Janvier

Hello January.  We have spent the time mostly in our normal routine, our normal snapshots of life.  My hardworking husband power washed our back driveway which was such a drastic & awesome change.  The boys have all gotten back into their school schedules and are having great fun with their Christmas gifts.  James celebrated his 6th birthday with a Lego Star Wars birthday party at our house.  We have been doing all our baby prep and have been in town because we cannot leave!  We took our hospital tour for when the baby decides to come, and we packed our bags.  We have celebrated friends birthdays as well, and been enjoying going to our church weekly again after the business and travel of December.  We are fully into our new year, and we cannot wait to see what comes next!

Sweet baby boy, mom has been playing with baby clothes and getting your things ready now.  We cannot wait for you to come!  My Clemson tigers played for the national championship in football for the first time in 35 years, but unfortunately they lost.  The boys and I really enjoyed pulling for the Tigers, especially Calvin!

Mommy at 36 weeks.

The first baby gift we received for our sweet new babe.  I could not believe how generous & thoughtful a sweet momma friend from preschool was!!  So perfect & his brothers LOVED it.

Mommy at 37 weeks.

Your second gift was a hand made blanket crocheted by a sweet friend of ours at church.  What a surprise!  I was thrilled to have a beautiful, special blanket made just for you.  So incredibly thoughtful.

I ordered a special 'coming home' outfit for our little buddy & little lion loves for him.  Packed them all up in my hospital bag, and we were on the lookout for his arrival.

Our friends were due 2 weeks before us & had their beautiful baby girl.  I was so excited to meet her & hold her for the first time!

My lovely girlfriends threw me a baby shower brunch to celebrate our new fella's impending arrival.  I was so blessed by their hospitality and generosity.  I have special gifts from some of the special women in my life for my son now, and it means so much to me.

What would I do without you!?

Our Bible study group at church also threw us a diapers&wipes shower to celebrate, and they took time to pray over us & our son's delivery.  I appreciated all the support we received, and could not be more thankful to have them in prayer for us as we count down the days!

We were lucky enough to find a sweet teenage girl to come and be a helper for me before the baby arrives and after.  It has been a blessing to have an extra set of hands to get my chores done & it takes the burden off of me for all that I couldn't have done.  Also, she taught me to froth milk in my french press.  Which has been an invaluable skill since my learning.  haha!

Just before I hit my 39 weeks mark, our boys got sick.  James and Hayden both ended up with Strep throat, and Calvin was just probably the furthest removed from catching it.  So all three ended up staying home with me & getting some medicine & our sick days were such a welcome relief from the daily schedule.  I was so thankful for the opportunity to have everyone resting in the afternoons, and for the lack of 'rush' and 'hurry' in our mornings.  I'm so glad they didn't get sick after the baby was born!

Mommy at nearly 39 weeks.  Woah belly!!  Will I actually hit 40 weeks for the first time!?!

Luckily for me, I have these beautiful, sweet guys running through my house to keep me company as I wait.  To lift my spirits when I get down.  James gives me kisses & asks me if I need a glass of water.  Hayden loves to give the new baby kisses in my belly & feel him kick.  Calvin is just the happiest little thing & it makes it hard to be grumpy around him.

And my husband is just the best.  He is the best father & the best friend.  He is the best support & the best encourager.  I am so thankful, unbelievably thankful for you Matt Prose.

I thought maybe some 'spicy' Mexican food & a late walk on the beach would help encourage our baby to come, but sadly that did not happen.  So, au revoir Janvier.

Thank you Lord for my wonderful husband and my 3 sons.  I am so grateful for this life I have been given.  Amen.

Happy 6th Birthday James!!

Happy 6th Birthday James!!  My goodness, SIX YEARS OLD.  It seems amazing to me that you are six.  I am so pregnant these days and preoccupied with getting everything prepared & ready for your birthday and for the baby, that I haven't stopped really & let myself think about you being 6.  I'm sure it will hit me sometime soon, because 6 is just so big.  You're already up to my sternum & I have to keep buying you new clothes to play catch up with how fast you are growing.  I am so proud of you my big boy- you are such a great helper for me & you are such an awesome big brother.  You have worked so hard in Kindergarten, and you love it now.  It was an absolute joy to watch you play soccer last Spring, to learn to swing with confidence over the summer, to loose your first teeth, and to really learn to play t ball last Fall.  You have changed so much in a year, and it makes me incredibly proud.  You have a mostly even temperament, and you're very positive.  But son when you get riled up, everybody look out!!  haha, you may have gotten that from either daddy or me.  Sorry about that. :-)  I love you dearly, and I hope you had the best birthday yet!

You came home after Christmas break writing your first and last name & I lost my breath for a second.

I thought you may have 'outgrown' the numerical shirts made by mom, but you said you wanted one! I had to oblige.  So this year it was lego storm troopers on the front, and the big number 6 on the back.  You wanted to wear it to school, and we got to sing with candles on your birthday donut at breakfast time.

 Daddy&Me both got to come for your lunch at school, and daddy picked up lunch for us to share.  You wanted to sit outside, even though it was pretty cold, because you said it looked like fun when you saw others sit outside.  We did chicken out & go inside to finish after a few minutes!  You loved this birthday crown, and you even had a friend in your class who shared the same birthday.

We ordered cupcakes with red and blue frosting (haha, yikes!) because you said red and blue were your favorite colors.  Mommy found lego Star Wars cupcake toppers online, and lego brick papers.  I thought your choices turned out really cool.  You were definitely into choosing how to celebrate this year!

One of our gifts to you was the first three Star Wars movies (4-6), because we had heard it was not so bad.  It had been years since we had watched it ourselves!  The boys thought it was an awesome treat, and we did skip just a few scenes in 4, but overall it was good. :-)

James, you were so excited for your party.  You couldn't wait to have your friends come over, and you counted down the days!  Of course, the party was a whirlwind, and you had a blast.  The biggest treat was the cake your Mimi made, amazing!!

The other treat we came up with was to have a 'master builder' class where you got to build a lego Star Wars ship with all your friends!!  We were inspired by the Lego Discovery center we visited over Christmas vacation.  It was a lot of fun, and you even tried to walk all your buddies through it step by step!  It was fun to watch.

 Mimi made some fun lego head cake pops and lego crayons with coloring pages too!

 All your friends!

 James, we are so proud of you!  I hope you had the best birthday.  Love mom&dad

Welcome 2016: Come&Listen

I have been distracted lately.

     I noticed others making their 'yearly' goals, hearing a new goal or desire in their own heart, and planning out what lies ahead.  All my 2016 preparations have focused on the present, the current state, and walking through only today.

I'm 39weeks&4days pregnant.  This is the longest I've carried any baby.  I did not expect for today to begin or end without a new baby in my arms.  But he will come; I'm just not sure when.

My January was comprised of a 6th birthday celebration for my oldest of four sons, and then it shifted to focus on baby preparations.  All the planning & prepping & laundry has been done, more than one time.  All the bags packed weeks ago.

The recent message at our church (which of course I thought would be my last Sunday morning for a little while) was preached by Pastor Rich Stevenson, whom I have listened to many times over the past 9 years.  But his message on January 24, 2016 was my favorite.  Give a listen to it at the sermon page of OCF here.

Come&Listen.

The passage from Isaiah 55:1 rang out so loud in my ears.

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; 

and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost."

The Lord spoke so clearly to my heart, he calls me: COME. LISTEN.  This is my manna moment, today is my chance to open his word, to see him moving in my midst, to learn more about him, to daily come, buy&eat.

My daily renewal, my filling & focusing on him.  Looking for God & listening for his voice.  Hearing his call to come.

Pastor Rich made a simple, but key point about hearing what we listen for.  If we aren't listening, if we are paying attention and turning our hearts & our ears to hear, then will we miss it?  

This is my 2016 call, Come&Listen.  My schedule will be a bit crazy with a newborn baby & balancing all my children's needs.  We will stretch & grow in this season.  I know it will be full of sweet moments, but I will need to listen daily, to come buy&eat.  To not close my ears out of tiredness and distraction, but to train my ears to listen, even in the shortest of devotionals, or the hurried prayers of a meal, or the sunrise over our breakfast table.  May his voice be in my ears, and may 2016 be a year of choosing to Come to the waters.

Blessings, 

Brie