Another Happy Birthday :)

Emery... she is how old what?! What?! yah... 6... CRAAAAZY

Check out her post here: Back when she was turning FOUR! http://homewiththebrewers.blogspot.com/2010/01/4-years-what-happy-birthday-emery.html

We had a ton of little girls over to my parents for a movie party... they wore pajamas... watched a movie... and ate a TON of junk food... :)

Love you my crazy fashionista full of attitude!

Happy Birthday!

Joe turned 28th!!! And to celebrate the day- he went to work... like a 28 year old.... and stayed up 25 hours total!!!! WOW... We laughed because this is probably the only time besides when deployed.... that he has done that and NOT been partying! He went to work and got off at 11 and went back in at 7 pm until 7 am!!! Plowing the roads... my hero ;)

Anyway Happy Birthday honey... you are downstairs sleeping as I type this! I'll try to keep the crazy Ollie monster away as long as possible :) hehe...

Joyful Noises

sitting at my computer in the dining room...

I can hear...
birds tweeting over the bird food outside while the snow is falling and they are all fighting for a peck
Y is for Yo-Yo, Y Y Y... Z is for Zebra, Z Z Z... Ollie is playing with a toy in the living room
The muffled sound of Charley's breathing/snoring... she is asleep in the playpen behind me.
The annoying meow of my cat Sebastien as he tries to talk to me...

I do not hear...
my own bird tweeting... during the middle of the night, our canary died. It may have been too chilly?? I'm not sure.. but it is kind of sad... I guess I will look into get another one or pair this spring... and try to find a place that is warmer for the winter! RIP Garfunkle... aka Funky Fresh

Their Bundle, Our Joy

http://theirbundleourjoy.blogspot.com/

Check it out- newest blog.... :) I'll be updating the journey through there!

Waiting.....

Waiting.....
"MO.... MO....... MOOOOORE"
- Ollie is frantically throwing her hands together yelling MO!!! and then rubbing her chest in a circle -
She is trying to say More and sign More please. This has been a long time coming... we waited and waited for her to talk. She wouldn't speak... Now she is speaking some, but doing it loudly!
We waited and waited and now we wonder... why?! haha..

She has may leaps and bounds of improvement since her speech and development testing. She has been going to speech therapy twice a week and can officially say OR sign: more, please, sorry, thank you, blue, purple, bubble, wow, whoa, Dada, mama... and lots of animal sounds.

Charley just turned 1 and the day before her birthday she started saying bye- bye.... which is a lot sooner than Ollie spoke. Everyone has their own timing.

In life we spend so much time waiting. It starts from the beginning, some people wait for the "right one". We wait for our wedding day.... when that perfect woman or man becomes yours forever!!!!

or we wait for the miracle of life to occur (others, like us have no problem with that!). Then you wait 9 long months for the bundle of joy to arrive. Or you wait for the ultrasound to find out if it's a girl or a boy.

Or like a little kid waiting for SANTA to visit!!!!

Or faithful pups waiting for their Master to come home!

I've waited those 9 months to become a mom... I waited as a newlywed for my husband to come home from Iraq seven long months... I waited as a mom of two for my husband to return again! I waited yet AGAIN a year for my husband to return... I'm pretty sure I have this waiting thing down... yet again our family is waiting on something...... drum roll please!

We've been praying and working and waiting on something for awhile now... and I'm going to announce it here for those who don't know.... we've been waiting on confirmation of plans to become surrogates. Yes, after being pregnant four times already... I'm willing to farm out my body so another couple can experience parenthood.... so they can experience that miracle of life we talked about earlier. It's something we've toyed around with for awhile... it came back into our life almost right after Charley was born... the process has been a longer one. I thought for sure it wasn't in the plans for us but things have worked out in God's perfect timing. We began the process back in the Fall by a phone interview. We had to locate all of the medical records needed (3 different hospitals... lol). With Joe's insurance and new job we were waiting on what insurance I would be covered by.... and now with Joe starting work on the 17th a phone call today from the agency was just what I needed to confirm where we are at. In the next few weeks I have to go in to Chicago for a few tests.. it's making it more real in our minds!

For those of you new to the surrogacy progress.. I would carry someone elses fertilized embryo in my body... we have specific people we are looking for, just like there are prospective parents out there searching for a specific surrogate. Each side has a say in who they want carrying for them or who they want to carry for. How many they want to carry, etc.... Right now we are just beginning the process.... that hurry up and wait process!!!

We are used to that, military life and all. All it is... is Hurry up and Wait!!!

My body is a temple... my body is not my own. If it is not my own than I want to worship God with my body... I want to volunteer it in any way I can! I want to let someone else experience the wonderful years I have had as a parent. If tomorrow isn't guaranteed, then I want to do everything I can do today to help someone else out!

Just asking for prayers in this waiting process.... whatever it looks like and God's perfect timing!

Crazy...

Today marks the first day of Girl Scout Cookie Sales... it is a crazy time of my life. Between order taking for my own kids... and then the orders of 20 OTHER little Daisies... keeping money straight, inputting them in the computer to make whole boxes, our gift of caring project for the Children's Hospital. We also have a powderpuff pinewood derby this month for Girl Scouts, and will be doing cookie booths at the end of February and March. Along with that, for swimming, we have another day of stroke clinics for swimming, and a few more swim meets to train for. BayLeigh's basketball season started a few weeks ago, so she has practices and gets to play a few games for that. Joe begins his NEW job (Praise the LORD!) this week/next week! Both older girls begin dance again this month after a month off.

YUP welcome to the silly silo... Some days I feel like I am swirling and whirling around and the floor drops out from under me.... good thing I am sucked to the walls!