just like daddy's

N needed a haircut, so we asked him which he wanted this time: curly hair or short hair? He said he wanted it short like daddy's. Soooo, PT pulled out the clippers and in moments, our little boy looked like a bigger boy :0) So sweet! It's amazing how fast they grow up. N says it's not exactly like daddy's hair though. Something about the smooth space at the edge of PT's hairline :0) Now N says B wants his hair cut short too... but I want to hang on to B's baby-ness for a while longer even if it is more work to comb those curls out every morning.

bat guitar

(click the play button to watch the video clip)

Here's N enjoying some time outside back in early December. It's too cute not to share! Originally he set up the T-ball set and hit a couple of balls with B', but then he decided to put on a concert instead. :0)

it's about time...

Somewhere between family time, caring for the kids, being a wife, ministry work, and the energy drain of pregnancy; I've managed to neglect updating the blog since the end of November. Sad, sad, sad. So, today I set aside some time between other things to fill in the last two months of life in our family! Here are some pics just for fun and by way of updating you on our cuties' latest looks, ideas, and antics.

J' said she was helping PT work the other day. She was definitely making it harder for him to type, but her happy giggles were bound to make it worth the awkward reach :0)


J' has recently developed an interest in all things "beautiful." She likes dresses, bows and flowers in her hair, and comments on anything she thinks is "just beautiful." Yesterday as I was sipping some herbal tea she said, "Mommy, your tea cup is just beautiful." It is a pretty tea cup with pink roses set on a yellow background. Don't go overboard with girly ideas about her though, her other current favorites are puzzles and dinosaurs! My little lady loves to roar with her claws up and her nose crinkled!
Isn't this sweater dress the CUTEST! A sweet friend at church passed this one down when her little lady outgrew it recently. Adorable!

Here ya go... a recent pregnant pic. We're 8 months along as of this week, but I took this a couple of weeks ago. I've never been this big, this soon, EVER! I understand that I carry pretty small, but I still don't know where that belly is going to expand to in the next few weeks???!!! Praise the Lord for His sweetness in that the vomiting is over finally and I'm only nauseous on the occasional day now. (No, I didn't suddenly whack all my hair off. It's all natural and curly in this pic and piled on top of my head in an afro-puff. I didn't feel like pressing it straight that day... lots of days lately.)

N' and J' said they were building a fort. It looked more like the contents of the playroom being dumped out onto the family room floor, but they were happy and working so industriously that I just joined in the fun!
The next day they built a truck out of the kitchen table chairs. N' was the driver (he used the chair in front of him for a steering wheel). All three made engine noises while they made their way down the road.

Here are N' and J' after a wedding we attended two weeks ago. They were looking too cute not to snap a pic! B' refused to stand still for the picture and kept coming out as a little boy blur, so I gave up and just captured the bigs. It was a casual wedding with a cowboy theme, hence the choice of N's western wear shirt for that day.

There's nothing thrilling to report. Church continues to be a blessing and we love serving in ministry! Family life is so sweet (though it would be neat if all three kids would sleep all night, in their own beds, every night). Now, just a few tasks and projects I need to complete before babynew #4 arrives. One such task: now I've caught up on the missing time according to the blog. Sorry so very slow with postings... it really was about time :0)

Christmas

One of our favorite times of year -- the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ! It's such a great blessing and privilege to share our faith with our children. We spent this Christmas at home to save money we would have spent in travel and to start to establish our own family traditions for celebrating on Christmas day.



My mom came over on Christmas Eve along with my grandmother who was in town for the holiday. The kids had a grand time eating a special late night (well, it was late for them) snack of popcorn with Nana and getting cuddles and play time with Shirley-the-Great! (Somehow I didn't manage to get a good pic of my mom all evening.)

My mom brought them a pop-up storybook nativity scene with little figurines the first of December, and they re-enacted the Christmas story for her - again! They were pretty good at the story by Christmas Eve. N' loves the angel Gabriel figurine! He mostly enjoyed flying Gabriel all around the family room and skipping the rest of the story. What can I say, he's only 4 :0)


It snowed late on Christmas Eve and continued intermittently into the morning of Christmas Day. We knew from the weather report that it wasn't likely to last long, so before we even ate breakfast, we bundled everyone up and headed for the yard to play in the snow. J' thought it was GREAT! She would have played as long as we allowed.


B', who loves all things athletic, especially throwing and kicking softballs, footballs, and soccer balls; was in love with snowballs! He liked throwing them in the air until he noticed that they broke into a powdery pile when they land so you can't throw them again. Then he took to crushing them between his palms and watching it snow on his shoes. Only hitch, mommy had to make the snowballs for everyone. They didn't catch on and daddy was snapping pics and blocking them from the icy driveway.



N' was the most eager to get out the door to see the snow, but after about fifteen minutes he announced, "This snow is cold and wet. I want to go back inside." With that, he went straight for the door, stepped inside, and waited patiently for the rest of us to follow a few minutes later. They were ready for breakfast after a half hour or so anyway :0).

When the sun's rays reached the backyard around 10am and the snow melted, N said he was glad his grass was back. Hee hee! O well, they can't all be snow lovers like their mommy. PT has some company in N' for preferring to spend wet, chilly winter days indoors.


We had a lovely, quiet, sweet Christmas day. We snacked on fresh pineapple! (That pineapple also helped to glaze the ham.) I made a sour cream pound cake with a brown sugar struesel top for Jesus' birthday cake and we sang Happy Birthday to our precious Lord and Savior!

company came...

My cousin Joe and his wife Michelle were in town the weekend after Thanksgiving to attend a wedding. It was so much fun to have them visit our church service and then come over for dinner at our house.
Here are B' and Michelle after a diaper change. (B loves to run free in his cloth diaper after a change before he puts his pants back on.) He and Michelle were fast friends! There's nothing better than cuddles!

New Mexico is a long way away! What a blessing to see them and spend some time! We had a great day!

giving thanks

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Psalm 100:4

We worked on a Thanksgiving unit the past two weeks. We learned about the Mayflower, the Wampanoag Natives, the Pilgrims; and the thanksgiving event of 1621. The bigs didn't like the idea of eating muscles or duck and N' was really concerned about why the native men didn't wear shirts everyday :0) The best part of our studies was learning about giving thanks to God for all of the wonderful blessings He bestows upon us, for who He is, and for His daily care of us.

The kids LOVE collecting fallen leaves in the backyard. They'll move them into piles, sort them into buckets and baskets, gather them in their plastic shopping cart... and then pour them out and do it all over again. So, we made a pile of leaves out of construction paper and wrote whatever they wanted to thank God for. Then we took out the tape (wow do they love tape) and hung them on the back window so they would look like the falling leaves outside. So many precious ways to complete the sentence: Dear Lord, thank you for...


Both N' and J' thanked God for our family, for "leaves that fall down from the trees" and for "mommy and daddy's friends" (which is what they call the praise team singers and band at church).

..........

N' thanked God for "corn that grows" and "[his] toy computer with the counting game on it."
J' was thankful for "[our] crayons." :0) B' enjoyed sticking blank paper leaves to the window, pulling them off, and sticking them on again.

PT and I have a long list of thanks this autumn season, not the least of which includes little B' getting in a good long nap today. He's teething again - two merciless molars on the top - and the discomfort is interrupting his overnight sleep. Is there anything sweeter than watching babies sleep?

Thank you Lord for fall. It's beautiful outside and we're so beautifully blessed in the wonder of Your love for us and the warmth of our love for one another.

above all that we could ask or think

Welcome to our new home-sweet-home. Please join us in praising the Lord for His provision. It is such a blessing to have a little more space to move around in! The Lord really worked things out for us in amazing ways throughout the whole process. It doesn't seem real yet, but we really get to live here ;0) What a sweet and humble privilege. All honor and praise unto the Lord for His willingness to show us favor. My heart is heavy for the previous owner's having to go through foreclosure, but the pricing miracle we needed was a result of that situation -- so even in that we are thankful.



The bigs love their new bunkbeds! (Another sweet pricing miracle from the Lord!) N' normally sleeps on the top, but he and J' wanted to trade tonight. B' is doing a great job learning to sleep in the toddler bed. This is his second week and we're so very proud of him. When we announce it's bedtime, he typically climbs in, pops a thumb in his mouth, and waits to be covered up :0) Now if we can just get him to stay in there instead of tiptoeing into our room when he wakes up at 4 or 5 am and realizes everyone's asleep.



They really like having a dedicated play space! (So does mommy -- I don't absolutely have to reorganize the toys at day's end if I don't want to. It's so different from having the family room and the play space in the same spot!)


There's just one room upstairs - the grown-up's office space - but the kids think the stairs themselves are a blast to climb up and down. We are so grateful unto God for the joy of moving into this space for however long He has us here. It's a beautiful answer to prayer and a manifestation of so many of our heart's desires for a living space... an exceeding abundant blessing.

"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21