We're still here!

I promise we're all still here and alive! We're not terribly busy, no more than any other normal family of six at least. We've been working on school, potty training, getting Daniel to sleep through the night (!), cleaning up the yard for winter, painting various rooms of the house, and working, working, working! The days are getting shorter and we are looking forward to fires in the fireplace, candles on the mantle, and before we know it there will be a Christmas tree in our living room.

Last week we had a free afternoon and lots of wonderful sunshine, so the kids went out back to play and I pulled out my camera. Here's what our kids are looking like these days.

June 26, 2014

No time like the first birthday to post a birth story and pictures! 

We started out the day bright and early at the Breakfast Club downtown, as per tradition. I maybe ate half of this, but it was sooooo good. Nothing like a good pre-birth fuel up!

We arrived at the hospital at 7 and everything was ready for us. Those little hats were going to go on my baby boy's head!

After getting all settled in and getting the monitors all hooked up, we could see that I was having some contractions already. I'd been having lots of pre-labor, so these contractions weren't too surprising, but then we also realized that I was already 5 cm. The pitocin finally started flowing in around 9:00.

We waited. I had been saving some episodes of Sherlock to watch during labor (thinking it would take a while.....), so we pulled out Andrew's laptop and turned one on. We got about 15 minutes into it and wow, this feels like it's moving fast. I've never been this uncomfortable so soon. This was around 9:45 or 10. So we told the nurse and she asked if we could wait till 10:30 to be checked and then we'll talk epidural. Ok. We tried waiting. But the show was getting annoying fast. Everything was getting annoying fast. I couldn't wait till 10:30. 

Around this time, Andrew texted my mom and best friend/photographer and told them to come on in. I was very uncomfortable and I remember asking my mom to just sit on the couch until I had my epidural. When the anesthetist came in (which didn't actually take too long), I was so anxious to have the pain relief that I tried taking the consent form from her a little prematurely and she jumped back a little (at least that's what I'm told - that part is a little foggy for me). After being properly informed, I signed and she started to work her magic. Oh, bliss. Once I was no longer mashing the bed controls with my forehead through each contraction, the nurses checked and I was nearly ready to go. No wonder that hurt so much. My doctor was called over from Pullman and we were ready to go around 11:30. Time to meet this little man.

This is it. Here he comes.

And Daniel William Leland Becker was born. 12:35 pm, June 26th, 2014. 

Finally in my arms.

7 lbs, 14 oz of perfection.

And we were a family of 6! 

12 months of blessings with this little man. We are so thankful for you, Daniel! The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. (Ps 16:6)

Summer!

Hey look! I have a blog still! Maybe I should update it sometime.....

Aaron turned 3 last month, Eva turned 6 yesterday, we're less than a week away from the end of school, and Daniel will be 1 next month. We're working, gardening, shepherding, feeding, cleaning, partying, studying, and pretty much just giving this last week our final "oomph" to finish strong. Summer will bring with it its own set of duties and things to keep up with, but we're looking forward to the change of pace and more time outside. This week the kids have taken up snake hunting, and it is the biggest motivator for finishing homework/meals so that they can get outside and search for garden snakes.

The Baby

Daniel knows he's the baby. Very much so. He will only sleep in three places: on his Daddy's chest, in his swing, or in bed right next to me. He's 7 months old. As much as I love these snuggles and never ever ever want them to end, we would like to have our bed back to ourselves. So we're trying to wean him off of *me* and onto a, gasp, *pacifier*. Only problem is that he has never been a huge fan of pacifiers. He liked them a little early on, but was never really addicted and we never pushed it. But now we're having visions of a one year old in our bed, and that's just not cool. So I ordered 4 different styles/brands of pacifiers, and this is what we're doing now.

2014 Family Pictures

We finally got around to the "family pictures in the fall leaves"! We've never managed to be on top of things enough, but this year we managed to get it done. And YAY. This may be how we do it from here on out. My friend Naomi of Anselm Photography was our photographer and we are thrilled with her work. Here are some of my favorites!

Bella's Family

Our family, through the eyes of our 8 year old:

First Day of School

The girls had their first day of school on Monday. Bella started 3rd grade and Eva started Kindergarten.

Bella was excited to start, which is a first for her! She settled right in. This year she starts Latin, and somewhat to our surprise, she totally loved it! I can't say I ever really expected her to put Latin up there with Art. She walked in the door Monday afternoon and greeted me with "Salve!" meaning "hello" or "good health". On Tuesday she wanted the task of walking Sister to her classroom in the morning, so I followed behind while they walked in together. So. Cute.

Eva also settled right in. She was SO excited. Somehow she'd missed the memo that school started on Monday, so she came into my room on Sunday morning crying that she couldn't go to swimming lessons that day. I reminded her that there were never swimming lessons on Sundays, but that school started the next day. She asked which school (I guess there was some confusion after VBS, ballet camp, and swimming lessons this summer) and when I told her Kindergarten school she just squealed and was so so excited! We got into the classroom and she sat right down, wrote her name on the coloring page her teacher had set out for her, and got to coloring. No big deal. Just my baby girl starting school.

So now it's just the boys and I at home in the mornings! Aaron has taken a sudden and strong interest in Legos (maybe because we've watched the Lego Movie twice now?), so he has entertained himself with legos on the coffee table in the mornings and has been more into Legos than we have ever seen him into anything else. Oh, and the Lego EMT in the Lego ambulance? His name is "Daddy". We went and took half of the tub of Legos from my parents' house and we have ALL been enjoying them all week! Andrew has built space ships and cars while I spent my time building a medieval castle. Aaron may have also pulled Andrew away from some computer work to come play with him once or twice...

Another fun thing this week....Andrew has the week off! He took one of his vacation weeks this week, which has been suuuuper awesome. It has been so nice having him here to see the girls off to the first day of school and take them both out for ice cream afterward and all. His typically longer hours don't give him a lot of chances to see first days of school and such, so this has been really nice for everybody. Mental note: always take the first week of school off in the future!!

1 Month

Somehow, the days have continued to go by at a steady clip and Daniel passed the one month mark a few days ago. Here are a few pictures from our past few weeks.

Here's our little one month old. In just the past few days he's become much more alert and aware of what's going on around him. I love looking down and seeing this little face peering up at me.

He has some goofy faces too...here are a few showing "worry/cross eyed face".

Bella only ever took a bottle once she hit about 6 months and Eva and Aaron never took one, but this little guy has been very accommodating and will take a bottle with no problem! It's super handy when we have to be out for hours on end at lessons and running errands.

Speaking of lessons, here is Aaron and his friend Elaina watching their big sisters Eva & Chloë practicing ballet.

And here are my boys and me back when Daniel was just a few days old. Love these kids.

Life.

3 years ago today I gave birth to our 3rd child, Amara Christian. Her hand wasn't even as big as Daniel's smallest fingernail, but it was just as precious. I've been marveling at the tiny perfection of Daniel's features for the past two weeks, but today I am particularly thankful for the privilege of feeling these fingers grip my own with such blessed life.

Introducing Daniel William Leland Becker

We are thrilled to announce the safe arrival of our son, Daniel William Leland Becker! Daniel is for his uncle (whom Aaron is also named after), and William and Leland are the middle names of Betsy's grandfathers. Our little man made a surprisingly fast entry into the world on Thursday at 12:35 PM after only 3 1/2 hours of labor. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 14 oz, measures 20.25" long, and in true Becker Baby fashion, he sports a 14.75" head! We're all in disagreement over whom he most resembles, but there's no doubt that he looks like one of ours! He's a great little baby and his big sisters and brother already love him to pieces. Here are some pictures from our first 2 1/2 days...

Being held by his Papa for the first time.

Confused, but awake!

Smiles, fingers, snuggles, and peaceful sleeps.

Not *always* chill...

He has his Mama's fingers!

And lastly, take a look at Bella here in 2009 with Eva and now in 2014 with Daniel. This girl is getting all grown up.

We're all home and resting now, getting settled into life as a family of six. This life is full and this life is fun, and we are so blessed to be able to live it. Praise God for His incredible blessings of 4 healthy little people to raise up! We are blessed beyond measure!

Delight yourself in the Lord, 

and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,

       for His steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods,

       for His steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, 

       for His steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1-3