Finally!

Jason finally got his first tooth today! The bottom left tooth emerged sometime during the day today. Yippee!!!

Last But Not in the Least the Least

We did something this Christmas, I regret to say, that we've never done before. After opening gifts and having our normal breakfast of monkey bread, we had a prayer together thanking God for His blessings of the day, of salvation made possible by Jesus and for the people who were vessels of blessing. It was a poignant part of an otherwise largely materialistic day.

Christmas #10

Jason is a typical baby. And that is a wonderful thing. Because he was born with an anomaly the possibility of another one lurking in the shadows is ever before us. That makes typical very good. He loved the paper. He didn't understand why a particular thing on which he'd set his interest was set aside for some other thing. The whole thing was way stimulating. (How many times has he been awakened and thrust into the sights and sounds of Christmas morning? Zero.) You won't see this in the pictures, but I was so excited to find leak proof sippees without the valve for him. I don't think he is capable of using the kind with the valve because you have to suck out of them.

Christmas #9

Nancy is girl drama all the time! Those who warned me in her newborn days that she would be a big tomboy were wrong. There is nothing but femininity oozing from between every single pore from head to toe. Every single gift was opened with glee and punctuated with some electrified gesture. She received a Cinderella doll from Michael and Elizabeth with great shouts and screams and fist clenched arm thrusting. Her Barbie cell phone from Jacob was equally adored. The doll house dolls from Santa were met with screeches of "Barbie! Barbie!" even though they weren't Barbies. (She had been asking for weeks for a Barbie and a tiara for Christmas.) The picture in the blue shirt is after Stacey's makeover. Too bad you can't see the painted finger and toe "mails."

Christmas #8

Intensity. That word surely was created for Josiah. He attacked his gifts with intensity. The gift you see him taking wrapping paper from was a cheap motorcycle that has been broken and fixed numerous times already. The other gift you see was from Santa: an assortment of office supplies for a boy who just cannot get enough of that kind of stuff. He has since spent all kinds of time organizing and writing notes and then reorganizing. I picked the two pictures you see because they capture expressions that are often on Josiah's face.

Christmas #7

Poor Jared. He is so like his mother. The natural boy would long sleep beyond the rising of the sun. I discovered, going through the pictures of him, that they all have a somewhat groggy look. This one actually has a little smile. Maybe he and I should celebrate Christmas in the afternoon=)
He is holding the plane that Jacob gave him. I felt a bit sorry for him. His new remote control car broke Christmas afternoon and the roller blades that Santa brought didn't work. Even though he knows that there is more to Christmas - and life - it is still disappointing for Christmas to turn out that way. John fixed his car and the roller blades will go back to Santa's workshop (Target) for replacement.

Christmas #6

Stacey remarked to me while Joseph was opening his presents that he is just like JW - so naturally grateful. It was so easy to get great pictures of Joseph because gift brought such a genuine smile to his face. The first picture is him with the penguin that Grandma and Granddad sent on the mission of carrying their gift. (We didn't discover until this evening that all such couriers play Christmas music.) The other picture is of Joseph with the binoculars that Santa brought to him.

Christmas #5

This is Jacob with his hot cocoa mix from Grandma and Granddad. He was as excited about it, I think, as he was the accompanying money.





Santa and his elves all pitched in to get Jacob a new and very nice ping pong pad...no the proper term I am told is table tennis racket. If you look closely at the picture you can see Jacob holding two paddles, er I mean rackets. One is an old one, the other the new. We wrapped a box with a notecard in it telling Jacob to challenge James to a game of ping pong - no table tennis - as a clue in his abbreviated scavenger hunt. He went upstairs and got a pad...racket with which to make his challenge. In the meantime James appeared with the new pad-- (Oops again! I just can't get it right. I mean racket=) Jacob was very surprised by his new table tennis accessory, namely a racket for table tennis. (When I was a kid it was just plain ole ping pong.)

Christmas #4

Joshua is such an animated child! I love that about him. If the kids are playing X-Box he's the one I can hear all over the house. If they are playing ping pong I know who's winning or losing by listening (from anywhere) to Joshua's exclamations. So here he is Christmas morning reacting to an X-Box game that Michael and Elizabeth got for the boys.

Unrelated to Christmas, he, as you might remember, was diagnosed with Osgood Schlatter's, a condition of the knee(s). It is usually the result of a very fast adolescent growth spurt. It has gotten worse recently, even obviously showing some deformation. I am going to take him to see the orthopedist. Sometimes the tendon that is effected by faster growth than it can keep up with can actually snap. I want to see how severe Joshua' s case is and establish a baseline for future comparison.

Christmas #3

It was absolutely wonderful to have Stacey here for Christmas! (Just typing that brought tears to my eyes. I miss my Indiana kiddos and Haelley so much!) We had fun with her. She and I went to Olive Garden (one of the favorites she and I share) and to see the movie, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets." She played "Whits End" with the boys, did a makeover for Nancy and bonded with Jason. She even helped me finish my peanut butter balls, a Christmas tradition we don't want to go without. The gift you see her opening in this picture was from a family here who generously brought gifts to all of us on Christmas Eve.

Christmas #2

James was a wonderful big brother. The children have a tradition of "camping out" in some common place Christmas Eve. Of course, as they get older it's not as cool to do that. But James camped out with the group and even helped rally the troops for the early morning "awaken Mom and Dad maneuver."

You can see scabs on his knee. I think those were from a roller blade accident. I bought him some very nice blades from a thrift shop for $5 a few weeks ago. He has asked me a couple of times to cut his hair (as you can see it badly needs=) but I have not had time. We are not having school this week, so I hope to get it done between now and Sunday.

Christmas #1

This was the first year that we didn't have everyone with us for Christmas. That was really sad for me, but I wanted the day to be happy and good for those who were here. I was immensely helped with my emotions when I received a text from JW at 6:30 AM (just after the kiddos had awakened us). He had attached a noise to his text and sent greetings of "jumping [on us] and screaming" as well as Merry Christmas. (Ok, here's a better explanation: Our kids have a tradition of coming to our room Christmas morning and doing something obnoxious - or sometimes sweet, like a song - to wake us up so we can go discover Santa's bestowment. John contributed all the way from Indiana=) Also, not long after that, I got a text from Michael and Elizabeth with happy greetings. They also sent along a bunch of fun pictures. Later in the day I also received pictures of John from his day. I was so relieved that John ended up spending the day with Cami's family. Originally he had planned to work for lack of something else to do. (Thank you to Cami's parents for allowing him to share your family time!!)

I started a making a gift for Haelley a couple of weeks ago. I didn't get it finished in time to send back to Indiana with Stacey. I even had Stacey drive to the airport so I could work on it during the trip there. I came very close to getting it done, but that wasn't good enough=( I will post a picture of it here (if I remember) after I know Haelley has received it. The picture is one that Michael and Elizabeth shared Christmas Day. A note to Haelley: Grandma loves you ever so much. She is just late with nearly everything, so please don't have your feelings hurt that you don't have all of your Christmas present yet.

Jason's Six Month Pictures

These are my favorites. JW is going to try and edit the drool out. I was so busy trying to get the pictures centered and get a good expression that I didn't notice the drool=(

Solid Food

This is Jason's third or fourth attempt at solid food. Why is it that the bowl is always more interesting than the food?

He is sick right now. It's really the first time that he's been sick. For all that he's been through, he has never really been sick. He has had minor runny nose before, but never that feverish sick that makes him feel nasty (and be awake crying at night=)

Home Improvement

Here are the new blinds! We are so excited to have them in. The day after they went up almost all the kids slept later than they had in a while. Josiah and Nancy never adjusted to the time change, I think, because of the bare windows and bright early mornings. They are consistently sleeping later now. (Mom, you will see the snowmen to which John referred on the pictures.)


A friend has been doing some work for us. He stripped, repaired and refinished the kitchen table. I wish I'd thought to take before and after pictures. Those of you who had seen the table will recognize the huge difference. He is also working on restoring the junky piano bench that we've had for 20 years. It had served as the practice piece for the man who was refinishing the piano. We never have done anything to it but wear it and out keep it from falling apart. It is looking beautiful! When it is done I will post pictures. (Again, I wish we'd taken before pictures - and during the process too. Mike had to fix a large termite hole in it - about 6 ins. by 1.5 ins. That required amazing art work right down to drawing the woodgrain in it.) Oh, and yes, that is Mike in the picture. He didn't know I got him in the picture, but I wanted everyone to see the man who did this beautiful work.

A Tiny Jason Snippit

I am so behind posting about Jason. Sorry. Some have asked for more. Late on this Christmas Eve I wanted to take a moment to say that he crawled today for the first time!! He's been scooting for a while, but today he got up on his hands and knees and crawled.

Saying Thank You Addendum

I forgot to include the following in my post about thank you notes...

I have recently had two different conversations with different people about sending thank you notes. One person pointed out, in defense of sending thank you notes, that when Jesus healed the 10 lepers in Luke 17 He was displeased that only one came back to thank Him. It is interesting, though, the reason that Jesus gives for His displeasure. He says, "Was no one found who turned back to give glory to God, except this foreigner?" In an earlier verse the man who returned did so "glorifying God with a loud voice." As well he "[gave] thanks to Him." It is interesting that Jesus, when He expresses His displeasure, only mentions the fact that His Father wasn't given the glory. Jesus, the Son of God, was so humble that He even gave up His right to be equated with God and completely emptied Himself of all privileges of deity - Philippians 2:6,7. How much more should we take on an attitude of utter humility so that God might receive all glory?

In the other conversation someone, balking at the "socially required" sending of thank you notes, made a good point. She said that someone might receive a gift by which they are overwhelmed with gratitude. Further they might cry, and hug the giver while gushing obvious and sincere gratitude. However, if they don't then send a formal thank you note, they are thought ungrateful. This point really does appropriately point a finger at the giver. To expect a double expression of gratitude seems doubly prideful. And, really, which expression is more satisfying anyway - the former of true, deep instinctual gratitude or the dutiful note sent as a social formality?

Miscellaneous boy pictures

Jacob being silly. He's always been my funny guy.









John brought a big tub of tinker toys home from a co-worker. Of course, they went right to work with those. This is the windmill. I wish you could see the jet they made, but it has been dismantled already.











Jason's teething face. I wish his teeth would just emerge so that he could move on to other things for a short while.

More of Molly's Visit Pictures

Outside at our house.











If you want to weigh in on my impromptu ugliest leg/foot contest, go for it. The contestants are Molly, James and Joshua.











Saying goodbye at the airport.

Another Exciting Thing

On December 4th Molly (James' girlfriend) arrived for a whole week! We had a week of just hangin' out. Molly fit right in and went well with the gushing flow of our lifestyle. She came to see James of course, but I got to spend some time with her too. I enjoyed that a lot. You just can't help loving the people that your kids love.

Molly actually came for James' 16th birthday. She even brought recipes and some ingredients to make the birthday meal. We managed to keep that more of a surprise from James than we realized, and enjoyed his reaction to discovering that Molly was the chef.

Joseph's birthday was the day after Molly left, so we surprised him too and celebrated the night before Molly went home. He left the house with me for a doctor appointment and came home to SURPRISE! It was fun.

The pictures are miscellaneous. I ended up taking a bunch in the last two days of the visit because I hadn't remembered to take any before.

Christmas

One feature of the house that we're renting that I love is the staircase. I knew from the first that our Christmas tree had to go in the little circular area that the spiral staircase creates. I wish I had better pictures, but here is the result.

I am very excited about Christmas because Stacey is coming! That was a last minute thing. I really thought she was going to be all alone, which was so sad, but not anymore - she'll be here!

Saying Thank You

I think thank you notes are overrated. Now I imagine that half of you are cringing and mentally composing your rebuttal. The other half are breathing a collective (because I'm sure there is more than one of you) sigh of relief that someone finally got brave enough to say it. Let me ask - before you respond - to hear me out on this. Even those who agree may find that they wane now and then in that opinion.

Years ago I decided that I didn't much care for sending cards - because I received them too and knew exactly the dilemma that they pose: Someone spent money - sometimes a lot- on this card. So what does this pack rat opponent do with it after Someone bought it and took time to write in and send it? For a long time I joined hands with the "rat" and stowed them away for my kiddos to use for crafts. They seemed to build up faster than they were consumed, though. The next step was resolving to throw them away. (I just know that my depression surviving mother is hyper ventilating over that.) If receiving cards was so stressful for me I was sure not going to regularly inflict the same on others.

Well, mostly. Occasionally - very occasionally- I get a card that really touches me. Cards like that have been placed lovingly in a file folder labeled "Karen Haselwood." (That tells you how long that folder has been around. Someday my kids will get to rummage through it and see what made their mother tick emotionally.) Anyway, I will occasionally - very occasionally - send one when it seems a very touching thing to do.

More recently than the card decision came the near boycott of wrapping paper. I save wrapping paper that others have wrapped gifts in. And if wrapping paper is cheaper than a candy bar - for a whole roll - I might buy some. Other than that I don't. I use Walmart bags. I have used butcher paper that John got for free. I have even used the "hide-it-behind-my-back-until-it's-time-to-open-it" method.

So, yes, I have an economic objection to thank you notes. Well, yes, I know that someone bought me a gift, or gave generously of themselves, etc., and that a thank you note is just a small fraction of their sacrifice for me. It is not that I don't want to reciprocate; it is just that that's not the point. The point is gratitude. So beyond my pocketbook comes a deeper reason for my aversion.

When the New Testament Paul talked about giving, he hoped that the recipients would be grateful to God for what they had received. He wanted them, when they received a gift from another, to praise the Lord for His provision. Really the more rightful Object of my thank you ought to be God. Oh yes, it's wonderful to thank the person through whom one is blessed. The greater thing, though, is to thank God Who makes all things possible or impossible according to His great wisdom. Paul, in his letters, thanked God for the good which had been done for him and others by the recipients of his correspondence. He never, that I can find, thanked them directly. In James we discover that "every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." We humans may be the vessels through which good things come, but ultimately all good things are from God.

So another reason that I am not a big fan of thank you notes is to protect the giver from prideful and self focused attitudes. How many times have I felt smug and "puffed up" about giving some gift? That attitude abandons God as the Source of all good things. I only have something to give because He has given to me first. Anonymous giving is spoken of by Jesus: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when giving alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you" - Matthew 6:1-4. If I am concerned about being thanked, my motives for giving are not right.

A few years ago I mailed a gift to someone. I never heard anything at all about it. I wondered if the intended recipient ever got it. If it was received a thank you note would have answered my question. However, I have been thinking about that recently too. So what if my gift didn't get there? Then what? If it didn't get there, it didn't. Oh well. If everyone has a proper attitude, the potential recipient won't be expecting to get and feel slighted when he doesn't, and the giver will know that his giving was for the purpose of glorifying God and leave it in His hands.

I have sent many thank you notes over the years. I have made my children send them. I don't think thank you notes are bad. I didn't say that; I said they are overrated. I will likely continue to have my children send them in some form. I will send them too. It is good for us not to take another for granted. But I really would like to remember to thank God for all that I receive - and for those who give to me. I should lead my children to consider God when they have gotten a gift. The generosity that we may all enjoy from others can be a great example for us. The more I have been given, the more I have learned about how to give. Also, though, the more I have been thanked the more I realize how much better it is for my character to let God have all the credit lest I become proud.

Another step for Jason

On Saturday one of Jason's nasal conformers came completely out of the nostril. We called the doctor who said that it wasn't that big of a deal. He said we could try to find the stitch and cut it, then removing the tubes - and call Monday if we couldn't. We did try, but without success. (I later discovered that the stitch was clear like fishing line.) In the process we mutilated one tube. Here is a picture of poor Jason with the ill-placed tube.


Monday, first thing, I called the doctor's office. I ended up taking him and having the conformers removed. Yippeeeee! Yesterday (Monday) I was feeling kind of sad about how he looked. As he has healed his nose and mouth haven't looked as good as immediately after surgery. I guess it was just a let down. Today, however, I am feeling better about him. Being objective, he really does look pretty good for only four weeks post surgery. These are pictures after I got him all cleaned up following conformer removal.

RAIN!

We had a wonderful day of rain on Thursday. Arizona has experienced drought for about the last decade, so it was very exciting to get an all day rain. This is the result at our house of the rain celebration. Sorry it's not a great picture. Notice that it's not sunny - it's cloudy and wet!

Tie Dye Moments

James and I had made tie dye onesies for our trip to Indiana in August. I wanted Haelley and Jason to have matching shirts for pictures. Well, we never got any pictures of just the two of them in August. Elizabeth brought Haelley's onsie, so we got many pictures of them interacting at more lively ages.

Miscellaneous

There were some miscellaneous pictures during our week that I wanted to share because they are fun. The one of Jason was at the Grand Canyon in his warm attire (which we have very little of in the southern part of the state). Notice the "foam" about the lips. He breathes in just fine through his nasal bolsters, but out is a bit harder. As he breathes out a tiny little opening and closing of his lips creates bubbles that sometimes linger.

More Grand Canyon