He's 3!

and it happened to me....

Okay so I have been practicing taking my kids out in public alone. Before you start gasping, think on how difficult it is to take four kids, under 5, out to the grocery store all at one time, a goal I would like to reach with out having a horrible melt down in the check out aisle. So needless to say, taking my three boys and little girl out is a big step for me and something I need to continue practicing until we get good at being out and in control of ourselves (me included!). I went on a trial run to the post office, since I figure that would be shorter and have all the essential temptations that the grocery or general store affords to little hands.

They did beautifully (we had debriefing before and after which always helps), they were not the funny part though. I walked in the store with all four, even without a stroller (strollers are hard to get into the Post Office) and an older woman came in close behind me and began talking to my boys.


"Wow, you must be busy!" She gawked at my children.

"Ah, no, not at all!" I quipped, smiling because I thought it warranted a little humor, this is a very common comment that we get, with or without little Petey. Then I turned around waiting for my turn. She then got my attention again.

"I am sorry," She looked like she thought she had offended me. "But I thought you had a daycare or were baby sitting."

I looked at her surprised, "No, they are all mine." I was honestly shocked!!


I have heard of other people getting this line of conversation, but never actually had it happen to me. My boys look so much alike I never imagined people would assume I have a day care, four kids are nothing compared to many others that I know. I spent the rest of the time there listening to her and another older couple commentating on me and the behavior of my children and the reality that yes I do have four children under 5.

I came home and told Will about it and then we had a discussion of children in our culture that was a continuation of one we had had with some friends from church after service on Sunday. I think I will let him comment on that as he is better gifted to be grace-filled then I have a tendency to be, but I thought this event was pretty funny and it made me laugh. I was sorry afterward that she thought I was actually offended, I was simply surprised! Makes me wonder what will happen when we are ready for the grocery store not with the boys but with other people.

What I love About Girls

I always said that if I should have a little girl some day (funny since I prayed for boys!) I would never be one of those moms who put the silly pink bands on a bald child's head. Or pierced a tiny infants ears. Or put shoes on a small foot simply for the aesthetic affect. Well, boy was I WRONG!!!!!!

I fully and completely admit that I am a complete hypocrite! I am such a sap when it comes to dressing my little girl for any reason! I will even change her immediately if she spits up on a dress or a nifty little romper. Funny how I never would do that with the boys, especially not once Kace and Greffie came along! If they were a little bit sour smelling, well they were boys, it was okay (in all fairness they are always a little sour smelling). But oh, no I have WAY to many outfits to try to even let one opportunity pass! I think, seriously I need some help! I NEVER imagined I would be like this! Turns out I truly am a girl at heart, who never imagined how it is to have a daughter who is essentially (in all the important ways) like you. Amazing how your heart simply responds differently to that gender relationship.

Now don't get me wrong! I LOVE my fellas, all four of them!! Silas is such a romantic and so sweet and sensitive it is a blessing to see his sense of humor and his deep tenderness. Kace is a mess, admittedly. 100% male animal, but he has such an absolute and complete drive (one day through the working of grace that gift will be very useful for the kingdom), and such a cute little menacing smile. I can barely resist the dimples. And Greffie is so very, very special. He has a personality that makes it impossible not to absolutely adore him. Homebody to the core, he constantly surprises me with these wonderful little hugs and kisses when I am least expecting it. All that said there is something different about a daughter.

I find that she drives me equally crazy, is just as self-absorbed, just as attached to me as any of the other three. Yet the idea that some day we may share this same walk together, with her as the mother...and the truth that I will be able to take a more active role in her discipleship...realizing that I am able to share with her a biblical love of home and family...knowing that we will (although at times not always) have an understanding that the boys cannot have. There is just something about a girl, that I never understood until I became the mother of one. I know now more about the bond between my husband and sons. I am very excited to embark on this very new adventure of hormones and femininity with my own little lady. I just love her one sweet dimple (don't you sometimes just want to bite your kids they are so darn cute? Okay maybe that is just me.....but I don't actually bite them!!)! I CANNOT wait to pierce her ears!!!!!


I love the fact that even the binkis are pink!


I love all the frilly stuff--especially these awesome socks that Sarah and Mindy made (you two are amazing)!! They are like baby-girl-mom crack! (or maybe that is just me!)



I LOVE the Hair bows, or any other type of feminine accessory.

Pictures, Pictures

Lets get goin!!


you still there, mom?



move it grams! I am starving!!



Aren't they cute??

Adjustments--Oy!

Bouncing back from Petra's birth has been a little less bouncy then we all anticipated. Unfortunately the fourth time around the block is a little slower then the first time. But it is wonderful to be able to eat, to have an appetite and to think food is a good thing once it enters my mouth. I must admit that I am still sore and still tired, but all this is to be expected.

The boys have been very excited to have a new sister and very attentive. They are interested in her diaper changes and most especially making sure she doesn't choke when she spits up. I have two automatic alarms going off if she so much as blinks an eye. Very convenient, maybe too convenient. They love their sister and are making room in the home for her very sweetly. Even Gresham is excited for her, much better then at the hospital, I suppose his world hasn't changed too awful much.

Petra is a very good baby. She is not as active and fussy as we anticipated based on the pregnancy and her activity level and heart rate norms during every check up. She is very snuggly and sweet tempered. She is nursing very well, although a little bit lazy.

All in all we are doing wonderfully compared to this time last week. Very excited to have added once again to our little family and so thankful for His mercy in our lives and especially our family. I am made aware of His mercy in the timing of this birth and the adjustments we are all making. Being a mom is never easy but it is always a way for me to see His working in my life and the lives of each member in this household and one inescapable fact always resonates with us---He is always good.

Blessings!

Petra's baby Shower

Pictures taken by Leide (thanks friend!!)

Our Favorite Quotes Part 2

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us." — C.S. Lewis


You have chosen the roughest road, but it leads straight to the hilltops.
- John Bunyan

"Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die." — Jonathan Edwards

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'ye were bought at a price', and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As waters are purest, when they are in motion--so saints are generally holiest, when in affliction. Some Christians resemble those doltish children, who will learn their lessons--no longer than while the rod is on their backs! In the greatest affliction--the Lord has sealed the sweetest instruction, "It was good for me to be afflicted--so that I could learn Your statutes!" Psalm 119:71
--William Secker

There is a difference between a truce and peace. A truce is when people put down their guns and don't shoot for awhile. True peace is when conflict is resolved and the parties to it become friends. Some think peace happens the instant the war stops. But that doesn't resolve the conflict unless the underlying issues are dealt with. Otherwise cessation of open hostility only brings about a cold war, which is still a war. That may result in a state worse than if the fighting had continued. A conflict driven underground can smolder and slowly destroy both sides. Two people who are at war with each other shouldn't be separated so they can't see each other. Rather, the cause of their conflict needs to be resolved so that they can come together in love. Biblical peace never evades issues--it isn't peace at any price. The peace of the Bible conquers the problem and builds bridges between people. That may involve struggle, pain, and anguish, but real peace is the result.
-John MacArthur

There is no death of sin without the death of Christ. -John Owen

To forsake Christ for the world, is to leave a treasure for a trifle...eternity for a moment, reality for a shadow. -William Jenkyn

But I perceive God will have us to be deprived of whatsoever we idolize, that He may have His own room. -Samuel Rutherford

The truth is too important to kill it in the streets for the sake of peace. --RC Sproul

Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride. -Richard Sibbes

Some of His children must go into the furnace to testify that the Son of God is there with them.
--Elizabeth Prentiss

In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.
- Richard Baxter

Grant, O Lord my God that I might never fall away in sucess or in failure; that I may not be prideful in prosperity nor dejected in adversity. Let me rejoice only in what unites us and sorrow only in what separates us. May I strive to please no one or fear to displease anyone except Yourself. May I seek always the things that are eternal and never those that are only temporal. May I shun any joy that is without you and never seek any that is beside you. O Lord, may I delight in any work I do in you and tire from any rest that is apart from you. My God, Let me direct my heart toward you, and in my failings, always repent with a purpose of ammendment.
--St. Thomas Aquinas

Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

--Proverbs 17:28


Should such a one as you faint in the day of adversity? Call to mind the days of old. The Lord liveth. Trust in Him, although He should slay you. -Samuel Rutherford

It is not my ability but my response to God's ability that counts.
--Corrie Ten Boom

An afflicted life looks very like the way that leads to the kingdom. -Samuel Rutherford

"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness." -C.S. Lewis

"The minister must speak from the heart or he cannot speak to the heart."--Anthony Burgess in Section IV: The nature of sanctifying grace (regeneration) with the counterfeit thereof

His cry not forward, but Follow. -William Guthrie

Thou art beaten that thou mayest be better. -John Bunyan


Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.
-John Bunyan

Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will. -Jonathan Edwards

"Whenever you find a man who says he doesn't believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later." -C.S. Lewis

Our Favorite Quotes Part 1

Think it not hard if you get not your will, nor your delights in this life; God will have you to rejoice in nothing but himself.
--Samuel Rutherford

And because you complain so much of sin, I ask you why doth not your conscience more accuse you of the sin of unthankful denying or extenuating the mercies of God, and no more magnifying them? And for overlooking so much the meritorious righteousness of Christ, while you complain for want of more of your own? I would not deceive you by telling you that you need none in yourself and that all your righteousness is out of you in Christ: I know that your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, and the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, and he that doth righteousness is righteous. But at what bar or tribunal? Only at that of grace, which supposeth the reconciling, pardoning righteousness of Christ. It is not at the bar of rigorous justice according to the law, which requireth innocence to justification; there Christ only is your righteousness, and you have none and must dream of none but that which floweth from his and stands in subordination to it and is you title to it and improvement of it, even your thankful accepting a free-given Savior, Head and Lord, and pardon and the Spirit to sanctify you more and fit you for communion with God and for glory. Esteem most, choose first, and seek most the love of God the Father, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, and this subordinate righteousness will certainly prove the meritorious perfect righteousness of Christ to be for you, instead of a perfect righteousness of your own.
-Margaret Baxter

"Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”--Martin Luther, from his commentary on the book of Galatians.

As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for every love. -George MacDonald

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
-Martin Luther

I think I see more of Christ than I ever saw; and yet I see but little of what may be seen.
-Samuel Rutherford

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."--Jim Elliott

We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer




It is a mercy that I am in any measure more aware of my danger and have any desire to be holy.
-Margaret Baxter

When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

...God by Jesus, takes away . . .all my sins, His own wrath, and my deserved condemnation! All good things . . .are treasured up in Christ, were procured for me by Christ, flow to me through Christ, and are conferred on me for the sake of Christ!
--James Smith

Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.
-John Calvin

"The more purely God's word is preached, the more deeply it pierces and the more kindly it works." -- WILLIAM GOUGE

It was good for them to suffer here, for they shall reign hereafter--to bear the cross below, for they shall wear the crown above; and that not their will but His was done on them.
--Elizabeth Prentiss

The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying. -John Flavel

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -Saint Augustine

True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will. -Jonathan Edwards

Let me speak to your conscience. Where is your zeal? Where is your zeal for the glory of God, and for extending the Gospel throughout the world? You know well, that it is very low. You know well, that your zeal is a little feeble glimmering spark, that just lives, and no more—it is like a thing ready to die. Surely there is a fault somewhere, if this is the case. This state of things ought not to be. You, the child of God—you, redeemed at so glorious a price—you, ransomed with such precious blood—you, who are an heir of glory such as no tongue ever yet told, or eye saw; surely you ought to be a man of another kind. Surely your zeal ought not to be so small.
~ J.C. Ryle

I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come. I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused.
-Elizabeth Prentiss

Just thankful

I just love these little people. The may drive me crazy from time to time, but thinking on their little lives (which have such a huge impact on mine) I cannot think of anyway that the Lord could have been more gracious and merciful to me! I hope I never become so consumed with the realities of parenting to be unable to appreciate the great gift these boys and girl are to me, in terms of blessing and sanctification.

More Pictures of Our Girly