getting cute for a minute

Because this week has been ALL ABOUT keeping it real, here are my precious kiddos finishing up a Truthcards session. If you don't have Truthcards, I highly highly highly suggest them. For our little nuggets, it's a fun way for them to hide God's word in their hearts. And bribing with mints sure doesn't help. 


So maybe I set out to get a video of them doing some absolutely perfected verses for Jenna, the precious creator of Truthcards. What we got instead was Benja doing his own interpretation - but a real and fun moment with the conno-kids for certain. 


PS - I can't think of a better Easter-basket-gift or Happy-Friday-gift for your family besides these gems! 
Do unto others, you know?!

the notebook

Like most people, when I first started blogging, “document our life” was very high on my list of purposes. And still, one of my favorite things is to look back a year ago or two years ago and see what we were doing, what the kids were up to.  And sometimes now that my purposes have changes I feel bad. My kids, this family, is my actual whole world. And yet it’s a pretty small fraction of this ol’ blog.

And I have good reasons ya’ll, so I probably won’t start blogging about them every day. My main reason is this: the last thing I want this corner of the internet to be is a trophy case where I show off my accomplishments. And at some point as a mama, you start loving your kids so hard that you can’t talk about them without shaking your head and saying, “man, he/she is so cute”.

But I still want to study them and know them. And document them.  So last week I went and bought three little fake moleskins. One for a Naptime Diaries to-do list since it was taking over my real life to-do list. The second was for a life to-do list. Somewhere to write “take off busted nail polish” and “PUT UP LAUNDRY, no for real – PUT IT UP”. The third I labeled “thoughts” and decided I’d just record my thoughts on the kids and our family. My prayers for them, my observations, desires, and silly memories that I don’t want to forget.

So here are some things that have gone in there since Thursday night

-  I love literally the way every word comes out of Benja’s mouth at this age. I want to laugh at all his phrases and words. Sometimes when other people are around, I’ll start laughing and making him repeat the most mundane things. Because they’re so cute.

- Even though it was months ago, I want to etch the memory of Glory waking up from her seizures in my brain.  This week, for whatever reason, I’ve been overwhelmed with the picture. When they told us she wouldn’t wake up for days and we had no clue what she’d be like when she woke up. And I was sitting beside her, stroking her hair and reading Isaiah 61 to her. And Kristin was sitting with us and she confirmed that I wasn’t crazy, Glory was responding. And she popped her eyes open and said “mama”. That memory brings me to my knees in praise.

-       Elias is really the only one in the family who appreciates my modern, interpretive dance in our family dance hour. Whether it’s Katie Perry or Florence or Coldplay,

 he likes my creepy moves.

- One thing I want to work on and get great at is having great beds for the kids. When they look back on their childhood, I want them to remember climbing into a clean, warm, comfy bed - positively exhausted by all our living and loving.

-  Lately I’m overwhelmed by how precious my children are to the Lord, and thus to me. Layla really spurred me in this when I heard her talk about her kids. Now, even if I have to look for the precious under the tantrums and bruised shins, I search for it.

-  Yesterday I was heading out the door to go to a little girl’s breakfast reunion an hour and a half away and at the last minute Glory asked me with her big beautiful eyes if she could go with me. It would turn my blissfully quiet three hours in the car into a mommy-daughter whirlwind, but the face she made when I said, “ok! Get dressed real quick!” was priceless. She actually hyperventilated a little.

-  The kids have GREATLY improved at cleaning up lately. Thank you Lord.

That’s all I've got for now.

I love them. They’re awfully amazing. Thank you, Lord. 

baby day

I promise to not only write about loss and grief and miscarriage from now on all the time, but today is a special day. 

In all my pregnancies, I've always been overjoyed about one thing first and foremost: baby day. The day, however it looks, that you go in and you get that baby. I always wanted to have really natural labors and I love everything about homebirth, but since the Lord didn't write our story like that, I've tried to make the most of our little (sometimes long) hospital visits. I try to relish the crushed hospital ice, the nurses who help me nurse, the friends popping their faces in to smile and see that sweet babe. But most of all, the baby minute - the pinnacle of the baby day, where you hold that sweet babe in your arms and everything in the whole wide world flys out the window. Maybe before you were anxious about how to do it, worried about money, sad about pregnancy weight gain, mad at your husband (never me), sore from labor or about to pass out from blood loss. But there's always a baby minute, when you hold that baby, and nothing in the whole world matters except the inexplicable joy that comes from the gift in your hands. 

Today is Arrow's baby day. I won't get to hold him or cuddle with him or nuzzle him. I won't get to show him pictures of us together, like all our other kids are obsessed with seeing. But it's still his special day, the one that the Lord has written for me to stop carrying him physically and I'm going to try to celebrate that to the fullest extent that I can. Celebrate has three definitions according to the dictionary. 

- to observe or commemorate an event with ceremonies or festivities.

- to make publicly known, proclaim.

- to praise widely or to present to widespread

So since Arrow won't have a birthday or a graduation or a "hooray! we finally potty trained" day or a wedding day, 

I'm going to soak up this day. 
I'm wearing bright minty nail polish and curling my hair. 
I went to buy a new robe because I always buy a new robe for baby day's, but apparently they don't sell robes in the middle of summer in South Carolina. 

God gifted us with a child, that we totally didn't deserve or earn. 

God gifted our hearts with intense, intense joy and gratitude for a

season that we haven't felt really before. 

And He is meeting us in the loss of those things, with Himself.  

But I'm proclaiming today as Arrow's baby day, and I'm going to try and experience all the joy and sadness that will come from that. Thanks for celebrating and praising the Lord with us, through our trials and through His triumphs. 

(it can't go without saying that this day is made much sweeter 

by the faces that will greet me when I come home 

and I am intensely grateful for them. 

here are some shots of their babydays)

elias powell connolly 1.31.07

gloriana eloise connolly 3.14.08

benjamin haddon connolly 5.27.09

re-cap.

When you mix sun, sand, special occasion high fructose corn syrup, and the sweetest 2 year old boy on earth with friends and the greatest family a girl could ask for... you get:

(this weekend)  

OH! There was also a nine hour house painting session with the sweetest family and just-like-family on earth, but I'll tell you more about that later. Oh, and a trip to Charleston and back. But now it's Memorial day, my man is off work, and I'm going to soak up some hours with this sweet family. 

I hope you're doing the same. 

AND ONE MORE THING. 

To celebrate Memorial Day, use coupon code SAVEMEMORIAL at my shop for 20% off on all orders. And if you're having a hard time picking, I HIGHLY suggest this new "kitchen set" or three prints to adorn your cooking area and your bless your heart. love ya'll. 

join our family!

It's our sweet Benja's birthday and in light of that (and the fact that I have 572 cake balls to make for his party tomorrow), here is our special invitation for you to join our little family. VIA blogworld. 

Everyone does their part around here, you know? 

The kids, they bring the cuteness and the inspiration for the funny poop stories. 

Nick, he brings the handsome and the sound biblical advice on the deep posts. 

Me, I bring the sweaty-post-slow-run-real-life-pictures and the self-deprecating-motherhood-confessions-that-are-hopefully-encouraging. Or at least amusing. 

Your part? 

There are still a few days left to jump in on being a sponsor for the month of June!

Small businesses, blogs, websites, you can all join our family:). 

Check out the "advertise" tab at the top or email me at jessi connolly at gmail dot com. 

And on behalf of Benja's birthday, 

the first three people who email me this morning about sponsorship will recieve $5 off their first month. 

Because I'm giving and I love ya'll.

And Benjamin told me too. 

And next week,  you better believe 

I'll have some cake pop pictures 

and poop stories ready & raring to go. 

snow day, granola, benja!

I used to wake up early to check the news and see if school was cancelled. 

These days I wake up early to see if my husband has to go to work! 
I'm supposed to be unbiased - to want him to go to work so he can provide, etc. etc. 
But secretly, I was so thrilled the four inches in our front yard kept him home yesterday! 


After our new early morning routine (he works out while I watch and read - gooooood system), we declared the day a cuddle-baking-reading-Dora-watching-festival of a day. And I made this vanilla granola that I've been just itching to find time to make! It's not all that labor intensive but there's not many hours in the day that I can commit to checking on the granola while it's in the oven with three ankle munchers around, UNLESS it's a snow day and the hubs is home from work! Hallelujah! 

surveying the sights and assembling our ingredients

I adapted this recipe from several different ones, but my favorite addition was crushed freeze-dried-bananas from Trader Joes. My sweet friend, Sarah, told her mom how much I love the TJ's and how much I miss it here in Columbia and her mom works there! She sent us the sweetest bag of TJ's goodies filled to the brim. I figured I could either eat all the freeze dried bananas in one swoop or preserve them for the days to come in our granola. 

I think I made the better choice. 

crushed banana goodness

Also. Can I tell you about something else? 

It's becoming more and more rare that I get on the internets and brag on my kiddos for hours on end - but man, I love their guts. I could just write about the wonder and weirdness of them for hours and hours and hours. 

They're all my favorite. All three of them, my favorite human beings that ever walked this earth (besides their Daddy). 

Today I'd like to bless your life with a new segment we'll call......

Bits and Pieces of Big Benj 

(some things you might not know but you DEFINITELY should)

- did you know our Benja sleeps till about 10am on the daily? That is no joke. And that little man goes to bed at 7 on the dot and takes a three hour nap still. Must be nice. I seriously miss him most of the day, because I just enjoy his cranky little company. 

- Oh, I haven't told you? He's the grump of all grumps. He's a little cranky and we like him that way. He's kind of like the grandpa of our family, who's fussiness is endearing and delightful. 

- His best friend in this whole world is his "pupppeeeeee". His giant stuffed puppy that is literally six inches taller than him. He sleeps with it, takes it with him in the car, and I honestly don't know what we'll do when it comes time to wash that fool. 

- He is talking all the time now. Most of his phrase/sentences are extremely slurred and hilarious. Things like, "mommmmmeeeee wher dat pupppeeeeee?!" or "mommmeeeeee i wan dat snacckkkkkkkkk". I'll try and get some on video because they're kind of too cute. 

- Two of his most favorite things in America: cuddling and eating. Tonight, for our snow day dinner - we let the kids eat on the couch to be closer to the fire, and he was in HEAVEN. Sitting on the couch with blankkeeee and puppppeeee, while eating pizza? Benja says hollah!

ok, back to granola. 

I enjoyed the granola atop a serving of my favorite smoothie ever. 

Benja & the big kids got some pasta with "butter" for snow day lunchtime. 

Delish. 

I highly suggest. 

You know what else I highly suggest - trying out one of Mama Kat's writing prompts. 

I'm taking the plunge back towards big girl writing and trying one tonight. 

You should too! 

Oh, and definitely make this granola. 

And DEFINITELY have yourself a 

Benja or come cuddle mine.

benja's favorite granola

4 cups of old fashioned oats

1/2 cup of chopped cashews

1/2 cup of chopped almonds

1/2 cup of chopped dates

1/2 cup of chopped freeze dried bananas

1/4 cup of sugar 

1/3 cup of vegetable oil 

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp vanilla 

1/3 cup of honey

Directions: heat last five ingredients in a saucepan until almost boiling. Combine all dry ingredients. Mix wet and dry. Bake at 275 degrees for about an hour, mixing every fifteen minutes or so. To finish mine off, I sprinkled it with a small handful of kosher salt & flax seed each. Enjoy! 

Four months?

The other day I just about cried when I realized that my sweet Benjamin was three months old. Then, wait! Hold the phone! I did the math and about screamed when I realized that my mommy brain had skipped a whole month and he was REALLY FOUR MONTHS OLD. I'm not sure how I've gotten so stupid but I swear to you, I don't remember all of June 2009. Not a single day. Did it actually happen? (July I remember being hot, August I remember being a little less hot and my birthday & September has just been a joy so far - but June; I got nothing.)

So I reread this blog. Oh boy, what a scary time it was a year ago this week when I found out I was pregnant. I was just scared to death. I really genuinely did not believe I could handle three children and I'll tell you the truth: some mornings, I still feel the same way but the reality is - Benjamin Haddon Connolly is one of the greatest blessings in my whole life. I don't think there is any word to describe our relationship other than boyfriend & girlfriend. This season is pretty hard, pretty tiring - but most of the best parts of my days have something to do with Benjamin. Either Glory tickling him calling him "benda" or Elias hysterically laughing with him, or the sweet minutes where we just get to stare into each other's eyes. 

So for posterity sake, let me tell you some details about this big boy: 

• He LOVES his siblings. Loves them. If he sees Elias or Glory, he can't help but smile.
• Our family calls him Benja so much that if I randomly say 'Benjamin', I feel silly. 
• His favorite song is Everything's Alright from Jesus Christ Superstar. No joke, I sing it before each nap. (just the mary part)
• Big Benja has literally no muscle tone. He's flirting with twenty pounds and doesn't roll over or sit up. I mean - I wouldn't cross him in a bar fight or anything, but he's pretty much a couch potato. 
• Both of my big-kids are suckers for their Daddy, but this one is a massive mommy fan, which I more than appreciate. He looks at me like an obsessed fan at a cheesy lovey-dovey soft rock concert and I looooove it. Too bad he has no clue I love him way more than he could even imagine. 
• In true couch potato fashion, Benjamin loves tv. If we would let him, I think he'd lay in his boppy all day and watch anything. So - he & Elias are the ones I'll probably have to ration the couch-cudding time for. 
• I think I may have been right about my Vince Vaughan prediction so far but he also slightly resembles Jack Nicholson with that sneaky smile and arched eyebrows. 

ok, some of my fave pics of my big four month old. 

I love you sweet Benja, son of my right hand. 

You bring your mama and daddy great joy & I pray that you are great before the Lord. 

I can't imagine a better surprise than you. 

very blessed.

some funny things

Benjamin is four weeks old today, is that a joke?!
What happened in the last four weeks? Didn't I just get home from the hospital?
Sure seems like it.

Ah well, before too much time passes, here are some funny things that don't belong in any grande story but really in a blog full of funny snippets.

- During the csection, there is always this really sweet Simba-in-Lion-King moment where they hold the slimy baby up for you over the surgery protector so you can see it. When they held Benj up for me to see, a massive glop of goo & blood dropped right on my face - into my eye. Everyone kept trying to wipe it off, but I'm pretty sure it was there an hour or two later when I retouched my makeup because I had nothing else to do while I waited for a nicu update. Yuck.
- When my csection recovery was going really bad (it's getting much better lately, thanks) I was having all sorts of weirdo pains and problems. One was a mysterious pressure on my left abdomen that felt exactly like.... a moving baby. In my scariest, darkest moments - I convinced myself that somewhere during my pregnancy with Benj I'd gotten miraculously pregnant again and there was six month old baby somewhere in there. I was so convinced, I didn't tell anyone and I only came to my senses over this issue a few days ago. Weirdo.
- Literally almost every day since his birth, big Benj has blown out a diaper & pooed his pants. I'm not even kidding. You think I'd be pretty used to poop after the past two years, but the other day it was so bad while I was nursing him - I almost puked. I started yelling like a sixteen year old girl,

"SOMEONE TAKE HIM! GROSS! SOMEONE TAKE HIM!
THERE IS POOP ALL OVER ME!".
I've since been pooped on again and am back to my
normal mommy-ambivalence-to-poo stance.
Well, thank goodness.

exhibit a & b

exhibit a: (how c-section recovery is going)




exhibit b: (what makes it all worth it.)

Benjamin Haddon Connolly

We are overjoyed to introduce Benjamin Haddon Connolly.
He was born at 3:13pm this afternoon, weighing 8 pounds & 10 ounces.





Our c-section went really well, but unfortunately Benjamin swallowed a good amount of fluid on his way out so he is spending some time in the neonatal intensive care unit. At first he was having a really hard time breathing and it looked like that was going to be a big issue for him. Praise the Lord, that cleared up really quickly & he is only getting a little help breathing right now. His first few hours were such a fight, so he will stay in the nicu until he is a little stronger and ready to fight off Glory & Elias.

Nick & I are doing well, but we are really needing and wanting to hold and love on him. Nick got to hold him for a few minutes - but I haven't really gotten to be near him yet & that is killing me a little. He is so handsome though - so far, it seems that he DOES have the dark hair I predicted and seems to be really similar in looks to Glory! Here are a few pictures to tide you all over.

.........................................

His name means "son of my right hand" & he shares a middle name with one of our spiritual heroes, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
Thank you for your prayers & well wishes... please keep them coming. We can't wait for you all to meet him.