Our Busy Little World

Oct. 25, 2008 - Some Autumn Pictures

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Sep. 8, 2008 - Last Vacation Pictures

In answer to a question about my schedule post below, EOW means every other week, SOTW means Story of The World, by Bauer (it's world history in story form. Eventually I would love to get Mystery Of History, but this is a nice overview for us as long as I *discuss* certain things as I read aloud). Rod and Staff refers (this year) to their first grade workbooks. Isabelle and Hannah love workbooks, color pages and the like, so we have Rod & Staff workbook pages for math, penmanship, and music - very simple, good practice for them, and they enjoy it. Milly Molly Mandy rerfers to a group of wonderful little stories we love to read, and a neat little study guide to go with them published by Veritas press, which is just at Isabelle's level. I'll try to make a better post with all of our school books later. But here are the last of our vacation photograph for now.

  Isabelle, having made her own "camp fire"

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Sep. 2, 2008 - More Holiday Pictures

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Aug. 21, 2008 - We're Back!

This time I have a good reason for not having posted lately. We've been on holiday - and a lovely one at that! We just spent two weeks driving, playing at the ocean, visiting our dear family and friends and enjoying some time away together. We all loved our trip, and have come home with many wonderful memories (along with four hundred pictures!) It was a TON of driving - we drove the whole way to the California coast and back, and also quite a bit throughout, but I think the girls did great for so many hours in the car! We spent our first week together at a lovely little Bed & Biscuit in Pescadero, CA - the very first time the girls have seen the ocean! In reading Milly Molly Mandy Goes To The Sea so many times, we often remember how land-locked we are, yet we desire our girls to share our love of the ocean. It was a chilly 57 degrees all week, but we loved it nonetheless. We waded, played in the sand, and explored tide pools together - it really was quite refreshing, as we've never officially taken a family vacation before.

After our seaside week, we spent a bit over another week visiting different friends and family here and there, a couple days at a time. It was such a wonderful experience to share in our friends' homes for a little while - there is something special I have learned from each of them. The girls enjoyed sleeping in everything from "princess beds" in the B & B, to sleeping bags, shared bunks with friends, sisters, or mom and dad, car seats, even big couch cushions! It was a great way to learn some fun flexibility and have different adventures every night! I think we've come home with a more mellow baby, as the trip seemed to help Alyssa learn to "go with the flow" a bit more. We also got to celebrate her first birthday in California, and we did so by taking the girls to our old favorite Ice Cream spot (Leatherby's), and letting them all have banana splits for dinner! They were pretty bouncy that night!  

It was also wonderful to return and realize how much we love our little home. We're all settled back in now, and getting ready to start school quite soon. Here are some of the many, many, many California pictures we came home with:

I'll try to post more from the trip when I get a chance . . . .

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Jul. 18, 2008 - Contest Time

I'm in the mood to host a fun contest, and tell you about my new venture, so I thought I'd share some products with you that I have come to love! A few months ago, some friends of ours' introduced us to Young Living Essential Oils. I have to admit, we weren't too sure what to think about them at first, having never used essential oils before, but in a moment I shall tell you why we've come to love them so much!

 

So, here's the contest: The winner will receive a goody-bag of Young Living products - such as a bottle of one of our favorite oils, as well as some fun personal care products like lovely smelling shampoos, baby diaper ointment, toothpaste, mouthwash, foaming hand cleaner, hand sanitizer, home cleaning solution, and more! Just leave me a comment if you'd like to be entered, and I will randomly choose a winner in one week.

If you aren't the winner, you can still enjoy some Young Living products by visiting my new little website, Honeybee Garden  - the link is on the button to the right. I am SO thankful for these oils (read on to see why) that I decided to help make them available to others! I hope they are a blessing to your family as they have been to ours. While we love using the personal care products when we’re able to, we feel the best treasures from Young Living are their pure therapeutic grade essential oils. We have been amazed to see the results of using some of these oils – particularly by using a diffuser. Our favorite example is that of RC and Raven oils. Our daughter has struggled for years with a whooping-type cough nearly every time she gets sick. It keeps her and us up all night, and makes it very difficult for her to breathe when she has it. We’ve tried just about every over-the-counter or doctor-given medicine we could, when our friends loaned us a diffuser with some RC and Raven oil. Though we were a bit skeptical at first, we were very pleasantly surprised! Literally ten minutes after we started diffusing the oil, her cough stopped – it didn’t just get better, it stopped completely! She has yet to struggle with it again when she’s been sick (we keep that diffuser on!), for which we are so very thankful! We have some other favorite oils which we’d love to share with you, but this is what got us hooked! We wanted to let our friends know about Young Living Essential Oils, and invite you to peruse our website or get in touch with us if you have any questions or you’d like to try out some of the lovely oils!

Again, all you have to do is leave a comment if you'd like to be entered to win some Young Living Essential Oils goodies!

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Jul. 3, 2008 - Summer Of The Horses

This has been quite the horsey summer for us! Thanks to a generous riding instructor, some wonderful friends who own and breed lovely Arabians, and visiting family who had never ridden but wanted to try, we've been able to spend quite a bit of time on the back of a horse. Given the fact that I've always been a lover of horses, this is quite a nice thing indeed! Here are some pictures of our past month on horseback (they're a bit smaller than they used to be - still getting used to picasa).  Give us a few weeks and we may have a little horsey surprise to share! Oh, and I have to say my favorite pictures are at the bottom for a very special reason . . . you'll just have to scroll down to see why!

I got to ride with Hannah for this one- probably one of my favorite hours spent with that girl! We got to snuggle, ride a horse, and have uninterrupted conversation together (a rare thing indeed!)

Matt's mom, sister and nephew getting ready for some good trail riding! 

Don't know why, but I just like this picture of our little trail group

I had to get a good shot "for the record" of my sweet mother-in-law riding!

Horses, donkeys, any hoofed animal who will lend Isabelle his back makes her happy! Here's her cousin Teddy leading her around on Jezebel the donkey (perhaps aptly named, Jezebel did bite Miss Isabelle by accident whilst receiving a treat - no worries, though, you should have seen how thrilled Isabelle was with all the sympathy!)

I am riding Safar, the fabulous (no exaggeration!) Arabian Stallion owned by our good friends.

More on Safar

 

And Miss Hannah enjoying a ride on Safar - did I say Stallion? Well, yes, but you'd never know it when the little ones are on him - he's so very sweet!

A favorite horse trip this summer: we took a rode trip to watch Miss Bryony in her first show with this stallion - they were lovely and won 2nd place! And the road trip was wonderful as well - nice long, beautiful drive with a good friend- I came home that day refreshed and ready for the next day's work!

Miss Isabelle enjoying Safar after the horse show

Matt joined in the fun, too. This picture reminds me of a line from one of our favorite stories: "She looked up at St. George, sitting there on his horse, straight and tall and beautiful. 'Oh, Sir Knight!' she cried . . . ."

 

And here's everyone else getting in a little ride on Safar - no one could resist! For the record, my mother in law rode TWO horses the week she was here!

 

Teddy riding Safar, with Nancy kindly leading.

Teri, Matt's sister enjoying a ride.

A breathtaking view of the area!

And now for my favorite pictures: The first is a "Before" shot from a few months ago. Remember how terrified Naomi is of animals?

 

Well, she is still cautious, but one day up at the ranch she decided to find out what she was missing. Completely of her own volition she came up and asked if she could ride the donkey. So I took her, thinking she'd want right off, but no - just look at that smile! We were all SO very proud of her!

Then a bit later in the day, she surprised us again by asking if she could ride the horse. I put her up thinking she'd want right down, but she amazed me again - look, another smile! We're so proud of you, Naomi! 

What a big girl!

 

PS. if you didn't get a chance to read it, take a peek at the post below - my girls sure make me laugh! The post was a bit lost in bloggyland for some reason for a short time!

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Jun. 27, 2008 - Fun With Mom And Photo Test

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May. 27, 2008 - So long . . . .

It's been ages since I last posted, and I do apologize! Funny how life creeps up on me, and suddenly everything is so very busy. I think the next few posts will be largely pictorial, since I'm about one hundred pictures behind. Incidentally, does anybody have an idea as to why all my pictures mysteriously turned into thumbnails, instead of their normal size???? I'm rather perturbed by it all. 

Oh well, as I mentioned we really have been very busy lately, but with good things. We had a lovely going away party for some dear friends, a little mom's and kids' road trip to an Arabian horse show, and we finally were able to take the kids and visit with some elderly gentlemen and ladies at a nursing home here in town. I wish I had some more time to post right now, but at some point I'll try to get more pictures and stories up. I will be in and out, I think, as this seems to shaping up to be our busiest summer yet. Family visiting, our first real vacation, swimming, baby showers and all sorts of other things shall keep us enjoying the season. But for now, spring is finally here, and we are loving it! It's such a delight to one's soul to be able to lay in the grass listening to munchkins playing around you.  Here are some of our spring flowers and our little flower girls to go with them:

 

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Apr. 21, 2008 - Fun Happenings

We've come up with some things this week which have thrilled the girls, particularly my five year old. One is a small bit of (I think) actual creativity on my part. The girls accidentally broke my exercise band, and I found some curved branches. That probably sounds like a really weird combination, but with the two I was able to make a couple of very passable bows. We then spent the morning hunting for twigs we could use for arrows - all in all it was quite fun, and we're very pleased with our bows and arrows. We've spent a good amount of time having "archery contests" and are just loving it! Isabelle may be my girliest girl, but she is also pretty fascinated with certain weapons, bows and arrows topping her list! And if I do say so myself, they're pretty groovy - even daddy and I didn't want to put them down!

Daddy made all the girls happy by finishing the bunk bed he was painting for them. It looks lovely, and they are so happy with it! We now officially have four little girls in one room. Juliette is so proud to be in the big girl room. She's funny- potty training is harder with her than any of the others, yet going from a crib to a bed is a delight! They're all so different, go figure.

Next we discovered this fabulous new printing of the Narnia series - large print for reading aloud. Isabelle can read these herself, but it's still fairly slow going as she's only five, and it's a long book! So I put on our audio Narnia CD, which we LOVE, and she was able to follow along in the book for the whole chapter - it was wonderful!

The last exciting thing for Isabelle is that we created her very own blog. Yes, my five year old has a blog. I thought it might make for a fun and different way to do her oral narrations, and boy does she love it! She got to pick out her own template picture and all of that good stuff. I had no idea how happy this would make her!  If you'd like to see a five year old's blog, feel free to visit little Belle.

Here are some pictures of our week:

Belle with her new "archery set"

Mommy and Belle having an archery contest.

Isabelle reading Narnia

Me and my Juli Bunny:

Miss Alyssa

Isabelle actually took this picture of Alyssa- didn't she do a great job - a little budding photographer!

We were all outside enjoying the one warm spring day we've had this year!

The bunk bed daddy painted:

 

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Jan. 20, 2008 - Long Time No Blog . . .

Hello all! So sorry for my looooooong absence. It's funny how life just kind of catches up with me sometimes, and my time for any extraneous activity becomes nil. Actually, I do have the excuse that my hard drive decided to die what I consider a very premature death. And my warranty company decided to make sure to take over a month to resolve this. Ah well, it's been God's way of showing me that life goes on just fine without computers.  That aside we've also been struck with a bug of some sort. One of those bugs that the kids pick up one at a time, so it feels like an eternity before everyone is well. This one came with those nasty coughing episodes - the kinds that keep mommy and daddy up all night tending to little sickies. Thus I've been a walking zombie for the last two weeks - to the point that I actually started taking my breakfast dishes to the laundry hamper instead of the sink! Thankfully they didn't end up in the wash -wouldn't that have been something to blog about? Anyway, I doubt I have anything all that interesting to say, but I'm sure I will soon . . . maybe . . . perhaps if I get some sleep!

Lately I've been pondering books and curriculum for the fall. I'm hoping to do a first grade-ish year with both Isabelle and Hannah - they're so similar in how they learn and Hannah's catching up pretty quickly. Thankfully, Naomi and Juliette (who now calls herself Jooey) are very similar in how they are developing and learning, so I think between the four big girls I'll only have two "grades" to teach. I found this neat little Charlotte Mason catalog buried in my files called Queen Homeschool Supplies  and I'm hoping to try some of their copywork and living books about nature next year. I really enjoyed looking through their catalog! I've been feeling Charlotte Mason-y in general - perhaps just because reading aloud is my favorite part of any school day. I started reading A Charlotte Mason Companion, and then from Kendra's blog I found the link to this book that looks great as well. Ah, so many books . . . so little time!

This week we have two of the girls' wonderful Grandmas visiting, which is such a delight at any time, but especially after being cooped up and sick. Today I was resting in bed (I was one of the last to get the bug) and enjoying listening to my mom read aloud to the girls. I chuckled to myself when I heard that Hannah had picked "The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly". It's a totally goofy, yet sort of dreadful little book that we happened to pick up one time and just never got around to weeding out. The lady goes onto swallow all sorts of things like a bird, cat, spider, dog, cow, etc,  to catch the previous animal she swallowed.  I guess it's good for some laughs, but our rather gruesome copy ends "There was an old lady who swallowed a horse . . .she's dead, of course".  I've at least heard parts of that poem before so it wasn't totally shocking, but my poor mom apparently never has. She was so great while listening to Isabelle read the story to her, but we all had a good laugh in the evening about her rather surpised expressions of "What?" (after Isabelle read "perhaps she'll die") and then "Oh my!" (after "She's dead, of course"), and the nervous laughter sprinkled throughout. I'll never forget how much the girls giggled - fun memories!

Meanwhile, I had finally gotten Alyssa sleeping through the night when she got sick. And of course (to me anyway) sick little baby means nursing as often as possible so she doesn't get dehydrated from fevers. Sooooo, we're back to lots of nursings at night. That girl pops her little head up, wails in congested misery, and after she has drunk of her heavenly milk she flashes this whole-head smile, as if to say "I must have my milk; I shall always have my milk; don't you know mom, I must have my milk whenever I desire it!"  Once she's well . . . perhaps sleep will come.

Well, I'm off for the night, but I do have a few links, as well as a few funny stories I must try to write down this week. And do check back as I've decided to have my first ever blog contest quite soon (at least I think it'll be the first one, but I don't have the greatest memory!) Have a great night, everyone!

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Dec. 25, 2007 - Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you're all having a lovely day; we certainly are. I thought I'd post our Christmas letter and some pictures . . .

Happy Christmas!!!!

This year has brought some changes to our family, as the years always seem to. Our favorite change is our newest little daughter, Alyssa Suzanne, who was born just a few months ago. Another little one definitely makes for a busier household, but she’s a lovely baby and a delight to us all!

We ladies are staying busy at home with our first *official* year of homeschooling. We pray and read, write letters, memorize Bible verses, learn phonics, play games, make some crafts, bake some cookies, and read some more.  I love reading aloud and thankfully the girls love to be read to!

Isabelle has become quite the little reader herself. She’s thrilled that she can take books to bed now, and actually read through them instead of just looking at the pictures! She’s a great “babysitter” for her little sisters, and a big help to mommy. I think her favorite accomplishment at the moment is being able to stand up while holding her baby sister.  She’s also thoroughly enjoying her first little ballet/Irish dance class  (mommy’s loving her own Irish dance class as well!)

Hannah brings us much joy and laughter with the goofy little things she says – we wonder how she thinks them up! She is a self-proclaimed “foodie”, meaning she loves food and drinks (as she will tell anyone she meets). She’s always the first to point out a picture of a cookie or candy in a book!  She’s looking like she wants to catch up with Isabelle in school, as she’s learning to write  letters and remember their sounds.  Her favorite thing to do (aside from have a cookie!) is to hold Alyssa.

Naomi has learned to speak so much more lately – we love being able to understand her words!  While she loves to hold baby sister, too, I think her very favorite thing of all is to be mommy’s “dinner helper”. She loves pretending to cook, helping me with dishes, and all such things! She’s become the sweetest mommy to her dolly lately and always loves a good snuggle.

Juliette is another little silly goose who keeps us chuckling. She is quite tiny, and doesn’t say too many words yet (even though she tries with all her might!), so she’s just extraordinarily cute (though we probably let her get away with a bit too much because of that!) She loves ducklings, riding around on mommy’s back in the baby backpack, and helping to “set the table” (we can end up with a million plates on the table when she’s dinner helper!) Most of all she loves to be snuggled while having a good book read aloud to her.

Miss Alyssa seems to have many opinions of her own for a little four month old baby – and she tries to squawk each one of them to us! She loves to chew on her “Sophie La Giraffe” toy, be entertained by her sisters, and ride around on mommy in a peanut shell baby carrier. Best of all she likes it when we look into her eyes and talk to her – tell her anything, she loves to listen!

Matt’s been busy painting and refinishing much of our furniture – and in so doing he’s made our home all the more beautiful! Though it’s not easy to stay up all night for his job, the hours at work give him some extra reading time when it’s not busy.  I’m enjoying the bicycle he bought me last summer – I had forgotten how lovely it is to ride a bike! And I love that we now live in a town small enough for me to run many of my errands via bicycle.  Matt and I are both so thankful for our new little home here in town (did I mention we moved?), being closer to church and good friends, and being able to enjoy the extra snow!

Hmm, the more babies God sends us, the longer these letters seem to get! Oh well, we wanted to share what we are up to, and we do so wish we could have you all into our home this season! We’d love to rejoice together with you in the celebration of the birth of the King! May you know His peace and joy this Christmas season, and may His blessings be upon you!

All Our Love, Matthew, Melissa, Isabelle, Hannah, Naomi, Juliette and Alyssa

 

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Nov. 7, 2007 - Stories From Grandma

My girls are blessed with such wonderful Grandmas who love them so much.  Juliette's been pretty sick this weekend (better now), and her Grandma Karen sent this to her to cheer her up. The girls all loved it! I thought it was a great idea for anyone who's far from the little ones they love.

Dear Juliette, I’m so sorry you don’t feel good and that you had to stay home today.  I wrote this story for you on the plane to cheer you up.  I thought your sisters would enjoy sharing it with you J  I love you all J J J
Grandma Karen

 Juliette was a tiny little girl with a tiny little smile and a tiny little curl. She wore tiny little shoes, tiny little dresses and carried a tiny little doll. The only thing about Juliette that was not tiny was her sweet, huge heart. It could not be tiny because it held all her love for her mommy and her daddy; her four sisters, Isabelle, Hannah, Naomi, and Alyssa; her grandmas and her grandpa; her aunties and her uncles; her cousins and all her friends from church. And most of all, it held all the love God gave to her and all the love she had for God!

Juliette had fun playing each day in her happy home. She had fun sharing a bedroom with her sister, Alyssa. She had fun sharing a bouncy horse with her sister, Naomi. She had fun sharing toy food with her sister, Hannah. She had fun sharing crayons and stickers with her sister, Isabelle. She had fun dancing with her mommy and her daddy. And she had fun going to church on Sundays to learn more about God. 

Juliette enjoyed taking long walks in her country town. She enjoyed crunching brown, gold, and red leaves in the fall. She enjoyed making snow angels in the winter. She enjoyed watching the first red tulip pop up in the spring. She enjoyed playing in the puddle pool in the summer. And she enjoyed telling God how pretty His world is.

Juliette loved going to sleep in her tiny little bed each night. She loved to kiss her mommy, her daddy, and her sisters – Isabelle, Hannah, Naomi, and Alyssa – with tiny little kisses. She loved to snuggle up in her soft, furry, tiny, little blanket. She loved to cuddle close to her tiny little bear. And she loved to say goodnight prayers to God.

 

 

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Aug. 24, 2007 - What Can I Say? I'm A Camera Happy *New* Mommy!

So comfy on daddy . . .

Smiles in her sleep . . .

I love her little squished face . . .

More sleepy smiles . . .

After bath my hair is curly . . .

Until it dries . . .

Still comfy and floppy . . .

Beautiful flowers from wonderful daddy . . .

My oldest and youngest girls . . .

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Aug. 22, 2007 - Birth Story

I know some of you were hoping to hear more about Alyssa's birth, so here goes: 

I had expected to have a shorter labor, as my mom's labors always cut in half time-wise (her first was 8 hours, then 4, then 2).  Mine seem to be the opposite, after the first one. My first was 12, then 4, then 8, and this one was just about 20 hours. Totally threw me for a loop, I must say - Matt and I were both thinking she wouldn't ever come out! I went into labor around 9pm on the 14th, and she was born just before 5 the next evening.  My mom, Matt and I stayed up till midnight playing boggle, assuming the labor would progress quickly.  But at midnight I was still 6 minutes apart, so I decided to attempt sleeping.  I "slept" most of the night as if I had a snooze alarm - I'd wake up with each contraction, then fall back asleep.  In the morning, I got up to get some breakfast and get things ready for the girls' breakfast - that got my contractions to 3 minutes apart and even more painful, so I called my midwife.  She came over and said I was 6 cm dilated.  A moment later, however, she got a phone call from another one of her clients and discovered that  she and I were both in labor!  So she ordered me to bed for a bit to slow things down, and my friend/midwife's assistant stayed with me.  The other lady was blessed with a quick labor and within an hour or two my midwife was back.  My daughter kept asking me why I hadn't had the baby yet, since our friend had her's so quickly. Between painful contractions I tried to tell her that some babies come slowly, some quickly. My wonderful mom watched all four of our older girls all day. We filled up the aquadoula, and I spent most of the day in there.  It was definitely a painful labor, but I felt much more in control of myself this time than with previous labors. I was very quiet and still for most of it (until it was time to push - I think this was the hardest one at that point, even though she was little!).  Being in the water helps me so much - I can't imagine laboring without a labor pool! I did feel bad that it was taking so long, but what can you do?  My midwife knitted, we put on a movie, and everyone was remarkably patient and so encouraging to me as I labored and we waited for this baby! It got to the point that I was exhausted and discouraged, because it was more and more painful, but I didn't feel like anything was happening.  But in any case, God was faithful and gave me the strength to make it to the end.   I am so blessed to have a midwife and midwife's assistant who are good friends from church, so I spent the day with my husband and two good friends - definitely the most supportive labor environment you can get! By the time Alyssa made her appearance, I was too exhausted to think of anything besides two things: "She's finally out - it is a girl, right?" and "hey, she looks like the others. . . but she has HAIR!" I was SO relieved to have made it safely through this birth, and to finally get to lay down with my new baby girl! She was so healthy -  great apgars, no problems at all. I cried, out of sheer exhaustion, relief, and utter thankfulness that all my fears proved to be totally silly.  Matt was so wonderful through everything - there's something so sweet about the way he becomes so much more tender towards me after watching me labor - especially this labor that was much longer than the others!   Now it's been a week, and I've spent most of it in bed with Alyssa.  My midwife and Matt like me to stay pretty much in bed for the first two weeks, so I'm happily complying! Sure makes for great baby-bonding time! The girls are doing wonderfully with daddy, and would come and hold Alyssa for hours if they could!  They all adore her - though I think Juliette takes the cake for the most loud and giddy adoration!  Thus far we've been quite blessed as Alyssa sleeps very well - I actually have had to wake her up in the night after five hours of sleep to nurse her.  Now I don't really wake her, but she still only nurses once at night. I'm sure it helps that she's sleeping in my arms.  It's funny - we were too nervous to have our first two babies sleep with us.  Neither Matt nor I liked the idea, so they slept by us in a bassinet.  Then Juliette changed all of that - she would occasionally just stop breathing, so my midwife suggested sleeping with her so she'd follow my breathing pattern.  Her's was the most wonderful newborn time we'd yet had, and we were hooked. She slept with us for a month, then started sleeping through the night on her own. Now Matt and I have realized that we actually feel better having Alyssa sleep with us than in her bassinet - for at least the first few weeks. It's our snuggly time - and perhaps Alyssa will even follow Juliette's pattern in sleeping all night at a month old (I can dream, can't I?) . . . Anyway, I think that's about it for her little birth story.  We're just so very happy she's safely here!

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Aug. 19, 2007 - Eyes Wide Open

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Aug. 17, 2007 - Sibling Shots

Here are a few more pictures of baby Alyssa and her adoring crowd of sisters (among others).  You can still scroll down to see her little mini birth announcement and the first pictures of her below.

 

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Aug. 16, 2007 - Pictures Of Baby Alyssa

Well, Matt brought up a usb cable so I was able to get some pictures of baby Alyssa uploaded. Here she is, in all her fuzzy cuteness.

 

 

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Aug. 16, 2007 - Baby News!

Baby is here!  After my longest labor yet, our new baby is safely here, thanks be to God!  Her name is Alyssa Suzanne (Daddy sweetly wanted to name her after mommy, who is Melissa Suzanne).  She was 7 pounds, 11 ounces (which is our second smallest baby), and she is our  first baby with hair!  We're both doing well, thankfully, and Matt and the girls are great also.  I'll have more to write later, and of course pictures to post, but I wanted to thank you all so much for your prayers and let you know she's here! 

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Jun. 26, 2007 - Finally Some Pictures!

I know a certain Grandma who, among others, has been waiting very patiently for some recent pictures.  With everything so busy lately, this is the first chance I've had to post some.  I will warn you there are a bunch, and I can't say they're all the most exciting, but I promised to give a little picture tour of our new home, laundry room included. 

 

The girls were excited to have a few new church dresses after an amazing sale at the store.  Isabelle was particularly thrilled with hers, as it looks very much like Milly Molly Mandy's party frock.

This is our new home:

Daddy's building a wonderful retaining wall to make a place for a storage shed.

Our dining room - my mom's gorgeous hopechest fits perfectly in here!

Isabelle's been loving coloring lately

Naomi's been loving playing with "tea things" or little dishes lately

A bunch of munchkins in the playhouse

Juliette's been loving talking on the phone lately: here she's talking to Grandma Karen

 

The girls' attempt at posing for a picture in the backyard

My little monkey

Since we sold our swingset when we moved, everyone was thrilled to use the money for this lovely new porch swing/glider.  It gets lots of loving use!

My beautiful Belle

My lovely little Hannah

Riding Phillip horse (now that her legs are long enough). The girls have loved all their riding toys so much more since we moved, as we have sidewalks now (and a million skinned knees to prove it!)

Juliette helping me show off the "closet" I made - a $6 curtain rod on the ceiling works wonders!

One corner of the baby room

Hannah sleeping with my favorite teddy bear from when I was a little girl.  She's affectionately dubbed her "Betty Bear"

Another corner of the baby room - it's really hard to actually take a picture of whole rooms around here. This is Juliette's room, and eventually Alyssa's too (the baby in my tummy, of course)

Naomi's corner of the Big Girl room (Isabelle, Hannah and Naomi love their room!)  They even have a mini playroom under their clothes, since I gave up on fixing their closet doors and decided to take them off instead.

Isabelle's little corner of the room

Hannah's little corner bed

Mommy and Daddy's room - so very cozy, we love it!

My best attempt at getting a picture of our little "ensuite" bathroom

Isabelle giving you a tour of the upstairs landing - it was the perfect spot for Grandma's rocking chair and the girls' bench.

Isabelle showing you all the top of the stairs and the mirror which we didn't think we'd find a spot for.

I couldn't resist - again, stuffed animals make the best doorstops!

We've dubbed our breakfast nook the tea room. Juliette seems so much more grown up now that she eats breakfast with sisters at the big girl table.

Our lovely little kitchen

The downstairs bathroom - again it's tough to get the whole picture in.

Ain't it exciting - a laundry room!

I think we've dubbed this the school room (even though we do school in the living room), but I think at the moment it's more of a hodge-podge room. 

The living room

Matt and I were able to have another pottery painting date, so I painted a creamer to match my teapot.  Unfortunately I forgot to bring a picture, so the color's a bit off, but it works.

The other half of the living room. Funny thing is, we were given this piano by the people who used to own this home.  Some good friends spent a day lugging it to our old home, and ironically enough the piano has now come back to its old home!

 

We LOVE our porch - it's such gorgeous weather here that this is like another room for us and we spend tons of time out here!

The girls coloring and enjoying playpen time in the tea room

One last picture in the tree at our old house.

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Jun. 14, 2007 - Thursday Thirteen

Ok, I don't technically do Thursday Thirteen, but it made for an easy start-back-up-blogging entry for today.  I am SO thankful to be moved into our new home, and to have computer access again! Sorry for the long absence, but it was for a good cause (my sanity in getting unpacked!). Soon I'll get some new pictures and stories up, but for today . . .

Thirteen Things I Love About Living In My New Home (and why I never want to move again!)

1. We only own one house now, since God was so faithful to allow our other house to sell!!!  What a relief!

2. I finally have *pretty* rooms for my girls.  Nothing fancy, but the matching duvet covers make the room, and look so pretty with the butter yellow walls. The older girls have all their dollies and clothes in there, as well as their little rocking chairs.  I took off the closet doors, so they have a pint sized playroom under their hanging clothes.  The baby room has a little closet I created by hanging up a curtain rod on the ceiling, and is cute as can be with blue walls and flowery blankets.  I just love the cute little girly rooms!

3.  We have a porch! It's such a perfect time of year for it, and I love ours - it's like an outdoor room. I love to rock the girls out there, or sit and play chess with Matt at our little bistro table.  The girls love to run around and dance to daddy's guitar music in their jammies.

4. We were able to weed out much unneeded *stuff* moving from a big house to a smaller one, and I'm so looking forward to our yard sale in a couple of weeks.  It's such a good feeling to pass on or get rid of things we don't need! I've decided the perfect time to weed out is while unpacking - if we didn't have room for something, we chose what to keep and what not to. 

5. There was a perfect little spot for everything we truly wanted to keep.  God was so faithful to give me creative ideas every time I thought we had no room for something - from medicines to cookbooks, to preschool toys and extra clothes.  There's a place for everything we need.

6.  I've discovered a love of furniture that doubles as storage!  My mom's hopechest, and this big, square coffee table/chest which we've never been able to use before now are my two favorites.  They are a big reason we were able to fit all the preschool games, extra feather comforters and other things that were hard to find a place for.

7.  I love having a four year old to run many of my upstairs/downstairs errands, so that my pregnant body doesn't have to go up and down too many times each day.  And I'm thankful that all four of our girls know how to safely go up and down stairs.  Incidentally, a friend showed me a great way to teach this to a crawling baby: put them at the top of the stairs on their belly, then gently pull their feet to bring them all the way down.  It instantly taught Juliette the right "feeling" of crawling down backwards, and worked like a charm after I'd tried to teach her for awhile.

8. I may have given up a *bed and breakfast* master suite, but I love our cozy new room.  My favorite part of the upstairs in this house is the cape cod ceilings that slope down to three feet.  They give it such a homey atmosphere - I feel like Anne of Green Gables in her room in the movie (for which Matt thinks I'm goofy).

9. I love being able to go back to routine with the girls - it feels like it's been so long since we've been able to snuggle and read, color together, and all the other good stuff we love to do. And everyone is so much more at ease when things are normal.  I'm also thankful for four little troopers who put up with mommy and daddy being stressed and hectic for awhile (moving and unpacking while pregnant and mothering four sick toddlers was a bit more than I'd prefer to do again!)

10. This house falls into the category of "homes I've lived in that felt like home from the start". I love that - there was no breaking in period, just a happy and contented feeling of being just where we ought to be and loving it.

11. My new playpen.  If you live in a smaller space, I highly reccomend the Graco Travel Lite playpen. It is SO wonderful to have a playpen again for Juliette - you should have seen how happy she was when Matt was kind enough to bring it home from Walmart. I'm a big believer in playpen time for little ones, and I can attest to the fact that it makes them happy when their trained to like it.  Juliette loves the "safe" place to play with no big sisters to "help" her or relieve her of her toys!

12. My new smaller home is so much more delightful to clean - well, ok, I don't know if I'd ever call cleaning day delightful, but it is so much easier in a smaller home and makes me thankful for only two little bathrooms!

13. Lastly, I love how moving into this home has made my husband all the more my hero.  He worked so hard to do all the little things he knew would help and I would love - even when he didn't feel good as we got sick during the move.  Though he would have been quite happy to "pick away" at unpacking, he was so gracious in understanding his wife's frame and desire for quick order in our home.  He set up beds, fixed wiggly faucets, installed a garbage disposal (by far one of the best inventions ever!), stayed up late to help me unpack the tricky boxes in the schoolroom, was ever patient with me as I obsessed about unpacking, hefted heavy things many times to and fro, picked up a playpen late at night, rearranged furniture and so much more in record time. I'm incredibly thankful for my sweet husband and all he has done in bringing our family into our lovely new home!

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