Baby Dedication and Donut Trees

Our attempt at a family picture on Sunday. I'm not sure we'll ever get 5 kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile. Maybe when they are teenagers (oh, I don't want to think about that yet)

What a busy weekend! Sunday we were able to dedicate Nathaniel and Rebekah during our church service. Nathaniel was 4 months old when we switched churches and we haven't had a chance to formally dedicate him until now. We thought we better take advantage or if we waited for the next opportunity we would have 3 children to dedicate! It was a wonderful experience and the grandparents got to come and share in the day. After church we had a BBQ at our house and it was a long but wonderful afternoon.

My mom took the opportunity to take pictures of the grand kids with their namesakes.

Here are Joshua Dean with (Great Grandpa) Papa Gary Dean.

Naomi Carolyn with Gramma Carol Janette (one of the many Carol and Carolyn's in the family)

Nathaniel James with Papa James.







And Rebekah Lorel with Grandma Lorel Yvonne.





Josiah Harry is named after my Dad Harry John, but a picture of the two of them will not get to be taken this side of heaven. I look forward to them meeting one day.

On a lighter note, my mom had purchased some donuts from the store for the festivities on Sunday and the kids have been slowly eating the remaining donuts over the past few days. Yesterday Nathaniel was enjoying his donut out by the swing set and it dropped in the dirt and I told him to throw it away and I would get him a replacement. Well, Josh and Naomi thought that we shouldn't throw away a perfectly good donut and decided to plant it under the swing set. They have been faithfully watering it for the past 24 hours and are convinced that eventually (and hopefully soon) a donut tree or bush will sprout up under their swing set. They are wanting this plant to produce sprinkle donuts (the best kind of course!) I've tried to explain that donuts don't grow, but their faith in the planting/growing process is unshakable.

So far this spring we are plugging away doing fine. As you can see above we are counting down the days till our cruise : ) We are in the middle of a big decision regarding our future employment. Both for Joel and myself. I actually had a job interview yesterday and we will see if God is opening that door. We are still unsure the direction we are being led, but are trying to faithfully follow what God has ahead of us. By next week we should be able to post the official changes!

Landscaping

Another week, another post . . . what to discuss with the outside world this week? Our days this week have been pretty full of landscaping duties. Mainly weed pulling/spraying, raking and some minimal flower planting. It's nice to see the yard somewhat coming together, but we have a long way to go. Our yard was a mess when we moved in 2 years ago and due to finances and lack of knowledge we haven't done much other than occasionally water and mow. This year (on a very tight budget) we are trying to start making some improvements.

Monday we bought some gardening tools and potting soil and grass seed and compost. We've started pulling weeds and cutting out bushes and raking up pine needles. Right now on the curb we have 11 large trash bags to be picked up, plus our usually weekly trash (Joel's not convinced they are going to take it all.)It feel like there is still endless hours of work to be done. Hopefully we'll get to it eventually. Here is an after shot of the bush in the back yard that we removed yesterday, it really opens up the back and lets me see the kids on the swing-set from inside in the kitchen.This weekend/next weekend are both fairly busy, so I'm not sure how much else will get accomplished in the next few weekends, but we are going to try to be intentional about making progress. I really want to plant rose bushes, but I know nothing about roses, so I'm trying to learn before we invest in those.

Other than landscaping we are gearing up for our cruise. We are very excited, yet feel like it will be over before we know it. Joel and I will celebrate 10 years of wedded bliss in June and had always talked about wanting to take a trip for this momentous occasion. We found a great deal in January and with the help of my mom, his sister and mom and a few friends, we managed to get childcare for the kids covered and are taking 5 days 4 nights to cruise the Caribbean just the 2 of us. We haven't spent that much alone time together for a long time and are really looking forward to it (hopefully we won't get on each other's nerves too much!)

Here is a picture of the family we took on Sunday (per my sister's request). It isn't the greatest because we are kindof in the sun and the kids are all squinting, but Theo, here ya go. I'm hoping to get some cute family pics this weekend at Nathaniel/Rebekah's dedication. If they turn out, I will post those next week.

The Zoo, a jumping castle and baby powder, oh my!

So, usually I feel like I have nothing to post, but today I feel like I could do 5 posts pretty easily. I'll try and be brief, but if you've read any of our other posts you'll know brevity is not our strong suit.

Monday and Tuesday were exceptionally warm days for April in Denver (high 70's to low 80's), so we like the rest of the city took advantage and had two glorious days outside. On Monday we went to the Zoo with 3 other families from our care group. We had a good time with 4 moms and 12 kids. We ran into 6 other moms from our church and their 15 kids, but decided that we would be too large of a group if we all tried to stay together. It seemed as if EVERYONE in Denver was at the Zoo on Monday. We had a good time and only mommy ended up with a sunburn. I didn't realize my white skin was so susceptible to the sun after months of sitting inside : )

Here is a picture of Josh and Rebekah at the Zoo, don't they look like they are having fun?

On Tuesday we opened a Christmas present that has been sitting in the garage just waiting for a warm and sunny day. Joel's grandparents purchased a Jumping castle for the kids for Christmas and we have been telling the kids they had to wait for the snow to melt off the yard and the temperature to be warm enough to set it up. Well, all the pieces aligned yesterday and the kids got to play in their jumping castle. They had a blast and it was fairly easy to set up and take down, but Joel and I have decided that they will probably enjoy it more (and so will our electric bill) if we just set it up only once every few weeks.


Only a few knocked heads and just a little blood. It has a slide and fits nicely in the backyard. I'm sure we'll have plenty of friends over to try it out this summer. Josiah, after playing for about 15 minutes said, "Hey mom, we won't need to go to Pump It Up for our birthday's anymore, we can just use this!" He was very excited.

And finally the baby powder story! Every afternoon the kids have a "quiet time" where for an hour or so they sit in their room, our room, the guest room (wherever is available) and read quietly to give them a break from each other and mommy! Naomi had her quiet time on her bed yesterday, as always, and everything seemed to be going fine. She was fairly content to stay in her room, which isn't normal, but I thought after 3 months of this habit, maybe she was finally getting it.

When it was time to get up, she came downstairs and had a little baby powder on her face and hands, and then my stomach dropped and I knew I did not want to go in her room. It's a phenomenon neither Joel nor I can explain, but Naomi is obsessed with powder substances. Over the last year or so I have discovered 3 overturned formula cans, and 4 or 5 emptied boxes of laundry detergent and 2 empty chocolate milk powder containers. Of course this also means she loves digging in the dirt outside and can play with a pail and shovel at the base of the swing-set for hours. It's always frustrating and is usually followed by a lengthy discipline session where we explain that her playing with these powders costs mommy and daddy money and it is not okay.

Her discovery of baby powder yesterday was no different. I entered her room and it seemed as if it was covered in 1/2 inch of baby powder. Not every square inch was covered, but a good 40% of her room looked like a winter wonderland. I'm not sure how much experience most of you have with baby powder, but it is not the easiest thing in the world to clean up. We vacuumed some of it, wiped up some with wet washcloths and a lot of clothing/blankets got a run through the washing machine. When all was said and done I looked at Joel and said, "this is an experience someone without kids cannot even fathom. How can such a sweet and innocent 3 year old make such an enormous mess in less than 30 minutes?" Oh the joys of parenting!!

Last, but not least, a little note about my appointment yesterday. Everything was fine. I was a bit nervous because I feel like the babies movements aren't very regular yet, but the midwife reassured me that I'm only 18 weeks and this is normal. Even though I've done this 5 other times there are never any guarantees and it's easy to get worried. The babies heartbeat was 146 beats a minute, and my next appointment/ultrasound is scheduled for May 20th.

Booooo! and for What?

Last week Papa (Joel's Dad) took Josiah, Joshua, and me to the Rockies game.

The game was against the Arizona Diamondbacks, who the Rockies played in the playoffs last year. During the series with the D-Backs last year a player from Arizona, Eric Byrnes, said :

"I think we're a good team, I also don't think the Rockies have outplayed us, because they haven't. Not even close. They've had a little luck go their way. Definitely, the ball has bounced in their direction. They've been the beneficiary of some calls. So when we look at that as a group, we look back on those first two games, we have not been outplayed. If anything, I think it's the other way around, so that gives us confidence knowing that we can play with them."

He said this while the Rockies had won the first two games of the series. The Rockies ended up winning the first four games against Arizona and went to the World Series. All of this being said, most people at Rockies games don't like Eric Byrnes.

Now to the story... while at the game whenever Byrnes would come up to hit the crowd started booing very loudly. I of course was right there with them booing (Don't judge me!). The boys were very confused by why we were booing this player. I told them it was because he had not used nice words last year. Joshua then really drove the point home with this question, "Daddy, if he were to come to our house would he be mean to us?"

I stopped and of course reassured him that he wasn't going to mean to us when he came to our house, but that he wasn't always mean that he only had chosen to use mean words.

The whole thing was funny to me and since I am a regular in the Rockies dugout we decided to invite Byrnes over for dinner to work everything out. He apologized to Joshua for using mean words, and all-in-all he was a pretty nice guy.

Haircuts and Blood Draws

Here is a before picture of the kids, just hanging out at home.

Joel has decided we will save money if he can learn to cut the boys hair, so last week, using his sister's clippers and with the help of a friend in the business, he attempted to cut their hair.
Josh who is our wiggly one wasn't too thrilled. Nathaniel the 2 year old, on the other hand, sat perfectly still.

Here are some after shots.

As you can see, it didn't work too well, somehow their hair got longer and curly?





Actually this is one of my Grandma's old wigs that the kids were playing around with. Thought these were funny pictures that would make my sisters laugh.

Here are some actual after pictures of them. Nathaniel's ended up a little short and Josiah's is still a little long, but all it all it was a success. I'm sure Joel will get better with practice, and with 3 growing boys he'll get plenty of practice.


Naomi was pretty upset that she didn't get her hair cut, but all I really focus on is her bangs and neither Joel nor I wanted to attempt those.


Now for the Blood Draw part. Rebekah is part of a research study called the TEDDY study it stands for The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young. When she was born they tested her blood and found the genetically she is predisposed to Type 1 or juvenile diabetes. She does not have diabetes yet and only has a 3% chance of ever getting diabetes, but because of her genetic predisposition, she is enrolled in a study where they draw her blood once every 3 months for testing to see if she is developing the antibodies which could lead to diabetes.

The staff is amazing and they actually use a numbing cream on her arm so she can't feel the needle poke. The last two draws had to be done in her hand because her veins in her arms were too little for the needle and the amount they drew was very small. Yesterday was her 3rd appointment and it went very well! They were able to draw a full amount from her arm and she just laid there quietly on my lap drinking her bottle during the procedure. They also weighed her yesterday and she is 17 lbs 8 oz. By far the biggest 9 month old we've had. So, here is a cute picture of her. She is so happy now that she can crawl around the house and "keep up" with her brothers and sister.
We are all doing well. No new news on Joel's job, no new car, just a full happy life with the 7 of us. We are starting to look at 12-15 passenger vans, but not in any hurry as we have until the end of the summer before we need that big of a vehicle. We are still trusting that God has our best in mind when it comes to work/finances. My mom and her husband come home from China/Australia today and we will have to give her car back that we have been borrowing for a month and be down to only one car, but we will survive. Everyone is looking forward to having Grandma back home. My next doctor's appointment for the baby is next Tuesday, I'm not really expecting any exciting news, but if so I will share next Wednesday.

Fluttering

I've never quite agreed with explaining the baby's movements as "butterflies in your stomach". It's supposed to feel like fluttering. Because of this definition, I didn't believe I was "feeling" Josiah when I was pregnant with him until I was 24 weeks pregnant and he kicked me in the ribs.

I've always felt like the first baby movements were more like little bubbles popping in your tummy. Anyways, all of that to say for the last few days I've been feeling very slight movements. Just enough to remind me that, yes this is indeed happening. It's a little overwhelming, but also very comforting. It reminds me that at 16 weeks all is going the way it's supposed to.

My goal is to post at least once a week (probably on Wednesdays) but I realize it's been 3 weeks since I've written, and the truth is I don't have much to write about. The kids are doing well, enjoying the warmer weather and ability to play in the back yard. They are all getting big and it is hard for me to believe that in 2 months I'll have a 6 year old. Rebekah is loving crawling and has been much less fussy over the last week. She is keeping me on my toes as we have to watch that she isn't getting into anything she shouldn't.

My outlook on life has been more bright. I feel like a month ago I was in a very dark place where there seemed to be no hope. I can't put a finger on exactly what the change has been other than I feel like now there is a sense of hope. There is a light ahead and it feels like life is going to make a turn in the right direction. Nothing has actually changed yet, but emotionally I feel like all is going to be okay in time.

I promise to post pictures of the kids in my next post. I had hoped to take pictures on Easter, but by the time we were ready for Church we had to hurry and get in the car, then by the time Church was over we had to get to Joel's Grandparent's and by the time we eventually made it to Joel's Grandparent's house the kids did not look very picture worthy. They were still cute, but Naomi's cute hairdo had fallen out and Nathaniel had found some chocolate and it was all over him and his shirt. Such is life.