Christmas and a New Year

Since it's New Year's Eve and my hubby is working in the ER, I thought I should do a little post about our Christmas.

We went to my parents house but before we went, we gave the girls their big present from us: new bikes. It was fun to see them so excited. And don't you just love that Lucy hopped on backwards! This picture just makes me smile. 

 We celebrated Janie's birthday at my parent's house and it was super fun. It was pink, and girly and perfect for Janie. 

 On Christmas Day, we decided to wait to open presents until all my siblings (except Ben, he is in New York) could come over to my parent's house. So we decided on the time of 7:30 am and it was torture for the girls. Gratefully everyone came a little early and the fun chaos began. Everyone got really lovely gifts, thing we really wanted and I felt so blessed and contented. 

Again, another great picture that makes me smile. 

 My sister, Rachel, and my nephews David and Josh, and their dad, my brother Dave.

As I look back on 2013, the word that best describes me is grateful.

It was a little hard in the middle, with the move, but so, so many people helped us and I felt God's hand.

I have so many people in my life that I love dearly and I feel truly rich.

I am so grateful that Jonathan is doing better and he is happier and he is home. 

And thanks to you, my friends who read my blog, and offer me your friendship.

It has been a good year. I am excited to see what 2014 brings! 

Happy Birthday Janie!

Janie turned five years old on Christmas Eve.

She thought she was going to get to go to kindergarten right now and was a little sad when I told her she was still in preschool.

 

Janie is such a fun, sweet little girl. She likes to make people happy. She likes to give compliments and say thank you. She is charming.

She does not like to clean up.

She loves being a big sister to Lucy.

Janie is in to all things girly. This is a crown she made and taped to her head. She loves tights, dresses, shoes, purses, hair bows and headbands, and is very specific about the clothes she wants to wear.

 

Janie is such a blessing. I am so glad she came into our home.

We love you so much, Janie! Congratulations on being five!!

 

 

The Week Before Christmas...

Lucy knocked down our tree. It's broken. We now have no Christmas tree. I couldn't bring myself to buy one when they will be half off in a week. And we are going to my parent's house and they have a tree.

It was an old, somewhat ugly tree, so I am not totally sad to see it gone.

I will say that Lucy did feel bad when it came down, and started gibbering really quickly then burst into tears. Ah, life with a one-year-old.

We made gingerbread houses after Lucy went to bed for FHE on Monday. I helped Janie and Jonathan helped Sami. It could have gotten really competitive if Jonathan had boys instead of girls. As it was, we reigned him in. :)

 

And then two days ago, I cut my finger making chili. I called Jonathan and told him I think I needed stitches. Gratefully it was the end of the day. He was able to grab a suture kit from work and come home. He stitched me up in the bathroom WITHOUT pain meds! Yeah, it hurt like crazy. But I felt really cool and tough afterward, like maybe I am not a total wimp.

And today Sami had her Christmas program. This was our first music program at the school and I learned a few things. 1. Don't bring a stroller. There is no room. 2. If it's during nap time (and it was, 12:50 p.m.), hire a sitter for Lucy or she will be a terror and not understand why she can't run around. 3. Bring a real camera, not just your phone.

But she did so great. I was so proud of her singing her heart out. She was so glad we were there. Jonathan had to work, but it meant a lot to her that the rest of us were there.

 

Here's hoping next week is much calmer. I can hope.

 

 

Happy Birthday Sami!

It is such an honor to be this girl's mom. I just love the person she is becoming!

I can't believe she is six years old! She has been waiting for this day for a long time. She has had a count down for about 45 days now.

 Sami tries really hard to do what's right. Of course she still gets in trouble for the normal kid things like being bossy and not using a nice tone of voice all the time, but usually she is trying to help others do what she thinks is right.

 Sami is a really good helper. She is always asking to help clean or make dinner. Sometimes I ask her to vacuum the stairs and she loves it and I love it too! She likes to make her sisters and others around happy. She makes notes and gives them to everyone in the family and other people, like Mr. Greve, her kindergarten teacher and her friends from church.

 Sami has given us so much happiness. I miss her so much when she is at school. She has a lot of active energy which keeps us going. She is excited about everything. It makes things so fun and magical. The littlest things, like a treat in her lunch box or snow, make her so happy.

I am so thankful for Sami. She is such a blessing!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

 

Thanksgiving 2013

Jonathan was on call this weekend, so we stayed here. A family in our ward invited us and two other families over for Thanksgiving dinner. All I had to make was cranberries and green bean casserole. It was so nice! My kids could care less whether they had quesadillas or a ten part Thanksgiving dinner, so it was nice to have a great meal with very little effort. And we got to get to know some families in our ward.

 

Then I hit Black Friday this morning. It was fun. No one was rude or impatient. It may have something to do with the fact that it was "late," meaning 6:15 am and it was just Kohls. But it was really fun.

 

The thing I am most grateful for this year is my family. And the many ways that Heavenly Father lets families come together. I never imagined our family would come together like it did, but I wouldn't change it for the world! I remember the stress and discouragement of wanting a family and not getting pregnant so clearly.

But every time Sami runs up and gives me a hug when I pick her up from school, or Janie gives me a hug and says she likes my shirt (she says that almost every day, no matter what I am wearing) or Lucy starts dancing to "What Does the Fox Say" (Jonathan's favorite song and it gets stuck in my head...grrr...), I just feel so, so blessed! It was worth the wait.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!



Leaves Are Falling All Around

Our house is 34 years old so the trees are old enough to make a lot of leaves. When I admired the beautiful trees this summer, I had no idea how much time and effort would go into raking all those leaves.

Thankfully Jonathan does most of it. :)

(Although I think he is super nice because when the leaves from our trees fall into our neighbors yards, he rakes their yards too. I say that is beyond nice, especially while they watch us raking while smoking out on their porch.)

 

I love this smile.

 

 Sami is a hard worker. She stayed out with Jonathan all day and only stopped helping to eat lunch. After lunch, I thought she would stay inside and watch a show, but she put her jacket right back on and said, "Dad needs me. I better get back outside." We were so impressed.  

 

 

Lucy cracked me up because she was so busy moving leaves from one side of the yard to the other, she didn't even have time to look at the camera and smile. That's the determined child, right there.

 I am so grateful for cameras. I love that we can stop time for a moment and then remember. I LOVE being these girls' mom! I often look at my life and how I got to be so blessed. I don't want it to change. But then I remember that not all change is bad. While I miss my girls being babies, I love seeing who they are becoming now. I love seeing their personalities and what good kids they are. It's a good life.



Happy Halloween!

The girls could hardly sleep last night because the anticipation of Halloween was so great.

First off was a costume parade at Sami's school. I thought this was so fun. All the kids marched around the school in their costumes. Jonathan took a half day off so he could be there and it meant so much to Sami. She told me later she was afraid we wouldn't come. I am so glad we went!

 

Then it was her class party. I got to help in the classroom. I made a bingo game and a calk walk game for the class. But I mainly just wanted to meet all Sami's friends and see her with her friends. Thankfully she loved having me there and kept telling everyone I was her mom. (Love that! I am going to remind her of this in middle school when she is embarrassed to see me. ☺)

 

Then we had a fun Halloween dinner and then it was time for trick-or-treating. Sami and Janie could hardly wait! And it was perfect Fall weather tonight.

Lucy was a monkey but I couldn't keep her hood up for anything.

 

Sami and Janie are both witches.

 

I am in love with Autumn here.



I brought Lucy home after a few minutes so that I could pass out candy and put her to bed. Obviously I let her enjoy a few treats first. 

Jonathan took Sami and Janie out for over an hour. He could have kept going but Sami and Janie said they were tired. And they loved handing out candy at our door.

I hope it was all Sami and Janie had been hoping for. I think it was.



Getting Jonathan Back

Omaha has totally changed Jonathan. I am so grateful.

Residency was so hard on him. It was three years total, but the last two years were the hardest. He fell into depression and a deep-rooted exhaustion. Whenever he had time off, he just wanted to rest but that doesn't really happen when you have three kids.

He often told me he hated his job. And there was nothing I could really do to help him.  He dealt with death and dying all the time. He saw so many people die and had to tell that many more that they were going to die or tell their families the heart-wrenching news. He had to deal with angry patients (because it's just human nature to want to find blame when things go bad), and he worked with nurses who didn't have a lot a respect for residents. And then there were his attendings. Again, not so nice. And I could go on and on about the horrible hours. 

And when he was home, he saw that I needed help. So he tried to help me. And after the kids were in bed, he had to get presentations ready or study for another test (because they never stop!). I feel like he had pressure on every front.

BUT NOW...now things are different. And I love it.

Jonathan is happy. He has a life outside of work. He is running again and has lost almost 40 pounds since we have been in Omaha. He comes home every.single.night. He comes to church every Sunday with us. There are a few times a month when he doesn't get to tuck the girls in bed, but it is the exception now, not the norm.

Even though he is now in fellowship, he still has to do a lot of presentations and research. He still has boards to study for (he just became board certified in internal medicine now he has to study for allergy boards). And he still has to moonlight. But the depression and exhaustion are gone. It is so fun to see him back and enjoying life and work. I worried it would never happen.

I am so grateful to the Lord for this opportunity for fellowship. It has changed our lives so much, and for the better.  

We learned so much during residency. In particular, I learned about grace. I know we couldn't have done it without the Lord's help. I learned about the importance of good friends, who stood by us and helped us so much. I learned about letting things go (although I am still working on that!) and I learned about patience.

And residency made Jonathan a good doctor.

But I am glad it's over. :)

My Nieces' Baptism

The past week the girls had Fall break so we were able to go to Scottsbluff for my nieces' baptism.

It was so nice. All of my family was at the baptism except my youngest brother. I was even honored to give the talk on baptism.

I am so glad I was able to be there.

This is Julia. She is 11.

 And this is Sarah. She is 9.

 This is my brother Ben, with his cute girls.

 And this is Nathan, Ben's youngest. My family calls him Nater. He is four and so cute.

 I love this picture of my Dad and Ben and the girls. My dad was able to help teach the missionary lessons to Julie and Sarah. I know it was a special experience for him to teach his granddaughters the gospel and then to perform the baptism.

And this is our family with Marcie and our kids. Marcie is Lucy's birth mom and Sarah, Julie, and Nater's mom. This was the first time that Marcie and her kids had seen Lucy since the adoption over a year ago. It was a really good experience. I know that Sarah and Julie have been looking forward to seeing Lucy for a long time and I am glad it worked out in such a nice way.

 

Autumn, I have missed you!

 I love the view from my windows every day. I forgot how gorgeous Fall can be. The girls get excited about every leaf they see fall.

But the weather is odd here. In the morning it is cold, so I turn on the heat. But then it's hot again by the late evening so I want to turn on the AC. I have yet to figure out the middle ground.

The only downside to this weather is that we are all getting colds. And Jonathan's eyes have been so dry that his corneas are scratched. He can't wear contacts and has to put in special gel eye drops.

But I love making soups and breads. It's fun to have the seasons. But not winter. I don't want that to come. Ever.

Sami's Dream Come True

Sami has been asking for us to go camping. I have been the party pooper. Changing diapers outside in a tent? Not so fun. Not to mention that I am a worrier so I worry that one of our girls will wander off and get lost.

But Sami's runner-up dream has been to roast marshmallows on a fire. (Okay, so she wanted hot dogs too, but all she got was marshmallows.)

Some friends in our ward live in the "country," and invited us for a marshmallow roast and Sami could hardly contain the excitement.

 The Applegarths invited us over at 7 pm. Which is late at our house. So Lucy was so lucky she got to come. Although she didn't feel lucky, I think she mostly felt tired. But she did pretty good. Except she kept trying to touch the fire, which kept all of us adults on edge.

Jonathan is the "fire king," so he build a huge fire. Looking at this picture, I realize Sami looks so hot. And the fire was mesmerizing for a girl who had never seen one up close before. The little boys sitting next to Janie is Nathan and he is in her preschool class. She tells me he is handsome.

 I love that I got this picture of Jonathan explaining how to build a fire.

 One of the best parts was when Sami asked to tell a spooky story. It went like this: "I am going to tell you about Pinkfoot. He is a monster. When you give him a smore, he will sing you a song. The end." Now those are the kind of spooky stories I like. :)



The Determined Child

Lucy thinks she is five. Or maybe ten.

She doesn't really care what other babies are doing. She only wants to do what the big girls are doing.

She doesn't want to play with "baby" toys, but isn't quite ready for big girl toys yet.

 She wants to use silverware. She throws a fit if she doesn't get to strap herself in her high chair or car seat. (I let her buckle herself in the high chair but not the car which has started a few very strong protests on her part.)

She is the most independent little thing. And messy. Sami nicknamed her The Messer and it has kinda stuck. This morning I found her opening dish washer tabs and putting them in the dishwasher, then shutting the dishwasher. She is so, so smart. Scary smart.

 She turns 18 months this week. (Yay for nursery!) We can't imagine life without her. Her laugh is so contagious it makes us all laugh. Her smile is so cute and lights up the room. I can't imagine life without her. I hope she knows how loved she is.