Happy Birthday and re-birthday, Addie!

Addie turned 4 on Sunday, October 10th.  I'll talk more about that later, because something even more special happened to her 5 days earlier...

October 5^th, 2010

We were driving to Women’s Bible Study on Tuesday morning.  Out of the blue, Addie says, “Mommy, I really love God.”  I said, “That’s great, but why do you love God?”  She answered, “Because I get to go to heaven.”  I asked, “How do you know you get to go to heaven?”  She said, “Because I’m nice to everybody.”  I explained that doing good things isn’t what gets us into heaven.  Then I said there is just one thing we have to do to get into heaven, and I asked if she knew what it was.  She just sat there, and I didn’t want to just give her the answer, so I gave her a hint: “You have to believe in something. What is it?” She immediately shouted “GOD!”  I added, “And Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe He died on the cross?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why He did that?”

“To save us.”

“From what?”

“Our sin.”

We talked about what sin is.

“So do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you and that He came back to life?”

“Yes, on the third day!”

“Well Addie, then that makes you a Christian!  You’re a Christian now!”

“Yay! I’m a Christian! And Annalee is too, right?”

“Yes, and Mommy and Daddy too.”

“And Dawson and Brady?”

“No not yet, but hopefully someday.”

“Mommy, do you believe in God?”

“Yes I do.”

I still vividly remember the day Annalee believed in Jesus (you can read her salvation story here), and I know I'll never forget the day Addie did.  One of my kids' favorite things to listen to is our set of "Psalty" CD's, which teach kids about God's word with cute stories and songs. In one of the CD's, a couple of kids believe in Jesus and the other kids call it their "re-birthday", referring to the Christian term "born again" as starting your life new in Christ.  I'm so thankful that both of my girls now have eternal security in heaven, and that nothing can take it away from them. 

On to the birthday party!

We had a full house...my parents, Lee's parents, the Voskamps, Carter & Mason, and Luke, Lindsy, & Joe all came over for pizza and cake. 

The cake: Addie requested a spaceship with the alien toy from Toy Story, so here's what I came up with...

Having it as a centerpiece on the table turned out to be a bad idea. Brady got to do quite a bit of quality checking by the time we caught him...

Presents!

memorization

I can't believe how much of a sponge kids' minds are.  I'm getting to see another level of this with Annalee's school work.

Part of Annalee's daily homework is a set of phonics flashcards.  I've learned that doing them at mealtimes is the best time for us and also the easiest.  (I'm all about multi-tasking.)  As you will see, Addie and Brady love to do them with her.  In fact, if I skip one of them, they will quickly let me know so they can have their turn.  Let me do a quick set-up for this video.  On the front of the card (the side they see) is a picture and the letter that object starts with.  On the back side (the side you see) is the answer; they are supposed to say what the picture is and then pronounce the sound the first letter makes.  So if the front side is a picture of a monkey and the letter "m", they are to say "monkey, mmmm." 

This is a picture of Annalee's first ever graded assignment.  She had to memorize this poem and then recite it in front of her class.  She has never liked being up in front of people, so we were so proud of her for doing it!

I know, finally a new post...

I kept thinking Best Buy would call to say the computer is ready. After all, how long does it take to replace a hard drive?  It's been over 5 weeks since The Crash.  I got fed up and finally called them yesterday.  They haven't even started working on it. (I'll spare you the details.) I threw a child-sized temper tantrum.  Immature, maybe.  But I really need my computer back so I can create more posts.  Not that I can't do it using my mom-in-law's computer that she has so generously let me borrow, obviously; but it's just nice having your own stuff.  You know what I mean.

So thanks for nothing, Geek Squad.  Maybe you're good at fixing computers when you don't lose the case number I gave you and claim to have called and sent emails asking for it.  (Never happened.)

Thanks for listening.

On to the post.

So many fun things to talk about.  I'll begin with me & Lee and work down.

Lee has witnessed several of my recent near-breakdowns over the fact that we are busting at the seams in our house, and has spent the past few weeks helping me clean out closets and rooms.  We have taken approximately 15 garbage bags to the dumpster, and took 3 suburban-sized loads of stuff  over to a friend's house who had a garage sale last Saturday.  I can breathe a little easier now.

I'm nearing the end of my 10th season of coaching Cross Country at MCA, and I love it just as much as I did that first year.  I really love getting to hang out with the kids and have a passion for teaching them how to run, set goals, and have a healthy lifestyle. 

My absolute favorite thing is hanging out with my family, and it's a bonus when Joe gets to come over.  Recently we were outside after dinner enjoying the beautiful Fall-ish evening.  Not sure who is having more fun here, Luke or the kids...

Annalee is 1 month into Kindergarten, and absolutely loves it.  She can already read easy books like Peg and Ted, Hop on Pop, and others that have words that obey the rules of the English language.  Now more than ever, I'm so irritated that the people who were in charge of spelling decided to make so many exceptions to the rules of grammar and phonics.  Makes it harder on a newbie.

Addie is about to turn 4, and is in her first year of AWANA as a Cubbie.  She really enjoys it and looks forward to it every week.  She loves getting to memorize the verses.

Brady turned 2 on the 15th, and we had a small get together with the Midland fam to celebrate.  I made a Toy Story cake since that's what he's into, and a friend let me borrow the Woody costume that her son wore for his Toy Story party the previous week.

At 4 months old, Dawson is growing and changing so much, it's hard to keep up.  He's generally happy, sleeps and eats great, smiles and laughs a lot, and loves being around people.  He can roll over and pushes up onto all 4's.  Bet he'll be crawling soon.  

I adore his smile because it's contagious. How can you not smile when you see this?

It's not that I haven't had anything to say...

Our computer crashed.  Again.  For those of you not keeping track, this is the 3rd time.  Pretty much hating Apple right now.  So the iMac is in the trusty hands of the Geek Squad yet again.  Praise Jesus for my awesome husband who had just backed up all our pictures and videos for me just days before this happened.  It's possible they will have to replace the hard drive.  Again.  So for now, I'll have to give you a picture-less synopsis of the past 3 weeks.

The most exciting thing recently is that Annalee started Kindergarten!  I can't believe it!  She is absolutely having a blast, and when I picked her up after her first day and asked her how it went, she said very emphatically, "I LOVED IT!"  I haven't once had to ask her to do her homework (yes- about 2 hours per week!), she asks to do it!  She's working on writing letters and numbers, phonics, and spelling. She has already memorized about 15 sight words, and is working on memorizing her first poem that she has to recite in class at the end of September. I'll definitely be posting that video!  I love the MCA schedule.  She is in school from 8:30-3:30 on Tues/Thurs with Mrs Miller (whom she adores already) for the core curriculum, and 12:30-3:30 on Fridays for enrichment day...Science, Art, and Ballet classes were the ones we chose, and she loves those classes and teachers as well.  We feel so blessed that she is attending such an amazing school!

We've been spending a lot of our time at Terri's pool, since the weather has been too hot to be outside just playing.  Brady is quite the swimmer, and is fearless in the water...which is both good and bad.  We have to watch him constantly.  He can now jump off the diving board and swim to the side!  The girls would swim all day if I let them.  Even Dawson enjoys the water.  He has become quite the little cutie recently.  And he's been rolling over for a few weeks now!

One final thing is that Lee took the girls on a weekend-long trip to a friend's house on a river in Leakey, along with Luke & Joe, Travis & his girls, and Cameron & his boys.  You can only imagine how much fun they had catching fish, throwing rocks, riding a 4-wheeler, sleeping in a sleeping bag (even if it was indoors), and swimming in the river.  That same weekend, Brady went to Lubbock to do Nana Camp with my mom, so it was just me and Dawson for 2-1/2 days!  That was very weird, but quite relaxing.

I hope my next post is full of pictures and videos, and that we get our computer back soon!

San Antonio

We went to San Antonio this past Thursday-Monday to go to Lee's cousin Allison's wedding, and turned it into a mini-vacation. It was equally fun and exhausting, and I feel like I need a few days of rest to recover. We were so busy I hardly had time to pull out the camera. One of the things we did was go to Sea World on Friday. Probably not our smartest move as parents, taking 4 kids 5 and under to an amusement park on the weekend during the hottest month of the year, but the kids sure loved it. Then on Saturday we went to the Children's Museum, and wow...wish ours was that big!! We could have easily stayed hours longer than we did.
Annalee & Addie were bell ringers at Allison's wedding, which was so beautiful and something I'd never seen before. The reception was a blast, and the kids were so fun to watch...they all stayed on the dance floor for most of the time we were there...till 9:45! I so wish I'd taken pictures or a video, it was really cute to see them so happy.

my boys

Brady has become quite the ham. He loves to perform for the camera, and loves to show off for people. Here are a few recent examples.

so silly

counting


swimming

Dawson has started smiling, and I've finally gotten it on film. Here are some cute pics of him from this past week.

sweet smile
We think he'll be rolling over soon...he's got serious upper body strength.
I was trying to capture a smile but I think the flash was making his eyes bug out.

more Dawson

Dawson is 7 weeks old today! He seems to be growing so fast, I can hardly take enough pictures to keep up. Here are a few I've taken recently. He has started smiling, but rarely on command...so I have yet to capture it on film.
We're still not sure who he looks like. He has one of Tim's dimples (on his left cheek), Uncle Luke's ears, and Lee's chin. Other than that, he just kinda looks like his own person right now.

sitting up...sort of
chillin' with big brother
love that dimple!
he just spotted himself in the mirror in his crib...he stared at it for 15 minutes!
comparison pics: 3 days old...
6.5 wks old...it's amazing how fast they grow in the first few months!

Annalee is 5!

Annalee had her 5th birthday party over the weekend...a swimming Ariel party. It was the perfect day for swimming...nice and hot, as has been the trend here lately...I don't think the highs have been below 95 in several weeks, and we've had lots of 100+ days. She had so much fun playing with her friends, and loved the Ariel cake that I made for her...especially the part about getting to keep the figurines for toys.
Today is her official birthday, and at 6:43 p.m. we sang happy birthday to her. I can't believe how fast 5 years have gone by!

Baby update...
Dawson is growing and changing daily it seems, and we're all falling in love with him. Lee and I are starting to accept the reality that he is not Brady (a.k.a. the perfect baby), and we're already seeing glimpses of a very strong-willed child. Dawson has already asserted to us that he hates sleeping on his back, changing clothes, and baths. Only the first in this list is avoidable...so he's a tummy sleeper. Life with 4 is surprisingly not much different than 3, and really the only hard part is the whole newborn thing...a much more rigid schedule and middle-of-the-night feedings., which I know will calm down soon. My mom has made several trips here to hang out and help for a day so I can get caught up on housework and squeeze in an extra nap. That has been an amazing help...THANKS, MOM!!
It's so cute to see the girls interact with him...Addie is much more interested in him than she was in Brady, simply because she's older now; and they both love to hold him. Brady likes to hold him too, and is very sweet and gentle with him.

Dawson Travis

Last picture of me pregnant!

In yet another life lesson about things not going as planned, I write this entry on the day Dawson was supposed to be born. He decided to come a few days early...

Tuesday morning at 1 a.m. I awoke to painful contractions. I tried all the tricks to stop them, but at 2:30 they were stronger and more frequent; so I woke Lee up and we headed to the hospital. After IV fluids and a shot of terbutaline to try to stop the labor, it became clear that May 18 was God's ordained day for Dawson's debut. And here he is...

Funny story: when the doctor pulled Dawson out, he peed on him & the assisting surgeon. Then he peed on his pediatrician 3 times while he was getting circumcised. I'm thinking this kid has an aversion to doctors or something!

meeting big brother

No you aren't seeing things...yes he does have dark brown hair with frosted tips!
We got discharged the day before his scheduled arrival.
I always forget how tiny they look in their carseat!

Everything is going great, and we're so happy to be home with our newest addition. Can't wait for everyone to meet him!

tears in the vitamin aisle

37 weeks

At 37 weeks pregnant, I think it's expected that a woman can be an emotional basket case a lot of the time. This has been the case in this pregnancy more than the others. Lee and I have pretty much decided that this will be our last baby, and that thought alone is very difficult for me to grasp. I LOVE being pregnant. I LOVE having babies. (Except for the part where they have to be surgically removed from my abdomen.) I love bonding with them from the moment I get a positive pregnancy test, through the first time I feel them kick, hear their heartbeat, feel them have the hiccups (all 4 have been major hiccupers), hear their first cry, and then...at long last...get to look eye-to-eye at the little person God has created and chosen to give me. I love the fact that I can unconditionally love this person instantly...something I've never experienced with anyone else.

So being that I'm at the end of my final pregnancy, I'm trying so hard to notice and capture every moment I have left. Not that I didn't with the others, but just knowing that a lot of the experiences are "lasts" makes it more special, yet often more difficult. This leads me to the title of this entry. I was just doing some grocery shopping this morning, and as I grabbed a bottle of prenatal vitamins, it hit me...this is the last bottle I'll ever buy. May sound silly, but it brought on a wave of sadness so strong that there I was, crying in the vitamin aisle. I've been taking these since October of 2002. And knowing it's my last bottle is just another sign that I'm at the end of an HUGE chapter in my life. I experience several of these signs daily and cry over most of them. I think a lot of why I get this way is because of how difficult and painful it was for us to begin this chapter in the first place; I thought I would never get to have a baby. And now here we are, just 11 days away from having our last...

Okay I'm sorry for the Debbie Downer post. I'll try to lighten things up a bit. As emotionally draining as my day can sometimes be, I am also LOVING all the fun our family is having. The kids are so much fun and play so well together. I'm really looking forward to this summer with them. Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

picking the kids up from Mimi Day

sleeping kid pictures...

Notice Annalee sleeps with her eyes half-open, kinda creepy.
Addie is usually in some strange position.
Brady always has puppy near by!
Megan and I with our diaper shower hostesses
Annalee LOVES to chase butterflies...and finally caught one!
giving Camper a bath
chillin' with Dad