Visit to Grandma Jean's

Here we are with my Grandma Jean, my mom's mom.

















Joshua and Levi sharing a bucket.

















My cousins Tim and Mike













My Aunt Nancy (my mom's sister) and her granddaughter Teagan (my cousin's daughter).












Meeting Alli for the first time - my cousin Aaron's first baby. She's beautiful!

















My mom, sils and I make scrapbook pages each year for the grandmothers. Here she is looking at this year's addition to her scrapbook.












Aunt Diane and Uncle Pat (my mom's other sister)











Israel and Great Grandma Jean


















Grandma played the piano for us and it was beautiful! She hadn't played in years and she plays beautifully by ear. It was so nice to hear her play.










The next up and coming piano player of the family: my neice Jessica. She charmed us with several Christmas carols and she is really doing well.











My cousin Aaron, wife Becky and new precious daughter Alli.

Happy Birthday, Israel !!

Today Israel turns one year old! How fast a year goes by!
Yesterday we had a little family lunch to celebrate his birthday, and unfortunately, he was pretty crabby.... he has been teething.... but we did get a couple of nice shots of him to put in his book!























Remember what he looked like just one year ago?

I know I'm biased, but I just thought he was just *the* most beautiful newborn! He was one hour old in this picture, *exactly* one year ago to the minute, actually, as I type this. :)















This was how he responded most of the day yesterday, to anyone but Mommy holding him.... not quite so cute!
















He got into the gift opening a little bit. :)













Then he wondered what in the world everyone was singing in his face and staring at him for!

















He must have been paying attention at other parties we've been to recently, because he seemed to know he had to blow out that candle, without us ever having tried to teach him! I love his little pucker.























And..... we decided to let him try some!
First he just stared at it and kept looking at us, like "Are you really gonna let me *eat* this??"











Then, he started to suck on it! It was so cute how dainty he was about it - never getting his hands in it, but only his mouth! At this point, I could really appreciate having ONE neat child!






























Now, for a little bit of "journaling" about Israel:
I weighed him this morning, and he weighs a mere 22 pounds (10 kilos). He is not walking yet, but I think he will seem tall once he starts, at 32 inches tall (81.5 cm). He does say a few words, mostly "mama", "papa", and "nana" (banana, but recently applies to all food!). He also recently started doing some sign language, although he has understood it for some time now. He has been doing the sign for "more" and "milk" for the past couple weeks. I just LOVE when the little ones sign! He really enjoys eating food, but he is still nursing a lot, too.
He is generally rather laid back and easy going - a real joy to have around! Daddy and Mommy love you, Israel! God bless you, child!







On another note, yesterday morning was also the day that our neice Moriah was dedicated to the Lord at their church.

Here are a few more failed attempts at trying to get a decent picture of Israel and Moriah together!
These are from Saturday, and Sunday.










They are usually both in movement, and therefore turn out blurry. I'm not even worried about smiles - I just want them to at least both LOOK! I can't even seem to manage that!










At least Moriah was smiling here.













Then she caught sight of Israel's luscious irresistable curls and that was the end of trying to get a happy picture of Israel!











Moriah found it amusing to pull Israel's curls, but Israel was not nearly so charmed!













This was about the time we decided to give up!














This is at Scott and Amanda's church for the dedication.













We love you, sweet Moriah! May God richly bless your life!












We had quite a bit of snow over the weekend! It is pretty, even though it causes much inconvenience!












One major incovenience is increased drive time!

Now that he is ONE, I turned his carseat around, and he LOVES facing forward now! I like it too, now that I can see him better. So at least he was more content during the LONG time it took us to get to and from a birthday party Saturday night!












Sleeping beauty

Who needs fancy toys???

Well, Israel is officially my latest walker now. He will be one on Monday, and he is not walking yet. I think he could, as I witnessed him take three steps the other day before he realized he wasn't holding on to anything, but he's just too laid back to take the challenge on just yet.

Anyway, as many of you know, I am a true minimalist when it comes to baby equipment and toys, so I thought this would be a fun post. :)

Here is Israel's alternative to a walker: the kitchen chairs!





And Joshua, for some odd reason, has just really been enjoying this string for about the last two weeks now! LOL. He has invented so many creative things to do with this string - they have been inseparable for some time. He carries it everywhere with him, except to bed, which we prohibited, and (so far) has not done anything mischevious with it. ;) He uses it as a leash on stuffed animals, as a bookmark, as a fishing line, a belt, a lock on the closet door, and I don't even remember what else! Sure has been fun, though!




























As for Dominique, her favorite thing to "play" is helping mama in the kitchen. She often comes to me when it is not even time to make a meal and asks if she can help me make food! When it is time to make food, I always accept her help, even when at times it is tempting to do it by myself and get it done fast.....

But, letting her help is paying off (a little bit) already, and I'm sure in the future, it will be wonderful to have another cook in the house. ;) So far, she is becoming very skilled at peeling carrots, potatoes and cucumbers, and has just started using this crinkle cutter on them.
She also enjoys measuring the ingredients for me, cracking the eggs (her favorite), washing dishes, setting the table, and anything else I can think of to let her help with. She feels like such a big girl, and is far happier helping me and doing something useful, than having me tell her to "just go play" so I can get it done. She thinks this is way more fun than a toy kitchen any day!

(Although I do realize the value of play for children, and believe me, they *play* plenty too - the kitchen toys are her favorite, along with her babies and bags. ;-)

Sebastian James Hodges

Well, it seems that blogging goes in spurts: either I have a bunch to post, and not enough time to post it, or I have some extra time, and nothing noteworthy to post! :)

Well, right now I have several things to post, so I will start here and keep posting if the kids stay asleep!

This beautiful baby is Sebastian James Hodges, born to our friends Greg and Alejandra on December 3rd. Isn't he beautiful?


Israel was fascinated by him! Boy, did he look like a huge monster next to this little munchkin!












Yawn!


















Alejandra's mother is in from Argentina, and we had a really nice visit with her. Wonderful, godly lady!











The children were SO excited about the baby! Joshua didn't want to give him up, but Dominique would give him no peace. :) I didn't get a good shot of her holding him, though.


















I love seeing men be tender with babies and children.
Te amo, meu amor!

We've been elfed!

Click here to see the elf family!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1300893060

Winter Wonderland!

Well, we have had our first big snow of the year and the children are thrilled!
Here they are, all bundled up to play outside. One of Joshua's new favorite words is "bulky". They definitely had some bulky clothes on here!
(This morning he was talking about someone's "big bulky eyes". lol)









The Snow Princess













Joshua thought it would be fun to try to ride his bike in the snow, but it didn't work out too well....












And now Joshua is old enough to take over my job of pulling the sled! Yay! It was good exercise for me, but now it is nice for him to spend some energy. :)











"So happy together"












After I took these pictures, Israel woke up. After nursing and being changed, I showed him his siblings playing merrily outside the window, and he couldn't wait to get out there too! So, I bundled him up and we headed out.
However, it seems they don't really start enjoying playing in the snow until they are at least two, and sure enough, he didn't like it nearly as much as he thought he would! Still, I gave him the chance to see what a sled ride was like, feel how the snow was "cold", and watch his siblings for a few minutes. After that, he was perfectly happy to come back in the house with mommy and watch them from the window!
Here is Israel's first experience with snow! (He didn't really notice the snow too much last year. :)







This is by far the "funnest" year for the kids to play in the snow so far! This picture is from last year, when things were improving, but Dominique was still too little to stand the cold for long, and I had to be outside if she was, *at all times!*, which was difficult with a newborn! And once Dominique was done, Joshua would cry that he wanted to stay out, but not all alone!

The year before that was worse, when Dominique was one year old, and hated to be out, just as much as Israel does right now! Then Joshua really had a hard time. :)

So many things change as the children grow! I truly have enjoyed each stage so very much, but it is nice in many regards that these two are getting a bit older, and are such good playmates for each other. They are best friends!
Thank you, Lord!

My Seven Children

No, I don't really have seven children, but I got a little taste of what it might be like during a couple of chances I have had recently to keep my brother's four children. It has been fun! When the whole family gets together, the adults are usually busy talking, and the (eleven) children are busy playing, so I don't always get a lot of time to interact with my neices and nephews. So, we had a good time together. These pictures are from two different days:

Levi holding Rabby.









A.J. holding Rabby.


















Colton, A.J., Joshua and Levi chilling out in the basement with "Christmas Carrols"












Lunch together. L-R : Jessica (11) holding Israel (nearly 1!), Colton (7), A.J.(going-on-9), Levi (5), Joshua (5), and Dominique (3)











And Uncle Aaron with Dominique. No, I wasn't babysitting him, too. This was when he came to pick his little ones up! :)