for the first time in 12 years, i didn't put a baby to bed in a crib

our crib was given to us by the teachers at the school that i taught at when i was pregnant with rebekah. it cost like $300, and was such a HUGE gift to be given. HUGE.

that crib has lasted us 5 kids (lincoln never slept in it) and 12 years. we didn't do a ton of research or anything. just picked it at babies r us because i liked the way it looked. luckily it held up!

this is rebekah in the crib. in our 1 bedroom apartment. that picture of her crib is STILL hanging in lincoln and levi's room. it's always been near the "baby's bed." the teachers at that school gave me that, too. i felt that they sent me into "motherhood" armed with lots of precious wisdom.

a memory of rebekah and the crib: she was a FUSSY baby. ask anyone that knew her then. FUSSY. and i was a new mom that had NO idea what i was doing. and spent many days in tears myself. one day, pat got home from work and this little study area (which we made into her "room") was right when you walked in the apartment door. she was laying in her bed SCREAMING her head off. i was nowhere to be found (or so he thought at first glance. i was actually down the hallway, past the kitchen area, and living room area, into our bedroom, through our CLOSED closet door, sitting on the floor of our closet crying my eyes out. i knew she was safe in her crib, and i just wanted to get AWAY from the screaming!

joshua in the crib. this is the only picture i could find :( makes me so glad i blog and take lots of pictures now! looking through pictures to do this post, has made me so very thankful for this place to store our memories!!!

this was in our townhouse.

bailey :-) this is in our current house.

i was so excited to paint her room PINK when we moved in!!

and sawyer. we painted the room back to blue. there are MANY more pictures of him in the crib...here are a few! :-)

those ROLLS!!

he still sleeps with those blankets.
i have truly treasured every moment of this boy's life. it only took me 4 kids to figure it out...

i debated putting a picture of lincoln in the crib he was in in rwanda here...when he was a year old. we've been blessed to have some from some girls that visited there one summer. but i couldn't do it. they are too sad and will break your heart. maybe i'll share them one day. but not here. not in this sweet post.

this is how levi sleeps...with the blanket over him :-)

and now, it's taken apart and in the basement. i think we (against everything pat wishes) are going to set it up in the guest room in the basement. won't it be nice for people who visit that have babies?? it seems silly to sell it for $20 or something...after all that history and all! i'm NOT a packrat - i throw bags of stuff away all the time...but i can't get rid of this one...yet....

i remember being SAD when we moved sawyer to a bed, and thought we were done with the crib. and then WEEKS later found out who our boys were and that one was a BABY! we hadn't even taken the crib apart yet!

i'm not SAD this time. i mean, it's been 12 years! we have to move on sometime!!! it's big, for sure. but i'm ok!

so...all the kids are potty trained and sleeping in REAL beds. one more big change this week. we are definitely leaving a stage (babies!) behind...it's pretty fun, actually!