4/52: Just a Normal Day

John Paul // 2 - Superman in a Bears jersey.

Carter // 4 - We had just gotten haircuts, so I promised them ice cream.  Oreo birthday cake blizzards all around.

Peter // 3 - a 65 degree day in January calls for a little outside time.  He still lives in a "cap-hat" and this "army jacket".

Sophie // 7 months - watching her brothers out the front door and snacking on a little mud.

Odds and Ends

So, some days I feel like I've lost my mind.  I don't know what it has been about January (I'm blaming it on January), but I feel like I've had to do a complete life purge.  I've gone through closets, cleaned out and organized cabinets, gotten rid of so much junk and tried to get a little more order in our days. Yet, I still feel I can do more of that.  I forgot what my resolutions were (eat better?  read more?  pray more?  worry less?).  Obviously, I'm doing well, ha!

But, I think there will always be a part of me that feels I need to do.  This article was on someone's Facebook yesterday.  I didn't read it all, but what I did resonated.  It isn't good to just fill our days with more, more, more.  Yet, I do.  So, here's an update - it's random:

- I took this lovely lady's bridals a few weeks ago...

 and then, her wedding on Friday.

- Sophie did not escape the copious amount of spit-up that every single one of her siblings have had. When we're out in public, many inform me that my baby has just thrown-up.  Nope...but she does often look like this...

- Speaking of always having something on your face, I caught John Paul scooping out bean dip with his hands last night as I was preparing a few nachos.  He got a third of a can eaten, and his nose shows the evidence.

- Carter and Peter do this lately when I pull out the camera.  Lovely.

- Our sweet little cousins visited yesterday.  

It looks like he might have stolen a toy of Sophie's?

These two are just five months apart.

- This blog has been not-too-interesting lately.  

- But, on a really exciting front, the Blessed Is She Lenten journals are now on sale!  If you enjoyed your Advent one (or weren't able to order one then), grab yourself one before Ash Wednesday!

I took my blog buttons off the sidebar to create a cleaner look.  I'm still not finished with it, but I'm creating a Blog Roll instead.  Any favorite blogs you read that I should look into?  I'm anxious to get the page up!

Thanks for all of the book suggestions on the good ol' FB page - maybe I'll get one read by this time next year :)  Maybe.

She'll be a Mom

The boys went out to the barn after lunch, so Sophie and I played with the camera a bit.  She's crawling (real crawling) already, so I have to be really fast.  

Bridget posted this article the other day.  There are so many times I feel this, especially right after having a new baby.  Ahh.  Read it, but not the comments.  Why are so many comments so, so mean?   Who knows.

Anyway, back to Sophie.  I could take pictures of her (and the boys) all day long.  I kind of already do.  But, as this is my photo album, I guess I'm okay in doing that.  And, I love them.

She has a tooth.  I know I should be excited that that little thing has finally popped out, but sometimes the milestones are a little hard to see.  I realize how crazy I am in saying it.  Milestones are good, good things, and growing up is a good thing.  I think sometimes it's just a reminder for me to slow down, and at times that reminder hits me harder than others.  

On being a mom...since she announced it on Facebook, I think I'm okay putting it here now, but my sister will be a mommy in May, and there isn't anything I could be more excited about for her.  She was made for it, and she'll get to look at one of these little ones (her very own!) for years to come.

She will finally know how my mom feels about her.  She will finally see just how much love is in the heart of a parent.  She will finally feel the vulnerability that comes the second she's blessed with this baby (as I'm sure she already does).

And, if her motherhood is anything like her personhood, that little one will be the most blessed child alive.  I cannot wait to see it.  

For her, and all of the expecting moms, in whatever form, God bless you.

This life is one full of risks, joys, tears, and an opening of the heart...making you raw in every form. But, I don't think there is anything more worth it.

Baby Lee, you're in the for best life there is.  Rozann, you are too!

Just Like When We Were Kids

With all of the snow from the previous day, and just enough warmth and sun to make it worth it to go outside, Jeremy finished his work and called to say he was gathering some sleds so to get the kids bundled up.  I put layer upon layer on each of them and we headed for the "mountain" - gravel pit, to be exact.

Sophie didn't have snow boots.  And, the shoes she does have, that would work, I couldn't get on.  If she'd only quit curling her toes!  So, I pulled out these little things from my time as a baby...just a few sizes too big.

 We loaded everyone in the truck, and off we went.

 He was more excited than he looked.

I can distinctly remember a huge snow when I was in elementary school and my parents taking me to a caliche pit on the ranch.  With a little metal scoop-like sled in hand, we had fun for hours!  So, we tried to re-created it yesterday.

Carter finally got to use his blow-up snowmobile, and Peter was actually excited about sledding (last time, not so much).

John Paul...well, he wasn't quite ready for this kind of fun.

We played for over an hour...until our fingers got to the point of no return and started to burn that yucky burn when they warm back up.

Papa and Elley even came out for a bit...so we created two lanes and raced!

Carter beat his Daddy, and it was all he talked about the rest of the day.

I had a million things to do at the house (aren't there always things to do?)  I was worried about getting Sophie out (she was fine in the car with one of us).  I wasn't sure I wanted to be that cold, either.  However, I remember doing things like this as a child.  I never knew then that my parents may not have wanted to.  I was having too good of time to even worry about that.  Today...I'm glad I went.  No, John Paul didn't want to sled.  Sophie got a bit fussy toward the end.  We had cries over frozen hands.  But, we also had this...

 ...laughter as the sleds got faster and faster.  Smiles from ear to ear (on us, too).  Wet bottoms from fun crashes.  And, the pure joy of seeing their joy.  Getting just a tiny glimpse of how they see the world.  And, remembering just how I saw it then, too.

"Thank you for the best day eva!"  "Can we sled again tomorrow?"

 I wish, little boy.