Re-entry can be rough

Our three little travellers just had a two-week visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house...without Mommy and Daddy.  They had so much fun going to VBS, visiting playgrounds, staying overnight at a water park, flying with Grandpa, and so much more!  There were a few special girl things at a Sleeping Beauty dinner theater and a tea house.  The boys visited the Air Force museum and toured a former Air Force One.

Then our young journeyers return home.  After so much fun and adventure packed into two weeks, it's no wonder there are a few bumps as they re-acclimate.  They are tired from all the excitement and travelling.  Though they are not without boundaries at Grandma and Grandpa's, things are different.  David and I jokingly call the time of re-entry "de-tox."  We know emotions are going to run higher.  We know there will, once again, be testing of boundaries.  This time has just been a little harder than we expected.

Our oldest traveler started a high fever the day before they were driving home.  But other than that, she has done amazingly.  There have not been more than a couple instances of testing or such.  She has done this enough times now to know how things go.

Our second, has had the most difficult time.  Today is only the fifth day since their return, but there has been significantly more turbulence than we anticipated.  We have seen A LOT of attitude for every little thing, along with many other bumps.  As I said, we expected some of this.  It happened last year.  But something else seems to be going on.  I've tried to work through the reasons.  This is a time of big changes for this one, historically and presently.  We are nearing the anniversary of our son going through the biggest changes of his young life.  He's starting to think about starting school and having a new sibling all in the next few weeks.  I know there is so much going on in his heart and in his head.  But it's hard not to take his actions and rejection personally.  And I'm not doing a very good job controlling my reactions.  Tonight I've been thinking through so many ways for both David and me to consciously give him more time and attention.

This was the first of such trips for our youngest, so we were not quite sure what to expect.  I was a little bit worried about how he would do for such a long time.  While away, it seemed like he barely noticed that we weren't there.  He did seem to return home with an ever-present whine in his little voice.  He's been quicker to tantrum and to cling.  But I think he is slowly starting to work out of those.

We are glad to have the kids home again.  Though it was nice to relax and rest for a time, the house and my days felt pretty empty.  We missed the hugs and snuggles and giggles.  We missed the kids. 

I am grateful they are able to go and enjoy special time with family.  I am grateful we have several weeks together before school and more craziness starts.  I am especially grateful for the example I have of my Heavenly Father who loves me as I am...even with my testing, whining, rejection, tantrums, and attitude.  Praying He'll help me love the same way.

He's ONE!

My Baby Baby turned one on Saturday.  I'm still trying to adjust to that fact.

Isaac is now about 22 lbs and over 30 1/2 inches tall. He has his front eight teeth and one molar fully in. The second half of his second molar and his third molar finally broke through yesterday.

He eats everything we eat, sometimes out-eating his siblings. Fruits seem to be his favorite foods. We had to stop nursing almost a month ago because of a medicine I was taking, but he adjusted well; we are finishing up some formula before switching to whole milk.

He is all boy and completely fits the nickname "Tank". At the same time, he is a great snuggler still, and loves to hug and pat stuffed animals, baby dolls, even blankets or clothes.  He is so curious, and wants to figure out how everything works.  His favorite way to move is on foot.  He's been walking pretty steadily for over a month.  And any thoughts of this one being our quiet one are now out the door.  He has added new words to his vocabulary:  uh-oh, up, baby, and an occasional hello.  This week he added the kissing sound when blowing kisses and started waving to everyone we passed in the store.

We celebrated Isaac's day at home with some family and a special friend!

Elizabeth used her Easy Bake oven to make Isaac his own special cake.

 

He enjoyed his new presents!  His favorite was a new play phone.  He just couldn't understand why Daddy kept taking his toys away and giving him another box or bag instead. :-)

The big kids decided to have a Mickey Mouse themed party.  So we cheated and used Oreos to make Mickey shapes on the cake.  I forgot to buy ingredients for the frosting, though, so Grandma ran to the store and then quickly decorated the cake as the party was starting. 

(If you read on Facebook about the cake drama, the cake turned out surprisingly fluffy and yummy!)

Isaac thought the cake was fun to smash, but he really enjoyed eating/wearing the Oreos. :-) 

 Praising God for the blessings this precious one brings to our family! 

We can't wait to see what God is going to do in his life!

Cousin AJ, VBS, and a day at the beach

We had a fun, busy week around here last week!  Our nephew down so he could come to Vacation Bible School and spend some time with the kids.  It's always interesting to watch how the dynamics of playtime with the addition of a new child.  A.J. is 11 months older than Elizabeth, so we had a male oldest child for the week.  The change was very obvious while listening to the kids' imaginative play :-) 

V.B.S. was from 6-8pm Sunday to Thursday.  All the kids enjoyed it!  They made some new friends and did a great job learning memory verses each day ;-)  Isaac was spoiled  loved on constantly by nursery helpers.  David and I "lead" the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  Though I think some nights we were just running to keep up!  Thursday evening closed V.B.S. with a carnival including a moon bounce, super slide, popcorn, cotton candy, and lots of fun! 

The kids and I mostly stayed home during the day, though we did venture out to Wal-mart and Sam's for lunch and some shopping on Tuesday.  Thursday I decided to brave the beach with the four kids.  We have a great lake near us where one of the swimming areas is pretty shallow.  As in the lifeguard SITS in the water at the deepest part.  Oh yeah, and knowing there would be a lifeguard boosted my confidence.  One other fun thing about this beach is that it's directly under the landing path for our small airport.  So, my airplane loving boy can watch all the planes he wants!  I'm glad we went.  The kids had a lot of fun.  We had to rush home to take showers, and all the kids fell asleep on the way to V.B.S., but it was worth it.

I've been doing a terrible job taking pictures lately, but I did remember to get some at the beach!  Enjoy!

Peaches

This past Sunday we took the kids peach picking!  We are LOVING living near all these orchards to pick our own fruit and allow the kids to see where their food actually comes from.  Our friend Heidi joined us for lunch and then went peach picking with us!  Enjoy some pics of the kids picking, eating, posing, and enjoying orchard treats :-)

 

Play, talk, sleep

Isaac is really doing well with some time playing alone.  He keeps himself entertained with just the Link-a-doos on his swing, the toys hanging from his 3-in-1 piano (even without the batteries), or even just his voice and his hands.  Many days, he plays long enough I can get lunch together and eat before he starts fussing that he's done.  I've been very impressed with his hand-eye coordination, too!

Elizabeth and Josiah were excited to call and sing Happy Birthday to Grandpa Allen tonight.  At one point, Grandpa said, "I am getting old."  Elizabeth replied, "Getting old?  You're already old!"  She means it with love, Grandpa.

With three snow days this week, the kids have played together A LOT!  They are pretty tired at the end of the day.  I'm proud of how well they've been getting along, but it's nice when bedtime comes, too :-) 

Good Night!

Briana Update

She is 13 inches long. The past two days have been good! Her heart is healing, and she is breathing more and more on her own. They tried to put in a feeding tube, but were unable. They will try tomorrow after they give her a small...er breathing tube. She will have another brain scan Friday to monitor the blood. Chrissy came home Tuesday and said it was her best day, and she's feeling stronger.

4th of July!

This year, we celebrated the 4th of July a day early. David's youngest brother Steven will be deploying to the Middle East with the Marines, probably in the next couple of weeks! So he asked Auntie Max and Uncle Bill if we could all go out and enjoy the day on their boat and in their pool. They graciously agreed :-) We drove over to Mom Baber's house Thursday evening. Then Friday morning Steven, Mom, AJ, and the four of us drove over to Auntie Max's and Uncle Bill's house and headed over to the boat!

As far as we know, this was Josiah's first time on a boat...definitely one with a motor. He was so excited that he was going to be on a boat on the water! We expected a bit of resistance with wearing the life vest, but he was a champ! He put it right on and didn't bother it the rest of the time. Elizabeth has been out on Uncle Bill's boat once before, and on a cruise ship and touring boat in Jamaica, so she kind of considers herself a pro now. ;-)

We were thrilled with how well all three kids did! We were out for about 2 1/2 hours, and they listened and enjoyed the ride for pretty much the whole time! We thought Josiah might be scared by the motor, and it surprised him for a moment in the beginning. But after that, he was great! We also thought the motion of the boat might unnerve him. He got his sea legs quickly, though, and would have walked all over the boat if we let him! Elizabeth was mostly content to just sit back and watch the water and other boats around us. AJ moved around a little more, and wished he could have gone on the front with the big guys, but enjoyed his time anyway.

After the boat, we headed back to the house for swimming and grilling. This was going to be another first for Josiah, at least with us. We were unsure of how it was going to go. When we were in Ethiopia, Josiah cried...loudly anytime we got near the tub. It took almost a couple weeks at home before he was relaxed sitting inside the regular tub. He loves it now, and even loves getting in my parents' big hot tub. But a pool is much bigger. We were expecting clinging for a while. Well, apparently, our son has become part fish! He held onto David for all of about 20 seconds, and was then face first into the water. We could practically hold him underneath with one hand (he hasn't figured out how to stay on top of the water yet) and he would move his arms and legs, swimming all over the pool. He went under water and came up laughing. He jumped off the side of the pool with glee. He wanted to go out on his own with the water wings, but for some reason he just couldn't keep his body high enough in the water. I think next time, he'll be wanting to jump off the diving board! ;-)

AJ and Elizabeth weren't quite as adventurous this time. It usually takes them a bit of time to regain their comfort level. Both were excited to see how much they had grown over the year, and how well they could touch in the shallow end! Elizabeth still insisted she had to have floaties on. Normally, they would have been jumping off the side and holding their breath under water by the end of the day. They just weren't having it this time. But they still had tons of fun! (I think once things finally settle down in our lives, we're going to work on getting Elizabeth into swimming lessons again. She hasn't done them in several years. I think Josiah would enjoy them, too!)

Grandma and Grandpa Scott drove over and joined us all for hamburgers and hot dogs, lots of yummy fruit, potato salad, and the works! The kids and I made Berry Cheesecake Parfaits for dessert. We prepared the pudding layer ahead of time, and then layered them in individual cups after dinner. The kids, and David, ate theirs in ice cream cones, and loved them!

We headed home after a long day. The kids both slept a couple hours on the way home.

On Saturday, we relaxed around the house for most of the day, ordered pizza, then headed out to the movie theater parking lot in time to watch fireworks from a distance. The kids loved them. Josiah keeps asking to watch them again. Next year we'll get closer for more of the "full experience" ;-)

We lift our prayers with those of many of you for our nation, the leadership, and our troops!

Another way we have decided to support our troops is through Operation Worship. http://www.operationworship.com/ I'm not sure of all the ways to participate, but we bought the Bibles at a Lifeway store near us for $5 each, wrote messages in them, and then returned them to the same store. They'll take care of shipping them! (I'm just not sure how long they are participating.) Blessings!

Happy Fathers' Day!

The word that comes to mind today is "thankful"! We are so thankful for the Dads in our lives!

I praise God for my husband, my children's father! He loves being a dad, and is willing to do whatever he can to care for our kids. Even though we already have two kids, he is no less excited about the third one joining our family. I am thankful he is a man of God and wants to pass that onto our children.


We are so blessed that David and I have both been raised with amazing men as fathers. Both have been proud to serve in our country's military. Both are God fearing men who showed that believing in God is not a sign of weakness, but rather a great strength! We wish that David's dad was still with us to get to know all his grandchildren--he would be so excited! We are thankful Elizabeth had the chance to meet him and know that he loved her. We are thankful my dad is around to share his love and his passions with our children.

Today, and everyday, we are also thinking of Josiah's first father. We are thankful that Josiah had his first two years with his first father. We are so blessed to have Josiah in our lives, and are thankful his father loved him and cared for him the best way he could. I do sometimes wonder what his father would think if he could see our family. I hope that some day we can meet him. More than anything, I pray that he has a personal relationship with our Savior!

We are most thankful for our Heavenly Father, our Abba, Daddy! He gave his only begotten son for us! He provides for our every need, and loves us no matter what!

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We celebrated today by going to church, then stopping at Wendy's for frosties. Unfortunately, I didn't look like the Wendy's we visited was donating the 50 cents to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. :-( Maybe it was corporate donating rather than the individual stores.
We came home and allowed the kids (and mommy) to nap for a little while. Daddy worked on homework.

Finally, the kids and I made penne with homemade meatballs for dinner. (So glad the sight of raw meat isn't making me sick anymore...yay!) I forced myself to let the kids shape the meatballs without me fixing them. They did pretty well, but were getting a little more free-form towards the end ;-)

David received a Wii fit for Father's Day, but has had it for a couple of weeks now. He and the kids are having fun with it.

Happy Father's Day to you all!

Busy Fun Weekend!

FRIDAY
This past Friday, the four of us, and Diego, drove up to my parents' house for a long weekend! We left a bit later than planned, but still arrived just after 7 pm. We had planned to take the kids to see UP! The movie started at 7:30, so we rushed to the theater after unloading the car--only to find they had changed the movie times. We ended up going to play Putt-putt. The kids had a blast! Josiah actually did very well, when he would stop and pay attention to what he was doing. But halfway through, he decided it was more fun just to pick the ball up and move it closer to the hole by hand. Elizabeth did very well, and even got a hole-in-one on one of the shots that took the rest of us four tries! We were at a dairy, so we went to see the animals in the petting barn. There were some very young baby goats that still had wobbly legs. There was also a mama-to-be that was so stretched, we could see the kid pushing the sides of her belly! We finished the evening with ice cream...yummm! (Unfortunately, the only pics from the evening are on my mom's phone. I'll have to get them later.)


SATURDAY
Saturday was a special day for Elizabeth and my mom! We decided to take Mom out for mani/pedi for her coming birthday. Becky, my brother's girlfriend, joined us...and we had a lot of fun. Elizabeth chose a very bright pink for her fingers and toes. And we convinced my mom to do a very pretty red for both her fingers and toes. I think Elizabeth was a little disappointed because the owner didn't let her do the full deal with soaking her feet and all. But she enjoyed it, anyway. This was my mom's first actual pedicure! I forgot to ask her what she thought of it :-D


While waiting for us, Becky took Elizabeth up to get some very good caramel, chocolate apples. And then we headed up for ear piercing!

**Elizabeth and Grandma, with some help from us, made the deal that when Elizabeth stopped sucking her thumb at night they would go to get their ears pierced. Elizabeth stopped sucking her thumb during the day years ago, but we have just not been able to break the habit during the night. With her turning five, and thinking about losing teeth, we definitely wanted to have her stop now. We have tried so many things, but it had to come down to her desire to do it! What finally ended up working was letting her choose band-aids to put on her thumb each night. She will still suck her thumb once in a while if we forget the band-aid, but she has been doing SOOO well! She is the one who remembers pretty much every night to put the band-aid on. So we are very proud of her!**

Anyway, back to ear piercing ;-) Elizabeth had been saying for a while she was going to pick pink earrings...not a big surprise. However, when we were there, she chose little diamonds! (We bought a pair of pink flowers for when she can change her earrings in a few weeks.) Grandma went first. We talked Elizabeth through everything that happening to Grandma...cleaning her ears, marking the spot, then putting the earrings in. Then is was Elizabeth's turn. I think she started psyching herself out. We had explained that it would pinch. But we asked her several times as they did each step if she wanted to do it. She kept saying yes, though each time was less enthusiastic. I think the pinch and the following sting were a little more than Elizabeth expected...that plus already having herself upset and being extra tired, she cried for a few minutes and just wanted to be held. But we did a bit more shopping, and she was back to herself. By the evening, she was showing everyone her ears. She has had a few moments of saying she wishes she didn't get them pierced. However, that is usually when they are a bit sore after sleeping. It is helping that she and Grandma did it together, so they are cleaning them together.

I think she made a great choice for the earrings, and they look great on her! :-D (The pic is while we're driving down the highway in my mom's convertible!)

We window shopped for a bit and then headed out for Mom's surprise! Post and pics to come.