YC2

When Evan and I moved to Louisville, plugging into a church was high priority for us. We were very excited when the one family we knew in town invited us to attend Ninth and O with them our very first Sunday. We went, liked it, and trusted Gibson and Julie enough that if that church was good enough for their family, it was good enough for ours. We joined the only BFG we ever attended, and began making friends. About a year later, Evan took on the role as class director for our BFG, taking care of many administrative type jobs involving our class. In the last four years, our class has evolved and changed in many ways...in fact, I think we are the only couple still around from four years ago! 

In four years these people: provided countless meals, spent holidays with us, let us borrow vehicles when our cars were in the shop, offered free childcare for my children, given us financial gifts, prayed for us and with us, helped us gut and dry-wall a bathroom, celebrated birthdays with us, grieved with us when my mom passed away, spent MANY late nights over dessert and/or coffee, and much, much more. These precious people have become our family. 

This past Sunday, Evan and I experienced one of the sweetest prayer times EVER, as our class spent a good part of our class time praying over us and our new adventure. Then, we received the nicest send-off lunch, complete with yummy food and even better fellowship. We left church feeling extremely loved and blessed.

YC2, now and then, WE LOVE YOU dearly! Thank you for ministering to our family above and beyond. We are eternally grateful for you and so thankful for your partnership in ministry with us! 

Home

Well, we are home. This is how Arden felt about leaving the hospital:

Just kidding. While she was extremely fussy right before leaving, she's actually doing great! Arden is a super sweet and seemingly content baby.

We made it home around 2:30 Saturday afternoon. It was cold and rainy, which was kind-of crazy since the previous weather for the week was glorious. I guess it was a good day to come home and relax.

Upon leaving the hospital, Arden's weight dropped a little lower than what her doctors wanted, so they advised me to nurse every two hours until we took her in for her appointment this morning. I'll be very honest to say that made for a brutal couple of days. I'm very glad to say that when we took her in this morning, her weight had gone from 6 lbs, 5 ounces to 6 lbs, 11 ounces! YAY! No more around the clock nursing. Happy Day!

Evan's mom arrived Saturday evening and we are so thankful to have her help. She drove us to the doctor today and finished all our laundry. Kendall is also loving her Nana being here. Today, they made brownies

 then used cookie cutters to cut shapes. Who knows what fun is in store for the rest of the week!

Kendall is doing really well with Arden. She wants to play "little mama" as I expected, but she's been very gentle. At first I was a little worried about her trying to do things for Arden that an adult needed to do, but Kendall has been quick to listen and obey us as we guide her in helping. Kendall is especially good at fetching things and she also likes to help as much as she can with diaper changes. When we lay Arden in the bed, Kendall often asks, "Can I go look at Arden?" which is super sweet. Kendall's acting out has come in the form of occasional fits and sassy mouth. We've been dealing with this already, but it seems as though it's escalated a bit.

It's kind-of crazy to think that this is our world now. Two little girls! Couldn't be more thankful!

Arden Abigail's Debut!

We obviously had no idea that Arden would make her appearance this week. Evan was off on Tuesday (the same day as my 37 week appointment) and had deemed that day "spring clean up" day. Evan had a roll-off dumpster delivered and made arrangements with our friend Philip (Leah Mae's daddy!) to help cut down some trees in our yard.

I had a gut feeling I needed to be prepared for Arden to come early, but still wasn't really expecting it to be this soon! At my appointment on Tuesday, Dr. Forrester and I talked extensively about doing the version since Arden was still breech. After looking at my history, he decided probably a scheduled c-section would be the better option. (Kendall was a forceps delivery, and then I had recovery complications with her.) Before scheduling the c-section, though, Dr. Forrester wanted to check my fluid levels one more time.  According to this week's ultrasound, my fluid had significantly dropped and was basically non-existent, confirming I would most definitely need a c-section!

After Dr. Forrester checked Arden's heart rate and then some minor drama trying to let Evan know what was going on (he was outside "spring cleaning" with his phone inside!), the c-section FINALLY was scheduled for Wednesday morning at 8:00. I was happy because it gave me enough time to go home and get the rest of our ducks in a row AND eat one last hoorah pregnancy meal. (Thank you Mark's Feed Store and Dairy Queen!)

Arden arrived the next morning around 8:30. It was such a different experience, but went as well as it could. The strangest part was lying there while they were finishing up. Evan was holding Arden, and all I could do was look at her. It was such a weird thing to not get my hands on her. Evan was loving it, though...getting to be the first one to hold her!

 

The first day and night with recovery was a little rough, but everything is okay now. I had some clotting issues that were thankfully resolved with medication, but gave us a little scare Thursday morning. (All is well, I promise! No worries!) We have had lots of visitors, which has been so fun! The best one was a visit from my dear friend Emily (girl in the top picture with me!) who drove last minute from Tennessee just so she could come see Arden. Such a sweet surprise...Emily and her husband Ryan are some of our closest friends from Louisville, but they moved away at the end of last summer and we miss them so! I was so glad her hubby took off work and stayed with their kiddos for the night so she could come to visit!

Right now, we are planning to come home tomorrow. I think we could stay until Sunday, but Evan and I have both decided that we will rest better at home. Too many people are in and out in the middle of the night around here, and poor Evan is sleeping on a bed that feels like bricks. Evan's mom is flying in tomorrow to help for a week and we are SO looking forward to her visit.

Thanks to everyone for the prayers and well-wishes. All of your words mean so much to us, and the prayers have certainly been felt! We are more than thankful for our precious, healthy family of four!

Thanksgiving

What a fantastic Thanksgiving we had! For the third year in a row, we celebrated Thanksgiving day with the Blackwell family. We truly love this family with all our hearts and are so thankful they are willing to open their home to us every year, and include even our extended family! The food was yummy and the fellowship was even better!

Evan's parents also came for a visit, and we were so thankful to have them here. We all were spoiled rotten and SO enjoyed their company. Sometimes it's so difficult to be far away from family, but I've learned that being far away makes you so much more appreciative for what you've got AND makes that bond so much sweeter.

I love Thanksgiving! Even though I don't always act like it, I have so many reasons to be thankful. Our little family is so blessed!

Babies

Last night, we babysat my friend Abby's little girl, Georgia.
It was only for a couple of hours, but we had a blast!

It was a really great time to get in some practice on a real baby...

since Kendall is going to be a BIG SISTER!!!!

We are beyond thrilled!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17

Papaw's Party

Papaw's 90th birthday party was so much fun! I think my aunt counted a little over 100 people that came (from all over!) to celebrate the day with us and it was a wonderful time. My cousin Laura wrote a great post and has a few pictures on her page; you can go here and here to read/see if you are interested.

Most of all, I want to remember how happy my Papaw was that day. He was so precious. I really wish someone would have taken video of everyone singing Happy Birthday to him. He had the biggest grin on his face that was absolutely priceless. He is such a great man and I'm so thankful that he's MY grandfather!

After the party was over, my dad treated several of us to dinner. We went to the little Mexican place in Stuttgart (my grandparents favorite) and there were about 30 of us there. My dad made a great point about being thankful that we could all get together for a happy occasion, because it seems like family gatherings are usually funerals. How right he was about that!

Trip Home

I only came home with about 20 pictures on my camera. Very unlike me at all! We really did have a GREAT week. We borrowed my dad's vehicle and spent most of the week in Little Rock since most of my family/friends are that area. Here are some of the highlights:



We hung out with Laura, Tatumn, and Finley one day. The weather was gorgeous, so Laura and I took the girls to the park. Tatumn and Kendall are about a year and a half apart, and I was amazed at how well they playwith each other! Such fun watching these two! I feel doubly blessed to have a cousin that is also such a great friend to me, and watching Tatumn and Kendall together reminded me of Laura and I playing together as little girls.



Laura had a doctor's appointment the same afternoon we took the girls to the park and wanted to know if I would stay with Tatumn. I ended up taking both girls back to Mimi and Gran's house. They shared Oreos and played on the front porch. Mimi and Gran had a blast watching the girls play together.

Laura and I also planned to get together on Tuesday. We were going to take the girls to a story hour at the library, then have lunch with her mom in Conway. Laura came down with the stomach bug and had to cancel. I needed to go back over to her house anyway, so I ended up taking Tatumn for the day. We went back over to Mimi and Gran's house for lunch. The girls again had a blast playing together! The most fun was watching them pretend like they were each other's baby. They would take turns rocking each other in the chair. PRECIOUS! They also played hide-and-seek with Mimi. The best part was when Mimi hid with them!

Evan's sister, Meredith, just had her third boy about a week ago, so Kendall and I took a little day trip over to Benton to see everyone. Evan's mom was in town helping with the baby and his dad drove down so he could see Kendall, too. I'm very thankful it worked out for Kendall to see Evan's family as well! We had a great day...Kendall and the boys played and I got to love on sweet baby Colin. No pictures, though. My batteries were dead. I think Meredith and Sheila got some, so hopefully there will be a few floating around sometime! It was a great day!

Kendall and I drove to Stuttgart on Thursday. We made a stop by the bank to see Mrs. Ann, to which as soon as we walked in her office, Kendall said, "Does she have chocolate??" Not sure where that came from, but you better believe a Reece's egg was found! We then went out to Mammaw and Pappaw's house for the rest of the day. My Pappaw has learned some mad cooking skills in the last couple of years, and fixed a full-fledged meal of beef stew, cornbread, and brownies. I was completely impressed! (Yes, each were either a package or mix, but hey, from a man who put a microwave baked potato in the oven with the plastic on it, he's come a LOOONNNG way.)

We had such a great day with my Mammaw and Pappaw. I made some chicken spaghetti to stick in their freezer and we played a game of dominoes. I was excited that Mammaw was able to play with us, too. While I still beat her in the game, she held her own until the very end! :) Kendall took right up with both of them. In fact, Mammaw said, "Do you talk to her about us? Because she is so comfortable with us! She acts like she's around us all the time!" Kendall especially loved the blue guitar and giving Mammaw "rides" in her remote control recliner. Mammaw ate up every minute of it!

What a great week! Looking forward to doing it again in May!