Big Happenings Around Here - Part II

So, we finished January with sickness, and we had a few days of feeling better at the beginning of February before RSV came to visit.  It was so sad.  I'll spare you the pictures.

Thankfully on his birthday (I can't believe he's 7!) Isaiah felt a little bit better...

trust me, this was an amazing turn around from Monday to Wednesday!

He wasn't quite well enough to have his party, but he was well enough to enjoy his birthday waffle, complete with ice cream, M&M's and chocolate syrup.

In time for Valentine's Day I discovered a food blog that I really enjoy:  Yammie's Noshery.  I knew her blog was a winner when I found this recipe:  Red Velvet Nutella Rolls.  Yeah.  They are even better than they sound and look!

This is Isaiah's content face because breakfast was soooooooo good!

After weeks inside except for the occasional visit to a doctor's office, the kids and I made it out for a walk!  They seemed as if they hadn't seen cars before!  We were all quite excited.

With all the inside time, I had a chance to do some more sewing and actually share with the world my enjoyment by launching Cristy Makes and Bakes.  The kids helped me test out some of the therapeutic bean bags that I make.

Not long after his 7th birthday, Isaiah lost his first tooth!  It had been loose for a while, so Daddy did the honors and got the job done.

Still as handsome as ever...

When Nadia was a baby, we stayed in a hotel, and along with the pack-n-play came a little bag of goodies that included a small rubber duck.  Since the night she got that duck, she had to have it in bed with her.  That duck got a lot of love and attention, and when teething started, he began to slowly lose parts of his body.  One day the duck tragically disappeared before bedtime (not planned by us), and Thomas and I decided it was probably time for him to retire.

So when we did find the duck, we sneakily wrapped him up and hid him in a drawer to be revealed to her at a later date for a keepsake.  And yes, we tried replacing the duck, but she will not be fooled by imitations!

By the end of February we were all feeling well enough to celebrate Isaiah's birthday with some friends.  I wish that I had more pictures with his wonderful friends, but it was really loud at the bowling alley and hard to keep up with everything!

Everyone seemed to have a blast - including the birthday boy, of course!

We are so thankful for God providing friends for our family so quickly, and seeing Isaiah enjoy his day with his friends was a great reminder of how God takes care of us in so many ways!

We were also thankful that February ended with better health than the beginning!

One Week

Christmas is one week from today.

One. Week.

I always enjoy Christmas and all that's involved in the season.  This year I plan on enjoying the actual day very much.  Thomas and I have been more creative in gifts for the kids, which is fun for us, and hopefully for exciting for the kids.

I feel giddy just thinking about Christmas morning....Oh how much fun we are going to have!

Pictures of Gratitude Day 19

So today is a special day, and I'm thankful for the reason.  Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law!  I love watching you play with your grandchildren and teach them at the same time.  I know that I'm not going to be able to tell them about visits with you until you're on our doorstep (or we're on yours) because nothing else will get accomplished until they see you!

Pictures of Gratitude Day 12

I'm thankful for the home that God provided for us in MS and for His continued provision as we made our big move across the country.

Pictures of Gratitude Day 11

I am thankful to say Happy Anniversary to a wonderful mother and father-in-law!

I love my mother-in-law and father-in-law, and I love how they love my kids and my kids love them.

Pictures of Gratitude Day 10

My cousin, Robin has become a favorite of her little cousins.  She's one of the kindest, thoughtful people I know.  And it's her birthday!  So happy birthday, Robin!

We love you!

Pictures of Gratitude Day 1

To pick up a theme I've seen going around, I'm going to do a short post every day with pictures of gratitude.  These are in no particular order, and I know that I have some catching up to do.

Day 1:

I'm thankful for my grandpa and that my children get to know him.

Yeah, he's pretty great.

Influence

It's amazing to me the impact that other people have on our lives. Obviously there are varying degrees to which people influence me.  Those closest to me have the most influence.  But I can be influenced by the words of complete strangers.  It's kind of odd how that works.

Currently I find my life strongly influenced by someone I've hardly known yet to whom I will always feel an intimate connection.  For 38 days I had the joy of sharing every moment with a gift from God.  Last week we learned that we will have to wait a while to meet our gift.  Our baby gets to join some of his siblings in worshipping our precious Savior.

I am sad for me and for our family, but I know that as God has brought us through this before, He will sustain us now.  I am thankful for the kindness of our doctor who prayed with us before we left her office.  I am thankful that Thomas could be with me at the appointment.  I am thankful that Thomas was off work last week so he could be with the children.  I am thankful for the two wonderful children God has given us now.

Many of you have been kind to send us words of encouragement and love.  I wish that I could thank each of you in person, but most of you are kind of far away, and I've been a little overwhelmed.  Please know that I have read all your messages, and I greatly appreciate them.  Thank you for loving our family!

More Waterfalls

We had a brief break in the rain, so we finally got to take Gran to my favorite waterfall in the gorge - Horsetail Falls.  Gran even got to hike up the trail a little bit to see my favorite part:  Ponytail Falls.  Hopefully next time we can hike it together.

We drove back towards home a little bit and saw the Falls on the other side of Multnomah Falls.  Also a beautiful spot!

And that pretty much catches us up on the extra activities we enjoyed while Gran and Grandpa were here.  Maybe it will entice our family and friends to come join us for such fun!

Portland Zoo

Catching up on some of our fun activities over the last few weeks:

While my parents were visiting, field trips were definitely in order!  First we hit the zoo on the only predicted sunny day.  Some of you will have seen these pics on our school blog, but I'm guessing that family won't mind all that much. :)

Posing with Mr. Bear (with a little assistance from JJ)

Those playful penguins!  They loved Isaiah

Playing with a friendly hippo

Cute gophers, don't you think?

We had a great time, especially as the sun came out.  Nadia was quite reluctant to leave the giraffes, but sadly no picture.  We'll just have to go back.

Busy Day

We have special guests tonight, so the kids helped me get ready for their arrival.

Nadia was intent on taking out the trash. She was also obsessed with watching the trains.

Isaiah and I got to have some fun play time together outside. He made me ravioli and strawberry ice cream. Alas, no pictures of my cute chef because I was way to busy enjoying his culinary delights.

But there's one from the other day of him taking notes, surely a list of more fun things for us to do!

Ninety

Today is my grandpa's ninetieth birthday.

He's a man of few words, but I thought I'd write a few words about him in celebration.

I have tons of wonderful memories with my grandpa.  I remember:

~fishing with him until my stomach hurt or the pigs came to eat our fish, whichever happened first depending on our fishing hole

~riding on the fender of the tractor while he cut or baled hay

~him pulling over his truck on the way home from town and telling me to drive (I was WELL under 16)

~riding with him (just the 2 of us!) up to VA to get some furniture (or something, the reason doesn't really matter, but we did split a Snickers bar)

~eating popcorn and watching baseball

~MASH and almost knocking Grandma out of bed

~strawberries and mashed potatoes!  (yes, it's all his fault)

~"picking" potatoes

~sitting with him in church

~going to his house on my lunch break to eat grilled hotdogs

~building a metal shed and trying to hide the ribs from Mom

~spending time with him when I had chicken pox

There are lots more, and it doesn't matter if anyone else understands the references.  I know what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about some of my favorite times of life with one of my very favorite people.

Grandpa has his code word for love, but I'm just going to come out and say it:  I love you, Grandpa.

Eat a piece of something sweet for me; I hear that there will be no shortage of such things today!

Happy Birthday!

For Now We Say Goodbye

We say goodbye for many reasons and at many different times in our lives.  People move away, get married, go to college.  Relationships change, people pass away.

When Thomas, Isaiah and I moved to Russia, we probably said the most goodbyes that we have ever said.  At that time we did not know with whom we would be able to stay in contact.  We did not know if our older friends and loved ones would be here when we were able to come home to visit.  We made extra effort to see those closest to us before crossing to the other side of the world.

God was gracious and allowed more meetings with loved ones like grandparents, aunts and uncles whom we were uncertain of seeing again.  And we were thankful.  Just a few weeks ago, we were able to travel to St. Louis, MO to see Thomas' grandmother.  We were able to introduce her to her latest great grandchild and make one more set of special memories.

October 2010

This weekend my husband's family will gather to say goodbye and to honor his grandmother, Henrietta Blakeney.

Naturally, I did not have the privilege of knowing "Mammaw" long.  But let me tell you what I do know of her.

July 2008

Mammaw loved her family.  I know this because on the occasions that I was able to be with her in her own home, she was always serving her family.  She could cook like nobody's business, and she did it over and over and over again.  I remember one time not long after Thomas and I were married, the two of us went to see Mammaw for a short overnight visit.  When we arrived at the end of the day, she had a feast prepared for just the two of us.  Nothing seemed to give her more pleasure than to provide for her loved ones in that way.

Mammaw was a great story teller.  I loved to hear her talk about different things that had happened with her family, whether she was telling a story from her past or a story about something that had recently happened in the small community where she lived, she could craft that story with such interesting details that you had to listen.

But most importantly Mammaw loved Jesus.  No one ever doubted this fact because Mammaw left no doubt about it!  She read her Bible all the time, and she talked about Jesus to everyone that she met.  During the last few months of her life, she might not have remembered all the people around her, but she never forgot Jesus; and she never forgot to tell everyone around her about Him.

I am thankful to be a part of a family that God blessed with such a woman.  Thank you, Mammaw for the influence that you have had.  Thank you, Lord for blessing us with Your love through Henrietta Blakeney.

Baton Rouge, Take 2

Thomas was in Boring, OR for about a week for some meetings, so between therapy appointments, the kids and I hit the road to see Thomas' parents in Baton Rouge.  Amazingly enough, I forgot my camera, but thankfully my mil was gracious enough to give me command of her camera for part of the time we were there; just ignore the date because it's wrong, in case you were wondering.

When we arrived the grandparents couldn't have been happier!

Yes, Isaiah is in his pjs in this pic because we left as soon as Nadia woke up, which meant I had to wake Isaiah up.  Traveling by myself, I thought Nadia would do better if we left in the morning.  And I was right!

You always have to have special treats when visiting Mimi and JanJan.

Nadia got to try out lots of new things, her second time in Baton Rouge.  She LOVES her jumper!

Since we enjoyed the Jackson Zoo so much, we decided to try out the Baton Rouge Zoo.  It was lots of fun!  Especially since we had so many people to enjoy it with.

At the zoo's playground, Isaiah wasn't left out of the fun.  Uncle Rich used his legs to run Little Man around the playground, including Isaiah's favorite--the tunnel slide.  Thanks, Rich!

I just love this picture of Thomas' sister and her firstborn.

Nadia finally gave in and slept for about 25 minutes.

Isaiah still wasn't too thrilled with petting animals, but at least he didn't push them away this time.

Only missing 6 at this gathering.

Nadia interacted so much more this visit.  I just can't get over how fast she's growing up!

First time at Mimi and JanJan's church for Nadia.

And her first cereal!  It was a big weekend for our little girl.

All in all a very good visit.  And we look forward to all 4 of us going next week for Thanksgiving!

PS--Scroll down one more post and play our little guessing game!

Feel Good Friday--The Return?

So, it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of participating in Feel Good Friday.  I've missed recalling some happy things from each week (though there have been happy things!) and reading the happy posts of others, so now that life is not crazy somewhat normal again, I'm going to try to participate in this fun meme, at least this week.

So here it goes...

Today is my mil's birthday, so my son is helping me pick 5 things about Mimi that make us feel good:

1.  Mimi gives great hugs.

2.  She makes really good food (particularly her spinach artichoke casserole).

3.  She gives me ice cream whenever I want it. (the me being Isaiah, naturally; although, she would get me some, too any time I wanted it)

and JanJan gets some, too

4.  She reads the Bible to me.

5.  She would do anything for her family!

even though we're a little crazy (and this isn't all of us, there are a few more now)

Happy Birthday!