it’s crunch time for created for care!! we only have 5 days left to finalize all the little details!
i have been doing so good about taking a picture every day…but posting them has been a challenge due to round the clock retreat planning! i hope to get back to posting project 365 next week!
will you be at C4C this year? i really hope to see you there!
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i am pretty sure the 90% of my pictures of silas this year will include a train. i waited FOUR year for the kid to start playing with toys…and it FINALLY clicked. he loves everything and anything trains. he still doesn’t play for any extended amount of time by himself, but playing at all is a big accomplishment for him (thank you OT!).
i was able to capture a very rare moment where they were playing next to each other and NOT wrestling!! man, these boys are so physical!
we celebrated ethiopian christmas with our favorite little ethiopians! this is the whole crew (minus sam who was not cooperating…and mimi who we cannot wait to meet!). the four cuties in the front all lived together for the first year of their life in ethiopia! how cool is that God place them all in families that live in the ATL? there are six cribmates that ended up in atlanta…it is really just amazing and unheard of!
this girl and books. they are pretty much inseparable.
post shower goof balls. that is all.
this picture pretty much sums up our lives. boys+trains+no pants. the girls have finally grown out of the no pants phase…but the boys are still going full force. i will say…there is nothing cuter than a little guy in character briefs!
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we sat down recently and watched past project 365 videos. i cried and cried as i watched all the memories flip by. all my favorite people, all my favorite moments documented in one place. i cherish the videos so much and i just know that they will be so important to me in the years to come. project 365 is a BIG commitment…but it is SO worth it. i don’t ever what to look back and wish i had taken a moment each day to snap a photo. for me, it is such an easy way to capture the every day. the every day that i will desperately miss one day and wish it was all documented.
so…after a year off…i am picking project 365 back up. poor sam has very few “real” pictures of his first year home (well, few compared to the other 3 kids…the life of the 4th child!). i miss my camera and am challenging myself to grow and learn this year after slacking in 2012.
sweet grace (my lil niece) celebrated her 1st birthday on new year’s day! she was the daintiest little eater. i was poised ready for a cake smash shot…but no luck. she just sat there all content picking off little pieces and placing them neatly in her mouth. love that girl!
the girls had a friend over for a pajama movie day. i set up a pallet on the floor so they could all cozy up and watch brave together. sam DOES NOT watch TV…but he plopped down like he was all interested. the movie starts with a pretty intense scene and sam’s expression was classic. he is a FUNNY guy. joe and i sitting around laughing at him most of the day. he really cannot say much at this point…so he is very expressive to communicate with us. this is my OH.MY.GOODNESS.I.CANNOT.BELIEVE.THAT.JUST.HAPPENED look. 🙂
sam is proof that you can keep BIG babies rear facing for the first 2 years of their life. it can be done!! sam is like 98 percentile in height and weight and he turns two at the end of the month. we decided to do extended rear facing with both boys (it was not recommended until the girls were already older) and they both made it to their 2nd birthdays without any issues. sam is LONG and BIG and he has just learned to prop his feet up or kick them to the side. we seriously don’t hear a peep from him in the car. hope he doesn’t become a whiner when we finally do turn him around!
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i am sad i didn’t get to post before i left, but i just arrived home from ethiopia wednesday afternoon! i spent a week with an amazing group of woman visiting many amazing ministries. i am still trying to process all that i learned and saw while i was in-country. i had such a BLAST on this trip…but was also brought to my knees. i made lifelong friendships with the people i traveled with and made some great new friendships with people i now call my ethiopian family.
you would think after my 5th trip to africa it would get easier. it doesn’t…reintegration is rough. if you are wondering why i am not answering the phone…please read erica’s post. i could not have said it better in my own words.
i can’t wait to gather all my pictures so i can share with you all the amazing things that are going on in ethiopia! there are some wonderful ministries on the ground in ET working tirelessly to keep children with their families. as much as i am overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task…i am inspired by these organizations and the woman that participate in them. truly amazed!
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wow. i almost forgot my password to log onto the blog! not sure if anyone is even checking in anymore, but i thought i would stop by and say hello!
we are doing great and keeping busy, busy as usual. but what has been taking up most of my time is the massive purging and organization process that is going on at our house right now! about 18 months ago, joe and i felt the house starting to close in around us. now…don’t get me wrong, we have PLENTY of space in our house. but, we felt like every nook and cranny was stuffed full of STUFF. so for the past 2 years, we have contemplated moving into a house with a basement. a house with STORAGE. oh, the thought of it is just so dreamy. i would still want the kids to share rooms no matter where we live, but storage would be HUGE.
another reason we considered moving was for silas. we only have one space we can all go to hang out. and if you are a kid with SPD…there is just no escaping the crazy when there are people hustling and bustling around. we just felt he needed a place he could go when he is overwhelmed….or a place the girls could go to when they have friends over so that he does not feel overwhelmed. this may seem like an insignificant need, but if you have ever been to our home you understand how overstimulated silas can get with visitors. it lead to us having people over less and less because it was just not fun anymore.
we love our home. we have lived here for 8 year and almost every major milestone (except savannah) has happened here. i look around and can tell you where i was when i found out i was pregnant with adeline, where i was when i found out my brother in law had passed away, where i was when we finally got the call for silas and where we sat when we saw his face for the first time…also where i was when we were shocked to hear about our referral for samuel. i love how i have to step over the 2nd to last step because it creaks…and i remember how excited i was when we had finally lived here long enough to have a creak in the floor. we have taken EVERY first day of school picture on our front stoop and have celebrated EACH and EVERY one of our kids’ birthdays here. it is just home. even when we move from this place…i will always consider this home.
i also love the location of our home. we are 5 minutes from both of the schools and gymnastics…10 minutes from both our parents, 5 minutes from my sister, and my grandparents live IN my neighborhood. i mean, you can’t get much better than that! plus we have friends that we carpool with to almost everything we do. if we moved even 10 minutes closer to joe’s work…it would be HOURS more in the car each week.
anywho. all this to say that after 2 years of going back and forth…should we move, should we stay….we decided that we are going to stay here and make some major changes to make the house more conducive to our family and the stage we are now with the kids. when we moved in, we had a sweet 8 month old savannah… so we spread out all over the house. over time, i never reorganized. i just shoved things in random places and things got more and more out of control. can you imagine how crazy that is 8 years later?
we started out with project switcheroo (or as silas calls is switch-a-room). we disassembled all the bunk beds and moved everyone around. the current situation really made no sense for our family right now. then i started emptying all the rooms and buying tubs galore to organize. i also pulled out the trusty label maker! the progress is slow and steady since i have quickly learned that boys are not a fan of organization. the house is a DISASTER in the process…but i am okay with that. we have made multiple trip to good will and it feels oh.so.good to purge all the stuff i have been holding onto for too long.
to make a very long story short….i have completely cut myself off from the computer in an attempt to remain motivated. (luckily i still have instagram on my phone, so all is right in my world :)) the blog had to take a backseat while i got the ball rolling, but i hope that i can maintain both going forward.
any ideas where to store this ridiculously large collection of GeoTrax we accumulated from a friend (and this does not even include the two big tubs that also go with it)? we finally got it all out of the grocery and garbage bags they were previously stored in. but now what?! it is a crazy amout of tracks…but it is the ONLY thing silas plays with. that kid LOVES him some trains.
oh…and i misspelled GeoTrax and all the tubs. it is driving me absolutely crazy, but it is a great practice in self control…right?!
so what is new with you? any good organization tips or suggestions? i would love suggestions for keeping a family of 6 organized in a home with no storage space!
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you, now • father • far awayPosted in instagram photo a day, life | Leave a Comment »
fresh • dream • tapPosted in life | Leave a Comment »
silas had his first day of school last week. he went two days last week and came home with all smiley faces both times…whew!! he also had good notes from the teacher about being a hard worker. it makes me proud that he can behave himself at school. i hold my breath when he comes home and i pull out the smiley face sheet! 🙂 so far, he is exercising self control and i pray that it continues!
silas is SUPER excited to stay for lunch this year. i was a little worried that the extra day and extra hour this year would be hard for him. but, so far…so good!
sam and i are a little lost without the rest of the kids around! the first time we dropped everyone off we came home and just stared at each other like…now what?! BUT…it didn’t take long for samuel to enjoy his toys without being pestered and for me to put laundry away without being interrupted every two seconds.
how handsome is my guy?! i still can’t believe how much he is changing all of the sudden. FOUR is just around the corner!
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outside • one • coin
ring • purple • spoon
hole • today • coolPosted in instagram photo a day, life | Leave a Comment »
garden • lunch • big
your favourite colour • letter • texture
animal/insect/pet • eyes • 9 o’clock
cup • the last thing you bought • calmPosted in instagram photo a day, life | Leave a Comment »
love is spoken here 