Happy Independence Day!

We had a great holiday weekend.  We played hard, worked hard, and ate GOOD!  Michael and I built another raised garden and planted three apple trees and two blueberry bushes. The kids enjoyed fireworks and staying up late.  Here's some pictures as of late.

Joel and Levi hanging out.

Levi was smiling and giggling like crazy, so I tried to capture it with the camera. 

 

I got it here.  This is a huge, belly shaking, toss your head back, and pee in your pants LAUGH!

This is supper.   I am so thrilled to be eating stuff out of our garden.  I made homemade salsa with the peppers, tomatoes, and cilantro from our garden!  It was DELICIOUS!!   And the stuffed peppers are home grown too.

Levi at 3 months--Could he get any more scrumptious???

 Happy quarter of a year, Levi!  It's not fair that my baby is growing up so fast.  We are enjoying this little guy so much.  He is such a great baby and little brother.  He's sleeping 9 hours straight at night.  He cries very little (compared to my other babies).  He's so laid back (I can cut his his fingernails while awake).

He's rolling both from his stomach and back.  He's actually inch worm crawled across the floor.  And he loves to play Baby Monster.  It's the game where Levi steals all the boys' toys. It gets lots of giggles, but I figure it's preparing the big boys for when Levi starts to crawl and really takes all their things. :-)

He's about to move into 9-12 month clothing and size 3 diapers are fitting kind of snug.  He's my little gentle giant baby with lots of buttery rolls.  Delicious!!!

Little Boys Are Made of ......

 A wind storm blew up some 70 degree weather, so we ran out to enjoy the break from the heat.  (It's been burning hot and sunny forever.)  The boys discovered something while they were watering the garden.  Look and see....

 Obviously it fits into Clark's hands.  What could it be?

Mr. Hoppy!!!  

He jumped out of his hands and made it to safety as soon as I took this picture. But Mr. Hoppy sure did bring great enjoyment to my boys while he graced their presence. 

Afterwards the boys had a water hose war.
I love summer (aka spring that feels like summer).

Little boys are made of.....curious minds and a sense for adventure.

Memorial Day Weekend with Family

 Grandparents and Cousin Hannah came for a long Memorial Day weekend!  We had so much fun!
The first day they dressed up and played outside in the yard.  Well actually, they ran up the stairs and down the stairs and outside to the playhouse over and over!

 

Levi got lots of attention from everyone.  He steals the show.

 

We went downtown and played in the water.  It was HOT! But the water felt good!

 

Then we rode the a Chattanooga Duck which is an amphibian WWII vehicle. We took the 8:00 pm ride to enjoy the sunset and cooler temperatures.

Here's a picture of another Duck that we passed while on the water.

My Spider Man Loves Levi

 Clark is a baby person.  He loves loves loves holding Levi.  He'll hold him for 30 minutes or longer, and he asks often to hold him.  He leans over periodically and kisses his baby brother.  It is so sweet to behold.

Clark had been Spider Man all day.  After a long day of fighting bad guys, he needed his baby fix all 16 pounds.  Levi is wearing 6/9 months and size 3 diapers.

Mud, Smores, & Oh yes and...Our 12th Anniversary

The picture below is how our anniversary weekend started.  Little finger prints all over my door.  When I opened the door, I was shocked to see Joel covered.... (see next photo).

The boys decided to paint themselves with mud.  And no. The shirt will never be the same.  I love it!!

That was Friday night....Saturday, we garage saled and  we sodded some of the rocky backyard to avoid scraped knees and hands.  Then all five of us had a camp out in our backyard!

I am so proud of that sod.  It was just dirt and rocks before!!

 Here we are getting ready to roast hot dogs in our fire pit.

 Clark didn't like the fire.  It was already 90 degrees, so I can't blame him.  So he decided to forgo the roasting.  On the other hand, Joel was fascinated by the fire and burning marshmallows.  I think he sacrificed 10 marshmallows to the fire in an attempt to roast just one.

 

Even Bentley got to enjoy the S'mores as he cleaned Joel's face!

 

To cool off, we played in the water and had a water gun war!

After, we cuddled up, read some books, and slept the whole night in the tent. 

Clark and Joel woke up wanting to sleep every night in the tent!  

We had so much fun celebrating our marriage with our kids at our home.   

Thank you, God, for 12 amazing years!

Levi at 2 Months Old

My baby is already growing up way too fast.  He's about to burst out of 3-6 month old clothes.  I took him to the doctor this week and got his stats.  This future linebacker is 15 pounds 12 ounces which is off the charts still.  His height was 24.5 inches which was at the 95th percentile.  He's smiling more and fixating his gaze more than ever.  I know if I blink he'll be all grown up.  I try to kiss him at least 1000 times a day.  I want to always remember those sweet butterball cheeks.

 Mr. Chubs

 Levi was sucking on Clark's face during this photo.  Clark thought it tickled. Levi was disappointed.

How did I get the boys to look at me and smile?  

I hate to admit it, but I did tooting noises with my mouth.  It worked.  Boys are so funny. 

Pictures of Levi--7 weeks

 This picture shows off his chipmunk cheeks!

Easter Part 1

 

It's Saturday of Easter weekend, and we are full swing in celebrating my birthday and Easter!

Thanks to Aunt Diane and Uncle Danny's care package, we dyed eyes, and then transformed them into dinosaurs!

 

On Saturday, our MOPS church had an egg hunt and pony rides.

Clark has been asking to ride a horse for months.  Today he got his wish.

Joel wasn't quite sure what he thought about the horse.

Resurrection Rocks

 

Easter is a big holiday around here, and today we painted resurrection eggs.  The idea hit me last night when I was reading the The Very First Easter, and I was pondering how do I teach this to my little guys in a concrete way.  The stone is a very big part of the story.  The rock rolled was the first noticeable things to indicate the RESURRECTION had happened.  Wow, I wonder what was like to have been one of those ladies and to discover that huge stone moved? The shock, wonder, fear, and excitement they must have felt that morning!!!!   So after reading the story and talking about the stone, the boys painted their rocks today.  They had fun painting, and I had fun talking about how each color represented something as I told the story again.

 

Here's our Resurrection Rocks in our garden.  I sealed them with a spray sealer, so I'm hoping they'll survive the spring rains.  My hope is they'll serve to remind us of the Resurrection each time we see them.

What a month!!

 Levi is now one month old. I think he looks a lot like Michael's baby pictures.  

He has such chubby cheeks which are great for smothering with kisses.

He's 22 inches long now which is in the 95th percentile.  And he is off the charts with his weight.
The doctor said that they don't make "them" that big. He weighed 12 pounds and 15 ounces which is four pounds and 1 ounce gain in one month.  No wonder I've been craving butter cream icing. :-)

Wow it has been a month, and my head is still spinning from family visiting, surgery recovery, new baby, baby blues, building a tree house, yard work, starting our garden, and everything else we've been into.

Here's my attempt at taking pictures of Levi and failing miserably.  Joel would not leave us alone, so I took pictures of Joel getting in the way.  He loves to tell me how cute Levi is.  Little does he know Mommy thinks he and Levi both are deliciously cute.  I love my boys.
(Yes that's water guns beside Joel. Poor baby Levi will have to grow up fast to keep up with big brothers.)

  The doctor predicted Levi will have blue eyes even with our family history of hazel eye color. 

Only time will tell.

 

My four boys

I am totally outnumbered four boys to one girl.   

It's a good thing I like shooting guns, fishing, camping, and doing anything outside. :-)

Thanks Grandma and PawPaw!

In anticipation for Levi's arrival, Michael's mom and dad came to stay with us to help out while I healed.  They were troopers by letting us sleep in late and take naps, cleaning the house, taking care of the boys, and doing various other house chores.  Pawpaw and Michael spent the last week building a playhouse in the rain.  Their 3 week stay flew by.   Thanks Grandma and Pawpaw for loving on us and taking care of all five of us.

Brothers

 

Here's our first attempt at taking pictures with all three!

The boys are wearing their new Big Brother and Little Brother shirts.

(Thanks McFadden family.  The shirts fit perfectly!!!)

 

Clark loves his baby brother.  He sings to him and gently touches him all the time.  

Clark enjoys babies so much. 

 

This is Joel's first time to hold Levi.

 

By the end of this photo shoot, Levi got a little wiggly and squirmy.  Joel tried to soothe Levi by rubbing his head.  Clark started talking to him to calm him.  I have such sweet boys.

Why Levi? (joined in harmony)

Michael and I had the hardest time deciding names for our son.  We actually didn't name him until we were holding him in the hospital and after much prayer.  We wanted to name him a name that had deep meaning for our lives as well as his.  When we name our children, we consider what kind of person we hope they will grow up to be and what this child means to our lives. 

Levi was Jacob and Leah's third son in Genesis.  This is our third son.  Leah was longing for affection and love from her husband, so she hopefully named her third born a name the means, "joined in harmony."  My heart breaks for Leah, and we understand her plight somewhat.  We are at a time in our lives were we are longing for harmony in our lives.  We both have a deep desire to be in harmony with each other, our children, and our loved ones.  Lately we have had an insatiable desire to be in harmony with God's will for our lives.  We have been seeking wholeheartedly what He wants for our lives instead of having a self focused drive.  We also want our son to seek harmony with God all of his days.

Levi wasn't really a good guy in the Bible.  In the end, his father couldn't even leave him a decent blessing because of all of his misbehavior.  BUT....God uses all things for good.  Levi, who messed up so much, was the father of the Levites--the chosen people to serve God.  Michael and I have felt the sting of regret and the consequences of mistakes.  We know that our Levi will mess up as well.  But in the Biblical Levi's life we see God's amazing restorative powers and redemption that is for us all.  We plan to teach our little Levi that nothing can separate him from the LOVE of God, and our God even uses our mistakes for good.

Levi Joseph Lofton--Happy Birth Day!

 

Here we are in the operating room, right after Levi was born.

Levi Joseph was born at 9:00 am on March 16.  He weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 21.25 inches long.

 

Here's relieved momma and her bright eyed boy. 

 

Proud Daddy and his yawning son

 

Happy baby with a full tummy of warm milk

 29 hours after the c-section, we headed home.  I can't stand hospitals, so we get out of there as soon as they let us.  Joel and Clark were happy to see us. Joel wanted to help with the diaper change.

Happy Birthday Party for Levi!

We stopped off and picked up a cake, balloons, and a few gifts to celebrate Levi's Birth Day. 

My four big boys.