eat sleep and farm

I'm in the process of building this site, so bear with me. :) Hope you've all had an eventful week. Ours was a blast and... Jason still gets to be home until Wednesday, so the fun continues on! We went out to Sacramento (only an hour away!) on Friday and had dinner and did some shopping with our friends Abe and Jess Green and their little boy Chase. After spending some time with them we headed over to IKEA (our favorite place to shop!) and spent an hour there until closing. I could spend all day in that store. We're going to be buying new bedroom furniture for our kids, so we're making the rounds and seeing where we want to buy it from. Looks like we're going with IKEA for most of it. We met my parents and my niece and nephew for breakfast on Saturday morning. The kids enjoyed spending more time with their cousins Madison and Kyle. They live in LA and so we don't get to see them very often. Our friends from church invited us over to their house for the afternoo...

I was folding clothes today and heard Ethan singing in the other room. I could tell he was definitely singing an actual song (he tends to make up a lot of what he sings) and so I wandered out to the family room to hear what song he was singing. To my delight, it was one of my favorites that we sing in church. He has most of it memorized word for word (maybe missing a word here and there) and so I thought I'd share it with you all. Its such a joy to hear my son singing "So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that You're my God!" Here I am to Worship: Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness, opened my eyes let me see. Beauty that made this heart adore You, hope of a life spent with You... So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that You're my God, You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me! King of all days, oh so highly exalted, glorious in heaven above Humbly You came ...

On Sunday the kids had their new Christmas outfits on and I wanted to try and get a good picture of them before heading off to church... "try" was the key word there. We never did get that one great picture, but this sequence of pictures turned out pretty funny. The bottom picture is our stage freight boy singing for the first time with the Children's choir at church!

On Saturday morning we had our good friends the Kempers over for breakfast. We had a great time with them. The kids enjoyed playing together, opened gifts from each other and I got to hold their adorable baby Austin. :)

Well my friends... Christmas is upon us. Only 4 more days left!! I'm going to be very busy from here on out, so I'm wishing you all a very Merry Christmas now and I'll be sure to post some stuff as soon as the festivities are over. I may wait until the New Year though, because we're very busy until January 3rd. So don't panic if you don't hear from me until then. :) Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Christmas with your families! Love, Stef

So my friend Jen Greer sent me an email today, in which she replied to some comments I had made in a previous email. Unknown to her, she was pretty much right in line with all the previous comments on my post "I couldn't agree more". I asked her if I could post her comments on my blog and she said yes. For some background, she is pregnant with her 7th child, none of which were born in hospitals and all of which were very enjoyable and peaceful births. Also, while you're reading through, keep in mind her comments are not coming from her, but comments she has often heard from other people. Her reply follows each common comment. Hope that didn't totally confuse you. :) So here goes... The stories go like this: 1) I was scared that my labor wouldn't progress, and sure enough it didn't! (but stress itself slows down oxytocin production and can bring labor to a grinding halt!) 2) So the Dr. told me that we needed to induce and promised me a baby within two hou...

Last night we ventured to Downtown San Jose, to relive some fun childhood memories of mine. My family used to visit Christmas in the Park every December and I have such fond memories of it, we decided to bring our kids this year. I have to say that some things that seemed so amazing when you're little... don't seem so amazing when you're an adult. :) Still, Ethan and Rachel had a blast! Being a Sunday night the place was crowded and the other bummer was that it seems to have turned into more of a money making thing, rather than just a fun family outing. Its free to get in and see the park, but now there's ATM machines everywhere, booths with food and toys, etc... Don't get me started on the pop music they play, in place of the original Christmas music. We took lots of pictures and I'll get some on here, just as soon as we down load them. :) Not sure if we'll continue doing this every year, but this year, it was fun. We ate dinner at Johnny Rockets (YUM) and ...

Ethan would like another brother or sister, very badly. Its something he's desired before even Mommy did. ;-) We get some strange looks/comments when we tell people that we'd love to have another child. You know, we apparently have what people think is the "perfect family" (one boy, one girl) and so why have more?! Yeah.... So Ethan has been known to say some cute things in his prayers over the past several months when he asks Jesus to "put a baby in Mommy's tummy". The other night we finished reading a book and he was starting at my stomach. I asked him what he was thinking and he said, "Mommy? If I kiss your tummy, will a baby grow in it?" I told him that only God can put a baby there and that he needs to be patient and enjoy Rachel in the meantime. He followed that up "Well... I think if Daddy kisses your tummy and then I pray for it, a baby will be in there." Don't you love the mind of a two year old?!

Rachel is 17 months old now! She's not doing too many new things, but I like to post one month updates until my kids turn 2, so here I sit. :) She's getting over strep throat and doing quite well on the Antibiotics. Lately she seems like she's getting back to her normal cheery self. Her appetite came back in full (yay!) and she is eating everything in sight. Her favorite food is any kind of meat, mixed with veggies and applesauce. I know its odd, but she loves it. She loves her big girl bed, adores purses and things to put in her purses and, unlike Ethan, she likes to wander around the house, busying herself with little things. He likes very organized play and she's quite the opposite, which can be nice and not so nice. She's a Mama's girl, with no question, but definitely loves her Daddy. When Jason and I hug each other, hold hands or kiss in front of her, she gets very upset with me and wants to have all his attention. Its quite funny. She's talking up a ...

Here is something I found on my friend's website and totally appreciated it. I'm very thankful for Doctors and Nurses and what they do for us (especially in Labor and Delivery) but I couldn't agree more with this argument. Its all too true and I've experienced it first hand. Seems like our hospitals are in a big hurry to get you to A.) Schedule your birth as much as possible, so they can schedule their time around you B.) convincing mothers way too soon that they need to "give up" and opt for a C-Section and C.) Making you feel awkward for choosing to go natural. I have friends that have been able to do that and have had a wonderful experience... but they're few and far between. Anyway, watch this video, you'll enjoy it.

I already posted this on our other website, but thought I'd paste it here, just in case some of you only check this one. Tis the season ... to get sick! It seems like every year at this time, we come down with the most horrid sicknesses. I hear its because the flu/cold viruses thrive in the cold weather. That explains it. I just thought our bodies were rejecting Christmas. :) Ethan and Rachel have have colds, going on 3 weeks now. It didn't seem like anything other than the common cold, up until about 5 days ago. Sounded like everything moved to their chests and up in their sinuses. So we journeyed over to Kaiser today (for Ethan) because I was convinced he must have strep throat. The kids were both excited to see Dr. Barlo (I know, so odd, but they were) and wanted to show and tell him all the new things they could do. The diagnoses? Ethan has 2 ear infections (amazing since he hasn't complained of ear pain at all!) strep throat AND sports induced asthma. After he turns 3 ...

So as Rachel learns how to talk (but not well enough for all of us to understand what exactly she's trying to say) Ethan is having some real frustrations, trying to learn her new "lingo". Here's their conversation today: E: Rachel... will you bring me the truck? R: YES! E: Rachel, no! Bring me the one right there... under the train table. Do you see it? R: Baby! E: No. Its a truck. Would you bring it to me so I could play with it? R: No... bye-bye! Go see Papa! E: Rachel, you may NOT see Papa until you bring me my truck. R: Yes! Baby! Pretty! See Nana!! E: Rachel... are you smitching the subject? (he's totally copying me here -- smitching = switching) R: Yes. Bye-bye! Go potty. E: Rachel Kafryn (her middle name = Kathryn) You will need to obey me right now, Missy. R: [lots of baby talk I have no idea how to type follows] E: MOMMY??!! I enter the room and point to the truck. "Rachel, go get the truck for Ethan, okay?" She walks over, picks it up (as if sh...

We've had such good "luck" at our used clothes stores this week. Yesterday we went to Tracy to do some shopping and went to my other favorite used clothes store. We got some snow bibs, boots and such for our trip to the snow we'll be taking and then I came across an awesome double jogger! We had a jogger given to us last year from some friends, but it had seen its day and we only got about 2 months use out of it. I've been looking on places like ebay and craigslist for several months, but haven't wanted to spend more than $100 on one. I was just about to give up and fork over the money when God brought this one to us yesterday! Ours looks just like this one, with a slightly used look, but barely. We bought it for $85.00! Its super easy to push, the seats lay all the way down and sit all the way up and has a Mother's tray, which was my favorite part. :) I also love the big basket underneath. I'm eager to take the kids out for a jog in it. They both are...

I went to Clayton today, to my favorite used Children's clothing store; Growing Pains. Its a very small store, but jam-packed with lots of goodies. I go with a budget of $50 bucks or less and I stock up on all kind of outfits for the kids and I've never gone over $50 -- coming home with at least 5 outfits for both of them. Today I went in search of church clothes. Rachel desperately needed some dresses and sweaters and Ethan needed some nice khakis and some button down shirts. I was looking at her shelves of accessories, because she usually has awesome stuff up there and low and behold... I found this MaClaren baby bouncy seat that I love! When Ethan was a baby I wanted this seat, but it was $105 bucks and I could not spend that on a seat. Well... this store was selling an almost brand new looking one (same color to this picture) for only $21.00!! I of course bought it. I'm not pregnant, but we do hope to have more babies, so I figured it was cheap enough to buy now and u...

I added a new link to one of my all time favorite website. Its called Living Green and its Sara Snow's site. I have learned SO many wonderful tips from this woman and wanted to share. She's pretty popular, so I'm sure most of you know who she is. Enjoy!

Rachel has graduated from sleeping in a crib to a toddler bed! We brought her little bed in from the garage several nights ago and planned on getting her adjusted by just having it in her room, next to her crib for several weeks and then slowly transitioning her to it. She had different plans! The night we brought it in her room, it was a huge hit with her and Ethan. They were taking turns laying on it, putting all their blankets on it and talking about how pretty it was. I asked Rachel if she wanted to sleep on it and she said yes, so we gave it a try (thinking it would never fly). She has done great in her bed! I'm still in shock. She climbed out of bed 3 times on the first night, came walking out to the kitchen (right to Jason and me) and had this sheepish smile on her face, like she thought it was all a game. We had to tell her only 2 times "stay in bed, Rachel... its time to go nite-nite" and it worked! She's done great for her naps during the day and tonight, ne...

Congratulations to Matt and Sara Greco on the birth of their beautiful daughter, Gianna Giselle She was born on November 29th and is just as cute as a button! We're very happy for your family! I'm sure you'll enjoy having a girl and watching your boys learn to love and take care of their sister. God bless, Stef (and family)

I went and had my very first full body massage today! It was wonderful! I got a gift certificate from Jason's freelance manager and I finally made an appointment and did it! So, not knowing anything (and I mean anything) about getting a massage, I decided to just go at it and learn as I went. I had no idea it was going to be full body; head, neck, shoulders, back, legs, feet. I was assuming it would just be my back. I ate a very small breakfast, since I was busy taking care of Ethan (he's sick) and didn't think much about what I was eating. I was told by my hairdresser to drink lots of water before going and I did make sure to do that. I got the spa and the lady directed me to the room where I could change and then directed me to where I was to have my massage. She starts giving me the massage and my stomach is making just... beautiful noises. I was so annoyed. After she's done with my head, neck, shoulders and back... she goes to my legs and all I can think is "...