2013....A New Year....What's next?

2013.....What will you be?  How will you change us?  Who will we be in 2014?

A new year is always a great time stop, reflect, and really be honest with myself. I have so many blessings in my life and so much that I treasure. Is my gratefulness evident in my everyday life? Can people see Christ's joy in me or just my own self-focused habits. Do I really work to bless the world or is all of my focus on what happens inside the walls of my own home?

This year I will feed myself and those I love well.

This year I will be present in my life. I will play well and rest often.

This year I will be grateful to God for making me the person I am. I will smile at others and stop hiding.

This year I will take time to use my gifts to show love to others. Even simple acts can show great, Great love.

Felix is growing!

I am up early this morning and I decided to take the extra time to count my blessings. Our newest blessing is our little boy, Felix. For starters, he is an easy going, peaceful person with a ready smile and has very few complaints. He just recently started crawling, so my life has turned into a mad dash to make sure he doesn't have anything gross in his mouth!

Here are the things Felix has been enjoying this week:

* Smiling a lot
* Crawling all over the place (even on the concrete patio)
* Sampling globs of our food at meals. He seems to like cheese & beans the most so far. He eats whatever we're eating.
* Playing games with Theo & Penny. They love playing Peek-a-boo and also hiding him under a blanket and then watching him crawl out.
* Watching the Fifa Cup with Daddy (who wouldn't like this?)
* Chewing on anything papery (this is the hardest thing to keep him from doing)
* Having crazy chubby legs. I tried to put legwarmers on him (to protect his knees), but he was too chunky for them! Looks like I need to do some sewing!!

"Snapping"

Penny and Theo like it when I snap along to the closing credits song of the Curious George cartoon. Here is Penny "snapping" and Theo dancing along.

Enjoy!

Proof pic of Penny

Yup! She has about 150 chicken pox. It doesn't seem to be slowing her down at all.

Holla for Challah!

The kids and I made this challah yesterday. It was really tasty with our roasted chicken, potatoes, and carrots. We enjoyed it again today with some vegetable soup and I even used it in a couple of egg casseroles I made for a church Easter brunch. I'm planning on trying it out as french toast tomorrow morning!

Chicken...

Pox!

All 3 of our kids have the chicken pox! It's a very exciting time at our house. I had hoped to get them over with before Theo started pre-K next year. Now Penny & Felix have theirs out of the way as well. So far, they haven't been a big deal at all. Penny has the most (about 50), Felix has lots (slightly less than Penny, maybe 40?), and Theo doesn't have many at all (10 max). They are sleepier and quieter than usual, but nothing substantial is bothering them yet. Penny & Felix already have several pox that have turned into blisters, but they don't seem annoyed at all. Here they are watching Maisy and having a snack (not a bad life, if you ask me).

Egg Hunt Pictures

My mom sent these to me yesterday. Aren't they great! We clearly had a wonderful time playing with friends and hunting eggs last week.

#5

Felix can roll over!! He was laying on his stomach last night and I saw him rock, rock, turn his head, and roll over onto his back. He hasn't done it again since, but I know he will. He is getting so much stronger and more active. It is fun to see him grow!

We are excited to be celebrating Holy week here at our house. We've colored eggs, participated in a Palm Sunday parade, and we got a few new books today to read this week. Theo & Penny are so excited. I realized, we spend so much time talking about and reading about Christmas with our little ones, but not as much time teaching them about Easter. I want to make sure I show my family the beautiful story of Jesus' life and what it means to us. Most of all, I am excited to witness the new life and growth in my own home. The Lord is good...all the time. All the time....the Lord is good!

#4

Fun egg hunt at church today. It was so great to see my mom and Sandy enjoying this special time with the kids. Andy had a 1/2 day, so we all went out for lunch before the grandmas headed home.

Pics once my mom & Sandy send me some!

#3

So, we were supposed to go to the Burlington Children's museum with Theo's pre-school class yesterday. My mom & Sandy were going to meet us there and we were all really excited about it. On the way to school, Theo mentioned that his teeth hurt. I asked him what he meant and looked into the rearview mirror to see him puking. Yuck! I, of course, took him home and he was perfectly fine the rest of the day. Weird. The grandmas came over and we had a great day together with egg dying, pizza, and playing dominoes.

I'll post pictures once I get some from my mom!