Top 10 - 2013 Bloopers

 

It was a good year for bloopers, but I am looking forward to what Ruthie Mae will give us in 2014 :)

Winter Happenings

This was our first Christmas as a family working for the church full time. I knew this year would be different for many reasons, but I enjoyed all of the church activities surrounding the Advent season. Lots of parties and an extra church service leaves this extrovert feeling very fulfilled! To top it off, Owen was able to stay with us until Christmas night and we all enjoyed a couple of snowy days!!

Even Ruthie Mae enjoyed the winter wonderland.

Lazzy suited up in layers : pajamas, swim gear and a festive Christmas sweater. 

Once outside, Lazarus refused to come inside, sweet boy. The boys were so happy to find out that it does in fact snow in Bellingham!

They built a snowman.

Really though, it was a cigar smoking man!

{the placement of elijah's hands are hilarious!}

Owen left us on Christmas night. We're sad to see him go but so excited for his next adventure back home in Africa.

What a joyful time! I am now looking forward to life slowing down a bit. It's back to housework and homeschool for me!

Emmanuel

Ruthie Mae was baptized last Sunday. We rejoiced in God's promises to our children and welcomed her into the Covenant community.

Below are the truths we believe about ourselves, our children and our God's ability to change it all.

It's Christmas night and I'm lying in bed trying to recover from a strange cough. Dan and the boys went to Seattle for Christmas dinner with his mom and family, but us gals stayed behind. I am feeling lonely, but am comforted by this beautiful song written by my brother in law.

{Emmanuel Part 1, written by my dear brother in law Nathan Partain

Listen to the song HERE}

He comes to be the Word that all words are judged by.

He comes to be the Light that all lights are seen by.

He comes to be the Blood that all debts are paid by.

He comes to be the Word that all words are judged by.

Emmanuel

He comes to bring some rest to the heavy laden.

He comes to gut the one who abused his children.

He comes to burn all memories of Satan.

He comes to bring some rest to the heavy laden.

Emmanuel

We beheld him, we have seen God’s face.

We have touched him, God with us remained.

We received him, we believed

In his name,

In his name,

In his name.

He comes to lift our heads to proclaim his witness,

He comes to dwell in us to reflect his radiance,

He comes to send us out, his incarnate presence,

He comes to lift our heads to proclaim his witness.

Emmanuel

When he comes again then we will be always with him.

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What an amazing story-God becoming man to save his beloved and make all things right. I have so much to be thankful for, but above all, I am thankful for my Emmanuel. God is with us!!

6 Weeks and Keeping it Real

We made it to the 6 week mark. We've been through a few growth spurts now and Ruthie is starting to figure out the difference between night and day. She's generally easy going and only cries when something is seriously wrong. So thankful for this girl!!!

Owen has returned and will be staying with us through Christmas. He's getting lots of cuddles with little Ruthie Mae.

This year, Christmas will be pretty busy. There is a lot going on at the church, so we'll only be traveling to Seattle for a day or two. I'm excited to lay low and celebrate with our community here in Bellingham!!

Today, I....

...fished Lazzy's underwear out of the toilet (!?)

...made chocolate chip cookies

...prayed for my children

...started the same load of laundry twice

...ate 13 chocolate chip cookies

...prayed with my children

...made an elephant out of playdough

...called the wrong person

...taught reading lessons

...stitched the ear back on to Elijah's baby doggy

...broke up a million fights between these two Tarzans...



Said these things to my children:

"Stop calling each other Geeze. Geeze!"

"If you eat your Donatello bandaid, I'm not giving you another one."

"I'll show you a 'Hot Wheel' if you don't stop arguing about your toys!"
{What did I even mean by that??? Apparently, the kids didn't want to find out...}

I found a lot of  comfort in this article: 31 Things No One Tells You About Becoming a Parent
Number 1 is totally the story of Dan's life as a father, ha!
I particularly resonated with numbers 4, 8, 27 and 29.


We are hanging in there. Some days are really fun, like when we make family movies:



Other days are filled with lots of tears, and it ain't just the kids who are crying! But, it's all good. We are learning, growing and showing a lot of grace to each other. I'm thankful!

Kids Say The Darndest Things-Theology

The kids have been pretty deep lately. Here's a little theology for you on this beautiful winter Sunday.

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Elijah was being absolutely horrible one Sunday morning. I felt particularly overwhelmed and decided I couldn't take a screaming 5 year old, and aloof 3 year old and a newborn to church by myself!

Me : "I'm not taking a fussy boy to church. We'll just stay home."

Elijah : "but you need to take fussy boys to church so they can confess!"

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Again, while dealing with a difficult Elijah tantrum:

Dan : "You're anger is not okay."

Elijah  : "It's okay to be angry but not to disobey!"

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Elijah is giving me a lecture on death, what happens to our bodies and souls (the stages-bodies go to the ground, souls up to heaven until Jesus returns to reunite our souls with our bodies for the new creation....), and the fact that we have no idea where heaven is (well, he's pretty certain it's outside of the universe somewhere). 

Then he said "speaking of Jesus, when will he come back? we don't know! it's just a surprise! i hope it's today. even though we are having a happy day and get to be with dad tonight on a family date, it would be even better to all be dead and have our souls with God tonight!" 

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Lazarus is reading from my Bible. This is what the word of God says (according to Laz) - 

"do not pee in the house. just pee in the potty and walk on the second place to bring all the daddy bibles and when it goes, let it drink. when it drinks, it breaks. when it not breaks, the playground breaks."

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Then, there are the random comments throughout the day : 

Elijah : "The devil is dumb. He is so dumb and we can call the devil dumb because he's evil."

Lazarus : "Jesus die and he got dead but he rise from the dead and now is ALIVE!!!..........Right?"

Elijah : "Don't worship satan. Only worship the one true God. And that's Jesus."

Bring Her Chicken!

Well, it's back to life as usual around here, except everything is different! I rarely get out of bed before 9am (thank you Dan!!!), we don't leave the house much and the house is a wreck. But that's the stage we're in right? I'm just embracing the chaos. Happily!

I can have a clean house later, but I won't always have these little people, cuddling and learning beside me in my bed. Even though I feel very much out of control and there is spit up in my hair, these are happy times.

I do manage to go over 1 reading lesson a day with Elijah. He's been doing his work upside down because apparently "learning how to read isn't challenging enough." - his words y'all.

The meals from sweet church ladies (and one single guy-I was impressed!!) have stopped coming. I'm back in the kitchen and letmetellyou, I love myself for planning ahead! I've got a few meals and some homemade sauces ready to go from our freezer. I'll use those later, though.

This week, we're eating off a delicious whole chicken a friend brought us. The chicken and vegetables fed our family two nights in a row and we still have left overs! Dan picked all the meat off the bones and I made stock out of the carcass. Now, we've got meat for another meal!

I used the homemade chicken stock to make tonight's dinner: white chicken chili!

Other good ideas for leftover chicken:

Chicken Pot Pie or Chicken Noodle Soup

From now on, my go-to post-baby-meal will be chicken and vegetables. Not only is it hearty and nutritious, it sets a mama up for future meal successes with all the leftovers! Which will give her more time to do this:

Look at those chubby cheeks! Ruthie Mae is chunkin' up!

Siblings

The sleepy baby/pouty lip photos:

Elijah

Lazarus

 Ruthie Mae