9 months

sweet soph is 9 months old. she has become such a central part of our family, the other day several of us commented on how thankful and glad we were that she is a part of our family. what was life like without her?

she is her own person and is able to communicate more and more about what she likes and what she wants. she waves bye-bye and hello, and will clap in applause for people. she will NEVER turn away a kiss and loves to snuggle. my favorite thing is when she nuzzles her little head right into the crook of my neck and snuggles in.

she's a thumb sucker. on our trip to the west coast she discovered that she can suck her thumb whenever she wants...not just for sleeping. i didn't discourage her that day because we were flying across the country on several different flights. it's the cutest thing when she pops her thumb into her mouth, palm to the sky.

she is a fast crawler and all over the house. she's into everything, exploring all that the house has for her. she loves to wade right into the middle of what isaiah and alaythia are doing...and destroy it. she still does not have any teeth...she's late compared to the other two. she has the cutest fake cough that you'll ever hear.

instead of pictures i thought i'd post a video of sophia at dinner tonight. you will see why, when people come face to face with her, she captures their heart.

baby tour

last week sophia and i headed to the west coast on a baby tour. ava miller, sister to olivia, was due to be born and we wanted to be there for the birth. also, there was a celebration for my niece, hannah, so we hopped down to join in on the party. daddy stayed home to hold down the fort with the older kids.

it was a great trip for many reasons. i loved getting to be with sophia all by herself. getting to know her, enjoy her stage and study her a little closer. it was also great for the rest of the family to get to know sophia on her own and spend some one on one time with her. she's quite the little lady...

grandpa sharing his pocket watch with sophia. it was actually his grandfather's watch. everyone has memories of walking up to grandy and having him hold the pocket watch over your ear and cup his big hand over your other ear. dad passes that on to his grandkids.

soph, listening to the watch.

we stopped by to see grandma at work. when sophia was born mom was in the middle of a surgery. she put me and sophia on speaker phone and shared her first cry with everyone in the operating room. we got to meet the surgeon and other nurses who shared that moment.

snuggling with auntie hallie.

bouncing in cousin hannah's bouncer.

being a big girl and taking a bath in grandpa and grandma's bath tub.

the birth of ava was one of the most amazing experiences i ever been a part of. it's hard to put it to words. a mix of relief, amazement, joy and celebration. seeing her face, smelling her skin, hearing her cry. all births are joy-filled, but ava's was different. set apart. she entered the world into a community ripe with anticipation and love. and never before have i heard of champagne being popped in the labor and delivery room...until now!


getting to see hannah with my own eyes was such a treat. laura and hannah were not expecting us to be there and that made the meeting all the more fun. i loved seeing laura with two kids. she's an amazing mother, who i look up to. she's doing an amazing job with the hard transition from one child to two. it was a quick trip but we got lots of hugs and kisses in.


at the end of the tour we all were ready to be back together again. we continue the process of trying to move into our house. we're almost done with the school year and are ready for summer to officially begin!

a gift on mother's day

we discovered that our neighborhood has a park. you can't get to it by driving, you walk down a sidewalk through houses to this oasis. you can't hear cars, you can't see a street, just a park with houses surrounding it. matt stood at the end of our driveway and i stood at the park and we waved to each other. it's that close.

alaythia was swinging, singing about mary poppins. there were two brothers playing and isaiah quickly joined in, competing in the timed obstacle courses they were creating. i was leaning against the jungle gym.

we had big beautiful clouds today. it was cold when the sun was behind them. every once in a while the sun would peak out, but mostly it stayed hidden. as i stood and watched my two oldest play i heard the bell from the presbyterian church ring. church must be over. the bell filled the air.

but then, the sun came out, i felt it warm my skin. i smiled and took a deep breath, watching my children play in their new home. thankful for this new place, overwhelmed with the beauty of it. and then as if the moment could not get any better, the bells turned from one tone, to many tones and i made out the melody of 'joyful joyful'.

it was a gift. after hard days, and fighting for clarity, God opened the skies and sent through the air the reminder of who He is and what really matters.

moved

so, we're all moved. shortly after i posted the last post on the blog, we decided to try to move the next day... that's how we roll, making big decisions in a split second. we packed until 1 in the morning, and got up on wednesday and moved our life. last night we finally got internet at the new place. i was going through withdrawals.

last night as i was laying in bed, i started to think about what a weird thing moving is. put all that you own into cardboard boxes, and then take it all back out and put it in a new place. everything feels strange, everything feels out of order. even though this house is a huge blessing and i am so glad to be in it, i found myself desiring my apartment... i don't think it was the apartment i was longing for, just familiarity and everything being in it's place.

i've had lots of thoughts i wanted to share, but they had to stay cooped up rolling around in my head. until now.

i told lots of people to pray for the kids and their transition to the house, turns out, i should have been asking them to pray for me. apart from the first night and a little fear, they are fine. mommy on the other hand is taking more time.

moving across town is a weird thing. we moved 7 miles. in my neighborhood, which i absolutely LOVE, everything looks and feels new. i feel relocated. but when i drive out to the main road, everything is familiar. it's a strange sensation.

i have been living in a micro world of contact paper, cleaning supplies, boxes and putting things away. it's nice to pull my head up every once in a while and remember life will go on if i don't get the 9x13's in the right spot.

one of my biggest fears was that we'd move to this large house, and we'd still be living on top of each other. the kids had fears about being in other rooms at the apartment (there were only 3 rooms total). but yesterday at one point matt walked into the kitchen and it was totally quiet. 'where is isaiah' i said, 'he's in his room. where is alaythia?' 'she's in the playroom' and we just stared at each other. we're not used to not being able to see and hear them.

apart from the adjustment and new-ness, we absolutely love this house. we are so thankful to be in it and look forward to making lots of new memories here. we are longing to share it with people. who wants to come for a visit first?

half way

we are officially half way through (Lord willing) getting a PhD. matt got home about 2pm yesterday, after finishing his comprehensive hebrew final. he does not have any more classes to take...we're off to pass comprehensive tests and write a dissertation.

i asked matt if he felt sad yesterday, that he won't be taking any more classes. i could see in his eyes he was already on to the next step. the next step where he will have to be self motivated and push himself. matt can and does push himself...his expectations of himself are much higher than any someone else could put on him. and i thought meeting professor's demands was rigorous...

he'll take a couple weeks off to help move us. but that's about it. there is a lot to do in the next 5 months.

we should get the keys today to the house. isaiah keeps talking about this house and the one after it. he's got the 2 year timeline in his head. just the other day he was talking with a friend saying that in 2 years we would be moving from kentucky. his sweet friend, who is so sensitive, started to cry and wondered how he and isaiah would be able to play together... little does his friend know that his daddy will finish before isaiah's... but we didn't go there.

it feels fitting...the end of classes, on to a new house. but more on that later.