what a difference a day makes

This picture makes me laugh so hard - it's Gabi doing her best Cosmo Kramer impersonation!  And this picture also shows how long her hair has gotten...  I had just taken out her little ponytail before bed last night, and this is what it did.  Bam! 

ha!

There ya go, sweetie pie... those curls are much happier this morning. 

The back is all grown in now and is curling up like crazy too...

I'm excited about all of the great Gabi hair that is to come!

homeschool update

I just wrote a new updated post at The School Stop in the column to the right... scroll down a ways until you come to it. 

the kids are also enjoying ice skating lessons every other week....

building electronic circuits...

and Morgan made a four-poster bed like she saw while we were reading about

the lords and ladies of old in Europe! 

Some of our homeschooling highlights for sure. 

just life

A glimpse of homeschooling - this night we were finishing reading Caddie Woodlawn just after dinner..

the old kitchen green (which I still like)

and the new, brighter kitchen green!  I love it. 

Organic Green by Valspar at Lowe's



And here's our little Gabrielle who has mastered the art of pulling up on things.  

She isn't even crawling on all fours, but she's a go-geter!

new and decluttered boy's room

Here's another glimpse into a project we worked on one recent weekend. 

The boy's den, I mean room. 

I really should have taken before pictures, but Jeremy and the boys tore into the room before I had a chance.  We made a conscious decision to majorly declutter their space and keep only 3 major types of toys for them.  They were all for it, actually, since all of the other things just were messing up their room and gave them more to clean up constantly. 

So we kept LEGO, Playmobil, and Nerf darts/guns.  Then we gave them one dresser in their toy drawer to fill with miscellaneous things they wanted to keep, but weren't part of a set.  That made us all happy! 

And the closet in the above picture, only holds Gavin's clothes... but see the empty hangers on the top rod?  Yep, those all held shirts, and they were all stuffed on the lower rod!  Craziness.  And not to mention the closet was filled with things they never used anymore...  Ahhh - relief! 

One whole garbage bag of shirts and pants came just from this closet.  That will happily be sold to bring home some sweet kiddos  into our friend's families through adoption in the near future.

You should have seen the clutter and stuff that sat on their window shelf before!

the first stop

A couple months ago, when I heard my Mom was able to come up for Gabrielle's adoption day, I immediately thought of a project we could do together while she was here.  You see, my mom organizes for a job!  Yay for me!  So I asked her ahead of time if we could tackle the new and so unorganized school closet.  Last fall, we turned our school room into the bigger girl's room to make room for their new baby sis.  And the things we didn't toss from old school room now had to fit in this closet in Gabrielle's room.  That was no small task. 

Bookshelves were moved to different parts of the house, along with board games and puzzles.  But all of our everyday school stuff needed an organized home.  I thought back in August, that I'd done a really good job organizing it all.  But it turns out there was just WAY too much junk I thought I needed to keep. 

I really wish I would have taken a before picture, but I forgot.  You couldn't even see the white of the closet wall, it was so stuffed.  And you couldn't see the floor either.  It was baby and school all thrown together in one big jumble. 

I'll show you all the junk that came out of it in a minute.. but first I think I need to have a moment of silence for my new favorite organizing tool: 

these simple clear boxes

They were just over a buck at Lowe's and I bought 8 of them, sure that I'd use them all up.  And that I did!  They house:

crayons

colored pencils

glue (all sorts)

post-it notes

dot paints

markers

and... and...

I can't remember the other two, but trust me, these little bad boys are worth their weight in gold!

I love how they are clear, so the kiddos can see what they're grabbing.  Plus, they're small enough to stack 3 in each cube.  We had so many crayons in this house, that I threw out all the broken ones and only kept what I could fit in one clear box. 

Mason jars were my other best friend in this organizing job.  I have one each for pencils, pens, scissors, paint brushes, chalk, etc..  I just love clear containers, it makes me so happy to see our supplies looking cute and ready to be used.  Can art supplies look cute?  Well, ours do. 

There was one other organizing box with layers and compartments I found that I got two of.  It's the one with the teal lid with the handle sticking up (in the photo below) and one holds all our office supples (stapler/staples/rubber bands/tape/paper clips/brads) and the other one holds beads, beads, and more beads. 

The baby's side took a major gutting too... Why in the world did I have like 20 blankets in her closet?  When we only use one in her carseat?  And she sleeps in a swaddle blanket?  Well, they're either stored or donated now. 

Gavin was so excited to help Jeremy put together the shelving... cute guy. 

Okay, so here's the dirt.  Some of the stuff that was filling the closet to the brink!  I thought I was so organized having it all in labeled drawers...  they should have been labeled:

just junk

stuff I'll never use, but saved anyways

toilet paper rolls that have been here 3 years

paper towel rolls that will be here 3 years

those tiny beads that get spilled all over the floor

dried out markers

dried out pens from 1996

Seriously, why didn't I trash that stuff when I "cleaned" it all out last fall? 

Well, I view stuff much differently now.  "Things" in our house have been drowning us for too long.  We have been slaves to it!  Picking it up, dusting it, yada yada.. Enough.  This was the first stop of a major overhaul we've done on the house these past two weeks, and I wanted to share our first project. 

It's more of a spiritual thing than anything.  Stuff was getting in the way of our relationship with God. 

We just don't want that.  We don't want to be selfish hoarders, we want to be free to give our things and not be attached to our things. 

Wow, I got on a bandwagon... back to the junk that was in the closet!

More...

and more...

and more...

There was one more huge plastic 3-drawer dresser that was in there too... I had already moved it out to the hall and forgot to snap a picture.  Craziness I tell ya. 

It's been about 3 weeks since the closet was finished and it hasn't gotten messy yet.  It's so easy and simple now to put things back in their places.  Ahhhhhhh. 

More on other house projects later ~ night!

on the other side

Here is Dave yesterday evening, just hours after being released from the hospital! 

He has some healing left to do on his body and in his lungs yet, but we are thankful for the speedy recovery he has already experienced!

update: Dave released!

An update from the homefront today... my father-in-law David was released from the hospital this afternoon!  He is still in pain from his burns and lung issues, but we're thankful he can rest peacefully at their temporary home these next few weeks.  Please continue to pray for peace for both Dave and Anita, and for continued healing of his wounds. 

God gives beauty for ashes, aren't we so thankful for that? 

So thankful they are both still here with us. 

please pray

My awesome in-laws, David and Anita's house caught fire this morning.  Anita wasn't home, but Dave was home and fought the fire until he was taken by ambulance to the hospital.  He suffered burns and has smoke inhalation issues and is now resting in the ICU.  It is crazy cold here right now, like -40 at their house when the fire started.  So recovery of the things in the house is not feasible, and most of it will most probably be considered a total loss.  Please pray for peace and comfort for them, and for our family and the rest of the extended family as well.  Please pray for healing for Dave, as he'll be hospitalized for a couple more days it looks like. 

He is a dear, dear godly man that we all love and admire. 

homemade goodies from Grandma

Our kids benefit greatly from some crafty and talented Grandmas... 

My mom sews napsacks for all her grandkids, and Annie and Gabrielle were among 4 grandgirls that got them this year for Christmas!  Drew, Gavin, and Morgan have loved theirs for years and pull them out for sleepovers and movie nights.  They roll up and velcro closed and are easy to store... thanks Mom! 

She also went all out on tents for the kids!  They hang from the ceiling on a big hook and have a hula hoop velcroed in to keep their shape at the top.  They're tall and SO fun!!!  They store flat under their beds too.  The cushions on the bottom are soft and all 5 kids can fit in one tent.  I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the boy's tent this day, but it's blue with tie dye/batik material for the top and pockets. 



And I love that what they do most in them is read! 

Another crafty Grandma, Marla Kay made these adorable matching purses for Morgan and I! 

Aren't they so cute? 

We love homemade gifts, because we know how much time and love goes into them. 

Gavin got baptized!

Gavin decided he was ready to be baptized a few months ago,  and on January 2nd he was!

We are proud of you, Gavin for the decision you have made to announce to the world through baptism that you are going to follow Jesus with your life.  We love you so much. 

Sorry for the jump around quality and low volume of this clip...  but you get the point.  :)

Almost the whole family was able to be there that day.  

We had a yummy lunch out together afterwards. 

Gavin and Pastor Larry

Larry has been the pastor of our church since 1977, the year I was born. 

When we moved here and started attending this church, I was 8 years old just like Gavin!

8 month old Gabi

My sweet baby is 8 months old!  She's actually closer to 9 months now, I believe...

She loves her food, and started eating those little Gerber puffs and rice rusk crackers in the last few weeks. 

She loves food.  She actually growls for it.  ha ha 

She has no teeth.

Army crawls everywhere, and gets up on her hands and knees to rock back and forth.

She sits up like a champ, and rarely spits up anymore. 

Bye bye reflux, she's been off medication now for a couple months! 

She sleeps 14 hours a night, and takes two naps.  One long in the AM, one short in the early evening.

She says da-da-da and ma-ma-ma. 

Her hair is growing at an insanely fast rate, and her ginormous bald spot is all grown in and curling up. 

She is very sweet and laid back, but definitely has her opinions about things. 

We can make her giggle at the drop of a hat.

Here she sits so cutely in her my first Christmas jammies from her birthmom. 

Sooo cute. 

I found her like this.  She sure knows how to find a comfy spot to lounge!



My mom came for a visit for 10 days for Gabrielle's adoption!

She left yesterday, we had such a good time together.  She is insanely crafty... I'll do a post soon about the fun and creative gifts our kids got from their grandmas this Christmas. 

more adoption day photos..

Adoption Day photos

Done!  We love you Gabrielle!!!

our awesome attorney

oh, look at this daughter of mine

Althought this picture is not flattering, it shows the real emotions we had after it was over...

and the bit of a letdown the delay was.

The judge greeting the kids and handing out lollipops!

the whole gang!

Also we had some good friends come to join us this special day, thank you!!  That meant so much to us.  

Today

Here I sit at 10:00pm on a day we've been waiting 6 months for.  Gabrielle's adoption day. 

This week has been so mentally exhausting that our whole family including Jeremy and my Mom have been in bed since 9pm.  But me?  I had to unwind my mind and just breathe by myself awake for a bit.

We have so anticipated this day, that I wondered what I'd feel like when it actually came.  Well, I feel spent... and so happy.  So, so happy.  My sweet daughter who has been in my heart for almost 2 years, and in my arms for over 6 months is oh so close to being our daughter forever on paper.  It wasn't completely finalized today like we'd hoped, the judge wanted one more thing to be done that doesn't include us.  So we just have to wait until that happens, then he'll sign off.  That was a letdown for me, I just wanted to be DONE.  So I've had a hard time feeling like we could celebrate.   Things are still as they've always been, she's our sweet, beautiful daughter that we adore.  Nothing any judge could say could change that.  And the adoption is completely done, except for this one formality. 

I'm so happy that we are done with everything we need to do, and will be so thrilled on the day in the very near future when it's finally, totally, nothing else - DONE.  I'll keep you posted, it'll be a couple months though. 

We so appreciate your prayers, things that happened this week were nothing short of a miracle.  It was so obviously God's hand. 

The hearing was so short, it didn't last but 10 minutes.  I expected at least 30 minutes!  Gabi was so adorable, but had only slept 15 minutes all day by the time we arrived, when by that point she would have already slept at least 3 hrs. in naps.  So I was prepared for a tired meltdown, but we gave her a bottle right as we started, and she was happy as a clam smiling at our friends and family behind us.  We weren't allowed to have photos taken during the hearing, but my sis-in law Heather was able to snap a bunch after.  Can't wait to see them!  I was fine all day, didn't feel like I was going to cry or become emotional other than being EXTREMELY happy... but the judge surprised us and our attorney with a flukey thing that he wanted done before he'd sign off.  And that was at the very start, and that was heavy on my heart.  So when our attorney started our questioning, which were super simple questions like, "How long have you lived in this state?" I began to get emotional as he looked me in the eye and said, "Do you feel it is in the best interest of this child to be adopted?"  I wanted to jump up and scream, "YES!"  But instead the tears came, and I almost couldn't speak, but amazingly, I was able to compose myself quickly and move on. 

Adoption is intense.

Intense.

Did I mention it's intense?  This adoption we're dealing with real people who have had real loss.  It's hard and so, so worth it.  Our daughter is worth us doing court hearings for her for the rest of her life.  She just is.  But we're so thankful that was it.  We don't have to do it again! 

Goodnight friends, I'm signing off.  Pictures will be coming soon. 


The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy! 

Psalm 126:3