Don't Wait!

Our book "The Gift of Giving Life: Rediscovering the Divine Nature of Pregnancy and Birth" is coming out in print soon! We initially thought it would come out in November but the layout and editing took longer than expected. Right now it is looking like it will be off the press sometime in March!

This means that our pre-sales aren't going to last much longer and the 10% discount you get for ordering the book early will be ending really soon. So, if you are planning on buying a copy of the book sometime in the near or distant future (which I know lots of you are) I'd HIGHLY recommend doing it sooner rather than later. They probably won't be discounted again any time soon.

And trust me if you are, ever have been, or ever will be pregnant or if you have a friend or spouse who is, has been or will be pregnant you don't want to miss out on this book... it is really quite incredible collection of stories and testimonies. If you'd like to read some excerpts from the book or learn more about our project you can visit our website.

Go order your discounted copy now before it is too late!

Christmas and Beyond

I just realized that the only pictures I have from Christmas this year are all of Abe! He is just so cute. And plus I think I must have subconsciously felt bad for forgetting about him at the store that I had to make it up somehow!

Snuggling the puppy Hilary and Brittney gave him

Looking very pensive in Uncle Drew's arms

Getting gooshed by his Christmas bear

Getting attacked by his Christmas bear.
Jon and I couldn't resist this bear because it has the cutest overbite, and when we both saw it we immediately thought of Abe.

Oh, and I did get a pretty cute video of the kids on Christmas morning. I love it that the first thing Asher did, before checking for presents, was to see if Santa ate his cookies!

And I think Rose's favorite present was the "tinky bell" wand that Santa put in her stocking. She has carried it around for almost two weeks non-stop. She is really into Tinker Bell right now and is always making sure that everyone knows that she is "Tinky Bell". Whenever I make her food that she likes she always tells me, "Thanks mom, this is good tinky bell food."
It is pretty cute.

Plus it makes for some pretty exciting days to have Captain Hook and Tinker Bell at my house!

We also had a good New Years Eve. We invited some friends over but their kids ended up getting sick and so it was just the five of us, which was really fun.

We ended up roasting marshmallows and making s'mores in our fire place. The kids got really excited about going "camping" (which they equate with s'mores) and set up the tepee that Santa brought them for Christmas and filled with blankets and pillows.





We really had a good time.

Oh, and just so you know chewy chocolate chip Chips Ahoy cookies make GREAT alternatives to graham crackers and chocolate for s'mores. Really, they are awesome.

Oh, he is so cute!

Pirate Party

My sister-in-law was so sweet to offer to help throw Asher a pirate birthday party this year. He really, really wanted one but I didn't think I could pull it off with a newborn. So I really have Britt to thanks for this one. She did an awesome job.

Also, I'm really glad that she and my brother came to help with it because we totally needed four adults there. There is NO way that I could have handled seven pirate crazed 4-year-olds by myself.

Asher was so excited about having all his friends dressed up like pirates, but it also overwhelmed him a bit. He'd never had to entertain (ore share with) so many friends before and he didn't really know how to handle it. All the kids started out really hesitant at first but by the end of the party they had ingested enough sugar to really get into the pirate spirit and were running around the house like wild barbarians.

It was grand.

Playing pin the map on the "x"



Eating pirate booty



Asher pulling gold coins out of his pirate chest ( a present from Jon's uncle). Also, notice the keg of root beer sitting on the table, Jon's uncle also brought that over. It is the best root beer I've ever had and was just perfect for a pirate party. Though I'm not really sure that we should be encouraging kegs... or piracy for that matter.

Playing "dig for treasure". I wrapped some chocolate gold coins in layers of newspaper and tape. The kids had to roll the dice and whenever they got a 4 they had to put on gloves and "dig" in the newspaper with forks. They got really into it and boy, I tell you those little boys are deadly with forks! It was really cute to see them get so excited about it.

I had grand intentions of making a beautiful pirate cake but Asher insisted that he have a "captain" on his cake and that it be drawn a certain way. As a result my cake didn't turn out like I had imagined. In fact, I might venture to say that it was the worst pirate cake in the history of pirate cakes.

When Asher saw it the first thing he did was ask me why the captain had an octopus on his hat... and why it was pink. I tried to explain that it was suppose to be a skull and cross bones and that it was suppose to be red ( food coloring and me don't get a long) but I don't think he believed me. At least he was still happy with it.

And it tasted really good... which is all that really matters right?

All in all the party was a lot of fun. But I think that we will have to make birthday parties a special, every couple of years, thing because it was a lot of work! And I didn't even do most of it.

This wonderful lady did.

Thanks Britt!