Sibling Love

So sweet, so tender, so gentle...

And then there's the rest of the story!

And then I stopped taking pictures because Clara was about to hurtle herself off the edge of the couch in an attempt to escape the loving embrace of her big brother. It really was a sweet moment, even if fleeting!

What We've Been Up To

I figure it's about time for a little update about our life since our latest big changes (another move, another new job, another sweet baby!). We've been here a little over 6 months now and I must say that we are liking it. We have been able to plug into our new community in so many ways. We are enjoying our new church very much and have found many different ways to be involved and volunteer. The kids have found activities to fill nearly every day, from dance to homeschool co-op to AWANA to choir to Chinese school to free craft time at several local stores. We have wonderful next-door neighbors who also have four children, although opposite of us - 3 boys and a girl.

Larry and I are really pleased with the medical care we've been able to get for the girls here. We struggled with that in our previous location and it is such a relief and blessing to find quality care so quickly and easily. Since we've been here, Julie has gotten her first-ever hearing aid and it is amazing! We've decided to set aside any surgical options for correcting her hearing loss since the hearing aid is working so well. Melody had another palate surgery a few months ago, the third attempt to close her palate completely. The good, no great, news is that it worked! She also has a wonderful speech therapist who is connected to our team of doctors and knows just what to do to help Melody progress. Both girls go back for a team evaluation in January, at which point we'll be moving forward with orthodontia for Julie and plans for another surgery for Melody.

Julie started 2nd grade and Melody started Kindergarten this August in our homeschool. Both girls are doing so well. Melody is learning to read and I am having such fun tagging along with her :). We switched math programs in hopes of avoiding all the tears and stress that last year brought and I am so pleased with the result. We're using RightStart Math and I can't say enough about it. Math time has been transformed in our home. Yet again, I find myself so thankful that I have the privilege of schooling our children, teaching them one-on-one, making adjustments to help them meet their potential.

Joseph will be 3 in just two short months, wow! He has finally arrived at the point of being okay with separating from us in order to go to Sunday School class. He still has so much to say, still loves his Blue Bear, and is still my cuddly, stubborn, funny, strong-willed, sweet boy. Clara is 8 months now and she is changing all the time. She started crawling at 6 months and is now pulling up on everything she can grab. Today she cruised down the length of the couch for the first time. I can see we're going to have another young walker on our hands in a few months! She has two teeth on the bottom (so cute!) and just yesterday I noticed that two on the top have broken through. They are the ones next to the center ones, so she's going to look a bit like Dracula soon! Not to fear though, since I can see the center top ones just below the gums. How is my baby becoming a toddler so fast? I want to treasure every single moment and not miss a single chance to cuddle/squeeze/exchange raspberries with this amazing little girl. She is nearly always smiling and can light up a room just by being there.

Here are a few pictures before I go. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

New Beginnings

Hello! Is anyone still out there? Life has been a whirlwind lately, but we're finally starting to get our feet back on the ground. In a nutshell...

Baby Blessing #4 was born on February 13th. For the first time on this blog, please welcome our newest little girl, Clara Faith! She has blessed us all so much in her now 11 weeks of life. I adore everything about her and I already feel like she is growing up too quickly. Her smiles and coos melt my heart, and I marvel as I watch her learn new things each day. Maybe it's hormones, but I just want to hug all my kids close and never let go, ever. Here are a few pictures of our precious girl:



And the family...

Our other big news is that we have moved again. It happened very quickly. When Clara was less than 2 weeks old, Larry got a call on a Thursday, had an offer the next Monday, flew out to check it out that Wednesday and came back Sunday having accepted the offer and made an offer on a house! We had to wait about a week for his temporary security clearance to go through, and after that we had two weeks to pack up and move again. This time we hired movers to take our packed boxes away, phew! After driving for two days and spending 4 weeks in a hotel (with 3 adults, 4 kids and a cat), we finally closed on our new house and moved in. We are still living in boxes, but we're getting unpacked slowly. Moving is challenging for me in a lot of ways, but I learned a few things last time. I know I have to give things a chance and that it will take at least a year for me to really start getting connected. I've also learned not to judge too quickly because there are good things everywhere. I'm a mathematician by training and my brain over-analyzes and disects everything with a critical lens. I am trying to make a conscious effort not to do that right now, although the traffic around here tempts me daily!!! I will say that I adore our new house, all except the paint color in our bedroom (dark gold-ish hue, blah). I can hardly believe we live in a home like this, after all our years in 2 bedroom places. Hopefully it will feel like home in no time.

Off to get my chattering baby from her bed :) :) :). Thanks for reading!

2 and 4 Year Old Photos

We have always taken our children's annual photos ourselves, even though we are not at all "photographers" and we only have a point-and-shoot camera. The results are not professional, but we still manage to get poses that (I think) capture our kids at the time. Here's what we have for Melody's 4 year-old and Joseph's 2 year-old pictures (note: Melody is hard to photograph because she doesn't like being put on the spot. Her genuine smile is not easy to capture, and I will probably try again.)




(I haven't decided if I should edit out the spinning wheel in the middle picture. All 3 of these were taken in my mom's living room!)