Catching Up

Hmmm...  I think the best way to begin is to mention that Yes, I did take an elk from Colorado this year as part of a successful hunt.  Here's the proof...

This cow was part of a very VERY large herd that passed my position and the experience of taking my first large game was pretty surreal and difficult to explain, so if you want to hear more just give me a call.

Similarly surreal and difficult to express was the selling of our Florida boat, The Irwin.  It took much longer that it should have and I accepted far less than I should have.  However, when the deal went through it was tremendously fast paced and brought with it a tremendous relief.  The initial call came on our family's way up to Atlanta.  Three hours later, the transaction was complete (with the help  from a friend in Panama City) with only a check to clear.  My relief was immediate (though somewhat reluctant as I still did not have the cleared funds yet) and my excitement about never having to drive to Florida again to solely tend to a boat that we can't use on a regular basis was unquestionable.

Next major event of note was Christmas.  The children (of course) love everything about Christmas and this year we added a few things to help them grow spiritually while also enjoying the season a little bit more.  As part of a nightly devotion, we lit the advent candles daily and shared in many stories, activities and lessons from God's Word.  It all culminated on Christ's birthday with a wonderful celebration at our home on base.  Here are the kids expressing their love for each other on the 25th.

Still, after plenty of prayer and soul searching, our family has decided to take a different tack with this year's Christmas celebration.  In short, Christmas will be a way to "gift" our Lord, Jesus, rather than ourselves.  He said that whatever we do for the "least of these," we do for Him.  So, instead of exchanging gifts and setting up stockings for Santa to fill, our family will channel our resources this coming Christmas to helping the least of these.  I don't know if we will do this every year, but we are committed to it for 2013 and the kids are slowly gaining an understanding that December 25th will look very different next winter.

Just as Christ's birthday will be celebrated serving Him via the "least of these," we have also committed to honoring our families' birthday is a much greater way this year.  The resources and time that would have been spent in the crowded malls or scouring Amazon during November and December looking for the "perfect gift" will instead be spend on a birthday-by-birthday basis to honor each family member appropriately on their special day.

Speaking of birthdays...months of anticipation and a very stressful week past the due date culminated at 5:55 A.M. on December 31, 2012 with the birth of Noelle Moriah Sulhoff.  Here is a photo of Noelle in the arms of my hero and lifetime best friend.  I am marveled with every birth how she does what she does!  God is truly so good.  She was 8 lbs, 7 ozs, and she has fitted into the home life with aplomb!  Already at seven weeks she is sleeping through the night and bringing constant joy to all of us.

Well, that's all I can muster up to update ya'll on for now.  I hope it has been informative!

At the Present

Just look at the post below and compare to the pictures here! How they've grown! How our lives have changed! It's really so remarkable.

Hannah is here posing with a new birthday toy. She is four now!

Elizabeth is posing with the other member of our family, Baby Bear. Baby Bear is sporting a lovely orange scarf "finger knitted" by Elizabeth. Elizabeth will be 7 on April 4th.

Andrew is posing with his Valentine's Day LEGO mini figure. He will be 9 in less than three weeks!

God, grow with them and in them!

A Blast from the Past

These two pictures were the first thing I saw when I opened Picasa tonight. I don't ever remember seeing them before! I feel I hardly remember those two sweet little people on the couch with their sweet Daddy. I think this picture was taken in the spring of 2007. Andrew had probably just turned four; Elizabeth just turned two; obviously, this was pre-Hannah. This was still at our house on Maxwell AFB, which we only lived in for about 7 months. While nearly 5 years ago, I am struck with all that's happened since then. Let's just say there's been a lot of water under the proverbial bridge. They are precious pictures from a sweet Sunday afternoon of days gone by.

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is now a very grown up six years old, as of April 4. She really had a wonderful birthday with some very special moments over the weekend before her Monday birthday. However, the big event was her "Tangled" birthday party last Friday. (If you haven't seen this movie, you definitely need to! There's some magic and a really bad lady, but Elizabeth thinks it is "Christian made" because of the powerful ending! I won't ruin it for you. Watch it and see!) So, we had a doughnut "tower" cake. That was the highlight of the party, I'd say. There were seven girls including Elizabeth ranging in age from four to ten years old. The party began with painting (just like Rapunzel) and making their own "Wanted" posters (another part of the movie). Then I braided everyone's hair and put silk flowers in the braids, just like Rapunzel. (You better believe I was braiding fast!) Then we played "Hide the Chameleon". Andrew somehow happens to own, not one but two toy chameleons, and Pascal, Rapunzel's pet chameleon, played a main role in the film. We finished up with the doughnut cake and raspberry lemonade and gift-opening. She was pretty worn out after all that excitement! She also received a Bible for her birthday. She made "official" the work God had been doing in her heart to me on February 15, praying to ask Jesus to be the Lord of her life since He had loved her so much He'd died for her sins. It doesn't get much better than that! She also loves art, so in addition to a neat art set she received from her grandparents, her dad and me and brother and sister gave her paints (washable!), paper and an easel. She's painted nearly every day since!

Elizabeth, the reader, bike rider and lizard catcher!

Yes, folks, she is something! She began reading with gusto last week! She said, "You tell me the letters to write and I'll write them!" and then she would read what I had told her to write. We started on some simple sentences yesterday.
Also, she has finally started enjoying riding her bike. She is a few inches taller than she was in April at her birthday (go figure) and can maneuver better.
And, at four years old, she is lizard catcher extraordinaire! We have quite a population of geckos around the house (we've watched it grow in the 2.5 years we've lived here). But, today, one youngster is now without his tail. He had found his way into the garage and was hiding in between a piece of cardboard and the garage wall. Andrew found him and then called Elizabeth to catch him! Well, she did, but she pulled off his tail in the process. It was great, though a little disgusting to see the tail continuing to wiggle around on the cardboard for the next five minutes! I was shuddering! I'm so so so glad, that even though we live in the suburban south, that my kids still get to experience nature and life all around them.
Speaking of nature around us, there is also this subtropical spider living in our front yard. We looked it up in Andrew's spider guidebook. It creeps me out to flip through the pages of that book, but this spider is not very creepy at all! He is very cool looking. He has a very hard, very large, oval-shaped, shiny white abdomen with 6 black spots and 4 spikes around the outer edge of his abdomen. He has this really tiny head and legs, but builds beautiful webs. The kids and I go check on him every other day or so.
So, Elizabeth is growing and learning so much every day. I wish she'd learn to take a nap on the days she had ballet, though! She's loving ballet and doing fine with it, though it's very introductory. She just focuses much better when she's had a nap. And so do I, for that matter. I think I'll get my 20 minutes in real quick!

Slice of Life

I'm not sure when Hannah started pulling her shirt up to put her finger in her belly button while she sucks her thumb, but I've caught her doing it twice today! What enables a little kid to come up with such a combination? I've watched her growing fascination with her belly button, which is very common in babies her age, but when I picked her up from church and she was walking around with her right thumb in her mouth and her left fingers in her belly button with shirt up, I realized this was the real deal. Tonight, she pulled her nightgown up and and started fingering her belly button before popping her thumb in when I laid her in her bed. It's just so funny what makes a kid think these little actions up. I know you'll find this hard to believe, but I remember being two and wondering to myself why some of my friends sucked their thumbs. So, I was in my favorite teacher's class, "Black Ann's" class (as a two year old, I had two teachers named Ann, and of course, being two years old, they were simply and accurately known to me and all the other children as "Black Ann" and "White Ann". I know that sounds terrible, but it was not at all, and she still watches the two year olds in the nursery and has watched Elizabeth and loved her dearly also.) and I decided to try out sucking my thumb and see what the big deal was. I couldn't imagine enjoying it, but I gave it a half-hearted try anyway. The Ritz crackers and apple juice were being prepared when I popped it in, awkwardly, and tried a few sucks. It really uncomfortable and yucky! And while I always wondered why so many kids did it, I knew it would just have to be something I had to accept not understanding. Little did I know that a virtual family of thumb-suckers had already begun passing through that church nursery years before and their were two more in the family that would go through Ann's class. Now they are my dear, dear husband and in-laws!
And now my two daughter's suck their thumbs. Good thing I learned to accept thumb-sucking at an early age! Elizabeth does hers with her "Baby Bear" a very well-loved pink and white bear with a long cap. She is only permitted baby bear at sleeping times. I know everyone worries about their teeth growing out in the front and their bites becoming messed up. I even saw a neat device in "One Step Ahead" magazine that puts a plastic piece over all but the tip of the thumb that is attached to a bracelet the child wears on their wrist. You know, I'm just not worried, though! None of my dear siblings-in-law had to wear braces because of their thumb-sucking! They may have had a few crooked teeth here and there (who doesn't?), but did not have the gross mouth problems associated with thumb-sucking. So, I'm not worried! They'll grow out of it! And they'll have a wonderful memory of being a child in a very distict and tangible way.
I know each and every one of you appreciates me sharing this little slice of our life and my thoughts about it. The bottom line is that children are a precious gift and they only are little for such a short time. It seems long at first, but in light of the rest of their life, it is very short! Handle your kiddos with great care and use the time wisely! And hug 'em and kiss 'em like crazy!

Elizabeth's Birthday!

Well, little Elizabeth isn't so little anymore! She has entered the realm of four-year-olds, whatever that's worth. She was so happy with her birthday. Her great-grandma Joann and her Pamma and Grandpa Jack were able to celebrate the day with us. Her gifts included a Barbie, a bike, a jumprope, fairy wings, a craft book (to keep her little fingers busy!), and some make-up and nail polish from her brother! It was a joy-filled day, that also included a t-ball game and feeding the ducks and turtles and fish at the park. She requested spaghetti for dinner to be followed by a strawberry cake with pink icing, strawberries and pink M&M's.

On a slightly more thoughtful thread, I was very proud of how Andrew and Elizabeth treated eachother on each of their birthdays when the other was opening their gifts. I never had to hover over them or separate them, nobody threw a fit about not having whatever gift the other got, and they were just so genuinely gracious and excited for the other. Those glimpses of kindness are not seen as often as we would like...it's more regularly, "Can you go buy me a new toy? I wanna play with her toy! Mom! Let me have that toy back!" You know the story well if you've ever had young ones this age. It brought a little motherly joy to my heart.