39 weeks...I know where have we been??

I have had dozens of posts in my head and none of them have made it to the blog.  Well, in part I have to say that since I have had a relatively smooth pregnancy I have not had as much "down" time as I usually do which often facilitates more time to write.  I know that is just an excuse I really should be more disciplined to write, forgive me!  I am going to try to do a better job...and yes we will post baby girl pictures and updates here.   I am going to try to just list in bullet points an update of the last 6 months.  So here goes!

• We are having a baby girl--no name yet but we are close
• We are in the midst of launching our family business DesignCraft Custom Woodworking and Institute
• We celebrated 2 birthdays in May Kathlena's 6th and J.Michael's 13th and 2 anniversary's David and I's 17th wedding and Andrew and Kathlena's 3yrs home!!
• Andrew is no longer patching!  He also only has to wear glasses for reading now.  His vision is amazing.
• Kathlena is patching 4hrs a day and making huge progress her vision is now 20/50 up from 20/200 last year...incredible!!
• Emily finished writing her book for Kathlena "When I was Little in Russia" a story about our meeting and adopting Kathlena.  She has also been hard a work taking an accounting course to help with the family business along with being my right hand, busy cook, and helping teach Andrew and working with Calvin.
• Calvin is growing up so fast.  He is a man of few words but manages to communicate quite well.  He is a great helper, observes everything and tries to do what the big kids do.  He and his brothers are quite tight and he has enjoyed moving into the boys room.  
• J.Michael is enjoying having time with Dad in the shop.  He was given a carving set for his birthday that he is learning how to use.

   I am working on a slide show of pictures and short video clips from the last 6 months.  Hope to post those this week. 

Daddy's Birthday and Calvin 10 months

Today we celebrated David's birthday with a few surprises.  We have been wanting to get him a new grill as his old one was in bad shape from much use.  He has been trying to repair it, but it was just time to upgrade.  The kids and I took a field trip and came home successful with the grill he had been eyeing for a while.  J.Michael put it together for him (quite quickly with only Andrew's help).
We then took Daddy to his favorite restaurant for dinner--Babins.

Instead of a traditional birthday cake we made Daddy's favorite--cheesecake.  Everyone pitched in to make the cake.  Andrew helped get the eggs as well as washed the strawberries, Emily helped make the crust, Kathlena ran the mixer and J.Michael dipped the strawberries in chocolate and make the chocolate topping.  Daddy said it was better than cheesecake factory!  We all had fun making it together which made a special memory for us all.

We are so thankful for Daddy and how he leads his family well.  Pointing us to Christ in his words and deeds.  How blessed I am to have a husband who disciples me and his children with conviction and grace.  The Lord has been working mightily in our home this past year.  David submitting to the call of the Lord to ministry as a church planter/Pastor and stepping out in faith last March to begin a church with a fellow elder and church planter Greg Parker.  We are blessed to have a growing fellowship of families who love the Lord and have caught the vision for planting new churches to the Glory of God.

Today we also celebrate 10months of our precious gift--little Calvin who is growing so quickly.  He is about to walk any day now.  He has begun to let go and stand briefly on his own.  He says "Momma" to me in the morning when I get him out of bed.  He is also beginning to "feed" himself.  His favorite foods are ham, bananas, blueberries, yogurt, chicken, fish and roast...well meat of any kind really!  He has just started waving "bye-bye" too.  So cute!  He crawls at the speed of light and really likes to see what happens when he drops things...over and over again.  He seems to never tire of this game while Mommy does. ;)  What fun and laughter we have over watching him grow and change.  As infant hood is succumbing quickly to toddler hood we are trying to basque in these last moments as often as we can.

J.Michael's 12th Birthday

J.Michael has been looking forward to turning 12 for some time now.  Twelve means he can play paint ball and that is what his Dad chose to do for his birthday--Father/Son Paintball with friends.  Twelve also means he will be able to finally attend Men's meetings at church.  This is something he has been looking forward to participating in for almost two years now.  Twelve is such a time of change...bittersweet for Mom as she sees her little boy no more, but a young man emerges in what seems to happen almost overnight.  J.Michael has grown to eye level with me over the past year; he is a gentleman and huge help with his younger siblings.  I think Calvin was 5 months old before I ever carried him in his car seat carrier, because J.Michael always got to him first. He loves to take things apart and fix them...like lawn mowers.  He also loves to hunt and fish.

Before:

After:

Dinner:

 J.Michael's favorites: Mom's homemade Fried Crawfish, Salad w/ranch, and tea

Lots of candles this year!  His cake, a new favorite Fudge Brownie from TCBY Yum! And yes, he did blow all the candles out.

Kathlena's 5th Birthday

Our sweet, active, keeps us in stitches laughing Kathlena has turned 5yrs old today. It seems impossible that 5 is already here. Just yesterday she was this little toddler/infant who was learning to speak only a few words of English and now she is talking and asking questions about everything around her. Her witty sense of humor and keen observations of life around her are evidence of phenomenal growth in such a short time.

She loves to run, jump, and play with her big brothers. She loves to sing hymns with her big sister Emily-her favorite song being How Firm a Foundation. She also loves to listen to Emily on the piano. She has such a love for music. Her swing in the backyard is a favorite place to pass the afternoon away. She continues to enjoy books and has begun to "read" the pictures and read books to her dolls and Calvin that she has heard so many times that she has memorized them. A few favorites are The Very Hungry "Caterkillar", The Grouchy Ladybug (well all Eric Carle books) My Big Green Pocketbook, Lentil, Harry the "Dury" Dog, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie and The Napping House to name a few.

Kathlena is very proud of being able to hop on one foot and can hop on either foot. She has also learned how to march and enjoys marching around the house. Her favorite job is still helping Mommy though. She is great at helping me in the kitchen always ready to sample Mom's new creations as well as old favorites...just to make sure it is still good! She makes sure everyone has a neatly folded napkin at their place and forks or spoons according to the menu. She is a great "food runner" too as we get a plate ready she runs it to the table to whom it belongs. She is also a big help with her little brother Calvin and is enjoying her new role as "big" sister. A role she has transitioned into pretty smoothly. Sharing Mommy and Daddy in a big sister role has been a good growing experience for her. She continues to grow in confidence in her place in her family.

Kathlena began her birthday with breakfast at Eden's Cafe with just Daddy. Below are pictures from their breakfast. Kathlena had scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, fruit, and water. Kathlena said Daddy had Coffee, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, and fruit also. Kathlena said her favorite part of the breakfast was that Daddy gave her the rest of his scrambled eggs. It is no secret that Kathlena's favorite food is "scrambles" eggs. I believe she could eat her weight in them if we let her! :)
It was also special because their server is a friend of ours from our church youth teaching days. Thank you Amber for making Kathlena's breakfast with Daddy special!


Later we all went to a special concert that our friend Inna told us about. A friend of hers was doing a piano concert benefit for autistic children in Russia. Irina Svrovna is the friend who put on the concert. She played beautifully and we enjoyed listening to her. Here is a picture of Emily with her. Kathlena enjoyed getting dressed up and an evening out of listening to a piano concert.

After the concert we headed home for Kathlena's special request birthday dinner. She wanted beef steak, stir fried carrots and vegetables, and mashed "uhtatoes". Her favorites which Mommy is glad to fix for my sweetie just turned 5 year old daughter.



Kathlena with the Very lonely Firefly by Eric Carle that Emily gave to her. She knows her sister well!

Cash!!! Kathlena opens her gift that came in the mail from PawPaw and
Grandmommie. The look on her face says it all.

Another favorite book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake...thank you big bubbie!

Andrew picked this out for Kathlena. It is a great game that we can play as a family. It helps kids to use synonyms for the word or act it out while others try to guess.

A wooden baking cookies set from Daddy and Mommy. Kathlena loves to pretend cook and really help cook in the kitchen. I look forward to eating some yummy pretend cookies soon.

The part K has been waiting for...drum role please! Blowing out the candles!

Great Job! You got them all!

Chocolate cake with ice cream in the cake. It hardly gets better than this! We love you sweet Kathlena. You are growing up too fast, but with each passing year we love you more and praise the Lord for you.

Mommy's Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday with my sweet family. We went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 3D . A little different than the book, but still a good family movie. The kids had been re-reading this book all week. Andrew and Kathlena couldn't get enough of this book. They loved it. While I was really hoping that Andrew would be able to see the 3D this time it appears that he still cannot. That was okay with him he loved the movie anyway.

After the movie we went to The Goose's Acre restaurant in the Woodlands. We had not been here before, but heard that it was good. We had the wood fired pizzas that were yummy. We happened to be there on a night when they had a group of Irish dancers performing. It was really amazing how fast they could move their feet. We captured a few pictures above. Beautiful costumes also.

The kids surprised me with some sweet gifts they made and purchased. They are all so thoughtful and enjoyed being in on the surprise for me. It will be a sweet memory of the 6 of us. I cherish these days as they are about to change so quickly. We are all excited for that, but I am not wishing one of these days away any sooner. Each day is precious.

Andrew-Happy 7th Birthday

It seems impossible that Andrew is already having his 7th birthday (second birthday with us). Time just flies by too quickly. Andrew has grown and changed so much since his last birthday. He has lost more teeth than I can count and now those little front teeth have been replaced by big kid teeth that make him look so grown up. His adorable smile has stayed the same though and I am so thankful for that. He also now has his eye surgery behind him so gazing into those beautiful blue ocean eyes that are straight is an amazing blessing we are so thankful for this year.

Andrew requested green beans, cooked carrots and steak for his birthday dinner. He is my vegetable lover. He also wanted a Thomas cake this year that we ordered from Sam's in a large size so we could take it to church tomorrow (on his actual birthday) so he could share it with his church family. We decided to have his dinner and family party the night before and let him open his presents and blow out his candles. It was a sweet family night together.

Andrew loved getting to open presents from Mom and Dad; grandparents and siblings. Kathlena made us laugh as she thought that your birthday "comes in the mail". Meaning that's how you get a birthday through the mail since packages and cards arrived in the mail for Andrew's birthday. Too cute! She thought her birthday could be any day...she would just keep checking the mailbox to see.

Andrew enjoyed opening his gifts and was not quite as shy about tearing open the gifts this year. He has gotten the hang of opening presents over the past year. It really didn't even take much practice. :) He loved his star wars clone helmet and gun from Nana & DoDad & Uncle Todd, scooter from J.Michael, Candy & coloring books Emily picked out for him, His new lefty baseball glove and boxing set from Mom & Dad, some really cool robot magnets and robot game from PawPaw and Grandmommie and birthday card with $$ from his great-grandmother. Thank you all for making Andrew's 7th birthday so special for him.

We are so blessed by our extended families and I love the sweetness of the thoughtfulness of our kids to each other. Birthdays are a fun time around the Shiflet home that remind us of the whole year that has passed and we look forward to the year to come and all that the Lord is doing in our lives.