Walking

Daniel is walking pretty well now, if a little slowly. He's finally discovered the great benefit of walking - having your hands free to carry things. Today it was this little dish with the orange block inside it. He was really doing a great job of keeping the block inside the dish and would very patiently stop and replace it when it fell out. I'm thinking there may be a future for him as a professional relay racer.

Getting Wired

Again, we are discovering all the charm of our old house. We had called

an electrician to install some ceiling fans for us, (They had been sitting in their boxes for six years, and we decided, hey, it's time.) but when they came they found old wire that they could not reinstall a fixture on. Now, we had put new fixtures on some of this wire, not realizing that WE WERE TAKING OUR LIFE IN OUR HANDS! Anyway, they rewired the ceiling fixtures for the fans, and, in the process, found places where live wires had been stuffed down inside our plaster walls, where they smoldered by the highly-flammable lath. Praise the Lord we had not burned down! Our electrician highly recommended a complete rewire, and now we're in the midst of it. It's been interesting having my new friends Ryan, Kevin, and Darrell home with me and the kids every day for the past week and a half. We've also had fun figuring out which outlets and appliances are going to work on a given evening. It's an exercise in flexibility, so I guess that's good for me. I guess it's probably a little bit like living in a place like Africa where power is optional at almost any time. Today Ryan assured me they would probably be done by Friday, so I'll be able to show you all my new outlets, not to mention some new lights in convenient places. Yea for Edison!

Soccer Practice

We're going to soccer practice these days. This is the first time we've ever done the soccer thing, and it's turning out to be pretty fun. All three of the older kids practice at the same time but on different teams. Isn't that beautiful?! So Matt and I have some time to watch and hang out with each other. I love watching them all, but my favorite would be Erin's 4 and under team where the highlight of every practice is a game where they try to kick the ball into their coach while she acts like an animal (of the kids' choosing). Big fun! I just love people who go all out like that to make an experience good for kids.

Here are some other shots from the other night...

Kids in the Kitchen

Joe and Ellie have had some kitchen time over the past couple weeks. We got a kids' cookbook called Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen as a gift from my aunt. It's supposed to be for kids ages 8 and up to use independently, but I've helped just a smidge. The recipes that we've tried have been fun for the kids to make and have been things that we've all enjoyed eating. Ellie made some spaghetti pie, for starters...
and has also made "Carrots in a Gentle Sauce" and "Fruit Shakes". She's sort of into cooking, so I'm trying to let her be independent (as you can see from the mess on the counter behind her). Notice her sparkly house slippers, which are only outshone by her smile of satisfaction.

Joe made "Peanut Butter Doodads", which was super quick and rewarding (a good place for him to start.) The secret ingredient here would be the "everyday cape".

The Everyday Cape

For a couple weeks this summer Joe got really into wearing this cape. He told my sister it was his "everyday cape" because it was so comfortable. He just makes me laugh.

Kiddy Coaster

Matt and the three older kids rode the kiddy coaster last week at the fair. Here's the first time around...

and here's the last time around. (Notice that the looks of sheer terror have subsided!)

Joe and Ellie rode it twice, but I don't know if we'll ever get Erin near one again.

Tea with Erin

"Tea is a time in which we were perfectly contented with ourselves and one another."
Charles Dickens

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Daniel turned one this past Saturday, and we partied. Everyone got into the act. The older three kids helped frost cupcakes...

Matt was on decorations...

and Daniel showed up to look cute! He really approved our choice of a "Baby Einstein" theme! He kept talking to and pointing at the animals on the tablecloth.

Gifts were fun...

but he like the cards just as much.
He thought it was a little strange that all these people were standing around singing together and looking at him... but the cake was a big hit.It was all that could be desired in a first birthday. Our little guy is officially one and still delighting us everyday. We are so thankful for each of the past 370 days and praise the Lord for the hope we have for the days yet to come.

12 Months?

Here are the pictures I took on all of Daniel's "month birthdays" (the 2nd of every month).

I didn't do a 12 month shot as I'll post his birthday party pictures sometime soon. If you count closely you'll see I'm missing a month. I have no idea what happened in April. I thought I had taken the picture. Actually, that's a pretty good way to describe my year...I think I lost a month somewhere...

As you can see, though, Daniel is thriving and impressing us with new accomplishments each day. What amazing bodies. We truly are "fearfully and wonderfully made"!

1st Birthday Eve

A year ago, this very minute, our little "Doodlebug" was getting ready to make his debut. It seems ages ago, and it seems like yesterday all at the same time. Tomorrow I'll show you the pictures of his growth over the past 12 months, but tonight, I want to share a passage that has meant so much to me over the past year. It's from the book Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss and is a journal entry written by the author soon after the birth of her third child. (It's an old book, so bear with the old-fashioned jargon.)

"[My sister-in-law] takes a most prosaic view of
this proceeding, in which she detects malice prepense on my part. She says I
shall now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more
disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure for visiting, reading,
music, and drawing. Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look
at the other. Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to
make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for
God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the
abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one
dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a
willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings
had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother's heart,
welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her
lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!"

The Pooooooool!

I have to get some of these pictures in before summer is over. Our kids have had a blast at the pool this summer. To them, a day isn't complete without a dip! Two of them conquered the high dive. First, Ellie...

...and then Joe. (It's hard having a little sister with so much nerve!)

Erin has learned to swim under water ("wif" her eyes open!). She also has perfected the art of looking completely un-goony while wearing orange goggles.

Actually, she may still be working on that one.

And, as usual, Daniel just goes along and has a good time wherever he ends up. He could crawl over the whole baby pool except for the middle, and when he got there, his legs would lift up and he'd be sort of walking on his hands (which was quite fun to watch).

As for me, it's been fun to be at the pool without a support stocking (like I had last summer). Something about the water still makes me feel like a kid. I even wore the orange goggles for a while. I'm not attempting the high dive, though. That wasn't even that much fun when I was a kid.

Cousins

Here's Erin with her BIG cousin, David. It's amazing how many currents there can be in a gene pool!

You've Gotta' Try This!

When a baby is alone in a room and you hear him laughing hysterically, you know it's gonna be good...

Daniel found some of Ellie's Polly Pocket Princess gowns and was getting such a kick out of throwing them and watching them bounce. Some of them actually bounced back toward him, so maybe that was the funny part. I don't know, but he was laughing so hard! I guess we know what to get him for his birthday.

One of the Nice Things About #4

Besides being great entertainment for Daniel, the three older kids can be really helpful. Joe has figured out how to do the whole feeding routine (except for food preparation). When he told me he wanted to feed Daniel, I made sure he knew what he was doing, and then I left the room! I'm sure I would have worried him to death if I had hovered, and as it turned out, Daniel eats very well for him and doesn't get any messier than usual. I think Daniel may even like Joe's feedings better...he's just funnier than Mommy.

I don't know which is better, having three older kids to help out or being able to let them do it.

July 18

1998

2008

(On our anniversary picture, I always make Matt hold up the number of fingers with me to show the year. He loves it!)

If you had told me ten years ago that our anniversary date ten years into the future would include a nursing baby, a mini van, and a bonus buy of a lifetime supply of sidewalk chalk (for $2.99!), I probably would have been depressed. Praise the Lord that it did include those things, and it was a wonderful night!

Gold

"Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold." Robert Frost

For the past week, we've been working on our office/schoolroom, the last room in the house to get a makeover. Last Friday I stripped the last piece of wallpaper(!), and after going through all the paint chips, we selected what we thought would be an earthy, stimulating, golden wheat color. We painted one coat last night, then woke up this morning to walls the color of the stripes on a road, "road stripe yellow", I call it. It was a big OOPS moment, but pictures can never do it justice.

We got another gallon of paint, and Matt got to work while the kids and I were at swimming lessons. Fortunately, only one more coat was required, and we now have our desired color! Yea! You can see it in the background of this picture.

Matt is such an organization freak. (Really, I love that about him!) Here, he's teaching our boys, so they can grow up to be just like Daddy.

Fishin'

My dad got Joe a fishing rod for his birthday, and he tried it out at the camp when we were there for our reunion. It was a great place to learn to fish because he'd no sooner cast his line, than he'd have a fish. Granted, the fish were all about three inches long, but that didn't matter to him. He had a good time, and Erin did, too. I don't know if Erin is a tomboy or if she is just eager to do anything the older kids do. They made a pretty cute pair. Ellie wanted nothing to do with the fishing...she's my daughter, I'm afraid.

Wahoo!

Last January we decided to homeschool Ellie for the rest of her kindergarten year. Any of you who know us, know how EXTREMELY difficult this decision was for us. We had never intended to be homeschoolers, loved her teacher, and, of course, have a great respect for the school (as it is where Matt teaches). Nevertheless, it was a necessary measure at the time, so we reluctantly became some of those "weird" homeschoolers. And now we love it! It is so clearly what the Lord had intended for us, and we are thankful for the blessing of being able to teach Ellie faithfully during what could have been a somewhat chaotic time (with baby Daniel). The Lord met many needs, especially in my mind and heart. It was just a really great experience! So now we are looking forward to having both Joe and Ellie home next year, and tonight I'm saying "Wahoo!" because the curriculum and materials (which I have had a ball picking out) arrived on the big brown ups truck. I can't wait to dig in!

Family Resemblance

The Conger Clan gathered this weekend at beautiful Camp Conger. (It's just so cool to have a 4-H camp in the family!) Each color of T-shirt (green, orange, red, and blue) represents a different branch of the family beginning with my Grandma's generation. She was one of four kids, and now the whole clan numbers 98! Not all of them were there, of course, but we were thinking of them.

Here's our immediate family with my dad. You can really see we're related...It's something about the eyes! (Thanks, Jodi, for one of the best laughs I've had in a long time!)

This one is my favorite!

I found out that some Clanners actually read this blog, which makes me feel motivated to start at it again. It's no longer October 7, Marianna...Life goes on!