Baby Love

Alaia and Mikayla are just 4 weeks apart with Alaia being the older of the two.

I was so excited when my sister, Kristin, had a girl since I knew that's what I was having. In our family of 23 grandchildren only 7 are girls, and so it's still a pretty big deal when we get one.
Not that we don't all love boys - it's just fun to have a girl once in awhile too!

It's going to be so much fun watching these cousins grow up together!!

More zoo pics

Mikayla and her proud big brother.

Uncle David and Isaiah...best friends.

Zoo Day!

A group of other homeschoolers from our church got together for a trip to the zoo the other day. The day started out pretty chilly, but had warmed up nicely right around the time we decided to head home. Figures.

The kids had lots of fun though.

In my spare time

I made Mikayla some boots the other day.

I absolutely love baby shoes, especially soft, breathable, stay-on-the-feet baby shoes, and have had a lot of fun making them for my other babies.

I dug out a soft leather skirt that I had picked up from Savers and a rabbit skin that I had bought for this purpose and got to work.

I have never used rabbit fur in my sewing before and I think it's going to be a long time before I end up using it again. I had rabbit fuzz all over me, my table, and anyone and everyone within a 1/2 mile radius.

3 hours later I had the final results.

They turned out super soft and keep her toes nice and warm.

And again...

...another postponed court date.
This time it's due to MOWA moving. Don't know where, how or when yet.
Thankfully, I managed to keep my anticipation levels to a minimum this week (3 court dates tend to help with that) so the letdown wasn't major this time.
I mean, what can I do about it anyway?

So once again I commit my boys into God's hands and His perfect timing and, oh, yeah... PRAY!

And about our adoption...

Yesterday I woke up much earlier than normal, jumped out of bed and ran to my computer.
Waited, my stomach in my throat, as the computer booted up.
Signed in and clicked on my inbox.
Nothing.
Fed the kids, nursed the baby, started school.
Still nothing.
Made sure the phones were still connected and continued with school.
Check email, do a spelling test.
Check email, grade some math.
Thought about how I should not have had that cup of coffee.
Check email again.
Finally email agency, "Have you heard anything?"
Nope.
Waiting
Kids keeping a wide berth from the mad woman staring down the computer.
Waiting
and checking email.
Supper time, feed kids, give baths, and watch Top Chef.
Staying up until I can't any longer.

Next Day:

An email from the agency

Wrong date, next week, for real.


I can't wait.

Growing Up

Mikayla spends her day eating, sleeping and trying to figure out her frog.

You think that it's not possible to love them any more than you do the moment you first lay eyes on them.

I've discovered that's not true.

Christmas

( Scott enjoying his presents)


Moving on to Christmas....
I love my husband dearly, he really is a wonderful husband, father, lawn guy, back massager, home repairer, and he makes a mean smoothie.
But there is ONE thing that we just can't seem to get together on.

Christmas

Or to be more specific; how to celebrate Christmas.
I think it all goes back to how we were raised.
My husband's family didn't do a whole lot for Christmas growing up.
They had a special meal, a gift and the day was spent with family, unless, of course, it was a nice day; in that case, being in the construction business, they would take advantage of it by working and do the Christmas thing on the nearest convenient Saturday.
No tree, no Pavarotti, no Lebkuken.
I know, I can hardly stand it.

I, on the other hand, was raised in a family that loves Christmas.
It wasn't that we went all out with thousands of lights and tons of presents. Things were kept pretty focused on the true meaning of Christmas, celebrating Jesus's birth and we usually attended a Christmas eve. service.
But tell me...is there a child on earth who is thinking about Jesus while tearing open presents Christmas morning?

We always had a tree, usually one that a brother had chopped down from our field earlier that week, and we would decorate it with lights and strung cranberries and popcorn.
My dad was in the military and so we were fortunate enough to have lived in a couple of foreign countries growing up.
I absolutely LOVE Germany during the Christmas season, those store displays will be forever in my mind, and was delighted to discover that we could celebrate Christmas twice in Italy when they celebrate the Epiphany.

All that background, just to say, that it's been a little tricky when it comes time to decide how Jerry and I were going to celebrate Christmas with our children.

Every year we both bend and give and try to remember that we love each other dearly- I try to limit the kids presents to more than 3 each and he puts up with the tree (and all the mess that goes along with it).
Actually, I am really liking the fewer is more gift idea...you are able to afford nicer gifts and surprise, surprise, the kids end up being more appreciative of what they get.

Here's some pictures of our happy Christmas day....

Isabella with yet another doll. She already has a lot of them, but I am training her for her future large family.
I totally contribute my huge collection of dolls as a kid for conditioning me to love babies.
Well, that and the and the bunch of real -life babies that were my siblings.
The funny thing is, Isabella hasn't touched this doll since she opened it...something about it's hair smelling funny like Dr. Pepper- where she came up with that I have no idea since I don't think she's ever actually had Dr. Pepper.

Isaiah with his present...oops, looks like mommy forgot to remove the 75% markdown sticker on it!
He looks incredibly pleased with it.

And Gabe with his new bow, the one that he's not allowed to point at people no aiming over the fence please pick it up off the ground don't let your brother step on it and on and on bow.
He looks pretty pleased as well.

We topped off the rest of the day with family, playing games, eating, napping, and eating some more.
Anyone know how many calories 6 (gulp) pieces of baklava has?
On the other hand, never mind!

catching up

*Sigh*... I've done it again.
Waited too long between posts and now I'm having a hard time knowing where to begin to get caught up.
This happens a little too often and usually it results in me putting off blogging even longer.
But I am determined that this time it will be different!
So please bear with me, it may turn out a bit pieced, chopped and jumbled, but if you manage to make it through to the end you may get an overall idea of how life has been around here.

I guess I'll start with our friends Pete and Lori moving and taking one of Bella's best friends along with them in the process.
We offered to keep sweet little Lilli, but for some reason they didn't take us up on it.
Lilli was feeling awfully patriotic on this day, saluting everyone in sight...I'm quite impressed with her training.

We all really miss you guys, God bless you as you start over in your new home!
And if you ever do change your mind on Lilli...well, you know where we live!