My first time getting to hold her :)

A pro with daughters :)

You when you're young and you think you've got your whole future planned out? By the time I was 6 I knew I wanted to be a mommy, have 2 kids (a boy and a girl), and be married. As I got older I figured I would "start" having kids by the time I was 25. Because that's the right, mature age right?! Geez...I didn't have a clue what was coming my way! Never in my weirdest dreams would I think I would have 3 daughters by the time I was 29! Goes to show how much that middle school game M.A.S.H. knows! psh!

After I had Bella and Beau I decided that I was done having kids. Not that it was my decision alone but WE decided that 2 girls was perfect for us so after much prayer and wise counsel, we made the appointment for BJ to have his...well, you know...snipped! We really felt like God was telling us that this was OK and we felt a peace about it. The girls were so young at that time. Bella was 3 1/2 and Beau was 17 months old and a handful! I knew, so I thought, that I couldn't handle anymore kids. November 2, a week or so before BJs appointment, I find out that I'm pregnant!! I'm going to be honest here, I was devastated at first! BJ had a huge grin on his face while I cried and felt sorry for myself! The c-section I had with Beau was still fresh in my mind, I had lost all my baby weight, Beau was kind of starting to sleep through the night....etc! I couldn't believe it! Needless to say, obviously God had other plans for our family of 4.

Minutes after birth and struggling for air

2 days old     

Jude Galilee was born 7 1/2 months later. She was early and had some struggles in the beginning but turned out to be just fine! I seriously can't imagine our lives with out her silly, hilarious spirit. God knew what He was doing when He sent her to us.

In 4 days Jude will be turning 2! The past 2 years have really flown by and have REALLY kept me busy! Jude is all over the place and copies everything her sisters do, not always a good thing.

Trying to hold her head up. 4 months old

"What's with the creepy big sister?" :)

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

Classic bath picture

Her first Halloween

Mother of 3 :) Wow!

Classic spaghetti picture!

Almost 1

Her 2nd Halloween

Turning into a blonde!

My toddler

Got into make-up!!

Big blue eyes

Mischievous personality reveals itself!!

My big girl

We always would find her asleep on the floor!

Our lives have been taken over by 3 little girls and we love it. Jude is our last baby though, unfortunately. During that c-section I had to have my tubes tied due to complications. At the time I was relieved and felt good about it. I go back and forth about it now. Sometimes I want another baby so bad and other times I defiantly do not! Depends on the day and season of life we're in at the time.

So, my youngest littles isn't so young anymore. She sleeps in a twin bed now. She is apparently potty training herself. I often walk in on her naked straddling the toilet. It feels awkward so I say, "Oh....sorry Jude..." then walk out! When did she grow up into a potty training expert?!
She also enjoys climbing onto the counter and then washing her feet in the sink. She's a climber of ALL things. She can open doors, refrigerators, dress herself in her sisters clothes, jam DVD's in the VCR player, and run from me like you would not believe!! Jude is totally a 3rd born and loves to make people laugh. She is our baby girl and I'm SO thankful that God didn't let us decide our own future and how many kids we "thought" we needed.

Happy 2nd Birthday June Bug!!

Lately...

Well hello there! Where have I been?! The past three weeks have been...um...emotional, exciting, different, challenging and eye opening. It has been an interesting month for sure!

Almost 2

Family pictures April 2011

Growing fast!

I recently stopped working  for a dear friend in her home day care. I was fortunate enough to be able to take my youngest littles with me. I was working about 26 hours a week which I know is not a lot to most full time working people but for a wife/mother that has been home for the past few years, it was a lot! I was so anxious and ready to get out of the house and feel "needed" (as weird as that sounds).  I worked for about 4 months and then decided I needed to be at home again. Our lives got so busy all of a sudden. I don't even know how it happened but before we knew it, we had something scheduled 5 nights out of the week! I used to envy that type of life, when I home schooled and felt so lonely and secluded. Now...not so much. I needed to slow down and focus on my home and our family. Its been good but defiantly different. I forgot how clingy and bored my girls get when we're at home too much. Not something I enjoy...! It will take some getting use to again but that's OK. We have missed our morning walks around camp and just exploring the outdoors like we used to. We most all of missed seeing BJ throughout the day, something I never want to change!
I completed a bible study a couple weeks ago that really hit home with me. It affected me WAY more than I had planned or even wanted to. Obviously God was in control and knew that I needed to hear a few things. I was humbled, embarrassed, ashamed, hurt, enlightened but above all, forgiven! I was given the chance to re-evaluate my "priorities" and start over by focusing on things that really mattered. I made the bold, weird step to "delete" (which in Facebook terms merely means to "deactivate") my account so I could regroup and figure things out. Facebook can tend to be addicting, annoying, unnecessary, hilarious, interesting, boastful, awesome, fun....well, for me anyway! I needed a break from it so I took the plunge and "deactivated"! It was hard at first, which I realize is lame, but was good and well needed in the end. After a lot of changes and prayer, I decided to "log back in". To my surprise, note the sarcasm, the Facebook world was untouched, unchanged. I felt like I had just logged in the night before. Anyway, I will use it in small doses and move on! :)

These next few weeks will be full of moving, as the camp experiences a "house rotation", if you will. I am excited, anxious, thrilled, sad...too may emotions to convey. I have brought two out of my three daughters home from the hospital in this house. We have had MANY tears (a house full of 4 girls tends to be that way) in this home but much more laughter and giggles. We've explored every nook of this place and at the same time grown out of this place! We're ready to move on, and by move on, I mean down the road :). It's bitter sweet for everyone involved but good! :)
We're in a good place and God is good, all the time!

A glimpse into my 20's...

Here we go...In 20 minutes I will be 29. I know to most that seems so old and to others, so very young. I agree with both. The growth and maturity that occurs during your early 20's to mid 20's is SO significant! I feel like I changed into a completely different person over night by the time I was 26! The things I held fast to seemed so shallow and insignificant. My views on the world and values had changed. My faith had blossomed and grown. Those few years seemed so important to me and so critical but now I think of my next few years and how crucial THOSE will be! Either way, that last 9 or so years of my life have been, devastating, glorious, shocking, emotional, peaceful, full filling, dramatic, dreamy and above all, Messon! Here is a small and brief glimpse of what I've seen and experienced over the last 9 years.

My dad and step mom, Helen

My mom and dad a few years after they divorced

My parents divorced and my father remarried, bitter sweet and still something that lingers and affects my daily life.

My love

I was married and divorced with a baby by the time I was 23 (something most people don't know about me).  That season of life was very dark and depressing but God had a plan for me and my sweet Bella and bigger, better things were waiting for us! That plan involved BJ. He swooped right into our lives and we all fell in love. We like to say that Bella and I adopted him :)

By the time I was 27 I had given birth to 2 more girls!

My littles

the boat

The RV

Our boy

The cat

We moved to south Texas and we became pet owners, boat owners, RV owners....some phases lasting longer than others.

My west Texas nieces and only nephew :)

my south Texas nieces

My youngest niece

Over the past few years I have become an aunt!

My Grandad came to visit!

I have seen my brother grow into a man and graduate college! I had to say good bye to sweet Grandmommy a couple years ago.

Amanda :)

Kim :)

Shea :)

The men :)

I have lost contact with close friends that I grew up with. I have developed new friendships with precious people.

Bella turning 6!

Starting 1st grade!

Kinder at home

Bella being baptized by her Daddy :)

Kinder graduation with her buddy :)

I have seen my babies grow and change into little women right in front of me!! I have home schooled. I have learned to cook. I've seen my oldest completely give her little life to Christ! She's been baptized and has inspired ME to be a better Christian.

Rota what?!

I can't say I'm sad to see February go. Although it's the shortest month it seemed to drag on! I'm welcoming March with open arms and looking forward to spring. These past couple weeks have been challenging to say the least. Our home seems to of been under attack! 

Last week BJ and I were woken up by the sound of Jude throwing up. These poor little people just have no way of warning you that it's coming till it's already gone. She continued to throw up every couple hours and by the time morning came we had gone through every sheet, blanket, towel, etc. and her room was a disaster! I took her into the doctor that morning and she seemed to be getting worse by the minutes. She was in and out of sleep and would only wake up to vomit. Her poor little lips were so cracked and her face was pale. She slept on me the whole time we waited to see the doctor, something she rarely does anymore since she's so big and independent now. :(

Sitting in the waiting room

At the Doctors office

When we finally saw the doctor (Alice wait time is AT least 3 hours :/) he said that she was extremely dehydrated and needed some fluids right away and the best way to give her that was through an IV. I knew where this was going since this would not be our first time to have a child be admitted to the hospital. We did all the paper work and headed over to Christus Spohn in Alice. Why there you may wonder? That is the closest hospital to where we live and the one that our pediatrician can see patients at. Although he's not in the best area or town ( sorry Abby!! You know I love Alice!) he's a very good doctor. ANYWAY,  when we finally got there we had to wait at least 3 hours for a room to open up since the pediatric wing was full. In the mean time they took her blood and did a few tests. Finally our room was ready! They came in to do her IV, the part I dread the most, and she was so dehydrated that it took them several times of trying, with a break in between to give her time to calm down, and then they finally got it. That was extremely painful to watch. We had to hold her down and she was just screaming at us with fear in her eyes. AH, I hate that!!

Asleep in her "baby cage"

Her hospital food

We really thought she would get some fluids in her and be back to normal the next day but that wasn't the case. Once her vomiting stopped, the diarrhea came...and it never stopped! I will spare you the rest but they did some more tests and found out she had Rotavirus. This is an infection in small children, usually under the age of 2, and it's a nasty thing!! It lasts for days and is very contagious. Her 1 night stay ended up being 4 nights and 5 days. BJ and I had to take turns staying with her so the other could see the big littles. It was emotionally draining and tiring on us all. Jude had her good and bad days but for the most part did alright.

Her poor little hand where they tried to get an IV in :(

 

 

 

 

On a bad day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a good day :)

Day before going home!

The day before she was released BJ was with the girls at home and he started to feel sick. Adults rarely get the Rotavirus but if they do it's usually not as extreme or intense as the younger ones, although it can be! Well, he ended up getting something similar and we had to have the girls stay with our "family" out here and thank GOD for them (Shea Shea and Nana T)!! By this point I was SO over staying at the hospital and I felt so helpless and defeated. BJ was sick, the girls weren't with either one of us and I was just praying they didn't get this as well. We finally went home on Sunday and as soon as we walked outside those hospital doors, Jude perked right up and was ready to go!! She has been fine ever since, Praise God!!

RV park over looking the lake

Spring flowers

The next morning we went on a walk and I was SO excited to be home and to start getting things back to normal! Zephyr had never looked so gorgeous!

About 3 hours later Beau started throwing up...sigh.

My sweet Beau Beaus

I couldn't believe it! This sickness seemed never ending! I felt like our whole lives were on hold. BJ had it, I had a mild version of it and now Beau?! Needless to say, it's been a LONG week. We had to cancel all of our usual stuff during the week and have basically been on lock down here at the house. Now that I see how brutal and nasty this virus is, I would hate if any other kids got this! Beau is still not back to normal but is getting there and hopefully will be 100% by Monday. My mood has been...fun...notice the sarcasm and I finally forced myself to get ready and do my make up yesterday hoping that would boost my spirits, nah. 
Bella was the only one that seemed to of not gotten it...until this morning! You may be wondering why I'm blogging at 5:30 in the morning! This is not normal for me. She came in around 5 and was sick to her stomach. After a bath, load of laundry (and again, I'll spare the gross details) she fell asleep on the couch so I decided to blog since I couldn't go back to sleep.

I know this too shall pass and things could be SO MUCH worse and I'm so very grateful for that. I realize I sound like a "Debby Downer" and you're probably asking yourself "Why am I reading this??" and I apologize for that. I guess I just needed to vent so thank you for letting me do that! I'm continuing to pray for healing, strength and patience through this whole thing. God is good and in control and I'm so glad He's on our side! :)

Sick littles

Just when you think you've got things figured out...

I always forget that I have a blog, as silly as that sounds. I love to journal and have separate journals for each of my daughters, one for myself and one for B.J. and I. Just a few days ago, B.J. had to start a journal for one of his classes so I was reminded that I have one and need to update it!! So much has come and gone and I'm not sure where to begin so I figured I would write about the most recent, most life changing event that has occurred in our lives.

About 2 weeks ago I received a late night call from my dad with an urgent message to return his call. I didn't get the message till the following day. When I finally returned his call, he informed me that his wife, my step mother of several years,  had suffered from an aneurysm the day before while she was teaching her elementary class. I couldn't even process the information quick enough to understand it. Helen had been rushed to  the hospital and was about to undergo brain surgery later that morning.  The news was shocking and terrifying all at once. Most people that you hear have had an aneurysm don't even make it.
My dad, John Baffert, is one of the most genuine, God fearing men I have ever met. He can't help but witness to the homeless people standing on the road asking for money. Or the unsuspecting mother in the grocery aisle. He's not ashamed of his undying love for Jesus Christ and will let everyone know it! You don't meet many people like him. When I was a little girl I would get SO embarrassed by his freedom and unashamed, adoring love for Christ. As an adult, I admire him and  tear up at the thought of his efforts to educate everyone about the incredible, free gift that is theirs for the taking! Anyway, with all that said, my father was handling this all very well. God had given him the strength and encouragement to get through this and to stay strong for his wife and for their children. 

Helen made MIRACULOUS strides and it looks like she will make a full recovery which we hear is rare. She's an incredible woman and a fighter. My sisters and I were able to go see her and my dad in Tucson this past week. The entire experience was so surreal and emotional. You really don't think about your life ending or changing in a matter of seconds.  My dad has always reminded us that this is not our permanent home and he cant wait to be promoted! As a child I would ponder this thought and feel so sad at the the thought of my parents leaving us. Now I realize this is what we've been waiting for and I too cant wait to go home! :)