Almost Summer!

Well, summer is almost here!  My tutor kids are finishing up their online school and I'm hoping to get another couple of students next year through the same program.  In the mean time, I've started teaching Chinese kids online.  Because of the time difference in China, I'm able to teach these 5-10 year olds English from 5-7am while the girls are still sleeping!  It's been a slow start, but I'm sure the business will pick up in the summer.  The beauty of it is that I can just open up time slots whenever I am free and all while the girls are sleeping.  Woohoo!  Hopefully this will be a good little source of extra income.  Josh is finishing up his school year.  He's trying to decide if he wants to move to the middle school next year.  Big decision!  He'll be working at the golf course again this summer.  Currently, he's been helping out a ton at Southpoint's (our church) new church building.  He's been renovating the gym.  It's been fun but tiring and I'm sure he'll be ready to have some free time again.  We move into the new church next weekend.

Amelia is changing all the time!  She's more than a year and a half old now.  She is getting taller, her hair is getting longer and she's more active than ever.  She's still super helpful and gets a kick out of doing "big girl" things.  She is learning her colors and talking all the time.  She loves to play outside with her toy car and bubbles and pretends to walk around her baby doll in a play stroller.  She gets her toy keys and toy purse and tells us all goodbye, haha!  She usually says she's going to church or the store :)

Charlotte is 5 months old now!  She is rolling over, squealing all the time and busy keeping track of Amelia.  She's almost sitting up now and loves to wiggle and move.  She's still so sweet and just loves to be talked and sung to.  She really likes petting our dog.  She does not like to be separated from Amelia :)  Lately she's been testing the volume of her voice!

Here are some pictures that we just got back from Easter!

My Big Helper

Amelia has become quite a big helper!  She watches my every move (though I don't notice) and she likes to do everything that I do!  We went to Kentucky to visit my Grandmother and Grandaddy at their assisted living complex and Amelia went around the place with a napkin wiping everything off and pretending to clean!

The other day I started to vacuum and before I knew it, Amelia was moving all of her toys and doll furniture.  I started to tell her to put it back and then I realized she was trying to help.  She had seen me move all of those things in order to vacuum behind them and so she was getting them out of the way so that I could vacuum.  Then when I finished vacuuming behind each item, she put all the furniture back!

She likes to sit on a little booster seat on the counter while I cook.  She thinks she is helping me cook.  We talk about all the ingredients going into the meal and she watches me prepare it.  Maybe she'll be a chef someday.

When I make a bottle, she wants to be the one to take it and put it in the living room by the rocking chair.  She gets a little upset if I skip this step and do it myself.

She's started feeding Jumanji, our dog.  She goes to get his bowl and then when I open the closet, she gets the cup from his dog food container.  She tells me, "One, two."  Then I scoop up two scoops and she dumps it in his bowl and puts his bowl back in it's spot so he can eat.

Amelia  must have seen me put a pile of clothes down the laundry chute.  One day while I was cleaning the bathroom, Amelia came in with a big armful of clothes.  She opened the door to the laundry chute and tossed each item down.  She said, "Bye, shirt."  Haha!  How did she even know where the dirty clothes pile was!?  She surprises me with something new that she's learned everyday!

Today she opened up one of her books and said, "Let's see..."  Sure enough that's something that I say without even thinking about it.

She loves Charlotte.  Everyday when she wakes up, she asks where Charlee is.  She walks into her room and says, "Hi Charlee!"  Every time that Amelia looks at Charlee, Charlee smiles so big.  Though Charlee's things that she's learning aren't as visible as Amelia's yet, I think she's learrning just as much.  She is learning to coo, to focus her eyes, to see colors, to lift her head and to sleep through the night ;)

They sure are fun these days!

Best friends

Charlotte is adjusting to our family so well!  She is such a good and sweet baby.  She still sleeps most of the day and when she wakes up she is all smiles and coos!  She is Amelia's best friend already.  Amelia imitates all her coos and hugs and kisses her a lot.  Amelia helps me by going to get things and runs to Charlotte to pat her when she cries for a bottle.  Amelia always makes sure that Charlotte is well fed by asking if she needs a bottle, haha :) 

When they take a bath together, Amelia pretends to pour soap on Charlee and rub it in!  She also carries around her baby in a doll car seat and holds it in the crook of her elbow, just like I do.  Amelia is a little mama! 

I've started back to tutoring.  So far so good because Charlee still sleeps through most of it.  Amelia plays with her baby doll and reads books, etc. 

Below are a few pictures we had taken of Charlotte when she was a newborn:

It's so fun to see their different personalities already.  It's funny to think that I wondered if I would love two children the same way.  My heart definitely found room to love both!  So far it has not been as hard as I thought it would be to have two babies at once.  I'm sure it will get harder though, especially when Charlotte can walk and they both go in opposite directions! ;)

Our Christmas Gift, Charlotte

Well, I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd last written!  We now have a new addition to our family, Charlotte Grace Andrews.  She is two weeks old today!  She was born November 29, 2017 and was 8 pounds 5 oz. and 21 inches long.  She entered the world through a c-section because she was breech.  I was very nervous about the operation, but I'm almost all healed now and can do almost everything now like pick up Amelia, walk up and down stairs, vacuum, etc.  Thankfully, Josh took two weeks off of work to help me since I was unable to do very much.  He was an awesome help.

This is Josh getting ready to go into the operation room to watch our baby be born!!

Our first family picture :)

Charlotte (who we sometimes call Charlee), is such a sweet baby!  I know it's probably to early to tell, but it seems like she is so dainty, gentle and has such a quiet spirit.  She's adjusting well to our family and the world.

Amelia has been doing pretty well with the change.  She cried at first.  I don't think she really understood but she knew something was different.

She is learning to love her new sister.  She's been practicing feeding her doll a bottle and sometimes we let her help feed Charlee.  She gives her hugs and kisses and tells her "Hi!" and says, "Where'd she go?" when I take Charlee to change her diaper.

Amelia is not real fond of holding her yet :/

We are so thankful to God to have a healthy baby.  We definitely wouldn't have thought last Christmas (when we had a 3 month old) that we'd have a newborn again this Christmas!  God knew the exact time in history that she would be born, even though she was a bit of a surprise to the rest of us.  She was no surprise to God.  He created and formed her perfectly in my body.  It's so amazing how something that big, with fully formed fingers, toes, nails, and facial features was inside me just two weeks ago.  Simply amazing.  

Another reason we know that Charlotte is special is because she was breech.  In the olden days, they would have tried to turn her and give birth naturally, but often either the baby, mother or both would die during the process.  God made sure she was born healthy through an operation.  He has big plans for her and I can wait to get to know her gifts and talents and personality.  Josh and I are so incredibly blessed with two great girls.  This will be the Merriest Christmas yet!

Happy Birthday!

Dear Amelia,

     Wow, I can’t believe you are 1 year old!  This year has gone so fast, yet at the same time, if seems like you were just born!  I saw a picture the other day of you, right after you were born.  Boy, were you little!  In one year you have learned so many things and have grown up so big.  You now are able to express yourself through your personality and a few words.  You do so many goofy things.  You are so kind (you are always sharing your things-constantly saying “Here ya go, here ya go…).  You love Jumanji (the dog) SO much and love to tell him good morning.  Even though he plays like he’s annoyed, I think he secretly like you, too.  Like the time I caught him napping in your room with you J  You are such a joy to be around.  Yes you have your moments, but most of the time you are so joyful, energetic, sweet and fun.  I love to be around you because you make everything so happy!

     In two months you will have a little sister!  We’ve been practicing with baby dolls (although you just try to eat them!).  I know it will be a bit of an adjustment but you are going to be such a good big sister.  You get to show her all the things you’ve already learned (in your 1^st year of life haha).  You will be so kind and teach her how to have as much joy as you do!  I can’t wait to see the two of you grow up together.  I hope you’ll be best friends!

I love you so much.  Happy birthday, big girl! J

Love,
Mama

Crazy Season

Man, life has just been a little crazy lately!  Someone rear-ended Josh a couple of weeks ago and it totaled our truck...which leaves us down to one car at the moment :(  Thankfully he was unharmed and we weren't in the car but it was still very scary.  We had planned on buying a used SUV this month because our little Fiesta is cramped to the max!  We get the new car on Monday!  Woohoo!  So now we are also in the market for a truck so that we can sell our Fiesta.  Thank goodness for savings accounts!  Our other projects will just have to be put on hold for a while.

We were on our way to Tennessee for our family vacation when we got the call that Josh's dad was in the hospital.  We were only half way there and this seemed extremely severe so we headed back to Michigan to check in on him.  After a while it seemed the situation was not as bad as we thought, so we headed back to Tennessee.  After two days down there, we got called back because Josh's dad was having a very serious heart surgery.  The surgery went well but over the last few days he's had another stroke.  So please pray for him and his patience and cooperation in the hospital because, let's just say it's not his favorite place to be!

Amelia is doing great!  She's pulling up to stand now and we think she may be trying to say the word "dog."  She crawls around, is getting into everything and spreads joy everywhere she goes.  We think she should be a greeter at church because she waves and smiles at everyone! :)

The new baby is growing quickly!  I am 4 1/2 months along now and according to my research, the baby is about the size of a pomegranate!  It kicks quite a bit lately.  I'm convinced it's a boy, but we'll find out for real in 2 weeks at the ultrasound!  I know it was such an adjustment at first, trying to get used to the idea of having two babies only 14 1/2 months apart.  Now I am so excited!  I'm amazed all over again at the miracle of God growing a baby inside me and choosing us to be it's parents!  How cool!

Surprise!

Baby #2 is on it's way!  It was definitely a bit of a surprise to us too.  We're excited now!  Amelia won't even be 15 months old yet, yikes!  I'm sure it will come with it's challenges, but it will be a lot of fun too.  I just started the second trimester and am feeling much better now.  We went to the doctor yesterday to get another ultrasound and amazingly at just 13 weeks after forming, the new baby has a fully formed face and profile :)  Looks about like Amelia so far!  More news to come...