5-5-5

Ha! I love this one! I was tagged (by Christi) to post the fifth picture in your fifth folder and tag five people. Love it.

I can not believe what picture it was!! It was a picture from Rothenburg, Germany in 2004 that we took with Jared & Christi and Brent & Kerri! I loved this little walled city, oh it brought back memories!

1. Michele Senkbile

2. Tracy Krelle

3. Mindy Bednar

4. Chad & Maria Kruse

5. Elizabeth Lewis

Here is a little video of what my days look like at home. These two crack me up and love eachother so much. They each think the other is so funny and have these great conversations with eachother.

Messy Boy

Yesterday Natalie wanted to feed Michael "all by myself". So, I walked out of the room and let her do her thing. It was so cute watching when she wasn't looking. She would try to wipe the food off his mouth after every bite and he was loving it. She dropped the spoon on the floor so I went in and wiped it up and left the cloth on the table. When I came back a couple of minutes later she had wiped his face and bib off. Oh, I wouldn't trade the squash all over the floor, highchair, Michael's outfit and in his hair for anything. That was such a sweet moment.

Wow!! Major update needed.....

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It has been way to long since my last post. It seems like it always happens that way. I figure that pictures can tell way more than I can write so I made a pretty lengthy slide show for you at the bottom of this post. You can scroll through the pictures at your own pace so you can look quickly. A couple of highlights:

• Michael is crawling all over the place, standing up on everything and actually taking some steps behind one of his toys. He also climbs steps and moves from one piece of furniture to another if they are close enough.


• Natalie is talking so much now, a million miles a minute. She says the funniest things. Like tonight...."Natalie, I love you. Do you love mommy?" "No" "No, you don't love mommy?" "no" "Well, who do you love?" and with so much excitement she screamed "I love JESUS!" It was so cute and I cracked up. She later told me she loved me too, phew.


• Natalie is such a mimic of us. For example, if we tell her to do something we say "Natalie, you need to put your toys away. You say 'okay mommy' and obey" She knows that she has to say okay and obey us right away. So now she says to Michael if he's doing something he shouldn't be doing "no, no, Myny. You obey mommy, you obey!!" Poor little guy has 2 moms!


• James was traveling for work for a week so I went back home to Randolph for 5 days. It was a wonderful time of visiting with family and friends. There are pictures of our time there in the slideshow.


• We have a friend living with us. His name is Dieudonne and he moved in about 2 months ago. He has been attending our church (http://www.cdomaha.org/) for about a year and half. He is a refugee from Burundi, Africa and is going to Central High School. It has been so much fun and such a blessing to our family having him live with us. We've had some great conversations and Natalie loves playing with him and talking to him. We celebrated his 19th birthday with him in October.


• Our church, Coram Deo, is celebrating it's 3rd Birthday next week. We have grown so much spiritually through the teaching and community of people we are around. All of the sermons are on the website if you are ever interested in listening to one.


• I am absolutely LOVING my job of a stay-at-home mom. I look at our kids every day and am so thankful I get to spend all of my time with them and friends. I get to use all of my energy on my family and watching it grow is so wonderful. We spend our days doing whatever comes our way. Natalie will wake up and say some of the following statements "are we going to the woo... are we going to MOPS... can we go on a walk... are we going bye-bye in the car.. can we play with coco "or names other kids"


• I'm starting to work on sign language with Michael so he stops grunting when he wants another bite. We did it with Natalie so that she could communicate with us before she was able to talk. We started with the sign for please and she would have to do it before we would give her food or anything else. So, I would say to Michael "do you want more" and then take Michael's hand before every bite and sign "please." Natalie would laugh and then a couple minutes later said to me "mommy, may I have some more milk please." Amazing what a difference 21 months makes.


• I've been making baby food for Michael. It's been great. It cost 1/2 the price to make my own organic food than to buy non-organic!! And, not to mention the difference in the food. Gross. Here is a picture of green beans that I bought and food that I made. Yuck. I think I'll stick to making my own. I'm not sure what they have in their "green beans" but why isn't it green???

Some Videos of the kiddos

Here is a video of what some of my conversations look like throughout the day. Michael and I are engaged in a very deep conversation here. He is so much fun. Having problems downloading the video, i'll try later.

Here is a video of Natalie and James while we were camping over Labor Day. She loves when James plays keep away with her. Also, she learned how to do a somersault so she defers to that when she can't get the ball.

Updates...

Here are some of the major updates going on in the Chalmers' Family

1. Natalie is potty trained!! Here's her new favorite face!




2. Michael is crawling and potty trained! Just kidding, he's just crawling. He can go from crawling to sitting up.




3. Michael started eating rice cereal. Natalie loves feeding him so he often has food on his forehead. Oh Well, what are you going to do.




4. Natalie & Michael are sharing a room now.




5. Natalie can count "1,2,3,8,9,10!" We're still working on the middle numbers.




6. Natalie's favorite songs: "Jesus Loves Me", "Zaccheas"


7. I gave Natalie her first haircut since she was born. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it but she did great. James just fed her chips the whole time. I kind of miss her wild, crazy, and out of control hair but I suppose it was time.




8. I'm playing in a fall co-ed softball league. Go "The Masterbatters"

Michael's Dedication

We had Michael dedicated on August 3rd. It was a very sweet day. Here are the verses that we choose to have our pastor, Bob, pray over him.

Romans 12: 9-13
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Ultimately, our prayer for Michael would be that he sincerely loves others, clings to Christ, honors others, serves the Lord with zeal, is joyful, patient, and a prayer warrior, serves those in need, and shows hospitality to all he comes in contact with.

Michael's Personality: He is so sweet, cuddly, and laid back. He has this huge smile that lights up his entire face. His eyes just light up. He loves his big sister. Anytime she talks to him he will laugh and smile at her. Anytime she does "big sister" things (i.e. trying to help him crawl by pulling his arms forward and he hits the floor with his face) he doesn't even mind. He just goes with the flow in everything we do. He doesn't cry when I lay him down for a nap, he just starts to suck his thumb and goes to sleep. It's crazy how they come with their own little personality and how it manifests itself in everything he does. He's going to be the silent, sneaky one. He's starting to crawl already but he does it so quietly. One minute he's where I laid him down and the next he's moved across the floor to something that caught his interest. I'm going to have to watch him closely because of how quiet he is. He'll probably be in great mischief before I even realize it. Natalie will probably keep my on my toes because she watches him pretty closely.