Fun with stickers!

Last week, our friend Jill and her son John David came over to play. While they were here, Jill taught Isaac a new way of playing with stickers:



Isaac loved playing with the stickers on his face! He thought it was so funny, and just couldn't stop laughing about it. Of course, he also enjoyed sticking them on his paper and drawing with his markers. He is really starting to enjoy art activities more these days. He'll often ask for "Mommy's pen" so that he can "draw circles" or "draw picture".

Playing is so much fun!

Elise is Six Months Old!

Today is Elise's very first half birthday! She has lived half a year already. Wow!

During the past month, Elise has had several milestones and grown up quite a bit.

She has started eating solid foods and is currently eating bananas and/or avocados twice a day (at lunch and dinner). She was very ready to start solids, and she is eating them very well. Her tongue barely pushes the food back out, and she eats about a quarter cup of food at each sitting.

Also, Elise has become much more mobile in the last month. She hasn't started crawling yet, but she scoots around on her back with no trouble. She easily scoots all around our living room within ten minutes. She'd rather stay on her back than on her tummy, but that definitely doesn't keep her from moving. We try and encourage her to have "tummy time", but she likes to quickly roll herself over to her back again. She also loves to reach upward towards whatever is close to her face, be it toys over her playmat or Mommy, Daddy, or Isaac's faces.

In addition to eating solids and gaining more mobility, Elise has started sleeping in her own bedroom. She had slept in her bassinet in our bedroom up until last weekend. Since she'd almost outgrown the bassinet, we thought it was time to transition her to the crib. She has responded quite well and is sleeping well (if only for 2-3 hours at a time) in it. Yes, she is still waking every 2-3 hours at night for feedings. And full feedings. But given her rapid growth between the ages of four and six months, we are convinced that she's just been going through lots of growth spurts, and we're praying that she'll be able to sleep longer stretches at night very soon.

Elise is such a pleasant little girl. She loves to smile, giggle, and watch everyone around her. She also loves to be held and to stand up while we hold her.

Some of her favorite things to do at this point in life are to play in the exersaucer, play on her playmat, scoot around the room, and ride in the sling on Steven or me. She also enjoys walks in the jogging stroller, and she often takes cat naps in her carseat while we're out and about.

Here are some pictures from today's photo shoot (along with the monthly comparison shots):

Monthly comparison shots:
Birth - 9.30.09


One month - 10.30.09


Two months - 11.30.09


Three months - 12.30.09


Four months - 1.30.10


Five months - 3.1.10


Six months - 3.30.10



Our precious little angel:





Happy Half-Birthday Elise Jeannette!

(Click here to see what Isaac was up to at this point in life.)

Homemaker Raves: Making Instant Compost

A while back, I mentioned that we'd gotten a kitchen food scrap container and promised that I'd blog when I started making instant compost with those scraps to pour over our garden. Well, I've been making that instant compost for a couple of months now, and here is my process, step-by-step:

Disclaimer: This is a somewhat nasty process. Stinky and nasty. But the end result is going to include lots and lots of yummy summer vegetables, so it's totally worth it. If yucky things gross you out, don't read the rest of this post.

OK, you've been warned. Here goes:

First of all, I put all vegetarian food scraps (meaning no meats) into my container after our meals. This has taken a bit of getting used to, especially since I had been throwing all of our food scraps into the garbage disposal in our sink. Nevertheless, I have now gotten myself (and Steven, too!) into the habit of putting our food scraps into the ceramic container on our kitchen counter. Take note that this container is lined with a clear plastic bag, which is a lifesaver in this entire process (which you'll see soon). I make the instant compost every time the container gets filled up, which ends up being about once a week or so.


Once the container is full, I pull the bag out... (this is completely nasty. But if I didn't have a bag, I might just faint, so you now see why the bag is so important)


I take the bag and the blender to the sink and dump the contents of the bag into the blender. (Remember from my earlier post that I have a hand-me-down Vita Mix blender that is only used for this compost process. It would be unsafe and downright nasty to use this blender to prepare edible food.) I then fill up the blender container with water until it covers the food scraps.


Then I add a quarter cup of cottonseed meal(ensures the proper carbon-to-nitrogen ratio)...


...to the food scraps in the blender.


Then I put the blender container on the base, put the lid on, plug it in...


...cover the lid with a cloth (or else I'd get splattered all over with those incredibly nasty food scraps... not like it's happened before or anything...) and blend, blend, blend for about 30 seconds.


This is the delicious result: (just kidding... delicious for Mr Grinch, maybe!)


And I call it instant because the next step is to pour it directly on the garden...


...leave it alone for a day or so, and then come back out to turn it into the ground (honestly I've not been faithful on this last step, but my garden seems okay, so I'm not worried!) Here's what the garden looks like after the compost has been sitting for a few days and dried:



Total yucky nastiness turned into something productive for the harvest. Hmmm... kinda sounds like humankind and the redemptive power of God.

Thank you, Jesus, for your blood that covers our sins and makes us righteous in the sight of God... for how you take away our nastiness and make us beautiful, new, and able to effectively bring in the harvest of souls into your kingdom!

Beautiful trees...but not for long.

These are the trees that line the entrance to our neighborhood. They are gorgeous each spring, as you can see. However, this year will be their last year to grace us with their beautiful pink presence. We have recently learned that they are root-bound and will die over the next few years. Trees like this weren't made to be planted between a sidewalk and a road. So our homeowner's association has decided to uproot them and replace them with maple trees. Hopefully those will be just as lovely, but I have my doubts. So we're especially enjoying these beauties right now and thankful for the past five springs we've had with them...

Two sharp guys...

My heart has officially been stolen...

Mountain Getaway!

This past weekend, Steven and I took a trip to the mountains of NC for a weekend "getaway" to have some quality time to talk, pray, rest, and refresh. Isaac stayed with my parents (and had a fantastic time!) and Elise went with us (since she's still nursing and not sleeping through the night... or anything close to it.) It was a perfect weekend to go, especially since the weather was sooooo nice! It was probably at least 60 degrees the whole time we were up there, and on Saturday, the sun was out all day. We enjoyed a laid back schedule and I went completely "unplugged" the entire weekend (no Internet or TV, and barely any phone conversations.) As we spent time seeking the Lord, we truly experienced the refreshing Paul refers to when he says, "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." in Acts 3:19. If you know our family well, you know that we love discovering ways that God is speaking to us in everyday life. Well, it was no coincidence that we left for our trip on March 19th (3/19!) and then God gave Steven that verse (Acts chapter three, verse nineteen) as a key verse to meditate on during our trip.

We are so thankful to have had this time together. Thanks Mom and Dad Gurley for your willingness to spend the weekend with Isaac and invest in his life. We had no worries at all about him during our trip, and that made for an even more restful time! Elise seemed to enjoy every moment, and she was very easy-going, which was a huge blessing for us!

She enjoyed hanging out with Steven, either in the sling or in his arms, most of the time when we were taking hikes or walking around the town of Blowing Rock. Here they are, having a great time chilling out:




We spent some time at the creek, listening to it's beautiful sounds and also swinging over it...


We met some lovely farm animals (and, yes, call me crazy but I did ask Steven to take my picture with those cows, as cows are one of my absolute favorite animals)...



We ate at some yummy places... Frasers in West Jefferson:


Mellow Mushroom in Boone (where we "ran into" the guy from Tennessee who bought our truck... and we even got to say hi to the truck itself in the Mellow Mushroom parking lot. This picture reminds me of one in this post.)


...and Makoto's in Boone...



We enjoyed walking around the town of Blowing Rock, swinging on the swings, having an afternoon snack at Kojay's Cafe...




Elise was the only one who ate her toe during snacktime, in case you're wondering. Steven and I split a Rocky Road brownie. Total YUM.

We are SO glad we took this trip. These getaways are essential for maintaining balance in our lives, our marriage, our family, and our ministries. We are a busy family with the blessings of babies, Steven's professional work, our families, our involvement with our local church, and our personal ministries... But if we don't stay refreshed "from the presence of the Lord", we won't be successful in any of these areas. Thank you Lord for the rest that you so generously give to your children as we seek You!

We're looking forward to taking another mountain trip at the end of April; this time Isaac will be with us and it'll be a full-fledged family-style getaway. We might even visit Tweetsie Railroad!

Isaac feeds Elise!

Isaac has been watching Elise take her first few bites of food recently, and last Thursday night he wanted to help serve her! We used a baby food grinder to make some bananas just the right consistency for Elise. She's enjoying them more and more each time we serve her. Here is a picture of that wonderful moment of big brother serving little sis (we hope their sibling relationship is always this sweet!):

Holding hands...

Isaac loves his little sister, and these days he asks me "Idee hold Edeese hand peas" often. Fortunately I was able to capture one of these moments on camera last week:

Elise finds her feet!

Elise has found her feet, and she loves to hold them during diaper changes. She also loves to chew on her big toe! It is so stinkin' cute!!!





Want to see Isaac at this stage in life? Here you go!

Sweet faces of Elise

Here's our precious girl at five and a half months old:





She is such a treasure to us!

Silly faces of Isaac

Here's what Isaac looks like when he's playing around: (Remember that he's is a goofball like his Daddy, especially when you ask him to smile. The result of that is what you see in the last picture...)





This boy will be 28 months old on March 21st, and he is growing so much every single day! He can now count to ten (with a little encouragement from Steven or me), sing a tune, speak with 3-5 word sentences, take his cloth diaper off, put his dishes in the sink and wipe the table... and so much more! He is such a delightful boy and we are excited to continue to see his personality unfold as he grows and develops.

Thank you Father for this precious little man!

Fun family time with Michelle, BJ and Carly!

Last week, Steven's sister and her kids came over for dinner with our family. We don't get to see each other too often, so we really really enjoyed the opportunity to fellowship, and the kids especially enjoyed playing together. Isaac looks up to his cousins BJ and Carly and couldn't get enough of them! Here are some pictures from the night:

BJ and Carly having a brother/sister tickle session on the couch:


Michelle and her beautiful babes:


Isaac and his Aunt Michelle:



We love our family!