Sunday, July 31, 2011

Tacos and a Baby!

Made chicken tacos for dinner tonight from The Pioneer Woman!  Boy, were they yummy!http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/03/my-brothers-chicken-tacos/

We finally got to meet baby Jace yesterday!  He is so small and sweet!  Why do babies have to grow so fast!?  Sometimes I wish I could just have a redo with all of the kids and do it all over again, just so I could go back and enjoy each moment a second time!

I was glad to hear all about Nicole's experience with her natural VBAC2.  I wanted all the details! haha  Besides my midwife, I don't know one other person besides her (our age) that has had a baby without any drugs!  It's nice to have someone to talk about the experience with!  I think I will ask Nicole if she wants to write up her birth story and guest post it on this blog!  I would love to read it, and maybe share it with her permission.  It is so important and empowering to women to know they can give birth naturally, and I think hearing stories of women who did it is the first step towards making the decision to go for it!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Family Biking!

Today we went on our first bike ride as a family of 6!  I rode my bike with one kiddo in the bike seat, Nick rode his bike pulling a double bike trailer and Noah rode his own bike!  What a big boy!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

4 teeth!

Caleb now has 4 teeth!  His top right front tooth broke through on July 18, and the left one broke through on July 19.  He has been pretty fussy getting these two teeth, more so than he was with the bottom front two.  Those two he barely seemed to notice getting.  This time he has been wake up 3 or 4 times a night instead of once.  One night he kept waking up every 15 minutes for part of the night, so I definately knew his teeth were bothering him.  He has been wearing his amber teething necklace most of the time, and I have given his tylenol a few times as well.  I am pretty sure since they are both broken through now that things will get better for him!  I can't believe he is going to have those top teeth now!  It seems like those front top teeth belong in a baby older than my little baby!  He is growing too fast!  I am thankful he doesn't really bite me when he nurses.  I think he likes nursing to much to risk having me yank him off for biting!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Are we home yet?!

Since Nick and I were married five and a half years ago, we have called five places home:

1.  Our first apartment
2.  Nick's parents house
3.  A house in Wrightwood
4.  The tiny house off of Daycreek
5.  Our current home in Rancho

Our sixth anniversary in coming up in November, so we figure it's time to move again.   

But we are hoping this time will be different.  That's right.  We are hoping this time we will be moving into our very own home!  No more rent!  No more landlords!  No more living with the ancient blue carpet that our many, small, potty-training children insist on watering!

So, we signed an offer on a house today.  In Pinon Hills.  It's about 35 minutes from Rancho.  Up the 15 , and then off of the 138.  The house is off of a dirt road!  I never thought I would move there!  In fact, I think I swore I wouldn't.  Ya know, if I swore.  Which I don't.  But for a hundred thousand less than what we were thinking of spending in Rancho, we will be getting so much more, and I think we are making the best decision for our family.  If we get this house, I think we are going to love it, and Nick and I both really feel like this is where God is leading us.  Plus, how could a big house on 2 acres, and a 6 car garage for Nick not have us excited!?

So, please pray for our family, for this big decision, and for God to have his hand in it every step of the way.

On a side note: my heart loves our current home.  I feel like it is mine, even though it isn't.  It's not for sale, but even if it was, it isn't big enough for our growing family.  We moved here when Noah was one.  We brought the twins home from the hospital to this house.  Caleb was born here for crying out loud!  Our family has grown so much here, literally.  If, and when we move from this house, I will mourn it a little bit.  So also, could you please pray for my silly, sentimental soul?

Monday, July 18, 2011

Eight

Caleb is eight months old!
He's cutting his two top teeth!
 
He weighs 23 pounds!
He can't keep his hands out of his mouth!
He couldn't be more precious to us if he tried!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

My Mount Everest

We live atop the steepest hill in all of Rancho Cucamonga.  It's quite a view.
Seriously though, it's gotta be a 45 degree angle.  That's steep right?  I'm not so good in the math department. Whatever the angle, it is my excuse for not going on walks, which is pretty much the only form of exercise I have time for, with the kids in tow, of course.  Between the stroller and the kids, we're talking about 160 extra pounds for me to push up and down this hill.  Therefore, no exercise has been happening 'round these parts.  Hence the reason my butt is in the wrong hemisphere.  The southern one.  I prefer the northern.

Today, however, all of that changed.  Today was the first day I took all the boys on a walk to the park.  We are quite the sight.  Triple stroller, and a baby in a carrier.  "Are they all yours?" asked the neighbor.  "You've been busy."  "Why, yes.  Thank you for noticing.  You'd understand if you saw my husband."  Of course, I didn't actually say that. I would have liked to see the look on his face if I would have though!

Anyway, I am ashamed to say we totally cheated.  We went down the hill.  But Grammy met us at the park.  So when it came time to leave, we piled in her car, put the stroller in the trunk, and she drove up the hill.  Do you blame me?

Maybe tomorrow will be the day we make it down the hill, and up again.  It's time our hill became my excuse for being in shape, instead of out of shape!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

3 things

So much has been going on around here. I'll start with the least important factoid.

1) I chopped off my hair. Into a bob. Shorter than it's ever been. I pretty much love it. I suppose the fact that I love short hair on myself means I am getting older. That combined with the fact that I pulled a beautiful white hair from my head today.

2) We are contemplating moving to Pinon Hills. My mind really begins spinning when I think about this for too long.

There are so many benefits for our family when it comes to moving there, but then of course there are drawbacks as well. I love being close to my parents and so do the boys. I see my mom a few times a week, and it is nice knowing she is close by if I need her help, or if I want to drop by for an hour to let the boys play and chat. My mom watches the boys for me sometimes when I go to the store and such. In some ways I just can't picture my life living further away from her. I know it seem silly when we are talking 30 miles. It's pathetic, right? Some people live days away. But I am spoiled, and used to what we have.

So, that all sounds pretty negative. However, we could buy a house for SO much cheaper up there, and it would be much bigger and have much more land for our growing family. Not to mention practically all of Nick's family now lives up there, and all the moms stay at home, so we could all hang out.

Which leads me to the last, and most controversial point I wanted to make about all the things that have been going on around here.

3) I recently stumbled upon a lot of information regarding birth control and family planning. Or should I say the lack of birth control and family planning. As many people know, I have had it on my heart for a long time now to have a big family. It seems like every time Nick and I would talk about having more kids, I would increase the number I thought we should have by one. Or two. This desire of my heart lead me to find blogs and websites and books about families who let God plan their family sizes. Even though this idea is so counter-cultural, I began looking into it because it matched up with what is in my heart. The more I have looked into it and prayed about it the more sense it has started to make to me.

God made husbands and wives. He made our bodies, and he gave us desire for each other. The natural result of this is usually bearing children. His first commandment to husbands and wives was to be fruitful and multiply. It all started making sense to me. God says children are his blessing to us. Which other blessing that God offers to us do we seek to limit?

I believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. If this is true, then the current idea and trend to limit the number of children born to us is a result in a change in the culture, and not a result of a change in God's ideas about children.

Now, I totally understand that my natural inclination to want to have a large family makes me more open to this "radical", yet ancient way of thinking. It still scares me a little to be sure, because I am a planner. I want to plan my pregnancies. I want to avoid being pregnant in the summer months. I want to plan births for when I think it would be most convenient in relation to seasons, and activities such as homeschooling.

But.

Then I remember that I serve a God who loves me and my family and my children more than I do. I serve a God who knows everything, and created everything, and has my best interest at heart. He knows what I can handle. He knows when our family will be complete better than I do. Do I think I can plan our family better than He can!? If I say I trust Him, and if I say I lean not on my own understanding but on His, shouldn't this apply to every aspect of my life, and not just the parts I feel comfortable trusting Him?!

Anyways, I have loads more to say about this topic. Enough for now though! I will just say lastly that I began my search into this topic by reading a book called Family UnPlanning by Craig Houghton if anyone is interested. It's a really short book. Have a good day!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Fourth of July

Euclid Parade, Swimming with Jess, Fireworks at Aaron and Ashley's. God Bless America.

Although, Noah covered his ears while watching, and Micah and Levi went into the house they hated it so much. Levi said "cared" meaning scared. They were not fans! Micah did come out in the backyard with me for a bit and when he saw a far off firework that wasn't loud he said WOW!

Here we all are.  Note Levi's finger up his nose. 

Anyway, Caleb went down OK and fell asleep at their house, but was woken up by all the noise. I rocked him outside on the chair swing. He was so amazingly cuddly and warm, and fell asleep contentedly on me even though the fireworks were so loud. He watched them for a while with his head on my chest, and then just shut his eyes and went to sleep. It was bliss for mommy. He also fell asleep at the parade this morning in my sling, and he was gripping a flag for the whole nap! It was adorable!