and we purchased this:
It came down to price, and we got the best deal on this car. Abe did a fantastic job negotiating the price. He had the deal totally done before we even showed up at dealership. The kids and I dropped him off at the dealership, and he was home with the new car about 2 hours later. Not too shabby :) We are very grateful for a car that will fit our soon-to-be family of five!
This is very late in the game to be posting this, but I finally scanned the U/S pictures of our little girl. Here she is:
For comparison here are Chase and Parker:
Chase
Parker
I think she looks more like Parker’s profile picture. We will have to wait and see who she resembles. Can’t wait to meet her!!
We are half way done with the daunting task of obtaining a car that will fit our soon-to-be family of five. Due to needing 3 carseats neither of our cars will fit our family. We knew we would need a larger car, and we have been going back and forth on what to purchase. We started getting a little more serious last week when I started having lots of contractions (not painful, but just too many). We narrowed down our choices, and we decided that we should sell Abe’s car to get that step done.
Abe listed the car at 1:30 AM Saturday morning. By the time I woke up on Saturday we had a ton of e-mails with people showing interest. We responded to the e-mails, and as the morning progressed the phone started to ring non-stop. Abe showed the car twice, talked to lots of people, and had a decent offer (90% of asking price) by 8:00 PM that evening. We completed the transaction today. The car is sold! As of now we are a ONE car family. We are slightly worn out after that crazy weekend. Spending lots of time at a dealership and dealing with craigslist people really will take it out of you.
The good news is that we think we have chosen the car we want. We were going back and forth between a Honda Pilot and a Ford Explorer. While test driving an Explorer on Saturday, we jokingly said what about a Flex? Well, after test driving it we discovered that we REALLY liked it. It has some great features that are really nice for families. Abe is in the process of negotiating the best price, and we will hopefully be ready to purchase one soon!
We were blessed with many great books this Christmas. Most of our family loves to read, and they find some really amazing reading material. My grandma gave me a book called Open Heart Open Home:The Hospitable Way to Make Others Feel Welcome & Wanted by Karen Mains.
I started reading it this morning at the gym. I am a person that tends to put chores and tasks before people. I have improved in this area, but it is still a struggle in my life. She recounted a time when her children were young. They were having a slow morning where she let them play and she sat on the couch and read a book. Well, we who have children know what happens when you sit on the couch and the kids “play.” Her house was a mess. Someone from church knocked on the door. She was horrified at the thought of letting someone into her messy house. However, she remembered her parents’ philosophy-hospitality before pried. She opened the door to the lady, and let her in without making apologies for her messy home and enjoyed the lady’s company. After their visit, the guest commented “I used to think you were perfect, but now I think we can be friends.” Powerful! Here are some other quotes that really stood out to me:
“True hospitality comes before pride.”
“Visitors may be more than guests in our home. If they’d life they may be friends.”
“When we planned and evening of dinner and fellowship, my husband began to ask guests to contribute to the meal…It was no longer important for me to do everything in order for the occasion to be a success. I had four children to raise, a God to know, words to share, wounds to heal. Because I put away my pride, lovely things occurred. People discovered they could be hospitable to me.”
May I be a person who puts people and hospitality before my pride!
Many of my friends have posted on their blogs about some resolutions or goals that they have for the new year. I am a goal oriented person, so I usually always have a few goals that I am trying to achieve. Here are some that I have for this year:
*Setting aside time to be in God’s Word and pray. For me it is so easy to let this area slide. It is so easy to get caught up in the demands of the day or my agenda, and not get to reading and praying. Living in the here and the now rather than focusing on eternals things is a constant struggle in my life.
*Keep our home clutter free and organized. After spending some time organizing and donating a lot of unused items to Goodwill, I hope to maintain the organization.
*Adjust to life with THREE kiddos. It took me a while to adjust to life with two kids, so I am expecting the same. I am really hard on myself after I have a baby. I think that I should be able to carry on as normal (cleaning, cooking, errands, playdates, exercise, etc). I feel like I am failing if I don’t get right back at it. This leads to exhaustion and frustration. Hopefully, I will cut myself some slack this time :)
*Enjoy my kids and this time of life. It is not easy physically, emotionally, or spiritually to have little kids. You don’t get much time to yourself or alone time with your husband. There is rarely peace and quiet. There is constant training that needs to take place. Messes everywhere. Lots of questions and requests. However, it is a short season in life. Along with all of the hardship, it is such a precious time. It is so easy to please your kids. It is the little things like letting them help take out the trash, pushing the garage door opener, going to the park, tickling them, reading a book, making popcorn, etc. that bring them such delight. They are so simple! If I just stop and think about it, I don’t ever want it to end. I firmly believe that in God’s design He knew that parenting young children is hard work and demanding, but yet He keeps them simple and easy to entertain so it isn’t totally overwhelming.
*Start Chase’s educational journey. We are investigating our options at this point. We are applying at different schools, and waiting to see what happens. One way or another he will be starting Kindergarten this year. Starting this new chapter in life is somewhat daunting, but I am looking forward to helping Chase learn and develop intellectually and spiritually.
*Getting Parker potty trained and in a big boy bed. Parker will be moving in Chase’s room in the next 6 months. We will have the baby in our room for quite a while, so there isn’t a huge hurry to get him out of the crib. We hope to move him by his 2nd birthday. I also hope to start potty training him around 22-23 months. I have read that there is a little window of time in their development that is prime for potty training. We missed it with Chase, but I think Parker will be ready.
*Get back into pre-pregnancy shape. My goal is to lose the baby weight and get into normal clothes sooner than later. I want to be able to get rid of maternity and “fat” clothes. For the last 5 years I have stored big, bigger, and really big clothes for the next pregnancy. Since our baby girl will be our last, after I lose the weight I can get rid of it all. That will be very nice :)
Yesterday, my mom made the comment that she doesn’t think she has ever met a more talkative child than Chase. After thinking about it for a minute, I agreed with her. I told her we should have known something was up when he was holding full on conversations at 18 months. I am truly grateful that he has been blessed with the ability to communicate. After hearing about some children that struggle to talk and develop in that area, I know I should only be thankful. However, while Chase is awake he literally does not stop talking. He wants to have constant communication. It can get wearing on my nerves. It leaves very little room to think.
He loves to talk about everything from our daily plans, cars, movies (especially Star Wars and Toy Story), and other topics. We have some very interesting conversations. He asks hard questions that really get me thinking. He is very interested in spiritual things. He often talks about God and Biblical concepts. I am so grateful that he shows an interest in these things. He loves to pray! I love to hear him. He is so sincere. Hopefully, as he grows and matures his love of communicating will develop into a very active prayer life. He is on his way :)
