It's a new year!

It's a new year and hopefully far less eventful for our family than 2015.  Annabelle is growing a lot.  Our 5.5 month old baby is in 9 month clothes, moving into some 12 month already.  She started sitting at the end of December.  She also started eating baby food this past week.  She still eats once a night and wakes multiple times for her the pacifier - we're tired.  But, we call her our 'Happy Annie' because she rewards us with soooo many smiles.  Her snuggles are really sweet too.  Joy and Noah both adore her still.
Joy is finally in a good place again with school.  All of November and December she was a wreck, to put it lightly, every morning until she got on the bus.  A few behavior charts later, that resulted in her feeling successful, and lots of prayer, have worked their magic and she is a happy, healthy, loving life 6 yr old again.  Whew!   Her complaint was that the school day is too long and she missed us so much.  These feelings resulted in nightly wild meltdowns and severe anxiety in the mornings.  I can't say how thankful I am to be in this good place with her again.
Noah misses Joy when she is at school.  He often says he wants Joy to be home, which makes me sad for him.  I do my best to play with him and we stay busy, but I'm just not the same kind of fun as his sister.  Both Noah and Joy have joined AWANA at church (We finally found a church home in December!).  Both kids have memory work to complete each week.  I wasn't sure Noah could do it, but he surprised me.  We're hoping his speech becomes more clear with age, as you'll observe in the video, he is difficult to understand sometimes.  I blame that on the use of his thumb to soothe himself.  And, he will be turning 4 at the end of March.  He's making all kinds of birthday plans already, almost daily.
Danny is still SOOOOO happy at his job.  It is a dream come true and a huge blessing from God.  EventPro360 continues to gain success as well with appx 150 facilities using it, there are a few international facilities enrolled as well.  Danny's legacy continues, anything he touches works and is successful!
As far as I go, I'm tired but in love with my kids.  I have moments that could use improvement, usually related to the amount of patience I am lacking.  But, overall, I feel like I'm cruising through this life and am so blessed.  I look forward to things to come some days, but try to live in the moment.  I've made several new mommy friends in Stevens Point and feel accepted.  MOPS has been a huge help getting to know this community.  School has also opened many doors to meet neighbors and other friends too.
Enjoy the videos of the kiddos below...

 

Our monkey named Joy

Joy has been working on getting the 'hang' of the monkey bars since she started school in September.  She has been begging to show us and we finally were able to make it out to the school to see her do it today.  (Side note, ironically, we ran into her teacher who was out walking her dogs)  She has had blisters that have popped and has callouses to prove how hard she has been working.  Now, if she could just muster the same amount of determination in other areas of her life, she would be unstoppable.  Let's pray for that!

Annabelle chatting with Joy

Annabelle has been having more and more to say around here lately.  There are times she goes on and on and on, which we adore.  In the video below, she is responding to Joy trying to get her to 'coo'.  It's so fun to watch Annie touch Joy's heart.  As you will see, Joy loves her baby sister! 

Family Pictures

 We had our first professional family pictures taken.  Not without a little drama of course.  We had them scheduled for 5:00 on Wednesday evening, not the easiest time of day to have all 3 kids ready with full tummies and happy moods.  It took me all afternoon to get everything in place for this picture.  Danny had some things come up at work and didn't arrive until 5:45.  We were very close to rescheduling, which would have been a major disappointment for me after all the time spent prepping for these pictures.  Thankfully, we were quick and got all these done in 20 minutes, with lots of bribing the older kids and bouncing the baby in between shots.  Overall, I am pleased.
 

 

Bench (above)

 

                                                                        Standing

                                                                   casual 1

                                                                   casual 2

 

casual 3

                                                                    floor 1

                                                                    floor 2

                                                                        floor 3

                                                                        sitting 1

                                                                        sitting 2

Pictures to print

Hi family (and friends).  Here are some pictures we've taken and are going to print.  If you would like me to order prints for you too, please email me and let me know which pic and what size.  The pics are Noah at 3 yrs old, Annabelle newborn, and all 3 kids.  Thanks.
                                                       Noah 1

                                                       Noah 2

                                                       Noah 3

                                          All 3 Black and white

                                          All 3 color

                                          Annabelle 1

                                          Annabelle 2

Annabelle's Baptism

Annabelle was baptized last Sunday, 9/13, the day after Joy's birthday since our whole family was here.  Since we don't have a church home in Stevens Point (we are feeling stuck between two choices), we asked our friend and pastor, Matt Wipperman, from Madison to do a private baptism in our backyard.  It was a very short, intimate, and perfect celebration of Annabelle joining God's family.  The Wipperman's have been part of all 3 of our kids' baptisms, so it meant a lot to have them here.  The baptism was followed by food, cake, and very nice gifts.  We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such loving family on both sides and for God's abundant blessings in our lives.

Annabelle update:  She grew a lot in her first month of life from 9lbs 5 ozs to 12 lbs 7 ozs.  She is in 3-6 month clothes already.  She also started out life as a very crabby baby.  The doctor recommended trying a dairy free diet, which made this farm girl rather upset.  But, Annie's symptoms progressively worsened, forcing me to try it.  And, behold, it has helped her tremendously.  So, selfishly, I'm very sad to not have dairy products in my life, but for Annie's sake, we are so happy to have a happy baby in the house.  The hope is that I can reintroduce dairy sometime after Annie is 3 months old, which is a time when a lot of babies outgrow their dairy sensitivity.
 She sleeps well, getting me up two times most nights.  I am starting to long for a full nights rest though.  Joy slept through the night at 2 months and Noah started at 3 months, so I'm really hoping Annabelle follows her siblings' sleep patterns.  She has also started taking at least 1 long nap each day, sometimes 2, which is allowing me to get more things done around the house and spend more 1:1 time with Noah.  Noah often says in a sad/disappointed tone of voice, "Annabelle eats a lot."  Poor guy.  I hope to make it up to him once Annabelle gets a little older.

Here are some pictures of the baptism.

Joy is 6

Joy turned 6 years old last weekend.  We had a small family party on Saturday at our house in honor of her birthday.  She had a great time and asked if we can do 'this' every year.  I imagine we will, but will include some of her friends in future parties as well.  She has made a few friends at school and on the bus in just two weeks of school already.  We've met some more neighbor kids and parents now that school has started too.  Stevens Point is feeling more and more like home with each season.  Joy was really excited for school to start, so the first week was smooth sailing.  The second week brought more tears and separation anxiety.  This week she seems to be bouncing back a little evident by her boarding the bus with a smile instead of tears.  The bus driver has been really supportive of Joy by saving a front seat just for her to sit, which makes Joy feel a lot more safe.  Joy continues to love her baby sister, Annabelle.  She is also interested in trying out ice skating, gymnastics, and basketball this fall.  That list is a little long for me, so we'll see which ONE we end up choosing.

Here is my big girl!  Oh, yeah, and one of her two front teeth came out.  The other will be out soon too.  Doesn't she look like she is 8 years old now?!