Gideon Faces

Do you know how hard it is to catch a baby smiling when you're trying to do it yourself? Well, here's a couple of pictures I did get while attempting to get his smile. Some of the faces are pretty good!This is after he got done smiling. I didn't quite time that one right.
Got the smile, missed the eyes. . .
I guess he was tired of me with camera in his face.
A pretty descent smile picture.
In case you're wondering what you're looking at, that's me with Gideon in a sling carrier. His feet are tucked in at the bottom and his head is suppose to be resting on my chest. However, he somehow ended up with his body sideways in the sling and his sleeping head coming out the side of the sling. This picture is courtesy of Olivia, that would explain why it's taken from a low angle.

Jersey fun

Jersey is turning out to be a really great dog. We took her with us to Indiana, and she traveled really well. She's really smart and Josh is doing a great job a training her. I like having a crate to put her in whenever we are gone and when we need a break . The kids are even getting in on the training and loving it!Gideon riding Jersey.
My in-laws brought their dog Harley, to Indiana too. Unfortunately Harley wasn't to thrilled with the new puppy on his turf. Most of the time he showed his teeth, nipped and barked at Jersey. She just wanted to play, but he never warmed up. Here's Esther playing the dog whisperer, trying to get the two to get along. As you can see, Harley looks really worried!

Jersey found a comfy bed among the pillows, cushions, and blankets the kids piled up in the middle of Nana and Pa-pa's living room. They had fun jumping on top of everything and burying each other. Jersey just saw it as a good alternative to her crate.

Garrett's gift

I know all of my family will be thrilled to see Garrett's new jersey. Thanks to nana and pa-pa for outfitting Garrett with his Joseph Addai Colts jersey. He put it on right after he opened it and left it on all day. And of course, this morning, I was packing it in the suitcase and he asked to wear it again. I wonder how many days in a row he'll want to wear it. I'm hoping that a Cowboy jersey will be arriving in our home sometime this March. . .hint, hint. (T.O. would be fine :))

What we left in Michigan

We are in Indiana celebrating Christmas with Josh's family for a couple of days. We left Thursday afternoon after a week of snow, snow, and more snow. The pictures of the kids in the snow was taken last Sunday, and we've gotten at least another foot since then. For all you Michiganders who read this, you probably think I'm all excited for no reason. But for me it's been amazing to see. A beautiful sight - truly a masterpiece created by God.

On the air conditioning unit outside.
Taken from on the deck.

For this picture I just opened my front door and shot - gorgeous, hu?

Out in the snow

Catching snow flakes on our tongues.
Kneeling in the snow.
Esther happily making her way through the back yard.
Olivia all bundled.
Garrett showing some attitude.

Garrett's terrible, awful, no good day

Today was NOT Garrett's day. Many of you who know him well will not be surprised by his day of unfortunate events. It started out after church when he and a couple other boys were chasing each other around. I was chatting away in the sanctuary, when he comes barreling in, crying and screaming. I really thought we were headed to the ER the way he was crying. I quickly gathered him up in my arms and tried to find out what happened. A woman from church followed him in and said he got him HEAD shut in the double doors. On the right side of his face is a pretty nasty red mark, that I assume will be turning into a bruise. And his left ear is swollen and has another red mark, that too will bruise. That's event number one.

Here's event number two. When we got home, I made lunch and Josh watched the kids. After we got done eating we asked the kids to go play. Esther was rocking (quite hard) in the glider rocker. As she attempted to get off the chair, it tipped forward off the ground at the same time that Garrett was running by to go play, hitting him square in the nose. There's a nice red mark on the bridge of his nose, that again, is probably going to bruise. Are you ready for event three? Yes, there's one more!

After nap-time we wanted to get the kids outside to take their picture in the snow and to let Jersey play a little. We got our photo op, and Esther and I headed in. Josh soon followed with Jersey b/c she was going crazy at the snowmobiles behind the house. Olivia and Garrett braved the single digit temperatures for a while longer, until Garrett showed up on the deck
crying. . .with his mouth wide open. Here's the conversation that ensued.

Josh to Olivia: "What happened to Garrett?" (We always assume they did something to each other).
Olivia: "He hurt his tongue, it's bleeding."
Josh to the both of them: "Did you stick your tongue on the swing set?"
Olivia: "I don't know."
Garrett: "NO!" Through the screaming and tears.
Josh: "Than what happened?"
Olivia: "I think he did stick his tongue to the swing set."
Josh: "Garrett, did you?"
Garrett: "Uh-Hu"
Jess: "Come here and let me take a picture of it!"
Garrett: "NO!"

Obviously, I got the picture. And you can even see the tears coming down his face. One day he'll recall this day will utter hate for me, I'm sure. But what a memory!

Smile

Gideon is getting so big, so fast. I guess it doesn't matter how many kids you have, you always forget how quickly they grow! He is a little smiling machine and gives me a little more joy in my day. Have a great day - hug your kids an extra time today!

A possible conflict of interest

Tomorrow both of the teams loved in our house, Cowboys and Colts, have playoff games. Right now there's no conflict of who to cheer for b/c they aren't playing each other. There's only conflict as to whose team is better and worth cheering for.
Not a great close-up - but I think it's a funny picture.
Muffy (O's bear) is sporting most of the Cowboy's gear, all except the t-shirt Es has on and the blanket in the background. Colts stuff out numbers the Cowboys stuff by a lot - can someone help us out with that??
A good picture of the boys, especially Garrett, who seems to take silly pictures most of the time.
Gideon's not sure who he's going to cheer for - I think this is how he's going to church in the morning.

I caved!

I'd like to welcome the newest member of our family, Jersey. She is a one year old Boxer, adopted by our family yesterday. Olivia and Garrett with Jersey - so far she's really laid back.
Esther with Jersey. Notice that her tail isn't cropped like most boxers. Jersey decided to lay her head down just as I was taking the picture - but I think it shows her color really well, plus Es looks really cute in the picture.
Es and Jersey again.

Of course, the post would not be complete without a token picture of the Gid man. He's smiling a TON now - maybe one day I'll be able to time the delay on the camera just right and actually get a picture of him smiling.

Back home

This was taken last night, Esther was on her second, yet short nap, Garrett was yelling at me because the flash was too bright, and Olivia is zoned. This is pretty much how she looked as long as the DVD player was on. Oh, and the head phones are a must! I don't know why it took us this long to figure that out!
Es, ready for the snow in her new hat and gloves. They're saying 4-8 more inches by this evening. Josh and I were torturing ourselves this morning, thinking about wearing flip-flops! Those days are far from here!

Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for us while we were on the road. Traveling with 4 little ones could have been a stressful mess, but thanks to faithful prayers we were stress free and happy most of the trip. The weather last night was more stress than the kids. Gideon slept really well in the car, which we weren't expecting. And other than a couple of little tiffs between Garrett and Esther, it was really good. Our kids are such great travelers, we only stopped two times, going and coming home, and they didn't complain once.

We had a great time in NJ visiting my family. My sister Ange has a cute video on her blog that shows a lot of what we did. One of my cousins is getting married and we had a shower for the couple on Saturday. Many of my cousins and their families were there. We figured out later that there were 11 kids, 5 and under that belonged to 5 different family units. The next night we got back together with some of the same cousins and added two more families to it and brought the grand total of kids to 17! I am so blessed to be a part of such a loving and caring family. I only wish we lived closer so we could get together like that more often. I would love for my kids to grow up near all their cousins and 2nd cousins. God may move us some day, but for now we'll stay in snowy Michigan.