Favorite Five: February

My birthday.    The beach.    Dressing up.    Community Serve Day.     My three.

Thanks for this one Stacy

Hannah at the half

Hannah is 6 months old now. WHOA. 

Time flies when you are having fun. 

Time also flies when you aren't sleeping, are still in a baby-fog,

 and don't quite have your feet under you yet after adding child number 3. 

Or so I've heard.

I thought I would give a mini update on our mini person.

We decided that at 6 months old it was about time to finish the nursery. 

Here are some pictures. I love how it turned out. 

We even managed to keep the futon in there, so we still technically have a "guest room."

It's the one room in the house I am managing to keep clean consistently,

 which makes it a little oasis for me.

Hannah has thrown me for a loop since, well, conception really. She surprised us when she decided to come into our family sooner than we had planned, she surprised me that she was a girl (I was TOTALLY convinced she was a boy due to how different her pregnancy was from her sisters), and she has surprised me these past 6 months because she is such a different baby than my other two.

Sam and Abby were on a super predictable schedule by 5 months, sleeping through the night, napping, and eating at predictable intervals. I used to feel proud of myself for being really good at the baby stage. Well, that prideful feeling has flown right out the window thanks to Hannah. This baby marches to her own beat, but I can't figure out what that beat is exactly.  I AM SO TIRED.

The good news is that when Hannah is awake she is quite happy. She is also a super smiley baby, which helps with the sleep deprivation and frustration of not knowing how a day is going to go...ever.

Baby Hannah is enthralled with her sisters...and a little terrified of them too. She loves babbling, playing with her toes, is extremely ticklish, and has recently started growling which is hilarious. She is constantly flailing those little limbs and loves being on her tummy, in the ERGO, and where the action is. She moved into her own room at 5 months and it felt like I was sending a kid to college.

I look at her sweet face and can't imagine our family without her. Each month that goes by our family feels more complete. I used to think I wanted four kids, but I am so overwhelmed with three I can't really imagine one more. If adoption is in our future God will have to make it very clear. (I have already made it very clear I will not be pregnant again!).

I am constantly overwhelmed with the blessing of these three wonderful girls, and that is enough.

Good-bye to a house

My parents started this awesome family tradition called PAJAMA RIDES when we were little.

Basically, they would put us to bed and then before we fell asleep they would sneak in our rooms and turn on the lights and yell PAJAMA RIDE!!!! We would get out of bed, get in the car and head out for a little family adventure that usually involved ice cream. The thrill of being out of the house, after bed time, in our pjs, was so memorable I'm sure that my sisters and I could recount many pajama rides for you in great detail today.

We have done one pajama ride so far with our kids - out for frozen yogurt with friends (who also did it as a pajama ride for their kids). I can't wait to do more!

Chris had the week off from work this week (thanks to Paid Family Leave and baby Hannah). We thought we were going to be in the mountains for the early part of the week, but that trip was cut WAY short due to two little girls with VERY high fevers. We are actually still recovering from this nasty virus 7 days later. This week with Daddy home certainly didn't turn out as we expected and hoped it would, but we made our fun where we could. 

Part of that fun was a pajama ride...but in the morning. On Tuesday morning, first thing after everyone was awake, we put our sick girls in the car, stopped for bagels and coffee and went to say good-bye to a house. 

We had a breakfast picnic in an empty house and said our good-byes, because this house is coming down. It felt important to say good-bye to this place because this house holds many many family memories. Here are a few:

My husband's parents met each other in the ocean near this house.

There are pictures of my husband in diapers and drinking from bottles in this house.

My husband and his sisters grew up coming here in the summer.

I met my future in-laws for the first time in this place.

We saw our first positive pregnancy test here...and our fifth (that was Abby).

We have hosted many reunions in this house.

We met and held our first nephew in this house, in all his swaddled glory.

We dipped our babies' toes in the ocean for the first time outside this house.
Four generations have been in this house...at the same time.

We lived here for 3 months when we moved to California.

I was the most depressed and lonely I have ever been for those 3 months living here.

I have experienced and witnessed moments of GREAT joy for my family at this place.

This house is my husband's happy place, his most happy place.

I made peace with the ocean thanks to this house...not with sharks, but with the ocean.

Birthdays, parties, family, friends, babies, meals, conversation, prayers, tears, relaxation, and FUN.
This house has blessed us so that we can bless others.

A lot has happened in this house and although I know that a house is only cement and wood, walls and roof, this house represents A LOT of family history and memories and we wanted to say a proper good-bye.

Our little family likes to mark events in life, rights of passage, and this felt like something we should acknowledge.

We let the girls sign their names on a cupboard door and it was good for all of us to see the place once last time before it starts coming down.

BYE BYE house. Thank you for all you have given us.

We look forward to watching you come back to life as something NEW.  We look forward to the new memories that will be made in the next version of you.

Sacred words

Someday (hopefully soon) I will have the brain power to write words again on this blog. But these days, between sick kids and lack of sleep, I am simply trying to keep reading so as to keep those synapses firing.

Yesterday I read words on a special blog that I can only categorize as SACRED. Words written by a mother who sat with her 8 year old daughter on Saturday as her baby departed this earth after three years fighting cancer.

This mother, from the community where we went to college in Santa Barbara, shares words from her heart for "all you mamas out there." Her words have burned into my heart and I have been thinking of them constantly since I read them last night.

Read these words slowly. They are sacred. They are words for me and for you. They are a gift.

From February 20th. http://blog.prayfordaisy.com/

My final request to all who read this blog: love. Love your babies, your husbands, mothers, sisters. Love each day like it’s your last. All you mamas out there, you have been entrusted with the precious gift of a human life who depends on you. Enjoy your gift. Breathe in the scent of your child’s hair, breath. Let them cook with you and make a mess of the kitchen. Play hide and seek with them, build sand castles with them, take them on picnics, read to them!  Listen to them, value and respect them, never shame them.  Your words they will carry with them their whole life and you have the power to give them wings or stunt their growth. Motherhood can be tough but it’s worth it. It can be exhausting, boring, tedious, but never for long. You blink and they’re grown. It has been my honor and privilege to love Daisy these last 8 years. I’m thankful for every minute; the joyful and the terrible alike.

“I know The Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” (Psalm 16:8-11 NLT)