Baby in the house

Somehow, the summer and fall got away from me and I never updated the blog. So bear with me as I catch up!

A new baby is such a miraculous event. A little person joins the world and changes lives forever. I am always amazed at the perfection knit together within a woman's womb. While each of us is different from another, there is a harmony within our bodies between each system - the respiratory system bringing in the air to provide oxygen to the blood which is pumped through the circulatory system to feed the organs and muscles which allow us to move through our days - what an awesome creation! There are times I take the daily miracle of life for granted. I forget how we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14) in His image. In looking at my babies on their birthday, I am reminded each of my children is a gift we received from God. My life has been exponentially blessed by those treasured gifts.

Our new baby, Louisa, arrived on May 21, 2012. She was just a little bit, 4 pounds and 13 ounces!

Every good and perfect gift is from above. James 1:17

We are thrilled to pieces to have her here with us.  The kiddos adjusted beautifully to a new baby in the house and are soooo sweet to her, singing her songs when she cries, hurrying to get her a toy to play with and covering her with kisses and love (under the watchful eye of mom and dad!).



 
When she was just a month old, we claimed this wonderful baby for Christ at her baptism.  Many members of both sides of our family were able to attend her baptism.  We are so lucky to be surrounded by our families.  It is so awesome to have our parents and siblings active in our children's lives.

Tom, Ruby (my parents), me, Rob, MaryLynn and Rob (Rob's parents)

 

All the kiddos with their Godparents

 

...baby on the way

So we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of #4 and this is my current downward view. 

We are super excited to find out if we will have a new baby girl or boy.   The votes in our house are evenly divided between girl and boy. 

The kids and I have been looking at their baby books and the pictures of when they were born.  One of their favorite things is to hear the stories of when they arrived in the world.  I love those precious, brand new babies.  What a blessing!!



Will keep you posted on the new arrival…

...wonderful reason to celebrate.

There are times in life where it seems that the days have their running shoes on and this is definitely one of those times.  At this stage in our lives, I often feel like I just finished having breakfast with the kids and it is already time to do homework and get dinner ready! 

We had another wonderful reason to get together as a family and celebrate!  My cousin got married a few weeks ago at a beautiful ceremony in the same church Rob and I got married.  It was awesome to be a guest at her wedding in the same church I said my vows to my husband.   We then had the opportunity to party the night away with lots of family and friends!  The food was fantastic.  The band was wonderful.  It was great party! 

The radiant bride and her parents

The soon to be newlyweds exchanging rings.

our family

our family with my parents, siblings and their spouses

What our family pictures really look like...

 My mom and her 4 sisters were all in attendance – and they are a fun group to hang out with! It was so wonderful to see our aunts, uncles and cousins that live all across the USA.

More newlyweds...my cousin Terri and her husband Eric

The Geers Girls

Our latest adventure has been with our baby…well ok, he’s not really a baby anymore.  He has been standing from a squatting position on his own for a few weeks now and cruising down furniture for a month or more.  But in the last couple of days he has taken 3-5 independent steps on his own.  The look of happiness on his face when we “catch” him in the act is priceless!  I have been trying to capture those moments with our video camera or even a still picture or two, but he continues to thwart my efforts! 

my best attempt at a "walking" photo.

...day in the life

At times I have struggled to keep my house organized and all the members informed of various events/activities happening in our family. As our kids get older and grow in their reading abilities, we have taken to having a chalkboard in the kitchen with a bible verse or bit of knowledge to help us as we go through our days. I happened to be visiting with a friend a few weeks ago and noticed she had painted a chalkboard on the side of a wall in her kitchen. On her board, she had some educational tools for her kids (like the date and day of the week, current weather etc), emergency contact information for mom/dad, and her kids chore charts. I really liked her idea! My sister-in-law Jessica had given me a peel and stick chalkboard last year for Christmas. I finally found the perfect use for it!

I decided to put the weekly menu for our house as well as any family events happening this week. We will see if this is a helpful tool in our house.

My husband and I try to plan our menus each week based on our evening commitments, available food in the fridge/freezer and weekly sales. I will admit we are better at it some weeks than others. Especially depending on our respective work schedules! I find having a menu written out takes much of the evening stress off my shoulders. I appreciate having this line up and knowing that today is Taco Tuesday!

Below the chalkboard is the kids chore charts.  I have found these to be quite helpful in managing their duties around the house.  And they are more inclined to help when I have "cool" stickers to place in the boxes!

This past weekend was a 4 day weekend for the kids and we lived it up!  Friday was a bit gloomy, so we watched movies and made popcorn on the stove.  We were able to hang out in our jammie's and relax, which is just what we needed. 



The kids at the dinner table - having an intense conversation!



We took a day trip Saturday to see Papa Doc in Gainesville.

It was nice to have such a relaxing weekend together!  I am looking forward to Easter Break and the time at home as a family. 

...project

When we bought our new house, Rob and I decided we would “re-do” one room a year.  When we moved into the house, we immediately gutted the kitchen and den.  That was a MAJOR undertaking but our kitchen is exactly the way we want it.  This was the first big project we did together and I think it was pretty successful! 

Original kitchen - looking in from the dining room

down to the studs...looking in from the den

look Ma, new walls!  Looking in from the den.

Cabinets and furniture.  Looking in from the den.

Finished project.  The white door on the left is the
orange door by the ovens in the first picture. 

We have tried to go room by room based on our family needs. Rob is definitely a better visionary that I am. He can really see the potential in each room and how to best improve it to reflect our style.  My strengths lie in putting everything back in order.  And vacuuming. I am a champ at that! 

One of the things Rob had mentioned was to carpet the bedrooms and place the same wood floors we had in the living area of the house down the bedroom hallway. So these past few weeks have been a bit of an upheaval in our house while these projects have come to life! 

bedroom 1

bedroom 2/nursery

bedroom 2/nursery

Master bedroom

master closets

bedroom hall

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first of adding carpet to the bedrooms.  I have always liked hardwood floors and didn't mind the parkay floors we had.  But, it was a great decision to add carpet to the bedrooms and I LOVE the new look!  We also purchased new furniture for bedroom 2/nursery.  Since there will be 4 kiddo's in the house, we added a set of bunk beds to the bedroom. 

bedroom 1

bedroom 2/nursery

bedroom 2/nursery

master bedroom

master closets

a view down the hall

the beautiful new carpet, wood floors and baseboards. 

I absolutely LOVE the new look this has given our bedroom end.   I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and his vision for our house!   I am truly amazed at all the blessings in our life (including new carpet)!

family wedding...

The bride and groom.

This past weekend, my brother Joey got married to Sarah.  It was a great celebration of love!  They asked our kids to be in the wedding as the flower girl and ringbearer.  It has been the talk of our house for the last two months.  IN fact, at one point before Christmas, my brother causally asked how excited the kids were for presents.  I told him the hot topic of discussion in our house was their impending nuptuals! 

the excited flower girl and ring bearer with Baba

Striking a cool pose...

About a week before the wedding, we started practicing flower girl and ring bearer duties.  I made an asile out of random chairs in the living room.  Then gave my daughter a basket with bits of scrap paper and my son a pillow and explained to them how this whole thing works.  They came down the asile at race pace!  So there was more explaination and more tries.  But in the end, I think it all paid off!  They did a great job walking down the asile and sitting with their grandparents!

the ceremony

back down the asile to throw more petals!

After the wedding, there were many pictures to take.  The kids were pretty good at entertaining themselves...Baba and Papa Doc had given each of them a bag of goodies that included a new book or two, a car, and other random quiet toys!

great minds think alike...and drive similar cars!

Beautiful sister Sarah and her lovely flowers.

Once we were done taking pictures, it was time to get our dance on! The kids had a wondeful time dancing.

Joe and Sarah's wedding is still a hot topic of conversation here!

  Congratulations Joe and Sarah!

  We love you!

Just a fun family fact...the bride's name is a combintion of my sister's name and mine.

It was just meant to be!

Sarah, Sarah Elizabeth, Elizabeth