Great to Be...

Happy 8th Birthday to my beautiful Lily girl!

1 Month

 Little Miss Abigail is one month today! It is strange to me how fast time seems to go by. I keep thinking that Abigail has grown so much quicker than Jane did... False. I just can't keep up with how fast time is going by.

 Abigail is nursing great and is growing like a weed. She likes to sleep, but mostly when you're cuddling her.

 Abigail has a lot of funny expressions that we all like to watch. Her hair is starting to lighten some as well as her complexion. She still has LOTS of hair. I went to her when she was crying today to find her grasping for dear life to her own hair. She also thinks she is big and is trying to hold her head up already.

Things have definitely been a little hectic since bringing Abigail home, but it has also been wonderful. She has such a sweet spirit and it's amazing to see what she has brought to our family. 

Baby #4

 One of the biggest things that happened in 2014 is we found out that we were pregnant at the end of June! It was such a surprise and definitely a welcomed one. And we were in for an even bigger surprise to find out that we conceived identical twins due March 9. This was the time that we found out that I have twins on my side of the family. Needless to say, we were shocked, but so excited and immediately went into planning mode.

 At our 11 week ultrasound, however, we found out that we had lost one of our little ones and the other was in danger as well. After a few weeks of taking it easy, we had another ultrasound and saw that this little one was a fighter and pulled through. I'm not going to lie, this was one of the hardest times in my life. The emotions I had were a complete roller coaster and I felt guilty no matter if I felt grateful and hopeful or if I felt sadness. I learned a lot about the ability of my body and what happens in such situations. I was frustrated and amazed at the same time. It was such a confusing and helpless time.

 We found out at our 18 week ultrasound that we were having another girl. William was bummed out, yet again, that he would be the only boy. Lily was excited because "the girls will dominate."  Throughout the rest of my pregnancy, I had ultrasounds with every visit for one reason or another. I had a hemorrhage in my placenta, the umbilical cord wasn't placed in the placenta correctly so they watched her growth, and then we found that she had a cardiac arrhythmia that was checked weekly. As stressful as it could get, I was grateful to be able too see her so often. I had a 3d ultrasound done one time and got to see how much she looked like her brother and sisters. She definitely had the Townsend look about her!

 On February 24, I went into labor and went to the hospital that evening when Matthew got home from work.

 

Abigail Phillipa Ann Townsend was born February 25, 2015 at 9:57am. She was 6 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. She is beautiful and amazing.

We gave her 2 middle names after her 2 grandma's, one of which would have been her sister's. Now she has that with her always. I can't describe the feeling that I have to actually have her here. She is such a strong little lady and is one of my heroes, for sure. Her health is perfect and she has grown out of the arrhythmia like the doctor's hoped she would.

 We are trying to get used to our new normal of 4 kids. 4 kids! We love our kiddos and it's fun to see them change with the new too.

 

 There have been times when we've thought about the other little one and what it would be like if she were here with us as well. We consider ourselves lucky to have Abigail here and to be able to tell her about her angel sister who watches over her. This experience, along with others, has made my testimony waver, but I feel like it comes back full force and stronger. I'm so grateful for the ordinances that take place in the temple and that I have a family that can be together forever. The little ones that I have lost are waiting and cheering us on to be better and keep covenants so we can see them again.

I'm cherishing every little moment with my children. I'm memorizing details of Abigail like what it feels like to hold her tiny body in my hands and her dark brown hair (SO different from my other little ones!) and her little cry that sounds like a baby bird squawking. And, of course, I'm taking pictures like crazy. 

2014 Recap

Looking at my blog made me sad because it's been almost a year since I've updated! I like to keep a record of our goings on and this blog has been it usually. So, I'm taking the time to finish up our 2014 in one post so that I can move on to the new and exciting things of 2015!

 

Lily finished up her rec. soccer season on Team England. They, of course, dominated because they were such a good team and worked together to well. Lily found her niche as a "Sweeper" and tended mostly to the goal. She is a great defensive player. We're excited to hopefully start back up in the fall. She also finished up her season on the Lady Rapids. I don't think she'll play on that team again, sadly. They decided to move up from an Academy team and turn into a Competition team, which meant they would be playing tournaments on Sundays. We love the Lady Rapids and had so much fun playing with them when we could.

 

 

William turned 8 years old in April and decided to be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was baptized and confirmed in the Smyrna, TN building by Matthew on July 19th. He wanted to wait until Carrie's family could be here for it. Matthew spoke on Baptism and Carrie spoke on the Holy Ghost. We are so proud of him for making this choice. William is such a special boy and it was wonderful to see the change that a decision like this can make.  

 

 Lily finished up her 1st grade school year in Ms. Smith's class.

 William finished up 2nd grade in Ms. Byrd's class.

 Last Day of School

 Over the summer, Carrie's family came to Tennessee and we had so much fun. We celebrated the 4th of July with them. We watched the Smyrna Fireworks show from our porch. We had an awesome party at Mom and Dad's complete with pie eating contest, water balloons, and fireworks.

 Our apartments offered swim lessons over the summer. It was $5 a kid. What? It was awesome. William and Lily loved it.. most of the time. But, I'm mostly grateful that we have conquered the fear of water and that they are comfortable to swim. William was so fearless and it was good for him to learn what to do once he jumped in! Lily was so scared of the water and it was great to see her loosen up and master the back stroke! They got to have an ice cream party.

William and Lily started school back up at the beginning of August.

 William is in 3rd grade in Ms. Duke's class.

 Lily is in 2nd grade in Ms. Pollock's class.

 Jane turned 1 on August 12th! How did she get so big? She tore her cupcake apart. We had a party for her at Mom and Dad's and everyone came to celebrate with us.

 Her token 1 year picture!

 

 I made this collage to see her change through the year.

 

 Shortly after Jane's birthday, we moved back into Mom and Dad's house and it's been exactly what we needed. We lived in our apartment for about 5 months and ended up needing to break our lease. It's nice to be back home.

 

October was a pretty full month for us. We had fall break and went to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins to carve.

 We had Halloween, which was FREEZING! I was able to make Lily and William's costume. Lily was Little Red Riding Hood and William was Emmett from the Lego Movie. By the time I had gotten those finished I had to resort to buying a strawberry costume for Jane.

 Matthew went to Atlanta to do a job for work and I was able to drive down and spend the weekend with him. He did work for an annual party for The Walking Dead at Terminus. When he wasn't working, we got to tour the Coca Cola Factory and the highlight of that was trying all the different Coke products through out the world. Matthew was excited that they had Kuat, his favorite drink in Brazil. We were also invited to attend The Walking Dead party and got to meet some of the actors from the show, see some zombies, and eat some amazing food.

We got a few family pictures taken by Keaven in our backyard.

 We sold our Sentra towards the end of year. We've needed to upgrade to a family car and so we had to say goodbye to this guy. I bought it the summer before Matthew and I got married.

 William started to attend Cub Scouts on Wednesday nights since he turned eight. He has loved it. He got his Bobcat badge and it was sweet to have him put the bobcat badge on me at the pack meeting.

 We had an awesome Christmas. We finally updated our tree and had it in our hallway. We did a lot of our traditions like getting new ornaments and I made pajama pants.

2014 was a crazy, but good year.