through just minutes before. The space between my nose and hers was all the world to me in that instant.

Just a couple of weeks before Little Miss made her debut, Kristen D pointed out this scripture. I’ve always thought this to be an amazing truth and loved seeing it in the Word:
“When a woman gives birth, she has a hard time, there’s no getting around it. But when the baby is born, there is joy in the birth. This new life in the world wipes out memory of the pain.” – John 16:21

I’m sure very few of you care about all of the details of that day in the way that we do, but I am anxious to document them as best I can remember in hopes that one day I can share with Little Miss about the day she came into this world…and changed mine.

I woke up about 3:30am fairly sure that my water had broken. I was not 100% certain, half asleep, and not really wanting to let myself believe that this was FINALLY happening. We waited around at the house for a little while and nothing happened (no contractions or other signs of labor) but RRL was determined that we go on to the hospital…wise since Cbug arrived 1 hour after my water broke and only 25 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. I don’t blame RRL for not wanting to deliver his third baby at home or in our car :)! Our AMAZING neighbors, J&K, came to stay with the boys and my Momma, RRL and I headed out.

We arrived a little after 4 am and still NOTHING. I went straight to the nurses station and basically begged them not to send me home. I was sure they would take one look at me and send me home…I just could not BARE the thought of that. A sweet nurse checked me, said I was at about a 4 (same as my doctor’s visit a week before), but that I was leaking some amniotic fluid so I better stay…HOORAY! She thought it was probably a high leak in the water sack and suggested we do some walking to get labor to progress. We walked and walked and walked, rested a little, then walked and walked and walked. AND NOTHING. Occasionally, when I was hooked to the monitor, we could tell that I was having a few contractions, but nothing more intense than I’d been experiencing for weeks. OH LORD, I prayed, please don’t let this take all day.

Every time a nurse would come into the room, I’d remind them that I was 5 days past my due date and absolutely COULD NOT go home without a baby. Each would sweetly reassure me that I did the right thing by coming to the hospital and that when the doctor came in later in the morning she would get things moving. We really had this same conversation no less than 12 times in the few hours leading up to the doctor’s visit.

AND BOY HOWDY did the doctor get things moving….

When she came in a little after 8am she checked and I was still about a 4, but my water actually had not really broken. APPARENTLY it is possible to have TWO sacks of fluid. Usually these two sacks fuse during pregnancy, but OF COURSE our comfortable baby girl wasn’t ready to release her water bed yet and just decided to hang on to one. So the doctor broke the REAL sack and I immediately started having contractions…like REAL ONES. The pain I had prayed for was upon me and suddenly I was wishing that I hadn’t been so persistent about asking for things to get going!

I had such an awesome experience in the past with natural birth so I told the nurse I wanted to go as far as possible without medication. She, along with RRL and my sweet momma, were so encouraging as I labored, but about 30 minutes in I was already ready to give up. When the nurse said it was too late for medicine I thought about just requesting a rubber mallet to knock myself out with…oh my it was intense.

But just as fast as it began, it was over. Baby sister was born at 9:19, less than 1 hour after the first contraction. I literally gasped in amazement when I saw her, and my first words, overcome with emotion, were “Thank you Lord, Sweet Jesus”…shortly followed by “She is a girl, right?” I was literally in awe as I watched the NICU staff clean her up and check her (she swallowed a little bit of meconium, but was just fine). Every time someone new came into the room we would exclaim “Did you see her, isn’t she wonderful, just perfect, absolutely beautiful?” And she was indeed. Oh, He has been good to us!

Because we thought so much about timing leading up to her birth and prayed for His perfect timing, we were quick to notice and point out all of the ways he worked in the hours of her birth. Here are a few of the miracles that topped off the day:

1) My Momma has been at the birth of all three of my children. This is something I prayed for each time from the first moments of pregnancy. It is no small thing that she was there, considering that she lives 11 hours away yet “happened” to be in town each time.

2) My Daddy’s biggest show of the year is always the middle of June. This is a show that his office spends weeks/months preparing for and the week leading up to the show is especially busy. Baby Sister made her debut less than 24 hours after the show was torn down so Daddy was able to hop on a plane and be here just shortly after she arrived and stayed for nearly a week. He likely would not have been able to do that if she had arrived any earlier.

3) CBUG…so many blessings came through and for this little boy by his sister waiting to arrive. He has grown and changed so much in the last month and I know that in part the Lord was giving our amazing middle child the time he needed to grow into the big brother role. This is probably the blessing that I have thanked the Lord most for. Thank you, Lord, for letting me be home to hear so many of his first words, watch him grown and change, experience his learning process, and for giving me a greater confidence that he is going to be JUST FINE giving up his baby of the family status!

4) Because of my random “second sack” the birth of our sweet girl was pretty uneventful. This was a good thing in our minds! The water leaking from the first sack meant that we were right where we needed to be, when we needed to be there and were able to actually have a doctor deliver baby Sister!

5) We have a sweet high school senior that has been helping me some with the boys this summer. She is like family, the boys LOVE her and she is one of the reasons I know we are going to survive the first few months of family-of-fiveness. Anyway, when it looked like we were going to be at the hospital for a while I really wanted her to be the one to take care of the boys. I knew they would love having her around, J&K could go to work, and my mom would be able to stay with me. One small problem…she is a senior…which basically means she keeps late nights and often sleeps late in the mornings if she doesn’t have plans. I knew there was no way she would be up in time to go over to our house, but I sent her a text message just in case. And the Lord did an amazing thing…he turned off the electricity in her house that morning for a very brief time, just long enough for it to get warm, turn off her sound machine, and let her wake up to see her text message! She literally got the message just moments before the doctor came in so we were able to discuss details with her before I was even in labor. We were given a peace that the boys were well taken care of for the day. And of course the boys were thrilled to hang out with her. How COOL is that!!

I’m sure many of the blessings of her arrival have yet to even be revealed to us. What an amazing day, though, and an amazing beginning to so many special memories made with our sweet angel. Thank you (if you made it this far in reading), from the bottom of our hearts, for your encouragement, love, offers to help, and especially your prayers during this special time for our family. We are so blessed and so loved!

ABL

I’ve mentioned the Dixie Chics “Lullaby” on this blog before. This week, though, I’ve been overwhelmed by the chorus…

How long do you want to be loved
Is forever enough, is forever enough
How long do you want to be loved
Is forever enough
Cause I’m never, never giving you up

When I sit on my couch snuggling my sweet newborn girl, watching the man I love chase the most adorable blond headed boys I’ve ever seen, and enjoying my parents here to share so many of these first memories with us…I’m not sure FOREVER is enough! Granted, this week has been pretty far from real life for us. My house is clean (not by me), meals just magically appear and the entertainment committee is in full swing for the boys with my parents here and RRL taking some time off of work. Always the realist, I know there are rough days are ahead and this Mommy-of-Three thing may be far from glamorous in the near future, but I’m pretty sure even that can’t change how full my heart is at this moment- absolutely bursting at the seams!
Because I’ve just been swept up in resting, nursing, snuggling and enjoying my family, I haven’t taken time before now to organize my thoughts on baby sister’s arrival and the details of her birth. I’ll definitely do that soon, but for now here are some of my favorite pictures of the little miss from the last week. I could stare at them FOREVER.

AMAZING!

ABL

PS- Can you tell that our theme around here has been “another day, another bow?” LOVING IT!

You’ve been doing a lot of growing since that moment…I can tell!

For inquiring minds- our little one is due in ONE WEEK! We never dreamed we would make it this far, scrambled to get ready for an early arrival, and find ourselves now completely ready and waiting. There is an amazing peace at our house because so many details have already been settled- the Lord was so sweet in his timing to know how much I needed that. So far, baby sister does not seem to be in any hurry to arrive. In typical girl fashion, she is going to use every minute she can get to prepare for her big debut. That’s just fine with us…the waiting will make the meeting all that much sweeter. Thank you for your prayers for her and for us.

ABL

It seems like just yesterday that we found out that we were expecting our first born son. Now, he is T-H-R-E-E! That is so hard to believe. KJ’s birthday has been celebrated and celebrated over the last few weeks and he has loved every bit of it. In fact we had a cupcake today at lunch for a special treat and he requested that we sing Happy Birthday to him again then blew out the imaginary candle. I have loved watching how he relished every detail of his special day(s) from the singing to the cake to the presents to the friends to blowing out the candles…he loved it all. That says a lot out how our oldest lives life.

KJ–
I am so proud of you and so thankful to call you my son. The Lord has been so good to mold you, from your earliest days, into the perfect fit for your position as the oldest child in our family. You have a lot of responsibility at such a young age with your brother watching everything you do. I love how seriously you take that responsibility already. Not only do you watch out for your little brother, you are a big helper to Mommy and Daddy, too. I love that you know how to wrestle hard with Daddy and be tender and sweet with Mommy (and baby sister in my belly). Baby sister is also going to be so blessed by all that you can teach her and by how protective you will be of her.

Some of your favorite things right now are playing outside, your race cars, being with friends, wrestling, reading stories to me or Daddy, playing games and any kind of ball! You play HARD at everything you play and are very intense in all things. It makes us laugh to see your tongue between your lips as you concentrate on the task at hand. We pray that you will always be intentional about the things you set your mind to.

Your Daddy and I are praying for your heart. We’re working with you on obeying, not arguing, and being respectful. I know these are such hard lessons to learn. As we teach and mold you, it has been good for us to remember that we struggle in some of those same areas and we strive to be obedient to all that the Lord has called us to. You are making us better people through your example! As we pray each night “May KJ and Cbug come to know Jesus as their savior”, there is no greater wish that we have for you as we celebrate you and your 3rd birthday. We love you more than we can tell you.

Mommy

Here are some awesome pictures that one of our favorite photographers, Cindi, took just before KJ’s 3rd birthday. I think they capture his 3-year-old personality so well. You are amazing, Cindi!

What a fun little man! Happy Birthday big shot!!

ABL

While I have always appreciated my mom, I really did not fully grasp all that she sacrificed for me until I was a mom myself. I now realize that I could never say “thank you” or “I’m so sorry” enough times for all that she endured!

I have a new appreciation for the amazing humility she showed as she spent years of selfless service raising 3 children. She never let on that her job was tough and although she claims there were moments she lost her temper, needed a break, or said things she regretted none of those moments are what I remember. They must have been significantly outweighed by the fact that she came to every single sporting event the three of us participated in (rain or shine), cooked countless dinners and knew each of our favorites, spent money she could have used for her dream house or wardrobe on braces, college and a little Ford Probe, and that she always made our home a place I always wanted to bring my friends to.

Over the years our relationship has continued to grow and change. Now she encourages me to be a better Mom to my own boys (and soon to our baby girl). She is a confidant and friend and no one understands me better. She has blazed a little trail, despite the miles, between my house and hers still making it a priority to be so invested in my life. Mom, I’m so thankful you are always only a phone call away and I’m so thankful for the relationship you have with KJ and C-bug. Can’t wait for baby sister to meet you, too!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, Momma!!