double digits

"I'm this many!"

brand new Lydia 6.6.02

Lydia Joy is 10! That means that half our kids are now in double digits. I remember the day she was born as if it were way less than an entire decade ago. She and Jacob were our only non-St. John's-born kiddos. Lydia was born at United. Rebekah was still a baby (just a bit more than 14 months old) and Jacob had recently turned 3. Our lives were a bit crazy, as you might imagine, with 3 kids 3 and under.

As a baby Lydia slept lots, but would ONLY sleep in her bed. I felt like nearly ever moment we were at home, she was in her bed :: get her up in the morning, feed her breakfast, bring Jacob to preschool, come home and put her down for a nap, pluck her out of her crib sound asleep, pick Jacob up from preschool, feed the kids lunch, put her down for another nap, wake her up when Dad got home, feed the family dinner and put her to bed for the night. But if we traveled away from our home, and her crib, she wouldn't sleep a wink. And she wouldn't sleep in the car either. We went on a LONG driving vacation over her 2nd birthday and she went nearly 48-hours straight without sleep during the first leg of our trip. Finally, that second night she slept and has been find sleeping away from home ever since. But that 48 hours is one I do not want to repeat ever again, I can tell you that!

with her GG who brought her birthday cupcakes

with one of her birthday gifts

at 3 months or so

just a week or so old

Lydia was one of our more challenging children for years, but has really mellowed out in the past year or so into a really sweet girl.

Here is a funny Lydia story from the other day that just makes me love her all the more :: we had gotten a bag of hand-me-down clothes from a friend and in it was a black t-shirt for Sara with a heart and "gap" in script-y letters on the front. Lydia says to me, "What does that say on Sara's shirt?". I said, "Gap." She responded with, "That's what I thought, but what does that mean?" Totally made my day that she has no idea why a shirt would say "Gap" on the front. I told her (since she wasn't aware) that Gap was the name of a clothing store. This may come as a shock to any of you who knew me, say, in high school, when I could think of nothing better than having a job at The Gap and loved when my clothes advertised where they had come from. But, as it turns out, I have grown up a tad since then. Pretty much my kids wear hand-me-downs (which are SUCH a blessings!), thrifted clothes, occasionally new stuff from Target and things that their Grandma buys them . . . you know, for occasions when they should all coordinate, since coordinating hand-me-downs for 6 are a bit hard to come by!

Happy 10th Birthday Lydia! You add lots of fun to our family and we are so thankful for you.