Whitney is 7!

My big girl is 7!  When I see this old kid walking around, I can't  believe it!  What an amazing 7 years we have had with Whitney!

How would I describe Whitney??  Kind, sensitive, smart, hard worker, faithful, thoughtful, funny, athletic, artistic, silly, and lots of fun!

Whitney has had a tremendous year at school.  Her teacher continues to rave about her school work as well as her character.  She went into the school year meeting all her grade level standards, and as the year progressed she moved up levels in math and reading.  It is so fun to watch her love for learning.

Whitney has a wonderful group of friends.  Several mom's telling me that their daughter feels Whitney is their best friend!  A true testament to what a wonderful friend she is.  I couldn't be more proud of that fact.

Colin and Lauren look up to Whitney so much and love when she comes home from school.  She is so patient with them and leads them in lots of fun play time!  She has also been awesome with Ryan since he was born.  A great baby holder!

Whitney has been playing softball this spring and has absolutely loved it.  With some extra coaching from Tim at home, she has really gotten a good swing going.  She has made it on base several times.  It has been exciting season for her!

I look forward to having Whitney home this summer.  Not only because she can help me with all the kids, but so we can spend some quality time together.

Whitney we are so proud of all your accomplishments this year.  We love you!

Lego Friends Birthday Party

Fun building lego sets with her friends.

Softball skills coming in handy!

We were excited to give her one of the Lego sets she has been wanting.  The Shopping Mall! I think she was happy about it:)

Ryan Townsend

Our baby boy surprised us a little early!  It was such a treat!  He came at 38 weeks to the day.  Ryan Townsend O'Neill joined us on April 21, 2016 at 7:19pm.  He weighed 7 lbs 3oz and 21 1/4 inches.  Ryan was born on my grandparents, Mimi and Pop's,  70th wedding anniversary.  A cool fact because we have been blessed with four kids just like them!  Same gender order too!

Ryan not only shares a middle name with me, but his sister in heaven.  This baby boy caught us by big surprise.  I am excited to see how he blesses our lives.  I know for certain, Christine had something to do with him joining our family.  I have never felt more complete.

Our family friend Kay, took our family pictures with Ryan.  She did a wonderful job capturing our precious little boy.  As well, as the warm ( a little bit crazy) welcome from his big siblings!  Here are a few (a lot) of my favorites!

Oh boy!  Lots of fun times ahead!

Colin is Four

Colin is four!  Our little guy is just the sweetest and funniest little kid!

We celebrated his 4th with a ninja turtle party!

Colin is all boy, loving ninja turtles, transformers, and building things.  He has no trouble finding fun with all his toys and having great imaginative play.  And of course he loves when Whitney joins in!

He continues to be a super thoughtful and loving brother.  He looks up to Whitney so much and is thrilled when she is home from school.  He has taken on the role as big brother wonderfully.  He likes being the little ring leader when it is just him and Lauren.  No doubt those two get into some mischief and get their fair share of wrestling in.  He also always looks out for her as well.  I cannot wait to see him with his little brother!

Asking big sis for help.

These three!

Generously letting her participate.

Colin is thriving in school.  He is incredibly social, talkative and eager to learn.  It is so fun to see him making his own little friends!

We are so proud of you Colin and the polite and kind boy that you are!  We love you!

Spring Break and Easter

We were lucky Easter was early this year because it was the last week I could fly being super pregnant!  We got to spend one full week in Kiawah and we had a blast.  We got mostly sunshine, time at the beach and the pool, lots of good food and a lot of relaxation.  Which was very much enjoyed before the craziness of becoming a family of 6!  Here are some pictures to highlight our trip!

Yay for Spring Break!!

Simple quiet, quality time playing together.

 Leading the group on the Easter basket hunt!

Ate all her candy filled eggs right up!

So much fun with Papa in the pool!

Can't wait to be a family of 6!

Unbelievably blessed!

Lauren is Two!

Our littlest lady is 2!  Sugar and spice and everything nice, are what little girls are made of!  This saying perfectly describes Lauren.  She continues to delight us with her overflow of kisses, contagious giggles and spunky personality!

She is super active.  She was our earliest walker and climber and she continues to be rather adventurous.  You could find her on the counter (though she is quickly removed), climbing over couches or sitting comfortably on  the coffee table.  She loves her little gym class were there gets to do lots of climbing, jumping on the trampoline, walking the balance beam or hanging on the bars.  Her love for dancing continues to grow.  She has even picked up specific dance moves the Bubble Guppies are performing. She also loves to sing in the car or at home while we listen to music.  Her retired thespian mom wonders where this might lead :)

She loves her siblings so much and can absolutely keep up with them.  The three of them play wonderfully with a little referring here and there.  She loves to play with Whitney and her barbie house, little dollhouse or you could find them doing each others hair with a a kids hair kit we have.  She and Colin get in their dose of wrestling and love to shimmy under our bed or hide behind the curtains.  She loves to hug and kiss them, and must make  a stop in each of their rooms to say goodnight.

Her number one love continues to be babydolls.  Everyday she carries her baby doll around or pushes her in the stroller.  Feeds her in the high chair or lays her in her bed with a blanket.  She also loves jewels, sunglasses and play cell phones so is often adorned in these as she strolls the house.

One of my favorite things about her is her boisterous laugh.  It is deep, loud and hearty.  She finds lots of humor in her family members as well as the shows she watches.  It is just too cute to hear this laugh out of this little girl!

We celebrated her 2nd birthday with pizza and cupcakes.  Once she realized the party was for her, she grabbed a party hat and soaked it all in!  We love you Lauren!

Another little minion lover in the house.

Her new dollhouse!

Party girl!

Decked out, on top of the coffee table eating snow.

5 Years Ago

5 years ago my life changed forever.  Some days it feels like a dream.  But then I remember holding our tiny baby girl in our hands and feeling something way more powerful than I had ever felt before.  Though we were stricken with grief at Christine's death. as we cradled her, we felt her spirit around us.  We knew that her weak body was not in pain and that she was already watching over us.

I believe that more than ever as I write this post.  I am 23 weeks and a few days pregnant.  Exactly the same as the day we said goodbye to her.  It feels surreal.  I dreamed since I was a little girl that I would have 4 children.  And I felt I did, just one was in heaven.  I believed that.  I believe it helped me through the last few years of having Colin and Lauren.  And that through tragedy I could still feel complete.

I will not lie, as I gave away maternity clothes, baby clothes and everything baby, something kept tapping me on the shoulder.  Something was telling me this was not it.  But I ignored those taps.  Because we had decided we were done.  We were incredibly blessed and happy with our children and felt fortunate we had one watching over us.   I was excited about moving on to the next phase of life.

To find out I was pregnant again was a roller coaster of emotions.  I was scared to death, I was in disbelief, I was so confused.  Why was this happening.  Why was I so lucky when others are not.  I still don't have the answer.  But what I can tell you is I have never felt so at peace.  To think I will have 4 babies here to hold and love is unbelievable.  Surreal.

I think throughout my life I will continue to learn why Christine was brought into our lives.  For now, what I know for sure is I don't take one moment for granted.  Life can change in an instant and nothing is more important than loving my family openly with all of my heart.  For that I will be forever grateful.

WE ARE HAVING A BABY

August 31st, Whitney's first day of school, I found out I was pregnant.  I had been putting off taking a pregnancy test because I thought I was crazy for even thinking I was pregnant.  Hadn't even mentioned it to Tim.  But as each day passed, I knew it was time to take a test.  I cannot even explain how shocked I was!  To say the least, these Fall months came with many emotions.  But we are very excited that we will have another baby BOY joining our family in early May.

We wanted to do something fun for the gender reveal and Tim came up with the idea of party poppers.  I had the midwives put our news in an envelope and I asked our friend Brittany to take the pictures.  It was a super fun way to find out what we were having and here are a few pictures from that day!

And here are a few sonogram pictures of the baby boy!

Profile

Proof it's a boy!

Hand

Feet

Cool 4D photos of his face.  They are wavy because they are surrounded by water.