2 months

Well technically she will be two months tomorrow because there are only 28 days in February. But I will go ahead and say she is 2 months old today.

Not much new to report. She is making those cute baby cooing noises and she has been sleeping 9 hour stretches at night (except for last night). But other than that she's just doing the baby thing...eating, pooping, crying and sleeping.

We also just got a Bumbo seat and as you can see by the picture she just LOVES it. She does look so big in it though.

happy birthday

(sign courtesy of Ethan)

So I realize that I don't post much about my husband or what he's up to, his job, etc. Not because we're not interested, don't care or that nothing is going on. But mainly because my kids are who I am around the most and they are who I think to blog about or that I take pictures of. A one-sided view of our family I know. So today I am dedicating this post to my wonderful husband on his birthday. Happy Birthday honey! We love you!

It's easy to forget in this busy time in our lives (i.e. small children), the things that make Jason a great father, husband, teacher and friend. But I feel so blessed when I think about the man God made him to be and is making him to be.

• He is a man of great teachability.
• He is a learner.
• He loves his children and makes sure that he is taking seriously the great responsibility of raising his boys to be godly men, to be involved in their lives. And I know as Ansley grows more and more he will be just as great of a daddy to his little girl.
• He supports & encourages me as a mother and constantly tells me how thankful he is that I am their mother.
• He knows I need times away from the house and he gladly takes the kids so I can do that.
• He helps out with house chores without me asking...most of the time.
• He seeks to grow in knowledge and understanding of our great God.
• He desires to serve the church and be accountable to other godly men who seek to grow in the Word and be taught.
• He works hard in his job and truly cares for the students he teaches and disciplines. Even though this job has been his most draining and challenging, the fruits of his work are evident to all. These are letters that some of his students wrote him when they were asked to write a letter to someone they admire. They all start out with "Dear Pastor Jason":

"When you do your job, you are always committed into bringing the best out of us. You greet us every day as soon as we get out of our cars. In the classroom, you devote your whole mind into cleverly put together life-lessons that we will remember forever. Thank you for doing three teaching jobs and being our principal too. And on behalf of all the students, I thank you for influencing our lives so much and changing us for the better."

Another student writes:

"As an exceptional teacher your expectations are extremely high which makes us work hard for our grades. Instead of just teaching us, you work with us and take the time to make us better men and women. Having the passion for education you have thoughtfully chosen our curriculum that challenges us to the max. As our teacher you have taught us great things not only to be a good student but to be men and women that God wants us to be."

I am thankful that my children will grow up learning from his example. I am thankful that even through times of frustration, trials, crazy emotions (on my part) or times we feel distant with each other, that God uses our relationship to sanctify us and draw us closer to Him. And I am thankful to be able to celebrate another birthday with him. Here's to many more!

double take

I finally have a baby that looks like me. This first picture is me only a few months older than Ansley is now. And the second one is a picture I posted a couple of posts back. Maybe it's just me, but I think she looks a lot like my baby picture.

grandpa and grandma visit

We can't believe 11 days can go by so fast. But that's usually how it goes when people visit. Ethan told me as we were waving good-bye "it sure is sad that Grandpa and Grandma are leaving, isn't it mom?"

portraits

I'm sure this is just the beginning of bad family portraits. I have a feeling that it will be rare to get a good picture where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera. As you can see...

laundry day

This is Ansley's first lesson in doing laundry. But as you can see she was more interested in snuggling up with the nice warm clothes than she was paying attention to her lesson. (Gotta love the outdoor laundry room...don't worry the rest of our house doesn't have plaster peeling off the walls)

This is the "mom, you so crazy" face.

Big T

Yesterday morning our pet fish, Big T, breathed his last and I found him lifeless at the bottom of the fishbowl. I saw it before the boys did and began to wonder how they would react and what questions they would have...and then I forgot about it until last night. Oops. So after dinner I told Ethan that Big T died and he said "Can I see?" and then asked "Can we go buy another fish?" No tears. No questions, just a simple statement "I guess we should have taken better care of him." I told him it wasn't that we didn't take care of him (although thankfully his water was actually clean when he died...some days it got pretty green before we got a chance to clean it out) but that he was old and fish usually live about that long before they die.

So Jason held the funeral in the bathroom as the boys looked on with fascination as the fish was flushed. They both said "Wow, look at it go around and around." End of story. I guess having a pet fish die is a little different than having a dog or cat pass on. But I told Ethan in a few months when things settle down here, we can look at getting another fish.

Other news (because there is never a dull moment in our house):

I had a friend take the boys into the doctor this morning and Ethan has two ear infections and both of he and Jude are on Ibuterol because of chest colds. Ansley has a stuffy nose which keeps her from sleeping very long. Jason is pretty overwhelmed due to his job and lack of sleep. And I feel pretty tired (I don't know how many times I walk into the other room and stop because I can't remember why I went into that room. Or I'm talking and mid-sentence can't remember what I was saying). Do I feel overwhelmed...yep! Am I going to survive...probably, although at times I doubt. Thankfully I have a mom that I can cry over the phone to and she encourages me and prays for me. And that I have a church family that takes care of us (provides meals, watches the boys, takes them to the doctor, etc.) and other friends that offer to bring meals and take the boys for the afternoon (before they were sick) so I can rest or get some things done. And most importantly I have a Savior that gives me strength and perseverance and gives me new mercies every morning. Praise God!

photo shoot

Don't worry, pretty soon I will start posting other things besides pictures of Ansley. But I was taking some pictures for her announcement and thought they were too cute. After some cropping this one might be the one.

This one is sweet.

Then I thought with the black and white it was hard to tell that she had pink on her shirt and that she was actually a little girl. So I found a little hair band that someone had given us and this is what she thought about it...


So I thought maybe we should just try a color picture without the hair band.

Yeah, I was done by this point too.

we miss you

We miss you Mimi, oh yes we do.

We miss you Mimi, all of us do.

When you're not with us, we're blue.

Oh Mimi, we love you!

(Any Bye Bye Birdie fans out there?)

There is no doubt when you have your own children that it makes you REALLY appreciate your mom and all the sacrifices she made. This is when living in Hawaii is so hard because family is so far away. But it also forces me to see that my strength and comfort comes from Christ alone and that he will help us through sleepless nights and fussy times with babies (yes, I have to preach that to myself daily...well maybe more like hourly...I tend to be a panicky mom with newbie babies). But I am truly grateful and blessed to have great encouragement and support from my mom too.

If my face looks puffy...it's because it was. Having sinus issues and then crying because your mom is leaving tends to make your face puffy. And yes that is our baby GIRL dressed in blue. Like I said it's a bit cold here in Hawaii (low 70's) and we didn't plan for cool weather with the girl clothes. So Ansley gets to wear some of the boys old clothes. I guess I could glue a pink bow to her head or something.