one time around the sun

 

my sweet ollie. this is a picture that i never shared with you because i took it on my little nikon coolpix and it took me like four months to take it off my camera. in this photo she is almost a day old. her sweet face was still bruised and swollen from getting stuck on my cervix. that little outfit that says "happy" on it :) that has a bit of a story too. i bought that sleeper because that was eislee's favorite word at the time. but she would say "appy." goodness. one year. i noticed something this morning.  i noticed the return of the sun. today was the first day in a long time that maiko and layla ran out to the bus in daylight...well, i suppose it was more like twilight... but still.... that is a big change from pitch dark. oh sweet ollie, now every year you will bring us the sun with your birthday.

we had a wonderful celebration yesterday with family. patti and chuck opened their home for a large group of my family. it was a lot of fun. it has been a long time since we had a "big" birthday party. i wish i had remembered my camera... but we do have another small birthday happening today and i promise i will get photos of that and share. 

well... happy birthday sweet ollie jane... i am so glad that you were born.

some time for sewing

layla put ollie to sleep again. she can be such an amazing little helper. i heard her calling from the other room "mom, come in here and bring the camera. you have to see this." she was right, it was adorable. i remember when ollie was somewhat afraid of layla and her intensity. now that ollie has gotten used to it though, she loves layla's extra attention. the doll in the photo is eislee's christmas doll all sewn together! i am so excited about how quickly and easily it is coming together.

Country Crafts is the book that my doll pattern came from. the link takes you to amazon where it sells for forty cents. i got an even better deal than that though... free... it was here when we moved here and i have wanted to make this doll for years. anyway, it has been really cute how excited all the kids are about how it's been coming together. when layla left for school this morning she said "mom, finish the doll's hair before i get home." spend my morning sewing? well... ummm.... ok.... don't twist my arm or anything. i wish i would have gotten some pictures of eislee with her doll when i had finished sewing the pieces together but hadn't stuffed it yet. she was just carrying around this flat little cloth doll everywhere. it really made my heart melt. it feels so good when they just love what you made for them (especially since it takes quite a bit of your time). in fact eislee fell asleep last night with that doll in her arms. which may not sound like that big of a deal, but i tell you it is a very big deal. my eislee does not like stuffed animals on her bed at all when she sleeps and when she does have them on her bed they have to be over in the corner... she never ever sleeps with them in her arms. so now you see how special it was for me to find her like that last night.

 well... i suppose i should get to work on that hair. i don't have very long until layla gets home and i don't want to disappoint. and if i'm being totally honest... i am just as curious about how it will turn out as she is.

the damage

what a storm.

snow... followed by fierce wind... followed by dramatic flooding. the wind storm was a bit frightening for us. we had some damage... lost an old apple tree... our chicken coop door.... and had many enormous branches come down. then when the flooding came we had a small river flowing down the hill... we called it the little yaquina. the pressure of all the flowing water caused areas in our road to split and collapse... and also burst a few water lines.... and broke a power line. we were out of power for about three days. i felt very lucky for the wood stove and a generator. we all stayed warm and cozy. we cooked on the wood stove and heated water on it. we burned many candles... played the board games above over and over... and i even got the face finished on eislee's christmas doll (i decided i was crazy to try and make it before christmas).

when we finally saw the news and all the horrible things that had been occurring all over oregon we felt very lucky that our damage and suffering was so minimal. i couldn't believe all of the horrible tragedies. there is one in particular that has been on my mind a lot. there was a young mother and her very young son  that drowned in a creek in albany. their car was swept into the creek (which had become somewhat of raging river) and they couldn't get out. now, i have to admit when i first heard about the story i thought "oh my, that's horrible" but i didn't really think about it. it hadn't hit home yet  i guess. last night i was listening to this song. "if i die young" by the band perry.... have you heard it? if not then you should click on my link and listen... it is really beautiful. anyway, i was listening to that song and suddenly it made me think of her. she was only 18 and her son was only 20 months. when i really thought about what she must have went through... probably frantically trying to save her baby. i realized that she had suffered one of my biggest fears. can you imagine being in that situation with your baby? i cried... a lot... and i listened to that song over and over. and today, today i feel lucky that we were so fortunate through this storm. that all of my babies were snug and safe. that the worst i had to suffer through was a short lack of power and a few fallen branches. and every time i listen to that song i feel so lucky.

a bit like gold

here... a decent snowfall is extremely rare. the odds of one snow day are pretty likely, but any more than two is nothing short of a miracle. here... school will get canceled because of an inch or two. i love what a blanket of snow can do. a little white and suddenly an old fence, a cluttered yard, and a garden of weeds become a winter wonderland. sigh. just beautiful. it almost makes me wish i lived somewhere where i got more of it.... almost. i am pretty in love with my year round green though. it's amazing how a little of this real winter weather can suddenly make you sooo thankful for that nice woodpile, and warm blankets, good books, soup, warm wassle on the stove all day... lovely things. in fact, i think i had better go get some wassle going, i have a great book on the way, and i think today is the day to try that creamy potato soup recipe from the rhythm of family (link in my sidebar). oh... i suppose i do have a lot of love for winter.

photos of my family

matt's sister took these photos when she visited in november. i love these photos. i love the way that she not only got the perfect everyone smiling shots (which is very difficult with a family of six), but also the talking/laughing/acting like we normally do shots. those are my favorites. she is very talented. now, you might be wondering why it took me so long to share them. well... do you remember when my computer went out? that happened just a few short days after i got these lovelies on my hard drive. yup. my screen actually shorted out. the computer turned on and still technically worked, but you couldn't see a thing. the really funny part is how matt fixed it. he took my computer screen and whacked it really hard on the back about five times and the screen came on. then he said something along the lines of "as a last resort, giving your electronics a few hard whacks is always worth a try." of course.... why didn't i think of that?

a laugh for the new year?

i took these photos at the end of summer. hilarious or what? how did i get my children to smash their faces into a window so i could take pictures you ask? well, i bribed them with popsicles. yes. yes i did. i wasn't just being cruel. i really had a reason to take these photos. you see we have this random cabinet at the top of the stairs and the doors have windows. it is one of those cabinets that is always messy and i had decided that i needed to do something about it. i'm not sure how i got the idea... but i thought wouldn't it be funny if there were pictures of maiko and layla in there like a frame with their faces smashed like they were trying to get out? not quite sure what i was thinking but it would be funny, right?

as you can see from the photos... maiko wasn't so sure about smashing his face into the glass.... but layla.... oh goodness..... she was into it alright. and now, even if these photos never make it into that cabinet they will still give me, and you, a laugh every time we bring up this page.

a beginning... and an end

i love the beginning of a new year. it is so full of possibilities. and after the speed and chaos of the holidays it actually feels like time slows down a little. truly creating the illusion of even more possibilities. i am really excited about what this year will bring.

when i look back on 2011... it feels a bit like a blur. the year started with our sweet ollie and everything after that just kind of blends together. i think it was the fastest year of my life. i don't believe that the speed of this year was set by the mere act of having four children... i believe it had to do with the ages that the four children were... and that gives me hope that the future will not go by quite so fast. 

the photos above of ollie and layla were taken on one of those fast days. i was right in the middle of about a million things and ollie was crying because she was tired and wanted me to hold her. so i thought "well, i will just finish switching this load of laundry and then i will go hold her" then all of a sudden her crying stopped. it's a bit sad that her silence is what finally pulled me away from my tasks, but alas, that is the life of a fourth child i suppose. what i found was the heart melting scene in the photos above. layla snuggled ollie to sleep and fell fast asleep herself. they really are a special pair. and luckily they encouraged me to stop for a moment and grab the camera so i can savor that sweet moment forever. i think my new years resolution is to slow down and not let life sneak by so quickly. i do not want to look back at 2012 and see a blur.

how about you? what are your thoughts for this brand new year?