Family Alive

Wish you were here! The sunsets over the hills here in Birmingham, and the other evening it gave everything a pretty pink hue. We’ve got a beautiful camellia bush on the right side, where Brian and Analise are standing. We like being homeowners!

So today it’s been kind of cold, down in the lower 30’s at night. (Note: I said “kind of” for my NORTHERN friends, who know what the word “cold” actually means.) Since we now pay to heat a whole house, we’ve learned that it’s kind of expensive to keep it nice and toasty warm:) Thankfully, we have a nice fireplace in the den, where Analise and I spend most of our time. But with a curious, active baby, a fireplace could pose a real problem. Well, our much debated solution was to invest in a Hearth Gate (by Kidco). Kind of pricy, but we’ve found it be be invaluable since she LOVES the glowing, crackling fire, and she would probably climb right up onto our low hearth and right into the fireplace. So all that to say, that’s the thing in the above picture that you see… not Analise in a cage:) I just started a rip roaring fire, and it’s been a challenge to keep her away… but when she’s away she’s off exploring the kitchen while I’m tending the fire. Or at the moment, she’s unloading the bookshelves. Gotta go!

Since this is my blog, I figured I can post anything I’d like… and today I’m inspired to share how much I’ve enjoyed this book. The Busy Mom’s Guide to Prayer by Lisa Whelchel has been a great way to organize the many things that are on my heart to pray for (probably including you!) It has 6 categories per day of areas to focus your prayers, including scriptures, prayers using the scriptures and an extended prayer. It’s also got 6 areas per day for other prayers. I, personally, have used many different manners to get organized praying in the past, and they all work for a season. This works for this season, and I’ve especially enjoyed the scripture references.

As you probably know, we take a lot of pictures… specially of Analise. We were very blessed to have our friend Corrie around for Analise’s first 6 months to take great nearly-professional quality pics of her. Because of that, we’ve not had any professional pics taken… until yesterday!

She was a darling, as usual. The photographer was suprised at how mobile she was, and we couldn’t keep her still for some of them. She was determined to crawl off to get the toys behind us. Anyway, it was terribly hard not to buy ALL of them (over $273 worth when we had picked our 17 favorites!). But we did narrow it down to two for a reasonable price. Here you go! (BTW – these are pics of the pics, so they’re not super-high quality!)

The one above was so funny… the photographer was surpised Analise could stand when I asked for her to stand beside a block. Well, she didn’t want to stand… she’s in the process of sitting down, though the rest of the pictures from that series were more of a squat! The picture below might not have been the 2nd best of all of them, but it reminds me so very much of a picture of me from when I was about her age, I had to get it. Doesn’t her smile just melt you?? (And if you’ve got one of your own, I’m sure his/her smile does the same thing… there’s something about baby smiles that just makes your heart melt!)

Here’s another picture from yesterday:)

Analise is slowly “breaching” the borders in our house. She and I mainly stay in the carpeted den where her toys are and it’s completely childproof, but she enjoys crawling into the hardwood kitchen to find me when I step out there. And if I leave the doorway to the hall open, she’ll venture that direction.

Yesterday, she reminded me of the Prayer of Jabez from 1 Chronicles 4:9:

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

I was in the bedroom and came back 30 seconds later to find her in the foyer – a place she’s never been. She was sitting there with a big grin on her face and her hands up in the air. I think Analise has been praying that God would enlarge her territory, and she was pretty excited when He answered and she found the foyer!

So I was relaxing in the glider doing some bible study on one side of the den, and Analise was roaming around the room, crawling, pulling up and just playing on her own. She was on the other side of the fireplace, out of my sight, making some little noises like twinging the doorstop and rattling her keys. It got quieter, and I heard her moving around the small end table that was near her, but I imagined she was just pulling up. Eventually, I heard some little “ug, ug, *sigh*” (Analise’s frustrated noises) so I went to check on her. I found her under the coffee table, wedged between the table and the wall!

Analise has been keeping busy getting into everything:) She’s crawling all over, her favorite destination being out of the den into the kitchen. She also enjoys the bookcase, see above, where she’ll pull herself up to standing. Then she proceeds to take books off, one at a time. She’s just recently decided to move UP a shelf to my books, which she finds to be more fun to EAT than her board books.

I’m relieve that we’re finally over the teething and mobility problems, and Analise is napping and sleeping very well. She even sleeps through the night (at least until 5:00am is through the night by my standards!).

The pictures, below are of her latest accomplishment – climbing stairs! Life is never dull, and I’m sure walking isn’t too far down the road…

Here’s my little girl… she’s just ducky! Believe it or not, after only a week of army-crawling, she’s started full on crawling on her hands and knees. Now it seems she wants to be EVERYWHERE – including looking at herself in the fireplace glass, sliding across the kitchen floor, and pulling herself up on the bookcase (which is well anchored to the wall!). She’s such a fun one!

This week brought some fun to Birmingham, when the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew came to renovate the home of a family of sextuplets. The demolished the house on Tuesday, started construction on Wednesday, and completed it on Saturday afternoon. We ventured over there to checkout the progress on the on Thursday evening.

It was pretty cool to see the frame of the house and how quickly they were making progress. We decided to go back on Monday for the big “reveal”, when the family comes home. We didn’t get there until after they’d arrived, but it was still very fun to see the house! Above, aAnlise and I in the parking lot before we walked over. Below, the finished house! It went from 1,700 sq. feet to over 5,000! They need that space with 7 kids (2 1/2 yr old sextuplets and a 9 yr old).

Isn’t it crazy that it’s almost February? My little bundle of joy turned 7 months old this weekend. I can’t believe it. It seems like yesterday that Brian and I were celebrating our first anniversary in the hospital as they were starting to induce me. Thirty-six hours later, Analise burst onto the scene and our lives have NEVER been the same… they’re so much more fun!

At the moment, she’s on her belly follwing her little musical crawl toy, drooling all over the blanket. It’s been a busy week here! A week and a half ago, she came down with a slight cold, and all semblance of “normal routine” (that we were still struggling to find since moving) dissolved. It turns out she has an ear infection, so we’ve been battling to get her to take her antibiotics twice per day. On top of that, the first 2 teeth (more like daggers!) made their appearance. So needless to say, Analise has not been sleeping well lately, and I’m hoping we can get back into some semblence of a routine soon. Right now, though, about all I can do is snuggle her in the midst of her fussiness, and rescue her when she ends up on her hands and knees in the corner of her crib in the middle of her nap. Poor girl doesn’t know what to do with her new mobility!

Anyway, here are a few new glimpses for those of you checking in to see her smiley face! Above, she’s backed herself under the coffee table. Backwards is still the fastest direction of travel, but forwards creeping/army crawling is improving! Below, is one of my new favorites:)

	Well, those of you that are checking up on me win yourselves a photo jackpot!:) We’re settling into our new home here in Alabama, and Analise is keeping me busy! I thought life as a stay-at-home mom would be full of free time to catch up on all the things I’ve been wanting to do. But I think Brian got the easier stage before Analise was mobile! Now she’s rolling, crawling (albeit backwards and in minute increments!), reaching, sitting, grabbing, leaning and drooling endlessly. It’s fun! Toss in trying to slowly unpack, organize, laundry, dishes, finish me much belated Christmas letter (or shall we say Valentine’s letter!), and walking to try to get myself in a little better shape and my day is full! Of course, I’ve got time for a phone call, IM conversation or a visit… if you want!
	On with the show. Here’s Analise trying to reach the block. She’s baffled that she keeps getting farther from it as she’s moving backwards!
	On our trip across the country, we would get Analise out of her carseat to give her a little break. She much enjoyed being on Brian’s lap and pretending to drive.
	Next we have Analise’s first taste of something other than milk! She doesn’t look too impressed, does she? It was quite comical. She was making terrible faces before it even got to her mouth. After nearly 3 weeks, she’s only barely tolerating a taste of solids. She’s a mama’s milk kind of girl!

Last glimpse of the day is Analise and I out for a walk around our neighborhood. We got this great backpack from my parents for Christmas, and Analise smiles at everyone while I take her everywhere in it. Our neighborhood is very hilly, and we’ve been enjoying walking every evening before dinner.

Ok, I’m hoping to update this more often because I know there are lots of you out there missing our smiling faces! We miss you too!