Drum Roll Please...... Gender Reveal

The results are in for peoples predictions

and it's right around 50/50.  50 percent think girl and 50 percent think boy, which is close to the actual odds a baby anyway, ha!  And I love that the chalk threw everyone off, wasn't expecting that, but I used white chalk, I think people in their heads just wanted it to look blue :O)  Everyone is so hopeful that our house will be a little less pink, sheesh :O)

And the moment you have all been waiting for.........

It's

A

Healthy

BOY!!!!

So glad she will still be my baby girl

For Just a Few days

So we found out the gender of baby Goodlin # 3 or is it #4?  That is a weird question to answer :O)

Anyway, it seems that we are frustrating a few of you by not revealing the gender quite yet, sorry about that you won't have to wait long.  I didn't realize quite how much anticipation there was for everyone else.  Since we have 3 girls it seems to add to the drama factor of what the gender of this baby is.  It is nice for our family enjoy the information for a few days, just us, with no sassy comments either way.  And my parents being out to sea just makes it a good excuse for us to have these few days.  Plus it is fun to hear everyone's predictions!  What is yours?

We did surprise the girls and told them with a balloon photo shoot that one of my good friends did, it was really fun!  I will give you a sneak peak.

That's the only peak you get, sorry.....

Brett and I also got to go on a much needed date, dinner and then a desert wedding reception.  I haven't been great about getting pictures of just the 2 of us, so I made sure to last night!

Love my time with this man!

   

And wouldn't you know this girl has a total of 8 teeth!

Cheese

That's all

Some bloggy bloggerton business and Blates

For starters, I had my first Blate ever!  That is a Blog/date=meeting another blogger, someone I only knew from the interwebs! I was pretty nervous, since I have never done this and wasn't sure what to expect.  Kaitlyn only lives about a mile from me though, so it only seemed natural that we had to meet at some point.

She was so cute and sweet, she came over and we had lunch together.  She is expecting her first child, we are just a few weeks apart from each other and I loved her eagerness and excitement to be a mom.  We are in different places in life, she is newly married and a military spouse, but I totally love that!  It was super easy, not awkward, or conversation went so well,  we just clicked  and before I knew it it was time to pick up my girls!  So glad to have met her!  You can check out her blog here.  Speaking of her blog, she has a lot of followers and readers, so I felt like I was kinda meeting someone famous!  and I loved that she took the time to meet me, Jen, with my little old life with the goodlins blog.

Speaking of little, I realized that I have 100 followers now, that is exciting, I should do something great like a good give-a-way! (I actually am working on that)  I know 100 is not a lot, and I actually used to care about getting followers, but I realized that doesn't matter anymore.  For one, I would rather have a "reader" than a  forced follower, someone who actually likes to read what I write and they are not just forced to follow my blog because of some awesome give-a-way I do.  Second of all that is not the purpose of my blog,  to gain the most followers, it is simply to tell about or lives and keep people updated on Norah and the Goodlins and if someone wants to read it then awesome and thank you so much!  Please don't misunderstand, those blogs that have thousands of followers have worked incredibly hard, experienced a lot of criticism , and for many are a great source of income, props to them.  I will just never be one :O)

And part of that not fun business part of the blog though, is that I am getting a lot of anonymous comments from spammers, so I am going to have to put that annoying cache on my blog comment section, sorry everyone, I hate it too, but I can't handle 500 spam comments a day.  OH and google reader is going away.......soo soo sad, it is like one of those addictions I have had for years and they are taking it from me, I don't even know how to follow other bloggers now.  but if you want to keep up with my blog and you are a google reader person than you can sign up for Bloglovin.

Oh and we find out the gender of our baby tomorrow :O)  Don't get to excited for yourselves though, bc you will have to wait a bit.  My parents are on a ship out to Hawaii and will be unreachable until Tuesday, so everyone will just have to hold their breaths for a few more days until we can tell them.  Is that kinda mean?

It's kinda like Sarah pretending to share a bite of her cookie and then taking it away

  

And we are making strides lately with this little one. Less daily melt downs about wearing pants,  eating chicken, and buckling her seat belt. One day at a time.

 

the daddy daughter relationship

I know I don't talk about my husband a ton on this blog, but he is a Good Man!  Well, of course he is, that is why I married him :O)

He has a really big heart for the fatherless.  Those who don't have an earthy father or maybe a not very good one.   You see his biological dad would probably fit into that category of not a very good father and he just happen to marry a lady who lost her father at a young age, me.   I can see in his heart the desire to change a cycle in our families, one of brokeness, of fatherlessness.  His step dad (whom he calls father) has just stepped in really as a great father and grandpa and started this change, and shown that it goes beyond blood relationships.  And my step dad has jumped right it as an awesome grandpa who loves our girls sooo much!  It has been great to see the change beginning.

But really

I see Brett's heart for our daughters and I watch them.

I see this unique bond he has with Norah, you see they have both lost their mothers.

I see the way he adores Sarah to pieces and sees her as the cutest baby ever, because she totally is.

And I see the pride in his eyes for Maya and who she is becoming.

I see this daddy daughter relationship and how it is really so very special

I see how he would completely love and treasure another daughter, because God made him that kind of man.  Not one who Needs to have a boy to be complete, but one who sees all his girls as one of the greatest gifts and wants them to grow up knowing they have a daddy who loves them so much!

He is silly with them, but he knows how to discipline them and be stern when necessary. 

Today I had a hard time with Norah, and he just took her and made her his little special helper.  Allowing her to help him with some handy work around the house.  She was marching around following him like it was one of the best moments ever.

I think sometimes it is harder for him to see, for him to see how much they love and adore him because most of the time they ask for mama, but it is him who they truly admire.

I always knew I married a good man, but it wasn't until I saw him become a father that I knew he was  Great man!

Maya's 5th Birthday

 I think 5 is a hard number to swallow for any mom.  5 just seems like such a grown up age.  It's when your child suddenly becomes helpful and doesn't just want to help.  It is when they start school, gain some independence and realize not everything in the life is flowers.

I remember Maya's tiny first cries, the "ennnn geh, ennn geh" sound that came from her telling us she needed something.  It is hard to grasp that has changed in an instant.

tiny tiny

Really, if Maya was our only child, we might think we were really good parents.  First children have a way of making us think "we have this parenting thing in the bag" but then you have more kids..... and realize you don't have the parenting thing in the bag

Maya is sweet, sincere, funny, and creative

she is a leader,  a rule follower ,and a lover of people

 

she is giving, sensitive and thoughtful

 

and she is my performing dancing machine

We love her

We did not have a big birthday party for Maya this year, that will be an every other year thing (for now at least).  Maya got a date with mommy and a friend of her choice and then a little family day/celebration on her birthday.

For her birthday date she picked going to Chucky Cheese and Red Robin  with her friend Scarlet (who's mom just happens to be one of my good friends, :O) )

she looks so big here!

these silly girls had so much fun toether

so much laughter

when we dropped off Scarlet, Maya cried, she said " Scarlet is one of the best people I know, I want to be with her forever"

Maya woke up to this on her birthday morning

of course the 5 year old pancake for breakfast

Norah & mew mew were so eager to see what Maya got

No, it's not Christmas, but they are one of the few pairs of jammies that fit Sarah that are warm

She wanted Pizza for dinner

and her choice of flavored cupcakes

Maya loves cupcake wars, so we let her sample all of the cupcakes blindfolded and see which she liked best

and of course Norah had to do the same...

sister, 5, 3, & 1 (April the only month their ages will seem spread far apart and me a little less crazy)

of course cupcake popcorn for the movie

and movie night with Mallorie (the best!) Sarah never stopped moving

So glad Maya is the leader of this little pack

On life lessons ( # 1 love)

When my sister Carrisa, at the age of 23, who was unmarried, found out that she was pregnant, the first person she called  to tell was Not a Christian.  It was a friend, a good childhood friend, whom she felt would not judge her.

Sad.   Really, that is sad for Christians.

I am one, that is a Christian, and Carrisa  certainly did not call me first, because I was in the group of people that she considered would "judge her." Because as a whole I think most of society sees Christians as judgmental, and we have done absolutely nothing to change that, because really a lot of us are judgmental.

I am not gonna get all preachy on you, just process through a life lesson I have learned.

Love covers a multitude of sins. 

You see a pregnancy for someone who is not married is so different, because although we ALL sin, my sisters sin was on display for the world to see, especially by choosing to keep the baby.  There was no secret to keep.

In my heart when Carrisa told me she was pregnant, I never felt mad at her, or judged her, I just felt a lot of disappointment, and I knew her road ahead would be harder, harder as a single mother.  I wanted to just wrap my arms around her because I knew a lot of her disappointment was coming from herself, she wasn't proud, but she certainly wasn't going to get rid of the baby.  She was alone and hurting inside. She just needed love.  Isn't that what so many of us need when we make a mistake? If I could rewind there are so many things I would have done differently to show her love and not just tell her.

I have had times where  my response may not have been so graceful though, I have judged others, thought their choices or things have done were wrong and not been a good friend. Shame on me. I certainly don't know all the details of peoples lives and It is not my job to judge.  It is my job to love.  So whether I have a friend who gets pregnant at an unexpected time, someone who gets a divorce, a friend who chooses to live with there boyfriend,  or have an abortion,  have a different parenting style, whatever it may be, I should be by their side loving them.   It is a very hard line to balance, because showing love does not always mean you agree with what a person is doing. 

I just think as a whole Christians who don't agree with something tend to disassociate themselves from  it.  So, if we have a friend who make a choice we don't agree with, we just stop being their friend.  Terrible. (and I did this in high school, really terrible, I know).  This is why it has turned into a life lesson for me.  I haven't always just automatically loved, I have pushed away from friends, instead of loving them.  I can look back and see what I did was wrong, judging others, and now I can choose to change it.

I recently just had a friend tell me that they had a honeymoon baby.  And when some of their friends found out that they got pregnant so soon, they basically stopped being their friend because they thought they had done inappropriate things before marriage and it was just to close to call.  Oh, this just made me cringe!!!   So what if they did make a mistake, it is not my job to figure that out, it is my job to be a friend, and believe them and even if a mistake was made, still be their friend.  So annoying, that is exactly why people don't like Christians. 

Remember that girl I told you about that was so incredibly loving and supportive, writing letters to my brother Darren when he was dying, would you believe this is part of her story. Truly, she is one of the most amazing women!

Man, I would just really miss out on some awesome people if I spent all my time judging them.  

And one thing is certain,  we may make mistakes, but God certainly doesn't

On 4 months with baby # 3

Wow, over 17 weeks already.  4 months.  I have my gender ultrasound scheduled in just over 2 weeks!

I felt the baby move at 15 weeks, 6 days.  That is very very early for me!  With both Maya & Sarah I did not feel the baby  move until 20 weeks.  Feeling those first little flutters has been very special for me, especially with the craziness of life.  Sometimes it makes me just stop for a moment and enjoy the tiny baby inside.

Maya tells E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E, even strangers in the store that I have a baby in my belly.  I get crazy looks from people and I have even gotten some not very nice comments..... but oh well, it's not their life, thank goodness.  Oh and you can feel sorry for me if I have cancer, not if I have a baby in my belly.

I am not throwing up any more, thank the Lord, but at night my stomach still feels like someone

dropped acid in it. 

And I definitely like eating again, give me any type of delicious sweet or cheesy popcorn please!

The girls saw daddy taking a picture of me and wanted to be in it.  I don't know why, but I just love this

and Norah's face is priceless

my girls

Maya wants to be just like mama..... but hopefully not just like me until she's 30

 Trying to soak in these moments