In the Meantime.......

Since I don't have a chance to post pictures yet, you can see the ones from the professional at the hospital.  We have one favorite......the one of Hailey with her bonnet on and she is holding my finger.  :)  OH yah, I forgot on the last post.....her name is Hailey Elizabeth!  :)


BUT tomorrow, our good friend is driving down from IN and she will be taking pictures of Little Miss!  We are sooooo excited to see her and for Hailey to meet her and did I mention that she is an amazing photographer!!!!???


1.  Go to bellababyphotography.com


2.  Enter code:  ahar0225brewner


3.  That's it!!!  :) 

It's a Girl!!!!!

God blessed Sean and I with a baby girl!  She was born on February 25, 2014 at 142 p.m.  She weighed 8 lb 9 oz and was 21 1/4 in long.  We are so grateful to have had such a safe and quick labor and delivery and a healthy baby girl! 


I went into labor around 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning (the 25th).  We were actually getting ready to drop our boys off at our dear friends' house because we had an ultrasound appointment to go to that morning.  God's timing is perfect!  So, instead we dropped them off there so we could go check into the hospital and have the baby!  We got to the hospital and checked in and I was checked around 1130 in the morning.  I was 100% effaced and 7 cm dilated!  I was amazed and surprised!  They moved us to a room and broke my water around 1.  After that, I went through transition, which is when I really started to feel like I was in labor, and began pushing around 135 p.m.  She was born at 142!!!! 


They had to take her and I wasn't allowed to hold her right away because she had meconium from in the womb, which they had seen when they broke my water.  The nurses were awesome, though, and got that all taken care of, and praise God she has been totally fine and healthy!


We were discharged yesterday (Thursday) and we were so excited to go get our boys and bring home our new and slightly larger family!  They LOVE their new little sister (2 olders) and have been kissing her and petting her head and want to show her the kitty and feed her cookies!  :)  Andrew isn't quite sure what to think yet. 


She has been nursing very well and is such a love.  She had her first pediatrician appointment today and she is already back up to 8 lb 4 oz from (8 even) and got a clean bill of health. 


Sean and I are on cloud nine and we are overjoyed!  All of our church families have been amazing and the love and support and prayers from family and friends has been amazing, too!  And today we get to see my MIL......she will be here until the 9th!  Hooray! 


I will post pictures later! 


<3

First Annual "I Love You Day" Party

Usually we don't really do much for Valentine's Day since our anniversary is the 12th, but this year we decided to celebrate a bit more.  We borrowed an idea from The Bates Family and we had so much fun!  They do an I Love You Day party and we thought that sounded like a great idea so we did one of our own yesterday.  Usually I'm not that creative, but I had a lot of fun decorating and getting ready for it.  We bought most things from the dollar bins at Target.  The boys were totally surprised by it when they woke up from their naps and they haven't stopped talking about it since (I think the pretty table lasted all of 2 minutes once they got to it!)  Ryan keeps saying how it was the best party ever and how thankful he is for all that we did.  What a sweet boy!

I printed these off of Pinterest and attached them to Sean's dinner chair.  :)

Hunter's place setting.  He had the little goody bag filled with goodies and I printed a zebra Valentine coloring page (it's his fave animal)

Andrew's setting, although he did end up sitting in his high chair.  He went to town on all the chocolate on the table!

Ryan's setting with his V Day goose!!!!

What real love really is

It's time to eat!  We did fondue - filet mignon, chicken, and fried cheese cubes.  It was challenging!  Multitasking for all five of us with the food cooking in the fondue pot was tricky!  BUT fun and tasty!

The after party picture!  We also made chocolate chip cookies in the shape of hearts after dinner and let the boys stay up super late and watch a Veggie Tales Valentine's movie.  Earlier in the week, the boys did Valentines for our church family.  

SNOW......again!!!!!! :)

This time we got 8 inches of snow!!!  On our anniversary!  It started snowing around 2 p.m. and continued until about 10 this morning.  We sat in bed with the flood lights on last night watching it fall.  It was so pretty and romantic, too!  We had big fat wet flakes, which was perfect for building a snowman and throwing snowballs.  I also had to call in to work today, but I enjoyed the time with my family!  Ahhhh, I LOVE snow!!

9 Year Anniversary 2-12-14

Saturday Sean and I enjoyed a special date day to celebrate our anniversary a few days early.  Michaela and Katie watched our 3 little guys while we headed to Pigeon Forge to go to the Dixie Stampede.  It was so much fun!  It's a dinner show and they give you tons of food and lots of fun entertainment!  Sean even got picked to be a part of the show!!!!!!!  He got to throw toilet seats lol!!!!!!!!  It was a game of horseshoes, but instead of horseshoes they used toilet seats.  He didn't win, but he still got a medal.  Afterwards, we took a quick trip by Starbucks and then headed home. 

I started looking back through the blog and seeing all the different things we've done through the years.  It was nice to reminisce.  I would say this past year by far has been our hardest and best year yet, which is super exciting because I know even better is to come.  Last year I had posted about Sean seeking forgiveness for about 8 years worth of lying and sneaking around, looking at pornography on the internet.  It was totally a shock and dreadfully hurtful, but we have been able to heal and grow so much since then and I praise God for that.  I am so glad that we have been working through it and that it was something that was finally admitted and dealt with.  Pastor Bates and Mrs. Bates were a tremendous help and were readily available to listen to us and offer wise counsel.  Of course, we spent a lot of time talking about it with each other and some time was spent arguing and crying.  We leaned on God and He has really helped us (of course!).  We watched sermons on husbands and wives who has been through the same thing.  We safeguarded our computers (Watchdog - free internet protection site and works really well).  We became each others accountability partners.  Sean came to me every time he had a wrong thought.  It was tough to hear at first, but I admire his courage and honesty.  We have really purposed to guard our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds. We really censor TV and magazines, newspapers, internet, places we go,  and I always try to give Sean and heads up if I see someone immodestly dressed.  Communication has been key! 

I am so thankful to God that I have learned more about how to be the wife he has called me to be and how to be here for my husband.  I was totally clueless and naïve before when it came to a lot of those types of things. 

So, it has been such a blessed year of laughing, crying, learning, healing, and growing closer.  I feel like we are close to being how it was when we first met and that is spectacular! 

Today marks the first anniversary where we have gotten to see snow.........and I think we are going to be enjoying a good snow storm until tomorrow afternoon!!!!  :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE!  143 NSM YLW

Made for Walkn'

After our fourth child is born, and after my 6 week checkup, I had told Sean that I was going to start getting up super early to go jogging 3-4 times a week.  Now, I have said these same EXACT words before and they have become a reality.......for a SHORT time!  And then I fall back into my old pattern of not doing it because, well frankly, I don't like running or jogging.  Sooooo, although the goal sounds great, I know myself.  I really did used to workout all the time and I enjoyed it, but that was before children (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)


Then I got to reading a devo about Jesus and some of his attributes that we should strive for.  Well, one of them was his physical strength, and it talked about how he walked everywhere all time for great distances.  Granted, there weren't cars and neighborhood Wal-Marts at the time, but still.   As I thought about it even more, I realized how much I love walking.  And we usually do try to take walks often as a family......when it's not the dead of winter and 2 degrees outside. 


Then I thought even more and decided I would like to know how many steps I take a day (ever heard of walking 10,000 steps a day?), even when I'm not going for a walk outside.  We went to Wal-Mart and purchased a pedometer for about 5 dollars.  I would recommend splurging a little bit more because the cheapie one I got likes to reset itself often if the button gets bumped and that's not so great when I'm trying to see how many steps I've walked for the day.  But all-in-all I am glad I got it and it has been interesting to see what I actually walk in a day (at least for me it was). 


So one Friday I was at home all day with the boys and I did 8457 steps which is 2.93 miles!!!!  That was the first day I had worn the pedometer and I was pretty excited about how much I walked around the house! 


The next time I wore it, it was a day we went to Target and Toys R Us.  I did 7573 steps (2.62 miles). 


Three other days that I was mostly just at home with the kiddos, I did 6215 steps, 7925 steps, and 6321 steps. 


One other day we went to the mall and I did 7801 steps (2.70 miles) and one day I went grocery shopping and to work and had 5508 steps (1.90 miles). 


Any way, the goal of 10k steps a day doesn't seem impossible. 


So now my new plan once this baby is born and it's not soooooo cold outside, I'm gonna aim to walk 3-4 times a week with my family, do my normal thing around the house or running errands or what have you, and wear my pedometer to see if I can get to 10k steps a day.


Just another way to try to be more like Jesus (WWJD!?)  He certainly wouldn't be running :)  lol 

Natural Floor Cleaner

I'm always looking for a way to save money, especially since we use all natural products these days. Organic anything is expensive and although we feel it is worth every penny, making some things at home helps financially....a lot.  So I was looking for a floor cleaner and mommypotamus is a great place to look for anything!  I found one that is so easy peezy to make and so far I am pleased with the results.  I was also super excited (yah, I said excited.....such a homemaker) to see that it will work like Lysol and supposedly even better.  I've missed my Lysol, especially with spraying down the Diaper Champ, but I know how bad Lysol can be.  Sooo, this should be the solution!  :)  Happy Cleaner Making!

For An All-Purpose Cleaner

I use a spray bottle filled with water to which I add 20 drops of rosemary essential oil, and 20 drops of lavender essential oil. (If you use a small spray bottle, 10 drops of each is sufficient.) This simple mixture smells fabulous, but don’t let its great smell fool you – it’s amazingly strong! In clinical studies, this mix was found not only to kill germs, and even in particular MRSA strains, on surfaces as well as their standard chemical hospital sanitizers, but it lasts longer! Because the active agent is the essential oil, which does not evaporate as quickly as the alcohol and bleach based cleaners, they found that surfaces remained germ-free longer when washed with this mixture! No chemicals, AND it works better – why use bleach?
I use this cleaner on kitchen counters, the dinner table, the bathroom counters, and for dusting. Not only that, but this same mix is better than Lysol – any time someone in the house is sick, spray it throughout the house several times a day to reduce the chance that germs will spread. And you can use it in place of air fresheners too! Air fresheners may cover odors, but they do so at a great cost – the fragrance is toxic, particularly to the brain and the nasal membranes. Many people are very allergic to air fresheners, but the simple rosemary-lavender spray bottle has yet to bother even the most chemically sensitive nose, in my experience. So go ahead – keep a small spray bottle in the bathroom or anywhere in the house!


By Katja Swift.  Katja is a clinical herbalist currently serving as the director of the Commonwealth School of Herbal Medicine. She has guest lectured at Dartmouth Medical School and the University of Vermont Medical School. 


http://www.mommypotamus.com/household-cleaning-supplies-greener-cheaper-better/

Gospel Tracts

http://www.livingwaters.com/




We had been given some gospel tracts at church that we were handing out, but we just ran out and decided to order some more.  We got one of the sample packs and then one of the assortment packs from Living Waters, which is run by Ray Comfort.


We put a bunch in our car on Saturday night and when we got to the mall, Ryan was so eager to hand them out to people.  He used the one that is a million dollar bill.  He just couldn't get enough of it.  He would have gone through the whole pack had we let him.  Most people were very nice and took the tract from him.  I think only one person said no and I had to watch from being overprotective.  I don't want anyone discouraging him from handing out tracts.


Either way, his enthusiasm and courage were very encouraging to Sean and I.  I still just leave tracts on tables and in bathrooms and the like instead of actually handing them to people because I'm too scared!

I Love You Month

I've got three big hearts around three bigs days this month!!!!  One is Feb 12th, which is me and Sean's 9th wedding anniversary!  The second one is drawn around the 14th, which is "I Love You Day!"  Last, but not least, our due date is Feb 17th!  What an exciting, love filled, God blessed month!!!!!!  


ON LOVE:  

Agape love is selfless love...the love God wants us to have isn't just an emotion but a conscious act of the will...a deliberate decision on our part to put others ahead of ourselves.  This is the kind of love God has for us. - Billy Graham 

1 John 2:5  But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of god perfected:  hereby know we that we are in him.

BBQ Chik Sandwiches with Creamy Slaw

This Southern gal thoroughly enjoyed this meal!  We paired it with homemade potato chips and corn on the cob and sweet tea (of course!)  :)  AND I feel the slaw needs to go directly on the sandwich!  Oh, and we accidentally bought prepared slaw so I don't know if their part of the recipe for the slaw is good.  To cook the chicken, we put it in the crockpot for the day with some liquid and then shredded it. 

Ingredients          

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 (12-oz.) package angel hair coleslaw mix or broccoli slaw mix
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/2 cups ketchup
• 1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 4 Texas toast slices

Preparation

1. Prepare slaw: Stir together mayonnaise, lemon juice, and granulated sugar until smooth. Stir in coleslaw mix and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste. Prepare sauce: Stir together ketchup and next 7 ingredients in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until bubbly. Stir together 1/2 cup barbecue sauce and chicken in a bowl. Spoon mixture over Texas toast slices. Serve with slaw and remaining barbecue sauce.

Cynthia Graubart, Southern Living
FEBRUARY 2014

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/barbecue-chicken-sandwiches-50400000133111/