Beach Photos!

We've actually had TWO beach outings! Isn't THAT something? For those of you who know anything about me and beaches in California, you will know that going to the beach twice before April is a very big deal. Miraculous, actually. And God smiled upon me on both of those outings. Because I am His Favorite One, the sun was shining warmly, the wind was at bay, & the children were lovely. To add to all of this amazingness, Nathan was with us at only ONE of those beach outings. Can you see how totally miraculous this is?!?!??? (For those of you who don't know, I am NOT a Northern Cali beach girl, no, no I am not)… anyway, for those pics!

Making Memories

Spring. It’s here now. We’ve been busy making memories leading up to spring 2010. We said goodbye to Auntie Hannah shortly after we moved. It was sad to say farewell, but we will see her again in a few months. Yay!

Unpacking has been a treat and a chore. Doing the move during the first trimester of pregnancy #3 has proved interesting & far less productive than I had imagined. I recently had a flash back to 1st trimester of pregnancy #1 (just 2 months after we were married) of me on the couch unable to move. Nathan stood over me in disbelief and asked, “Don’t you want to get up and do something productive?!?” My response: “No!” I then immediately fell to sleep. I am one of those pregnant women.

Getting acclimated to the new house and the new neighborhood has been such fun. The girls are really enjoying it here. They LOVE our new “little town” which is the main street a few blocks from our new home. It’s lined with shops and restaurants most of which are unique to this area. We’ve done lots of walking on non rainy days hunting out our new favorite spots. During the rainy days we’ve spent quite a bit of time spreading out in our new space.

Mateja celebrated her sixth birthday with dinner and cupcakes with Grandma Betty and we later threw her a costume party! She created the guest-list this year. I sent the invites to her guests (and their parents). It was so wonderful having space to being able to host people in our home again. The kids all wore costumes to celebrate and ate mini-cupcakes. The games sort of never fully developed into anything and somehow most of the boys’ goodie bags were still here at the end of the day. I’m not sure what happened there… Arielle keeps asking for her birthday party now. Maybe I will manage the next party a little better.

About a week after the party, my cousin Myriah came for a visit with her two boys. Her oldest is three years old. He and Arielle had a BLAST together. It was so wonderful having them here for a visit. Now we owe them a visit! Unfortunately for Mateja, she ended up not feeling very well while they were here. We took her to Urgent Care a couple of days after Myriah and the boys left. That was a first for our family. It was so sad and frightening. She had her first ear infection. A dose of antibiotics did the job and left me feeling extremely grateful to live in a country where we could take our daughter to urgent care, have a prescription filled hours later and be administering medicine to help her. She was a different person the following morning. We are just ending her antibiotics, praise God, and she is back to herself. Now spring is here and she can enjoy making more memories with the rest of us! (I will have to post our most recent memories from the beach soon.)

Big News

So if you follow the regular happenings in our lives, you know we recently moved again. We’ve been looking forward to this move for quite some time. The girls especially have been excited about the move back to a house for the simple fact that they are free to run and jump and stomp without hearing the hiss of Mom & Dad’s “Ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! So now we are in a house again and they are free to be loud. It’s wonderful. And once the torrents of rain cease and the sun begins to beat upon the concrete, we will slather ourselves with toxin free sun block and spend hours out back in our pool! I am foreseeing some really great naps this summer. We spent many hours and days at the apartment community pool last year. It was never enough for the girls. We enrolled both girls in swim lessons during the spring and summer. It was an incredible pay off to see them progress during that time. Now they are fantastic swimmers and will have lots of opportunities to continue their skills with (and without) more instruction.
The move really was our big news until we found out my sister Hannah was on her way to California for a surprise visit! That was fun and exciting! She had fun surprising Mateja (who didn’t recognize her until she said something) and her good friend Jenn. It was a short visit since she had to get back to China to start her new job as a Professor at an International Business University. Very exciting! She knew before heading to California that we were in the midst of a move. As per usual she rolled up her sleeves and helped me pack and wrap and purge and juggle the kids.
AND (more big news) she even brought birthday gifts for our SIX year old! Can you believe our green eyed girl is six years old? Technically because of the leap year thing her birthday isn’t on the calendar, but we celebrated on Sunday the 28th of February and will have a little party with her close friends sometime in March. We’ve had lots of planning to do for all of the festivities around here. And we’ve had to purchase new furniture to fill space in this house since we got rid of all of our furniture before we moved into the tiny apartment. It’s been fun and exhausting. I don’t know how I would have managed if Hannah hadn’t been here in all of her awesome sister-ness because that’s when the biggest news of all surfaced: Nathan and I found out that we are pregnant again!
So we are now preparing for another person to join our family at the end of September. Nathan and I are very happy. Our happiness pales in comparison to the excitement our girls are sharing. They are convinced that they will be having a baby brother. My brother Jared and his wife are expecting a baby boy this summer. It would be pretty cool if we had a boy too. Arielle is particularly excited because this will be the first time she experiences being a “BIG sister” like Mateja. There is lots of baby buzz in our home. I am doing well other than the steady bouts of nausea that hassle me daily and the exhaustion which levels me every other day. That should all end in a few weeks though and being in the new house is certainly adding sunshine (literally) to my perspective. Ari is back in preschool two full days each week while Mateja and I work through home school.
Our lives are about to change in a major way all over again. I think I have one box of baby things left from the girls (some blankets and booties and onesies) but I have NO baby furniture or other paraphernalia (actually I did keep the breast pump – sorry – TMI?). So we really will be starting all over again. It’s exciting and a little daunting. I feel confident though. Nathan and I are a great team and we’ve got mad love for each other which keeps growing! Yay! He’s really the hero of this household. The girls couldn’t have a better Daddy nor could I have a better husband. We’re a blessed family in every aspect and it just keeps getting BETTER! Life is beautiful.

Oh Happy Day!

We did it. We moved. ~ great big lovely sigh of relief ~


I'm sitting in the "breakfast nook" enjoying some coffee and cinnamon loaf (thank you Trader Joe's) and going through some emails. I haven't been on my computer in days. Kinda feels nice. I need to get some reading done. I need to get the boxes unpacked. I need to buy an island with a butcher block. Never a shortage of things to be done! Ha. Always plenty to do. The girls are really enjoying the space and all of the nooks and crannies. It's wonderful. They have their own play room where all of the toys are housed. Their bedroom is where the beds and books are. The girls have adopted one of the large hall closets as their “club house.” They are having a BLAST! (I’ll have to post some photos later)

I woke up yesterday morning in a new, unfamiliar place. It was quiet. It was bliss. Another fresh start is upon us. It was an odd year being in a tiny apartment but it was one of the best years of our lives so far. It was an incredible year for our marriage. It was a great year for me growing as a woman, a wife, a mother, a teacher, and so on. Now we're in a new year with a new home. Oh Happy Day!

Feb. 01, 2010 - part of a day in our life

Today was Monday. The first action item of the day for the Mitchell girls (directly after completing breakfast, of course) was to attempt to build a working CD player utilizing hand sanitizer, vacuum parts and “lost things”. I’d say it was somewhat successful. Imagination is such a gorgeous thing! Second item of the day was “mountain” (box) climbing. Not my preference. Third item of the day: talk about love and get a head start on creating valentines for Ari’s preschool Valentine party. Here is a teensy snippet of that conversation:


What is LOVE?
ARI: Love is hugs and smiles.
MATEJA: Kisses, hugs, being nice to each other and playing nice.

Fourth item of the day: SNACK TIME while I listened to a random play list including Lionel Richie, Paolo Conte, Misty Edwards, Isaac Hayes, Laura Hackett, Cory Asbury, Michael Hedges and a few others. It was then onto "play time" which involved plastic Easter eggs, a paper umbrella from Thailand, “Raja” and “Nala” their two stuffed tigers and a Hello Kitty lunch bag (full of great items) all used in efforts to attack dinosaurs.

Time to make lunch: Fettuccine with chunky tomato sauce, cream, & spinach. Red bells and refreshing water on the side. Time for more painting and crafting after that. Girls went down for naps. Michael Buble accompanied my greenhouse researching online. I got back to completing valentines for the kids and dreamt of making some hot creamy drink. Then I shook myself. "SURELY I will get something done today!!! I have packing to do after all and those toilets MUST be cleaned. Stop tweeting. Stop researching green houses. Stop creating already!" The girls are up from their naps now.

-- This is when I exhaled a great big sigh and then rose from my place at the table where my hands were gripping my favorite pair of scissors --

I cleaned the toilets. I packed boxes. I administered time-outs. I gave hugs. I washed mirrors. I helped when help was asked. I brushed hair. I packed a sewing machine. I popped a bag of microwave pop corn and then served it to my treasures. I mothered. I laughed. I wished I had done more. It always looks so much better in black and white...

SURELY I'll get more done tomorrow. Surely.

Ones We Love

Tonight I sift through photos of our little Mitchell family during some of our holiday excursions and seclusions. We are full of life and love and expressions! I take pleasure in each photo and how it takes me to the instant where the memory was created. Don't you love it when your photos take you to that marvelous moment? Each image reveals a glimpse of who we are as individuals and as a family. My heart is happy within me. This is our love. This is our family. I hope you enjoy these Mitchell snippets we share with you. Lovely New Year be yours, friends!

It's a New Day!

A memorable moment in the Mitchell household:

It was the morning of New Year's Day. It was a very special morning because Nathan was home with us and it wasn't a weekend. As is our custom on a special day that Daddy is home we let the girls have a choice between two activities. First day of the new year, Nathan asked the girls if they wanted to go to the gym or go eat donuts. Both of my girls separately chose the gym over donuts. Huh? So guess where we were on the first day of the year! All four of us.

Happy Fit New Year! :)

'Twas a Happy Christmas Morning!

Day breaks. Feet skip and trip down the corridor. Excitement bubbles from five year old lips. "It's Christmas morning!" Stockings dumped out. Bubbles blown and floating. Soap is spilling. Nails polished. Saliva dissolving chocolate melting in mouth not on hands. Purses hung on shoulders shrugged. Squeals and laughter and gasps of air. "We're hungry!" Coffee brewed. Pancakes flipped into maple syrup dipped. Now paper tears and ornaments fall. Boxes thrown and ribbons mauled. Happy, happy, happy Christmas morn. Music. Jumping. Showing and shoving. Marking. Dumping. Sharing and hugging. Happy, happy, happy Christmas morn. Crying now. "She's pushing me!" To your room, NOW. Assembling large toys. Next year we'll do this ahead of time. Live and learn. "Can I come out now?" Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere. Time for lunch. Christmas Eve feast leftovers! Ah... what a happy Christmas morning.

Home in the Motherland

Yes. We are all home again. Sure it's been ages since a post... what can I say? November flew bye, which means it was crammed full of great stuff that we Mitchells busied ourselves with. Highlights: a birthday celebration; a best friend's engagement; lots of airplanes and trains and taxis and buses and boats, even an elephant; a trip to China; a trip to Texas; a trip to Malaysia; a trip to Thailand; lots of family face time; lots of turkey; lots of curry; girls' first bonafide sleep over (gasp!); a Christmas tree in our living room...

Today Mateja informed me that the Motherland is where Mothers can go. They only have to pay one dollar to get into the Motherland. And there are no other people in the Motherland other than mothers, of course. And the only things that are really in the Motherland are massages (do they have Thai massages?) and quiet time and peace. Oh and once you pay that one dollar to gain entrance, everything else is free.

It was a Happy Columbus Day!

We had such a happy Columbus Day!

Nathan ended up having the day OFF of work and so... we had a WHOLE list of activities planned. And I mean a WHOLE list. Our list had lots of house projects (including cleaning the carpets) and family projects (sorting through the girls' closets to yank the summer clothes) as well as outside of the home projects (shopping for winter clothes for the girls!) and our favorite type of activity: the FUN one! Every year we go to a pumpkin patch. This year was a fun pumpkin patch outing as the girls were able to ride a carousel and a train and go through two different corn mazes! Yahoo! And then, of course, as tradition has it the girls get one small pumpkin each and Mommy & Daddy get to share a pumpkin - it's the sacred pumpkin that will be the starter for all the pies and muffins Mommy will begin making this season. (not sure why I started writing in third person...)

Surprisingly we accomplished almost everything on our Columbus Day list (the carpets must wait for another week). Not sure when I'll get started on the pumpkin pies, but the change in weather has got me in the mood for some baking! I made some delicious granola with raisins and cherries and apricots today. (thank you Sisi!) I feel like baking bread or cookies or... pies very soon!

Enjoy these Mitchell family pics from our Columbus Day! (pumpkin pie photos will show up soon!)

What's Jail Mateja?

Today Mateja educated Ari on what happens to someone when they break the law.

Mateja to Ari: When people don't obey the law, the get put in jail. You don't want to go to jail do you?

Ari: No, Mateja...

Mateja: OK. Then you need to put your seat belt on because that is disobeying the law.

Ari: What's jail, Mateja?

Mateja: Jail is a stinky place. And the pillows are hard like rocks. And they give you blankets that are hard like rocks too. You don't EVER want to go to jail.

Me: Have you ever been to a jail?

Mateja: No and I don't ever want to go.

Me: How do you know they are stinky if you have never been to one before?

Mateja: I don't know. I just know they are.

Rich Perspective

Nathan and I talk somewhat frequently about the move we made earlier this year from our spacious four bedroom house to this tiny apartment in Santa Clara. There were several reasons why we chose to move here. Sometimes we remember our former "glory" in that big house and miss those days of space and "luxury" in San Jose. We know we made the right decision. We know we are in a temporary place. We know that eventually we will live in that big, beautiful home God has for us, somewhere and it will be BLISS! And while we know we made the correct/right decision in moving here, sometimes it feels like we fell backwards off of a cliff and have little to show for all the work we've put into our life... Recently Mateja sat on the couch of our downsized, tiny apartment living room and said, "I'm so glad we're rich!"


There's some perspective for you.

Summer Times

June has come and gone. July too, here and gone! And now August is well beyond half over... we've been busy little lovers over here. Most people we know have been in that same summer craze. Here is an update on the beginning of our wonderful summer:
I took the girls up to my Dad's the last week of May. The girls met Dad's new puppy: Sonny. Arielle was absolutely filthy the entire week. She and the dog bonded in a special way. Dad was working on the property that week so he was around most of the time here and there and the girls and I were able to enjoy him from a bit of a distance. Mateja took every opportunity she could to hop on the ATV with him. The girls were up and down the mountain with Papa. I was able to spend hours upon hours in the garden. We took the girls to the river and just simply enjoyed our time in the mountains. It was glorious.

After that week of peace and quiet we headed back to the Bay. Ended up getting here on June 1st - the date of Nathan and my sixth anniversary. We made a date for that following Saturday at a fabulous Greek restaurant nearby: Dio Deka. It took us back to our honeymoon in Greece (albeit quite a bit fancier than any fare we consumed while on the Greek Isles). Incredible food, ambiance, service. Check it out if you're in or around the South Bay.

Friends & family members graduated in June (including Mateja from pre-school! ha ha ha!), meetings, meetings and more meetings, the girls started their first-ever set of swimming lessons, we helped some friends move, my grandmother was moved from her home into a care-givers home, I took a whole day and drove out to visit her.

Father's Day came and with it a batch of famous Mitchell Pancakes specially whipped up by the girls just for their daddy. Mateja's pre-K "graduation" (complete with cap and gown! ha ha!!), lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in 8 years, my grade school/high-school reunion, as well as a road trip that Nathan took with the girls to So. Cal for a weekend to visit family were all packed into the month of June.

We acquired a gas grill, I started grilling for the first time ever and then - the topper for June - my younger brother turned 30 (I didn't get to celebrate with him, but it impacted me big time!)

and then we jumped into July and drove to Meadow Vista to visit my only living Grandfather and my Grandmother (his wife) who is my girls' Noni (she's Italian & wants to be called Noni by the Great-Grand kids). That was a great trip. I'll have to post photos and details of that some time soon (we learned on that trip that Arielle is allergic to cats! Yet another thing she shares with her Dad).

Whew!

the People of California

We were driving in the car up to San Francisco. Nathan had some work to do in the city so we girls decided to tag along. The girls requested their favorite CD, one of Michael Jackson's, of course and Nathan asked me to read him a newspaper article.

Ari suddenly said: "I pray for the people of California."

(I'm not sure I've ever heard her say the word "California" before, it was fabulous.)

That sortta caught our attention. So we too prayed for the people of California! We bless you Californians!!! Prosper & be in good health. Make wise decisions and live life to the fullest! Do it!!!

Player vs. Rock Star

We three girls were in the checkout line at Target. Ari had been wailing/screaming/throwing-a-fit... you know, doing that thing that makes everyone else in the store say, "somebody needs to shut that kid up." OK. Maybe everyone else in the store doesn't say that, but... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!! And although I do hate to admit it, I was a bit stressed. Mateja was lingering at the magazine racks. I was ready to get out of there. So once I paid for everything and shoved it into my cart I jammed for the automatic doors and hollered behind me, "Mateja, let's go!"
I was already around the corner before I looked back to see if she was following me out the door. She was. And in her hands were stacks of different magazines. They all had Michael Jackson on the cover. "Mateja!" (that was stressed-out-Mommy) "Mom, I want to read all of these." "Babe, I am not buying those." "Mom, these are all about Michael Jackson. And I want to read them! He's the best! Anyway, you don't have to buy these. We can take them." "No, Tej. You have to buy them. This isn't the library. It's... just go put them back, please! And LET'S GO." Reluctantly she returned all of the magazines to their racks. I was able to decompress in the meantime. She returned talking about how awesome Michael Jackson is and how much she loves him. I couldn't remove the smirk from my face. It was just too funny.

I pressed about MJ. "Sooo, why did you want those magazines?" "Mom he is the BEST man in the whole world!" "What?!?" I laughed. "Well, what about your Dad?!?" "Well, Mom. I mean that Michael Jackson is the best rock star in the whole world. Daddy is the best Dad and he is the best player too." "Who is the best?" "Daddy is the best Daddy and player." "He's a player?" "Yeah!" "What do you mean, player?" "You know, he is the best player at tickling and playing games and chasing me and Ari. But Michael Jackson is the best rock star ever!"

There's a good chance she'll change her mind. Ya think?

Ari speaks Mandarin with Auntie

MONDAY:

My sister, the girls’ Auntie, currently lives in China. Before she moved to China for work, she lived with us for nine months so she & the girls were pretty close. Because of the wonders of modern technology, we all still get to “see” each other & chat via Skype. This morning we girls spent some time talking with Auntie before she went to bed. It was pretty late her time. She has been working on her Chinese (Mandarin) quite a bit lately and decided to go through a little lesson with the girls by having them repeat some of the words and phrases. I will TRY to duplicate them here, but I neither speak nor write the native languages spoken in China. So forgive me if I’m a bit off, but here goes:

Auntie: “OK Ari. Repeat after me. I’m going to say something and then you say the same thing. OK?”
Ari: “OK Auntie.”
Auntie: “OK. Here we go. ‘zai jian’ now you say, ‘zai jian’”
Ari: “sigh jee”
Auntie: “Good job. Now say: ‘shui, shui’”
Ari: “shoosh”
Auntie: “Good. ‘wo ai nee’”
Ari: “orwannee”
Auntie: That’s “I love you” in Chinese.
Ari: “I love you in Chinese.”
Auntie: (burst out laughing)

Awe. Love making Auntie laugh.

Cute Moment

Picked the girls up from the childcare provided on Wednesday mornings at the church during which time I'm in the Women's Meeting. The care giver told me this story:

During craft time during which the children were making dolls out of yarn, Mateja spoke up, "Teacher, did you know that mom sings at home with her guitar too? And she has the most beautiful voice in the whole world." (I wonder where she heard that. Just like her Daddy!)

Her teacher thought that was the cutest thing. Very noteworthy!

the Government

At breakfast the other morning, Mateja and I were having some great conversations about all sorts of things. It's part of our usual routine. She's gets some great notions in her head and wants to talk it out and ask a bunch of questions, not all of which are related.

This particular morning we were talking about orphans. Well, she was asking lots of questions about children and their parents and what happens to children when their parents die? (what in the world?) So then I tried to answer further questions regarding orphans and orphanages and foster care. This was all in response to the questions that were raised as we dug deeper into the subject and then I tried to explain the government's role in all of it.

She said, "Who's the government? Is that the bad guy?"