eat sleep and farm

Jason took a job with Amazon in Seattle, Washington and he starts October 26th! So... in about 3 1/2 weeks, we're moving! This move brings a lot of emotion along with it; excitement, nerves, anxiety, happiness, relief, joy, sadness, worry, hopeful, etc... Aside from the awesome job opportunity he's been given, we're mostly thankful to God for making this such a clearly directed path for us. He applied for a job in June and didn't get hired on. We were sad, but understood it was God clearly saying "Nope. Now is not the time." Looking back, its interesting to see how obvious it is why He had us stay. Many reasons, but all were very obvious. Amazon will be paying for a moving service to come to our house and pack everything in boxes, load the truck, drive to WA and then unpack boxes into our house. The only job we'll have to do is unpacking inside the home and setting stuff up! This was a huge relief to me... to say the least. Not sure how I was going to pack...

I love my kid's first birthdays. Such big celebration and not really for the child at all, but mostly for the parents. We have fun inviting our closest friends to help us celebrate the first year and its more of a way for us to say "Yay! We made it through the first year!" Huge accomplishment. Our week/end is about to get very busy, so I'm going to post about Kara's 1st year milestone now, instead of on Saturday, when she actually turns one. We are amazed at how quickly she's taken to walking. You only see her crawl when she's stuck somewhere and can only get through by crawling. She learned how to walk even keeping her hands at her side. I remember Ethan would hold his high up in the air and Rachel held hers out to the sides. Kara is also our earliest walker. Ethan was 15 1/2 months and Rachel was almost (brace yourself) 18 months old! She was just at the 17 1/2 month mark. So for us, this is way early. Just in this past month she has gotten such a little...

Kara is officially a walker! She decided on Monday that she would begin walking and has done very little crawling since. Much like Ethan and Rachel, she tends to crawl around in new and strange places, but after adjusting to her new atmosphere, she will typically begin walking. I really thought she and I had made a pact that she would save this stuff for after her 1st birthday. I guess not. It all came way too fast, but she's so healthy and happy, I really can't (and shouldn't) complain.

... but tonight, I think its important I do. I'm pretty new to this blog and have enjoyed getting to know the author over the past few weeks. I love her photography and love the way she writes. Her style kind of drew me in. I'll admit, her blog look isn't my favorite, but its hers, so whatever. Tonight's post especially caught my attention though. Especially . I loved the title and loved everything she had to say. And, I think its a great post for all fellow bloggers to read and mull over. It might do a few of us some good! In my 5+ years of blogging, there are a few things I've learned. 1.) Some people just love reading blogs to catch up on your life, see the growth and development of your kids and enjoy reading about your every day (or weekly) adventures. 2.) Some people, would rather read your blog to pick apart everything you write, point out your children's flaws, gossip in their spare time about the way you blog and sit around wondering if your life is...

(If you don't use twitter, the title means, Over Heard, from Rachel) 1.) "Hmmm... gimme a second to fink about this." 2.) "don't talk with your mouth open." 3.) "I love parks because they're made for kids and get me tired for a nap." 4.) talking to her cousin... "we look so beautiful in these dress-ups.." 5.) "Mom, we need to make a list of fings to do and check it off as we go." -- she's learning! 6.) "messes make me feel dirty." -- AMEN! 7.) holding a baby wipe in her hand she says to me... "I need to wipe this look off my face." 8.) "Kara is so cute. Sometimes I want to be kissing her for a lifetime." :)

Do you ever stop long enough to relish the moments? I try to remember, but when life gets super busy, its difficult to remember to relish moments in each day. When Ethan was about 6 months old, I remember getting ready for church and he was sitting nicely on the floor, playing with some toys. I felt happy in that moment; our little family of 3 getting ready for church. I said to Jason "Relish this moment... it won't be just the 3 of us forever." Little did I know how fast we'd be 5! This morning I sat, watching my 3 kids playing on the family room floor together, each one pretending with a fun voice. I love to watch them play together. Its fun to see how each of them have such different personalities. Ethan is in control. He likes to order things the way he likes them. He enjoys a steady flow of life and appreciates scheduled routine. This can be a very obnoxious characteristic, but we're doing our best to cultivate a healthy dose of it. Its good for a man to take...

Looks like it will take a long time before we get our old camera reimbursed or just buy a new one. I'm having troubles with the insurance company and it looks like we're going to have to fight it out and hope we're obnoxious enough for them to cave. They basically wanted me to make sure the police report said the camera was stolen and not just "lost". He said even though the contract says it gets reimbursed if its lost, they really mean lost like, "in a different country". I kid you not, those were his exact words. Then, when I said I would just go have the police dept. change the wording (since it was stolen) he said "Well, you technically have to SEE it get stolen." What the heck?! So, now I need to go back to the police dept. to have them change the wording, re-send my info and make a few, rather annoyed phone calls. Ug. Not what I wanted to make time for, but such is life. I guess you'll continue seeing cell phone pictures for a while...

I took the kids to a fun park in Los Gatos, close to the house where I grew up. We've been there before and the kids very much remembered the park, so they were thrilled when we arrived. We met up with a good friend of mine and her little boy. My friend is 38 weeks pregnant and Ethan got a big kick out of seeing her tummy. On our way home this is what he said to me... "Mommy, when you were pregnant with Kara you looked like a big hippo. But after she was born, now you look like a tiny, little mouse." I decided to take it all as a compliment. Even the first part. :)

Isn't my date such a handsome guy? I thought so. He was excellent company too! We enjoyed some coffee and chocolate milk @ our favorite spot, shopping, lunch, ice cream treats and ended the day with a car wash. Sometimes I'm amazed how fast Ethan's 4 1/2 years have gone by. We were looking at some clothes for him today and realized he's no longer in the back of the store, at the little boy's section. He has officially graduated to the big boy's section, wearing size XS... What??!! I know. I was shocked. He's a great 4 1/2 year old boy.

I love how God has given us 3 children, but all three are very different from each other. They're not little repeats of each other, not little robots or even kids that look a ton alike. They're individually unique and special, in their own ways. Today I took the time to especially enjoy Rachel; to watch her play, to stop and really listen to her talk. To remind her how much I love her and to thank God for the daughter He's given to m She's 3 years old and doesn't have a care in the world. She loves to be girlie and thinks shorts and pants are for girls who actually wish they were boys. She changes her clothes about 15 times a day, going through every dress and dress-up dress we own. You can often find her dancing around the living room, to her own beat; smiling as you tell her she dances quite lovely. Her cheerful attitude and sweet sounding voice in the morning has been what gets me out of my grouchy funk, when I've had a night with little to no sleep. Her zest...

We will never forget .

Pancakes and bacon for breakfast/ shopping with my sis/ playing with the kids outside/ watching Jase relax with our kids, not having to worry about work/ enjoyed a quick visit to see my Grandpa/ and now my man is BBQ'ing for dinner. Its been a great Labor Day.

Have you ever thought that? I have... lots of times. For me, just thinking about something can often times help me follow through. Its why I get so frustrated when I realize I spent my day with "empty thoughts". You know, those thoughts that lead to nothing but worry, frustrations, past or present issues that are out of your control, etc... ? Days that like feel wasted. Being a Mom to 3 kids, under the age of 5 keeps me busy and often times can feel overwhelming. But even in those overwhelming moments, I can still think of so many reasons I am thankful. And for me, thinking positively and meditating on God's richest blessings and continual goodness to me, puts me in a good place, Spiritually and emotionally. When I meet people at the park or in the stores and they make comments about how close my kids are in age, or they look worried and concerned, like maybe the idea of birth control is something that's never been explained to us, or they even say things like "y...

Rachel loves to watch me cook and lately she has decided that she'd like to really learn how. This morning she asked "Can you teach me how to really cook? Like cutting onions and cracking eggs and everything?" I think she's tired of just doing pancakes :) So she helped me make an egg scrambler, with lots of veggies in it and I taught her how to use a knife all by herself. She surprised me by being very methodical and careful. I snapped a few pix with my cell phone and thought I'd share. This is the apron Jase and I got her for her birthday :) Kara's job was eating whatever fell on the floor

I can't believe we're 1 month away from Kara turning 1 year old! Her 11th month is here and so much has been going on, I'm not sure where to begin. Let's see.... Her surgery went really well and her recovery even better! We never even had to give her Tylenol afterward. She got a head cold immediately following the surgery (which the Dr's were actually happy about) and we got to see her go through the cold like any other person, without getting an ear infection!! It was Kara's very first head cold that ran its course without turning into a nasty double ear infection. Praise the Lord! She is beginning to take some steps, but still not walking. I think she's going to comply with my wishes of her not fully walking before she's 1 year old. Such a good girl :) She loves to stand up all by herself and often takes one or two steps, but sits back down and begins her speedy crawl. I love watching her play with E&R; using her imagination, learning how to share...