Eli is 5!!!!

Elisha James is now a whole hand!! It is hard to believe that it has been 5 years since I gave birth to him. He was my first rainbow baby as he came after 2 miscarriages. Eli was the first child that I cherished a little more since I had now experienced loss. Eli was the first one that I wore. I had 2 different hotslings. He was the first one that I had to figure out to do things while I nursed LOL. The 2 and 3 year old weren't going to wait too long. :) His pregnancy was filled with issues. I had a large subchoronic hemorage during the first trimester, so I spotted a lot. Then, at 33 wks I was put on bedrest due to preterm labor. I was put on meds every 6 hrs, and even had shots in the hospital 3 different times to stop labor. Then, he was my only scheduled induction (docs feared we wouldn't make it to the hospital b/c we lived 40 min away), and he was born 2.5 hours after it was started. I read a book :). His labor was the first time I experienced issues with an epidural. (It ended up being my 2nd to last one as the last 2 have been natural.) Eli has done things to his own beat from conception. haha!!

Eli.... your name is said quite often throughout the day. You are usually in the middle of whatever is going on, whether it be good or bad. :) You are the life of the party. You are hilarious, and oftentimes without meaning to be! You brighten up multiple peoples days because I share your humor with others.

You are all about sports, and it doesn't matter which one. We have been playing baseball a lot lately in the yard. You also love football. You are still a true Alabama fan, much to your father's liking. You are a good athlete and most sports come naturally to you. You love to be outside even though you are sweating within 2 minutes.

You love boots!!! At the moment you own snow boots, black cowboy boots (that you call brown boots, not sure why!), and fireman rain boots. The fireman boots are worn most every day. If I would let you, you would wear them to church! Most of the time they are on the wrong feet, but that is just you! :)

You are a lover of band-aids. They cure amazing things! You love angry birds and the wii, and if I would let you, you would play all day! You play army with Josiah and pretend with Katie. You love to help with Joy Schelle and Timothy. You are a very proud big brother. I believe you and Joy will be conspiring together very soon! You plan to teach Timothy everything, except to love. According to you, Timothy is going to teach you how to do that! :D

You are very excited to be starting kindergarten in a few weeks. (Our summer break was April and May.) It is hard for me to believe that you are starting school! You will be our class clown.

Eli, you bring a smile to my face just thinking about you! You try my patience more than your siblings many days, but you also have so much life that you bring to every day. I love when you sit next to me and lean up against me. Your random hugs are awesome! I am learning to let go and love you more, and God is blessing.

I am excited to see what God has in store for your life over this next year. You are growing in so many ways.

Father God, thank You so much for adding Eli to our family! Thank You for the privilege and honor of being his mother. May You continue to draw him to You. May You bless him over this next year. I pray that You would wipe out his bad dreams and fill his dreams with peace. Plant seeds in his heart and water them, bringing him closer to giving his heart to Jesus. I pray that You would mold him and prepare him for Your calling on his life. He is a fireball, and I pray that he would be a fireball for Jesus!! Help me be the mother he needs. Show me how to teach him and disciple him. Thank you again for such an awesome middle son! In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.


You cheered for Katie Jo and Josiah. You are the next one to get to play a sport, and you are very excited! We are hoping you get to in the fall.

 You pull for Eli Manning since his name is the same. For a while you even pointed to the T.V. and said, "there I am, Eli Manning." LOL

 Dad's dream :) Could very easily be yours as well.

 Exhausted. This rarely happened, and never happens now.

 You went through a phase where you wore a belt everyday no matter the clothing. The belt wore out and had to be thrown away!

 You caught it!

 You rolled the ball back and forth with Joy Schelle

 Snow boots!

 These were Katie's boots. We called them your pirate boots. They bit the dust in the fall after so much wear.

 Had to pose with your new football for your Christmas picture!

 Proud of his puzzle abilities :)

 Basketball!

 The cool dude

 The crazies!

 Big brother to a brother now!

 You are a police officer directing the traffic. (notice the boots!)

 This is how you took your picture. Yep, upside down! That is how you roll! LOL

Walking With You~ Naming My Children

All of our children have at least one "J" name and a Bible name, as well as a family name. As crazy as it sounds, Janie Beth, doesn't actually fit every requirement. Her name was originally going to be Janie Elizabeth, and we would call her Janie Beth. Janie, of course, is her "J" name. Elizabeth was the Bible name, and was Joey's grandmother's name. After finding out that she wouldn't live after birth, we decided to make her name Janie Beth since that is what we had been calling her. We figured that she had quite a story already, and I didn't want to have to say her name is Janie Elizabeth, but we call her Janie Beth when she wasn't going to be here. 

Janie means God is gracious. I LOVE this!!! I really thought it was neat when we were coming up with her name because Katie Jo's middle name, JoAnn, also means God is gracious. :) I was reserved about using Janie because that was the name we had been throwing around for my second miscarriage and that is how I referred to that baby. (I have to say that looking back there were many ways God prepared me and warned my spirit that Janie wasn't going to stay this side of heaven. This is one of those ways.)

Beth means consecrated to God. How precious is that!?! :)

I will admit that the requirements for names has changed as we have gone along. I am a lot more picky now than I was with the first few. I look at the name meanings before deciding if it has a chance. LOL I am also more picky about which family names I will use. I want to use names of people that I want my children to look up to and aspire to be like.

Josiah Mark
Josiah is the Bible and "J" name. Mark is Joey's middle name.
Josiah: fire of the Lord (I pray that he will be on fire for the Lord!)
Mark: warlike (hmmmm... LOL)

Kathryn JoAnn "Katie Jo"
She is named after both of her grandmothers. Joan, pronounced JoAnn, was Joey's mother's name, but she went by "Jo". My mom's name is Kathryn, but she goes by "Kathy". JoAnna is in the Bible. Katie Jo technically doesn't fit all our current criteria either since neither of her names is really in the Bible.
Kathryn: Beloved (How sweet!)
JoAnn: God is gracious

Elisha James "Eli"
I actually took a little time to say ok to Elisha. LOL I prefered Elijah, but Joey likes the prophet Elisha and thinks he is pretty cool. I finally said ok, if we call him Eli. :) James is Joey's dad's name and both of his grandfather's names.
Elisha: God is my salvation (Amen!)
James: one who supplants/ to replace (After reading Kelly's post I find this meaning neat. Eli came after 2 miscarriages.)

Joy Michelle "Joy Schelle"
Joy was named Joy because she would bring Joy to our family after losing Janie Beth. Michelle is obviously my name. LOL It took me a while to warm up to Joey's suggestion that she have my name as her middle name. She has indeed brought Joy to her mommy, Michelle. :)
Joy: joy :)
Michelle: who is like the Lord (I need to begin praying this over her!)

Timothy Joseph "TJ" or Timothy
Joseph is Joey's name. We just like Timothy! He was an amazing man in the Bible! I can only pray that our Timothy with have a love for the Lord like the Timothy in the Bible!
Timothy: honoring God
Joseph: God shall add (another son) (I find this pretty cool!!! God definitely added Timothy. :))

It is funny how all the boys have ended up having both names be Biblical. This was not at all done on purpose! It just so happened that their family names were Biblical. If God decides to give us another baby, and the baby is a girl, then her family name will either be Jane or Beth after her big sister. :) That was also the plan this time, but I don't think Timothy would appreciate having either of those names. ;)

This has been a neat post for me to write! In looking up the meanings of their names, God has shown me ways that I can be praying for each of my children.

Puzzles

We love puzzles around here! We have been able to pull out our big 1000 piece puzzles since we moved because we have a place to leave them set up. It has been fun to work on them again. The last time Joey and I did them was in our first year and a half of marriage! :O The kids have also been working on their own puzzles.

Josiah has proven himself to be quite the puzzle genius!

Katie Jo does fairly well, but she doesn't last long. :) This is her newest puzzle.

Eli brings in smaller puzzles to work on at the same table because he makes pieces fit. LOL  This is his newest puzzle that he worked on with Dad. :)

When we started doing the puzzles, we knew there was one with a piece a missing. I was pretty sure I remembered which one, so we started with the other one. Then, we moved on to the one with the missing piece. Joey said we would throw it away once we were done. Then, we finished; and I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. The missing piece...

It is so much like our lives! We have a missing piece.

The puzzle looks perfect and then you notice the missing piece.

The missing piece is physically absent (sometimes barely noticable), but the colors that are within the missing piece still run throughout the puzzle! The puzzle needs every piece to look whole, but you can almost picture it there because the colors run thru the rest of the puzzle.

Janie Beth is our missing puzzle piece. (Represented by her pink lamb. :))

She isn't physically here, but her presence it still here.

Her colors run through the rest of our puzzle because without her our lives wouldn't be the same! Her colors are present in the rest of our lives!



Long Lost Picture

Yesterday I was pulling up the internet to let Josiah play on pbskids.org, and Eli saw a long lost picture we didn't know was lost!

I had a blog up that I wanted to write some things from and this picture was on it.

He exclaimed, "Is that Daddy a long time ago when he was a girl"? LOL!!!!!


The night before we were at dinner and Eli said the blessing. These are his words, "God, please let this food go somewhere. Amen"

A bit later at dinner that night I was singing that God has a plan for us. Joey says I wish He would show us. To which Eli replies, "but He isn't". HA!

What would we do without Eli!?!

Eli is 4!!

First off, I am going to apologize to Eli because he turned 4 on May 21 and I am just now typing his post. :/ Typing just falls further down the list most days.

Eli! Just typing your name brings a smile to my face. You are such a pill and you keep me on my knees, but man I love you, crazy little boy! You are full of energy. You say something humorous every day. You wear your shoes on the wrong feet 95% of the time, and you like it like that. :) Your underwear is often times backwards and inside out. LOL Your attire consists of 3 different football shirts; 2 New York Giants and 1 Alabama. You are going to play football for AL. You love to play outside. You join Katie Jo in the dirt and mud. You start sweating as soon as you walk out the door, but you keep on going. You are Poppa's special helper outside and are sometimes the only one out there talking to him while he grills. You have become quite the swimmer this summer as well! You started out having to hold fast to Nana or Abby, but now you are off on your own in your own little world having an awesome time. Yet again, you have become like your big sister. :) 

You really are sweet, but you have a mean streak a mile wide, especially where your brother and sister are concerned. You love them both and you and Josiah will play really good together, but then you do a 180 at the drop of a hat. :) But, Josiah and Katie Jo are your protectors! They watch out for you. You love Joy Schelle, but being easy is a little difficult for you sometimes. You had to proclaim to her that you aren't mean because she would start crying as soon as you got near her for a while. You ask to go visit Janie Beth quite often and talk about wishing she was here. You sent your birthday balloons to her.

You LOVE Cubbies!!! It starts back in about 6 wks and you can't wait. :) You are also very excited to be considered in Pre-kindergarten. You ask what words are when we are reading. We are going to use Five in a Row, I think, part of the time just so you can be more involved with us during school. You have also started coming to big church with us. You do really well. The other week you did lean over to me and say, "this is taking forever". LOL True Eli fashion. :) You did choir this past year and will do it again in the fall.

I still can't believe you are 4!!!! You are the same height as many of the 3 yr olds in our group of friends, or just an inch or 2 taller. Most folks think you are younger than you are. I like you being short! You are built just like your Daddy, and you act just like him too! AH! LOL  You also aspire to be just like your Daddy.

I pray that the fire that is lit beneath you will turn into a vibrant fire for the Lord! God has amazing plans for you and I can't wait to see exactly what they are. You were my first Rainbow baby after having 2 miscarriages, and you have brought happiness to our family in many ways. We can't imagine life without you. We all love you and your crazy ways!!

Here are some pictures from the past year....

 You became a big cousin when Gwyn was born in Aug. You were always close beside her, and still are.

 You became a big brother again too! :)

 SNOW!

 I love him in his suit!

 Is this a foreshadowing??

 Lipstick!

 Stamps!

 Nailpolish!

 Mud!

 He was a trooper going to Dad's shoulder surgery in B'ham! We left the house at 3:30 am. This was around noon or so, he finally crashed!

 Turning 4!!!