Feeling so Blessed

This was me (and Bodie) 11 days ago. I can't believe our boy is already 9 days old. Here's a little bit about our time so far with Bo...

My labor and delivery was quick and a little crazy at times. When I got to the hospital I was dilated to 3 cm and not in labor. My doctor broke my water first thing, which hurt like crazy. Apparently I have a very tough amniotic sac. That might have been the most painful part of the whole day. Anyway, we started the pitocin around 8:00 am and Brian & I had time to just sit and talk, read and text people. Around 9:30 am, the contractions were pretty painful, so I asked for the epidural. The nurse checked me and I was 5 cm, so I got the epidural around 9:45 am.

I casually mentioned to her that with my last baby I went from 6 to 10 cm really quickly. She asked me how long I pushed for my last baby and I told her probably around 15 minutes or less. Her eyes got a little bit big and she started moving around our room kinda quickly. She then mentioned that they didn't have the lab orders for the cord blood sample that was supposed to be taken at the birth of our baby to check for galactosemia. Apparently they hadn't received a fax from my doctors office with the specifics of which color tube and how much blood to draw.

So around 10:00 am I was around 6 cm, and still no orders. At 10:30 I was dilated to 8-9 cm and I finally offered to get on my laptop and pull up the orders for them to look at from my email. Which we did. Thankfully everything worked out at the last minute and they were ready to take the blood sample from the cord. At 10:45 I was complete, but of course, my doctor wasn't there because he didn't expect me to be ready to push until after noon. So I had to wait about 10 minutes for my doctor to get there, feeling like our baby was about to pop out on his own. I was so happy when he finally walked in the door. I pushed through about 3 contractions and finally at 11:10 am, Bodie was born! I later found out he had to use the vacuum to help Bodie come out because he was such a big boy! That's why he has a little cone head.

I was so happy when I heard "It's a boy!" Bodie was the biggest of our kids at birth, weighing in at 8 lbs 11.5 oz. Tatum was second at 8 lbs 8 oz. Laney was 8 lbs even and Avery was 7 lbs 10 oz.

He came out screaming and wailed through the entire cleaning/weighing/footprinting process. When they finally put him in my arms, he got completely quiet. It was one of those memories I will always cherish. I just talked to him and he just stared at me, and I was completely in love.

Brian is so good at helping me through every step of the childbirth process. He is so calm and reassuring to me. At one point when I was dilating quickly, I got the chills so bad I asked for more blankets. He came over and held my hand and the warmth of his hand helped me relax and feel so much better. I am so happy for Brian to have a son. He will be such a great dad for Bodie. I know he will teach him about the Lord and fishing and baseball and how to be a good man. And deep down inside I'm pretty sure he is hoping he will fight and rough-house and knock things over.

Here we are... our first family photo with all six of us!

Grandad and Bodie

Nana, Papa & Bodie

Papa, Avery & Bodie

Nana, Papa and the whole crew

Gigi, Aunt Adriana and Bodie

The girls got to watch The Little Mermaid in our hospital room that night. My mom was so sweet to come stay with us and help take care of the girls so I could focus on getting used to Bodie. We appreciated her help so much and the girls loved having Nana all to themselves.

Avery is CRAZY about her baby brother. Here is the first time she got to hold him.

My sweet friend Bethany came to meet Bodie in the hospital. Also, our pastors Stephen and Matt came to meet Bodie and pray for him while we were there. Bodie also got to meet all his grandparents while he was in the hospital. We were very thankful to be released about 24 hours after Bodie was born. We were very ready to get home and get settled in. Here's Brian & Bodie with his stork in our front yard.

Bodie Luke - one day old

Three clean pajama girls so glad their baby brother is finally here!

Uncle Brent, Aunt Jenn & Tara came to meet Bodie this past weekend. Brian had games on both Friday and Saturday, so it was nice having Brent & Jenn there to help me out. They kept the girls entertained and we enjoyed just hanging out and visiting with them. Bodie also got to meet the Cavazos family and Uncle Brandon and baby Matthew during his first weekend.

Aunt Jenn & Bodie

Uncle Brent & Bodie

Tatum getting some sweet kisses from Bo

Bodie - three days old

The other day Avery said, "When I first heard 'bodie' I thought 'oh, that's okay', but now I think bodie is the cutest name in the whole world!" I must say, I agree with her!
When she gets home from school each day, the first thing she wants to do is hold Bodie. And he is so content in her arms. She talks to him and kisses him and occasionally squeals and says "I can't believe he's finally here!" These two have already bonded and it makes me so happy!
Tatum loves to kiss his head and put his paci in. Ever since we found out I was pregnant, Tatum has been praying and asking God for a "brother with blond hair." When we found out it was indeed a brother, she was very excited that God had answered that part with a "yes." And apparently He has answered the "blond" part too because Bodie's hair is a lot like Tatum's when she was a baby. So unless it falls out and grows in dark, we really think he will probably be a blond like Tate. She is so very happy to have another blond in our family.

Laney has done really well with Bodie. I was worried she would be jealous and it would break my heart to have to choose him over her, if they both were crying. But so far, she has been fine. Mostly she just ignores him, which is fine with me for now. But she does like to kiss his head and point to him and say "Bo-bee."

We are so thankful that Bodie's first newborn screening for galactosemia came back normal! We are still waiting for more tests to find out if he might have a minor case of it ("duarte", which is what Avery & Tatum had) or if he is just a carrier of it, like Laney. We have seen God answer our specific prayers so many times and we are so amazed and grateful!

Welcome Bodie Luke

Bodie Luke
Born 3/21/2011 at 11:10 am
20 inches long
8 lbs, 11.5 oz
We are all so thankful for this gift from God!

Bo, your sisters adore you and love to kiss your sweet forehead and cover you up with blankies and put your paci in when you cry. You are your daddy's "little buddy" and he could not be more excited to have a son. You and he have a big job taking care of all us girls! Your mama can't get enough of you. I just can't kiss you enough or tell you I'm crazy about you enough.

There are many more pics and stories and words coming soon...

Bluebonnets 2011

We were definitely a week or two early this year, but since we are welcoming our little guy in about 2 days, we decided this was the best chance to get our annual bluebonnet pictures with the girls. If you look real carefully, you can see about six bluebonnets in the field behind them.









The girls had a good time walking around in their pretty new dresses and pretending like we were in a field full of bluebonnets. I can't wait until next year's pictures when there's a little boy in the bluebonnet pictures with these three princesses.

We've had to pack a week worth of spring break into about two or three days lately since Brian was swamped with baseball at the beginning of the week. While he's been busy with baseball, the girls and I had a fun day at Copper Lakes feeding the ducks and birds and playing at the park. We also did some shopping for those last few things we need for our baby brother. And we did a lot of playing outside and enjoying the beautiful sunshine. So yesterday since Brian was finally on break, we walked the mall several times and wore the girls out completely. None of them got a nap the whole day, which worked perfectly into our plans... We put them to bed around 7:30 and went out on a date, while a friend of ours sat at our house for us. We saw a movie and ate dinner and it was so much fun. Might be the last date we get to go on for awhile, so we definitely enjoyed every minute of it.

Some fun we had over the past week... Tatum flying her kite while riding her scooter. And below, showing her "back teeth," which for some reason she is very proud of.

Laney's entertainment throughout the Girl Scout ceremony was this little plastic frog. So glad I let her pick it up off the ground and bring it into the ceremony!


Daisy troop 17547 had their official investiture ceremony yesterday and our little Girl Scout did a great job. Her job was to tell about the red petal on their vest, which stands for being strong and courageous. They have been working since September to earn these vests and all the petals on them. I am very happy Avery has had the opportunity to be a Girl Scout this year.


Next time I post, it will have pictures of a cute little baby boy it it, and I am so eager to find out what those pictures will look like! I keep trying to picture him in my head with all the different possible combinations of hair, eyes, skin, nose, mouth, etc. that he could have. It's so neat to know that God already knows every detail of this little boy growing inside me and I will finally get to find out in two days or less! Monday morning we are going in to be induced, and we would greatly appreciate the prayers of all our friends and loved ones!

Cowgirl up!

My poor Laney had a bad fall yesterday morning down the stairs. She hit her upper gum on the wooden part on the side of the stairs and it looks really gross. There is skin flapping around and all mangled in her upper gum and blood was dripping down into her teeth all day. It was gross. I debated whether I should take her to the doctor, I was pretty sure they wouldn't stitch it up in her mouth and we called the dentist, who told us to just keep ice on it all day. Right.

But she has been such a trooper. She really is a tough kid. She played all day like it wasn't a big deal and let us look at it and put medicine in her mouth. It's still pretty yucky today, but at least the bleeding has stopped. It's just a dark purple mangled yucky mess up there. But I am very grateful it none of her teeth seem to have been harmed. I know God protected her because it could've been much worse.

These overalls she wore for western day today have been lovingly worn by all the girls now. I have pictures of both Avery & Tatum wearing these overalls when they were her size. It's fun to see Laney's little body in them and think how big I thought Avery was when she wore them!

Tatum is going through a tough time lately, mostly jealousy and mostly of Laney. She hears all the time how big Laney is getting, and I know she is longing to be told how big she is and what an accomplished 3.5 year old she is. She knows she and Laney share alot of the same clothes, socks & shoes because they really do fit both of them. Tatum is taller, but Laney is built larger. Tatum also sees when Laney falls and gets a cut or an ant bite or her mouth gets mangled, and Tatum immediately makes up some pretend wound she has or reminds us of a wound she got a long time ago so she can get some attention. It's shameless. When Laney wants to be held or sit in my lap, Tatum all the sudden wants to be held or sit in my lap. It's such a struggle for me because I am crazy about all my kids, but for some reason I have a special sympathy for Tatum being the middle girl and I try really hard to give her extra attention and praise. But she still acts so jealous! For example, tonight when I took Laney downstairs to give her some tylenol for her mouth, Tatum immediately said, "mama, I think I have a sore throat." And when I ask Avery how her elbow is feeling (she got a bad strawberry a few days ago), Tatum says, "mama, remember when I fell and skinned my knee and there was blood running down my leg?" (which happened over a year ago). I wish she would just believe me when I tell her how special she is and how much we all adore her, and not try so hard to take recognition away from her sisters.

I am so crazy about my little Tates. She has such a gentle and sensitive nature. I long for her understand and feel secure in how much she is loved. I just can't get enough of this little cowgirl.

So Avery has been wanting a Jessie costume from Toy Story 3 ever since Christmas. We couldn't pull it off at Christmas, but I found this little shirt and hat on Amazon last week, and knowing that this was rodeo week and she had nothing western to wear, I sprung for it. Her reaction when she opened the package was so worth it! She told me thankyou about 20 times and touched it like it was gold. When she put it on, she just stared at herself in the mirror. This morning she asked me to wake her up early and put a braid in her hair, like Jessie, with a yellow ribbon. Here's my little Jessie at the rodeo today at school slinging a snake around.

Avery and her buddies, Chloe & Mia.

They got to see a horse demonstration, and this horse was so beautiful! I loved watching it gallop around the lawn. Here's Jessie and Bullseye.
The other day while we were playing on the driveway, Tatum asked me how to draw an Aggie. She knows how to write her own name really well now, so since aTm has letters from her name in it, I knew she could write it. So as I was helping Tatum write aTm, Avery ran and copied our idea herself, only she got the "a" and the "m" mixed up. I was going to correct her, but I thought this would be such a good "typical Aggie" picture for her if she grows up to be an Aggie one day, that I decided I really like her version better. Gig 'Em little Ags!

My sweet friends, Bethany, Devon & Jeannine, threw me a "boy" shower last weekend and it was so much fun for me! I really didn't think I needed that much because I have been given some wonderful hand-me-downs and I figured alot of the stuff I had for the girls will be fine for a boy... he won't care if he gets bathed with a pink towel or washcloth and he will never know if i use a pink burpcloth to clean up his spit or a pink blanket to cover him up occasionally. But I must admit, I didn't realize how fun it would be to have cute dinosaur, baseball and firetruck blankets, washcloths and clothes for him to wear. I am thrilled to have such adorable boy stuff to use now. When I first met these girls, Jeannine had one baby and the rest of us were pregnant with our first. So one baby between the four of us. Now, there are (almost) 16 kids between the four of us!!! As you can imagine, playdates have become a little crazier, but I feel so blessed to have these friends and for the friendships my kids have with their kids.


I have a little more than two weeks to go until my due date. I have a little over one week to go until spring break, which means I am done working for at least 6 weeks. This is one of those times when I am SOOO looking forward to the future that it is sometimes hard to enjoy the moment and the days we are in right now. But in the back of my mind is the lingering reminder that once our baby boy comes, which we are thrilled about, it will change the times and opportunities I have to do fun things with my girls. So yesterday, even though I am gigantic and every day is an effort to just find a shirt that covers me, I did something I have never done with the girls, but will definitely do again - we went to Jamba Juice after we picked Avery up from school. We ordered our smoothies and a bowl of oatmeal (I know that is weird, but their oatmeal is really good!) and we sat at a little table and we just hung out. We stayed there for so long that the lady at the counter brought us out a cut up orange to eat and offered us more oatmeal. Since there were no other customers at the time, I let Avery & Tatum go to the bathroom all by themselves... I have never done that in a public place, but they did a good job. Avery was very careful to make sure they both did "ducktails" while the other used the potty, then she lifted Tatum up to help her wash her hands when they were done. They make me very proud at how much they can do by themselves. I picture us girls 10 years from now, Avery almost 16, Tatum almost 14, Laney 12 and me about 42 (yikes!) sitting at a Jamba Juice drinking our smoothies and talking all kinds of girl talk (Brian and baby boy will have all kinds of fun boy things to do together I'm sure). I hope and pray we are all still the best of friends with each other. I feel so blessed to be a "girl mom," and while I am so very thankful for our son growing inside of me and I cannot wait to get to know him, I feel a little uneasy and nervous about how I'm going to do as a "boy mom" and how having a boy in the mix is going to change all our girl times. But God is so good to us and I believe He has created this little guy to fit perfectly into our family and He has created me as the right mama for this little man child. I can't wait!