Thursday, January 28, 2010



so, no particular order here. we found the downloading cord for my camera, but we only had a few pictures from christmas. i depended on everybody else's pictures, that we'll get soon so you can see. this is katy, a baby who comes for a fews hours tue/thur. she's a cutie patootie. very active, alot like hannah was.






this is my attempt at homeschool preschool. i got this map and had it laminated, then put pictures of our family so she can visualize where people are, and in relation to us. nana and pop pop are absent because the picture i printed out for them ended up being way too big for the map, so i need to do another one. but we didn't forget you!



this is one of my 2 new years resolutions. it's amazing (shameful, probably!) how the days can go by without me spending any real one-on-one time with my girl. if i'm not purposeful, almost all my interaction with her would be sit down/be quiet/eat/don't touch that and so forth. so, we came up with this little tool. every day she picks one idea out of the jar, and that's what we do. we've been playing with all her christmas toys and games that she needs an adult for. believe it or not, i have been much less OC about the house. patrick told me i don't actually have to sweep every day :-). so, i've been slacking a little with the housekeeping but i know 20 yrs from now i'll have made the right decision.



my little charlieman is doing great. he has another ear infection :-(, so he's been up alot more than usual. but he's a trooper. he now rolls over back to front as well! and he's very grabby. i used to always hold him while we're eating, but i can't anymore because he steals my food and spills my drink! and so strong. he and hannah are already friends. he laughs alot, more with daddy than with me. that's ok, i know my role and it isn't exactly the fun one :-). i'm hoping he may start sleeping through the night one of these days. . . He will be 5 mos next week!


at brett and jes's house, his makeshift bathub. it made me think of moses in the nile.


christmas morning at dad's. i think emerson looks like a tudor queen or something.




i think hannah was saying, now here's what goes on at christmas, emerson. just stick with me and i'll show you the ropes!


charlie enjoying one of his presents. (before hannah stole it from him very soon after and has really been enjoying).


so we all have our not so photogenic moments, eh? charlie had these two tufts right above his ears that were just getting really funny looking, so we finally cut them off. honestly, we didn't photoshop these pictures. it really was that long, just in that one spot.


hannah enjoying a bubblebath unlike any other!


my dad helped bunny out quite a bit with all those meals. i'm not sure what his role was with the turkey, but i know he did a great job!

my grandma was down from canada and it was so wonderful to spend time with her and to introduce charlie to her.


so, one day we went up to boone. they had snow upon snow upon snow. and it was cold. very cold. we were not adequately dressed. well hannah was, thanks to meghan. but as you can see, i had grocery bags tied over my target so-not-waterproof-$15-boots. that's my old church in the back, they have a huge hill there. boone (and the appalachian mountains) is my favourite place, and i really want to go back for more than one day. i've moved so many times i don't really have roots, but i feel strongly about there, for some reason. i really miss it still.


brave auntie meghan and hannah, sliding. we did the kids up with duct tape so the snow wouldn't get into their cuffs. my kids are not quite as hardy as hers. hannah lasted about 10 min. Emerson, on the other hand, was out for hours. she eventually just fell asleep in her little bucket sled. they're just little polar bears.

this is from before christmas, making gingerbread. i left to get charlie or something and came back to flour everywhere. predictably, i know. she communicates so well, sometimes i forget she's still little. oh, what can i say about Hannah? she is so independent, i've never seen the like. has quite the passionate spirit. if we can get through the next, oh, 15 yrs or so, i will be really excited to see what God has planned for her life! assuming we can channel all that fierce determination to do her own thing. i've got to go for now, charlie woke up!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

happy new year


my oh my oh my. i'm sure anyone who ever did check our blog has completely given up on us now! we are here, all safe and sound. just busy, it seems. it would take way longer than i have or you care to read to give you a thorough rundown on our christmas activities. the drive to NC was 16 hrs there, 18hrs back. we drove through the night, and it was actually much better than i thought. we may have broken a certain carseat law, but God protected everybody :-). we were at my dad's for christmas, and my grandma from canada came down, and lar from boston. and meghan and chad are there already. then the day after we went to brett and jes', a few hours north of charlotte, for just a short visit. david, des, and grandma jan were there. then we came home and mom and bob came a few days later for a while. i feel so blessed that we were able to see almost all our family this year. hannah is really developing relationships with people, and we just love to share charlie with the world because everyone should meet the world's happiest baby.



patrick started family hugs a long time ago. hannah loves it, and now that there are four of us it's even more fun. it's amazing charlie survives, but he does.


mom and bob, for those of you who don't know. live in the north pole. or something like that :-). so they're in the states for awhile to get away from it. except when they came here, it was cold. bitterly cold. (sorry, guys! serves you right for it being so cold at the cottage this summer.) i actually enjoyed feeling like we had winter for a few days. we, thankfully, didn't have the dangerous weather like alot of the rest of the south did.



charlieman loves his exersaucer (of course, because he loves everything) these days. he is doing such a good job grabbing at toys and getting them into his mouth.




mom gave hannah an easel, which she loves. i'm going to wait on the painting, though!



she got to do lots of cooking with grandma.


yes, they got lots of attention. and it made everybody very happy. i think that will be my all time favourite picture of charlie as a baby.


normally this is how he looks in pictures.


but he really is the smiliest kid you've ever seen. and talkative! in case anyone's wondering, no, he does not sleep through the night.


seeing my children interact is so special. (i have to take advantage of those fuzzy feelings before they start killing each other!) hannah often goes over to him and helps distract him, if he's fussing. she'll sing and pat him or bring him toys. he often gets fistfuls of her hair, and she's more patient with him than i ever would have thought.





what with patrick home officing, and charlie coming along, we no longer have a guest room. problematic, because we're far away from everyone and i love having people come stay with us. so mom sewed heavy drapes for patrick and bob to rig up, and now we at least have a semi-private front room that previously wasn't used for much. so, come on down, everybody! and thanks mom!


charlie a la parker. (nobody has ever seen the top of my nephew's head, i'm sure. he's the hat man :-)


charlie enjoying one of his christmas presents, before hannah steals it from him.

again, it would take to long to share everything i'd like to. we are starting off the new year strong and in unity as a family, grateful for where God is leading us. December was a good month for Patrick, which was exciting. Hannah is always role playing these days, with her dolls or cooking or something. she even reads her bible to her dolls. charlie is now rolling front to back, and will get the other way pretty soon. I am, for the first time in my life, working out at the horrible hour of 6 am, as it seems to be the only way to get to it and still have time for anything else in my day. i've only done it for 2 wks now, but it does seem to jumpstart me into being a little more productive, which i've really needed. we are babysitting 3 different kids now, 2 toddlers and a baby, for a total of 15 or so hrs/wk. Charlie's so mellow i was getting bored! :-)
we are going through a time of faith testing as a family in regards to charlie, actually. we have had concerns about his hearing, and are in a period of waiting till Feb 16 when he have a second hearing test. long story short, he did poorly on a hearing test right before christmas, and the ENT said there was fluid on one of his ears, but not much infection. we were told he would need hearing aids for life, starting right now. we attempted to process this over christmas, as we prayed for God to heal. we went to a second ENT and decided to get tubes. during that surgery we found out his ears were actually severely infected, which was sort of a good thing because hopefully his hearing will improve when the infection clears up. It sounds simple, but we've been up and down and all over the place with different diagnoses, and what we think is or isn't wrong. we do think there's been a positive change in the last week since they put the tubes in. no matter what happens next, God has taught us alot and we've experienced His faithfulness through this. we'll keep you posted. i'll remind you closer to feb 16.