Big Girl is Now Two

Our little Princess is all grown up now. Walking and talking and has a very sassy attitude already. Last month she officially became a toddler. Here is some of our Dora the Explore adventure at the Little Gym.

Philippa's Mission Statement

Ever since I discovered the very encouraging words by Kat from 'Inspired to Action' I have been thinking about writing out my own personal mission statement. I've been dreading it for fear that I would be able to do it or it would be lacking personality. But last night I put my fear aside took out my notes and started. Turned out to be far easier that I thought. Here is my first draft. As my life story changes I'm sure it will only grow and get deeper.

Christian:

In my role as a Christian I want to be more familiar with the best and most powerful weapon, tool and resource God provided, His Word. 

• To be able to take His Word and provide practical application to my daily life. 
• To live a life that when in fellowship with others they can sense the Holy Spirit within me immediately and to be a light for them. 
• To have a strong, personal and most importantly consistent prayer life. 

Servant:

In my role of Servant I want to end each day knowing that whatever I did for others that day I did my best. 

• To always be compassionate to the needs of others and to willingly sacrifice myself to help them fulfill their needs. 
• To put others before myself. 

Wife:

My role as a wife should be one of honor, respect, admiration, love, kindness and trust. 

• To ensure that my husband will never doubt my loyalty to and desire for him. 
• To be his best friend. 
• To be someone he can depend on. 
• To listen to his words and be able to serve him and help him meet his own personal goals. 
• To help him always feel that he is valued, needed and appreciated each day by me and our children. 

Mother:

As a mother I desire to be a warm, fair and consistent leader, role model and guide for my children. 

• To train them up in Gods Word through words, actions and example. 
• To ensure they know and understand the boundaries of the home and to be aware of the consequences when boundaries are ignored or refuted. 
• For my children to know without doubt that they are loved, cared for and valued in our home. 
• To prepare them for the world outside and equip them with wisdom to make smart, calculated and prayer filled decisions. 

Welcome Baby Li

Okay I admit this is post is almost three months late but I couldn't go with out at least sharing the birth experience and my big boys progress up to now.

Baby Li, in case you did guess yet is our latest baby boy. He was born January 20 at 6:49 am and weighed a hefty 7.9 pounds.

I would have to say his pregnancy was by far the hardest of them all on my body. I was more emotional, tired, warn out and stretched than I ever was with Fé and Ty. I was so happy to be having another baby but beyond ready to have my body back and begin the recovery process.

Needless to say I did not complain much when he was born in the 37th week.

His birth story begins on Thursday morning on the way to work when I told Chris very seriously that I was going to have Li that weekend. He kind of just let it roll off his shoulders not realizing how serious I was. I did some quick research, built up a list of supplies and devised a plan to ensure labor would commence. So Saturday night Chris and I dropped off the kids at the grandparents, got some supplies and headed home to begin the process. After drinking some teas, juice, some martial lovings and a walk or two around the block contractions were coming approximately 1.5 minutes apart. We waited a little bit more than with the advice of our midwife headed to the hospital and arrived a little after 1 am.

When we arrived I was already 5 cm dialeted so didn't have far to go. However when we checked again a few hours later, I hadn't progressed very far at all. The midwife suggested something we had never experienced before, to have our water broken. With Fé and Ty my water always broke just as I was pushing, no earlier and certainly not by any means other than naturally  The risk were minimal  One of two things would happen. Contractions would intensify and become more frequent and stronger as the baby no longer had a cushion of water in between his head and the cervix. Or nothing would happen at all and they would have to start pitocin. Praise Jesus the contractions kicked in and a few painful (but not as intense as with Fé) contractions later, Li was finally born. The best part is Chris was able to catch the baby this time.

Photo taken by Ty Channer 

It was all an amazing experience, and knowing that it was our last pregnancy I am so glad it was so smooth. Recovery has been by far the hardest and slowest for me and at first that bothered me. But I soon got over it. I have all the time in the world to recover and get back to a normal/healthy weight and spirit.

Now we are enjoying being a family of five. Li is surrounded by a family that love him very much and I think he knows it. 

To Be 8 Again!!!

We have loads to catch up on but in the mean time my mommy shared this cute email forward. Thought I'd share with you all 

To Be 8 again!

A man was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching his wife, who was looking at herself in the mirror.

Since her birthday was not far off he asked what she'd like to have for her birthday.

“I'd like to be eight again”, she replied, still looking in the mirror ..

On the morning of her Birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her to Adventure World theme park. What a day! He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Roller Coaster, everything there was.

Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down. He then took her to a McDonald's where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate shake.

Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soda pop, and her favorite candy, M&M's. What a fabulous adventure! 

Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted.

He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, 'Well Dear, what was it like being eight again?

Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed.

“I meant my dress size, you  retard!!!!”

The moral of the story: Even when a man is listening, he is gonna get it wrong.

Gender! Do we find out or not?

With both Ty and Fè we went ahead and requested to know the gender. The unknown was not attractive to me. I am a born organize planning freak and could not comprehend not know the gender and being prepared. Yes I know people did it for years and still do it today, bit God knew what He was doing by having me on earth at this time in technology. I needed to know to be sane.

However since we have had both genders now and have basically 80% of what we need for this child to survive in both pink and blue already my logic for knowing the sex ahead of the time no longer applies.

So what do you think we should do? We still have like 6-7 weeks to decide.

Pregnancy Blues

First I have to apologize to this poor unborn child for my lack of attention. We didn't even do a post announcing our pregnancy. We are the worse mommy/daddy bloggers ever. On memorial day Chris and I discovered we were expecting our 3rd baby. Yuppie. Making me 13 weeks pregnant today. Praise Jesus 1st trimester is over.

However I am here to share that I am praising right now but more out of hope and wishful thinking. I am so unbelievably miserable it's not funny.

This child has my hormones operating in ways it's has never even dreamed of. I have never experienced anything like what I am emotionally going through right now. This child may have very well just confirmed for us whether or not 3 babies is enough. Because quite frankly I NEVER want to feel this way ever again.

I am almost constantly angry, impatient and frustrated. And I CAN NOT control it. I hate the way I feel and treat others. My hope is that I balance out and get some sort of normalcy soon but the unknown is daunting.

Please pray for me, my family and my coworkers. Pretty much anyone who needs to interact with me.

I will end my saying that no matter how I feel physically I know that I am blessed beyond measure to be trusted by God to carry, deliver and help raise another one of His chosen angels. I will love and cherish my baby. I will just be sure to tell them one day the torture I endured to bring them life.

Family Day @ Laytonsville Parade

This morning we were locked in our neighborhood due to the annual Laytonsville parade. We were stuck in from 9 am until 2 pm so rather than fight it we joined the crowd. We ate some pb&j sandwiches put on loads of sun block and headed out. Here are a few pics of our fun. Great little town we are in right now ... Gonna miss it.