take a moment

My, how much life has happened since my last post! We were looking into moving closer to Hawkeye Court with the start of a new house church there. Thus we were also looking for someone to fill our place at the church house. A family of 10 needed a place to stay, and thus began the whirlwind of adventure of packing up our things in less than 2 weeks. Doesn’t sound too hard, until you add in a fussy baby (from teething and sickness), a 3-yr-old who wants desperately to play outside after a LONG winter, and a very busy husband! With the help of lots of friends (PTL for the church!), we got it all done in time! I knew only that we were going to live in the Abdo’s basement until we could find a home… but didn’t know if that would be for a week or a few months.

A few days before the move, we bought a house in the neighborhood where we were looking! It is a zero lot on Westwinds Drive that seems just perfect. It has 2 bedrooms upstairs, and then downstairs has a 2nd living room with a space to convert to a 3rd bedroom if we want in the future. The three things I am most looking forward to (that we have not yet had in our first three places) are a dishwasher, a fenced in backyard, and a deck! I am starting to get very excited!!

Tomorrow, Evie and I will begin the weaning process. We are starting her out on soy milk as she still does not tolerate cow’s milk in my diet. We have only 3 weeks and four days left until we leave the kids with Dan’s parents for our 5th year anniversary trip (to Garner!) I intended to start last week, but came down with mastitis after all of the craziness of moving. I am praying I don’t get it again during the weaning process! She is still waking at 5am for a feeding, so that will be interesting when that feeding gets dropped!

We love living with the Abdos! If we weren’t moving into such a great home, I’d just want to stay here if I could! It is great having so many arms to help hold Evie and play with Jakob.

Evie is just now getting more interested in walking while holding onto our hands. We’ll see how long it is before she wants to try to test things out on her own. She is getting her 7th and 8th teeth. She laughs a lot at her brother and when we tickle her.

Jake was sad to move from our house. He had lots of friends in the neighborhood that would daily come visit to play basketball, play on the playground, and play inside with him. However, he is having lots of fun now playing with his heroes, the Abdo boys. We know he’ll have no trouble making more friends when we move into our new place.

Cleaning washing machine

Originally uploaded by blessed_3.

This was Dan (and Jake) cleaning the nasty iron deposits on the washing machine we got right before the motor went out on it. Fortunately the dryer is working great and that is what we purchased them for anyway. Our old washer is now in and the laundry is all in working order again! Yay for clean underwear!

Cute as a button!

Originally uploaded by blessed_3.

Evangeline’s smile lights up the room!

Last Monday Evie began to sleep through most of the night.  Thursday and Friday she had some trouble and I ended up feeding her, even though I tried not to.  Starting last night, we decided that if she woke up, we’d go in to make sure she was fine, but then she was on her own from there as far as going back to sleep.  Let me tell you, I am feeling like a million bucks these days!  I mean I knew sleep deprivation was affecting me, but man, it was affecting me!

She also got her third tooth on Saturday.  That may explain her getting up Thursday and Friday night.  I am assuming #4 will be coming through any day now as it seems that is the way things go for most babies.

She also learned how to do a few things this week.  The cutest is definitely the waving!  She gets very excited and waves to Daddy.  Which brings me to the next thing that we think she learned, which is to say “Dada!”  This occurs during her waving at Dan, and sounds a bit more like, “Dadadadadadadadada!”  She has also started signing “All Done,” and possibly even saying it too.  This one comes out as, “AhDah!”

This weekend Dan and I, and Evie, went to a marriage conference in the Amanas.  It was a very refreshing time for us, and challenged us in many ways.  While we were there, Jake went to play with his favorite friend Luke Hibbing.  He has now declared that his favorite color is orange (like Luke) and that he wants to grow up to be like Luke.  We’ll see if blue enters back into first place or not.

Speaking of blue… I am now driving a minivan.  Specifically a Nissan Quest, but it is blue.  Jake had requested we get a blue van, and Dan/God did not disappoint him!

This morning I left Evie on the floor in the living room, and went into the kitchen for a few minutes. I returned to find this…

Yesterday, Evie learned how to get her little body to move forward, instead of just going backward. Watch out world! She since has become quite good at it, so I am guessing crawling is going to be coming soon.

Jakob is pretty fun to watch at Tot Time (lots of kids under age 5 playing with toys in a gym.) It seems like every Friday morning, he’ll find some kid that he thinks looks like fun. Then he will follow the kid around and mimic everything they do. Usually the kid will be flattered and laugh at Jake, and then they become friends. Today, Jake first chose a 5-yr-old boy. However, this kid did not appreciate Jake following him around. So, after a heart-breaking scene of the kid making this known, Jake moved on and picked a new kid. This is where it got pretty entertaining. This kid was around 4, and very athletic. They ran around the gym for a long time, hurdling obstacles and going up and down slides. Jake was a little slower, but kept up with him pretty well. The funny part is that I think it took a good 5 minutes for this kid to even realize he was being followed. Then when he noticed, he just went faster and chose harder maneuvers. After another 10 minutes or so, a girl started chasing Jake. The next thing I know, there is a ‘gang’ formed of 4 kids that are running together for about the next 20 minutes.

Jake’s technique of copying people to make friends worries me a little, but overall, it is pretty neat to see his ability to make friends with just about anyone.  He is a very social boy, and able to create fun wherever he goes!

I have very much enjoyed Evie’s new endeavor… clapping!  She seems so proud of herself for learning how to do this.

In other news, starting solids has not been going well.  She has terrible diaper rash right now. I suspect it is from her new diet, so I am temporarily stopping solids until it clears up.  Poor thing!

Yesterday Evie got her first tooth!  No fussing, but definitely some drooling.

Also, Jakob declared this morning that he is baby Jesus and I am Mary.  :)   He is currently having lots of fun playing with his early Christmas present from Dan and I… a castle with knights!

Getting ready to travel to Spencer for the weekend.  Then Ames over Christmas.  Then Osage Beach, MO for Faithwalkers.  Fun times!

This week has been a big one for Evangeline. We started her on some rice cereal since she turned 6 months today. I think she likes getting to sit at the table and actually get to put some of this “yummy” stuff in her mouth. She has been watching us intently whenever we put food into our mouths this last month.

The other thing she started this week is rolling from her back to her front. She had done it once or twice awhile back, but nothing serious. Then on Saturday she really started trying to do it every time we laid her on her back. Today, I laid her down on the floor next to my feet while I checked my e-mail. The next thing I know she is a good 5-6 feet away from me! Time to really start watching this little girl!

Jakob has been very much enjoying reading through The Beginner’s Bible. We are in the New Testament, reading about Jesus’ teachings and miracles. The one that he keeps wanting to act out with me is when Jesus puts mud on the blind man’s eyes. He’ll shut his eyes randomly, and say, “Jesus, I need some mud.”

Jake has been insisting on shutting the car doors himself. Unfortunately today he didn’t quite get a couple of his fingers out of the way in time! I am pretty sure they are fine as he can bend them okay and only cried for a few minutes.

In other kid news… we are attempting to let Evie cry it out after the last two nights she was up about 5 times during the night. Not a good time to switch to decaf is it? Maybe that is why I feel a little irritable! We just attempted at her nap. She really only cried for about 25 minutes. However, then she only slept for about 25 minutes. I nursed her and she is currently napping on the couch like usual. I guess it was a baby step in the right direction.