To Come...

I just decided I'm going to join NaBloPoMo for January (that's National Blog Posting Month). Which means I'm committing to blog every day in January. So stay tuned! Some of those days I'll use to catch up on things I missed in the past (Thanksgiving, Naomi's birthday, Christmas day, Sammy's extreme cuteness, etc.) but I promise to do something every day.

My Gerber Baby

Mexico!

It's been so long since I blogged because I didn't want to mention that we were about to leave for Mexico for a week. And I feel like pretty much everything that happened in December was just a lead-up to Mexico. We did "Christmas" more than a week early so that the kids could have their presents (Leapster Explorers) for the trip. So I had to do all the shopping early. And the laundry had to be done and the house had to be clean and the church responsibilities had to be taken care of, etc.
But once we made it to Mexico, oh what a time we had! My whole family was there in three neighboring beach houses. It was awesome.

I don't think Sammy was alone for three seconds straight. Nobody could bare to let him just lay anywhere. He slept in people's arms, he played in peoples arms, he was seriously coddled. Which was OK with him! Here is Sammy asleep in his Grandpa's arms.
The children ran in packs the entire week. Here is Naomi sandwiched between cousins Winter and Haley.
I admit, the adults kinda ran in packs, too.
Asher spent hours just running around the sand. He was so happy to be free of rules and restrictions and able to just run and throw and splash at his own will. We had the beach totally to ourselves, so we could let the kids run a bit more free than if there were other people around to worry about.
Here's a picture of the backs of the three houses we stayed in. They were great little houses. (Sure, our bedroom roof leaked a little, but once my awesome brothers rigged a tarp over our bed, it was all good.)
Isaiah was a little freaked out by the water and wouldn't really go close to it at all. I think he never so much as set a toe in it. But he had fun in the sand and followed whichever pack of kids wasn't down at the the water at that moment.
Naomi and Haley are best buddies.
Did I mention it was gorgeous?
It was great. Too great to really even come across in pictures or my words. We did have another "Christmas" while we were there, complete with a family gift exchange, a nativity re-enactment and pumpkin pie (you know, the essentials!). We ate local seafood. We joked with our siblings and their spouses. We lay in the sun and the sand. And on the actual "Christmas" day, we flew home, with Asher giving a cheery "Merry Christmas!" to literally everyone we passed in the airport. We arrived home just in time for a great snow storm.

Perfection.

(I'm sure more pictures will come as we share among those that were there. I can't wait to see the nativity pictures, gift opening pictures, and the professional photo shoot that Jessica did of us all on the beach. So stay tuned!)

Natural Cuteness

Sammy was long overdue for a Mommy photo shoot. I don't have a fancy camera or any photography skills, but I know enough to plop a baby down on a plain background in good natural light and just let the cuteness happen!










And then our little elf was exhausted from all that cuteness and needed a nap.

My Marathon

So, I'm a big fan of the show The Biggest Loser. It's amazing to me how hard the people on the show work and the amazing results. It's an inspiring show - which is a great break from all the drama and violence on TV right now.

This week on the show the final four contestants ran a marathon. At the beginning of the show (about four months before) these people couldn't even run a mile without passing out. It's just amazing.

And as I was watching, I was wishing that I could do something like that. What plans could I make for something that would be that amazing and inspiring and hard and character-growing? And then I realized that I really just did. Samuel's birth was my marathon.

I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, because you all know I did plenty of whining during this, but it was a lot of long, hard work with amazing results. For four months I worked hard at growing that baby the best I could. It was emotionally and physically demanding. And one day, after hours of the hardest work of all, I won. I won my marathon.

I can do hard things. And the prize is way better than the money that the Biggest Loser gets.

Lasterday

I know, I know, it's been forever. But the good news is that it's been forever because I've been busy doing other things. I am finally feeling like I really am living life again with no physical or emotional craziness. It's been more than two week since I irrationally burst into tears!


Sammy is growing and growing. He's into his 3-6 months clothes now. He's nearly outgrown the bassinet. He's trying very hard to roll over but has only made it onto his side so far. He's such a strong little guy. He has great control of his head and neck already and loves to be stood up on his feet.


Isaiah is cracking us up, as usual. Our favorite thing that he says lately is "lasterday". As in, yesterday and last time all mixed into one word. I think it's awesome and makes perfect sense as far as made up words go. He's still struggling with potty training a little bit, but I can see a faint light at the end of that tunnel.

Asher is growing into quite the smart little man. And by smart I mostly mean smart-alek. He picks up on plays on words and sasses just a little more than I'm happy about. He's definitely got his Daddy's sense of humor. He also has a constant barrage of questions for me which he is never satisfied with my short answers to.

Naomi is a genius. She's really flourishing in her 1st grade class. I can already tell that she'll be valedictorian. She still loves art, but now she enjoys her music class, too, and even gym. I'm so proud of her for not being scared of the ball the way I always was. Naomi also just lost her front tooth. So she has that cute/awkward look that I think all 1st graders have at some point.

Richard is currently out of town for a whopping 10 day trip. He taught a class in California last week, spent the weekend with his brother in Oregon, then flew back down to a different part of Cali to teach two more classes. I think he enjoys these trips, but they are hard work. And we miss him so much.

As part of Richard and I's new agreement, any time he leaves town for a long stretch like that I get to buy a plane ticket for whoever I want to come visit me. It keeps me sane. So this past weekend my big sis, Angela AND my Mommy came. We had such a great time being together. On Saturday we got a babysitter and went to the National Cathedral to see Handel's Messiah. It was seriously amazing. I admit that I had a hard time staying awake through a lot of it (Sammy is still not sleeping through the night yet), so I'm sure I could have gotten more out of it, but it was still very impressive. I was amazed how the music brought such strong feelings and emotion with so few words.

Angela, Ruth, Mom, me

So that's the news. Next up: a holiday trip to Mexico!!!