Just for fun - in the back yard today - so nice!

Today I went on a mission to tidy up the back yard a little better. Just as I was finishing Zephaniah woke up from his nap and was delighted to come out and play. It was quite warm for a late November date, even for California. I would have taken more pictures of all the kids but Nathanael was in his pjs and too fast for my low-lighting camera setting; Arielle was covered in dirt - yes, my "dainty dirt girl". Evie had just gone down for a nap. So Zephaniah got to be my "practice" today - I'm trying to get better at learning the art of taking photos - I have a LONG way to go! And of course there are just some "bad" shots I LOVE - not because they are good form - but because I just love something about, maybe, what my child was doing or some other detail.


Below are a few pictures of Zeph in our baby swing in the back. I noticed right away that if it swings more than a few inches he panics...big time. Poor little guy. He is not a fan of motion (other than very slow motion). It's going to take some time for him to learn that motion is good and fun (and good for him) and for him to trust us to play motion-type games with him and swing him in the swing (beyond a little rock, the kind of rock you'd rock a tiny infant).

"Our" Castle

Okay - so it's not a "castle" - it's just our little house but it's "our" castle - and Scott got the lights up - see? Yesterday we did visit a "castle" called "Benedict Castle" in Riverside, CA. Here are some pictures of our little visit - to the place we made our wedding vows at over 9 years ago! My mom came and brought two of my nephews and my niece along as well. It was fun! There were carolers, a live nativity scene and tours of the castle.

See the purple sweater Arielle is wearing? Ya - my grandmother made it for Arielle! And she got her that cute little tu-tu dress to go along! See Nathanael's blue sweater - you guessed it - also made by my grandma! Thanks, "Gram Cee"!

Here we are standing in the same spot, only, ah - the nativity wasn't there at that time, he, he.

First Thanksgiving with all 6 of us home!

It was Thanksgiving and... we were all - all 6 of us - SICK. So instead of getting our extended family sick we got a turkey and some potatoes and made our own little "feast" and all felt miserable...together...and enjoyed our dinner. Some in pjs, some not fully dressed, some not matching - you get the picture, right? 4 little miserable sniffling clingy sickies. 2 big miserable sniffling sickies cooking food and cuddling with 4 little sickies. That was pretty much the day. Besides the "blah" sickness - it was actually a nice day, a day to be thankful to God for. The night before our 6 year old rocking chair broke. Then while preparing dinner our blender smoked out - it's toast. I'm baffled. It wasn't old or over-used. All-well. This is Zephaniah's first Thanksgiving! It was a bummer not to be showing him to family members who were eager to meet him but again, we didn't want to show off our germs to our relatives with weak immune systems. So we just cooked our own simple dinner. Most of our meal was gluten-free, except for the stuffing. I even made gluten-free honey corn muffins - mmm! Arielle was feeling queezy because of her stuffiness so she mostly wanted cranberry sauce and not much else. Nathanael was THRILLED that he could eat most anything and ate most of his dinner. Evie started out picky and panicky about getting a tiny bit of mashed potato on her finger. By the end she was smearing it all over herself, between her fingers, on the table. She was going for it! Zeph, of course, would never dream of playing with it and ate all his food (which was already a double portion of what the other children were served) and then seconds...and thirds... we had to just help him transition from this wonderful yummy meal (I know, it's hard to end such yummy-ness! That's why Americans all over the place will go to bed stuffed tonight! LOL!) to the next thing, which was play time and then we tried on his silicone sleeve for a bit. He was a little curious and confused. He tried to get it off but not because he hated it - just because he wanted to see if he *could* take it off and of course had he been able to I'm sure he would have wanted to PLAY around with it. (if he hated it there would have been screaming and fit-throwing). That was followed by play with the batman mask.

Well, that was our Thanksgiving! Hope yours was blessed!

Casting

Yesterday's appointment at the Orthopedic Dr. was cancelled so it was re-scheduled for today. They still didn't have the part they had ordered but found something else that would work. So we went! Evie is sick so I was very thankful that Scott got off at 3pm and met me there just before 3:30pm and stayed in the car with sickie (Evie) and sleepy (Arielle). Nathanael came in with me and Zeph. Nathanael did the picture-taking. He did a great job for a 5 (soon to be 6) year old! I'm so glad we'll have these "fun" memories for Zeph to see when he's older. Zeph really did NOT like the whole procedure. I was re-assuring him as best I could. Nathanael's picture-taking actually helped him calm down a little - but not for very long - but hey, I'll take anything, right? They rolled on a silicone sleeve (which we get to keep to start "practicing" with every day so he gets used to it - um - he HATED it while there so we'll see how it goes here at home) and then some plastic wrap and then the gauze dipped in plaster was wrapped around that, the Dr. held it firm with his hands, made sure it was shaped how it needed to be and then it came off. It wasn't a very long ordeal. Zeph was very happy when it was "all done".

Happy Birthday - a bit late but fun anyways!

Saturday the 19th of November we had a couple friends over and celebrated Arielle's birthday (a bit late). She had been promised a "make-up" since we spent her "real" birthday preparing to and picking up her new little brother and sleeping in a train in a foreign country. No presents, no cake. We still sang to her and let her have ice cream but it was not a "fun day" for her and it's been a big adjustment ever since. We didn't want her to think we'd forgotten so we finally set the date and theme: a dress-up tea party. Cheap, easy, and she LOVED it! I threw a bunch of mine and my mom's old stuff in a trunk, some scarves, hats, gloves, old dresses, etc... and "poof!" instant party! We never got around to the "tea" part - he, he! Just apple juice and some very YUMMY cake - home-made by mommy (me) the night before - pumpkin spice for our little October pumpkin girl! (I got to use the last of my pumpkin puree, - Note: make more! - and I used simple fresh ingredients like for the frosting I used creme cheese, maple syrup and vanilla - that's it! It was just plain ol' GOOD!!) Here's a picture of our sweetie blowing out her candles:

(above: Nathanael and Arielle lick the frosting the morning of the party)

Wondering what's all over her face? Pizza sauce. We've been eating way too many frozen foods since coming home. I knew it would be like this at first. I had stuffed our freezer before we left - good thing - that's what got us through the first few weeks! It was seriously even harder to get a meal on the table than when you have a newborn baby - think about it - newborns don't crawl. They don't pinch, bite, get into things, bang their heads, hurt themselves, etc.... Thankfully I didn't feel like I gave birth - but "instant 2 year old" is certainly something that takes getting used to so meal-making from scratch went out the window for a bit. I'm just now starting to be able to make more foods myself but occasionally I still run to the freezer for "back-up". Tuesday will likely be one of those nights. Zeph has an orthopedic appointment on Tuesday late afternoon. They are casting his leg for the prosthetic! We are so excited (um, yet a bit scared - he ZOOM's like super crawler now - we can only imagine him running around here - he will love it...and love getting into everything!)!



We haven't decided yet what/when to have a celebration for Zeph - after all he did also have a birthday in October and we also just had "gotcha day" and home-coming. There is so much to celebrate!! I think we are just waiting 'til he's been home and settled just a bit longer to invite more than a few people over for him, you know? Even this gathering was a bit much for him at first - but he did great and had fun with the other children here. My parents and grandparents and aunt and uncle sent a gift for Arielle and for Zephaniah as well for his birthday. So sweet. Our friends who came were so sweet and brought all 4 children a gift!
See that envelope below? Ya - that's my MOTHER'S calligraphy! She's always done that to my birthday cards growing up, our wedding invitations (gorgeous!) and now she writes this beauty casually (I know her - she was probably rushing through this one - gotta go play with grand-babies!) on her grand-children's cards. So sweet. There's no throwing away envelopes in this house!

I will leave you with this picture below. I noticed our littlest 15 month old Evie has taken a liking to "Ken". She carries him around. She dances in circles with him. I felt sorry for him then. But the other day I was walking down the hall and saw this. I laughed. I smiled. I giggled. Arielle had dressed him up. Evie had danced with him. They moved on. But poor Ken lay in the hallway with a look on his face that says it all. It sort of made my day. Thanks, God. Mamas NEED the humor in our day, don't we??