Hook. Line. And Sinker.

Oh my.

I don't even have the words to tell you just how hard I have fallen for this baby.

This is the look he gives me all day long.

.

{ Jack smiling his famous good morning Mommy smiles }

And it melts me.

Every. Single. Time.

Like. Nothing. Else

Can I just say that looks like his handsome Daddy, even though we can't quite put our finger on what it is exactly it is about him that does, especially when he has so many of my features ( chin, mouth, shape of eyes, etc. ) And I pray, oh I pray for him to grow up and have a heart like his Daddy. A Jesus loving heart. A heart that is strong and good. A heart that loves well. And the best ever grin.

{ he's a jolly good baby }

So far he has picked up these endearingly nick-names: Jack-Jack and Jacks and baby lover-boy, by Mommy mostly. Annabelle calls him baby brother and Wiggle Worm and all sorts of different things, most of them silly made up words, never the same thing twice, spoken in her own personal secret language. Daddy always asks, hows the little fellow, or refers to him as my buddy?

{ Jack, 1 month old }

He's growing faster than the weeds in our backyard. Tipping the scale at just under 14 lbs. And he's squishy and chunky and strong but not fat, just built. He seems tall to me. At least he is compared to Annabelle who was always more petite.

{this picture was taken in the middle of packing up our bedroom, around 5 weeks old }

He's quick to smile. And smile and smile... and he loves to talk. Loves to be sung. He laughed for the first time over the 4th of July weekend, while Anniebelle and I were singing this song " Oh the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the apple seed...the Lord is good to me..." in the car. He thought it was hilarious. Ever since then when he tries to laugh it gets caught in his throat with a " hhhheeeeeep" and he ends up with the hiccups.

{ This is his bewildered look, we get that a lot...as if he was saying, you guys are cuckoo.

Guilty as charged. }

The poor little guy has struggled with severe cases of the following:
baby acne
cradle cap ( the worst I have ever seen)
heat rash
Hates riding in the car
(he screams...eyes wide open, how could you do this to me sort of screams )
gets the saddest tummy ache attacks ( i.e. colic )
and appears to be teething
everything babies are prone to get
you name it, he's got it.
If any of you Moms know of any miracle cures out there for any or all of these things,
please do speak up.
But he sleeps like a dream at night. He loves his bed and from about 11 p.m. - 5:30 a.m.
We literally do not hear a peep.
So far.
We know better than to think it will always be this way.
If there is one thing, the wild world over that is subject to change,
it is a baby's sleeping patterns.
But for now I enjoying getting to be one of those terribly spoiled Mommy's
who gets plenty of sleep at night.

Annabelle has a hard time containing herself over him.
She the kind of personality that has to have her hands all over you...and squeals very loudly and
jumps up and down as a means of showing her affection. She is very enthusiastic in her loving. She actually shakes with giddiness over her brother. I don't blame her either. I know how she feels. And it's so sweet. Until of course he gets overwhelmed by her very animated attention and needs a break, poor baby. We are working with her on being gentle and quiet with him and trying to teach her how to be a little mother. But you can see it in her eyes, she loves him so much, she could just squeeze him. Which is why, bless her heart, we watch her every move.

{ Annabelle and Jack with and the line-up of friends we
were so blessed with, by some of you dear ones}

Oh and his hair turned red. I am still scratching my head over how that happened. But I love it.
And yes he really is as cheerful in real life as these pictures portray.

{ I adore him in the little Kangaroo outfit that the gorgeous KT made for him }


He is one bright eyed, wide eyed, alert, perky little boy. He has been since day one. Oh and his kisses are amazing...he loves to open his mouth wide when he knows a kiss is coming. Also, I love how his head bobs back and forth as he takes it all in from his perch in the baby bjorn, which he loves to ride in.

My darling baby son,

I cannot wait to watch the coming months and years unfold for you...and see you grow and discover and become...for now just know, you are your Mommy, Daddy's and Sister's absolute delight.

Kiss, kiss baby lover boy!

All my love always,
Mommy

Mostly a matter of perspective.

( Waterlilies picked from yesterdays trip to " Me-Ma's lake"


Or an alternative title this post might be: Blogging with a baby on your lap. (While his big sister runs in and out the door with a handful of baby carrots to feed the imaginary baby bunnies that live in our yard...she is wearing her pink ballet leotard and white church shoes with golden curls that match the bounce in her step. )

A very dear friend sent me a email yesterday asking me, hows your summer going? Hows your heart doing? I adore her for that because she sees beyond the day to day, " Hi how are you, " that is asked without a pause taken to hear the reply. She notice's peoples hearts. She intentionally looks beyond the surface, not that she wouldn't be the first to notice a cute pair of earrings, just that she wouldn't stop there...that she would keep going... down deeper, and peer into your very heart. I long to grow in the habit of caring for others hearts. Especially the hearts of my husband, daughter, son, my family and my friends.

Also, I have been thinking a lot about the future and how it is built one day at a time and about how the future that I am looking into now, my children will look back on someday as their past, and how these days are so quickly turning into the years that make up their childhood. I ran across a quote yesterday that stopped me in my tracks and made me do some serious thinking. It's one very simple and yet profound sentence that struck a deep chord, and I have asked that the Lord would use it's truth in my life because more than anything in the world I the rhythm of my heart to beat in unison with His . And lately it feels like I am being reminded daily just how much of life has to do with perspective. That " What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”— John Lubbock. That the out come of a day, or a life, has so much to do with how we chose to perceive it. That you can see deep, unparalleled joy in the weak smile of the nine year old leukemia patient, who despite all she suffers sees each new day as a gift and lives with gratitude and appreciation...or you can hear the hollow misery in the voice of the woman with the flawlessly beautiful face, complete with designer car/bag/clothing/shoes/who has everything she could ever want, materially speaking and yet her life is frighteningly empty and she is obviously unhappy.

I wonder what would happen, if you were able to take two people, with similar temperaments and personalities and make their circumstances and environment identical...I am guessing that after such a experiment those two individuals could come up with very different views on the quality of their experience and whether it was positive or negative. So much hinges on perspective. That's why I want learn how to value what is lovely and good true... things like, cheerfulness, and humility, and patience, unselfishness, hospitality, kindness. Because I so desperately want Annabelle to be able to look back and on these days that are her childhood and be able to say...we might not have had the latest or best of anything , but that never kept us from being happy,and there was one thing we did have in abundance, the love of Jesus.

{ Warning }

{ David was so thoughtful to bring me these flowers from the yard of our Spokane house... }

We are back online.
With some heavy duty picture posts to come.
So far our connection is hit and miss so it could take me a while to get posts up.
But I have so much I cannot wait to tell you about our summer so far.
And you won't believe how much Jack has grown.

For now here is a little sneak peek preview of this seriously darling little duo.

{ Fun things to do at Poppy and Nana's House }

For instantce, you could climb the ladder with Poppy to pick cherries out of tree.

Sample Cherries.

Help Poppy pop out the pits with the cherry pitting machine.

Eat cherries till your face turns purple.

Or you could spend hour after delightful hour playing dress up

and pretend with your cousin. The two of you girls had so much

fun together are a very sweet and at times rather dramatic twosome.

You could enjoy the sights and sounds of Nana's bird house village, as the swallows and wrens swoop and sing, and the humming birds zip back and forth and butterflies gracefully flit from one pretty petal to another.

Or you could gobble up handful after handful of Nana's better than candy, sugar snap peas.

You could not quite resist the temptation to pick and bring pretty flowers to Mommy. Every 3 minutes.

You could go to town with poppy and get a popsicle and a lollipop all in the same outing.

You could jump on the trampoline and squeal with glee while Poppy sprays you with the hose.

You could be graced with the honor of getting to taste the very first cherry tomato of the summer.

You could help Mommy help Nana plant a border of cosmos.

You could sit on Nana's lap and let her read the books to you that she used to read to your Mommy and your Uncle Nate when they were your age.

You could come inside and watch Mr. Rogers on T.V. during the afternoon, instead of having "nap time"

You could spend time together with me in the attic bedroom, the one I used to call my own, thw one with the walls that are covered with pink roses and blue swirly ribbons, pouring over the trinkets and treasures of my childhood.

You could miss your Daddy and ask a dozen times a day when he was coming to see us.

You could watch as Nana helps your Mommy sew you your very first piece of clothing, a red and white polka-dot skirt, with blue ric rac, for the 4th of July.

You could consume the half a dozen lemonade popsicles that Nana made just for you.

You could run around all day in nothing but your swim-suit. Or just nothing.

You could participate in all the flirting sessions one has when one has ones very own irresistibly cute, smiley faced baby brother.

You could smile and laugh and giggle as you run around the yard in bare feet and golden curly pig tails and be a pure delight those around you. How I love getting to relive these wonder filled, care-free summer days through the sparkling eyes of a three year old. As my Dad turns to me and says with feeling, " and just a few short years ago, that was you."

{ a slice of sweet conversation }

Mommy ( to Annabelle) : Hey Sug. ? ( short for sugar)
Annabelle : Yeah, Mommy?
Mommy: Who loves us the most?
Annabelle : Daddy.
Mommy (Smiling) : Yes Daddy. And who loves us even more than Daddy?
Annabelle ( without hesitation ): Oh Mommy, Jesus does.

That's right, Sugar. That's right.

{ For Whom The Bell Tolls }

I sat on the floor, in the corner of our living room, observing the empty space and the eerie way my voice bounced off the walls in an echo when I called out to my husband. In the mad rush that was filling and loading all our earthly belongings into boxes and the miles of bubble wrap and packaging tape that come with such a ritual, my little five week old son let it be known that just because we'd forgotten about our dinner, he had not forgotten about getting his. So I scooped him up in my arms and settled with him down on the floor, the flurry of moving day put on pause for a little bit, and then it all began to hit me. I could hear myself think and it scared me because I dreaded the deep surge of emotion that I had tried so hard to bury in box after box being loaded onto the U Haul, to be moved over the mountains, and across the state to a new home.

Then the bells from the Catholic Church adjoining the back corner of our yard began to ring out, their last call for Saturday night mass. As I sat there I thought about how much I'd grown to love those bells over the last five years of my life and remembered how I would always stop whatever I was doing to listen to their happy sound whenever they would ring, and I thought about how much I was going to miss those moments of peaceful reflection. Those bells expressed so well all my feelings toward this home sweet home we were about to leave...they summed up almost six years of memories made...hours of accumulated laughter, some tears, the birth of both our children and many beautiful milestones, great and small, along with the millions of just regular, ordinary sort of moments that make up life.
And as I listened to the familiar dong....dong...dong...the tears that had been pooling up in my eyes spilled out over my cheeks, as I felt an overwhelming pang of sadness knowing that I was hearing those bells for the last time.

The next morning as I stared out the car door window, familiarizing myself with the streets and houses around my future home, half pinching myself inside as we pulled up in front of the towering blue, circa 1909 house that we'll someday call home, half terrified at the task that lay ahead in making this house a home, I stepped out to the car, with a hopeful heart. It was then that I realized I was I hearing bells. Lood and clear, these glorious bells rang out around me. Goose bumps popped up all over my arms as, awestruck, I whispered my thanks to Him. In that moment I felt seen and known and loved as I listened to the bells ring in a new season as they had rung out an old,  His faithful love stunning me afresh.

But isn't that just like Jesus to send us little reassurances, like that.




P.S. - I cannot tell you how glad I am to have a blog full of memories to look back on, of the years we spent in our first home. It's one of greatest blessings of keeping a blog. That, and having the love and support and encouragement of each of you.

{ finding our rhythmn }

We are all settled in to the sweet little cottage. It's been a crazy full week with unpacking and setting up our life here, including evenings out, friends over, and the bridal shower of one of my dearest ever childhood friends that I got to decorate for and attend this weekend.
Go, go, go and rush, rush, rush, has been the rhythm of our life. But I am
looking forward to the rest of the summer, to a little slower pace of life as we are tucked away in our little one bedroom cottage without phone, internet, a debit card ( which I have handed in, as we have made the switch to a cash only budget this summer, in the hope that it helps with saving money) or even an oven to cook on. I am enjoying my little one burner hot plate and a toaster oven and I am going to attempt baking potatoes in it for dinner tonight. Starting yesterday I am being more intential about how I spend my days...incuding reading more, to Annabelle and in general. ( This book being our favorites of the week), taking longer walks, spending quiet moments alone with Jesus and my bible at the kitchen table in the mornings, devoting my days entirely to my children and to playing out in these sunny summer days. To spending our evenings just being together, taking long walks and have lengthy conversations, and cuddle sessions, and soaking up every single moment, so many of which are magical with our beautiful growing children. To seeing this particular chapter in our life as more than just a transition period or temporary, and not missing the sweetness each day holds...

I should be packing...

Instead of blogging. Especially while the kids are both fast asleep for the night.
But I ran out of boxes. And rubbermaids.
So here I sit, munching away on a dark chocolate bar that I just uncovered in the bottom of my dresser drawer and had stashed away weeks ago, compliments of my very own personal postpartum chocolate fairy -
You know who you are...And hopefully you know as well, how very much I adore you. For many, many reasons, in addition to the steady supply of chocolate of course.

To put it mildly, life is a wild and crazy topsy-turvy tangle of boxes and babies and lists and houses...such as the one we are leaving, in 5 days, the one we are moving into ( more on that in a minute ) and the one we bought on the other side of the mountains and are renovating...David and I are feeling excited and encouraged, a little bit exhausted and a whole lot loved and taken care of. We have had an incredible amount of support, prayer, and help and once again find ourselves overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God in meeting our needs. Two days ago, at this time, we had no idea where we would be moving after our house closed. We were starting to feel the pressure, as we have only 5 days left to be here. I was working on finding a short term rental for the next three months, while David finishes up work over here and while we work on getting our new house livable over there. Yesterday afternoon I probably called over thirty different apartment complexes, desperate to find something, anything...and I begin to notice this trend: if ( and it's a big IF )they offer a short term lease at all, the price is always higher ( a lot higher ), because it is so temporary. And then we got our hopes up when we thought this lady was going to rent us her teeny tiny cottage, but that fell through because she found someone who wanted to lease it for longer than we did. All of that yesterday, and getting no where...totally back to square one.
An hour and a miracle later, we are handed the sweetest, beyond our wildest imagination gift, the invitation to stay for the next couple months in the little place we lived in after we were married, which we've always called, the honeymoon cottage...a place and time in our lives that we hold the happiest memories of. David just happened to be driving by there after work, to see if maybe the cottage might just happen to be empty and if so, the owners just might happen to be open to letting us rent it for a couple months from them...they just happened to agree, and then happened to give us a killer good deal on rent, all of which just happened to be God's answer to our prayers. We couldn't stop grinning last night, and truly cannot tell you how thankful we are to know we will have a roof over our heads, after we leave here. Add to that the sweetness of getting to go back to our very first little love nest, that was and still is so dear to our hearts. I told David last night, if we ever and I mean ever doubt God's faithfulness, from here on out, I hope he gives us a good, swift kick in the rear.
Without fail. Every. Single. Day. He supplies our needs.
And we hold countless proofs of His love.
Of His perfect love.

" What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a stone."

- Jesus ( Luke 11:11 )

" All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. "

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

{ well worth your time }

This uplifted me yesterday. So I have to share. I walked out of church, with tears running down my cheeks, asking Jesus to renew and expand my love for Him...I don't want a day to pass by that I am not growing deeper and being changed by the joy of knowing Him.

( oh and don't forget to pause project playlist first )

{ Celebrating You }

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

Happy 30th Birthday David, from the girl who like the song says...loves you more than she has ever found a way to say to you.

( Remembering May 17th, 2003 )

It didn't take more than a couple minutes of quiet observation to decide that this cute blonde guy, with the killer smile was 100% crush-worthy. And in the following weeks after rubbing shoulders with him and his family a little more, and hearing his Mom and sisters absolutely rave about him, I realized he was more than crush material. I watched him fill the role of the man of the house, as the oldest boy of 11 kids after his Dad lost the use of his arms to ALS. He was this amazing 18 year old guy with stellar character. The kind of guy you can totally picture being the father of your children. I am not sure how it is that we girls can go from having a crush on a guy one minute, to seeing him as the potential father of our children the next ? One of life's great mysteries, I guess.
So I was a girl in-love with a boy, a common, everyday sort of occurrence I know, but he was the guy who I measured all other men by, a hero of a man, my hero. Secretly. I said nothing about this to anyone, except for my parents and eventually a couple of my closest girlfriends. It took him a little longer to catch on. Lets say, four years. But in God's perfect timing, and after four years of hoping, wishing, agonizing and I do mean agonizing. After four years of praying for him and waiting, he noticed me. And we became really good friends. Over the summer we had some really meaningful heart to heart talks and shared some very sweet moments. He called me late the night on my birthday and was I ever surprised to realized the guy on the other line was not infact my brother. Not long after that, he called to ask my Dad if it was okay to call me on the phone. My Dad pretty much put him on the spot and said, hey, I am not going to risk my daughters heart at your expense so you better think this through and if your serious then you can absolutely call her... I overheard my Dad's end of that conversation and was crushed, thinking that after a talk like that he would certainly be scared away and that would be the end of our friendship. Looking back I am so thankful my Dad stood up for me like that and basically got the ball rolling by challenging him to man up and figure out where exactly he was at with us. A couple weeks and 20 minutes later, after totally beating around the bush in another phone conversation he very nervously said to me " I'd like to get to know you better, if that's alright with you? " I am sure he could hear my heart racing when I replied " Yes, I'd like that."
Just over a month later David asked me to marry him. I was over the moon. And literally unable to come back down to earth in the months following, leading up to our wedding.

I don't think I will ever get over my amazement of how God can take two people right where they are, as long as their hearts are turned toward Him, mistakes and all and in His good grace, redeems their lives and together turns their story into something better than a fairytale.

Being married to David, I would have to say is my personal definition of heaven on earth and still even after, no especially after 6 years, even though life and children often come before romance, life with you continues to be a truly, goose-bump inducing experience.

I am so thankful that I didn't fall in love with anyone short of a man who has a heart after God and is willing to on a daily basis puts the needs of others before his own. Every day, since I felt the first tinge of butterflies for him at age sixteen, I have told myself...he should be too good to be true. This should be too good to be true. All of it.

But the impossible happened.

Happy Anniversary, Babe. Thank you for the last six amazing years. I am so excited for the next six, no sixty . I love you.

"Come grow old along with me,

the best is yet to be. "

Robert Browning

{ Project: Redeem-a-Home }

So we bought a house over the weekend.

A house that was being auctioned off, just inside the courthouse steps...

While I sat in the car with the kids praying so hard for God's will in all of it, remembering how I had told David an hour before something to the effect of " I want this house..." then later thinking it through and getting scared, not having been able to walk through it, and realizing how dangerous it could be for me to want something that might not be God's best. Asking that He would please control and bless the outcome.

All David had to say is: " one dollar more." and it was ours.

I will never forget the phone call from him, the one where he said, " well, I bought you a house." Both of us sweating, shaking grinning and in shock.

I squeal and hurt his ears I am sure, when he told me the amount he had to pay and how it was so much less than we thought we might have to give for it.

We were flying high. And so beyond thankful.

The next day we drove up to the house with nervous excitement to see it for the very first time. Our hearts took a dive after seeing the condition it was in.

It was worse than we had hoped.

There was an air of devastation about the house, as we surveyed the sad remnants of the lives that had been there before us.

I cannot begin to describe either the condition the previous owners left the house in or the amount of stuff they left behind.

It was overwhelming .

We began to doubt ourselves and wondered if we had made a huge mistake.

Until we prayed over this house asking that the Lord would cleanse it and fill it with His presence.

Then we started envisioning what it could be...and began to see it finished instead of it's current state of desolation .

Sure it's going to be a lot, a lot of work but we are young and strong and able.

And it's going to make the process all that more rewarding in the end.

The positives started stacking up fast:

We are 3 1/2 instead of 7 hours away from our families, 1 1/2 instead of 5 1/2 hours away from our best friends and only 15 min from this precious friend's door step.

We met and already know that we like the next door neighbors...and they were so encouraging.

There are three gorgeous parks within walking distance of our house...

I have always wanted to live in a neighborhood where the houses were old and restored.

We are now going to have room for more family and friends and there is nothing I love more than having people in our home and the promise of laughter filled rooms, and cooking up dinner for them. My philosophy is " the more the merrier. " Praying so hard that Jesus love will be felt within the walls of our home.

So every day our excitement grows.

re·demp·tion - n.

1. The act of redeeming or the condition of having been redeemed.

2. Recovery of something pawned or mortgaged.

3. Deliverance upon payment of ransom; rescue.

4. Christianity Salvation from sin through Jesus's sacrifice.

And that, dear ones is what Project Redeem-a-Home is all about.

{ down pour }

The days are going by painfully fast.

Jack will be two entire weeks old tomorrow.

If only there was a button I could push that would allow the the days go by in slow motion.

He is already growing like a little weed, has a ferocious little appetite and weighed in the other night at 9 lbs 3 oz.

I was surprised and blessed beyond words by the little shower that a bunch of you dear blogging ladies threw for me. Can't begin to tell you how cared for and cherished all your precious words and amazing handmade gifts left us feeling. Gosh, but you ladies are good at loving.

Oh and we sold our house.

That was no small miracle let me tell you.

Signed on it last Friday, just minutes before we left out the door for David's brother's wedding in ID. which was beautiful, and wonderful and oh so amazing that we were able to be there.

The inspection was yesterday and everything checked out great.

We are going this afternoon to start our house hunt.

Our closing date is June 9 th, barely over three weeks from now.

Our heads are spinning and hearts are overwhelmed by God's unfailing faithfulness.

So much more to tell you but that will have to wait.

For now, just know that we are drenched in the love and goodness of God.

And even though we have no idea where all this is going, we are holding on for dear life to the only One who does. Praying each one of you are experiencing a similar down pour of grace in your beautiful lives.

peas porridge in the pot...

six. days. old.

Spending our days snuggling and cuddling and flirting, and falling a little, okay a lot more in love with him each day...thanks to David's angel of a sister Deborah, who came from ID this week to take care of us, watch Anniebelle's and make sure Jack and I were all rested up for the big trip this weekend to Daniel ( David's brother ) and Anna's wedding. Which is a small dream come true, compared to the one that I am holding in my arms. But still... a lot of people have worked and hoped and loved and prayed us through the last couple weeks. David and I don't know how we could have done it with out. Well maybe we could have but if we had, I am pretty sure it would have been, minus all this bliss.

My heart is full to bursting.

" I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,the praises of the Lord,according to all that the Lord has granted us,and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion,according to the abundance of his steadfast love." - Isaiah 63:7

{ overflowing }

Look at the precious little thing we found in our May Day basket this year.

( pause project playlist before hitting play )

Our very own sweet little bundle of boy:

Jack Dawson

Born May 1st, 2009, 2:21 p.m.

weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 oz.

and 21 inches long

And my word, is he ever sweet!

{ just a few more }

( I extra heart any of the ones that include David's smile )

Note to the Photographer:

Leslie,

Words fail in an attempt to express just how much these pictures mean to me.

Taken in our very first home, with our very first baby.

So much is about to change, forever and for the better.

I am so glad and grateful we have these snapshots to document this sweet, sweet season of life.

Do you how much they mean to me, or how much I cherish, every single one one of them?

It's all I can do to keep from running to Target right now and buying up a frame for each one of them to hang up in every room of our house.

Thank you and I love you.

Chelle

( And one last picture as I try to treasure these last few days of my sweet little Jack being so snuggly and safe, tucked away inside..knowing we won't be a package deal for much longer now. )