Whew!

Picture this...
A messy, post-dinner kitchen; a sticky, spaghetti-faced little girl; a mostly content baby boy chillin' in the bouncy seat; a Mom, trying to hold it all together and get the kitchen cleaned up before baby boy needs fed, while also trying to keep little girl entertained...

Mom: "Why are there children in costume walking down the street?"

Little Girl: "Are they trick-or-treating?"

Mom: (trying to hold it together so as not to freak out Little Girl, b/c you see, Little Girl's adorable, much anticipated Strawberry Shortcake costume is not ready and requires a trip to Walmart to finish... Quick look at clock reveals 5:57pm, which means, Trick-or-Treat starts in 3 minutues, not 24 hours & 3 minutes, like Mom and Dad thought. Also, there is NO candy in the house to pass out to afore mentioned children in costume - Walmart trip was also going to remedy this later tonight. WHAT TO DO???) "It looks like it's Trick-or-Treat tonight, not tomorrow night like Mommy and Daddy thought! (why oh why does Daddy have to be at work right now???)

Well, as life would have it, Riley started to squal at the exact moment I started scurrying about to throw together some sort of costume for Sophia. Well, about 10 minutes, one pair of white tights, one pair of white glittery leggings, one long sleeved white shirt (it was cold outside!), one pair of pink sparkly shoes, one crazy frilly dress-up dress, one white winter vest, one pink headband, one pair of pink wings and some glittery play make-up and of course the pink Easter bucket to collect candy with later, we have, tada!!! um... a, um, Fairy Princess?? No, a Winter Fairy Princess!!! That's right, that's what Mommy meant to create all along!!! :)

Well, thankfully our dear neighbors were out with their kiddos and agreed to let Soph tag along so I could stay home to nurse Riley. Soph had a blast and a totally great attitude. She very calmly said, "I can be Strawberry Shortcake next year!" Oh, and she totally caught me eating her candy after she went to bed, but there are no witnesses (Riley doesn't count)...
Without further ado.. her she is! Our very own Winter Fairy Princess!

Glitter hands!

What excites an almost 4-yr. old! :)

Truest love

It's the little things in life - can you relate?

Like I said... It's the little things ~

I see the diarrhea

What!?!? See these lovely flowers? Jamie surprised his girls with this cute bouquet of "crazy daisies" today. They have been dyed to achieve their fun colors. As I was trimming the stems to put them in the vase my fingers got all stained with the dye and I quickly told Sophia not to touch the flowers so as not to get dye on her hands or clothes. She wondered what dye was, so I did my best to explain it to her. Well, a few minutes after our conversation, she was sitting at the table eating her trail mix and looking longingly at the vase of temptation (aka, the crazy daisies) and says, totally seriously, "Mom, I see the diarrhea!" :) Jamie and I tried to hold back the laughter as we corrected her that it was "dye," not "diarrhea!"

Given by God

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Dedicating Riley to the Lord

Our awesome "Bob Revolution" stroller given to us by our families!
Thank you! We absolutely love it.

http://www.bobgear.com/

A Thousand Words

And the winner is...

#3!!! And who is number 3?? Well, I assigned each post a number, according to the order in which they were posted, i.e. whoever posted first was assigned a 1, all the way to 10, the last person who posted. I then went to random.org and inputed integers 1-10 into their randomizer thingy and after they did their random mix-up the first number was to be the winner, which happened (randomly) to be #3, which if you look at the third comment post, is Danielle!!! So, congratulations Danielle. I will be sending you a fun little package in the mail this week. Hopefully it will brighten your day a bit.

For all who may not know, I met Danielle in the 7th grade. We were "school friends" through junior high. In the Fall of our 9th grade year we attended a bonfire/hayride with the French club, and on that fateful October night, as we road around on the wagon, our friendship was forever sealed! :) We even celebrate a bit of a friendship anniversary each October, which happens to be 13 years this month! Danielle and I have remained dear friends all these years. A highlight of our friendship was spending the summer of 2000 in Estes Park, CO working at the YMCA of the Rockies and being a part of a Christian College Leadership program called College LT. Danielle and her husband Paul currently live in Colorado, and we were able to visit them just a few weeks ago during our trip to Colorado.

Thank you to everyone who posted a comment, I always love feedback! I appreciate all of you reading my blog too. Have a blessed Sunday. We are dedicating Riley to the Lord today at Church. I'll post pictures this week. Take care ~

Ruthie

Last chance!

QWERYYY



Last chance today to get in on the giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me how you found my blog on this blog post http://hedgedin.blogspot.com/2008/10/comments-anyone.html by midnight tonight (Saturday). I will then do a random, blind draw of all who left comments and the winner will receive a fun fall package in the mail next week! Thanks to all who have already commented - it's always fun to read comments!!! Have a great Saturday!

Ruthie

Remembering

Today is the National Day of Remembrance for Pregnancy and Infant Loss. You may know that I've lost four babies due to miscarriage and I also know many young women who have suffered in similar ways. These losses unite us and I hope that today can be a day full of prayer for all of us who have lost our tender children, whether in the womb or out. If you are among the many women who have lost a child (at any stage) - or if you're the dear, supportive husband, please know my prayers go out for you today. Feel free to leave a comment today with any prayer requests for yourself or another if you feel comfortable doing so. Blessings ~

Our little punkin'

We go to this great fruit market to get our produce each week, and every fall they have all sorts of pumpkins and goards and flowers. We had fun picking out some pumpkins yesterday and couldn't resist the photo-op! The adorable hat Sophia is wearing was made by my dear and talented friend, Sarah.

Comments anyone?

So, I have a challange for all of you blog readers! I am creating a little give-away and my motive is purely selfish! I am curious as to who reads my blog. I get very few comments posted, yet feel this may not be in proportion to how many are actually stopping by. So, to satisfy my curiosity and to have a little fun - here's the challange... leave me a comment on this post letting me know how you found out about my blog. At the end of the week - Saturday at midnight - I will close the challange. I will then do a random, blind draw from all who commented. The winner will be announced and will recieve a fun fall package in the mail!!! So, there it is! :) And thanks for reading.

On some family news, Sophia is getting close to her 4th birthday, has grown SO much this summer and continues to love learning/doing school. She is definitely still adjusting to our new schedule and routine now that there is a baby that seems to always have Mommy's attention. We're working on it. She loves her brother though and is always wanting to kiss him and have him hold her finger! She was thrilled when he smiled at her yesterday. Our biggest prayer for our daughter is that her heart would be softened for the Lord and that she would desire obedience.

Riley is 6 1/2 weeks old, starting to fit into 3-6 mos. clothes, outgrowing size 1 diapers, smiling!, and loves to nurse and cuddle.

I have joined our local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers - http://www.mops.org/) group and just love it! It meets twice a month at a church here in town. Sophia gets to play with kids her age while I get to fellowship with women in the meeting. If you are a mom of preschoolers I highly encourage you to try out a MOPS group in your area!

Jamie is working so hard at Verizon, and at all things related to fund-raising and transitioning into Navigators. This doesn't stop him from being a full-time help to me at home too. So thankful for my dear and faithful husband!

Have a blessed week and I can't wait to hear from all of you!

Ruthie

The two Rileys

For your enjoyment...

A little video I shot last night of my 3 main squeezes. :)

Flutter-byes

Danielle took us to this really neat place on Wednesday called the Butterfly Pavilion. It was so fun for Sophia, and all of us too!

Sophia petting a starfish.

Do we get a share in the profits?

The day training ended we were able to go see the Garden of the Gods park, then we drove down to Denver to see our friends, Danielle and Paul. They took us out to eat at Abrusci's Italian Restaurant!!! It was so good. We got to spend the night at their house before heading home Wednesday afternoon.

Family shot at Garden of the Gods

Beauty at Garden of the Gods

More beauty! :)

All sorts of critters

Glen Eyrie is home to all sorts of animals, many 0f which we got to see... bunnies, squirrels, big horned sheep, turkeys, deer (some with antlers!), racoons (Jamie saw one in a tree one night). Some we were more than happy not to have seen, though many people have, rattle snacks, mountain lions... one of the girls in our training did see and come very close to a bobcat! Anyways, here are some shots I got of the more tame sightings! :)

Planes, Mountains and Big horned sheep

Hi Everyone! We have had an exciting last couple of weeks. Jamie and I have been praying about a way to do full time ministry (aka: become missionaries) for the past 5 years. In recent months God has led us to apply (and graciously let us be accepted) to become collegiate missionaries for the Navigators (http://www.navigators.org/us/). The Navigators is a huge, Christian, non-profit organization that sends out missionaries all over the country and all over the world! They have many different avenues of ministry, some of which are collegiate, over seas missions, military ministry, metro, international student missions, plus many more! Jamie and I will be serving as Navigator missionaries here in Ashland at Ashland University. Because Navs is a non-profit, missionary sending organization Jamie and I will be raising our own financial and prayer support. Our goal is to be fully funded by this summer and to be working on campus, full-time, next Fall.

Well, all that to say, we just returned from a week long training/orientation in Colorado Springs. Navigator Headquarters is located here, in a beautiful location! If you are ever in Colorado Springs, you need to check out their property, which includes a castle! It is called Glen Eyrie (http://www.navigators.org/us/ministries/gleneyrie/) and is about a mile from the Garden of the Gods park.

Anywhoooo... We were required to attend this training and made the decision to take the whole family. Leading up to the trip I felt slightly crazy for this, not knowing for sure how I'd feel at 31/2 weeks post partum, etc... but I'm so glad we all went!!! I felt great and Riley and Sophia did wonderful! It was Soph's first time flying and she has so much fun!!! The Lord totally took care of us the whole time and it was just a wonderful week. We learned so much, met many great people, and left feeling greatly encouraged and totally confirmed that this is where the Lord wants us. We feel "home" so to speak.

Well, it was so beautiful where we were and we took lots of pictures. I'll be posting those now... :) Take care ~

All of these gorgeous shots were taken on the Glen Eyrie property from the parking lot of the lodge we were staying in... God is so amazing!