Abundantly blessed

Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and of them, there would be too many to declare.

Psalm 40: 5

On Friday, October 19th at 12:33pm we heard the first cries of our new daughter, Molly Kate. Weighing in at 7 lb 11 oz and 19 1/2 inches, she sounded more like a 10 pounder. She definitely resembles Mary Ella, much to Mary Ella's delight. Mary Ella fell in love with her immediately and has quickly assumed a maternal role telling others to quiet down, get her a blanket, and singing to her when she doesn't realize people are watching. What a sweet big sister she is! Addy has seen me hold her without much consequence and says, "baby, baby, baby" over and over again wanting to love and pat on her. It amazes me that these two little girls are already showing so much love and adoration for their new sister. It has been an instant connection. What a gift these girls are to one another!





Can't you see the love already??? Mary Ella has truly taken the lead in becoming a teacher for Addy. She is taking her role as the oldest sister very seriously and has defined what she feels her responsiblities are. It all seems to be coming very naturally. God is truly at work in her heart. I believe He knows exactly how this puzzle fits together and I am humbled to witness His work.






This is one I love. Daddy with his three girls.




Molly Kate bundled up to come home. The afternoon we came home a strong cold front blew through which is not a like thing to happen in these parts!

I have a stories about each member of our expanded sweet family that will forever be marked in my mind.





Scott- What can I say about my sweet husband at a time like this? With the birth of each child, I feel like I fall in love all over again. I know I've said it before, I don't mean to be redundant, but I am so proud of the way he balances his family with his crazy work schedule. He is a wonderful husband and daddy. Now, all of you know he bleeds purple and gold. There was an LSU game this weekend and we didn't have ESPN in our room....bummer. I told him to go spend the night at home and watch the game. Of course, he's a smart man, and said, "no". He went home and got his radio and we listened. He was literally hugging the radio the last 10 minutes of the game. LSU pulled it out and my husband scoured the news for the highlights that night. It seemed that every nurse and caretaker needed something those last moments of the game.



Mary Ella- They brought her up to the hospital on Saturday. We were all chatting and she was sitting next to me holding Molly. As bad as it sounds, so often I am able to tune out little voices when things are crazy around me. All of a sudden I realized Mary Ella was singing "Jesus Loves Me" to Molly in this quiet voice. She was already halfway finished with the song by the time I noticed. Normally, Mary Ella being the attention getter she is, would have made sure we heard her. Instead, she was sharing a moment just between she and Molly. It was a beautiful sight.



Addy- Addy is "monkey see, monkey do". She follows her sister's lead. When they brought her up on Saturday she wanted nothing more than to hold Molly and say "I love you" which actually comes out as "I ya ya". The look of wonder in her eyes is captured in the picture above. Pure love bound by nothing.





These are probably my favorite memories of the weekend. There are so many, I can't include them all here. My time is too limited and sleep is too important to stay up late :). Bottom line is that our cups are overflowing with joy. I'll just leave it at that.

Introducing

Molly Kate Burlison

October 19, 2007

12:33pm

7 lb 11 oz

19 1/2 inches long

All is well and I have already started on a long post that is an attempt to capture all the special moments of this last weekend. Hopefully that will be up soon, but until then.....

Love, The Burlison Clan

Baby Eve

Here I sit at 10:30 pm the night before the anticipated arrival of Molly Kate. My mother was gracious enough to come watch the kiddos tonight so we could go to dinner with our dear friends, Shane and Kristy from Shreveport, Louisiana. We had so much fun and I ate like a pig since I won't eat for the next 36 hours. I definitely overindulged, but it was totally worth it.

So many thoughts are going through my head right now from, "what am I forgetting???" to "how are the kids going to react???" and of course, "what will Molly look like and be like???" Of course I know we've got God on our side and he has blessed us with more than we deserve. He has given us two wonderful daughters and is about to add a third to the mix. So tomorrow, once again, my breath will be taken away as I hear the cry of our new daughter and will be so overwhelmed by the miracle of it all. So I'm going to sign off with that and as soon as we can update we will.

Love to all!

Happy 33rd Birthday Scott

My dear hubby turned 33 on October 10th. It is so funny because I remember thinking about how old we would be when this chapter in our lives would be coming to a close. At the time it seemed so far away, yet here we are. Not that I'm saying we are old, because I certainly don't believe that, BUT the signs of aging are definitely settling in. Scott and I were riding in the car the other day and I was putting on my make-up (I'm lucky if I can do that at home these days). I went to put on my eyeliner and noticed some nice "crows feet" emerging at my eyes. I looked at Scott and said, "I think we are officially getting older, look at these..." He took a look and didn't refute my claim, but responded with ,"have you seen how much gray hair I have???" We both came to the realization that, yes, we are getting older. So now here we are about to celebrate our 10th anniversary, finish all this medical training and we are almost a family of five. It is amazing how things have changed.



So what did we do for his birthday? The girls and I got balloons and decorated before he got home from work. I made him his man meal of chicken fried steak, gravy, rolls and veggies. He got his favorite...homemade banana pudding for dessert (I've got a great recipe if anyone wants it). Golly that man loves gravy. I try to make him something with gravy every few months or so, but after we eat it, we realize why we just can't do that very often anymore.

Therefore, to my husband, the love of my life, Happy Birthday! You are the only one I'd every want to be on this journey with. Our age might be showing after all our sleepless nights, but I love you now more than ever. So here is to your next year. Thank you for being you.

ouchie

Throughout this pregnancy I've been telling Mary Ella that Molly wouldn't be here until close to Halloween, so when I pulled out the decorations she exclaimed, "Yes, that means Molly Kate is about to be here!" Her silly dance immediately followed in order to adequately express her excitement. As it usually does at this age, the excitement quickly subsided and questions started flying my direction:



Mary Ella: But how are they going to get Molly out?

Me: (Thinking, "this is another reason I'm glad I have a c-section".) Well, I'm going to the hospital like I did with Addy and the doctor is going to take her out.

Mary Ella: But that means they are going to have to cut you

Me: Yes, they are going to have to cut me

Mary Ella: But (everything starts with 'but' these days), but that's going to hurt you.

Me: It will hurt, but they will give me some medicine to make me feel better.

Mary Ella: Will you cry???

Me: I'll only cry because I'll be so happy to have another daughter like you and Addy.

Mary Ella: But, will they close you up?

Me: Yes

Mary Ella: And then your tummy will be small again, like this? (she proceeds to push her tummy in as much as she can)

Me: Yes (thinking "maybe with a little plastic surgery down the road" :) )

I'm tagged again. This time with different questions from my friend Stacy:


10 years ago I was..... I had just started my senior year at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. Scott and I were engaged and had started planning our wedding. I was also in the process of applying to occupational therapy school.


5 years ago I was...... Desperately wanting to get pregnant. We were about to start the fertility work up and two weeks later I found out I was pregnant with Mary Ella. I was working as a pediatric OT in Shreveport, Louisiana and Scott was in his 3rd year of medical school thinking he would do OB/GYN.


1 year ago I was...... Starving myself in an attempt to continue nursing Addy and fixing meals for our dog who had chronic pancreatitis. We finally decided to keep Addy on prescription formula and 3 1/2 months later I found out I was pregnant once again proving God does always bring good out of seemingly challenging situations.


Yesterday I ..... set up a thorough Merry Maids house cleaning before this baby comes (a wonderful "mommy" gift from my mother). Otherwise, we had a very routine day...playing with the girls, doing a couple of laundry loads, picking up, making a Walmart run, etc...



Snacks I enjoy..... French fries, Reeses peanut butter cups, any sort of cake/bread/brownie I can get my hands on, Oreos, Oreo blasts from Sonic, queso and chips, a snack mix my roommate in college use to get from her sister (yes, Katharine, I still think about it!)


What I would do with $100 million .......I can't even comprehend this amount of money, but....I would like to think I'd give a lot of it away to people/groups God led me to. I think I would reserve some for a quiet little cabin in the middle of nowhere (no phones, no computer, no tv) preferably with some sort of running water by it and a big porch. Oh, and buy my husband the best LSU season ticket holder seats available.


Bad Habits I have.....I "crack" my knuckles, don't exercise like I should, and sometimes I clearly remember handing something over or saying something to Scott that I haven't getting frustrated with him when he doesn't know what I'm talking about. Let the record show that maybe 1/10 times my memory is right (not very good odds, are they??) Yes, my mind plays tricks on me.


Things I like to do....Sing and absorb worship music, listen to my girls talk and giggle (even though I can't understand everything Addy says, her sister sure seems to), Read and absorb Biblical passages and poetry, talking girly stuff with my friends, having "date nights" with my husband, getting some one on one time with each of my girls, tucking them in at night after they are sound asleep, cooking breakfast on Saturdays, spontaneous treat runs, making meals to take to others, surfing the internet, I could go on and on.

Location I would run off too.....Any vacation place...we haven't been on vacation since the Summer of 2000. Scott's recent conference at the Hyatt was pretty close (for me at least!), but I'd at least like to have us all relaxing and having a good time.

Biggest JOY of the Moment.....Being a wife, mom, daughter, sister and friend. I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many people I love and who love me for who I am. Of course in this moment we are all eagerly anticipating the upcoming arrival of Miss Molly Kate (two weeks from today).

Cooties and more

Cooties season has set in down here. Two weeks ago the girls and I both got one of the many viral cold viruses that will be passed around this season and I got the tummy bug a week ago. After losing 4-5lbs of fluid weight, I think I am finally recovering. The darn thing keeps flaring up everytime I think it is finally subsiding. Scott scored some major husband points during this series of illnesses taking on the kiddos and the house. Thank goodness it happened on the weekend when he was around!

There is so much to share, I'm not even sure where to begin.....

Addy found a table to climb on top of at Jillian's






Annie, Hanna and Mary Ella hanging out




A week ago my sweet friends down here surprised me with a diaper shower and loaded us up with lots of diapers, wipes and a few little "extras". My dear friend, Jillian, hosted it at her house and even made pink cupcakes. Oh yes, they hit the spot. Mary Ella was the oldest one there playing mother hen to all the little ones. I do believe she will definitely have a positive impact during Molly Kate's transition into our family. She was just so darn sweet and has been so helpful during these last few weeks of pregnancy. These are a couple of our sweet belly moments.



Addy likes to plant her face in my belly and
she comes up for air grinning. Her world is
about to be rocked.



Mary Ella enjoying some time with Molly Kate.
She loves to sing her songs.



Speaking of the pregnancy, Molly has grown at an exponential rate over these last couple of weeks despite my difficulties ingesting food. I guess that is why "maternal stores" are so important. I'm even convinced she has dropped a little bit. I am currently sleeping with 4-5 king sized pillows, oh yeah, and my husband. Scott jokingly refers to it as my own little metropolis. I go for a doctor's appointment tomorrow and Scott is finally going to meet him. I'm wondering if Scott will ask this one to wear an LSU scrub hat considering my doctor is a loyal UT fan. We may have a conflict of interest there :). I should have warned the doctor my husband bleeds purple and gold. Two and half weeks to go pending any surprises!




Mary Ella striking a pose before
gymnastics.


Mary Ella is happily settled in her gymnastics class loving every minute of it. I love to see her drive and motivation to succeed at tasks that are just beyond her skill level. The look on her face when she succeeds is of pure confidence and excitement. You can see above how happy she is to be going. She also had wacky week at school last week. It took a little convincing to get her to dress "wacky" but she finally succumbed to my silliness. I guess all my emphasis on matching, coordinating, etc is taking. It took a little while to convince her it was "OK" to wear these clothes. I went a step further and made her yogurt green thinking she would find it funny and wacky, but that was going a little too far. Evidently, pink is the only suitable color for yogurt.




Tacky Wacky


Addy is also happily settling... into the challenging toddler years. Every second is spent listening for the refrigerator door to open, something on top of the table being rattled, or the toilet being opened. Now, we have all the chairs shoved in and doors closed to the bathroom, but I have NO solution to the refrigerator. It will be interesting to see what our electricity bill is going to be. Today I was blow drying my hair and she comes walking into the bathroom touching my legs with some wet, thick substance. I leaned down for the "sniff test"....it was ranch dressing. I was mortified by what I would find in the kitchen given it was all over her hands and a foot (oh yes, she tracked it to my bathroom from the kitchen). So I closed the door to the bathroom in order to trap her so I could finish blow drying my hair. The mess would just have to wait a few more minutes. I went to the kitchen and it was everywhere her little hands had touched. Fortunately, it got cleaned up and we started "time out" for the following occurences. By the end of the day, she would put her hand on the refrigerator door and look at me for the warning. She would grin from ear to ear silently judging if I meant business or not.


In the midst of times like the situation described above, there are times when I want to press the "easy button" that they advertise on TV. It seems like just when I need one, it happens. The kids make something so easy on me that there is no explanation other than an answered prayer. We got Addy a toddler bed a couple of months ago. I attempted to put her in it and it scared her to death, so we put her back in the baby bed. I moved the toddler bed into Mary Ella's room and just left it there. Over the last couple of months Addy has climbed in it saying "night night" and put her baby in it, etc. So when I got my energy back this weekend from all the tummy stuff, we decided to give it another shot. We put her in it, said "night night" and closed the door. She got up walked around, even knocked on the door a couple of times, but within 10 minutes things quieted down. We went in to put Mary Ella in bed and there was Addy snuggled in to her toddler bed sound asleep. She has been in there every night since Saturday and this is what I hear every morning coming from the bedroom:



Mary Ella: Good Morning Addy. Did you get a good night's sleep? C'mon, C'mon, let's go get mommy. This way, Addy. Come with me...

I then hear the door open and little feet shuffling their way to our bedroom. Like I said, I think she will definitely be a big help. There is nothing like hearing that loving sound in her voice.



Hopefully I keep up with this a little better in the weeks to come. I am very sleepy, so the bed is calling my name.

Status update

I'm hoping to get a chance to update later today, but for now I've got lots of things to do. We've been battling tummy bugs and snotty bugs for two weeks now...no fun. There is still lots to share. Hopefully, I'll get the chance later today!