Happy Birthday Zoe Lynnae!!!

1 year ago at 9:19am, you came into the world & changed our lives forever! We were so excited to hear the words, "It's a Girl!". You are truly a little blessing! You were 7lbs 8oz and 20 inches long. We will see tomorrow at your appointment how big you are at 1 year!

Today....a year ago...

I went in for my 40 week appointment...2 cm dilated...not much happening. Dr stretched my cervix. I had contractions off and on all afternoon, but nothing consistent. We went to friend's house for birthday cake & went for a country drive to watch the wheat harvest. It was during the drive at 8:30pm that I finally started timing contractions...Daddy brought up names again...made one last plug for Zoe as the girl's name & I gave in.

I made Aaron take a picture before he went to bed...because I was pretty sure it was going to be my last night pregnant. Lordy Pete, I look huge.

Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Zoe's 1st birthday on Father's Day.

The invitation

The birthday girl


She didn't really get into the opening presents thing, although she would pull on the paper a little bit with some help. She got a lot of fun girly toys :)


She enjoyed the frosting on her cake, but didn't dive in like her brothers did with their first birthday cake. The little lady didn't take a very good nap, so she was a bit on the tired side.




The cousins on the Gisselbeck side had their first picture taken all together :)

Crazy Sleepers

Brecken has been creeping into our room almost nightly & sleeping on our floor for the past few months. I used to think it was because he woke up scared, but I'm pretty sure I know the reason. Leighton is atrocious to sleep with. He's all over the bed & in a different position about every hour.

And yes, our boys sleep on the pull out couch...you do what works at the moment & with only 2 bedrooms...everyone sleeps better this way :)

Berklee Lu

Josh, Kwalonn & Reese welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world on June 11th. Berklee Lu weighed 8lbs & was 21" long. We are so happy she's here!

We're going to miss her!

These past 3 weeks have been tough for our family.

My Grandma Lulu went to the ICU on May 24th with pneumonia in both lungs. Due to further complications, she went to be with our Lord on June 7th. We held a beautiful memorial service on June 10th.

She was a wonderful woman & role model for our family. She was a true example of love & you knew that at first glance when you saw her with my Grandpa Jack. She loved her children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren with everything she had & she will be missed greatly by us all.

She & my Grandpa met when they were 13 years old, married when they were 19 & had been married for 62 1/2 years.

Grandpa Jack & Grandma Lulu - on their wedding day.


Dancing at my cousin's wedding November 2008.

Weekend Recap

We celebrated Leighton's birthday on Saturday with Aaron's family. It was pretty low-key, minus the part when we were singing Happy Birthday to Leighton & he leaned down & caught his hair on fire. Thank goodness daddy reacted quickly...

Birthday boy with his cake


New red cowboy boots

The tradition of 'butter' on his nose, so he'll slide through another year

Happy Birthday Leighton!

Happy birthday to my curly haired, brown-eyed, sweet boy! It was a wild & crazy May for us 3 years ago. We moved on May 19th, spent a week unpacking & you decided to arrive 6 days early on May 29th (the day your daddy was supposed to report for his first day of work).

You make us laugh, love to snuggle & are not afraid to give us your opinion. You love to help mommy cook, daddy at the farm & your brother with whatever project he recruits you for. You love on your baby sister a little more than she would like - maybe in an attempt to make her tough? :) Love you sweet boy!

You are 32 lbs (50th percentile) and 41" tall (>95th percentile).

Brecken & Leighton (a couple days old)

11 Months!

At 11 months you:
*Went swimming for the first time :) Thank you Nonny & Poppa for a heated pool!
*Have 4 teeth.
*Scoot everywhere.
*Are still in size 2 diapers.
*Are starting to get some curls.
*Are becoming a social butterfly.
*Are a tough girl. You can thank your brothers, especially Leighton, for that.
*Are super sweet! Love you baby girl!!!
*Are pulling up. You pulled up the evening of my last post (when I said you couldn't - you proved me wrong)

In her own time...

I'm thankful that Zoe is not as quick to do things as her brothers were.

At 11 months, Brecken had been walking for a month.


At 11 months, Leighton was climbing on everything.

At almost 11 months, Zoe is still trying to find things that are low enough to pull up on! The couch is still too high for her to reach...

She discovered the tub is low enough, but the metal hurts her hands, so she can't hold on for long.


It won't be long & I'm sure she'll be walking, climbing & running right along with them. But for now, I'm good with her method of scooting around :)

Creative Mind...

After dinner one evening, Brecken went outside to play. Aaron looked outside & saw Brecken doing this.

Inspired

Two of my new favorite blogs to waste spend time looking at are, Remodelaholic & Knock-Off Wood. Since they have actually inspired me to do a few things, I won't say they are a complete 'waste' of time ;)

Remodelaholic shows all kinds of before & after pictures of various remodeling projects. It's so fun to see the before & after pictures! We are currently renting a home & one of the closet set ups was NOT working for Aaron at all. He had to contort himself to pick out his clothes every morning. Anywho - I got a wild hair last week to redo it and luckily our 'landlords' are ok with our improvements :)

I tore everything out without taking a decent before picture, so this one from a couple years ago will have to do. Reese & Leighton did a number on the closet, making it even less appealing. There were 2 poles along the left side that were not very handy. On the right side, was the shelf on the bottom that stuck out a foot & one right at head level that stuck out a foot - making it VERY hard to put away & take out clothes.

Here's the closet after my 'deconstruction'.

After a fresh coat of paint, new shelves and my new design, here's the finished closet!


This is our project in the works from the Knock-Off Wood website. It's taking awhile to finish - having a hard time finding some decent blocks of time to tackle it, but it's started...and hopefully will be finished sometime next month!

Swagger Wagon

I may not have a Toyota Sienna...but I think the 'Swagger Wagon' applies to all mini vans...love this video :)

Fun Weekend!

What a fun Mother's Day weekend we had! We got a lot of work done & played a lot too!

We transplanted 2 more trees to our farm & are excited that all but 2 that we moved last year survived!

We went to a surprise birthday party in the park & the kids enjoyed running off some energy.

Aaron and I stayed up late and watched a movie all three nights. We haven't done that forever!

Sunday involved church, where the kids each got to pick out a flower for me, followed by a yummy dinner at mom & dad's. We spent the whole afternoon at the farm, watering trees, tending to the garden & enjoying the outdoors. We came home, went for a walk, played at the park & had popcorn for supper while we watched a movie.

Before bedtime, I was talking to the boys about our day & asking them about their favorite thing we did (this has become a fun thing to do). Leighton had already fallen asleep, so I didn't get to hear his favorite thing. I wasn't sure what Brecken would say, considering we did a LOT of fun things! He said, "Picking out a pretty flower for you".

Personality

Zoe's really developing her little personality. She is starting to chatter non-stop, laugh & get into everything!

Love & War

Aaron & I have been fans of authors, John & Stasi Eldredge, for a long time. John's book, Wild at Heart, has given us (especially me) a lot of insight into the hearts & minds of men (and little boys). Aaron read the book several times before we had children & said that it would be a great book for me to read if we had a son, and it has been!

I was really excited when Stasi came out with a book especially for women, called Captivating. Now that we have a daughter, it will be a good for Aaron to read for some insight into girls & women :)

The Eldredges recently co-wrote a book called, Love & War. I excitedly pre-ordered the book, and as soon as it came in, my husband snatched it up & started reading it. I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but am very anxious to. Aaron speaks highly of it!



Here's how John & Stasi describe the book!

John and Stasi's new book, Love and War: Finding the Marriage You've Dreamed Of does for couples what Captivating did for women and Wild at Heart did for men. With refreshing openness that will grab readers from the first page, the Eldredges candidly discuss their own marriage and the insights they've gained from the challenges they have faced. Each talks independently to the reader about what they've learned , giving their guidance personal immediacy and a balance between the male and female perspectives that has been absent from all previous books on this topic.

John and Stasi begin Love & War with an obvious but necessary acknowledgement: Marriage is fabulously hard. They believe we need to get past the shame and confusion surrounding the undertaking of marriage before we can truly deal with our day-to-day situations.

Love & War shows couples how to fight for their love and happiness, calling on both men and women to step into the great adventure God has waiting for them together. Walking alongside John and Stasi Eldredge, every couple can discover how their journey together is growing into a story of meaning much greater than anything they could do or be on their own.

If you haven't read one of their books, pick one up! You won't be disappointed!!!

10 Months!

*You are almost completely weaned & taking the bottle like a pro.
*You eat mainly table food.
*You are very fast with your method of scooting across the floor.
*You say dada, except when daddy is around. You just smirk at him when we try to get you to say it.
*You put EVERYTHING in your mouth. I have found legos, rocks, paper & grass.
*You are right at 14 lbs.
*You love being outside.
*You do the signs for milk, more & all done.
*You have one tooth.

You are such a little blessing & a lot of fun for our family! Your brothers love you to pieces & want to carry you everywhere. I think we may want to buy you a helmet!

Girl's Weekend.

A couple weeks ago, I spent a girls weekend with my college roommates. It was so much fun to get away & catch up! We met for lunch, shopped, went for walk, had dinner, chilled in the hot-tub, rented a movie & did a lot of chatting! It had been about 8 years since we had all been together. We decided that we need to do this yearly!

Easter Weekend

What a fun Easter weekend we had! We spent a long weekend with Aaron's family. The kids enjoyed dying eggs together. We spent a lot of time outside because the weather was so nice!

Here's one of Zoe's 'signature' looks.

My attempts at getting a picture of all 3 kids on Easter Sunday before church were interesting...