Jr turns 5

On October 14th our oldest baby turned 5 years old. Just saying the words "he is 5" makes me feel all sad but so happy. He loves saying he is 5. But for some reason the thought that he is a whole handful makes me realize just how fast the past years have gone.

Jr came 5 weeks early via emergency csection. I was in the hospital for 14days if I remember correctly. 10 on bedrest and 4 more after I had Jr. It was eventful and we should have known from the beginning he was going to be stubborn and hard headed, wanting to do things all on his own when he wanted to do them. ha!

He is the greatest big brother to all of his siblings. They love him and he loves them. Him and Colton can definatly fight hard core but the good times far out weigh the wrestling matches, bumps and bruises.  He loves to hold Westin and feed him a bottle. Westin just giggles at him. Tinsley's favorite word is Juju. She is always worried about him and where he is. "where juju? where juju?" He loves it and is so very sweet to her and likes to help her with any and everything.

I love the fact that Jr (well all of our boys) are full out boy. Loving to get dirty, wrestle, play super heros, build forts, play baseball, shoot guns, and anything else crazy. He has been sliding everywhere lately, not just baseball but literally everywhere (grocery store, church, grass...) he slides like hes sliding into home. I am having to patch pants and doctor scraped knees a lot these days! But it doesnt stop him from doing it all over again.

He is seriously so funny and loves to be the life of the party. If you start laughing at him then he will take it and run with it. He likes for people to like him. If he thinks he has upset someone or hurt someone then he shuts down. This is something we are working on with him.

I am reading a book "the strong willed child". That is Jr. He is his daddy made over. I love it but it is so challenging for me. The Lord is using Jr to teach matthew and myself a lot about us and refine us. Our prayer is that through teaching, guiding, leading Jr that he will first see Christ love in matthew and myself and then see how much we love him and want the best for him. For it is because of Chirist love for us that we yearn for our children to know that love and believe with all thier heart that God loves them. We pray every day for our children to have a heart that seeks and has a hunger for the word of God.  I believe God is already doing a work in our Jr. We are so thankful for the people God is using to show Jr just how much he is loved. Family and friends who walk along side us in raising our children in a Christ centered home.

We never want Jr to lose who he is and lose his strong personality. We do want him to learn to control it and use it for good and being helpful and not hurtful. We have seen a beautiful change in him and have watched him grow a lot in the past couple months. We are thankful for this and pray we continue to be consistant with him in all we do.

For his birthday Matthew and I took him out on a date. It was so much fun having some time with just him. In true Matthew/Jr fashion he wanted to go to the new church building and walk around. So we went to hibachi, the property, menchies, target, and then finished the night off at the north cobb football game. It was a great great day!

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY TO OUR BOY JR!