this could take all day

Project 365 (+1) - April 2012

April. Whew. What a month. Being a busy full-time mom, with 3 little kiddos is quite the challenge. Let's just leave it at that for now and move on with some pictures. First, the family shot. Yup, you've seen this one already. But seriously, how sweet is my family? And how lovely are we in yellow?

Now onto the dailies...

Sunday afternoon nap. 

A little overachiever, trying to hold her own bottle already. (Or, she just lucked out. Take your pick.)

My phone was turning off on its own all the time without me knowing, so my sweet tech-loving husband ordered me a new phone and got it all set up for me. Here is the first picture from the new phone. (cell pic, duh)

I have a piano!!! I have a piano!!! I have a piano!!! (Did you know an anonymous friend paid to have it tuned for us? Every time I think of this, or sit down to play, my heart swells with thankfulness. I am so blessed.)

More blessings. My best friend really does know how to speak my love language. A little package in the mail, and she even opened the peeps so they'd be perfectly stale upon arrival.

Time to color some Easter eggs!

Super star egg hunters.

Two adorable sisers, one lovely celebration of a Risen Savior.

Dani spent the morning painting while Daisy was at school. So, of course, Daisy wanted a turn when she got home. Here is the "monster" she painted for her Papa.

Yup, this is how we roll to the park: dress, boots, random bow, coat, and wings. And she wanted to bring the bucket too. Good thing, because it became a trash bucket for all the random litter the girls love to pick up. (cell pic)

Heard laughing, got suspicious. Turns out the girls found a ribbon and decided to "decorate" their sister. Can you tell she's a little suspicious too?

Face paint. Makes kids really happy. And then really sad. Good thing the camera can capture it forever.

And this is how the mama and baby roll to the park. She and I both love the sling, and I love that adorable hat a Mops Mom crocheted for us. (cell pic)

I was away on a 4-H weekend and Darin woke up that morning with a hankering for adventure. So he posted on facebook that he was planning to take the girls to the beach, and asked if anyone wanted to join them. Turns out a friend from Shoreline had been planning a little ferry trip with her family for the day. So Darin & the girls drove out to Bainbridge and our friends met them at the beach for picnic and playing.

Isn't the internet so cool sometimes?

Still makes fists all the time, but has started to coo. Is there any sweeter sound than a baby cooing?

Looked what arrived today! 

Dandylion bouquets keep showing up all over the house.

Darin and the girls planted a few tulip bulbs for me, and I love watching them bloom this spring.

We finally dug this out of the garage since it contains the only sheet music I've saved over the years. Turns out there are a lot of special treasures in this trunk. I think we'll tuck it away and dig it out again to go through some rainy winter day.

I love after nap rosy cheeks. And I love this girl, and the way she gives me camera the sweetest smiles.

Such a fun day! Went to a "retreat" of sorts for Mops, and since we were done early in the afternoon, the day was amazing, and we were all without kiddos, we decided to go play mini golf. We all had a great time, and since I was the big winner (with two hole-in-ones!) I got to pick where we headed out to eat dinner. (cell pic)

Stumbled upon this scene on Sunday morning. Love capturing moments like this.

We had beautiful spring weather today! Even warm enough to get out the water table! The girls and I had a wonderful afternoon in the backyard.

Baby L has started to smile! I was trying to capture it with my camera, but she isn't quite as good at smiling for the big black box as she is for my face.

The girls love to have themselves traced on paper to color and decorate.

Since Daisy has a "summer" birthday, she was assigned birthday snacks in April. She requested chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I decided to make cupcakes from scratch, but gave myself some leniency and bought strawberry frosting in a can. The cupcakes were awesome, the frosting not so much. Turns out I should've made frosting too and just tinted it pink.

Oh well, the girls had a lovely time decorating with sprinkles.

This baby doll of Gran's has always cracked me up because it feels so huge when it comes to baby dolls. But I knew it was about the size of a normal baby. Turns out I was right! (cell pic)

Our last hurrah at Gran's house, the childhood home of Darin and his siblings, as she is moving and selling. We had a really nice day, and were able to capture some great family pictures outside one last time.

It was really hard for Darin to say goodbye, and really hard for Daisy too. I had no idea she'd have the kind of meltdown she did in the hours before our departure. Broke all of our hearts. We're all gonna miss this place.

My first Instagram Photo-of-the-Day thanks to Darin's fancy phone! I got my bumber sticker and I'm all ready to go.

Our microwave died. It was sad. Darin got us a new one. But Dani wandered into the kitchen after he pulled it out and gasped "Papa, where did the timer go?" (Can you tell what we use for a timeout timer around here?)

April down...onto May...

Wordless Wednesday: another awesome post-nap do

(and the glazed look of the TV watching too)

Wordless Wednesday: one adorable coffee date

(Yes, she chooses apple juice, and I technically drink tea, but we still call it a coffee date since Starbucks is a coffee shop after all. And yes, I realize these are words. Whatever.)

Project 365 (+1) - March 2012

This month has been quite the eventful one, seeing our family grow from four to five. Our family picture was taken on the very last day of the month, in our Saturday afternoon finest. Good thing Darin's dad stopped by for a visit and was able to snap this one for us!

Now on to the rest of the month.

The baby's room is ready for a baby. And the equipment is sitting here, ready to be spread all over the house.

We were able to provide respite care (where you give a foster family a day/night off) for some friends of ours. Here our Miss Daisy is happily feeding Baby E.

We had so much fun at Xander's reptile birthday party and I was pretty proud of my girls for being brave and petting some cool reptiles.

Dani found a good use for some of the baby equipment hanging around! Here she is playing on my kindle curled up on the boppy pillow.

I am so thankful for this baby to love, and my husband who is right in the thick of it with me.

The girls spend some time in the morning reading to Baby L. They are so good with her.

Daisy would hold this little bundle of sweetness all day long and I am so thankful for her help. She will give her a bottle while I'm finishing our morning prep and will run for a pacifier whenever she is fussy.

Dani wanted to help with the laundry but she can't quite reach the top of the washer. So she chucks the items in one by one. It's pretty awesome.

Our neighbors brought over some amazing chocolates, and as you can see, my husband really loves me. I felt really special.

 

We had a free Saturday afternoon so Darin and I decided to take the girls on dates. Daisy was my date, with Miss L tagging along. Apparently the little Miss decided she needed a bottle RIGHT NOW so halfway to our destination (the toy store!) we pulled over in a parking lot and Daisy hopped out of her seat and fed Miss L her bottle. Love my little helper. (cell pic)

She looks so small in this swing. 

This kid loves to sleep. I layed her on a playmat for a little awake time, but it didn't take her long to doze off. And that's Daisy's special snowman next to  her. Daisy and Dani both love to share their toys and animals with their sister.

Daisy playing school and teaching us our letters.

Since the day she weaned off breastmilk this kid has hated cow's milk, prefering water instead. And on this humble day in March she declared out of the blue "I yike milk now!" and requested some with her lunch.

Bathing a baby is pretty darn fascinating.

So thankful for a sunny afternoon and a visit from family.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Uncle Madison and Aunt Dakota stopped by on their way home from a volleyball tournament in Port Angeles. We were lucky to have their company for dinner and stories, and they were happy to entertain all three girls.

 "Hey Mom, look what I can do!"

The Easter Bunny came to our house a little early to celebrate the first day of spring. Dani's basket on the left, then Leyla's, then Daisy's. And Daisy insisited on leaving a carrot for the bunny, so there are some remnants on the plate.

Here's a little article I wrote for the church newsletter where we attend Mops:

 

     We have some friends who's dad is a pilot for Alaska Airlines. Last year he was gone at Christmas, so they made special arrangements with Santa Claus to come to their house early. This was a win-win since it gave Santa one less house on Christmas Eve, and allowed the family to celebrate together early. So when I made the suggestion to our girls that I'd been in contact with the Easter Bunny and he wanted to bring a few gifts by to celebrate the first day of spring, the girls were totally on board.

     So last Monday night we dusted off the Easter baskets and set them out on the coffee table for the Easter Bunny to fill overnight. Daisy, my oldest, insisted that we also leave out a few carrots for Mr Bunny. They were thrilled the next morning to find books, a treat, and a small toy in each basket. I was able to include some books with the real Easter story and we've been enjoying reading them ever since. We also made a set of Resurrection Eggs last year at Mops, and open one egg each night leading up to Easter. This has been a sort of "holy week advent calendar" for us, and it is so great to tell the story over and over as we open the previous night's eggs first.

     Resurrection Sunday is an amazing and central part of our Christian story, and now when that day arrives, we won't have to share it with that darn bunny!

 

 

All the daffodils outside Daisy's school are starting to bloom! (cell pic)

Daisy spotted this snack when I was scrolling through my Pinterest kids board the other day and insisted we make it for her next class snack day. So this afternoon the girls were busy painting clothespins.

Darin took the girls to the park when he got home from work and I sent the camera with him. I love seeing what he comes home with, and this one is absolutely perfect in my opinion.

A sunny afternoon = time for a bike ride. Daisy isn't so thrilled about learning to ride her two (four) wheeler so we have to strongly encourage her to make it to the stop sign and back. Dani is pretty happy about the whole Papa steers and pushes arrangment though.

My friend Natalie and I had planned to take our older daughters to a local production of the Sleeping Beauty Ballet but Natalie woke up this morning with a horrible stomach flu (so bad that later this evening I would take her to the ER for some fluids). So I ventured to the ballet with the girls by myself and it was a lovely afternoon. They were so well behaved and enjoyed watching the dancing tremendously. Here they are at intermission gobbling up a few cookies and some delicious red punch. (cell pic)

Early morning, feeding the babies.

Last fall we moved our weekly library visits to the downtown Bremerton branch since it is the branch with Tuesday storytimes (our only free morning during the week). Last month after storytime we ventured a few blocks away to a nearby office to pick up some baby blankets a friend had sent to work with her husband for us. The girls loved all the cool statues about town and every week since they ask to go see them. This time it wasn't raining and we didn't have anywhere to be so I said yes. Here they are with the "umbrella girl". (cell pic)

About every third naptime this girls asks to sleep on the floor. Not sure what the appeal is, but as long as she still naps I'm happy. 

I cannot seem to stop taking pictures of this cutie pie when she is sleeping!

A little display for Easter.

More signs of spring! Tulips and Hyacinth are blooming in my front yard. 

making music

These pictures are all blurry and the color is wrong and I am too tired to edit. But they make my heart soar.

There is a piano in my house!!!!

After asking and asking and asking since we moved into this house, Darin finally found just the right one. And he roped a couple of budies into helping (they actually CARRIED the thing into my house!). It needs tuning but is wonderful.

Now maybe to get a piano bench so they don't fight over the chair?

 

a lovely day for a visit

A few weeks ago we had some wonderful visitors who wanted to come and play and meet Baby Leyla: Gran and her beau Jeff, along with Darin's sister Sierra and her son Caleb. Darin was able to take the afternoon off and we all enjoyed spending time together.

Jeff is a pretty serious baby lover, and was happy as a clam to snuggle Miss L.

(I think both these ladies might like him?!)

Lucky for us the afternoon weather was brilliant so we decided to take Isha to the local dog park and then take all of us on a stroll through some nearby trails.

Darin ran ahead to take some shots of the group, which prompted Sierra to comment on how people walk slower when their picture is being taken, which prompted me to walk in slow motion like a goob. Ah...good times...

This way, Mama?

Too bright! Too bright!

This trail system has two giant wooden animals which was a great motivator to get the kids to walk a bit further. They were nervous about the elephant at first, but we decided to traipse through the rather wet grass to say hello and they were happy to discover they were just made of wood. But pretty impressively painted I might say.

Checking out the giraffe too.

And then we made our way back out of the jungle!

We walked a bit further before heading home to play a bit more, eat dinner, and snuggle one super sweet baby. Thanks for making the trek out here guys. You are welcome back anytime!

Wordless Wednesday: sleeping beauties

Daisy these days

She love, love, loves her baby sister. Wants to hold her and is so helpful at giving her bottles. Goes running if she needs a pacifier and has a really hard time not giving her kisses and cuddles when she is asleep.

She is a creature of routine, and gets really thrown off if we forget or skip something. Last night she got out of bed all teary-eyed to tell me something we'd forgotten. As I apologized, explained, and asked for grace she got quiet for a minute then said "I think someone stole Dani's grace as she isn't being so nice today."

Daisy: Wanna hear a joke? Why did the chicken cross the road?
Darin: Why?
Daisy: I don't know. You tell me! 

She is still just as curious about the world as she was at 2. I thought the "why" questions would end last year, but they are still going strong. Lately we get a lot of "what if" and some crazy random made-up scenario. This girl is a bit of a worrier, so we're working to memorize verses about how God will take care of us and help us to be brave.

She had some major dental work last week and is really proud of her two silver crowns. Unfortunately they make this mama feel guilty every time I see them. 

She has some new chores including making her bed and emptying the wastebaskets. She loved her wastebasket chore for a while, but is now definitely over it. She can't wait until the day Dani is old enough to take over. Little does she know...

She is officially registered for kindergarten, gasp. She loves her preschool, her teachers, her classmates, and I'm pretty sure if she is anything like her mama (which she really is) she'll continue to love school.

She asks to go swimming every time the sun shines.

At the dinner table a few months ago we were talking about how God loves everyone, even bad guys. Daisy responded, "So if a bad guy gets you and covers your mouth and then lets you go you say 'so not cool, (beat) so not cool.'"

In our family when we are holding hands a single squeeze means "let go". Last week while walking Daisy to school she single squeezed my hand, let go, and ran off. First time. Made my heart skip a little. This girl is growing up.

She is one cool chick and I am so proud to be her mama.

(Darin took these pictures at the park last month.)

Wordless Wednesday: Darin playing hide and seek

 

(Can you spot him?!)

 

journey into foster parenting

In late February we received our foster home license and it wasn't too much longer until we welcomed a tiny, sweet, little girl into our home. She wasn't very old when we got the call we’d been praying about for months and while we rushed around to get diapers and newborn sized clothes we were already falling in love.

 As we have ventured out and about these past weeks as a family of five, the most common question I get is “how long will you have her?” To answer simply: we have no idea.

 The second most common question I get is “are you hoping to adopt?” The short answer to that one is “no”, but of course that isn’t the whole story. But telling the whole story takes some time, and explains the journey we’ve been on the past few months as we have followed God down a road we never expected to take.

 When Dani was born the great “third child debate” began. Some days I would look at my two amazing and healthy girls and see our lives down the road as a family of four. I would get overwhelmed at the idea of adding another child to the mix, and Darin would start crunching numbers and have a mild heart attack. And neither of us really wanted to go through another pregnancy. But other days I would get the feeling that we weren’t done, that if we stopped now I would always wonder. This didn’t get any better when Daisy would start asking me about having another baby, and telling me how much she wanted a baby brother.

 I was constantly going back and forth.

Darin, the amazing and frustrating man that he is, one day basically gave the whole decision to me. “You know I’d be happy stopping now and would go get surgery tomorrow if you gave me the go-ahead. But,” he paused, “if you want another baby I’m in. Because I’ll never regret having another child. It will be my child and I’ll love it. But you may regret not having another child. And that isn’t something I want you to live with.”

 So for months I went back and forth, back and forth. Until one day in August I told Darin it was time to explore adoption and foster-to-adopt: we had more love to give in our family. We took the girls out to lunch to celebrate the decision and tried to explain to them that we believed God had another baby for our family. But we weren’t quite sure yet if the baby was going to come from Mommy’s tummy, or another Mommy’s tummy. Daisy was pretty excited, Dani enjoyed her chicken strips.

 We explored some private agency adoptions but quickly ruled that out. Adoption is expensive, and I know families on incomes like ours do it-fundraisers and donations and step by step gathering the money needed. But I didn’t feel that was what God had in mind for our family. So we set up a meeting with Christie, the Foster Care Director at West Sound Youth For Christ, to discuss foster-to-adopt.

 Meeting with Christie was pretty eye opening. She was very honest with us about the process of foster-to-adopt, especially with infants. Basically, unless parental rights were removed on a previous child, the state will work for the fist 12 months of a child’s life for reunification. That means we could bring a child home from the hospital and care for him/her for 12 months before we would even get an inkling of whether or not he/she would be adoptable. For many families the process takes nearly two years…two years of waiting and wondering and hoping and worrying.

 So we went home and prayed. And prayed and prayed. And it didn’t take long for God to completely change my heart. He convinced me that if we were going to become foster parents, we were going to become foster parents. I knew if my primary motivation was adoption, that I would be rooting against the birth parents; that I would be cheering them on towards failure. And that just couldn’t be right. When I shared these thoughts with Darin, he agreed, and our journey into foster parenting began.

 I compiled a list of “hurdles” in the licensing process, the first of which was childcare for the 7-evening, 30+ hour foster parent class we needed to take. I gave the list to God and watched him check them off one by one. It was amazing to be a part of, and amazing to watch the girls join us in nightly prayers for the child God would bring into our family.

 And a week to the day of receiving our foster license, Miss L came into our home and into our hearts.

 

 

And our journey continues…

 

(PS: A friend sent me this link a few weeks ago and I echo so many of the author's sentiments. Giving the Baby Back)

 

for the first day of Lent

A prayer:

source

And an adventure:

Join us?

Wordless Wednesday: now that's a bummer

 

 

(cell pic)

my sweet Daisy

The other night when Darin was shooting the picture of me and Dani coloring on the floor (found in the January photos) he also shot some really sweet ones of Miss Daisy. I just thought I'd share.

 

 

(Do you see the portrait of Dani hanging on the wall? Darin's dad painted that for us.)

 

Wordless Wednesday: Jack! Jack! Jack, Jack, Jack!

Daisy gets a haircut (and Dani gets one too)

She started talking about it a while ago: wanting her haircut. "Short," she said.

So we let it got a while, but she kept brining it up.

"Short," she'd say. "Really short."

"Are you sure?" I'd ask. "Really sure."

"Yep," she'd tell me. "Short."

So we took her to the salon, and told her stylist, a lovely Miss Ollie, "short".

And a bang trim too please.

 Miss Ollie happily cut Daisy's hair, while telling me how good of a mother I was for letting her get it cut. Turns out a woman and her daughter, about Daisy's age, were in a few weeks ago. Daughter wanted her hair short, Mama just wanted a trim. Mama won. That time. Turns out they were back in the salon less than a week later to "fix" the haircut the daughter had given herself. Guess she really did want it short!

 Daisy loves her new look, and so do the rest of us.

While at the salon, we decided to give Dani a bit of a trim too. She wasn't so excited about that idea, so it took a Mama's lap and a Papa's phone to convince her to sit still for Miss Ollie and her sharp scissors.

Lollipops for all certainly make the affair even better for the willing, and the nonwilling alike.

 

 

 

meeting Baby Ethan

We have a new neighbor here in Parkwood East! And his name is Ethan. And he is delicious.

Our sweet neighbors welcomed their firstborn mid-January and invited our crazy crew into their hospital room to say hello.

Daisy got the first hold.

Dani was a little too wiggly and excited for a hold, but decided to climb up and check out the baby while Papa was holding him.

Is there anything better than a sweet newborn? As we were visiting, our neighbors reminded us that we might be bringing one of these home any day now. Kind of crazy. We have no idea what God has in store for us, but we are just a couple weeks away from being a licenced foster home!

They even let me have a turn!

Welcome to the neighborhood little man!

Snow!

(Major issues with typepad recently. Here I am trying again. I miss you guys!)

We had so much fun during the recent snowstorm. We kept hearing about impending snow, but waking  up to nothing. Daisy prayed for snow ("for lots of snow AND for it to stick) for three straight days before we got any. But we did get some, and it was great. And it kept us home for three days to play in it. So I think Daisy got her prayers answered for sure.

Here is a fun smattering of our pictures in the snow.

First time out in it.

 

Snow angel.

It's always a bit of a challenge to get up without destroying your art.

 

 We wandered over to the park where the normall mild slide had taken on some new characteristics with the addition of ice.

We were invited over to our friends house for more snow fun, including lots of sledding.

 

 

 

Daisy found a neighbor friend to have a snowball fight with.

 

 

And it was all a grand ole time until this happened. No one likes getting snow in the face, especially not a sensitive 4-year-old.

 

 

And what is it about snow that makes you want to throw your loved ones down in it?

 

 

I had just bought this purple snowsuit on sale for Daisy to wear next year (I love my bins in the garage that allow me to purchase off-season and sale items in bigger sizes!) Lucky for us it fit our snowsuit-less friend just fine.

 

 

A couple more of my cute snow girls.

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we ventured out to the backyard where the girls were really enjoying munching on the snow.

 

 

 

Darin decided it would be fun to bury Daisy in the snow. She was pretty down with that idea too and laughed her way though it. (See what I mean about typepad? I have no idea why its now decided to give me this space for a text box.)

We also enjoyed a bit of a snow day treat, with the recipe I saw on my friend Sasha's blog. Darin said it tasted like vanilla ice cream. It was yummy.

The girls decided to eat their snack in the playhouse (aka: the giant doghouse that came with our house, Darin cut out the door a bit bigger and added windows.)

I ditched the party then to head inside, but Darin and the girls went to work on the snow fort. It was a pretty awesome cave I think.

On the last day of snow fun before it melted I headed out of town, but Darin and the girls finally got to create a "frosty". Daisy had been wanting to for a while, but her patience with waiting for the snow to be packable sure paid off. 

And what snow day would be complete without hot chocolate afterwards?

Hope y'all had snow days that were as fun as ours!

 

 

my two dads

I'm putting the finishing touches on my second Christmas post tonight, but typepad is acting all weird and having issues with my photos and text. So I thought I'd write up a quick post to tell you a funny story that happened on Saturday night. Actually, I'll let Darin tell you. He's funnier than I am anyway.

Hello everyone. Long time. Did you do something different with your hair? It looks amazing. Well anyway, Deanna wanted me to tell you about a conversation that I had with my good friend and the godfather of our little girls, Tyler Ray. 

To set the stage, we all were going out to thank Tyler and Stacey (his wife, girls' godmother, etc.) for watching the girls as we took a CPR/1st Aid class for our foster care license. We wanted good food and since we were in Silverdale, the only real option was Silver City. This being Saturday night, the place was packed and with our table of 6, the wait was stated to be 30 minutes (it was more like 55). After a short rock-paper-scissors match between Deanna and I (she always wins) it was determined that Stacey and Deanna would stay and chat while Tyler and I took the girls across the parking lot to the mall to play for a few minutes while we waited for our table. I know, Deanna promised this would be funny, stick with me...

So we're walking through the mall parking lot, each of us is holding a little girl's hand, and the conversation goes like this:

Me: ...yeah, and in the mall is Hales, but we've heard that the food isn't as good as Silver City. 

Daisy (singing in the background to herself): The sun will come out, tomorrow...

Tyler: Hmm, that's too bad, their beer is good.

Me: Yeah. Oh well. (Pause) You know, I bet to some people we look like the gay couple that adopted two cute little blond girls. 

Tyler: Yeah, I was kinda worried about that perception too.

Me, along with Daisy (This is where the part of my brain that lives with girls all day, every day, kicked in): TOMORROW, TOMORROW, I LOVE YA, TOMORROW, YOU'RE ONLY A DAY AWAY. TOMORROW--

Tyler, interrupting: Um...the show tunes probably don't help.

Yeah, probably not. It also occurs to me that earlier I told you your hair looks amazing. What I meant to say is, "Grunt, hack, spit, belch. Yo!"

Have a FABULOUS day!!!

shepherd Dani

I'm still organizing pictures from December, and I came across this adorable shot that isn't gonna be the "it" picture from the day (there's another story I want to tell through POTD). 

Dani's Sunday School teacher captured this shot of Dani (on the left) and two of her classmates at snack time. The teacher had been amazed that all three kiddos had left their shepherd headgear on during the lesson and the snack time. So adorable, right?

We love our church and we love the teachers. 

November 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

Weekday lunch. Trying to make things a little fun.

I left some socks outside the girls' room while they were sleeping, so I could put them away in the morning. This is what I found in the morning. I love it when my girls are creative!

Dani was playing with toilet paper tubes. Made me laugh so hard when she put them on her arms. I thought she looked like Kristen Wiig's character on the Lawrence Welk sketches.

On Thanksgiving Dani was really excited about the jumping off the ledge game. She recruited everyone to join her too. (This was my first time capturing a picture from a video I shot, and I think it's pretty ok.)

Crafting it up with Gran.