Abby is THREE

Here is Abby this morning, celebrating her third birthday (in Colorado).

What in the world? THREE??? How, when, where did this happen?

In front of my own two eyes and under my roof is the answer to these questions, of course. And when I think about Abby, really think about her, it makes sense, this THREEness.

Our little Abs is a big girl, and not just in stature (90% for height), but in behavior. She talks a blue streak, can do big girl things like get herself dressed, wears undies (THANK YOU LORD!), and has been sleeping on the bottom bunk for some time now.

Abby continues to be fiercely independent. We sometimes joke that she doesn't need us. Unfortunately, that independence gets her in a lot of trouble. This kid single-handedly changed her preschool's dismissal policy due to deciding she would walk out the gate on her own and wait for me on the sidewalk.  The positive side of her independence is that she can play really well on her own and can focus and get engrossed in an activity.

We recently learned that Abby can run. We always knew she could run away...but we now know she can run in the exercise sense of the word. Abby decided she wanted to join Samantha for a few laps during the elementary school's jog-a-thon in March...and then she decided she would run a few on her own (see previous paragraph on independence). Before we knew it Abby had run 8 laps on those little legs. That is over a mile! And to think, we were worried this child would walk on her knees forever.

This spirit of determination has also been observed by us in the swimming pool, where Abby wants to "swim" back and forth between Chris and I over and over and over again, despite being tired and water-logged and not really knowing how to swim. She is brave and strong and determined, this girl.  I am so excited to see where these qualities take her.

Abby is really growing into her role as older sister and her interest in and affection for Hannah has taken a spike recently. She likes bringing Hannah toys, making Hannah laugh, and talking to her in a baby-voice.

Other things about our Abby-cadaby: confident, charismatic, strong-willed, Daddy's girl to the max!, persistent, strong, tough, loves dresses and costumes, loves baby dolls, good fine-motor skills, enjoys figuring things out and building, finally sits still for books (that only took 3 years), stubborn, ADORABLE (blonde curls are still hanging on), loves doing whatever her big sister is doing, can nap for hours, loves her two preschool mornings each week, loves one-on-one time (which is hard to come by), and this girl is still HILARIOUS as always.

Love you Abs. 

You are full of joy, full of life, full of shenanigans. 

Can't wait for another year to discover more about you.

Favorite Five: March

Time. 

It drags and it flies by all at once.

Such is motherhood...long days and quick years.

I am so thankful for pictures that capture and freeze precious moments and memories in time.

Favorite shot of Hannah so far.

Such a big girl now.

Sometimes they really do sit and color.

And sometimes they do this.

Helping Daddy clean off his surfboard.

And now on to April...Spring Break, travel, birthdays, a big family visit. Here we go!

Homework and Rest

Here is a recent homework assignment for our Kindergartner. They are studying weather.

This made us laugh. She is right, so I didn't correct her and have her add other types of weather. The assignment does say San Diego...and I did watch her think about it before drawing four suns. Ha!

Consequently, it just so happens that this San Diego family will be fleeing the sunny warm weather and spending Spring Break in THE SNOW soon. My husband shows his love for me by bringing me to the cold. Thanks honey.


Chris and I have had some homework from church recently too. Our whole congregation has been encouraged to start practicing a real Sabbath.  We have been prompted to take seriously God's example and command to REST. Within that Sabbath framework, we have been encouraged to include the following "rules for rest": identity and rest...simplify and contemplate...glorify God and do good...delight and play. Sounds good to me! It also sounds good for me.

For two weekends now Chris and I decided to experiment with a family Sabbath from Saturday at noon through Sunday at noon. We decided to stop "working" during this period and to unplug from technology. So far the experience has been both wonderful and challenging.

It is hard to rest. Hard, but also so so good.

It has been good to have a Saturday afternoon outing with our kids and without our phones. Good to play and explore with our girls. So good to slow down and focus on each other and our blessings more.

Here are a few pictures from one of our Sabbath outings on a strangely warm March evening. It was one of the best times as a family I can remember.

Rest up everyone.

"A Dream So Big"

There are certain people, who, when we get the opportunity to cross paths with them, even if just for a short time, leave a mark on our lives forever. Steve Peifer, and his wife Nancy, are just such unforgettable people.

Chris and I had the privilege of crossing paths with the Peifers for one year in 2001-2002 during our time at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. We were fresh-faced, wide-eyed, recent college grads, and we were engaged. Steve always thought it was a big deal that we were putting off marriage for a year to serve together in Kenya and was super encouraging of us. We just figured marriage was forever, and this opportunity might not come again so we better take it, even if we didn't have time to walk down the aisle and say "I do" first. That year in our lives was absolutely amazing for so many reasons, and meeting incredible people like the Peifers was one of those reasons.

The Peifers are very atypical missionaries, which is probably why we loved them so much. They are regular people who chose an irregular path and are making a big difference in the world. We even got to witness Steve and Nancy adopt their twin Kenyan children while we were in Kijabe that year. They have inspired us in more ways than they know. "Beauty from ashes" could be their family motto.

We have followed the Peifers journey in Kenya for the past 10+ years and will always consider them friends. And when a friend writes a book, especially one that shares an inspiring story about a place I love, you better believe I am going to SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS.

So here is me shouting from the rooftops...BUY THIS BOOK!  Right Here.

The book was released today and I ordered it and can't wait to read it. Knowing Steve Peifer I can promise you that you will cry, and laugh (Steve is one of the funniest people I know), and be inspired that you can dream big too.

Here is a synopsis from Amazon:

A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools, and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools. Steve and his wife, Nancy, were enjoying a successful management career with one of America's high tech corporate giants during the dot-com boom of the 1990's when, in 1997, he and his wife Nancy discovered they were pregnant with their third child. Tragically, doctors said a chromosomal condition left their baby 'incompatible with life.' The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died. Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy began a pilgrimage that thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy---drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. They didn't arrive in the service of any divine calling, but the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubled hearts. A short-term, 12-month mission assignment as dorm parents for a Kenyan boarding school turned this ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero, and his story will inspire you to pursue similar lives of service.

Here is A LINK to Amazon so you can order it for yourself.

If you read it I would LOVE to hear from you.

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)

Favorite Five: January

January.

A blur of children.

Sick children. Children on scooters. Children laughing. Children crying.

Children that make me tired. Children that fill me with joy.

My children.

What a blessing, what a challenge, to be their mother.

My FAVORITE FIVE shots of my girls this month...

Maybe someday I will take pictures of something else. Or maybe not.

Not sure when we allowed this scooter in the house, but it sure does help get energy out.

Sam is out of focus, but I LOVE this picture.

Smiley baby. 

Almost 6 months.

A little piece of heaven.

January so far

January. Wow. Where has the month gone? 2013 has been a bit of a blur so far. A good blur though.

Not sleeping properly for over a year now feels like it is taking its toll on me and I have not been able to  think clearly enough to do anything above and beyond surviving the day-to-day. Blog posts go way beyond surviving the day-to-day. Nevertheless, I didn't want to let January slip away without at least mentioning what we have been up to.

January has been about recovering from December. The advent season was beautiful and joyous as it always is. This December was also full of unexpected things like celebrating the life of a family member gone too soon (Chris' aunt), 13 stitches in this mama's hand, foot, and face (no skin cancer for me!), and our share of sickness.

December kind of wiped me out. We've needed some quiet time to adjust back to real life, and we've been adjusting ever so slowly. Kind of like I am still adjusting ever SO SLOWLY to 3 kids.

Anywaaaaaay, here is a little summary of the month so far...

We started 2013 sick...well, Abby was sick...and later Sam...and later Chris. New Years Day was spent in PJs, tending to Abby, and pulling Hannah around in a box. Good times.

During the first week of January Sam got it in her head that she wanted to sell some toys to raise money "for Africa." We helped her with this goal one day and much to our surprise the girl brought in $25 through sales and donations. We browsed the World Vision Gift Catalog and Samantha chose to send her $25 to care for orphans. As I read to her about the different places $25 could help she stopped me quickly when she heard she could help kids that didn't have parents. A 5 year old may not be able to relate to famine, or drought, or war, or AIDS, but she could certainly understand how terrible it would be not to have a mom and dad. We are incredibly proud of her.

The highlight of the month for me was a quick sister-trip to Nashville. I spontaneously decided to book a ticket and hop on a plane with Hannah for a long weekend with Jenny (who lives there) and Katie (who flew in from Chicago without kids or husband). Katie and I helped Jenny and John with their boys during a busy work weekend for the two of them...and we still got to hang out plenty.

It wasn't a weekend at a spa, but considering the number of children between the three of us we decided we'd take what we could get. We squeezed in pedicures, sushi, our own little Golden Globes party, and even caught a show at the music school where Jenny and John work. A highlight of the weekend for me was seeing the house my sister and her hubby just bought and are fixing up. We had such a good time together that I forgot to pick up the camera expect for a couple shots of the kids and the curtains Katie sewed for the new house.

Our main conclusion after four days together was that we need to make a sister-trip an annual thing! Thank you to the husbands who made this trip possible and the grandparents who supported the husbands with the kids left behind.

Back in San Diego...it was really too bad that the big girls had no fun at all with Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa while Hannah and I were gone.

January has also been the month to start working on those resolutions. So as not to bore you with the details I will just share the key-words that I am hoping will guide me this year:

HEALTH...get back in shape and lose baby-weight FOREVER
SIMPLIFY...life, the house, the calendar
DATE...2 dates a month
HELP...with the house and with the kids...I can't do this on my own anymore...I need to find help

My other main resolution for 2013 is, ironically, to live more by the theme of this little old blog of mine. I want Jim Elliot's quote to be my mantra this year...

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."

BE ALL THERE.

I want to stop waiting for more sleep, less LBS, potty-training success, sleeping through the night, a clean house, and a clear mind. I want to live each day, embrace each day, enjoy each day...be fully present in each day...despite the blurry eyes, extra weight, kid in size 5 diapers, mess, stress, and exhaustion.

That's all. Happy 2013.