Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas to all!  What an interesting year we've had!  We've had a global pandemic, a new birth of our son, Josh working from home, family deaths, and even now at the end of the year, we're still trying to navigate how and when to see family in a safe way.  It's a difficult time for sure, but it's also a special time of Christmas (and most of the rest of the year) where our family has had a lot more family time together than we would have imagined.  What a blessing in disguise.  

Josh is still working from home every day until an undetermined date.  Amelia (and Charlee by default) is still watching preschool on a zoom call.  Because of Charlee's ability to listen in and even participate, she is learning letters, sounds, shapes, patterns, and doing arts and crafts just like Amelia!  Cal is SOOO close to crawling.  He takes about 1 crawl step and then face plants to scoot forward.  Won't be long until he's mobile now!  He also yells "Mama" and sweetly says, "Dada."  He's definitely testing his volume.  Trying to keep him quiet while Josh is teaching is interesting, haha.

We are trying to teach the real meaning of Christmas to the girls.  They ask questions and seem interested when we tell about the birth of Jesus.  Amelia asks a lot of spiritual questions lately.  She asks to be baptized sometimes. Then when Josh asked her how Jesus took away her sin, she replied, "with his magic fingers!"  Hahaha! Clearly she's not ready yet 😄.  We will keep discussing.

Amelia turned 4 years old!

Happy Halloween!

Amelia's favorite past time is "babysitting".  She prayed that God would make him stay a baby forever!

Charlee turned 3!

They do all kinds of silly things to Cal.  He really enjoys it :)

Hope everyone is staying healthy!  Hope to see you all soon!

A Home in Heaven

     Last month, my sweet Grandaddy went to be with Jesus.  He broke his hip the week before and never fully recovered from the anesthesia and surgery.  He was one month away from 90!  I don't think about death very much.  I honestly don't think about Heaven very much either.  I wonder what it was like when Jesus welcomed him into heaven!?  What did Grandaddy say?  What did Jesus say?  Wow, that just is crazy to think about! His memorial service was so wonderful!  I knew most of the things spoken about him but to hear it all at one time, was very inspiring!  His life makes me want to be better.  One of the coolest things is that I don't remember anything negative come from his mouth.  He had a lot to complain about with diabetes and living in a nursing home.  Of course that wasn't his ideal, but he never complained and always kept a good attitude.  That's amazing!   He treated Grandmother so well.  They loved each other so sweetly.  He was gentle and kind.  The last few years they just sat together all day long just holding hands, sometimes watching tv, sometimes listening to Grandmother's hymns being played on the player.  

    Life and death are interesting things.  In the time of all of this death through the pandemic and now with Grandaddy's death, Caleb was born into this life.  He's so new and so fresh.   He doesn't know much about the world yet.  He's so sweet and innocent.  A blank canvas.  Thinking about Grandaddy's life just makes me hope that Cal is a man of God like that!  Grandaddy's life is complete here on Earth.  Caleb's is just beginning.  What will he see in his life time if he lives for 90 years!  God ordained Caleb's birth and knew when it would be Grandaddy's last day here on Earth.  God is good and he is in control.  

    

Hello World!

Caleb Andrews says "Hello World!"  Cal was born April 27th during the age of covid!  He is a healthy  (chubby) 2 month old!  Can't believe it's already been 2 months.  He is a great baby and is already sleeping through the night.  Even with all that's going on in the world with the pandemic, things went very smoothly at the hospital and we were home a couple days after!  Here are some pictures of our life since then.

During quarantine, Josh made the kids a playhouse!  The girls love it :)

Funnies:

-A little potty humor-  Charlee pooped a lot yesterday and said, "Mom!  I pooped a stick!" Haha

-Josh was working on putting up a curtain rod.  Charlee opened the directions and said, "Let's learn about tools."

-Charlee defends Amelia sometimes and says, "Hey, give that back to my sister!"

-One time Charlee was crying and Amelia said, "Charlee is having a rough day!"

-  One time I opened up Amelia's door to tell her it was time to come out from her nap and he was sleeping in the toy box!!

-I asked Amelia what size one of her shirts was and she said, "Whenever you're willing to wear it"  haha

-The girls were playing in the backyard and Charlee found her bike helmet.  I asked her why she was wearing it and she said, "I don't want to get germs on my head!"  A very coronavirus thing to say!

-The girls were playing in the room together and Charlee said, "I'll zap you into the lions den!"  I think she got that Bible verse a little confused.

-They were playing "restaurant" in the new playhouse and Charlee said, "Wait!  I have to go get my mask."  Oh boy...

That's it for now!  Everyone is up from their naps!  :)

A Word From Quarantine

Hello out there!  What a crazy situation we are all in right now!  Things in Michigan are pretty crazy but our family is still doing well.  Since the second week of March, the girls and I have been at home.  We stayed away from our normal activities even before the first covid19 case in Michigan because we knew all kinds of sickness was going around.  The next week, Josh's school (and the whole state's) school has been online at home until at least April 30.  We are expecting this week to get the call that he will not be going back to school this year!  So literally we have been in the house and outside taking walks and that's it.  Other than my OB doctor, I haven't seen anyone (except my parents one time 2 weeks ago).  It hasn't been too bad though.  I am really starting to miss people, but at least we can see them on video chats occasionally.  Some people are still going through drive throughs to get take out or going to the grocery store, but we have decided not to risk getting the virus anymore.  We will not be going out until the baby is born in about 3 weeks.

Three more weeks until baby time!  What a crazy time to have a baby!  So far, my doctor hasn't said there are any different restrictions except only 1 visitor in the delivery room (Josh).  We have heard that the nurses and doctors are all only working on the labor and delivery floor and not being pulled to work with any covid patients, to protect the new babies and moms.  Also, I heard yesterday that C-sections are the preferred method these days since it can be scheduled and the baby is born within 30 minutes, whereas a normal labor could last 24 hours or longer.  I'm sure they will want to get us in and out ASAP.  My C-section is scheduled for April 27.  Not long now!  After he is born, we will likely stay home for a long time to make sure all the coronavirus has passed before taking him out into public.  At least it will be warm then and we can get outside more.  Even though it's a bad situation, it has been a huge help to have Josh home with us these last few weeks.  I am tired and feel like an elephant tromping around, so he's helpful to pick up things off the floor or get down and play with the girls.   It will also be a huge blessing to have Josh home for weeks after the baby is born!  How lucky to have all this time off from work!

The girls are doing well!  They are playing together more than ever, since we don't get out anymore to do activities.  They are being creative and learning to share and get along, even when they are feeling cooped up.  Overall, they've done really great.  They do ask occasionally why we can't go back to the gym, the library, church, etc...but they know that many, many people are sick and that we want to stay home to stay protected.  They pray every day that God will keep us safe from the sickness.  Here are some pictures of what we've been up to:

This was Amelia's Daddy Daughter Dance (before all the quarantining)

Jumanji has been getting a lot of love

Stocking up on some staples before being quarantined

A joke, but I really did wear a mask, and gloves to the doctor's office!

We take 2 walks every day!  Sprinkles or shine.  Gotta get out of the house!

Josh got creative with a marble and some toilet paper rolls!

Charlee is ready for church worship!  They stand on the stools and pretend they're on stage singing.

Well, that's all for now!  We'll probably have a baby the next time I post!  That will make for an interesting post.  I will be part of history, having a baby in a pandemic!  😯

Little Boy Coming!

Happy New Year!  Our new baby will be a boy, set to arrive April 27th!  The girls were a little unsure about a boy at first but now they are super excited!  We have the room set up, and someone from church donated all of their baby clothes so now we have a whole wardrobe of baby boy clothes!  What a blessing!!  Here are a few pictures from the last month or so...

The city Christmas Festival.  This was the girls' first time to sit on Santa's lap.  Amelia told him that she wanted a garbage truck for Christmas, haha.  We got her one!  Later she asked, "Who was that man and why was he wearing a red, furry costume?"  :)  On Christmas Eve she asked if he'd be coming in his car, haha!

One night while I was out at a church meeting, Josh had a movie night, "Frozen" with the girls.  They sat through almost the whole thing, singing, "Let it go..."

Christmas morning

A visit to Grandmother and Grandaddy's "house"

We had some free coupons for kid's drinks at the coffee shop and it turned out to be the best part of Christmas vacation!  The girls have never had a fancy drink before (milk with strawberry flavoring, whipped cream and sprinkles) and they were ecstatic.  They kept saying, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness."   I think we need to get out more :)

Her excitement with her Magic milk drink!

This month's funnies:

-The girls were outside playing in the sand on one of the warm days and I heard them out there cooking up some pretend pizza.  Amelia went to go eat it, when Charlee said, "Pray!"  Amelia thanked God for their sand pizza and they proceeded to pretend eat.

- Grammy (Josh's Grandma) was in the hospital and the girls sent Josh with one of their stuffed bears.  They thought she might need it to sleep in the hospital.

-Charlee tells everyone that she loves them, multiple times throughout the day.  My favorite is before bed when she whispers, "I wub you."

-Amelia was having a very difficult time falling asleep one night.  So much so that she was still awake and looking out the window by the time we turned off the Christmas lights outside to head to bed.  The second we switched off the Christmas lights she started wailing very overtiredly.  When I asked her what happened, she said, "I'm so disappointed that the Christmas lights turned off!!"

-Amelia and Charlotte often watch me cook dinner on their stools in the kitchen.  One day Amelia said, "Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a mom cooker like you."