Introducing our newest little love, John Henry Fulton Dodge! He was born on December 21st at home, and is our biggest newborn yet, at nine pounds even! We have been soaking up his newness and sweetness over the last eight weeks. Our transition from family of six to seven has been wonderful, overall! With the holidays and a break from teaching, Daniel was able to be home quite a bit in those first few weeks. I also experienced the quickest, smoothest recovery of all of my births - I had no idea recovery could be so good! The children have also transitioned incredibly well, keeping each other busy and helping mama out at every opportunity. Every mother of larger families will tell you “it gets easier as they get older” and when you are in the middle of number three or four with all the children under the age of five, that concept is just hard to understand! This is the first new baby where I truly feel that - older children helping to prepare breakfast, helping with toddler needs while mama is nursing, even just being able to play independently during the high needs first few months! Deo gratias! Sweet John Henry is definitely a higher needs baby, so we are dealing with a good deal of fussiness and sleepless nights. Again, being baby number five, we know these tougher months are a short season, and we are all working together in the midst of them. John Henry has begun to smile and interact more with us, and we just can’t wait to see his little temperament begin to show itself!

I’ve got a flood of photographs to share, because we just adore Aly Renee Photography and all of the precious images she has captured of our family over the years!