count it all joy…

Greetings friends.

Let me just tell you how blessed I am at this very moment...  All my kids are occupied by their daddy and Papa, my mother-in-law has dinner in the oven and dishes being washed, my itty-bitty is healthy and home, and I have a few brief moments to capture some thoughts and share them with you.  Amazing!

In case you didn’t know, Daniel had hernia repair surgery yesterday afternoon.  We noticed on Wednesday that he was a very unhappy camper, which was unusual for him.  He was very inconsolable and wouldn’t nurse.  The next morning, I called for an appointment as soon as the office opened, and they were able to squeeze me in an hour later.  The doctor we saw told me to get him to the ER right away because she thought the problem was an incarcerated (stuck) hernia and if that was the case, they would need to perform surgery quickly to correct it.  Well, you can just about imagine my response. I managed to hold it together until I left the office, and as I was calling my sister to ask if I could drop the kids off, I’m absolutely sure I was very incoherent, attempting as I was to speak through the sobs and tears. 

Thank the Lord for a mom who will pray for you over the phone, because after I spoke with her, right as I was pulling up at my home, I began to feel much more calm and collected and think clearly about the situation. 

After a relatively brief ER visit to Children’s Hospital in Seattle (such a great hospital, we highly recommend it), we were informed that Mr. Daniel would need repair surgery in the next couple of days, as the surgeon was able to un-incarcerate (de-carcerate? unstick? clearly I’m not part of the medical world) the hernia.  We were reassured by many surgeons and doctors that this was a pretty simple and common surgery.  Ok, cool, but still, my 21 day old baby was going under the knife!

What was great about having a day in between the crisis and surgery, was that the Lord spoke to me through His word about our trial. 

count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience (james 1:2)

be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (philippians 4:6-7) (this was the verse i kept going back to over and over again)

cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 peter 5:7)

and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (romans 8:28)

i know, o Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps (jeremiah 10:23)

It’s really something to sit back and reflect on God’s promises to us from His word.  It’s a great relief actually to realize and remember that trials are to be expected.  They are given to us to strengthen our faith, increase patience, and rely ever more on the Lord.  As I was thinking about how God is sovereign over every single detail of our lives, it caused me to be thankful all the more for little Daniel and the short time we’ve had with him, no matter the outcome of the surgery. 

As Ryan and I were sitting and waiting during the surgery, a family was paged over the intercom to report to neurosurgery.  That’s when it hit us that, yes, our little tiny baby was in surgery at that precise moment, but look at what others are enduring too!  Somewhere in the hospital was a family with a child undergoing brain surgery.  A little perspective goes a long way.

So here we are.  Back home again.  The Lord saw fit to spare Daniel and allow us to continue to raise him and give him all the love and snuggles we can for however long we have him.  That is truly something to be thankful about.

For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds (Psalm 57:10).

Diary of a 4th…

Dear readers of mom’s blog:

My parents love me, they tell me that all the time, but the photo evidence is severely lacking.  Could you please ask them to step it up and document my existence?  Now that that’s out of the way, here are a few of the pictures they have taken.

First of all, my birth day was very memorable for my family, for reasons other than the obvious.  It was very cold that day and hailed around lunch time.  The hail stuck for hours and looked like snow out in the fields; it was so beautiful, or so I’m told.

So anyway, things here are good.  On my second day home I was initiated into siblinghood by Aubrey.  She was “showing” me a Thomas train and bashed me in the head with it.  I got a little scrape, but nothing serious.  Mom wanted to take a picture of it, but, well, she didn’t. 

My brothers and sister love me like crazy.  Sometimes a little too crazy, but I think I like it.  Warren wants to hold me lots, and Aubrey is always kissing me.  Jake is a great big brother and brings mom diapers and things all the time.  It’s very helpful for her.

 (All bundled up, ready to go home!)

(See? all. the. time. That’s how much Warren wants to hold me!)

(Snoozin’ after a long hard day)

These next ones are some of mom’s favorites ever.  Aubrey is so thrilled with me, and these pictures show that. 

How cute is that?! 

Mom and dad have a bouncy chair for me, which I kinda like, but Aubrey thinks it’s for her.  Since she’s still so little, she meets the weight requirement and mom lets her play in it.  I think I’ll need it more when I’m a little older, so for now I’ll just let her play with it.

And this last picture is for Grammy.  Grammy sent my brothers and sister some presents and this one of Aubrey is how they all felt about what she sent.  Pure happiness and excitement!!  Thanks Grammy!  I love my new sleepers too!

Ok everyone, almost time to eat.  Again.  Hope you all are well, hope to meet you soon.  Mom said she’s not promising anything concerning the blog, as life is just a tad busier now, but she’ll try.  Love to all!

He’s Here!

After an unexpectedly long labor, Daniel Ryan made it!  He was born last night at 11:30 p.m. and was our 2nd heaviest baby at 7 lbs 7 oz, and a short little guy measuring 18.5”.  He’s completely healthy and right now as I type is in the very capable hands of his big brother Jake.  We thank the Lord for another beautiful addition to our family. 

And what you’ve been waiting for…

First bath by Nurse Judy.  She was awesome.

The boys are so thrilled with their little brother!  We are set to go home this afternoon, something I’m very happy about!  I’ll post more as soon as I can, but don’t hold your breath…you know how it is. :)

Bye!

life lessons from the week

~on sampling grapes from your yard:

ALWAYS take a teeny-tiny bite before you’re sure it won’t be the most bitter thing you’ve ever tasted.

 

~on awesome hair-dos:

ALWAYS take a picture.  Or a lot.

 

~on letting your baby help you wrap a gift:

Just do it.  Even if it’s messier and more time consuming.

 

~on playing the saxophone:

ALWAYS encourage proper technique.

 

~on making birthday goodies for a certain now 30 husband:

ALWAYS go the extra mile and make homemade chocolate cupcakes with chocolate marshmallow-frosting and Snickers and Big Hunks on top.  He will love you more than he did yesterday.  (or is that “he will love more of you than yesterday because you gained 3.5 pounds from eating batter and marshmallows”? No, that’s just baby weight.)  And your boys will have way more fun making them than if they came from a box.  You will also giggle a lot on the floor of the kitchen with said boys while licking the remaining frosting out of the bowl.

 

~on living a half-mile from an alpaca farm:

ALWAYS go when they have open farm days.  Especially when they have a 2 hour old baby alpaca.

 

(This gal and I had lots in common…she was about to deliver any day now)

Chicky Babe

We’re quickly coming to realize that Aubrey is the embodiment of a girly girl.  She is the “exact representation” (to borrow a phrase from an ancient) of a typical girl.  She gabs incessantly, likes her accessories, always wants to wear her tutu, and is beginning to care about what clothes she wears!  If she’s anywhere near her dresser when I’m picking out her clothes for the day, she’ll root through until she finds something she likes and HAS to wear.  What a diva.  She also has a very favorite pair of jammies (pink with big green frogs) that she would wear every night if possible. 

Her brothers balance her out somewhat though.  She does enjoy playing with their cars and guns.  Which is a good thing because I’m not sure we could handle a total Miss Priss. 

Here are some shots of the lass in her girly glory.

 (She likes her hats, even if they are her brother’s camo ones)

 (Headbands are a favorite…on, off, on, off…looks more like a sweatband here though.)

(And the tutu of course.  She was kicking that ball around the house in the tutu.)

(Now this isn’t a girly girl picture, but can’t you just hear Grandpa saying, “That’s my girl!”?  And yes, she does make the shooting sounds.)

And for good measure, I’ll throw some boys in this post too.

How cute are they?

These Feet Were Made For Walking

Now I am under no delusions that you all want to see a video of Aubrey walking and the boys playing, so don’t feel bad for not viewing it!  This is mostly for the Grandmas and family members that we don’t see often. 

Enjoy (or not)!

Blueberry Streusel Masterpieces

Every so often, someone from church will stop by the church office with some goodies for the pastors, and last week we got some freshly picked blueberries—tons of them!  I made some muffins for my sister, and after that barely made a dent into the berry stash, found a recipe for Blueberry Streusel muffins out of my Southern Living Cookbook.  I’m kind of on a muffin kick lately and these are definitely the best that I’ve had in a long time! 

Looks yummy, no?  With a hint of lemon, these berry packed muffins were so delicious piping hot out of the oven.  It also used up most of the rest of the blueberries.  

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I finally got in to the doctor to begin regular prenatal visits again.  I found a great midwife group at a local hospital.  I will deliver at the hospital with the midwife on call meeting me there.  I only have 9 weeks left…where has the time gone? 

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I’ll leave you with some oldies that never got posted.  These were taken this summer at my parent’s house when Aubrey was learning how to push the walker toy.  This is her excited face, and you have to imagine the “OH!” sound coming out, it was so funny watching her figure it out.

Until next time…

Oh, Hello!

It has been such a long time since I’ve blogged and I’m going to pretend nothing ever happened and just pick up from my most recent pics.  I have way too many to ever catch up on anyway. 

As far as the last couple of months have gone, we are finally up here in Washington, all settled, and loving it.  That about covers it!  Ryan loves working at the church and we love our new house.  We had quite the heat spell as you probably heard.  Everyone was telling us that we brought it from California.  Yeah right, we came up here to escape the heat!  After another brief hot spell, we’re back down to normal.

So, let’s dive right in!

My FOURTEEN AND A HALF MONTH OLD is now finally walking!  I was beginning to doubt that she ever would.  She can now carry around her dollies and stuffed animals which pleases her immensely.  (We were having a bad hair day.  Bad mommy didn’t fix it when she woke up from a nap).

The wee one is also now an accomplished climber.  She managed to get up on a dining room chair and after bouncing around a little, fall off.  She survived.  And climbed back up.  These pictures were pre-fall.

I know you didn’t really need 3 pictures of the same thing (well, maybe the Grandmas did), but how could I choose just one since they’re all so cute?!

Speaking of cute…

Warren is now the big 3!  I’m sure it didn’t feel any different since he was saying he was 3 about 2 months before his birthday.  We had a few people over for his party, including Grammy and Papa, who were up here visiting.  His birthday (and our anniversary) fell during the nasty heat wave.  It wasn’t so much fun having people over when the house was 95*, but we all lived.  It’s just a fading memory now anyway, with the only thing to remind us of it is all the pink cheeks in the pictures.

The Cubs hat from Great-Grandma was (and still is) Warren’s very very most favorite of all time present.  He wears it non-stop, and yes, even to bed. 

Check out how sweaty Johnny is!  The poor kiddos were so hot and red.  Hey LeProhon’s—that cool dump truck has never looked the same since that day!  It always has rocks and dirt in it now.  Instead of shiny and yellow, it is now dusty and battered.  In other words, he couldn’t love it more.

 Instead of a cake, I made cake balls.  They were awe.some.  Cake on a stick, I guess you could say.  It was a bit difficult making them in 100* heat, but overall they turned out great, quite a hit with the kiddos.

Here are just a few random shots from recently. 

It might be hard to tell, but the boys are holding hands here.  I caught this sweet moment from inside the house.  They didn’t know I saw them!

At Lake Washington celebrating Micah Thompson’s 1st Birthday!  What a gorgeous day in Washington.

 

Check out the wave hair-do!  I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, Aubrey enjoying her first of many (I’m sure) Tootsie Pops.  Tasty.  This was back in July at my parent’s house.  Ok, so I did post some oldies.

See ya’ll soon!

Happy 4th!

Aubrey was feeling very festive in her red, white and blue stars today.  She even kept a hair bow in for around 2 1/2 minutes, enough for me to get some cute pictures.

The boys got some scooter riding in, and lots of playing today.  My grandma was over for most of the day, and Ryan and I did lots of packing up.  Most of our stuff is still in boxes in my parent’s garage, but what we did bring in, we’re now re-packing.  We load up the moving truck tomorrow after church.

We just finished up the apple pie my mom and I made.  As soon as it gets dark enough, we’ll play with the fireworks we got for the boys.  Late night tonight! 

(Look at me go…2 posts in a couple of days!)

Here We Go!

We can finally say with certainty that we are on our way to Washington!!  Ryan will be the new Associate Pastor of Student and Children’s Ministries at Eastridge Baptist Church in Kent, Washington.  I have been avoiding talking too much at all about our move because we just didn’t know if this was a sure thing.  Now we do, and I can post the pics I have, and tell you about our visit several weeks ago.

I’ll start at the beginning in case you don’t know too much about the situation.  The senior pastor (John) of Eastridge and Ryan have been friends for 5 years now.  They met the first day of seminary and were buds all the way through.  They had talked casually during school and after graduation about ministering together, and now the Lord has brought that to fruition. 

So, the 5 of us flew up 3 1/2 weeks ago for a visit for the purpose of the church getting to know us, as well as for us to look for a home.  The day we flew was Aubrey’s 1st birthday (June 4th) and John and his wife Trish had a little party for her!  My sister and family came as well as John’s daughter and family.  Trish made 2 cakes, one for Aubrey to eat/destroy, and the other for the rest of the guests.  The cakes were so cute, and Aubrey had a blast digging in.  She systematically picked off all the little frosting balls all the way around the cake and ate every single one!  She then proceeded to destroy the rest and get cake everywhere.  Pretty awesome.

 

The next day (Friday) we spent with John and Trish looking for a place to live.  We left the boys with my sis and tortured Aubrey with a day of in and out of the car, which ultimately paid off because we found an awesome house.  I can not emphasize enough the awesomeness of this house.  It sits on 2.5 acres of beautiful open land with horses and cows surrounding the entire property!  I was ready to sign the lease papers before we even stepped foot in the house, but my more reserved half wisely made us look around inside too.  Which was also great.  Here it is:

 

Front

 

 

 

 

 Out behind the house. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a dream come true for 2 little rambunctious boys and their mom who needs them out of the house sometimes.  Ok, so it’s more than sometimes.  But I digress…  The property management company held the house for us and now we’re moving this coming Monday. 

Saturday of our visit Ryan played in the church annual golf tournament in the morning while the kids and I spent the morning with my sister and her kids.  We crammed her two car seats in our rental van, and combined with our three, it was quite squished.  I think the kids all had fun together though.

That evening, Ryan headed over to church to speak to the youth group.  The kids got a chance to get to know him a little bit.  The little people and I spent the afternoon and evening at our hotel for some down time before a long Sunday ahead.

Sunday, Ryan preached in the church service and again for the youth group.  After church there was a barbecue where we got to meet and talk with quite a few of the people.  Looking back on the weekend, we were very struck by how friendly people were.  It was a great day!

We spent a good deal of Monday just hanging out at the hotel.  We were all very tired from a long and busy weekend.  We packed up most of our stuff and for dinner met our good friends the Thompson’s at a nearby mall.  They are serving at a church in Seattle, and we are so excited to be living close to them too!  (The picture is Aubrey and her betrothed, Micah Thompson at dinner.)

Oh, Monday, we also went by the church to take a few pictures.

 This was Warren’s Sunday school class.  He loved the Noah’s Ark mural.

We flew home Tuesday exhausted, but so pleased at how the weekend went.  We were more excited than ever to be up in Washington at Eastridge.

A couple of weeks later, Ryan flew up to the church for a very short visit for a Q & A Friday night, and then a men’s breakfast Saturday.  It was just another opportunity for the congregation to get to know him.  The church voted that Sunday and called him to come on staff.  Amazing!

Sorry for all the boring details; I wrote them down mostly for my benefit later when I’ve long forgotten what we did that weekend.

Now the plans are: pack up what little we’ve unpacked while here at my parent’s house this weekend, pack up the moving truck Sunday, and take off Monday!  My parents are driving our truck up to help us out, as well as see their other grandkids for a couple of days.  We will be staying with some friends Monday night in Grant’s Pass, OR, having lunch Tuesday with Ryan’s sister in Portland, and hopefully arriving at our new house sometime Tuesday afternoon.

I’ll keep you posted on our trip after we’ve arrived!

Slacker

Helloooo

I bet you thought you’d never see me on here again!  For those we don’t see regularly, we’re still here.  There’s been lots going on with us the last month and a half, so I’ll quickly recap.

Ryan graduated (again!) on May 10th from The Master’s Seminary with a Master of Theology in Bible Exposition.  He also graduated magna cum laude, I might add/brag.

 It was a long 5 years in seminary, but so worth it.  Our family almost tripled in size during that time!  Well, technically it did, but one is still unborn. :)

Speaking of the unborn…I haven’t actually told you on this blog that he’s a boy!  I had my mid-way ultrasound on our moving day.  Poor Ryan was at home with his sem buddy Joey slavishly loading the moving truck and watching 3 other rugrats while I was watching the wiggles of our little guy on the television screen in the ultrasound room!  As of my last appointment on May 28, all is well with he and I.  The Lord continues to give me easy pregnancies, for which I am very thankful.  Other than being tired towards the end of the day (and who wouldn’t be after keeping up with two very boyish boys?), I’m feeling great.  We have just recently begun trying to come up with a name.  The hardest one to please is Jake!  He hasn’t liked anything so far except Daniel, which is the current favorite. 

Speaking of moving…We left our little Temple City place on May 29 (my mom’s bday too!).  We’ll miss that little house, especially the yard.  I loved having the yard gated all the way around because I didn’t have any fears about the boys and strangers and running out in the middle of the street and such.  Well, except for when they slipped under the gate, but hey, they didn’t figure that out until right before we moved, so it worked out just fine in the end.  We also had great landlords, a quiet street, close grocery shopping, and Grammy and Papa a short jaunt down the freeway.  Except for the close quarters, it was the perfect place.

Since we knew we were leaving southern California, we did some fun things before we left:

Descanso Gardens in La Canada with Grammy…

 

The Aquarium of the Pacific with Jake’s Master’s Kids class…

 

(gazillions of Nemo and Dori fish)

(Jake took this picture of us, pretty good)

Riding the huge carousel at the mall…

  (Don’t you love Warren’s cowboy boots with his basketball shorts?  Guess who got himself dressed that morning?)

(Aubrey and I sat on a bench rather than ride a tiger or something.)

Master’s Kids Graduation…

(Jake and his best bud Evan from Master’s Kids)

 

Some general silliness…

 

And a birthday party for the wee girl who is now 1…

(The boys decorated her cupcakes)

(One last goodbye for all the cousins)

Busy times.  There’s much more that’s been going on since we moved up to the Bay Area with my parents, and I’ll have to reserve that for another time.  There’s two little guys here who want an otter pop something awful. 

Thanks for bearing with my absence, I will get to the newest pics sometime soon, as well as a current update on the latest with moving to Washington.

TTFN.  (My aunt Lori gave the boys The Tigger Movie, can you tell?)

Playing Catch Up…Again

Hello one and all.  Not much going on around here, we’ve been in full Holy Week Swing, with Resurrection Day approaching tomorrow.  It’s been a great week watching the boys learn more about the death and resurrection of our Lord.  We made our usual resurrection mountain and have been acting out with the pipe cleaner people events that happened during the week.  Of course, we always wonder just how much they are learning because the attention span of a 2 and 4 year old is nothing to write home about, but then little moments like this happen that make it all worth it:

  This is Jake explaining to Warren what each of the Resurrection Eggs means, and Warren was listening to him!  It was great.

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So last night as we were on our way to church for Good Friday service, Jake was explaining to Warren how Samson killed a lion with his bare hands.  The conversation went something like this:

And Samson killed the lion with no gun and no lightsaber!  He had bare feet and bare hands!

It was hilarious.  We were trying not to laugh out loud so as not to discourage Jake, but it was priceless.  Samson didn’t even use that lightsaber he had!

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This past Wednesday, Grammy and Papa took Jake and cousin Hannah to a bubble exhibit so we told Warren he got to go to McDonald’s and play on the play thing.  I got some great shots while we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My parents came for a visit and the only evidence I have is this:

 My dad’s legs with boys attached.

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Aubrey is into everything.  It’s pretty well impossible to keep this girl contained.  She likes to squeeze into tight places, like between our couch and end table.  I don’t know how she fits in there, but we’re having to yank her out of there every once in a while.  When Ryan was taking out the trash one evening, before we could bat an eye, she ended up here:

Playing in the trash cupboard!  Gross.  Her favorite place to explore is the toilet, so we now have to keep the bathroom door closed.  Hopefully this stage will not last all that long.

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And most of you probably know by now that there will be another little Trzeciak joining the ranks in late October.  We are all excited, Jake most of all.  He’s SURE it’s a girl.  We think he wants another girl because Aubrey hasn’t reached the annoying little sibling stage yet and he likes girls for now.  I go in Tuesday for my registration (paperwork) appointment, but will also get an ultrasound that day as well.  We’ll keep you posted!

For Shilo

I am indebted to Shilo for asking me to get a picture of Aubrey’s teeth, because the result was one of the funniest (that’s a word, right?) pictures I’ve ever seen of these guys!

 Messy face aside, it’s pretty cute eh?

You Know You Have Brothers When…

You really like playing with Darth Vader.

Incidentally, what is it with boys and Star Wars?  Our guys LOVE Star Wars.  I’m talking about the older ones, not the new cheesy ones.  It’s become a hair cutting tradition now to watch a bit of a Star Wars movie, which started as an attempt to keep them still during said hair cutting.  It works, by the way.

Speaking of brothers…

  

They wanted to pose in their red shirts.  This is another one of those pictures to remind us of the happy times when things aren’t so happy between them.

 

ps-sorry for such a long absence.  We were all sick for a while, I had tonsillitis twice, and as usual, we’ve been very busy.  I will post an update soon about what’s next for us after graduation in May.  Until then…