The beginning of Birthday number 4

Last Saturday we celebrated Arwyn's 4th birthday and aunt Jessica's (Josiah's sister) 29th birthday together since we had all the sibs together. Arwyn requested a vanilla princess cake, so i made the cake the night before and Jessica requested that they decorate it together, so Arwyn mixed the different colors of icing and Jessica put it on, and they decorated it princess style. I couldn't find a cinderella (Arwyn's favorite princess) cake topper so i found a small rubber one in the toy section at walmart. It worked well. Uncle Joel made yummy hamburgers and we had watermelon and salad. It was fun celebrating together, and this marked the beginning of birthday celebrations. Sunday of course was daddy's day, but monday Arwyn got to share a hot fudge sunday that The Red Robin staff brought to her after singing happy birthday. We were having dinner with some friends and they snuck in that she was having a birthday tommorrow. Tuesday was actually her birthday and we started the day sleeping in! (much to Daddy and mommy's delight) and then made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Daddy found some free movies here in Sant Ana and Arwyn chose American GIrl: Kit Kitridge over Horton and Charlottes Web (which are actually two of there favorite movies). They made it through the whole movie ("they" is the key word). Then Arwyn wanted togo to CHili's. We let her pick whatever she wanted for lunch and she picked a blue freeze drink, and she nibbled on some of our things too. The chili's staff came and sang happy birthday as well, and she buried her head in my shoulder at first, then braved and relished it with sheepish delight. They gave her a HUGE brownie mountian, that she gladly shared with us. Then we drove home while the sugar crashes took place. We spent the afternoon swimming and recieving birthday phone calls from grandparents and aunt Jessica, having so much fun that we didn't document it with the camera. We did get one clip of them swimming with our video camera, which I will try to post, or rather get Josiah to post if we can figure it out. They had so much sugar yesterday that I held off on the chocolate cupcakes that Arwyn requested till today. I will post some pics of those this evening. The birthday festivities have pretty much come to a close, except the day after we get back in to Sac we are driving to Vallejo to go to Magic Mountain for her birthday gift. What a week!

 

 

 

 

Big Boy!

So cute! When I get home I want to scan a pic of Josiah near this age on the potty, and compare how similiar they are. He is doing so well with his potty training!

The Last of The Home Place

 

 

 

 

Another thing Arizona never fails with is Beautiful sunsets! I just couldn't not post all my fav pics of the last few days in AZ, thanks for indulging me:)

The Home Place part 4

 

Life is Exciting...

 

A boy and his stick...

 

Finding more hammocks...

 

The Home Place part 3

Profile of 8 1/2 months

 

Sprinklers at The Home Place

 

 

 

The Home Place part 2

On the way to Aunt Kristi's house...

 

Reading with Daddy...

 

Running through the desert, looking for rattlesnakes:)

 

pearing at a belly...

 

Month Long road trip:stop four

 

In the rural parts of Arizona is a place called Sunizona... Where now, Great Grandma and Grandpa Lind (Josiah's mom's parents) live in a place called the The Home Place.

 

 

 

Out in the country we don't wear seatbelts, what fun that is!

Month long Road trip: Tuscon part two

It is so fun to see our little girl become a big girl. She will be 4 in a few days! She has discovered what her daddy wishes everyone know about Arizona. If you have never lived there you hear Arizona and you think desert,cactus, and triple digit weather. Which is all true. But its not always excruciating hot, not once in our time in Catalina, just outside of Tucson, was it very hot. Instead we enjoyed 70 to 80's, breezes, humming birds, bunnies, hammocks in the shade beneath beautiful vines on the porch, butterflies, beautiful purple and blue shaded mountain views all around. The greatest part is that every time you walk into a building they have AC blasting, its so refreshing. The bottom photos were an effort to get a belly profile, didnt reallly turn out that way, but more will come.

 

 

 

 

The Brook

 

We had a picnic by this brook/stream (we couldn't decide which it was, or if there is a difference), and after lunch the kids headed up the stream in there chones, they climbed over rocks, in thigh high pools of water, and up little waterfalls. Finally we tested this water that they were in and it was FREEZING!

 

Mt. Lemmon

 
 


Photographs by Josiah Watters

Month long road trip: stop three, Tucson

So over a week ago we got into Tucson where Nana and Papa live. They have this wonderful porch with shady vines and a nice hammock. Malachi found it right away. Arwyn found me in the house and said "mommy come look at Chi Chi!", I came out on the porch and couldn't see him, till I noticed a little lump in the hammock, he was folded up nicely in it. He stayed there for 45 minutes, just soaking in the breeze, hiding out in the hammock. Now I have to fight him for it!

 

There are lots of fun places to hide in Nana's house:)

 

We went on a drive to Mt. Lemmon and took a little hike. Nothing beats sticks and rocks and bugs...and cliffs!

 
 


That was all before Josiah and I left for Minneapolis for conference last Tuesday. we just arrived home last night, Happy to se eour kiddos. While we were gone Nana started teaching Malachi to potty train. Yeah! less work for me! I am so grateful, there are some really cute pictures of him in his big boy underwear and going potty, but they will have to be posted much later in August, cause now Nana is on her way to Peru and wasn't able to pass the pics off... they will be coming...


P.S. Arwyn is finally sleeping at night with big girl underwear, no Diaper!

Month Long Road Trip: Harmon's part 2

 

I kept making Josiah re-do the toss up cause I wasn't getting my timing right with the camera. When he saw this one he said "that one is great", even though her head is chopped off he said that it shows that she was really high. I think He was just done throwing 37 lbs up in the air:)
 

When Malachi was jumping off the diving board he was asking daddy to come closer and closer so he could practicly jump on his head. Apparently he hasn't learned to trust daddy to catch him no matter what, part of that might have to do with the fact that when they ask him to catch him he responds with " I'll try...". I would jump on Daddy's head too:)
 
 

Month Long Road Trip: Pheonix

Hangin with the Harmon's (there blog is on the left). Josiah's good buddy from college, Anthony,wife Angie and son Brayden had us over for yummy Costco pizza (the only kind of Margerita I can have)and cupcakes, courtesy of Brayden's Grandma. Anthony flies planes and has flown into Sacramento quite a few times but we have never caught him, or he has never caught us. Josiah and Anthony went to Gordon College together and roomed together senior year. Josiah was telling me a story of Anthony the first day he met him: In the first couple days of orientation Josiah met Anthony and Anthony said to him, " Can you believe that one of the ladies in this very room could be our future wives!?" and Josiah thought, " so thats what your about:)". According to Josiah it was very indicitive of Anthony's future two years at Gordon, but what he won't tell you is that He (Josiah) was also well known with the ladies. Ironically enough neither of there wives were in the room that night, they were in completely different states, Ohio and California.
 


This little fella is Brayden who was very interested in the camera and seeing himself on it, via the nice close up.
 



At the house we are staying they have noodles for the pool, and Arwyn has discovered some independance that hopefully will motivate her into swimming all on her own, here at the Harmon's she was enjoying floating all over with the intertube.
 

Month long road trip: Stop Two

 

We made it safely to Phoenix at noontime wednesday. We left early that morning so that we could drive in the cooler part of the day so we could beat the 106 degree weather in AZ. During the latter part of the trip we played the ten minute game: rolling the windows up and getting all sweaty then rolling them down and the breeze blew on us cooling us from our sweat. Once I gave into the sweat it felt good. I started to think of creative options to keep us cool, that if I had talked with my mother in law I would have gotten the same ideas much earlier on: frozen water bottles to put under your legs or on your neck,spray bottles or wet washclothes... well now we know for our drive back to LA soon.

Malachi discovered the fun of watching veggietales through some binoclars "nock-you-yours" yesterday.

Month Long Road Trip : Stop one

 

 

 

Have you ever drove through the "grapevine" on your way towards LA and seen that beautiful man made lake to the right? We have, it's Pyramid Lake, and we always think how nice it looks and what a great treat it would be to go play there someday. Well yesterday we indulged ourselves in that treat. It was a great break from our non air conditioned car. The kids loved the rocks and sticks, and water of course! We had just enough time to eat a picnic lunch and go for a swim and hop back in the car to Loma Linda where we stayed with Josiah's sister for the night. Now on to Pheonix Arizona...

Indestructable

About two weeks ago Malachi's sippy went missing and then in the park behind our house Arwyn and I found it, in a different condition than it was left.

Nalgene is known for being pretty indestructable, but we found a way around that:) A lawn mower.

Special Time

Two days a week Josiah and I each take one of the kids and have "special time" with them. Arwyn usually goes to starbucks with daddy before preschool on tuesdays, and thursdays we make jewelry and color, below we went to park and took pictures as we played after our jewelry session. Malachi and I usually cuddle and watch "cars" with a yummy treat on our bed, and he and josiah go to the river and skip rocks, he could do that all day... believe it or not the bottom pic arwyn took all by herslef, for the first time.



 
 
 
 

Disagreement with a treadmill

 

 

 

 

Like two days before I left for Georgia we were at my parents house and Malachi had a run in with a moving treadmill. It was pretty traumatic, we took him to the doctor th next day to prevent infection. They said it was equal to second degree burns and but mostly were concerned about scarring on the face. Luckily we met with a dermatologist right at the doctors office, and he said that he thought he had good chance of healing well if we didnt let scab (contrary to the old opinion of healing, you keep it covered and wet and it won't scar as much), which seemed to make big difference.

Today we were at a friends house and he ran over to the treadmill, " Mommy can i get on?", i looked at him and was surprised that he was not horribly afraid of it, then he asked "will it hurt me?"...

The pictures are coming

A few days ago I posted on my FB page that I CHOPPED Malachi's hair off, I took some pictures then my camera battery died, so while its charging I am still gonna share some funny things that we have heard lately from the kids. One of Malachi's alter ego's is Feifel, from American Tale, singing the song "there are no cats in America" is a regular in this family, and many additions have come along...

Last night Josiah came into their romm to hear them singing there are "no Vaginas in America"... thats one way to extinction...

This morning we were taking M's temperature for probably the 8th time in two days, because he has had a high temp... this morning it was finally back to normal! He celebrated by telling me "there were no mommy's in America", then we started our marathon of all the things America doesnt have...by the end it was a pretty funny and lonely place. Arwyn added "there were no clothes in America" and I said then we would all be naked, she corrected me "we will wear naked mama!" ... I liked it, I think I may use it sometime:)

Pictures will come later once the battery is charged... He is a boy now.

back when it was rainy

 

taken a few months back...i just had to post this:)

Update

It's been awhile since I posted; since Josiah went to India life has been a flurry! The Monday after he got back we had our ultrasound appointment. Arwyn was pretty nonchalant about the news of a new SISTER! She informed her Nana and Papa over the phone that "We are having a girl cause that's what I picked". As soon as we got in the car she said "Mom I need to name the baby now". About every other day she comes up with a new name. My favorite so far is Marwyn (a combo of her and Malachi) some of the others are:
Frenchy (the name of dog in her Fancy Nancy book)
Sunny (cause the sun had come out that day)
Names of her favorite friends

I don't dare start talking to Josiah about names this soon! I have learned my lesson the last two times. He will just say no to every idea even if he really does like it, just to get under my skin.

My mom also had her surgery two days later. I spent the next three days doing shifts at the hospital with my dad. She went home on saturday. Dad and our whole family have allergies or a cold, were still not sure which of the two. We all got jump started on thursday last week, but the symptoms stay the same. I am pretty sure mine are allergies cause when I came home from being at my parents for two days they got worse again. Ughh!

In between we had a visit from Josiah's youngest brother Joel and his girlfriend Julie. We went to the folsom zoo while they were here, some of the pictures were taken there.

Mom is doing well, and slowly overcoming the big obstacles that the doctor was looking for. She still requires 24/7 help but is slowly gaining her independance back. The Doctor is pretty sure that her tumor, which they got most of, was not malignant. But we soon know for sure when the results come back from the lab. He had to leave some tumor cells that were attached to the nerves, but he doesn't think that they will grow back, but she will be checked in 6 months. Thank you all for your prayers! It was a good lesson in trusting God for all of us.

I have been home since Tuesday afternoon, and jumped into packing up our apartment. We will spend our first night with our friends Rob and Julie on Sunday. So I have been organizing what to get rid of and what we are sending to my parent's for our stay with them in August, and also what to pack in their storage for our move to PA, and whats traveling with us for the next three months. Pretty much most of it we are giving away. Our house church came over last night and after our monthly spaghetti dinner they helped us get everything out of the cupboards and organized for today. What's today? an open house where a bunch of friends are coming over to take whatever they want, hopefully they will take most of it, so we don't have alot to ship off to Goodwill.

Saturday we paint and clean and sunday we are out. I am hoping life settles down a bit after our move this week.

squatter

 

 

This little one is ready for India! He even likes to squat in side his drum:)

My first hair cut!

 

I FINALLY gave in and trimmed the locks on this boys head. What pushed me over the edge? when he was requesting his sister's clips in his hair so that he could see:)

BIG BOY BED !

Thanks Irene for loaning us the big boy bed! Malachi was very up to the challenege to stay put, cause he wanted so badly to be in the bed. He even put himself to bed a couple hours early just so he could go be in it:)I told him that if he got out he would go back in the baby crib. That was Irene's genious idea, caues i thought i was going to have to sit by the door, ready to spank and redirect, but after this long day of surgery and getting settled and the "hosiptal" set up I wasn't feeling up to any training. But he did great! I checked on him twice and he was still in bed and i gave him words of praise. One time I went in and he was sitting up but was wanting his pillow that had fallen on the ground, but not willing to risk getting down to get it. Then another time i checked on him again and he was sitting up, talking about tigers, and swiper the fox (dora show) and sharks in an excited manner, I think he was so jazzed to be in his bed he just couldn't calm down, but i checked on him 15 min later and he was snoozing away. Now to see if he is going to fall out alot... He is growing up so fast!


 

Jammin

For the last couple months we have "suffered" without any music, because I left my Ipod speakers plug in a hotel room and haven't replaced it. So every once in a hwile we get on the headphones of our computer an dlisten to music. Malachi loves to come in the room and dance/jam with me. He loves to groove!


 
 
 
 

Arwynisms, Malachisms

Malachi was standing in the living room with Josiah
Josiah: can you get me ______?
Malachi: I'm too busy right now

as he stands there doing nothing

A and M and I were in the car waiting for daddy and a woman singer came on "The Fish"
A: this is a mommy song
Me: whats a mommy song?
A: the kind that makes you feel better
Me: giggling
A: why are you laughing
Me: im tickeled
A: who tickled you
Me: you did, you tickled my soul
A : (trying to picture it)

Arwyn's favorite response: why?
Malachi's favorite response: Of course!

Christmas Carol party

Arwyns' first performance in preschool, the 3 year olds got to sing 3 songs, and after the whole production was over we ate cookies that every family had brought. Arwyn did great! i was wondering if she would freeze in fron of everyone, but she sang the whole time, doing her hang motions and all!

 
 
 
 

silly faces

 
 

mom's annual christmas open house

see the magnificant huge tree emerging behing Josiah? its decoorated differenmtly each year., this years theme was snowflakes, and of course our awnory boy is the only one not cooperating.

 

sibling love

i came out of my room to find them sharing the chair while they read, these loving moments are few and far between lately, so i had to capture them.

 
 

apple hill 2

 
 
 
 

apple hill 1

cutting down our christmas tree, with our freind Katie G.


 
 
 
 

Cold Cold Canada

We had the great opportunity to spend 6 days in Edmonton Canada this last week. We were so busy visiting and meeting new people from Evangel church that we didnt take many pictures. But my last day I had to experience Second Cup for myself. They pretty much rival Starbucks in terms of having one on every corner, at first I thought its amazing that they do so good and so does Starbucks, but considering the Cold Cold climate, there has to be many refuges for frozen people to hang out. I walked one block from our hotel to the nearest Second Cup and even though I was swimming in a huge down coat, that I would sweat in here in the winter, I was in pain. My ears and my hands were so painfully cold that I was almost running to get inside. I was maybe outside less than 5 minutes!

When I approached the building I started to smell it, to me resembled dog food. But I am sure that once you are regular it becomes endearing. I remember when Starbucks used to smell like vomit to me when they had just ground their coffee, but now I love to encounter people that have spent a little time there, it is impossible not to walk away smelling like not only coffee but starbucks. I ordered a delicious biscotti and a mocha, which was a bit too strong for me so i got an extra pump of chocolate. I have to say I lOVED the atmosphere, it was funky and cozy and had plenty of cushy seats, unlike at Starbucks when you arive hoping that the cushy chairs are available and they aren't, then you see somone leave and you race to get to it before some one else. I sat in this cute little velvet chair that had an oval tray screwed on the arm so i could put my drinks and snack on it and pivot it toward me once i was all snuggled in. I took this photo from J's blackberry which was painful cause i was imagining how cozy and perfect it would be coming from our camera, and I am sure people were thinking I was definately a tourist cause I spend a good 10 min trying to get a good pic.

Thats all you get of Canada, if you really want to hear more about our conversations ask me in person, God was definately with us! It was so great to have time alone together as well, one thing we did do was go to the largest mall in North America, that has over 800 stores in it! It took us an hour to walk from one end to the next, as we were heading towards the water park, yes inside the mall, Josiah was saying how just being in a mall instantly drains him, and we were walking slower and slower as we went. We saw the new James Bond movie( which we were impressed how little sex it had in it)then went for some fun in the nicely heated version of waterworld, but with more crazy slides. Josiah was impressed when we had done all the slides except one huge traditional slide that was prob 150 ft high, and dropped straight down, we got up the stairs and I looked down at the bottom and asked are you sure i won't fall off? He was certain I would hesitate to the piont that I talked myslef out of it, but I just sat down and dropped off before him even. It was actually really fun other than the rush of water in my face, I was hoping I could see on my way down but not without flushing my sinuses full of lukewarm clorinated them park water. It was fun to just play together without the kids! And weird to dry off and exit and be and be walking around in a mall instantly.