Ella Joy at 6 months

Half a year. Wow. Time has flown with this little princess. I can hardly believe she's already 6 months old. I still maintain that she's the sweetest, easiest baby I've ever met.

Even when she's cutting teeth. All (almost) 8 of them. What's that? You didn't know that 6 month old babies could have nearly 8 teeth? Yeah, ME NEITHER. But, she's sporting 4 all-the-way-in teeth on bottom and 4 more are pushing their way through on top.

When I posted with her 5 month pictures, I said that I was planning on waiting until she was 6 months old before giving her any solids. Well, what can I say, I caved. Which is fine because she was days older than 5 months when I started offering her baby cereal, which is well beyond the recommended 4 month mark.

As much lip smacking and head turning as she was doing at my food, I was sure she'd LOVE the cereal. Plus, PLEASESWEETJESUS eat something solid so MOMMACANSLEEPALLNIGHT.

So Grace held her, Luke snapped photos and I eagerly spooned baby cereal into her mouth.

Her reaction was less that what I had hoped for.


"Grace! Have you tasted this crap they're feeding me? Blech."

But keeping with her good-natured self, she continued to humor me bite after bite.

I especially love this next photo. Our laptop is set up so that the screen saver is all of our photos on a looping slide show. They circulate at random showing photos as old as Elizabeth's birth photos to ones I've just loaded that day. I love that the next photo shows our oldest girl getting her first bites of cereal at the same time our littlest girl is getting hers. Awesome, huh?

After Ella realized that I wasn't backing off on the spooning of yuck into her mouth, she began looking at me like this...

Then grabbing my hand as if to say, "Whoa lady. Seriously? Where's the milk?"

Finally I realized she'd had enough.

I haven't been as consistent with offering her solids as I should but she's now sampled bananas, applesauce, which made her gag, and just last night she had carrots for the first time.

Sweet Ella Joy has begun babbling "baa baa baa" and is rolling to get to whichever objects are out of her reach because clearly Momma doesn't know which toys are the best thankyouverymuch.

She's sitting up for extended periods of time but will still flop over after a bit, landing on her face or cheek then rolling over and offering up a huge grin as if to say, "Man, I'm so proud of myself. Did you see that dismount?"

She's still waking up 1 to 2 times a night, usually just to nurse for comfort, and is finally, FINALLY sleeping unswaddled. This is big people. Truth is, she's too chubby for any of the swaddle blankets I have so we had no choice but to unswaddle her.

And, she still melts my heart with each of her huge, toothy grins and makes me fill with joy with every single belly laugh. I love her more than is explainable.

Beach Bunny Bizzy

So, the final installment of our beach vaca is of my biggest girl. Mercy she's growing up so fast. Six years old. I still can't believe it. SIX. Who told her she could get so big?

She loved all things pertaining to life at the beach. Fanatic about the fish shaped pillow on her bed, smitten with the sand, overjoyed at the ocean. All of it. She loved every second.

Playing so sweetly with her littler brothers and sisters and obliging them with just about any game they wanted to play.

Yet also taking some time to play by herself and enjoying the option of running a toy through the sand as far as she desired.

Oh how she's beginning to teeter on the border of still little enough to play baby games and wavering into wanting to do "big kid" things. She humored me and allowed me to turn her into a mermaid.


And after a round of family beach photos, she was an easy option for a model.

That smile and her sweet laugh just melt me every time. And, even though I'm still very much her Mom/Disciplinarian most days, I'm getting a sweet taste of what, I pray, will be a treasured friendship between us when she becomes a woman.

I am so blessed to be able to walk along side her as God grows her into a woman who will do work for His glory. I can't wait to see what God has planned for my sweet, eldest daughter. Her heart already exudes so much of His love and is so tender toward so many things.

Um. You know, will still a splash or two of Sassy thrown in for good measure. ;)

Coincidence Providence

There are some people who believe that life happens at random, that occurrences are left up to the universe and that karma deals you back what you've dealt out.

Some people believe in coincidences. Do you know that dictionary.com defines a coincidence as "a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance"?

Mere chance?

The idea that events just occur by mere chance with no forethought or planning by anyone or anything and that they just-so-happen by mere chance is possible I'd guess. But that's not the lens I choose to view life through. Nor do I believe it is truth.

Because if that were the case and it were just a coincidence, or mere chance, that my husband got home earlier than usual today...

When I accidentally turned on the wrong stovetop burner....

And instead of turning on the burner with the large pot for which I'd prepared to steam carrots for Ella's babyfood...

I, instead, turned on the burner with an empty glass dish I'd set on top...

Which proceeded to heat up then burst all over the kitchen...

Sending shards of glass the size of knives...

And others the size of splinters onto the furthest reaches of my small kitchen.

Melting anything within it's reach and causing me to have to trash my favorite pair of flip flops and our cheap rug that was by the kitchen sink.

And yet, my sweet Ashlee who was standing almost directly in front of the glass dish when it suddenly exploded remained unharmed, with not even a small scratch upon her sweet, pale skin. And I, barefoot in the kitchen, standing just inches further away than Ashlee, only received two small scratches on the top of my foot and a burn from hot glass on the bottom of each arch as I stepped forward to retrieve my screaming, fearful little girl.

No, for me, it's not coincidence that, not only, did Ashlee remain completely unharmed but that Luke was home early so that 4 of the other children who are normally by my side (and under my feet) begging to help or to taste, were playing safely outside with their Dad.

For me, that's providential, not coincidental. Because if I'm leaving the safety and protection of my children up to mere chance, I'd be willing to bet that more times than not, mere chance would fail me.

He never will.

Because if it were up to coincidence, I'd most likely be writing to you tonight from our local hospital, telling you about the shards of glass being removed from the skin of my kids and the burns being treated from where the glass had melted their skin, much like it did my linoleum floor.

However, I write this to you from the comfort of my couch, with the bodies of my unscathed children resting soundly in their beds. Sleeping the sleep that unharmed children sleep and without the tick of monitors or the pain of bandages and burns.

So rather than chalk this one up to coincidence, I'm going to mark this one down as something other than mere chance, and give glory to the One who knows of the protection we need, often before imminent danger ever even befalls us. Glory be to the one who is our faithful shield and buckler.

He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
~ Psalm 91:4

From a little boy to a man slightly older boy

Lucas has a slam good time at the beach. He's mentioned, on a daily basis, how he's ready to go back. He spent most of his time boogie boarding on ankle high waves and avoiding looking at the camera.



I bought some small dump trucks at the dollar store before we left and they proved to be a good investment. Lucas in particular loved running them through the sand and into the waves.



He "practiced" swimming in the shallow waters because he's just too upset that his eldest sister knows how to swim (in the pool) without floaties and he does not.



Several times over the course of the week I'd look at my oldest boy and marvel at how grown up he is. I know 4 years old isn't old, but for this Momma's heart it seems old. He still loves early morning cuddles and will usually give me hugs and kisses upon request. He still, unprompted, says, "I love you Momma" and it just melts my heart each time.



Yet I see glimpses of the young man he is growing to become. Eager to please his father and I, asking good (and tough) questions about God, loving his sisters despite their desires to only play the "girly" things and loving his littler siblings beyond what I thought possible for a little boy.



And then, just when I think he's getting so mature and growing so quickly, I see this in our attempt at a family photo....



And I realize that maybe he's not as grown up as I thought. But then again, neither is his Dad and he's technically considered an adult.

My own little red-headed mermaid

Ashlee has two favorite activities, running and eating. When she's not doing one, she's certainly doing the other. A close third on her short list of "Things that make Ashlee happy" would be babies, Ella in particular. Being at the beach allowed Ashlee to either be running or eating constantly, which made her little self very, very happy.

Imagine the energizer bunny with a garbage disposal attached to his face and you get Ashlee.

I think it's important to note that the last time we went to the beach as a family was when Ashlee and Lucas looked like this:

She was slightly slower and less of a food hog then. Wow. Time surely does fly.

She and Elizabeth spent copious amounts of time jumping over and running from the waves.

She's stand in them, then scream and run like fury to get away.

Of course there's always time to stop and act silly. Anything to make someone laugh.

There was lots of boogie boarding...

...and I FINALLY got her to sit still long enough to do this....

"Being a mermaid is the most fun ever Mom! 'Cept, can I get up now?"

Oh my little red-head is growing up right before my eyes. Slow down little one. Stay my sweet, loud, overly energetic, baby loving, fast running little girl for a while longer, won't you? Please?

If you try, I'll fix you a snack. Deal?