A month later. . .

I was looking at the ADORABLE (yes I am biased) picture of Ethne in the tub & wanted to try to find a picture of Lilyanah when she was the same age. Or as close as possible. In the pictures of the girls with Grandma, Ethne is one week younger than Lilyanah when the picture was taken. Can you even believe the size difference!!!!? Lilyanah was SO itty bitty! My apologies for the excessive absence of entries lately! Life being busy is no excuse because I suppose it always is! Let's see, I threw our annual Valentine's Day Party. I had a good time & hope everyone who attended did too. I truly love party planning. . . getting into all the details. Will gave me a budget that allowed me to rent some tables & chairs so everything even matched, which I LOVE! Someday I hope to own my own round tables so I can set them up whenever it's 'party time'. We had that party the 9th of February & the following weekend had our family 'work weekend' at our house. For Christmas instead of trying to figure out what to get each other, we did 'work weekends' where we all went to each other's home for a day to help with projects that needed to be done around the house. We started at Jeremy's house, followed by Corey & Kelsey & attacked our house on the 18th. Dad & I started demo on the second bathroom the Friday before everyone came over Saturday. It was a little more of a mess than we expected, so right now we're at the insulation & drywall stage. We made a good dent into some of our projects, so that was exciting & the best gift! Mom keeps putting off their weekend because she can't decide what she wants us to do! Too many projects to choose from I suppose. A couple of days after our workday we left for Twin Falls, Idaho.
This subject deserves its own paragraph. When Will accepted the job to work at Waste Connections, he was promoted to an Assistant Controller & told the interviewers that he would be willing to move if they needed him to in order to fill a Controller position. We weren't sure how long that would be, 6 to 24 months we thought (expecting the latter). As it is, they are looking for an Assistant Controller to move to Twin Falls as soon as possible & move into the Controller position in 6 to 12 months. They're hoping Will is their man. It's been a couple of months since it was first casually mentioned and it seems to be getting more & more serious as time passes by. Will went out there to help about a month ago & was pretty impressed with the office, the people & even the town. He especially has been praying very diligently for direction & discernment in making the best decision for our family. I've told him that as long as he is seeking God's will that I will go where He & he leads. We've listed out our pros & cons. The list of cons is very short but substantial. Number 1, of course, is moving away from family & friends. VERY BIG. And 2, most likely losing money on our house. Of course the landscape is a con, it is not a pretty place. I'm an Oregon girl & green is beautiful to me, not brown! The biggest pro though is that we would get another 3 hours with Will every single day! His commute would go from close to 90 minutes to less than 10. I would love for him not to have that stressful drive as much as I would love for all of us to get to see each other more! I don't pretend leaving family & friends wouldn't be extremely hard, I just can't rationalize sacrificing time with Will to have it with everyone else. It would be a 3 to 5 year committment. I admit I can swallow 3 years a lot better than 5! On our trip over, though, God was obviously the orchestrator! We had a great place to stay, we got to have lunch with Will almost every day, we met a wonderful lady, Tomi, a real estate agent who showed us nearly 20 homes so we could get an idea of the market & what's available. She was referred to me by the secretary of a church I found & wanted to visit. We thought so much of her & everyone else we met from the church that we hoped we would like the rest of the church as much. Let me just say, after visiting Sunday morning, that should we move to Twin Falls we have found a church family that we look forward to serving with & worshiping our Lord with! I was even pleasantly surprised with the town. Everything you need is there, so that's nice. As it stands, for the next 2 months Will is going to be traveling there for at least 1 week a month. They want to be sure that HE is sure he wants to move there. I guess they're pretty concerned that I would actually do it too. The way I look at it, no one is praying for Idaho to work. We're praying for God's will, & all of my family is praying God works something out for us to stay in Oregon, so if doors keep opening toward Idaho, then we can be confident that God is the one opening the doors. We would appreciate your prayers also. The picture of the girls playing is with what I would consider Lilyanah's favorite toy. Her Mema got her the village set for her birthday, it's so great! She almost always has to take one or two 'village people' with her when we go somewhere. For example, we visited Mom at work & Lilyanah sat down at her desk like it was her own. As you can see, the village characters she named Gigi & Papa are on the desk behind her. Mom can lock her computer keys, so it was great because Lilyanah could play. Hopefully this gives you a little idea of what's been going on the last month. I'll truly try to do better, but no promises! Thank you again to all of you faithful who still check up on our little family! We love you all! ~Wendy.

In an instant life can change can't it? All it takes is one phone call, one heartbeat, one moment to make the difference between life as usual or a car accident, a fire, illness, you know what I'm talking about. One moment life is great, normal;
"going as expected" & one breath later it's turned upside down. Friday I went outside to get the mail for my mom. When I walked back in the door she was on the phone crying & asking if she needed to come to where Corey & Kelsey were. They had gone to a routine check up appointment & the doctor's were unable to find their precious baby's heartbeat. After further tests they confirmed that their baby had quit growing at about 14 weeks. Without further testing they don't know why. Kelsey had surgery today (the 29th)& the doctor told them they had a little boy. Kelsey named him Nathaniel because it means 'gift from God' & as she says, he was their gift from God.

Those of you who have lost a baby know the sinking sensation that reaches into the pit of your stomach when you hear the news & the overwhelming sorrow that makes you think for an instant maybe you're lost in a nightmare & if pinched you'll wake up. You know because you've lived that so much more than flesh dies with an unborn baby. . . You are also letting go of so many hopes & dreams for a future that will not be. If you have lost a child you know exactly what I am talking about and it breaks my heart that 2 people I love are in the midst of this heartache. Please know not to worry if you do not know what to say to Corey or Kelsey. Losing a child never makes sense, so none of us has a chance of making it make sense for them. Truly the only things you can do to soften this blow is to let them know you are there, praying for & loving on them. Such simple things that make an entire world of difference. We love you all & cherish your thoughts & prayers. ~Wendy.

Our Anniversary & Christmas!

Thank you to all of you who remembered Will & my anniversary. . . Yes, we celebrated 5 years on the 21st! Of course we spent all of our time together in either the Portland or Seattle airport. This is actually the only picture we have of us together celebrating 5 years as a happily married couple. Traveling with 2 little girls is not exactly a walk in the park. But it's always nice to have our whole family together! We left PDX around 7:00pm & landed at Seattle an hour later for a 4 hour layover before we took off for DFW. I won't tell you how but we actually ended up on the wrong plane on our way to Seattle. Luckily we discovered it before take off & were able to grab all of our stuff & run to the correct plane before it took off too! Thank you God! We landed in Seattle at 5am the next day. Memaw & Aunt Michelle greeted us & the girls instantly took to them. We arrived in their hometown of Frisco & after visiting for a couple of hours we took to bed. It's safe to say we were all EXTREMELY exhausted! We had such a great visit with everyone. As always there were games late into the night. Lilyanah loved playing with her cousins Kaylyn & Chip! Ethne enjoyed chilling on Grandad's lap & being cuddled by her Memaw.
We are so blessed to have such loved little girls! I haven't written about Christmas yet because in my quest to remember EVERYTHING we needed to take I neglected to pack our camera. So I'm waiting on some pictures from our family in Texas. We were blessed to receive a visit from Will's best friend Jason & his wife Kimi & daughter Makenna. The visit was too short of course, but aren't most visits!? We flew out Christmas day. And while the flights were not much fun (Will & I weren't allowed to sit together because both of our girls are still 'lap children'. I guess there is only one extra 'air bag' in each row so only one 'lap child' is allowed per row.) Once I get those pictures I'll add them to this post! The one of Lilyanah is from a couple of days after we got back home. We surrounded her with all the gifts our family lavished on her. . . I know you'll think she's spoiled but we like to call it VERY LOVED! I hope you all are having a blessed day! ~Wendy.

Introducing Baby Craig!!

Hi, it's Kelsey...not Wendy...and I am PREGNANT!!...not Wendy! :) Corey and I are very excited. I am almost 14 weeks...my due date is July 3rd. I'm really excited that it's finally not a secret anymore! Boy was that one of the hardest things I've endured in my lifetime so far!

So Katie....oh Katie...I never heard this prediction you made, but if it is true like you say then your wisdom astounds me! And I have to admit, the pressure is on girlfriend! Sorry 'bout that! ;)

And for you, Mrs. Gina Kortan, I recall telling you to get pregnant again, to which you replied, "YOU FIRST"...well by the looks of it you better get busy! I'm 13.5 weeks ahead of you!

Well, that's all I have for now! Happy New Year everyone!

Tree Lighting

Last night Mom, Lilyanah, Ethne & I ventured out to the library to see Santa arrive on a firetruck & watch him light the tree. There were carolers singing, but it was WAY too loud to hear & we could only hear 1/4 of what Santa was saying whenever he would turn the megaphone our way to speak, but it was a good time. Lilyanah didn't say much while we were there. Whenever we're in situations around a lot of people or watching something she's usually very quite & looking around everywhere absorbing everything. When we got in the car she kept saying 'Santa' which was very sweet. . . I'm glad we went, I just wish Will could have come too. He has a terrible commute, I've probably told you that already. But we are lucky if he gets home at 7pm, it's no fun. Whenever the next promotion comes, if it means a move we will definitely find a house that is close to his work so we can see him more often! Lilyanah practically tackles him whenever he gets home & just wants to crawl all over him. And of course Ethne is all smiles & giggles when she gets to see Daddy. It's a very precious thing to see, watching them love on each other. We three girls are INCREDIBLY blessed! I hope God is showering you all with blessings too!! ~Wendy.

Thanksgiving

I figured I couldn't very well get by without updating the blog with some pictures from Thanksgiving. We had such a nice time with family. Jeremy, Corey & Kelsey as well as our family all spent Wednesday night at Dad & Mom's house. We stayed up late playing games & Mom made us her biscuit cinnamon rolls for breakfast. The day after Will had to work, yuck! So, I did the billing for the mini storage I work at & ended up staying up until 6 a.m painting Lilyanah's bedroom. Good times. I haven't painted like that in a LONG time. Will installed blinds in the living room & did a great job on the molding. I'm the painter, he's the 'installer'. It feels good to get stuff done on the house! Of course I don't have any pictures of our updates. Just pictures from Thanksgiving. Lilyanah was tired by the time we tried to take a family picture so there is no smile to be seen on her! She actually didn't smile for many pictures at all! I love the picture of her sitting at the table, she looks like she was actually playing cards & was getting bored with it! There's a picture of Ethne showing off her skills, she'll be 5 months old in 2 days!!!! I know I always say it but time is flying by way too quickly! Jeremy was blowing bubbles with his gum & had both of the girls mesmerized! We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your families & are enjoying the season! We went out yesterday & got our first fake tree.I never thought I'd have a fake tree in my house but we are leaving for Texas on the 22nd to spend Christmas with Will's side of the family & I would be so sad if I had to take our tree down before Christmas. So, our solution was to buy an artificial tree. I'm excited to see what Lilyanah thinks of having a tree in the house! What are your favorite things about this season? We love you all! ~Wendy.

Dressing up

No, we didn't go trick or treating, but the girls did dress up. Nothing impressive, that's for sure. At the last minute I decided to make her a 'medieval maiden' dress. . . She would not sport the little 'hat' that went along with it. I made it a little long so she may fit in it again next year. . . We did have dinner over at Gigi & Papa's so Lilyanah got to wear her costume for a little bit. She really didn't care to be honest. She doesn't know what candy is yet so other than being able to say we went trick or treating there really wasn't any point. Maybe next year she'll be more into it. We had a nice time visiting with family & got some yummy homemade pumpkin cookies from Gigi. Very sweet. If you dressed up, what were you for Halloween? Love you all! ~Wendy.

What would you say?

Yesterday during Lilyanah's nap I raked about half of one of our 3 yards. Our house in the middle of our property so yes we have a large front & a large back as well as one medium & one small side yard. So, knowing that yesterday was going to be the only day without rain for at least a couple of days I thought I should get to taking another fall picture of the girls. Of course last year it was just an 8 month old Lilyanah but I loved the pictures so much that I wanted to do it again this year with both the girls. I thought I'd include a couple of pictures from that venture. Ironically it was Lilyanah who wouldn't fully cooperate during our little photo shoot. (Thank you mom for the help!) Unfortunately, the lighting wasn't quite right & apparently the weather forecasters are changing their predictions drastically so it may be nice the rest of the next week & I may get another chance at a photo shoot.
On a totally different subject; last night I heard the question posed, if you could go back in time & tell yourself something, what would it be? I was intrigued by the question. Would I try to change a relationship? Avoid one, start one, end one, try to salvage one? Would I try to change a decision I made, avoid an accident? Or would I try to help someone else? Like I said, interesting thought. .. If any of you feel like sharing what you think you would do of course I'd be interested in reading about it! Love you all! ~Wendy.

She's Sick & He's Off. . .

Will left about 5 minutes ago for his first official day of work. I almost took a picture but he was in quite a hurry so I refrained! I thought we were going to be done with being sick for awhile but it hit again Friday. Our poor, sweet Lilyanah has an awful cough & nearly constantly runny nose. I put a picture on here from around 11pm last night. The last two nights she's gone to sleep & woken herself up about 3 hours later coughing. Will took care of her on Saturday night, it was really cute actually. He took the humidifier out in the living room & set up a fort around the armoire where the tv is so Lilyanah could get the benefits of the humidifier & watch her favorite cartoon, Veggie Tales. Have I told you she sings a line of the chorus. . . When I say sing the words, I mean that somewhat loosely. Though the melody is definitely recognizable. Anyway, last night we ended up outside to try to ease her cough. Will & Lilyanah cuddled up on the hammock with a blanket under & a blanket over to try to keep warm. What's crazy is that in the post titled "That Guy" the picture of Will & Lilyanah was taken last fall/winter when she had a 'croup-y' cough. So, of course I had to take a picture of them this year too. Lilyanah looks like she was happy, but that wasn't the case the entire time. I think she just felt like she escaped sleep since she got to get up in the middle of the night! I cuddled with her & prayed over her for healing for awhile. Mom & I were talking yesterday about how little kiddos cuddle after they start to crawl & even less after they start to walk. Lilyanah likes cuddling when she's hurt, tired, sick, or uncomfortable in her surroundings. So, while Ethne still can't help but cuddle I'm going to enjoy every minute!
So, I've been meaning to get a picture of Ethne in this little outfit for awhile to post on this blog. It is my FAVORITE little sleeper that someone got for Lilyanah. It's from Baby Gap, is lined, has dolphins & fish for a pattern & has a matching little hat. A couple of days ago when I took that picture is the last time I'll try stuffing her little body into it! She's too long these days!!!! Have I said lately that our girls are growing up way too quickly!!!??? So, I'm wondering if any of you sweet people are the one who got Lilyanah the little sleeper that Ethne is wearing? I check out Baby Gap online a lot to see if they have any lined sleepers & haven't been able to find ANY! Anyway, there's one other subject I'm trying to do some detective work on that one of you may have a suggestion on.
I, with the help of my sweet mother-in-law, have begun a collection of Krinkles for Lilyanah, she gets a Krinkles ornament each year. . . I know I wrote about this last Christmas. Anyway, I'm trying to decide what to do for Ethne. So, I'm wondering if any of you have any suggestions? Well, it's time for me to sign off, I hope you all are having a wonderful Monday!. . . Can you believe it's suppose to hit 70 degrees tomorrow!!! YIPPEE! Love you all! ~Wendy.

Will's First Unofficial Day

Will's last day at his 'old' job was yesterday. We were suppose to have a couple of days off as his first official day at his new job is on Monday but my overachieving husband is on his way as I'm typing to Salem to attend some kind of regional meeting. It's a good opportunity for him to get to meet fellow workers & looks good for him to go in when he isn't required to. I can respect that, but selfishly I wish he was home spending a day with me & the girls. As it is, this instead will be my first time going to ladies Bible Class at church for awhile. And, child dependent, to go to ladies craft day again. Maybe I'll actually get something done, though doubtful since I'll have both the girls. Isn't it amazing how much time kiddos take? I'm not complaining, I am loving EVERY minute. It's going way too fast for my taste. Yesterday Lilyanah was 21 months old & in just 9 more days Ethne will hit 4 months!!!!!!
So, for the last couple of weeks my amazing, wonderful, sweet cousin Laura & I have been getting up at 5:15 am to get our exercising groove on. For the first week Ethne would wake up when I left & I'd come home 45 minutes later to my fabulous husband bouncing her trying to get her to go back to sleep. She's finally use to mommy leaving & will now stay asleep. It's nice, because I was starting to feel really bad that he was having to wake up so much earlier than he really needed to. I find that the hardest time to cope with getting up at 5 in the morning is ironically not in the morning but the night before when I'm drifting off to sleep at 11pm. I keep telling myself I've got to get to bed earlier but to no avail. This is sadly the first morning I haven't crawled back in bed to try to get some more sleep. Honestly I just waste an hour laying there trying to wind down & end up getting about a half hour before Lilyanah wakes up. I heard something on Oprah lately (yes, I'm an Oprah show fan), that has inspired me to shake up my life a bit. . . A lady who took much more extensive measures than I, said that she looked at her life & realized it didn't reflect who she was. Pretty profound I think, don't you? I realized that I could honestly say that exact same thing for the most part & that's not okay to me. I'm not gonna pack up & go to the other side of the world or anything (like she did), but will get up substantially earlier than usual & take some time to reacquaint myself with my Bible & our Lord, to take care of my spirit & body than so be it. And I have chosen all of you, my faithful friends & readers to help hold me accountable. You don't have to call me at 5 in the morning or anything, just letting you know about it is accountability to me.
I hear a little voice on the monitor & I'm pretty sure she isn't talking in her sleep so let me close by explaining a couple of the pictures. This past Tuesday we & the Kronewitter family had our first 'family night' together. Laura & I decided it was ridiculous that we live so close & get together with our kids so rarely. So, every Tuesday we're going to switch off houses & get together to let the girls play, have dinner & then go to the family story time at the local library. This Tuesday it was at our home & we spent so much time making the yummiest chicken nuggets EVER from scratch (from a recipe out of the Deceptively Delicious book by Jessica Seinfield) & decided not to stress to try to get to the library. Next week will prep better & get it all done. Anyway, I took some pictures to document the event. Lilyanah had a really hard time at first sharing things (DRAMA!) but as the night wore on she adjusted & had a great time playing with her cousin Violet especially. It was pretty much Lilyanah & Hazel following Violet around. . . Good times!!! The other picture which looks like Will was thinking "Wendy, I've got to get out the door, hurry up with the picture taking!!!" is of him about to walk out the door on his first unofficial day of work at Waste Connections. So, I want to leave you with a couple of questions. . . Does your life reflect you? Deep I know, but I think we need to get deep sometimes so we don't just go through the motions & lose ourselves in the process. You can get as detailed in your comment as you want, I always love reading about your lives in the comments & in your blogs for those of you who do that! I love you all!!! ~Wendy.