Ten Sweet Months

Lydia's 10 month pose
I still cannot get over the fact that God has blessed us with our sweet little Lydia. She just becomes dearer and dearer to our family with each passing day. I know I mention this each month, but I do believe that she becomes even more of a snuggler as the months go by. She has
started wrapping both arms around my neck and giving me squeezes and also just laying her head down on my shoulder and giving me snuggles. She also has this contagious grin and lots of squeals. Her new game that Grandmom taught her is "Don't knock my blocks down." She leaves these wonderful squeals of delight knowing the she has indeed knocked your blocks down! So cute! She is not much of a mover yet. Our attempt to get her to crawl:)
She is content to just sit and play with her toys and be entertained by Emme and Faith who very attentively care for her. Emme loves to dote on her and play with her and Faith will also very lovingly ask her how she is doing and talk very sweetly to her. Cannot wait to see the three of them in action together. What a fun household we have in store:)
Lydia loving life
Here is a very grainy video of Lydia playing her game, but I thought it was so cute....notice how she moves her feet round and round in circles...I love how she does that:)

Settling In

Damien in our once pink living room
Stripping the border in the girls room
Lydia amongst the border remnants
My dad sanding and prepping to paint
Painting the girl's room
We are definitely getting settled in our new home. The girls are really liking it here now and we are making it our own:) We painted the once PINK living room an off white with a deep beige woodwork and then we painted the girl's room which was once a gray office with a border the same colors. We even got Lydia's room painted as well. I am just not a color kinda girl...I tend to paint everything neutral. How boring, huh? Mom, Dad, and Mom Drago were such an excellent help with getting lots painted in a short amount of time. Mom and Dad Drago came this weekend and helped settle us in even more. Mom took the border out of the upstairs bathroom for me. (Thank you, Moms!) And Dad helped hang pictures and shelves. What a blessing to have them with us this weekend. Emme cried when they drove away after church. We always enjoy our weekends with Gramps and Grandmom. Thank you for coming and encouraging us along. I will have to post pictures of the freshly painted and decorated rooms. We are having fun! I am reminded over and over again of God's undeserved kindness and provision with this house. I am so grateful to Him and give Him all the glory.

Saying Goodbye and Saying Hello Part One

We had an excellent moving crew come and help us move everything out the Saturday before settlement. There were all in all fifteen guys from our church and my dad. Not included in the picture are CB Eder and Blair Eder who came and helped as well. Not only did those men help the weekend before settlement, but then some of them helped the weekend after settlement as well. Thank you gentlemen and thank you to their wives and children who let us borrow them for a little bit! All week long different ladies from the church took turns either coming over to our house to watch the girls while I packed or took the girls for the entire day to their homes so I could pack. Thank you ladies! (Julie, Dawn, Rachel, Leah, Jamie, Rosanne) And then of course my mom and Meemaw were both over helping to pack and care for the girls on and off all week long. It was an unbelievable display of the body of Christ and how each member cares for one another. We were and still are blown away by the care and kindness our friends and families have shown us!
Leaving our home was bittersweet as we had so many fond memories there including, making our first home there, bringing home our three little girlies there, the way God has grown us and changed us in the past five years that we have lived in that sweet little home. So while we were anxiously awaiting moving into this new home we also were sentimental about leaving behind our old home. Emme was especially saddened as we stayed at Grammy and Poppy's for a whole week she was enjoying herself, but home sick and wanting to return home by the end of the week. The first night here she was sad and saying that she missed her home, but I think the girls are adjusting well and have some favorite things about this new home.

Linda Gross and her son Xavier came and watched all the girls for us while we moved out which was an unbelievable help. Thank you Linda and Xavier for your care for our family. Thank you for spending your whole day with us.
Along with the excitement of the move, my brother and sister-in-law and niece Kate welcomed Chase William Ryan into their family on Monday February 11th. What a little cutie he is and they say he is laid back as ever enjoying lots and lots of sleep. We are so excited for the blessing of this little one in our family. Welcome little Chase!

Nine Fabulous Months

Our little Buggy Boo had her nine month birthday on the 24th of January. We had her check up today and she weighed in at 15lbs. 12ozs. (8%) She is just so tiny to me! I am used to my big babies who are always in the 9oth percentile. What a complete joy it is to be Lydia's momma. She is eating all kinds of wonderful foods, still as lovable and cuddly as ever, saying da-da-da and other mimicking sounds, loves to give BIG smiles to everyone and is just such gift to this family. She is sitting up, but that is as far as it goes no even attempting to crawl:) Reminds me of Emme. Emme was just content to sit and watch as her friends Josiah and Lana crawled around her. She would just pat them as they went past her. So we have a content little girl on our hands except when it comes to meal times....she is serious about her food;) The doctor said her top teeth are coming in too. What a blessing that God has enabled this little one to continue to grow and thrive. We are SO blessed. Thank you Lord!