Day #3- Its getting blacker...

 

  

  

 

Elijah's First Shiner

 

yesterday (10am)

My poor little guy has his first black eye- I think it happened yesterday morning when he fell off the couch and hit his head on the coffee table- this was at 7:30 am. He cried a little and then was fine.

I was working all day on rearranging and purging the basement and around 10, checked his diaper. Thats when I noticed his HUGE goose egg over his eye. It looked like someone wedged a large marble under his eyebrow. I called the doc and they said it will heal!

 

Last night at dinner it continued to get worse...

 

And this morning I was very nervous when I got him from his crib...

Here is what today looks like...

 

  

  

When I was taking his picture this morning, he was saying "Happy Day!"

It was so cute- at least he' happy:)

Homemade Chinese (sorta)

I have been dying for good chinese food. When we lived in Massachusetts, we had this AMAZING chinese restaurant called Fitchburg Jade.  I have not found anything close here in Denver. So, I decided to try to make some homemade chinese food. I found this sauce in a packet called Simply Asian General Tsoas and I had a coupon so it only cost me 60 cents- I picked up a bag of  asian stirfry frozen veggies, some bean sprouts and water chestnuts. After cooking up some chicken, adding the veggies and sauce, I tasted it and it was really good! I made some fried rice and ate it all myself since my husband is not a fan of chinese.

Last night, I tried a new Chinese place called The Fire Bowl and it was pretty tasty! 

I think its the best I can do out here:) unless I find a chinese nanny!

A Little Lady

Our Sophia is now five and a half! She is half way through Kindergarten. She is reading up a storm! 

She has her ears pierced. She loves to sing. She pretends to be a teacher and a mommy.

She is very good at drawing. She has a HUGE imagination. She loves to play computer games. She wants to sleep without a night light (Arianna wont let her)  She wants to be different from Arianna, thus she likes boys:) Her favorite boy is Miles! She loves to help me cook. She likes to set the table. She is a big helper. She always says "yes, ma'am" when answering me- and she's serious:) I love it!

I love her immensely...

A Spunky Sister

Arianna is FULL of spunk and sass to say the least. She keeps me on my toes. She makes me laugh. She is in Kindergarten and loves school. She likes to read although it is taking longer. She is VERY good at coloring and drawing. She really likes Elijah. She doesnt like boys.  She LOVES the color pink. She LOVES princesses. She likes to say funny phrases to make us laugh. 

She is a hypochondriac:) 

She loves bandaids. She loves baby animals (all her library books that she picks from school this year have been about animals)  She LOVES to pretend play with tiny toys! She is a special little girl and my world would not be the same with out her!

A Bubbly Boy

Our little Elijah is 20 months old. I can hardly believe it! 

He has grown so fast and is such a little boy now- not a baby!

Elijah loves to take pictures and is such a little ham in front of the camera!

He loves saying "cheese" 

Its amazing to me how I do not need to instill a love for boy things in his young life! He naturally gravitates towards balls of all shapes and sizes and cars! He LOVES to watch football or basketball with daddy and recognizes and says each sports name when it is on!

Elijah is VERY active and never sits still for long! He runs all over the house and chases his sisters constantly! His new favorite thing is to climb on the coffee table, stand up and JUMP off to his sisters- He's crazy!

He also is quite the comic and trys to make us laugh all the time! and he succeeds most of the time:) 

I LOVE this face- he makes it all the time and it cracks me up! 

He definitely is not as angelic as he looks:) He loves to hit Ella on the head but as soon as he does he rubs her head and says "sorry, El" and hugs her. His favorite phrase is "El, hit me" (that was his first sentence actually) Ella rarely hits Elijah but for some strange reason, he thinks that when he says that, he will get sympathy of some kind. He doesn't.

If you think of it, please pray for Elijah- He has been SO sick since Saturday night. He was in the ER and Urgent Care over the long weekend (diagnosed with croup and then bronchitis or pneumonia)

Tuesday, he went to the doctor and got a nebulizer treatment, steroids and antibiotics- poor guy. He is coughing horribly and is having GREAT trouble sleeping. He isnt eating much at all and has a fever for 2 days now- pray he gets over this soon and doesnt pass it to the rest of us!

An Energetic Ella

Ella is now 3 years old and full of energy! She wants to be in school so badly. She talks in a very loud voice. She loves to sing. She loves Sunday School and her teacher Mrs. McKinney. She says that Elise is her best friend. She says that Miss Sarah is her best friend. She says that God is her best friend. (she has many best friends) She is very concerned about the kids without mommys in Haiti- she prays for them all the time and asks me constantly if we can be their mommy! She has a love- hate relationship with Elijah:) She loves showers. She has been potty trained for a year now, although she just started wetting the bed at night. She has BIG beautiful eyes! She looks up to her sisters and wants to do everything they do! She is good at the computer. She eats everything! She can write her name. She always tells me that I am a nice mommy. If I make a mistake, she says. "Its okay, you can still be my mommy." She likes attention. She cant say the "k" sound very well. She is growing her bangs out.

I love this little girl with all my heart! 

Spinning and Twirling...

These pics were taken in January of my little prima ballerinas! Aunt Abbey made these tutus for the girls and they LOVE them! I set up a stage by hanging sheets and Mark found the nutcracker and we played the music while they had a performance! They thought it was so special and begged to do it every day after that! 

Arent they beautiful! I really do love having little girls! 

A Lesson in Prayer and Faith

Last week was stressful and chaotic and amazing all at the same time. Good friends of ours have been thru quite a year which culminated last week in a trial in a courthouse in Colorado.I was able to attend 2 out of the 4 trial days from 8am-5pm and my how my eyes were opened to Gods Grace, Faith, Unity of believers and Prayer! 

Accusations were made against our friend last year in February. He was arrested, let go on bail, and fired from his education job. He maintained his innocence and we believed him and stood behind him. Several months after this, his wife developed cancer and went thru 4 horrible weeks of chemo. I prayed and prayed and trusted God, even though it was SO difficult to understand why them and why these types of trials. This mans dad sent out prayer promises each week thru email, challenging his son (and me) to have faith, to pray, to not question, to glorify God! My prayer life changed. I was praying with such earnest and HOW I prayed changed too. I praised God more. God counted this man and his wife faithful to put them thru such a horrific test. How much more they could identify with Christ- thru suffering. How much more their faith increased. How much more God was being glorified. How much more GRACE was poured out on them from a  kind and loving Father. Their testimony was AMAZING! I never heard them feel sorry for themselves. I never heard them curse God. I never saw them turn away from their faith. 

Last week, the trial began. It was so hard to sit there and listen to these boys false lies, to watch the DA try to trip up witnesses and twist their words, to watch the jury and and wonder what they were thinking. In one of his emails, our friends dad was writing about how difficult it was to sit there as his father and listen to all these false accusations being hurled against his son. He went on to relate that to how difficult it must have been for God the Father to sit there and watch His Son, Christ, be blasphemed and lied about. God the Father had all the power in the world to stop the lies, but He didn't. He let His Son, Christ, suffer thru that humiliation and pain for ME! What amazing love! And how that aspect of the crucifixion came alive to me this week. During the trial, it was very encouraging to watch our friend repeatedly deny doing wrong, to see how God directed his tongue in how he answered questions designed specifically to cast doubt on his testimony, to watch a packed out courtroom full of believers, pray to God in their seats while the trial was going on. 

Friday was the day the testimony ceased and the jury deliberated. Mark was able to be there and we prayed in the hallway with about 20 others, crying, weeping for God to be glorified.The unity of believers was so refreshing to see and experience. After 3 hours of deliberation, the jury came back with their verdict-unanimously, NOT GUILTY on all counts! Praises were sung to God in the hallways. Courtroom officials commented on the events. It was amazing! God delivered him! Prayers all over the nation and even world were being lifted specifically during this week for a fellow brother and God answered. God was glorified- and my life was changed- I pray differently. I see God differently. 

Praise ye the LORD.
O give thanks unto the LORD;
for he is good:
for his mercy endureth forever.
Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD?
who can show forth all his praise?
Psalm 106:1-2  

Motivating tools

We have trouble in this family staying in bed at night (not Mark and I) Excuses range from, I am scared, I had a bad dream, I want to cuddle you,etc. We have tried discipline and motivation. Motivation seems to work so much better in this particular case. I started making charts with boxes. When they stayed in their beds all night, they received a sticker. When the chart was full, a prize was given. Prizes ranged from candy, dollar store trips, even Chuckie Cheese! The problem is when I take away the chart and think they have gotten into a good pattern of sleeping ion their beds, it backfires. They wake up and come in our room. They are smart.I heard Arianna tell Sophia. "I slept with Mommy and Daddy because we dont have a chart anymore." Oh my!

Do you have any good suggestions for this sleeping problem? Should I just lock my door and let all of them just scream in the hallway till they go back to bed or fall asleep on the floor? (thats what will happen) I do know this is a phase but I thought at least the 5 yr olds would have grown out of it by now. 

I'm open to suggestions:) 

Social Butterfly

Have you ever noticed that I am very social:) I truly LOVE going places and entertaining! We usually have about 2 playdates a week during the morning  (it makes my days go much better when I talk with adults:)

 and we try to have people over our house for dinner and fellowship as often as we can. 

I hope to instill a love for people and hospitality in my children's hearts. 

Titus 1:8 "Be a lover of hospitality..."

play date with Aspen

playdate with Clara and Maddie

Mrs. Johnson, the twins K5 teacher came over for dinner!

That was the highlight of the month!

Playing at Erikas house...

Fun times!

( I am trying to get caught up on all the events in my life today so stay tuned for more posts!....)

The five reasons I am behind on blogging...

#1. I think every post I write on this blog, must have a picture to accompany it- I am not sure why I feel this way but I think its because I LOVE pictures and they seem to make my not so witty posts come alive.
#2. We recently switched our photo archival system from IPHOTO on my MAC (its slowly dying- sniff)  to the desktop computer which runs PICASA. I like PICASA, but I must say, it does take getting used to. Thus, blogging takes much longer.
#3. The other problem I have encountered is that my husband needs to use the desktop computer frequently for his website work, thus making blogging harder.
#4. The desktop computer is also our TV ( I like having a techy husband). I like to watch TV. (my, the excuses keep on coming)
#5. I suppose it all boils down to lack of motivation which is laziness.

So, all this to say, that I will get my butt in gear and start posting again really soon, for my large readership (inject sarcasm) I do miss it. I like to blog. I know I am not that good, but it is fun!
I will be back!