31,536,000

Christmas 2009

Did you know there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year? It seems like a lot when you write the number down, but when you reflect on the year, it seems like such a brief moment in life. I take into consideration that I am also 28 years old - which means I am 28 times 1,314,000 (plus more than half that since my birthday is in May)....wow - I'm getting old! For all you "math-challenged" readers out there, that's approximately 914,058,000 seconds as of midnight tonight. Kinda makes you think how you've spent all those seconds, doesn't it? Well, here's a look back at the highlights of our 2010 year...we started out as a family of 5 with a 3-year, 2-year, and 21-month old babies. Now we're ending it as a family of 6 with three "big kids" and a new little blessing 6-weeks into his journey.

Note: this is a slide show so, watch carefully! :)

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day

Christmas was such a blessing this year as our kids have gotten old enough to understand the meaning behind the holiday and to have fun with the different traditions we are starting with them. Here's a photo story of our day....

First we start out by coming downstairs in our pajammas and reading the Christmas story out of Luke 2. We talk briefly about how Jesus coming was God's gift to us because it means that we can go to heaven now because Jesus came to be born and died to be raised again on Easter. Josh and Jenna have a good grasp on this, which amazes me since they are so young. I see why its said "Faith like a child". The kids enjoyed their story, during which Jayden listened on the couch...

Following the Christmas story, I made breakfast for everyone. The kids and Jason really like eggs and sausage, so I made that. It takes a dozen eggs now to feed Jason, myself and the three kids. I also cooked fifteen mini-smokies. It was devoured!

Following our breakfast, it was time to open the stockings. I found some really great stocking stuffers at the Target dollar bins! The kids got some holiday writing/color tablets, small package of goldfish, a little book and a candy cane. Jason got an iTunes gift card in his - of which he had to use $0.99 to purchase my "Angry Birds" app for my iPod :)

Julianna got a matching laptop like her sister since the older two have one and she is ALWAYS fighting to get on with them. It's a VTech one and has numbers, letters, shapes, and games. It's good through age 7 and even teaches things like addition and subtraction! Josh of course has already mastered his, but he likes "teaching" his sisters about the different letter sounds and spelling. He amazes me sometimes :)

Jason's mom sends the kids a special ornament each year for the kids to put on the tree. I have a special bag for their ornaments so that each Christmas the kids put their own ornaments on the tree. Josh got a Toy Story ornament of Woody and Jessie....

Jenna got a Cinderella ornament...

Julianna got a Tinkerbell ornament... (Now she won't try and take her sister's Tinkerbell off the tree!)

And Jayden got an Angel that says "Baby's 1st Christmas" on it....

Once the kids thought they were all done opening gifts, Jason and I had one last surprise for Jenna and Joshua that we had hidden in the garage. We decided to get them bikes! They LOVED them and rode them in the kitchen all day. We let them ride on the tile since the temperature didn't get above 40 degrees and was really windy outside. Hopefully today we can ride down to the mailbox :)

Christmas was a fun, relaxing time with just our family of six. We enjoyed quality time together - something that is so difficult to get these days of working and going here, there and everywhere! We got to slow down and really reflect on what matters and the true meaning of Christmas.

We will of course celebrate with my dad and the rest of the family that's here - but we do that in January. It's really neat since my parents have eight grandkids to make feel special on Christmas, so the after-Christmas deals come in handy! I'll be posting about that when we take part in that celebration...

The other tradition I've kind of started the past couple of years is going to the mall the day after Christmas for some of the sales. I go solely for the fact of getting NEXT year's Christmas outfits for the kids. If you don't have little girls, you'd be amazed at how much stores charge for dresses for Easter and Christmas!! Usually they run from $25 on up. A nice, good looking dress will set you back $40 to $50. So I go and get them for 60% off and save them for the next year! Here's a glance at the outfits for the girls and boys for next Christmas....

And since Julianna's birthday is coming up on April 1st, I decided to also buy her some birthday clothes since they were marked down to $4 or $5 and just save them to wrap for her birthday. Here's one of the cute shirts I found at JC Penny....

I hope your Christmas was filled with special memories. I know it's been awesome making some memories with our kids and cherishing this time when they are small because they will be grown and have families of their own one day. I know that I cherish the times I had when I was little spending with my mom listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra while opening presents on Christmas Eve and then going to Grandma's house or my Auntie's house on Christmas day to spend with cousins and everyone. It's hard being away from them, but I thank God that we have technology like blogs, facebook, and email to not only keep in touch, but so that they can be a part of our Christmas here, 2000 miles away.

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve is what kicks off the Christmas festivities for our family. Although Jason always has to work on Christmas Eve, the kids and I have started some fun traditions while waiting for him to get off of work and then go to Candelight Christmas service at church in the evening.

This year we made some caramel corn from scratch and listened to Christmas songs all day. Its a recipe I stole from one of my students. She made it for me last year as a gift adn it was SO delicious! It's easy to make and not sticky like most caramel corn. Here's a before and after shot of our creation :)

We decided this was a good year to start making this and wrapping it up for our neighbors as well as Jason's work teammates. Plus the kids love sampling it when it comes out of the oven. If you would like the recipe, just email me and I'll send it!

This year was neat because Jason got off work early, so we weren't rushed getting to church - or getting ready for that matter. We both are very involved in our church and have found such a great home for our kids to grow up in. We got to church around 4:45 pm and the service started at 6:00pm, (Jason was ushering - hench why we had to be there so early), so it gave the kids a lot of time to play with their friend, Brooklyn. Brooklyn's mommy and daddy are the youth pastors at our church and her mommy, Connie and I have become good friends over the past few years. We've secretly betrothed Joshua and Brooklyn for marriage...LOL....not really. They're just great friends! Here's some pictures of the night:

Merry Christmas everyone! Look for the Christmas pictures tomorrow! I'm actually baking Christmas dinner myself! I know mom, what's gotten into me?!

Priceless

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hand" ~Ps. 19:1

Getting to watch the sunrise on a beautiful, crisp, cool morning is priceless. Getting to watch the waonder and awe in your children's eyes when they watch it and see the vibrant colors is beyond words.

Stockings Hung with Care...

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Ask my mom or dad...I listen to Christmas songs in July. :) I love the joy that people have and the "feeling of Christmas". It's funny because people KNOW there's so much more than just Santa and buying gifts. Its like this internal awknoledgement that it's the most important day of the year - it's Jesus' birthday!

I love Christmas traditions too, and this year we've really been working on instilling these traditions in our kids - something that they can then take and begin to make with their families when they grow up. So on this Christmas eve eve, I thought I'd let you in on a few of our traditions we've started with our little ones.

We start setting up things the first Saturday after Thanksgiving. Jason usually has to work on Black Friday, so that's why we wait until the next day. It begins with the tree. While the kids are napping, Jason sets it up and I spread open the branches. Jason srings the lights and we set it into place. Then when the kids wake up, they help decorate the tree. Of course, since we have three toddlers in the house, we have a baby gate around our tree :)

The gate works well for curious pets too. And it keeps a certain curious little four-year-old out of the presents.... This year he's been sneaky and been looking in the ones that were just put in bags. I think he takes after his momma....

We hang the stockings and we put on KSBJ because they play a variety of Christmas music all day every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Nothing else really gets done until the week of Christmas...then the anticipation and preparation begins. I'll write about that when the week is over so that I'll have LOTS of pictures to share. :) So be anxiously awaiting!

Bye Bye Paci!

Jason and I watch a lot of Supernanny. We watched it before we had kids and got a lot of great, practical parenting tips from the show. I vowed that my kids would never behave like some of the kids we've seen on there. One of my own personal "pet peeves" is seeing kindergarteners walking around with pacis still in their mouths.

All of my kids have liked the paci. I wanted them to like it because I was a thumb sucker when I was little and I remember sucking my thumb for a long time after I probably shouldn't have been. I also remember how hard my mom tried to break me of the habit. So to avoid cutting off my kids' thumbs (totally joking!) I made sure they got real aquainted with the paci right away. This way when they get close to 18 months we could take it away.

I know many people that have tried many different things to accomplish this task, and I'm passing on the best advice I was ever told. When Josh was little, a friend of mine told me to simply snip off the end of the paci so that it loses its suction. Then the child will think its broken and won't want it anymore. I snipped the end off this paci and you can barely see it - that's how little you have to cut off.

So it was now Julianna's turn to give up the "beloved paci". Granted she only used this at nap and bed times, it was still something that I thought would be difficult for her to give up. I did wait a little longer than 18 months with her, simply because I wanted her to know that the paci was for the baby and to see that. So, I snipped the ends off all her pacis and it took just the one day for her not to want them anymore..... At first she cried....

But now she hands them to me and tells me "baby Jayden paci". And she no longer even desires to have one. Way to go Julianna! You're a big girl now!

Three

Seems to be that three is the "turning point". Turning from toddler to "little person". Turning from a baby face to a kid face. Turning from being dependent on mom and dad for things to wanting to do everything on your own. Our little Jenna-girl turned three on the first of this month and I cannot believe she is three already! In a way it seems to have gone by so slowly as she seems so grown-up at times. In other ways it seems to have flown by. The picture above was taken when she was just two weeks old. What's sad is that I hardly remember her being that tiny.... Now she's my little girl and does everything by herself...

Because of Jayden's impending birth, we didn't want to plan a party and then have to cancel it due to a baby arrival, but we also wanted her to feel special since she had been looking forward to her birthday since Joshua's birthday two months prior. So, we decided to have dad and Sherrie over for some dinner and cake - Sherrie made her a "Tinkerbell" cake. I took her over to Kroger, just her and I, for her to pick out three ballons, of course one was a princess one.

We sang Happy Birthday to her and played games and she felt so special being three. The funny thing was that her actual birthday was a few days after we got together so she thought that she was turning four ON her birthday. Try explaining that one to a three-year old!

She has changed so much in the past three years. She started out as such a "difficult" newborn - having reflux really bad and not wanting anyone else to hold her but me. Now she's a daddy's girl, lovign to "cuddle" on the couch right before bed watching a little TV or reading a book together.

Speaking of reading, she LOVES to "read" books. She and Julianna share a room, and they usually fall alseep on the floor together with a couple books surrounding them. She also likes to read to Jayden. She's got such a "mothering" personality now and is my sweet baby girl. Her imagination amazes me, and she loves to give hugs and help me with the dishes.

Happy Birthday sweet Jenna!

One Month Update

It always amazes me how much children grow within the first five years of their lives. I made a point with Joshua to try and capture as much of each priceless moment as possible to remember their "firsts" and be able to look back through the pictures and watch them grow-up all over again. I've dedicated myself to making each child an extensive scrapbook from first ultrasound through first birthday....unfortunately only Joshua's is completed right now!

It seems like yesterday we became a family of six...I'm still not used to saying that! Jayden has changed SO much this first month of his life. Here's a little picture journal to document his first month of life...

One day old

One week old

Two weeks old

Three weeks old

One month old

Loving being in the baby sling

Jayden is such an easy baby too - I don't know if that's because I am more experienced as a mom, or because being the fourth with three other little ones you kinda have to be! He weighed 6 lbs 15 oz at birth (born at 37 weeks) and at one monthe weighed in at 10 pounds even. I think he is the heviest baby thus far at one month, which is surprising as he was the lightest at birth!

He has also grown from 19 inches to 21 inches in length. Of course he is still held in high reguard with his siblings and they just can't get enough of him. He is starting to really like to be in the bouncer and reaches for the toys on there. Tummy-time doesn't happen as often as I'd like, but the big kids tend to "smother" him or not watch where they're going when he's on the floor and I don't want him to get smashed!

We are looking forward to celebrating Jayden's first Christmas later this week and setting into motion our own family traditions for the week of Christmas...look for the blog later!

Christmas Pictures...

I would love to tell you that the above picture was one of many GREAT pictures of all the kids together... But it just isn't so. In fact the picture of Josh and Jayden is kinda funny because Joshie decided to "burp" him to get him to stop crying. Meanwhile, Julianna is trying to leave, and Jenna is making faces at the camera. I tried to get all four kiddos to sit down long enough for a "family" Christmas picture - yeah, that was wishful thinking. Here's the "best" of my attempts at doing it myself. Praise God for Photoshop! (You'll see at the end)

and so I decided to just forget it and two weeks ago I created our Christmas card by taking each kid's picture individually and then editing it and slapping it on a photocard. They're not together, but yet they're all in one place and are smiling!