Leslie's Little Smittles: Our Story: It's a WHAT?!

I just love that my readers love this series! I have really enjoyed telling our story, but I've also loved hearing from some of you who are at or have been in some of the same places we have found ourselves through the years. Please feel free to share your story with us! We love hearing from you.
If you are just joining us please feel free to follow the link back to the beginning of Our Story.

Lulu at Manly's graduation.

Me and my man at his graduation.

Our little family at Manly's graduation reception.

Once we were back in Conway we settled in quickly. I joined a playgroup and MOPS and met lots of other mom friends. We were involved in church, and I also held a book club in our home for ladies of all ages. It was a fun and happy time in our lives.

Manly and I went back to the place we first fell in love for our anniversary.

This picture was taken on the exact spot we had our first kiss. Hehe!

Manly and I got really bad haircuts. I just told him if he ever shaves his head again I'm gonna have to leave! Haha!

I got to get ALL my girls together. Merritt, Olivia, Allison, Addison, and Emma Claire.

Love love love my first babies. My girls from another mother.

Manly being...well, himself. Ha!

Our family at Garvan Gardens.

Such a beautiful night with my man. And, I miss that coat...

Addi's baby dedication service.

Love this pic of my sweet girls.

Easter

Manly threw me a party. I guess I was turning 28. Ha!

We took our first camping trip. Manly and the girls LOVED it.

Camping!

My KK looking ADORABLE!

Hundred Acre Wood Friends! Halloween 2009!

Christmas 2009. One of my favorite pictures of the girls. Sometimes you just have to roll with it!

I also started homeschooling Olivia which was so much fun! We started her out at 4 because she was so smart and getting a little bored. She did great, and we've been homeschooling since then. Olivia did a great job with school and I loved the freedom we got with teaching her at home. I used the traditional Abeka program as well as some supplemental activities online at www.starfall.com.

My little Lulu on her first day of school. No, we didn't GO anywhere, but she wanted a backpack, so we got her one.

We made our first trip to Walt Disney World in Feb-Mar of 2009. That was a really big deal for us. When we first started out there were several times when we had to chose between buying diapers and food. We never went hungry, because God always provided at just the right time, but the thought of vacation had once only seemed like a fantasy. To be standing on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom with our three girls watching the parade was like a "wonderful dream come true." I remember looking over at Manly and both of us had eyes full of tears from being so glad at finally being in a place where we could BREATHE. It took five years, and we still had to keep a strict budget, but we were in DISNEY WORLD!

Lulu after her Bippity Boppity Boutique trip.

Manly and I at Epcot.

Our girls! They look SO little!!

We went by the beach on our way home from WDW.

After we got back it wasn't long before I found out I was pregnant again! We were going to have a little Valentine's baby! This baby's due date was February 14th. I was really praying hoping for a boy, but after having three girls I had a feeling it was probably another girl.
It was in this time that we also found out that my grandfather, who had always been the picture of health, had lung cancer and need heart bypass surgery. He had gone in for a simple eye procedure, but when they checked his blood pressure it was really high, so they sent him to the hospital. The doctors were all shocked he was still able to work with the condition his heart was in. Finding the cancer happened when they started doing tests for the heart surgery. It was shocking to our family, and we were all really really sad.

Me and the girls with PaaPaa.

On September 10th we went in to my doctors office for my 20 week ultrasound. We were SO excited to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. It's a good thing we decided to find out. As SOON as the ultra sound tech put the wand thingy on my tummy we could ALL tell it was going to be a BOY!! It was like Isaiah Scott wanted everyone to know he was a BOY! Ha! I shrieked out, "WE'RE HAVING A BOY!!!!" then came the waterworks! We were DELIGHTED to be having a boy! We left there and went to a Rhea Lana's sale. We were lucky that it was half price pre-sale night! Haha! We just about bought out the boy side of the store!

Manly and I got to go on an overnight trip for our anniversary. This is me at about 26 weeks.

Mid 2009 we really started looking at our finances and trying to decide if we might be ready to buy a house. The answer was a resounding NO!! We had a hefty car payment, which was keeping us tied down moneywise. One day, as I was getting into our pretty white van I thought to myself that it might be possible to sell the van and buy an older model vehicle with cash. While I loved my new model van, I was desperate to have a home we could call OURS. I ran the idea by Manly(who was reading Dave Ramsey's book) who thought it was a great idea. We put a sign in it and posted it to craigslist and facebook the next day. We had also recently bought a cash car to upgrade Manly's car, but felt like we could also sell it and get something cheaper and pay off more of our car debt so that we could get ahead. We had both cars sold in a matter of weeks, paid off all of our car debt(which was our ONLY debt aside from student loans). We bought two cheap vehicles with the money we made from the sell of Manly's car. Now we were ready to buy a house!

Our little house in West Conway that we rented when we moved back. Loved that house.

One evening we were out driving around and found a house we really wanted to see. We called the agent listed on the sign, because we hadn't really worked with anyone yet. She came out and showed us the house, and we realized she was the agent who had just helped some other friends of ours find their home. We liked the house, but it wasn't quite what we were looking for, but we LOVED the agent. We asked her to help us find a home. Over the next few days we(basically me and the girls) looked at house after house in Conway.
When we had come to the last house on my list and still hadn't found one we loved our agent asked me to describe my dream home. When I started to tell her what we were looking for she got wide eyes and said, "Well, your dream home is right down the street! Follow me." I got in the van and followed her literally right down the street, and there on the corner was our home! I walked in and immediately knew we were home. I told her to draw up the papers, and we made an offer on the house before Manly had ever even seen it! We moved in two weeks later on Manly's birthday. He loved the house, by the way.

Our family in front of our new home.

Our first Christmas in our home!

On Sunday, January 24th, I woke up feeling really yucky. I went ahead and got ready for church. I sang on the praise team that day, and about half way through the first service I started having pretty steady contractions. Since my due date was still 2 weeks away I thought they would probably just go away, and they did for a while. That afternoon some friends had planned a baby shower, so I went to that still not feeling great. Afterwards I went home and laid down. A few hours later I was back up and we were heading to the hospital.

My Isaiah belly the day before he was born.

After a few hours of being monitored they wanted to send me home, but I KNEW this was the day my boy was coming, so I basically told them if they sent me home I was just going to stay at the hospital because I knew he was coming that day. The doctor laughed at me and told me I could stay for a few more hours just in case. 20 minutes later our Isaiah Scott Smittle was born two weeks early on Monday, January 25th. The doctor, not believing me, had left to go to another hospital and the nurse on duty hardly made it back into the room before he came.

Me with my tiny baby boy.

Manly with his first son!

We named him Isaiah Scott after both of my grandfathers(and obviously after Manly). My great grandfather's name was Isaiah, and my grandpa(who had died only a few months before Isaiah was born) was named Scottie. We also wanted our first son to have the same middle name as his father(Scott) since our first born daughter had the same middle name as her mother(Nichole). SO, we named him Isaiah Scott.

One of my favorite pictures of Manly and Brubbs.

Brubbs was a tiny little thing! He was my smallest baby so far weighing in at just over 6 pounds. He was squalling and bright red. After a few moments we started to notice his color changing and his breathing became labored. We called the nurses to come check him out. After looking at him they decided to take him to the nursery, so Manly went with him. After about 30 minutes Manly came to tell us they were moving him to the NICU because he had RDS(the same thing KK had been born with). His was much less severe, but they were going to have to put him on a c-pap machine to help him breathe.

Brightest eyed baby! He was the most alert baby!

My heart was broken for my tiny boy! Honestly, I hadn't even THOUGHT about the fact that he could be unhealthy. After having a healthy Addison I thought these days were behind us, but here we were again facing the SAME situation we'd been in before. I almost couldn't bare it. I asked all of the visitors who had come to see our boy to leave, and I sat in my empty room and sobbed.

Look at all that BLUE!

Speaking honestly, I felt betrayed by God in those moments. How could HE do this to ME again. Why me? Why him? What had we done? The questions came rushing out of me as I laid there unable to be with my baby. Then, I remembered the fact that GOD was in control. He had allowed this to happen for a reason, and He needed me to know that He loved Isaiah more than I did. God had his tiny life in His hands. Things changed in those moments. My attitude toward the situation changed. My heart, though heavy, changed.

When we finally got to bring Brubbs home our dear friend, Becke' from Lulu Photography came and took these amazing pictures.

Could this be any sweeter? I think not! Look at the snowman in the background!

Oh those sweet baby wrinkles!!

Love this one!

Isaiah quickly recovered. He was a brave little fighter. We were so happy that we never had to leave the hospital without our baby. He came home after 4 only days. His sisters were smitten, his mommy in LOVE, and his daddy prepared to teach him to be a man.

Because Isaiah was whisked away to the NICU the girls didn't get to see him at all until we brought him home. We went by my parents house on the way home to pick them up and they QUICKLY fell in love.

Easter 2010.

This is my granny's great grandkids. Well, the ones in 2010, anyway. There are a lot more now! Ha!

Manly and Isaiah were on the cover of the Infant Mental Health Brochure.

We filled a kid sized swing up. LOVE this picture of my sweet babies.

We outgrew watching videos around the laptop.

Olivia had a pony party!

Momma and Addi in our cowgirl wear.

He decided he'd go ahead and keep me. HA!

We figured out pretty quickly that Isaiah had pretty severe issues with his eyes. At first we thought it was just normal newborn crossing, but then it never quit. When he was 5 months old he was diagnosed with congenital esotropia. We had him seen by three doctors before we decided that we would go ahead with corrective surgery. At six months he had the surgery. We were so pleased with the results.