Here are some sweet baby love photos from this past week…
I promise that I did take photos of the other children this week but this one is changing on me everyday + she is the only one that sits still for me. 
And if you have not checked out my scrapbook page lately, you might want to click on over there to see some more recent pictures. (Link is at the top.)
Hope your week is off to a great start, 
I am backing up to Christmas just a little bit here so bare with me. Here are a few sweet Merry Layne photos from her 1 week photo shoot…
And I just love the sleepy ones…
Could you not just eat up those sweet cheeks…
Oh and speaking of backing up… I would love to know how you store and back up your family’s photos + videos. It seems that I always try to reevaluate my system this time of year and I would love to hear from YOU about how your system works.
My 1st week at home with all FIVE of my little ones all by myself, that is, and get this…
They all survived too!! Now that is the truly amazing part! Hee! Hee!! 
No, really… I kind of feel like I cheated just a little bit this week because Josh was off on Monday due to the New Year’s holiday and then he went into work about an hour later for 2 days this week (to help me ease into the mornings) + we had lots of sweet friends bringing us yummy dinners so I did not have to cook much + we were only doing ½ days of school. So really… Do not be too impressed! The real test is going to be this week when it is back to full time school + full time activities.
But we did manage to get everyone to Merry Layne’s newborn appointment on time + I drove for the 1st time since her birth + snuck away for an hour to our homeschool Winter Parent Meeting. So there were some accomplishments this week but I still managed to find a whole lot of time to sit and stare at this little 2 week old miracle…
Which was my favorite part of each day.
For this upcoming week, we are looking forward to staring a new Spring semester with new schoolbooks. My goals are just to make it to the end of each day with joy + love in my heart and hopefully some learning + clean laundry will be thrown in there too. {Having a meek + quiet spirit and keeping a soft tone of voice are also on the list.}
It feels like there are a ton of things that I could be or should be doing but I am still trying to take it slow each day and not overextend myself while I still recover. {I have to keep reminding myself of this so that I do not get overwhelmed.} Perhaps I should read my Dear Jamie letter again that I wrote right before Joy Lynn’s birth?
Gotta run… There are babies that need me to love on them. 
This New Year’s celebration was very low key for us this year.
Josh and the children went to church that morning while Merry Layne and Mommy stayed home and away from the crowd. After a yummy lunch with cornbread, black eyed peas, and greens, we all settled down for a long afternoon nap. Josh was extremely tired after his midnight run (and 2nd place finish). He got home just as I was waking up for the 2:00 am feeding.
Later that evening we all gathered on the couch to watch a family movie. It was Caleb Davis’ night to pick so we ended up watching one of his new Kratt Brothers videos that he received for Christmas. He is an animal nut these days and amazes us with all that he knows about different animals.
It was kind of neat to have the day after New Year’s off this year. It just made it feel like a long extended celebration.
So we just continued our relaxing on Monday by playing with our new toys…
The Angry Birds game has been a hit at our house.
We also had a princess fairy who paid us a visit…
And just to show you that it was not a completely lazy weekend, Josh did manage to knock out a few projects…
Like painting our entrance + hallway and building a box for Emma Lee’s new bed. I think the next few house projects will be to finish up this entrance area and then we are tackling the laundry room later on this month.
And we also spent some time reflecting on this past year and setting new goals for 2012. Speaking of that, you can see one of my goals right here on the new 2012 Project Life blog.
But I must admit that the majority of our weekend was simply spent sitting around and staring at this sweet little thing…
Hard to believe that she is now 2 weeks old. We go for her newborn checkup tomorrow morning so I am eager to see how well that goes. Praying that she is gaining weight more!
Hope your year is off to a great start, 
Thanks so much for taking time to visit our little website this past year. We hope that you are all having a wonderful start to the New Year. We are taking it easy today and looking forward to getting a good start on those resolutions + goals tomorrow.
Stay tuned for more updates in 2012… 
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