At long last.....I return to the blogging world. There are no good excuses, other than the fact that my almost 9-month-old prefers for me, and only me, to hold him if we are at home between the hours of 4:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Once in awhile we all nap at the same time (as long as I have physical contact with Avdon). But I was telling Chris today, I can hardly remember the last time that both of my kids were sleeping at the same time before 8:30 p.m. and I was able to, you know, do laundry without hauling kids down to the basement or leave them screaming upstairs wondering if I will ever return from the dark abyss. Let alone clean, organize, keep up responsibly with email, take care of myself (what? exercise?), or take the time to blog. It's weird to think that most of our grandparents and certainly great-grandparents wouldn't even know what the word blog means. (By the way, here's a shout out to our very wonderful grandparents who navigate the web, check email and blogs, and enjoy digital photographs!!). But keeping you all up-to-date has been on my mind, even though I don't get around to it often!

So here I am, finally blogging, and not in the least bit complaining; just giving you a picture of what life has been like since our newest family member arrived. Avdon has been an absolute joy. I love getting to hold him and snuggle with him, even if it means nothing else gets done. And now that he's crawling, he is more willing to be on the floor by himself and I'm getting short bursts of time with two hands open to fold laundry or start meal prep. I know this time will go all too quickly, so I try my hardest to enjoy it. Sleepless nights and busy days, though they be.

Avdon turns 9 months this week, which is just so hard to believe! Our little guy has definitely been little, weighing in at the 5th percentile at every check-up. I think we've been making progress in the past 2 months or so as he's finally getting some chub on him! If you didn't catch on earlier, sleeping is not one of Avdon's strong talents. He basically naps only if he's being held and certainly doesn't make it through the night yet. He is sleeping from about 8:00 pm to 3:00 am. On good nights. Once in awhile. Sometimes....
He's off and crawling and is becoming quite the climber as well. He pulls himself to standing and cruises along furniture. Despite battling ear infection and multiple allergic reactions to antibiotics this month, he has stayed pretty healthy and is almost always happy. Especially in Mom's arms. It's so fun to see him start using his body purposefully, both in getting to where he wants to go and clapping and waving. Eating food has been a slow process, but he does enjoy feeding himself and apparently likes his food flavored as opposed to bland. Favorites so far include , peach/squash yogurt, tofu, broccoli, and homemade smoothies, guacamole & hummus. He of course adores his sister and this month especially, has become excited and noticeably attached to Robyn. I am so thankful that my children just love their babysitter!

And speaking of the babysitter, this is a quick photo of Shiloh on her way out the door to Robyn's house. Can you guess what she is? Life with Shiloh is certainly never dull, and for the last several months, an animal often has replaced our daughter. Shiloh embraces her kitty (or bunny or dog or donkey, etc.) persona with gusto. She daily informs us what kind of family we are: "We are the kitty family," "we are the seal family," "we are the puppy family." Take no offense if you greet Shiloh and she replies only with "meow." The "meow" comes out in her excitement to greet someone at the door and in her temper tantrums as the only recognizable word.This girl lives and breathes kitty.

When Shiloh is not a kitty or some other animal, she continues to play well on her own, mostly with dolls and Daddy's action figures. Every toy is named and her play is very focused on people and what they are doing. Our extroverted little girl greets us in the morning by saying "where are we going today?" or "who are we going to see?" or "who is coming?" She also sings all the time. We pretty much live in a musical. She loves making up songs and adapting songs and tunes to fit what she is doing. And she gets lots of examples from Mom and Dad doing the same thing. Kindermusik classes add greatly to Shiloh's love of singing and the songs we learn there have definitely worked their way into our everyday lives!

And that's all I have for now. It took three days to get this post to this point, so I'm going to stop where I am and have high hopes of blogging more regularly again. I have started putting all of our photos on a different, password protected sight, that is actually current up through April. If you would like to have access to that sight and don't already, send me an email or leave a comment here with your email address.

As always, thanks for reading and loving and supporting us!!!

Merry Christmas 2010

We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.

Matthew 2:2

As I've been reflecting on Christmas this year, the story of the Magi recorded in Matthew has come to mind most often. We have been focusing a lot on the important aspects of Christmas, including loving, serving, and worshiping. And while it seems increasingly difficult to keep the focus on this, it is what we strive for. We pray that your Christmas was blessed and that in this Christmas season, you may continue to worship Immanuel.

Contrary to what nativity scenes and children's Christmas stories would tell us, the Magi did not come to visit Jesus the night of his birth. Instead it was at a later time, when Jesus was perhaps a toddler or young child. This is a good excuse for our Christmas greetings to come post-Christmas day, during the season of Christmas. And hopefully, we'll get our cards out by Epiphany, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Magi!!

2010 has brought yet more changes and blessings our way. We welcomed Avdon Christopher into our lives on August 20, two weeks sooner than we expected, and we could not love this little guy more! He is a wonderful 4-month-old who is awakening to the world around him. Avdon blesses us with his incredible smile, mellow temperament, and ability to snuggle. His personality is already very different from that of his older sister! We are slowly getting adjusted to life with two, and love to see how the siblings interact. We are so excited to continue to get to know Avdon!

Shiloh is nearing the 2 1/2 mark and we are amazed daily at her spunk, processing abilities, and strong-willed character. These traits will serve her well, but definitely challenge us to be creative, patient, and wise in our parenting. It is easy to say that our children have encouraged us to increase our personal prayer lives! Shiloh truly blesses and amazes us, though, with her language skills and imagination. She has recently found Daddy's collection of superheros and has adopted them, giving them each names of people in her own life, and playing with them for hours on end. I'm assuming the superheros are experiencing much different play than they were used to twenty years ago, as they now have to sing songs from Kindermusik class, play the piano, eat food, go to sleep, go potty and sometimes even spend time in the play oven as well.

I (Erin) continue working at Head Start, serving families with children ages prenatal-three in their homes. I am now working only 20 hours a week, which allows much more quality time at home even though the work schedule is absolutely crazy! Besides being mommy and home visitor, I continue to enjoy learning how to cook and bake well, incorporating fresh and organic ingredients in as much as possible. I also began learning the art of cooking nice meals for larger groups of people this fall as Chris and I led The Marriage Course at St. John. This seven-week course consisted of preparing and serving (and cleaning up!) a candlelit meal for 10 couples before they began their time of learning and private discussion. Chris and I made a great team as he was able to handle the facilitation and technology aspects of the course while I learned some good lessons (and made some pretty good meals) in the kitchen! The biggest lesson I learned is that I needed some help on those nights, both in the kitchen and with watching our children, and I am very thankful for all those who helped us out!!

Chris continues work at St. John, each year, finding a better and better fit to the needs of the church and community as well as the use of his gifts. He continues to lead the contemporary worship and works primarily with young adults. He has discovered his passion in the Scripture's call to make disciples, and is learning what it means to really invest in discipling others. As St. John has joined with another congregation to help guide the Lutheran Student Center at the Univerisity, Chris has found himself spending lots of time at the LSC and even made it through the entire Old Testament in the fall semester with a group there. He has found a renewed interest in performing, after taking a break due to crazy schedules, children being born, etc. He has a new band with some good friends and is greatly enjoying that time as well. Chris continues giving music lessons and will begin giving lessons at St. John, instead of in our home, starting in January. There should be notably less distractions there (think 2-year-old during dinner time) for his students!

Knowing we were expecting a baby late summer encouraged us to really kick it in gear when it came to projects around the house. This past year marked the biggest (and most expensive!) changes so far including a brand new roof (which was technically the end of 2009 on a very warm November weekend); new water treatment system; new sump pump in the basement (way to go Chris!); electrical upgrade including our electricity line being run underground instead of through a tree; demolition of a problem chimney which opened up two square feet in my closet (and will maybe someday be a laundry shoot?); new vegetable garden; new furnace and air conditioner; two new windows in the kitchen; and soon, new siding and gutters. This last piece is mostly courtesy of our insurance due to our crazy April hail storm. And someday, once we have some savings built back up, we will be excited to work on an improved kitchen! Wow! We are so thankful for our home.

If you're not a "regular" to our blog, feel free to browse below and see what else we have been up to. It hasn't exactly been updated frequently in the past 4 months (but do you see why!?!). Once again, we pray for blessings upon you this season.

Much love,

The Family Trip

Preserving memories

I have started a blog post in my head several times. Several times. There are so many amazing and beautiful moments to share when you have a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. I imagine the blog title, the opening sentences, the pictures I will include. I do the same thing with my facebook status. Throughout my days, I will often think "that would make a really good facebook status" or "that's the perfect way to start my next blog post." And well, you can see how far that gets!




While I regret that I haven't done a good job keeping up with you all, we have been attempting to keep good notes and document some of our special moments in photographs. And most importantly, I would hope that we are really, truly doing a good job just BEING. Not doing anything spectacular necessarily, but changing lots of diapers, spending lots of time encouraging Shiloh to use the potty, playing, playing, playing, cooking and eating, smiling, laughing, and attempting to be patient!

And I promise I'll do a good update soon, along with what is becoming the annual tradition of our Christmas letter: blog version.  We're busy preserving and making memories and preparing to share a few special ones with you. I recently finished our first large photo book through Shutterfly titled The Family Trip 2008. Making photo books is my new favorite hobby! It is much less time consuming for me than scrapbooking (especially since I am a perfectionist) and much more involved than regular photo albums (since I can journal along with the pictures). I have found myself becoming friends with the Shutterfly website, if that is possible! And I think Shutterfly is friends with me too! Not only do they help me preserve our family memories in fun and meaningful ways, Shutterfly is great at giving discounts and things such as 50 free holiday cards just for good referrals!

Shutterfly has so many great photo cards to choose from, it can be a hard choice. Our favorite cards to use are the Christmas photo cards which you can find at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards . We have used those cards for the past 3 years from Shutterfly and have been extremely happy with the options, quality, and timeliness. It is funny to think that the first year we made our Shutterfly cards they featured pictures of our dog and cat! My dad predicted correctly that as soon as we had our first baby, we would no longer be featuring the pets on our cards! He was correct, as the next year we featured brand new Baby Shiloh in her enormous stocking! Last year we were able to find the perfect card that allowed us to share several pictures of Shiloh as well as a family shot. We will be excited to send out this year's card with photos taken by our friend Erin featuring Big Girl Shiloh and Baby Avdon! We discovered that Shutterfly has charity Christmas cards this year too that donate 10% of the sales to the charity you choose. Check those out here http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/support-a-cause  . We love to see that Shutterfly is supporting Heifer International. What a great program to help people become self-sufficient by providing them with the farm animals they need! And while we've never financially taken the plunge, I absolutely adore the the Christmas cards from Shutterfly http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards


You'll have to wait and see what card ends up in your mailbox. Some things must be saved for the mail, even though technology is great. And if you haven't yet decided how to share some holiday cheer, I'd highly recommend checking out Shutterfly. But be careful, you might fall in love with their many options and the knack they have at helping you preserve memories!!

Can you tell they're related?

We love our Hungry Caterpillar and Beautiful Butterfly!

Happy Birthday Shiloh (only about a month late!)

What a blessing our little two-year-old is! Shiloh fills us with so much joy and we were thrilled to celebrate her 2nd birthday with her! The morning of her birthday, we made blueberry muffins together for breakfast. She loved helping to make them, especially adding the blueberries. Most people don't enjoy making their own breakfast on their birthday, but 2-year-olds don't seem to mind! Shiloh loved blowing out her candles and by 8:30 am knew how old she was. What a great beginning to her birthday week!

Aunt Laura came from Wyoming the night before and enjoyed supper with Shiloh and Mommy. We had one of Shiloh's favorite summer meals, corn on the cob and cucumbers!

Gigi and Papa stopped by to wish Shiloh a happy birthday and bring a few gifts from relatives not able to be here.

Grandma arrived from Colorado on the evening of the 4th. She got to spend a week with Shiloh and they enjoyed rides together in Shiloh's new wagon!

We celebrated Shiloh's birthday throughout the week, eventually giving her our gifts and letting her open gifts from my side of the family as well. The big party, though was on Saturday. Shiloh was surrounded by loved ones and family and noticed all the presents coming in the door. Who cares about eating lunch when there are presents to open! She insisted on doing that first and was very blessed to receive many nice gifts (thank you everyone!)

After presents we ate a yummy lunch and then it was time for the cake!! The night before we labored away making these super fun puppy cakes! I had enough of the zucchini chocolate cake left that I made a body and Shiloh dug into her cake, while our guests enjoyed the cupcakes. It was a beautiful week to celebrate a beautiful girl. Check out more pictures here!

Welcome Avdon Christopher!

The short version

After 5 1/2 hours of labor, start to finish, we were blessed with the birth of Avdon Christopher on Friday, August 20 at 5:33 a.m. He weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz. and was 20" long. Everyone is doing well and we are grateful to God for this new blessing and all the ways he blessed us throughout this event. His name means Christ-bearing servant, and it's a name we pray blesses his life and foretells the type of man he will be. Check out his pictures by clicking here!

The long version (if you want to read the details that I wanted to save for myself)

It was Thursday night, August 19, a little over 2 weeks before our due date. I went to bed around 10:30, wishing I had finished up a few more chores that night than I actually did and looking forward to the weekend to work on cleaning up the house some more. Around midnight I woke up with contractions. Chris wasn’t home from work yet, so I just lay in bed, adrenaline pumping, hoping that this wasn’t labor. I had finished up some important tasks at work, but hadn’t touched base with the people taking over for me while I was gone and was definitely not satisfied with the status and cleanliness of my “nest.” When Chris got home and crawled into bed, I indicated that I was awake and having contractions. He was pretty tired and suggested we just try going to sleep, but I insisted that we pack our bags for Shiloh and for the hospital and then we could try sleeping. Just in case. We started packing, and the contractions continued. I was able to empty my bladder and bowels and ate a banana and some string cheese. I could feel that my contractions were fruitful, really pulling and stretching a lot. I settled into bed, but there was no way I was going to sleep. We timed a couple contractions, and they were lasting over a minute long. We never got around to timing how far apart they were, but I could tell it was 5 minutes or less. Chris helped me to relax through the contractions, but it wasn’t long before I sent him to call his parents (he called them at 2:30). I was nervous about getting Shiloh to Chris’ parents’ house and nervous about when to go to the hospital. As I lay in bed, Chris prepared to get sleepy Shiloh into her Gigi and Papa’s car. I was anxious to have him come back. I was able to handle contractions so much better when he was around to help coach my relaxation. Very shortly after Shiloh left, we got into the car. I felt like my contractions had spaced out a little bit, but were still strong. I was able to walk to the car and get mostly settled in between contractions. This was so different from Shiloh’s labor, as I was in transition while getting into the car with her and extremely uncomfortable the whole time. This time I still felt in control of things. I think this caused me to doubt our decision to go to the hospital. I didn’t want to get there and find out I was hardly dilated.

Chris drove slowly and warned me of bumps. It was really nice to feel like we didn’t have to speed to the hospital, and to just take it slow, allowing me to work with my body. When we arrived at the hospital, Chris parked right in front of the emergency room and got a wheel chair for me. It was around 3:30 a.m. While we waited to get checked in, I was uncomfortable and very cold in the emergency room. Sandy, our midwife met us there and she walked us up to the birthing unit, allowing us to stop when I had a contraction so I could concentrate fully. We went straight into suite 4, and I found out that a co-worker, Tracey, was going to be my nurse. I was thrilled! I had the best medical team I could imagine to help support me through a natural childbirth. We got settled into bed in the dimly lit, quiet room with just the four of us. Sandy examined me and told me the good news that I was 7 cm dilated and 100% effaced with a bulging bag of waters. That was the best news I had heard, as I was still doubting whether or not it was appropriate for me to be at the hospital! I settled into bed with lots of pillows and they quietly monitored the baby’s heartbeat by just placing the monitor on my belly instead of strapping it all on. Then they just let me labor and Chris continued to provide comfort and encouragement to help me relax. I worked really hard to visualize my uterus just pulling my cervix open those 3 more cm.

Before long, the contractions intensified and I was getting ready to push. In preparation for this birth, I was planning on doing “a better job” during 2nd stage. With Shiloh, I laid on my side to push while Chris had to hold one of my legs in the air for an hour. We were both hoping for a different experience this time! While it was different, I don’t think my talents include pushing out a baby! I obviously get the job done, but perhaps not very efficiently! I think I started pushing a little prematurely and things didn’t just feel right, probably because of this. I had remained in control and pretty relaxed up until this point. I got really warm and uncomfortable. I moved from my side to sitting up, getting ready to push. Things get a little fuzzy here as I had to work really hard to keep breathing and not let the contractions get ahead of me. There were reminders from my great team to take deep breaths, and I responded well to that. Sandy broke my water at one point to help things keep moving. For the first time I started doubting whether or not I could do this, and my sensations moved from strong pulling contractions to feeling lots of pain. I had trouble just pushing the baby and spent a lot of energy pushing my legs too! There was plenty of grunting and screams, which really do seem to help, and finally he came out!

He was posterior (face up), which added to the difficulty I had pushing him out. It also added to the tearing and stitches I needed as a result. But none of that mattered when I could feel his little body slipping out. Wow! Apparently I yelled at one point “get him out!” and Chris did just that. He got to pull our little guy right out and immediately bring him up to me. I had shed my clothes back when I started pushing and wasn’t in the least bit disgusted by the slippery little body on my chest. I was pretty amazed. Five and half hours before I was in bed, not in the least expecting I would be having a baby today! He came at 5:33 a.m., and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the whole experience. I was so thankful and so blessed and so in love with this new little man.

The placenta came out before long, which feels really nice and smooth, almost cleansing. Sandy said it looked like there was no need for pitocin, so I went without. We attempted nursing, and had great success within an hour after delivery. Our wonderful nurse Tracey left us alone as much as she could, delaying as many procedures as possible. We opted out of eye drops, but consented for a vitamin K shot and blood sugar testing. Everything went well. Chris asked about our car at one point, assuming that vallet had moved it out of the way. He assumed wrong, as our nurse apparently had received word that someone had abandoned a car right in front of the emergency room. Vallet wasn’t even operating yet! Oops! He got that moved, I called my mom to surprise her with the news, and they finally had to come take Avdon from me in order to weigh him in at 6 lbs 7 oz. He was 20” long and his head was 12 1/2 cm.

The whole experience was rather surreal. I wasn’t even to the point in my pregnancy that I was feeling “ready” or uncomfortably large. But what a blessing to have this beautiful new baby. I am so thankful for the loving coaching of my husband, and that he once again spent time preparing for this event by attending a few Bradley method classes with me, encouraging me to do my exercises and eating a healthy diet throughout pregnancy. I am so thankful to God for all he provided and for keeping us safe and complication free. And now that I’m back home, I’m continually grateful for Chris’ servant heart as he helps take care of our family. I’m healing up, but am unimaginably tired, especially on the nights I’ve gotten 3 hours of sleep altogether! Avdon is quite the nurser, occasionally giving me a 2 1/2 or 3 hour break, but often wanting to nurse every hour and a half or more. My milk was coming in already on Saturday, so he's been getting substance for a while now. It might explain why he's only 2 oz. under his birth weight less than a week after being born! He’s quite the barracuda as well, so each time he latches on, I work hard not to scream out loud. It’s getting better. Slowly. Shiloh is adjusting well. She of course, is very interested in sitting on my lap now, especially when I’m nursing, and is very concerned to do anything without me around. Chris is doing a nice job distracting her and attempting to allow me some rest time. She loves her brother and has read books to him and shared her cars with him. She will be a good big sister.

With that, I’ll be done with this novel and let the story continue from here!