Leslie's Little Smittles: Our Story: Busting Out of the Mini Van

Daddy pushing Brubbs on his tricycle.

Brubbs turned a year old! Cutest chubby baby EVER!

Who knew this little boy could melt his mother's heart?

Fun in the snow!!

My handsome boys.

My little beauties! Easter 2012.

Little Mario! Cutest little thing!!

Sisters!!

It wasn't long after Bubby was born, only six months, when we found out we were going to have another baby. Honestly, I was a little shocked, but I guess I shouldn't have been. I'm the most fertile woman EVER. I found out RIGHT before I left to take Isaiah to a follow-up appointment for his eye surgery. I was planning to meet Manly there, so I just stuck the test in my purse and pulled it out when I saw him. No words necessary this time. Ha!
It was a little rough for me to go right back to being pregnant. I had to stop nursing Isaiah, which was sad. I had a tiny baby, a toddler, a preschooler, and a gradeschooler all to take care of, which was EXHAUSTING. I had a hard time getting used to being pregnant this time, and it wasn't easy. I don't know if it is because I was pushing 30, or if I just needed a break. Either way, I was TIRED.
Our thoughts on having babies were changing as were our thoughts on a lot of other things. We finally came to the decision to talk to a midwife about homebirth for this delivery. I'm not going to retell that story, because I've written about it already here. (If you are interested in how we came to the home birth choice you should read that post. If you'd like to know MORE about homebirth and our experience with it you should read these posts.) The homebirth experience was just what I needed to help me make it through my pregnancy. I had never felt more loved on by any healthcare provider as I did while I was pregnant with Mia. My midwife and apprentice took SUCH good care of me!
This time, when we went to the ultrasound to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl we brought my BFF, Ashley. She had never been to an ultrasound before, and I wanted her to be able to be a part of our experience. It was such a special time to find out together that we were having ANOTHER girl! Olivia was a little upset at first that the baby was a girl because she had really wanted another brother for Isaiah. Once she found out she was going to be this baby's buddy though, she quickly changed her mind and decided a girl was just the thing she needed! Ha!
We decided to name her Amelia because I have always loved that name with a nickname of Mia. When I first watched(this is going to sound so lame) "Princess Diaries" I decided that one day I would have a daughter named Amelia that we called Mia(like the lead character). We decided to name her Mia JOY because that was what we needed the most when she was born. Honestly, it had been a rough year in a lot of areas of our life. Joy was missing! Bringing that sweet little bright eyed girl into our life was the best thing that could have happened. She has and still does bring so much JOY into our home.

Manly with his sweetie peetie.

I was so proud of myself in this moment and so thankful to God for the healthy delivery of my Mia.

Our little homebirthed miracle.

Sweet sleepy moments.

Brubbs was such a sweet big brother. He's say, "awwwWW! Babeee!" then just kiss and kiss her.

One of my favorite pics of my pretty girl.

My most perfect memory of our homebirth experience. This was after our herbal bath. We were in awe of how relaxed Mia was.

My friend Becke' from Lulu Photography came back to take pics of our Mia. LOVE this one!

And this one. Look at those eyes!

A good good big brother this girl has. Just checking on his baby.

In the time that I was pregnant with Mia we also switched churches. It was a really hard decision, but turned out to be a good thing for our family in the end. We started going to a church full of large families where our family fit right in as far as size goes. We met a lot of families who were a great support for us right when we needed it. The kids were loved on so much there! The big girls went to AWANA's, and Manly and I went to Bible studies. We met a lot of friends there, and they were very supportive of our choice to have a homebirth. In fact, homebirthing families are in the majority there, so it was nice to hear from some of their positive experiences.

My girls ready for fun at CRAZY hair night at AWANA.

We stayed at that church until after Mia was born, but after that we(mostly me) kept feeling like we wanted to go back to our other church. We made the move BACK when Mia was about six months old. That choice was wrong from the start. I think it felt like someone must feel leaving for college, then coming back to their hometown for the first time. Everything is the same, but everything is totally different. I loved singing on the praise team there, but it just wasn't enough. We tried to make it work for several months until I finally told Manly I wanted him to decide where we should go and what we should do because he was the leader of our home.

This is the time we fell in love with Operation Christmas Child.

The next Sunday we woke up and started to get ready for church and he said, "Well. Today we're going back to First Baptist." I was a little shocked but I kept my mouth shut for maybe the first time ever. We loaded up and headed back over to our "home church" where we'd been since the beginning of our family up until we moved to NWA. When we first walked in we knew we were home. There were several friends who still attended there, so that was nice. The kids all loved their classes. We settled into a Sunday school class that we loved, and we started to get involved. I can see how God used each of our church moves to teach us something, but I am SO glad that he led Manly to make the decision to go back to First Baptist. I love how it shows me that when I stop trying to be controlling and let Manly actually DO the job that God intended for him things turn out just right.

I turned...(BIG GULP) the big 3-oh. To celebrate Manly threw me an eighties party. Too bad it was on Memorial Day weekend. No one came except my family. Oh well. We obviously still had a blast! Ha!

My "that's so 80s" kids. Look at Brubbs' Zach Morris hair!

My mom and I. We are AWESOME!

After Mia was born we decided to wait a year before we even thought about having another baby. My body was so tired after having so many babies in just a few years, so waiting a year was perfect. All of that to say that Mia was our baby for a whole year. I carried that girl around just about all the time. She was very attached to me, and still is a momma's girl. She loved being the baby, but my heart was sure she wasn't the last little Smittle. Manly didn't quite agree at first...

My beautiful Mia Joy!

First "WHOA! That's a lot of kids!" picture. HA!

I love the sweet calm spirit Mia has. I think this picture shows that.

We got the crazy idea to take all the kids to a Travelers game. Bonkers, I tell you!

Have I mentioned I love that man of mine. A great dad and HOT to boot!

Father's Day 2011. BRUBBS! I miss his curls!

My darling son. I mean, it just doesn't get any cuter!

So, Manly thinks that you can get babies to stick their tongue out at you. He was so proud of himself in this moment. wow.

July 2011.

Dirty darlins swingin on the "best friends" swing!

My sweet Addison Faith turns three.

I made it through the year of school! Here are the kids at our "world party." They each dressed as people from different countries.

Halloween 2011.

One of the thematic units we did was on Mexico. We had a Mexican feast to celebrate when we were finished. The kids all dressed in their Mexican inspired attire.

My little class.

Manly had his 10 year high school reunion.

Isaiah got to play with Manly's childhood tractor. I'd love to have this in our family some day. For now a picture will have to do.

Pop took Brubbs to the woods for his first time.

Brubbs found out that sister LOVED riding his truck as much as he did. They still do this now.

My storybook cuties. The two big girls had a storybook party. Captain Hook, Alice, Cinderella, and Snow White.

Smee and Captain Hook

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.

Twin sisters. Love having girls to be matchy matchy!

We got some of our friends together for a fall festival learning day.

My silly kids. We found out if we let them make a silly face FIRST we can usually get a good smile.

Christmas 2011. Scotty didn't get the black, white, and red memo. Ha!

My Mia in a gown I wore as a baby. I had a LOT more hair than this poor bald baby.

My parents sent our family on a trip to Branson for Christmas. We stayed in the Castle Rock Resort. The kids LOVED it. Yes, Brubbs has a shiner. I have NO idea why.