Monday, December 22, 2008

I know this is a bit late, we've been so busy with holiday stuff that it's been hard finding time to blog. But, I wanted to get a post on here for sweet little Faith. She just turned 4 years old! It makes me a bit sad that she has to grow up, I've had images of her as a teenager going through my head and it scares me a bit to think about that! I know, I know, she's only FOUR years old. But for so long she still seemed like a baby to me, but not anymore.

When I was pregnant with her, my due date was in November... well, as lots of people know, since I wanted to do a VBAC delivery, I refused a C-section and refused induction. (Believe me, if at any point there was a risk that I was aware of I would not have gone so far overdue. I was going in every 2-3 days for monitoring and Non-Stress Tests, and each time, the amniotic fluid levels were great and her heart rate was perfect, etc...) I walked around for over a week dilated to 5 cm without actually going into labor and then I finally went into labor almost 3 weeks overdue, but I know the time was right for her. Her lungs were so fully developed, and she was such a good eater, and she never had any problems spitting up, not once. She was so healthy and content.

So, instead of being a November baby like her 2 brothers, she was a December baby, just in time for Christmas.

Matt was a bit stressed out about me going so long overdue, with the doctors trying to pressure us into a c-section. But, I felt very strongly that I was doing the right thing to wait, despite what the doctors were recommending. I think Matt was living on a prayer at that point, because he couldn't make me change my mind. Of course, I prayed everyday about whether I should continue to wait, and I never had a different answer, and it did all turn out great. I finally delivered her naturally, but we still weren't sure what her name was! Of course we had tried to think of a name for her before she was born, but just couldn't decide.

It came time to take her home from the hospital. I was in the middle of packing up to go home while Matt was driving to pick us up from the hospital, and he called me to tell me that he really felt like we should name her Faith. We hadn't even considered that name before, but after all the faith we had used during those last few weeks, I knew the name was perfect...a reminder of all we'd been through, and of what a blessing she was!

Then, on the drive home from the hospital, we were listening to 99.9 KEZ, the Christmas music station in AZ. The First Noel began playing, and immediately the thought came to my mind to use Noel as her middle name. So that is how she got her middle name!

And here she is now, Faith Noel Lenseigne, 4 years old:

I threw a little party for her and her little princess friends. They were all so cute in their dress-up clothes! They made crowns and mixed up their own glitter lip/cheek gel, we put glitter spray in their hair to make them sparkle all over! Faith gave each girl some of her stick-on-earrings to wear (which Jacob had given her for her birthday) and they played 'Kiss the Frog' (sort of like pin the tail on the donkey).


And a prince in a far off island heard there was a gathering of princesses, so he scooped some of the sand off the beach which is just covered in jewels there, and he sent it as a gift! I could tell some girls really believed that when I told them. They had fun sifting through the sand to find treasures!
Some of the girls went a little overboard with their little miniture lipsticks, they thought the more the better! So funny, I had to get a picture!


Well, now all three of my kids birthdays are over. It sure makes the holiday months extra busy! WesLee's birthday is 3 days after Halloween, Jacob's is always around Thanksgiving and Faith's is in December before Christmas. I'm considering celebrating on their half-birthdays instead to make the holidays a little less busy. (maybe) And also to spread out the gifts and sugary stuff a little more for all of us. Thankfully this next baby is due in April, but then again, that is around Easter...

Well, happy holidays, everyone!

Snow!

Having a blast in the snow!

Making snow angels:


enjoying the natural frozen treat:


Sliding down backwards:


taking turns sledding:

(we should probably invest in a couple more sleds.)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Sunny Arizona

Our trip to AZ went by way too fast! We thought a week would be long enough, but it felt like we hardly got a chance to really sit and chat with some of the people we were visiting. We stayed in Scottsdale with Matt's parents some of the time, and in Mesa with my mom some of the time. We got to visit with lots of people who we haven't seen for over a year! The kids had fun with friends and cousins, and we got to finally meet our newest neice, Shae! She is so adorable.

We enjoyed being able to wear flip-flops a little while in Arizona, since when we left Indiana, it was only 19 degrees outside.

We enjoyed going places together that we missed from when we used to live there. We drove through our old neighborhood, and past our old home. That was a strange feeling. I still miss that place.

Matt had to make sure we went to Jamba Juice and Taco Time, 2 of his all time favorite restaurants. I was sad to discover that my favorite thrift store had closed down. The kids requested that we go to the train park in Scottsdale, where they enjoyed riding the train and the carousel just like old times.

Here is Jacob riding in the jail car,

and begging for mercy at the jailhouse.

Meme and Pepe treated us to a night at Amazing Jakes, full of lots of good food and fun games.


We got to see Matt's dad's new office/warehouse building:


Jacob got to attend Meme's first grade class. Since he is a first grader anyway, the principal was alright with it. In the meantime, Faith went to a movie with Pepe while WesLee was at Grandma's house helping to bake bread and make pies and also he used the hand-grinder to make orange-apple-cranberry relish, all on his own, tough kid.


The evening before Thanksgiving, Matt's parents babysat all the kids overnight and Matt took me to a very fancy hotel after we ate at PeiWei's. It was so nice! I loved just relaxing in the tub. It had all these jets on the sides. Matt put in a tiny squirt of soap and it kept making more and more and more bubbles! It was pretty funny how high the bubbles got. At first I tried to pop them, but I eventually had to turn off the water jets. Later on, it was so nice to just fall asleep listening to the rain. The next day we slept in awhile, had breakfast in our hotel room and then went over to Matt's parents and enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving feast. That evening, we went over to my mom's house to get together with my side of the family for desserts and leftovers. Everything was so yummy... I ate so much that day that my sides ached!


It was sure great to visit Arizona, I just hope next time to be able to spend more time with people!