I have been so increadibly busy that i often don't stop for anything.  THe end of the day comes and I collapse into bed and wonder where the day went.  What i even did during the day. The house still looks like a bomb went off ( so thankful i have a husband who doesn't care what the house looks like) even though all i have done is clean it, my laundry list of things to do has barely been touched and i am so stinking tired that i don't even want to think about dishes that are in the sink from dinner! But in the midst of this daily chaos that don't get me wrong i love, i have been challenged. Where does my heart lay? What of my quiet time with the Lord? 

Quiet time with the Lord? What on earth is that? That seems to be the answer i come up with almost daily. My spiritual tank has run dry. I really felt the Lord challenging me one day.  I am blessed beyond measure with two of the best children ( although one toddler i don't know what to do with some days..argh!), an amazing husband who loves me through all my faults and weaknesses and there are many, a warm house, plenty of food to eat, and more modern conviences than i know what to do with. I seem to find time through the day to clean the house, change diapers, do laundry, feed my children...and get on facebook, send a text message, write an email but i can't seem to find time to sit and have quiet moments with my Lord. So something had to change.  I have my own personal walk with the Lord suffering, the example i am setting for my children in a spiritual sense suffering and affecting my attitude, and my motivation to get together my bible study for my middle school girls clearly lagging. So www.youversion.com is where i turned. The best Bible app ever.  I was a few months ago peer pressured by a very loving husband to get a droid 2.  I am so glad I listend.  My Bible is on my phone and it is as simple as reading while i am nursing Daniel and Rosalie is playing/watching TT (aka THOMAS and friends, barney, veggie tales, bob the builder or caillou). I can slowly but surely feel my spiritual tank starting to refill! Thank you Lord for your many blessings.

The Lord is so faithful.  Being a mom is all sun shine and roses right? That is what i always thought as i saw mom after mom make it look so easy.  Being a mom is the most hard, frustrating, rewarding, exciting, mix of every emotion possible, 24 hour non stop job! I love it, it drives me crazy, i can't remember life with out my kids nor do i ever want to think of life with out them.  But as a mom many of you know, you get sucked into mommy land.  Diapers, baby talk, things to do, messes to clean, lessons to learn and teach and so on.  But where is there time for you.  For your friends, growth, development, incouragment and challenging.  I have been praying for the Lord to send me a friend much like i had back in college.  She was one of the most incredible..still is..woman i know.  If i asked her to pray, i knew she would pray. If I asked her how she was she always told me and still does. She challenged and still does me in ways i can not even describe and was/is such an amazing encouragement.  Although being 3 1/2 hours away makes things difficult.  I have been praying that the Lord would bring me someone to be real with.  To forge a friendship that would be deep.  I have been blessed with that.  It comes in the form of a young mom who has been the answer to my prayers.

Daniel continues to be a blessing. What an easy baby. I mean seriously i did not know after Rosalie that a child could be this easy, laid back, chill, happy ALL THE TIME, good sleeper was even possible. He gets up maybe once at night..twice if it is a bad night. But I am here to tell you it is.  He continues to amaze me.  An over achiever like his sister he is more than ready to stand up and run around the house with her if he could only figure out how. He giggles and when i say giggle i mean full body from head to toe laughter all the time. You smile at him he will smile at you.  He NEVER cries. He eats for a grand total of maybe 7 minutes and then is content for hours. Oh and did i mention he is HUGE! At 5 months old we are filling out our 12 month clothing quite nicely with not much growing room to be found! He is loving and snuggly..oh how i love the snuggles! He thinks that laying him on his back means that he can instantly roll over in an effort to reach what ever toy is nearest by and chew on it.  He is AMAZING at sitting up by himself.  Rosalie better watch out daniel will be coming after her in no time at all! Other than getting mastitis with him 3 times. Life has been so easy.

Rosalie is growing by leaps and bounds.  I can not believe that my little girl will be two in just a few weeks! She continues to amaze me everyday with her comprehension and vocabulary.  She will tell you where it is at! She loves and i mean LOVES daniel.  Our continual problem is getting her to understand that when she kisses him and covers his face with hers he can't breath and that is bad. Her favorite song is Jesus me, aka Jesus loves me.  Whenever i ask her to sing daniel a pretty song because he is sad and i need to do something, she will very sweetly go over to him and sing her own rendition of Jesus loves me while swaying side to side.  This morning as i was getting ready to go to MOPS she totally threw me for a loop.  I am quickly rushing in the bathroom to get ready as she plays nicely on the floor with two wooden alphabet blocks...mind you this rarely happens.  Usually she is taring through my cabinet trying to get to my feminine products because didn't you know they are just like stickers in her little mind and tend to end up stuck to shirts, floors, walls..they are GREAT! But not today. Today she sat on the floor.  W..A..R..E...ware Rosi ware...a b c d e f g (she got a little muffled in this area of the alphabet)lmnop...q r s tu v W..mommy W..x y z.  Where in the world did she learn that! Two phrases you will commonly hear come out of her mouth besides Thomas up in the sky...(we enjoy thomas and there was one episode where cranky lifts him way up in the sky) are hold on mommy..right back as she hurries off to go do something extremely important in her little mind...and hiding mommy go find as her explination for anything that she can't find or mommy can't find.  

Lord I am so blessed beyond measure..Thank you!

So I know all you mom's out there just love a good birth story.  So who am I to hold back!  I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions with this little guy since 30 1/2 weeks.  Which is 3 weeks sooner than they started with our little Rosalie.  Who looks rather huge these days, might I just add.  I had my appointment with my doctor on tuesday the 24th, the day before my due date.  At that appointment he had completely dropped and I was at 3cm.  So I was really just waiting for this little guy to get the show on the road. After that appointment my contractions that I was getting started getting a bit more painful, rather than annoying.  My parents flew in that tuesday as well.  Which was a great relief.  This way I knew that if I went into labor in the middle of the night there was someone already in the house for rosalie and I did not have to go call anyone and have them drive all the way to our house.  

So we continued with activities and Rosalie got plenty of attention from Grandma and Papa.  On thursday I was feeling rather sore but over all the best that I had felt in several days so needless to say I was feeling pretty sure that labor was a few days off.  Mike and I went to bed and then at 1am I was awoken by rather painful contractions.  The very quickly fell into a nice pattern.  I decided to just let mike sleep for a bit because I knew it was going to be a rather long night.  In the meantime I grabbed my phone and texted my sister and continued to do this until 230am.  At which point I woke mike up and called the doctor.  They said to come on in.  This being said that it was now close to 3am it was nice to be able to walk down the hall and wake my sleeping parents to let them know that we were leaving.  On the way out who wakes up but our little rosalie.  Knowing that I still had a bit of time yet and that I didn't want to get to the hospital to have them send me home, mike went up and put her back to bed.  We got to the hospital about 4am.  At this point I was almost 6cm and they admitted me.  No walking the halls this time to make sure I was in a good labor pattern. Right to the room we went. While sitting in triage waiting for everything to get rolling i had said to mike that I wish i could remember the nurse that was my delivery nurse with rosalie because she was awesome and I would so totally request her.

It was about 5am when we got to our room and they were getting us settled.  I hemmed and hawed about getting an epidural and then after barely being able to keep my eyes open in between contractions that I would get one so i could sleep and have enough energy for our little guy.  The doctor who gave me the epidural was a really nice guy.  However my Epidural was so dense that I could not lift my right leg to save my life.  At one point it fell off the bed and mike had to lift it up onto the bed.  They also have this new thing at RGH where they try to get you up at least one or twice while you have the epidural, not me.  My legs were far to numb.  With Rosalie I never threw up and totally broke all the rules about drinking while in labor and such.  This time they gave me the epidural and i laid down and had to throw up.  Which I did.  Poor mike holding the bucket for me.  It didn't last long but i did end up breaking a blood vessel in my eye.  It looks rather gross.  The Dr had given me something to raise my heart rate because it was low and that was what made me sick.  Then I got something else to make me not sick anymore.  So thoughtful of them to give me so much.  By the time this was all done it was time for the nurses to change.  In walks this nurse.  In my tired state i was talking to her and low and behold...it is the SAME NURSE that delivered rosalie! God is amazing.

At this point I had been in labor for about 6 hours.  After 8 hours that gave me pitocin.  I had progressed to 7cm but was stuck there.  At 12pm I was fully dilated but they told me that instead of pushing because I wasn't feeling the urge to do so and not feeling much pressure at all, the baby was still at minus 1 to just do passive decent.  So i just let nature do its work and him come down on his own. At 1:19 I was checked the baby was at plus 3..I pushed for 5 minutes and he was out.  With just a few very shallow stitches.  Daniel Kirkland ware was born at 126 pm at 8lbs 4oz and 21 1/2 inches long.

Rosalie came to visit.  Which was interesting and she did really well.  She saw her little brother and she said "baby! night night" Because he was sleeping.  It was not until it was time for mom and dad to take her home that she had a hard time and was screaming all the way down the hall.  By saturday morning i was more than ready to go home.  Which would have happened except there were a few things that had to be done that did not line up in time.  Mike headed home saturday so that rosalie could have one parent with her and my mom came to stay with me for the night. Mike's mom came on saturday as well.  Which was great.  It was such a great help and distraction for rosalie.  Now both mommy and grandma were gone.  She was having a bit of a rough time and mike's mom was just what she had needed! We came home on sunday.

Rosalie has been doing well with having a new little person around.  It does help that there have been lots of other people to give her attention.  But she loves giving her little brother kisses and wants to hold him all the time.  In fact she was mad when she had to stop holding him so i could feed him.  She has been great.  We are blessed with a very easy going little guy.  He is also a great sleeper.  The first night he did 4 hours in a row.  The second night he did more of a newborn pattern.  The third night he slept 4 hours in a row and last night was AMAZING.  He slept from 1130-1230 ate real quick then slept till 430..was back down by 6 and slept till 830.  it took rosalie almost a year to do that

.