Maria's Birthday!

Maria is 15 today.

How in the world did 15 years fly by so quickly? I am so blessed to have a daughter like Maria. She is an awesome big sister to her three brothers. She is out and about with one of her best friends, Sonja, to celebrate her birthday. They are going to the movies, eating at Red Robin, hanging out at the mall, and then coming home for a sleepover....not that there will be a lot of sleeping going on!

Here is a picture of her holding Joseph as a newborn....it is amazing that he already looks different in less than 4 weeks.

Rest is good

Life continues. It is amazing what rest does to restore oneself. I find if I am able to get a nap in the middle of the day, the nights are much more bearable. Plus, going to bed earlier when Joseph goes to sleep for the first shift is also good. It is hard though....there are other things that I want to do....but I need to remind myself continually that this is such a short season and I just need to enjoy the time with a newborn. So, resting, reading, relaxing, gazing at Joseph, playing with James, and maintaining the basics of the household are what occupy the bulk of my time nowadays. And, I couldn't do it without the amazing help of Maria and William. They are both so incredibly willing to serve and to either hold Joseph or play with James....it is a wonderful thing to watch.

Today was a harder day....not as much sleep and James was BUSY! I think this is probably more the reality I will be living in coming up as opposed to the easy first two weeks.

Here is a picture of Joseph next to a black and white picture of William when he was a newborn. See any resemblance?

It sure is fun to watch James love on Joseph. My sister Annabelle has summed them up correctly....Godzilla and the Potato!

James definitely loves his baby brother....and even is starting to say his name!

Here is a video taken December 31 of James and Joseph. The video isn't long....but it is obviously done by an amateur!

Christmas in January

Today we celebrated Christmas with my sister Annabelle, her hubby Ethan and their daughter Sarah. It was kinda fun to have Christmas in January....plus it was the first Christmas for Joseph.

Earlier today we went to Joseph's first doctor's appointment, where everything checked out great. That is always reassuring. We then went to Costco to pick up the birth announcements and the timing was impeccable...they had just finished printing by the time we got to the front of the line. We were able to get the pictures into the envelopes and send them out today. Some of you reading this blog may even be getting one in the mail.

Welcome Joseph Balderrama

Is it already 2010? How did that happen? The only thing I have kept up on in my blog is the list of books I read.....125 for 2009. Some months more, some months less. I really enjoyed being able to see what I had read and review the list at the end of the year. So, I know I will be continuing the book list....and hopefully post more frequently than I did in the past.

But, the big news in our household is Joseph Balderrama joined our family on December 29 at 11:11 pm.

Friends and Family and Food

What could be better than celebrating a holiday than enjoying a BBQ with friends, family and food? I'm not sure....this was pretty much a highlight for me. I love having people over and it was so nice to be able to entertain three of my oldest (longest) friends and my sister and all their families. Our kids have all grown up together.....some of them met when they were less than 2 years old and others were born after the friendships had begun. I am so blessed to watch these kids continue to get along and grow up together, through all the various stages of life.

Ken gets back on Friday (assuming all his travel connections fall into place) and I am on the same kick I always get on when he travels. I like to try to get the house clean and straightened up and de-cluttered as much as possible. I know he likes to be in a clean, decluttered house and I love to do this for him. I figure it is a way I can support him while he is away. Since he has been gone so long, I have had more of a chance to do this, although I only started last week. I am now in the process of tackling our walk-in closet. Well, it is now a walk-in closet....last week it looked more like a storage shed in the center with clothes that weren't easily accessible around the edges. Now, it is a closet again! But, what to do with all the stuff that was in there that shouldn't have been. I am slowly sorting things out, but I definitely struggle with too much stuff. I keep chipping away though.

How is school going for us? We have started week 7 and it is going good over-all. I have had to tweak some things and one of the things I need to focus on teaching the kids is study skills....how to actually study for a test, not just read the material once. This year things have definitely gotten harder, which is good, but that means more work needs to be put into the subjects. What they used to be able to do and retain the information needs to be modified. But, that is the beauty of what we are doing....being able to adjust and modify and personalize and adapt and learn from our mistakes.

Feel free to stop by if you are ever in the neighborhood....you never know what you might find going on at our house.