Family Time is Good Time

This weekend, Kisha and Josh came into town for the BIG game.  Mimi and Papa stayed with us too.  Then Brandon and Liza came down to watch a very intense football rivalry game between AHS and Tascosa.  Thankfully we pulled out with the win.  Friday, Kisha and Lexie helped walk Mali to school and Kisha and Eleri got to enjoy muffins for breakfast together.

Red Ribbon Week

Favorite team

Crazy Hat Day

Occupation Day

This past week was Red Ribbon Week at school.  The first day was wear your sweats day.  Day two was hat day and Mali chose to wear her safari hat from the zoo.  She also got to take her giraffe with her because she had saved and earned enough hearts to bring a stuffed animal to school.  Wednesday was wear your favorite team jersey.  She told her daddy that the Sandies were her favorite team and that Daddy was her favorite player.  So he got out his old high school football jersey and we made it work for her to wear.  Thursday was Sandie day and she proudly wore her Sandies gear. Then Friday was dress as what you want to be when you grow up.  Mali dressed up as a dentist because that is what she wants to be...or a vet.  She brought a toothbrush and floss to school in her pocket and we made her a name tag.  She said she wants to be a dentist so that she can make people's teeth white.

Reveal Party

On Thursday night we had a "reveal" party to reveal to our family members the gender of #3. Eric and I decided that at this point it would be easier to just tell everyone, primarily because all of our family members were certain we were having a boy. We had asked everyone to bring a little gift to reveal to us what they thought we were having. My dad and Terry were in Peru, so I met them really quickly Tuesday morning and gave them cinnamon rolls with the frosting dyed blue. They also guessed that it was a boy. Thursday was our big day. Mali helped me make the cake which we dyed the inside blue but frosted pink just to throw everyone off. Kisha and Josh and Rory and Judy were all here. We had planned the party for earlier that day so that Brandon and Liza could make it but Eric's JV game was moved to out of town at the last minute so they could not make it. About 9:30 we finally had our "party". Megan and Chris were on FaceTime on my iPhone and Brandon and Liza were on speaker phone with The Gomez family present. I brought out the cake and I think gave them a little startle when it was pink but once they cut it open they saw the blue and were very excited. Everyone seems to be very excited that it was a boy. We were glad to be able to share this news with everyone and get to planning and stop catching myself from saying the gender...although I think I'm used to it now and still say "baby".

We are having a.....

God has chosen to give us a baby boy to complete our little family!  I have been dying to share this news since we found out.  Tonight we had a reveal party for Eric's family and so it is now free to be public news.  My parents found out Tuesday before they left for Peru and I was able to share it with Brandon and Liza. It has taken me the last few weeks to really process what all these means.  We are starting from scratch...or rather starting from pink. I have lots of fears and worries but God has just shown me through studying Isaiah that what seems inevitable is not necessarily the outcome with God.  And, in these last few weeks of having to keep it a secret, I have really spent time talking with God about everything and it has been good for my soul!  I'm getting excited and have moved on to picking out boy names, boy bedding and boy clothes (the last two not so much fun compared to girl stuff).  I have also given away four huge tubs of baby girl clothes.  I spent lots of tears over those clothes too and just letting go of the babyhood of Mali and Eleri.  It was hard and I ended up just giving them all away without looking.  I did keep an outfit a piece of each of the girls.  However, I was able to really bless someone who is having her first girl after two boys!  So enjoy the news and maybe I blog more about my feelings in another post since this is secretly be posted at midnight!

Pure Religion

I really miss having the time or effort to write a blog post with some substance or spiritual application.  I love sharing what God is doing in my life but this pregnancy has really taken me down in many ways so I'm lucky to get our memories on the blog.  I've had several posts written in my head all about what God is doing and teaching me.  This one has been there for a while, in my head.  We are studying Isaiah in BSF this year and one our first lessons was about caring for the orphan and oppressed.  James 1:27 says it like this "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  It is put pretty simply.  My heart cries out for this orphans I want to help as much as I can.  I'm convicted when I splurge on a $3.00 coffee from Starbucks at how much food that could give a family.  I share with Mali that the whole bag of lentils we cooked to make lentil tacos is all that some children get to eat. When I worked at Buckner, I was "covered" because I was daily helping orphans and getting paid to do it.  Now that I'm in my stay at home mom bubble, it is much harder, and I still don't know what I'm needing to do.  We sponsor a girl from India through Project Asha at our church.  I talk with Mali a lot about orphans in other countries.  And, I read blogs like these that really convict me and haunt me and change my heart completely.  I feel like I really have to share these links with anyone out there that may come across my blog.  Please take the time to read them and please do something.


Rage Against the Minivan-This family has two adopted children. One from Haiti and one from the foster care system. This post is specifically about what you CAN DO!!!


Baby Bangs-This is Beth Moore's daughter's blog.  She was just a blogger on a Compassion International trip and all of these posts are amazing and eye opening to our world.  I encourage you to read all of her posts about Guatemala.


A Holy Experience-This is one of my favorite bloggers to read.  She was also on the Compassion Trip.


Let us live a life that is not a bubble and that is that of pure and faultless religion!
Here is another tangible way to help. The girls and I are going to do this. This is one of my brother's friends that is heading to Kathmandu, Nepal and these things would go to the Kathmandu Children's Home.
KTM Children's Home Toy Ideas
Think of things that can be shared and used over and over. The kids are all pretty young, with the oldest being around 8. Gently used is ok!

Ship to
Crowd Favorite (care of Gordon Brander)
1435 Wazee St.
Suite 103
Denver, CO, 80202
Soccer Ball (deflated + pump)
Marbles
Jacks
Jump Ropes
Bouncing Balls
Kiddie Scissors (rounded tip)
Cool Picture Books (lots of pictures, they may not speak english - DK makes good ones)
Construction Paper
Coloring Books
Crayons
Glue Sticks (glitter glue is always fun)
Yo-yos

GrAnDpArEnT LoVe

The girls sure love having two sets of grandparents so close!  I wish I would have taken more pictures with Papa and Mimi during this game that the girls had BOTH sets there for, but it was too cold to keep my hands out!

Mali, Grandpa, Eleri, and Nana

Grandpa, Eleri and Papa

Grandpa, Eleri and Mali

Nana and Eleri

Dentist

Last week, Mali had her first official dentist visit.  She has gone twice in Ouray at my mom's previous place of work, but this was the real deal.  That Monday she had been eating just taco meat and complained of pain in her teeth and was crying so I knew we had to go and stop putting off the inevitable.  Many people recommended a children's dentist here and it was a great experience for Mali.  She just had her teeth cleaned and x-ray's taken but they made it a very positive experience.  She wore headphones and watched tv on the ceiling during her cleaning. It was a very fun environment for her and she even asked to go back.  She was very proud of her clean, white teeth.  Mali got lots of instructions too on the best teeth care.  I learned a huge lesson too, and this is key for ALL of you moms out there.  Natural and logical consequences when it comes to tooth brushing are NOT worth it!  As we do with many many things, this was a huge battle.  I used to sit on Mali or hold her down and brush her teeth.  It was getting harder and harder to jam a toothbrush into her mouth and really quite sad...so I left it in her hands.  I monitored and encouraged it for sure but Mali would often "forget", lie or just do a poor job.  Plus she hasn't been gifted genetically in the teeth cavity area.  She came out of the appointment with 6....SIX cavities...in her BABY teeth at a grand total of fixing them for $2,300.  I know she is in pain so we will get them fixed but I'm wondering if sitting on her to brush and floss her teeth is more worth it than the pain of forking up that much money on teeth that will just fall out.  Mali goes back on November 18th for her first two fillings to be fixed.  They are close to the root and we are praying that fillings will be all that she needs and not more invasive treatment.

What's in the Bible? Battle for the Promised Land

DVD

This was one of the more fun reviews I've been able to do on my blog.  We received a copy of the DVD What's in the Bible? Battle for the Promised Land to review as a family.  This is a DVD made by Phil Vischer (Veggietales fame and Jelly Telly). Mali and I watched it together and then Eleri caught the last part.  Mali was pretty entertained throughout the DVD.  She loved the songs and just the silliness of the DVD.  She did seem to loose some interest during the question/informative sessions with Vischer, but then the songs/puppets brought her interest back.
I enjoyed watching the DVD with Mali.  Mali thought that it was fun to watch and wants to watch more of them.  She has asked several times after our first viewing of the DVD to watch it again. Her favorite character in the series is the "kid in the van" although almost all of the characters made her laugh.  When I asked her what she learned she said "a lot" but narrowed it down to "not to bow down to fake God's".  This opened up time for us to talk about what fake gods were and that even though she doesn't have fake gods around her like the Israelites did that her toys and really anything that is more important than God is a fake god.  I shared with her some of my struggles with fake gods, like myself and even her! The What's in the Bible series are very factual and informative with some silliness thrown in.  Puppets are used to make the DVD interesting with songs and appearances by them Phil Vischer answers questions specific to the book of the Bible featured in that DVD.  This episode focused on Joshua, Judges and Ruth.  It was fun to learn with Mali because I have just recently studied Ruth myself.  Mali really engaged in the DVD and answered questions as the puppets and Vischer asked, such as "you've heard of Jericho?" Vischer addresses facts and questions that we all have as Christians, not just child like questions so it is relevant to the whole family.  These series would be great to watch during a family time or devotional time and I certainly don't feel guilty plugging in the DVD player in the car to let my children listen to absolute Truth and instruction in the Word of God. I think watching these DVDs is more informative than entertaining but that is the appeal to the whole family.  I really liked that this series doesn't just choose popular Bible stories to focus on but focuses on teaching the truth of each book of the Bible.  It is like going to bible study as a family! Vischer also includes interactive real life examples of how to apply what the DVD is teaching.  Like going into how we all sin! I really recommend this series to all of my friends and family.  I hope that we will be able to expand our collection in the future too.
Go to the What's in the Bible website  or Tyndale's website for more information on this series
And here is a little promo video to show you how fun this series really is:

Phil Vischer

And here is an exciting part about this review....I get to give away a certificate for this very same free DVD, What's in the Bible? Battle for the Promised Land.  Just leave a comment with your name and why you would like to win a certificate to get your family this DVD.  Giveaway will end on Friday at 8am.

Cheer Camp 2010

They wanted to "toss" her but she wasn't quite up for it!

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Mali had cheer camp all day today. She had a lot of fun and has really improved since last year! Eleri was so sad that Mali was gone today when it wasn't a school day and kept asking for her with sad eyes. We loved watching her and clapping along.

Volleyball girls and Sandies and Sissies

I love that I'm finally feeling better and we can enjoy evenings outside playing (minus dodging the wasps), especially when we get to play volleyball together.  This night, Mali actually passed it right back to me two different times!  I loved how Eleri got her hands and stance ready too!

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And, I tried to make this two different posts but when I uploaded the second set of video clips it just added it to the volleyball one, so here is that post:
Two things that I never wanted my children to "say":
1. A silly name for a pacifier.  I have also been very clear in saying pacifier to Eleri, no binky, no paci, just pacifier.  And, she started calling it "boppy" all on her own.
2. Sissy.  I'm not sure why, but I think its just that I'm not a fan of nicknames and want real names used. Eleri now calls Mali sissy.  This just started in about the last week.  If you try and correct her by saying sister or Mali she will say sissy.
Let this be a lesson in never saying never!
Here is another video of Eleri talking about her sissy and her Sandies!

Balloon Glow

Tonight for our girls night we decided to go to the balloon glow at the Discovery Center.  This morning, a hot air balloon actually took off from the Sleepyhollow school field and Eleri talked about it all day by saying “hot, balloon, Mali, school”.  It was too cute.  And then added, “balloon bye bye.” So they were both very excited to go to the balloon glow tonight.  The girls loved watching of the hot air balloons float just above the ground.  We sat perched on the hill watching it for about 20 minutes.  Mali kept asking to ride it and I told her that we couldn’t.  Well about 20 minutes later, I realized we could and she begged to get in line.  I could’ve shot myself because there were only about 5 families in what I then realized was the line when we got there.  We ended up waiting an hour but it was the easiest hour of waiting ever with the girls.  They ran around and we sat and just watched the balloon as they would blow hot air into it and take families a few feet off of the ground and come back.  Then the sun set and the wind started blowing.  We were so close to our turn but I thought we were going to be sent away, but we made it however we did have a random tag along questionable guy join our group.  Sadly, he is really the only that can be seen in our picture.  It was a little chaotic trying to get in the balloon holding Eleri, with Mali and being 5 months pregnant!!  But it was a neat experience.  Eleri got scared every time the “hot” came on and when we got out Mali said she didn’t like it because she thought her blankie and our whole family was going to catch on fire.  The family that traded picture taking duties with us just laughed when we were done. The mom and I just shook our heads at the things that we do for our kids that in the end weren’t even worth doing because everyone was miserable.  It just made me think so many times it is about just doing something and checking it off a list instead of experiencing it and enjoying it.  Who knows though, Mali might tell Eric how much fun she had.  And, Eleri didn’t stop saying “hot, hot” all night once we got home.  I thought it was a fun thing to do but the hanging out with a few of the other coaches wives that we missed out on for the balloon glow and eating ice cream sounded a little more relaxing. 

20 weeks

#3 is 20 weeks in utero and we have the cute picture to prove it. It took a long time for the sonographer to get this cute of a 3D picture.  #3 kept hiding its face under its arm and then facing down all cuddled up.  #3 is on its way to being a cuddle-er.  #3 cooperated right away with moving like crazy so that Eric and I could get a peek of what gender would complete our family.  Sadly here is where I tell you that we are not making this public information! Sorry, you will have to wait for a while or maybe until delivery.  Eric would like some Dad glory in bringing out and announcing to the world "its a .....".  The appointment went wonderfully.  All of #3's measurements were great and looked super healthy.  #3 is 11 ounces right now and at this "age" Eleri was 9 ounces just to compare.  The appointment really was a great appointment and we are so thankful for another healthy baby.  We so trust that God has given us just the right children for our little family and look forward to the completion of it!  Mali did say that the baby looks like a baby monkey that is mad.  I have to agree that these 3D ultrasounds can be a little monkey like. Here is the best belly picture I could manage and you can't even really see it, but it has grown considerably since my last update.  I have gained 5lbs in the last month, so that is good.  And then, obviously, a 3D picture of sweet baby #3.  Please forgive the excessive use of #3 but I had to make very sure that I was not divulging the gender and have read and reread this post multiple times just to check myself.

Eleri knows her family

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Original Kind

If you take Mali to Wal-Mart she will ask for cereal. If you get her cereal she will want the "original kind".  You will have to call her mom to ask what "original kind" is.  Her mom will proudly tell you that "original kind" is the generic version.

I couldn't be happier that our last few Wal-Mart trips Mali has specifically chosen generic forms of cookies, cereal, etc. 

PuMpKiN PAtCh 2010

Yesterday we went as a family to a new pumpkin patch.  We had hoped to go to Maxwell farms this year but after Mali's field trip decided to just go to an in town pre-picked pumpkin patch.  Eric picked the place and we joked that I still have issues trusting him even with pumpkin patches since I wanted to take good pictures too.  He did choose a really good one though.  We took pictures of the girls.  After snapping about half the pictures I realized I had my camera on automatic still instead of my preferred AV!!!  But I did actually remember to put my long lens on!  The girls were too cute and tolerated my picture taking.  We also left with pumpkins, a bail of hay and some corn stalks for an idea Eric had for our porch. After we ate dinner, we cleaned, sprayed and decorated our pumpkins and porch...with the help of the dogs.

Bob Books Giveaway

Enter to win this great giveaway. Bob Books are little books teaching sight words. I know this would be perfect for Mali and I almost ordered them from
Her last book order!

First Kindergarten Field Trip

Today, Mali and all the other kindergartens at Sleep Hollow had their first field trip to the Corn Maze.  We left at 9am and got back at 1.  It was an ALL DAY trip.  I think Mali had tons of fun.  Eleri and I were able to go with her which was so nice.  First we got to go through the corn maize.  Our class got lost a few times even though the parents were told the secret "clue" to finding our way out.  Mali was at the front of the line right next to her teacher and classmates.  I some how ended up at the end with Eleri in the stroller, but it was still fun.  After that, the class got to shoot the corn gun and then had a short educational program. After that we took a hay ride to the pumpkin patch where each student got to pick their own small pumpkin.  Mali kept choosing good sized ones and I kept telling her it was too big.  She was NOT happy with me for following the "rules" when we got back on the trailer and she saw several kids with bigger ones.  I tried to get Mali to pose for me but she was too worried about all the bugs to actually agree to pose. One little boy gave Eleri an itty bitty pumpkin that she loved. After the hay ride it was time for lunch and it was getting really warm.  We were all dressed for much cooler weather.  Mali crowded in the with all the girls.  They ALL wanted to be right next to each other.  Mali ended up then sitting next to several of the boys so she would have room. The kids got to play on the hay stacks and hay bales and play in some water and slide.  They finished off with a corn shucking contest.  At the end, Mali got to see all the animals.  She saw an egg in the chicken coop, tried to feed the mini horses and watched the goat until it was time to sit in the shade. Our class was the first class ready to go.  One sweet mom bought all of the kids water because they were so hot and thirsty.  Then it was time to load up on the bus.  Mali started crying because she wanted to go home with me but I think she was just extra tired.  Eleri crashed in the car and and I'm hoping Mali and I will nap together after I pick her up in a minute! Mali did say that her favorite part was that I was there...and the big slide which I didn't get ANY pictures of because I was chasing Eleri and trying to keep her from having her fingers chewed off by a mini horse and each time I got to the end of the slide, Mali was already down.

Reading the first clue

We DID get lost a few times

Corn Cannon