Anna Mitchell at 16 months

I haven't done an update on our littlest one (or any of them for that matter) in awhile.  I thought I would do a quick update just to keep up with how fun and exasperating she is at this age:). 

Anna Mitchell you are 16 months old! 

Because you are so busy, and probably because you are the 4th child and haven't gotten read to that often (oops), you have been a little slower in the communication department although you do have several words we can understand and you are trying more everyday!   You say "da-da", "uh-oh", "pepper" (our cat), "diaper",  "rah-rah" (rock rock),  and you know that the pig says oink oink and the cow says moo:).  There may be a few more that I'm forgetting but oh well.  You follow directions really well and it is so fun watching you learn and grow every day!

At your 15 month appointment you were still a little bit...around 21 lbs.  So you can still wear 12-18 month clothes. 

You are still mostly a very happy baby...but you are a serious mess!  You get into everything and will not play with toys.  You love to get your hands on anything that is not a toy.  You also have discovered the art of annoying your big sisters:).   You are busy busy and love to be on the go!

You love to climb and can pretty much run full speed now.  Your favorite place in the world is to be outside of course.  You love to go on walks with mama too!  You are very sweet and love to snuggle for short periods of time and you give lots of kisses if you are in the right mood:).

You have 9 teeth with molars already coming in.  The 9th tooth was a molar and it was killer:(.  

You love to eat and your favorite things are yogurt melts and puffs.  But you also eat lots of fruits and some veggies and good protein.  

We love our crazy girl so much!  Can't imagine our family without you Annie!

To My Miracles

Samuel - you were the first to call me mama.  The day I first saw your picture hanging in a dingy orphanage hall in Ukraine, I knew you would be the one.  I had dreamed about you.  Prayed for you.  We knew way back then, the road might not be easy.  And yet God made it clear, you were ours.  I am so proud to be your mom.  I fail a lot with you because of my sin.  You teach me so much.  The last 7 1/2 years with you have brought so many ups and downs and through it all, you my son, have been a tool of the Lord in my heart and in my life.  He has done great and marvelous things that I would not have ever known apart from you.  I know my Father more deeply because of you.  I sense His power and His might and His love more than I did before I became your mom.  You are a fighter.  You are resilient.  I know without a shadow of a doubt that the literal and figurative scars from your first four years of life have made you stronger.  Have given God so much glory.  Those scars will continue to give God so much glory.  I pray that the wounds and the hard things in your life will ultimately bind your heart to our King.  That they will always remind you of the miracle you are.  That you will always know how extremely precious in His sight and in our sight you are.  I pray you know how deeply loved you are.  I love your sensitive spirit and your desire for your friends to know Jesus.  Daddy and I call you our little evangelist.  I love how you love your sisters.  I love your inquisitive mind and the way you always want to know how things work.  And how you can figure things out that I wouldn't have a clue how to do! I love how in tune you are with nature and the way you love animals.  I know you will do great things.  You are so smart and I wouldn't want any other son than you!

Ellie Kate - you were the first to grow within me.  From the beginning, you gave me a hard time with nausea, throwing up, high blood pressure, gall stones, and reflux.  However, your spirited personality has brought so much life and joy to our family.  I am so proud that I get to be your mommy.  You are so smart and so creative and such a reflection of God's great love to me.  I love how affectionate you are and that you write me love notes nearly every day.  You affirm to me that even though I often fail you, that love overcomes that.  I pray that you use all your energy and love and creativity to bring glory to God.  I pray that you will always know how deeply loved you are by our King and by us.  I pray you know that it's more important to be beautiful on the inside than it is to be on the outside. 

Baby in Heaven - you taught me how to choose to be thankful even when it feels really hard.  To choose to trust God in the midst of pain like no other.  You gave me my very first two lines without even trying!  Even all these years later, your short small life is still significant to me.  You have given me a greater ministry...and greater empathy for others.  A glimpse into loss and pain and suffering that I wouldn't have known otherwise.  You allowed me to learn to treasure what I had in a deeper way. 

Abigail -  A miracle of joy that I don't deserve.  Your sweet life has been such a reminder of God's lavish love.  Of His grace and mercy and abundance.  I am so proud to call you mine.  Every day I look at you and just fall more in love with you.  You have such a sweet countenance.  You are compliant, giving, and so much fun.  Even though you are mostly quiet and shy, I see the real silly Abigail come out a lot and I love that.  I love that you feel complete freedom to be yourself at home. You love to snuggle and give hugs and you have taught me how to slow down and be still and enjoy the quiet moments.  I am so thankful God gave us you.  I pray that you will come to know the Lord in a real way and understand how amazing His grace is for you!

Anna Mitchell - my perfect little surprise.  Oh, how blessed I am to be your mom.  You are absolutely the happiest, sweetest, most perfect little thing.  You have your bad moments...but overall your little life has just been the biggest source of joy for all of us!  You are definitely the baby of the family with lots of attention and love given to you.  You have taught me so much these last 15 months.  I think before you came into my life, I thought I had things under control and was doing a pretty darn good job handling life with three children, a busy blog, crafting things, ministry, etc. etc.   I had a lot of pride.  I had a lot of self reliance.  You have taught me that I am a big hot mess.  That apart from Christ, I can.do.nothing.  You have taught me to re-evaluate my priorities and really seek the Lord for how and where to invest my life.  You have reminded me that you and your siblings are to be my main ministry and my deepest desire is to not miss these years...these moments I won't ever get back.  I fail a lot at that, but little by little I am learning to give up control and not take for granted that the Lord has entrusted to me all that I longed for.

This week, my heart overflows.  I am so in love with my children.  I am falling more in love with the One who gave them to me. There are many many days I get frustrated and overwhelmed and sort of want to run out the door and not return for awhile.  There are days I feel like a big fat failure.  There are days I am restless and feel like I want to do more than clean, feed, wipe, wash, teach, train, discipline, and repeat 1000 times a day.  There are days I want to do over and there are days I treasure and relish and realize the high calling I have been given....five miracles in 7 years.  After years of nothing.  Sometimes, it's more than I can take.  4 little lives who call me mama.  One life who was never meant to live longer than a few weeks...but who in those few weeks left a mark on my heart forever.  Thank you, dear Jesus, for giving them to me.  For making my wildest dreams come true.  For letting me be their mama. 

Gymnastics Program

This past weekend, the big girls had their gymnastics program.  It was so cute!  They all did "routines" to Beauty and the Beast music.  

 They got to wear a little bit of makeup and that was probably the most exciting thing to them! 

Ellie Kate got a medal for placing 2nd overall for her class in handstand contests.

She was soooo proud!!!! 

  

So proud of our little gymnasts!  

Gymnastics was one of my favorite things growing up so I'm glad they love it too! 

Going Clean

I have clearly fallen off the blog bandwagon.  I don't know what's wrong with me!  I am hoping to get back into this space more often, because I love recording what is up with our family.  I know I will treasure the memories one day! I also love sharing my thoughts and desires for my own life.  It's good for me to write.  I also love hearing from my readers.  I know that when I don't blog much, I don't get to hear from you though:).  

Anyway, as you all know, last year was an amazingly chaotic time for us as we added a 4th child into our family.  By the end of the year, I was feeling pretty down about myself and frazzled with life in general.  A lot of it had to do with my health.  I had no energy, the pregnancy weight was NOT coming off like the first two.  I mean, I did gain about 10 more lbs this time, but started off less so I was at the same weight the end of each pregnancy.  The third baby weight was enjoying hanging around a little more though.  I just felt so gross.  I hated how nothing fit right.  Y'all know the drill!!!  It's a sad place to be. 

Enter GOD.  He likes to work in cool ways.  I saw a facebook post of a friend (except I didn't really know how I was friends with this person) about a challenge group over the holidays.  I messaged her and without even really thinking too much about it, decided to go for it.  This meant, that over Christmas I committed to working out 5 days a week and eating a clean diet of whole foods.  I was not real excited about it, but I just knew I needed to do it.   Oh, and I figured out that I didn't really know this person...she was a blog follower who asked to be friends on Facebook.  I never usually accept friend requests from people I don't know, but the Lord knew I would need April:)!

So, I lost a few pounds despite the holidays and a trip to Atlanta for Passion 2013 (where we got fed like celebrities).  I decided to do another challenge. This one was for 90 days!  I committed again to working out for 5-6 days a week, do a Beachbody exercise program, keep a food log in a secret facebook group, and drink Shakeology.  

Through those 90 days, I truly saw life change.  I didn't count calories or necessarily keep up with how much I ate...I just began to make portion changes, choose clean whole foods to eat, and I also gave up my coke zeroes (which are full of nothing good for you).  I started having more energy and saw my body change.  Since I started the first challenge, I have lost about 12 lbs and over 20 inches.  I have gone down two pants sizes and am finally down to my pre-pregnancy weight.  Halleluiah!!

I am not stopping now.  I have moved into another 90 day challenge and am just enjoying it so much.  I do not always want to exercise and it's hard to find the time.  But, I love the way I feel and I love how in shape I am getting again!  I haven't worked out this much since well...maybe forever:).

So, you may be asking what does eating clean exactly mean?

Here are some of the things I eat now on a consistent basis (3 main meals, 1 snack, and one Shakeology every day)....

1.  almonds

2.  lots of salads with homemade oil and vinegar dressing

3. peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and hummus

4. only whole wheat/whole grains (bread, tortillas, rice) and I usually try to only eat grains at one meal

5. eggs and egg whites 

6. I limit my dairy, but when I do eat it, I eat low fat cheese

7. greek yogurt

8. almond milk instead of cows milk

9. lots and lots of fruit! 

10. lean meats (chicken, fish, ground turkey, boars head deli meat)

11.  lots and lots of water

12. brown rice

13. kale, brussell sprouts, spaghetti squash, green beans, broccoli

14.  coconut oil instead of vegetable or even canola oil

 

{before}

 

{after}...or really in process:)

The key for me has been the Facebook challenge groups (through Beachbody) where I have accountability, encouragement, and a coach to motivate me:).  It has been a little bit of an investment with buying the exercise programs and shakeology...but what is more important then our health?  We make room in our budgets for smart phones, clothes, phone plans, cable tv, and more.  Also, it just wasn't practical for me to join a gym, so being able to workout at home has been great! I am so glad I have taken charge over my health and look forward to continuing in this journey of eating right, losing weight, and getting in shape!

New York!

Over spring break, we got to have some time in New York City! 

It was a really great trip! 

We took over 20 Alabama students to do some ministy there.  

We also got to do a lot of fun touristy things...

central park "tour"

Broadway show...Newsies!!!!

I was obsessed with Newsies, the movie, as a young girl.  I mean obsessed! 

The show was just as good and so entertaining! 

I highly recommend it! 

We stayed afterwards and got some of the actors to sign the playbill.

And I, along with the teenage girls, got my pic with the main guy:). HAHA!!!

Columbia University...a beautiful campus!

The students did Hurricane Sandy relief one day and the other two days were spent on various NYC college campuses getting into gospel conversations and just doing some research about spirituality and views on religion in that area of the country. I think it was very difficult for our students. Most people just weren't interested in talking or doing any surveys.  We did have a few students who got to share the gospel though...

We did a lot of walking and good eating!  I was very proud of myself though and for the most part, stuck to my clean eating.  Even at Magnolia's bakery...I got a flourless, egg white cupcake and it was super yummy:)! 

We went out one night to a really nice place by ourselves.  It was so fun!  Thanks to our super generous friend who sent us there:). 

So many fun phone pics...

I enjoyed my 4 days in NYC...but that was about all I could handle.  I have officially become a true small (but not too small) town girl!

Books

I've really made more of an effort this year to unplug from electronics and instead read more.  I have always loved reading, but 4 children, a blog, an iphone, an imac, and many DVR shows later...I just haven't done as much of that in the last few years.  But I have soooo many books that I have wanted to read.  So, I've sort of renewed my first love and have been diving into more books the last few months. 


I wanted to recommend a few because they have just been that good.  I can't NOT tell you about them!

SEVEN

by Jen Hatmaker

Have you heard of Jen?  If not, then go to her blog right now (jenhatmaker.com) and prepare to fall in love with her.  I want to move to Austin, TX and be her best friend.  I feel like she is my soul sister.  The beautiful thing about how God has gifted her is that I know pretty much everyone feels like that about her.  She is amazing and yet she is so real and honest and I just triple heart love her!  She has written a lot of books, and 7 is her most recent.  It is hilarious and challenging all at the same time.  I am looking forward to doing my own challenge soon.  I really really want to stop living with so much and give up more of myself to others.  I think that is what Jesus wants too.  If you haven't read the book, buy it now!  

Sparkly Green Earrings

by Melanie Shankle

This book is written by the popular blogger Big Mama (thebigmamablog.com)

She is hilarious and real and this book is basically just a memoir on motherhood.  There are so many sweet moments, but mostly it's just so funny and so relateable!  I loved it!

A Praying Life

by Paul Miller

I think I've mentioned it before, but really wanted to recommend it again.  It is sooooo good and has really transformed my prayer life. Paul Miller is really easy to read and yet so challenging at the same time.  He is so real and honest about his own struggles and shares a lot of what he learned about prayer through raising 6 children (one of them being special needs). 

Happy Resurrection Day 2013!

thanks DeDe for our beautiful outfits:)!

Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice, and for defeating death once and for all!  Thanks that your resurrection means life everlasting for those who follow you.  Thank you that death truly means life.   I pray that I continue to learn that and live it out here on earth.  I pray that the truth and beauty of the cross knocks me to my knees daily.

Once and for all, our debt is paid, 

There on the cross it is finished! 

The Lamb of God for us was slain; 

Up from the grave He is risen! 

Up from the grave He is risen!

~Chris Tomlin