Christmas Memories

We had another wonderful Christmas this year.  I loved being on maternity leave during December.  I think that, coupled with our huge snowstorms, really put me in the Christmas spirit!  Christmas with little babies is so fun, and I think it's only going to get better!  Although we learned this year that with little ones that nap during the day and go to bed early, we simply cannot be gone all day long.  They need to get their nap in and get to bed at a decent time.  I think next year we will simplify and spend Christmas Eve with one family and Christmas Day with the other (with Christmas day morning saved just for the four of us).  

Here are a couple of my favorite memories from this Christmas. 

 I loved the Christmas Eve service at Hosanna.  For the second year, they had a live stable with camels, donkeys, a cow, ducks, sheep, and a goat.  In a building with over 2,000 people, we were in the 2nd row, in the very center. It felt like we were in the stable with the animal noises and smells.  During worship, I was standing and swaying while Max slept peacefully in my arms.  The thousands of voices were beautifully singing "Away in a Manger".  It was a precious moment for me.  It struck me, in a brand new way, that Jesus was born a baby; born to die; born as an offering.  I've said it before, but having a newborn baby boy at Christmas has been a unique experience for me, and one I'm so grateful for!

Christmas morning was a special time for our family.  My babies were in their Christmas jammies.  I made blueberry coffee cake for breakfast.  Josh put together Claire's play kitchen while she looked on adoringly.  We were in no rush to go somewhere.  It was a calm that we needed in the midst of a hectic couple of days.

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'til tomorrow

For babies grow up much to our sorrow

 So quiet down cob-webs, dust go to sleep

I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep. 

I am treasuring the moment. My spirit rejoices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghwe4TYY18&feature=player_embedded

This is a video worthy of watching. 

PSA: ING and Arts Cow

PSA means 'public service announcement' if you didn't know. :)

I wanted to share about two companies, ING and Arts Cow because I really like them both!

ING
http://www.ingdirect.com/
ING is an online bank that offers savings, checking, loans, etc. I have used it for a number of years for our savings account.  It's FDIC insured so you have the same protection as a brick and mortar bank.  With ING, you can have multiple sub-accounts.  You can also set it up so money is transferred from your checking account to your sub-account automatically, on the day of the month that you choose.  I have several sub-accounts with ING.
1) General emergency savings
2) Tax and Insurance
Each month a sum of money is transferred automatically to this account to cover our property tax, car insurance, and house insurance. 
3) Christmas
Each month $75 is transferred to this account automatically.  We don't really miss $75 each month, and when Christmas rolls around and we have $900 saved in this account, it makes a huge difference! It is SO nice to buy Christmas presents with money that is already saved up-- there's no worrying about how Christmas will fit into our budget and no feeling that you can't really "afford" Christmas.  It's a joy to be able to shop for friends and family without a worry about the money.  I totally recommend doing this!!! (Even if you don't use ING, you could take an amount out in cash each month and sock it away). 
4) 10 Year Anniversary trip
I recently started having $50 transferred automatically into this account each month for a big 10 year anniversary trip four years from now.  We found a place in our budget for the $50 and it will be nice in 4 years to have $2400 saved up already for our trip! I'm hoping to increase this amount in a year or two so we have more saved up and can take a wonderful trip, again without worrying about money!  $50 each month is certainly a lot different than thousands of dollars at one time!

So those are our four sub-accounts.  I originally opened this account because they were offering a 4.5% interest rate (I know! Can you imagine?!).  The interest rate has since decreased dramatically due to the economy and whatnot, but it's still a lot more than you'd get with a traditional bank.  Plus, ING is very user friendly and it's easy to manage your money.  You can transfer the money back into your checking account but it takes a couple days (which has its own benefits).

If you want to open an ING account and you do so with at least $250, let me know, because if I refer you, you will get a $25 bonus and I will get $10.  (I'm certainly not advocating ING because of this bonus.)  Let me know if you have any questions!

Arts Cow
My second PSA is about Arts Cow. 
http://www.artscow.com/

For the past year, I have purchased my Christmas cards, shower and birthday party invitations, and birth announcements from Etsy.  It's pretty cool.  There are hundreds and hundreds of designs to choose from and most cost $15.  You email your pictures to the seller and they email you a jpeg of the finished product (in my experience, it takes between 2 to 24 hours to get the completed design, depending on the seller).  They are typically completely customizable (if you saw Max's birth announcement, I changed some things around-- I removed one picture and added the bible verse, etc).  Once you have the jpeg, you can upload it to any site and buy prints.  I had always used Walmart (yuck!!  I had the pictures shipped to me so I didn't have to subject myself to the store) and bought 5x7s for $0.58 each.  The $0.58 plus the $15 for the design, plus envelopes from Office Max or Archivers, ended up being cheaper than Shutterfly or Snapfish.  It was a WIN!

But now I have discovered Arts Cow!!  I used Arts Cow this year for our Christmas card and birth announcement.  A 5x7 with Arts Cow costs....... only 12 cents!!  It's ridiculous. 

Here is the breakdown of my Christmas card cost this year, for a total of 115 cards.
Design from Etsy:  13 cents
Printing from Arts Cow:  12 cents
Shipping from Arts Cow: 17 cents
Envelope from Archivers: 8 cents
Grand total: 50 cents each

It actually cost even less than this because your first 50 5x7s are free.  This is significantly cheaper than most picture cards.  And, if I had placed my order just one day earlier, I could have taken advantage of their free shipping special!

I ordered the pictures on a Thursday, they shipped on Saturday, and arrived on Tuesday.. from Hong Kong!!!  The shipping cost was kind of high so I thought this is where they made their money but when it arrived in two business days from Hong Kong, I realized it was the actual cost of the shipping.

To sum it up, using Etsy and Arts Cow is...   Fast. Cheap. Unique. Customizable. 

Hope you enjoyed my public service announcements. :)

Joseph's Lullaby

I saw this video posted on Facebook.  Oh my, I love it.  Totally worth your time.  What a miracle baby Jesus is!  (It's the song I wrote about a couple posts ago). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PytP9XPhP1g

Tea Parties

This morning Claire, Max, Monkey (MON-keeee) and I had a very pleasant tea party, as you can see from the pictures below.   I told Max this is just the beginning of Claire telling him what they're going to play (and exactly how to do it, I'm sure!).  Being the oldest cousin, I'm sure she'll have Max and Brody wrapped around her finger.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Max and Brody in high heels and dress up clothes in the next couple of years!  

 Big hugs for baby brother!

 See the monkey, Max?  See?? See??? 

 And just because he's so darn cute!

Little Peanuts

Claire is about 2 1/2 weeks older than Max in these pictures. 

Claire's face is rounder.  They have the same forehead and the identical nose and chin.  Their lips are similar but different too. 

I'm sure blessed to have my little peanuts!

Sweet baby Jesus

Having a newborn baby boy myself, I can't help but think of Mary, sweet mama to baby Jesus, during this Christmas season.  I want Max to be safe, to be warm, I want to just love on him all day and night (okay, maybe not allll night; I don't mind getting some sleep). I want for him to not have a worry in the world.  Or any pain or owwies (although he gets an occasional owwie curteosy of big sister).

He's so helpless.  So utterly dependent on us for his every need.

Can you believe that our Savior came to us as flesh?  As a tiny, precious baby?

I love Mercy Me's Christmas CD.  This year, their song "Joseph's Lullaby" has brand new meaning to me.  I wonder what Mary was thinking as she held her precious baby.  Did she want to protect him from bearing the burden of saving the world?  Did she want him to just be able to be a sweet baby, without a worry or expectation upon him? 

Go to sleep my Son

This manger for your bed

You have a long road before You

Rest Your little head

Can You feel the weight of Your glory?

Do You understand the price?

Or does the Father guard Your heart for now

So You can sleep tonight?

Go to sleep my Son

Go and chase Your dreams

This world can wait for one more moment

Go and sleep in peace

I believe the glory of Heaven

Is lying in my arms tonight

But Lord, I ask that He for just this moment

Simply be my child

Go to sleep my Son

Baby, close Your eyes

Soon enough You'll save the day

But for now, dear Child of mine

Oh my Jesus, Sleep tight

Mommy guilt no more!

When you join the ranks of motherhood you also join a whole new world of mommy guilt.  Those new moms out there know what I'm talking about.  With 2under2, I'm experiencing all kinds of new guilt.  I've come to realize in a short amount of time that this guilt does no good for me or my family so I'm deliberately choosing to NOT feel guilt (as much as I can!).  Here's the three main guilt areas that I'm nixing from my life:

1) Correspondance
I love, love, love getting phone calls, emails, facebook messages, texts, etc, from family and friends.  It makes me feel loved!!  It can be difficult to respond in a timely manner with the two little ones around.  If I'm on the computer, Claire demands to sit on my lap and that just doesn't work so well.  When she's napping, I have about a million things to do (but what I should be doing, and occassionally do, is rest).  So I'm sorry if I owe you a response.  I truly appreciate you and do not mean to leave you hanging!  The first few weeks I felt really bad about this but I'm trying to let that go (and respond as soon as I can!).

2) Cleanliness
Josh and I really prefer to have a clean and tidy house.  Let me rephrase that.  I prefer clean and tidy and he prefers tidy.  I swear he literally cannot see dust, or particles on the floor, or spills, because if he could, surely he would clean them up, right?? :)  So we both tidy up and I clean.  We're minimalists so we like having counters and floors clear of dishes, toys, you name it.  This is not so easy with two little loves.  The first couple weeks Josh was back at work I really tried to have the entire house picked up by the time he got home (darn that new huge tub of 140 blocks that Claire insists on dumping out as soon as they're picked up!). That typically didn't happen so I was left feeling guilty and bad.  But no more!  If we're all breathing at the end of the day, I call it a success. :)

3) Quality time
When Claire was a baby, I spent an endless amount of time cuddling with her and staring at her every feature so they were etched in my mind.  While I spend time cuddling with Max, it's not as much as I did with Claire, or would like to do.  On the flip side, when I am with Max, I feel bad that Claire is left on her own.  It's a juggling act.  When I'm nursing Max, I usually have to sit on the floor so I can entertain Claire and she doesn't have to cry or whine at my feet.  She'll bring me books and try to wedge herself onto my lap (it's a good thing she's small because at this point they can both fit!).  Max is left to chill in his bouncer chair more than I would like.  And Claire is left to play on her own (and get into trouble when I am busy with Max and can't chase after her!) more than she would like.  At first I struggled with this, but I'm making a conscious effort to not feel guilty anymore because I have given them a priceless, long-term gift that is much better than my short-term attention--- a sibling. 

Max at 1 Month Old

This post is over a week late!  Yikes!  It's much harder to find time to blog these days!

Max at 1 month:

• eats every 1-3 hours during the day.  He's generally a great nurser.  He's getting chunky with all the milk he's drinking!  It's fun to watch him grow because it's already so different than Claire!
• gets up every 1-4 hours at night.  We've had just a couple 4 hour stretches.  He's typically up every 2-3 hours.  It's a struggle to get him back to sleep.  He falls asleep after he eats but once I lay him down, he wakes up just enough to realize he's still swaddled and start fighting it.  I am looking forward to the day that we don't need to swaddle! 
• has a sweet demeanor.  He isn't completely content very often; he prefers to be held and/or have a pacifier.  But he usually won't cry unless he's hungry, tired, has a wet diaper or wants to be held.  I can't even express how wonderful this is!!  Once Claire goes to bed in the evening, Josh and I can relax on the couch with Max (with him either eating, sleeping, or just chilling with is pacifier).  With Claire, we spent the evenings performing the 5 s's over and over. 
• wears newborn clothes still but is quickly outgrowing them!
• dislikes the bath, just like his sister did. 
• has had a handful of bottles and took them beautifully.  Fingers crossed that this continues!

There's not a lot to write about at one month old. :)  Overall, Max is a terrific baby and we're so blessed to have him in our family! 

He is enough.

In this Thanksgiving and Advent season, it's natural to reflect upon our blessings.  The past two years have been particularly enlightening when considering our blessings, with Claire's first Thanksgiving being last year, and having a brand new, healthy and beautiful baby boy this year.  I look at these beautiful blessings and I can't help but be overwhlemed by the graciousness of God. 

I have so many other reasons to be thankful-- for our stable jobs, for our home, our friends and family, our health, and the list goes on.

But how much do I enjoy God Himself apart from His blessings?

When it's all stripped away, is He enough?  Through Christ I have eternal salvation, which is the ultimate blessing and more than I could ever ask for.  I am being challenged to be satisfied and passionately in love with Jesus, not because of what He has blessed me with, but because of who He is. 

He is enough.  He's all I need. 

The peanut and the porker

We finally went to the doctor last night. It was our first time having to go during after hours, so I think we've been pretty lucky!  It was day 6 of Claire's nasty cold and I just felt like she needed to be checked out. I also wanted Max examined because he's been sick and he's just so young to have a cold. 

We learned that Claire has a double ear infection.  The ear infections were caused by the cold. She's had a very runny nose and it drained back towards her ears and caused the infections.  Max has been coughing, sneezing and very congested. They did xrays on him to rule out pneumonia since he's so young.  Holding him in position for the xrays was the saddest little sight! I had to place him in a seating position and hold his arms way above his head so he would sit and press his tummy against the cold xray machine.  He doesn't have pneumonia, thank the Lord. 

And he weighs.... drum roll...... 9 lbs 6 oz!!!  Wow!  He was 7 lbs 4 oz at his two week check-up so he gained almost 2 pounds in just 2 weeks!  Looks like I have a peanut and a porker on my hands. :)

Lets pray that the antibiotic makes Claire feel better and her cold gets better real soon. And let's pray that Max's cold goes away too!  Mama needs to keep her sanity!  But all in all, I think Max, Claire and I are managing well on our own.  If we're doing this well during the bout of sickness, think how good life will be once we're all healthy!