Thinking about PINK butterflies

This is how it all started!

Back in January of this year, I started really getting the inkling for a 4th baby. I kept thinking that we should wait until Peyton was a year old. From this blog post (follow link) http://themiller-5.blogspot.com/2010/04/butterflies/html , you can see that my plans were moving faster than we thought. Some of you don't know a few parts of this story because quite frankly, I was afraid to mention for fear my prayers wouldn't be answered so soon. I guess I should have not been relying on my own strength and instead, simply had faith that God has his own plans regardless of what I hoped for. In February, we were standing in church during worship and Pastor Kenny went up to the podium and simply said, "I know there are people here today that have desires of their heart and they're simply afraid to ask. God simply says, 'ask me'."

"For I know the plans I have for you..." Jeremiah 29:11
"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart." Psalms 37:4

So what did I do, "I prayed for a little girl." I knew that if this was also God's plan, he would grant our desire and if it wasn't then it simply wasn't part of our plan right now. I was told last night that the chances of having a girl after 3 boys was like less than 30%. Throughout the first part of this pregnancy, I had so many people say-even my doctor-"You know this will be another boy." Our boys are simply wonderful and having another would have been just fine with me. Deep down though, I knew that no one else knew God's plans for us despite all scientific ways of thinking.

Fast forward to last week...Clark and I took CJ with us to the sonogram. We sat in the waiting room for quite awhile, just long enough for me to start getting really nervous. I was looking at my phone and started to feel the anxiety rising. I put the phone down and looked outside the window. From the fourth floor, right outside the window was one lonely butterfly flying right in my clear view. Even after all the signs before, this is when I knew we were about to learn some very exciting news for our family. I took a deep breath and just said, "Okay."

Fifteen minutes later we learned that our boys would have a baby sister! We asked CJ what we should name her and he said, "Well, I'll probably call her sissy." He is very excited. Even today he asked me if his sissy would have make-up in her room. Clark had joked with him that his sister would have different things in her room like dolls, dresses, make-up and she would have panties not undies in her room. CJ thought that was pretty funny!

These are a few of the first gifts that I have received for our little girl...thank you Amy and Christie. I'll be posting more about our nursery plans and official name soon!

It's Finished!

Our school room is finally finished! We're pleased with how it turned out...its just like I pictured it!

This is the play area we set up for the babies...Clark's idea and it worked great.

Paintings that I bought custom made from Etsy...notice the 4 butterflies...the artist was going to put the butterflies on a different number but when she started painting it just didn't seem right to her to put them anywhere but on the number 4. When I received the paintings I sent her my blog post about the butterflies and she couldn't believe it!

Reading Nook Just missing the book rack for the floor. We may end up snuggled here more than anywhere so we wanted this area to be cozy. Working on a few other cozy pillows and blanket.

Ranger's Game with Pop

Friday night Pop took us to the Ranger's game. We just took CJ and Mark while Grammy stayed home with Peyton and fixed CJ and Mark's maddies (lovies that all the grandbabies have) that desperately needed new paws! The boys did great and we stayed until the 6th inning which was more than we thought we would have been able to stay...not to mention we had those really good baseball hot dogs, nachos, ice cream, candy and cotton candy to keep us all sane! When we sat down with our hot dogs, I asked Mark if he wanted me to help him (he said, "no, no") and as you can see in the bottom picture, he wanted to eat without any help and he did just fine! Fun time, thanks Pop!

Horses, Swim lessons, Father's Day Morning

CJ riding horses with Pop last Wednesday!Father's Day morning breakfast...Peyton is a real toot!
No short of kisses around here:)

Swim lessons that went really well for CJ and Mark.

Mr. Whiney

We're not sure if our Peyton is just spoiled or if he's just getting his molars...

He's been whining day and night-if he has stopped and he sees me, he throws himself on the floor and starts crying. I guess because he wants me to pick him up-I just can't carry this 26 pounder around with me all day. When I sit him down, he whines again. After I have fed him what I think is a sufficient meal, he'll throw his head toward the table, often times hurting himself and just whine for more. If I get him down instead of feed him more, he just throws himself on the floor-hurting himself. I'm convinced he's never full-but he's picky, he won't eat just anything I put in front of him but he'll still get real mad if I don't keep offering food that fits his palette at the time.

Lately, at night he'll wake up at least 1 time, sometimes 3 or 4. We thought that all he wanted was his pacie. So each night, I would traipse upstairs to a child that would stop whining and smile/giggle when he saw me walk in, find his pacie and go back to bed. But, many times as soon as I would get back in bed and almost to sleep, he'd start whining again and I would start the process over again until 6:30/7:00 a.m. Lucky if we get to 7 a.m. Clark and I decided to take the pacie away to see if that solved our problems. The first night it probably took him 2 hours to fall asleep but we didn't have to go upstairs to give him his lost pacie in the middle of the night. We thought we'd hit the jackpot the first few nights. However, at about 5 this morning I hear Peyton wake up so I went upstairs and tried to soothe him. I thought he was back to sleep until 5:30 he starts whining again. This time, I let him whine for quite a bit longer but I always worry he's going to wake Mark up in the room next to him. Until early this morning, I don't think Mark has ever been bothered by the incessant whining. After laying in bed listening to him whine I knew it was getting to be TOO much. Then over Mark's monitor I hear, "Sort, sort, sort my shapes, sort them nice and square...". That was it. Peyton's whining woke Mark up and now Mark was in bed playing with his Shape Sorter. Clark and I both got up and tended to Mark first. While I was getting Mark all settled, Clark went into Peyton's room. He decided he'd just try the pacie since it seemed to not really be source of the whining. Clark said as he gave Peyton the pacie, it was like Peyton had been hit with a tranquilizer dart. The pacie hit his mouth and he went down head first into his maddie! So we still don't know what the answer is to our problem but I am thinking that it must be his molars. The only thing we could think of was to give him some Ibuprofen, Orajel and the pacie. We'll see how he does tonight!

Just Trying to Keep Up!

CJ's T-ball End of Season Party

First Trophy!

Playing Drums on Uncle Jonathan's drum set at his Graduation Party

Hawaiian Falls...this is the only picture that I was able to get. Its just too hard to take pics while trying to enjoy the water and watch everyone!