SheldonFam

BEACH DAY

2011-08-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Stinson beach for one last summer fling before S started school:

sandcastles with Dad

end of our day, but kids not ready to go back home

first time at the beach=love

this girl was in heaven! She was in her suit in the freezing water with an overcast/foggy morning, and loving it!

hmmmm...

2011-06-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to find the "fold and put away" button on my dryer...

Kids photoshoot

2011-05-31T16:59:00.000-07:00

Our friend Shannon took some great photos of the kids a few weeks ago, here's the link

Drumroll, please...

2011-05-28T15:53:00.001-07:00

...literally.

$15 bucks at a yard sale this morning. With the money I saved we'll be able to buy lots of earplugs.

She's 5 and more

2011-05-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

Look! Our friend Aimee was in town visiting her family, whom we happen to live close to...(thanks, God!)

What a treat to spend several hours with her and her kids--first at her Mom's house, and then they came to our house for the morning of S's birthday.

So I made S a panda cake for her 5th birthday.

and cupcakes for both of her pre-school classes.

Everyone got into the Hungry Hippos game from the grandparents.

Bedtime popcorn snack

I guess this was R's idea of how to help P get in some reading time...

And finally, here's an idea for you...instead of either ignoring, or handing your money to the homeless person begging by the street corner, make up some of these bags and keep one in your car at all times to hand out.

Here's the website of the folks who came up with the idea, http://h2obags.com/ The contents of the entire bag cost me $2.96, and includes a pair of black socks (presumably b/c they don't show dirt), a gospel tract, a few wet wipes, kleenex, water, food items and mints, and directions/info about our county's homeless shelter/mission.

3 MONTHS LATER

2011-04-26T16:13:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been awhile...3 months since the last post. Yikes. What can I say, we've been busy--here's a pic of the kids in S's "new turquoise room" as she still calls it, on her new twin bed.

Shortly after we moved the phone company was pouring some concrete after a repair for the sidewalk in front of our house. R was in heaven, watching the cement truck at work!

P chillin' in her chair-which used to be R's, which used to be S's...

R's 3rd Birthdsay--cake with crushed oreo's on top for dirt, and candles in the shape of excavators and dump trucks etc.

During the month of March, S's preschool class had a dress up day every
Friday. Here she is on Pirate day.

And here she is on Wacky dress up day.

One of the kids favorite dinnertime veggies is frozen peas...R helped himself this time, and got the mother lode.

happy girl

Easter morning

S carrying an egg on a spoon

Coloring eggs

A shot from our recent trip to Ohio, to meet Baby Lacey (the kids' new cousin)

Got Books?

2011-01-21T16:45:00.000-08:00

Anyone have books laying around that you've already read, or will never read, but you don't want to just give them to Goodwill? Try joining Swap.com--I've been a member for several months now, and it's pretty easy--just make a list of the books you have, and a list of the books you want, and Swap will match the trades up. You can even print your shipping label from their site, so you don't have to make a special trip to the post office--(I've tested it out, and the website gives me the exact same price as the post office if I take the book there to mail.) Happy swapping!

Christmas and more

2011-01-19T14:39:00.000-08:00

First a quiz question--can you guess what S is wearing on her feet? It's not shoes or slippers or anything that was actually designed to go on your feet...scroll to the bottom for the answer.

The Sunday before Christmas--thanks Grammie for the kids fancy clothes! R has already removed his beautiful sweater--it is gray with white zig-zags on it, so R calls it his "lightning sweater"

And more Christmas clothes from Granna.

We bought our tree from Wal-mart this year--won't make that mistake again. It was dead after a week, and these are only some of the needles it had shed by the time we took it down on Christmas day.

This one is for Grammie and Aunt Stacy--remember the dress P is wearing?

Hat and scarf dress up time

"Rice time", aka "keep 'em busy while i get something done time."

Here's the answer to the quiz question--they are the arm covers to the car booster seat on the floor in the background. I had washed them (thus the laundry basket) and S found them and put them on her feet. Clever girl.

A New House (we hope)

2011-01-19T13:46:00.000-08:00

So we've been trying to buy a house for exactly one year. Probably 90% of everything being sold in our area is a short sale; we put offers on many houses, were finally selected by the seller for a house in July, waited 6 months for the seller's bank to approve of the short sale, which in the end was rejected without a counter-offer. Which put us back to square one in December. This house came on the market then (another short sale) but our offer was quickly selected and has been moving at a good pace ever since. The closing date is between Feb 10-21. We're hoping all continues to go smoothly so we can finally enter the exciting, scary world of homeownership.

My apologies to anyone who isn't in our family: what follows is a lot of pictures that will likely bore you, but our family members (who all live far away) have been wanting to see them and this was just the easiest way to share.

Ok, for some reason I didn't take a picture of just the front of the house, so you'll have to piece it together from the next 3 photos.

Here's a view of the front door from the livingroom. What follows is what you'd see if you turned in a circle to your right.

Now we'll walk through that doorway from the picture above, and this is what you'd see--the dining area.

Now turn in a circle to your left, for the next 3 pictures.

Now we walk through that doorway from the picture above, and turn around to face that kitchen/dining area. The master bedroom is to the right of this picture, and that is a bathroom door on the left.

Here's the master bedroom, there is a bathroom to the left of this picture. The hot tub doesn't work and is supposed to be removed before we move in. Do you like their paint job? I think they just painted around their furniture :)

Master bathroom

One of the 3 kids' rooms.

The back yard

So that's it, we'll let you know if it actually goes through or falls through--if you think of us you can say a prayer that we will be making wise decisions!!

It's not too late for Christmas carols

2011-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

R's spontaneous rendition of "Angels We Have Heard On High."

First Christmas performance

2010-12-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

S and R's first Christmas Eve performance.
R finally starts singing toward the end.
S was so excited to be an angel and wear the wings.
Believe it or not their performance exceeded our expectations

December update

2010-12-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

So way back from October, here are the kids at S's school Halloween party

P went as a scarecrow--the same costume I made for S for her first Halloween. R was a pilot.

R enjoying a trick or treat sucker

Daddy taking some creative photos of S playing on the back patio

This is one of the most common poses for R--staring up into the sky at a plane passing overhead, often a big transport plane from nearby Travis Air Force Base.

Boo!

Our smiley girl...

which is why we did a smiley face theme for her first birthday, in November.

"I'm ONE!"

Grammy and Grampy were here for the party, from IL. Grammy made the dress P is wearing!

A few weeks later was Thanksgiving, and family from Ohio were here to visit. Our church hosts a "Turkey Bowl" football game early on Thanksgiving Day. P wasn't too thrilled to be there...

R wasn't too thrilled either, but only b/c he was too little to play football with all the big people. So sad.

But S had a ball cheering for Dad.
So, as a reference point, take a good look at S's bangs in this picture of her jumping at the bounce house place, earlier in the week. Now you see 'em...

...now you don't.

That's right, Thanksgiving Day she found the hair-cutting scissors sitting on the bathroom counter, and decided to give her bangs a trim, down to the scalp. Good thing the rest of her hair was in braids!

And finally, here is P with her latest accomplishment, climbing the stairs...hooray P!

Piper One Year Old

2010-11-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

Our friend Shannon took some FANTASTIC pictures of Piper--check them out here !

"Poh-kin" Time

2010-10-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

Since S is in 2 pre-schools (our neighborhood's Christian pre-school, and our public school district's special-ed pre-school) we got to take 2 field trips to pumpkin (or as R says, "poh-kin") patches this week. They were both SO much fun for different reasons...

The first, Impossible Acres, was highlighted by the half hour the kids got to spend with very docile farm animals--sheep, ponies, goats, chickens, and lots of babies--bunnies, a calf, piglets, pygmy goats, ducklings, and chicks.

The second, Cool Patch Pumpkins, was great because S had been there last year with her class and couldn't wait to go back. And Paul was able to go with us, which was even better. It was about 92 degrees that day, and this bright hot blue sky needs no enhancement.

P on the hayride

For sure the highlight of this patch is the enormous corn bath. Sort of like a giant sandbox filled with corn kernals. The kids all loved rolling, crawling and jumping in the corn. If you've seen this next picture on Paul's facebook/flickr page, you'll notice he photoshopped in some black wings and a sword...guess he couldn't resist her mid-air angel pose.

R's jumping style was more of a side-tuck

S getting tickles from her fabulous teacher

PANDA!!

2010-10-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

S is going to be a panda for Halloween. She loves pandas. We saw the hat at a San Francisco Giants game (where player Pablo Sandoval is known as The Panda.) They were charging 20 bucks for the panda hat. I came home and bought one new on ebay for 99 cents, plus $3 shipping from China. HA! Anyway, add black pants, white shirt and black shrug sweater= perfect panda. S was SO excited when I brought it out, jumping up and down, saying "panda shirt! panda pants!" She wanted to put it on right then, and wore it for the next few hours, even though it was 97 degrees outside.

One more encouraging note--she has speech twice a week, for an hour, and her speech therapist has really been working with her on the concept of "where." Lo and behold, the other day I asked S "where is your sippy cup?" And for the first time ever, she actually got down from her chair and went and looked in the living room and in her bedroom for the cup. She's never done that before. I think she's figuring it out-yea!!

California Capital Airshow 2010

2010-09-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

Paul and R went to the California Capital Airshow on Saturday. Here are some of the highlights. This is R in the cockpit of an army medical helicopter.

Here's R checking out the cargo bay of a C-5 Galaxy, one of the planes we see daily flying to and from Travis Airforce Base.

One of the main attractions of the show were the P-38 Lightnings. There are only 7 in the world, and 4 of them were at the show. We paid some extra $ to get an up-close view. Here's R in front of Glacier Girl. A P-38 recovered and restored after being buried for 50 years in Greenland under 200 feet of ice.

The other show highlight were the two F-22 Raptors, which flew all the way from Langley Airforce Base in Virginia.

Our 5th generation fighter the most advance fighter plane in the world.

The F-22s were some of the few planes we were not able to go near. They were under armed military guard during the show.

We were surprised to see the B-2 bomber. Only 21 have been built. They are refered to as the deadliest aircraft in the sky.

Did you know that the B-2 flies the longest missions of any US aircraft. Some of their missions last over 40 hours. Imagine being in the air in a plane for almost 2 straight days!

Learning to crawl

2010-09-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

This wasn't her maiden voyage, but it was one of the first where she took more than just a few lunges. She's already an expert, chasing her sibs all over now! :)

Yeah, we're still alive

2010-08-24T14:53:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's been awhile since the last post...2 months! But we're still alive, and here's what we were up to in July...

P wearing the sailor dress Grammie made for S 4 years ago!

Yum, Mom, look what R got for me!

P chillin in the pool

We also took a trip back to Ohio--here we are with the Woller fam

Paul showing the kids something we don't get to see out here--lightning bugs!

Boating--S loves being on the water!!

While we were in Ohio, we also got to see some of Paul's side of the family--here is P and cousin Grant, (they are about a month apart in age) isn't he cute?

R and Grampy

Trying to take a family photo...

R and cousin Logan are about 2 months apart in age, and Grammie made them both a t-shirt with a trash truck on it since they are both into big trucks.

And now for August--we were fortunate to get reservations at the Harvey West Cabin in the El Dorado National Forest (about an hour and a half from us here in CA.) We spent 3 nights there with my parents, and had a great time.

View from the cabin's deck

S and R loved the dirt and sand, and played in it most of each day...

which meant they had dirt coming out of every crack and crevice...(hey, this picture seemed like it fit the theme for R in this post)

and which is why they took a bath in a box each night before bed!

Fishing

Hiking

and camp craft time--tie dye shirts of course.

And now we're back to school--first day at a new morning preschool, Neighborhood Christian, 3 days a week...

and she is also continuing at the special ed preschool 4 days a week in the afternoon, with speech therapy twice a week. She's a busy girl, but happy. Stay tuned for a video post--we've got a new crawler!

Buzz buzz

2010-06-23T09:48:00.001-07:00

Last night R received his first buzz cut--inspired by cousin Logan (same age) who we'll get to see in a few weeks in Ohio and who also recently received his first buzz cut. When Paul started, R was laughing and giggling about how it tickled, but as time went on he decided it wasn't so fun...

But look how handsome he turned out :)

Here are a few Father's Day shots

and I had to include this one just because P is so happy!

and finally, R has been having fun with Daddy's old army men, and he decided to share with P yesterday, apparently.

"What the heck am I supposed to do with these, Mom?" :)

All Clear

2010-06-19T21:10:00.000-07:00

We received the results from the EEG--no signs of seizures, so we're all clear there! Just wanted to let you know... :)

electroencephalogram

2010-06-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

We recently took S to another pediatric neurologist in Sacramento who specializes in kids with autism. Because 3 out of 4 kids with autism are boys, and S is "high-functioning" and didn't have the typical autistic regression symptoms (like going from being a chatty toddler to silent and withdrawn) the doctor wanted to do a few blood tests to check for other possible diagnoses such as Rett's syndrome and also do a 24 hour electroencephalogram to see if her waking at night (she wakes up almost every night around 2 am and can't get back to sleep for about 2 1/2 hours) is caused by mini-seizures. All of these are unlikely (it's more likely she has just plain old autism) but it's also all worth checking into just in case. Which is how we ended up at a hospital this past Thursday getting 20 electrodes glued to her head, then wrapped with gauze to keep them secure, then strapped into a little backpack that held the EEG monitoring device. Yeesh. She was quite a sorry sight, though she did great tolerating the application and removal of the electrodes and even did well not messing with her gauze hat and enduring the backpack. It made me thankful that these medical procedures aren't something we have to deal with 24/7 like so many families with sick children--increased compassion for others is always a worthwhile benefit of our own "difficulties."

Funny Face

P in the pool (ha! no pun intended.) Can you see those 2 bottom teeth?

4

2010-06-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, catch up time--again! This picture was from way back on May 17th--she was teething, and crinkly wrappers are apparently the most satisfying thing around...she now has 2 bottom teeth!

S and her "White" Care Bear--she loves her 2 Care Bears, and people always ask her what their names are. The answer is simply "White Care Bear" and "Yellow Care Bear."

So S turned 4 in May. For her school party treat we borrowed ideas from Family Fun magazine, and made a fruit rainbow...

...and rainbow cupcakes.

She was NOT happy about the burning candles :P

She has ALWAYS loved music, and she was pretty excited to get this toy guitar...and also because she has a crush on the young worship leader at our church. Her actual comment was,"A guitar...like Mr. Josh" :)

She also received some fun "therapy" items too--a scooter board (great for building strength)

And ribbon streamers--also a good workout when you do it with music!Grammy came to visit for the birthday week--yea!!

How cute is she

Yeah, not so cute when you are trying to feed her--anything. My other kids ate their first solid food (oatmeal) at 5 months like it was the best thing ever. P hasn't wanted anything to do with any of it. I even tried mixing the oatmeal with JUICE for crying out loud. I finally gave up on the oatmeal and just started trying anything. Still no luck as you can see here--

Finally though, Paul spent about 45 minutes one night just forcing it down her gullet, and ever since then she has come around, slowly but surely. Today for example, she ate about 8 spoonfuls each of oatmeal, green beans, and pears. A vast improvement, but still shameful for a 7 month old Sheldon :) Why do I sense that this is only the beginning of our fun with this one...?
And here are a few of the kiddos Memorial Day Weekend

And last but not least, S had her last day of school last week--they had a party with a bounce house...

and P was just happy to be there...

and S with her beloved teacher, Miss Michael.

May Fair

2010-05-15T14:09:00.001-07:00

The May Fair is the oldest state fair in California, in continuous operation annually for 135 years, right here in little old Dixon (population 17,000.) I entered chocolate chip cookies in the baking contest this year and won a blue ribbon--all I can see here is a waste of 3 good cookies since they were thrown out after the Fair. :)

R (and S next to him) showing off their balloon "tatoos"

Watermelon sno-cone, yum

Our church entered a float in the parade, and also won a blue ribbon. The theme of the parade was "California-the melting pot" so that is why the kids on the float are dressed up in costumes representing different countries.

The Bible and Cross were on a rotating platform.

The orange tissue paper flowers under the cross are supposed to be California poppies, our state flower.

Can you see the California state flag on the wall behind our band? That's chicken wire stuffed with a kajillion squares of different colored tissue paper to create the flag--it looked awesome.

Silly Sally

2010-04-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

In preschool they are using new curriculum this year that centers around a new book each month--they read that same book every day, and most of their crafts/activities are related in some way to the book. This month the book is Silly Sally, who "went to town, walking backwards, upside down." So today was backwards day at school, and the kids wore their clothes backwards. We put her ponytail in the front, and you can see from this picture she is sporting her new short haircut (which has made the morning detangling process a bit easier.)

Me & Baby P

She'll be 6 months old in less than 2 weeks!

R calls this his "stair chair" and "desk" and "computer"

R recently completed the gymnastics lessons he received for his birthday--he really enjoyed it!!

When we started, he would only kind of bounce on the trampoline, then he progressed to one foot leaving the surface, and by the end he was bouncing high with both feet off :)

My parents visited for a few days in April--we went to San Francisco so Paul could try eating oysters for the first time (my Dad's the only one he could find who was willing to eat them with him. Supposedly they were very good.)

Prepping the garden

First oatmeal cereal--she's not too keen on it yet.

Insert your own caption here:

These last 2 pics were from the day we went to a baseball game at the local high school--one of the boys from church plays on the team. Dinner was Cheetos from the snack bar...and nobody's died yet.

Easter kids

2010-04-12T14:48:00.001-07:00

I don't have any individual pics of R because he had a cold on Easter and wasn't too happy in general, let alone smiling for the camera. But we had a friend take some family pictures at church so we'll see if any of those turn out to be post-worthy. Thanks Grammie for the beautiful Easter outfits! It rained most of Easter Sunday, so we had a lovely afternoon curled up next to a cozy fire.

Sisters in Cherries

2010-03-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here is S wearing her craft project from school (on St. Patty's day)--she has now added the terms "leprechaun" and "shamrock" to her vocabulary.

S and R love to spin on the "circle swing"--i did it with them one time and just about got sick. But they want to do it overandoverandoverandover.

Baby P is 4 months old

Sister S at age 4 months, in her red cherries outfit

Sister P at 4 months in the same red cherries outfit.

He's A Heartbreaker

2010-03-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

R doing what he does best - putting on a show.

Long time gone

2010-03-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

Paul has been away at Shepherds' Conference since Tuesday--which is a long time gone. But Mom's been here to help me with the kids, and a good thing too or we'd have all been sent to the crazy house by about Wednesday. So here are some pics to catch up on...

ok, so she's almost 4 months now, but still just as cute."Hey look, Mom, they've got a pool over there!"

Tres chic.

same outfit, same baby, same Bumbo seat...totally different day.

Happy Birthday morning (though it seems like he's been 2 forever already.)

His favorite gift by far--his face was very excited when he opened it, "A foo ball!!!"

Working on the spiral throw

Big catch

Chocolate milk on my birthday-yes!

Is that a crown above my princess's head? No, it's a Corona (help, Photoshop!)

A Foot

2010-02-11T15:56:00.000-08:00

I was thinking out loud, "What should I title this?" R answered me, "A foot." So there you go.

R helping Dad unload some firewood...

Don't you love those pink flowered hand-me-down rainboots from his big sister?

We had music playing, and R was beating the table like a drum while he bobbed his head to the music and drank milk--who says men can't multi-task?

Trying on Mom's shoes

Strike a pose

P sitting up in the Bumbo seat!

And this pic just because I like it.

Vacation Fun

2010-02-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

2 cousins sharing a fine meal.

In the end R figures out how to use the water table.

Chicago Trip

2010-02-04T14:34:00.001-08:00

First, here are a few pics from January, before we left for our trip to Chicago to visit Paul's family: the 3 kiddos

Here is a smiley P in a dress that used to be S's

Here is S in the same dressThe rest of the pics are from our trip to Chicago--here is P and cousin G, born 5 weeks before her.

Here is R and cousin L (G's older brother) who is 2 months older than R. Grampy let them watch tv so the parents could sleep in-thanks Grampy!

We all went to an indoor "bounce house" complex--the kids loved it!

Cousin M

Cousin J

The Crew: My family drove up from Ohio for a weekend visit while we were in Chicago--we went to a local mall to ride the carousel and watch the jumping fountain and play in the kiddie area.

Here are all the kiddos at a very fun Children's Museum--that's a bearded Paul with P and his brother Eric with his son G.

A giant "lite brite"

We miss you Chicago Family!

Christmas and Baby Smiles

2010-01-06T22:21:00.000-08:00

Paul led our church's Christmas Eve service, and here are the kids ready to go...

(I have this same top and pants for P--can't wait for her to grow into it in another month or two...matching girls, how fun!)

S still gives kisses with her head rather than her lips :)

Baby's 1st Christmas

Christmas morning: R and his new mower

S and her new Care Bear (which R calls a Bear Care.)

R got a toy jig saw JUST like Daddy's--and safety goggles to boot.

Sheldon kiddos

So just for fun, here is S at age 2 months

Here is R at 2 months

and here is P at (almost) 2 months

I think she looks like R here

Smiles

Doggy from Daddy

Just a little off the top please.

2010-01-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

Just look at these finely groomed locks.

I most certainly do not need a hair cut.

Yeah, me either. I'm going for that '60s Bay area hippie look.

Don't you think I wear it well?

Uh-oh, they gave me a sucker. I guess I have to go through with it now.

Hey, where's my sucker?

Ooh, T.V. and an airplane chair. I should come here more often.

Please make them stop.

Must ... Watch ... T.V.

Yes, thank you this is exactly how I wanted it.

TA-DA!!!

December

2009-12-23T14:50:00.000-08:00

P at 1 month...as you can see.

I told the kids to give P a kiss...fortunately, no babies were harmed in the making of this photo...this time.
P in the pack n play, for her own protection!

up close

S and P, ready for church

Christmas Sunday best--thank you Grammie!

Holiday festivities

2009-12-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

Littlest Sheldon starting to show some funny facial expressions.

S's school Christmas party. There is a vast difference in the way S and R eat their cupcakes. One eats with a sense of urgency, the other with all the proper dignity of a British royal.

I'm drinking in the rain

2009-12-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

While most kids get to enjoy eating snow in the winter, poor California kids have to settle for drinking rain.
Further proof that R does everything his big sister does.

Baby P makes 3

2009-12-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

11-27

11-28

12-06

So it's been awhile since I've been on here...P will be 1 month old by the time most of you read this...I can't believe it! Here are a few pics...guess I'll have to take pictures of her looking cute while I still can--in the days since these were taken, S has knocked a storage tub off a cabinet onto P's head and this afternoon R swiped a toddler fork off the dining room table and was trying to stick it into P's head. Not to mention S trying to sit on her and R wanting to push her while she's in the baby swing...

S on the big slide

2009-11-26T21:56:00.000-08:00

How R gets his kicks

2009-11-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

Here's some more

2009-11-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

Drum roll please!

2009-11-11T22:34:00.000-08:00

Piper Hadleigh is here!

I was scheduled to be induced b/c I was finally 2 weeks past my due date—when we arrived at the hospital I was only 1 ½ -2 cm dilated, so at 9am they started me with a dose of Cytotech, which was supposed to help me dilate. By 2 pm I was only 3 cm dilated, but was having contractions too often (about every 2-3 minutes, although they were generally short and not very strong ) to be given another dose of Cytotech. So they gave me the option of breaking my water, which might kick the contractions into high gear, or starting Pitosin which would increase the contractions but could be more intense…we opted for breaking the water—by the time they did that at 3:15 pm, I had dilated to 4 centimeters, and contractions were already a bit stronger. Within about a minute of breaking the water, the contractions were coming FAST and HARD, and baby girl arrived just over an hour later, at 4:24pm. Like R, she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice and was blue, but fortunately she wasn’t nearly as big or broad-shouldered as he was, and she only needed a little bit of help to get started breathing on her own. Stats were: 9 lbs, 21 ½ long. Each labor and delivery experience has been so very different from the others, and I must say that 3 experiences seem like enough for me right now!!! So we’ve finally decided on the name Piper Hadleigh, not for any particular reasons other than that we just like it. Welcome little Peanut, I’m so glad you’re finally OUT.

New Baby

2009-11-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

Somebody thinks he's still the center of attention.

Papa showing S and R their new housemate.

Weighing in. Check out those thighs!

Fresh out of the hopper.

She's got some long feet. Continuing our legacy of children with blue eyes and big feet.

I am not happy. I want to go home.

Trick or Treat

2009-10-30T16:14:00.001-07:00

Every year the businesses in downtown Dixon have an afternoon of trick or treating for kids--it is a lot of fun and our church sets up a booth to pass out candy and Bibles . S was Cinderella (not because she cared but because I had bought the costume at a garage sale for 50 cents when she was only 3 months old...) Surprisingly she liked twirling around in the dress and wore the crown the whole time!

R was a firefighter--please note the soot from our outdoor firepit on his face...he liked that part the best.

And here's one for you Uncle Nate!

Last Friday S had her first preschool field trip to a local pumpkin patch--and they had a lot of pumpkins!

Here she is so excited to be on a hayride with her teacher, Miss Michael.

They had a gigantic "corn kernel bath" which the kids LOVED--S is laying down in it (she's wearing black shirt) and R is trying to crawl through it.

Here she is jumping into the corn!

R taking a roll in the corn

Almost Due...or not.

2009-10-22T15:20:00.001-07:00

I had a Dr. appointment yesterday, and by ultrasound baby girl is measuring at 8 1/2 pounds...or 7 1/2 or 9 1/2 or anywhere in between. Apparently ultrasound meaurements at this stage are not a definative predictor of baby's birth weight. And she hasn't descended at all either, so looks like I'm in for another "overdue" baby--S was 4 days "late" when they induced me, and R was 10 days "late." (This one is due 10/27.) By the way, check out my new hair--S stopped and looked at me for a long time when I returned from the salon, then said, "Mommy has brown hair!"

(9 days before due date here, taken on my birthday--32 this year!)

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head

Apple Hill & Aunt Stacy's Challenge

2009-10-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

We returned again this year to Apple Hill to eat apple doughnuts (and apple fritters and apple pie and apple cider...SO good!) and enjoy pony rides and pumpkins with the kids. Here's one of the miniature horses enjoyed by our kids (all 3 of them as you can see.)

R's first pony ride--he didn't say much but seemed to enjoy it.
S loved her first pony ride last year, and this year was no different!

Picking out a good one.

Here's a photo of Kissy Lips I forgot to post last time...

And now a message from R to Aunt Stacy, who challenged him to a race after they both got new shoes..."Check these babies out Aunt Stacy, Dad says they are superfast shoes...

You don't really think you stand a chance in beating me now, do you??

I didn't think so. (Especially since I'm apparently in Lifeguard Training too.) Love, R.

It'a a NO-NO!

2009-10-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

R likes to climb up the couch and pull the rod off the window blinds--which makes it a big No-No...

Letting out the animals

2009-10-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

My trademark dance

2009-10-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

Brother & Sister

2009-09-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

S and R are good for each other in so many ways--R is built-in forced socialization therapy, but S thinks he is a lot of fun too. Here's a sweet hug between the two--rare, but not unheard of for them. :)

Bath Boy
My first baby girl
We can't get enough of these blue eyes.

I took R to JC Penney for 18 month photos, but he seemed scared/crying for some reason and in half an hour we didn't get a single good shot. So Paul thought he would try some creative portrait photography--here's my favorite I think.

Usually we can't hardly get S to look at the camera, but she was all smiles that day for some reason

By the way, it's still 100 degrees here. yeesh.

HOT

2009-09-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

My friends living outside of California are posting lovely pictures and comments about their fall weather--it sounds so wonderful to be starting to pull out cozy sweaters and drinking hot chocolate at night (sigh) since it's 98 degrees here in Dixon, with a "6 weeks from my due date heat factor" of about 198 degrees. I've managed to make it through the whole summer with only 3 pairs of maternity shorts, and i'm growing quite weary of them.
Lest there was ever any doubt, it does cement in my mind the fact that were I alive 150 years ago, I would NOT have been one of those brave pioneer women crossing the plains in a covered wagon. Guess I'm more Little House in Civilization than Little House on the Prairie :)
P.S. Have I mentioned that R has condensed his vocabulary into 3 essential words? "UP" for up and down, "HI" for hi and bye, and "WATER" for every single other thing under the sun. However, he recently learned a new word besides "water"...he loves the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar--which he now calls a "waterpillar." (perhaps he's destined to be a plumber??)

Pictures I should have already posted

2009-09-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

I stole the title of this post from one on my friend Courtney's blog--actually it could be the title of all of my posts! :)

Mom and Dad came for a visit and babysat the kids for a few days so P and I could go to the Sonoma Coast for our 10th anniversary. We also took them to Fenton's Creamery while they were here:

We had to share with the kids...
Or maybe they were sharing with us!

A hummingbird in our backyard.

An R in our backyard :)

Coming in for a landing on this popsicle

(hey, it's been super hot here--we're just trying to keep cool!)

Silly Girl

Are we done taking pictures yet?

Bike riding with Dad

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY!

2009-08-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Happy 10th Anniversary Dear,

I will simply say you are my greatest blessing...

Thank you for a wonderful weekend on the Sonoma Coast...

...your gift will be arriving by special delivery in 2 months ;)

You gotta see this

2009-08-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

At my request, Paul's sister Stacy has posted a picture of one of the greatest works of art I've ever seen--she gets super bonus points for creativity, don't you think? (And by the way, that "fruit of her womb" just turned 7 this summer!)

R's trying to talk and S singing one of her standards

2009-08-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

R's been a little slow on the speech uptake. He's mastered the word water, but here he is taking a stab at the word umbrella. And just for kicks we've thrown in S singing and impromptu rendition of the ABCs.

R "answering" the phone

2009-08-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's not his best performance, but here a little sample of R pretending to answer the phone.

JAMBERRY

2009-07-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday evening we were at the playground and S tripped over something and basically landed on the cement with her face. The next morning she looked like this, which Paul thought really just made her look like she belonged in Hollywood.

Fortunately for her photo shoot, her pajama top fit the occasion:
Here is R using Dad's water gun as a vacuum-seriously, that's what he was doing...maybe a modern take on the verse, "they will beat their swords into plowshares" ?

That being the case, then I guess he won't need to borrow Dad's camo hat anymore :)

Ok, so the water gun was out of storage for the annual Grace Fellowship Rafting trip which Paul went on this past Saturday. While he was gone I took the kids to the Davis Farmer's Market and bought a half-flat of yummy strawberries and some blackberries to make jam.

Jam in the making:

This is only the second time I've ever made jam, and the first time on my own. The instructions are full of words like, "quickly" "immediately" "exactly" and "precisely." And did I mention that Paul was gone for the day? That said, the kids ran rampant: R emptied out his diaper bag to locate his "emergency" pacifier (which I did finally at least clip to his shirt since he was dragging it around outside;) and they snatched a bag of popcorn off the table and dumped it ALL out and ate it off the floor.

Hey, it kept them busy.

And it was worth it--9 jars of Stawberry-Blackberry jam and 9 jars of Strawberry jam,

and SOOO yummy!

PJs, Tomatos & Ohio

2009-07-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Aden and Jonathan, Thank you very much for all the super cute hand-me-down clothes. Mommy and Daddy love these pajamas; don't I look like a little man?

I think they also gave me your guys' special skills in finding yummy food like cereal to snack on, and inspired me to follow your example of eliminating all distractions to eating (like packaging.)
(Now where's that milk?!) Thanks again, boys! Love, R

Here's a picture of 2 of Paul's tomato plants, taken about 3 weeks ago; he's enjoying the tomatos now! Two of the plants got so big they tipped over the containers so he had to temporarily anchor them with a rope to a nearby palm tree :)

The kiddos enjoyed the pool at my parent's house when we visited Ohio last month, although S looks a little suspicious here :)

My brother's puppy Bailey found one of R's pacifiers...

It's A...(Part 2)

2009-06-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

We are in Ohio visiting my family, and Paul’s parents drove down from Illinois yesterday. Since our families live so far away they don’t get to participate in any of our baby doctor appointments/births etc. And since we weren’t able to determine the sex of baby #3 due in October at our last (and final) ultrasound with our doctor, we planned a big surprise for our visit here: We scheduled an appointment at a private 4D ultrasound place and took our parents and my brother and his wife with us! We didn’t tell them where we were going, so when we got there and they found out they would get to be in the same room with me and watch the ultrasound being projected on a wall they were thrilled. Sure enough, the first view we had of the baby revealed: it’s a girl!!! It was very exciting, and we brought home a dvd of baby girl-at one point she was standing up and down., up and down…at least she has plenty of room in there!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDY!

2009-06-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

In One (Lip) and Out the Other

2009-06-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was in the middle of cooking dinner Wednesday evening when I heard a sudden shrieking coming from the bathroom- R had climbed up on a 1 foot high stool (which S uses to wash her hands in the sink,) and then fallen off...apparently hitting his mouth in the process. Blood was running everywhere, and as I mopped him up there seemed to be a line of blood on his skin I couldn't rub off...turns out he bit all the way through his lip!! Yikes. That was bad enough...until Thursday morning when he tripped over his own feet, smashed his face into the floor and reopened the wound--blood everywhere again. For the rest of the day I had him strapped into either the stroller, the highchair or planted in front of a video--anything to keep him on the good side of gravity! We're glad to report that he is now 33 hours face-smash free and his lip is healing nicely. The wound inside his lip (which you can't see in this picture) is about a centimeter long, and the wound in the skin below his lip is about half a centimeter.

Something tells me this wasn't the last trip we'll be making to the Urgent Care clinic...and pancakes sound pretty good to me too!

S is now in a month of "Summer School" (which is 2 hours a day, 4 days a week) but on the last day of the regular school year they had a Hawaiian Luau party which I was able to attend with R--we brought the pineapple :)

Not sure what message this look is trying to send--"Enough pictures Mom" or "This pineapple is rancid" ?

It's Not A Boy or A Girl, It's...

2009-06-08T20:38:00.001-07:00

...A Cheese Burrito?? We had our 20 week ultrasound appointment today, and we were hoping to find out the gender of Baby #3...unfortunately he/she was "folded up like a cheese burrito" (P's words.) Baby was in a breech position (butt-down,) and basically doing a toe-touch with it's head. The doctor said she couldn't even begin to guess what the gender was, and baby wasn't interested in budging a bit. Oh well. We don't have plans for anymore ultrasounds, so I guess we'll have to come up with both a boy and a girl name--or at least one gender-neutral name! But we got a nice long video of the ultrasound and baby looks well. Only 20 more weeks to go :)

So much, So little

2009-05-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

So much to do, so little time as they say. Currently 17 1/2 weeks pregnant, and often using the hour when both kids are (supposed to be) napping to rest myself. We've been spending a lot of time and energy too trying to keep up with S's recent autism diagnosis and all that comes with that...more later. Although I don't have any pictures to go with it, R's favorite word right now is "Bubble"--Buh-buhl. The kids love (us blowing) bubbles outside, and they both constantly request it.

Here are pictures going back a month ago when my friend Aimee (from SoCal) was visiting her Mom in nearby Roseville, so we drove over for a few hours of reunion.

Can you find Aden in this picture? The little turkey ducked down just as I snapped the pic. How do kids have such perfect timing? Notice the spoon in R's mouth--eating is definately a theme with him.

R and JonJon loved playing in the fountain!

R says, "Don't you like the shirt Aunt Jenny appliqued for me?"

Here's the latest in the bedhead saga:

"Look Mom, I ate a leprechaun!"

"Look Mom, I caught the gingerbread man!"

(That's actually mud by the way...doesn't anybody feed this child?!)

At the Dixon MayFair, Mother's Day weekend

Petting a pig

As much as S & R love pickles, we had to let them try a Giant Pickle.

They finished it no problem.

R playing the empty water bottles set up as "drums" in a kids play area of the fair.

Daddy did an AMAZING job building me this tire swing-and I love it!

She can sit and hold on to gain muscle strength and balance, and we can put a large pillow cushion on it for her to lay on for "tummy time" strengthening.

S just turned 3, and on her birthday the therapy services through Early Start program ends, and your local school district takes over. So after an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting last week, the school district's psychologist, speech therapist, special education teacher, and our "service coordinator" recommended S start special ed pre-school on her birthday--5 days a week for 3 1/2 hours a day. Yikes. There are only about 6 more weeks of pre-school left, so we'll see how it goes...Here's her "First Day of School" picture

At lunch we celebrated her birthday

Yummy!

This was her second cupcake of the day, since she was allowed to bring some in as birthday treats for her new classmates: 4 little boys--Juan, Pancho, Cezar and Miles. I think she likes Pancho best.

So now you're all caught up--we go in for an ultrasound in 3 weeks, hoping to find out if we'll be getting a baby brother or baby sister!

R's silly little dance

2009-04-19T21:46:00.000-07:00

Freedom

2009-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

A few photos--of the less significant aspects of "Easter"

2009-04-14T22:11:00.000-07:00

Is that Elton John in his Easter best?!

S sittin' pretty.
Ok, we've got these eggs, now what?

Ohhhh...now we get it.

Hey, Mom just ate my goodie!

At a friend's house for dinner, R & S scooped up more eggs.

R WUZ HERE

2009-04-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

In the last month, R has become proficient at leaving his mark around the house--he enjoys making a mess wherever he can...

...especially on himself.

Reshelving the DVDs is a nightly routine for us.

Why do I bother folding the laundry and putting it away?

He especially seems to love emptying laundry baskets...

Fortunately he has also very recently discovered the joy of putting things INTO baskets, boxes etc--and he always gives himself a round of applause when the item he has just chucked in the general direction of its container actually makes it into the bin.

Let the therapy begin!

2009-03-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

In October 2008 I took S to a pediatric neurologist because of our concerns over her delayed communication skills--she has always met or exceeded the age-appropriate milestones for talking or number of words a child should have. However, there are several things that are not what they should be--such as the fact that she doesn't answer questions with a "yes" or "no", rather she repeats what you asked her. She rarely initiates a request for anything, and when she does, it is also in the form of a question you would ask her--for example, if she was thirsty she would come to me (occasionally) and say, "Do you want something to drink?" All day long she can and does repeat songs, Bible verses, lines from story books and responses we have taught her, but there is almost no spontaneous interaction. All that to say, the physician tentatively diagnosed her with Asperger's syndrome, which, simplistically defined, is like a form of high-functioning autism in the area of social interaction. S also has weak core muscle strength and weak fine motor strength. Thus, we have now begun speech therapy and occupational therapy. All of the therapy is play-based, so that it is as enjoyable as possible for the kids. Some of the things the speech therapist has us working on are imaginary play, and emphasizing concepts like verbs ("Look, S, the dog is running,") and prepositions ("Can you put the box under the table?) The occupational therapist spends half an hour working on fine motor strength skills (like pinching or pulling apart playdough) and half an hour working on core muscle strength--the swing S is on below is helping her hold herself up and also grip the ropes.

So far, we really like the therapists, and I'm also thankful to be an occupational therapist with at least some knowledge of what the OT is doing and why (even though my area of specialization wasn't pediatrics.) You don't think God had that planned out ahead of time, do you?? (wink, wink) We'll let you know how things progress!

What are YOU doing October 27?

2009-03-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official. I am due with our 3rd child October 27, although if my experience with going past the due date is any indicator it will be more like sometime in November ;) S and R are 21 months apart, and R and ? will be 20 months apart. I am 9 weeks pregnant: in the ultrasound we could see baby's heartbeat and arms, and baby wiggling around...amazing!

Birthday Boy

2009-03-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

We've had lots of company visiting us during the last 3 weeks, thus the lack of posts lately, but here are some good pics to catch up. We celebrated R's first birthday, and also took the birthday boy to the Folsom City Zoo.

Here he is chasing the chickens that run free about the grounds.

3 Bears (shouldn't they be in a cage?!)
The peacocks were in all their glory

This is R "kissing" the bunny, which then turned into trying to eat the bunny.

For the big 01, we had a fire truck cake in honor of firefighter Uncle Nate (who was visiting from Ohio.)

He dug in with great gusto!

And was cramming the next bite in before he had finished chewing the first one.

No explanation needed.

Did you get enough sugar yet?

"Hey, bring back the cake!"

Wanna Hear A Dirty Joke?

2009-03-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Hey there, wanna hear a dirty joke?

A boy...
...fell in a mud puddle.

And then he fell down again...and again and again :)

Wanna hear another dirty joke?

I let the kids go outside after several days of rain and they were ecstatic. S has always loved animals and their "sounds," so there wasn't anything unusual about her running around saying "tweet, tweet" like a bird...until she ran up to me cuddling an actual bird. Unfortunately, this bird wasn't doing much tweeting.

Rest in peace, Tweet Tweet. (And I'm going to try not to think about S snuggling that nasty thing.)

Mission Statement/Manifesto

2009-02-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

Over the years, beginning with a Leadership Class in high school and continuing on through books addressing everything from organization to being a "disciplined, godly woman," I have heard many times the admonition to create a personal Mission Statement. I completed the assignment in high school, but that was a long time ago...I have never attempted another one since then because it all just seemed too overwhelming. Fortunately, my good friend Kate had ventured forth and written her own short, 8 sentence Mission statement a few years ago, which she kindly forwarded to me a few months ago. I took that for my inspiration, changed it to fit me, and expanded it...a bit. Since I think the whole point of a Mission Statement is that it is supposed to be a brief, pithy summary of your, well, mission, I guess mine is really more of a "Manifesto" than a mere statement. The first part is my mission, and the second part is the footnoted Scriptures that form the foundation of my mission.

P.S.I highly recommend two books, Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick, and A Gospel Primer for Christians by Milton Vincent--these both point to several of the passages I reference here.

My Mission Statement
February 2009

To love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and mind and my neighbor as myself.(a)

To delight myself in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night(b), being careful to do according to all that is written in it(c).

To renew my mind with Scripture(d), daily preaching to myself the gospel: the incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, burial, bodily resurrection, ascension and eternal reign of Jesus Christ.(e,f) This effectual cleansing of my sin saved me, continues to transform me, and will sustain me for eternity.(g)

To live, because of His amazing love for me, in obedience to God’s revealed Word, as evidenced(h) by: (many of these “definitions”adapted from Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick, p45-46)
Faith-that fights against sin and believes I can truly change and that God will give me all I need to live in obedience.(i) My Christian walk is fueled by this faith , and not by nearsightedness(j) that sees only my repetitive sin and weakness.(k)
Moral Excellence-driven by a desire to make the gospel glorious before the eyes of a watching world.
Knowledge-of Him that reveals time spent seeing and experiencing how delightful and kind my Father is and how much He loves me.
Self-Control-compelled by having no other idols to entice and draw me away from obedience, because I love to make Him smile.
Steadfastness-that is not blinded by my own pain, but sees instead Jesus faithfully standing with thorn-pierced brow making intercession for me that my faith will not fail.
Godliness-as my desire grows to be “like God” in every good way.
Affection-that conquers my ambition, selfishness, and impatience to gladly welcome and serve my family in Christ because they are people who have been loved in the same way I have.
Love-that isn’t manufactured by me, but overflows to others out of my response to God’s love for me first.

In all this, I want to be characterized by rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and in everything giving thanks(l) because my perspective is informed by the gospel.(m)

To be a devoted wife and homemaker to Paul, so that his heart will be able to trust mine, and he will have no lack of gain. I will seek to do him good in every possible way, all the days of my life.(n)

To love my children,(o) to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,(p) teaching them the Word of God and looking for every opportunity to integrate it into our everyday life.(q)

To view our church as “the dearest place on earth”(r) where, sustained by the grace of God, I am faithful to humbly set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity; using my gifts to counsel, encourage, exhort and teach from Scripture. May I never neglect these gifts, but rather devote myself to them, keeping a close watch on myself and my teaching,(s) so I can effectively admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, and help the weak--being patient with all(t) and never being overcome by and repaying evil for evil, but always seeking to overcome evil with good.(u)

To love the lost and be a faithful witness(v) for Christ, passionately desiring that those who are lost in their sin would experience the amazing grace of the One who came to seek and to save them.(w)

O Lord, I can only live out these desires if I am wholly dependent upon your grace to make these a reality in my life. You have redeemed my heart, you are transforming my life, and you will perfect my whole being by your grace, mercy and love. I don’t deserve any of it, even on my best day; but You are my salvation, and herein I stand. Thank you, Jesus.

a) Matthew 22:37-40 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
b) Psalm 1:2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
c) Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
d) Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
e) Ephesians 1:7-8 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us...
f) I John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
g) I Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved...
h) II Peter 1:3-8 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing they will prevent you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
i) Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
j) II Peter 1:3:9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.
k) II Cor 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
l) I Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
m) Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
n) Proverbs 31:10-12 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
o) Titus 2:4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children
p) Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
q) Deuteronomy 6:6-7 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way; and when you lie down, and when you rise.
r) Charles H. Spurgeon
s) I Timothy 4:11-16 Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
t) I Thessalonians 5:14-15 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
u) Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
v) II Timothy 4:5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
w) Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

A Cat's Tale

2009-02-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

Yo yo, dj R here, with the tale of a cat:

"Hey Mom, let's go outside and pet the neighbor's cat!"

"Isn't it such a sweet cat?"

"Uh, Mom, this is nice, but can we please get a real cat?"

"Yeah Mom! I want to pet a real cat too!"

"PUH-LEEEEESE??"

"Yeah, puh-leeese?"

"I'll even do the dance of joy if you say yes!"

"Yeah, and I'll hold still long enough for you to take a picture if you say yes!"

Sorry kids, no cat. How about a baby brother or sister instead?

(SURPRISE!! Due in October??)

p.s. S's MRSA has cleared up with the antibiotic cream, thank the Lord!

Lab Results and a Link

2009-02-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

S has had a bad diaper rash for 3 weeks now--after 2 weeks, when nothing seemed to be working to clear it up, I took her to the doctor where they thought it was probably just a bad yeast infection, but they took a swab culture and sent it out to a lab to make sure. So glad they did b/c the diagnosis came back as MRSA--a staph infection! Scary thing to be sure, and one concern quickly became trying to keep from passing it to R since it is so contagious. Fortunately the antibiotic cream appears to be working. Just thought I'd pass the info along (it really just looked like little red bumps and pink skin!)--in case your kids ever have a diaper rash they can't kick, don't hesitate to take them to the doc!

Also, here is a link to the sermon Paul delivered in January at our church (where he preaches once a month.) I thought it was great! The Mp3 download is free, just right-click on "download" and select "Save Target As" and choose a file to save it to on your computer. Then you can open that file anytime and listen to it with Windows Media Player or itunes. Enjoy!

Exclusive video footage

2009-02-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

Here it is - video proof that R really can walk.

Video test

2009-02-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the distortion, I shot the video in 16:9 but imported it at 4:3. Oops.

New Camera

2009-02-06T21:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's bedtime so I'm not planning to write much here, but a few pics for your enjoyment:

S tries on Mommy's sunglasses, in her own style

R helping out with the dishes
ok, the rest of these pics are taken by P with our new camera- a Nikon D60 SLR. The best thing about it as far as I'm concerned is how fast it takes the picture--fast enough to catch Saylor before she looks away ;)

R crawling, which is becoming a rare sight these days--he's walking so much now! For those of you who have been to our house, I think the record so far is when he walked from our living room into the bathroom without falling down (about 20 feet.)

Go Muscles!

Deep in thought?

Bedhead.

Sillhouette.

My favorite daughter.

Still down, but out to Seattle

2009-01-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

My internet access is still quite limited, but hoping to get it all worked out this week. In the meantime, the kids and I took a sidetrip to Washington! A few weeks ago we received an invitation from John D. to fly to Seattle and stay with Rachel and the kids while he would be away on business for several days. We had SUCH a great time visiting them as well as the Keith Klan who just happen to live 3 houses down the street. Andrew is such a big boy now and so funny saying things like, “Why him crying?” or “Her likes that!” and finishing nearly every meal by saying “Wow, that was a good dinner Mom.” And R definitely seemed to take a shine to little Sierra—several times he crawled over to her and gently “kissed” her face with his—she’s such a sweetheart, how can you blame him? And how I loved seeing the Keiths after saying goodbye more than 2 years ago! I will say it’s a bit chillier up there, and although Mt. Rainier is practically in their back yard it was foggy most of the time and so we only caught a glimpse of the snow-covered base of the enormous mountain. But since we were more interested in just enjoying each other’s company, the trip was a definite success. Thanks Rach for your wonderful hospitality, (and I put all these pics and more on a cd in the mail to you today! :)

Here's R, not afraid to be picking on the big boys.

Can you believe how cute she is at only 6 months old?
R playing the flute, er, Lincoln Log, in an attempt to win Sierra's heart? It doesn't look like she's too impressed!
2 Sheldons, 2 D's, and 3 Keiths

Andrew and S on the viewing box at Northwest Trek animal park-a very cool place near the D's. I think they were looking at a mountain lion here.

S saw this guy in the gift shop and kept saying, "teddy bear" over and over while she gave it hugs.

Drew smiled for the camera even though he wasn't feeling good this day.

S's turn.

Buddies--and yes, Andrew is wearing S's pink gloves :)

In other news, we now have a "walker." R took 3 steps Sunday morning after we got home, then 6 more in the afternoon. He's not attempting his new trick very frequently yet, but it won't be long I'm sure!

Internet Down

2009-01-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

Our internet hasn't been working on the laptop, so my ability to do much of anything with the Web has been quite limited. So here are some pics to catch up:

A beautiful though quite windy day outside--R loved pushing his walker thing around all the open space outside on the patio.

"Forget the walker, here's my old friend the mop bucket" And yes, we're serious about our mop buckets around here--no pansy little plastic sandpails for us, we've got the industrial mopper. With a ground floor that's all tile, we couldn't be wasting our time with anything else!
Mommy and S share loveys

This is a (blurry) shot of S on the trampoline at the local gymnastics club where our community Mothers' Club had a playdate.

This is R getting his first eye exam--it is a nationwide free service through the InfantSEE program. He got a clean bill of eyeball health :) It was also the day of the Buckeyes' Bowl Game--guess our school spirit wasn't quite enough to pull out a win :(

P's "Gospel Choir Leader" Debut

2009-01-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2007 was our first at Grace Fellowship, and after discovering that 3 sisters in the youth group at church had a history of producing videos of themselves lip-synching to songs, we had the bright idea to get some of the kids together and make a Christmas music video to show after church--a little gift from the youth group to the congregation. Silly and fun, and P's arms were sore the next day from all the "conducting."

The Sheldon Christmas Card-A Retrospective

2009-01-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

After moving to California from Ohio (arriving December 31, 2001) we decided it would be a real kick to send out a 2002 photo Christmas card that depicted us as having willingly succumbed to a California beach bum stereotype. The card was so well received (particularly by our friends and families shivering back in the Midwest) that we felt compelled to repeat the theme in the following years. Therefore each year we tried to come up with a creative depiction of various California stereotypes or characterizations. So here's the infamous Card Collection:

2008 In-N-Out Burger, a California institution--
who wouldn't eat Christmas dinner here, given the chance?

2007 We moved from Southern California
(good-bye to surfboards and our Mickey Mouse ears)
to Northern (kind of) California (hello hippie clothes and flower power.)
(I'm about 5 1/2 months pregnant here)

2006 Building a California Snowman
out of tumbleweeds with our first child.

2005 Ok, so not everyone "got" this one:

A California Winter Sport = Tree-hugging!

(I'm 4 months pregnant here)
2004 We rented a convertible for the day for this picture--doesn't everyone in California pick up their Christmas tree in a fast car with the top down?

We sent out 2 versions of the 2004 card--
here's the second--same idea,

but now we're busy cutting deals on our cellphones too.

2003 The Sheldon card- A Hollywood Classic

2002 California Beach Bums-

The card that started it all!

Teeth Nubs

2009-01-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

Granna & Papa arrived New Year's Eve for a short visit on their way to Papa's business meetings in Southern CA. Here they are Sunday morning with the kids

(p.s. thanks to Great-Gramma Mary for another cute dress for S.)

R cut 7 teeth in a short period of time, and the top 4 are all descending at about the same rate, which has him looking a bit goofy when he smiles his big grin:

R's First Christmas

2009-01-04T20:16:00.001-08:00

R's first Christmas was a smashing success for everyone concerned--including S who enjoyed his toys as much as her own. He was almost 10 months at Christmas time, so he was old enough to get into pulling on the wrapping/tissue paper a little bit.

"Here R, let me show you how this works."

"Let ME show you how this works."
"Thanks, Mom, for the yummy, cinnamony, monkey bread for Christmas breakfast."
"Merry 1st Christmas to me."

The kiddos, with S's new chair from Ikea.

Just checking to make sure this chair is cozy enough for S.

December 26th,

Happy Birthday Dad!

Out on the trail for letterboxes.

Hurry up, Giggles.

Christmas Dress

2008-12-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

I had not bought a fancy Christmas dress for Saylor this year, deciding we could be content with wearing something she already had (that is to say, I could be content--Saylor couldn't care less either way.) Grammie Sheldon had shipped Christmas gifts out to us earlier in the week, and happened to ask if Saylor had a special dress to wear for Christmas Sunday--when I said, "No" she said we could open this gift early--a beautiful dress! Thank you Grammie, and Thank you Grampie (whom I am told helped pick it out :)

I guess this one would be my fault

2008-12-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

Ranger's been itching to climb the stairs for awhile-he stands at the bottom of the stairs and bounces up and down while watching his sister (who cruises up and down constantly.) He's tried several times to figure out how to get a knee up, but without success. The other day however, I was sitting with him on the landing at the top of the stairs, and I helped him crawl up the final step into the loft. Well, apparently that was all the lesson he needed. Later that day I took Saylor out to the garage and strapped her into the stroller for a walk. I came back inside and Ranger was standing on the bottom stairstep just grinning away at me. So we had to get out the gate...unfortunately, the next morning we hadn't yet put it in place...

Mr. Smiley here was incredibly quiet when he was sneaking up those stairs!

More of Chicago

2008-12-11T15:04:00.000-08:00

I swiped these pics from Paul's brother Eric, who has a great camera and knows how to take great pictures.

GO BEARS! 4 Generations Bathtime

Bubba

Fingerprint Art

2008-12-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

After we had recovered from our noon-time Thanksgiving feast with family in Chicago, (and before we started on feast leftovers for dinner) we had a little craft time. I had bought this book

before our trip and brought it along with some nice paper (Bristol 100% cotton Smooth) and fine-point black markers. Grammy had tons of colored ink pads, and so I asked everyone present to create a fingerprint picture which I would then frame to put in Ranger's room. Everyone actually enjoyed the simple activity, some people got really creative and made up animals that weren't in the book, and Ranger got a really neat work of art (all signed by his relatives) for his wall. We also had plenty of paper left over for everyone to make prints for Ranger's 11 month old cousin Logan too.

I know these pics are terrible, but like my friend Courtney said, i can't be bothered to fix them right now, life is too busy!!!! It will at least give you an idea of how cute it turned out. Caterpillar by Aunt Nicki, snowmen by Aunt Jenny, elephant by Grampy, Sea dragon and bat by Aunt Stacy, choo-choo train by Papa, bees by Grampy, and lion by Mommy

Scorpion by Daddy, alligator by Uncle Eric, raccoons by Grammie, birds by Granna, frogs by Aunt Jenny, fireman by Uncle Nate, owls by Uncle Eric, and beetle by Daddy.

The Sheldon Family Christmas Card...

2008-12-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

...is being printed as we speak! What will it be this year? Here's a hint: it was a delicious experience! In the meantime, here are some pictures from our trip to Chicago for Thanksgiving.
S, R and Grampy Sheldon

Sled Ride
First snow for R

R and Grammie Sheldon

S and Grampy

The kids and Granna and Papa

Papa, Uncle Nate & R

UsUs Again

And finally, here is our primary area of Christmas decor in our livingroom--we are foregoing a live Christmas tree in favor of this tabletop version since it would be a constant battle to keep R from pulling a floor level tree over. This one we've got anchored down so he can't pull it off the table. We'll hold out for a large, live tree next year when he has grasped the meaning of "No Touch!" a little better :) We also have an olivewood Nativity set I got in Israel on our china cabinet, and a Fisher Price Nativity set for Saylor to play with as well. She occasionally calls the Baby Jesus "Baby Ranger."

Keepers

2008-11-17T20:48:00.000-08:00

It appears that once R discovered the concept of moving around, he didn't want to waste anymore time just sitting around. He is pulling up and shuffling along on anything he can now-his favorite being the bottom stair here:

Here he is working his way around the dining chair

the blue tape line in the background above is supposed to keep R from crossing into the kitchen. So far it's not been as successful as it was with S...of course she didn't even really crawl until she was a year old. Did I mention these 2 are a little different?

Trying "homemade" green beans--not a fan! I think it's the texture...

When she's happy, he's not...

When he's happy, she's not...

Ok, we'll settle for this one.

Sugar and Spice

2008-11-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

If S is our Sugar... Then R is our Spice! He is definately keeping us on our toes.

Here he is in the Baby Olympics:
Army Crawl

Crawling on all fours

Hurdles

One-Legged Scoot

Trick or Treat

2008-11-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

The Princess & The Pea(pod)

S getting bullied by her 8 month old brother-snatching her stuff is one of his favorite pasttimes.

S in her pretty purple princess hand-me-down costume-thanks Andee Jean!!

R was pretty much busting out of his pod, and it didn't last long since he couldn't crawl in it or even lay on his tummy with those giant foam peas in the way. But hey, we got the picture at least ;)

Folsom City Zoo

2008-10-30T16:37:00.001-07:00

We met Aimee and her boys (and their Grammie and Grandpoo) at the Folsom City Zoo--it is a wild animal sanctuary and you can get closer to the animals than you can at most zoos. It is quite small, but quite perfect for our toddlers. And the train ride is a must!

S had fun chasing this albino peacock--they have lots of peacocks and chickens/roosters roaming free throughout the zoo. You are about 4 feet away from the tigers and bears, oh my!
Just happy to be a part of the action

2 Sheldon Animals

4 little monkeys

The kids loved feeding tree leaves to the deer

Group Photo on the train ride

Silly Stuff

2008-10-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

I am a member of the Dixon Mothers' Club, and we had a Halloween party last week for all the little kiddos--Here is Saylor as a princessRanger gets in on the fun
Hey Mom, have you seen Ranger?!He's a buckethead!