Her First Week in Pics

I am in absolute awe of her. Her little personality seems to be mild, laid back, and super easy to please. How fast it all fades....newborn smell, tiny fuzzy head, newborn cry, 7 pounds of total helplessness that melts into arms and heart. How much I love watching them all grow, finding independence, discovering all of life....but how bittersweet it is, how swiftly it is all carried on the wings of a merciless clock....pendulum, almost cruel in it's incessant rhythmic swinging. So I hold her, I smell her, I breathe every ounce of her in, I stay up with her in the quiet of night as she nurses so close to me, and I don't take any second with her for granted...because I have learned that this moment  in time with her is so brief and she changes with each minute that passes. 

When you  have a small army to watch over you as you grow. 

The little hair that she has....

So phone quality pics are not the best...but you get the general idea.

My sweet, sweet girl. 

He'd spend all day like this if we let him. He's taken guardianship to a whole new level. 

Brother adoration....

Lots of bed pics seeing as how that's where we spent the first few days of the week.

Kissable cheeks

Her new best friend. She's already proclaiming all the things they'll do together as sisters. Mostly...climb trees. That one made me laugh. Painting fingernails, toenails and braiding hair was among the other things listed. "Mom....just like I do with Evye and Aubrey...I can do with Lillye!!"

Everything we waited on....

Total perfection in every way

When you sit around nursing this is how you amuse the others....

Her little look alike.....Ivye during her 1st week. There's some pretty strong resemblance going on between these girls...

More Ivye pics. So far Lillye's looking most like her. 

So her Indian headdress is detracting a little for comparison purposes but you can still see they've definitely got the same genes running through them.

For all the family asking....her hair is superbly blonde...along with eyelashes and eyebrows. 

More brotherly love...

She made it in time to join in the celebration!! There is nothing sweeter in life than being surrounded by your children and husband, cooking out, setting off fireworks, and celebrating something this sweet.  Two birthdays...now 3....and a holiday to celebrate...she made a rather timely appearance. 

4th fun with family and friends!!

One day I will blog again. There is so much fun...so much life that takes place......so many moments I feel I'm missing that used to be blogged. How full and rich this life has become. How much it has changed...or our perspective has changed...since being here these two years. It may not be everything we planned but it has turned out to be so much more than we had hoped or anticipated. It's absolutely breathtaking to be on a journey that does not always take the roads so carefully planned but the detours and the new direction is more than words can ever convey. To be so in love, for life to be so rich, for it to have taken such an unseen turn and still be so fulfilled than one could ever imagine or anticipate....it is the true meaning of knowing life in every since. Abundant joy that exceeds everything ever experienced, and happy happy kids that know what it is to enjoy simplicity, kindness, honesty, and just the sheer gratefulness of being so overwhelmingly loved. There is no greater joy. And oneday...I will blog again about the humorous side of life with an outrageous number of kids and the fulfillment that fills the soul. We have learned what it is to be stripped and take absolutely nothing for granted. To know that the greatest gift in life is that of each other and the profound love that flows like water between all of the relationships we've been given both within each other as a family and between all of those that we have been surrounded with that continue to love us in so many ways. The less we have, the more stripped we have been...the more we truly see. Heart eyes opened in every way. And one day I will blog it all once again.....the good, the bad, and the truly funny.