Happy Birthday Sophia

Sophia came out into the living room after her attempted nap, and wanted one of the balloons off of the ceiling so bad. It took her a little while to realize that there were a bunch on the floor waiting for her to play with them.

The birthday princess.

Isn’t she the most beautiful birthday girl ever?

The only game played at the party: Ring Around The Rosie.

Sophia, as well as the rest of the girls, loved the doll cake. The only problem was, I had to blow out the candles before Sophia could even try to. For a lack of a more convenient place to put the two candles, I decided to make it look like the doll was holding the candles. The candles burned down far enough while we were singing that it actually started to burn one of its hands and emit some black smoke. The girls looked pretty horrified that I was burning the doll, but rest assured that it only got a little charred.

One of the funniest moments of the event was when Isaac asked Stacie (pictured far left), after having discussed our upcoming addition, if she thought she’d ever be ready for a “number 2”. Being that Stacie was currently involved in a different conversation, her response to him was, “Excuse me?!”

Sophia and her buddies. From left to right: Elaina holding her sister Sarah, Kailyn, and Anna.

From a Mom’s point of view, I think it was a success. Messes were made, sweets were devoured, and the girls all played very nice together. And, no one cried the entire time – not even baby Sarah. 🙂

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How Lucky We Are

First of all, it is a miracle that this picture is up for viewing, as Blogger hasn’t been letting us upload photos lately. I had a post that I was working on to put up yesterday, but because of the picture uploading problem, it will have to wait until later. In the meantime, here is a picture our friend Sheila sent us from a couple of weeks ago when we all met at the local Chinese/Thai/Japanese restaurant to celebrate her husband Peter’s birthday. It was very nice of them to invite us, and we had lots of fun getting to chat with the family. Sheila has a grandbaby whose about 8 months younger than Sophia, so they had fun exchanging glances from their high chairs.

When I look at this picture I’m reminded how Sophia was such a good girl at the restaurant that day. I’m reminded that not all trips to restaurants are horrible, especially when good friends are around to help you keep those kids in check. Ever since Sophia was first born, we’ve been able to count on Peter, Sheila, and their family to provide us with all kinds of help, encouragement, and words of advice. So it is no surprise that we can meet them at a restaurant and find that Sophia is just as ready to listen to them as she is to us. How lucky we are to have such friends.

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3 years

There was no doubt about it, he had my heart from the get go. And since then, he’s loved me like no other ever could – sacrificially, beautifully, completely.

He makes me excited about life. He’s the kind of person who can’t sleep the night before a trip out of excitement. He dances with us in the living room when a great song is on. He sings in the shower and in the car. He is always reminding me to look past the little bad things to the great big good things.

In a mere 3 years we’ve seen so many dreams become reality. Or rather, of God’s work in us becoming evident. I look forward to a lifetime of His work in our lives. But I will always believe that His first great work in me, was Isaac.

I love you, Babe. Happy Anniversary.

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These Boots

Sometimes we get a chance to try on a different pair of boots for a while. Sometimes we do so to get to the next chapter in life.
Sometimes the boots we choose to wear allow us a sense of accomplishment.

Sometimes we’re glad when it’s coming time for a new pair.

717 days in these boots so far. I hope they can retire soon, but for now, they’re walking on air.

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Seeing Sarah

We had the pleasure of meeting Miss Sarah Suzanne last night, born Monday at 11:23 p.m. Easily one of the most beautiful new borns I’ve ever laid eyes on. Her skin tone is perfect. She is totally content. She resembles her sister Elaina, but has her own unique face that is just darling. Such beauty that makes your eyes well up with tears of joy.

As you can imagine, Sophia, too, was pretty impressed by this beautiful baby girl.

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Christmas ’06

Looking back on last week, I’d say we had a pretty great Christmas. Isaac’s whole (immediate) family made it up to N. California to celebrate Christ’s birth at his sister’s house. It was a comforable 30 degrees almost the entire time we were there, and we even got some snow on the day after Christmas! We were the first to show up, so Sophia got some individualized time with two of “the cousins” (we’ll call them Emonee and Yon-Yon to protect their true identities). Yon-Yon was Sophia’s superhero the whole time (notice how she’s staring at him in the picture at right), and you’d have thought that Emonee was her very own daughter the way she loved her and wanted to take care of her. No matter how many times Emonee tried to rip Sophia’s hair out from the root (Sophia apparently has some great hair for that), Sophia recovered with as much love or more for Emonee than before – but perhaps with a little more attention to Emonee’s little grabbers. After a couple of days, the other cousins Deet and Tallgirl showed up and made things even more exciting. I can only imagine the friendships that will evolve between the cousins throughout the years…

The family celebrated Christmas on the 26th, so on Christmas Day Isaac and I took advantage of our spare time and took a 6 hour roadtrip out West to see some countryside. It was beautiful. The weather was perfect and we took a different route back and drove on a very narrow country road where we saw deer and wild turkeys. It was certainly one of our favorite dates yet.

Sophia’s grandpa, or Pop-Pop, as we call him, dressed as Santa and surprised the kids with a visit and some stockings. Sophia enjoyed getting the stocking, but didn’t want to get too close to that weird bearded fellow. The day ended perfectly with a wonderful dinner lovingly prepared by Grandma. We are so happy and indeed blessed to have had the chance to share Christmas with family.

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A Cornucopia of…JOY!

Isaac brought to my attention the other day, while we were merrily trimming our 7 ft. hand-picked-from-our-own-backyard Christmas tree, that the topper we use is actually a cornucopia. We got it a few years ago at a company Christmas party as a keepsake. It sat on our table at the party and housed an array of chocolates and other goodies. We took it home, put it on top of the tree, and that was that. Now every year it seems natural to stick this cone on top of the tree. And so it goes with traditions…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of the word cornucopia, and the fact that we put one of these on top of our tree, and (being that the Christmas Tree is a renowned symbol for Christmas) I can’t help but think of the abundance of so many things this time of year- not just physical things, but those, too. The abundance of activities, and music, and friends and family, picture taking, and attention to detail, and thoughtfulness and charity. And also joy. I do realize that not everyone in the World experiences this joy, for not everyone knows Jesus. It truly is a joy to know Him, especially at Christmas. What a joy to think of our Savior coming into this world. What a joy to think of the plans the Lord had for Him. What a joy that we can celebrate His birth with song and praise and time spent together.

Blessings this Christmas Season, as you each experience your cornucopia of joy.

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Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Saint Nicholas Saving Seafarers (December 6)

From the Belles Heures of Jean, duke of Berry, fol. 168r

The Limbourg Brothers, France (Paris), active ca. 1400-1416

Tempera and gold on vellum

The Cloisters Collection, 1954

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York

Did you know that if you say “St. Nicholas” really fast it comes out sounding like “Santa Claus”? I found that to be such an amazing piece of information when we were told by our music teacher in fifth grade. When I lived in Germany right after high school, I experienced my first real “St. Nicholas Day”. My host mother advised me, “Putz deine Schuhe sehr gut, sonst laesst Sankt Nikolaus keine Suessigkeiten fuer dich.” (Clean your shoes up well, or St. Nicholas won’t leave you any goodies.) I must have spent an hour getting them just right before leaving one of them by my bedroom door and climbing the ladder up to my loft bed. The next morning I was greeted by a shoe full of candy and oranges. And although we didn’t do an Advent Kalendar, I was able to see a few very neat ones, one in particular that I especially liked. It consisted of 18 hand-sewn pouches linked by a string and hung on the wall. Each pouch contained a different gift for each day leading up until Christmas. (I hope to make one similar to it for Sophia for next year.)

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