Day 20 - Gratitude

Eight years ago today, our first baby was born! Happy Birthday Elena girl! My thankful thoughts today were often centered around her precious life. She is indeed "fearfully and wonderfully made" as the heart pendant we gave her reads from Psalm 139.

1. The Barbie house was a big hit: "Cool! Awesome! This is the best birthday ever!"

2. Birthday portraits for all three were more than marginally successful...AND I didn't get all sweaty trying to decide what to order. (Usually a moment of sheer torture for me!)

3. Our whole family laughing together over dinner...genuine twinkles in the eyes.

4. My life is hid with Christ on high!

5. Eight years of adventure with Elena in our life!

At nine days old:

Today, turning 8!

Boys' Birthdays!

It's Birthday Season at our house...only one more to go this month. Here are some snaps of our fun times for ya to check out!

Four boys all born the same week, all but one the same year! That's my Kai-boy in orange.

We didn't wonder why he had a tummy ache that evening...

Almost every Vox boy child (and several of the girls) around age 6! It was a blast and they loved swimming altogether. I had my work cut out for me just making sure Zane didn't drown...he has no fear!

Speaking of Zane...he turned two on the 11th! Here he is seriously working on blowing that second candle out.

A bi-tar!!! And with Mickey Mouse to boot! He was in heaven!

That afternoon we drove out to spend a few days in Wichita. We celebrated with a trip to Coldstone Creamery. Mmmmm....

I like to take them all at once for birthday portraits. So they are all ready to go, but Momma couldn't find her $50 gift certificate and called it off. (Anyone who has ever prepared their young children for picture day can imagine the anguish in my own heart at calling it off...hours of dressing, blow drying, flat ironing, not spilling...all for naught. Sigh.) You can also see why I take them to a professional. This was the best one out of several. Okay, the last one was fun.

Another Sojourn to Wichita

This time we visited Wichita just for a couple days...one of them VERY important. It was Stella Joy's 4th birthday! YAY!

Kai and Stell were playing with a little toy frog on a chilly evening...for those of you who don't know Stella, well, she poses for every picture. I'm guessing this one snapped before the whole angelic look was set!


Ahhh, baby Ava is such a dolly!


This is actually what most of my pictures of these hoodlums looked like! They were BUSY!

On our way out of town, we went with the Hart's to their Monday morning hang-out place, Squeak's! Only the best donuts for us!


Mmmmmmph, Momma, I wuv donut holes!

Elena's Half Birthday

Not sure how we started celebrating half-birthdays, but it sure is fun! We figure any excuse for cupcakes is a good one! Since Elena is SEVEN and a HALF now, I let her use the hand mixer for the first time. She did great!


My kids are never anxious for cake or anything...


And seven just really is a great age...some days we're all grown up and then some days...yay, the little girl is still there!


And then there's the one and a half year old...oh dear!

A Good Day!

I don't think I've ever dreaded my birthday...so I'm not going to start now! Last night I followed Elena's instructions and said "good-bye to 34" and this morning "hello 35"! It does seem a little surreal that I'm now at THAT number in life...ya know, reflecting on where I am and what I've done so far vs. expectations set when I was "young". But God is gracious and I truly can say that each year he refines me in character and cultivation of a quiet and gentle spirit tossed with a smidgen more wisdom than the year before. If that keeps up for the rest of my life, I think I will rest well in my old age.

My last post about the gradual adaptation of my crazy elimination/rotation diet? WRONG information! Dang! I consulted with another (evidently more informed) nurse this week at the doctor's office and it seems that I indeed did NOT misunderstand the doctor's first advice of cutting all my "intolerance" items cold turkey. Gobble-gobble. So I'm back to sticking to my meager list and trying to maintain the weight I'm at AND keep my brain balanced by eating the right combo of weird foods. For lunch today: Amaranth hot cereal with cherries and almonds, baked sweet potato, plain. Mmmmm....actually it's not to bad compared with some of the concoctions I've come up with.

Anyway, I think and talk about all that enough to drive me crazy so onto topics of more enjoyment! Last weekend we took a mini-vacation (which turned into a day trip) down to Springfield for Eric to play in another disc golf tournament. The kids and I stayed out of the heat as much as possible by going to fun places like the Bass Pro Shop and a bowling alley. Eric won his division (woot-woot!) and then we used the discount passes that came with his players pack to Fantastic Caverns to go on the little tour they offer.

It was perfect for our family since it was relatively short and you ride in their little tram thingeys. Zane wore his monkey leash (ha...I've never used one of those for my kids before but it's great!) and actually stayed relatively calm the whole tour.

The plan was to camp after going out to dinner, but night was falling fast and it ended up being the hottest day of the year thus far...once we got on the road this was the look of our eager campers, so scratch that idea:

This weekend promises more fun times...tonight we are going out to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday dinner, my mom is coming to visit tomorrow, we take the kids to Eric's parents tomorrow afternoon, then we have two OTHER people's parties to go to followed by friends meeting us out on the Plaza and Sunday a birthday lunch at Eric's mom's when we go pick up the munchkins...whew! Aren't I glad the maid came yesterday as a special treat?!

So color me impressed if you made it through all these ramblings today...I guess it's my birthday so I can write a totally unrelated mish-mash of a post, right? Have a blessed day yourself, dear reader! ~Resa

Bye, bye baby!

Tomorrow our little baby Zane turns one! It's been quite the year...he's added so much fun to our family and I'm not sure how many times I've got to exclaim "Yes, he was born in the car!" to someone with their jaw hanging open! Good thing I don't mind being the center of attention ...ha! (You can read that adventure HERE.)

Right now he is dumping the trash can (it's empty) in between attempts to walk, well, more like run across the office to knock over Elena and Kai's building block masterpieces. We are going to celebrate his birthday this weekend with cupcakes and some Grandma & Grandpa's...should be a fun day!

Here's a few pictures of our sweet guy.

Yes! I made it to the top of the stairs!

Kai made me this cool pillow.

I really like Sissy's markers!

Mommy said I could play in here to keep me busy!

Hee-hee...heading up the stairs again.

Hi from my playpen! It keeps me out of trouble.

Plus it's fun to smoosh my face up against the side.

Hmmmm...what's wrong with this picture?

I found a cookie on the floor, YUM!

Mean ol' Mamma took the cookie away! Poor baby!