So, I guess it looks like we did a lot of sliding at the Children's Museum yesterday...We've been staying busy during Brian's spring break, although it doesn't feel much like spring. Thankfully we didn't have too many outdoor projects planned for this week or we would've been disappointed. We met up with one of Brian's co-workers and his family at the Indianapolis Children's Museum yesterday and it was fun! Probably one of the most successful trips we've had. There were a lot of field trips there so it was busy, but not too bad. It was our last time to go on last year's membership (it expires at the end of March) and we again said how much more enjoyable it makes the trip. You don't worry about trying to do everything because you can always do it next time and you ride the carousel for free. It just makes the whole time feel more relaxed.

I grew up as a reader. I loved books, magazines, the back of cereal boxes...

Elijah has loved books since he was an infant. I have numerous pictures of him pulling every board book from his shelf and then turning through the pages. He will stop what he is doing and sit and listen to any picture book--even The Princess Collection that I am reading to his sister. He has recently been enjoying listening to chapter books, including Charlotte's Web and The Boxcar Children (read twice in a row!!). He has many stories memorized and can "read" them to himself or others. So, I don't know why I am surprised that as I groggily stumbled into the shower this morning my lovely husband comes busting in saying, "Michelle, Elijah can read. I mean really read." Indeed there are several basic books that he can decode the text using the picture clues and sounding out the words.

Last week we were at Barnes and Noble picking out books for the kids and I just blanked out on what to get. I sometimes refer to this phenomenon as "mall eyes." When there is so much to look at, I just glaze over and basically look at nothing. Part of the "problem" is that my aunt is a librarian who buys my kids stacks of books every Christmas and birthday, so when I look at the displayed books, we have lots of them (boo-hoo, right?). Elijah ended up with 2 new Star Wars books (ugh) and convinced him to choose a Kevin Henkes book, Sheila Rae the Brave (yay) . But as I was lamenting I remembered something about my own childhood: my parents always let me buy books, and not always literature. Whenever we went to the mall, I got to pick out a book from the bookstore. Whenever a book order came home from school I got to choose several books to buy. I had lots of Nancy Drew and Babysitter's Club paperbacks that I would read and re-read. He loves Star Wars. He loves looking at the pictures and learning about the characters. It will probably not stunt his development.

But, this does bring me to my next thought: as a kindergarten teacher, mom, and avid reader I thought I would share a list of children's authors and picture books that I particularly like (in no particular order).

Robert McCloskey--Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal
Kevin Henkes--Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Owen, Chester's Way, Julius the baby of the world
William Steig--Doctor DeSoto, Pete's a Pizza
Martin Waddell--Owl Babies
Vera B. Williams--A Chair for my Mother
Munro Leaf--The Story of Ferdinand

I know there are others, but my brain is about done for now. Maybe you have others that you really like that you'd like to leave in the comments...

I had to sneak up on her to get this on video because she always stops doing whatever cute thing she is doing as soon as the camera comes out. And she did. As soon as I put the camera down she resumed her highly self-entertaining squealing session. She started this earlier this week and seems to enjoy it most when she is alone in her crib. It cracks me up to be out in the living room and hear her.

For once in my life

I don't have a lot to say about anything. I am loving my days at home, where I can take a shower at 2:30 in the afternoon and realize that in a few weeks my day (at my paid job) will be just about over at this time. I am thoroughly enjoying cooking, cleaning, and playing with my kids. If only the snow would melt, I think my life would be about perfect.

We just look innocent

the true king

Daddy: Elijah, who is the king of rock and roll?
Elijah: Chuck Berry.
Innocent bystander: What, not Elvis?
Elijah: Elvis isn't the king of anything.

a few more pictures

It's almost midnight...

...but I can't sleep! The last of our guests just left and I am still reeling from the excitement of this weekend. First, Saturday was a day to celebrate the lives of two of my favorite people--my husband and his sister, Megan. An evening of cooking, laughing, and enjoying our family. Then today, to witness the beauty of the sacrament of baptism...Emily was so perfect during the service. She didn't even cry once! It was so meaningful to have our good friends, Dallas and Bethany be her godparents. We know that they will love her, pray for her, and be a special part of her life.

It's time to prepare

This year Orthodox Easter (Pascha), is much later than western Easter--like so late that we haven't even started Lent yet. Here's why. In any case, we are having our own sort of "fat Tuesday" of eating and celebrating this weekend--Brian and Megan's birthday party (Mexican fiesta), and Emily's baptism. There are no celebratory services allowed during periods of fasting (i.e. no weddings or baptisms.) We will begin fasting from dairy products on Monday and then the following Monday include abstaining from all meat products, oil, and alcohol until April 27th.

It is always a time of cleansing and renewal, drawing closer to God. I've started reading a book about the Orthodox veneration of Mary as I am preparing myself for Great Lent. I'll probably be sharing more about this as I process it. It's a short one, so I'll probably pick up something else once Lent gets going, although I'll be back to work soon--only 4 more weeks, and I have enough trouble finding time to read my Bible let alone other spiritual books, so we'll see.

In the mean time we are preparing a lot of our favorite meals this week: homemade pizza, biscuits and gravy, and chili. I washed and pressed the baptismal gown this morning. My grandma made it when Mary was baptized. It is beautiful! I hope that it will be used again someday.

Mary is loving her gymnastics class! She has one more week in the beginner class and then will move up to intermediate. She has been doing lots of jumping, walking on the balance beam, and beginning to use the bars. This week they started to learn cartwheels too. Elijah is going to start in the boys class.

girls weekend

the inside of our hotel--it even had a small aviary with a parrot
If Laura's career as an art teacher or floral designer doesn't work out, she has a back up plan!!

On Friday, despite the blizzard-like conditions, my sisters-in-law and I took one of our friends to Indy for the night to celebrate her upcoming wedding. We had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but we made it!! And it was fun!! We stayed in a hotel suite so baby Emily (yup, she was there too) could have her own space and we could stay up without bothering her. We went out to eat, sat in the hot tub, and on Saturday we went wedding dress shopping. It was so fun to get away. It doesn't take much to entertain me these days! Emily was the best baby ever. She didn't cry at all and she just hung out in her car seat, or in the pack-n-play, or let someone hold her.

P.S. the bride is going to be her godmother (baptism this weekend!!)

Even I have had enough

I actually like snow. I figure if it has to be cold, you might as well have something to play in. I don't really mind driving in it too much...but this is getting ridiculous!! In December, lovely. At the end of February, annoying.

"From Apostolic times and to our days all who truly love Christ give veneration to her who gave birth to Him, raised Him and protected Him in the days of His youth. If God the Father chose her, God the Spirit descended upon her, and God the Son dwelt in her, submitted to her in the days of His youth, was concerned for her when hanging on the cross-then should not everyone who confesses the Holy Trinty venerate her?" --St. John Maximovich

Many of you know that Brian has become kind of a chef around here. I still make most of the nightly meals, but if there is something special going on, he likes to whip up something tasty. Well, I am ready to give him a run for his money. His inspiration comes from a magazine called Cooks Illustrated, which I think is lovely, but the recipes take all day and require destroying the kitchen to make. He found me a sister magazine called, Cooks Country,which has some equally delicious things, without quite as many steps. Last night I made the most delicious beef stew I can ever remember--in the slow cooker. Granted, it wasn't quite like throwing all the ingredients in and turning it on. But, the 30 minutes of prep work was well worth the result. One key to this recipe: wrapping the vegetables in foil and placing them on top of the beef to steam (so they were not overcooked and soggy). Also, this recipe included parsnips, which I had not tasted before. They were fabulous!! I will be trying some more new things from this magazine.

3 Month check in

Today marks Emily's 12th week of life outside of me. She is growing up quickly and more so than with the other two kids, I feel like I want her to just stay little. (I can definitely see the whole birth order thing coming into play here!!) She is getting into a routine of sleeping and eating that is helping me to feel more calm about our life. She is often falling asleep on her own at night now, and especially joyful news--at a really decent hour (sometimes even allowing Brian and I to have that much coveted couple hours of quiet time before we collapse into the bed). It's hard to believe it was just maybe 8 weeks ago that she was completely backwards and keeping us up until almost 2 am some nights. We felt like we'd never sleep through the night again, and here it is only 2 months later...I am especially thankful again, that I was not back to work at 6, or even 8 weeks. I just cannot imagine functioning at work with such little sleep.

Emily is learning to enjoy her awake time by just hanging out with us. I am a lot less vigilant about stimulating her all the time than I was with my other kids. This morning she sat in her seat for 30 minutes while I walked on the treadmill. She was quiet and just looking around the room. I used to feel guilty for not interacting if the baby was awake, but I think I am learning new things as a mom too. She does enjoy being tickled, making throaty gggg sounds, and being snuggled. She does not enjoy being on her tummy, but I still try it if the stars are all aligned. Elijah reminded me this morning, "Mom, are you going to lay Emily on her tummy today? The doctor said you should do it every day."

I am truly thankful each day for the time that I have at home right now. I feel like I am trying to lock these feelings and moments away in my memory. I just want to hold on to them. Mary climbed into bed with me the other morning at 6:00 and locked her arms around my arm. She kept saying, "Mommy...my mommy," over and over again. These are the times to treasure.

I love 3 day weekends

Even though I am currently a stay at home mom, I absolutely love the 3 day weekend. I think we should have them twice a month. We are able to have a good balance of work, fun, and relaxation that you just can't get in 2 days off. We did lots of family stuff all weekend and on Monday Brian got to come to see Mary's gymnastics class (she is moving up to the intermediate class in a few weeks!!!) and we took the kids out to Happy Hollow Park to run around even though it was cold outside. We went for a (SHORT) walk on the path and got to see running water in places that are usually dry all summer. It's always hard to get outside when it's cold, but I think once you get out, it's not such a big deal.

An assassin lives at our house

He might look [fat, lazy] old and slow, but this de-clawed cat has taken down 6 birds this week! We are so proud of him! We have this problem with birds nesting above the window on our back porch and they make a huge mess--poop, nesting materials, feathers...we don't really want them there. He has been single-handedly getting them out of our hair. I don't know how he does it, but I would like to see it some time. I am imagining him launching into mid-air and catching the bird in his mouth. It would be a sight to behold. Not to mention that he weighs like 15 lbs or something.

Welcome to the Jungle

Elijah is so much more visually-spatially oriented than I am. He got this new gorilla as a birthday party favor last night and wanted to use his blocks to make a jungle for it. The standing up blocks are the coconut trees and the group of blue blocks are the water. I never would have come up with this idea.

the key to a good day:

the morning nap. If Emily can go down for a nap 1- 1 1/2 hours after waking up, she will:

a) lay down awake and drift off to sleep
b) nap well for the rest of the day
c) allow me to enjoy my day because she will not be fussy

It's amazing what a difference it makes! She came with me to the dentist on Tuesday (what in the world was I thinking?) and couldn't sleep in her car seat due to the awful sound of the hygenist scraping my teeth with this awful tool. The rest of the day (and that night): awful. Have I mentioned before that I love routine??

Where has the week gone?

I can't believe that it is going on Thursday already. I truly don't know what has been happening. Well, I've been watching kids--Caroline, as previously mentioned; Warren (age 2) all day today, and Jonathan (my 4 month old nephew) tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of swimming lessons and parents can swim with their kids, so I am gearing up for getting into my swimsuit with an extra 10--okay 20 lbs., on my body in front of people. Both kids really enjoyed their lessons. Elijah can now do front and back floating and can swim the width of the pool in 2 different strokes. I am impressed with his growth this time. Mary now puts her whole head under the water, is beginning to use her arms, and jumps into the deep end with a floatie.

We are finally getting over the sickness that has been hanging on. Emily is just now starting to sniffle. Hopefully she won't get it full on.

Tomorrow night is Valentine's Day and we are actually going on a date--a double date! Woo-hoo! Our friends' son is having a b-day party so parents can go out for the evening and Emily will go to my parents' house. Definitely something to look forward to.

Last, a couple of recent pics of Emily. She is almost smiling for the camera.

Happy BIRTH day, Lucy!

This weekend has been one of those busy, but not really feeling like you got anything accomplished weekends. Friday night Brian and I went out on a date and had a fantastic time! We bought a new loveseat for our living room and went to Mountain Jacks for a relaxing dinner. We are funny about going out to eat these days. A lot of people think Mt. Jacks is a really expensive dinner, but it's actually not that much more than say, Outback or Texas Roadhouse; but to us, the ambiance is worth the extra $15.00. It is a quiet, relaxed meal, with well-paced courses and great service. The last time we went to Applebee's (which used to be our favorite eatery) we couldn't believe how expensive their prices had become.

So, the crazy started Saturday morning. I went to exercise at 8:00 am and my mom called to say that Mary's fever was back (she has had a really nasty cold all week). Fearing another ear infection, I made her an appointment at the Peds. clinic. We spent most of the morning waiting on lab results only to find out that she has a bad cold.

When we got home, we found out that our friend and goddaughter, Caroline, was on her way over because her mom was getting ready to have a baby. She spent the whole afternoon and evening here and we had such fun. Caroline is about 17 months old and is such a sweetie! Her mom called at 6:30 to report that Caroline's little sister, Lucy had been born after just one push!! So it was great fun, but I am glad that we only have 3 kids. We were beat at the end of the day. I suppose it made it worse that Mary is so sick and truly not easy to deal with right now.

Here's hoping for a good day today!

The most disgusting thing I've seen all day

Sonic Airheads do this to your mouth. Gross.




And, not disgusting....


Everyone has one of these pictures, don't they? Mary was relaxin' (or maybe chillaxin'?) in the tub with the jets going and lots of bubbles to play with. The bubble beard is a classic.

The Greene's go green

I escaped germville last night for a brief visit to Target to replenish our beverage selection and a few other essentials. I got to use my new string bags to take home my purchases. I decided as my first ever new year's resolution that I am going to make an attempt to stop wasting plastic bags. Every time I go to the grocery store I bring home at least 15 bags and I just can't reuse all of them. I admit it--I throw them away. They take up so much room under the sink. SO, I decided this year I will be one of those annoying people at the grocery store that you hate to be behind because they are taking so much time. They certainly drew a lot of attention last night. They are cute colors and can hold up to 40 lbs. each. I think I will buy another set because I see that they are on sale right now and one set of 5 bags is only packing about 2/3 of our typical weekly groceries.

Next stop churning our own butter and recycling old cereal boxes into paper in the garage.

visions of a sick day

This one was so tired this morning that she literally fell asleep sitting on the couch. We had a pretty rough night. I was already sleeping on the couch due to a certain unnamed man who was snoring so loud I was about to plug his nostrils. Mary came out about 10:30 and was burning up with fever. I let her sleep on the loveseat. Emily was having a hard time falling asleep, and Elijah was up around 4, also with fever. He had been sick yesterday, but of course Mary always has to get it 10 times worse. So today, instead of my day to run errands, such as the grocery store and going to the dentist for the first time since I won't tell you when; I am washing sheets, washing children, and watching Disney movies.

For anyone who cares...

A few people have asked, so here it is...our new 4Runner. We are enjoying it. The kids actually like it better than the van. And incredibly there is more leg room in the back seat.

Snow Day

Yes, she is eating celery. We didn't have any carrots for our snowman, but Mary ended up just munching it.
The amazing Aunt Laura in her orange snowsuit. In case she gets lost.

The daily grind

Emily's first airplane ride.




What to post about when nothing new is happening...I guess it's good that we are starting to get into a routine (only to be changed again in 8 more weeks : ) ). Mary is going to gymnastics, which has become a big part of her life. Both kids are taking swim lessons, which as a side bonus has aided with bath time woes--Mary no longer screams when water gets in her face. Elijah goes to his preschool 3 times a week. I am working on trying to manage household chores and spend time with especially Emily, but all of the kids really, while I am home.

Emily went to the doctor today for her 2 month checkup and she is pretty healthy. She is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight, but has been growing steadily, so it's not a concern. Dr. Miller was impressed that she is sleeping for 7 hours straight at nighttime. It has definitely made our life seem better since I am getting a full night's sleep. In fact, I am not feeling guilty at all about staying in bed until 7:15 am every day. A time will come shortly that we will be walking out the door at 7:15, so I will enjoy this time while I have it!

Tonight Brian will bring home his new 4 Runner. He is super excited to have a new vehicle, even though he's sad to no longer have a truck. My parents are especially sad because now they no longer have a truck either (ha ha!).

on being "poor"

Well, first of all compared to many people in the world we are very wealthy. But, especially after visiting the posh neighborhoods of homes in Ft. Lauderdale that have multi-million dollar homes that sit vacant, you do have to remind yourself at least I don't live in a cardboard box. That was all an aside. The real thing I am writing about today is actually the joy of not having a lot of disposable income. This week we had an unfortunate thing happen. The transmission in Brian's truck needs to be rebuilt. Since it has almost 200,000 miles on it we decided to pass and start the search for a "new -to -us" vehicle. Now, we were not shocked that his truck needed this major overhaul. In fact, we'd been starting to talk about what our next vehicle should be, but we were hoping the truck would get us through the end of the school year and we could have the summer to find something right for us.

So, back to being poor. We drove around the local dealerships last night and realized we just cannot afford anything around here. When we got home we were looking at Craig's List for vehicles in the area and on a whim decided to check Terre Haute after we had looked through Lafayette and Indy. Well, we actually found something that we thought, "wow, this is in our price range, and what we are looking for." So, I did a bit more research online and this morning gave the number a call. By noon we were driving to meet the owner half way to Terre Haute and later this week we will be going back to pick it up. We got to meet the guy and his wife and three daughters who all came along too.

Brian, Emily and I got to have a fun road trip on a Saturday afternoon, we got to meet some very cool people, and they were telling us all about the car and how they would miss it so much, yadda, yadda. It even already has a name--Gertie. The wife was saying that you say, "gun it Gertie" when you want her to go fast!

If we had plenty of disposable income we would have researched what kind of car we wanted, test drove a bunch, been picky about color, style, etc. and we certainly would not have driven to Covington (half way to Terre Haute) to buy it.

Oh, by the way--it's a black Toyota 4Runner. We will actually have 2 vehicles that our whole family can fit in. Brian is limited about cars because he is so tall. It's hard to find something his head doesn't hit the roof in. But, since he drives 70 miles a day, he needed something that gets a little better mileage than a large SUV or truck. He really wanted a 4Runner, but even the old ones are fairly pricey. So, we were pleasantly surprised to find this one. It has a lot of miles on it, but apparently not for a Toyota. I was looking at other comparable ones on ebay and some of them had twice as many miles--well over 200,000! So we feel confident that even if he ends up hating it (which I doubt) we will be able to sell it and get our money back.

More fun from Ft. Lauderdale

The boat my brother works on. It is docked at the owner's house.
Brian, Jeff, and some friends preparing for the wedding.
Here we are on the beach.
Jeff and Michelle with my parents.
Riding in the Just Married Jeep.



We really had a lot of fun and the trip went very smoothly. When we got there it was in the upper 80's and hot, but by the time we left it was raining and only in th 60's. Thankfully the wedding was on the warmer day and it was beautiful on the beach. During the ceremony all the cruise ships that go down to the Bahamas left their port, so we watched about 5 really large ships go out into the ocean right behind the bride and groom. The boating industry tends to attract some interesting people, so we got to meet a lot of Jeff and Michelle's friends that had some cool stories and lifestyles.

Check out some of the fun we had!

Killing time

I am waiting for Brian to get home from work so we can leave for the airport. The kids are gone and the baby is asleep. I just got the mail and we got 2 statements for our teacher retirement funds. Not really a big deal, I get one every quarter. This time there were 2. One for me, one for Brian. Just a fun reminder that we are a 2 teacher family now. We both get summers, Christmases, and Spring Breaks off. Joy!!!

Cousins!

You better watch it buddy. I know karate!


Ugh, Emily. Why did your mom put us like this?
I don't know, Jonathan. Probably she likes to listen to us cry...or she wanted to see who would spit up first. I think she likes cleaning the carpets.

Our bags are packed and we're ready to go...

Cuz we're leavin' on a jetplane.... everybody now!


Only 2 days and counting until we depart for (sunny?) Ft. Lauderdale!! I have been trying to find springish clothes that fit me reasonably well and getting all the last minute things done so that we can leave and not look back for a couple of days! Elijah and Mary are staying with family while we are gone. What, did you think we were going to fly to Florida with our 3 kids and all their car seats, strollers, and other miscellaneous gear in tow? You must have thought we were crazy. We are taking Emily since I am currently her food source AND because she can fly for free. I am really looking forward to seeing my brother and other family members who are coming, all of whom have yet to meet Miss Emily Ruth. I'll make sure to post pictures when we return on Monday.

I guess my postpartum days are over

Emily is 6 weeks old today!!!


Here are a couple shots of this growing girl. She is up to 11 lbs. already and well on her way to 12! She is holding her head up pretty well and starting to give her first smiles. I had my doctor visit today and was given a clean bill of health. The one disappointment was that he said I should wait a couple more MONTHS before attempting abdominal exercises. I have already started walking and trying to eat pretty healthy in an attempt to slide into my jeans--they're so close, and yet so far...I am also trying to find an inexpensive outfit to wear to my brother's wedding next weekend. It's in Florida--on the beach. I just hate buying clothes that I (hopefully) won't be wearing for very long. I did buy a couple of shirts this weekend, but they were cheap and probably won't last that long anyway.

A Few Random things from my camera

When I uploaded pictures to my computer today I found a few things that were fun. The first picture was this morning--I realized that Mary and Emily were dressed almost alike. Then I realized I can start buying matching outfits for the girls! I don't know if I will...okay, I probably will. For Christmas Mary got this cute nightgown from Gymboree and a hat and purse from The Children's Place that all happened to match. I think she looks like a Mary Jane-esque character from Spiderman (the damsel in distress for all of you non-Spiderman watchers). Elijah was absolutely thrilled with this new costume that includes a face mask. He has been doing Spidey jumps all around the house.

And for anyone who didn't see the article in the Journal and Courier about The SmallTown Heroes, check this out.

Happy New Year

I am not one to spend a lot of time reflecting, but at this time of year it certainly seems appropriate to remember what things have influenced and affected us in the last 365 days.

Last New Year's Eve was spent in Cleveland, OH. We had 2 wonderful children and were pretty content with them starting to grow up a bit (read no more sleepless nights). We enjoyed the winter with lots of snow, playing outdoors, shoveling, etc. Elijah took swimming lessons. I felt like we kind of found our groove. Brian was finishing school, I was settled at my job, the kids had their routine...enter baby number 3. Thankfully my pregnancy was fairly uneventful and I was rarely sick--in fact I don't think I threw up even once now that I think about it.

I can't think of anything that happened in the spring. Oh, Elijah played soccer. That was fun!!

Summer started (late due to a week's worth of snow days to make up) with me taking a week long kindergarten workshop and Elijah going to zoo camp. Brian was home with us most days as he finished up some class stuff for Purdue and later in June worked for the University part-time at Stone Hall cafeteria/catering. We (he) put a new back porch on our house with the help of several friends and family members. We grew and enjoyed our garden, went on a long weekend just the two of us to northern Michigan, we swam at Aunt Susan's and Tropicanoe Cove, attended the coldest, rainiest Fiddler's Gathering ever, hung out with Foghorn Stringband at Bob-o's retirement party, kept our kids up for 4th of July Fireworks for the first time, listened to SmallTown Heroes play at Wolcott, spent a week in Michigan with our family on vacation...whew, it seems like a lot when you list it out like that!!

Fall was intense. Brian keeps saying to me that he has been seriously stressed out since he got his job the first week of August. Between my growing belly, a couple of head lice infestations, my aching back, his new job and student teaching, Elijah starting preschool (me driving him back and forth during my lunch time), and trying to prepare for whatever our life would look like with the addition of our new baby...we were kind of, okay really, stressed out. Thankfully Brian finished with an A from Purdue, got all of his work done and next semester should be significantly less busy.

Emily has been a wonderful addition to our family. She is the snuggliest baby! I won't lie and say our life has just been rosy since her birth. It has been hard. Harder than I thought. Mary has been tough to deal with, the lack of sleep is difficult when you have other kids to deal with in the morning, and navigating the holidays has proven to be almost impossible for us this year (well, that was because I was throwing up, but nonetheless). I know I am looking forward to getting back into a routine with preschool, getting the kids signed up for an activity. As I was writing on my calendar today I realized just how soon I will be going back to work. I know the days will fly by and then we'll have a whole new set of stresses to deal with: paying for 3 kids in daycare, dropping off at 3 places in the morning before work, pumping for breastmilk during the day, oh, and actually doing my job, writing lesson plans, teaching 23 6 year olds how to read and write. I guess the moral of the story is this: life is always busy, always hard in some way. If you are always looking for the next "resting period" you will miss the good parts along the way.

This next year will bring more firsts to our family: Elijah will start kindergarten in the fall. Mary will start preschool. Our summer will include us both bringing home a paycheck and not working. Emily will have her "first year" and all that comes with it--sitting, crawling, talking, walking. Next Christmas we will have a one year old. As I wrap it up I am both excited and sad as I think of the passing of time. So often I wish for something different and then look back and wish for that time to come back. This year I will try more to enjoy the moments as they come.