Happy Birthday Naomi

Its hard to believe (it always is) that my baby is a year old today! Its stunning how quickly a year can pass as you learn to parent a new person. It feels like she got here... but like she's always been here, you know?

  

 I love to reminisce about the day she was born. It was a beautiful and super speedy birth. She was born in 2.5 hours from beginning to end. I still can't believe how quickly my birthing experience unfolded with her.

 

 All of my children were born in the middle of the night and even though I was extremely tired by the time they were born, I couldn't sleep all the next day. My very favorite memories from the hospital are watching the sun rise over my new children for the first time. I had this experience with each of them and I will never forget how special it was to be alone with them as the sun touched their skin for the first time.

We love her, of course, and can't imagine life without her. What an amazing blessing and gift from God our precious Naomi Evangeline is to us!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!

Naomi Crawling

Naomi has been crawling for about a month. I finally got around to uploading this little clip of her brand new skills. She is nine months old now and super tiny, weighing in at 15.5 lbs, which is what your average 4 month old weighs. But she is very mobile, sitting, standing, crawling. She is beginning to make sounds that correspond with objects like saying "daw, daw" when she sees our dog and "ba, ba" for ball. She is very sweet and bright-eyed and alert. She loves her big brother and sister and laughs wildly at their antics. (I need to upload a video of that.) She is also the clingiest of all my children, really preferring Mommy to all others. Its normal for this age and I kinda love it.  She's not a great sleeper at night, still waking every 2-3 hours for one reason or another. I DO NOT love that.

Crafty Fun

 We have had so much crafty fun in the last few weeks that I felt compelled to come out of blog hibernation.

I moved my art desk and supplies to the heart of our home, right into the dining room. Which is also our homeschool center. All of this makes for a very messy, non- decorator magazine space; very lived-in and reflective of our day to day life. I wasn't sure about it at first, but now, I love having my desk in there. My supplies are right under my nose all day long; I can't help but show them the love they've missed for the last 5 years.

 

 To get myself back into creating, I started with commissioned pieces from the kids. Elijah requested a painting of a motorcycle jumping over a mountain. And I finished a piece started long ago for his room. Not the greatest photos...

 

 Adah wanted a princess and a sand castle.
( Its a drawing and its behind glass so the photo is very poor quality.)

 From there, I moved into a painting for Gabe and I' s room. Its in progress....

 With stopover in a twice-failed drawing of our wedding day. They've been shoved into a drawer. No hard feelings. I am just glad to be working somehow or another. 

 

We made this gratitude tree to count our blessings:

 And today we went wild and made this turkey with items gathered from our yard and pantry. The kids absolutely loved it!

I highly recommend this craft for the sensory thrill of the different natural materials. But, its not for those who wilt at the idea of sticky, dirty (fun) messes.

I wanted to get in on the gluing, so I made this:

 I keep wondering if its going to catch fire above our blazing hot woodstove. 

Can you read that it says "Give Thanks"?

 

 Let's see.... there is this crocheted flower and leaf mobile in the works for Naomi.

I am also knitting a hat and mittens for Adah and a pair of legwarmers for me.
(I realized recently that I work well with many projects going at once. It helps me not to get overly focused, analytical and critical of what I am working on. When I feel myself falling into this creativity killing pattern of mine I move onto something else for a while.)

And last but not least, one of my most favorite creations...

Love to all,

Liz

Pictures, just because.

 I love EVERY single little thing about Naomi. I even love her cry and her poop. I love EVERYTHING about this baby.

Sigh. Sigh. Big lovey-dovey sigh. Sigh again.

We all love her.

We've been painting.

He's so serious.

Good music puts them in the zone.

Adah hangs her art.

The walls needed something, he said.

Okay, also, I am going to run a 5k in September. This will be my first race and I am super excited. I like running, I need to lose weight and it just sounds like fun to me.

So, yeah, I am going to do it.

We Meet at Last

In these long gazes, an understanding is established... 

A lifetime of love and kinship stretches before us...
I love you without question or exception.
I am yours and you are mine.