And the Baby is...

...here!

Josiah David Lee was born yesterday at 10:33 pm, weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz., and was 21 3/4 inches long :). He is such a precious *tiny* little man, and he looks just like Andrew (and, consequently, Tori, Emmi, and Mommy :) ) :). We are so thankful for the blessing of this little miracle! Aren't his cheeks just the sweetest thing :)?...

Ready, Set...

...Go bid :)!
The Hidden Treasures auction is open to help bring home Brandi :)!!! Prayers and bids from all are very much appreciated, and I believe that Miss Amy is willing to continue taking donations the next few days, as well :)!

Thankful Thursday, Week 101, 102, 103, and 104... yep, the whole month...

The past month I've been thankful for....

~Emmi Joy joining me for my morning bible time.
~To be in the next phase of Mark, chapters 9-12 :)!

~Abbi and Emmi's little voices asking me questions about a bible passage I'm reading to them. They are quite hilarious at times!
~Daddy's four day weekend home :).
~Peterbug the snugglebug falling asleep on my lap, he doesn't do that much anymore (neither does he usually overfill his diaper while he is sitting on me anymore... haha...)!
~That the baby blanket turned out nicely.
~That our dough hook got here!
~A visit from a girl I have been writing here in VA earlier this month. We had a really good time, it was a lot of fun to finally meet her :). Abbi stuck to her like a leech about the whole time she was here, heehee :).
~To be done sewing up all the little knit/crocheted toys that needed repairs, plus finishing a doll vest and helping Andrew pick up some dropped stitches, and mending a couple of Mommy's afghans... now, I just have to finish a set of doll booties, and maybe finish a hat, and all the knit/crochet projects that have needed done for up to eight years will be done... yes, it's pathetic ;)...
~Grapes... I believe I could find them addicting, haha.
~Wild life outside the window... this big visitor (in this very fuzzy picture, I know...) was sitting on a tree right next to our deck. I'm quite shocked by what we do get here, even in a neighborhood we've seen deer in our back yard!

~These little faces... Peter climbed right up onto  Emmi's lap to snuggle :)... Look at Emmi... I don't know how easy it will be to tell from this and past pictures, but she just *grew up* over night a couple weeks ago... it was the oddest thing!

~Emmi's love for this blanket... it was started by one of Mommy's friends, she gave it to me to finish, and Emmi uses it all the time, it's cute :).

~Peter's love to shop... he was so cute while we were at Goodwill, he was pointing to everything, "Lookie! Aw! That!" Haha :). He pointed to a rack of baby girl clothes and said "Awww, baby!!!", it was hilarious!
~Oh, and his "Hi". He has started saying hi to everyone, all day long, it's cute :).
~Unpacking baby clothes... Peter has grown *soooo* much, it was so sweet to pull out the little boy socks, Peter's feet are so big now, haha! We look at him as so little, but he is going to be such a giant when Baby gets here!
~Oh, and that Mommy found the baby boy clothes... randomly, after we gave up for the time being, after looking for an hour....
~And this sight... will we be using the brown or the pink here soon, what do you think :)?!

~Blueberry muffins.
~That our room is fully put together, heehee :). We've been shuffling people since we moved, now that we've finished, I think that I can safely say that the whole house is organized and complete, at least until we decide to move more shelves ;).
~Abbi's love for funny fruit... "Mommy, can I have THIS apple?!" She asked. "'Cause it's funny!". Oh, and the to blueberries that were stuck together were "GREAT", because "They looked like eyeballs!", haha :).
~These two young men enjoying their "guy movie" (Narnia) together at quite time, since Andrew doesn't like Monopoly, heehee...

 
~...so we three older girls played that while enjoying popcorn, and I won ;). But Bethi didn't ever officially go into debt, so that was the most exciting aspect of the game for her... ahem..
~Beading fun :)! These turned out so well, I love them :)! You could bid on them to win them at the next Hidden Treasures auction, the first week of April ;)...

~Finally finding a crocheted mushroom pattern!
~To be enjoying working on a tatted doily. I've wanted to try this for years, but have never had the time, when I didn't have a more demanding project, before :). I think next time I'll go with a larger pattern, though, it isn't turning out quite as big as I thought it would.
~Peter's love to be with "bubby"...

 Cooking together...

 ~...and copy buddy :).

 Working on Rubik's cubes together :).

~The amazing ways little ones can sleep (and the squish-able yummy goodness of the sweet cheeks :)...)

~Godly men and women like St. Patrick who have gone before.
~And "The Princess Adelina"... I got the whim to read it again when St. Patrick's day rolled around, and I was kind of shocked at all the neat stuff I had forgotten, haha :).
~Green iced cinnamon rolls. Yummy ;)!
~Oh, and green speckled popcorn. That was quite the experiment ;)...

~Funny pranks (Abbi stuck a clothespin on everybody else (without us knowing it, gulp!!! She CAN be stealthy when she wants!), and so we all got her back ;)...).

~Schoolwork done while cleaning ;). Andrew and Bethi were helping clean the walls, and I turned around to find that they were using the time to teach Abbi and Emmi their ABC's, haha!

~Rolling a ball back and forth with Peter :).
~Finding a very creative hairdo to try on Bethi... I'll share pictures when it happens ;)...
~"Many hands making light work" :).
~To be waking up "earlier" again... by 8:30 most mornings ain't bad. I told a friend that I'll get up at the time that I WANT someday... on accident ;)...
~The wonderful articles in this King's Blooming Rose magazine... it deals with serving the Lord cheerfully, and it has been such a blessing as some of the things they talk about have been things that the Lord has specifically laid on my heart lately!
~A vacuum that is working so much better than the last one, haha :).
~Clean windows.
~Our little "rainbow noise machine", a.k.a., Abbi ;)...
~A visit from our Grandparents this week :).
~Creative inspiration :)...

~... in the form of brightly colored flowers :). Grandma brought them over when she decided it would be fun to celebrate Seaweed's birthday, since they won't be here the day Seaweed actually eventually decides to arrive ;). We sang a mix of "Happy almost birthday", and "Happy waiting for you birthday", haha :). Grandma bought a cake, but couldn't bring herself to ask the bakery to write "Seaweed" on it, so we did that ourselves ;)...

~Gentle raindrops.
~Geo-caching with my family. We went to let Grandpa find "Luigi" Tuesday, and then we spent about four hours caching yesterday, heehee!
~AND, we found a cache we have looked for before and gave up. Daddy was going to give up (again ;)...), come back on a warm day, and see if it was hidden in a log in the water... but we found it at the base of a tree... it looked like this...

and yes, all but the net was buried in the ground.

 Ah! She's looking at the camera :)!!!! Yay!

Your guess is as good as mine as to what I was showing Tori, haha. Oh, no, I remember, we were actually getting something ready to put in the cache container, never mind :).

                                            ♥ This cutie :)...
~Interesting nature :).

~Green moss (and a Daddy who sees a photograph shoot chance in everything :).)

~Daffodils... they are my *favorite* spring flowers... We  saw quite a few while we were out caching the past couple days :).
~Lots of little ones piled on my bed :)...
~Abbi's love to build little block houses with Peter. I woke up about a week ago, and they were playing together... I woke up today, and she was carrying them in again to play with him, ready to spend some time "babysitting" him until we got up, without being asked :).
~That little Seaweed will be arriving any day now!!!! I can't wait to meet him/her :)!

"Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens!"

                              ~Psalms 150:1

It's Snowing Again...

And snow is just one of the things that are already making up this week :).

I finished the baby blanket last night, yay :)! After approximately 38,880 stitches equaling about 35" by 37" worth of knit fabric, 28ish hours of yarn work in three weeks, 3 1/3 balls of yarn, and a brand new pair of circular needles that look like they've seen far too much work already (I didn't know that knitting needles could lose the paint on the tips that quickly, haha!)... I'm finished :). I'd love to make a hat and maybe some booties to go with it before baby gets here.

We tried another church yesterday, and then went to the pastor's house for the afternoon. I forgot to ever post the story about the first time we tried to attend that church, hahaha. It was quite the tale ;). But, we made it yesterday, and their family was really sweet :).

Daddy had a four day weekend this past week! Today's his last day home, we've enjoyed having him home for four days in a row :). And, now, we have a nice blanket of snow outside the window, with gigantic snowflakes continuing to fall, so we'll probably brave the cold as soon as Daddy and Andrew get back from the grocery store, and enjoy it :). Hopefully poor Peter feels up to it, he's a little under the weather, and Emmi's catching it, too :(. We'll see!

Thankful Thursday, Week 100 :)!

Not that all those weeks are filled, but anyway... it's a fun number ;)...
This week I'm thankful for...

~The sight of these little ones playing together...

~And Abbi loving on Peter (who's almost as long as she is ;)...)

~Peter scooting down the stairs as fast as he can get his legs out from under him when he hears the door opening, hoping it's Daddy arriving home :)...
~Maple twist.. and the fact that I did not ruin it yesterday, that was very pleasant and surprising considering my past track record. Of course, I almost burnt the whole batch before I put it in the oven, but that's a whole other story... I put it on the stove to rise (thankfully in a metal bowl!), then went to make supper, and turned the wrong burner on, haha. Thankfully I was able to get the dough out without the burned bread that formed on the bottom coming with it.
~Andrew's desire to clean the garage as a blessing for Daddy.
~This little face... that is looking so much older lately...

 
~Tents and smiling faces...

 

~Peter's love of his "Cookie" book (it's actually a cupcake decorating book... but he doesn't know that ;)...)

~Peter's little voice "reading" "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons" with Tori... too cute :)!

~Clean, organized rooms... 

~...and safety while it happened ;)...

~Projects accomplished, or almost. For one thing, I finished a sewing project that I've been working on for a while. I've also got a good bit done on the blanket... I wish I could have finished it this month, but that's not a big deal... Next time I need to do the stripes just two rows shorter... haha!

~Hymns playing in the house, and Mark 4:28.
~The smell of supper cooking, and Tori's love to keep homemade bread goods in stock to go with it :).
~How much quicker (with less burnt bread, if you believe it...) it is to toast bread on a metal rack in the oven then in the toaster oven... we've outgrown our six slice toaster ;)...
~Mommy's grape nick-knacks that she was able to pull back out.
~Pinecones hanging from pine trees.
~Peter's little feet dangling from the swing.
~Cool air and late afternoon sunshine making the trees a golden color.
~Bethi's new knitting skills. Her first real project will be a dishcloth to use in the kitchen, that should make cleaning the counters more interesting for her, right :)?
~Sleep. Haha :). Goodnight... me exhausted... ZZzzzzz....

"My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,

and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever."

                                        ~Psalm 145:21