Hospital Days

Before I bore you to death with baby photos (if I haven't already) I want to share a few more pictures from MaryClaire's first 3 days of life at the hospital...

A Ginger Ale toast to Baby Sister - cheers!

Time to get dressed to go home!

I thought she looked like the sweetest little Christmas cookie!

And we are all living happily ever after...

... sleeping very little at night...

... wearing PJs all day...

... in a very messy house.

Birthday Part Two

These pictures are from "birthday afternoon" - bath time and big sister time :)

Merry Belated Christmas!

MaryClaire's 1st Christmas

Christmas Eve 2011

Welcome Baby!

MaryClaire

Monday December 12, 2011

8:54am

7lbs 5oz 20.5 inches

Another wonderful piece of family news... Evie prayed to receive Christ on Tuesday night. These two joyful parents are awesomely aware of our many blessings this week! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Luke 18:16

Jesus, You are Lord of All

There is Love

That came for us

Humbled to a sinner’s cross

You broke my shame and sinfulness

You rose again victorious

Faithfulness none can deny

Through the storm

And through the fire

There is truth that sets me free

Jesus Christ who lives in me

You are stronger

You are stronger

Sin is broken

You have saved me

It is written

Christ is risen

Jesus You are Lord of all

No beginning and no end

You’re my hope and my defense

You came to seek and save the lost

You paid it all upon the cross

So let Your Name be lifted higher

Be lifted higher

Be lifted higher

You are stronger

You are stronger

Sin is broken

You have saved me

It is written

Christ is risen

Jesus You are Lord of all

Ben's sweet grandma left to be with Jesus early this morning. "Big Grandma" was dear to us and her passing is very bitter sweet. We praise our God for taking her HOME, and we rejoice that He has given her a NEW and PERFECT and HEALTHY body in heaven, but we grieve over our loss of her. Evie and Anabelle were greatly blessed to know her, and our hearts are now sorrowfully accepting God's will that MaryClaire will not get to meet her. MaryClaire's middle name, Vinson, was chosen in Grandma's honor. I do look forward to telling MC why her middle name is so special and all about the precious lady who cherished this sweet baby that she never met. I wanted them to meet so badly. God put this song on my heart this morning and I have sung it all day.

It is written, Christ is risen, Jesus You are Lord of all...

MaryClaire will be here any day now. I am yearning to hold and kiss her. She cannot come soon enough!

Happy Halloween 2011!

Halloween was an exciting and fun day at our house. Evie had a costume parade at school and an early dismissal day. She and her daddy used the afternoon to carve a Jack 'O Lantern together.

My parents and grandparents ate dinner at our house (my mom made chili :) Once it got dark we all got ready to trick or treat as a family. I didn't notice until after I uploaded our pictures, but it looks like we were joined by the little girl who fell down our well. Spooky.

Ben in a mullet and a Jack Daniel's man tank - maybe scarier than our little guest?

The girls had a blast. At each house their greeting was the same. Evie would say "Trick or treat" immediately followed by Annie asking "You got a dog?" Ha! She's a mess - that deep voice of hers is a riot! We should have taught her to follow that question with "How about a monitored alarm system?" Not creepy at all - right?

We have a family full of candy lovers! Digging through the loot back home was the best part!

And here is my good lookin' Dixie man...

... and his bootylicious Jersey Sugar. Boo!

(So sorry MaryClaire that you had to participate in this get up!)

Happy Halloween!!!

Baby MaryClaire

MaryClaire Vinson at 32 Weeks

M is for MaryClaire

Name chosen in honor of my Nannie (my father's mother). Mary Kathryn was Nannie's paternal grandmother & Clara Matilda was her maternal grandmother.

V is for Vinson

Name chosen in honor of Ben's Grandma (his mother's mother). Vinson is Grandma's maiden name.

Our daughters have been so blessed to know ALL FOUR of their great grandmothers. That is SUCH a blessing to us! Evie is named in honor of my Nana (my mother's mother) and Anabelle is named in honor of Ben's Grandma Rountree (his father's mother). Now we are so excited to wrap our new sweet baby girl in a precious family name all her own.

Children are a heritage from the LORD,
offspring a reward from Him.

Psalm 127:3

Trunk or Treat

Last weekend we went to Trunk or Treat at Evie's school.

It's basically a really fun kiddie tailgate party

Here is our little mermaid (with butterfly face paint?)

Ben and the girls gave out candy from the family swagger wagon

I decorated with a painted pumpkin ("K" is for our last name and for "Kindergarten")

And here is our sweet butterfly/fairy (she changes her mind every 5 minutes) and I so love that she insisted that I paint her nose! Do you see Annie's giant bandage on her fingers? She sliced 2 of them when she stuck her hand in the grate at the bottom of our refrigerator :( We had to take her to have them glued and she wore a splint for about a week.

We are going to approx 4 Halloween events, so we are going to get lots of use out of these costumes!

Hey!

It's been a looooong time - almost 2 months! Anyway, we are still here, just really busy. So much has happened since I last posted. I've been overwhelmed as far as where to even start updating my blog, SO... I just haven't done it! Summer ended, I had a birthday, Evie started school, I have been busy at our church, Anabelle is about to be three, Ben has been working all the time, and my belly is growing by the day!!! I want to take time to update in detail, but the purpose of this post is just to give myself a little jump start - I'm going to just hit the major highlights and I'll talk more about each of these things soon...- At the end of the summer I took a trip to Montana to visit my brother and his wife. It was a gorgeous and wonderful trip!
- We have worked our little booties off to make a sweet room for Mary Claire (almost finished!)
- Evie started Kindergarten!!! She loves it and she's doing great!And just a few more things...

- I turned 27

- We potty trained Anabelle (you go Girl!)

- A bunch of (wonderful) activities and studies started again at church for the school the year.

- I had kidney stones and spent an evening in the hospital and a week on the couch - ouch!

- We have had a play date almost everyday

- Evie was a flower girl in a wedding last Saturday

- Anabelle is going to be 3 on Thursday and I have been working on some surprises for her :)

Oh boy, this big ol' momma is so tired! So I am going to get off this computer (with the promise to be back real soon) and watch Most Eligible Dallas and go to bed ;)

Fwimmin'

This summer we have spent a whole lot of time goin' fwimmin' (as Anabelle would say). Evie took swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer, and we decided to join a country club so that both of our little polly-wogs could enjoy plenty of pool time during these hot months. They have been loving it!