Drumroll please...

I finally got our pictures from our trip to CA up...I thought it was about time since tomorrow is February. Anyway, I usually hate these scrolly slide show things, but I had so many pictures that I wanted to share. Here's a few tips...if you put your cursor over the pictures you'll be able to read the captions, if the slide show closes and wants you to enter your email address just click on the X in the top right corner and it will do away, and lastly, enjoy!

Happy 1st Birthday Emma!

Christmas Day with the Shannons

Christmas Eve with the James

Fun times at Mimi & Papa's, December 2007

Disneyland December 2007

Poor Big Uncle Marc

Last night while I was washing Charis' hair I said, "You have a lot of hair." She looked at Emma and said, "So does Emma and so do you." So I said, "Everyone in our family has a lot of hair." To which Charis very seriously replied, "Yeah, except for Big Uncle Marc."
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(It's only really funny if you know who Big Uncle Marc is. But I think you can probably imagine it.)

Our trip

I'm trying to post the pics from our trip to CA but blogger is havng some issues with pictures right now, I'll try to come back and post later.

Westward Ho!

We're off to California!

(We left at 4:30 pm (AZ time) and arrived at 1:30 am (CA time)...I'm still so tired!)

Happy Birthday Ben

When Ben and I were dating/engaged/early married I could never remember his birth-date. I would always say January 26th or January 28th. This year I remembered...January 29th. But I forgot to blog anything about it...ugh! Anyway,

Happy (Belated) Birthday Ben!

Yesterday the girls and I brought In-n-out to Ben's work for lunch and a bunch of Star Wars balloons. Then last night we went to Joe's Real BBQ for dinner with a bunch of friends and family then back to our house for red velvet cake...yum.

Money makes the world go 'round

Screech!

So what happens when you don't have any money?

and

Why is preschool so cotton pickin' expensive?

(We're contemplating sending Charis to preschool in the fall...she'll be 4! Can you believe it?!? So I've researched 5 different preschools in the area that have been recommended to me. The cheapest one is still $100/month for a 2 day program. Where are we supposed to get $100 extra per month? Ben suggested I stop getting haircuts...that's about $100 for the year. Maybe we could stop eating?)

Adoption

(EDIT: The link to the website was not working previously, I think it is now.)

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I've always wanted to adopt a child and this past Christmas when I was involved with the Christian Family Care Agency my desire to adopt was renewed. Financially it's pretty clear that we are unable to do that at this time, so we will wait on the Lord. However some friends of ours are involved in the adoption process and have set up a website to keep us all informed as well as raise funds to complete the process. Check it out if you're interested!

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"When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."

Galations 4:4-5

January is "citrus month" in our backyard

Just last night the girls and I discovered another quality about Arizona that doesn't make it that bad. Both girls were too sick for the nursery at church but not too sick to have fun at home. So while Ben was at church last night the girls and I had a nice time at home together. First, we tried out Emma's new swing on our swingset in the backyard...she loved it!Then we picked oranges, lemons and grapefruits off our trees. (Actually, only the lemon and orange tree are ours, the grapefruit tree is a neigbors but it hangs over our wall so I assume it's fair game.) Charis and I picked 50 oranges off our tree! That's amazing! We brought them inside and I taught Charis how to make fresh squeezed orange juice. She did a great job! I can honestly say she juiced about 20 oranges by herself. It was great to be able to make dinner and have her juicing oranges at the same time. It was like there were 2 of me...except she's cuter!

Our final product...we still have 30 oranges that I need to figure out what to do with...any suggestions?

(Her apron says "Baker in Training". Isn't that cute!)

Awwwww...

I discovered something new at the pet store in the mall today...a puggle. It's a cross between a pug and a beagle. It's called a "designer dog"...and I want one! Ben said we had to wait until Emma was 3. (2 more years and counting!)

All dogs go to heaven

Lately Charis has been asking some really good questions that have prompted some rather mature conversations. Just this afternoon as I was putting her down for her nap she asked, "Where do dogs go when they die?" I said, "Dogs, cats, cows and any other animals don't go anywhere when they die. They don't have a soul so when they die they just don't exist anymore. People on the other hand do have a soul so when they die their soul either goes to live in heaven with Jesus or in hell forever. If they love Jesus and believe that He is their Savior then their soul will go to heaven where Jesus will give them a new body. Their new body won't feel any pain or paper cuts or tears. And they'll be able to praise Jesus forever! But if the people don't believe in Jesus their soul will go to hell where they will be in pain forever. Do you understand that?" Charis simply said, "Do you have mascara on?"
Hmmm...

Oops...

I guess I never blogged the official announcement...

DEIDRE'S PREGNANT!!!

Now you all know :)

(This was the only picture I could find from our trip to CA with Deidre in it. I guess that's another side effect of pregnancy...you're throwing up so much you don't make it into any of the pictures. I think to date she's lost about 14 lbs and continues to throw up almost hourly. I guess my kids will only have one cousin...Deidre's child will only have 2 so I guess that's fair.)

Last night...We put the girls to bed at 8 pm. Emma slept until 10 pm then woke up crying, she was inconsolable so she was in our bed crying until 12 am at which time Ben said, "If she's gonna cry she can at lest cry in her own bed!" and promptly returned her to her crib. She eventually stopped crying and fell asleep. Charis crawled into bed with us at 2 am. (I don't even notice her coming in any more...until I get a knee in my back and and hand across my face.) Ben's alarm went off at 5:15. He got in the shower and Charis woke up. I told her it was still nighttime. She asked why Daddy was up so I said, "He goes to work during the nighttime." At 5:45 Emma started crying. Ben went in her room, laid her down and gave her paci to her. I told Charis to watch the clock and when it says a 7 and a 00 then she can get out of bed. She peeked out the blinds and said, "Why is the sky purple and orange?" I told her it's called a sunRISE and children aren't supposed to see them :) I told her to lay down and try to sleep more. So she reiterated her favorite line..."But I'm not tired!" Well, Mommy is...I'm not sure much of what happened between 6 am and 7 am but I do remember hearing..."Mommy, Mommy it's a 7!" I groggily rolled over and said, "The 7 has to be first, the clock says 6:37" then 10 minutes later, "The 7 has to be first, the clock says 6:47" then 10 minutes later, "The 7 has to be first, the clock says 6:57". I'm tired today...I think I'll go make a pot of coffee, and drink it all.
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But it's all worth it when Charis comes into me this morning and says, "Emma doesn't know what the ministry is."
Um...ok

Sorry for the delay, but I am working on getting our California pictures up soon. They will include our trip to CA, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Disneyland, The Apple Farm, Emma's birthday and party and other various fun times we've had in the past month. Stay tuned...

Emma at One

Emma had her one year check up today. Poor love! She got 4 shots (3 in her thighs and 1 in her arm). She somehow lost weight from her last appointment (baby Weight Watchers must really be working) and she is now in the 97% percentile for weight and height. She used to be "off the charts" when it came to the weight. Anyway, she's crawling, standing and climbing up the stairs (time to go buy a baby gate!). She also will wave "bye-bye" and she'll say "b-b-b" while waving. "Mama" and "Dada" will get thrown around indiscriminately but also so does "na, na, na". I think that means "no" in Emma-ish. Emma loves music. The very second there is any kind of beat she immediately starts to shake her little booty. She's also the world champion booger factory, followed by the runner-up spot in drool manufacture. Her favorite foods are pretzles, cheerios and absolutely anything anyone else is eating at the time. She sleeps about 11 hours a night and 45 minutes during the day (yeah, 45 MINUTES). Some of her favorite activities are pulling Charis' hair, wrecking Charis' doll house and yelling at Charis for no particular reason. While my mom was here she nicknamed Emma..."Loud-Mouth Lime". It fits...perfectly. Anyway, it's been one heck of a year with her. We've had our ups and downs and a few more downs but all in all it's been good. She's the happiest little thing you'll ever meet.

Worthy of a post

Yesterday I hurt my hand but I didn't think it was worthy of a post...until today...when I tried to wash my hair...here's what happened:
Yesterday morning I got a call and found out that Bible study was going to be at our house last night. No biggie...I'll just pick up a few things and we'll be set to go. So as I put my teapot away in the china closet I accidentally knocked over a champagne flute in the process. The stem snapped in half so it wasn't a big mess. Oh, well. I picked up the 2 pieces and threw them in the trash. At which point I noticed that the trash was really full. In an effort to prevent anyone from cutting themselves on the glass that was sitting on top of the trash can I put my full, right hand directly ON TOP OF the still in tact glass and pushed...NOT SMART! The glass immediately exploded into my hand and tiny shards of glass flew everywhere! Thankfully Emma was napping at the time but Charis immediately burst into tears. She was barefoot so I told her to stand still and I would clean up the glass. First, I grabbed a paper towel to wrap around my hand that was already dripping with blood. Then I proceeded to sweep up the glass and vaccuum all while Charis was dripping tears and I was dripping blood. After it was all cleaned up I turned to look at my hand. I immediately started to feel queasy, then I got a little shakey, then I started to cry. It hurt, a lot! I called Ben and he told me to go upstairs wash out the cuts, put bandaids on and wrap it really tight so it would stop bleeding. Once I was able to get myself under control and assure Charis that "Mommy is just fine!" then Charis and I baked 2 loaves of yummy bread for Bible study, made dinner and cleaned the bathrooms together. Hmmm...mommy-hood sure changes a lot of things.
Oh, and about the washing of my hair...that was 3 1/2 hours ago and there's still soap in my hair.

Earlier today we were listening to a Jubilent Sykes CD and Charis said, "They're singin' about Jesus' soul!"
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I was getting Emma dressed this morning and Charis asked, "Who gave Emma that outfit." " "Grandma did." I answered. "Great-Grandma?" she asked. "No." I said, "Regular Grandma." Thoughtfully Charis answered, "Oh, you mean the Grandma in the blue shirt with the cage at her house." uuuummm, I guess so?

Mommy- "Charis, I love you!"
Charis- "I love you too, and Daddy and Emma and Papa and Mimi and Deedee and Jesse and I'll love Peanut too when she comes out of Deedee's tummy!"
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(We were listening to a Chris Tomlin CD as I pulled into the garage and was about to turn off the car...)
Charis- "Can we bring this music inside?"
Mommy- "Sure, do you like this music?"
Charis- "I like God and they're singing about the God that I like."

One year ago today...

Wow! It went by so fast! My sweet baby Emma is one years old today...I'd like to sit and write a nice long post about her birth and this past year and what she's doing now. But that's just it, it's what she's doing now that's preventing me from sitting and writing a nice long post. Maybe someday soon I'll be able to sit down and tell you all about her crawling and pulling and getting into everything she's not supposed to. Who says a vegetable steamer can't make a good toy...it certainly did this morning! Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

Here's an excerpt from my post about Emma's birth:
On Wednesday I went in to the Dr. for a routine 39 week check-up and the Dr. said that I was dilated 3 to 4 and leaking amniotic fluid. They said I had two options: either take an ambulance down to the hospital or have a family member come pick me up. Ben ran over from work (which is across the street from the Dr.'s office) and we drove home. Charis was there with Ben's mom so we said goodbye and headed to the hospital. We got there around 1:00 and got checked in and walked around and sat and waited. My contractions were still very irregular and not very painful. Finally around 6 or so at night they started to get more painful. I got an epidural and things still weren't progressing. At at about 8:30 the Dr. put me on Pitocin to speed things up. At 11:15 the Dr. checked me and I was dilated to 10. She said that it was time to push so I pushed four times and out came a little baby girl! She was healthy and happy (she didn't scream too much). We came home from the hospital on Thursday night around 7 but had to go back on Friday because we had checked out so early. At that appointment the Dr. thought that Emma had jaundice so we had to return today for more blood work and Dr. appointments. So after spending three hours at the hospital on Friday then three more on Saturday we now get to go back tomorrow and spend 3 more hours at the hospital. Other than that Emma is doing very well. She's eating a lot and filling her diapers right on time. Mommy is doing well too. This delivery was worlds better than the first. My sister was able to be in the delivery room with me and both my mom and Ben's mom (who were also in the room) said that it wasn't a fair representation of what labor and delivery are really like. So I won't complain.

January 4, 2003 - January 4, 2008

1 Beautiful wedding day

2 Different states to call home

3 Teeny tiny apartments until our big house

4 Sanctifying pregnancies

5 Blessed years

Happy 5th Anniversary!

I love you, Ben!