a word from lilly jo...

that's right, we're having a GIRL! this afternoon seth and i were able to get a little preview of our daughter at the doctor's office. for the second time in a row, seth has beat me in the game of guessing the sex as we're watching the technician perform the ultrasound.
a HUGE shoutout to our brother-in-law john for watching his two kids and our two kids so seth and i could enjoy the visit alone and not have any meltdowns while waiting for the doctor. thank you uncle john!!!!

we had fun finding out that God has been forming miss amelia kate inside of me and we cannot wait to meet her in may! i am so curious what another girl will look like that is not lilly jo.

Praise God all seems to be going well in terms of amelia's growth, as far as doctor's can see. so we'll keep praying for her and look forward to the day we meet in person!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Sarver side of the family...
(left to right: uncle john, matthew, aunt natalie, milana, lilly jo, nana, rebecca, seth, jack, aunt cathy)

I hope this Christmas season has caused you to think and reflect upon the greatest gift of all - God's only Son, Jesus, sent to earth to save us from our sins!

Isaiah 9:6
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

and now for something completely different...

ok, so it's not completely different if you consider the fact that we just had 2 back-to-back.

however, i know this one is completely different in that he/she is uniquely and wonderfully made by God and will look different than lilly jo and jack, and he/she will arive in late may.
nowhere near january like our first two. that's totally different, right?

seth and i have really enjoyed seeing lilly jo's reactions this time around, as opposed to when i was pregnant with jack and she was still a baby in lots of ways. but now, she knows where the baby is, she can say "baby", she likes to kiss (and blow on my belly) the baby, and i think that her love for the baby will only grow as he/she grows!

i am 16 wks and 1 day in these pictures above...and we'll find out the sex of the child at the end of december...we can't wait!

we're so thankful for God's blessing in giving us a 3rd child!

emotional

you can tell it was an emotional Felton Stew Day football game for jack as he watched his dada play...

cold turkey

no, we're not still eating it or anything, but we did get rid of lj's paci's on thanksgiving night. and voila, they're gone. we went with the method my mom used when she got rid of mine as a child. it seemed to fit well because, like myself as a kid, lilly jo is facinated with the trashman and also with throwing things away in the trash for us (quite a big helper she is!). so thxgiving night we brought her a trashcan and asked her to say 'bye bye' to her pacis and throw them in the trash. sure enough they all went in without a question. we talked that night about how the trashman would come the next day and take them away, and so we watched him when he came and said 'bye bye' to the paci's again. and she's never cried about them at all. not once. she does ask about them, but always with the curious sense that she knows the answer and we talk about it and remind her that we said 'bye bye' to them and that the trashman took them away. and she always says, "yeah." like she usually does in her cute voice.

i will say naptimes have been a tad shorter without the paci, and the girl will now talk for about an hour in bed each night. loudly (poor jack). but she doesn't ever cry or whine for them, so i'm not complaining!

cute kids

yep. we got 'em.

fall fun

sharing...it ain't easy

but we're learning...

saturday morning

breakfast and a concert {of sorts}

watching dada and cj practice for worship on sunday...always fun for the kiddos:)

mat-me

lilly jo and jack's cousin mat-me (matthew) is such a stud. can't get enough...

cheeeeeeeeeeese!

i think i've already used this title recently, but it's definitely a theme in lilly's life lately. she's all about taking some pictures. mostly with phones, but this particular day i was in the kitchen when i heard her saying, "cheeeeeeeese". i came in the living room to find her having put all her zoo animals on an end table, and was taking their picture with her camera.
so cute.
i love watching her learn.
and not using my camera for once:)

movin' right along...

you know your daughter is living in the age of technology when...

...she picks up the cordless house phone (yes, we do still have a house phone) and puts it out in front of her and says, "CHEEEEEEEEESE".

every kiss begins with "K"

tonight we had dinner at crabtree mall and as we're walking around after dinner we pass KAY jewlers. we didn't realize it until we hear lilly jo saying, "kay, kay" (the letter "k"). we look up and sure enough, she had seen the very large lettering on the outside of the store, K-A-Y. she then proceeded to tell us she saw the letters "die, die" (letter "y") and the letter "a" as well.

we're daily amazed at how quickly she's learning to recognize letters. right now she knows about 95% of the alphabet. not in order, but she can tell you what the letter is if you show it to her, as well as retrieve a specified letter from the fridge magnets.

God's design is truly amazing.

waving

hi and bye. it's jack's new thing.

ten-ten

i'm so grateful for photography.

i love that i can look at this picture and remember exactly the conversation seth and i were having as we were walking down the isle toward the altar (seth came and got me from the end of the isle and walked me up to the altar since my dad was with Jesus and couldn't give me away). seth was looking at me saying, "don't look at natalie (my sister and matron of honor) because she's already bawling. and i was saying, "i know, i already did..."

i love that God has, for now, given me a short and long term memory, so i can look back and remember little details of the day we were married.
i loved every detail of the day we were married.
wouldn't change a thing.
i love that it was pouring in raleigh but we got married in benson and it only slightly sprinkled the hour before we got married. outside.

i love that God brought that man walking me down the isle into my life.
i love every day we've had since the day we were married (even the not-so-fun-ones) because they've shaped who we are as a couple and have hopefully been pleasing to the Lord.

i love you seth!

happy 3rd anniversary!

practicing yoga

making cookies with au-nee

last week au-nee (aunt natalie) made chocolate chip cookies with the girls...so domestic:)

they helped with every part...measuring/pouring dry ingredients....

mixing ingredients (lj was scared of the blender at first, but soon warmed up)...

cracking eggs...

and somewhere in there adding the chocolate chips...

before and after...classic!

thanks au-nee for helping lj learn to cook one of life's finest desserts!
we love you:)

a visit to danville!

this past sunday we headed up to danville to visit the apple family! we had a great time hanging out together and enjoying some spaghetti for lunch. it was so much fun watching all the cousins play together, now that they're getting a little bit older!

aubree lyn and cody playing with trucks
aubree lyn and lilly jo loved playing with the magnetic alphabet on the fridge

dylan, looking more and more like a man everytime i see him, hanging out with great-grandma heffinger

miss aubree giving granny apple some lovin'

lilly jo showing great grandma how she knows some of the letters already!

apple cousins (minus christopher) from the left: dylan, cody, brayden, aubree lyn, lilly jo, jack

feeding time for jackman

uncle seth playing with the newest addition to the apple family - brayden noah - aka mr. smiley

you can't tell but we both have pigtails in. i can't help it. she's so cute i needed to match her.

playing baseball outside in the gorgeous fall weather

she's got a great coach:)

letting granny apple have a turn

no comment.

{ok one comment - the plastic wheels almost deflated when he sat on it, and there's not even any air in them.}

just waiting till he's old enough to hit that ball!
good grief he's so cute.

you can see, it was quite a full and fun few hours in danville:)