Faith Quest and Beyond

Hi everyone!
We need to write more, so here we go:)
Faith Quest was AWESOME this year! Mara Brown was there and helped me with Macy so I was actually able to semi-participate. We spent a lot of time with Jonathan Thomas' family and it was so fun to get to know Dawnette and the kids better. It actually inspired me to consider having our kids further apart. There's something so cool about the idea of having one-on-one time with each kid because the other ones are older. Thinking about it...These bottom two pictures are from Faith Quest. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures with Tim this year, but this is Macy and me during worship and Macy with Anaiah...so sweet! The top two pictures are of Macy doing some of her favorite things right now - talking on her Elmo phone and kissing her baby doll.
Anyway, Faith Quest rocked. Macy had a fantastic time in the mud. It rained a lot and the culmination of lots of people and hours in the damp cold left Macy sick. It didn't start at first. She was teething when we were there - yeah, don't recommend teething while traveling. But I think her immune system was in a weakened state because of that and so she caught croup, of all things. You want to know how I identified it?!?! Yes, Anne of Green Gables. Not just a kids movie now, is it?!?!
It took a few days for it to fully manifest itself so went ahead with our "retreat" day after Faith Quest. We're going on a cruise in January, so we didn't want to spend money to take a little retreat away from home. We dropped Macy off at the Sellers' for day and night (thank you!) and just spent 24 hours on our own. Every time it's just me and Tim (especially when it's more than just a few hours) I am reminded of how much fun we have together! It's such a blessing to me because sometimes the daily grind is just that. Not super magical. But 24 hours alone with your husband - magical. We went into Portland and checked out Bunk Sandwiches...so yummy. We had seen it on the Food Network. We loved it and they had really fun soda. Then we headed over to Powell's and we each got a new book, even one for Mace. We bought Beatles' Rockband and rocked out. So fun.
We slept in the next morning (so exhausted!) and picked up Mace. She had a cough and by that night we were in Urgent Care. Got her drugged and spent the next several days keeping her inside and she got better quickly. She rocks. But man, when you don't know what's wrong with your kid, it's terrifying. I seriously only got through the "unknown" part of it by reciting Scripture. Once we knew what it was and read up on it, we were cool. But there's something to be said for having a sick kid and not knowing what to do to help them. Super scary. My heart aches for people who know the truth of that statement a lot more than we do.
We've settled into our fall routine now. It's wonderful to have a schedule. I'm really enjoying being involved in all our church activities, especially the MOMS group and our Women of the Word group.

Shaklee Independent Distributor

Shaklee Independent Distributor

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Poop in Bed...Good Times

So, thankfully, no pics from this story, but it's providential that our most recent disgusting toddler story would happen the day after I reinstated the family blog. Mace used to always get up between 6 and 7am. She goes to bed at 7pm, so we feel this is quite reasonable. She still goes to bed at that time, but in the last week, she's been getting up later and later. She's getting her molars and we figured she must be growing. Plus, she's playing her bed quietly int he morning, so that's cool. If she's not crying...why force yourself out of bed? That's my reasoning. So, it's been more like 7:45 the last week, which has been such a treat.
Well this morning...it's still silent...and it's still silent...and it's still silent. Somehow we've reached 8:45 and IT'S STILL SILENT! So Tim and I look at each other in bed and we're like...she didn't die, did she?!?! Tim creeps in her room, with me right behind him, to check this out.
She's awake. She's silent. She's covered in poop. Yes, my kid, woke up, took off her poopy diaper, played in it, peed on her sheet and MADE NO NOISE!!!!!!!!! That's my kid. Seriously, she loves poop, knew it was bad, so she didn't make a peep! I love that kid. The room reeked and we started the morning with a bath. Took 3 loads of laundry to get all the poopiness removed, but what a gal. At least she didn't eat it this time...that's another story for another day:)

Okay, okay...it's been more than awhile!

Kristy and her dad in St. Louis
Becky, Macy, and Kristy in NYC
Macy on the beach in Nantucket for the Macy family reunion
Kristy and Tim in Vegas!
The girls at Tim's mom's house in Tacoma in May
Macy in her suit...she loves the water!
Macy's first trip to the zoo, with her Aunt Terry
Macy at VBS
I've been told by several blogger friends that we suck because we basically dropped the blog. It's been so long, I'm just thrilled I remember my login information!!!! We've been putting everything on Facebook, but I'll try to post things here now too. I do like the blogosphere. Okay, so Macy is 17 months and thriving. She's working on her molars right now. She walked right after Christmas. Her 1st birthday (in March) rocked. She talks, but mostly babbles. Tim is busy preparing for Faith Quest. Kristy is sharing her Shaklee business. Life is good. We've had a busy summer of traveling, especially Kristy and Macy:) She's such a trooper. We went to camp, then Tacoma (Tim's grandma passed away:(. Kristy took Tim to Vegas for a few days to celebrate his 30th. Then Macy and Kristy headed to Boston, Nantucket, and New York for the Macy family reunion and a chance to visit Becky! Kristy also headed to St. Louis for the Shaklee convention. It's been a fun, wild, hot summer! Here are a few pictures of our adventures:)

Macy's First Thanksgiving!

Sorry it's been awhile since we've blogged. We've both gotten a little obsessed with Facebook, so that tends to be our internet go-to now. Anyway, Macy enjoyed her first Thanksgiving. She ate table food, like the rest of us! She can't have meat yet, but she ate a whole wheat roll, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and yams. It was fun to dress her up in her princess dress (though she had a hard time crawling around in it!) She decided to wake up an hour earlier than normal, which was a fun treat! It made a long day just a little longer:) It was a nice holiday, but more work than I remembered from years past. I don't think it actually was, it was probably just that much more tiring with a baby.
While we were in town, we got to visit with the Metcalf's, which is the picture of Macy above with Peyton and Brayden. We had a good time hanging out with our friends and watching the kids play. We also go to go to Red Robin with the Palmer's, where we bumped into Dennis Baker and Matt Tibbles. It was a fun surprise!
Macy's been crawling for awhile, but now she's really moving and pulling up. She's into everything, which can be a challenge, but it's also really cool. We're enjoying parenting our baby girl who's quickly becoming a toddler! When did that happen?!?!
We're busy now getting into the Christmas spirit. I want it to be fun, not stressful! I'm finding myself still stressed though. I'm probably doing too much:) Below is a picture of Macy on Thanksgiving with her Uncle Sol. They always take cute pictures together. Well, upward and onward, but hopefully we'll be posting more often!

The Beach

Macy took her first trip to the coast last week! Tim's mom and sister, Sugin, came down and took me and Macy to the beach. We had a really fun girls trip and it was cool to have Mace at the ocean for the first time. We took some fun pictures:) Take a look!

Why is my Daughter so CUTE!?!?!

Yes, we're obsessed:) Macy's even teething, which isn't super fun, but we still think she is AMAZING! Babies rock! I want ten more. (Shh...don't tell Tim:) I've started scrapbooking Macy's first year...like I said, obsessed...I've done about 100 pages in two days. What a nut! It was the weekend though so Tim was here to help with the Macy stuff so I could go crazy. Of course, 100 pages has gotten me through her first two months...no, I'm notjoking! It's going to be one mammoth scrapbook. That was after I sifted through our photos for only the best ones, of course. Here is a picture of Macy and me. I've taken a million pictures of Macy with her daddy, so I've been asking Tim to take more pictures of Macy with her mommy. I can't help it - she's so cute with her daddy, I just keep snapping away.
I am super excited that it's the fall. Macy's already in her Halloween gear because I LOVE OCTOBER and I'm just preparing...so here she is in her orange stuff...we're planning on taking her to a pumpkin patch this weekend and I'm so excited.
Okay, well I need to start actually watching my daughter now and turn off Baby Einstein, but I really wanted to update everyone since it's been a month! Macy rocks. We're happy. The end.

Faith Quest!

Macy and I survived her first Faith Quest!!! More importantly, Tim survived his fourth Faith Quest! We're at home recovering...we all slept quite a bit last night:) The theme this year was about the Holy Spirit and talking about Who Wants to be a Superhero? Here's a pic of Macy and her daddy dressed as Discoman:)
It turned out to be a lot colder than I was expecting! And, on the coldest night, somehow our window was left open, so I swear Mace and I are a little sick now since we almost all died of exposure:) It was a grand adventure keeping her all bundled up. It was a blessing to be able to pass her around a lot so that I could still participate in some of the events with the kids. I'm grateful for Macy's church mommies who've blessed me so much. Macy seemed to enjoy the worship a lot, which was awesome, as usual.
Mace and I also went up to Seattle last week to visit her grandma and Aunt Sugin as well as to visit with Steve, Janelle, and Ellie Mock! That was really, really cool.
Well, I'm off to try to get some more rest before Mace is up and making noise again...she sure is a loud one, that kid! Where in the world did she get that from?!?!

Lots of Firsts

Well, Macy has had lots of firsts lately, so I wanted to put up some pics. She has officially had her first solid food! We started feeding her rice cereal last weekend. She's still not quite sure what to do with it exactly. It sits on her tongue a lot and she keeps her mouth open as long as possible before she has to close her mouth and swallow. It doesn't smell particularly appetizing, so I think she'll be more interested once the food starts tasting better. I've been working on that - cooking up a storm of foods for her real baby food in a few weeks. I'm making it at home, so she'll all set. We have a freezer full of tiny portions of peas, carrots, green beans and potatoes so far. So far her poopies are still the same (completely disgusting! Thank you, formula) but I'm sure they'll be multi-colored soon enough.
Another big first is that Macy went to her first Sunday school class two weeks ago. It was amazing how engaged she was in all the songs and puppets. I was so happy for her and also a little sad for me that my little girl is already old enough for school! I know, I know, it's Sunday school, not undergrad, but still. She's growing up so fast. It was really cool though that she can already learn about all the awesome things that God has done for her. It's definitely a blessing to be a part of a church family and to have your kids benefit from that. This is a picture of her with her little New Testament they pass around the little table. How cute!
She's also decided to sleep longer at night and not need to be swaddled...what a little trooper:) We're very proud. And just in time too, cuz Faith Quest is this weekend!!!!! More news to come after the biggest event of our year...

All by myself :(

So this morning I dropped off Kristy and Macy at the airport for their flight to New Orleans. Kristy goes to a Shaklee (her business) Convention every year and New Orleans was the place they picked. They'll be gone for a total of 5 days and I'm already missing them. I'm glad that Kristy will get a chance to see her family while she's there and that she'll get all pumped up about her business. This is the longest trip that Macy's ever taken so we were both a little apprehensive about the whole thing. Actually, Macy is quite the seasoned traveler for a baby. Kristy has taken her twice to San Diego since she's been born. This is quite a different trip however since they have a long layover and change of planes. I'm sure both of them will do fine and it won't mess up Macy's routine too much. I guess we'll find out when she gets back. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do in the time their gone (besides work stuff). People have been telling me that I'll get more sleep but we've been doing pretty well in that department even with Macy around. I'm thinking that I might sleep worse since I'm used to having both of them around each night. A few weekends ago I was out of town and I slept horribly at the hotel I was staying at. I don't know if being away from home (and the family) had something to do with it but I suspect it did. I don't know, maybe I'll go see a few movies. Maybe I'll finish that book I started back in May. Maybe I'll get a chance to hang out with some friends I haven't see that much since I became a parent. Maybe I'll just vege and do nothing! I'm open if anyone out there has suggestions. Whatever happens I know that I'll be thinking about my girls often. I hope that others out there know and feel my pain...

Hanging Out with Daddy

A couple days ago, I took Macy outside with me to water our plants and she seemed quite interested in it. I am so looking forward to more "daddy time" in the future and special little moments like this. I love how she is now starting to react more to different situations and environments. She is definitely starting to develop her personality more and let us know how she feels about things. She is definitely at the point where she likes to smile and giggle a lot. I tell you there's nothing better than hearing your child laugh. It's just the best sound in the entire world. It can melt even the toughest man's heart. Kristy and I have been discovering that while raising a baby doesn't necessarily get easier, you certainly get into more of routine. You learn to anticipate what your baby wants and needs. We definitely have our moments of frustration as parents and she can still drive us crazy from time to time but it's still an amazing time. I'm just glad I have such a wonderful wife to shoulder so much of the work. Kristy is certainly a shining example of how a mom should be. Macy couldn't be in better hands or be loved any more. Although we have our challenges at times I can see us becoming a close-knit family. Something I've always wanted.

Busy Summer

Well, it's been a while since I've posted on here but for good reason. As most of you already know, summer can be a very busy time for youth ministers. It's the time when all the teens are out of school and things get a little crazy. Camps, mission trips, and so many other things just take up the entire time! We had our senior teen camp in late June and an event called Youth Wave this past week. I co-directed one and then directed the other so you can say it was pretty hectic. Now the only "big" event left is Faith Quest which takes place over Labor Day weekend. It is by far the most time intensive but the payoff is certainly worth it. What's nice about this summer in particular is that we've got to visit with a lot of our friends from out of town. We've played host a couple of times to our out-of-town friends and while it has been a full house it's been great to spend time with them. It certainly makes the days go by faster. What also makes this summer unique from all the others is that I have a little baby to take care of on top of all that other stuff. I have to admit that it's still challenging at times but I'm starting to learn how to balance all of this stuff. As much fun as the summer can be I usually long for the fall and school to start. Things die down a little and the schedule gets a little more predictable. Yay for school!

Yea America!

Tim's very patriotic, so we're branding Macy early:) Here's a video of her on her first Independence Day!

Visitors

Our buddies, the Palmer family, came to town this week! We hadn't seen them in TWO YEARS! It's hard to believe it's been that long, but little Brighton is 3 years old now...The kids were all really good with Macy and she was highly entertained by their singing and dancing. Matt and Tim got to run out and see a movie while Kristie and I took the kids on a surprise trip to Sonic. We're so excited the Palmer's are living in the Northwest again and it was really fun to see them for a few days. Hopefully we won't have to wait two years next time!

I'm a Camper!

Macy just got home from her first week of camp! She was a camper at Senior Teen at Camp Yamhill. She did really well all week and the kids really enjoyed having her there. It was actually easier for me to be at camp with her than to be at home by myself. Plus, we got to see Daddy all week. It was a fun time and here she is hanging out in her stroller out in the field on one of the super hot days:) Hopefully she'll be a camper for many years to come. She's quite the trooper and really enjoyed all the chaos.

Hanging with the Mckenzies

This past week we got to spend some time with our good friends Billy and Brenda Mckenzie and their two kids, Jacob and Jayda. Jayda was born just over a month after Macy so we think that's pretty cool. We definitely don't get to see them nearly enough since they moved down to Bakersfield. It was only a short visit but we enjoyed every minute of it. It was great to see Macy and Jayda playing together (if you could call it that!) and hopefully it will be the start of a lifelong friendship. It was kinda crazy to have all of these people (especially babies) in our small town home but it seemed to work out OK. I think Macy likes it when there are a lot of people around. That's a good thing considering I work at a church and am around lots of people all the time! Of course, all good things have to come to an end and we parted ways so that they could visit other people. We don't know when we'll get to see them again but I'm sure both girls will have changed a lot the next time we do. I personally think they should move back up to the NW but I understand that we've all got jobs to do. It's funny how life changes and we all grow up, get married, have children. Sometimes I feel exactly like I did 10 years ago but I know in reality that I've changed a lot as we all do. Well, I didn't mean to get all philosophical but it is interesting to sit back and reflect.

Happy Father's Day!

Well, if anyone has ever earned a great Father's Day, it's Tim. As you may have noticed, Tim has been through a lot of change since our little Macy was born and he's been so involved at home. It's not always easy, but he's always here for us and that is so awesome. It's such a blessing as a new mommy to be able to rely on your husband for help. More than that, I think every mom wants their daughter to have a doting father, but as we ladies know, we can't control that. I know I am truly blessed to not only call Tim my husband, but also the father of our dear little Mace. Happy first Father's Day babe. WE LOVE DADDY!

Roll Over...

Fun stuff, this was a couple of weeks ago when we first started to give Macy some "tummy time". She surprised us with how strong her neck was and was able to look up almost 90 degrees. Of course now it's pretty easy for her but back then it was pretty cool. Now I don't think she is intentionally rolling over but it's still really fun for us to watch! I think because her head is so heavy if she leans too much one way, then she'll fall over. Enjoy!

The wait is over!

Well, this past Monday, June 2, 2008 my sister Sugin and her boyfriend of 9 years Sol Calderon were married at the courthouse in downtown Seattle. It was a great day for the whole family to get together and share in this event. Originally, they were planning on getting married in Hawaii but because of time and cost restrictions, this worked out best. It was a good thing too because there are a lot of stresses that come with planning a big wedding. Although this was a small and relatively informal service it was quick, fun and memorable. It was funny though because right in the middle of the judge's wedding "talk" my grandma (who doesn't speak a lick of english) starts talking out loud. We later find out that she was complaining the the judge was talking too much and this was taking longer than the planned 15 minutes she was told. You gotta love her spunk though. I'm really happy that my sister has found such a wonderful and caring partner. I've gotten to know Sol for the past 9 years and I'm proud to have him as my brother-in-law. I look forward to spending more time with the both of them for many years. Of course in the midst of all the wedding stuff everyone was sooo excited to get to see Macy. Because of work and time committments, Mom and Sugin only get to see Macy about once a month. When they do get to see her, they definitely make the most of their time.

On a different note, both Kristy and I have gotten sick in the past two weeks :( Kristy got sick right after her friend Tanya from San Diego left to go back home. I was fearful that both Macy and myself would catch whatever Kristy had. As Kristy was feeling better and recovering I still hadn't felt sick at all so I thought I was in the clear. Well, wouldn't you know on Monday as we're driving up to Seattle for my sister's wedding I start to get those wonderful aches and pains that preclude a cold/flu. Now I'm the one that's sick and Kristy is mostly better. Macy still hasn't shown that she has gotten what we have and we're hoping that's because she's got a strong little immune system. We've never had to deal with a sick baby yet and I'm sure it's not fun at all. Last Friday, Macy received two immunization shots and she ended up with a mild fever. Needless to say, she did not deal with that very well. I can't imagine what she'll be like when she's sick over a period of a couple days to a week. If all that wasn't enough, Kristy's neck ended up bothering her so much on Sunday morning that we had to miss church and take her to an "emergency" neck adjustment at the chiropractor. When her neck or back is out of alignment, that usually means she gets a migrane. Once that happens, she is completely out of commission. Hopefully we'll be able to get her adjust long before that ever happens but it's really hard to tell sometimes.

Well, that's mostly what's been going on with the Sibley's the past few weeks. Take care everyone!! Oh, oh, I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago when we put Macy on her stomach she was able to lift her head a full 90%! Here she is in all her cuteness:

First Laugh

Reading Tim's comments about the last few days reminds me that even though Macy's on strike and it is uncomfortably hot, Macy also decided to debut her laugh this Saturday. It was AMAZING! Seriously, my heart was so uplifted by it. Tim was downstairs with Macy and he stood her on the bathroom counter in front of the mirror and bounced her. She loves to bounce and started rocking out pretty hard - smiling and eventually laughing! I missed it, but later we were out at dinner and Tim got her bouncing again and I got to hear her laugh. She has such a big, infectious smile and it was so incredible to hear her laugh. There's nothing more precious in life than seeing your little baby happy. Even with the strike, we had some fun events this weekend too:)