A Sweet Surprise

Matt and I have had a few weeks to adjust to the news that we are adding another precious one to our family in a few months. We are super excited now, but we've had a few shocking moments along the way. I don't want to forget my crazy emotions surrounding the news.

I should say that this baby came as a surprise to us, and for a very planned out, organized person, it's taken a bit of getting used to. We've always wanted a third baby, but we also planned to wait at least another year before even really thinking about a third baby. I felt like I was still getting a handle on having two kiddos, and I wanted Nathan to be close to starting school, so I'd have more time to devote to two little ones at home during the day. However, God had other plans, and we praise Him for this special gift of a new life.

It's so funny to me why I even took a test. I think it was God's way of protecting this little life by letting me know early, so I could care for him or her. I didn't really have a hunch or anything that I was pregnant. Nursing Samuel took away any obvious signs of pregnancy. I had an extra test in our bathroom, and on a whim I decided to take it on a Monday morning. I still can't really figure out why I took it. I had had a weird headache the day before that reminded me a bit of pregnancy headaches, and I guess it got me wondering, and I knew there was a chance I could be, but I remember opening the pregnancy test and telling myself how crazy I was for taking it and that I was just wasting money on a test I was sure would be negative, but I took it anyway. And well, it was far from negative! I'll admit my first reaction was complete shock and disbelief. I even hopped on Google to search for false positive pregnancy tests. I had gone crazy, I know. I just could not believe it. My emotions were a wreck that day, and Matt was at work, so I was dealing with them all by myself. I wonder what Nathan was thinking of his crazy Mommy that day!  I went from freaking out and stressed to elated and thankful and back and forth, back and forth all day. I had irrational fears about my boys not getting any undivided attention once this baby arrives, especially Samuel who will still be a baby. I worried about finances, another 529 to set up, never ending diapers, probably a new car. It would be impossible to go anywhere by myself with three Little Ones, just getting them out of the car would take all day. Every worry jumped in my head, but they were counteracted with moments of joy: the thrill of holding a newborn again, Nathan's reaction to a sibling now that he is older and has a better understanding feeling baby kicks, decorating a nursery, pure thankfulness that the Lord opened my womb when so many couples struggle with infertility. It was a wild day.

When Matt came home from work, Nathan handed him a gift sack with the test inside. His reaction was perfect. A giant grin, followed by, "Really! Well you said you wanted them close together." And then, "Good thing we already bought a new house." I love him. He had his share of freak out moments, but he is so very good at calming my irrational worries. When I told him about my worry that the boys won't get enough attention and will have to make sacrifices because of the new baby, he was quick to remind me that this baby will be a blessing to them too. That put me in my place, and calmed so many of my fears. We also took a trip to Target that night to buy another test. I hadn't totally recovered from going crazy yet :).

Now that we've had a few weeks to adjust to the change in our family, I can't help but laugh at how crazy I went the day we found out we were expecting. I still have freak out moments, but they are rare, and have almost totally been replaced by excitement and elation at adding another child to our family. I know there will be adjustments, but I also know that all of us will adjust. It's just how it goes. It happened that way when we added Nathan to our family and again when we added Samuel. Why would this baby be any different?

And I am so thankful to the Lord for this child. This was not a surprise to Him. He is knitting this fearfully and wonderfully made child in my womb, and this is His plan for our family. I realize that He is the giver of life, period, and that we really have nothing to do with it, but there's something extra special about this baby that was not in our plans. I can't describe it accurately, but it just feels like a greater gift in some way, because he/she is coming in His time alone. I know many couples who struggle with infertility and try for years and years to have a baby. I will NEVER take for granted the gift of this pregnancy (or my other pregnancies). Children are a gift from Him, and we await the birth of this child with humble and grateful hearts.

A Good and Perfect Gift

 From His abundance, we have all received

One gracious blessing

 After another

 

Our family is praising God for this good and perfect gift!

10 Months Old

Samuel Jacob,

You are 10 months old! Double digits! You are growing so fast right before our eyes and continue to be such a little delight. You are a joy!

You have six teeth now! You got two right in a row on 12/20 and 12/21 and then another top tooth on 1/8. You seem happier now that they are in, and I'm hoping for a little break before the next round of teething.

You and your brother! He can be a bully to you a lot of the time, and you just take it in stride. One day you'll be big enough to stand up to him. For now, you deal with him taking your toys and pushing you aside when he wants you out of the way. We're working with him, but thankfully, you're a tough kid. He sure loves you though, always wanting to know where you are, telling us he misses you, and asking to "play" with you.

You are fully in crawling mode now, no more army crawling. You just made a sudden change one day, and we haven't seen any belly crawling since. You are increasing your speed too. You can get into anything you want.

You have been pulling up on everything for the last couple of months and have started walking behind things. My goodness, you look so big when you do it! We don't have a lot of furniture since we put our house on the market. I think if we still had our coffee table in the living room, you'd be walking around everything.

You have a particular fondness of Papa Joe. You always want him and will refuse to go to anyone else (even me!) when he is holding you. We've started to see the beginnings of separation anxiety in the church nursery. I'm not looking forward to that stage.

You are over baby food. You slap the spoon away when we feed you almost anything. You want to do it yourself, you little independent guy. You're going to drive your Momma crazy at meal times. You eat finger foods like a champ, and we are slowly introducing more and more table food as you get older. I try and get you to eat oatmeal or rice cereal and yogurt for breakfast, a veggie and fruit for lunch, and cereal and meat for dinner, but you have been solely interested in finger food and bottles the last few days. I hope it's a stage. You need more than cheerios, yogurt melts, crackers. bananas, and green beans in your diet.

You love balls and Rhapsy. I caught this on video last week.




You say ball anytime you see Rhapsody. It's adorable. And you have a good arm! Ball is really your first word after Mama and Dada. Sometimes we think you're saying ball and sometimes bye bye. It depends on the context. You are waving bye bye too. It's so sweet, and you're clapping on command.

Cognitively, I've seen some big developments this month. You have a better understanding of cause and effect. I see it in the way you play with your toys especially your gum ball machine and piggy bank. You have them figured out! It's amazing to watch you learn.

You are wearing 9-12 month and 12 month clothes. Your 9 month clothes are all too snug and too short. I've been squeezing you in some until I can get your bigger clothes sorted and washed, but they really are too small. You wear a size 4 diaper.

Your sleeping is hit or miss. For most of the month, I'd say you were improving with even a handful of nights where you slept all night without me having to get up with you. But then you've had nights where you're up for an hour or so at a time, refusing to sleep. I stopped feeding you in the middle of the night. It's rare now if you get a bottle at night, but you still like to be soothed and rocked at some point in the night. I savor the good nights and pray for extra energy in the morning after a bad night. You are a consistent napper and take a morning and afternoon nap daily.


Your smile and sweet demeanor are evident to anyone who sees you. What a special blessing you are to our family.

He is in the Details

We are currently just days away from closing on our new home, hopefully our forever home. The process of selling our home and finding a new one was not without stress, but I wanted to document our process because God's hand has been in every detail, and we praise Him for His faithfulness. It may be boring for anyone but Matt and me, but I don't want to forget the details.

When we bought our first home 5.5 years ago, it was never intended to be our forever home. We planned to stay in it for several years, until we outgrew it, and then find something bigger. We have three bedrooms, and Matt and I have always wanted at least three kiddos (and ideally they can each have their own room), so we figured by the time we we started thinking about Baby #3, we'd look for something bigger and start the process. In our plans that looked like Spring 2015.

But interest rates are super low right now and no one expects them to stay so low for much longer. After receiving counsel and advice from a few people, Matt and I decided it would be a better financial decision to go ahead and sell/buy sooner to save money on interest payments. Even though we thought our current house value would increase some and we'd have more time to save for a bigger down payment if we waited another couple of years, we also believed that rising interest rates would easily offset any savings we might have had by waiting, so we made the decision to put our house on the market.

We planned to try and sell our house without using a realtor to save over $4,500 in commission. Matt heard of a realtor from a coworker who would list our house on the MLS for a small flat fee, so we could still have the advertising of a full listing without paying thousands of dollars. That was such a great decision. Our realtor has been so helpful, and while we did do most of the work ourselves (did our own showings, took our own photos, made our own fliers), she has been involved in every step of our contract and negotiations with our buyer's realtor. She has been a blessing for sure.

Our house was on the market for six weeks when we found a buyer. We had a few showings the first week it was for sale, and then it was dry for another month. We were a little discouraged but knew it was a slow time in the market, and also knew that we didn't really have much to lose. We didn't have to sell it by any certain date. Matt was out of town for a men's retreat when we had back to back showings scheduled, so I did the showings. The first showing that weekend led to an offer! I think the back to back showings helped because it made the buyer feel a little extra pressure to make a (good) offer quickly. We also found out that our buyer's realtor works for a man from our church who Matt sought counsel from about our selling process. He really is the one who encouraged us to go ahead and sell now because of rising interest rates. We joked that Sam told us to put our house on the market and because of it, he was making money off of the sale. Really though, it was a sign from God that He was active and involved in the sale of our home. We were very pleased with the offer. In fact it was higher than the price Matt even planned to list our house at, but thanks to the advice of our realtor, we listed it a few thousand dollars higher. And the buyers are the sweetest family. I know it shouldn't matter, but I really wanted a special family to buy our house, and this family is wonderful

The other great thing about the offer is they asked for a later closing date (due to a lease agreement). We were a little leery to wait so long to close, so we countered that we close in a timely manner, but we would pay them rent to stay in our home for another few weeks. That is one of the best decisions we made. It meant we had less pressure to find a home right away. It also meant that we could have a gradual move, without the stress of trying to close and (move) on two homes in one day or having to store all our stuff and live with my parents. Our realtor kept telling us that that never happens, and it relieved so much stress for us.

After we had a contract on our house, we were anxious to start house hunting. After all the stress and work of getting our house ready to sell, this part was supposed to be the fun part. We had a list of several important things we wanted in a new house, and we were pretty picky because this was going to be our forever home. We didn't want to make huge compromises in a house we planned to live in for 30 plus years. I did a lot of online searching, narrowed down to a few houses and we started showings. By the time we had looked at around five or six houses, we had made an offer on one (that eventually fell through) and came really close to making an offer on a different house. We were a bit frustrated but trusted that God had the perfect house prepared for us. I took one long day looking at seven or eight houses by myself with our realtor (my mom tagged along for most of the them too). I was getting really frustrated by the end of that day. We saw some great houses, but each of them seem to require a major compromise: not enough bedrooms, no dining area, not our preferred school district, tiny kitchen, too far from Matt's work... on and on. At the second to last home we looked at, I had come to terms that we would have to make some sacrifices because the "perfect" house we were looking for just didn't exist. I knew there would be some give and take, but it was hard to swallow what we'd have to give up when we were planning to live in this house forever.

Then we went to our very last showing.  We walked in and did a quick walk through to check it out, and I just knew it was "the one." It had EVERYTHING on our main list. I was shocked because it seemed so perfect after seeing nothing even close to it previously (at least that was in our price range). Even the house we made an offer on paled in comparison to this one. We brought Matt (and Barry) back that very night to see it, and Matt agreed it was the one. While technically in our price range, it was at the top end, and he was a bit leery about the price, but he agreed that we would never find anything more perfect for what we were looking for, so we made an offer. The house had been on the market for close to six months and was already vacant, so we had some leverage and put in a pretty low offer. After countering back and forth for a bit, we settled on what we thought was a really good deal and a price we were happy with. Ahh, the relief of finding it, and the excitement of dreaming about all the fun we would have in that house. We were thrilled.

A couple of weeks after we signed the contract, our lender called and told us the appraisal had come in below the purchase price. Stress snuck back in, but once again we trusted God that if this was His plan for us, it would work out. We never believed that we were overpaying for this home after all the houses I had seen in a similar price range. The problem with the appraisal seemed to lie in the comps. Since it's a slow time in the market, and our house is one of the bigger ones in the neighborhood, the appraiser couldn't find comps to bring up the value. It just seemed to be bad luck for the sellers. The next morning, our realtor called and informed us that the sellers agreed to lower the purchase price to the appraised value saving us another several thousand dollars off the purchase price. We had been a little worried that they would back out of the contract and not sell until the value increased, but instead we saved a significant amount of money. God was looking out for us.

After our initial negotiations and then lowering the price as a result of the appraisal, the house suddenly was no where near the top of our price range. That combined with a great interest rate and a down payment from the equity in our home means only a minor increase in our monthly mortgage payment. Since then, we have seen God bless us financially in other areas too including paying 1% less than the agreed amount of our buyer's closing costs because of a rule from their lender, and a tax credit/loan from the government (we bought a few months too early for the free home buyer tax credit) we expected to have to pay back in a lump sum on our 2013 taxes that we researched and discovered we won't have to repay. He continues to pour blessing upon blessing on our family. Those blessings should offset the costs of a few minor house projects and moving in expenses which should mean we can complete this entire process without dipping into much if any of our savings.

We are in awe of God's faithfulness throughout this entire process as we look forward to the blessing of this new "forever" home that will officially be ours in a few days. He deserves the glory, and we are praying that we will use this home to minister to and serve others and that it will be a blessing to many others outside our immediate family.

A Look Back on 2013

2013 was certainly a monumental year for our family full of big milestones and wonderful memories. Here are a few highlights.

January
- We painted and decorated Samuel's nursery in anticipation of his arrival.
- My mom and Erica hosted the sweetest Baby Shower for little Samuel. It was a special night celebrating him.

February
- Matt traveled to Louisiana for work and was gone over Valentine's Day.
- We celebrated my 28th birthday with a fun night with friends.
- We had a fun Big Brother day for Nathan full of all his favorite things.

March
- Our precious Samuel arrived on March 14. Best day of the whole year!!
- We celebrated Easter as a family of four and Samuel's first trip to church.

April
- Jeremy, Anna, and Amelia came for a weekend visit to meet Baby Samuel.
- Matt had to take a final trip to Louisiana for work when Samuel was just three weeks old.
- The day he left, my mom was admitted to the hospital  and spent a week there.
- My grandparents came to help me with the kids for several days while Matt was gone and my mom was sick. They were lifesavers.

May
  Our sweet Nathan turned TWO, and we had the best time celebrating with a train themed birthday party. Great Day!
- Samuel was dedicated to the Lord on Mother's Day. Our families came to celebrate with us.
- Matt and I celebrated seven years of marriage with a fun date night.
- Matt turned 30. We had several friends over and treated everyone to a steak dinner and cheesecake. It was a really fun night.

June
- The boys and I traveled to Weatherford and spent the week with Granny and Grandaddy so Nathan could attend Vacation Bible School.
- We learned the news about Baby Miller! I've claimed her as my niece!

July
- Nathan had swimming lessons for the first two weeks of July.
- We celebrated the 4th of July (day) with the Millers and my parents and then with the Nadigs (and Millers) that evening.
- Matt and I left Samuel overnight for the first time to attend Adam and Shana's wedding in Kansas.

August
- We soaked up the end of summer with trips to the pool and park.
- Nathan  and Samuel started WEE ministry on Thursdays.

September
- We took a family vacation to the Florida Gulf Coast. It was an incredible week full of so many precious memories.
- We put our house on the market.
- We spent an afternoon at the Tulsa State Fair.

October
- Matt and I ran the 5K at the Tulsa Zoo Run.
- We spent one Saturday morning at a fun pumpkin patch.
- The boys and I took a quick trip to Weatherford over Fall Break and spent a few days with Granny and Grandaddy.
- Nathan and Samuel dressed up as Sully and Mike for Halloween and we had the best time celebrating.

November
- We sold our house!
- We celebrated with Bryan and Becca at their wedding.
- We went to Branson with my parents to ride the Polar Express and have a mini vacation.
- We signed a contract on a new home.
- We hosted Thanksgiving for all our family for the last time in our house.

December
- We had our first snow day of the season. Nathan and Matt built a snowman.
- We found out we were expecting Baby Baugher #3!
- Matt and I had a fun dinner and a movie Christmas date.
- We closed on the house we sold on December 20.
- We had a wonderful Christmas with extended family as well as just the four of us on Christmas morning.
- Nathan spent the night in the hospital for a concussion.

I can't get over all the blessings that were poured upon our family in 2013. God is good!

Nathan's Hospital Stay

While Christmas was a perfect, wonderful day, the day after Christmas was pretty terrible.

Nathan had taken a little spill Christmas afternoon at my mom's house. He was on his knees at the chair at his table, lost his balance, and fell over, managing to land on his head on the ceramic tile. Matt and I both saw it happen, and I commented to Matt that it looked scary, but Nathan seemed fine. He cried for a minute or so, and then was over it, and acted completely normal the rest of the day.

Since we stayed so late at my parents' house, Nathan stayed the night, and my mom was planning to bring him over the next morning on her way to work. She text that morning and told us that he was sick and had been throwing up and also didn't have any balance when he tried to walk.

I just assumed he had caught a little bug, but Matt reminded me of his fall the day before and was especially worried because of his problems walking. I called and scheduled a doctor's appointment first thing that morning, and we headed over to pick up our little guy.

The doctor initially diagnosed him with a virus, and told us to keep him hydrated. When Matt told her about his fall, she did a quick neurological exam and told us he seemed fine. She did bloodwork that came back normal, but asked to see him walk before we left her office. He stumbled around, and I could tell her concern heightened after she saw him try and walk.She went ahead and sent us home and told us she would check in with us later that day.

She called around noon and asked how he was doing. Although his vomiting had improved some, he still couldn't walk without falling, so she told us to take him to the emergency room. Those were some scary moments for a mommy, hearing the doctor use words like "possible brain bleed". We packed a few things, dropped Samuel off at my mom's work, and headed for Nathan's first trip to the ER.

We got great care at the Emergency Room. We didn't have to wait for a room, and the doctors were prompt and helpful. I was relieved. I had been worried we would be stuck in the waiting room for hours, but our care was wonderful.

Nathan was so sick at that point and exhausted from dehydration. The doctor ordered a CT scan. By the time they came to take him, he was sleeping so soundly that he slept through the entire procedure. Praise God! I had been worried about how scary a CT scan would be for him, but he was out of it the whole time.

We made it back to his room, and they started fluids to rehydrate him. The IV was so traumatic for him. Matt and I were crying along with him as the nurse was putting it in. Absolutely terrible. He managed to go back to sleep and took another nap while we waited for blood and urine results.

The CT scan came back clear. We were so relieved. However, the blood results revealed pretty significant dehydration and that combined with his neurological problems led to an admission for the night.

By the time they transferred us to a room in the children's hospital (around 6:00 that night), Nathan had received two bags of IV fluids and had perked up significantly. He was acting more and more like himself. Baby brother and Grammy and Papa Joe came to visit that night (and bring us some necessities for our overnight stay). They took a wagon ride around the hospital floor. Nathan told me that he missed Samuel. Sweet boy.

My parents were so kind to keep Samuel overnight for us, so Matt and I could both stay with Nathan. Neither one of us wanted to leave his side, and I'm glad we didn't have to. My parents are a blessing.

We saw several doctors and had interruptions all night long with neurological exams and all the other monitoring that comes with a hospital stay including a blood draw at 6:00am (talk about a rude awakening for all of us). We did manage to watch Monster's University before bed that night. Nathan enjoyed that.

His bloodwork was back to normal (thanks to the iv fluids he received), and the doctor on rounds that morning sent us home. Most of the doctors were in agreement that he had received a mild concussion from his fall on Christmas Day. He was still pretty wobbly on his feet, but otherwise was back to his normal self.

We stopped for ice cream (and lunch) on the way home and made it home around noon on Friday. He has improved each day since then, and we are so blessed that he is healing. He did refuse to take off the arm band from his IV for a couple days. He was worried it would hurt. Anytime they messed with it in the hospital, it did hurt, so I understood his reasoning. Bless his heart. I finally took it off Saturday afternoon, and after a brief cry, he realized it didn't hurt anymore.

We were overwhelmed with prayer support and encouragement during our stay. I was thankful for each text and phone call we received checking in and offering help. Walking around the hospital with Nathan reminded us to be especially grateful for the health of our children. God has been good to our family. Now no more trips to the hospital for awhile, okay.

Christmas Day

We made it to my mom's house a little after 10:00 that morning and geared up for more presents. We hardly made it through the door before she scurried us in the Living Room and started handing out packages. Gifts are definitely her love language.

Nathan's big gift from my parents was a kitchen. He and Samuel played with it all day. I'm so glad we have a play room in our new house for all the new toys!

And how adorable is the chef outfit?? I love it.

Samuel got a fun crawl around car. It's really cute and perfect for his age. They all got a million other things too. We had fun being together with Jeremy, Anna, and Amelia too opening gifts and visiting.

Matt and I got a new surround sound system for our new house. Yay! and some other fun things too

Becca and Bryan found these matching footy pajamas for our family, so we surprised my parents and showed up on Christmas morning wearing them.

The boys and Amelia played with their new toys while we cooked lunch.

Notice that Nathan is playing with Samuel's present. He must realize that by next year Samuel will be big enough to stop him, so he's taking advantage of it now :)

Barry grilled steaks for everyone for lunch. They were sooo good and all the sides were delicious too. Such a great meal.

The kids were spoiled with every treat imaginable at Grammy's house! It was so fun to watch Nathan and Amelia playing together. I thought they shared well and had a great time playing with each other. I wish we lived closer, I think they would be best buddies!

We spent the afternoon and evening playing games and visiting. We played Seven Wonders, Catan, and Rook, ate more delicious food and watched the Little Ones enjoying Christmas. It was a great day!