The Intentional Life

The newest addition to our family came into this world on February 1st. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 19 inches long. She surprised us all with having black hair - Owen and Hannah were born with next to nothing for hair and even then it was real light. She impressed the doctors at the hospital by gaining back her birth weight and passing it by an ounce (a rarity, I guess). Our first day at home (today) went well. She was awake for most of the morning and through lunch and then took a nap in the afternoon. She nurses well and doesn't get upset by all the noise Owen and Hannah make. Hannah loves to come over and pat her on the head and Owen will talk to her and hold her hand. I am working on wrapping my mind around the fact that I am a mother of 3 - it makes me feel old! :) I'm healing well from my C-Section, the hardest part is forcing myself to stay put and letting Paul do things for me. He's a great nurse, cook, father, husband.... : )

I'm a few days late in posting these, but on Monday morning my sister Amanda gave birth to a little 4 1/2 pound girl - Heather Joy. I don't know the stats specifically. I think she was somewhere in the 18 inches range. She was about 2 weeks early which is great compared to Reid at 9 weeks early - no NICU stay this time around! We had the day off Tuesday so we headed over to Van Wert to see the new addition. It makes us excited to meet our little one in about a week and a half. The other picture is of Hannah and her stuffed animals. Paul was making supper and Hannnah brought the chairs and the animals into the kitchen so they could watch. She loves to wrap up her dolls and rock them in the chair, walk them in her stroller, or put them to sleep in the crib (all Christmas gifts! :) She was excited to see Heather and especially liked her purple hat. Owen was mildly interested but was more impressed with the gadgets and buttons in the hospital room. Here in Grabill we are p...

This year we celebrated Christmas day as a little family of 4 (and a half :) It was a little different not being with a big group of family but we enjoyed the laid back time spent at home, too. We went to church in the morning (after a breakfast of fresh baked cinnamon rolls!) and then came home and opened stockings. The afternoon was spent hanging out and making homemade eggnog. For our little family, we've made the tradition of picnicking in the living room beside the Christmas tree. We had baked Brie, shrimp cocktail, eggnog, summer sausage and cheese, and Reuben dip with crackers. Delicious! After supper we listened to Paul read the Christmas story (Hannah needed some persuasion to sit still...different story...different time...) and then we opened gifts. I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well!

This past weekend we got together with Paul's parents and siblings to celebrate Christmas. We ate the traditional Villia dinner and opened gifts afterward. We even managed to get a family picture of everyone - which was quite an accomplishment considering 2 minutes before the picture was taken Owen was throwing a fit and Hannah was squealing at the top of her lungs. We stayed up late playing games and eating until we were stuffed (and maybe beyond that!) We had a great time and Owen thoroughly enjoys his construction trucks he received and Hannah is loving her dollhouse (thanks everyone!)

I stop and think where we were a year ago, I have many reasons to be thankful. A year ago, Paul was without a job (lost it the week before) and we had no clue what to do next. But God is faithful, like He always is, and opened a door call Gateway Woods. Now a year later we have almost a full year of work under our belts, two healthy children with another on the way, and someone has come along who wants to rent our house in Antwerp (yea!). We had a great time with family over the 4 days we had off. We got to be with Paul's family on Thanksgiving day and spent the night as well. Then we spent the remaining 3 days in Illinois with my family who we hadn't seen since last Christmas :( It was wonderful to finally see my grandparents again - i even managed to get a picture with them. Owen became fast friends with Kate and we attempted a picture of the 4 kiddos Sunday morning. We can at least say we got them all in the same picture, but that's about it... The picture of t...

A week or so ago, I took Owen's 3 year pictures. He was so sweet, trying to pose for me - so cooperative! I can hardly believe I have a 3 year old. He started Sunday School last Sunday and really enjoyed. They were discussing David and Jonathon and how they were best friends. When the kids were asked who their best friends were, Owen replied, "Hannah!" When they told me that, my heart about melted - so sweet :) He is also learning memory verses, which he has already memorized. We're pretty impressed to say the least.

OK, I've kept it a secret for 6 months, but now that it's over, I'm bragging on my man. : ) Since April, Paul has been training to run the Columbus Marathon. We were able to get a few days off of work, grandparents watched the kids, and on Saturday morning Paul and I headed down to Columbus. We headed downtown to pick up his race packet and then spent the rest of the day and night with Ben, Jaime, and Alayna . Dark and early (5 AM) Sunday morning we rolled out of bed, Paul got geared up, and we headed downtown again to find a decent parking spot. Thankfully we found a good place to park and had Paul to the starting area at 6:30 AM (an hour before start). Ben graciously came along so I didn't have to wander around Columbus on my own -thanks, Ben! It was mid-30's at the start with a slight breeze, but skies were clear and the sun came out once it rose. Ben and I saw Paul off at the start and then headed to the halfway point (got some coffee along the way) and ...