We have survived!

We made it to the doctor today to find out that Little J (Jackson) has survived his bout with bronchialitis (my spelling may be ify). He is doing great and growing like a weed. Between our two visits 9 days a part that little boy went from 11.11lbs to 12.8 lbs. He is not missing a beat. I tell you what, I pray none of my children get any more illness that need more attention than to watch it run its course. It can be stressful and I am tend to go from sit back and watch to hyperchondicatic (is that a word)? Not a good combination for my mental wellness. As soon as I heard about the possibility of him having a hard time breathing, normal for him was hard to measure and very stressful for me. I don't think he ever had a hard time breathing, but sometimes he can sound very breathless when working on getting gas out. I would have to restrain myself from calling the doctor.

Any way, I am also pleased that he has slept from 11:00pm to 7:00am for two consecutive nights with little effort on my part. So, I can begin to tell those bags to move on under my eyes. Hallelujah! I am blessed to have children that sleep early on and Jackson has taken the longest. So the world is now my oyster, full of limitless possibilities!

P.S. Sandeigh, do you notice how antiquated my scale is compared to yours! :)

Happy 32nd Anniversary to the Barretts who started it all!

Technically it was yesterday, but this song just kept playing in my head so I thought I would let everyone about the special day for my parents. They set a great example for me in regards to marriage and seem to help me not take things too seriously when it comes to my spouse. I have learned from them that it is good to have fun together and that it doesn't hurt to get a nice retreat to get away to on the weekends. Hope that you weren't too embarrassed by "Pops" in shorts and a T-shirt at the steak house on your celebration day, Mom. I guess there are some things that won't change even after 32 years! :) Love you both! Your grand kids think you both are the best maternal grandparents they have ever had! :) Just kidding, you are tops in their world.

Waiting to feed . .

Seems like most of my days is spent taking care of Jackson. I think I am being such a productive person since I wait up to get him fed one last time. What will I do when he lets me go to sleep at 10:00? I hope I will find ways to keep up all this productivity!

I love being motivated. I am such a re arranger of furniture. I am limited to certain rooms I can actually move around, but I manage to find a way. Today after I got the girls from CDC and before soccer practice I took apart Jacob's bunk beds and switched them for the twin in the girls' room. Whew! Boy did it feel good to get it done. I then took apart Savannah's crib and she is now in a big girl bed. She was so tickled, I loved her excitement until I told her she had to stay in her bed. We were so lucky to have the use of another crib while she transitioned, thanks Keri and Chad!

So, I feel like I have been motivated by a blog I follow to pick up my camera more. I really love taking pictures and the more I take the more fun I have. Of course then there are more to scrapbook, which leads me down a slippery slope but I have fun every minute of both activities.

I have been so excited to have been reminded that because of the school district we live in, we have access to the gym and facilities at the High School. I was bummed because I gave up my gym membership for a season. But now I can still use nice machines without the high cost. I do miss the classes, but Dave Ramsey has been providing me great entertainment while I walk before Pat goes to work. I even found myself running this morning! Crazier things have happened I guess. In being able to hit the treadmill I am also hitting my goals with taking enough steps throughout the day. I can't explain the great feeling I have after I have taken time to exercise. It totally energizes me for the full day I have with all that rearranging I do! :)

The last photos are from when my youngest three took their first bath together. It is a little more crowded than I would like, but everyone seemed to have fun. I really am enjoying my girls these days. It reminds me of Pete and Repeat, as Savannah loves to do all the things her big sister does. We have had many talks about making sure Syd does the right thing because she is being watched. She sure does love the role of being a big sister to Savannah and Jackson and helps me out almost every time I ask.

I am also including a great picture of my Valentine flowers that my hubby gave me. He always picks them out and arranges them for me himself. He does a great job. Savannah and Sydney also got their own rose.

I don't have many photos right now of Jacob since he is at school most of the day. He did allow me to photograph him playing on our borrowed Wii. Boy, does he love those games. He can get his dad to play with him in a heart beat. Too bad I can't capture his true character while boxing. Maybe I can figure out how to do the video thing one of these days. This shot was when he won his baseball game.

So, I hope you enjoy the photos at least as much as I had being present for them. Okay, maybe that is truly only possible for the mom, but may they bring a smile to your face. BTW, Jackson is doing great and the biggest issue we have is mom not getting a full night of rest. I hope that when we go back to the doctor on Monday that will begin to happen shortly after. I am a woman who needs here sleep!

Speaking of which, off to bed I go (at least after I feed the baby!)

One of those days!

What a day! We had a great day of fun planned and I was really looking forward to all that was in store for us today. Doctor's appointment (check up) and play date, maybe a chance to stop by and use a 25% coupon at a favorite store, you know what every mom looks forward to (okay not every).

First I find our my playdate was cancelled. Secondly,the check up turns into you need a $170 nebulizer because your fourth has bronchitis or RSV or whatever you want to call it (doctor's words . . . did I hear RSV?!?!?!?) and you if he has trouble breathing call us ASAP. Trouble breathing, have I mentioned my family's standard of being germ free? My two year old just ate a half chewed nugget off the playroom floor at McDonalds a few days ago. I am not sure I follow what that might look like?!?? Once I collected myself, I realized he was right in that Jackson was sick and now I need to focus on how to make him feel better not worry about where he happend to pick it up. Oh yeah, he is the sick one I am just the mom. Whew, deep breath! Isn't it funny how my immediate response to an illness is what did I do wrong as a mom? I should have protected him more. I have to remind myself that this happens from time to time, it's a part of life.

So from then on the day became comical to me. The easy breeze morning changed in every way. I got stopped by a long train. Someone at Walmart decided they had to have the 10th spot on the 3rd row, while five cars waited behind while the current parking spot resider had to unload groceries and put up his empty car. I went to get a book at another store I had been recommending to a friend, to find she had gotten the only copy and they were discontinuing that book so there wouldn't be one to get later. What else?

You get my point. One thing after another. But I must say I have not had a more pleasant 6 hours with my two girls and Jackson. We had fun, shopped together, and just enjoyed what ever we had to do. I love these times when you realize that although things don't go as planned, you still found that it was good. Maybe in a weird kind of way, but on the same note my life is good.

I feel like I have just come out of my winter season and now in my spring, each day is full of new growth and colors are showing I have not seen in a while. I view so many things differently and yet the same. God has answered a great and longstanding prayer request in me by doing nothing different around me. And yet by doing nothing to my circumstances and just to changing me into the child of God, wife, mother and friend He created me to be, amazingly my circumstances have begun to change. It may come as no surprise to some :), but I am reminded of a song by Nicole Nordeman called "Every Season". I added it to the playlist, last song.

It says talking about changing from winter to spring in our relationship with God:

And every thing that's new has bravely surface teaching us to be

what was frozen through is newly purposed turning all things green

and so it is with and how you make me new with every seasons change

and so it will be as you . . . create in me

Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring

P.S. Pictures are just reflective of my love for my kids. Jacob just started his fourth season of soccer, my girls are so cute when they match, Sydney loves to love on Jackson, and that poor baby looks pittiful with the Nebulizer on (even if it is "supposed" to look like a dinosaur)!

The joys of down time!

So, what is a mother of four who longs for a ten o'clock bedtime doing posting? So glad you asked. It seems that my bedtime is not lined up with my two month old's last feeding time. We are in the adjusting phase of getting him situated with sleeping as long as mommy needs. He can go around 8 hours, we are struggling with when those eight hours are.

Anywho (love that word!), I have got some down time so I thought I would post my newest pics. By the way, does anyone leave their blog playing while they post? These are my favorite songs that I can share in a non-invasive way (yes I am that way with music). Love to jam to my newest favorite song about the dents in my fender.

Sorry, focus. Pictures. My oldest daughter has discovered that if she poses or lays her head next to her younger brother I would be so inclined to take a picture of her. She will say, "Mommy, isn't this so cute?" Meaning, take my picture. I am sad to say I have missed many of her cuteness, but am aiming to be more on top of those moments. I fear the times of, "Aww mom, do you have to take another photo?" will come way too fast.

So I am working fast and furiously on my Valentine's present for my hubby and I look at my newborn to make sure he is okay and this is what I find. No, she doesn't know that I was just sent this photo of my niece. Great minds think alike, right?

So Syd dressed her self this morning. She put on her Belle dress with a cape. I had not gotten her picture with her scrove, so with that attire it seemed like the perfect time. A "scrove" you say? It was not until I was shown was this "scrove" was that I realized it was a "scroll". Out of the mouth of babes!

Literally as I type that, Jackson is screaming his head off to be fed. Almost got to finish this entry. I guess that means it is too long. Enjoy what I got to, maybe tomorrow I will get to finish!

Heavy Heart

I just found out some sobering news. A friend I went to church with growing up passed away suddenly on Saturday night of a heart attack. He was my age and has two young boys at home. I was looking at his facebook and he posted on Saturday something, not realizing that would be his last. I know that life is never promised past the moment we had, but I am not even sure I realize that I could leave this earth right now as I type and not even know what hit me, litterally.

You never realize when it is your time and who you will leave behind. I am thankful that Jimmy knew his Savior and is now with Him in a place I can't even imagine. I know that his wife is comforted by that, but I am sure she is struggling with the why. Why a 33 year old man would be fine one moment and gone the next. Makes you want to hug those close to you just to remind yourself how much they truly matter. Remind yourself that this life is not what it is all about. That there is so much more and am I living than just the day to day irritations.

I guess I want to know that if I were to leave this earth this moment that I wouldn't regret anything. That I lived my life to the fullest bringing glory to God every step of the way. That my family knew how I felt about them not by just "knowing", but because I told them every chance that I could. Bottom line is that if I were to die today, would my life draw people to the love of our Heavenly Father or would they wonder if I really believed completely in the life I live.

There is a song that has really been touching me lately and knowing now what I know about Jimmy makes it even more powerful to me. Don't forget to pause the playlist at the bottom.

The Motions by Matthew West

I don't want go through the motions
I don't want to go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't want spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions

The Papa that could only appreciate the hair . . .

I just meant to post a picture of my dad( the one on the left :) ) with my son (the one on the right) as a follow up to the fluff of a hair do my youngest has after a bath. Enjoy!

Bring it on!

Okay, have you ever been here? You are going along, no problems (so to speak) and then wham! Out of no where this mean thing we'll call "Joy Robber"tries to do just that, rob my joy. So I am enjoying a this nice moment when God has called me to not respond to "Joy Robber".


If you have known me for two seconds, you will know that to not respond is like telling the sun not to shine. Okay maybe not that inevitable, but God is asking a lot of me right now. He is calling me to step back and not respond. To not right a wrong, to walk away from a firey arrow thrown my way. Is that possible?


Well, I have good news. I have begun to trust the Lord with this part of my life and as hard as it is, I can say I have never felt better. To not be responsbile to correct this "Joy Robber" has taken a load off. Tonight, I was venting with Him how it is not fair that this is the response God has called me to. He so sweetly, in the midst of my cries to Him of how it just doesn't make sense to walk away with out voicing anything, reminds me of a simple yet powerful point. Hejust kept saying to my aching heart, "Do you trust me more than the "Joy Robber's" wrong? "


Well, put that way of course I trust him more than anything. I know His heart is always good towards me and I can trust him. As soon as I let that sink in my still aching heart, something miraclous happened. I didn't care anymore that I clearly had solid ground to stand on with "Joy Robber", but it didn't matter anymore. All that mattered is I wanted more of what God has for me in my life. It is so much easier to receive that than to make sure I communicate to the "Joy Robber" what it has done to me.


Now all I say is, "Bring it on!" You can't rob from me what is not yours to take!


Thanks for letting me share! Hopefully it made sense to some of you, if not you need to catch someone who has learned "Tammyese" fluently and can translate.