Ok, here are the pictures I promised from our recent photo shoot! I'll never go to JC Penny's or Wall-mart again for family photos. No more appointments and waiting in line for us. These pictures were very spontaneous and fun. Not every hair was in place but that's ok, this is who we are! The great part was that we were done in an hour and never had to leave our house! I mentioned it in an earlier post that our friend, Tony Rizzo, took these pictures of us. He has a really cool camera and talent too with the art of taking pictures. We are very pleased with how these came out! Hope you enjoy them too!

Yesterday we witnessed Micah laugh for the first time. We were driving home from church and Olivia was playing with him in the back seat of our van. She had his attention from his car seat. He began actually laughing out loud! Rich and I just looked at each other and smiled. We couldn't see him but could hear him chuckling and cooing at her. It was sure cute. He is 3 1/2 months old now.

"Look at me, I can wear Micah's hat too and aren't I cute!" I didn't even realize Tony had taken this picture of Julia. She must have been goofing off when I wasn't around! Julia will be 9 years old in January!

" Look at that nose!" !

Rich just adores babies especially ours! One day Micah will appreciate him. Right now he doesn't know what to think of his crazy daddy

I know it's hard to see but I just love to see Micah's little eye lashes!

That's it for now. I don't want to show too many pictures and ruin our postcard to ya'll at Christmas time! Hope you enjoyed our sneak preview!

Kristin

Separation Anxiety!

Last night, we put Micah in the boy's room to sleep for the first time.  I don't know why I let my boys talk me into this but I did!  I'm not ready to part with my baby sleeping in our room.  We received a crib from a friend yesterday and A.J. put in all together (by himself, I might add) and then proceeded to convince me that it was time for Micah to join the boys!  He is sleeping through the night now and normally I would be fine with this plan.  But for some reason, when I returned to our room and saw the empty bassinet next to our bed, I had some strong mixed feelings!  I complained to my husband and said, "I don't like this, I think I'm having separation anxiety"!  

I think it hit me!  Micah is growing up too fast and I'm not ready for him to move out of the infant stage yet.  Being a mother of five has really taught me a lot and one of the life lessons I've learned is that babies change too fast!  Before you know it their 13!  

 

I'm savoring every  moment with Micah because I don't know if this will be our last baby or not?  God's ways are not my ways many times and He knows what's best for us.  If this is our last baby, I want to take it all in and enjoy him to the fullest!  I love to hold and gaze at a relaxed baby and it's an added bonus when they are sleeping in your arms! I know the picture above is not of a sleeping Micah but doesn't he look cute and snuggly! He is gazing at you with those big dark eyes of his!

 

Yesterday our friend, Tony, came over to take pictures of Micah in honor of him being 3 months old.  One of his hobbies is photography and I love looking at his blog to see the pictures he has taken of his own baby girl!  He really knows how to capture the moment and the unique qualities of little ones.  He took over 100 pictures of Micah yesterday and sent us a few to preview.  What do you think so far?

 

These pictures will be for Christmas so I wanted to dress him in red.  He is my little elf for the month of December!  All 6 of us, plus Tony, were hovered around Micah trying to make him smile.  He sure gets plenty of attention!

Well, that's it for now.  I hope to post more of this photo shoot later when I get the rest of this hour of Micah's life on camera!

A Mom's perspective about her daughter

It is a wonderful thing to watch Olivia change and grow-up.  She is our first-born and fits the profile of a first born to a tee!  That means she takes charge of her siblings, has perfectionist tendencies, is very organized and can almost run a home without me!  As you read this list, I'm sure you can see the positives and negatives of being a first born and daughter, no less! I'll focus on the good attributes in this blog entry since I'm sure writing about her weaknesses would be a little too personal!

Olivia loves to give gifts especially home-made things.  She loves to draw and sew!  Just this week she finished a baby blanket for a friend of ours who just had a little boy, cut out the fabric to make herself a dress from the early 1900's time period, and is now working on embroidering a pillow for a friend for Christmas!  These projects keep her busy in between school subjects and on the weekends. This year she and her brother, A.J. are excited to take an art class on Saturdays twice a month.  A friend of ours who works for Gospel for Asia, used to be an art teacher.  He is giving lessons to a group of about 10 students. It's so neat the way God provides as we were praying about this!

Olivia has made many friends at Gospel for Asia through the intern program.  They are all much older than her (between 18-25) but she seems to fit in and have things in common with them.  I am so grateful as her mother that godly girls so much older will take time to pray with her, eat lunch with her and include her in some of their activities.  GFA has a year long intern program that attracts girls (and guys) from all over the U.S. in the age range above.  They serve at GFA and also visit the field (India) to see the work that God is doing there!  They spend a whole year growing in their walk with the Lord and serving in the ministry.  Olivia says she wants them to feel welcome and seems to almost always get close with the girls.  I think she is like the little sister that they miss from home! 

 Last weekend, she decided to cook dinner for a house of intern girls and have them over to play games and eat.  She cooked a fabulous spaghetti dinner all by herself (except I made the garlic bread) and A.J. made the dessert.  Julia and I cleaned the house.  The guys built a fire in the fire place and it was so cozy!  Turns out that two of the girls were home schooled so it was good to talk to them about their experiences with their families and education.  I'm always interested in what adult home schooled young people have to say about how they were educated! It was an evening to remember with a fun game, great conversation and it ended with A.J. and Julia performing a hysterical skit!  I wish I had pictures or a video to show you!  Oh well, you'll just have to ask me about it sometime!

Some of Olivia's likes and dislikes:

1.  hates melted cheese and mushrooms. 
2.  loves to vacuum but hates to dust. 
3.  rock music makes her cringe but she loves classical 
4.  the only pants you might see her in are pajama pants
5.  loves flowing skirts and dresses
6.  no desire to wear make-up and hates it when her cheeks are red
7.  likes to wear her hair down and curly in the winter but up on top of her head in the summer
8.  any type of mexican food is her favorite
9.  She adores children and wants 10 kids!
10.  She hates a messy room and loves to organize and get rid of stuff!

Anyway, these are just a few things I've noticed about Olivia lately.  She is at that in between stage of still being a girl but turning into a lovely young lady!  I feel like she is becoming something wonderful right before our eyes.  I'm sure many of you have been here before as moms, watching your children grow daily, changing in so many ways.  We are blessed and thankful for Olivia but also know that life is fragile and prayers are needed.  There are times of struggle that come with adolescence.  May God grant me wisdom to lead, train and disciple her!  The magnitude of it all is overwhelming and yet God is doing a work in all of us!

Renee is a GFA intern and has decided to join staff so she will be returning to Mariposa, California to raise support before moving back to TX to work at Gospel for Asia.  She and Olivia have become good friends since she has been here this year.

 

Our children with some of Olivia's intern friends that we had over this past weekend. Introducing Emily, Ruth, Carly and Renee!  I think you know the rest!

Playing in the river in one of the dresses she made.

This past summer we had Ruth, Sarah and Genevieve over before their internship was over.  We miss them!  Ruth (on the far left) is staff so she is a constant in Olivia's life!

 

Olivia and her good friend Sarah.  She interned last year and is now back in Ohio where she is from.  She and Olivia e-mail each other and call every now and then.  We hope she will come back for a visit soon!

 

Olivia will hold Micah any chance she gets!  She is learning so much about being a mommy.  She can actually put Micah to sleep better than me! :)

Terms of Endearment

Baby clothes are so creative and cute these days!  I had just nursed Micah to sleep the other night and put him down to bed.  I just had to get a shot of his little "hiney".  

I just happened to take this picture at the right moment!  Micah's tongue is always out these days so A.J. decided to join him!

Why do we feel the need to call our babies anything but their real names?  I think I do it because it helps me express my love for Micah.  As our pastor's wife would say, "There is so much sugar in those cheeks! I just need some sugar!"  Almost always when Rich is holding Micah he say, "I just want to squeeze you!"  They are so lovable at this age!  Micah is 11 weeks old.  He has a different name everyday!  Some of them are. . . peanut, Micah moo-moo (not sure why? I'm the cow, not him), snuggle bug, snort (he snorts as he inhales when he cries), Reece calls him bud or buddy, and Olivia calls him precious.  I'm sure there will be more terms of endearment in Micah's future.

Micah's First Day of School

When all the other kids went to bed, Micah got 

his first school lesson.  Not to brag or anything,

but I think he may be in the genius league (you'll

have to watch to understand why).

Off to see some Fall color!

We decided to take a mini vacation and drive to Arkansas and rent a cabin for an extended weekend!  This has always been a dream of mine (to rent a cabin) somewhere in the mountains.  I know, this is not a big dream. But I've wanted to do it for years!  So when our anniversary (17 yrs!) came around this year in September I requested a family vacation to see some Fall colors.  It's been a hot summer and we didn't take a vacation because of my pregnancy.  After having Micah, I feel energetic and ready to do things with my children that I haven't had the motivation to do!  I guess when your pregnant sometimes you just live in survival mode.  

So we found a great deal and took off Friday afternoon and drove half way to our destination to Texarkana and got a room at a hotel.  At breakfast the next morning, I was sitting with my husband with a full tummy, a cup of tea and a sleeping baby in my arms!  Could life get any better? Maybe only in heaven.  It was a wonderful moment. 

 We headed off to Mena, Arkansas, a nice two hour drive north of Texarkana to West Arkansas along the Oklahoma border.  I was hoping to see some colors but there wasn't much color to see! I found out later that it's been dry in Arkansas and not very cold yet so the trees are late in turning.  I guess I've been spoiled living in California and Colorado.

  I had to adjust my attitude, which is no easy task.  Instead I focused on the beauty of being with my family.  I had the attention of my husband all weekend!  We have a precious new baby that did absolutely wonderfully traveling and our older 4 children got along great in the car and we all enjoyed each other. We didn't watch T.V. even though we had one, no computer and we didn't have any cell phone access! We just had each other! Now really, what is there to grumble about!  We did get to see SOME Fall colors. We took pictures every time we did because it was so rare that we would run across a red tree or see some yellow in the middle of brown or green.

Here are some of the million pictures that we took of our trip.  Enjoy!

Isn't this a cute little country cabin!  It came fully furnished with a loft, full bath, and equipped kitchen.  They even provided firewood and a gas grill!  

It was decorated so cozy and warm that it had a very relaxing feel.  A step up from tent camping, that's for sure!

 

This was a steep ladder!  On the last day Reece heard a mouse or rat chewing near his bed!  He came down that ladder very fast!  Then giggling he encouraged his sister to go first back up in the loft to try and get it.  He was rooting his brother and sister on as he sat back half way down the ladder.  We all laughed till our sides ached!

 

When we first unpacked our things, the boys went outside to target shoot with their air-soft guns and the girls decided to play cards.

 

We got in on the annual Mena air show.  It was a beautiful day to walk around and look at airplanes.  The kids got to go inside this vintage airplane and actually sit in the cockpit!  My Dad would have loved this place!

 

 

These are for you, Dad!  They were giving rides if you wanted to pay!  The kids loved being this close to these little airplanes watching them take off and land!

 

The next day we went to visit the Cassotot River.  We hiked down to the falls.  This was just one of the pretty sights we took from the bridge.

 

There was a great big divot in this rock!  Perfect to sit in.  These were taken before they all conveniently fell in the river by accident, of course!

 

I cannot get my girls to wear pants for things like this!  I'm not complaining.  They are not comfortable in pants and insist on wearing their dresses, even when playing like this.  They look very feminine but are actually very daring at heart!

 

Micah was such a little trooper the whole time.  He was in the car seat a lot or in a backpack.  This was one of the times he got to stretch out and enjoy the sun.  He is so snuggly at this age!  I love this picture with the river behind us!

 

One of the few trees we saw changing colors!  The red was striking when we actually got a glimpse!

 
 

Micah at 9 weeks old!

 

These smooth rocks went right up the rivers edge.  They felt great on bare feet.  The only problem is that they were very slippery when under the water.  Reece went running to put his feet in and they slipped right out from under him and he went down and hit his head on the rocks!  Thankfully God watched over him and he wasn't hurt.  While I was comforting Reece, Julia did exactly the same thing!  But she came up laughing instead of crying.  They all knew to be very careful from that point on!  

 

Can you see the tongue?

 

A.J. loved the adventure of climbing from rock to rock and floating down stream a little.  This kind of fun was exactly what he was hoping for.  He wants to go back so badly!  

 

Yes, the hair is still sticking straight up!  I love this picture too!

 

Drying off in the sun after swimming fully clothed! Doesn't this look like sand?  It's really smooth rock!

 

We had fun trying to cook in the kitchen.  Olivia wasn't that excited to cook or do dishes because she wasn't familiar with where everything was.  Guess she likes her own kitchen better.  We had some great meals.  It's so much easier with a stove and oven than a camp stove and no sink like when we tent camp!

 

Can you figure out what this is?  It's a stick bug!  It looks just like a stick and is really hard to spot.  The bug is the horizontal stick in the middle of this picture.  It's legs are wrapped around the leaf stem above it.  See it?

Rich took this picture and it turned out really great!  He likes to have fun with the camera on scenic shots.

Reece is holding a mushroom he pulled up from the ground by our cabin!  We were packing up the car and he came running up with big eyes, so proud of his find.  He wanted to bring it home!  Not!

 

I loved these trees with the little red berries! They reminded me of a Thanksgiving

 center piece or even Christmas.  Wish I could have taken a tree home with me!

 

One of the first pictures with all 7 of us together since Micah's birth!  We set the camera up and then Rich had to run to get into the picture which is why he is leaning.

Thanks for taking the time to go on vacation with us!