TJ is three months... where does the time go? (and other ramblings)

I can't believe TJ is already 3 months old. It just seems like yesterday. Heck, it just seems like yesterday that Kara was born... I guess that is what we get for having two in 15 1/2 months... Anyway. TJ is a joy. He has been such an easy baby. He is never really fussy, and when he is, he is easily consoled. He LOVES to "talk" he just coos all the time. His simle is the most contagious thing ever. He loves his sisters so. He watches them play around the room, and loves it when they want to snuggle with him. Kara just loves to hug and kiss on him. She also thinks the needs to have a pacifier and burp rag at ALL times. Brenna is the typical "little mommy" she has been with Kara, and Taylor has really taken a liking to him too. She will actually change diapers now. (But not if it is poopy) She has a special touch with TJ. She can always make him happy. What a blessing.
Actually, God's timing is perfect. We kicked up home school to include all subjects this week, and it has been very tiring. It is His timing that I sat down to post this blog so that I could remember how blessed we are to have these children, when just a little while ago I was ready to ship a couple of them off.... :) In the grand scheme of things, God uses these kids daily to teach me more about myself, and more importantly, Him. His mercies are new everyday! Praise God. And He is mercifully teaching me patience and steadfastness in parenting.I hold fast to the verse "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." He isn't done yet.(thankfully)

A lot of catching up to do...

Well we finally have internet back!!!! It has been a month without it. It has been good and bad. Good, because I have not spent a lot of time on the computer, and more time reading and studying (not to mention taking care of 4 kiddos), and bad because I have felt so disconnected from so many of my friends and the world news.

Let's see... what has happened in this past month.... Well, we are settled in our new home, and I love it. We feel so blessed. We have broken the house in with small group meetings, visits from Uncle Micah and Aunt Heather, dinner with the Hirsch family, a Birthday Party for Brenna, and last night a slumber party. Whew..... I don't think I would have had time for the internet, even if we did have it before now.

I have a ton of pictures to post, and will get that done as soon as I can.

The little man is here!

On Sunday monring, May 31, at 1:26 am. God blessed us with Timothy James Igo, Jr. "T.J." He weighed 6lbs.12 oz, and was 19 in. long. He is a joy. His personality, so far, is very laid back. Brenna, Taylor, and Kara are all adjusting well and love to hold and kiss on him. Maw Maw is still here and is quickly turning TJ into a MawMaw's boy.

Tim and I are just in awe of God's blessings in our lives, and honored and challenged at the same time of the task that he has given us to raise His children for His glory. More pictures will be posted later.

update

Ok, I know it has been a while since I have posted anything....Things have been a bit busy these past few weeks.

I celebrated my 34th birthday. (I got a wii and wiifit, and I love it!) We celebrated one of my BFF's 30th birthday's with a sup rise party in Branson, I went and had a mani/pedi (sat next to a very weird individual, male, in his 60's that talked without ceasing), celebrated Mother's day, had a baby shower last night. During all of this we have been moving out furniture for a garage sale and packing up things that we don't really need out until we move into the new house.

The house is coming along great. They are putting in the wood floor as I type, and then the trim, doors, cabinets and counter tops will be going in next. It is really going well, and I think it looks great. Every time we go over there, I am thankful to God for his provision for this house and how He is working everything.

Tim has been working so very hard at making sure EVERYTHING is taken care of. He has really taken on even more since I am some what limited in my energy and ability. I know he is really going to need a good rest when we get settled into the new house. He has also been very busy with work and church as well. He is currently serving on the Budget and Finance team, and is in the process of being accepted as a deacon at our church. His business is doing well in spite of the economy, and he is making sure everyone has everything they need to sell the products he is in charge of.

Brenna and Taylor have finished school. PRAISE THE LORD! We are finishing up some math before we REALLY take a break, so that they will not start next fall in the last 2/3 of something from this year. They have worked so very hard this year, and I am very pleased with their progress and achievement this year. It has been a blessing to home school them.

Kara is growing like a weed! She is talking more every day, and we have so much fun with her. Her independent personality is really coming out now, along with some very funny OCD tendencies. She loves to dance and sing and play with her big sisters. It will be interesting to see how she does when her brother arrives, as I am sure she will not really understand that she is the only one that gets held anymore. I guess it is an early opportunity to teach that love is not making much of someone, but doing what is BEST for someone.

Baby TJ is set to arrive here in the next couple of weeks. The doctor said yesterday he was pretty certain I would not make it to my original due date. I told Tim this morning that I wasn't sure it would even be two more weeks. All of it is in the Lord's timing. I guess I should pack a bag for the hospital. (even though it is about 4 blocks from our house)

I have rambled on long enough - You can see God is busy in our world, as I am sure He is in yours. Just make sure you take the time to see where He is working and thank Him for it, even if your circumstances are not that "comfortable" right now. I know I have to remind myself of that all the time. God is God all the time, and He is GOOD all the time.

The past week....in a collage

Picasa is a really neat program! I have come to like it A LOT. It is easy to create and share collages, movies, and pictures. THis only took a couple of minutes to do. Believe it or not.

 

Holy Week - and a little bit of my ramblings

I think that Easter has become my favorite holiday. It is such a joy to celebrate the Risen King! More than that, I can call Him MY KING! It is really a whirlwind of emotion week too. Thinking about the Passover and the immense honor it is to remember God's faithfulness to His people is so humbling. Remembering the pain and anguish Jesus endured on the cross as he paid the price for all men's sin is painful. Celebrating the empty tomb is an overwhelming joy. Not just these events, but their meaning and how they point to God and His character is what is really hitting me this year. God is more than good. He is more than amazing. He is more than any adjective anyone could come up with to describe His worth. It really makes me long for heaven when we will bow before our King and praise Him in all of his glory. You know, I have had some pretty amazing worship experiences in my life, and I count them as amazing blessings. But they are just a mere shadow to what is to come. I can't even fathom it! WOW!

God has been teaching Tim and I some amazing things lately, and we are so thankful for how he is revealing Himself.He has led us to cast out some idols in our house (satellite TV) and he has blessed us tremendously from that. Our family time has been so sweet lately. I feel like we are more focused on the things that really matter, eternal things, rather than just being together watching a movie. I have discovered that for us, that is not really "together time". I am so thankful to have a husband who I can see growing in the Lord and desiring that for me and the girls, and trusting in God to lead him to lead us. I am thankful that God is teaching me how to be a better "helpmate" to Tim and what being a godly woman truly is. I am thankful that I can see God working in Brenna and Taylor's lives as they learn and grow into young women, and how God is always reminding me that they are His daughters, and ours is the job to show Him to them.

We are entering into a CRAZY busy time for us. Having a baby, building a home, moving into said home, and adjusting to a family of 6! WOW... It can seem overwhelming, and I must admit, I have felt that way at times. But, God is good. He is leading and we are following Him. We are constantly reminded of our need to rest in Him, His Grace and Mercy, and His provision.

We have SO much to praise Him for!

Louisiana Vacation

Last week we had the great opportunity to spend the entire week with Aunt Heather, Uncle Micah, and baby Lora in LaPlace, Louisiana while Tim had to travel to Texas on business. We had a great time! It was good to be with Heather and watch her with her first baby. We went to the French Quarter one day, to a plantation on another, and did some shopping while we were there too. We didn't go and do stuff all day every day because that is hard to do with a toddler, a newborn, and a pregnant woman, so it gave us good opportunity to just sit and talk. Taylor found a new passion while she was there too. Golf. She spent hours in the back yard hitting golf balls onto the course behind their house and into the pond. She loved it. Brenna, poor thing, fought allergies/cold symptoms while there, so she didn't go outside as much as Taylor. Our last night there, Micah and Heather treated us to a crawfish boil (YUM) where we sat and ate 20lbs of crawfish. Come to find out on Saturday morning, the mosquitoes enjoyed munching on us while we munched on crawfish. I am the only one who seems to have a ton of bites, thankfully the girls were spared. Kara even enjoyed the mudbugs with us. She and Taylor were eating them as fast as we could get them pealed. Taylor helped out as best she could with her one good hand, and discovered that she could pull the tails off and make a pile for me to finish pealing for her. It was nice to get to wear shorts and such for a bit, since we came home to chilly weather we had to put those away again for a few more days.

Kara playing in the chalk on Aunt Heather's back porch

The four girls outside Cafe Du Monde

We love beignets

Kara enjoying the warm weather!

Kara's Kazoo

Kara learned to play the kazoo today. I just had to share this... it is too funny.

Firsts... the good and the bad

We had a weekend of firsts in our house. On Saturday, it was SOO beautiful outside. The big girls were rollerblading on our neighbor's driveway since they are out of town and their driveway is really big. Everything was just great, then, all of the sudden... it happened. Taylor took a spill and fell on her left side. In spite of her protective gear everywhere except her wrist, she managed to get "road rash" pretty good on her left hand. Everything seemed ok, and she didn't seem to be in a lot of pain. Sacred, yes, pain, not so much. We didn't notice any abnormality in her hand, and no swelling happened that day so we thought, maybe just sprained and the scrapes. Sunday evening, the top of her little hand started swelling and she started complaining about her thumb and pointer finger hurting. We wrapped her up, gave her some Tylenol, and we went to bed. Monday morning when she woke up, it was still swollen and still painful, so Tim and I decided to have it checked out. God was so good through it all. We went to the walk-in clinic just up the road from us since our Doctor's office was slammed for the day. (They really miss RT). I prayed as we got close to the clinic, "Please God, don't let this place be packed." He is good. We literally sat in the lobby for maybe 3 minutes. They took the pictures they needed and they had the doctor on call at the main clinic (who happened to be another friend of ours) take a look. He referred us to the bone specialist, and he said he needed to see her. To make a long story shorter, by 1:00 yesterday afternoon, we had seen two docs, had x-rays, a hot pink cast, and a sucker (Taylor's favorite part of the event). We even got to come home for lunch and get a bit of school done in that time too. There are some great benefits to living in a small town.


The other fist is a short story... Kara had her first PB&J sandwich on Sunday evening. SHE LOVED IT! It may not come through on the picture so well, but she was wearing a good bit of the sandwich since she wanted to put the pieces in her mouth herself and dropped some on her shirt as well. She is talking SO much. She has her first sentence, "hold me", which she loves to say, along with a miriad of other words. She also loves to do the chicken dance! She folds her arms like wings and says "bock bock". It is really cute.

Preparing for the little guy...

We have not done too much to prepare for the arrival of our little man yet, we have about 14 weeks still. We did, however, find the perfect bedding set for him while on a trip in Springfield while mom was here. I thought I would share it with all of you since it is so cute, and we are excited to be actually buying little boy stuff