What she says

This is Claire early in the morning on December 6th, when she first spotted the gifts that Saint Nicholas left for them.  How beautiful is she?!  I just love her.

The other day when I was getting ready for work, I said, "Do NOT give me a hug!" so she gave me a hug. Then I said, "do NOT give me a kiss!" so she laughed and gave me a kiss.  Then she smiled and said, "Mom, do NOT give me a graham cracker!!"  How fast they pick up on reverse psychology!




This cheese face has to go.  Claire is wearing new size 4T jammies in this picture and they are MASSIVE on her.  Tonight Claire got (yet another) injury.  Max sat next to her and said, "Care, feel better. I want Care feel better".




She's a good baking helper.  And she insists on helping me wrap presents (by placing the tape ever so carefully) which makes it take 3x as long but I try my best to be patient with her.

Today Omi put an outfit on Claire's paper doll and Claire said she looked like a "hot mess"!

Yesterday morning I was getting ready for work, while Claire laid sweetly at my feet. She looked at me thoughtfully and said, "Mom, you sound so beautiful when you talk.  I wish I sounded beautiful like you when I talk".

The Price

We didn't even know that we needed him.  After struggling through a miscarriage and a number of rounds of fertility treatments, we were enjoying our new little family of three.  As you know, we were literally shocked when we learned that another life was growing within me.  We didn't know that we needed him, but God did.

When Max was a newborn, I reflected a great deal on how much of an impact having a newborn baby boy at Christmas time had on me.  That year, Christmas became more than a story to me. The weight of the price that was paid became more real in my heart, and I felt a glimmer of the weight in my arms, literally, as I held my own newborn baby boy and reflected on how Mary must have felt, doing the same, but knowing that her son had come to save the world.





I wonder if God knew that not only did we need this son, but that we needed him at that very time. At Christmas.

Today we braved the snow and nasty roads to go to church. Max did surprisingly well in his class- he didn't even cry!  The first thing Claire said when we picked her up was, "Did Maxy cry today? Did he do okay?"  When I told her that he did great, she said, "It must be because he's two now!"

The message was on Joseph.  I didn't realize before today that there is not one recorded word from Joseph in the New Testament. Yet, his compassion and mercy spoke volumes.

They showed a filmed parody of a modern-day Dad, getting in the character of Joseph for a play.  He roamed the streets of Minneapolis, in his beard and cloak.  He scared his elementary age son when he made his son tell him, "There is no room for you at the inn". "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE IS NO ROOM?!  YOU JUST WANT MY WIFE TO HAVE A BABY OUTSIDE?! HOW IS THERE NO ROOM FOR US?!?!".

They showed three short clips of this modern-day Dad, dressed as Joseph, and the third clip made both me and Josh cry, but we were in good company as I heard a lot of sniffles surrounding me.  I thought for a second there was an apple in my throat and my tears came more freely when I glanced over at Josh and saw a couple tears fall from his eye.

In the clip, the modern-day Joseph walked into the living room, where his wife was holding their baby son. He had his get-up on and said he was ready to go perform in the play.

He stopped...and removed his fake beard. He looked tenderly at his baby boy.

He said, "I couldn't do it".




"Do what?", his wife asked.

"I couldn't do it.  I couldn't give up my son."




"The world would be out of luck".  

That was the price. It's amazing to think about.



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In other news, how much worse is snow once you're an adult?! (and have a nasty commute?) Although, Max isn't too fond of it either.  Of course, our snowblower wouldn't start today. And I'm dreading my 2+ hour commute tomorrow, so I may just work from home!












Josh got on my case for taking pictures and not putting Max out of his misery sooner.  Me? I think these pictures were well worth a minute of torture. :)

Weekend recap

The weekend started out dramatic.  Josh spent a good part of the day on Thursday at the hospital in the emergency room, for an excruciating migraine, shortness of breath, chest pains, and a rapid heart-rate.  Then, Friday night Max woke up at 10:30PM and seemed to be choking.  Let me tell you, it was terrifying.  I pounded on his back with my heel and he finally started breathing freely again.  I held him for thirty minutes before putting him back to bed.  An hour later, he woke up doing the same thing.  I even briefly considered calling an ambulance. Fortunately, it stopped once again.  He didn't have another episode the rest of the night but did wake up every 30-60 minutes crying.  Josh was still recovering (it's now Sunday and he's still recovering!) so I got a lot of quality time with my Maxers.

On Saturday morning, I attended our church's Women's Christmas Brunch with my friend Rachel.  I am so glad we went! It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed some time outside, followed by dinner at the Park's house.



Tomorrow is my brother's 34th birthday. I pray that Claire and Max's relationship when they are adults is as meaningful and close as my and my brother's relationship.  I am so, so thankful for him, which I wrote about here on his 30th birthday.  I love you, Chris.


Josh was still under the weather today and Max wasn't feeling great himself, so Claire and I went to church together.  The message was on Mary, mother of Jesus, and it was so good.  I just love how God used a common, ordinary girl with extraordinary faith to bear His beloved son.  God often chooses the least likely to do his most important work, because He wants it to be clear who is doing the work. He chooses you, too.

Afterwards, I hosted our second annual Christmas baking day!!  So fun.  Nana and Claire started off by unwrapping the rolos.  Max said, "I'll help!", jumped onto Nana's lap, unwrapped a candy, and put it right into his mouth!  All three of them thought it was hilarious.



Isn't Movember over, babe?


Laurie, Becky (with Bailey!) and Shayla





These little kiddos were angels during our almost six hours of baking!!  They played so well together and you hardly knew they were here!


My loverboy giving his buddy Landon a hug when it was time to go.


Ah, a full five-day week ahead of me.  Have a blessed one!

Pictures and thoughts and stuff.

We had our second round of Thanksgiving last night at my mom's.  We really enjoy spending time with Brad's kids and grandchildren.  This morning, much to Max's delight, Josh served in Max's sunday school room.  As we were just walking down the hall to his classroom, Max's eyes filled with tears and he started saying, "no...no...no..no..". Poor little guy.  I hope he starts enjoying his sunday school soon, or, at least stop being terrified!  Josh said that all of the little toddlers were glued to him the entire time.

Claire continues to grow up before our eyes.  Yesterday we had a playdate with the cousins at Jesse and Ben's house.  Afterwards, the four moms went out to lunch while the dads took the kids home to nap.  When we're home, I am always the one who has to put Claire to nap and bed.  I tuck her in and make sure to leave the door all the way open.  Yesterday, Claire told Josh, "I'll tuck myself in and I'll close my door, ALL BY MYSELF".  Sure enough, she closed the door (what?!) and he didn't hear a peep for a couple hours!  And, this morning, she ran right into her sunday school room all by herself, pulled up a chair, and started coloring.  Didn't need any help finding a spot from me.  These are big milestones for Claire.

Precious Bailey at my mom's house.


Max, Cambrie, and Claire.



Took some close-up pictures this afternoon, to capture the little details of her sweet face.






After an enjoyable visit from Auntie Heather and Uncle Sean, we put up the tree together.


Daddy, Claire and Stella


Taking a break from the tree to steal a kiss from my sweet boy.



It was such a wonderful four-day break.  Sigh.  I am feeling God's presence already this holiday season.  We just finished an amazing sermon series at church, titled "worship, grow, impact".  At the "Impact" service, all several thousand of us were individually anointed with oil on our forehead and sent out to impact others for God, in the name of Jesus Christ.  I'm praying that every day of this holiday season is a holy day. 30 days. There's only 30 days between now and Christmas Day, when this season is all over.  These days go by in a flash.  Especially the weekdays when we're in a crazy busy routine. I'm trying to be intentional about noticing each day and making each day holy (I love how holy means "set apart").  I have almost all of my Christmas shopping done, so I don't need to focus on the hustle and bustle of the stores.  I'm hosting a 2nd annual ladies baking day at my house next weekend and looking forward to attending our church's Women's Christmas brunch with my dear friend Rachel.  I'm looking forward to all of the little things with my children- baking, wrapping presents, driving around the neighborhood in the evening to stare at the lights in wonder.  Many different celebrations with family. Quiet evenings after the kids go to bed, sitting with my honey in front of the Christmas tree.  I pray that these 30 days aren't just a blur and soon a distant memory.  I love this season.

Thanksgiving (I'm back)

My blog slacking knows no end.  Once I found out that I reached my maximum capacity for photos on Blogger my motivation declined dramatically.  Because how fun is a blog post without pictures?  Everyone knows you read blogs for the pictures.  BUT- I am now hosting the pictures from Photobucket and just pasting the HTML code so we're back in business.

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving today.  We started off the day with a light breakfast at Chris and Becky's house.  One of the things I am most thankful for today is the birth of my two new nieces and one new nephew, all in the past six months.  Maverick Barrett, Mara AnnMarie, and Bailey Rose-- all three such a blessing to our family!

Claire is thankful for her new cousins too.  We both love to hold the babies.



The three cousins on "my side".  This picture doesn't do anything to lessen my yearning for three children.


Max just adores babies.  He talks about them even when they're not around. "Baby Maverit precious...baby Mara precious.... baby Bai-ey Rose precious..." he chants.  I think you're precious too, buddy.



My dad with his grandkids.


The beautiful new family!  More than ever, I love having them live just down the street, in the same neighborhood! (Did Becky really have a baby just seven days ago?  She looks amazing!)


Then we headed to the farm for our big Thanksgiving lunch with Omi, Papa and the Parks.


Max learned today that his daddy knows how to drive a tractor. Max got to go on a long tractor-ride, lucky dude.


Can you believe we're adding a fifth newborn cousin to this daycare clan in a couple weeks?  God bless Omi!


After naps, the extended family came over for dessert and a playdate.  The kids are so lucky to grow up not only with their immediate cousins but with their second cousins (or is it first cousins, once removed? I can't keep that straight for the life of me) and great aunts and great uncles too!


After the playdate, we went to my mom's house to have dinner with her and Grandpa Brad.  She made a delicious pork roast with potatoes and carrots.  This was my first attempt ever at using the self-timer on my DSLR.  I love Max's cheese face.


We got home at 7:00PM, skipped bath and put the kids straight to bed!  We're all exhausted but happy to have ate so much amazing food  spent the day with our incredible families.  So thankful, for so much.

And we have Thanksgiving, round two on Saturday!

I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. Psalm 69:30 

Three

Claire, to me, is incredible.  Claire also happens to be three.  And three years old is a tough, tough age.  Age two has got NOTHING on age three.  And Claire's incredible-ness and her three-ness can do 180s on you like nobody's business.

I have a hard time articulating to grandparents, friends, etc, who aren't currently parenting a three year old themselves (you understand this though, Rachel!) why Claire can be so challenging and make my blood pressure go through the roof in a split second.  Because, in reality, she's wonderful like 92% of the time.   She's affectionate and playful and tender-hearted and mostly obedient and hilarious and smart and creative and observant and helpful most of the time.  Which is why her three-ness outbreaks cause the world to spin until the three-ness gets under wraps again.

Let me illustrate this.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the mall (as you may have read in my previous post).  Both children behaved wonderfully.  We enjoyed our time together and I was proud of them.  Claire and Max were talking sweetly to each other in the backseat and I was enjoying listening to them and the music on the radio.  A song came on that both Claire and I like and I turned it up just a notch.

Claire: "Mom, is this our song????"

I didn't know we had "a song". 

Me: "Sure, honey, this is our song."

Claire: "NOOOOO!! It's NOOOTTTTTTTT our song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (while whining, screaming, and kicking the back of my seat repeatedly) 

Me: "Ok! It's not our song!"

Claire: "BUT MOM!  MOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!   BUT IS IT OUR SONG?!?!?!?!?!"

Me: "I don't know if it's our song!!  Do you want it to be our song???"

Claire: "IT'S NOT OUR SOOONNNNGGGGG!!!!"  (still whining, screaming, and kicking my seat) 

Me: "I understand! It's not our song!"

Claire: "I WANT OUR SONNNGGG!!!!"

Me: stop talking.  There's no beating three-ness. Deep breathes.  In and out.

And just like that, it was over.  And back to flying unicorns, puppies and rainbows.  And that, my friends, is three.

Shoe shopping

I HATE shoe shopping (#firstworldproblem) but I had to find shoes today that I can wear with a suit on Tuesday for a work thing.  The only thing that makes shoe shopping less painful for me?  Bringing my children along.  So this afternoon I loaded up both the toddlers and the double stroller and left Daddy at home watching the football game in peace, to head to the mall to shop for shoes.

They are such good little shoppers.  I've trained them well. They both sat quietly in their stroller, each holding and munching on a banana.  And then just looking around and observing all the people.  I received several compliments from various shoppers on how quiet and patient they were and of course a couple questions on whether they were twins.  (This was starkly different from the scene after dinner tonight when Max got THREE timeouts in a matter of 15 minutes for throwing a tractor at Claire's head, biting and pinching me, and hitting his father.  So, yeah, #NOTperfect).

On the drive home I was decompressing while listening to Casting Crowns and overheard this sweet conversation in the backseat between Claire and Max.

Max: "Puppy get you.  Puppy get you".  (He means: puppy get ME) (He's scared of puppies)

Claire: "Max, a puppy won't get you....  I will always keep you safe....  You have nothing to worry about..."

And that was my reward for suffering through shoe shopping.