Avery Jane Jespersen!

We are so proud to announce the new addition of the Jespersen family! Avery Jane was born Monday December 10 at 12:28pm. She weighed 8lbs 6oz. and 21 inches long. It was a wonderful day as we went in for induction at 6:00 that morning and had a safe and blessed delivery! We were so surprised by her weight and her full head of dark black hair! We also discovered by some of her little expressions that she has dimples. We are home and enjoying our girls so much! Leigh is so sweet to Avery and loves to love on her but the text book behavior of disobedience and acting out are certainly manifesting themselves in big sister, but I'm sure they will pass soon. It was a great day and so fun to have all of our visitors and friends come see us and pray for us! Thankyou everyone for loving on and praying for our family. We are so blessed! May God bless you for blessing us!

Baby Day!

Well, we are still waiting. I sure thought that we would have a baby by now because I have been dialated to 3cm for a month now but she's just not ready to come. We are going to induce on Monday Dec. 10th in the morning so we know she will be here in 5 days! I can't beleive the time has come! I think that we are getting Leigh's sleeping habits back on track, for now anyways. It sure was hard there for awhile but we are making her stay in her bed and rewarding her if she does and it seems to be working - now after Avery comes that may be a different story, I don't know. I'm all set and ready, I think. I'm trying to keep the house clean and our bags are packed just in case! I look forward to updating everyone on our new addition very soon. We will post the news and pictures right here! Stay tuned!!

Yea!, last night Leigh slept all night!! She has been waking up 3-4 times a night for the last month and a half and usually ends up sleeping on the floor in our room. She then is awake about 6:15. I've heard this could be normal for her age but it sure has been difficult for us all. Maybe the Lord is preparing us for the new baby. Her bahavior has been effected during the day because she is so tired and we have been disiplining alot more lately! Maybe she sences some change? This has just been a difficult season and I'm afraid we are just getting started! I pray that the Lord will give me patience and all of us rest! I hope to report soon some baby news! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving - I am so thankful that in spite of our lack of sleep we are all healthy and blessed! Thanks be to God for all His goodness to us!

Avery's Room!

I wanted to share a few pictures of the nursery! I love how things turned out! I'm not quite finished but we'll get there!! My mom helped me with the bedding and I found a great vintage dresser at a fun store here in Waco that was already painted the turqoise color. I also just recovered the bulletin board with some left over fabric from the bedding! How fun! I can't believe that the day is drawing near. I have already started dialating so she could come any day!!

Making music & a mess!

I had to capture this! After cleaning the toilets this morning, I decided I would sit and watch Regis and Kelley for a few minutes. I turned around when I heard little feet coming back and forth and saw Leigh setting up band practice. She went and got each dish and pan one by one until the cabinet was empty and then proceeded to "sing a song"! I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I wanna make a mess, mommy!"

Sorry, its been awhile

I have not been very good this month keeping up with my blog. Shame on me! I have been more tired than normal this month and have picked up a cold in the last week. I will do much better! I do have a new "what she says" quote from Leigh! She has been waking up way too early lately and Ricky has been taking her back to bed until it is time to get up. He was putting her back to bed the other morning and she said, "Daddy it's dark." Daddy said, "I know Leigh, what do we do when it is dark?" Instead of getting the answer he thought he would like, "we sleep, or go night night," She said, "turn the light on." Yes, I guess we do turn lights on when it's dark, but Oh how I wish she would just sleep in a little later!! I'll be back with more interesting things to say later!!

Leigh's 1st day MDO 2007

CHEESE!

"what she says"

Ok, it's true kids really do say the darndist(?) things.
I was singing a song to myself while finishing up a scrapbook page, Leigh comes in the room with her hand out and says, "Momma stop." I say, "stop what Leigh?" She says, "da moosic." Did she really just tell me to stop singing? Well, blow me away!
Silly Girl!

John Piper's Bedtime Song

Tonight I visited one of my favorite sites posted on my blog under "Favorites" - www.desiringgod.org. I found that John Piper too has a blog that you can access from his website and I came across one of his acticles he wrote called "Talitha's Bedtime Song". John Piper sings this song to his only daughter every night. I enjoyed very much reading the short article and listening to the bedtime song! I love the words and was very much inspired to learn the tune and memorize the words so that I too can sing this song to my children. I can only imagine the wisdom and love for the Lord and for His word he has instilled in his children. I think he has much to offer for parents raising children and wanted to share this. He says, "I think we need to build in our children an absolute fearless confidence that God is for them when they trust in Him."
Click on BEDTIME to read and listen:
BEDTIME
It really reminded me that my purpose in raising my children is to guide them and direct them to know, to love and to desire God.

Flip Flop!

Last week was a great week! My sweet sister kept Leigh for 3 days (along with her 4 other children, God bless her) and I was able to get so much done!! She suggested we switch out our girls for the week and let them play. She had Leigh Mon - Wed and I had Bailey Thur - Sat.
I had big plans for those three days to be as productive as I could. I honestly didn't know what to do with myself as I usually only have 2 hours during the day while Leigh takes a nap to be productive. That is if I don't take a nap myself or try to tackle the laundry. I was able to get my scrapbooking supplies organized and got a great headstart on Leigh's scrapbook! Yea!! My goal is to have her first year done before the baby comes, maybe more!!
In the mean time at my sister's house... Oh my little busy bee! Andrea had lots of stories to tell me every night as I checked up on her. Now, my Leigh is not a spiteful, mean, hateful little girl but if you take your eye off of her for much length of time that girl can make a mess in less time than it takes to say, "have yall seen Leigh?" I think my sister experienced this first hand. She poured sand from the sand box in her and Bailey's hair, she turned the water hose on and drenched herself with her clothes on, she dumped all the books out of the basket onto the floor multiple times (a regular occurance and my house), and she took all of Bailey's clothes out of her drawers! There's more but I can't remember them all. But I do know why we don't have a sand box! For the most part I think Leigh had a great time at Aunt Andie's house!
My turn was much less stressful I believe. I definetly have the better end of the deal. Bailey was a perfect little angel all three days, just so well behaved and she sits still at the table and she'll watch a movie. Bailey is 14 months older than Leigh and wow, is that a huge difference! They play great together but I sure hope that in a year Leigh can use up a little of that energy. It was a little more difficult with the two just because I couldn't keep my eye on Leigh the whole time. I think I am going to have my hands full when the baby comes! My mother says that I am paying for my raising but asures me that it will get easier.
Well, my week was great but now I'm back on duty 'keepin a look out' on my sweet little busy bee. But I already failed as I found her today under the table drinking more than half of my diet dr. pepper that I had just gotten at Sonic. Oh, the stories we'll tell!!

Leigh's 2nd Birthday!

Leigh turned two August 10th! Now we are trying to teach her that she is just two, not "two August", or "two a little bit", or "two Friday", but "two years old!" She had a Curious George party or "Monkey George" as he is known in our house. Monkey George is definetly the favorite right now so of course he had to be the theme! She had a great birthday with lots of friends and family to surround her and spoil her with fun new toys! It was a full day of swimming, food and family! One of her favorite gifts is a tricycle given by Memaw and PaPa. She is getting better everyday trying to push the pedals without them getting away from her!

New Additions!

Yes, we found out! We had another sonogram that confirmed the baby's gender. We are having another girl and are absolutely thrilled! Her name is Avery Jane. It has been fun talking to Leigh and telling her who is in Mommy's tummy and that she has a sister. She of course does not quite understand but I think by December she will. Ricky and I have enjoyed entertaining the thought of another girl and how Leigh and Avery will be as sisters. One of the bedrooms in our house is somewhat bigger than the others with a bathroom so we foresee Leigh and Avery sharing that room together one day. I wonder if she will be as spunky as Leigh, maybe she will be my cuddle bug? Ricky was feeling a little outnumbered with soon to be four girls to one boy living in our house, (Mommy, Leigh, Avery, and our dog Campbell - then there is Daddy) so we went to Austin last week and got a new golden retriever puppy. His name is Bogey. Now Daddy has a companion, but I think he really likes having all his girls!

It's a ...?

Ricky and I are thrilled about our upcoming baby due December 14th! Since finding out we were expecting, we went back and forth deciding whether or not to find out the sex of our baby. I was fine not knowing. The thought of being suprised on delivery day was very exciting to me, but Ricky wimped out on me and said he couldn't stand to wait. So we made the decision to find out. Since we set our hearts on finding out, the closer the day came the more excited I got. Well, we went to have the big ultrasound yesterday to determine the sex of the baby but much to our dismay we left undetermined. They could not be certain enough to confidently make the call. What a downer! We left with such an empty feeling. Our doctor did not perform the ultrasound, we went to the radiology clinic. When I saw my doctor this morning he could not make the call just by looking at the pictures but he is going to be gracious and let us do another ultrasound in the office my next visit - IN A MONTH, AH! We got home and Ricky says, "so should we just not find out now"?, and I without hesitation reply, "what? No! Now I have to know." What just happened here? I'm confused, my hormones cannot handle all this indecisivness! I'll get a grip and be patient and check back in a month with hopfully - It's a boy!, or It's a girl! Until next time, It's a Baby!

"what she says"

July~ Ask Leigh how old she is and she will simply reply, "two August."
Ask Leigh what her name is and she will simply reply"two August."
Say hello to Leigh and she will greet you with, "two August!"
Needless to say Leigh will be two August 10th!

"Planting Tulips"

Let me share with you. I do not have a garden. I've never actually planted tulips, nor do I even know if I have a green thumb. What I do know is that I aspire to always be "planting tulips" in every area of my life. In work or play, with family or friends, in marriage or raising my children, I pray the tulips will always be blooming. TULIP is an acronym for the Doctrines of Grace. They are five points supported by the scriptures to explain who God is and who I am in Him.

"These five points are still at the heart of Biblical theology. They are not unimportant. Where we stand on these things deeply affects our view of God, man, salvation, the atonement, regeneration, assurance, worship, and missions... 1. We experience first our depravity and need of salvation. 2. Then we experience the irresistable grace of God leading us toward faith. 3. Then we trust the sufficiency of the atoning death of Christ for our sins. 4. Then we discover that behind the work of God to atone for our sins and bring us to faith was the unconditional election of God. 5. And finally we rest in His electing grace to give us the strength and will to persevere to the end." - John Piper (see http://www.desiringgod.org/ Resource Library, Article by Date - 1985)

By God's grace and His soverignty, I am called. Because of this I pray to always praise Him and make Him known, giving Him glory through my relationships, raising my children, daily activities, and in my own heart. So if I am cleaning, scrapbooking, shopping, cooking, spending time with family and friends, or disiplining my children, may I always be planting tulips!