The Sleepover

Siena and one of her best buddies, Brady, got to spend a lot of time together the past few days. Rusty and Amanda left town for a few days and we got to watch Brady! Brady and Siena have grown up together...all 7 months of their lives. :) Amanda had Brady one day after I had Siena. Since then, they have had no choice but to hang out together!
We had a lot of fun! They are both on such similar schedules. The only time that got a little tricky is when they were both due for a little food. They weren't very patient with one person trying to feed them both. :) But watching them play together was fun. They both liked the same toys at the same time. When one would pick up a toy, the other one wanted that toy too. I didn't think that started so soon!! Brady loved Siena's hair...and wasn't afraid to pull it! Siena didn't seem to mind, so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures. Bad mom moment? Brady was a trooper and handled the new environment very well.
On Saturday, we got to watch Bryce, Brady's older brother, too. He's at such a fun age and Matt and Bryce love to play around together. All would have been great and fine...except we got a call from our realtor that they were going to show our house in an hour and a half and we needed to be out. Normally, no problem. With 3 kids and a "kid trashed" house, we had our work cut out for us. First off, we had to find a car seat for Bryce to use so he could be in the car with us when we finally got out of the house. Emily saved us on that one! I had to feed both the babies and occupy Bryce while Matt threw toys and blankets and stuff in the van, just to get it out of the house. We had to vacuum and spruce up while the little ones wanted nothing to do with any of that. And to add a little more laughter to the picture, while trying to get them all in the car, I find Bryce covered in vaseline from Siena's room! I had to just stop and laugh! We were a complete circus! And if you can't laugh at it, well, I just chose to laugh. The plan was to drive to Rusty and Amanda's house and let the kids play there while we waited for the showing to finish. About 10 minutes in the car, and all 3 were zonked out. Smart parent move: keep driving!! We ran a couple errands, ate a little lunch, and then finally back to our house - all while the 3 little ones slept.
A really great weekend. Bryce and Brady are such special boys and we love them a lot. Siena's got her work cut out for her trying to keep up with them!! :)

Brady and Siena love playing together!





"If that's the toy you're playing with, that's the one I want..."



"Fine, if I don't get the toy, I'll just play with your hair!"


"And if you pull my hair, I'll tweek your piggies!"


Off for a walk in the beautiful spring weather!



Gotta love bath time!

God Is Good.

There are a million things I could say to follow up the title of this blog. God has richly blessed our family. I look at my sweet baby girl every morning and get teary-eyed sometimes...we are so blessed. I kiss my husband on his way out the door every morning and smile, knowing I have a partner for life. God is good. Here's another reason why...
Before Siena came into our lives, the plan was always set for me to go back to work after having the first year off with her. That was the plan, and I was good with it. Then Siena was born. That changed everything. I didn't think I was going to be able to leave her and go back to work. I craved the time we spent together every day. I missed her when I wasn't around her. In my head, I struggled with the idea of going back to work. I knew that if I HAD to go back to work, I would need the perfect opportunity, the perfect team, the perfect place to go back and teach. My prayer for about 6 months was to make it very clear what I needed to do...as a mother and for my family. After looking at our financial situation, it really looked like it was going to be best for our family if I went back to work. (Our decision for me to stay home with Siena for this year was one of the best decisions I ever made.) I think because that didn't really give me a choice, I very quickly became okay with it. God totally changed my heart and showed me that maybe I'm not cut out to be a stay-at-home mom and that going back into the classroom was an exciting thing to think about. So, that's when that prayer for the perfect opportunity came right back into play. Again, God totally blessed that.
I will be teaching 3rd grade (again...and I LOVE that!) at Thomas Ultican Elementary. There are a lot of reasons why that is perfect. I have a couple friends that teach there, one being my future "teammate" in 3rd grade. She assured me that I was going to LOVE my new team...great girls to work with! I hear nothing but really great things about the principal, which is huge. TUE just had a whole bunch of renovation and work done on its building to make it look beautiful. It's a north school, meaning that someday, Matt will teach the kids that I had in 3rd grade. How fun will that be!? It's an early school, meaning I get out of school a little earlier, which is always nice. In other words, the perfect spot. A complete answered prayer.
That all being said, FSE was a wonderful home for 3 years. I had students who I will never forget, friends I will continue to have for a long time, a principal who was nothing but supportive and wonderful, and memories that will make me laugh for a very long time.
So, long story short, I have a wonderfully funny and amazing husband, a daughter who is pure joy and contentment, and now a job that I am excited to go back to. God is good.

PS. Check out our church's blog. Some AMAZING stories of mercy and what people are doing in the community for one another. Speaking of God being good...
gwcbs.blogspot.com

A Taste of Spring...

The past couple of days have been BEAUTIFUL! It is such a treat to be able to take Siena out of the car seat or out of the house without 20 layers of clothes and blankets wrapped around her! I think she enjoys it too...not so "marshmallow man" like! :) The breeze of fresh air in her hair and on her cheeks must be a great feeling...I know I'm enjoying it!
We have really great friends. We just inherited a really great jogging stroller from a couple who have a little one that is too big for the stroller. I didn't think it would be that big of a difference to go on walks/runs with that stroller in comparison to the one we have. Boy, was I wrong! It is so great! It even put a little added pressure on me to actually JOG with the jogging stroller - and that's a good thing. I love it! Obviously, Siena feels right at home in it too. Can't wait to use it all spring and summer...whenever that comes!




Siena also got to go on her very first wagon ride! Two very handsome little boys invited her over to go on a walk with them. Siena's a smart girl...she willingly accepted that offer! :) Bryce, being the gentleman that he is, pulled Siena and Brady around. It was darling! Siena loved it! She was bouncing around, looking all over the place. I think she was very excited to be free from arms, strollers, car seats, coats, blankets...freedom! After a little while, Bryce wanted in on the action, so he jumped in the wagon and took his brother's place. He was sharing toys with Siena and looking out for her. In fact, I heard Bryce say, "Seena, bugger..." (Siena, bug...). I turned to see what he was talking about and there was a bee on Siena's shoulder! Needless to say, that bee didn't live very long. Bryce...always looking out for his Seena! :) We certainly will have many more rides like that in the coming months!! Love you, Bryce and Brady...and Amanda!




We also went to the park with some friends this morning. It is another nice day - in the 60s again! Siena's little friends are a bit older than she is, so she did a lot of watching. But, I think she had fun dreaming about what she'll be doing soon! Bella, Samuel, and Luke were having a great time playing on all the outdoor equipment. (Baby Benjamin snoozed in the stroller.) Sure made me excited for the day that Siena gets to go down the slide and climb the ladders. That being said, I'm not wishing this time away for one second. Holding her in my arms, snuggled up in the pouch is a dream come true.












After all these beautiful weather pictures, should I mention we are supposed to get 6 inches of snow tomorrow???? I didn't think so either...but felt I should so I could remember the craziness that is KC weather these days. :)

Green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
It's holidays like these (among other things, of course) that make me miss teaching. Outside of elementary schools and the Irish bars, St. Patrick's Day just isn't that big a deal! I bet Matt that if he didn't wear green to work, someone - a student or another teacher - would pinch him or make some comment about it. I lost the bet!! :)
Since I can't feed Siena green eggs or green beer yet, we decided to be festive and eat some green peas. She's not a fan of the peas, so it was more of a "choke them down with some sweet potatoes" rather than a fun, St. Paddy's Day experience. She makes some really great faces though, and that makes it all worth it...for me, at least!


After eating peas for lunch, I decided to gather all the green toys and stuff that Siena owns into the living room. She has a lot of green things!! She's not very picky when it comes to which toys to play with, so she enjoyed the smorgasbord of toys to pick and choose from. I had fun trying to set all the toys up to take a picture...while Siena enjoyed messing them all up and knocking things down before I could capture the moment. We're a good team. :)
It was a good day. Even though the excitement for the day was not matched by a classroom full of 9-year-olds, it was a first experience for Siena...and that makes it fun. Matt and I were even able to "cheers" a green beer after Siena went to bed - even if we didn't go out to the bar, we can still celebrate, right?

Spring Break

Teaching is really a great job...maybe not quite as great as staying home with Siena (at the moment)...but the next best thing. Thanks to a little flexibility from some coaches and schedules, Matt was able to take off with Siena and I to Grand Rapids for BSHS Spring Break. It was such a great time to be able to spend some time with family...much needed.
We didn't have a whole lot of things on the agenda while up in GR - which was a treat. When we go up there for holidays, it's always so busy and rushed with running here and there. This time we were able to relax with family a little bit...it was so nice.
Driving up to GR takes 10 hours. We drove through the night again to play into Siena's sleeping schedule. It went perfectly. We drove straight to my aunt and uncle's house to spend the weekend with all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It was something I was so looking forward to. We ate great food, made some interesting mojitos, played some Euker, played basketball, and of course, just spent time together. I couldn't ask for anything more. I really do have the best family in the world - we have a lot of fun together. And they sure loved little Miss Siena...and she loved them right back.
Once back in GR, we went out for drinks, shopped in darling little boutiques, ate lots of Yesterdogs, celebrated birthdays, enjoyed home-cooked meals, visited friends, watched "old men" basketball leagues (love you, Ken..and Matt!), held deep conversations, cried, laughed, drank wine, reminisced about being little at Grandma and Grandpa's house, had a encounter with tomato soup and Siena's curiosity, perused the zoo...it doesn't get much better than that! Can you ask of anything more? Once again, I'm a lucky girl...
Siena also had a great time up in GR. The first night was a little rough. Siena is getting old enough to realize that she is not in her own bed and in a strange, dark room. She wasn't a huge fan...and who can blame her? It took a little work to get her to fall asleep, but once she was in Dream Land, she stayed there till morning. After that first night, she was good to go. She tried butternut squash and prunes for the first time. (Yes, prunes were a necessary, intentional introduction...and yes, they did their job.) She loved playing with Oma's glasses, looking at the fish with Opa, sleeping in Grandma's arms, and laughing and hangin' with Auntie Em. Lots of fun little moments for Siena...and those who love her.
I wish I would have taken more pictures during the week...just to capture some moments. When I got home, I realized the only pictures we took were at the zoo. That was a fun afternoon. The weather was way warmer than it had been, so we took advantage of it and spent some time outside. Siena got to meet the monkeys, lions (I was honestly scared of those things!), snow leopards, brown bears, sea otter, fish, alligators, and a bunch of other creepy, totally disgusting snakes and reptiles that I didn't care for too much. She rode in her stroller and just watched all the animals. It made me very excited to take her again when she's a little older and she can understand a little more. I will be patient though! As quickly as she is getting the hang of sitting up, she's going to be crawling and walking before we know it!
A really great week..thanks to all of you who made it so special and meaningful for Siena, Matt and me. There are moments I will always remember...






This picture does NOT in any way depict our parenting skills...just our sense of humor and Matt's ability to use Photo Shop. :)

Sitting Up and Sweet Potatoes

Siena is really getting after things these days! I just love watching her grow more and more every day. She is such a joy to watch...and it forces me to look at the world through the eyes of a child. Who would have thought mashed up sweet potatoes or sitting up all by yourself could be the greatest of things? But they are...
I have decided to take on the task of making Siena's baby food. I really love to cook, and although I can't make great pasta dishes or pieces of meat for her (yet), I thought it would be a fun little adventure for me to take on. I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist, so sometimes I find that I make it way more difficult than it actually has to be. But I think that may be a common thread in a number of things I do. :) That being said, it's a really great feeling to finally sit down with a small hunk of potatoes and see how she reacts to the new tastes and textures. I never thought I would get so excited.
We started out the first couple of weeks with boring, ol' rice cereal. After 2 weeks of that, I went to the store, bought 6 huge sweet potatoes, cooked them up, threw them in the food processor, and distributed them into little baby ice cube trays to freeze. It's super handy! I just make up a ton of little cubes, throw them in a freezer bag, and now I can just pull them out whenever she's ready to eat! It's great! She really caught on super quick. She of course made funny faces and got the food all over the place, but I didn't hear any complaints! I have fed her sweet potatoes in the morning for 4 mornings in a row, just to make sure she liked them and had no allergic reactions to them. So far so good! Next on the list is avocados, or as we like to call it, "baby guac". It's been really fun to watch her get the hang of eating and start to really enjoy and look forward to food.
At first, she was more interested in playing with the food and the spoon. Now, she actually lets me feed her, and just sits there waiting for the next bite.




Also, in the past week, Siena has decided to sit up on her own. It was kind of an all-of-a-sudden thing. One day she was still pretty wobbly and you couldn't leave her to sit up on her own. Now, she's a pro! It's fun to see her sitting up, playing with her toys, and gaining enough balance to reach for things around her. Every once in a while, we hear a little clunk, and she's toppled over on her side...but even that doesn't seem to bother her too much. I think she feels like a big girl too..or in this case, a big koala bear. :)
Man, Siena's growing up fast! The best journey ever though...