Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, a time to spend with family and friends, feasting and being thankful . . . this year, we enjoyed sharing our Thanksgiving meal with good friends. 

We've been meeting with several families weekly for church gatherings in each others homes for over two years.  It's been a blessing to share life, encourage each other, pray for one another, and learn together.  One of our "church" families had an amazing vision for our community: a place for all people to gather for a delicious, nutritious meal, made from locally grown, organic food, no matter their economic situation.  Through the dedication of this family, support of the community, countless hours of hard work from volunteers, and miraculous blessings from God, The ComeUnity Cafe, a nonprofit, donation-based restaurant, located downtown, became a reality this week! 

It was very fitting to gather with our friends at the newly opened cafe to share our Thanksgiving meal: 20 kids, 12 adults.  We all brought full turkey dinners and shared the meal around the gorgeous hand-made cafe tables, while the kids colored and played games.   

The ComeUnity Cafe's official opening is Monday, December 2nd.  Located downtown, it'll be open to serve lunch (soup, salad, sandwich) from 11-2:30, five days a week.  Meals can be purchased by monetary donation (for a single meal, or perhaps paying for yourself and someone else), or by an hour of volunteer work: washing dishes, clearing tables, etc.  The Cafe has only two paid staff, the rest of the work will be done by volunteers. 

The motto of ComeUnity Cafe: "To Love, to Feed, to Dignify."  Everyone is welcome to come in for a good, healthy meal.

We are excited to see God at work through the ComeUnity Cafe.  

Thankful

Bible

family

frogs

house

food

LEGO

books

Hot Wheels

the babies

our sight

warm coats

sleeping in warm beds on a cold night

dad's job

toys

our warm house

mother and father

friends

 for this little cute one (dabney)

maclaren and dabney

brothers and sisters

creatures

grandma and grandpa

cheetahs, because I like them

my bed

God healing Grandma Vee

that we can run and play

the trees

a car we can drive to places in

outdoors

God's beautiful creation

that Jesus died on the cross

that we can go to heaven

that I'm not an orphan anymore

that I have a family

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

3 Months

3-months ago, Dabney Hazel joined our family.

She is a blessing!

.  coos  .  licks  .  sucks her fist  .  sleeps swaddled  .  balding  . 

 .  toots (a lot!)  .  nurses 7x per day  .  sleeps 6-8 hours at night  .  

.  snuggles  .  smiles  .  waves her arms  .  wears 3-6 mo. clothing  .

.  practices "superman"  .  

.  tracks lights  .  chubby (!)  .  likes sling carrier  .  

12.5 pounds

*Praise! - we are thrilled that she is no longer crossing her eyes.

We are completely in love with this little one. 

And, she has the sweetest cry :)

Big Family

What we like about having a baby:

 "They're so cute, they make you giggle and smile"

 - Tesfaye

"They are blessings from God: it's fun to take care of them and hold them, they make cute noises"

 - Hendrick

"They make other people smile and we can play with them a lot.  We like them because they're so chubby and cute, they're really adorable.  They're God's children.  It's really fun to hold them if mom lets you, Moms like to nurse babies.  They have cute feet and their hair is so small and cute."

 - Maegli

"We like having new brothers and sisters" 

- Davis

"They're cute.  When they get a little older, we can teach them the way that we play.  They can learn to swing and play games and run around, and we can take them out to a walk.  We can look at a book with them and teach them how to read a book"

 - Hiwot

"Play!  And we can make 'em walk"

 - Kolpin

"They're really nice and I like to look at them.  God put them in our family, they're a blessing" 

- Burke

What we like about having a big family:

"With lot of kids you can do lot of stuff like soccer and baseball.  You can play with them and you can like ride bikes and play with them.  It's fun having lots of brothers because they can help you with your chores because we can do them faster, then mom and dad doesn't have to do laundry or dishes or vacuum because we have a lot of kids to do them" 

- Tesfaye 

"We can make forts together, because you do need a lot of people to make a fort.  And it's more fun to wrestle with a lot of people"

 - Hendrick

"We can color pictures of each other and give them presents for their birthday.  We get to celebrate a lot of birthdays!"

 - Burke

"We can play!"

 - Kolpin

"We can do races, we need a lot of kids to do races.  We can play sports with a lot of kids and we can play outside with a lot of kids.  And there are a lot of kids to help out, if someone gets hurt we can help them." 

- Hiwot

"I like my sisters and brothers.  They help take care of me.  They protect me when I'm scared in the dark, like Hiwot protects me.  My brothers help to get bugs off my legs when they get on my legs" 

- Maegli

"We can do races and we can play baseball and football.   There is always someone to play with" 

- Davis

Babywearing

Just the other day, while at the grocery store, I heard: "Oh my, is that a baby in there?". . .
Yes it is :)

I didn't "wear" my first nearly enough, but with each consecutive baby, being able to carry them around, hands free, has been wonderful.  It's perfect for bonding, not to mention easy!  I can keep the baby close, and still be able to care for the other kids, prepare food, keep house, and oversee school. 
Plus, outings are made much easier. 

Babies always like to be close to mama.  Babywearing keeps them close, snuggled, cradled, happy, and content.

I always "wear" Dabney to my Mom's group.  This past week, a mom pointed out that my "necklace is growing!". 

She is definitely fitting into her sling a bit differently now that she has nearly doubled her birth weight . . . her head's popping out!  She doesn't just sleep in her sling anymore - I love being able to interact with this sweet one. 

*She does make a beautiful accessory :)

Babies belong with their mamas, and Mamas belong with their babies.  Baby wearing makes that happen.

These little ones stay little for such a short time, I treasure these sweet moments snuggling with my baby.   

 

. . . And the view is amazing.

12 weeks

Dabney Hazel

 12-weeks-old

12-pounds

smiles

coos

brand new bouncy seat for our 9th :)

she likes it!

Fall

In Tennessee, the trees have lost nearly all of their leaves . . . it's almost time for raking. 

As we wait for the final leaves to fall, the kids are thoroughly enjoying the blanket of leaves on the ground.  The other day, with gorgeous weather and warm temperatures, the kids had a ball raking piles, dancing, jumping, swinging outside.  Hope this excitement and thrill will carry them through the long, long, long hours of raking still to come :)

We have a lot of trees, and a lot of leaves!

Family

Although we have no extended family in town with us, it's nice for us to have most of our family concentrated around the Cincinnati area . . . often, a trip "home" allows us to spend time everyone.  With busy schedules, this is not something we take lightly.  It's quite the treat to be with family.

Traveling this past week, we had two weekends to visit with family . . . and we saw EVERYONE!
Grandparents, all ELEVEN aunts and uncles (our siblings and spouses), and all EIGHT cousins (our nieces and nephews, plus one on the way!)
This was a wonderful time with both sides of our family, and introducing Dabney.  


Our first weekend, we spent with Amy's family: celebrating Gramma's birthday, playing with cousins, and an out-of-town visit from Amy's brother and wife (who are expecting they're first!!!!).

Gramma and Grandpa with their 11 grandchildren

During the week, we worked school and took several small outings: Ikea, neighborhood walks, playground visits, and a trip to Union Terminal Children's Museum. 

The second weekend, it was a treat to be with Mike's entire family.  Together, we visited a large neighborhood park where the cousins all enjoyed scooter races, a family baseball game, soccer, football, hiking, and playground play.  It was quite impressive to watch this crew of cousins (and aunts and uncles) dominate the fields, playing together.

I am so thankful our children had this special time with family. 

Grandpa and all 15 grandchildren

Business Trip

We are so thankful for Mike's job.

We are thankful for infrequent travel required by his job.

 But, when he does have to travel . . . 

we are thankful for family letting us hang out for the week!

*And, we're thankful for cell phones, allowing us to share our week with daddy. 

We sure do miss Mike when he travels . . . 

getting out of town and having a fun week helps make the time a bit easier :) 

(plus we get to see grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!)

Our picture messages to Daddy :)