Monday, August 31, 2009

Joanna Isabelle Littlejohn


Joanna Isabelle Littlejohn
August 17, 2009 @ 12:29 a.m.
7 lbs. 12 oz
20 1/2 in long
Baxter Regional Medical Center, Mountain Home Arkansas
We are doing great and Joanna is an amazingly easy going baby--so far:) Her big brothers and big sister adore her and love her to pieces! There are more pics of her at vividimpressions.net click on children and then events and then children and families and finally my name. Jon's brother's wife Jennifer took these yesterday and they are amazing!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

CHEEEEEEESE!!!!

I'm not sure anyone is still even checking our blog since I don't get it updated very often. I have checked out Facebook some and wonder if it would be quicker and easier to just post things there every once in a while. So it has been since March when I posted last. We are good. We ended the school year in May and I was oh so ready. Since then I've been gradually working down a list of "projects" to get done before August. We've had a huge yard sale and gotten the house generally in order and cleaned out of "junk." That alone is worth the mess of a yard sale for me. It gives me a deadline and a goal. The back storage room in the basement had gotten totally out of control over the winter. We've also ended up with our boys on two different ball teams because of the way their ages fall this year. So for a few weeks we were practicing or playing ball Tuesday through Friday nights. Gideon is still playing T-Ball and they play every Friday night in June, but Anthony is playing in the 6-8 year old league and it just happens his team has games every Tuesday and Thursday through mid July I think. They love it and we don't do a lot of extra curricular sports stuff during the school year so we agree to the evening ball stuff in the summer when we aren't as busy. Other than that...we are spending any opportuniy we can on the lake. The kids love it, we love it. It's so fun to just be together. We are all super excited about the 4th of July weekend this year. We are camping from Friday through Monday for the boys birthday. (Camping 8 months pregnant won't be AS fun as usual, but hey, if I can spend a majority of the time IN the water...I should be alright!) The pontoon boat has been such a neat thing for us and we feel so blessed to be able to have it. That about sums up summer so far...like I said I am getting things done to be ready for another school year and a new baby!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????? (I'm still not sure how that is going to work out, but I trust God will guide us and give me the grace and sanity to work through it.)

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

It's another Girl!

Just a quick post to let anyone know who hasn't heard yet that we are expecting another girl. Evie was thrilled! (Actually we weren't sure what we were going to do if God gave us a baby brother because Evie had informed us we were going to take him to the back yard???) We are really excited about another bundle of pink cuteness! Right now the boys are playing with their train and Evie has a picnic all set up beside me. She is really content playing by herself with her dishes or baby dolls, but a friend to play with would be so cool for her. I would post a picture from the ultra sound, but I haven't had or taken time to figure out how to scan using our new printer/copier/scanner...sure it's not hard, but right now I have to get back to spelling!!!!!!!!!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Update

Just a quick update from the Littlejohn house. I am so glad to say that I finally, finally feel back to myself. (Well as back to yourself as you can feel and be pregnant!) I had a doctor's appointment Friday and heard a good strong heartbeat. We will have an ultrasound in three weeks (this is the routine one everyone has) and maybe we will be able to see if we have a baby sister or a baby brother on the way. (Evie is really pulling for a baby sister!)

Speaking of Evie--I always have Evie stories to share. Over the weekend the boys were spending the night with each set of grandparents. Gideon was invited along with Anthony to Grandma Wanda and Papa Jack's, but he announced "I want to go to Nanny and Papa's " and grandparents in general just can't say no. So Jon took his "girls" on a date Saturday night. On the way home I commented how late it was and that we had to get a shower and get our jammies on real quick when we got home. From the back seat we hear this little voice, "And then I go to sleep in Gideon's bed with NO Gideon!" (She and Gideon had tried sleeping together in the bottom bunk and she ended up with a whopper of a bump and bruise on her forehead because they were being silly and goofing around. So they were banned from sleeping together and she has had to sleep in her own bed all week.) She hadn't asked me anything about sleeping arrangements, she just came to the conclusion on her own that if Gideon wasn't there then the bed must be open for grabs. And what could we say to such logic? She got to sleep in Gideon's bed with NO Gideon! :)

That's not a lot, but a little of an update. We are definately enjoying the warmer weather we have had the past few days and have been out in the sunshine as much as possible! I'll post more again soon. (Maybe even upload some pictures. Jon gets a little upset if I start uploading image files because it slows down the internet game he is playing right now, so pictures coming another time.)

Thursday, February 5, 2009

School Update, A Kitty and a Blessing from God

I thought I would take a minute before dashing off to bed to ramble on about our life a little. This blogging is one of those things that overwhelms me a little, so the way I deal with it is I just don't do it for a while. I don't even turn the computer on, I don't check e-mail etc. Then I sit here for a crazy long amount of time catching up on everything when I finally do decide to turn the silly machine on. Scrapbooks are the same way. I really enjoy doing the pages and they don't look half bad...but I wonder WHY IN THE WORLD DID I DO THE FIRST ONE FOR ANTHONY? Now I have guilt if I don't continue for everyone. My college girlfiends gave me an amazing gift when Gideon was born. They bought a scrapbook, dispursed the pages among themselves (literally all of the Country) then they each scrapbooked pages and left places on the pages for me to put in pictures and writing. Then someone assembled the whole thing and mailed it to me. (They thought of everything too. There was a labor and delivery page, first visits, bring baby home, first Christmas etc.) It was unbelievable. Even with all of that help I didn't get Gideon's all the way completed until just before Evie was born! This time around I've been totally on my own and Evie's is still at the pages of people coming to visit her in the hospital WHEN SHE WAS BORN! (I have only done the first year for each of them, but now I have pressure!) I don't want to have two unfinished scrapbooks hanging over my head! So like all things that overwhelm me, I'm just avoiding it...until summer. We won't be doing homeschool then and for now I am satisfying myself with the thought that come June I will scrapbook like crazy to have Evie's done before August!!! You all wanted to know all about my scrapbook plans didn't you?

Okay, on to the things you might actually be interested in like updates on the kiddos--let's see...
Anthony is breezing right through first grade. I am still amazed at what kids can learn and retain. He has quite the problem solving mind just like his Dad and he's always saying "Hey mom, I just figured out..." I never know what it will be. Anthony has just started playing Upwards Basketball the last part of January and he really, really looks forward to his practices and his games. It has been a good experience for him. He tends to be a little shy and timid in new situations without us, but he has sailed through this experience great. (Which is why Jon didn't coach on purpose, we wanted to push him out there a little.)

Gideon is doing great in preschool. He is almost all the way through the alphabet and can write his own name. He already knew colors and numbers and stuff but he has learned some things too. Like rhyming words. He totally gets rhyming words now and has a lot of fun with them. What else about Gideon? Recently we got a kitten named Belle. She was supposed to be an outside cat, but through a series of events involving losing and finding the cat and the weather which has been absolutely freezing night and day, she has come to live indoors. She still has to sleep downstairs in her box in the furnace room at night...she doesn't have total free roam of the house but she is upstairs with us most of the rest of the day and evening. Anyway, Gideon is the one that enjoys the cat the most. He loves to curl up in a chair or couch with her on his lap and just pet her. Oh and he takes her for rides on the big wheel type bike Evie got for her birthday. (It is still in the house right now.)

Evie--whew there's a fun little ball of energy. Evie just makes us laugh night and day. She is so much more vocal than the boys and very tuned in to everything going on with the family. Recently Anthony prayed before dinner and in his prayer he thanked God that he and Gideon had a good day. When he said "Amen," Evie (with her lip pouted out) looked at him and said "you didn't pray to ME!" Jon and I exchanged confused looks and I asked Evie what she meant. She turned her pouty face to me and said "Anthony didn't pray to ME!" Suddenly I realized she meant he didn't pray ABOUT her! Anthony is pretty much always a loving big brother and was quick to bow his head again and thank God for his sister Evie when we asked him to. After that she was fine again--all smiles and no pouts!!!! (Jon swears females are born with a inclination toward manipulation!) She loves to sing and actually has quite the range of pitch. It is adorable to hear her sing Jesus Love Me. She gets the first verse but the second verse is a little hazy although the tune is there. She loves the cat too, but the cat does not return her affection. Probably because she carries it around in a strangle hold anytime she can catch the poor thing.

Okay, it hasn't been a few minutes, it's been several and is there a limit to the length of a post? See, this is my problem. Oh well, before I go I have to quickly tell you our most recent "Praise"... On Monday January 26th, I woke up and really thought I had wet the bed (not cool, I haven't done that since I was very young) upon dashing to the bathroom I discovered my pjs soaked halfway to my knees in blood (even more not cool when you are ten weeks pregnant!!!!!!!!) I think I almost threw up from shock more than anything. To make a long story shorter, after a doctor visit that included a wonderful ultrasound in which we got to see the baby and that beautiful little heartbeat on the screen we found out that I had late implantation bleeding and that is was also a larger area bleeding than normally does. However it has since quit and seems to have corrected itself just as the doctor assured us it should. He did give some strict instructions for a couple of weeks of rest and I have taken it seriously. (Just ask Jon:) Anyway it was quite a crazy day complete with Papa Herb watching all three kiddos alone (go DAD!) and a surprise visit from my sister and brother-in-law who made us dinner and then slid back home to Springfield barely ahead of the horrible ice storm we got. During family worship that night it was so cool--the chapter in Psalms read something like "You turned my sorrow into joy and my mourning into dancing" (that's Angela paraphrase--but you get the point) That's truly what happened that day because I really didn't see how things could be okay first thing of the morning. Anyway, I am feeling much better and have a check up tomorrow. I also must send out one more hoorah for our amazing small group and friends. We weren't going to call anyone but our parents to start with because we didn't want to get everyone upset until we knew what was going on. However, my mom (in her wisdom) suggested we call our small group to be praying for us in the mean time because that is what they are there for and I'm so glad we did. They prayed and our families prayed and we could feel the strength! Our small group and a few other friends also brought us some amazing yummy meals this past week!!!!!!!!!!! It is truly a blessing to be surrounded by so many people who care so genuinely about us! God is so good!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Can you figure out my shirt?

So, it's been a while since I've posted and many things have happened. We celebrated Evie's 2nd Birthday with a party on Sunday Dec. 22nd. It was the perfect opportunity to share our "news" with our families, since everyone except Lance and Naomi were able to be there. We made Evie this shirt and took her sweater off when it was time to eat cake. We just waited to see how long it took someone to notice and figure out what "I'm the BIG Sister Birthday Girl!" meant...yes, we are expecting blessing #4 in August. I am praying for a little sister for Evie. She plays great, but sometimes I'm a little sad that the boys have each other and go off and play and she doesn't have a buddy. (Other than me--we do girl stuff:) The boys are excited and we actually told them before all of the family and they kept it quiet all weekend prior to the party. We were super proud of them. That's one of Evie's cousins, Payton, in the picture with her. She a sweetie pie too! Well--it is sooooo incredibly late...there are always more stories and pictures I just don't seem to have time to share them all. I'll try to post again soon. (Can you believe Evie's hair??? I don't know what we're going to do with it. Aunt Susie there in the background has curly, curly hair naturally so she will definately have to give us some tips!)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Family Picture


It's been a while since we've had a family picture taken together. My sister and her husband snapped this one for us at a wedding we were at recently...well Jon was in the wedding--he doesn't just wear a tuxedo every day you know :) Evie is such a ham and the boys are still at that stage where they paste on a smile and just want the picture done. Maybe this will be our annual "Christmas Card" picture. Maybe not--the kids grow and change so much even in just two months. There isn't a whole lot happening around our house. Jon and I have gotten to go on several date nights lately. (We have worked out a rotation with another couple and we have the luxury of grandparents right here in town too. We are spoiled that way.) Back to the date nights...we went to see the movie Fireproof last week. It was a great, great movie! Really "real life" in some parts, and good to remind us what marriage is all about. I would tell anyone who is married or thinks they might ever be married or has a married family member to go see it...basically it's great for everyone! That's just my opinion. I hope they make a sound track the music was great too.
"Sometimes when we're not even looking we find little treasures."