Brynlee's Baby Dedication

So, I mentioned in my last post about Brynlee having friends and not even knowing how many yet. Here are some pics from her baby dedication yesterday...



There were thirteen babies dedicated on Sunday...is that not awesome???!! All of the staff couples were represented at the dedication...yes, we now have ten kids between the Shocks, Hallams, and ourselves. We are definitely doing our part to grow the church :) Here are a couple of pics from Keirah's 4th birthday that show all ten kids. We are so incredibly blessed!



Our precious neighbors and friends, Mike and Dawn, dedicated both of their sons and Truly, Brynlee's inutero friend, was also dedicated.



After the dedication service, we took Brynlee and Truly to celebrate at Fuddruckers...I don't know if they liked it, but their brothers sure did!


Mike surprised us by showing up at church for Bryn's dedication. We had really been missing him, so it was a treat to get to spend time with him.

Another fun surprise of the day was that our awesome neighbors, Jose and Keri, came to our church. We were so excited to have them at worship with us and then they joined us for the Fuddrucker fun...

Every dad had the opportunity to pray over their child being dedicated. Keith prayed Psalm 139 over Brynlee, that she would always know that she is fearfully and wonderfully made. He also prayed Proverbs 31.30 over her; that she would truly believe that "Charm is deceiving and beauty is fleeting, but the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." I so pray that I will live out these Scriptures for her. It is so different having a girl and knowing that I am modeling how to respond to life and to God for this precious little girl. I don't just want to tell her to love God and seek to please Him only...I want to model that for her. I could use all of your prayers in being a godly example for Brynlee.

It was a wonderful day and now we are living out another fast-paced week!

God bless...

Randomness

Brynlee turned three months old today! She has captivated Keith and I. Her smile always starts in her eyes. She looks at you like she has a lot to say to you or either it's the look that says, "you're strange." Either way, it's really cute. She is starting to roll from her tummy to her back - and she gets so mad when she gets stuck on her back. Her smile goes like this: her eyes twinkle, then she gives a little side smile and then a full blown open mouth smile that just lights up the world. She is a drooling machine - you would think she was already teething. She is sleeping 12.5 hours at night and eating 5 times a day. She has found her thumb and uses it to go to sleep every night - following in the footsteps of her brothers, Kamden and Kale. She already has some really good friends and she doesn't even know it yet. We are dedicating her at church on Sunday and I'll post pics afterwards to show you all of her sweet friends that are also being dedicated. She loves her brothers. She is really getting spoiled to their attention. She coos and sighs after she eats - I love it! She is still very dainty and her eyes are still blue. So far, they are looking pretty big, like mine. I am so excited to have a daughter and thank the Lord that Brynlee is a part of our family.






Kade is about to be five at the end of this month. I have to post this so I'll remember - he threw a rock at a car this past Monday at t-ball practice. If only you could have seen mine and Keith's face when we heard the hit...very humbling. After we told the man what had happened and gave him our information, Kade told me that he remembered what color the car was and that he could go buy the paint color at the store and paint the spot he scratched. Oh, thru the eyes of a child. He had no clue why Keith and I were so upset - he just thought it would be a chance to perfect his painting skills. We just had a sweet friend, Rachel Parkhurst, come take some pictures of him to capture this precious age. I've had a couple of friends tell me that this is the perfect time to have portraits done of your children - captures the preschool stage before they start losing their teeth :)


We were all inside yesterday when Kamden just got up and walked out the front door. I went after him to see what was going on and he was by the bushes pulling up his pants. I asked what he was doing and he said, "I had to go pee." ???? Did he forget that we had a room in our house just for that? I mean, I could understand if we were already outside and no bathroom was nearby, but to walk past the bathroom to go find a bush? Yet another humbling parenting moment.



I have more random thoughts that are filling my brain tonight about my precious family and our life, but I'm sure this posting is already a little too long. But I will be so thankful when I get around to scrapbooking these moments to have journaled about them!

They're getting it!!

I just wanted to post these videos for all of the precious adults at our church who pour into our children week after week, all the time wondering if the kids are getting any of it...they are! All three of my boys know their memory verse for the month and our family worship time at night (and really all day too) many times takes the form of Kale leading us on his guitar singing all the songs he has learned at church. Thank you so much for teaching my children about God and Jesus - I praise the Lord for putting you in my kids' lives.

Here is Kale and Landon reciting their memory verse and then Kale performing for us before bedtime...



Have a blessed day!

"The Girl"

The girl in our home is gaining personality fast. She is beautiful and I just can't get enough of her smiles. She chuckled for the first time yesterday - and that was after her first round of immunizations. So her stats at her two month check-up are as follows: 11.5 lbs (50%) and 24" tall (90%). Did you catch that - my daughter is in the 90% for height!!! She's gaining on me fast :)

Kale is usually at Brynlee's side within a minute of her starting to cry. Here he is trying to kiss her sadness away. I think he is doing an incredible job in his new big brother role.
I also wanted to post some of my favorite captured moments from this past week. First off is the boys playing on the trampoline first thing in the morning before I even get them dressed.
Next is Keith reading to the boys before bedtime. I just happened to catch Kale joining in on the reading. Usually, he only lasts about two minutes before he leaves to find me and have some alone time with his mama. I love it.
And last, I had to capture Kade with two of his most recent favorite wardrobe items - his Sketchers and his Hot Wheels sunglasses. I can't believe that Kade is about to be 5 years old. He has grown up so much but I love the fact that he still loves to cuddle with his mama and ride bikes with his daddy.

Recent Events in the Ferguson Household

On August 11th, Kale turned TWO! I already see that God has given him the gift of joy. It is easier for him to laugh than to cry. His greatest fulfillment comes from making those around him laugh. He is our performer, as you will see in one of the pics below. He's never far from his guitar. He loves to sing - some of his favorites are "Mighty to Save," "The B-I-B-L-E," "Zaccheus," and "ABC's." He has been talking in complete sentences since he was 19 mo's. Here are just some of the things he says on a daily basis:

1. Give me that car back, RIGHT NOW!
2. I just farted - out of my bottom! (followed by a lot of laughter)
3. Get me some apple juice, please mom.
4. Turn the air off mom.
5. Let's go to the baseball game in two minutes, mom.
6. Stop it right now, Kade (or Kamden.)
7. I want to hold Brynlee on the couch.
8. Where'd Buzz go, mom?
9. Daddy go to work, mom?
10. See you later lalligator.
11. Did you take da boys (Kade and Kamden) to school, mom?

He does not take too well to being pushed around or bullied by his older brothers. Let's just say that he usually comes out the winner :) He loves to jump on the trampoline and he is way into the Wiggles right now. He could eat sausage and cheese for every meal. Can you tell that I love this kid? He is so special and a joy to parent. But I do see the two year old tantrums coming quickly...I'm sure I'll be blogging about those shortly.


Kamden started his first year at Mother's Day Out and Kade started his last year at Mother's Day Out. Here they are all ready to head to school on the first day.

I could hardly get Kade to stop for me to take a picture at the door because he was so eager to go in. I love that he is always confident wherever he is. He just went in his classroom and acted as if he had known everyone for years. And Keith and I just laughed when we got his daily report sheet and it said that he had been the line leader for the first day - that's so his personality, to lead and be first.

Big brother reassuring little brother with a big hug that they'll have fun at their school - no need to be scared. And Kamden did awesome. He had a glowing report on his little take home sheet and had a huge smile on his face when I picked him up. It has made him feel so grown up to get to go to school. He's getting ready on his own in the mornings and even trying to make his bed like Kade does. He's become very helpful with Kale too since he started school. It's funny, but Kamden is moving on past the whiny stage as Kale is entering into the whiny stage.

Did anyone see the Saturday Night Live opening skit this past weekend? If not, check it out on their site... http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/ - it is hilarious! Tina Fey did an amazing job impersonating Sarah Palin.

Also, Keith and I have been taking a parenting class at church. It has been such a good reminder of the awesome responsibility we have with shepherding our children well for the short amount of time we have them. I have heard our Family Pastor say this many times, but it challenges me every time..."We teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are." That's my little parenting thought for the day.

Blessings!

Cooking with Kade

Kade usually stays up with me now while his brothers and sister take naps. So, we try to use that time to spend special time together. On one of these occasions recently, we decided to cook a fruit pizza for dinner dessert. He told me that he needed to wear the chef hat in order to cook. I thought that made very good sense :) Kade has been well prepared for this chef role - the two of us used to watch Paula Deen (a.k.a. "the cooking lady") on the Food Network during nap time. That's the only way I could get him to fall asleep when he was transitioning to not taking naps. So...here's some pics of my sweet little chef-in-the-making.

My main help was placing the flour on his cheek to make him look like a real chef. And didn't the pizza turn out good? I do have to admit that I struggle with constantly wanting to take over whatever step he's working on, but I love seeing his pride when I let him do it himself.

We're all in love...

Well, it's official - we are completely smitten with the newest addition to our family, Brynlee Sage. I admit, it took me a little longer to get to that point than with the boys because she screamed a lot more than the boys. But last week, she began to do this:

And she begin to coo at us and our hearts completely melted. Even the boys are in love. All three of them dote on her every minute she's awake. She is already completely spoiled to getting tons of attention. Here are a couple of cute pics of the boys "taking care of her."

First off, Kamden and Kale thought that Brynlee needed a couple of books to read while she was chillin' on the couch. So they emptied the bookshelf because they thought she would like all of them :)

And look at this next pic - do you know why she is smiling? Because Kamden was sitting in front of her with his microphone singing lullibies to her while I was cooking.


And here's Kade offering her his favorite transformer to play with. You can tell that she is just as taken with her brothers as they are with her. Let's just say that Keith and I make the comment at least once a day that we are so blessed by God to have such incredibly precious children and such a sweet marriage.

I don't think I have posted this pic yet...it is the most recent professional pic of the boys, now ages 2, 3, and 4. Don't they just all have that mischievous look about them?
Have a wonderful Saturday with your fam! One more piece of big news: We celebrate our one year anniversary of our church tomorrow! We have had such an amazing past year and so look forward to what God has in store for the future! Check out Keith's blog for some fun life-change stories from the past year. I promise, they will encourage you.

pics...