Christmas Jammies

One of the traditions we've established with our kiddos is opening a new pair of jammies on Christmas Eve followed by a jammy ride to see Christmas lights.  Obviously we couldn't do that this year but the girls still got to open new jammies on Christmas Eve with our friends who took care of them.  I was bummed that Charlie was going to miss out on our traditional jammy picture but my mom came to the rescue!  She ran out and found an adorable pair of coordinating jammies for Charlie.  

It may have been  few days after Christmas Eve, but I was thrilled to have a picture of all THREE kiddos this year!  

Pics of the little man

We are on day #5 of life with sweet Charlie boy.  I already can't imagine not having him around.  He is the sweetest and so far I'm loving life with a newborn.

Here are a few pics..

Day 1 of life... Merry Christmas!

This girl was so excited to get her hands on her baby brother.

They both wanted a brother... so thankful God honored that!

All ready to go home.. 12/26

Big sis snuggles

Emma is a big sister!

The Merriest of Christmases

Holy WOW!!  The past 28 hours have been an absolute roller coaster!  I'm sitting here, on Christmas Day in my hospital recovery room next to the sweetest newborn I know.  My son!  I have a sweet little boy.. what?!  Here's how it all went down...

Last Saturday (4 days ago), I woke up in the middle of the night itching and scratching like crazy.  Every part of my whole body itched, but particularly my hands and feet.  It was the strangest thing but I didn't really think anything of it.  I couldn't sleep through the insane itching so I decided to look at my baby center app on my phone... because what else do you do at 2 am when you can't sleep?  I was just randomly reading people's posts and came across one that said 'extreme itchiness.'  So weird... that's what I had.  I read the girl's post and found out that this can sometimes be related to pregnancy... I had no idea! The condition the girl was posting about was called cholestasis so I googled it and started to read about it.  (Read more about it by clicking on that link but basically - pregnancy hormones cause your gall bladder to stop functioning properly, which can be dangerous for both mom and babe). I had another night of itching on Sunday night which made me start to wonder if maybe I had this rare condition. Luckily I had a doctor appointment scheduled for Monday morning.  I brought it up to my doctor and she did blood work to check some levels in my gall bladder and liver.  She said she would call me if anything looked abnormal but left it at that.  We went about the rest of our day Monday, grocery shopping and making final plans for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our family of four.  Monday night was AWFUL.  I was wide awake from 11pm -2 am scratching my feet.  I felt like I was going insane from the itchiness.  I really felt like either I had this condition or I was going crazy.  I tried telling myself it was all in my head... my feet really didn't itch... I tried to stop scratching... but nothing worked!  It was horrible...

Tuesday morning (Christmas Eve) was a normal morning... we were starting to get food ready for our Christmas Eve dinner, had Christmas music going, everyone was happy and excited about the day, etc..  Then at 11:30 am my doctor called me and said, "Your lab work came back and shows that you have cholestasis.  You need to come in ASAP and we need to induce you today."  I got off the phone, ran downstairs to tell Justin, and started bawling.  The last thing I wanted was to be away from our girls on Christmas and have a baby on a holiday.  After a few minutes of freaking out, Justin calmed me down, we called our amazing friends who left their family party to come and pick up our children, and packed our bags.  By 1:15, we were on our way to the hospital.  Everything went really quick once they started pitocin, and by 11:10 pm, we were crying tears of joy as we cuddled our new baby boy. A true Christmas miracle!  We've been rejoicing all day over this special gift to our family.  In Claire's words, "God gives the BEST gifts!!"

Charlie James

12/24/13

11:10 pm

7 lbs, 21 inches

Tis the season

Claire had a sweet little Christmas program at school this week.  They recited a poem, sang some songs, played some instruments, and had a sweet gift for the parents.  I love seeing this girl in action!

Christmas Baking.. and a little complaining

I can't believe how quickly Christmas has crept up on us this year!  The girls and I have been busy baking treats to share with some neighbors and friends.  I usually don't do this much baking on my own, but knowing we won't be attending any Christmas gatherings with family and lots of yummy treats this year, I decided we better bake our own assortment.  The girls have been loving it and it's been keeping us occupied as we anxiously await Baby Shoe's arrival.














In other news, life has been so incredibly crazy these last few weeks.  Justin has been swamped at work and is either gone overnight or working 12+ hour days.  That means lots of single parenting has been happening, which comes at such a crazy time... 37 weeks pregnant, doing breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime on my own, trying to include some advent activities in... it's been so exhausting.  On top of that, Claire had the stomach flu last week and Emma is on day two of a high fever and nasty cough.  I've had about all I can take.  Not going to lie.. it's been a rough few weeks.  Justin left this afternoon and will be gone until Tuesday and then he works Wednesday and Thursday and THEN is DONE for the rest of the year!  I could not be happier to have him home and helping out again soon.  I'm hoping to get some rest in before this baby arrives!

My body is feeling every bit of being 37 weeks pregnant with baby #3 too.  P.S.  How does anyone do this more than three times?? You mamas of more than three amaze me.  This third trimester has been ROUGH.  It basically hurts every time I move.  I feel like I've just had the most intense workout and my muscles are sore from that.  Except I haven't worked out in over six months.  It hurts to sit, it hurts to stand, it hurts to roll over in bed.  Yikes.  It just HURTS!  The good news is those nasty cankles haven't shown up yet... yay!  Thankful we have three weeks or less left.  We are ready to meet this baby!

There you have it.  Christmas, cookies, single parenting, and pregnancy.  How's that for a random blog post?  ;)

On schooling and parenting

Parenting is so hard.  I'm realizing that it never really gets easier either.  It just changes and the things that used to be hard get easier but then new hard things replace those.  Those of you who knew Claire as a two year old know that she was hard two year old.  She was so strong-willed and so challenging. There were so many frustrating moments but by the grace of God, Justin and I persevered and finally came out on the other side.  For the most part, she is so easy now.  God has cultivated such a kind, loving, generous spirit within her and most of the time, that's what we see with her.  Don't get me wrong, she's a wretched sinner like the rest of us.  I'm not saying she's perfect by any means.  I'm just saying she is so kind and such a good friend and I have seen so much growth in her.  It's encouraging.

Enter preschool.  Claire loves school.  She delights in loving her teachers, making new friends, learning new songs and poems, and sharing her school work with us.  I have loved watching her find such joy in going to school.  As a former lover of school and teacher myself, it does my heart good to see her so happy.  We have always planned to send her off to kindergarten when the time came and years ago, I even looked forward to the day!  As this day draws nearer and nearer, my heart has begun to ache with the thought of sending her to school every day, all day.  She just seems so young and little and I just don't feel ready for this transition.  Justin and I always been pro public school.. I mean, we both taught in the public schools for crying out loud!  That conviction has become a bit blurry as the time draws closer for me to send my baby off to school.

Then, this happened.  A few weeks ago, as we were driving somewhere as a family, Claire casually told us that some girls from another class were laughing at her winter hat and told her it looked weird.  My heart sank and Justin and I looked at each other with such sadness.  Claire was kind of laughing about it and didn't seem to think much of it, so we didn't make a big deal about it.  Fast forward to this morning... as we were getting coats on, I handed Claire her hat and asked her to put it on, since it was chilly here this morning.  She started crying and said, "I am never wearing that hat again.  Those girls made fun of me for wearing it."  Oh, my breaking heart.  I stopped and hugged my sweet girl.  I told her that I loved her and she didn't have to wear it if she didn't want to.  We also talked about how much Jesus loves her and that even though those girls were not being kind, she still needs to be kind to them.  We prayed together for those girls and asked Jesus to help Claire be kind all the time and share the love of Christ with those girls.  We both had tears streaming down our faces and held each other tight for awhile after we prayed.

My mind has been racing with thoughts and emotions this morning:  Sadness that Claire, at age five, has already experienced the brutal reality of living in this fallen world.  Aching for Christ's return to come and make all things new again.  An instinct to want to protect her from the world and mean girls.  The realization that I cannot protect her.  Pleading with God to protect Claire from experiences like this one.  Surrendering to the reality that these situations will develop her character and hopefully allow her to put her faith, trust, and hope in Christ alone.  Deciding I can't send her to kindergarten.  Remembering I don't want to home school.  Deciding to send her to private school.  Remembering it's expensive.  Frantically texting Justin.  In short: I'm freaking out.  Parenting.is.so.hard.  Making these big life decisions is so hard.  I've decided to commit to praying about this with Justin and truly seek God's direction.  When it comes to schooling my children, I've always thought I knew what we wanted for them and what was best, but I've realized that we've never really sought God's lead on that.  So, we are going to change that and pray for direction, guidance, and peace as we look for God to direct us.

I know this is not the last time we'll be faced with a situation like this, regardless of how we decide to educate our children.  My hope and prayer is that God uses all things, little and big, for His glory and to develop character in us and our children.

Recipe Share

I haven't shared yummy recipes on here in forever... I figured it was time!

I still try to meet my goal of trying one new recipe each week, usually via Pinterest.  Those Pinterest pins, I tell ya... they are hit or miss.  About half the time, I apologize to my family and vow to never make said recipe again.  The other half of the time, though, my family is singing my praises and I'm thanking Pinterest.  This recipe for Cheese Tortellini and Sausage soup is one of my recent slam dunks.  It is so.incredibly.easy.  No chopping required... just have to brown the sausage and then dump ingredients into the crock pot.  Perfect.  I've been totally craving soups this pregnancy and this one fit the bill perfectly!  Try it.. you won't regret it!

The other tried and true soup I've been making nonstop is an easy peasy Black Bean Soup.  I got the original recipe from my bestie in Iowa, who got it from her sister-in-law.  It's super easy, quick, and cheap... and can be tweaked in lots of ways too.  This is my go-to lunch around here.  Try it out!

Black Bean Soup

1 can (not drained) black beans
Salsa
Cumin

Dump a can of black beans, some salsa, and some cumin into a pot.  Heat up on the stove or in the microwave.  DONE!  I've also started tweaking it recently and adding other things I might have on hand.  Last time I added some salsa verde and frozen corn.  I usually garnish with avocado, sour cream, and shredded cheese.

Seriously the easiest and quickest soup.  It's super filling, too!

One more...

I tried this recipe for Pasta with Butternut Sauce & Spicy Sausage recently.  It was a little more labor intensive than I'm usually willing to dive into for a weeknight dinner but it was sooo worth it.  We all gobbled it up and everyone loved it!  The leftovers were just as good.  I was amazed at how creamy it was with no cream, sauce, or milk and very little butter... all from the squash.  I served it to the girls before adding the spicy sausage since they can be wussy about spice.  Justin and I loved the extra spicyness in ours though.. yummy!

Go try some new recipes!  And share your Pinterest scores with me!  ;)

Holiday Party

One of the fun things about Justin working at his company's home office is that we are invited to the holiday party each year.  In the past, they have had a fancy, adult only party.  It's been so fun to have an excuse to get dressed up and enjoy a night out.  Honestly, I was dreading this year's party, realizing I would be weeks away from delivering a baby which means huge, uncomfortable, nothing fancy to wear, etc...  I was THRILLED when they announced it would be a family party at the Georgia Aquarium instead!  It was closed to the public, so it was only the other employees and their families.  The girls loved it!
















Such a fun night!

Birthday Love

Justin's 33rd (gulp...we're getting old!) birthday was on Monday.  Since he had to leave early Monday and was gone for a meeting until Tuesday night, we celebrated him on Sunday.

Claire insisted on this kissing him on the cheeks picture.  ;)






It's hard not to take our traditional Claire & Daddy picture each year.  We also can't get through a birthday without remembering five years ago finally bringing Claire home from the hospital on his birthday...or without recalling the year he was laid off on his birthday!  He's had some memorable ones!  ;)



Birthday pile on Daddy!

This year, more than ever, I am so incredibly thankful that God saw fit to bring Justin into this world and into my life.  As his responsibilities and demands at work have really intensified in the last several months, I am amazed at the constant support he continues to be for our family.  I can't imagine carrying the load of responsibility he carries.  He does it with such humble strength and continues to love us so well...even in my complaining, huge, hormonal, preggo state.  Something that wouldn't be possible if he didn't seek strength and help from the Lord.  Truly!  :)

Happy Birthday, Justin!  I love living life with you and look forward to continuing on in this crazy journey together.

Thanksgiving 2013

What a week!  We have so much to be thankful for... including hosting family for the past several days!  My sister and her family made the epic 14 hour drive from Iowa to come spend Thanksgiving with us.  They endured snow/sleet/rain the entire trip down!  We are so thankful that they came to visit, see our new house and new area, and spent Thanksgiving with us.  We know what a big trip it is and we are so grateful our family loves us enough to do it!

The cousins loved being together and having so many days in a row to play.  We had four full days together and somehow didn't even end up doing all of the things we wanted to.

Atlanta was kind enough to welcome them with the coldest Thanksgiving day in 100 years.  Awesome.  There was even snow in the forecast but praise the Lord, it never did snow.  We had a gorgeous 60 degree day on Friday, though, so playing outside at the parks hopefully made up for the other cold days.

We took them to some of our favorite local places, including the most amazing donut shop followed by Catch Air where the kids had so much fun running around and playing!



The boys also loved the Lego store at our mall!  I'm glad we found some indoor activities to keep us busy on the cold and rainy days!

Thanksgiving morning the girls and I started on my mom's famous homemade crescent rolls bright and early!  We decided to do a mix of making some favorite homemade recipes and utilizing Costco and Honey Baked Ham to provide the rest.  Best.decision.ever.  We still spent plenty of time in the kitchen but also got to relax a little and enjoy hanging out.





Yummy breakfast... cinnamon rolls and coffee!



The kids loved the cinnamon rolls!  We also had the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on for much of the morning.  I just love that tradition!



It warmed up enough on Thanksgiving for the kids to get some time playing outside.



Our boy cousins showed us the ropes of tree climbing!  ;)



We did appetizers for lunch and then ate our meal around 3:00.  Jorie and I were pretty proud of ourselves for pulling off an entire Thanksgiving meal all by ourselves! (with Justin's help too!)  I'm sure my mom is ready to pass on the duty of meal prep to us now.  ;)



After eating, we took a walk around our neighborhood and then hiked on the trail by our house.



I may look happy in that picture, but I seriously thought I was going to go into labor.  We hiked for about an hour and I think I had one massive braxton hicks contraction the entire hour.  It was miserable!  Between cooking, cleaning, and hiking, I was exhausted by the end of the day!

We also swapped date nights while they were here, which was super fun!  One of the nights Jorie and Mark checked out a movie at our most favorite movie venue, where you get a private table and can order dinner while you watch the movie.  On a different night, Justin and I went out for dinner and then coffee to celebrate his birthday a few days early.



Overall, a great visit from dear family!  The house certainly seems a lot quieter tonight.  Thanks for spending Thanksgiving with us this year, Dillmans!

Kicking off Advent Season

Last weekend we took the girls to the ballet.  I was looking up Christmas events in our area and found a Christian ballet company that put on 'A Star of Wonder' ballet.  It was the perfect kick off to our Christmas season.  If we weren't hosting Thanksgiving, my Christmas decorations would be up already!

The first half was scenes from The Nutcracker and the second half was focused on the nativity and Jesus' birth.  The girls (especially Claire) were captivated from the very beginning.  Even before the show started... just seeing the theatre, the stage, and the curtain was exciting for them!

I let them wear their Christmas outfits.  It was fun to get dressed up and do such a big girl thing with them!  Justin was a great sport... he is the best Daddy for these girls!

Leaf jumping

I love fall! When we moved into our house, one of our neighbors told us that we have the prettiest fall tree in the neighborhood in our yard.  It finally finished changing color and I agree... I love looking at this out my kitchen window everyday.



 Some leaves have started falling so Justin did some raking yesterday.  The girls were so pumped to jump in the piles.












Thankful for beautiful weather, weekends with my family, and the beauty of God's creation.

5th Birthday Fun!

We had fun celebrating Miss Claire Bear as a family after church on Sunday.  Claire picked a restaurant to have lunch at and chose the 'one that has that hummus platter.'  :)  She also decided that instead of having a birthday party this year, she wanted to make a build a bear and ride the train at the mall.  Sweet.. no party prep for this preggo mama!  She had so.much.fun and I loved doing something special as a family for her.









                                   Happy birthday girl with her hummus platter!


                                       Build a bear fun!





                          Fluffing the bear's fur

   Picking out clothes and getting 'Princess Bear' dressed

                           Happy builders!

           After build a bear, the girls and Daddy got to ride the train around the mall.




On her actual birthday, Claire requested breakfast in bed...She wanted four mini donuts on a tray and requested that we wake her up by yelling 'surprise' and then singing Happy Birthday.  This girl knows what she wants!  ;)



She brought cake batter rice crispy treats to school to share with her class and her teachers let her wear a birthday crown and be the line leader... sweet!



We had Swedish pancakes with strawberries for dinner... per Claire's request.  She also picked out a fancy cake and we sang happy birthday and ate cake with our friends who came over for small group that night.







So thankful for this five year old and the opportunity to celebrate her!