Jesus Loves Me This I Know

In church this weekend our Children's Ministry ran the services. At one point in the message one of the speakers, and a friend of mine, Carey, had the lyrics to Jesus Loves Me up on the screen. She had all of us sing it out loud to resonate how much Jesus truly does love us, and realize that timeless song is not just for kids in a Sunday School class.

As I sang the words, I just bowed my head and let the words penetrate my heart. I know deep down that Jesus loves me, but I think so often I get caught up in him loving everyone else and forgot how much those words in our incredible are for ME too! I fill my thoughts with my kids and how fearfully and wonderfully made they are. I forget that Jesus loves me, too, just as much as he loves my babies. I am a child of God!

Jesus Loves Me This I know
For the Bible Tells Me So
Little Ones to Him Belong
They are Weak But He is Strong
Yes Jesus Loves Me
Yes Jesus Loves Me
Yes Jesus Loves Me
The Bible Tells Me So

Little Squirt!

Tessa is taking four to five steps at a time all the sudden! Last night she began and today it has continued. She is so adorable. I have begun calling her "my little squirt"! I know, I know, too dorky and I would have HATED anyone calling me anything of the sort when I was little, but I am her mommy so I can call her whatever I please :)

I mean c'mon, she is just barely over 28 inches tall - in the 7th percentile for her height (wonder why?) has the tiniest little hands and feet and every feature about her is just so petite. She is my little squirt, plain and simple.

I have actually been in terrible agony over her the past few months. So much so that I have made myself physically ill and have checked out mentally a few times. My family has suffered, my work has suffered and my heart has suffered. I wont go into specific detail except to say that God clearly gave me Tessa as one of his most precious blessings. She was given to me to teach me things, stretch my soul, make me laugh, make me cry and draw me closer to my Creator. It has been evident from the very first days of her life that God is using her existence to change me-and God is not through with me yet!

Thank you, Lord for the most perfect blessing of Tessa Jean Renee Peterson. I will always pray for her, and I will always believe you will do a miracle - just not yet sure who needs it more, her or me...

Walkin' on Sunshine...

Whoa, oh! Although I dont have a picture yet, Mr. Jacob began really walking across the room on Monday night, March 2nd! He is so adorable. Of course right now he walks with hands out to the side for balance, as I remember Caleb doing the same at first, too. I wonder what everything looks likes to him from this cool, new perspective. Right now he is doing about 50% walking 50% crawling, but in no time, the heel toe express will be his preferred method of transportation.

However, the cutest and sweetest thing in all of this is the fact that Tessa has decided she is not going to sit back and watch Jacob be triumphant without her! Little Miss Thing took four steps yesterday and cannot stop standing straight up from her sitting position. She is showing so much interest in walking that I think she will be taking off in about 1-2 weeks herself! This is so bittersweet for me! With all that I have been through emotionally and sickness wise with the twins, it is 99.9% certain we are done conceiving children, so all these "firsts" are also lasts. I do cherish everything. Now, if we could just get them to drink milk out of a sippy cup...

Dat?

So I have decided to devote this entire post to Jacob. He is without a doubt the "smiliest" baby of the bunch and when he gets a really wide one going, you just crack up because, as my father says, "the gap is so big that you could drive a train through his two front teeth!" But his teeth are just adorable!!!

Over the last two weeks or so, Jacob has discovered pointing and he is interested in EVERYTHING! Right now, his favorite thing to do is point to something and say "Dat?" It is so precious - you can tell he really just wants to know what everything is. And he just goes bananas over dogs. We were at the Surprise Park two weeks ago and of course there were lots of cuties on leashes. He just stared, pointed and crawled closer. He wanted to pet each one and would smile so big as they got closer. His other favorite word (and has been for several months) is dada. He sings dada all day - very cute. Mama will only appear at the end of the night when he is extremely tired and needs to be put to bed or when he doesnt feel good and needs TLC from me. But the thing that stinks is that due to these circumstances, mama is only echoed in a whine :( Dada is sung is praises while mama's getting the whiny shaft. I supposed that is okay though, b/c no one can comfort a child like a Mommy :)

On the physical side of things, Jacob Wayne Peterson began taking steps three weeks ago on February 7th! He wobbled kind of all day and ended up victorious with six in a row! woo hoo! But still has not gone farther than those six. Brian thinks it will be this week, and I kind of think so too. He was being quite adventurous this week. But he better hurry b/c Tessa is coming in right behind him. All of 27.5 inches tall, she can stand up from a sitting position with no help and she held onto my finger this weekend and walked all around. (So I gave Tessa a little plug, there!).

Quickly an update on the medical side of things...Jacob has had an ear infection since Feb. 9th that he just cant kick and we have been through three rounds of antibiotics - so tired of the drugs in my children - argh!!! So, Tessa is scheduled for tubes on April 1st and I am hoping to get him in the same day. My poor babies and these ear infections! The tubes did wonders for Caleb and I am praying that God will just take care of these angels, leading me to wisdom-filled decisions.

Right now, Caleb and Jacob are best friends. They make each other laugh and just have so much fun together. When the twins are too close, Jacob likes to take toys from Tessa, knock her over to get to where he wants to go and smack her on the head. What a little bully! They definitely have opposite personalities. But he is still my sweet little bugger who loves to give kisses, have daddy throw him on the couch and snuggle with mama!