Steve and Jenny Valentine

Olivia turned three months old a couple weeks back. As I sat and nursed her the other night I thought about how she is a quarter of a year old already.  Wow...we have survived a quarter of a year with three kiddos.  OK, it's been a joyful (and hard) three months! For our family, Steve and I have agreed that the transition to three children was a lot more challenging then the transition to two children.  And here is what I would say to anyone reading this who may have not heard me say it already in person...every family's experience IS different!  I had people tell me going to three was easier, but most said it was harder.  However, I chose to believe the few that said it was easier and was quite shocked after Olivia was born and found myself in such a struggle as to figure out how to manage this beautiful (yet full) household of little blessings! Our littlest girly, Via (as Isaac so affectionately calls her!), is learning new things... She sucks fiercely on ...

Steve left for a work trip last week and returned Monday afternoon. This is the first trip he's gone on since Olivia's birth were I've had to manage things here by myself. (His first two post Olivia business trips, I had family in town to help with the kiddos). I was a little hesitant about him leaving, but I knew we would be fine. I'm pretty used to him traveling by this point with his job and although it's never been "easy" it has become "easier" over time. The number one question or statement I hear when Steve travels is, "How do you do it?" Or "I don't know how you do it!" And I get it, I understand why people say this...it seems hard, lonely and frustrating. Yes. Yes. And Yes! But I learned early on in his travels that it doesn't help to focus on the difficulty, to have a negative outlook or bad attitude because it greatly affects how I parent and handle things while he is away.  So I choose to avoid...

What's that smell? Oh yea, it's the spit up on my shirt...the shirt that I was planning on changing but got sidetracked in doing so because my son came running around the corner at lightening speed yelling out "POO AGAIN!" And while standing, cooking dinner tonight, baby asleep on me in the carrier, I begin to wonder what's that awful smell!  Does the meal I'm preparing smell that bad?!  Oh wait, it's my nasty shirt, which is impossible now to change and kinda pointless because my day is closer to the end (meaning bedtime for the kiddos) than it was when said spit up actually occurred. And honestly I can't even remember if I brushed my teeth this morning because every time it crossed my mind, my breath tasted of coffee!  Sooo, did I brush my teeth and drink more coffee or did I forget to brush them and this was my "first cup of coffee" breath smell going on? But my breath smells like coffee, it could be worse right?! ------------------...

As I begin to emerge from the fog that has been our lives over the first month, I can't help but be in a continual state of thankfulness.  Thankful for the gift of life, little Olivia's specifically.  Thankful for the gift of children the Lord has entrusted us with.  Thankful for the MANY people who have served us by bringing meals (literally we only had to cook a couple of times during the first month!). Thankful for my mom who served and cared for us all. Thankful that in the midst of tiredness, we are finding much joy.  Thankful for so many thoughtful gifts given. Thankful for encouraging reminders of God's love and grace toward us. Just THANKFUL! Olivia is the typical newborn. She sleeps, eats, well you know!  She likes to be near mama, doesn't mind the VERY loud sounds her brother and sister create (in fact sleeps right through it amazingly!), beginning to hold her head up and has very strong arms and legs (which makes diaper changes a bit challeng...

So in our last blog post about Poland, we mentioned that we were planning on making it home in 2015...so here's a little back story. Steve, who spends his days mobilizing missionaries with Converge Worldwide, was handed a folder with some information about Poland and things going on there. As is normal in his job, he sees a lot of field locations all over the world in great need of the Gospel. It's how he knows who to recruit for specific places. So when he began reading the information in this folder, the Lord began to stir his heart. Steve found himself being drawn to the people in Poland. This was around the time just after Isaac was born and so when he came home and mentioned this opportunity to me, I said, "it sounds neat but we just had a baby, let's pray about it over the next few months." Essentially, even though our hearts have been drawn toward serving overseas one day as missionaries, I wasn't even sleeping through the night and just trying to s...

So she turned two months old yesterday, which means I finally have had time to upload some "official" newborn pictures of our sweetie! My ever so talented sister in law took some of the most adorable pictures of our littlest princess when she was just a couple weeks old...enjoy! the three cuties. sister love Lauren caught her first smile on camera! one of our favorite pics when I first saw this picture I thought, "Man we look tired!" Ha, life with a newborn. The next few just show you what it's like to do newborn pics and attempt to have the other toddler siblings involved!   But we did end up getting a GREAT one of the three kiddos!

Karis and Isaac got to meet their baby sissy the evening she was born.  Since Olivia was born just after 4pm, my friend Cassi (who took care of them that day) brought them up to the hospital.  Funny story, when Cassi got the message that Olivia had arrived, she told Karis and Isaac and they told us that Karis ran around the room yelling something like, "MY BABY SISTER IS HERE!"  So cute! She was so excited to get up to the hospital. I don't have any real great pictures of that first sibling meeting and the one I do have of Karis, me and Olivia is a little blurry, but it works.  Isaac was very unsure of what was going on and stayed in daddy's arms, all while holding on to his baby doll.  He didn't want to get too close and I think was nervous as to why mommy was in a hospital gown and bed.  They didn't stay long since it was close to their bed time.  They went home for a good rest and came back the next morning to spend some time bonding with their new ...