Sunday, September 07, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Our Amazing Kids!
Ascha rolled over from her tummy to her back yesterday for the first time. She was more than a little upset I was making her have tummy time, so I don't know if she really knew what she was doing. I don't do tummy time enough, so she really isn't used to it. But hooray for her anyway!
Aric asked today, during lunch, what the crunchy noodles in his salad were called. I said "Ramen." He said, "Because they're the WRONG shape?" I laughed and said, "Raw-men, or some people call them Ray-men noodles." He retorted, "Well, I'm going to call them wrong noodles anyway, because I don't like them!"
Taylor, at dinner, was talking about being extremely quiet. He said he would be "quieter than the breeze whooshing through hair." I was impressed at that amazing description. I love my kids and am so proud of them at so many moments throughout each day, but I don't record it often enough.
Ascha rolled over from her tummy to her back yesterday for the first time. She was more than a little upset I was making her have tummy time, so I don't know if she really knew what she was doing. I don't do tummy time enough, so she really isn't used to it. But hooray for her anyway!
Aric asked today, during lunch, what the crunchy noodles in his salad were called. I said "Ramen." He said, "Because they're the WRONG shape?" I laughed and said, "Raw-men, or some people call them Ray-men noodles." He retorted, "Well, I'm going to call them wrong noodles anyway, because I don't like them!"
Taylor, at dinner, was talking about being extremely quiet. He said he would be "quieter than the breeze whooshing through hair." I was impressed at that amazing description. I love my kids and am so proud of them at so many moments throughout each day, but I don't record it often enough.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Persecuted Church
We live such an insular existence here in the US. We are so blessed with freedoms that we take for granted and rarely take the time to appreciate. Unfortunately, many in the world don't share this luxury. During the past week, at least 6 Christians have been murdered, 15 church buildings have been destroyed, and 110 church-members' homes burned to the ground in Orissa, India by a radical Hindu group. And those numbers only represent affiliates of one particular missions organization. Please join me in praying for my brothers and sisters around the world who face unimaginable persecution on a regular basis. If you'd like to learn more about the violence in Orissa or learn how you can help, visit http://www.gfa.org/orissa-update?cm_mmc=GFA-_-Email-_-377991-_-080826
We live such an insular existence here in the US. We are so blessed with freedoms that we take for granted and rarely take the time to appreciate. Unfortunately, many in the world don't share this luxury. During the past week, at least 6 Christians have been murdered, 15 church buildings have been destroyed, and 110 church-members' homes burned to the ground in Orissa, India by a radical Hindu group. And those numbers only represent affiliates of one particular missions organization. Please join me in praying for my brothers and sisters around the world who face unimaginable persecution on a regular basis. If you'd like to learn more about the violence in Orissa or learn how you can help, visit http://www.gfa.org/orissa-update?cm_mmc=GFA-_-Email-_-377991-_-080826
Our Sweet Little Girl
Ascha had her 2 month checkup and her weight is in the 75th percentile and her height is off the charts (so it's considered the 99th percentile). It's hard to believe she's 2 months old!
She's already such a charmer... Check out her sweet dimple and the twinkle in her eyes!
And here she is playing and smiling:
We are all so in love with her and so thankful for the way the Lord has blessed our family through her presence!
Ascha had her 2 month checkup and her weight is in the 75th percentile and her height is off the charts (so it's considered the 99th percentile). It's hard to believe she's 2 months old!
She's already such a charmer... Check out her sweet dimple and the twinkle in her eyes!
And here she is playing and smiling:
We are all so in love with her and so thankful for the way the Lord has blessed our family through her presence!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!
We've had an eventful number of weeks and this blog post is way overdue. However, I think I'll start with the most recent event, which occured at roughly 7 p.m. last Saturday night. Aric and Taylor were apparently skirmishing on the top bunk (a strongly prohibited activity) when Aric's face met the bedframe. Now he has five stitches over his left eye. We were able to take him to Urgent Care rather than the ER, but it still took over three hours to have him seen. He was a very brave little boy and only cried a little. He chose to hold very still on his own, so he did not have to be restrained while they stitched him up, which was a blessing to me. Last time he had stitches they strapped his entire body to a board (he was "papoosed") and it was awful.
Five days later, the wound was looking great and it was time for the stitches to come out. Our doctor's office told us we ought to go back to Urgent Care to have them removed since that is where he'd gotten them, but none of us were thrilled at the idea of waiting hours on end for a few simple snips with a pair of scissors. We dug out the surgical scissors we took home last time he had stitches removed and I sterilized them (they'd been living in Jeremy's hobby tool collection in the garage :-). Aric was a little trepidatious about having Daddy remove the stitches, but Taylor piped up, "I have a great idea! Let Aric watch TV." (Of course, that meant Taylor got to watch TV, too, but Aric calmed down and ignored what Jeremy was doing, so it was over in a flash without so much as a whimper).
Here he is "post-op" :
I guess we'll just keep going backwards through the month with our pictures since we started with the most recent event. A few days ago, we finally got around to getting Aric a new bike. Taylor's mastered riding sans training wheels, and Aric's really been itching to get riding again. We picked up a bike that we thought was the same size as Taylor's. When we brought it home, we put the training wheels on it and Aric excitedly hopped on for an inaugural ride. That's when we realized it was too big for him - it ended up being a larger bike than Taylor's, and Aric really couldn't reach the pedals well enough to get around. We groaned and figured we'd put it away for later, because we couldn't take Taylor's bike that he'd just gotten comfortable with away from him. However, Taylor decided he really wanted to trade, and Aric was amenable to that idea, so they both have "new" bikes now. :-)
Last time Jeremy was upriver, Janet and I decided we'd be ambitious and take the kids all the way up to Mt. St. Helens since it's practically in our backyard. It was an amazing sight and we really enjoyed the day, except for the ride home (Ascha screamed for well over an hour while we sat stuck in a major traffic jam caused by a brush fire on the freeway ahead of us). We started out at the Johnson Ridge Observatory, where we took this family picture. The displays were excellent and we'd highly recommend visiting this amazing place. The boys loved getting to create their own earthquakes by jumping up and down to make a seismograph needle move. There was an impressive movie about the 1980 eruption, which everyone but Aric enjoyed. He found it a bit scary.
Then we went to the Forest Learning Center, put on by Weyerhauser, where we learned a lot about trees, paper, forests, and animals. It was a great place to stop with kids. We picnicked in the shade and the boys enjoyed a playground complete with a hand-operated excavator and a giant rubberized climbing volcano. Inside the center, there was a helicopter flight simulator which they both thoroughly enjoyed.
After experiencing the volcano and the forest, we were ready for some fun. After sitting in the aforementioned traffic jam for way too long, we finally made it to Woodland where we enjoyed cooling off in Horseshoe Lake. The boys loved playing in the sand...
And Ascha loved being out of her carseat! It was a full day of adventure.
Speaking of Ascha, she's growing like a weed! She's now two months old and wearing six month clothing! She's been smiling and cooing for quite a while, but she tends to be camera shy. If we ever want her to stop smiling, all we have to do is pull out the camera! I have managed to capture a few smiles along the way, so here are a few:
The boys are still loving being big brothers to Ascha. They are rough and tumble a lot of the time, but they can both be so sweet and gentle around their baby sister. They can also be pretty sweet toward one another when they want to be. Aric sometimes gets scared at night and asks Taylor to stay in his bed with him. Usually this leads to playing and/or fighting, but on this particular night, I found them sleeping just inches apart. Awwww!
Their personalities become ever more apparent. Here's a fun recent example. The boys are starting to email their long-distance friends, and at the end of one of their emails, they both decided to make up poetry. This is what they said, verbatim:
A little poem from Taylor:
"I love you
How the trees and birds sing to you."
A little poem from Aric:
"See how the warm winds blow and how warm the trees are when you hug them. There might be ants on them, and they might be fire ants, and they bite you, so be careful!" :-) :-) :-)
In early August, the Clark County Fair occurs just 5 miles from our house, so of course, we had to go. We spent a day looking at animals and exhibits, watching a demolition derby and a monster truck demonstration, and wandering the carnival. We let the boys pick a ride, and after a lot of "back and forth," they chose the motorcycle jump.
At the very beginning of the month, my parents came out for a few days while my dad attended a work conference. Here they are with all three grandkids.
We took a trek up to the Ape Cave Lava Tubes while they were visiting, and it was a pretty cool place (41 degrees! :-). Aric was a little nervous (he gets claustrophobic and we were essentially in a dark hole in the ground), but Taylor LOVED every moment of exploring and talked Grumpy into going all the way to the very end of the cave, even though he had to crawl on his belly to fit!
The boys kept hoping to see a bat or a spider and kept noticing little pockets in the walls where they might find a "bat home." This was the largest one they found.
Grumpy and Taylor climbed up onto a ledge overhead - it was a little holey, as you can see.
Ascha slept through the whole adventure.
Aric was tired of walking, so he got to ride on Grumpy's shoulders. Here, he's touching the meatball," a piece of cooled lava that floated along the top of the lava flow until it caught at this point.
We also visited the "Trail of Two Forests," where you can view a current forest and see the remains of the forest that was swallowed up by flowing lava. The trees were burned up, but their trunks remained as the lava flowed around them. The charcoaled trunks eventually disintegrated, leaving perfect molds, some of which we were able to crawl through.
We've had an eventful number of weeks and this blog post is way overdue. However, I think I'll start with the most recent event, which occured at roughly 7 p.m. last Saturday night. Aric and Taylor were apparently skirmishing on the top bunk (a strongly prohibited activity) when Aric's face met the bedframe. Now he has five stitches over his left eye. We were able to take him to Urgent Care rather than the ER, but it still took over three hours to have him seen. He was a very brave little boy and only cried a little. He chose to hold very still on his own, so he did not have to be restrained while they stitched him up, which was a blessing to me. Last time he had stitches they strapped his entire body to a board (he was "papoosed") and it was awful.
Five days later, the wound was looking great and it was time for the stitches to come out. Our doctor's office told us we ought to go back to Urgent Care to have them removed since that is where he'd gotten them, but none of us were thrilled at the idea of waiting hours on end for a few simple snips with a pair of scissors. We dug out the surgical scissors we took home last time he had stitches removed and I sterilized them (they'd been living in Jeremy's hobby tool collection in the garage :-). Aric was a little trepidatious about having Daddy remove the stitches, but Taylor piped up, "I have a great idea! Let Aric watch TV." (Of course, that meant Taylor got to watch TV, too, but Aric calmed down and ignored what Jeremy was doing, so it was over in a flash without so much as a whimper).
Here he is "post-op" :
I guess we'll just keep going backwards through the month with our pictures since we started with the most recent event. A few days ago, we finally got around to getting Aric a new bike. Taylor's mastered riding sans training wheels, and Aric's really been itching to get riding again. We picked up a bike that we thought was the same size as Taylor's. When we brought it home, we put the training wheels on it and Aric excitedly hopped on for an inaugural ride. That's when we realized it was too big for him - it ended up being a larger bike than Taylor's, and Aric really couldn't reach the pedals well enough to get around. We groaned and figured we'd put it away for later, because we couldn't take Taylor's bike that he'd just gotten comfortable with away from him. However, Taylor decided he really wanted to trade, and Aric was amenable to that idea, so they both have "new" bikes now. :-)
Last time Jeremy was upriver, Janet and I decided we'd be ambitious and take the kids all the way up to Mt. St. Helens since it's practically in our backyard. It was an amazing sight and we really enjoyed the day, except for the ride home (Ascha screamed for well over an hour while we sat stuck in a major traffic jam caused by a brush fire on the freeway ahead of us). We started out at the Johnson Ridge Observatory, where we took this family picture. The displays were excellent and we'd highly recommend visiting this amazing place. The boys loved getting to create their own earthquakes by jumping up and down to make a seismograph needle move. There was an impressive movie about the 1980 eruption, which everyone but Aric enjoyed. He found it a bit scary.
Then we went to the Forest Learning Center, put on by Weyerhauser, where we learned a lot about trees, paper, forests, and animals. It was a great place to stop with kids. We picnicked in the shade and the boys enjoyed a playground complete with a hand-operated excavator and a giant rubberized climbing volcano. Inside the center, there was a helicopter flight simulator which they both thoroughly enjoyed.
After experiencing the volcano and the forest, we were ready for some fun. After sitting in the aforementioned traffic jam for way too long, we finally made it to Woodland where we enjoyed cooling off in Horseshoe Lake. The boys loved playing in the sand...
And Ascha loved being out of her carseat! It was a full day of adventure.
Speaking of Ascha, she's growing like a weed! She's now two months old and wearing six month clothing! She's been smiling and cooing for quite a while, but she tends to be camera shy. If we ever want her to stop smiling, all we have to do is pull out the camera! I have managed to capture a few smiles along the way, so here are a few:
The boys are still loving being big brothers to Ascha. They are rough and tumble a lot of the time, but they can both be so sweet and gentle around their baby sister. They can also be pretty sweet toward one another when they want to be. Aric sometimes gets scared at night and asks Taylor to stay in his bed with him. Usually this leads to playing and/or fighting, but on this particular night, I found them sleeping just inches apart. Awwww!
Their personalities become ever more apparent. Here's a fun recent example. The boys are starting to email their long-distance friends, and at the end of one of their emails, they both decided to make up poetry. This is what they said, verbatim:
A little poem from Taylor:
"I love you
How the trees and birds sing to you."
A little poem from Aric:
"See how the warm winds blow and how warm the trees are when you hug them. There might be ants on them, and they might be fire ants, and they bite you, so be careful!" :-) :-) :-)
In early August, the Clark County Fair occurs just 5 miles from our house, so of course, we had to go. We spent a day looking at animals and exhibits, watching a demolition derby and a monster truck demonstration, and wandering the carnival. We let the boys pick a ride, and after a lot of "back and forth," they chose the motorcycle jump.
At the very beginning of the month, my parents came out for a few days while my dad attended a work conference. Here they are with all three grandkids.
We took a trek up to the Ape Cave Lava Tubes while they were visiting, and it was a pretty cool place (41 degrees! :-). Aric was a little nervous (he gets claustrophobic and we were essentially in a dark hole in the ground), but Taylor LOVED every moment of exploring and talked Grumpy into going all the way to the very end of the cave, even though he had to crawl on his belly to fit!
The boys kept hoping to see a bat or a spider and kept noticing little pockets in the walls where they might find a "bat home." This was the largest one they found.
Grumpy and Taylor climbed up onto a ledge overhead - it was a little holey, as you can see.
Ascha slept through the whole adventure.
Aric was tired of walking, so he got to ride on Grumpy's shoulders. Here, he's touching the meatball," a piece of cooled lava that floated along the top of the lava flow until it caught at this point.
We also visited the "Trail of Two Forests," where you can view a current forest and see the remains of the forest that was swallowed up by flowing lava. The trees were burned up, but their trunks remained as the lava flowed around them. The charcoaled trunks eventually disintegrated, leaving perfect molds, some of which we were able to crawl through.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Ascha's First Trek to Montana, My Brother's Wedding, and My 10-Year Class Reunion
We had a lovely break from normal life (not that life has been normal lately, anyway, what with the new house, the new baby, and lots of company) while the boys played and played in Montana with Grammy and Grumpy. Jeremy and I enjoyed lots of sleeping in (without our early riser, Aric, waking us up at 6 or 6:30 at the latest) and getting to spend lots of quiet time with Ascha. However, we missed our big boys terribly and we were so thankful to get back to them.
On Wednesday, we decided to head toward MT around the middle of the day. We took Hwy. 14 from Vancouver all the way across southern Washington. Although it lengthens the trip by about an hour, it's a beautiful drive and we really enjoyed ourselves. We stopped for the evening in Couer d'Alene, ID and stayed with our great friends there. It was wonderful to spend a bit of time with them and their kids! In the morning, we pressed on to Missoula, where we met up with our boys, plus Grammy and Great-Aunt Lynn, for lunch. We were all excited to see each other again!
On Friday, Jeremy got to go up to the lake for his tri-annual ski. :-) Poor guy - once every three years is just not quite enough! He had a nasty wreck and is still feeling the after-effects of bruised ribs. That evening, we all went to the beautiful property where Amos and Meredith were going to get married. We had a rehearsal and then we all drove to a steakhouse in the beautiful Skalkaho area and enjoyed the rehearsal dinner.
Saturday was a whirlwind of a day. My mom and her friends were in charge of making 530 shish kebabs, which was quite a task! I attended the picnic portion of my 10-year high school reunion. It was good to see old friends and reconnect with people I only "visit" with online. Then it was back to my parents' house to get ready for the wedding. After the whirlwind of getting everyone ready, we headed over to the wedding where the boys got to be the "ring bears." They did a stellar job, and were incredibly handsome to boot. :-)
Sunday morning came all too soon and we had to head back to Washington. We got to stop in Idaho for a few minutes so the kids could see their friends while I nursed the baby. Then we trekked onward, stopping in Plymouth, WA (not much there) and again at Crow's Butte, WA (pretty pond and lots of water foul to see).
After 13 hours, we finally made it home to figure out what our new "normal" is going to be as a family of five in our new home. We're still working on figuring that out, but it's a relief to not have any huge events "pending" for a while. The boys are glad to be home and Ascha's still trying to recover from her days of sleeping and sleeping. Her daytime schedule has yet to recover (and she is changing all the time, anyway, as she becomes more alert for longer stretches), but her nighttime routine seems to be a fairly consistent 5 or 6 hour stretch, which we are SO thankful for!!!
Ascha is now one month old! I didn't ever get any good 3-week pictures, but I captured some acceptable one month pictures this morning. For some reason, I find it hard to capture my kids' personalities at this age and I'm usually unhappy with the pictures because I don't invest the time in making them look "just right." Oh, well - perfectionism has to give way to reality, so here's a picture of Ascha smiling at her Daddy this morning. She's started working really hard at smiling "for real" and it's so fun to watch. She opens her mouth really wide, then curls the corners of her mouth up into a smile, complete with dimples. Then she closes her mouth and the corners stay turned upward for a little while (this is the "phase" captured in the picture). She is already growing up too fast! The boys are both wrapped around her little finger (and, ok, I'll admit it, so are her parents! :-)
We had a lovely break from normal life (not that life has been normal lately, anyway, what with the new house, the new baby, and lots of company) while the boys played and played in Montana with Grammy and Grumpy. Jeremy and I enjoyed lots of sleeping in (without our early riser, Aric, waking us up at 6 or 6:30 at the latest) and getting to spend lots of quiet time with Ascha. However, we missed our big boys terribly and we were so thankful to get back to them.
On Wednesday, we decided to head toward MT around the middle of the day. We took Hwy. 14 from Vancouver all the way across southern Washington. Although it lengthens the trip by about an hour, it's a beautiful drive and we really enjoyed ourselves. We stopped for the evening in Couer d'Alene, ID and stayed with our great friends there. It was wonderful to spend a bit of time with them and their kids! In the morning, we pressed on to Missoula, where we met up with our boys, plus Grammy and Great-Aunt Lynn, for lunch. We were all excited to see each other again!
On Friday, Jeremy got to go up to the lake for his tri-annual ski. :-) Poor guy - once every three years is just not quite enough! He had a nasty wreck and is still feeling the after-effects of bruised ribs. That evening, we all went to the beautiful property where Amos and Meredith were going to get married. We had a rehearsal and then we all drove to a steakhouse in the beautiful Skalkaho area and enjoyed the rehearsal dinner.
Saturday was a whirlwind of a day. My mom and her friends were in charge of making 530 shish kebabs, which was quite a task! I attended the picnic portion of my 10-year high school reunion. It was good to see old friends and reconnect with people I only "visit" with online. Then it was back to my parents' house to get ready for the wedding. After the whirlwind of getting everyone ready, we headed over to the wedding where the boys got to be the "ring bears." They did a stellar job, and were incredibly handsome to boot. :-)
Sunday morning came all too soon and we had to head back to Washington. We got to stop in Idaho for a few minutes so the kids could see their friends while I nursed the baby. Then we trekked onward, stopping in Plymouth, WA (not much there) and again at Crow's Butte, WA (pretty pond and lots of water foul to see).
After 13 hours, we finally made it home to figure out what our new "normal" is going to be as a family of five in our new home. We're still working on figuring that out, but it's a relief to not have any huge events "pending" for a while. The boys are glad to be home and Ascha's still trying to recover from her days of sleeping and sleeping. Her daytime schedule has yet to recover (and she is changing all the time, anyway, as she becomes more alert for longer stretches), but her nighttime routine seems to be a fairly consistent 5 or 6 hour stretch, which we are SO thankful for!!!
Ascha is now one month old! I didn't ever get any good 3-week pictures, but I captured some acceptable one month pictures this morning. For some reason, I find it hard to capture my kids' personalities at this age and I'm usually unhappy with the pictures because I don't invest the time in making them look "just right." Oh, well - perfectionism has to give way to reality, so here's a picture of Ascha smiling at her Daddy this morning. She's started working really hard at smiling "for real" and it's so fun to watch. She opens her mouth really wide, then curls the corners of her mouth up into a smile, complete with dimples. Then she closes her mouth and the corners stay turned upward for a little while (this is the "phase" captured in the picture). She is already growing up too fast! The boys are both wrapped around her little finger (and, ok, I'll admit it, so are her parents! :-)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Catching Up
I meant to post these right after the 4th of July, but I somehow got behind. :-) This was the boys' first experience with sparklers, and I think it's safe to say they enjoyed it!
I meant to post these right after the 4th of July, but I somehow got behind. :-) This was the boys' first experience with sparklers, and I think it's safe to say they enjoyed it!
The boys are having such a great vacation in Montana with Grammy and Grumpy. They have gone fishing, had numerous playdates, ridden motorcycles, helped feed calves, played in sprinklers, stayed up late watching a fire and eating s'mores, and today, they are at the lake. I can't wait to hear whether or not they were brave enough to be pulled behind the boat in a tube!
We miss them a lot, but it's been a blessing to have this relatively quiet time to ourselves to get to know Ascha. It's also been a blessing to get to sleep in! Aric almost never sleeps past 6:30, but after Ascha's morning feeding, she's quite happy to go right back to sleep, so we've been enjoying a more leisurely morning pace the past few days. Ascha's doing really well. She does have the normal fussy evening period, but after she calms down for the night, she sleeps really well. She's been nursing at 11pm, 3am, and 7am, and last night she stretched it even longer between feedings! We really hope this nighttime trend continues! When Ascha went to the doctor for her two week appointment, she had gained 12 oz. over her birthweight. She is in the 90+ percentiles for both weight and height, and she seems to be growing like a weed! We're so thankful that she continues to be healthy. I realized today that I haven't taken any pictures of her since "the grandmas" left. She is three weeks old today, so I have a pretty good excuse to break out the camera again. I'll try to post those pics later.
Jeremy and I are trying to finish up some house projects before the boys' return. I'm trying to unload boxes and sort through as much as possible while I have the leisure of leaving things spread out all over without anyone traipsing through my piles! Jeremy's working on getting our last two sink faucets hooked up, doing some finish work on the doors, and completing miscellaneous other tasks. There will be quite a bit on our to-do list for a while longer, but it's so nice to be living in the house, and it really is very liveable. I guess I also need to take updated house pictures now that we are all moved in to display "the final product." I'll try not to keep you waiting much longer for those. :-)
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
So, perhaps you've noticed the wordless posts, often posted at strange times. I tend to only be on the computer while nursing, and while I can navigate the mouse just fine, typing with one hand is a bit of a challenge (especially in the middle of the night when I'm already sleep deprived! :-)
A bit of an update is definitely in order, though. Ascha is now two and a half weeks old and still healthy and beautiful and wonderful in every way! :-) We're all pretty enamored with her. Even Aric has decided that he not only loves her, but likes her, as well. Both boys love to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to her whenever she starts to fuss, and from day one, she has seemed to calm in response to their singing. We're debating what color her eyes will eventually be, and the other day, Jeremy said they looked "Pewter Gray." Taylor piped up, "I think they look COMPUTER gray!"
Speaking of the boys, they are in the midst of a great adventure right now. They traveled back to MT with my mom and will be there for eight days of "vacation" (from Mommy and Daddy :-) before we rejoin them. We will take a quick trip back next weekend to attend my middle brother's wedding (CONGRATULATIONS, AMOS & MEREDITH) and bring the boys back to WA with us then. My parents have wanted to have the boys for a "big boy vacation" for quite some time, so it's nice for them to have this time, and it's a blessing for Jeremy and I to get acquainted with Ascha and to have some intensive time working on getting things organized around the house.
Without the boys here, things are extremely quiet compared to what we're used to. My mom, obviously, is gone, too, and Jeremy's mom is headed out this morning to visit her folks in Canada, so we're transitioning from a very full house to a quiet, empty house.
Oh, yeah - an afterthought before I wrap this up. Today (July 10 - it's taken me two days to get these few paragraphs typed!) is our ninth wedding anniversary! (Kinda anti-climactic this year with all the other exciting things going on right now.) How did we get so old? :-) I am so thankful to be married to my best friend, and I'm looking forward to many more adventures together in the years to come. Thanks for all you are and all you do, Jeremy!
A bit of an update is definitely in order, though. Ascha is now two and a half weeks old and still healthy and beautiful and wonderful in every way! :-) We're all pretty enamored with her. Even Aric has decided that he not only loves her, but likes her, as well. Both boys love to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to her whenever she starts to fuss, and from day one, she has seemed to calm in response to their singing. We're debating what color her eyes will eventually be, and the other day, Jeremy said they looked "Pewter Gray." Taylor piped up, "I think they look COMPUTER gray!"
Speaking of the boys, they are in the midst of a great adventure right now. They traveled back to MT with my mom and will be there for eight days of "vacation" (from Mommy and Daddy :-) before we rejoin them. We will take a quick trip back next weekend to attend my middle brother's wedding (CONGRATULATIONS, AMOS & MEREDITH) and bring the boys back to WA with us then. My parents have wanted to have the boys for a "big boy vacation" for quite some time, so it's nice for them to have this time, and it's a blessing for Jeremy and I to get acquainted with Ascha and to have some intensive time working on getting things organized around the house.
Without the boys here, things are extremely quiet compared to what we're used to. My mom, obviously, is gone, too, and Jeremy's mom is headed out this morning to visit her folks in Canada, so we're transitioning from a very full house to a quiet, empty house.
Oh, yeah - an afterthought before I wrap this up. Today (July 10 - it's taken me two days to get these few paragraphs typed!) is our ninth wedding anniversary! (Kinda anti-climactic this year with all the other exciting things going on right now.) How did we get so old? :-) I am so thankful to be married to my best friend, and I'm looking forward to many more adventures together in the years to come. Thanks for all you are and all you do, Jeremy!
Monday, July 07, 2008
Friday, July 04, 2008
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