it is better to give

At this point in our lives, I feel like I could write a book about the things for which we are thankful.  Therefore, it seemed almost cliche to write a simple post about being grateful.  Simple posts and simple crafts are about all I have time for these days.  Simple is good.  The things I'm thankful for are pretty simple in and of themselves.  I'm thankful for a husband who loves me and loves our children. I'm thankful for that husband having a job that he loves and at which he is excellent (that took some thought to not end that sentence in a preposition!).  I'm thankful for giggles, naps, food, teeth, dirty diapers and hairbows.  I'm most thankful for life. The most simple and complicated thing there is.  Life that is new, life that is...not as new, life prevailing over death over and over.  Praise the Lord.

Our house is quite full of life.  Lydia is developing her own opinions about life and how she would like for it to be done.  It seems she fears her life will end if you take a toy away that she wants or if you put her in her bed when she's not quite ready to give up the fight against sleep.  She thinks things are hilarious and loves anything with lights.  For that reason she is LOVING the Christmas decorations.  She'll almost pop her neck clean off her head to try to see the tree.  That's my girl!  We are working on her third tooth.  I say we because she's going through the pain, but it's not pain free for the rest of us either!  She's becoming quite the crawler and getting bolder and bolder by the day.  I'm contemplating tying swiffer clothes to her hands and feet and let her go to town on my floors!  A girl can dream huh?

Penelope Anne, developer extraordinaire, is growing by leaps and bounds.  That little joker can sit up by herself, is pulling up on things and standing there by herself, she rolled over from her back to her tummy yesterday for the first time and willingly licked a baby cheesy puff for the first time.  Both of the last two were at Aunt Sam's house last night at our family Thanksgiving.  It was Penny's first social engagement and she did amazingly well.  She sat and watched with amazement rather than fear.  She even smiled and clapped some!  I have a feeling we have a pair of social butterflies on our hands!

Jonathan is having a wonderful time in Europe.  At the moment he's boarding a sleeper train from Moscow to St Petersburg.  Now doesn't that sound like some kind of riveting novel plot.  Handsome Chinese musician boards a sleeper train in Russia and upon entering his cabin he finds suitcases full of money and a note that says "this is free money for your children's college, and ipad for you, and something nice for your wife...the only requirement is playing an awesome rock show in St Petersburg!".  Sounds like a great book to me!  Again, a girl can dream!

Our friend Lynnlee Smith has been home since Penny's last hospital stay.  To make a very long story short, she has a very similar medical history to Penny, just minus the twin.  The doctors gave her even less of a chance of survival, in fact her parents were given a list of abortion clinics and told to make an appointment.  I'm so very glad they did not.  Lynnlee has proven every one of those predictions wrong and proven our God so faithful.  For the last 2 weeks she's been doing, shall we say, less well.  Her parents made the tough decision to take her back to the hospital and her co2 was 101.  Remember, Penny's was 104 when we went back the second time.  Just like Penny, Lynnlee will be getting a trach on Wednesday.  Jackie and Josh (her parents) have given her little body every opportunity to prove that she can do it on her own and she's now made it clear that she needs a little more help.  I know it must sound crazy, but I'm so grateful things have happened this way.  I don't mean that I'm glad that our girls have a hard time medically. I mean that I'm so grateful that God orchestrated it all that we would be able to help someone else walk through what we did.  As we were going through it I wished I had someone who I could ask all my silly questions to and I wished I could just sit in someone's house and see what to expect.  Now, it truly is better to give than to receive because I can give Jackie exactly what it was that I wished I had had.  What a blessing.  This sweet family has had their fair share of blessings, as we have.  I'm just so excited to be a part of another one.

Tupperware drumming

"don't look now, but I think there's someone in my bed!" -P

the girls with their wonderful Mah Mah and Yeh Yeh...these are some blessed children!

pigtails make everything cuter...even mischeif

The quick way to make Lydia smile is to show her herself on the front facing camera phone...she's such a ham!

The girls with Mah Mah and Yee Po (Aunt Mon)

"we're standing! we're standing!"

"we're sitting! we're sitting!"

one step closer to getting rid of oral aversion!

they're totally bffs

the aftermath of the ponytail is almost as cute

happy kid

"Hey Lydia, why are they all snapping at us?" -P

"I don't know Penny, but I think if we just smile they'll stop" -L

learning to share...this aint easy folks!

Thanksgiving night, Lydia had had such an exciting afternoon and evening that she just could not wind down and go to bed.  So she stayed up with me and decorated.  I decorated her first.

Andersen doing his best silly face to make Lydia laugh

"Even with my crazy post-pony hair I'm adorable...and I know it" -P