Catching Up

I just love his many expressions.  I could post pic after pic of him.  But limited it to only 3 tonight.  What a handsome little man he is.  So happy, too.  Tonight after supper he was still in his high chair while I was cleaning up the dishes.  He started to grunt and I figured he did not want to be in there anymore.  I told him I was going to come over and rescue him from the chair and then start to tickle him.  Apparently he is so ticklish that even saying the word makes him giggle.  I kept saying tickle and he would laugh even harder.  Then, Grace chimed in and he laughed all the more and still no one had tickled him.  So, of course I had to follow through and give him a good tickling.  His laugh is so precious.  He brings so much joy to our home.  Last night during his bath Dassah had a little cup of his, the kind with holes in the bottom.  She kept filling it up and draining it out and he thought that was funny, too, and giggled every time she did it.  So fun to watch the littles play together.

And then today we got to spend time with the cousins.  The twins thought Gabe was the best which was fun because previously they were just like there is Gabe, but now he can interact a bit more.  It was a fun and busy day at Mom's hanging out with the 6 little people.  They are all growing up so fast.

We are just about prepared to plant our indoor seeds.  We made a run to Fleet Farm this week and stocked up.  I am going to plant tomatoes and peppers this  year instead of buying the larger sized plants.  I am trying some new varieties, so I will let you know what they are and hopefully get some pics and reviews up later in the year.  The girls are excited once again for garden time.   They each helped with picking out veggies and they each picked out some flowers, too.  I am not much for the flower gardening, but we are going to work at it a bit more this year.  Expand our horizons.  Strawberry gomphrena have inspired us.  That and Envy (zinnias).

Spring is in the air.  While it has rained every day this week, I can feel it.  Hey, Sarah, Jesse said that it was 60's when he drove through PA today.  We still have quite a bit of snow in our yard, hopefully it will melt slowly without any huge ponds out front.

What have we been up too?  Well, I have been trying to diligently change some things around here.  I am a bit of a saver and not much for set schedules.  One moment I am organized and then it falls apart.  So, I am doing a major purging of all those things I just think I can't live without from forever long ago, like my college notes and texts.  Why oh why did I keep them so long?  I feel much better now that we have parted ways and I do not feel as if I should revisit them or review my old notes.  Anyway, with the addition of Gabe I realized that I really need to work on some changes around here to keep things a bit more spiffy, yet simplified.  I am almost done on the upper level.  I have made some deep progess downstairs and look forward to tackling the garage with Jesse when it warms up a bit more, or at least stops raining. 

Another new change around here.  Jesse will soon be home, much more.  The truck driving has been too much of a stretch for our family and in the last weeks he has been to Washington, Mass, NY, and next week to NC.  Too much time away from family and so we are going to team up for awhile so that we can have the family time we have so desperately been missing.  In April I will begin working part time and Jesse is going to work part time.  We are thankful for doors that have opened to make this a possibility.  It will be an adjustment for me to spend a little more time at the hospital, but the sacrifice to have Jesse home will be so worth it.  We can hardly wait.  At the same time, last Sunday Jesse and I were talking and we are thankful for the ways God keeps providing for our family.  I wouldn't not have been ready for 12 hour shifts right after Gabe was born, but God gave me that time to bond with him and now we are ready to have our family time again.  I just got my new schedule from Linda today and she gave me no nights shifts to start out, isn't she sweet.  It has been so long since I have worked at night, other than being up with my littles.  How does one do it?  Anyway, we are looking forward to these changes.

Look what time it is.  Past my bedtime.

Night.