Brandon's Surprise Graduation Party!!!

I can't believe it is almost March! EEK! :)
At the end of January we pulled off a SURPRISE graduation party for Daddy!!!!!!!  Honestly, I still can't believe that we did it. I was a basket case for two weeks straight because I just knew I was going to slip up, or someone was going to email me or text me about it while he was using my computer or phone. Not to mention, I tell him everything, and I was keeping so much from him--INCLUDING HIS DIPLOMA. I have made friends with our mailman and the UPS man, so they knew I was waiting on it, and they knew that they could not leave it at or door. :) 
Martha coordinated all of our extended family and had everyone bring desserts for the party! She even had labels for everything! :)
This was the beautiful cake that my mom brought!

Of course, the girls were a part of everything!

I made cards for everyone to sign!

This little girl napped in the Baby Bjorne while we were setting up, and she was such a trooper!

:) They had a blast! Of course, Avaree thought it was a surprise party for G-Pops, so it took some talking to help her understand it was actually for Daddy! ;) 

beauty queen.

We were SO happy to see Grandmother there! This was her first big outing since getting out of the hospital, and she looked beautiful!!!!

Love, love, love every single little one at this "kid" table! :) So thankful for the love and support of family and friends!

:) So so great to have them there!!!

Eric got him to put on the cap and gown, and then he said a few sweet words! Then, he presented him with his diploma!!!!!

The graduate with his proud parents!

I was so happy to get to surprise B with his friend Ryan! They went to seminary together, and they served at Prestonwood together! So thankful for their friendship!

Aunt J and all three of her girls!!!

Love her!

So so so so so so so proud of my hubby!!!!!!!!

He thought Eric was just handing him a piece of paper! He had no idea that his diploma had come in, and he never thought that I could ever hide it from him! :) 

Telling Ave that this is a party for Daddy! haha :)

He WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't get enough of him with his diploma! I don't think he set it down all afternoon! :)

After the party, we took a few extended family shots of the Barton family! Thanks for taking them, Mom!

So proud of our graduate! Words cannot express how thankful I am that we have completed that chapter of our lives. It started right after we got married, and our sixth anniversary is in two weeks, so we've pretty much been writing papers our whole married life! 

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our precious family and friends that came to support our family and celebrate Brandon! Thank you to Martha for all of her coordination and party planning! 

Thankful to be married to my college graduate! :) God is good!

Felicity Grows Up: TEN MONTHS!

(Ten month pictures coming soon!) Let's not discuss that there is only one number between ten and twelve, and please don't remind me that my BABY will be ONE in two months. I'm such a mixed bag of emotions lately, and I'm so so so so thankful for this little lovey and all the joy that she brings to my life. 

New Developments: Felicity has TWO teeth! She got two of her middle-bottom teeth at the exact same time about two weeks ago! It was a HARD day, but those little daggers (oh my word, they are sharp!) poked through, and she finally seemed to get some relief. The only reason I knew they had come through is that she crawled over to me and bit my knee! She was in so much pain that she was biting on every single thing she could find! Poor baby! In other news, she very clearly continues to say "mama", "dada", "Aaaa" (Avaree), "Puh" (puppy), "dah" (dolly), "Bah" (ball), and she can sign "more" and "all done." She is also crawling SUPER fast, walking around all the furniture, walking behind her push walker, standing for about 30-45 seconds at a time and taking steps holding our hands! She also waves and claps! It's all happening WAY too fast for this Mama!!!! I love hearing her little hands on the floor knowing that she is crawling toward me, and I love, love, love to see her face light up when she finds me! It's like she hasn't seen me for hours when it's really only been a few seconds. I'm really trying to soak it all up. I know it will be gone before I'm ready. It's such a fine line though. I look forward to watching her grow, but I don't anticipate every milestone like I did with Avaree. I'm hanging on to Felicity's babyhood a lot harder this time. 

Eating: Felicity is still nursing four times a day (and once at night, but I'm trying to drop it) and eating big people food! Nothing has really changed in that area except that she will eat a Happy Baby Fruit/Veggie pouch. Her favorites are Purple Carrot and Pear or Kale, Pears and Strawberries! Her very favorite thing is still avocado. :) She continues to try new things every week or so! This week she got to try spaghetti, and, much like her sister, she wore it more than she ate it! :)

Playing: Felicity loves to play! We spend 90% of our time playing on the rug in our living room! She loves puzzles, her jack-in-the-box, and her little house! Her favorite game is still Peek-a-Boo! Her favorite books are Brown Bear, I Love You More Than Rainbows, and Hush Little Baby! Her favorite songs are "You Are My Sunshine", "Where You Lead", and the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song!" :) She loves to dance, and she gives wet, open-mouth kisses on demand! She loves her bath time, and she especially loves taking a bath with her big sister! :) She loves to be outside, and she has recently discovered the stairs in the choir room at church! ;)

Sleeping: Felicity has started to sleep better during the day, which I believe is helping her sleep better at night as well! She is still taking two naps a day and they are both between an hour and two hours each! (GASP--can you believe it?) I make sure that we are home to take her morning nap, it's always her longest, and she really needs it. Her naps are usually around 10 am and 3 pm. She goes to bed between 7 and 8, depending upon when she wakes from her afternoon nap! She has also started sleeping better at night. She still wakes up several times, but I can tell when she needs me and when she's just trying to put herself back to sleep. I almost always get up at least twice a night with her, but that's nothing compared to the crazy nights we've had for her first several months of life! :) I'll take it! She's also finally decided on a comfort object, and I think that has really helped as well. She has attached herself to dolly, a sweet little baby that Mrs. Josie gave her when she was five weeks old. She carries it everywhere, and she always sleeps with it. When she wakes up, she holds her dolly, and often times can put herself back to sleep. :) Mommy was her comfort for a long time, so I am happy that she has found comfort in her dolly too. It helps us at church as well! :) Now, I need to find at least three more. :)

Size: Felicity is still wearing a size three diaper, and at the doctor last week she weighed 20 lbs, 4 oz. :) She is still wearing nine month clothes, but she will be in 12 month soon! 

Disposition: Her smile can light up a whole room, and she is still a super happy baby. She loves her Mommy though, and she will let you know if she doesn't like something. The last week or so she has started "yelling" if she wants something, and she has started "hitting" (flailing her arms and "hulking up" as B calls it) if she gets upset. I'm really pushing the signing, but she just hasn't started signing back yet. I know she will, and I remember Avaree going through this. She also loves to laugh and loves to copy me when I'm laughing! If I'm holding her while having a conversation with another adult, she copies my expressions, but especially my laugh with the exact inflections that I used. It's the cutest thing ever. She also loves her big sister soooo much and wants to do everything that she does!  ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Felicity, You make my heart so so happy! You are precious, and I love every thing about you. I love love love spending my days (and nights--though I'll be happy to spend that time with Daddy when you start sleeping all night) with you! You are our little sunshine, and I will continue to pretend that you are not almost one. :)  I love you with every ounce of me, and I cannot wait to see what God does with your little life!!! I love you! Mommy

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home-Mommy

So much is going on in my mind and heart, while my days are filled with instructing, holding, feeding, cleaning, loving, playing with and nurturing my two sweet babies. 
All the while, I think back to a time not too long ago when all I dreamed of were days like today. I yearned for mornings that did not include the word "hurry," and I dreamed of what it would be like to not have to get my baby out in the freezing cold and not have to drop her off at "school" for ten hours a day. (And I'm sending extra hugs and prayers to all of those Mommies that had to do just that this morning.)
And here we are, ten months into this new adventure, and I'm already berating myself for not getting enough done during the day. 
This sounds familiar to me--yet so different. 
I had an immaculately clean desk. I had a color-coded desk calendar and post-its galore. I had my own space, and I had daily and weekly to-do lists that I ever-so-happily used my pretty pens to mark off tasks each afternoon. 
Now I have mental to-do lists, and if I ever get one down on paper, I'm lucky if it hasn't been chewed, torn to smithereens or misplaced. Furthermore, if I ever get anything marked off of it, I generally end up using a crayon to do so. 
In six hours, it will be exactly ten months since my roles changed. To say that there was a bit of an adjustment in my life is an understatement (or a litotes, for my former students). I didn't give myself nearly as much grace in the beginning as God gives me. It never occurred to me that it was okay for things to be messy at first or at all. 
In just a few short hours, I went from spending my days teaching rhetorical analysis to spending every minute talking about oxygen levels and touch times. Eight days later, every minute of my time was consumed with making sure I spent enough time with both of my girls and drank enough coffee to stay on my feet. :)
I'm still processing all of that, and I probably will be for quite some time, but I have had a few thoughts today. 
As I was working on a Doc McStuffins puzzle with my four-year-old while my almost ten-month old (gasp!) slept this afternoon, my mind wandered…
Will my cheeks really be flushed by the work I'm doing for the Kingdom, as I stand before Jesus? It's hard to pursue people when someone is always sick, and we can barely leave the house.
And then I was gently reminded that even on the messiest of days (and today was messy), parenting is Kingdom work. 
I might not have crossed anything off of my to-do list today, and let's be honest--I can't even find it, but I was productive in loving my children, and my baby learned to clap today, and this won't last forever.  I'll take my messy, crayon-covered, nothing-is-my-own kind of life, and I'll forever be thankful for being able to spend my days with my most precious gifts. 
"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." -1Thessalonians 5:18

January, Part Two: Baby Maximus and Our Little Fam :)

On Felicity's nine-month birthday, January 11, Brandon and Avaree went on a little road trip to pick up Maximus Atticus Barton! :) He was certainly the center of attention when they got home!! These pictures are from right when they got home!

Felicity LOVES puppies, and Avaree is more cautious. She wants to play with Max, but she only wants him to be sleeping. :) She's learning!

…and Daddy was super happy!

It's crazy to look at these pictures and think about how much he has grown in just three weeks! He's more than double that size now!

Everyone took a little rest that afternoon! ;)

 …and then we went to the park! 

We came home, and Avaree said she was tired, and she fell asleep on the couch around 6pm. We ended up putting her jammies on her and putting her in bed without supper (she didn't want it). That should have been our first clue, but she did get up extra early that morning, so we thought she could be just really tired. She slept all night, but when she woke up the next morning, she had 102 and told me her "body hurt." I kept the girls home from church, and when B got home, I took her to urgent care. By the time we got to the doctor, her fever was 104.7 (with alternating tylenol/motrin) on their thermometer. She tested positive for the flu, and they gave her prescription strength tylenol and some water. Her fever got down to 103 before they would let us leave. We picked up her tamiflu on our way home, and then we had a super long couple of days. Thankfully, we had all gotten our flu shots/mist, so this was a milder case than many around our area have experienced. It was still hard to see her so sick though. :(

 …and then there was this one! Smiley and wanting to be with her sister like always! :) It's so hard to keep them apart!!!

 That next morning (monday), I took Felicity to her 9 month well visit at 7am (I love that they do early appointments like that!!), and thankfully, our pedi gave her Tamiflu too! I was so very very thankful for that! She loved getting checked out at the doctor, and she really didn't mind the shot too much either. I don't know if it is really because of her NICU experiences or not, but shots just haven't seemed to bother her much, or at least she does not act like Ave did (and still does). If she cries, it's just for a second, and then she's fine! :)

 We came home before 8am, and Max was already passed out for his nap in his bed! ha!

 A few days later, we got our first grown up couch! :) I love it, and it is a sleeper for our amazing parents that have had to sleep on our couches since we moved here! ;) I'm also just beginning to decorate! I guess 9 months after moving in, it is time to do so! ;)

 Even Maximus likes the sun flares!! 

 The week of the flu was nuts, and Mama got even less sleep than normal. I did that change shirts every time I held a different baby thing, and A and F were both up and down all night, so coffee was needed that week! :)

 Felicity has really started to explore with her little walker this month!

 It breaks my heart to think that I only spent a few hours a day with Avaree for her first three and a half years, but I am so very very thankful for all the time that I get to spend with my girls now! It may not be glamorous, but it's special--even in the ordinary, and I will not take it for granted! :)

 Max was spoiled in less than four days! Can you tell? (And no, he's not allowed on the couches anymore, and I have already had them professionally cleaned.)

 This is one of my favorite pictures ever. Felicity had just woken up from her morning nap on a cold day, and we were all cuddling on the couch in our jammies. :) Precious moments!

 …and then Max wanted in on the cuddling! ;)

 YOu can tell that Avaree lost a few pounds during her week with the flu! Poor baby could only keep down applesauce for a few days, and then she got a stomach virus a week later. She looks so tiny here!

 I love this picture too! I let Avaree bundle up in her coat and go outside with Max for a few minutes, and Felicity was NOT happy. I call it, "Happy Sister. Sad Sister." :)

 Max seriously loves for me to take his picture. We enjoy watching him play in the back yard! He runs full speed ahead, and it's so nice to have so much room to play!

 I found these next two pictures on my phone. Photographer Avaree must have been trying to get some natural shots! ;)

 Speaking of Avaree… ;) She's adorable. 

The end. :)