Five years!

Five years ago at this time i was snuggled up in bed, staring at my little Issy in my arms, my heart so full. I was exhausted, but i stayed up most of that first night, just admiring the miracle of the person that i had waited so long to meet. She is amazing, sweet, sassy, caring, nurturing, strong-willed little person. Even now sometimes it seems surreal and unbelieveable that God entrusted her little soul to Joe and I. What a task.

We had a very good day. She was estatic that it was her birthday :)

The princess balloon that Daddy picked out for her. She wore it around on her wrist the better part of the day.
Her dolly from Mommy and Daddy and her brothers. She had seen it in the little drugstore in our town a couple months ago and was quite taken with it and i made a mental note then that it would be a good birthday present. She is currently sleeping with it, so i think it was a good choice.
The neighbors have two little girls and a boy that Issy and Isaac made friends with recently. They love to play in the snow together in our cul-de-sac. They came over for cake this afternoon and Issy got a necklace and bracelet from each of them. I am so glad she has some friends here :)

A blast from the past! Sweet Issy, a couple of weeks old, and her cousin Ritchie.
Mommy kisses as Issy dyed Easter eggs for the first time at five weeks old. She slept through it.
Issy and her godmother, Erika, on the day of her Baptism.

Around the house

We are very excited to be coming home in a week! Gearing up, getting out our spring clothes, and ready for our 2 day road trip with the three kids. Yikes! Can't wait to see everyone and hopefully have some springy weather. He really likes button-down shirts. He would wear one every day if he had enough. He says they make him look handsome. And they do. Normally, however, when he dresses himself, he picks out really nice combinations. This day, well, it was an interesting combination. The shirt and vest look nice when not paired with each other. But he dress himself and we weren't going anywhere, so who i am to judge ;)
A couple months ago, Joe was telling me how he thought it would be cool to have a fire in the fire pit. We haven't been able to see the fire pit for about that long, because it has been buried in snow. Monday was apparently the day, though, when his idea got the better of him. Him and Issy and Isaac went out after dinner (thanks, Daylight Savings Time!) and shoveled a path to and around the fire pit. Riiiiight. But it made them all happy, so more power to them.

Daddy and Liam have been having special bath time a couple times a week after dinner. For obvious reasons, this is just a picture of Liam by Daddy's feet.
He was holding a cracker and i told him i was going to take his picture. He decided that it would be a good pose to put this cracker in his mouth like this. He wouldn't take it out, so this is what we have.
What better toy than laundry baskets?

Before bedtime one night, they all got under the blanket together.
A recent snow walk.
"Dog" Pile on Daddy.

Thought i would share

Found this video and thought i would share. Kevin Max was with dc Talk for years and is now doing solo work

Big things are on the horizon!

It is quickly becoming apparent to me that life is happening and time isn't going to stop. My little girl will be turning 5-years-old in only 6 short days. 5-years-old. I'll save the sappy sweet post for her birthday, but it is this event that is jarring me into reality. She is going to grow up. She isn't going to be a little girl forever. At some point in the next ten years, she is going to become a young woman. As i type this, i am panicking a little on the inside. I mean, i always knew i wanted to have babies and to raise a family. But at some point i disconnected the fact that my babies would grow up to be adults.

And because my little girl is now about to be five, we are presented with a new parenting challenge... her education. How, when, where? We have three options here: public school, private school, and homeschooling. We are exploring all of these options, in the quest to find what suits her needs accordingly. It is turning out to be quite the task! She is very bright and picks up on things easily. She is already learning all the time.

I, too, am toying with some my plans to further my education. I have thought that when the kids were older, i would like to train to be a midwife. But i had no solid timeline for that. There has been a nudging in my heart lately that perhaps i should implement this plan sooner rather than later. But then i am discouraged by the logistics of it... which midwifery program, securing an apprenticeship, how to juggle midwifery and parenting. And i am right back where i started... with a deep desire in my heart to put birth back into the hands of birthing women, but no real concrete idea on how i could do that. I had previously been resigned to the fact that it just wasn't the season in my life for that, but now i am perplexed by the strong desire to take some action.

It is at times like these i wish God wasn't so subtle sometimes. Where is the burning bush when you need it? (N.B. There, i said it, it is out on the internet for the world to see. So when God whacks me upside the head with a glaring answer, you can all say "But careful what you ask for")

Edited to Add: In December, i started a blog about pregnancy and birth. Come check it out! I am going to try to update weekly at this point, probably on Fridays. The link is in the list of my favorite links on the right.

I knit!

Yup, i still knit, although i have been sporadic for a while now. Here are things i can post because i have gifted them and the owners have received them: My cousin had a baby girl in December and i made her these small Picky Pants. For the shirt, i really wanted to get a little black shirt and stencil a bundle of grapes in purple and green (the yarn colorway is called Grapes on a Vine) but given the limited availability of such things around here, i put that vision aside. Instead, I bought a onesie from Target and cut off the bottom and hemmed it with a little rick-rack border.
Here are the small Picky Pants in a size comparison with the most recent pair of pants i knit Liam. I can't believe he has gotten so big *sniff*

Joe's slippers, which he requested i finish before he went to Vegas, so he could take them. He forgot them at home.
Little Gracie's birthday present. She doesn't keep them on, so i am going to crochet a chain out of that yarn, so they can weave it in and tie them on in back. Sorry, Grace, your sock-pulling-off days are numbered!