Week 34

Thanks Santa!

Love all the teensy baby treasures!

Let the waddling begin.

34th week

Does that make me crazy?

"SKIING AT EIGHT MONTH PREGNANT??!!" Yep, maybe I'm crazy, but ah, it was a beautiful, sunshiney day spent on the bunny slope with the Henrie family. We had so much fun giving Alanna a ski experience on Christmas Eve, and some Gnarls Barkley lyrics came to mind:

"I remember when, I remember
I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space

Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Possibly"

The Henrie Clan hits the slopes!

Uncle Jacob and Aunt Kjera rip it up with Alanna!

Pregnancy ski shot (to be filed for future newsreel)

Week 33

Bistro dinner with friends visiting for the holidays!

The blueberry enjoyed a World Languages department meeting/dinner party!

Baby Rio helps with the Advent countdown to Baby Jesus.

God bless the Journeys School moms who told me that I don't even look pregnant from the front!



33rd week



An Idahoan Celebration!

This weekend, Jacob and I traveled over to Pocatello to his sister's home. Deborah and Sharon, Jacob's mother, hosted a wonderful luncheon for the Henrie extended family full of delicious food and a creative project. Each guest, young and not-so-young, was invited to paint a onesie. Short sleeves, long sleeves, NB, 0-3, 3-6, 6-12, 12-18 . . . we're stocked up with one-of-a-kind creations!

Hawaiian Haystacks for lunch!

Time for everyone to get decorating!

Models of the utterly unique onesies!

Thanks to Sharon and Deborah for making it all happen!

Finished creations hung up to dry . . .
(That outta last us about a day and a half, eh?)

Week 32

Chatting with Grandpa & Grandma Steffler at the ranch in Blackfoot, Idaho

Jacob, "Your belly button is looking really crazy these days."

32nd week (hola Rio)

Little Shoot

I know it's trite to compare a new infant to expectation, reconciliation and dreams of the future, but today . . . I can't help it. Today is a great day to put on hope and joy, come what may. Here's an excerpt from today's Advent devotion:

"A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him"

Isaiah 11:1-2

A STUMP, THE SPIRIT, A SHOOT
Isaiah speaks of a stump—there are a lot stumps on battlefields—an eloquent symbol of desolation and despair and ending and defeat and death.
But wait—enter God's spirit. The poet refers to God's life-giving, future-creating, world-forming, despair-ending, power and wind, which can create an utter newness. This "wind of God" is inscrutable, irresistible, beyond human control, management, or predictability. The poem announces that the wind has come to blow over the stump. The wind indicates new possibility.
The poet commands, "Look—out of the symbol of a dried up stump, a green shoot, a shoot of Jesse, what was David's father.” Incredibly, out of the symbol of death comes life, newness, creation continuing. The poet sees a vision, a precious vision, of the coming day of the Lord when creation is healed, brutality gone, everything put right, old enemies reconciled.

Week 31

Jacob saves Jo's birthday party by whipping up dessert with a drill!



Question of the week:
When's the peak of full-belly-cute-ness before it descends to grotesque-fat-lady?
And did I already pass it?



31st week

Remember Me

Today we pause at the beginning of a busy week to remember. We are remembering Grandpa Strom. Richard A. Strom, the patriarch of the Strom family passed away one year ago today, and not only visits us in our dreams, but sends gentle reminders in our daily lives. Here's a little gift of remembrance from the blueberry to Great Grandpa Strom: "I've Got You Under My Skin" (click for Michael Buble's version).

I've Got You Under My Skin
I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart that you're really a part of me
I've got you under my skin

I'd tried so not to give in
I said to myself, "This affair never will go so well"
But why should I try to resist when, baby, I know so well
I've got you way under my skin

I'd sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of havin' you near
In spite of a warning voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear

"Don't you know, little fool, you never can win?
Use your mentality, wake up to reality"
But each time that I do just the thought of you makes me stop
Before I begin 'cause I've got you under my skin

Yes, I've got you under my skin