A Special Blessing

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law hosted a blessing for her unborn baby girl, Jillian. Women of strong faith in her life sat around sharing stories, encouragement, and spoke blessings upon both of them. It was truly a moving experience. Since I have been touched deeply by some specific truths of mothering, I shared with her the following:

Since becoming a mother, myself, I have gained a new and invaluable perspective of the most important relationship a person can be apart of. How much closer I am to understand God the father’s unfailing love for His children! I look at my children with a deep and profound love, amazement, commitment, and hope for their future. I pray for them and their choices - that they will listen to my voice and benefit from my cautions and wisdom. Is this not the same way God thinks of us? Just like any parent, His heart is torn when we choose to disobey, ignore his warnings, fuss, whine, and complain amongst our countless blessings. Yet when we choose to trust and obey, to listen and accept his authority in our lives, we enjoy the right relationship with Him as it was intended. He rejoices that His children honor Him. Amanda, I want to challenge you to continuously look to God for “parenting lessons” – from the One whom we receive all of those wonderful traits from, being made in His image. When you become discouraged, remember your own relationship as God’s daughter. Pray for the girls just as Jesus prays for our return to a right relationship. Rejoice with and praise them when your daughters make good choices that honor you as well. We can know no greater joy than to see our children obey us, as training for their obedience to God! May you grow in your immeasurably important role as mother to Anne-Marie and Jillian and daughter to the King.

Yesterday marked the birthday of Jillian Danielle Baker. For a moment, I was a able to reflect on the amazing miracle from a different perspective. This baby has been "assigned" to this particular passionate family. From now on, she has such an important role in it. Among many others, this is the cousin my kids will grow up with! Jillian, welcome to the family! We are thrilled to be your cheerleaders through life and can't wait to see what God has in store for you... A special blessing indeed.

Grace is 5 months!

Our little doodle-bug is 5 months already! All of a sudden I am realizing that she holds on to things and grabs for things... It all goes by in a blink, doesn't it? She is an active little thing on the floor and will figure out how to put those knees up any day now. She is also creating quite the reputation for herself - the easiest, smiliest baby that ever was. I like to refer to her as my "Mary Poppins Baby" - practically perfect in every way.

Scenes from September

This month was full of fun! Here is a bit of what we did to wrap up the summer.

Gracie got her first pedicure from Auntie Phoebe. Kudos to Phoebe for painting teeny nails as they are all while kicking and squirming! She seemed to enjoy it, and even the nurses at her four month appointment were sure to tell me how adorable they thought it was.

I celebrated my 26th birthday... We enjoyed a delicious family dinner and ended the evening with a grandbaby bath (minus Grace) in the big Scott and Laura tub. It was wonderful, wet chaos.

On my actual birthday, Scott and I biked 24 1/2 miles throughout San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, over the Presidio, over the Golden Gate Bridge and all the way back. Did you catch that? 24 1/2 miles! Who knows what came over me to desire that, but we really did have an amazing day! I did it all on my brand new bike! (My first ever since, as the youngest, I was blessed with hand-me-down bikes.) Finally! An outdoor activity we both can enjoy and be recreational partners for :) Have you ever biked to a different county before? I hadn't!

We welcomed back my parents from a long European journey. My favorite souvenir they brought back for the kids? this shirt for Gracie from Ireland. "Gorgeous (just like Mummy)"

We played at home and I caught some cute brothers/sister behavior...
Noah "helping" Gracie to sit back up straight, big foot/little foot, and EVERYONE helping Mommy feed Grace.



We went to some friends' cabin on the coast for the weekend. It was fun to get away from everything - even just for a couple days. We were entertained by abalone shells as hats, kissing dirty faces, the deck with a gorgeous view, and Hayden's break-dancing...

Yeah, you can judge me if you want... I happen to love the show "So You Think You Can Dance". I went with some girlfriends to the traveling tour in Oakland. A friend with connections gave us Meet and Greet Passes so we met all of the dancers before the show. We had fantastic seats and it was a blast!






That was probably just as exhausting to read as it was to participate in! But at the end of the day (or month), as tired as we are, I always say,
"Thank you, God, for my family! I am so blessed!"

The Beauty that I See

I have some of the right equipment but none of the training to take professional quality photographs. I love trying, but I've never taken a class about the lighting, camera settings, different lenses, editing, etc. Someday I'll take a class and really get a handle on my SLR - but until then... Isn't it wonderful to see what people can capture who have the right equipment ALONG with the know-how? Here are the results: your BEAUTIFUL, God-created children with expressions that you see so many times that you wish others were privileged to see as well.

What a precious gift my life is!

Feeling Appreciated!

For the most part, today was not our best. Kids were fussier than usual, even my baby girl. But then my wonderful husband came home, saw the house in all of its chaotic glory, then vanished for a half hour. He came back upstairs and sent me downstairs for "a break". A dozen red roses were waiting for me with a card that had all the right things written inside. So I went back upstairs, and in a precious moment amidst screaming children at our feet, I hugged him for a long time and thanked him for noticing all that I do. In a strange way, I was pleased that my kids were so distraught while seeing Mommy and Daddy loving one another. It's important for them to know over and over again that our marriage (and Daddy) are first even before them. So my day turned out to be not so bad after all.

Gracie is 4 months

We cannot believe how big she is already!
She turned four months on the 6th.
Her giggle is getting bigger each day as is her darling personality.
She's been rolling over for a few weeks now
and is quite the mover on her tummy too.
I'm sure she'll follow in her brothers' footsteps,
getting the whole crawling thing down in the next couple of months -
even if only to move out of their way.

Growth Comparison ... & Hayden

Hayden sees a camera.
Hayden thinks the camera is out to take a picture of him.
The camera really is for taking pictures
comparing the sizes of Lincoln and Gigi.
Hayden looks up and says, "Cheeeeese."
Oh well. Hayden can be in it too.
How can I ignore that face?