Loving Life

So apparently I haven't posted for awhile. For all you faithful blog readers (Mom), I apologize. I hadn't meant to let it go this long, but I did. I got caught up in several big projects and didn't get them off my plate until recently. One of the biggest things I did was to transition myself out of a job at our church. I've been the church administrator since we started and as we've grown, it has taken up more and more of my time. Juggling the demands of homeschooling, church work, motherhood with a newborn was just too much. My replacement is doing quite awesome and she has learned quickly, so now I'm only on call as needed which will be less and less as the weeks go by. That transition time took a lot of time as we were also in the process of getting an official church office so Aaron could have a place other than our bedroom/nursery/office room to work in. It's been an all around good thing.  The other major project we did was to put our house on the...

Hey guys! Guess what?! I have hands! They're so cool! I can look at them and hold them. They are also really good to chew on. Other than that, they still seem pretty useless to me. But I still think they are pretty and really like looking at them and admiring them. Every once in awhile, Mom puts me in a tub of water and gets me all wet. I really don't know if I like it all that much. She always tells me this joke every time she puts me in my tub: "How does a Mennonite girl take a bath? First she fills up the tub... then she turns on the water." Mom grew up Mennonite, but I'm not sure why she always tells me this joke and then giggles about it as she looks at me in my little tub. I'm clearly not amused by it. Another thing I like doing is sitting in my bouncy chair. I often sit there and tell David what to do with his school work. Mom tells me I shouldn't be so bossy when David isn't working on school work, but David doesn't see...

When Aaron and I first got married, I relieved him of the responsibility of making a big deal about Valentine's Day in our marriage. I don't want him to get me something because he "has" to do it. He does a great job of surprising me with little things throughout the year, just because so I feel quite loved by him throughout the year. So I was quite surprised when he came home from the city two days before Valentine's Day with these lovely roses for me. It was super sweet of him. They are gracing my dining room table and make me smile when I pass them by. I grew up with this tradition and have carried it on in my kids. Every Valentine's morning we would wake up to a hand cut out heart from our Mom with a note on the inside of it letting us know how much she loved us. I usually remember to do it very last minute. This year was no exception. Keilah woke up at 5:15 to nurse that morning and it was then that I realized I hadn't gotten my hearts done yet. ...

Before I get to our cookbook challenge, I need to catch you up on all that's been going on over here. I have written about four posts in my head, but haven't had the time to actually get to the computer to do it. We've had some sick kiddos here the past few weeks. The older girls got sick first - Abby missed almost a whole week of school with fever, colds, and ear infections. Once they both started feeling better, Keilah got sick. Her breathing got pretty rough and ragged early on this week. Yesterday we went back to the doctor as she seemed to be having a harder and harder time breathing. Her O2 levels were really low and we were almost admitted to the hospital as she wasn't responding to the treatments they were giving her in the office there. Thankfully they gave her 10 final minutes to see if the treatment would work and they got her O2 levels up to an acceptable range to where they felt okay letting us go home - as long as we brought her back in the morning. After ...

Finally! I've been eagerly awaiting those precious smiles from my little girl for 6 long weeks. The past week we would get a few little ones here and there, but not the whole light up your entire face smile that I love. Today, Keilah was in a very happy mood and spent a lot of time smiling up at me. It just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy to look into that sweet face that lights up when she looks at you. Aaron and I are always amazed by how babies break down any barriers that people construct. A baby smile bridges all sorts of social gaps. Our favorite story was when David was a baby (he was the smileyest baby you've ever met) and we were sitting at the DMV waiting our turn to get our licenses renewed. We ended up sitting beside some rough looking biker dudes - leather, tattoos, lots of facial hair, bandanas - you get the picture - the kind of people you don't want to meet in a dark alley. Anyway, little baby David started grinning at them and the next thing you know...

Here's a picture of my three favorite girls. I love them all so much! Abby LOVES her little sister greatly. Out of all the kids, she is the one to pay the most attention to Keilah. She happily carries her around, plays with her, and takes care of many of her needs. I actually find it quite helpful to have that extra pair of hands eager to hold the baby when I need to get something done. I love too see her love on her little sister like that.  I hope Keilah will appreciate it as well. Our New Year's Eve party was low-key, but fun.  We went to some friends house for the early part of the evening. It's always fun to hang out and chat while the kids run off and play happily. Abby, Keilah, and I were at home by 9:00 as Abby wasn't feeling the best and I didn't want her out super late. Aaron, David, and Ana went on to another friends house after we left and stayed up until midnight. Abby wasn't too upset about not getting to stay up that late as she got ...

It's hard to believe that just two and a half weeks ago, this bundle of cuteness was crammed into my stomach. I'm so happy she's outside of me now so I can kiss those cute cheeks of hers. We are getting used to our new life of four kids. Keilah continues to spoil us rotten by being such a good and easy baby (can you say sleeping 6 hours a night already?!).  Her version of being fussy is occasionally crying for about 30 seconds tops as she's drifting off to sleep. She often has a look of alarm on her face. I find it amusing. Another expression of alarm. On Saturday, the girls presented me with a breakfast menu when I got up (Saturday is my day to sleep in). It was precious.  Abby took my order and Ana set about making my breakfast. Here is the finished breakfast order, brought to me on a serving tray.  What sweethearts I have! Later that day, we made graham cracker houses together - they are much easier to deal with than true gingerbread houses. ...

Remember when I said David would be taller than me at Christmas? Well, it's not quite Christmas, but he did it. Here is the official proof.  Someone named David is quite pleased with this new arrangement. Someone named Mom pretends to be sad about this new arrangement. Here's a picture of my largest child with my smallest child. Hard to believe they both belong to me! I also found a great way to really like folding laundry. It's finding cute little socks in the laundry like these.  You can't help but smile when you come across these.  My finger is to help you get a picture of just how tiny they are.  :) Have a happy Tuesday everyone!

I had a great, productive weekend.  Here are some of the things that got done. The first is little candy sleighs for our seminar kids.  Aaron and I are seminar parents at our local high school. I made these cute little things for our kids (they are all juniors this year).  I think they turned out very nicely. And before you get all impressed with my amazing creativity, don't. That's what the internet is for. And google. We'll be making more of these for the girls' teachers at school.  The next family project was putting up our Christmas tree.  I kind of dread it, but love it at the same time.  I only dread it because our tree is so huge and takes up so much of our living room space. It really didn't look like such a big tree in the store when I bought it. :) We blasted Christmas music while we all worked to put it up. It was a lot of fun. David is helping Abby put the top of the tree on. It's nice to have such a big, t...