I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and praying lately about this blog. For a while it hasn’t felt right with me to share so many personal things about my family. I realize that this blog had started as a way to have a personal journal of what’s going on in the family, and it would be a fun thing to look back on some day in the future. It’s like keeping a diary in a way. Not so much about private thoughts…but about what we did and thought and experienced on a day to day basis. I still think that’s a valuable asset for a family…but how much am I willing to share with strangers?

And PLEASE don’t get me wrong…all the ‘strangers’ I’ve met through this blog, and everyone who comments on this blog…I appreciate each and every one of you for visiting and chatting. I don’t think of YOU as strangers…you are the fellow moms/bloggers who make blogging into a fun and caring community. I value you. But it’s the ones that DON’T comment…the ones who I’m not sure what they want or why they’re here looking at photos of my family that make me very uncomfortable. For example, not too long ago I saw some searches on my blog that had me EXTREMELY nervous. I’m not going to go into it here…but suffice to say it was something that is absolutely NONE of anyone’s business…let alone a stranger’s.

So where am I going with this? After much thought/prayer, I’ve decided that I’m cutting down on the personal posts. As you may have noticed, I’ve only been posting the 52 projects lately. That’s partially because of what I’m feeling now, and partially because of LACK OF TIME, ha ha. But I’ve decided that I will continue the 52 project to the end of the year. I want to see it to completion, and I want Gabriel to get to be a part of it after he’s joined us this summer! I will do Lillian’s final monthly post when she’s 24 months. I will do weekly/monthly posts of Gabriel when he’s born. But will I keep them private? I haven’t fully decided that yet.

But the important part is, I’m taking the focus of this blog off of us PERSONALLY as a family. I will be eventually steering it into the direction of a helpful parenting/family/homemaking blog. I know there are a ton out there like that, and mine won’t particularly stand out, but I’m not out to be in the limelight. I just enjoy writing and sharing ideas. I enjoy meeting other like-minded mamas/wives.

The funny thing is, my decision is coming at a time when I’ve just been honored by couponaudit.com. They listed Our Havenhill as one of the top 100 baby related blogs to follow in 2013! So thanks, folks at couponaudit, for your vote of confidence Below is a screencap of their infographic:

So the bottom line? Expect to see a gradual shift on post direction. Less posts about just “us” and what we’re doing. More on things like healthy eating, good food for kids, fun things to do with a family, etc. More things like that. Expect to see most of my previous posts turn private. I will of course keep the recipes and things like that public. This will be a slow process, so bear with me. Of course, I might not make much progress at all, and this blog might just limp along for quite a while before either giving up the ghost or turning into something resourceful. After all, there’s only so much time I’ll have once I have a toddler AND a newborn!

Thanks everyone for being a part of this journey with me. If you don’t want to stick around for the future changes, I understand. If you do want to, then I thank you for your support and understanding!

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: thus starts a love of tutus…..so precious!

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: Intently coloring in one of her many coloring books.

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: Playing peek-a-boo through the glass window next to the french door! So adorable

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

On the day we found out we were having a boy we met up with my parents, Josh’s mom, my siblings and their families and we celebrated just like we did when we found out Lillian was a girl.

Laura took most of these photos…thank you sis!

It was so amazing and fun to get to do this type of celebration again…it is still so miraculous to Josh and I that we are going to have two children…we feel so blessed. I think I was still in shock a bit at this Olive Garden dinner because Josh and I (and most of us) were so sure that I was having another girl! It took Josh and I a bit to adjust our mindset but we are so very excited now for our little boy to complete our family!

We’ve decided his name will be Gabriel Finn – and we can’t wait to meet him!!

Look at his sweet profile, and his long legs!! And poor little guy looks really crammed in there…during the ultrasound we saw him “kissing” the placenta a lot – it looked like he was trying to eat it, ha ha!

Makayla and Mason helping us celebrate.

Me and my bro!!

Mason and Brendon at the table. Opening presents! How exciting!

We love every beautiful gift that everyone got us for Gabriel! Thank you guys so much!

Deanna, Becky, and George at the table.

Lillian wanted to play with the balloons at home too!

Mom, Josh, me and Lillian, and Dad. Thank you everyone (sorry we don’t have a picture of everyone there!) so much for helping us celebrate this new life we are bringing into our family!

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: Pure joy! Almost every moment of every day you can find a huge smile on this sweet girl’s face! She’s so chipper and happy and full of energy and new things to say every day!

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

And of course, because it seems lately that I can’t choose just one picture to share…here are a few more!

Last year was Lillian’s first annual photo in the wildflowers. (See the start of it all HERE.) This year we were eager to do it again! I can’t believe that next April we will have TWO children of our own to continue this tradition with! So exciting.

It was very hot and midday when we went today…not the best time for a long hot hike along the lake in weeds to get to the (sadly sparse this year) patch of wildflowers. Plus, being hugely pregnant made it extra hard and out-of-breath for me! Also, this year Lillian is VERY mobile and really didn’t want to stay still for the photographs

Here’s our gorgeous girl this year!

And here she was last year – our beautiful girl has grown so much!

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: In the middle of counting her “cake figures”. She loves to do this! We have heard her count up to twenty already. She sometimes skips numbers 16 and 17 but it’s tooooo cute to hear!

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

Here are more photos from when she was counting her figures:

And since she’s wearing her I love my Grandma tshirt here, here’s some gorgeous pictures of our girl from a couple weeks ago where she’s wearing her I love my Grandpa shirt! (My sister Laura designed and made these shirts! She sells them here.)

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: My sister Laura took this gorgeous portrait of Lillian last Sunday on Easter. We love it! You’re so beautiful Lillian!

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

Boy!

We are so grateful to God that everything looks healthy and normal with him. Now we just have to choose a boy name…we were so certain that Lillian would have a little sister that we named HER but didn’t settle on a boy name.

We will celebrate with family at Olive Garden tonight. Bring on the fun!

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: You almost always have a “figure” in your hand! You love especially your Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ones at the moment and can often be heard saying “roll call…Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Pluto, Goofy…” So sweet!

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

 Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.

And, as usual, since there were so many other beautiful photos of Lillian that were hard to choose from for the selection this week…I will just put them here!

“A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.”

Lillian: You can’t tell in this close-up, but you’re playing with your doll from Grandma and Grandpa that you named “Baby Bea”. You have been lavishing love and attention on her, and it just proves to us what a sweet and loving girl you are, and what an excellent big sister you’re going to be!

There were so many different portraits of Lillian this week that just show off her wonderful personality. It was very hard to select “The” weekly one this time. Here are some of the others that would have worked just as well:

You are so cute and smart…you always know when I put a hair-bow in your hair, or a hairband or headband. You just.don’t.like.it!! You always always always pull it right out!! This just sums it up right here.

BUT…if I stick it in your hair sneakily while you’re playing, you’ll tolerate it. For a few minutes. Ha ha! Then you always realize it’s there and pull it out. Here are some photos of you happily playing while wearing a hair bow.

You love to play with our yardstick! You carry it around like a staff and have lots of fun with it. We enjoy it too, because we can indirectly measure you. If we can believe our eyes it looks like you’re 35″ tall already!! Such a beautiful tall girl!

In this shot you can see Baby Bea’s head And of course your stunning eyes!

Concentrating on playing with your “figures”. You are such a joy and so full of life and imagination Lillian! We love you!

Linking up with Jodi for the 52 project.

Click the graphic above to see all of Lillian’s previous weekly portraits.