Sleep

Sleep. It is definitely in my top three favorite things to do...always has been, always will be.

You should see how my girls sleep. Every night before bed I go in and check on the girls, pray over them, cover them up, and usually shift them. At least twice a week I have to come get Jase to look at them because the way they sleep is hilarious!

Ashlyn better hope to marry a chiropractor because she is normally shoved against her wall and her head usually looks as though it is dislocated from her body. It truly amazes me that she doesn't have horrible crinks in her neck. Like my brother growing up, she normally has thrown all covers off of her and is completely sprawled out.

Laney is normally covered up and my favorite is when I come in and she is partly balled up with her cute hiney up in the air. The past couple of days she has chosen to sleep upside down in her bed. Of course, last night, both she and Ashlyn were competely sideways in their single & toddler sized beds with their legs hanging off. I know to be careful coming into their room because on more than one occassion Laney has fallen out of her bed and is somewhere in the floor. The most humorous thing about her sleeping behavior is that 90% of the time when you go to shift her or pick her up and move her she begins talking in mid-sentence...almost every time. I've told you my girls chat a lot, and it continues even when they are dead asleep.

Reesie hasn't had too many odd things because she's in her crib. I do love seeing her little hiney up in the air too. The sweetest thing with her is that as soon as you lay her down she immediately grabs her little giraffe and cuddles with it or sleeps with her head right on top of it. A couple of nights ago before I went to bed I removed her toothbrush from the crib. The girl very, very rarely gets upset about anything but she does not like having her toothbrush taken away from her...so I let her fall to sleep with it the other night.

Sweet dreams everyone!

Blessed

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving. On Wednesday the girls and I took a walk on a mission for sticks! They picked some great ones and we came home, put them in a vase, and made our Thankfulness Tree. On Thursday the family cut out our leaves and wrote down what we were thankful for. I think this is going to become an annual tradition. The day was full of giggles, food, and some napping. We are definitely blessed!

Running and running and running

He did it! Jason ran his third marathon on Sunday and did well, even though hurting from almost the beginning. He finished in 4:13. My brother, Andy, and sister-in-law, Kelly, ran the 1/2 marathon. It was fun to cheer all three of them on. Congrats guys...I am in awe.

I'm always thankful and proud of Jason. He is a great dad and husband. But for some reason these races make my heart just swell for him. I have to keep myself from crying several times during the race. To see someone you love train long and hard, and then see them finish what they've set their heart out to do...something very difficult they've set their heart out to do, is emotional and joyful.

I wonder if these races are a miniscule glimpse of what it's like for the Lord when His children come Home and finish the race He has placed in front of them...a very difficult race? It makes me cry to think about it even now. And this race of the Christian life too has many witnesses and people in the crowd cheering you on...those you know personally and those you don't. It is extraordinary when you think about it. (Hebrews 12...check it out.) And the finish line isn't about a time clock in Heaven. It's about being ushered into the very presence of God.

Jase, I'm so proud of you. I love you dearly...in this life and into eternity.

Happy Birthday, Reesie!

Our precious Reese Ellery,

We can't begin to tell you in words how much we love you! You have such a sweet and joyful disposition. You are so content and loving. Your face absolutely lights up around your sisters and Mommy and Daddy. We love your laugh, your precious grin, your little noises.

I feel like my heart literally swells with love for you...just at the thought of you, much less when I see you, hold you, or kiss your sweet cheeks. You are just the sweetest thing and we can't imagine life without you.

We are so thankful God blessed our family with
you and that he healed your heart (with the help
of Dr. Mendeloff). We pray daily that God now
fills the hole in your heart in a spiritual sense...
that you will come to know Him at a young age,
and walk closely to Him.

You are crawling so good, standing up on your
own for little bits at a time, saying lots of words,
crawling around the house calling Mommy, and
even "dance" when you hear music. You weigh
15 lbs. 4 oz. and pack every bit of that petite
body with cuteness and love.

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet girl! We love you,
love you, love you!

Love, love, love,
Mommy (Daddy, Ashlyn and Laney)

(The pics of her in the blue top are from yesterday Reese's actual birthday and our family party and the one in the flowery outfit is from her party with friends today. She loved the bounce house and had fun with her friends.)

Happy Halloween

Highlights of my day...

Voting without my make-up on with two little cutie-patooties in tow with their pj's still on.

Going grocery shopping with Laney in her silver high-heeled dress up shoes (they also have pink feathers on them). Reese did her usual Titanic "Queen of the World" pose as I desparately held onto her. I'm sure the check-out guy was pleasantly surprised that I had make-up on at this point.

Watching Jason do his big girls' hair for their trick-or-treating expedition. Reese was a ladybug, Ashlyn a cheerleader, and Laney was Tinkerbell. Cutest things ever! (one picture is from Laney's school last week when they dressed up and had a pumpkin patch day)

Seeing Reese enjoy her gigantic lollipop that our pastor's wife gave her as we stopped by their house. She thoroughly enjoyed her first trick-or-treating experience!

Whew

Seriously, life with three young children is amazingly rewarding and I love it beyond what words can express...but it is also exhausting. And I know some of you who read this have more than I do. I applaud you!

Thursday night we were out of food at the house and Ashlyn's school had Chic-fil-a night so I sent Jason and all 3 girls off to give myself an hour of quiet. The girls had been great all day. No matter what this is a house full of girls and you know that girls talk immensely more than boys ( I love communication so I'm not complaining). However, I don't think Laney had stopped talking from the moment she got up that morning. It was quite amazing. So I ate in quiet for about 15 minutes which was heavenly and then got to work. I have to tell you, it is so hard for me to clean when the girls are at home. (So you can imagine how prestine my home is). It's amazing how much I can get done in a little over an hour when they aren't here.

However, it is now Saturday and it looks like nothing ever transpired. Oh joy.

Today I went to a lingerie shower of one of our girls who graduated from the youth group a couple of years back. Believe me, I'm old enough to where I've had a lot of students from my ministry get married and quite a few even have children now. Still, it is a reminder that I'm not a spring chick anymore. Ashlyn and Jason participated in our LifeGroup's service project which was painting an elderly woman's home. I love having intentional teachable moments with our children. Jase and I also had a "heated discussion." We don't yell or throw things or call each other unspeakable names (although I'm sure they're going through both of our heads). But I realize how little we heatedly discuss because the girls are always full of questions about why was I talking mad to daddy? What was daddy talking about? Etc.? I can only imagine the apprehension young children who live through ugly arguements with their parents all the time must feel.

Other random things:

1. I've had a dull headache for 3 days with the weather change (it's annoying)

2. Sometimes I think it would be wonderful to live near family. We sees ours pretty regularly but it'd be nice to have a little help or break on a regular basis. Again, no complaints...I love with girls and know the only reason I am blessed with so much laundry, dishes, talking, etc. is because I'm blessed with them.

3. Went to Ikea last night for the first time...IT IS SO COOL and inexpensive. I'm telling you, I'm going to do every bit of Christmas shopping there all in one day!

4. I've always wanted three children and it's hard to imagine more. Energy wise and financially it would be difficult. However, I can't stop thinking about having another one. Every time I see a pregnant woman I think about how wonderful it is (I guess I forget my 4 mos. of "morning" (A.K.A. "throughout most of the day") sickness and the tiredness.

5. The election stuff totally stresses me out.

6. I think about my mom a lot and wish she were still here (although I'm thankful she is with the Lord). Life would be different if she were here.

7. Jason will get up at 5am tomorrow to run 20 miles. He really does good and tries not to take time away from the family, but I'm always ready about now for the marathon to be here. Just a few more weeks.

If you made it through all of this, thanks. I do get curious who reads...if you think to leave a little comment just to appease my curiousity, I'd love it! Hope you have a good Sunday! Again, sorry for the spacing issues.

It's Fall!

Okay, I know it's been a long time. And I'm sure all of my avid blog fans are just dying (all 3 of you), so here we go...

First, I have to start by bragging on Ashlyn Jean. It's been at least 3 weeks ago now but she got her first report card of 1st grade which actually uses A's, B's, etc. and she made straight A's. Not just straight A's but her lowest grade was a 96. And the teacher said she'd love to clone her! Great grades aren't everything in life, but I am thankful that she enjoys school since she has many more years to go. She enjoys it so much that we have been playing school after school. You'll be glad to know that Laney, Jason and Reese have all become Kids with Character in Ashlyn's class and I received student of the week!

Reese is a crawling maniac. She got it down last week and there is no stopping her. She also pulls herself up to standing any chance possible. We had to put her mattress down lower after I nearly had a heart attack looking in the monitor and seeing her standing straight up and looking over the railing. She continues to eat like a horse. Unbelievably, my baby will be a year old in less than three weeks now.

Laney Hope continues to attract people with her fun and sweet personality (although the girl can hold her own, don't be fooled)! She can spell her name and readily points out the letter L that her name starts with whenever she sees one. This year she is a cute pink bunny rabbit. The costume is one my mom had made me and I wore it when I was little. Ashlyn wore it a couple of years ago and hopefully Reesie will too. It is special to have something my wonderful Mom put love and time into. Little things like this mean a lot to me and bring back special memories of my mom.

Our last couple of pics are from a local pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day Saturday and we met some friends out there. Besides enjoying time with my handsome hubby and 3 cute pumpkins, I especially enjoyed the kettle corn and think I might have an addiction to it now :0).

Over the next few days we're supposed to have a high in the upper 60's so it truly does feel like fall around here.

On another random note, ministry is good. If you get a chance please check out www.freechains.org. It is something our high
school group is supporing, and it's very worthy of your time and resources.

Hopefully, I'll post quicker than the last time.

11 mos. old

Does this look like a child who just had open heart surgery? I'm telling you, our girl is doing great! She turned 11 months old today...yippee! We also had her follow-up appointment with the cardiologist. He is very pleased. When he listened to her heart; she no longer has any kind of murmor. Her scar is healing very nicely and she has put on weight.

I don't think I mentioned earlier that the day before surgery at pre-op she got weighed and she hadn't gained a single thing from over a month earlier, even more indication of how hard her heart was having to work. Now in 2 and a half
weeks she has put on 10 ounces!

She is pushing herself up on toys into standing position pretty often. Who knows? Maybe she'll completely miss the crawling thing. She says mama, dada, puppy, bye-bye and nigh-nigh (night night).

I desparately need to get some clips to hold her hair back (Natalie if you're reading this...I'm ordering from you) because her hair is just growing and growing.

The big girls are doing much better and all 3 should be back in school tomorrow for the first
time in 3 weeks. Please continue to pray that the Lord would protect Reese from any kind of sickness.

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came in last weekend to check on Reese and love on the girls. We loooved having them here and wish we lived closer. The middle pic is Reese's get well present from them that she loves. And who wouldn't...it has dancing princesses! The bottom picture is off my precious nephew Drew (he's 4 1/2 months younger than Reese and weighs as much at 6 months as Ashlyn and Laney did at a year old). He fell asleep half way through eating in his exersaucer. It was adorable. Love you, my little Tank! Can't wait to see you in November!

Lysol is in the air..

Don't you just love the smell of lysol? Yea, not so much but I sure hope it does the trick. I have sprayed it on any and everything in our house...toys, pillows, the phone, beds, doorknobs, the dog (just kidding on that one).

Ashlyn woke up in the middle of the night Thursday night throwing up. She got sick once more Friday morning but then seemed fine (not quite as energetic but still good). Last night we went to LifeGroup. Soon after we arrived and started eating dinner she said her stomach hurt again so I told her to just drink some water and take it easy. During prayer requests Laney came in and said her tummy hurt...again, take a few sips of your drink and lay down. When we got into the car Ashlyn once again said she wasn't feeling well and this time she looked a shade of green so I handed her my eco-friendly grocery bag and told her to get sick in it if she felt the need. She was asleep before we got home. Laney didn't act real tired but didn't go down too much later, although it was 9:45 before we got home. I was kicking myself for not making Ashlyn take a nap because she probably just over did it.

Around 11:30 I went into pray over the girls and check on them like I do every night before going to bed. I thought I'd feel Ashlyn's head to make sure she didn't have a fever. I put my one hand on her bed to steady myself and it felt really wet. Hmmm...could be some bad drooling but she isn't facing that way. I flipped their closet light on and it revealed that the poor thing had thrown up all over herself but slept right through it. I go and get Jason up to help. I then left to get some wipes to help clean off her face before getting her into the bath. When I came back in Jason pointed to Laney's bed.

Can you believe it? She too had thrown up in her bed and slept through it. Can I tell you how lovely vomit in hair is? We quickly went into parent mode. Jason stripped down the beds and cleaned their room up while I bathed the girls. I felt so badly for them. I kept asking Ashlyn if her tummy hurt more and she was more traumatized by having throw-up all over her. Once every one was bathed and taken care of Ashlyn chose to sleep in the bathroom nect to the toilet just in case... Jason called the floor in the girls room (or maybe I called it for him) and Laney was just begging to go to sleep on her carefully towel-covered bed. She was so tired. I scrubbed the tub and again sprayed any and everything possible with Lysol.

Laney woke up a couple of more times and got sick in the night and got sick a couple more times today. I have been praying fervently that Reese won't get this thing, especially after having surgery. Jason is praying that he won't have to see any more vomit and that we can actually have everyone sleep through the night. It is amazing how wonderful the flu-vaccines both girls got over a month ago worked, don't you think? Oh well. If you catch a wift of Lysol over the next few days you can think of the Mills family. Heck, it might be coming from our home...

Family Pictures

Our family

Aren't they just the cutest?

Gampa and his favoritest girls

MiMi and Papa D with their sweethearts

We had our friend come over and take these the night before Reese's surgery. He is getting into photography professionally so call us if you need someone good.

Reesie is doing well. I think the biggest difference I've noticed is her appetite. She has been eating like a horse! Literally, you would think we haven't fed her in weeks. Tonight she had three big servings of green beans, two helpings of chicken, some canteloupe and bread. And it's all "big people" food. She wants whatever you're having!

Like nothing ever happened...

When we had our consult with Dr. Mendeloff before the surgery he told Jase and I that he thought we would be most shocked by how quickly Reese recovered from surgery. Wow!, was he right. Reese acts as if nothing ever happened to her. She gets on her belly, is trying to truly get the crawling thing down, moves her arms all around. Other than having a big scar, or zipper as we call it, down her chest and Jason and I scooping her up rather than lifting her under the arms, you would never know the kid had open heart surgery. We are so thankful. Here are a couple of pictures of her right before we left the hospital...
(this is the first time she wore clothes in 5 days)

We have been so blessed by the way people have cared and loved on us through this entire thing. We had 6 people from church staff at the hospital at 6am to pray over Reese before surgery (plus, Jason's uncle who drove in from Corpus and his mom). All the grandparents came in and helped with the big girls and everything else. My dear friend Paige joined us before the surgery and stayed until I was released from the ER (no snickering please :0) ). My best friend, Rachel, from Waco drove in for the surgery. We had a lot of my students at the church, youth leaders, friends, etc. who prayed around the clock from Wed. night through Sunday. My mother-in-law, Melody, stayed until Friday to help me with things (and she got a huge hug for treating me to a cleaning crew too). Since the Wednesday evening before surgery we have had meals dropped off each night for our family, and this continues through this entire week. Can I tell you how easily I could get used to this? Our big girls have acted like champs through the entire process. Laney and Reese's school provided a big basket full of drinks and treats for the hospital. Our friend Rusty came with a ton of baked goods during surgery. We have received flowers and stuffed animals. My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came up this weekend to check on us, and treat the girls to fun toys. Truly, people have been exceedingly gracious. Thank you to any of you who have been a part of this. I could go on and on...

I promise in the next few days to post about other things in our life, as well as put up some fun family pictures our friend took. Good night, friends!

We're home!

I'm sure I'll write more later. All glory to God...we are home! We left the hospital around 4:30 today and as we pulled out of the parking lot I began to cry. For over a month I had to continually push back the frightening thought of bringing my precious Reese to the hospital and maybe not returning home with her. But in God's graciousness, we brought our baby girl home today. Thank you for all your many prayers...God not only heard but answered!

Reese @ the Hospital

Just catching up with Mom and a little light reading.

Bonked hard after the surgery.

"That's me, just being a good little trooper while this nice lady behind me beats on my back every 4-6 hrs while smiling & laughing with my mom."

Reese has really learned to appreciate the greatness of the over-sized balloon.

"Yeah to me, I totally rocked that hole in my heart!"

"Here I am with Dr Mendeloff...not sure why everyone is calling him by the wrong name...who is this "McDreamy" anyways?"

"Mom, watch how fast I can yank this out."

"Just getting into anything I can...pretty sure that means I'm healed."