Maternity Outfits

I don't normally do link-ups since this is mainly just a family blog, but after seeing the Modest Mom's post on facebook about how she'd like more people to write about modesty, wearing skirts, etc then I figured I would join in! (I'm thinking that might have been a run-on sentence? lol)
Anyway, I'm not great at taking pictures of myself but since I'm pregnant we have snapped a couple recently that I thought would work for sharing. Maternity clothes (especially cute, modest ones) are pretty hard to find but maybe this post will give you some idea of things to try. I'm 23 weeks right now and still able to do some outfits that aren't technically maternity so that's what these are. I'll try to take more pictures and share again in the coming weeks when I get more into the actual maternity wear! For now here are the ones I have.... 

This first one is a skirt I bought last year at Burlington Coat Factory and a shirt I've had for awhile now that came from New York and Company. The skirt has an elastic waist so it still fits okay under my growing belly. :) And the shirt is stretchy cotton so there was a little give in it as well, plus it's longer so everything stays covered! (as a side note, the cami underneath isn't quite as high up as I would like....I think my stomach being larger pulled it down more and I didn't realize it until after I wore it for awhile. It didn't show cleavage or anything which is my main concern but would have been nicer if it covered more of my chest I think!)

This second one is super comfy which is great right now of course. Both pieces actually came from Target but I bought them at different times and they just ended up working together. I have a belt that I normally wear with this outfit but it doesn't work very well around my belly at the moment! :) The skirt has the fold-down band at the waist and I think it is probably going to work for most of my pregnancy since there's alot of give there. I did go up a size in this because the material tends to cling a little if it's too tight so I wanted plenty of room. The shirt once again is just cotton and stretchy as well as having good length so it is perfect for growing into. 

I like that I'm still able to wear some of my "regular" clothes this far along in the pregnancy. I'm already wearing a few maternity outfits as well but just haven't gotten pictures of them yet. Hope this helped some of you with ideas on how to wear skirts and/or dress modestly during pregnancy! Be sure to click through the link above to see all the other posts on the link-up. :-)

Some Things I Really Want

It's not.....

~ all the stylish, new clothes and jewelry I see on Pinterest that I really don't even have a need for.

~ the pretty hairstyles that might look great on someone else but I will probably never be able to achieve on my own hair.

~ a bigger, better, (cleaner?) house, newer car, or more gadgets and toys for us or the kids.

~ a perfect body that looks great in (or out?) of clothes. (which after four kids and multiple health problems is really impossible for me anyway!)

~ to seek after more carnal pursuits (like ungodly,worldly movies, music, or other entertainments) that only satisfy the flesh momentarily but leave your soul feeling empty and 'vex your righteous spirit'.

~ to be popular or accepted by those around us or have to let down certain standards in order to fit in and have more friends.

But it is.....

~To be a woman who is content with just trying to be the best Christian, wife, and mother I can be. (1 Ti. 6:6  But godliness with contentment is great gain.)

~ To focus more on who I am on the inside than what I look like outwardly. To treat others around me well and show my kids that attitudes of the heart are what's really most important. (1 Ti. 2:9-10 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh a woman professing godliness) with good works. Prov. 31:30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.)

~ To realize even more that being commended by the Lord for how we live is a far greater achievement and blessing than to be liked or approved of by others.....and to rest in the fact that no matter how many don't understand the decisions we make or choose to turn against us, He is the one we're trying to serve and please. (Luke 6:22-23a Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall seperate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice you in that day, and leap for joy; for great is your reward in heaven.)

~ To remember how important the battle we are in against satan is. And that no matter how tired I get some days of trying to do the right thing or be less like the world, I can't give up. Even if so many around us seem to be. Not only for my own sake, but the sake of my marriage, children, and others who don't know the Lord! (2 Ti. 2:3-4 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 2 Thes. 3:13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.) 

Yes, these are the things that the Lord has been speaking to my heart about lately. And ones I've realized that I truly want more than anything, even though they might be hard. Because they are the things that really matter in the end and will count for eternity. I'm praying that He'll help me to not only want them, but work for them as well! I don't want to just be a hearer of His word, but a doer also.

(Just to be clear, some of the things I named above that I don't want may not all be bad in and of themselves, but are just things that can become too important and turn into wrong if we focus too much on them I think. And again this is stuff the Lord's been showing me personally that I felt like sharing! Not intended for any other specific purpose.)

Things I Love {Thursday}

It's been awhile since I've taken the time to do one of these posts. But it's definitely not from there being a lack of things to be crazy about around here! So today I'm sharing a few of those lovely things with you all.....

~ Early morning snuggles with Darcey while waiting for the other kiddos to wake up.

~ Sharing verses of scripture with Dathan and Delancey and hearing them ask to be read to out of the Bible every night before falling asleep.

~ Feeling little baby kicks and knowing that Daxton is growing inside me. :-)

~ Actually having enough energy to clean the house some and feeling so accomplished even though I didn't get it all done.

~ Watching the kids act out their own circus performance that Dathan planned for them. And laughing so hard at some of the stuff they come up with.

~ Friends who check in with me pretty much every day just because when they know I'm having a hard time. Not to mention all the prayers they pray on our behalf!

~ Parents who care about us and are always willing to help out when we need it or just like spending time with us even if we don't need something!

~ Practicing new hairstyles on Delancey and seeing how excited she gets when it turns out cute.

~ Hearing Darcey learn new words/phrases and seeing how her own little personality is coming out more and more.

~ Singing and playing the piano either alone or with family. And most of all the times when the Holy Spirit touches my heart through the words of a song.

~ Knowing that God's grace, forgiveness, and love is unconditional, all-sufficient, and never ending. Cause there's so many days I've needed that lately!

Well, there's some of my stuff to love! Hope you enjoyed reading. I would also love to hear you share some things of your own with me so don't forget to leave a comment below. :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Just wanted to share some pics of our fun, crazy kiddos who are growing up way too fast! They have definitely been enjoying the early spring weather this year.....as you can see. :-)

(had a few more to add but blogger is not wanting to upload for some reason so I guess that's all for now! I'll be sure to share more later.)

Busy, Blessed, and Behind!

Life is crazy around here as usual and although I tried updating several times in the past week I just never got around to finishing a post. I'll attempt to do a quick rundown of these last few days if I can....and maybe it won't turn out too long! :-)

~Dathan set off the alarm around 12:30 on Saturday morning while trying to go out the back door in his sleep. So very thankful that we have that in place with all his sleep issues but it never fails to scare us half to death waking up to it going off! Pretty sure Blake and I both had mild heart attacks and then of course took forever to fall back asleep ourselves.

~The rest of Saturday consisted of starting off slow after our crazy night, doing a few things around the house, and then me having to run out in town to pick up a few things for the next day. Only to receive a surprise text while out from a friend who thought she was going into labor! I finished up stuff in town and made it back home, but left pretty soon again to meet the at the hospital. We thought things would go quickly but you just never know with these babies! lol Ended up spending the night while waiting for the doctor to come break her water so her labor would progress....

~Easter morning we watched a beautiful sunrise and then got to welcome a new little life into the world! It was an amazing experience to be a part of. (and totally worth the lack of sleep!) The rest of the day we spent at my parents where we had a yummy lunch, let the kids play outside, and I managed to sneak in a little rest too. Not exactly how we had originally planned for the day to go (especially the first part) but definitely a good way to celebrate the Lord's death and resurrection!

~Next couple of days were mostly us hanging out here at home while I tried to recuperate from the crazy weekend. Then Wednesday we had breakfast with my parents at a cafe before going to a fun story time at the library. Thursday was a school field trip to the nursing home and a couple stops in town. Then back home to take it easy again....I think I was still trying to catch up on rest! :-)

~Friday morning I spent here at home with the kiddos and then had an allergy appointment that afternoon. The kids decided they didn't want to go so I met my parents on the way to hand them off. After seeing the doctor I hung out in town for a little while (shopping for maternity clothes and having no luck at all!) and then met Blake after work to watch a movie. We got to see October Baby, which was a great movie I would highly recommend to everyone! Even if you don't have a personal experience with abortion it is still just an awesome story of love, forgiveness, and letting go. Definitely a must see! (By the way, the PG-13 rating is supposed to be for thematic elements but there is absolutely nothing bad in the movie at all. Just to let you know!)

~Last night and today have unfortunately been me paying for being out around so many fragrances, etc while in town yesterday and I've battled with a killer headache ever since. Such is the price of having allergies! It's still been a good day here at home with the family though so I'm thankful for time spent together.

So there's my little catch-up post. I plan to share news about the kids, baby stuff, etc in the next few days hopefully. They are always growing, changing, and doing new things so I need to do a better job at keeping up! Still keeping us in your prayers with health stuff is always greatly appreciated. Until next time.....

Momma News

Since my post yesterday turned into the longest one ever I figured I would just share about what else we found out during the u/s separately. (which I bet ya'll are thankful for after all that reading! haha)
As I said, the baby looked great and seems to be just fine but she saw what looked like my placenta in front of the cervix when checking that out so wanted to do a vaginal u/s as well to make sure. She mentioned that it seemed to be something called placenta previa (which I had heard of but couldn't really remember details about) but that sometimes it looked different when going from a different angle. After doing the second one she concluded that I do indeed have it but it's only marginal which can actually be a good thing since it means it still might fix itself. Otherwise if the condition doesn't improve she said they always just schedule a c-section for delivery. I'm pretty sure my anti-medical, reacts to every kind of thing, hates the thought of surgery self had a mild heart attack when I heard that! (I kid about the anti-medical part. Sort of.  lol)
Anyway, I didn't actually get to see the doctor since I was only there for the u/s and a short check-up with the nurse so there was really no one to answer my gazillion questions about everything. So I of course googled it as soon as I got home to get some more info. (which I would have done anyway actually since I'm always researching what the doctor says. haha) I'm not really sure yet if that was a good or bad thing in this case though since worse case scenario with placenta previa is actually quite terrifying to think about while on the other end in can totally not end up a big deal at all. The latter being good to know and the former not exactly something I probably needed to have on my mind at the moment! 
I won't go into alot of gory details on here but suffice it to say that I am definitely praying for healing and that no further complications come from it. (especially severe ones) I would greatly appreciate your prayers to that affect as well! All kidding aside, I would definitely be willing to have a c-section if I thought it was the best thing for myself and the baby but at this point my hearts desire is still to be able to deliver naturally again so that is what we will hope for until there is reason to believe otherwise. I know God is in control and is completely able to take care of everything if that is His will, as well as also able to give me peace about things if there some reason I need the surgery. I think maybe He is trying to help me learn to just trust Him more lately so I am wanting to do that more than anything rather than worry over something there really isn't much I can do about anyway!
I will be getting checked again and seeing the doctor in a few weeks so please be praying until then and I will be sure to update whenever we find out something new. Thanks so much!

Proudly Announcing....

                       ~Daxton Judah~
     (don't you just love the little handprints at the top?!)


Who will hopefully be safely arriving sometime near the end of August! We are beyond thrilled to be having another baby boy. And very thankful that everything looked good with him so far. Now for the interesting details leading up to finding out what he was......

So in the last couple of posts I mentioned that we did a practice ultrasound last week while I was volunteering. Partly for training purposes (of the lady doing it), partly for fun, and partly out of curiosity to find out the gender a few days early. The kids wanted to do a party or something to reveal the surprise and it worked out better to have it this past weekend. Anyway, long story short we were able to see the baby and when trying to figure out what it was got what we thought was a pretty clear picture. My first impression was boy just for a second but after looking more closely it really seemed more like a girl. It was so hard not to be dissapointed since we were really hoping for a boy this time! (and Dathan seriously wanted a baby brother!) Still, we weren't entirely convinced and decided to wait until yesterday to confirm since there's always a chance of being wrong.

But after getting home I looked at lots of pics online, read about how to tell the difference on u/s, and showed it to a couple other people. By the next day we were almost 99% sure it was probably a girl. We still decided to just wait on the party though and maybe just ease the idea by the kids so maybe they wouldn't be totally shocked with the news when they went with us to the doctor. But Dathan accidently saw a message I sent to someone about it and asked what it meant, which of course led to Delancey wanting to know too....altho she wanted us to "surprise" her by telling it in a fun way. So we talked to Dathan and told him we were pretty sure what it was and even let Delancey find out by opening a box of pink balloons. Yes, people, the picture was that convincing!! :-)

Okay, I know ya'll are probably laughing right now but for real we were like grieving over the whole thing at first. I mean, we just so had been thinking it was a boy and already had the name and everything! (that reason being because it was picked out before Delancey was even born) It was a weird feeling knowing that we would love it to death and be thankful for the baby either way, but realizing that our hopes had really been totally up for a boy. Guess we hadn't done the best at being neutral on the whole thing after all....you know, since there is always that 50/50 chance there. So anyway lots of talking, praying, and focusing on that if it was a girl then that was God's will for whatever reason but that it was okay to feel dissapointed went on for the next couple days. As well as scrambling to start coming up with girl names beginning with a "D"! (which unfortunately wasn't going so good, so we're thankful that isn't necassary now! lol) The whole weekend just felt weird since I still had a hard time thinking of it being a girl but telling myself I better hurry up and get used to the idea!

Blake was able to be at the u/s last week so decided not to take off work to come to this one so I asked mom to go with me and the kids. We were all in pretty good spirits and excited to see the baby again. Everyone was accepting of the girl idea by now, except for the whole "no name" thing for me, of course. (I was obsessing over that part just a bit I think. haha) She asked if we wanted to know the gender and we said yes, but that we actually already felt we had a pretty good idea and mostly wanted confirmation. Then lo and behold the very first look was so obviously a boy! It took just a second for it to register with all of us and then we were ecstatic! She got so many good shots of it that there was no doubt what it was this time. ( I promise! lol) 

Who knows why all that other crazy stuff happened the way it did?! Maybe the Lord just wanted to help us learn (and show the kids) how to let go of what we wanted or thought was best and trust Him, even if we didn't understand. Whatever the reason, I think He definitely brought us to a place where we were just thankful and accepting of the outcome....and I have to admit that it felt good having that kind of peace. And especially seeing Dathan have it as well. I do think it made the news yesterday just that much more special for all of us! :-)

So there's the long version of the big news! We are so thankful for the good report on the baby and of course that God did grant the desires of our heart in giving us Daxton. Even though the alternative would have definitely been more than okay too! Please keep him in your prayers as he continues to grow and get ready to be born. I will update more later about my own news and health since this has already turned into a short book. haha Until then I will just finish up with these verses that came to mind while looking at the u/s pictures this morning....

"For Thou has possessed my reins; Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well......How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them." Psalm 139:13,14,17

The Big Day!

Tomorrow is the official ultrasound at the doctor's office! We should be getting a definite on the baby's gender so that we can share the news with everyone. (although as I said before, I think we are like 99% sure already from some of the pics we saw last week!)

The baby and I are both definitely growing. And it's also becoming more active so lots of fun feeling it move around in there. Blake even got to feel his first kick on last Wednesday night....it was so neat to experience that together again! :-) Prayers for my health are still appreciated, as well as lots of praying for this baby to grow well and be born without as many issues as the others. It would be such a blessing to have one who didn't have to suffer quite so much and would be easier to care for. I know God's grace has been sufficient to get us through hard days in the past though so I'm trying to trust that even if He doesn't choose to give us a healthier baby this time that it will still be okay.

Guess that's all for an update at the moment. Can't wait to give you the big news tomorrow!