"Where does my help come from

my help comes from the Lord, the maker, of Heaven and Earth."  Whew, there are days and then there are daaaayyyyyzzzz.  You know what I mean.  Those days when the whole house gets up (in this instance at 5 am) and you know you all should just go back to bed and start all over.  These days come whether you have children or not.  I remember being in college and waking up some mornings and stubbing my toe or burning my toast and saying, "Oh no, let's just go back to bed and start all over" (and no, these weren't mornings after long nights honky tonkin' around Texas .... usually).  However, throw a kid (or 2 in our case now praise the Lord) and it makes it even tougher.  You aren't only responsible for trying to make your day go better, but their day as well.  And also your husband McGruff.  Although tough, it is worth every learning moment.  I am thankful that I get my strength and help from the Lord and not my own reserve.  That well was dried up long ago ... I think about the age of 10.  Yesterday after Kirby was drug (yes, she did not want to go for a change) to school and it was just me and Patton buddy, I propped up my Bible and had my much needed quiet time while I nursed.  I had to get it in somehow.  No, the day did not instantly become a good day, but my attitude and responses were better.  I was given a moment or so to rest.  I was blessed with a happy, bubbly Kirby Rose when she got home from school.  Her and I hung out playing, painting nails, and making toilet paper tubes into imaginary people that evening.  So much better than how the day started at 5 am.  My question for you this morning is where is your source of energy and refreshment?  Please tell me not coffee, diet coke or 5 hour energy drinks ... we all know where that leads ... an addiction and a crash.  Get addicted to His word ... it never fails and never crashes.


On another note, we had a wonderful visitor this last weekend ... Paw Paw came to meet his first ever grandSon.  So proud.  It was really hard for me to see him leave.  I just wanted to cry as he walked out the back door.  I know I am blessed to have family here, but it is different than having your own mom or dad right up the road.  Although I consider them the same, its just different.  You know what I mean.

He made CRs special request of Chicken Fried Steak and then also his wonderful Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Yummo - love it when he comes and cooks.  Kirby loves it when Paw is here because he gets her out of bed every morning and they snuggle and watch Mickey Mouse - same thing he used to do with Kyleigh when she was Kirby's age.  I know he misses that and I am so thankful he has some opportunities to do it with Kirby.  Monday morning when she got up the first thing she asked for in her cranky, long dramatic way was, "whhhhheerrrrres pawwwwww?"  We miss him already!

Kirby has had the wonderful opportunity to learn about bottle feeding calves.  This is why she looks for udders on all large animals and tries to get Koda to put something in a cup when she puts it under her.  Oh the imaginations.  She loves this calf.  Every morning when she is getting dressed she says she has to go to work and feed Squirt.  I love this crazy and magical life we live on the farm!

Go out and be blessed today with what surrounds you.  Don't look for fulfillment in anything but what is right under your nose.  You never know, you may discover something you never noticed before in someone or something else.  

 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,   the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint,   and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;   they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary;   they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

It's back ...

boo, the brace is back in the Patrick house.  For those of you that have been keeping up with Pickin' Patricks since Kirby was born (or even longer!) you know that Kirby had to wear a hip brace for 6 months.  Well, it is Patton's turn.  We are optimistic that it won't be for that long, though.  When we went and saw the orthopedic today, he said "it's not that bad", but then again he said the same thing for Kirby.  This time around we are starting much sooner though, so hopefully that helps.  With Kirby they had us wait until she was 40 weeks to do a sono, so by the time she was in the brace she was already used to life without a brace.  Sleeping was hard, so we didn't always leave it on at night.  This time around, they did the sono at the hospital and we got the brace on today - only 7 days new and so far so good.  He actually seems pretty comfortable in it.  While I was putting his brace on tonight I got a flashback and glimpse of Kirby ... brought some tears to my eyes because it was just a quick reminder about how quickly time passes.  Here I am, 2 1/2 years later doing the same thing and I suddenly said, "where has that time gone?"  Crazy how it flies.  I encourage you to embrace these moments.  Stop and dance.  Pause and laugh.  Take a break to give a hug or a call.  This past year Route 1 Photography completely took me by surprise with it success (Praise God because I get to be home and not working away), but it took much of my quality time away from Kirby.  Before I started booking this year, I decided I was going to run my business and not let it run me and my family.  I have decided to stick to a certain number of shoots per month and I am only offering them on certain days.  I have figured out what I need to make in order to be able to continue to stay home, so that is what I am offering.  I will not take on any more than that - time, life, and memories are too precious to let them slip away.  Once my children are in school I may decide to take on more, but for now this is where we are.  And so far, clients have liked the idea that I give them a few dates to choose from and then boom, set it.  Here is to even more cookie jar moments in 2013 ...

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17

Kirby's Kicks

Kirby is such a hoot lately.  She has always had a sense of humor, but it is really coming out.  She says the darndest things, and doesn't even realize she is funny.  Here are a few of her clever antics:

• The other day CR was helping her put on her gloves.  She said, "oh no, my Aggie is stuck".  Can you guess what she was talking about?  
• She calls Patton "her" all the time.  She says, "I hold her ... I hold her ..."  When we remind her Patton is "he" she chuckles and goes, "ohhhhhh kkkkk .... I hold HHHHIIIIMMMM".
• My best friend sent us a wonderful baby surprise, and sent along the cutest "Super hero" cape for Kirby.  She says, "I'm flying, I'm strong!"  My sister taught her how to put her arms and legs out to make it look like she is really about to take off.  Bethany, this was an ingenious idea for her!

•  Every morning when Kirby wakes up, she comes and snuggles in bed with us.  This started whenever we didn't have to get up as early since things slowed some around the farm.  I love this time.  We snuggle for a little bit, then I let her watch "Hot Dog" while I do my quiet time.  When Patton was born, I did not want to change this.  After we snuggle some and Patton start to rouse, I go get Patton and let her hold HIIIIMMMM for a few minutes before I nurse.  Here is her this morning holding him ... the flash made her squint and squirm.

 She is slowly adjusting to having someone else in the house.  She has grown to be the center of our world for the last 2 1/2 years, so I can see how it is an adjustment.  When things go wrong, right now there is a lot of drama and exaggeration involved.  Where she used to just go "oh no", it is now a long, drawn out ordeal.  For example, today she was getting up out of her stool.  I guess she scratched her leg on it or something and she looks at me and shrieks "The stool got me, it got me .... owwww ...."  We had to kiss it and make it better.  This never would have happened before.  She also screams for attention.  She jumps up and down.  When Patton is down, I try to make her my priority.  This calls for me not getting the rest I really need to be recovering right now, but it is worth it for Kirby.   I take it easy, but we will do something one on one.  I am slowly seeing that she is understanding life does go on after brother - it has helped to get back in to a routine with school and church.  She is such a joyful delight and a blessing a million times over.  I can not thank God enough for choosing us to raise Kirby.

"Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him."  Psalm 127:3

Boy oh boy

On Sunday, January 13, 2013 at 12:46 pm, CR and I welcomed Patton Luke Patrick into the world.  Praise God he was 37 weeks and 3 days gestation.  I am so thankful to the Lord for giving us those extra 5 weeks that we weren't sure we were going to have.  Patton was a healthy 6 lbs, 15 oz and 19 1/2 inches long.  Almost a whole pound bigger than Kirby and 2 1/2" longer, but he seems so tiny to me.  Long and skinny and already resembling his daddy in more ways than just looks.  I loved being surprised again.  When my 2 babies have been born and CR got to tell me with loving eyes what we had, those are my favorite moments of my life ... next to marrying that wonderful, bearded man of my dreams of course.  And yes, if we are blessed with another, it will be another surprise.  Worth every.waiting.moment.  

Here is the basic story: When I went in to the doctor on Wednesday, I was 100% effaced and the baby was very, very low.  We got to see a sonogram and everything was in line to happen any day.  Since I was only 36 weeks (a day away from 37) and it was not at this point medically necessary to go in and take him early, Supnet was not able to "schedule" a C-section.  However, he told us he was on call Friday and Sunday, so to come in first thing Friday morning to do it.  The biggest concern with 2nd time C sections is rupturing, and with us living an hour away from the hospital, he really did not want to chance anything.  I of course was thrilled because the past month had been very uncomfortable and painful with all of the contractions and how low he was.  I could barely walk because he was sitting on a nerve in my leg - I looked like a penguin with a spastic leg when I tried to walk.  We left the office giddy and ready to meet our surprise in just 2 days.  

When I got home that afternoon I noticed that Kirby was coughing more than she had been at the beginning of the week.  I started her on medicine that Monday because I wanted to nip it in the bud.  I decided with baby coming we needed to check to see if it was bad, so we went to doctor on Thursday. Turned out she had RSV.  Oh goodness.  With a newborn about to be here.  Highly contagious kept running through my head.  Talked with my doctor and we decided to wait until Sunday.  I began praying immediately that Kirby would begin to heal.  I also fervently prayed that the baby would continue to progress on it's own so that when we did go in I felt like it was time and we weren't rushing into things.  Come Saturday morning contractions were about 10 minutes apart and strong.  Saturday evening they were about 8 minutes a part at times.  Sunday morning on the way to the hospital .... 2-4 minutes apart.  It was time, naturally.  Praise the Lord.

CR while they were prepping me ... he is my McBeardy. 

First time to hold Patton Luke Patrick

The whole C section experience this time was so very different than with Kirby.  With Kirby we were so rushed .... checked in, prepped and baby out of me in under 3 hours.  This time we got to the hospital about 8:45 and Patton was out 4 hours later.  Everything was so relaxed ... the nurses and I giggled a lot.  The main nurse that took care of me I actually knew through the grapevine ... well, I taught her son when he was a freshman.  Dr. Supnet promoted my photography while in surgery.  The anesthesiologist was amazing; he walked me through the entire process of what they were doing.  Kept telling me what he had to give me in my IV (blood pressure dropped pretty low at one point) and what I might be feeling.  When they were about to pull baby out he told me, "lots of pressure and its going to feel giggly, but don't get giggy with it."  They let CR stand up to see them pull out baby and he got to tell me, "We finally have a Patton!"  They closed me up and off I had to go to recovery for an hour (the part I hate the most).
Since Kirby was still in the contagious stage, she only got to see Patton through the window.  I ache that I was not there to get to see her first reactions, but a great friend of ours was there and snapped some wonderful phone pictures for me.  I am so thankful she did because these are the only ones we have:

About his name.  We have had the name Patton picked out since before we ever got pregnant with Kirby.  You see, when you start trying to have a baby, all of a sudden you start coming up with names. So for about 2 1/2 years before we even had a baby, we had this name Patton at the top of our list for a boy.  How did we decide on it?  Well, we actually saw it on the back of a Ducks Unlimited shirt that CR had ... it was the name of the hunting dog.  We thought that was a cool name, so added it to our "One day when the Lord blesses us with a boy" list.  Then when we got pregnant with Kirby, we starting thinking about it more. Turns out, both of CR's grandfathers served under General George S. Patton at different times.  How cool is that?  We went through about 20 different middle names ... narrowed it down to 3 ... then finally one.  And it was not even Luke, but every morning for the last month I would wake up coming back to Patton Luke.  Then CR told me he had a dream that he introduced our son as Patton Luke ... that settled it.  There is something about a name that keeps returning.  And we are so happy and in love with our little man.
We ended up having to stay in the hospital longer than we planned.  On Wednesday Kirby woke up with 104 fever so the doctors insisted I stay another day until her fever broke and we knew what was wrong.  Thankfully it broke and there was no flu.  Then Thursday morning when they took Patton's bilibrium levels, they were right on the border line for going under the lights.  We had to wait until later that afternoon to get some blood work back, which showed it low enough for us to go home.  Praise the Lord.  Here are some of the fun things that went on while at the hospital:

 Revisiting our favorite past time ... we decided we were going to start doing this once a week ... we shall see.

CR introducing Patton to Duck Dynasty

Kirby had western day at school on Monday ... Aunt E did her hair.

Beautiful hands that I pray grow to love, serve, and honor the Lord.  And he has long fingers to throw a change up.  

 "But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God."  Luke 18:16