Just Because...

During my pregnancy we pretty much kept our baby name choices secret. By the fourth kid I'd finally learned that sharing the name ahead of time, meant someone's opinion on it was going to annoy me. Greatly. And besides, surprises are fun...when I'm not the one being surprised.

Little Lucy Leyton (as Eli likes to refer to her) is nine days old today. Her name caught some by surprise. Many figured there must be a Lucy in the family...somewhere. There's not.

Many thought she'd have a Bible name. After all, we did have a trend going. Benjamin, Sarah, Noah, Eli, Jakob...apparently we've made Lucy the heathen of the family. Oh I kid.

Truth be told, the Bible name trend had nothing to do with picking Bible names and everything to do with the fact that they were just names Ben and I liked and could agree on.

Sure, I like that Noah obeyed God even though he must have looked like a lunatic to everyone else. And I love that even though Eli thoroghly messed up with his own sons, God gave him a second chance with Samuel and he got it right. Jakob...honestly, off the top of my head I don't know that much about the biblical Jacob. I've like the name Jake since the movie Sixteen Candles and Sweet Home Alabama. Aren't I spiritual? Ben liked Jacob, so we compromised with Jakob. What can I say, it's the stuff successful marriages are made of.

Ben and I liked Lucy from the start. There were other choices, but from the moment we saw that ultrasound and knew she was a girl, we also knew she was a Lucy. (Regardless of the fact that we have two sets of friends who have dogs names Lucy.) Turns out though, that Lucy (in Greek) means light. I love that. There are so many Bible verses that speak of light. God's word is light for us, as believers we are to be a light. (I'll share the specifics in another post.)

And, for my baby girl, the thing I pray the most, is that she would grow to love God's Word. That He would be the light for her path. That she would know Him so intimately that she would shine brightly with His love and truth.

And her middle name...Leyton...no particular reason except that I liked it, and I liked how it sounded with Lucy. Fascinating story, no? People keep asking about it, expecting a great, meaningful reason for the name...me blurting out that I just like it seems to disappoint. I'm close to just making up some ridiculous story. Suggestions?

*image courtesy of Google images*

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Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

Turns out I had never heard the song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds until friends mentioned it after her birth. I obviously live under a rock.

Word on the street (ie Google) says the song was written while on LSD. After listening to the song, I'm not gonna argue with that. The verses in the song are bizarre...although I do like the yellow and green cellophane flowers and something about marshmallow pie...but the refrain...oh the refrain. I can't stop singing it to her. I added three different versions of it to my ipod. Elton John, Elton Jon & John Lennon, and a Bono version.

Jake (4 years old) has been making pictures of Lucy. He brought me this one the other day and I had to smile. Like the song says...the girl with kaleidoscope eyes. *smile*

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They Think I'm Stupid...

Well, this is random, but...

Today in the mail, we got a letter from the car dealer where we purchased our mini van five years ago.

The letter informed us that they have a high demand for 2003 Dodge Caravans, and they'd love for us to come in and trade ours. Along with the offer was a $500 dollar incentive.

Are you kidding me?

Do they really think I'm dumb enough to think that people are flocking through their doors begging for a 2003 minivan that's been driven by a mama to 3 boys for the past five years?

Get real.

And a measly $500 incentive? They're gonna have to do better than that to get me to give up my minivan that I'm strangely attached to.

They'll also need to send me an apology for insulting my intelligence. *wink*

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Lucy

My friend Heth came up to the hospital and gave Lucy her first photo shoot. I adore them. Here's a peek...

Accessorizing Lucy...poor girl, we have no idea how to do it. :)

We came home from the hospital today. So far, so good. We're all pretty enamored with her.

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It's a GIRL!

Let me introduce you to the newest member of The Parsonage Family!
Lucy Leyton joined us yesterday at 3:36 PM weighing in at 7 lbs 9 oz. She's perfect. Can't wait to share more with you later...but here's some pics to tide you over till then. :)
Thanks so much bloggy friends, for all your prayers!
PS - She's nursing like a champ so far! Woo Hoo!

The boys crackme up. Life is gonna get even more interesting with little Lucy around ;)

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Julie Goes to Prom!

Friday when I went to the Doctor, she offered to strip my membranes. She was pretty sure it would put me into labor this weekend. I declined. Now, before you go thinking I'm crazy, let me explain.

1. I've gone that route before and it worked. Too well. Too fast.
2. It was going to be beautiful last weekend for us and I wanted to just enjoy it.
3. Julie had prom. How could I miss that?!?

I'm so glad I didn't. The weekend was full of beautiful weather and relaxing. Julie had a ton of fun at prom, and we had lots of fun watching all the couples arrive. Although the boys are still confused as to why anyone would ever want to get all dressed up like that. And Noah is quite ticked that the boy has to wear a tux that matches the color of the girls dress. He thinks the boy should get to pick the color too. He has a lot to learn... ;)

Blogger is totally messing with me and my pictures. I've tried all sorts of things, but for SOME reason it is making the pictures microscopic.

Except for this one. Which Julie is totally gonna love. I made them fake pose for this. At the time she said, "Are you taking a picture of my butt!?!" and I was like "No...well, yeah...sort of." ;) Someday...when she's hours away from birthing her 4th child, she'll look back at this picture and think...Dang, my butt looked good! So glad my host mom took that picture ;) I'm sure she will...

She was the most beautiful. And they were adorable together. (FYI: This is not the boyfriend from before. They broke up a couple months ago. I've resisted blogging about it because my joy seemed innappropriate at the time...it may still be innappropriate ;) This is Nick, a friend from youth group. He seems like a nice kid. And, in my humble opinion *cough* had the best tux of the evening. He is from a different school, so it was very kind of him to escort our Julie...she in return gets to go to his prom in two weeks.

Maybe blogger is just trying to help me out by making the pictures smaller so that I look smaller. I guarantee you that in the real picture I in fact look huger than huge. But I can deal...because people we are counting down HOURS now till the little baby arrives!

Tomorrow (or eventually) I'll post the news! YAY!

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Everything in One Post = Overkill

This once a week blog post thing is really quite boring. I apologize.

Some random updates for you:

• Monday night I went into the hospital because I'd been having regular contractions. By the time they hooked me up to the machine thingy, they had stopped. We'll just call it a trial run. The bonus was that Ben and I got to watch the end of Amagedon while at the hospital. And, we were both reminded of how absolutely wonderful the nurses there are. Five more days and we get to go see them again...for the real deal this time. :)
• Tuesday and Wednesday I came down with some weird viral thing. Nausea, fever/chills, sorta comes and goes. Ben was here to take care of me during the worst of it. He reminded me of what true love really is...sometimes it involves making 100 trips up and down the stairs filling the bathtub with pots of boiling water because your wife has used up all the water in the water heater and is still cold in the tub. I love that man.
• Today I'm feeling much better. Even having some coffee. Totally looking forward to some more nesting in the next few days.

In other news:

Ben came up with the idea of planting a garden (at his grandparents home in the country) this year. At first I was a little skeptical...and by that I mean lazy. Gardens seem like an awful lot of work. Last Summer I was annoyed with the two tomato plants we'd planted because I didn't know what to do with all the tomatoes. Can you imagine me with a garden of produce?

After chatting about it for awhile, I realized the garden wasn't really about the produce anyways. It's about the process.

As parents, we've been lamenting a bit about how our boys sometimes don't want to work for things. We live in a culture that wants to take the easiest way possible in order to attain something. I'm entirely guilty of this. I'm perfectly fine with store bought canned green beans if it means I don't have to pull weeds and get dirty. Makes sense to me.

When we presented the boys with the idea, there were mixed reactions. Which reinforced the fact that they need a little hard-labor under their belts. ;) God gives us so many practical and spiritual lessons from the land He's created. Sowing and reaping. Hard work in the planting, the labor it takes to keep the weeds from over-running everything, and the joy of the harvest. It's not just a lesson for my boys...it's for me to. It's a family ordeal.

There's bound to be whining and complaining along the way, but we're praying God uses this time to teach our boys (and us) that things in life require hard work. I want them to learn that just because something is hard, and takes awhile, doesn't mean we avoid it...it means we work hard and see it through. I want boys who grow up to be men who aren't afraid to do hard things.

Saturday, April 10th we started the process. I'm hoping to document it all the way through. Eventually, I'll even be able to bend over again and help...with a baby strapped to my back. :) In the mean time, here's my 38 week preggo shadow.

There, I think you're all caught up now. Oh wait...I can't stop listening to this song: If you can be in love with a song, then I am in deep.

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I'm Trying...Sorta

Guess who's not all that fun to talk to these days?

Me.

Oh you heard me right. I'm trying my best to be pleasant...but the effort is strenuous.

Stren-u-ous. The smile in the picture above, for example. We took that at church on Easter Sunday. Easter is my favorite, without it my faith would be dead. It's also the one Sunday of the year that I make everyone dress up. The boys usually whine and complain, but this year...it was me whining and complaining about finding something to wear...and by that I mean something that fit.

When you tell a non-pregnant, rational person that baby is scheduled to arrive in 12 days, they naturally think, WOW! SO SOON!

When you tell me, I think...12 days feels like forever.

It's not rational. But it is what it is.

I'm quite certain that God knew the precise amount of time it would take to create and form a human life, while at the same time knowing the exact limits of the woman. 40 weeks, give or take a few. Just the right amount of time for the woman to reach her absolute limit. So anxious to meet that little baby, and so ready to feel human again, that she's willing to endure any amount of pain to reach that outcome.

I'm there. Except the pain part...I'd really like the epidural in first. But still...

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We Just Connected...

Sunday we celebrated an early Easter with Ben's side of the family, out on the farm. Each Spring we always have so much fun admiring the new little calves.

This year though...I connected with someone else...

Our profiles let ya know we have a little something in common.

The only difference is that the cow seems to be able to manage keeping her eyes open for the picture. Geeesh. Maybe my face is just so puffy that my eyes actually look like that when I smile. At this point...I'd rather not know. *smile*

19 days to go. Can I get an Amen?

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