Family Time in California

I wanted to go back and expand on our family time in California with my grandmother, and also share pictures for any interested family members who might be tracking with us. Upon our arrival, Grandmother had staged a gold mine for the boys to "pan for gold" in, complete with costumes for them to wear (she was in character too, of course!). They loved playing in the gold mine each day.

Grandmother wore dark sunglasses often because of her recent eye surgery. Samuel found her stash and began rapping. So I had to take a picture.

We had a family dinner with LaDonna and Paul, Tracy and David....when did my little cousins get so big?!

And of course we all posed in front of the tree before we left. We had such a good time all together with Grandmother and with Pop.

Colorado

The last few days have been filled with some of the most beautiful sites we've seen in a loooong time! Had we known what a beautiful state Colorado is, we would have made a trip here sooner!

This is me and the kids at Four Corners.










We had to take a picture under the Colorado state sign. A sidenote here is that Elijah has been quite preoccupied with Colorado ever since one of his teachers at church talked to the kids about moving there. He has had Colorado on the brain for months and was so thrilled to find out we would be driving there. He has announced to us all that he is no longer Elijah of Texas, but Solomon of Colorado. (And he's also the wisest man in the world.) We have dutifully transitioned to "Solomon" as often as we can remember.

Our first surprise in Colorado was that Adam hopped on a flight and joined us here! A tribute to his spontaneous and fun-loving personality, he just couldn't stand to be away from us any longer. I'm glad he's joined us.

Our first real destination here was Mesa Verde, where we got to see the remains of the homes of the descendants of the Navajo and Ute tribes, which were built right into the side of the mountain. So cool.

After that, we went on to Durango and Silverton, but that's a post for another day! We are loving this clean, crisp mountain air and can't get enough of the mountains and trees all around us. Today we pulled over for the kids to play in a mountain spring that was ice cold. They loved it, and Samuel couldn't get over how good the water tasted.

Road Trippin'

We are in California right now enjoying the BEAUTIFUL West Coast weather! Even though I feel like an Oregonian, there is a childhood piece of my heart that always feels at home in California. It's sunny, warm, and I love that constant ocean breeze!

We left Texas about a week ago and camped through New Mexico and Arizona en route to my grandmother's house in California. The kids are at a great age to travel in a motorhome. We experienced lots of wildlife, desert conditions, and our first experience with (I kid you not) 120 degree weather. That is what you call H-O-T. The kids had a great time and made some wonderful memories. Their journal entries and more pictures will be posted later.

We have had such a good time here at my grandmother's house visiting with her and my dad, who flew in the day we arrived. Yesterday my dad and I took the kids to The Happiest Place On Earth, which we also learned is The Place Where Dreams Come True. During our visit, Elijah kept wondering why his dreams weren't coming true, but other than that, the kids were all troopers and everyone had a blast! We got there early, came home for naps and food, and then went back and stayed until 11:30! Yes, my dad and I managed to convince a 9, 4, 3 and 11-month old to be reasonably happy until 11:30 pm! I was quite impressed with that. And so glad my dad was there to help me! I now realize that there is no way that I would have been able to keep 4 young children with me in chaotic mayhem that is Disneyland.

Elijah got to ride Space Mountain for the first time, and although Isaac wasn't tall enough for that one, he was happy to discover that he WAS tall enough for the Matterhorn. I am so happy that all my boys love rollercoasters. I can tell that Matea will love them too.

As we rode the tram back to the parking structure, Elijah leaned over and asked my dad, "Pop, would you teach me how to smoke?" My dad told him that smoking is not good for you. Elijah replied, "Don't worry, Pop, I won't do it all the time. Just when bad guys are around." I think Adventureland got to his head. Elijah was at a perfect age for Disney. I loved seeing his eyes light up at all the characters and special effects throughout the day.

We are staying here in California for a couple of more days, and then we're headed East again, where among other things, we are going to hike and camp in the Colorado mountains!

Limbo

We are in limbo.

Sunday, we got to visit with Adam's Aunt Debbie, who was in the area for work and decided to hang out with us for the day! Can you believe that? She came bearing gifts for everyone, read with the kids, played games, tolerated (and even enjoyed) Lucca giving her kisses, and then took us all out to dinner. What a woman! We all loved having you visit, Aunt Debbie, and know that anytime you are in the area again, we would LOVE having you again!

And we're in limbo because we thought we'd be gone by now. The kids and I are waiting for Honeydo and Big Dave to get here in the motorhome and whisk us away. Our departure date has been postponed because of engine troubles, and we are all anxious to get this road trip underway. My boys have a permanent place in their hearts for that particular home on wheels, and I think our one trip in it has created a lifelong wanderlust in them. They love new places, they love the thought of adventure. We'll see if Matea agrees with them or not.

When we get to California, the kids and I are going to spend several days with my grandmother. We haven't seen her since we originally left Oregon for Florida (I mean, Texas), 2 and 1/2 years ago. Isaac was a baby, and Matea, as the kids like to put it, was still just a thought in God's brain. So needless to say, it will be good catch-up time.

Until then, this is the first week of sports camp! This has been such a big part of our lives lately, and I've neglected to write about it here simply because I don't think my words can do justice to how deeply God is working in our hearts and lives here. So, my feeble explanation is just that God is good, and by his grace he is giving us a heart for His work here in this impoverished neighborhood. Adam is there every day for a few hours, and will be for the next 6 weeks, coaching basketball and hopefully building mentoring relationships with the high school boys. Anyone who knows my husband can understand how thrilled he is at the prospect of combining basketball, mentoring and ministry. He's been waiting YEARS for this kind of opportunity, and I am excited to see what it will evolve into for him! I have come and hung out at sports camp with the kids off and on to break it up, and although I know this will be a stretch for my chaos-abhoring, homebody self, I have all the hope in the world that this will be a good thing for all of us.

Next stop, motorhome!

A Family Man

I talked to the kids about their dad a few days ago. The overarching theme was that they love him because he's the best dad in the world. He plays with them. He laughs with them. He spends lots of time with them. He teaches them. When he runs an errand, he takes them. As Samuel put it, he's just a whole lot nicer than most other dads he knows.

These kids are blessed to have someone who considers it a joy to invest his time, love and energy into their lives every single day. He holds nothing back for himself. He is a giver.

What a man.

Summertime Sampling

One of Elijah's teachers at church, a firefighter, was gracious enough to offer us a tour of his firestation. The boys learned all kinds of cool and interesting things, and each one of them promptly changed their future vocations to include fighting fires.

An outdoor concert at Zilker Park last weekend. We packed a blanket and a cooler full of water and popsicles, because 8 pm outside is hot, hot, HOT! You may wonder, if it's so hot, why is Elijah in long sleeves and Isaac in sweatpants? Because they are crazy and they like to sweat. Something about cleansing their bodies of toxins. I don't know where they get these ideas. Anyway, the kids loved the freedom to move around and dance. Following is a video of Isaac and Elijah choreographing their movements to the music. Another family had given them some glow sticks, which were quickly transformed into swords, then conductor's batons. Isaac is conducting music with the orange glow stick, Elijah is the blue one.

One of Matea's favorite new games: sharing her food with her loved ones. Yum.

We are often at the neighborhood pool. And Matea often goes without her still-needed morning nap. Here she is falling asleep in the floatie.

11 Months Old!

New things this month:

playing peekaboo
playing ball by rolling a ball back and forth (loves this game!)
hair growing longer, and curls around ears and in the back
understands and obeys when we ask her to give us something she's holding, or to not put something in her mouth
walking more, but still not walking exclusively
says "nuh" for "nurse"
switched to a big girl carseat
won't keep her shoes on unless they're Robeez
but will keep her hat on at the pool

And next month, Matea will be 1 year old! Time flies so fast!

Our first tornado...kind of

I love the storms here. So does Adam. And our kids have caught it, too.

Yesterday evening we had a big one, and it came bringing tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail, even amidst 100* daytime highs. After putting the kids in bed, I drove over to a friend's house just as the storm was getting started, and I've never seen so much lightning all at once. The sky was a constant series of flashes and the news reported something like 7 tornadoes in the area. The picture below is obviously not Austin, but this what the sky was doing last night:

When I got home from my friend's house, I found that the emergency alert had advised that everyone in our neck of the woods should take cover. So Adam got all the kids up from bed, pulled out a few games to pass the time, and piled heavy blankets and pillows in the hallway to wait it out (I guess that's what you do in a tornado - go to an interior room without windows. Well, actually, you go to the basement. But they don't build houses with basements here, so this is the next best thing). Luckily, Adam was meeting with someone from church here at the house who knew much more about storms than we do, so he was able to help Adam know just what to do in this sort of emergency.

Luckily, the storm turned and missed us, but not without some excitement. It was really the best of both worlds for storm lovers like us...all of the drills and drama without any damage or destruction. The only casualty was poor Lucca's sanity. She is so scared of storms that all she can do is cower in the bedroom and tremble until it's over. I won't be surprised if I see some new white hairs on her muzzle after last night.

Some Baby Steps

We find our baby monkey very entertaining.

3 YEARS OF ISAAC

We're celebrating 3 years of Isaac William Boyce today! What a memorable day June 5th, 2006 was! I had been in labor all weekend before he finally came Monday morning...33 hours of sleepless, drugless, surprisingly exhilirating and satisfying work...it was truly labor. He was born at home, and in a most memorable way. :) I have never been as exhausted in my life, before or since, and he was so worth it!

Isaac, you have been a serious guy from birth. And you've always had a strong sense of who you are and what you like. We love your spirit.

You quickly grew into a cute, chunky little baby boy who loved his daddy and hated baths and baby food.

Then you grew into a one-year-old boy who loved to boss Lucca around and who followed his brothers everywhere.

After that you grew into a 2-year-old boy who loved Queen, the color orange and wanted to be a dump truck when he grew up.

And now you've grown into a BIG 3-year-old boy who can dress himself, wear underwear all day and night, and do all sorts of other Big Boy Things. You have lived up to your name by bringing lots and lots of laughter into our lives and we love you everyday, every night, ALL THE WAY TO THE MOON and back.

pictures from yesterday

(Matea in one of her new sundresses from Daddy)
We all had a great time yesterday evening at one of our favorite summertime places - the Triangle's Wednesday afternoon farmers market. I love living so close to that place. We always meet Adam there after work and while the kids play in the fountain, I peruse the vegetable stands. And these days, we can't leave the Triangle without stopping by Adam and the kids' all-time favorite place for a treat - Yogurt Planet. So we had dessert for dinner, then came home and had dinner for dessert. Which only worked because I had made pizzas before we left. :)

Ah, summertime.

Superheroes need their sleep

Even Batman needs an afternoon nap every once in awhile.

Could he be any cuter?

I was going through Isaac's baby pictures for his birthday post later this week and came upon many that I'd forgotten. It was fun to reminisce about newborn Isaac, 1-year-old Isaac, and 2-year-old Isaac. Those blue eyes have my heart!

School's Out!

• 
  
  
  
  Highlights of Samuel's 3rd grade year
  


• 
  
  Went to the Alamo and stood where Travis drew the line in the sand


• 
  
  Read somewhere around 65 books for fun


• 
  
  Competed in a Math Bee


• 
  
  Performed as a colonist in a schoolwide history reinactment (see above photo)


• 
  
  Played his 5th season of flag football with Coach Rick


• 
  
  Memorized over 30 verses of scripture


• 
  
  Learned how to change a diaper


• 
  
  Learned how to catch snakes, baby turtles and lightning bugs


• 
  
  Held a lemonade stand


• 
  
  Wrote a poem


• 
  
  Became a pretty strong swimmer


• 
  
  Drove alone on an ATV

Congratulations on a great year, Samuel!

Two Knights and a Princess

My friend Carrie and I trade off watching each other's kids every week for a morning. It has been such a blessing, to both of us, and in more ways than one. I love getting a morning to myself, but I also truly love watching her girls when it's her turn to go out.



Yesterday, while Matea and Alyssa napped, the "big kids" played knights and princess. Isn't the look of thrill on Grace's face precious? She is so excited to be in her sparkly jewelry and her princess shoes. I love that.

I also love that the first version of the game involved casting Grace as the "bad guy" while Elijah and Isaac tried to arrest her and throw her in jail. I could tell she was uneasy about this scenario, so I suggested that maybe she was a good guy. "Grace," I asked, "are you a bad guy, or a good guy?" Her quick response was, "I'm a girl. I'm a good girl." That was when we decided she would be better suited as the princess of the story.


And here are the knights in shining armor. I don't think my boys will ever tire of this game. They love to be cast as the rescuers.


For their birthdays this year, we are going to Disneyland. Do you know what they have been talking about nonstop? Not the rides. Not the toys. Not the parade. PRINCESSES. Elijah and Isaac cannot stop deliberating about how exactly they are going to react to meeting all the princesses that live at Disney. They are thrilled.

The Reading Machine

Elijah has been reading on his own for the past several months. This boy loves reading. This is a total shock to me, because I had to practically force Samuel to sit down and read every day, and even then, I don't think it all truly "clicked" until he was 6 or even 7 years old. I tried not to let that get to me, but you know how it is with the firstborn....everything must be on schedule!

For Elijah, it has been so natural. It all just fell right into place in his brain. He has loved learning the phonograms in the Spell to Write and Read curriculum. Even Isaac is picking up phonics combinations he recognizes in print, like "ie" or "ea" with an excited, "Hey! That's a phonogram!" Thank you, Wanda Sanseri!

He devours books. Last week he sat with one of our children's bibles for an hour and read the whole thing, cover to cover. And thanks to sitting in on Samuel's homeschool work for the past year, he reads words like "frustrated" and "promised land" with ease.

He also loves writing, and making up chore lists for himself everyday. Below is one such list that he came up with last week. It's all his spelling. The last one is a "Tessellation Project," which is something Samuel had to do earlier this year. It involved rotating shapes on a grid so that they formed a repeating pattern. Since that project, anything that involves coloring and cutting and gluing and shapes has become a "tessellation project."

Kids brains are so amazing to me. We think that we are teaching them, but yet they are so wired to learn. It makes me all the more motivated to be a quiet instrument of God in this process. He created them. He knows them. He will raise men out of these boys.

Matea's newest feat:

Throwing Texas-sized temper tantrums. This little cowgirl knows how to scream.

my favorite football player (s)

Worship

When I was younger and dreamed about what my grown-up life would be like, I thought I would probably marry a musician and have musically-inclined children. Well, I was wrong. I didn't marry a musician, and since I'm not one either...the chances of our children being musically gifted are slim. But.

Oh, if you could hear them singing today as they pound out notes on the piano to their favorite CD.

I don't know that they will be musicians, but they will be worshippers.

...What can make us pure as snow, welcomed as the friends of God? Nothing but your blood, nothing but your blood, King Jesus...O Happy Day, you washed my sin away...

Sing, little ones, sing.

Time with the fam

My dad just came for a visit, and brought Charley along with him. I'm glad we got this picture of him with his grandkids. And I love Isaac's expression here. Classic Isaac.














We met up with Jesse, and Matea was smitten with her two uncles that evening. She just learned to lean in and "give kisses," and she was so eager to try out her new skills on Jesse. Now, Jesse's a pretty good sport when it comes to uncle duties...however, he draws the line at bodily fluids. Especially baby bodily fluids. Her open-mouth, slobber-dripping-from-her-lips kisses just weren't what Jesse wanted to experience. And she so wanted to kiss him. I found it just hilarious.

We sat outdoors, and there was music playing, and Matea was quite entertained by dancing with Charles. My brothers are both very good uncles. :)

Blessings

Some things that have made me smile this week:
The boys' latest art project - sidewalk chalk on tree branches. Only children would come up with something so unexpected and beautiful.





Their latest science project - a tiny water turtle caught by my brother for the boys to watch (we put him back after we were done).

And seeing sweet Matea getting a feel for her feet under her

9 Months Old

This sweet girl is developing lots of personality, as you can see by her expressions in these photos. Watch out world, here she comes!

How many shots does it take to get a good picture?

Too many. I at least wanted everyone's face showing. They didn't even have to be smiling.

And they thought it was soooo funny to flip Matea upside down just as I was snapping the picture.

But finally, one good picture of all four kids.

Matea's new love...

...Smoothies! And she comes by it honestly. We all love our smoothies!

last week's pictures

(<-----a rare shot of Samuel looking at the camera)

(the boys all love pushing Matea around in this thing. You wouldn't believe the speeds she reaches without making a peep.)

Crawling around outside:

Eating a banana:

(this is Isaac at Matea's age):

The weekend

Put in an organic garden

Tried to convince Isaac to potty train once and for all

Watched Samuel's first flag football game of the Spring


Ate some delicious crepes

Had a few too many run-ins with the worst of all insects

Watched a good movie

Enjoyed the boys enjoying their tire swing

Had a birthday dinner, Mimi and me:


And got a new pet (or three):

Super Sized Camping

You may be wondering, what is super sized camping? Well, it's the first thing that came to my mind when I recalled our weekend in Frost, Texas. We stayed at a lodge-type vacation cabin with some friends of ours, and it was a crazy, chaotic, action-packed experience that everyone loved. We had 5 families there with 17 children, and Samuel was the oldest by a full year. I think the median age must have been about 3. No bedrooms, no naptimes, no routine...it was marvelous mayhem for all involved. I kept thinking about that family out in the midwest with 17 children. Crazy! Anyway, we enjoyed the lake at the end of the property, and the kids got to do all kinds of things, from target practice with a bow and arrows to taking care of the animals and playing group soccer games. There was a rope swing and a hammock, dirt, bugs, and always lots of other kids around to play with. I think our kids would be just fine with communal living, if this weekend was any indication!

8 Months Old!

Matea is 8 months old!

All of the sudden, this girl is surprising me with glimpses of her big girl self. I check on her while she's sleeping and her legs seem longer than the day before; her face seems to change a little every day, and her hair is growing and growing.

She is a sweet part of our lives, and we are all so thankful for her every day.

At 8 months, Matea is standing for short periods of time (like 5 seconds) unassisted, pulling up and starting to cruise, saying "Mama," "Emma," and her very favorite, "bye bye," which is accompanied by a cute spastic wave of the arm. She's loooooving her Daddy and big brothers, spending lots of time in the new Ergo backpack (that's like, the BEST invention ever! Thanks, Maur, for introducing us! It's by far my favorite baby carrier yet!), does not sleep through the night yet, nurses every 3 or so hours during the day, and is a happy, smiley girl most of the time. She's lengthening out and is looking even more lean and petite than she did before. Baby girl doesn't have an ounce of chub on her! We always laugh when we're with our friends, the Fleners, because Alyssa has those perfectly adorable baby rolls all over, and Matea, next to her, is such a peanut!

One of the most enjoyable developments of the past month is that Matea is joining us for mealtimes now. She's starting to sample lots of different foods, and I love watching her explore this new world! Mealtime is still much more about exploring the different tastes and textures of foods than actually consuming for nourishment. Yesterday she learned how to suck through a straw and got to sample our afternoon smoothies with us. So fun!

There's this little song that Honeydo made up years and years ago when Samuel was a toddler and she would put him down for naps at her house. It amazed me, after Elijah was born, that Samuel still remembered the song. Samuel, recently, has enjoyed putting Matea down to sleep. He bounces her, rocks her, pats her, sings to her, and amazingly, he does as good a job or better as any of us adults. I overheard him singing the song to her the other day as he patted her to sleep:

I love you so much;
I love you so much;
I cannot tell you how much I love you.
You're special to me;
You're special to me;
And I'm so glad I have you in my life.

Blah

Two years in the South have spoiled us.

After spending much of February in 80* weather, an unwelcomed cold front has settled over Austin. So we've spent the last 3 days under dismal, gray, cold, rainy, cold, yucky (did I mention, cold?) skies and 40* weather. I'm glad that the lakes are filling back up, I'm glad that the farmers have rain after this long dry spell...but my kids are climbing up the walls! We've forgotten how to play in rainy weather! And I don't think Austin really has any of the indoor play structures that we could rely on in Portland.

All I know is that I've got 4 little monkeys here who are eager for warm weather again!

Memory Lane, Italian Style

The moving process forced me to do some research on computer recycling. We had 3 old machines needing to be wiped clean and disposed of. I was so thrilled to find a local electronics recycling company that not only recovered all my old pictures for me and wiped the hard drive clean, but then also paid me for my broken machines! As much as I say I'm not too sentimental about pictures, I sure treasure all these baby pictures that I thought were goners.

When Samuel was 3 years old, we were very blessed to accompany Adam's family for a few weeks in Italy and Switzerland. This is one of my favorite shots of me and Samuel on an old bridge in Florence. The expression on his face was so typical of 3-year-old-Samuel..."Kisses? Yuck!"

Baby Sweetness

Life is a Test

A conversation with Samuel this morning:

Samuel: Mom, why do you keep telling us this stuff?

Me: Because that's the gospel, Samuel. Loving people more than we love stuff, and more than we love ourselves. That's the love of Jesus in us.

S: Whoa. I just discovered another piece of the puzzle. It just clicked. Do you get it?

Me: Uhh, no.

S: It's like this, Mom. I know now why God allows iPod Touches and iPhones and all that kind of stuff....it's like, life is a test. We see all this stuff that looks fun and it tempts us, and all of our life is really a test to see what we're going to love the most.

And, on an 8-year-old level, that's pretty much it.

New Place

I thought I would do a sort of "photo tour" of the new house, because it feels like we're pretty moved in, but as I look around, there are still several things that we haven't quite got put away or laid out in the way we want, so that photo tour is just going to have to wait. Either that, or you'll just have to come by and visit. :)

I went back to do some things at the "old" house yesterday with all four kids in tow, and as we pulled up Isaac excitedly shouted, "I'm tired of our new house. I want to live in our old house again!" Poor Isaac...he doesn't like change at all. One comfort about the new house is that Samuel has moved into his bedroom! Isaac was very happy to find out that he'd be sharing a room with Samuel (Elijah's got his own room, as does Matea), but then his smile quickly turned to his trademark furrowed-brow scowl as he said, "but I want Lije too. I want all my brothers in my bedroom."

Elijah and Samuel have made several comments about this house being small, or old, or smelling funny, but for the most part, their transition has been a joyful one. The first night we were here we let Samuel invite his good friend from our old neighborhood to spend the night, and I think that went a long way in showing him that just because we moved doesn't mean we can't still see our old friends.

I will sign off with some of my favorite sights of the past 24 hours:

This is a black and white family photo wall that Honeybee and Morgan created in our living room. I love the way the grouping turned out; these are some of my favorite pictures.

High on the priority list of moving in has been making the backyard a kid place, for everyone's sake! Last night Adam put a new net on our trampoline and also hung a tire swing from one of the branches of this beautiful tree in our backyard. Any of you who know Adam's greatest fear can understand the courage it took for him all that time up there in order for our boys to have a fun swing!

And friends! Aren't these guys cute? Elijah, Isaac, and our friend Grace, doing a silly happy dance for the camera this morning!

We're In!

Officially. And thanks to the help of several good friends who labored their Saturday away with us, we are much more settled than we should be at +1 day post-move.

We keep saying over and over that this hasn't sunk in yet. This is such a good place, such a great little home.

Pictures to come. And quotes from the kids. All the good stuff.