All Smiles . . .Almost!

I was working hard at trying to get a picture of Martha's beautiful smile, but was unsuccessful. I did get some cute pictures, though. I was also hoping to catch Jaina's first smile on camera, but again, I was unsuccessful.

Cora then decided she wanted to have some pictures taken of her. She laid down on the floor and would start laughing if I even got close to her. She is so silly sometimes! She definitely keeps us smiling with all of her funny antics. If she finds that something she does makes us laugh, she will keep doing it until we are crying because we are laughing so hard! She sure is a blessing to me when the days are long and I need a good laugh!

Growing Like Weeds

Martha and Jaina are growing too fast for my liking, but I guess God knows best. They were both weighed and measured today and it confirmed my feelings that they are growing well. They are 5 weeks old and Martha (in purple) weighs 7 lbs 10 oz and is 20 1/4" long. Jaina (in white) is 8 lbs 8 oz and is 20 3/4" long (this nurse measured her as only 19 3/4" at 1 week). I will be putting away their first set of clothes. They have been wearing 0-3 months clothes that say for 5-8 lbs and I will be getting out the 0-3 months clothes that say for 7-12 pounds. It is amazing that these little bundles of joy grow so quickly. God is truly good!

First Smile

Martha smiled at me for the first time yesterday. I am pretty sure it wasn't gas as she smiled every time I said something to her for at least a minute. I didn't get a picture because I was so excited she was smiling that I just kept talking! I'll put a picture up as soon as I snap one.

Photo Shoot

I wanted to get some 3 year-old pictures of Sabra to print for the wall and to hand out to family. She did very well at posing and smiling pretty and even letting her personality shine through. She picked this dress out for her birthday outfit because she wanted a purple dress. She sure is opinionated at 3!

Since Cora just turned 18 months, I wanted to get some pictures of her for the wall as well, but they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped (it reminded me of when I tried to get pictures of Sabra at 18 months!). Although the pictures are cute, they will be used only here and in her scrapbook. I am taking her to a professional studio today and praying they do a better job!

Since I was taking pictures of Sabra and Cora, Allyn wanted in on the action too! She is such a camera ham. She was all about posing and looking like a "princess".

One Month Old

Martha and Jaina celebrated their one-month birthday yesterday. It is hard to believe they are already a month old! According to my mother's scale, they are now both over 7 1/2 lbs. It is crazy how fast they are growing. I took them to our herbalist again because we were having issue with them not sleeping well (thereby me not getting any sleep), runny noses, and general fussiness. They both have a slight case of thrush, the beginning of a virus, and slight gastrointestinal problems. They are both on stuff to clear all that. We also discovered that Martha needed chamomile for calming and that Jaina gets overwhelmed easily. It is amazing how quickly they responded to the natural remedies. We saw immediate improvements in their fussiness levels and they slept last night! I only got up once with each of them for a feeding. It was great to get sleep.

I am constantly reminded about how great a God we have. He not only created us, this world, and everything on it, but He created all we needed to fix ailments and problems that might arise. How naive I was to His power and loving kindness in creating answers to our problems before we even knew we had them. We are also learning how much information the Bible has about how to live our life. It does make a difference what we eat. God created perfect foods for our proper nutrition if we would just eat what He created and not what man has created (processed foods, high-fructose corn syrup, etc). I am so thankful that He has opened our eyes to what He has for us and that we are returning to living how He intended for us to live. May we continue to grow in the knowledge of Him!

Happy Easter!

Easter is such a joyful day because Christ, my Savior, rose from the grave and overcame death! It is glorious that not only did God send His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins, but that Christ conquered death and lives today! Hallelujah!

We started out the day trying to get all seven little girls in their Easter dresses. It didn't help that Chad wanted to get to church early to not only set up for his Sunday School class, but also get ready for his first sermon. That's right, Chad preached his very first sermon on Easter Sunday! Our pastor and his wife went to Arizona to visit her parents and asked if Chad would fill the pulpit. Although I didn't get to hear the whole sermon (I ended up nursing Jaina in the nursery), I hear that it went well (we thought it was being taped, but a cord was unplugged unknown to the sound guy). He received lots of compliments from those present. While Chad was preparing for his lesson and sermon, I tried to get a group picture of the girls. Boy, it isn't easy to get seven little girls to all look at the camera and smile (and not cry!)! Although none of the pictures are "wall-worthy", I at least got a picture with all of them in the shot!

After church we went to Chad's parents' house and enjoyed a wonderful Easter dinner with Chad's parents, his sister's family and our cousin and her kids. It was nice to have someone else be able to take a family picture of us as our last one is now out-dated because it doesn't have Martha & Jaina in it. We then had an egg hunt after dinner (of course!). We had over 300 hundred eggs filled with money for the kids to find (over $30!). There were 10 kids searching for the eggs and they had so much fun. The littlest ones had help from their daddy's.

Beautiful Niece & Delighted Nana!

We traveled to Muskegon on Friday to see our new niece, Madalynn and to take Martha and Jaina to meet their Great Grandma. My brother, sister-in-law, and Madalynn joined us at my parents' house to celebrate an early Easter dinner and for all the new cousins to meet. Madalynn is so beautiful. I almost started crying when I saw her because she is just so precious! Madalynn looks just like she fits perfectly into our family. In fact, she looks so much like our girls that Sabra was a little confused until we pointed out that there were three babies!

Madalynn has been having some problems gaining weight, but my brother and his wife are doing all they can to make sure she nurses a lot and are giving her formula until she can get her weight up. We continue to pray not only for her healthy growth, but also for the breastfeeding to get easier for mommy and baby.

My Grandma, the girls' Great Nana, was delighted to get to see Martha and Jaina for the first time. Grandma was moved into a nursing home about a year ago and loves to not only have company, but absolutely loves when the great-grandkids come for a visit. She thought Martha and Jaina were beautiful and completely precious. She is so thankful to have so many great-grandkids (25 great-grandkids and 1 great-great-grandchild!).

She is looking forward to receiving updated pictures of them as well as the other girls. She really appreciates when the girls color pictures to send to her. Although she wishes we could visit more often, she understands that driving two hours with seven little girls is a little rough. She wishes we would move closer so we could all visit her more often. She says being around the little ones makes her feel young!