10 Smile Tuesday

***note that i did have a couple of pictures to add to these smiles, but my computer is acting up again.  sorry!!

1.  these yummy red velvet holiday cookies.  they are sooooo good!  jonathan said they are now one of his favorites!  you can find the recipe here.

2.  cousins.  this is anna, zoe, liberty and reaghan (standing) watching a movie together.  they were just cracking up at the previews. 

3.  more hours of work for jonathan.  he is now working for coke and had to quit verizon (hours conflicted).  he chose coke because it pays more per hour and offers more hours a week.

4.  finishing a christmas gift.  i still have quite a few to go for the nieces and nephews...and also for my girls...i'm feeling a bit anxious about it since christmas is a mere month away from today!!!

5.  a fun family day.  yesterday jonathan had the day off work so we went to visit his granny and then took the girls to the park.  it was a lot of fun just spending the day together. 

6.  girls night at dennys.  this is happening tonight and i'm really looking forward to it.  i can't wait to spend some time with some other mamas and have a yummy chocolate shake!

7.  thanksgiving.  i love thanksgiving.. all the yummy food and time with family is always great.  i can't wait until thursday!

8.  a box of clothes.  i got a box of clothes for liberty passed on from a friend this week, so that was exciting!  liberty is especially adoring a little pair of black boots.

9.  lots and lots of movement from nadia!  she is as active as ever in this growing belly of mine.  i'm 30 weeks now, so just 10 weeks left until the due date...yikes!  i go in for a check up tomorrow.  i love going to the doctor's during pregnancy b/c i adore hearing my baby's heartbeat.  such a sweet sound.

10.  phone calls.  this week i heard from my sister, my dad and my mom.  it was really nice to catch up on the phone with each of them.  i miss everyone so much!

10 Smile Tuesday

well i'm not sure if my computer will let me add pictures times time or not.  i hope it works soon!  i have lots of cute pictures to share that i'm sure you're all dying to see ;).  we had a nice week.  jonathan's family went to disneyland and had a really good time, and we had some just the 4 of us family time. 

1.  liberty's cheesy smiles.  these days when we take her picture she gives us this cute, cheesy grin.  i love it!

2.  sleeping beauties.  is there anything sweeter than sleeping babies/toddlers?

3.  meeting up for lunch with jonathan's friend tim and his wife mandy.  jonathan had never met tim's wife, and i hadn't met either of them yet.  tim is in the coast guard and he's stationed in oregon about 5 hours north of where we are living.  they were driving through to visit family in cali and stopped to meet us for lunch.  it was a really nice visit.

4.  watching my girls play together.  i just love to watch them interact so sweetly with each other.

5.  sunshiny days.  after a bunch of rain, we're happy to have some warmer days with sunshine.  we've been taking advantage of those days by playing at the park or in the backyard. 

6.  pregnant belly sweetness.  liberty loves looking at my belly and talking to it.  according to her, nadia is in my belly for timeout.  liberty is so funny!  and of course i am loving the movement...nadia moves a LOT!

7.  the moon/cross.  lately liberty has been really into the moon (ever since she heard that nursery rhyme with the cow jumping over the moon).  the other night she was looking out the kitchen window talking about the moon and she kept telling us she saw a cross.  she wanted us to see this cross so i went to look out the window and i didn't see anything.  she kept insisting there was a cross in the sky and wanted daddy to look.  he went to look and she was so excited...i guess she was sure he would see it, too.  he didn't.  i went in there again and got down at her level and looked out the window....sure enough, the light rays shining from the moon made a cross.  liberty was so happy we could see the cross, too.  she was still talking about that cross the next morning!

8.  a surprise visit from jonathan's cousin mike.  jonathan hasn't seen him since sometime before we got married, and i had never met him.  he lives up in washington state and was down hunting.  it was fun for jonathan to see his cousin again and i enjoyed meeting him as well.  i must say, though, that liberty dominated at least half of the visit with mike.  she just loved him and has a great way with kids!  he was reading her stories, looking out the window with her, playing toys with her, etc.

9.  minnie mouse ears.  poppy & gree brought back cute minnie ears from disneyland.  the girls love them!  and of course i think they look adorable on my girls!

10.  jonathan.  i love him.  he's working so hard for us working two jobs.  thankfully one day off coincides with both jobs, so he does have a full day off from both places.  it stinks that he has to work so many hours, but we are thankful God has provided something for the time being.  and i'm thankful for a hubby that works hard for his family.  and as you can see from the picture below, he's great at playing with the girls! :)  (he's going to love me for posting this picture!!)

10 Smile (or more) Tuesday

***i had this blog written yesterday, but i've been having trouble putting pictures in it.  today i tried putting my pictures in a slideshow, but my computer wouldn't let me do that either...so no pictures for now.  hopefully soon.***

1.  kisses from my girls.  leila recently started giving us (and most anyone else) kisses.  it's so cute.  she makes that little "muah" noise and it's just precious!  and liberty is just giving is random kisses throughout the day.  i'm loving it!

2.  imagination.  i'm loving watching liberty's imagination grow and grow.  and let me tell you, she has a great one!  she's always pretending to go somewhere or be someone.  the things that come out of her little mouth are so funny.  her latest thing is pretending to be a pirate (not sure where this came from).  she'll put something on her head (a pair of pants, a hat, whatever is available) and say, "arrrr, i a pirate!" 

3.  uncles.  one pic is uncle mark reading to the kids, the other us uncle josh getting leila to sleep.

4.  time to ourselves. 

5.  28 weeks of pregnancy.

6.  crafting.  i've been doing some more knitting for christmas gifts, and sewed up some cute burp rags for a baby shower gift. fun fun!

7.  bath time with cousins.  liberty was loving playing in the water with zoe and ryleigh.

8.  our little climber.  it seems that leila has suddenly gained the ability to climb (or at least the will to climb).  here is one of her latest feats.

9.  playtime with daddy.

10.  a bloggy award passed on to me from amanda.  i promise i will pass this one on soon...just haven't had the chance yet!

11.  reading to my girls.  oh how i hope our girls love to read like jonathan and i do. 

12.  apples.  need i say more?

13.  snuggles.

14.  fresh starts.  i'm thankful for fresh starts in the little and big things of life.  for me this week it means starting fresh in our ways of discipline with liberty, starting fresh by cutting off the bottle from leila, and start fresh with my time with the Lord.  oh how i love fresh starts!

15.  praying 7 x 7.  i don't know if you've ever read the blog bring the rain, but it's quite an inspiring read.  the author, angie, recently posted a blog about praying for our children.  she suggested praying 7 times a day 7 times a week, picking out particular events in the day to pray the scripture over our children.  and i supposed this could apply to anyone...praying over spouses or whoever.  anyway.  you can click on the icon below for more details.  i'm really excited about trying this out.  i pray for my girls every night as they are falling asleep, but i love the idea of praying scripture over them all throughout the day.  anyway...be sure to check it out!

International Babywearing Week

This week is international babywearing week.  i've never actually worn my babies, but am excited to try it with our new baby girl nadia when she is born.  i've been reading about babywearing for quite a while now and i think the idea is great and the benefits are wonderful.  i can't wait to give it a try!  stephanie @ adventures in babywearing is hosting a giveaway in honor of babywearing week.  check out her blog for details.  you could win a sling from nonny and boo.

This was the week

this was the week i was supposed to be due with our 3rd baby.  i still think about our baby often...especially this week.  today in the mail i received a letter from my insurance in michigan reminding me my baby was due this month and that i needed to report when s/he was born.  i cried.  even though i know God had a plan for this, even though we have another baby on the way now, even though i lost that baby so early....i still wanted and loved THAT baby with all my heart.  i still wonder what it would have been like...wonder if the baby was a boy or a girl...wonder, wonder, wonder...

i'm so glad for God's love and comfort in times of hurt, grief and confusion.  i know i couldn't make it through this without HIM.  and i'm so thankful for my husband, who grieves with me and feels the loss as much as i do.  and i'm also thankful for my friends and family who've been there for us...especially those who have walked this road as well.  thank you for being there for us.  i know i will never forget my baby...i know the sadness will always be there, but i also know the scripture in lamentations is true.  "because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (lamentations 3:22-23).

thanks for listening (or should i say reading?).  i'll be trying to post my 10 smiles on time this week, along with a few other things (including a little bloggy award given to me by amanda that i have yet to pass on!).

Leila's 1st haircut...Random facts

leila had her first haircut on saturday (she needed one much younger than when liberty did!).  we just had some of the front trimmed up since it was growing past her eyes.  she did really well and now she can see!  here are a few pictures:

i was tagged by amanda at blessings all mine.  according to the tag, i need to post six random facts about myself, and tag four others to play along.

1.  my husband and i initially met online.  we met in person about 6 months later and were married 3 months after that.

2.  i have a bachelor's of social work degree from spring arbor university, but i would much rather stay at home taking care of my family than ever use it.  and even though i am still paying on my student loans for those 4 years, i will never regret my time there.  i grew so much spiritually there and formed some amazing friendships.

3.  i broke my right arm in a sledding accident during the winter of 8th grade.  the following summer i had a metal plate attached to my bone because it healed wrong.  the plate is still in my arm today.

4.  i only started crafting when i was in college, even though my mom's side of the family had been trying for years to get me to do something crafty (there are tons of crafty people in my family).  i was much happier reading a book back then. 

5.  jonathan (my hubby) and i had our first girl and boy names for children picked out before we ever got married. 

6.  during the summer after 1st grade, a friend and i were playing in a neighbor's yard and i stepped on a huge bee's nest.  i was stung over 100 times.  i'm still terrified of bees to this day.

ok...i am choosing to tag:

amy @ 11 moments in time

jen @ mike & jen's adventures

liz @ slager times

ashlee (my sister) @ inside my head or something like that

and one more tag thing that's going around says to open up the fourth folder of pictures and post the 4th picture.  i'm sure mine is really old since i'm just now cleaning up my computer of pictures!

this picture is from when we were living in cody, wyoming.  liberty was just a couple months over a year old (right around leila's age now).  crazy!