The Stein Five

Want to remember this..

2011-11-27T06:22:00.001-06:00

Daddy and I moved to the bunk bed and couch....this is why :)

Month of Thanks-Day 22

2011-11-22T22:54:00.001-06:00

I'm thankful for pumpkin bread. Best. Stuff. Ever.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2011-11-22T15:56:00.001-06:00

Month of Thanks-Day 21

2011-11-22T15:54:00.001-06:00

Monday-

So thankful that Laney Beth's school let's out the WHOLE week of Thanksgiving!! It was soooo nice to sleep in a little later and not have to leave at all! I SO wish that I never had to send any of my babies to school! I miss them when they're gone!

Also, thankful for 3.99 pizza night at a local pizza place! Uncle D was over and we all enjoyed it! Nice to have a night off from cooking and we had leftover pizza for lunch the next day! Double score!

Month of Thanks- Day 20

2011-11-21T16:18:00.001-06:00

Sunday-

Brandon had plans for us to go to Huntsville or Pettigrew to hunt but somehow he didn't hear his alarm clock (a normal thing for him). I can't say that I was disappointed!! It was so nice to wake up and not have to rush anywhere...or so I thought!

We had just finished our muffins and Laney came in begging about going to church. We have been struggling so much lately about where to go and where we belong. It's been horrible not going anywhere. I can definitley tell a difference in every area of our lives when we miss church.

We've been thinking about trying out a new church that someone told us about for quite sometime but with my surgery and other happenings, we hadn't been able to. I felt horrible when Laney begged to go so we decided we'd go!! The RUSH begins!!

Thankfully, this church didn't start until 10:30 so we had time to get ready! Getting five people ready in one hour was no small feat, but we made it! We even made it a few minutes early ;)

Talk about a welcoming! They all talked and loved on our kids and were so helpful to show us where to go and what to do. It felt like home being there. We REALLY enjoyed it! Cade even stayed almost the whole time in nursery which he has never done before! They brought him to me during the altar call so I thought he did pretty good.

They were having a Mexican Thanksgiving Feast that night and so many people asked us to come. Unfortunately, Brandon had his mind set on going hunting that evening so we didn't go. The girls were so upset that we weren't going, so I'm gonna say they loved going to that church too! They have talked nonstop about the Christmas play where they are gonna be angels :) So sweet!

That evening we all drove to Huntsville and we did a "drive-thru" at the Coger Farm. We do this several times a year, ever year. Some of my favorite memories are driving through looking for deer on the farm. We dropped Daddy off at his hunting spot and the kids and I went to Wal-Mart to look around.

A few months ago, Cade saw this Mickey at the store and played with it FOREVER!! He is so cute! He loves that thing and did not want to let it go last night!!

Then we went to the new Dollar General (I was not too impressed) and drove around town the rest of the time looking at everything. I have to admit I got sad a few times thinking about how we used to live there, the memories, etc.

Finally, Daddy called us back and we did a drive through again as it was getting dark! We saw several deer and Daddy shot at one but missed. It was WAY to dark anyways! I don't know how he could see anything!

Here are a few pics of us hunting at the Coger Farm a few years back. Cade wasn't even born yet (I don't think-if he was he was a baby). The girls look so little! We always have the best time there!

(Sadie looked at this pic and wanted to know why SHE didn't get to get in the picture! ha She thought she was Cade here :) They do look alike!)

SO thankful for sweet, loving children who love going to church and learning more about God and how much they LOVE Jesus and for lazy fun days at the Coger Farm!

Month of Thanks- Day 19

2011-11-21T16:14:00.001-06:00

Saturday-

Today was a laid back kind of day but still busy. Brandon had to work (like he usually does on Saturdays) so the kids and I spent the morning straightening up and catching up on laundry and then we all 4 had to have showers and get all dressed up for my cousin Shane and Tracy's wedding (pics to come later)..

The wedding was fun and we stayed a long time at the reception and then I also stayed after to help clean up since I had promised my Aunt that I would help :)

The kids ate mostly chocolate and mints but I guess their little tummies got full enough because they fell asleep on the way home and we put them right to bed!

I worked a little that night on a custom canvas order for YouNique Creations and went to bed! I was so exhauted!

So on Saturday I was thankful that no one reads this blog because I got behind once again and didn't post a thing!! ha

Month of Thanks- Day 18

2011-11-18T16:48:00.001-06:00

Well last night something VERY exciting happened in the Stein Family!! Laney Beth lost her first tooth ever!!! It has been a little loose for a long time but on Wednesday night she came running in my office to show me that it was just barely hanging there. She wiggled and pulled but it didn't come out that night. We were kind of worried she'd swallow it in her sleep!

We sent her to school on Thursday and Brandon asked her not to try to get it out because he wanted to be there when it happened :) So sweet! I texted her teacher about half way through the day to ask her to send me a picture if she happened to lose it at school. She said it was still there hangin' by a thread!

It worked out great because we had the World Prematurity Day Party that night so my family was all together. Daddy finally talked Laney in to letting him put a string around it and letting her wiggle it. So she sat in his lap while he put the purple string (cause purple is the world preemie day color, ya know!) and he finally got it wrapped around it and told her to look up and when she did he pulled a little and it popped right out! SO funny! She was beyond excited!!

She put her tooth in a baggie with a string and wrote "Leave me $100 or else." Uncle Dustin may have helped her with what to say ;)

Nana and Pepaw gave her a dollar

And Uncle Jeff and Aunt Holly gave her some quarter!
She could not wait to get home and put it under her pillow!

Mommy and Daddy were a little sad that their first baby is getting so sad! It seems like just yesterday that we were WAITING on that sweet little tooth to pop out of her gums! :(

We heard the tooth fairy had a bit of a hard time putting a letter and some money under her pillow because she kept moving. Little fairy's heart was about to thump out of her chest. Wink. ;)

She got in to our bed sometime during the night so when it was time to wake up her eyes flew open and she took off running to her bed to find her surprises under her pillow!

I have a video of everything she found and all that happened and as soon as I figure out how to transfer it from my phone to this blog, I will post it :) She found a chocolate bar, some cash, and EVEN a letter from the tooth fairy! Of course, there was some glitter sprinkled on everything. Such a fun time! So proud of you Laney Beth!

Today I am thankful for sweet memories and even sweeter kids!

Month of Thanks- Day 17

2011-11-17T21:27:00.000-06:00

Gonna try to write this post without crying...not sure I can!!

Today is the 1st ever World Prematurity Day! So today I am thankful for our very own little preemie because without her we wouldn't have a reason to celebrate this day! Purple is the color for World Preemie day so we all wore purple! Sadie called it "Emry's Day.." So sweet!

I remember my sister coming over after her routine ultrasound and showing me how the baby's growth was "off" just a little but the Doctor felt like it was normal and she would just be a small baby like her big sister, Alli.

Of course, in my mind that twinge of fear entered. As a big sister, you always feel the need to protect your younger brother and sister and when things are out of your hands, it makes you feel helpless! When my sister lost her first baby back in 2007, it was the absolute hardest thing I had ever went through. I couldn't protect her, take it away, or make it better. I felt once again hopeless when I heard that this baby may be small.

This is the moment I became a big sister and gained the role as protector and best friend :)

Fast forward to March...Holly felt like something was wrong and they ended up monitoring her a while at Willow Creek. The only thing I can remember (and I'm already bawling..so much for not crying) is hearing the Doctor say "IF she survives, she will have no quality of life. At all." It felt like someone had punched me in the gut. I stood there watching my sister. So much hurt in her face but she was so strong. I had to leave the room and cry. It was horrible. How would we tell the kids? How could we go through this again? And what could I do to shield my sister from heartache again?

They went home that night to pack because they were being sent to UAMS in Little Rock to be monitored and discuss options. No hope. No maybe things will be ok. Nothing.

We had been planning a trip to Disney and South Carolina for 4 or 5 months so we were debating on whether to go on with our trip or not. The kids were SO disappointed at the possibility of not going and we were going to lose some money from our deposits on hotels plus the doctors were telling us that they were going to do EVERYTHING they could to keep Emry in her Momma's belly as long as they could and they didn't expect to have to take her for at least another week. So we decided to go on with our vacation.

Tuesday, March 21st, we were at Disney World's Magic Kingdom for the first time ever, having the time of our life! That place is seriously magical! Somewhere between riding the race cars at Tommorowland Speedway,

getting a popsicle

and going in to see a 3-D movie at the PhilharMagic Orchestra,

I get a phone call from my Dad. I missed the call. He left a message that I still have saved on my phone. He said "Jamie, call me back ok?" and he sounded so sad. I'm crying again...I called him back and he said that they were taking Holly back, Emry's cord was backflowing and that they were taking her NOW! Talk about feeling like a bad sister. Here I was miles and miles and MILES away from my family and my sister was facing the scariest day of her life and I am not there. Brandon and the kids and I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, hundreds of people pushing past us, and held each others hands and cried and prayed harder than we had ever prayed before. I told Holly the other day that if there was a movie about Emry and it showed that part, that it would be us standing there and people just flying by in a crazy blur. It was seriously crazy! From that moment on, I couldn't concentrate. I sat down on a bench while Brandon and the girls rode Dumbo. I cried, I prayed, and I hoped everything would be ok.

Just as we were fixing to get on another ride, the Haunted Mansion of all places,

my Dad called again and said "She's here! She's breathing on her own and doing just fine!" A moment I will never forget!!! She weighed only 1 lb 3 ounces and was perfect! We made it through the ride and sat down on another bench and PRAISED God for his miracle!! The doctor said the next 48 hours would be critical but she was doing ok. I remember Brandon telling some people that sat down next to us about what had just happened. I'm sure they thought we were crazy, but we didn't care! We just wanted everyone to know how GREAT God was!!

That night as we were watching fireworks over Cinderella's castle, I just stood in awe. Thinking about Emry, how big God is and how grateful I was that she was born alive and breathing on her own. So many tears ran down my face as I was taping this video! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMRY!!

On the way home from vacation we stopped by Little Rock to meet our newest niece. I was not prepared for how tiny she would be!!! I had seen pictures of her, yes, but it in NO way depicted just how tiny she really was! She looked a lot bigger on my phone! I just stood there for a few minutes, with tears in my eyes, and I had this lump in my throat and seriously could not find the words to talk. It was AMAZING to be staring at a real, live, miracle! Of course, we had to bring her a Minnie doll and hat that Uncle B had embroidered her name for her. They even added her birth date since she had been born the day we were there. Such a special time!

She had a few scary moments throughout her stay at UAMS but honestly this girl was a trooper! One nurse called her a ROCK STAR :) She amazed the doctors, nurses and anyone that heard about her. They had never had one her size that did as well as she did!

The day she came home was one of the greatest days of my life! We were all so excited! We made her signs and celebrated. My kids had never gotten to meet her because they weren't allowed in her room in the NICU. So needless to say, they were stoked that day as well! They LOOOOVE their Memmy!

Today, Miss Emry is still doing great. She is such a sweetie! Last week, I even got to rock her and put her to sleep without hearing her cry! :) The girl used to love having her booty patted and I would have to stand with her but she just cozied up in my arms last week and let me put her to sleep. Sweetness! I love to talk to her. Her blue eyes light up and sparkle so pretty! She has started laughing and Laney and Sadie love to make her giggle! Aunt Mamie (me) calls her chunky cheeks even though she is not at all big but I love to call her that because she is so much bigger than she was and she laughs when I call her that. I just love that girl!

So today, I am thankful that Emry is here, alive, breathing, thriving and showing the World that miracles do in fact happen!! I love you "Memmy" and I am so grateful for you!!

**I blogged for my sister on her blog for a long time if any of you ever want to read Emry's amazing story....if you haven't already read it!

Month of Thanks- Day 16

2011-11-16T21:12:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for my family. Seriously my parents and brother and sister crack me up. I have no idea what I would do without any of them. I can honestly say that they are my best friends (and Brandon too, of course)! We laugh, we cry, we fight but above all we LOVE each other SO much! I think it is a rareity to have a family like mine.

So today I recieved an email from my Mom that sparked several emails that I just have to share. I seriously about peed my pants. So funny. So here is proof (not that I need any) of why I am so thankful for all of them!!

From Mom:

Wanted to share a story with you guys...
Dad and I have been for the last two days frantically searching and searching for the cause of the WRETCHED smell that had consumed our house....We moved EVERY appliance that we have, and that was not an easy task believe me and we cleaned out cabinets, changed the air filters, etc.... and could not find the source We actually thought we had a DEAD MOUSE somewhere, we found nothing... Dad said that maybe there was a dead mouse in the wall and HOPEFULLY the smell would go away in a few days, one can only hope right?? I told him I was going to call the neighbors and tell them to look for a mouse and hopefully they would find one in their apartment and then the smell would be gone. I told him I would even go help them if it would get rid of the AWFUL smell!
WELL when I started to clean the floor because there was crumbs and little bits of things from the cabinets and I turn on the sweeper and I KEEP smelling the smell!!! so I take out the FULL tray out of the sweeper and about DROP DEAD from the smell and I said WELL I found the cause of our smell!!! YEAH THERE WAS ROTTEN EGGS IN THE TRAY!!!! So my questions is children... which one of you used the sweeper to clean up EGGS and did NOT dump the tray???
Come on fess up???
The sweeper is now sitting outside, per Dad's suggestion of spraying of with ALOT of Lysol and putting it outside and it will stay out there until the smell is gone, and the tray is soaking in the sink....
Our house already smells better!!!!
Please DO NOT use the sweeper unless you empty the tray IMMEDIATELY!
Have a wonderful day!
Love Mom
PS I expect a full confession from one of you.....Pretty sure Dustin was at work so that leaves only two, so which one of you is guilty???

Hilarious, right?!
This is from Holly:

well i would say me since i was the one to cook the eggs.... omg it was me AND jamie!! ha!! I just remembered! Alli spilled her eggs and I started cleaning them up with the sweaper... then Jamie said I can do that since you're cooking.... ha!! I mean I'M SO SORRY!! On the bright side at least it wasn't a mouse!! oh dear.....

To which I replied:

Thanks for givin me up DOG! I wouldn't have given you up..Gee.... :)
On another note, since you said please, we will be more careful next time!

Holly responded with:

sorry boo! i don't go down alone! ha!! and yes next time instead of cleaning the eggs we will just leave it.... :) I mean we will tell you so you can clean it up.... i mean.... we will be more careful next time and make our children eat outside :)

My bratty little brother said:

Bah haha. I win again!!!!

MOTHER:

Well Dad looks like we have TWO confessions or one confessed and gave the other one up HAHAHA and it sounds like Jamie wan't going to tell us she was guilty.... hmmm, AND yes your kids and YOU can eat outside! AND yes Dustin you are perfect!! :-)

And I said:

Story wouldve been better if you had found a dead body or something...just
sayin'! Totally kidding! But why didn't you ask us if we knew what could be
causing the smell? Come on really?? We could've told you. Today I am most
thankful it wasn't a mouse! ha

My father wrote back:

I knew it had to be the girls because boys use their head. hahaha Guys win again. And Mom.

Mom:

Yeah I was wondering if you were going to comment on the mouse statement! Pretty sure neither one of you would of known what the smell was...and I'm 100 percent sure we won't be eating eggs anytime soon! Dad said it looked like throw up!

Ahh, I love them!!

Month of Thanks-Day 15

2011-11-15T22:46:00.001-06:00

The past two days, Sadie has been asking me some big questions. I have to admit, when Laney was Sadie's age, I would have flipped out if she had said some of these things. Everything she said scared me for some reason.

Yesterday, Sadie asked me how we got to God. It was the sweetest thing. She has been really curious and I think its because Granny and Grandpa went to Heaven this year.

I told her I thought the angels probably helped you fly to God when you get old. She was worried that we would break the clouds. Ahh, precious! She then wanted to know if we would have chairs and food up there. I told her I bet we would and she then asked if we would have a bed and wanted to know if she could sleep with me and daddy so I could hold her. Talking about making you cry! She wanted to know if Nana and Pepaw and Papa would be there. Oh, and Curtis. So silly.

I love that kid. She is definitely a thinker. She wants to know everything and she cares about everyone so much. One day she asked me if I was SURE that God was taking good care of Granny and Grandpa! And she prays for God to protect "everyone, even the bad people" and she KNOWS God will protect us. Tonight it was raining and she said "OH I'm scared of the storm! No wait! (puts her hand to her heart) I mean I'm not scared because God protects us!" Precious!

I am thankful for pure, sweet, innocent hearts tonight.

And I'm thankful for my family tonight. Does it get any sweeter?!

Month of Thanks-Day 14

2011-11-15T22:07:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for a little boy who likes to help Momma clean up!

He loves to help me put up dishes.

I asked him to get how firetruck out of the living room so he pushed it to the doorway to the living room from the hall :)

And he dumped all of his animals out and cleaned them up himself! Sweetness!

Such a BIG boy! :)

Month of Thanks- Day 13

2011-11-13T23:09:00.001-06:00

AHH, I'm finally caught up on my Month of Thanks posts!! I don't know why I allow myself to get so far behind!

Today, I am thankful for my dear, sweet husband cleaning out my vehicle. Does anyone else seem to live out of their vehicle? Ours was HORRIBLE! I just feel like it's too much trouble to take all my kids out in the front yard to clean it out and so it just piles and piles and piles until it is gross... And y'all it is seriously a shoe closet out there! I think my kids have more shoes in the vehicle than they do in their closets! Not really, but maybe! The same thing with coats/jackets. And school papers. I gotta do better...

My husband was SO unhappy with me! He spent literally HOURS cleaning it out today. He even scrubbed down the doors and dashboards to make it all nice and pretty. And he vacuumed!

We made a quick trip to the grocery store this evening. He wouldn't let the kids bring a thing and changed the rule back to "NO eating or drinking in the car unless it is water!!" Aww, I love him!

THANK YOU for cleaning the vehicle out today Brandon! Love you!

Month of Thanks- Day 12

2011-11-13T21:47:00.001-06:00

Saturday's Post:

We spent most of Saturday hanging out with my sister and my mom. Oh, and Dustin, but he was tired from working an all nighter so he basically laid on the couch and held whichever kid wanted in his lap at the time! ha

We started a company a little over a year ago, YouNique Creations, and I am so grateful for all of the fun and opportunities we have making things for other people!!

We recently rented a booth in Prairie Grove at "The Locals", so we spent some time getting some of our booth stuff ready, brainstorming ideas for The Hummingbird Foundation (I will blog about this later!!), making a veil for a wedding, and touching up some wooden items for our booth. It was just a fun, relaxing (I know my Mom is rolling her eyes- ha) day!

The Locals

Working on a veil

Some of our items we've created!

I am grateful for the days when us girls can get together and work on our projects! Just wish our "boys" didn't have to work and could be there with us on some of those days!

Oh and these cousins, that just love to spend their days together!!

Month of Thanks- Day 11

2011-11-13T21:44:00.001-06:00

Friday's post:

On Friday I was most grateful for days where I have nowhere to go and nothing to do :) Those days are few and far between but I really enjoy them when they happen! I picked up the house a bit (it was clean for the most part), worked on some laundry, played with Sadie and Cade, and even got to take a short nap! BLISS! Brandon even picked up Laney for me so I didn't even have to leave the house. Or fix my hair. Or put on makeup. Oh, such a great day!

Month of Thanks- Day 10

2011-11-13T21:39:00.001-06:00

Thursday's post:

We ran out daylight taking pictures of the kids yesterday at the park so we headed back for day two on Thursday. Laney had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad so I unhappily took her to the public bathrooms in the park. I heard some scurrying when I opened the door and one of the stall doors slammed. I looked around and noticed that there were bags on the ground and a horrible smell coming from the back stall. It didn't take me long to realize there was a poor lady hiding in there. She was homeless. I had seen her wondering around the park the night before but seeing her hidden behind a stall, the smell, and hearing her mumbling to herself was so very heartbreaking. It made me so thankful to have a home and that I don't have to worry about where my next meal might come from. It literally broke my heart.

Month of Thanks- Day 9

2011-11-10T21:00:00.001-06:00

Wednesday's Post:

In Kindergarten, Laney made friends with a little boy named Landyn and his mom and I soon became good friends and sometime last spring or something (seems soooo long ago) she sent me a picture of a little boy and girl that she loved and thought we could get a shot of Landyn and Laney doing a similar pose to enlarge and frame for her office. It was so HOT this summer that we decided to hold off till Fall because they both get so red faced when it's hot and sunny and we just now got around to taking them! I don't have to say much about these pictures because the cuteness speaks for itself but I'm in love with them! So today, I am thankful for good friends, making sweet, funny memories and having adorable children to take pictures of!

Day 2 of Pics:

Month of Thanks- Day 8

2011-11-10T20:30:00.001-06:00

Tuesday's Post:

Ok, so this post is emotional for me. I can't help but think of my sweet Grandpa and how much I miss him and how much I just love all of my grandparents!

Laney's school held their annual Grandparent's Day on Tuesday. This year the theme was Hee Haw (an old t.v. show) Such a cute idea! Laney was asked to do a part and tell jokes but she chickened out so she became part of the singing group..."pickers and grinners" is what I think they were called.

When I was a little girl, we used to stay the night at my Grandma and Grandpa's quite a bit. I can remember we would always watch either Wheel of Fortune, 48 Hours, or HEE HAW! Such great memories. And I can also remember my Dad teaching me the infamous Hee Haw song "Where oh where are you tonight, why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and I thought I'd found true love, you met another and PTHTHTHHHH (blowing, spitting, air sound ha) you were GONE!

So you can imagine my excitement when I found out the theme for Grandparents Day!! It's the one show that REALLY reminds me of my grandparents!

The week before Grandparents Day, I went and helped Laney's class make gifts for their grandparents. Talk about fun! I love all of the sweet kids in her class!

My parents- "Nana and Pepaw", Brandon's Mom- "Oma", and my Grandma came to share the day with Laney. Of course, Brandon and I wanted to be there for the program and my brother came along as well :) First, we ate lunch at "Lulu's Truck Stop" We were all impressed with their nachos! Yummy!

And these little cuties tagged along too ;)

Then it was time for games, book fair, and gifts. Laney wasn't too interested in the games so we headed down the hall to her classroom to show everyone where she sits, meet her teacher, and to give them her presents.

The barn wood that I used for the display was from my Grandpa's old barn where he had chickens. It made me feel like he was there celebrating with us. I also wish my Granny and Papa would have been able to come!

After that we headed to the book fair where Laney talked her Pepaw in to buying her FOUR books! ;) Nana told her to pick out a book and so she picked out like 6 or 7 and Pepaw said ok pick out a couple and put the rest up. So she picked out 3 and Nana said "Ok I am going to put these up then" and Laney said "Aww but that one looks sooo good!" So of course Pepaw caved in and said "Ok, you can have four." I told him he didn't have to get that many but he was ok with it because it went to a good cause. So sweet! They bought Sadie and Cade some bookmarks too.

We headed back to the cafeteria to watch the program. I gotta tell ya, they went ALL out on decorating! They did such a good job! My company, YouNique Creations made and designed the different banners. They turned out pretty good! I was proud of them!

The program was absolutely adorable! I was impressed! What an awesome group of kids! Some friends recorded it so I will try to get a copy to put on here soon.

We had such a great time! Made me realize how thankful I am for my grandparents. Until September of this year I was SO blessed to have all 4 of my grandparents living. I absolutely hate that I sometimes take for granted what a privilege it is to be as close to them as I am.

I am also thankful that my kids have such loving grandparents and great grandparents! They have so many people that love them and are very blessed as well!

Month of Thanks- Day 7

2011-11-10T19:58:00.001-06:00

Ok it's been a busy week...Even though today is Thursday, I am just now posting MONDAY'S post!!

Although this is completely shallow (haha)...On Monday I was thankful for cute shoes! The girls got their first pair of TOMS and they were SO very excited!

My girls were beside themselves trying to decide which color they wanted. Well actually Laney had hers picked out before we even got there. That girl LOVES her red! I would have rather saw her get black or silver so they would go with anything but I figured she would be wearing lots of Christmas stuff soon, the Razorbacks are red and her school mascot is a Cardinal!

Sadie wanted pink but then changed her mind to silver! I'm so glad! They are too cute on her! How adorable are these?

Month of Thanks: Day 6

2011-11-07T08:06:00.003-06:00

A day late...AGAIN! I'm going to try my hardest to do so much better on this blog thing! Yesterday, I was most thankful for my sweet children's love for God. I feel horrible because we woke up late and they REALLY wanted to go to church :( We decided to have church at home and Laney started writing a list (I had no idea what she was writing) and later that morning, I asked if they were ready for church and Laney ran to get her list. I almost cried when I looked at it! She has such a precious, thoughtful heart.

If you can't read her sweet handwriting, she made a song list for worship time and here are the songs:

Jesus Songs
*Jesus loves me
*The B-I-B-L-E
*Twinkle, twinkle little star
*ABC'S
*I love you in the morning and in the afternoon
*Jesus died on the cross for us.

After the reading the last sentence, I asked her if that was a song and she said "not really" and ran off embarrassed about me reading it. So I had her come back in and we talked about Jesus dying on the cross. I then taught them the song that goes like this:

You came from Heaven to Earth to show the way,
From the Earth to the Cross my debts to pay,
From the Cross to the Grave from the Grave to the sky,
Lord I lift Your name on high!

Yes, it is totally an old school song but my kids had never heard of it and they loved doing the motions that go along with it. I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of that part. I just love them. They bless me each and every day!

Month of Thanks- Day 5

2011-11-05T22:26:00.003-05:00

I am so tired tonight, that I can hardly think! ha So tonight I will be short and sweet and say I am thankful today to be a HOG fan! We played South Carolina tonight and beat them 44-28. WOO PIG SOOIE! :)

Here is a picture of our future Razorback quarterback!

And here is a future Razorback cheerleader!

GO HOGS GO!

Things I want to Remember

2011-11-05T10:53:00.002-05:00

Taking a break from my Thanksgiving posts, I wanted to take a few short minutes and write down a few things I want to remember!

*Yesterday, while driving to pick Laney up from school, Sadie asked me, "Momma, do you and Daddy, married kiss?" I told her "Well, yeah I guess so" And she informed me that "You and Daddy need to go on a date tonight!" ha Everyone needs a Sadie.

*Laney LOVES to read. I love to hear her little voice and she has the most adorable accent! I could seriously sit and listen to her read for hours. I am so proud of her! She could also sit all day and write or draw. I love her passion for learning!

*Cade has a new thing where he will whisper "I la you" (I love you) in my ear. He only does it for me and it is absolutely the most precious thing EVER!

*Sadie loves me "BIGGER THAN THE SKY!"

*Laney has the sweetest giggle. She makes me laugh.

* I spent a few days at school this week and it warmed my heart to see how social Laney is! She was walking down the hall and every kid that passed said "Hi Laney" to her! Her teacher said she plays with boys or girls and that most of the boys will not have a thing to do with girls but when Laney comes around to play they all want to play with HER! So sweet!

*Sadie has been trying to learn letter sounds. She will say "Bbb, bbb, bbb BALL! Ball starts with a B!" :) SO proud of her too!

*Cade likes to "play" Mommy and Daddy. He acts like he is my boy and likes to tease his Daddy about it but then he will pretend he wants nothing to do with Momma to make Brandon happy too. Precious boy! I love his spirit!

*Sadie LOVES babies! We went to the park recently and she doesn't care about the playground or playing if a baby is around! She sat and held and talked to Emry almost the whole time! She will make a great Mom some day. She seriously loves little kids!

Month of Thanks- Day 4

2011-11-05T08:48:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I was most thankful for modern medicine, good health, and being able to resume normal activities following my hystrectomy!

I haven't ever blogged the full story of what happened after I had Cade but it was one of the scariest times of my life! I'll give you the short version :)

Immediately following the birth of Cade, I developed something called

Post Partum Cardiomyopathy or PPCM. You can read about it here: http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripartum_cardiomyopathy. I am almost positive I had a milder episode of it after I had Sadie (they said I had pneumonia- but we now think they were wrong!) but all I know is when I woke up from recovery after having Cade, I COULD NOT breathe! SO scary! My blood pressure also sky-rocketed! I normally have really normal (110-68 yesterday) blood pressure so this was very alarming to every one. Since it was Thanksgiving the doctor (not my doctor but the one "on call") let me go home. She probably shouldn't have. For 9 days, I struggled to breathe, move, and thought I would die at any moment. I had a horrible cough as well. On the 9th day, I remember standing by the back door, door open because I was burning up, coughing soooooo hard and thinking Brandon was going to have to call 911 because I just wanted to lay down and die. I ended up going to the doctor and he did chest x-rays and asked "which hospital do you want to go to?" He said he had never seen pneumonia so bad and it was crazy that I was even able to walk. When I got to the hospital, I had several doctors asking questions, running tests, checking for blood clots, Ekg tests, etc etc.. Finally they told me it was PPCM, which is basically heart failure after giving birth. WHAT?! Apparently it is so rare around here that none of the doctors at the hospital wanted me as their patient (yeah, they told me that) They began filling me with blood thinners, diuretics, potassium, and a bunch of other stuff. I was so swollen. It was horrible! The worst part was that I was not able to breast feed Cade (which could lead to another post of why I am thankful for my sister- ha) Anyways, I spent a week in the hospital and was told I probably should not have any more children.

So for 2 years we have been VERY careful to not get pregnant. Too much information? Yes, but it's important to my Day of thanks! ha Of course, we would have loved to have another child but with each pregnancy, the PPCM gets worse and could lead to heart transplants or even death. Not an option for me! My babies need their Momma!

Also, adding to my bad health was the fact that I had been dizzy for a little over a year. To the point that the room spinned while I was laying down. It was awful. I hate feeling that bad. And I would have these moments where I could sleep for hours and I just felt so bad. After talking with my parents, I realized that maybe my problems were due to being anemic (I have also read an article linking anemia to PPCM! Very interesting!) so I went to the general family doctor and begged him to check. Yes, I really had to pressure him. He didn't think mine would be that low. A few days later his nurse called and told me I was severely anemic! He put me on iron pills but in the meantime, I decided to make a visit to my OB/GYN.

I love my ob/gyn! I could also write a whole post of why I am thankful for him! So I went to visit him and we talked different options. I'll bore you with the details and why a hystrectomy was pretty much my only option but we decided that the hystrectomy would number one keep me from getting pregnant and endangering my life and number two would stop me from losing so much blood that I was severely anemic.

September 28th, my life changed for ever!! I'm hopeful it's for the better! :) I already feel less dizzy (still dizzy at times) but I am so grateful that I am working towards feeling better! I am hoping I have more energy too! I would LOVE to start walking! Yesterday, I got the "return to normal activities" diagnosis from my doctor so on Day 4, I am thankful for a clean bill of health and new possiblities!

A Month of Thanks-Day 3

2011-11-05T08:31:00.005-05:00

Ok so maybe today is the 5th day and I'm two days behind...BUT I DID think about what I was thankful for on the 3rd and 4th day and even semi-wrote them in my head. I was just too lazy to type it out on my phone and didn't have time to get on a real computer!! ha

On day 3, I was thankful for snuggling. Laney and I woke up really early on Thursday morning (it was still dark outside) and she wanted me to snuggle with her. SO sweet. I lay there thinking how one day she will be too old to snuggle (I sure hope not) and I was loving just laying there in the moment.

Later that day, during nap time, I was holding Cade to get him to fall asleep. Sadie asked her usual question, "Momma, when Cade falls asleep, will you come to my side and hold me?" LOVE it! Sadie is the biggest snuggler of all of our kids. That girl looooves to be held!

I didn't think to take pics of me holding the girls but I did get this sweet picture of Cade and I. Oh, I hope my children never outgrown being held and snuggling!!

Cade cracks me up when he sleeps. He wants to be held tight! And he has to have his hand in something...your arm pit, down your shirt, under you, etc. SO funny. And your arm has to be pulled tight around the front of him or he gets mad. I love this sweet face!

A Month of Thanks: Day 2

2011-11-02T23:03:00.001-05:00

Today I am thankful that I have been given the possibility to be a stay at home mommy! I went to Laney's school today to work on Grandparents Day gifts and I had the BEST time with those kiddos! I just love that I have that choice to be able to stay home! I know lots of Mommies out there have to hand their babies over to strangers at day care or leave with family but I can't stand the thought of being away from my kids that long every day!
Yes, it gets VERY financially tough at times on one income but we've always made it through and God has always provided! And I wouldn't trade the crazy, fun, sweet days I have at home with my babies for any amount of money in the world!

A month of Thanks- Day 1

2011-11-02T00:03:00.001-05:00

In the true spirit of Thanksgiving and being thankful, I am going to try my hardest to blog every day this month about the things I am most thankful for!
Tonight I had the privilege of attending the annual Loving Choices banquet! I have went for several years and LOVE it! I look forward to it every year.
This year the speaker was a girl whose mother had been forced/chosen to have an abortion while pregnant with her at the age of 12. Obviously the abortion did not work on her but it did ruin the life of her twin. After a second attempt at abortion, her life was spared and now she goes around the world telling her story about abortion; adoption, and God's healing/saving power!
So today I am thankful for Loving Choices, fellowship with great friends, healing, laughing til you pee your pants and I could go on!

Bella Vanilla is 4!

2011-08-22T13:28:00.001-05:00

Sweet, Sweet Sadie turned 4 on August 20th! Time sure does fly! We are so proud of you and just adore you! Love you our snuggling, funny girl!

Laney Beth is SIX!

2011-08-03T18:51:00.001-05:00

Can not believe my first born is already 6 years old! Seems like she should be warm and safe and still in my womb! We are so proud of you sweet girl! Here's to many, many more! Love you!

Sadie the SUPERSTAR!

2011-07-11T22:27:00.004-05:00

Sadie had a doctor appointment today and while we were waiting in the room, her nurse came and said "Can we get a shot of Sadie" I was thinking, "Huh??" Then she told me that one of our local news channels was doing a story on keeping children safe in this EXTREME heat that we are having and they wanted to put Sadie on the "clip" She was so funny because after it was over, she said, "But Momma, I don't want to get a shot!!" She was confused by what her nurse had said! Then I told her she would be on the news about the weather and she started to cry and said "I'm scared to go in the tv, will you go with me?" So sweet how little minds think! After I reassured her that she wouldn't have to get a shot or go in the tv and that they had already filmed her, she was so happy to get to be on tv! :) The news anchor said she did a great job and it could be her first of many tv appearances because she acted like a natural (ignoring the camera and not being scared). We are so proud of you Sadie girl!

Here is the link:

http://www.4029tv.com/video/28515490/detail.html

2011-07-10T12:10:00.001-05:00

How sweet is this face?

8 years!

2011-07-05T16:35:00.002-05:00

Happy 8th Anniversary to us! 3 kids, 7 houses, and a milllion hairstyles later :)...I am still just as in love with you (if not MORE) that I was on July 5, 2003! Here's to many, many more!

Trying to catch up on my blog....

2011-04-22T09:11:00.005-05:00

It has been a crazy couple of months!! I'm going to attempt to slowly catch up on all of our family happenings...attempt being the key word :)

So where to begin........

First, on March 21st my SWEET niece was born at 1 pound 3 ounces at UAMS in Little Rock! She is SUCH a miracle. Holly was admitted to the hospital the Thursday before she was born and then sent to Little Rock on Friday. We had plans to leave Friday night for vacation (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina) BUT since we were told by doctors that she would have her baby within 24-48 hours we didn't want to go. In Little Rock the doctors told her that they would keep Emry in utero as long as possible but that she more than likely had a chromosome defect and wouldn't survive...It was a hard decision but since they didn't think she'd have her within the week we decided to go on with our vacation...

I have a TON of vacation pictures so I will make a separate post about vacation..But while we were in Disney World, Emry was born!! I remember getting the phone call and all 5 of us stopped what we were doing in the middle of the CROWDS of people, held hands and prayed and cried out to God for Him to save Emry and protect Holly during her c-section. We were getting on a ride when my Dad called and said "She's here and she's breathing!!" I sat there and cried the whole ride! Praise God!! As soon as we got off the ride, we sat down on the bench, held hands, and all prayed and thanked God for his miracle!! Scariest day ever!! But it turned out good! Emry is doing well. She is growing and getting stronger every day!! You can read Emry's story at http://www.walkerfam05.blogspot.com/ Here is her 1 month picture:

Brandon got sick towards the end of vacation and everyone ended up getting it...Cade spent 5 days in the hospital for his asthma :( It was hard! His pulse/ox would stay up during the day but when he went to bed it would drop way down in the 80's.. At his follow-up appointment after being released his doctor decided to keep him on meds for a long period and treat him chronically :( Poor baby!!

It's been crazy around here :) More to come soon! I hope!!

A few beach pics!

2011-04-07T23:22:00.006-05:00

Little Model!

Bella! So pretty!

I LOVE sisters!

this sweet boy is a finalist on www.nwamotherlode.com for this cute picture!

haha..we tried for a good family picture. This is the best it got :)

My sweet niece

2011-03-19T17:41:00.001-05:00

Please read my sister's blog: http://www.walkerfam05.blogspot.com/ and PRAY!! Thank you!!

Student of the Month!!

2011-02-26T14:31:00.003-06:00

We are SO proud of Laney! She made Student of the Month for January at her school!! The word of the month was Cooperation! :) She got a certificate and some cool tickets to U of A games (basketball, gymnastics..) Unfortunately, she had the flu on the day the picture at school was taken so she didn't make the paper :( But we can show her off ourselves!! HA Way to go Laney! We are so blessed to have you as a daughter!

Praise the Lord!!

2010-11-18T10:34:00.002-06:00

We are very pleased and excited to announce that Sadie has NO MORE BRACES!!! YAY!! Thank you God!! We went to her Shriner's appointment on November 4th and were a little nervous about it because we hadn't been the best about making her wear them this summer. It was just TOO hot! And the braces were making welps and she would sweat really bad in them! So we prayed, prayed, prayed that God would still heal them without braces and He did!

Although her legs are still not "perfectly" straight (they are very close and SO much better than they used to be), the doctors agreed that her growth plates in her knees were healed and healthy so that being said, her legs will straighten and grow the right way as she grows taller. We were so happy!! Sadie celebrated the news with a fast run around the hallways of the hospital!! We couldn't keep up with her! She said she wanted to "throw them braces AWAY!" As I was putting her in the car, I started crying, and she said "NO MORE BRACES!!!!" and let out a loud scream! My sweet, sweet Sadie!!

I also have to brag on Laney Beth! During the summer/early fall, she drew and sold artwork to family and friends and saved up all that money and took it to Wal-Mart and bought new toys for patients at the hospital. I was sooooo proud of her! She delivered them right before Sadie's appointment and the lady in charge of donations told her how much they appreciated it and how much it would help little kids who were scared or hurting at the hospital...yes I cried during this too!It was an emotional, GREAT, awesome day!! Thank you God for your blessings!! We have so much to be thankful for!

Our Handsome Sweet Brother :)

2010-07-16T12:29:00.008-05:00

We are hooking up with 'Show Us Your Life Friday' over at Kelly's Korner. This week is 'Show us your single boys' and we just so happen to know of one :)

Meet our brother, Dustin, a handsome, single, 23 year old, from Northwest Arkansas! What's not to like about Dustin?! He's one of the most amazing men we have ever known
(yes, we may be a bit partial but hey, he's pretty great!)

Dustin is a laid-back kind of guy, doesn't worry about too much. He's a family man. Fond of the outdoors, Dustin enjoys hunting and fishing and fourwheelin'. He also likes looking at the stars and the sky and he's got some pretty cool pictures to prove it!

He loooooves his nieces and nephew. He always buys them the coolest, most thoughtful gifts, shows them magic tricks, and teaches them pretty neat stuff. Just recently, he called his oldest niece to have her look at the big, cool clouds outside.....aww....so sweet! He's the best Uncle so we KNOW he'd make an awesome Daddy!

He's a very talented man. Music is a big part of his life. He is a self taught guitar player and has been apart of praise and worship for several years (he can sing too but he doesn't like people to know that...shhhh-ha!)

He's also very wise and very deep. The boy knows lots of stuff, whether it be Bible verses, music lyrics, TV quotes, etc, etc. He's just a smart guy!
He enjoys helping people, which is why he's currently going to school and got accepted to the EMT program (we are SO proud!) He should've been a doctor as much as he knows about medical stuff! He amazes us at how knowledgeable he is!

Last but most importantly, he has a wonderful heart for God. He is not the type of guy who just “dates around.” He doesn’t want to date a girl unless he can see himself marrying her one day. How sweet is that?? He is such a wonderful guy, and any girl would be so blessed to call him her own.

P.S. Dustin doesn't know about this YET! So we'll post for now and brag on what a great guy we think he is and he can thank us later :)
Also, we apologize none of the pics are of him by himself. We could only find ones of him with our kids. HA!

Sadie's Legs Update

2010-06-12T20:30:00.004-05:00

Hey All :)I will start with the bad news first..Sadie still has to wear her braces :( But the good news is the braces ARE working and they told us when we come back in six months we will more than likely get to get rid of them! Yay! Her legs in November were at a 21 degree angle but today her left leg is at a 15 degree angle and her right is at a 19 degree angle!! Woo hoo! If you'll remember they told us that we would not see any changes in the first 6 months BUT what do they know anyways?! Haha GOD is good! :)We were also told that we can take them off of her for bedtime, when she's just laying/sitting down or swimming. Before they had said only take them off at bath time. Which I will admit we didn't follow the rules all the time :/ Its hard sometimes but even with our 'cheating' the braces have worked tremendously!Then we visited the shop for some adjustments (her legs have grown a lot) and some pressure points were bothering her so they had to make her braces a bit longer and push them out. They told us in six months at our appointment in November we should be able to get rid of them!!! Then we dropped off some toys/coloring books for Shriners patients (we have been collecting stuff since February for a part in Hearts for Hannah..you can go here to read about it:http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hannahgracecrumby).

Here is a picture of her legs in June 2009 (at our family reunion)

Here they are today (June 12, 2010)

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!

Thank you all so much for your prayers!! You do not know how MUCH they mean to us!!

Last day of Preschool and graduation

2010-06-12T13:30:00.005-05:00

Laney's last day of Preschool was May 22nd and that night in the church where she attends Creative School, they held a program/graduation. They all sung songs from each month of the school year from September to May. Then they called each child up for a 'diploma' certificate and showed a slide show of pictures from the whole year! It was so neat! I think Brandon and I both teared up a little when they called her name! She is so big :( Kindergarten here she comes!! We are so very proud of you! You have learned so much this year and had so much fun meeting new friends! You loved your teacher, Ms Trisha too! Way to go Laney! We can't wait to see you excel in elementary!!

Laney walking with her friends from school on their last day

Laney standing in front of her "cubby" Laney and her teacher Ms. Trisha

(she made these collages of pictures for all the kids)
Sadie LOVES Ms. Trisha too!!
All of the kids singing!

Getting her diploma *sniff-sniff*

We are so proud of you Laney Beth!!

Catching up...Laney's Preschool Graduation

2010-06-12T13:11:00.003-05:00

Laney's PreSchool program/graduation was held on May 22nd at 6 pm at her school. They all sung songs from each month of the school year from September to May. Then they called each child up for a 'diploma' certificate and showed a slide show of pictures from the whole year! It was so neat! I think Brandon and I both teared up a little when they called her name! She is so big :( Kindergarten here she comes!! We are so very proud of you! You have learned so much this year and had so much fun meeting new friends! You loved your teacher, Ms Trisha too! Way to go Laney! We can't wait to see you excel in elementary!!

Walking with her friends on her last day of school..

Standing in front of her "cubby"

Laney and her teacher, Ms. Trisha

(she made all of the students a collage of pictures from the entire year!)

Six Months!

2010-05-24T19:47:00.004-05:00

***UPDATE: Cade weighed in at 15 lbs and was 25 and 3/4 inches long! His weight was in the 10th percentile and his height was in the 25th percentile. Dr Lovell said, "Cade doesn't look good, he looks GREAT!" He got 3 different shots and the rotovirus "drink". He did so good at his appointment!! :) ***

Sweet Baby Cade!! I love you so much! You are SIX months old today!! Where in the world does the time go?! You are growing up so fast!

Here's what you are up to these days:

*You can sit up all by yourself now! You like to move your feet a lot though so you topple over sometimes! :)

*You roll over (back to front and front to back!) You never lay still. The other day I put you against the pillows at the top of our bed and you put yourself on your belly and turned completely around and scooted (on your belly) all the way to the end of the bed where Mommy was sitting! I was amazed!

*You are getting 3+ teeth! You are normally a very happy baby and always sleep through the night but the past few weeks you have cried so much and wake up all night. I was a little worried until I seen the teeth coming up and now I understand why you are cranky! Poor thing!!*Your brown hair has turned blonde! You have the whitest eyelashes and they are SO long! My little blue-eyed blondie!!

*We have given you rice cereal, bananas, and applesauce. You like them but you never eat too much. But your getting some good practice in! We also gave you a 'biter biscuit' a few days ago and you chomped that thing down to nothing!

*Uncle Dustin taught you to say 'ha ha ha' You will mock everyone that does it! It is too cute!* You LOVE Mommy! If someone is holding you and I walk by you get whiny and start crying! Ha Its so sweet.

*You also love your big sisters! They try so hard to take care of you and make you laugh! Your favorite thing is when they yell 'BOO' at you! You will laugh so hard! Laney has also started saying 'I see a duck in the sky made out of clouds' to you and you giggle really hard. She will name other animals (elephants, turtles, etc) but you laugh the hardest about a duck!And Sadie has started playing peek a boo with you and you REALLY laugh when she does that!!

You have your 6 month appointment tomorrow so I will update with all of your "stats" and you have to get shots too :(

We are so proud of you, Son! You make our family complete and we are so blessed to have you in our life! Mommy and Daddy talk about how blessed we are with the prettiest/cutest babies in the world! We love you, sweet boy!

He's here!!

2009-12-02T14:42:00.004-06:00

Cade Mackenzie Stein

November 24, 2009 at 12:53 p.m.

6lbs 9 oz. 19 1/4 inches long

**Will post more info and pics soon! **

**Mommy's still not feeling too well..**

Sade-Sade

2009-11-20T14:47:00.011-06:00

So, we finally got Sadie an appointment with Shriner's Hospital! We went on November 5th to St. Louis! Had tons of fun sightseeing and spending the night with Brandon's cousin Jami and her husband David! We only got to stay one night though so it was kind of a fast and exhausting trip! Ha

Brandon and the girls had never been to the St. Louis Arch

so we decided to take them up in it!

Sadie kept saying "Me look, Me look!!" She had a lot of fun

collecting leaves and rocks outside for Pepaw too :)

Laney LOVED the arch! She said it was like riding in a dryer to the top and

she just smiled the whole time!!

We decided to try Shriner's because Sadie's pediatrician was not at all pleased with the treatment we were receiving from the Tulsa specialist. They were basically just having us come up there for nothing and each time we went it was the same old "let's wait and see" story.. They didn't even do x-rays last time and we were basically in and out within 5 minutes. Seriously. Grr.

So anyways, the doctors and staff at Shriner's were awesome! They took special care of both our sweet girls and the nurses played with them and they even got stuffed elephants! The had a lot of fun! Best of all, Shriner's is free! Which is a GREAT thing for us right now since Brandon got laid off back in August. Helped us out tremendously!!

They took x-rays of her legs and even regular pictures. And they also watched her walk several times up and down the hallway. They told us that her bones were now at a 21 degree angle. If you'll remember last year (in October) they were only at a 10 degree angle. They didn't "officially" say Blount's disease but they talked a lot about it. Back last year at our first orthopedic appointment in Springdale, we were told that after the legs get to a 15-20 degree angle, they consider it Blount's disease...so we're not really sure. The doctors recommended leg braces for Sadie OR we could come back in 6 months and re-do the x-rays again. It was totally up to us but she recommended that we went ahead and got her fit for them. Of course, we know that her legs have gotten worse and the longer we wait the harder it will be on Sadie so we went ahead and had her measured and fit for the blount's braces.

This is just an example picture I found on the internet of the way Sadie's legs look.

The doctors also noticed her knee popping out of place as well..

She will have to wear these braces anywhere from one to two years. They will go from her hips down to the UGLY boots she will have to wear. I know it's totally dumb and "earthly" of me but I just like my girls to be stylish and these boots are FAR from stylish..it has really bothered me. A lot. They pretty much lock her knees up to allow growth in her growth plates. Her tibia bone is shorter so basically this will allow room for the bone to grow like it should and straighten things out. She will have to wear these day and night...at all times (except for showers, etc.) The reasoning behind that is because a child grows at different times and there is no way of knowing when Sadie's legs will grow so for the braces to be effective she HAS to be wearing them when she grows..

We were also told that there is still the possibility that she will have to have surgery when she is 4 or so. She has a few things in her favor such as she is not African-American (evidently Blount's is more dominant in African-American children) and she is not overweight so that is good but there are a few things working against her too: She is a girl (boys have better success with the braces) and a few other things that I can't recall at the moment. BUT we know that God is able to do anything. So if it is His will that her legs straighten without surgery then He can and WILL do it! We are praying that her legs show significant improvement before her next 6 month check in May (we were told by the doctors we wouldn't see anything by then-would LOVE to prove them wrong! ha)

We've (me more than Brandon) have had a hard time with it because obviously we don't like the thought of Sadie having to go through all this. I have cried so much over it. Sometimes I can't stand to think about it! I know parents go through MUCH worse things than leg braces but it's still hard on us :( God will help us through though. He always has and always will. She wants to be like Laney so much and do everything that Laney does so it's hard because she wants to play soccer and do ballet, etc. but we will probably more than likely have to push that back a few years. So that's hard and it breaks my heart for her. But hopefully all will straighten quickly and correctly!

Please be praying with us for our sweet girl! That she can run and play and be normal in these braces and that they don't bother her at all. She hates wearing shoes as it is, so I can't imagine making her wear these ALL of the time! But we've gotta! So pray for us to be strong for her as well and most importantly please pray that her legs will straighten fast!

Love you all!

Sadie

2009-11-20T14:45:00.000-06:00

Happy 2nd Birthday Sadie!!

2009-08-20T10:52:00.002-05:00

Dearest Sweet Sadie,

I cannot believe you are two years old today!! It seems like just yesterday you were in my belly..causing me all kind of pains!! :) Today you said you wanted to go to the park when we asked you what you would like to do for your birthday. We asked you what you would like for dinner tonight and you said McDonald's! ha And you want to play "soccer ball" This morning when you woke up you were upset because it's raining and you keep looking out the window saying "Raining, momma...soccer ball" and then you frown! SAD!! We are going to do our best to let you play soccer ball today :)

We celebrated your birthday with all your friends/family last week. We had a party for you and Laney together at Wilson Park Pool! We called it the Stein Girls Luau 2009! You had so much fun but weren't very talkative like usual. We didn't know if you were feeling bad or if you were just being shy cause there were so many people there! You got tons of cute gifts but weren't really interested in opening them. You wanted to play instead so Mommy had to open most of them for you and you played with them as I opened! When we asked you what you wanted for your birthday the only thing you would tell us was, "I don't know...soccer ball?" You told Laney you wanted a "bag" and Laney said "Well what do you want in it sis??" And you told her "Stuff!" haha!

You are doing so much now! We can understand you a lot. You talk all the time and want to do everything that Laney does. You act so big! You love baby dolls and carry one around most of the day and you always take one to bed with you. We even got a note from the nursery that you carried one around all during church last time. SO sweet! You get so excited about everything and point and say "Mommy LOOK!!" Sometimes you just melt my heart! I could sit and watch you play/sleep/eat/talk all day long!

You are still having some issues with your legs. We took you to the doctor last week and didn't really get any answers (again) and have to take you back for more x-rays in November. Some days your legs look straighter but some days you have a really hard time walking/running. Breaks this momma's heart! I just don't want them to hurt you EVER! We are praying really hard that they straighten up or that the doctors will do something soon to help them!

You love music and you LOVE to sing! Everytime you get in the shower you will sing very LOUD!! It is the sweetest! When you are playing babies you walk around saying "Baby cry, Baby cry...." You make us laugh all the time!

It's a BOY!

2009-07-28T13:52:00.024-05:00

So I realize that i'm almost two weeks late posting this but IT'S A BOY!!!!!!! WOO HOO!! Brandon and I feel truly blessed and Brandon has said numerous times how "perfect" our family will be now. :) Last Monday, we went to the doctor at 8:00 a.m. (I made the appointment early-couldn't stand the thought of waiting all day) and so we got called back to the ultrasound room and let me tell ya: I WAS SO NERVOUS!! I was sick all morning trying to get ready and when I layed down on that table, I was shaking like a leaf!! Brandon was surprisingly calm. Laney and Sadie went with us and they were both very excited to find out. Laney was hoping for girl and Sadie said it was a boy!

(yes I am aware that he may beat me when he gets older for posting this one..ha)

So, the tech starts getting all the measurements she needs for the doctor and looking around and then she asks us if we'd like to know the sex? HELLO, UM YEAH, THAT'S WHY WE ARE HERE!!?? Anyways, a few weeks back I had this dream that the ultrasound showed a little wee-wee and then turned to a vagina!! FREAKED ME OUT! haha So Brandon and I both kept seeing something that we thought was the "male part" but didn't say anything...I was honestly waiting for it to turn to a "girl part". Finally, she said "Well, it looks like a BOY to me!!" WHEW, what a relief (not that we wouldn't have loved her if it had been a girl but we really wanted a boy)!! I cried. Brandon cried. It was precious! Utter shock. As a matter of fact, we're still having a hard time believing we're gonna have a boy! Brandon always said that he had the two most beautiful, sweet girls in the world so he knew we were having a boy because there could never be girls more prettier or more precious than the ones we already had. Of course, Brandon and our doctor shared some high fives before we left! Immediately after walking out of the doctors office, my phone and facebook started blowing up with texts and people wanting to know :) So I sent them this picture for a clue :)

Laney had seen on her favorite show (The Duggars) where Josh and Anna cut a cake to reveal the sex of their baby and so when we told Laney we were fixing to find out the sex of our baby she said "I WANNA CUT THE CAKE!!!" So we decided to tell our family/friends the same way. We planned a reveal party at Chuck E Cheese that night and it was SO much fun!! My family wasn't too happy about having to wait from 8 a.m. till 6:30 that night but they got over it! haha

We have decided to name him Cade Mackenzie. His name was purely accidental! Brandon and I went to Olive Garden for our anniversary on July 5th and we were talking baby names and Brandon kept getting "mad" at me everytime I mentioned a girls name! I thought Kate would be a cute name cause it's my grandma's grandmothers name and Alli's middle name is Katelynn so I thought that would be kind of pretty. So I said "How bout Kate?" Brandon glared at me and I was like "I didn't say Kate!! I said CADE!!" haha He was like "You know what? I really like that name!!" So there we had it: Cade! And Mackenzie is Brandon's middle name and it's also the maiden name of his grandmother on his dad's side. We are so excited and just can't wait till HE is here!!

Oh The Excitement!!

2009-07-19T21:15:00.005-05:00

Ahh...here we are on the eve of finding out what the sex of our (hopefully) last baby is!! We are soooo excited and very nervous at the same time (as I'm sure you can imagine). Everyone keeps asking me what my "gut" feeling is and well, I really don't have a gut feeling. I was telling Brandon that I think it's a boy but then I feel like that's just wishful thinking and then I figure it's a girl cause well that's how we roll...so I just REALLY don't have a clue!!

We are right in the middle of a move to a new, bigger house (THANK YOU GOD) and today I came across these emails I had printed off around 4 1/2 years ago! Aww, how they made me cry and laugh all at the same time! Everything was so new then and we had no idea what we were in for :) I had sent out an email to my family/friends a week or so before we found out the sex of Laney Beth and it was so much fun reading what everyone had to say so I thought it might be fun to post these the night before we find out what "Baby Cup" is going to be. I'll share a few :)

-BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (from Uncle Dustin)

-I think you are having a boy because I have a gut feeling. Boy is my vote. Love Aunt Netta

-I, Tina think it will be a girl bc that seems to be the most dominate gender in this group...Jim thinks that just bc there are so many girls that this one will be a boy!!! and Mandy thinks it will be a boy bc that was the first thing that came to her mind. Missy thinks you will have a girl bc girls are prettier than boys...haha so here you have it...we are a family divided...Love you guys and we will be praying for you (From Jim, Tina, Mandy and Missy Flowers)

-Hi. Jamie well I guess a boy. reason to take Dustins place as he just turned 18 the other day. and you was sort of a tomboy to me. no i hope you guys lots of luck and boy or girl Gods blessing to you and Brandon (and ?). Love Papa (so SOOOO sweet)

-I'm gonna guess BOY for two very good reason....I haven't seen you in a while and your nana said so...(from Mina)

-Well I just happen to think that Mr and Mrs Stein are going to have a beautiful baby GIRL! I know, I know I am going against what Nana thinks which I have to admit does worry me a little, but I have to go with my instinct. I think that since Brandon was blessed with many brothers, it is time for iim to experience the joys of a precious little girl. Just think, you guys would get to look forward to pink dresses, hair bows, and all the little girl ways! Plus, Jamie you know you have to have a girl now, so I don't have a chance to take that name we both love! HA! I am so excited for both of you and either way, boy or girl, I know that this baby is blessed! Counting down the days.... (From Sarah Morgan *now Core*)

-I think it is a girl because you look like girl people (From Sarah Robinson)

-Well I think you are having a boy!!! I don't really know why. so do you want us to guess when the baby will be born too??? If I win I want you to take me out to dinner! Love ya lots! Nana

-A Boy!! God told me so. (Uncle Joe)

-Well I didnt even know you were pg! Congrats. I say "boy" too! (Robin Smith)

-I bet it is a girl. Hope you are doing o.k. Love ya, Aunt Barb

-I think it is a boy. I know we want a girl but I have a gut feeling it's a boy. The reason I think it is a boy is because I have been buying boy clothes and I would hate to take them all back!! hehe (From Aunt Holly)

Gosh, I treasure these emails so much!!! I think it's funny that most said boy and two girls later we still have no boy (at least not that we know of YET!! ha) I know I have Sadie's somewhere too that I may have to post sometime but I just happened to find these today :) Say a prayer for us (Brandon especially..hehe) and we will let you know!!

Get your votes in!!

2009-07-06T17:35:00.003-05:00

I've started a new poll (as I have with my two previous babies) that is a lot of fun, especially for me, I love reading all of ya'll's guesses and what you have to say :) So get to voting!! Just click on the expectnet poll at the upper right :)

A few facts:

-Miss Laney Beth was breach causing me to have a c-section which requires me to have c-sections with all my other pregnancies :( Sooo I know that I will have the baby somewhere around a week or so before my due date (that should help you guys with the date)

-I weighed 7lbs 13 oz when I was born and unfortunately I am not sure about Brandon...But Laney weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long and Sadie was 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long...

-I went into labor a day before my scheduled c-section with Laney and with Sadie I had contractions pretty much from 20 weeks on but I still kept her in my belly alllllll the way till her scheduled c-section day :)

-Brandon has 5 brothers and only nieces...My family usually goes two of one sex and one of the other (for example: Me-girl, Holly-girl and then Dustin-boy) there's a whole mixture of sexes in my family :)

That's all the clues I'm givin! Good Luck!! :)

Fun Friday

2009-05-23T10:08:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was our first appointment with an actual doctor! Woo Hoo! We decided to stick with the same doctor that we've used to past two times even if we don't like the hospital we have to deliver at. I must say that I am SO glad we decided to stick with him! My name got called and it was his actual nurse (love her) and she was like "HEY!!" like we were old pals or something! haha She was soooo great with me when I was fixing to have a c-section with Sadie. I was freakin out and she was so helpful and trying to calm me down. Later she told me she was worried about me cause I was so scared :)

So the Dr. walks in and the first thing he says is "You are NOT going to believe this but I swear to you that just yesterday afternoon, I thought about you guys and wondered whatever happened to the Stein family and here you are today!" Isn't that great? Made us feel good that he wondered where we were and why we hadn't been around in a while!! We've been pregnant every other year so I guess he knew it was time for #3! haha

After taking care of some not so fun things (pap..ugh!), he's ready to listen for the heartbeat! This is where the funny part starts...When I was preggo with Laney, he predicted a girl based on the heartrate and with Sadie, he predicted a girl too and well he was right that time too :) So Brandon informs him that when/if he finds the heartbeat, he is NOT allowed to predict or give his opinion based on what the heartrate is!!! haha Dr. Hix got the BIGGEST laugh out of that one! Brandon said if it is another girl he is going to cry and the dr. said he would cry with him!

With Laney and Sadie, he hadn't found the heartbeat the first time, so I was pretty confident that he wouldn't find this ones the first time and would want to do an ultrasound. I was nervous and excited all at the same time! Of course I was right...couldn't find the heartbeat (he thought he heard it for a brief second) so off to the ultrasound room we went! Has anyone else had the internal ultrasound?? UGH. Very uncomfortable!! Ahem, and they put a condom over it! Like I said, uncomfortable and weird!! OK anyways, so up pops our little "baby cup" (Laney's name for the baby)!!!! He/she was a lot bigger than I expected! I could make out the eyes and it's back and arms...awww :) We could also see the heart beating on the screen. I told the doctor that I was soooo relieved when I seen the heartbeat! Our doctor said that he is always nervous until he sees the heart beating on the screen (that's a good doctor).

not the best quality photo but you can only do so much with a crappy cell phone pic :)

So then we hear, "Well the heart is beating 175 bpm, looks like a healthy BABY!" and then he starts laughing because Brandon is standing against the wall with the scaredest look on his face! Brandon said "Don't even say it!! I know what that means!!" Brandon said his heart fell into his stomach at that point! haha Brandon asked what the odds of it being a boy were....Dr. Hix said, "Brandon, that does NOT mean it's a girl. There is still hope! That stuff is just hogwash and you can't predict based on that!" Yeah, ok Dr. Hix...you predicted it for us twice before! We were all laughing hysterically at this point. Well except for Brandon. I told them we needed to get Brandon to an E.R. quickly cause I'm pretty for sure he was about to have a heart attack! Brandon asks if it would be ok to take my nausea medicine. More laughs. Nothing like everyone laughing while you're laying spread eagle on an exam table :/

Oh, and we just seen one baby :( I guess you grow faster with each pregnancy or something? Cause I could've sworn there was either more than one or that I was further along...seriously. So I'm about 12 weeks and I'm due on December 7th. So I should have this little baby somewhere around the end of November or first of December (c-section births are great for exact dates-except for Laney, who decided to come a day before her scheduled c-section). Our next appointment is in June and this is the one where they do AFP (?) testing. We opted out of this testing on Laney and Sadie so we signed a release with this one too. When I was pregnant with Laney, Dr Hix said that a lot of times this test will have false positives and then you have more testing that turns out negative. Basically it can cause a lot of worries. He said anything that can be "fixed" will show up on an ultrasound and since he knew we wouldn't terminate a pregnancy because of things the tests might show (like down-syndrome and other genetic problems) then it really wasn't a necessary test for us. Him and his wife had opted out of this testing too.

We headed to the nurses desk to sign the release and his nurse told us that her cousin was pregnant and the heartrate was always high so they were convinced they were having a girl. They had decided not to find out what they were having so when the baby was born, it was a boy! She was trying to give Brandon a shred of hope..but he still has doubt! He thinks God may be testing him until we find out! haha Poor Brandon! Anyone else got any rays of hope that I can share with Brandon? What were your babies heart rates/sexes? I told Brandon that I'm going to go have the ultrasound alone at 20 weeks because I don't think he can stand the disappointment if it is a girl! I think every daddy has dreams of having a boy? He loves his girls SOOO much so I know that after the initial shock wears off (if it does happen to be a girl), he will be excited and he'll be wrapped around her finger like he is with Laney and Sadie :)

Such a funny Doctor's appointment! I was really nervous but it turned out great and we had a lot of fun too!! Can't wait till next month!!

Then we went back to Nana and Pepaw's to get the girls and apparently they decided to go swimming while we were gone! haha Can we say, BRRRR?!?!

Holly and Alli decided to come over for a visit so we ended up spending the whole day with everyone. We had a great time! The best part was the loooong nap we all took in the afternoon :) Awwww it was so nice! I took care of Alli for a while. Laney and Holly decided to go work out while Sadie was still sleeping. She was quiet most of the time but she did cry quite a bit too! The only way I kept her from crying was by playing "Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash on the cell phone! haha I played it over and over and over again. Everytime she would start to cry, I would turn it on and she would stop instantly!!

Uncle Dustin came home and we went out to the pool again and the girls got in..again. They love the water! I think they would live there if we would let them! We had to practically drag them out. Poor Sadie's lips and hands were blue! Those crazy girls! We were going to barbecue but it was getting kind of late by this point and no one wanted to go to the grocery store so we decided to order pizza instead! OHHHH it was so good! I can't find very many things that I like during this pregnancy but the stuffed crust pizza....MMMM!! It's too bad we're on a budget because I think I would order it everyday! I craved it before bed and when I woke up this morning and now that I'm talking about it...I want it NOW! I am definately kicking myself for not bringing some of it home with us!

It was such a great Friday!

Sadie's legs

2009-05-19T08:32:00.005-05:00

Well we finally have internet again! Yay! We switched internet companies and it has taken FOREVER to get the new company to do their thing!! Anyways..now I can finally update about Sadie's legs....

As most of you know, we were told by the orthopedic specialist in Springdale that she would need braces to correct her legs and he wanted to send us to a children's orthopedic specialist in Tulsa because if her legs did not straighten up after the braces then Tulsa would be the place where she would have surgery to correct them.

So on May 14th, we headed to our appointment with Dr. Capeheart. As you can imagine, we were pretty nervous. I had cried several times because I knew that it would be so hard on Sadie. We had read that the braces would have to be worn 23 out of 24 hours!!! Sadie is a very active 21 month old so we knew this would be very difficult and she would NOT be a happy girl with something on her legs all day long. Dr. Capeheart came in and looked her legs over and decided to do some more x-rays (for some reason our Dr. in Springdale sent no x-rays or information to Dr. Capeheart's office?!?!) So Brandon took her back to the x-ray room (I couldn't go cause I'm pregnant...boo!) and then we all waited for the results.

Finally, he brought the x-ray in to show us and to discuss what he thought. He said he was going to go through a couple of diseases that children usually have when they have these types of leg problems and show us what her legs (more specifically her knee caps) would be doing if she had any of these diseases. First, it was some REALLY long name that I can't remember (ha) and said if she had this disease, her knee caps would look a certain way (which they didn't) so he said it wasn't that disease. Next, he talked about Rickets disease (I'm sure some of you have heard about it). Rickets disease is caused from a Vitamin D deficiency (which breast fed babies usually are lacking vitamin d..) and said that it didn't appear that she had this. Then he moved on to Blount's disease which is what the Springdale orthopedic specialist told us she more than likely had. Dr. Capeheart said at this point it doesn't look like she really has Blount's. If it does turn out to be Blount's, leg braces should correct it (with no surgery!! YAY!) Blount's is usually worse in African-American children and they may have problems with it their whole life. White children usually outgrow theirs (sometimes on their own) pretty early and have no life-long problems with it. Great news!!

Also, we have always been worried about her hips because she tends to hold them and rub her back and hip area a lot (especially when she walks). We have asked 3 times for x-rays on her hips and 3 times they haven't done it and we've been told..."Oh nothing is wrong with her hips." (guess they had x-ray vision....grr..) So, thankfully, Dr. Capeheart got her hips in his x-ray and he told us that her hips looked great (we didn't even have to ask!)

So he wants to keep an eye on her legs. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't develop any of these diseases and that her legs would straighten out on their own (PLEASE God!) In children under 2, they have a harder time diagnosing these leg problems and diseases because their knee caps don't really start showing problems on the x-rays until age 2 and then they can be more easily identified. Sadie is right on that borderline. It should show on her x-rays but it may not because of her age..So it's just a waiting game.

We were extremely happy (ok, we both cried after hearing the news) because we fully expected to come home with Sadie in braces! It was odd, because the x-rays looked WAY better than they had a few weeks ago in Springdale. Brandon and I got to talking on the way home about the series of x-rays that she's had and thought..the first x-ray she had in back in October(ish), she was laying down. The second x-ray in April she was standing up. Then this last x-ray in Tulsa she was laying down..Her worst x-ray was in April (while standing). So we wonder if that has anything to do with things looking better or if it was a God thing? I would prefer to think God is healing her but we are still going to ask Dr. Capeheart when we go back in August. But PRAISE GOD that for now she doesn't have to have any treatment and no braces!

Please continue to pray with us for these specific things:

**NO pain for Sadie-she still complains when we walk and she still falls a lot.

**That when we go back in August that everything will be straight with no bowing!

**That we are at the right place (Doctor-wise) Anyone else ever worry they are taking their children to the right doctors? I do!

Thank you all so much for the thoughts and prayers you are sending up for us. It means so much to us and we really appreciate it!

Alli Katelynn is here!!!!

2009-04-29T20:36:00.007-05:00

Alli Katelynn Walker

April 28, 2009

5 lbs. 12 oz. 19 inches long

What a week!!

2009-04-27T00:03:00.008-05:00

WOW! It has been some kind of week! We started off in Huntsville where Brandon decided to do some renovations at his Gran's house while she was visiting family in Florida... Gran's toilets had been leaking and causing problems (they were VERY old) so he decided to rip them both out and put new ones in. She also had a bad sink and some leaky pipes so what he thought would be a quick easy fix turned out to be an all week job!! Needless to say, when she returned home she was very shocked to find two new toilets, a new sink, and new pipes! It was a LOT of work!!

About mid-week, Sadie started getting sick and she had a well-check appointment on Thursday (shots included...boo) but when they checked her temperature (102 ish) they decided against shots and after a few tests, we found out she had strep-throat AND the flu!! UGH! Neither of my children have ever had the flu, nor have they ever been this sick. It was so sad! Sadie usually gets sick and is over hers in a day but poor kid has been sick a whole week. Hopefully she gets better soon or we'll have to take her back to the doctor :( Laney started getting sick this weekend but I don't really think she had what Sadie had but she has been coughing something awful! We've been pumping her with her inhaler and cough medicines because she usually ends up having "almost" pneumonia or bronchitis. My poor babies!

There was another big change this week. Since Saturday was a new moon we decided it was time for Sadie to quit breastfeeding. :( I wasn't sure if this worked but my mom swore by it (actually my mom doesn't really swear but she did insist it would work)! She ate one last time on Friday and then on Saturday she just kind of stopped..It may have something to do with that she was sick but she just quit asking (yes, I know I should've stopped long before she was able to ask for "boobie" ha) and so we stopped... I felt SO guilty because she was sick and all I wanted to do was hold her and nurse her but I know it was time and for the best and she has done so well with it. I am so proud of her! Even though I was ready to stop, there is just something about actually stopping that is heartbreaking. If you are a mom you know what I mean and if you're not a mom yet then you will find out what I'm talking about! I have cried several times!

Today we had an appointment with Sadie's orthopedic specialist. We took her for her first visit back in October for x-rays because she has a lot of bowing in her legs and she also falls alot and acts like her legs and hips are hurting her. So back in October we were told that her tibia bone was at a 10 degree angle (on both legs) and that we needed to come back every 6 months to see how they were growing. He said if they were at a 20 degree angle it was considered to be Blount's Disease which you can read about here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blount.

So we went for our appointment today and her legs are at a 15-20 degree angle. At this point, her legs should be straightening up and not getting worse so the specialist decided that we needed to go to Children's Hospital in Tulsa to see a pediatric orthopedic specialist (say that 3 times fast! whew!) What he said would probably happen is that Sadie will get braces for her legs that will hopefully help straighten out her legs. I am not sure what kind of braces, how long she'll have to wear them, or anything but oh, how I just wanted to sit down and cry in the doctors office. It took everything within me to be strong and not becoming a blubbering cry baby in front of everyone.

He also told us that if the braces do not work then at age 3 they would do surgery to correct her legs. Ugh. I KNOW there are so many things worse that could happen to your kids (cancer, sickness, death) but as a parent, you just want your children to be whole and to not have to go through things like this. It just breaks my heart really. I have had a pretty hard day with all of it. I think about how active and all over the place Laney is all the time and to think of poor little Sadie in braces or having surgery where she can't get around as much makes me so SO sad.

Sadie and Laney waiting on Dr. Heim to come in with test results.

I know that this is better to fix now rather than waiting till she is older but it's just hard to see my baby suffer :( I watch Sadie walk a lot and it is very hard for me because she will fall or have a hard time running everyday. She also has a limp when she walks. A lot of times she will say "hold me" because she just doesn't feel like walking. And she hold her back a lot too. I just can't stand it. We have also noticed that her feet are bruised if she wears her shoes a lot (so if you see her barefoot all summer, you know why!) I am confident though that God will help my sweet girl. We put her in God's Hand's from the moment she was born so we know that God will give us comfort and help us through this. Even if He chooses not to straighten her legs out, it's ok because there is a purpose for everything and we know that He has a plan for our lives. We should hear from the specialist tomorrow about when we are supposed to go to Tulsa. Please be praying for us and especially for Sadie.

Isn't she the sweetest. She was working at daddy's office (she looks A LOT like Dustin as a baby here!)

On a happier note, AHEM, have I mentioned that we are expecting? Apparently this pregnancy thing is contagious! I know of like 12+ women that are pregnant right now so I'm saying I caught it from them! hehe. I am not sure how far along I am or when I am due. I am assuming sometime at the first of December but I haven't been to the doctor yet and I feel further along than I probably am..Anyways, we are very excited and a little shocked still ... Brandon wants a boy, of course. He has threatened to leave me if it's another girl but hey, it's not my fault if it's a girl, right??? Laney thinks it is a girl AND a boy and she has nicknamed them "baby cup" Silly girl! Sadie likes to kiss my belly and she calls the baby "Alli" I guess she thinks all belly's are named Alli because of Holly's baby!

Speaking of Holly...we are SO ready for Baby Alli to get here already!! I am kind of glad though that she has held off because the girls are so sick and I would absolutely HATE passing our germs to a newborn and I have no idea how I would keep Laney away from Alli because she is just too excited!! So maybe it is for the best but we are ready! Not as ready as Holly I'm sure...here is Holly's' blog if you want to keep up with her pregnancy: http://www.walkerfam05.blogspot.com/

She has a cool little baby pool on the left hand side for you to vote in if you get a chance!

Anyways, here is proof of little baby(ies) Stein...Sorry it's so blurry but well my camera needed charged and my cell phone stinks so this is all I could get. haha. Also, I know it's a little hard to see the line but it IS there. I can't afford the fancy schmancy tests that say "pregnant" or "not pregnant" (well I could but Brandon thinks it's a waste of money) so this is as good as it gets.

We're off to see the wizard...

2009-02-24T19:12:00.002-06:00

So I had a few minutes and thought I would write a quick blog...Our computer is broken so I haven't had a chance or the time to actually type one up somewhere else..Hopefully I get the computer fixed soon! :) This is kind of old but last month we won free tickets to see the Wizard of Oz at the Walton Arts Center from www.nwamotherlode.com (check them out!) I was SO excited. Brandon and I took the girls and mom decided she wanted to come too since it is her favorite movie ever!

I didn't realize how scary this show might seem to little girls until we were already watching it..Sadie wanted to nurse the whole time (yes I still nurse her...Lord HELP!) and Laney enjoyed it and didn't seem too bothered by anything scary (Thank God--cause I was praying!) Sarah and Kelcie came down from the balcony to visit us during intermission. Laney looovess Kelcie. She likes to call her and even though I hear mostly giggles, I think they have fun talking to each other on the phone..ha. Sadie's favorite part was anytime the "doddie" (Toto) came on stage and Laney just loved everything. She loves to go to plays and watch all the singing. I usually end up playing the most recent play for weeks afterwards but I'm glad she enjoys it. We met up with Sarah, Kelcie and Netta after the show and visited outside a while and took a few pictures. We had plans to get fried ice cream from Jose's but it was a little late :(

Fun night!

Happy New Year

2009-01-05T14:51:00.004-06:00

WOW! I have been so busy....I have thought about updating my blog several times but I was either too lazy or didn't have time. Then my dang laptop crashed! I feel so lost without it.... :(

So I was reading a friends blog (thanks Becca) and she posted a blog with her new years resolutions so I thought I would follow the same pattern, although I never follow through with these things but I am going to try my absolute best because these things are so important to me!

*To have a closer relationship with God. I go to church and all but sometimes I feel like I am not as close to Him as I should be. Like I'm going through the motions and not really getting it right. I read a verse yesterday that challenged me and so I am determined to start setting aside time everyday to find a QUIET place to pray and have time ALONE with God. I think that is so important in your walk with God.

*To spend more time "playing" with my girls. Sometimes I get so busy doing things...cleaning, laundry,watching tv, computer stuff (ahem..)... This whole laptop being broken has been a blessing really. I feel like I have played with the girls a lot here lately. They mean the world to me and I have so much fun playing with them. They amaze me...the things they think and do. Aww, I love them!

*To have a better marriage with Brandon. I will admit, we argue more than we should. It's hard sometimes though when you're struggling with other things and you tend to take it out on your spouse. I would like to make a resolution to never fight in front of our kids (I would like to say to never fight, period but that is difficult to not argue with someone you are with 100% of the time). I've noticed that Laney's attitude gets real bad when we've been fighting with each other. Isn't that terrible? I feel like a bad parent/wife sometimes because of this. We have got to do better! embarrasing to admit but i'm just being honest...

*To work on myself. I have some serious self-esteem problems. I don't really like being around people most of the time because I feel insecure. It is going to have to have a lot of help from God but I want to be a better person. I am going to have to do some hard work inside and out. I need to stop worrying about what others think about me and focus on what God wants me to be. I used to have a bad social anxiety problem and it got better but now I feel myself getting in the same "rut" that I used to live in. Please pray for me! :)

That is all I can really think of for now. My mind is at a blank! ha! I will do a continuation of this at a later date to see how I'm progressing with these things..and I am already breaking resolution #2 because I am spending WAY too much time on this computer and the girls are wanting me to play "mail lady" :)

I will post again soon!

Sisters

2008-12-03T22:41:00.004-06:00

I just had to post after everyone has gone to bed...I was just sitting here thinkin how precious my sweet girls are! Even though they have drove me half crazy today...ha I still love them so very much!!

The past few weeks have been SO different with them. It's like one day it just clicked that- 'hey we can play together and have fun without fighting!' ha! Used to I had to be referee...Laney would push or take toys away and Sadie (don't let her age fool ya) would pull hair or slap in retaliation! But one day they were in Laney's room and I heard...NOTHING! What? It kind of freaked me out because they were in there alone and there was absolute silence! So I went running in there and they about made me pass out, they were actually sitting beside each other playing. It was such a sweet sight to watch!

Today, Laney took a nap and fell asleep on the couch and as usual Sadie (who was asleep in the bedroom) woke up the second Laney's eyes closed...So I get Sadie up and set her down on the couch and I picked Laney up to take her and lay her in her bed...well she had fell asleep with a little bear and when I picked her up the bear fell on the floor. I lay Laney in bed and hear Sadie coming just as fast as she can saying "baby, baby mommyyyy" and I look and she has carried the little bear in there for Laney. She acted worried that Laney didn't have it. She mumbled (words I could not quite understand) and pointed to Laney to let me know that Laney needed her bear! awwwwww sooooooo precious!

They are also into this thing now in the car where they like to hold hands (yes, they hold hands without fighting). They also like to have screaming matches with each other (something that drives my dad up the wall. hehe) but it is so cute to watch because they smile at each other while they do it. And EVERY night they have to kiss and hug each other. Melts my heart! Sadie will tell Laney "huggie" and they'll just hug and love on each other. Used to Sadie wouldn't let Laney near her and Laney would try to squeeze the life out of her!

Laney is also getting protective of Sadie. She has to make sure that Sadie has everything she does and she wants to change her and help her do everything! Laney always tells me "I was a good basample (example) for my sister, right mommy?" *tear*

I just love watching them interact. It is the sweetest and greatest thing. Don't get me wrong they have their days but I think all sisters do...me and mine always did :) In my opinion having a sister is one of life's extra blessings that not everyone gets to have. I'm so thankful God blessed me by having a sister and thankful that I now have two little girls that will feel that blessing as well!

'Happy Thanksgiving'

2008-11-26T12:20:00.022-06:00

In honor of Thanksgiving I decided to post a blog of just a few of the things I am grateful for. I am a truly blessed woman and am thankful for all of the people and things that God has given me. I encourage you to write down all that you are grateful for this Thanksgiving..it definately helps you to see that sometimes things aren't so bad after all...

1. I am thankful that I have sweet, beautiful, healthy children. I wouldn't trade these girls for nothin!! I love them so much!!

2. I am thankful for my wonderful husband who provides a christian home for us and that he puts up with all my shortcomings and craziness! :)

3. I am thankful for my family (all of them!) So many people do not get the priviledge of growing up in a christan home. I thank God that I have. I have an enormously large family (so big in fact that I don't have one of the whole gibson clan..) and I am grateful for the good times that we have.

4. I am thankful that I get to be a stay at home mommy even if we do stuggle with money sometimes.. it is sooo worth it! A true blessing.

5. I am thankful that I have a God who loves me no matter how many times I fail and for His grace..

6. I am thankful that all four of my grandparents are still alive (I love them dearly..I couldn't find one picture of my granny on my computer..sorry..)

7. I am thankful that I have a neice or nephew on the way!! Yea!

8. I am thankful for dirty dishes because it means we have food to eat and so many don't have enough food for their family...which brings me to another thankful point...a disherwasher (those aren't my dishes by the way..just a visual aid..)

9. I am thankful for my parents. They have showed me what it is to be a family and to survive through any situation. I am thankful that they stayed together all these 28 years because so many of my friends have divorced parents!

10. I am thankful for the opportunity to teach my girls about God and watch them grow in their faith (Sadie just recently started closing her eyes to pray and Laney knows that she can pray about every problem..even stolen pumpkins...such a blessing and so sweet to watch!)

this is when laney first started praying (**tear**)

and here is Miss Sadie praying before lunch (aww...)

11. I am thankful for the bad times I have went through because it's brought me to where I am today and that I can pray openly and freely and go to my Father when I need him...

12. I am thankful for all that laundry that piles up even if I do complain about having to do it because it means that we have plenty of clothes...

13. I am thankful for my great friends (the old ones that I've known since I was born and the new ones that are just as great) It's awesome to know that I can count on any one of them no matter what I need or when!

15. I am thankful for all the dirty diapers and peed in panties and for the almost constant dirty house... because it means I have healthy children and so many people wish they did.

16. I am thankful for my brother and sister. They are the best even if we do still have our fights like children! (how many people can say their siblings are their best friends?)

17. And last but not least I am thankful for my life that God has so graciously given me. For the gifts that I have and that person that I am!!

I will end with the prayer Laney likes to say before we eat;

"Thank You for the world so sweet, Thank You for the food we eat...Thank You for the birds that sing, Thank You God for EVERYTHING,

Amen."

Restaurant Review

2008-11-15T21:17:00.009-06:00

Ok so today we went shopping. It was FREEZING! We actually seen snow!! I absolutely loved watching Laney watching it snow...aww..it was sweet. The shoppers were me, my girls, my mom, my sister, my cousin Sarah and her daughter Kelcie...

Anyways so we decided to meet up at Boston's in Bentonville for lunch. So I think I mentioned on my facebook the other day about how I attract rude people/bad service? Well let me tell you this "restaurant" was absolutely HORRIBLE today! Sarah gave it rave reviews and so we were like yeah sounds good..

We get in there about 12:05 and our waitress takes our drink orders. My mom asks "do you have diet dr. pepper?" (this is a question you hear quite often if you go anywhere with my mother. ha) And so the waitress told her they did. So she brings out our drinks and tells my mom that she's sorry but they are out of diet dr. pepper (this was the first upset of our lunch date) How does a restaurant run out of a drink? Anyways that's not the point...so we order our food. I added a side caesar salad to my calzone and so we sit there to wait for our food... At 1:00 we are STILL WAITING! I am not even kidding!

Sarah finally decided to "get some balls" (haha..it's an inside joke) and gets up to tell the manager our problem and could she at least get the kids food out there. The manager comes to the table and apologizes and says she will go check on the food for us. She also has to get us refills because we have been out of drinks for about 20 minutes at this point. Mom's was still halfway full but she was mad her ice had melted. ha :) The kids are getting totally restless by now and we are getting extremely irritated. The manager comes back to the table and tells us that there are two tickets in front of us and then our food will be up. An hour later and we're still 3rd in line? She tells us that there was a big group that came in..So we are totally feeling unimportant after that statement.

Finally the waitress brings out my salad (don't you usually get salads right after you order? kind of like an appetizer?) There is like no dressing on it whatsoever so I ask for another cup of the caesar. 10 mins later she comes out with a cup of dressing and proceeds to tell me that they are out of caesar dressing. (another thing that they are out of...grr) I had the last of it so she brought me italian to put on with the caesar. Are you kidding me? Sarah..haha...it was hilarious she asks the waitress if we need to split the salad with the kids or are they going to bring their food soon? haha Man the girl is funny!

So then 3 hours later...not really but it seemed that long...they bring out our food. I know this is going to sound like an exaggeration but our food was cold. I promise! My mom ordered a club sandwich and I don't know if you guys have ever had a club sandwich but don't they usually come with some kind of mayo or honey mustard? and don't they have lettuce and/or a tomato? She got a slab of chicken with some melted cheese on it. (it was cold also) the waitress informs her that the veggies are coming out soon. 10 mins later...no veggies so she asks again...still no veggies So I get the manager again and politely (really I was) told her that our food was cold, our waitress had been outside on the patio for a very long time and we were waiting on tomatoes/lettuce for my mom and our waitress just plain stunk! She apologizes and says she understands that we are frustrated and she will talk to our waitress..so the waitress comes back and I tell her that my mom is still needing her veggies and she finally brings them out (on a very hot plate?) and says that she was sorry she had to cut them up herself because she couldn't get no one to plate them for her.

Then she spends an awful lot of time at our table trying to be nice. Ugh! The manager must've really talked to her. We were so frustrated. Needless to say, we didn't leave a tip. The manager did give us our food for free and gave us a gift card for $50.00 to come back! I don't know why we would want to go back there..haha but I'm sure we'll try it again and hopefully we have a better experience! We should've ate at Rib Crib because I know that's where Sarah and I really wanted to eat :)

Oh, what a day! We had fun though. I got a lot of cute clothes for the girls and Holly got a lot of cute maternity clothes. Oh and I bought a Christmas present today!! First one for the season..haha.

Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

My Little Hunter

2008-11-09T10:21:00.019-06:00

Laney Beth got to go on her first hunting adventure yesterday! She was so "basided" (excited). Friday night we took her shopping and got her some hunting clothes. She talked all night about getting to go hunting in the woods with her daddy and her Pepaw. So we get up super early Saturday morning and dropped Brandon off at the Coger Farm in Huntsville and us girls went back to Brandon's Granny's house to get ready for Laney's big excursion. I'm gonna tell you she was the cutest little hunter I had EVER seen! I even bought some hunter orange ribbon to make hairbows for her. Of course I had to make her look a little girlie..couldn't have my babies looking like tom-boys! :) Anyways I also dressed Sadie in some camo and put ribbons in her hair. She was adorable as well..

So we go to Wal-Mart and of course EVERYONE had to stop and talk and say how cute they were. (if you live or have lived in Huntsville you know that a trip to Wal-mart takes a while because you know everyone and everyone knows you and you have to visit with every one you meet. ha) So then we are off to the big ole' town of Pettigrew. Laney is really impatient at this point and asks every few minutes if it's time to go hunting yet. Poor thing had to wait for a while because Grandma had not even started cooking "dinner" (dinner means lunch in my dad's family..it's a little confusing to me sometimes.ha.). Another first for Laney yesterday...she ate her first deer meat.. if you know me, you know this sickens me because I am not a meat lover but I'm glad my kids eat things I don't! She really liked it with ketchup though!!

So the time finally came for her to start getting her
gear (face net,toboggan,gloves,shoes,jacket) on..it was FREEZING outside and really windy so Brandon decided that I should drive them down to the end of the field and they would walk down to their hunting spot. Well Laney did NOT want to get in the truck..she just had to ride on the four-wheeler with Pepaw. Sadie and I get in the truck and take Daddy to the end of the field. Laney and Pepaw went in front of us and she looked so cold!

Then they were off..I will have to admit I teared up watching her go off into the woods...for a variety of reasons...my baby is getting so big and I can't believe she's old enough to go hunting, I worry about her when she's not with me (especially in bear country), and I wanted to go too :( So I head back up to the house and wait rather impatiently with the walkie-talkie (that wasn't working) glued in my hands! I can't even tell you how many times I walked from the couch to the back porch watching for a little orange speck to appear letting me know that they were on their way back! About 20 minutes after dropping them off we see my dad's four-wheeler making it's way up the field..finally my baby is on her way back up!! Brandon and Dad said that she got out there in the woods and sat down and said "OK I'm ready to go back now" haha From the pictures that were taken, she looks really cold and really unhappy..oh well she had a lot of fun and was really excited to tell me all about it. (there are more pics on my facebook if you want to check them out..)

I think she was pretty tired too because while I was getting Sadie down for her nap she laid her head on the computer chair and put her feet up on the recliner and fell asleep..it was too cute and i took one after i moved her to the couch (she is praising God in her sleep!) :)

Then Grandma cooked another delicious dinner..i mean supper..ahaha...and we all played cards and watched Laney perform for us on her stage (she was practicing for her Christmas program at church!) Sadie started getting really cranky..she was getting sick..It didn't take the girls long to fall asleep on the way home!

Funny story..I just had to add...About halfway back to Huntsville we see blue lights and got pulled over! Brandon had to buy a new truck for work (he got promoted to outside sales! so proud of him!) and we haven't had it 30 days yet so we didn't have tags..Well he bought it in Oklahoma and on the "fake tags" they put the date the vehicle was purchased whereas in Arkansas on the fake tags they put the date that you are required to have your tags by. So the cop thought he had us because the tags said October 15th which was the date he had actually purchased it. haha. The funniest part was that he got asked about 10 times if he was drunk..(Brandon is a lazy driver and tends to cross lanes sometimes..) I was like good grief just have him get out if you think he is drunk. Honestly! He didn't even look in the backseat or anything! I was like if you think someone is drunk..wouldn't you check out everyone else in the car? Also Brandon forgot his license at home so he told the cop that he could give him is license number and the guy was like 'just give me your date of birth" haha what? why wouldn't he need his license number? Gotta love Madison County deputies and their backwardness (although Brandon used to be one..he was a smart one though!) :)

It was a fun, exhausting, great day even if we are all know snotty nosed and coughing now from being in the country and around a wood stove all day! But it was awesome and I'm sure it was a day Laney Beth (and Daddy) will never forget!

It's been a while..

2008-11-05T23:08:00.005-06:00

Ok.. so I have to admit, I forgot I even have a blog! I was looking at my sister's blog and it had a link to mine and I was like, 'oh, oops!' :) I have so much on my mind today. The presidential election last night has weighed heavy on my mind all day. I know that God is in control but sometimes it is easy to get a little scared of the things that are happening in our world today. I was challenged today while reading a post on my old pastor's blog.

It doesn't matter (in the big realm of things) who our next president is. God is and will always be God. He is always in charge. He is always working his plan. I do not agree with things that Obama stands for especially when it comes to the topic of abortion but it has challenged me to do my part to help change the world....

I can't figure out how anyone (especially 'christians') are lead to believe that abortion is not murder. I was thinking last night while watching election coverage and again today that I really need to stand up in the fight against abortion. Since we obviously can not depend on our government to take a stand against it then we ourselves have to do the work. It starts with us. There are many organizations and groups that you can get involved with. I was invited to a banquet (thanks Holly and Lindsay) for Loving Choices (www.lovingchoices.org) last week. I was shocked and outraged at the statistics and the facts involving abortion. So I have made it my mission to fight against the issue and to pray for and educate those that are pro-choice. I really feel like God has spoken to me about this. We are all called to be soldiers of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3) so we have to fight, fight, fight!

I challenge all of you to do the same! Find something that you can be passionate about whether it be abortion, same-sex marriages, prayer in school, etc. and shine a light in this dark world.

"This is war, and there is no neutral ground.

If you're not on my side, you're the enemy;

if you're not helping, you're making things worse.

-Matthew 12:30

It's funny that when you feel God is talking to you, he sometimes confirms it to you whether it be through a verse, a person, a preacher etc... I was actually done writing this until I went to church tonight. We had a fill-in for our Pastor and his message was about how there is no substitute for victory. It really challenged me that we are not fighting against man but against satan. We are all more than conquerors. This verse sums up my feelings about all of this....

Despite all these things,

overwhelming victory is ours through

Christ, who loves us.

-Romans 8:37

So no matter what happens, no matter who our leaders are, no matter who attacks us, if you are a child of God then you win. period.

My first blog!

2008-06-09T11:12:00.004-05:00

Here it is: my first blog! We'll see how long I keep up with this thing...I'm not good with "staying" with something so we'll just have to watch and see :) I mainly started this because it's fun to read other people blogs so I thought I would try it and keep a journal of the day to day activities of being a stay at home mom. So keep checking back for stories of our adventures!!