Berry Sweet Girl!!

Madi turns 5 today and I can't believe how fast it's gone!! I was just telling her this morning of when she was just 2 weeks old and I remember her little pink and white outfit with circles on the top, and a cute little bib. She was so cute and little with big round eyes!! She was a wonderful surprise for our family 5 years ago today at 6:15pm! Our house was overcome with pink, purple, and flowers. A nice change from bold striped polos, and sports themed everything!! She has become quite the little girlie girl! She changes her clothes five times a day and wears all sorts of combinations of outfits and layers. Her style is one-of-a-kind. She wants to be a mom when she grows up and I pray that will out-mom me! Most of all we pray for her heart to be changed by the Lord Jesus and that she would desire to please Him in whatever He has planned for her. We are so thankful for her and sparkling eyes!!

For her birthday party she wanted Strawberry Shortcake! We scored a great deal on party supplies at Factory Card Outlet and bought a ton of stuff for her 'girl' party!! She was so excited to have her girlfriends over to play! They decorated cupcakes, played pin the strawberry, and girlie things!!!

And no I did not make this!! Ben's cousin did and didn't she do a great job?!!!

After Madi's party we had a family party! We grilled out and enjoyed the wonderful weather while trying not to get run over by Jake!

Seriously he is a great driver.... hits his target every time!!!



When the kids opened their presents their brothers read the cards for them it was soooo cute! I love seeing them love and help each other!!

A great time was had by all!!!

Growing up!

We are all surprised that Jake has made it to the age of 3 today!! He is always full of energy, curiosity, adventure, mischief, intensity, etc... You could come up with many colorful words to describe our Jakey, but we think of him as a gift!!! Yes he tries our patience, surprises us daily with his antics and wears us out with his energy, yet he is so full of joy and has such a twinkle in his eye. I see all of it as just another thing the Lord is using to shape and mold me to be more like His Son,(though I have sooooo far to go).

For example: One day we were sitting in the living room and out Jake comes from the bathroom. He very nonchalantly stated, "there's a waterfall in the bathroom" My mom and I look at each other and check out the bathroom and sure enough the toilet had overflowed covering the floor and going down through the vent to the laundry room. So we all grab a towel to clean up the mess and couldn't figure out what he put in there that made it overflow, i'm sure a bath toy of some kind! A few days later my mom and I were recalling that incident and just couldn't stop laughing. We thought, well at least he looks at the brighter side of things, to us it's a mess and to him a waterfall!!!

I should also state that he is officially potty trained!! I was a bit worried about #2 as he got #1 down pretty quickly. But I figured if he could get outta bed pull his diaper down, open the lid to the step stool by his bed and do his duty in there then surely he should be able to do the same in the toilet right??!! It took a few weeks of messy pants but last night while I was up on the couch I heard the toilet downstairs. I called down and sure enough he had gotten outta bed and went #1 & 2 all by himself. I knew once HE set his mind to it it would be no big deal and that's exactly what happened!! I expect we'll still have a few accidents here and there but he's doing great and for that we are thankful!!!

So today we are celebrating a gift that was given to us by God 3 years ago today at 7:03pm on a Sunday evening. It was a long wait that day for him. I was expecting to have a quick labor like the others, but after waiting hour after hour for my contractions to kick in after my water broke I succumbed to pitocin! I was very nervous but it was actually more controlled than the two labors before him. So after about 11 hours total (from water breaking, waiting, pitocin, actual labor) little Jacob William Russell was born weighing in a 8lb 5oz! Jakey we love you more than all the ducks in the world!!!