Birthday Boy

Happy birthday to the sweetest big brother two little sisters could ever hope for!

Hello 2011!

I'm glad it's a new year, and am in disbelief at how quickly 2010 went by!  For our family 2010 included: a new baby, a huge move, buying and beginning renovations on our home, and the completion of graduate school.  The Lord sustained us through it all, and we are very grateful that HE is faithful.  

December flew by without a single bloggy nod to the Christmas season!  It was an unusually simple Christmas for our family, in terms of the "trappings" of the holiday season.  With Dan finishing up seminary and about two months of various  illness running through the family, it felt right (and necessary) to keep it simple.  I'll do a little Christmas re-cap soon.   In the meantime a few fun pics of the kiddos!

We have the cutest little orange tree out back; so little in fact, this is it's first and only fruit of the season!  Hannah Reece was thrilled to be the "picker".     

Miss Millie is almost 10 months old now and I can't get enough of her brunette baby hair swirls!  She's a girl on the go, it took quite a few snaps to get this picture.  :)    

It was wonderful having big brother home for 2 weeks over Christmas break.  We ALL missed him terribly when he went back to school on Monday!  I think he especially enjoyed hanging out in his jammies past the early morning hours.  And you know what?  So did I!  :)

 Happy New Year!

Love

Christmas is almost here. Oh, I had lists and ideas and all sorts of wonderful plans for this December, this season of advent to bask in the wonder of Christmas with our children, our first Christmas as a family of five. And then the REALITY of life set in. A husband working furiously to finish finals and papers in order to finish his seminary career (six LONG years of bless-ed seminary, finished-so thankful!!) We have endured two months of sickness between our three children...stomach virus, Strep throat, RSV, Strep throat again. I think I've wished everyone in the pediatrician's office a merry Christmas 4 times this month-every Monday! And on our most recent visit (yesterday) Graham accidentally scratched Daddy in the eye, which resulted in a corneal abrasion. He's been attempting to rest (in excruciating pain) unable to open his eye. Add to that the daily chores, plus attempting to proceed with necessary remodeling projects (we now have one FULLY functioning bathroom, yay!) and still trying to get organized and "settled in" while taking care of one or more sick kiddos for weeks now. Our advent wreath and Christmas Tree are/will be our only decorations out this year.

Today I blew my top. Yelled at our children, yelled at the dog, slammed a door. It was ugly. I struggle to serve patiently and selflessly. Today I became painfully aware of my selfishness, my weakness. Sleep deprivation only makes my weaknesses weaker. I will be heading to bed VERY soon. :)

What is amazing is how God's love casts its ever-present light over the dark spots of life. Millie's belly laughs and adorable "wounded soldier" crawl. Graham waking up in the middle of the night when he heard Dan get up, to help usher him around in the darkness since he can't see with his injured eye. A sweet neighbor bringing by a box of birthday chocolates just as my 2 o'clock hankerin' hit. Grandma inviting Hannah Reece over to make Christmas cookies while I ran some errands. A word of encouragement from a friend. An email asking for prayer for a loved one with cancer. Perspective. Thank you Lord, for perspective.

LOVE. God's love. This is why God sent Jesus to earth, as a baby. To show us what LOVE looks like. Thank you Lord, for this reminder. May you and I be conduits of God's great love this Christmas, and all year long. In our weakness Lord, may your strength, your LOVE shine through.

Egypt Day

Graham goes to a school that implements Core Knowledge.  Core themes are woven into the disciplines, even the basal readers.  Graham comes home excited about what he is learning.  This makes me (a former teacher) very happy.  :) We have really enjoyed the opportunity to extend his learning at home.  It has been so enriching, for ALL of us!   The series of books What Your ----- Needs to Know,   written by Hirsch, is the basis of the Core Knowledge program. 

One of the topics studied in first grade is Ancient Egypt.  A couple of weeks ago, the entire grade culminated their studies with "Egypt Day".  Each classroom was a station and the students enjoyed Egyptian food, played Egypt Bingo, made an Egyptian collar and had a wonderful time.  Here is our "mummy" sporting his best mummy pose.  :)

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"I learned about mummies, and people put the mummies inside sarcophagus'.  Babylon and Egypt both had gods and goddesses.  They were just Egypt gods, not the real GOD.  :)  King Tut was also named Tutankhamen.  Tutankhamen was one of the most famous kings of Egypt.  Queen Nefertiti was one queen of Egypt, too.  Queen Nefertiti was also a very famous queen.  And the people that lived in Egypt also thought that every night a man rose out of a flower on his flying boat and every night he picked the moon in his boat.  People that lived in Egypt had to catch fish to get food.  The people of the Nile river that lived in Egypt shared the Nile river with the people of Babylon.  King Tut died a long time ago and was put in a sarcophagus.  Also, he turned to a King when he was nine years old.  People that lived in Egypt had only pyramids.  The people of Babylon only had Zigurats.  A Zigurat is something that looks like a pyramid except it has bumps and it looks like it has steps.  Only the kings of Babylon and the queens of Babylon could go on top of the Zigurat.  The people of Babylon that were not royalty could not go on top of the Zigurat.  I felt very excited to learn about Egypt.  Learning about Egypt was the best thing I've ever learned about since I started in first grade."  -Graham

Eight Months

Tiny baby with a big, huge personality.  Oh Miss Millie, we're wild about you, girl!

Camille, at eight months:
-says ma-ma, da-da, na-na, and many other squealy, shrieky utterances that would be hard to spell  ;)
-does the cutest crawl, shimmy, stretch move that gets her where she needs to go-fast!
-isn't sitting up without support just yet, but goes from crawl position to a arm-hip lean...almost there!
-is recovering from her first (double) ear infection...the tummy does not tolerate antibiotics well
-has two teeth on the bottom and loves to chew on her "razzberry" toy (a silicone teething toy that's a bumpy rasberry in the shape of a pacifier)
-between teething and the yucky antibiotic tummy-has gone from sleeping through the night to waking 1-3 times a night again
-nurses every 3-ish hours
-eats several ounces of pureed fruits,veggies,meats 2-3 times a day....LOVES yogurt!
-would rather play with the sippy cup than drink from it  ;)
-sometimes, it seems that she's a little bored when G and H are at school...she kind of looks around and whines at times.  They are a constant source of entertainment!
-now recognizes close family members and will enjoy their cuddles, for a few minutes.  Then she begins to glance around, searching and lunging for momma.
-sucks the thumb when sleepy, and loves to cuddle with her blanket and fiddle with it for comfort
-takes two big naps, or one big one and two shorter ones
-is fascinated by the telephone
....is wonderfully made and a precious gift to our family!

Millie's Eye View

Baby girl has started chattering, screaming, howling, screeching, giggling...she's a noisy one!  But then look at her teachers  :)

She's a tiny thing (25th percentile for height and weight at her last dr. appt.)...with a BIG personality!  Camille growls at daddy when he plays with her, screeches at the dog and laughs hysterically at her brother and sister's antics.  Just for fun, a Millie's eye view....craziness!

The Home Stretch



Pastor Doug presenting Dan to the congregation as a candidate for ministry



The church voted an entusiastic "yes!" to bring Dan on as associate pastor.  This week he will be "examined" by our presbytery (which is the local governing body of our denomination).  As exciting as it is that things are moving forward with Dan's new position at the church, he is still very much immersed in his work there and in his studies.  He is finishing up his last three courses for Seminary.  Add to that many pressing house projects (I'm talking sinks in the bathroom kind of projects!) and 3 small children.  Life is full.  We are very grateful.  And very tired.  Please pray that God would strengthen us and that we would find opportunities for rest.  The goal?  The end of Dan's last seminary semester...DECEMBER 3rd!