Happy Birthday Sweet Baby!

Audreyanna is 1! How the time it do fly.  She's walking everywhere, loves to be outside, thinks she's big stuff chasing the other kids around; gives big, open mouth kisses when SHE decides to, not when you ask; and is a cuddly sweet momma's girl :-)  As I look at her sweet face and listen to her contented nursing noises I think of how soon these days will be over.  In the thick of it, it seems they will never end.  But I know that one day soon I will miss the sleepy milk smile, the excited noises she makes when she wants to nurse, the way she skooches up against me to sleep at night and the fact the I see her sweet face every hour or two all night long.  I will miss the way she toddles around the house, gets stuck behind the couch, dances to the sound of the vacuum cleaner, blender, and food processor, and wants to live on my hip.  

Happy Birthday Audreyanna!!

And the post wouldn't be complete without a bit of video :-)

 

Oh, and that funky block around "Happy Birthday Audreyanna"?  The harder I tried to get rid of it, the worse it got.  I really need a techy!

Family Time

We enjoyed a trip to Arizona for New Years.  We don't get together nearly often enough!  

Look at the cousins - I wish they got to spend more time together. I know, no one is looking at me.  But this was a HARD picture to get.  We waited until the end of the evening for pictures and none of the babies wanted to cooperate AT ALL.  I'm just glad to have one of the three babies together.

Look at her eyes!

Sierra's 13th - Part 2

Another part of our 13th birthday tradition is a 2 night trip away - with the girls I get to go :-)

We spend time talking, eating, and just being together.  It is a great time of bonding and reflection.  Sierra and I went to Sequoia National Park.  Sadly, she got really sick right after we got there.  She rallied herself for a bit of hiking, but was definitely under the weather.  I think she still had a great time though, and I will treasure the time spent just the 2 of us (and Audreyanna :-))

13 Candles - Another "Teen" in the House

Another important event I haven't yet devoted a post to is the celebration of Sierra's 13th birthday. 13 is a big one in our house, the transition from childhood to young adult.  13 is the year of the big birthday party because we believe the addition of family and friends helps mark the significance of the day, and we seek council from other godly women to encourage and guide our children.  For Hailey and Sierra this encouragement has come in the form of letters to be stored in their hope chest (which they receive on their 13th birthday).  These letters have been a true blessing to our girls, and I am so grateful that our friends and family would take the time to write them. 

We requested that gifts center around the hope chest we were giving her, and Sierra was blessed with many beautiful and thoughtful things.  It's so much fun to see what everyone comes up with!

Her daddy gave her a blessing and Sierra recited Proverbs 19:1-9

The cake was amazing. No, I didn't make it.

I love these young adult years.  The knowledge that my time with them is so short is ever before me, and I am frequently driven to my knees.  I am so blessed to see them growing in knowledge and righteousness.  And so grateful for the opportunity to speak into their lives as we spend our days together.

Miss Cadence is getting so big.  She's a real blend of her mommy and daddy.  And so smart :-) I can't wait to watch her grow up.

Chance was able to come for the party, which was SUCH a gift for Sierra.  We are all grateful for any time we are able to spend together, but it was really special that he came for her birthday.  Kirstyn was there too!  It is such a rare gift for us all to be together :-)


The day after the party Chance taught the boys to make boats with tooth pics.   The results were pretty cool, but next time I think we'll use popsicle sticks so it doesn't take so long :-)

 

Snow Days

A huge storm blew in last night to finish killing off our fruit tree blossoms, so we are hunkered down trying to stay warm and drinking chai tea deliciousness.  Since we aren't at all interested in going outside, I thought I would share a few pictures of some of this year's earlier snow days. 

She's Just SO Stinkin Cute!

Audreyanna 10 months

Easter 2012

I decided to skip the interim and jump right to Easter. I still hope to fill in the blanks, but today...we're jumping to Easter :-)

It was a really great day. After church we were joined by Matt, Holly, and Gregory, and Dean and Jill, and Lisa, Angie and Sophia. We had lots of good food, good conversation, and good times!

Next year I am going to do a Christian seder on Good Friday. I am excited to try it and it may just become a new tradition. In any case, I am looking forward to a new way to get us thinking about all that we are really celebrating.

We did do something a little different this year, we traditionally hide a few "money eggs", but this year I took the story of the Resurrection from Matthew and cut it into sections of 2 verses each, with the verses un-numbered. We had bright eggs and pastel eggs and we put 2 verses in each egg in each color family. Make sense? So, there were 11 bright eggs with verses and 11 pastel eggs with verses. The eggs with verses inside were marked with an "s", the other eggs had candy. The kids were broken in to two teams and assigned a color family. They had to find their 11 eggs and assemble the scripture in the right order first. There was a bit on confusion and the process needs some fine tuning, but it was a fun twist. The team with Sierra, Eli and Titus carried the day!

I was a busy hostess and didn't take nearly enough pictures. But I did get some pretty cute ones!






We really need to find a prettier backdrop for the group shots! Ah well, the faces are lovely ;-)
I'm including 3 because you need all of them to get a decent shot of everyone. So, you pick!

I hope your Easter was as special as ours was!

Boys

Ethan's big brother gifted him with some face paint, so now he fiercely blends into his surroundings. He shared his gift with his other brothers and they all had a grand time looking like warriors.

I wouldn't want to meet them in the woods, would you? :-)

Annaleise as Art

Birthdays!

9 and 2, I can hardly believe it! How can the years go so quickly?

Eli has really found a love for reading this year, surpassed only by his love of audiobooks. He will often ask to go to be early to listen to a book on the ipod, or he can be found hiding on the side of the couch reading. He's got that goofy boy humor that brings me right back to 9 year-old Chance. I am so blessed to be his mom, and can't wait to see what God does in his life.

Banonna is our sweet cuddlebug. She is way to cute for her own good, and if we're not careful we'll ruin her completely! She is never happier than when she is snuggled into a lap with her thumb in her mouth and your hair in her hand. She is so gentle and sweet with Audreyanna, and loves her own babies as well. We love you Annaleise, you bring such joy to our lives!

We celebrated the birthdays of Eli and Annaleise with the standard Mimi's breakfast. But this time was likely the last, as one horrible experience is usually all my husband will tolerate. The meal was free, so there is that. The gas wasn't, so there is that. The day was pretty low-key because Mike was coming off the flu and I'm not really running at full speed yet. Tin Tin and the T-Rex kite were big hits with Eli, and I think Annaleise loves her doll buggy. She'll love it more if we can make the handle stay on :-)



She couldn't quite figure out the whole blowing thing, we eventually got them out though.

Me? I'm fine, still gestating. Last week I measured 44 weeks, and my midwife estimated the baby to be about 10 pounds. So, clearly she needs every moment of this pack-on-the-fat period. I measured my waist yesterday, 51.5 inches. Seriously.

But I'm not here to talk about me :-) I thought I'd post a few pictures. No, they're not of Easter. Maybe I'll get those up later today. Just some random kidishness.