Fabulous Five

On this particularly long day, I felt it would be most beneficial to report my fabulous five, because, believe it or not, no matter how long the day may seem, there are always, always five wonderful things to report!

1. Warm chocolate chip cookies. Need I say more? So I am cheating a little with this one since we actually made (and devoured) the cookies yesterday, but just the thought and lingering smell of those yummy morsels brought a smile to my face today, as did watching my children delight in the last of them after lunch.



2. Stacey came to play today (and brought her boys Will and Aiden along as well). What more can I say, but there is nothing quite as refreshing as a good friend and light and easy GROWN UP conversation (not to mention the fact that the kids keep each other wonderfully entertained).

3. Before bedtime this evening, Richard called to tell the kids he had a surprise for them on mommy's computer. We all piled into the office to check my e-mail and there, in my inbox, was an e-card from daddy. This is what it said:

Evan, Maren, Lukas, Jacob and Joshua.

As I settle down for the night here in Atlanta, I want you to know how much I miss you and how much I look forward to seeing you again. Be good for mommy and sleep good tonight!

With Love-
Daddy

Have I mentioned just how much I adore my husband, who also happens to be the most fantastic father in the world?

4. When Richard called to say goodnight to the kids this evening, Joshua came full speed ahead from the opposite side of the house yelling, "Daddy, daddy, daddy!" He also does this every day when his daddy comes home from work. There just are not words to properly describe how sweet it is to see how much our little man loves his daddy. Some day, I am going to capture it on camera!

5. Although I hate that Evan was feeling ill today, it made me happy, as I snuggled with him on the couch this afternoon, to know that, now, when he is feeling sick, he has a mommy to hold him, love him and care for him while he heals. Before he joined our family, there was never any advantage to being sick. He simply felt miserable and lay there by himself with no one to cuddle him, love him or tell him that it would be alright. Now that he has a mommy, I think he is quickly learning that being sick actually does have it's advantages. Although misery is still a factor, who doesn't love a nice quiet afternoon watching their favorite movies while snuggled up in their mommy's lap? I sure do love making sure that he knows he is loved!

Moving in slow motion. . . .

Today was one of those days where everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. You know, where the minutes drag on for what seems like hours, every moment feeling like an invariable "groundhog day" and creativity closely resembles a dry well. Perhaps it is a result of being stuck inside these walls for so long with no change of scenery. At some point the mind cries out for a change of pace. Perhaps it is a result of my lack of sleep last night. I never sleep well when Richard is not here and I hadn't really noticed how cold it was at night until there was no one to snuggle up to.

To further prove that the world must be slightly off it's axis today, Evan, my infinitely healthy child, was under the weather with a 101.5 degree fever and a cough.


Not that I was completely surprised after our frolic in the cold, snowy weather yesterday. He was adamant that he was not sick, telling me every few minutes that he was feeling better and asking to go back out in the snow, but alas, mommy won out and we spent a good part of the afternoon snuggling on the couch watching our favorite movies and then enjoyed a "healing" dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup, which, I have come to believe, also does wonders for the soul (especially on a long, hard day).

Dear Winter,

I must admit, you have never really been my favorite season, with your gray and dreary days, biting cold and seemingly endless snow, but I find that, now that I am able to see you through the eyes of my children, my general distaste for you is beginning to change. You see, today as I watched your fluffy, white snowflakes blanket the earth I was touched by your peaceful purity. As I listened to my children's laughter echo through your quiet skies, caught snowflakes on my tongue and lay in the snow making angels with my children, I marveled at how magnificently you capture the essence of childhood. And as we sipped our hot cocoa and snuggled on the couch under warm blankets, I was grateful for the opportunity you gave me to cuddle with my babies. So thank you, winter. Thank you for reminding me that, even the coldest and grayest of days can be filled with love, laughter, magic and miracles!

Fabulous Five

Several months ago, at the end of each day, I started writing down five things that made me smile that day. It is so easy to get lost in the busyness of doctors appointments, therapies, school, work and all of the other things that we fill our plates with, and I wanted to take a moment to appreciate all of the little things that bless my life each day. After a few days of keeping this "joy journal" I found that I was starting to focus more and more on each of the moments that bring me joy and less on the exhaustion and frustrations of the daily grind.

While many of those moments are precious and private, I would like to take the time to share some of those moments with you occasionally, so without further ado, I bring you today's Fabulous Five. . .

1. I love watching my children play together. As with most siblings, they certainly have their moments of fussing, fighting and general discontent, but more often than not, they play so well together, and look out for and are compassionate towards each other. One of the things I love about having children so close together in age is that they are each other's best friends and I hope that they are always as close to each other as they are now.

Jacob and Lukas playing with their Leapsters (or as Lukas calls them, "Lobsters")

Jacob, Lukas and Evan playing with cars (taken a few weeks ago)

Maren and Evan snuggling on the couch

2. "You're beautiful mommy," "Thank you for this wonderful dinner mommy," "Mommy, you are the best cook ever." My kids tell me things like this every single day. Why? Because their daddy has taught them to love and appreciate me. . . and boy do I love and appreciate that! Richard has always been wonderful at complimenting me and taking note of the things that I do for our family. When we first started dating, I remember feeling uncomfortable at times at how freely he complimented me. I wasn't used to having someone shower me with praise constantly. Now I have such a deep appreciation for this expression of love. I never doubt that I am loved and important to my family and I know that, the spouses of all of my children will be lucky to know, all the time, that they are loved, appreciated and important.

3. As I was working on some pre-surgical paperwork this morning for Evan's upcoming surgery, Maren came running into the room to tell me that something was wrong with Joshua. I followed her to the opposite side of the house where I could hear Joshua crying in the hallway. As I rounded the corner I saw him laying on the floor outside of the bathroom and immediately realized the cause of his distress. Apparently he had decided that the kids' potty seat would make a nice necklace and was wearing it like a "pageant sash." His arm was stuck and he couldn't get it off, thus causing the distress. Like the loving mother that I am, I immediately ran for my camera trying to hold back the laughter! Once our photo session had come to a close, I knelt down to free him from the potty seat. It took me about five minutes to finagle him out, but soon he was free and after some hugs and kisses, I disinfected us both (and gave the potty seat a good cleaning. . .ew) and all was well once more!

Joshua, the potty king

4. Every night before bed we have a family song and prayer and then, before we tuck each of the kids' into their beds, we have individual prayers with them. I love listening to toddlers pray. There is such a purity and innocence in everything they say and occasionally I even find myself needing to stifle a chuckle at something funny that they have said. It is one of my favorite times of the day and it is a wonderful illustration of why we are commanded to be "like unto little children."

5. My kids LOVE to sing. I catch them singing multiple times throughout the day. Sometimes it is songs that they have learned and other times they just make up songs about what they are doing (they come by it honestly as I tend to sing about everything). Today I found Jacob in the playroom, playing by himself with his cars, singing "I am a Child of God" at the top of his lungs. It always brings a smile to my face when I hear the kids sing, but my smile grows even more to realize that they know this truth. . .that they are children of a loving Father in Heaven.

Bliss. . .

For my birthday in November, my mother in-law gave me the gift of time. She volunteered to take the kids for a weekend while Richard and I had some time to ourselves. A week and a half ago, Richard and I were able to put that generous gift to use. Cynthia came into town on a Friday evening and we spent the weekend together, enjoying each other's company and celebrating birthdays. On Sunday afternoon, after church, Richard and I bid everyone farewell and we drove to Hocking Hills (Logan, Ohio) and enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing time with one another in a cozy cabin in the hills. We spent most of our time together resting, relaxing and reconnecting, but we also took the time to enjoy some of Heavenly Father's beautiful creations as we hiked snowy, "Old Man's Cave." It was truly breathtaking. What better gift is there than time? Thank you so much Cynthia, for such a precious gift!

Redemption

What can I say, except that there is little hope of redemption for my silence over these past few months! I have sat in front of my computer, with every intention of updating my blog, many, many times and within minutes become so overwhelmed by the task that I simply walk away! But today I am not running away, because, truthfully, there are too many blessed things to share and I will no longer selfishly keep them to myself! When God blesses you with such amazing gifts, you share them with the world, and so, I share with you the many gifts that I haven been given these past few months of silence. . . . .

We were blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family this year. We rented a "cabin" in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and spent Thanksgiving with grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins (totaling 31 people). We had such an amazing time together.

The Hamilton/Fightmaster/Terry/Monnett/Turner/Rieben/Colton Family

Evan with cousins Adrienne, Kaitlyn and Madeline (I have a feeling he will spend a lot of time surrounded by beautiful girls!)

Maren with cousins Kaitlyn and Emma

After Thanksgiving we got to work preparing for the Christmas season. We decided to make most of our Christmas gifts this year and wanted our children to focus on what they would "give" this year rather than what they would "receive."

Our first order of business after putting up our decorations, was to make our Christmas cookie countdown.


We made hand-dipped chocolate pretzels for our neighbors, friends, family, teachers, doctors and therapists (Aunt Claire also taught us how to make Oreo truffles and we gave those as gifts as well. . .the ones we managed not to eat, that is!)

One of my favorite hand-made Christmas gifts were these barn stars that we put together for our family (blogspot rotated my pictures when they uploaded which is why they appear to be upside down). These two stars went to my sister, Claire and her husband Tyler and to Richard's dad and step-mother. (As with most crafty things, this idea was not my own. Credit for this goes to Jules (a friend of a friend).

I also tried my hand at doll making. This is Maren's new doll Calla and her teddy bear. I had a lot of fun making this for her! (I used the Wee Wonderfuls "Kit, Chloe and Louise" pattern for this. Well worth the money I spent for it!)

Each of the kids also got their very own "baking set," complete with felt cookies, cookie dough and a rolling pin. Although time-consuming, these were one of my favorite Christmas creations and the kids LOVE to make cookies in their new kitchen.

Speaking of their new kitchen, here it is in all of it's glory! It was the first thing Lukas ran to on Christmas morning and he immediately started "washing" the dishes! He is going to make some lucky girl VERY happy!

We were blessed to spend Christmas with Richard's family! It has been several years since we have been together for a "Rieben Christmas" and it was wonderful to all be together this year. We had a blast experiencing the magic of the Christmas season through the kids' eyes and, after they were in bed at night, we enjoyed endless hours of Settlers of Catan and episodes of "Firefly."

Richard, Craig (Grandad), Rob (Captain Awesome), Evan, Anne, Elizabeth (Grandmom), Valerie, Joshua, Maren, Mariette, Lukas and Jacob

The kids had so much fun playing with Aunt Mariette

The "Computer Lab"

Shortly after Christmas a "cold spell" hit (at one point we were down to -25 with windchill) and we got some snow. We have had a great time making snow angels, snowballs, and sledding!

Stuck


(Yes, I do believe that is frozen snot coming out of his nose. Icky, no?)

Who let the monkey drive?

Talk about a workout!

Cold. Very, very cold!

Thankfully, we've had lots and lots of this to keep us warm (Aren't these mugs adorable? My mother-in-law brought them home from the Czech Republic a few years ago and the kids love them. They are perfect for hot chocolate on a cold day)

This month we have the privilege of celebrating the lives of five members of our family. On the 8th, Joshua (2) and Richard (29) celebrated their birthday's and on the 22nd, the triplets turned 4!

I think it goes without saying that Joshua enjoyed his birthday!

"Is this for me?"

A combined birthday party with family.

Maren, Lukas and Jacob's "Snowman Cakes" (Have you ever tried to ice a stack of cupcakes? Not as easy as you might think!)

Complete with "Snowman cupcakes"

Is there any doubt that we are blessed beyond measure?