transplant

We had a family tree on our basement wall at the last house.  I love that tree.  So Fermando made us a new one at the house.  That husband of mine did a spectacular job on this house project. And each of the kids got to paint a leaf.  Since they are the leaves on the tree.  Fitting.


I find it funny in an interesting not a ha ha way that we walk by the family tree day after day, up and down, without thinking about it and then suddenly one of us will stop and notice.  "Is that Victor that Victor is named after?" Sammy Boy will say.  "And is that the one Miranda is named after?"  And Teo will just stop and say "Gwama Baugh.  Gwampa Baugh.  Gwama Howell. Gwampa Howell. Pa.  Gwama."  Just letting me know he knows all those people and it's cool that they're there on our wall.  But it makes me so so so so glad that he KNOWS those people. 
 
So now this turned into a bit of a memorial day post because I have been so blessed in my life to know many of the people on our tree that are the next set of limbs up on the branches.  I think about them sometimes, watching me here, rooting for me and having empathy for me.  I would like to be better for them, to be a strong link in the chain they took so much effort to build. 

I love Fernando's grandparents too.  I love Mami Betty whom I know, and Papa Papa who is Victor's namesake for everything I know about him.  I love his maternal grandparents who are gone.  I will never forget visiting their graves in Peru.  Tall, stone walls of names on boxes.


So different from our stones nestled in grass with carvings of temples or children's names on the back.

  Just a grey grid with the name of someone so important to us in the center.  I felt an overwhelming, deep love and my heart reached out with gratitude toward these people even my husband never met in person.  Thank you, I said.  Thank you for sacrificing having your daughter close so that she could be my mother-in-law, so our family could be.
 
The truth I have is so precious it is a wonder I don't cry about it every hour of my life:  I will be able to see these women and men that I love so much, that have shaped me and my situation, again. Forever!  What a tree.    

time passes

Time passes.  On this blog an embarassing amount of time has passed.  And amazing things have happened in that time. 

A new person joined our family. 

We live in a different house and neighborhood. 

There have been birthdays, teeth lost, milestones.  Time passes. 

Sometimes I think that my fears and weaknesses and personal failures are never going to be conquered.  Yet time passes.  What seems impossible can be.  God's gift of time is SO precious. There is time to change.  Time that will soften, illuminate, divide the important from the un.  It's the miracle grow that only Heaven can spread on our garden. Time. After all our work planting and weeding and watering, Time brings the harvest.   

I recently gave a lesson in Church about personal records. Because of it I challenged myself to resuccitate this blog, because I KNOW that these records are important to my family, and to me, and to me learrning from my life's experiences.  The me of a time passed can answer right now me's questions.  Personal records give me the gift of having a concrete capturing of time passing.  So here I am.  CPRing this blog and feeling blessed by it even as I type.

One of my faves Eva Cassidy sang this song called "Time is a Healer" and one of the parts says

"Time is a healer

And all hearts that break

Are put back together again

For love heals the wounds it makes." 

A long time ago I posted our famous goose story. And I honestly thought my children might not recover from their trauma! But time passes. They recently went back and chased those geese down and felt a surge of satisfaction.  Hopefully from the joy of overcoming not from the pleasure of vengence.  Time gave them a much different experience. 

Sammy Boy is as big as the geese now.

  

 

Two more squishfaces have come to us since then. 

I've learned a few things.  I still have some of the same things to figure out.  I have new things to learn.  Time passes.  And blessings trail as it passes like dust from a shooting star.

really

If you have a sister nice enough to massage and exfoliate your feet, even an almost 2-year-old is smart enough to seize that offer.  Plus the foot bath has bubbles. 

Personality

Personality is NOT one of the things our kids lack.  I love these pictures because they really capture something about each one. 

SAMMY is always happy.  Really, almost always.  It's awesome.  And he also loves protien like a real man should.  Thus an ALL protien smiley face breakfast. Even a just-woke-up Sammy is a happy Sammy.  This morning the first thing he said was, "Mom, I have some good news...*pause* "
 and I said, "What's the bad news?"  And he said, "There's no bad news. Just good news!"  NICE.

Miniman loves looking at kid songs on youtube with his grandma or aunt SO much that VOILA...he fell asleep in the office chair.  He was either dreaming of "Go Away Big Green Monster" or "The Wheels on the Bus"...or "Dance like you've got ants in your pants."  All good dreams.  

Miranda in a pre-halloween halloween costume.  She designed the face.  She knew what she wanted from the hair.  She's got style.  

And yes, Xiao Yu, those are your heels. 

Who knows what the next one will be like?!?!?!? Only a few weeks before he shows himself!!!!

Halloween

We are ALL into Star Wars this year so it was an easy choice for costumes.  Luckily my belly lent itself to the death star.  And doesn't Fermando look awesome?!!! He is the secret here! How does the dark side produce such powerful Jedis?  Who knows. 

Luke Skywalker

Lightsaber stopped working the day before Halloween. Sad.  Also, he did NOT enjoy having his hair done this way.  But Jedi power comes with certain style requirements, you know

 Princess Leia

G-ma whipped up the dress in like a half an hour. Impressive.  But of course when she does that we just continue to take her amazing talents for granted.  Sorry ma.

Also, the secred of the hair was rollers made of men's dress socks. Thanks YouTube.

Master Yoda



He can't say Yoda so he says Woda.  So he'll come up to you and ask for "Woda eaws?"  "Woda hands?" Pretty cutey little guy.   

Battling the dark side takes courage... 

...and finely harnessed power. CONCENTRATE...  

Pumpkins!  This is also what Woda thinks smiling is.  

It was a FUN Halloween.  We had lots of occasions to wear our costumes this year!  Our family really enjoys this holiday, but it will be NICE not to have to dress up for awhile.  I wish I could just capture these memories like Dumbledore does and stick my head back into them whenever I want...    

The other day I heard my children laughing SO hard with each other.  I said to my mom and sister, "There is no children's sound better than that!"  And my sister said, "Maybe besides them sleeping."  Which I loved.  And I did have to weigh the two out.  I still choose the laughing but watching our children peacefully slumber is one of my favorite things and always gives me a warm, glittering feeling I wish I could capture and keep forever. 

PLUS I'm hugely pregnant at the moment and not sleeping well at all so maybe that's why I'm posting pictures of the kiddos sleeping lately. 

I LOVE this picture because it looks like Cairo the lion's hair (Daddy's hand me down stuffed animal and thus treasured by Sammy) is actually a goatee.  HA HA HA.  So funny to think of.  Makes Sam look like a troll or mountain elf or something.  This is Cairo's preferred sleeping position.  

I have to limit the number of things Mims is allowed to sleep with.  She would honestly sleep with 50 different animals and toys, even hard uncomfortable ones. 



Maybe I'm too halloweenish right now but don't the baby and Woody look like they come alive at night and plot against us in our sleep?

Sweaty snuggly sleeping guy. LOVE IT. 

Important parenting rule: If your kids fall asleep in an uncomfortable/torturous position, do NOT move them. They might wake up (enough said) AND you won't be able to take pictures of said position. 

Brotherly love.

one way to utilize the scriptures

For real.  Righteousness can be exhausting.

Jeremiah 31:26

26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.