Names

Choosing names for our children has been more difficult than I thought it would be.

Let's take a stroll down memory lane. 

Remember when Joseph was born and we named him Christopher David? He still has a quilted blanket from my aunt with that name embroidered on it. We liked the name, but it wasn't the right one for him. So when he was 8 weeks old, we changed it to Joseph Ephraim, and that name has fit him very well. [There's more to the story, but that will suffice for today].

When Kathryn was born, we took our time naming her, to make sure we got it right the first time. Five days was all it took to settle on Kathryn Grace.

We knew David's first name before he was born, before I even knew I was pregnant. So, he was easy...except for his middle name. We still debate that one. His birth certificate says Jesse, but when he was blessed, David (his daddy) didn't include a middle name.

Sarah was the easiest to name. We knew that we wanted her to share her middle name with her birth mom, and we also consulted with her birth mom to make a list of acceptable first names. We had it down to two choices when she was born, but after meeting her it was easy to decide on Sarah Elizabeth.

Fast forward to January 24, 2012 when we welcomed this little lady into our family -

We tried to have a short list of names to choose from when she was born, but by Christmastime all the kids had started calling her Anna. I thought it was a nice name -- one that honored both of her grandmothers (LouAnn and Marian). But I wasn't convinced that it was her name. Before she was born I spent hours on baby naming websites, skimmed through three different baby name books, and even polled my friends. 

After she was born the kids continued to call her Anna, and without another name possibility, we just decided to "go with it". The days passed and I tried to figure out what her middle name should be. My midwife was getting impatient for us to fill out all the legal forms.

Then I started to think that maybe Anna wasn't her first name after all. It just wasn't working. Maybe it could be her middle name? So we thought of numerous possibilities and name combos. But nothing seemed quite right.

One Saturday evening as I was dressing her for bed and thinking how she didn't really look like an "Anna" to me, the thought came to my mind: She looks like a R__________(I'll tell you the name at the end). She sure did, but it wasn't one of my favorite names, so I didn't think too much about it, until the next day...

That Sunday at church my friend Kim asked me if we had decided on her name. (Hmmm...I didn't realize that anyone knew we were undecided at this point). I answered that the kids called her Anna, but that I wasn't sold on it. That's when Kim told me that she thought my baby looked like a R_____________. (The exact name that I had thought of the night before).

That night I told David about both experiences and he responded with, "That's what I said the day she was born!" Ooops, I guessed I missed that comment. So, we tried pairing this new name with Anna, either as first or middle name, but they didn't fit well together. David said she needed an "E" name to go with her other name.

A couple of week ago David woke up in the middle of night with the thought: Her name is R_____ E___. He woke me up to tell me. We decided that we would take the hint, so we've officially changed this sweet baby's name to...

Rachel Eve

 David and I haven't had too much trouble switching to calling her Rachel. Joseph has it down too. Sarah and Kathryn are working on it. But baby David is adamantly against it. He calls her Anna still and gets mad when we correct him. He says "NO, NOT!"

On a side note: we noticed a few weeks ago that miss Rachel was born on the same date that her great Grandma Wiseman passed away, one year later. (See this post).

Sarah's Big Day

Sarah celebrated her 6th birthday on March 17th. For breakfast, David took her (and only her) out to eat at a local breakfast restaurant. She LOVED it! She ate tons of waffles, eggs, and sausage and enjoyed getting lots of attention from all the people there.

Then she opened her presents.

And modeled her new dance stuff...

She talked to all her grandparents and lots aunts and uncles.

In the afternoon, she went shopping with Mom to get new shoes, a toy, and pick out an Easter dress. She checked out books from the library and played soccer with Joseph.

She had St. Patrick's day green cupcakes for dessert and enjoyed watching a basketball game later.

She claims it was the "best birthday ever!"

Since her birthday was on Saturday, she got to celebrate it on Friday at school. In Montessori the children take a photograph from each year of their life. They walk around the circle of children one time for each year  of their life while carrying a globe of the earth. The children sing "The earth goes around the sun, tra la la...etc." Every time they make a full revolution, they show the picture for the next year. Here are Sarah's pictures - one for each year.

Born March 17, 2006. She weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 21 inches long.

8ish? weeks old. She looks so cute, I had to include it.

March 2007 - one year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

Things she loves....

1. Singing - all day, every day. We live in a musical.

2. Playing outside - swinging, playing soccer, playing tag, chasing the cats, and most especially digging in the dirt/mud and planting her own garden.

3. Helping Mom or Dad make dinner.

4. Reading - she surprises us almost every day with new words that she can read.

5. Holding her baby sister, whenever possible.

Happy Birthday Sarah Elizabeth - we love you!!

A little of this, a little of that

Our furnace died about a month ago. The electrical panel is fried. When it happened the house smelled like something was burning. I'm glad it didn't catch on fire because the house would be gone. Our furnace sits under the house in the crawl space. We've been heating our house with space heaters since then because we don't want to pay several hundred dollars to fix a part that might not fix the whole problem. The furnace is nearly 30 years old, so we're saving up for a new one. In case you're wondering, yes, the electric bill was really high this month. A week into our space heater days we came home one night to the house smelling like burned plastic. Then we found this:

We had a bad connection in this socket and all the extra amps caused it to get too hot. That's not even where the heater was plugged in. And let me just tell you, we must have guardian angels at this house because that burned up socket was behind a curtain and left a burned spot going halfway up the wall.

At the same moment that we discovered that socket, I got a text message from our renter in Tennessee saying that our house had been burglarized AGAIN. Last year the front door was kicked in and we had to replace the whole thing. This time they broke in the front window. Thankfully, we only had to replace the glass and not the whole window.

It's a good thing I have this adorable baby to cheer me up...

As if the baby wasn't cute enough by herself, Sarah decided that she needed a snugly bear to sleep with her. 

David is multi-tasking.

This is the lovely hair cut that Sarah gave to Kathryn.

Sarah didn't think it was too much of a problem to hack all of Kathryn's hair off. (I sure did!) This isn't the first time that she has cut someone else's hair and I wasn't really sure what I could do to teach her that it's not okay to cut hair (on anyone or anything).

Later that day.....

This is the haircut that Kathryn gave to Sarah's ponies. Kathryn said "They didn't like having hair in their eyes". 

 And here is how Sarah felt about it. It took all my self control to not laugh when she started sobbing over the cut hair.

Maybe, just maybe, she'll think twice about cutting someone else's hair again. In the meantime, Kathryn gets to buy Sarah a new pony...but not until her bangs have grown back to a normal length.

That sleeper is a genuine NMSU aggies outfit. (Un)fortunately, baby wasn't too fond of it. She always gets too hot in fleece unless we're outdoors.

At his 2 year check up, David weighed 28 pounds and is 33 inches tall -- around the 20th percentile for both. 

Green chile and cheese biscuits. Yum. (before baking)

Davey is helping make dinner. He made up this recipe by himself: combine spinach, salt, and a little egg. Whisk together, then pour it into the Bosch mixer.

She's all smiles! 

Sarah likes to get her hair braided now. Her favorite is a "crown" braid, or one that goes all around her head.

Davey wants to potty train. He likes to sit on the potty and wipe. He tells me every time he needs to go (or just went). Sarah thinks it's fun to help him go potty. (Hmmmm...maybe I can get her to train him?) He's still in a diaper for now, but come summer, we'll work on it full time and I'll bet it won't take too long. (I'm crossing my fingers).