4 Years Already

"I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk..., I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head."
Ezekiel 16:10-12

Emma got to get her pictures taken on her actual birthday which was a huge hit for her because it meant she got to dress up and go to a store which was almost a present in itself. (She would like to wear gorgeous clothes everywhere we go, but sadly she has a more practical-ish mommy who won't let her.)

I was surprised at how red her dress turned out in the pictures. In real life it's more of a purple burgundy and less of a scarlet burgundy, but I'm not going to complain about something being too red. We went back to the same studio that did Ricka's pictures and to my delight, the same photographer was able to take Emma's pictures as well. She took one look at Emma, and came up with about six stunning pictures in less than three minutes. That always makes it hard to choose when you have to narrow it down to only one or two poses.

But narrow it down, we did, and I ended up ordering a sheet of wallets in two different poses from the package pose. This picture with the white background and the big one in the collage below.

Emma is always busy - usually organizing her siblings in complex plays or playing dress up/quick change act where she appears waltzing past me in a different outfit every 5 minutes. Some days (usually when the older kids are at school), I'll be at my computer and suddenly I'll notice she's on some great story/narrative with Butler as her faithful assistant - him either being the quietly listening audience or (on cue from her, of course) interactive participant. This is when I try to type out as much as I can hear/understand. Here's one I recorded last week:

Emma: Ok, Butler, can you get dat wittle chair?
Butler: Yah.
Emma: Ok, come with me. Hurry up! Clickaly! (quickly, they march to the living room with plasic chairs from the bird room)
Ok, go on that side, it's meeting time. Sit down. I gonna get hats... (she darts off to the bandanna basket)
Butler: I get hah too!
Emma: No. You don't need a hat.
Butler: K.
(they get seated at the coffee table)
Emma(whispering): Butler, pick a song.
(he starts whisper-singing 'Jesus Loves Me')
Emma: No! wait, we have to pray first. (He stops singing, she prays)
Emma: (in a strong preaching voice): A man told Noah to put da animals into da ark.
And da elephants went into da ark first.
Can you hear me?
(aside to Butler)No.
Butler: No!
Emma: And nobody did could unnerstand.
It was very sad. Nobody was laughing.
Butler (sympathetically): Yah.
Emma: Noah was right by da other people.
He was dare and Noah put da animals in da ark.
God made a rainbow and...
(voice change and volumed as to be coming from the back of the congregation)
30.... Chapter 1.
(another voice change - closer to the front)
289!
(normal voice again) Ok!
(and they sing something resembling a Gregorian chant).

And it's time to go get the kids from school... so I should post this before I get distracted again.

I have a new Niece!

Thank you, everyone who prayed for Tina. She could have died. Instead she's back at home now with a brand new baby girl.

Her blood pressure was so high when she reached the university hospital, that they wouldn't do a cesarean unless she was crashing for fear she'd bleed out. So, they induced labour, kept her on meds to lower her BP and after 19 hours, she delivered healthy 4lb, 13oz 35week-er.

Welcome, Ember Brooke! And congratulations,Boots and Tina on your little princess!

Pray ____*Updated*

UPDATE: (Friday 7:15pm)
I called Tina at 6 this evening to get an update. They reassessed her this morning after they transferred her to the university hospital and decided not to do a c-section. Her bloodwork came back positive for hypertensive pre-eclampsia so once they got her blood pressure low enough, she was induced for a natural delivery. She was in the early stages of labour when I called.

So, while we can keep praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby (the ultrasound put the baby at about 4lbs), we can be thankful that she won't be delivering at the hospital she was afraid of and that she'll probably deliver naturally instead of by cesarean.

Other than that... Boots is with Tina at the hospital, and they have a friend of theirs watching the boys at home. Maybe pray for the lady watching the boys too. She's also an army wife (whose husband is currently overseas) and she has four of her own children ranging from 6years to 9weeks old. If I think my own 5 kids can be a handful at times, I'm sure eight children (that are not all yours) under 8½ could get overwhelming all by yourself.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pray for Tina today.

She just called me (7:30 her time) to say she was in hospital about to be transferred to a university hospital for a cesarean. Her baby isn't due until December 30th.

Last night she called me and said she was concerned about pre-eclampsia again. She has been terrified of delivering her baby at the local army hospital (for a list of reasons), so although its good news to her that they're taking her somewhere else, she is still afraid of the unknowns of cesarean.

She had to cut our phone call short because the ambulance crew had arrived, so I don't know how far away she's being taken or when they'll actually perform the surgery.

I'll post an update later, but for now, just pray. For safety for both her and the baby and for the comfort and assurance of her mind.

Summertime...

Editor's note: It's ok to laugh after you read the first paragraph - I did when I discovered it in my draft posts folder the other day. This post was actually part of a messenger conversation I'd had with Sir one day in August while he was at work. After it was all typed out, I realized it was post-worthy, so I copied it here to add the pictures and edit names. But it took me until the end of October to get the pictures off the camera to my computer and by that time I'd forgotten all about the post.

August 30th,
I thought I'd share another one of our summer days here before they're all gone and it's back to the schedules and rush that September brings. I love the summertime it always makes me sad when it ends so quickly.

The other day after lunch, the kids went back outside to play. A few minutes later I brought out some dessert options for them to choose from as long as they ate outside. While three of the kids were deliberating over what they wanted, a squirrel ran across the back fence toward the garden. Only Emma saw it and she nearly went into hysterics trying to get the other kids to stop what they were doing and LOOK! After they'd all chosen their desserts I went back in the house and was busy at my computer when the screen door slammed.

SLAM! Thump thump thump thump thump - a kid ran past me, but I didn't look up. Then they ran back past me and the door slammed again. 30 seconds later the screen door slams and I glance up briefly to see PC sprint into the living room. Then I hear nuts rattling in the nut bowel on the side table beside the couch. He was helping himself to a handful of nuts. "What are you doing?!" I demanded. "Uh.. nothing. I mean, getting nuts." he stammered. "Why?" I ask. He stood there frozen in place for a second before answering, "Because, well, Dolly did." slowly he started to walk toward the screen door. "What are you doing with the nuts?" I asked him. He'd made it to the door by this point, "We're feeding them to the squirrels." he said and with that, he dashed out the door before I could say they were or weren't allowed to do what they were up to.

I followed PC outside but immediately got sidetracked at the sight of the bottom part of our extra birdcage, sitting on the deck where it could be stepped on and broken. "Put this back in the birdcage." I order the nearest kid. "But Mommy!" Dolly protested, "We're trying to catch a squirrel!" I looked out into the yard from the lower deck. There in the very middle of the yard was the birdcage with it's door wide open, and inside were the handfuls of nuts the kids had smuggled out there. "We want to have a pet squirrel!" Dolly quickly explained, and then in order to assure me that the food costs wouldn't be so bad, she added in a more coaxing tone, "We'll feed him nuts!"

Now all four kids are 'hiding' behind the railing on the lower deck while they wait for the unsuspecting squirrel to, 1. hop into the cage, 2. stay there long enough for the kids to thunder down the stairs and across the yard to the cage, where 3. they can close the cage door and catch their coveted rodent! Makes sense right? After all, simple plans are the best.

I just went out to check on the squirrel catching project and PC greeted me with, "Hi Mommy, we're gonna catch a squirrel!" "You are?" I responded, "Yeah, one for me and one for Dolly." "Hmm." I said. "Yeah!" Dolly exploded in my ear, "There's a black one in that tree (pointing toward the garden) and a pretty one over there (pointing toward the tree house)". "And.." PC continued, "I'm gonna give my cat to Emma!." "You are?" I asked "Yeah." he nodded. "After you catch yourself a squirrel? I clarified. "Yeah, and then I'm gonna give my cat to Emma."

The cage has been moved against the back fence and when I was last out there, PC asked, "Mommy, what is a good trick for getting squirrels?" I think he's beginning to realize that their method might not work.

Emma's opinion on my outfits.

August 16, 2011

Yesterday:
"Mommy, I'm gonna tell you a pretty secret."
(dramatic pause as she tiptoes to whisper in my ear)
"I love your skirt and your shirt."
I thanked her, gave her a squeeze and as she scampered out of the room, she explained, "...they're vwerry beautiful and I just love them!"

August 1st, 2011

Last week:
Emma: Mommy, do you want me to get your new red shoes?
Me: No, Emma, I already have tennis shoes on, I don't need to wear my new ones.
Emma: I think you should wear your red ones, because if you wear them, you will look nice.
Me: These ones are just fine Emma.
Emma: Because, these shoes.. (she leaned in as if she was revealing something very special) they don't go with your outfit, but if you wear your red ones, they will go with your outfit, and you will look vwerry beautiful. For real.

September 23, 2011

Right on Track

Aside from being born with a full head of blond hair, Ricka's claim to fame around here are her two front teeth.

As I discovered today on Tuesday, she just cut her two front bottom teeth and was only a little more sleepless than usual for a few days to show for it. At 5 months and four days old, she took the title of 'youngest tooth getter' in our household. Dolly previously held that record at 5 months, 2 weeks.

swing'n

"oooh! This looks interesting." ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "It's pretty good, you should try it."

She spends a lot of time in the swing - well, she used to, now she leans as far forward as she can... which causes the swing to stop... which results in a complaining Ricka.

Sitting up.

Other than that, she's sitting without being held upright, although she does still tip over after a while - but it's a gradual tip-over now instead of the sudden crash style. She rolls over onto her back with all the confidence of a well seasoned veteran - she's still working on the other direction but is very close to success. And for Ricka, tummy time no longer holds the original horrors all babies insist of, because she can cover surprisingly large areas on her tummy by going in circles to reach her desired destinations. I watched her cheat and pull the bouncy chair to her this the other afternoon so she could get the little toy car that she was after. And I actually took pictures of that progression, so I'll stick them here as well:

"I want that car."


"Hmm, 'can't quite reach..."


"Ok, what if I try... this!"


"Got it!!"

When I grabbed all the pictures off of the camera this last time, I was surprised to see so many shots of Emma and Ricka posing together. Here are a few of the best of them - just for fun:

November 2, 2011


Serious girls.


November 11, 2011 - Five months old.


Grandma C. made these jumpers for Dolly and Emma.


November 13, 2011