Mercy me! Hazel climbed up a step on our stairs tonight! She is so driven! She just turned eight months old and is already trying to let go of things and stand alone. She holds on to the furniture and edges along it, crawls all over the place and is a complete menace in her walker. I think she wants to figure the stairs out so that she can go up in the loft with the big kids. She's non-stop action!

It's Father's Day

Today is the day I celebrate my wonderful father and the wonderful father of my children. I really don't know where to start because they are both such amazing men. I guess I will start with my father. It seems like my whole childhood revolved around my dad. Reading us stories out of the old Wizard of Oz books, riding on the fender of the tractor with him while he mowed hay, helping him round up cows or feed them. He had a full plate of work to do but always included us and tried to teach us things along the way. My childhood was very experiential. As a matter of course, I learned the names of all of the tools in his tool box, how to drive basically everything on the farm, run a chainsaw, pull a calf and anything else necessary. What my dad gave me for life was a simple appreciation for music, he sang and whistled constantly, an acceptance that not everything in life is easy and a belief that hard work is good work but it's always better to find an easier way to get it done. He helped me understand the physics of pulling a stuck vehicle out which most grown men don't know. He taught me to change my own tires and change my own oil. Well, for that matter he left me to drive vehicles that I had to take the fuel filters off of and shake rust out of and top of the brake fluid every time I drove them, so I can honestly say I've had some hair raising driving experiences that most people don't these days. He and Mom took us to church over and over and over. sometimes four times per week. Given how full their plate was, I am amazed by this now. My faith is solid, and it's because of my mom and dad. As adulthood has settled in for me, I have great admiration for my parents priorities during my childhood. They didn't have much to spend on us but what they did, wasn't spent on frivolities like clothing and image related items, but on enriching our lives with trips to camps, going to Christian concerts and doing things that made us look at our hearts. To my father, I thank you. You raised me right and it really helps with all of the things I have to do as an adult. To the father of my children. My Ammchara. Well, it seems that in the last 10 years we've lived a thousand lives and the surprises just keep coming. I am so thankful to have you at the helm of this crazy ship. I remember being so weak and in pain after Eden was born that I couldn't change her diapers. You were an instant expert, changing her diaper and swaddling her up and handing her to me in the hospital. It was like you put on fatherhood like a jacket that is so instantly comfortable, you feel like it's always been an extension of you. I have vivid pictures in my mind of you with each of your FOUR babies the day they were born. Your love and devotion to these little people has grown and never wavered. I have watched you guide our children with a stern hand when I just didn't have the heart to give them the discipline they needed. I've melted inside a hundred times, seeing the love you pour into them each night as you tuck them in and pray over their lives and bless them. I've died laughing when you play sharks and minnows or have giant wrestling matches. I've nearly passed out trying NOT to laugh when you have to handle something with the kids that they aren't supposed to know is hilarious. I'm thankful for you. There's a million times a day I wonder how any woman could parent alone without a father for their children. Life here in Allenville would be a train wreck without you. I love you and I thank God for you every day.

5 years old

My Nickster is five. I have loved watching him turn into the charming, witty, humorous, theatrical little boy that he is. I have loved watching Jody play with his little boy with little boy toys. This year he got a remote control car from Grandma and it's hard to say which of them was more excited. Nick loves me with devotion and his affection is more expressed than the rest of the family put together. He hugs me several times every day, picks me flowers and tells me he loves me continually. He wins me over with a smile and a tilt of the head. I think he could probably get me to do just about anything. I am told he is just like his daddy was as a little boy and I can imagine. Jody is a lover. No matter how angry I make him or how badly I disappoint him, he still holds my feet in his lap and talks me through life while he loves me without fail. Nick is lucky to inherit such characteristics. This morning Jody got up extra early and made mickey mouse shaped pancakes for the Nicks birthday before leaving for work. I was about to wake them up and he told me not to, and put them in the microwave for them to eat later. He didn't leave a dirty dish in the kitchen. I don't make this stuff up, I'm really that lucky!I intend to do a bunch of pics like I did on Kait's birthday come Saturday when I have party pics too. :)