Baby Dedication

On Sunday we dedicated Reagan's life to the Lord at church. We have done this three times at Cornerstone, and once (Ainsley- pre-Cornerstone) at our house with our family and friends there. Each time we have written a letter to the child expressing our desires for their life. Barry made a video already (how great to have a pastor that is not only amazing- but puts up video links to events just a few hours after they happened!) - you can view the rest of the dedications (there were 5 kids total on Sunday- all sweet families with great kids) at www.cstonechurch.com

Reagan P dedication from Barry Arnold on Vimeo.

Here is our letter in case you can't see/hear the video:

Reagan Joy,

Sweet baby girl we love you so much. You are wonderful little baby who has proved the pattern that every baby in our family gets easier than the one before. However, I also have observed the pattern that every three-year-old gets harder than the one before, and it is because of this you are going to stay the baby of the family by being the last Pate baby. Three years ago when I wrote a letter like this to Camden I mentioned that if he was looking to fill a unique position in the family, the role of the calm-quiet, compliant child was available. Well, as it turns out that role is still open. However, I have come to the conclusion that you probably don’t possess the genetic material for such a personality, and I wouldn’t know what to do with that anyway, so instead I am looking forward to raising an ambitious, energetic, and strong girl.

My first desire in life is to glorify God in all I say and do, my second desire is to raise you and your siblings to have the same first desire as I do. Reagan, I pray you would have a fierce love for the Lord and while I will fail you I want you to know that He never will.

Reagan you completed our family so perfectly. You couldn’t be more loved by us, or by your older siblings. If experiencing each new stage of parenting has taught us anything, it is that we on our own are insufficient to the task of being good parents to you. The great thing about that is that when we rely on Jesus, we don’t have to live life and parent you and your brothers and sisters on our own. We pray that as you grow up, that you will pursue a deep relationship with our savior, that you will boldly proclaim his name and that you will realize your need to depend on Him always. We pray that we would continue to seeks God’s wisdom and quickly turn to Him in times of trial, so you can learn positive lessons from us.

Today Reagan, we dedicated you to the Lord. We ask that he would guide your life and you would serve him all of your days on this side of Heaven, and you would look forward to Eternal Life with him. We dedicate ourselves to doing our best, through the Holy Spirit, to raise you in a way that leads you to the Lord and into a life of service to Him.

Love, Mom and Dad

Haiti

This post is one that has been rattling around in my head for the last two weeks, stopping any of my typical cute little kid stories for appearing here. But this post doesn't "fit" my blog. But the earthquake in Haiti yesterday was the prompt I needed to actually sit down and write it, even if it doesn't fit. So stick with me even if you showed up here looking for a cute little story about something my kids have done.

My sister-in-law gave us a book for Christmas called "Following Jesus Through the Eye of the Needle." We celebrated Christmas with them early because we were going to Milton-Freewater for Christmas, so I had the book ahead of Christmas. While we were packing to go to M-F I put the book in the car thinking I would skim through it a little on the drive. With a 5 week old I honestly was not doing much reading, if I had time to sit down long enough to read I was instantly asleep. Well, I didn't even look at the book on the drive to M-F or the entire time while I was there. However, when we were driving home I found myself in the position to open it.

You have to picture the situation I was in when I started reading the book. We were coming home with my family so every seat in two cars was full. Nathan was in the front seat with of our van with Andrew, so I was in the very back of the van in the middle of Ainsley and Hudson. It is four days after Christmas and our van is quite full with 7 of us and all of our Christmas gifts.

The book is the story of the author and his wife as they went to serve in Haiti with an organization called Beyond Borders. To begin their time they had to spend 8 months living with a typical Haitian family. I knew very little about Haiti before reading the book, and I can hardly believe how deplorable the conditions are (and this was before the earthquake yesterday). 80% of the people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day, transportation is a nightmare, there are often floods and landslides, deforestation has ruined much of the country, water is usually contaminated, and the government is unstable.

Kent Annan, the author of the book, is a wonderful writer. The story is engrossing and compelled me to do something. What that something is, I don't know. However, there are some parts that I must share. On Kents blog he has a video that shares part of the book that precedes my favorite paragraph of the book. In this video he is listing all the things he wants after being in Haiti for 5 months:

And now the paragraph that follows:

"Things on the above list aren't all bad. But part of why I looked forward to moving to Haiti is because I hate how easy it is to satiate my hunger for God and for good and for love by stuffing my appetites with food, with entertainment, with ambition, with stuff. How easy it is to fill the echo chamber that calls me toward God and good and love with other clanging noises. The absence in Haiti of choices to feed this profound hunger is unpleasant.. but I need it I'm too often too weak to hunger for good (or, to be more biblical, to seek the kingdom of God) and to pull away from the dancing lights that have embarrassing power over me, like over a mindless, fluttering moth."

So here I was in the car with my four healthy, well fed, well clothed children who have more toys than they know what to do with reading about conditions that are worse than anything we would find in the poorest cities in America. I have lots of "stuff" that way to often satiates my hunger for God, and does the same for my children. Ainsley asked for something to eat just as I was reading one part where he recounts the story of a boy who rescued a page out of an American magazine that he had thrown in the garbage fire and the boy carried it around for months as one of his most cherished objects. Nathan handed Ainsley some tortilla chips and she started complaining because she didn't like that kind of chips. My response to her was a little more harsh than usual. It has really made me think about how my kids are growing up, and what I should do about it.

As I'm writing these scattered thoughts I just heard more news about the earthquake on the radio. They are reporting that there are bodies of children piled up outside of a collapsed school, the UN building collapsed, the national prison broke open so all the criminals inside have escaped, and they are estimating 500,000 people have died. It brings me to another quote from the book:

"The aphorism "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps" comes ironically to mind because it's so inapplicable: if you can't afford boots, don't have any power and barely any resources, if there's no way to hoist yourself up, then when you need something (say, food or tuition for your kids) the choices are either to ask for it or take it. Or suffer quietly. ...So are good, brilliant, powerful people working somewhere to find systemic economic and political solutions to the problems we see crushing down on our neighbors? And will the good guys win? Because too often they don't."

I know ultimately THE Good Guy wins. But in the mean time what am I doing for the people of the world who don't have the resources that I/we treat as a birthright? How can I live and how can I raise my children so we don't try and fill up our need for God with entertainment, other people, and the stuff that is so easily acquired here? Hmmm... My prayer today is that the earthquake in Haiti brings light and attention to this country that is in desperate need.

The Christmas Post

Happiness: Visiting M-F, Hanging out with my family, playing games all evening after the kids are in bed. It is good. Here are the kids with my parents on Christmas Eve~

Here are the kids on Chrismas Eve tracking Santa. So cute.

Eleison and Camden - little partners in crime. Today they were dumping out the entire Blokus game. When I talked to them about it Eleison said, "it was fun."

Thanks Strandbergs for the Gingerbread house to decorate. It was so fun, and some of the candy even made it on the gingerbread house!

My mom and dad made Christmas gifts for us. This was ours, my mom cut out and painted a Nativity set for us. I love, love, love it!

Look how cute it is- it will be so fun to put out every year.

For Nathan and Tennille they made windows for their house. They will look amazing. Say a little prayer that shipping all three of them back to Minnesota is successful.

One of my favorite quotes from Christmas is courtesy of Hudson. He got $20 in his stocking (good for the kids when my dad does the stocking stuffers). The $20 was tied in popularity as the favorite stocking stuffer with a little plastic gum ball machine from the dollar store. I asked him what he was going to do with his $20, which is about $19 more than he has ever had in his life. His response was classic: "I think I'm going to buy 2o more of the gumball machines."

Ready for bed Christmas Eve- How cute are my girls?

And finally, here is Reagan in her Christmas dress.

Hope your Christmas was as great as ours has been.

Three already???

Dear Camden~

You turn three today. THREE! I can hardly believe how big you are! You tell us all the time that you are a big boy, yet you love to get out of the shower and have me wrap you in a towel and, "carry you like a baby" and even rock you all snuggled up like that.

I started blogging right after you were born, so much of your life is chronicled here. You have led a life these first three years that has given me lots and lots to write about. I don't see that changing any time soon.

You have a personality that just doesn't stop. You make us laugh constantly and amaze us with the different things you figure out. You talk ALL THE TIME. As in CONSTANTLY. Something crosses your mind and it is out your mouth before the thought could possibly be finished in your little head.

You want to do everything your older brother and sister do. This year that included school. Since Hudson and Ainsley were both in school this year we had to do something, so when they started school this fall you and I started "potty school." You told everyone that you were going to potty school. It actually worked quite well, until you learned that you couldn't ride the bus and that was a bit of a problem.

You love the letter C and anything that has a C in it you think is yours. Other children with boxes of Crayola Crayons are a bit of a problem because there are two C's you can find, so clearly they belong to you alone. When Grandma Arlene told you that you had earned an "A" in potty school you were stressed and told her that you had a "C," at first she tried to tell you that an A was better, until we realized you were wanting a "C" because that is the best letter.

A few of our favorite things you do are:

-put your fingers up over your eyes to make little circles like they are binoculars when we are out on a walk and you are looking at something special.

-you save face when something has not gone quite right by saying in this cute little voice, "oh yeah, sorry, that was just and ac-s-dent."

-every book you read is your favorite.

-you call Reagan's blanket that is like your blue blankie her "pink-blue blankie."

-daily you exclaim that Reagan is, "so cute!"

-you will try to do just about anything.

The last few weeks since we had Reagan have been a bit challenging for you. You had a good run as the youngest in the family, and it is a tough position to give up. If I am nursing Reagan you sit on my lap too, if I'm holding her you suddenly have a tummy ache, and you are putting her binkie in your mouth and chewing it- you haven't used a pacifier since you were 6 months old so you don't even know how to suck on it! Despite being a bit traumatized right now I know it won't be long before you don't remember life before Reagan and that you are going to like having someone younger than you in the family and another person to play with.

Your energy level can totally wear us out, but we wouldn't change it for anything Camden. We love you so much and have so much fun watching you grow and develop. This last year has brought us so much joy in watching you change from a baby into a little boy.

We can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us with you. We know it won't be boring with you around. Most of all we are excited because we know this will be the year you start to know and understand more about the God who made you and loves you.

We love you Camden.

Here you are with your soccer ball birthday cake.

We went to Mt. Scott pool to celebrate your birthday.

I interrupt your day...

for some cuteness~

doesn't it make you want to go snuggle up and take a nap?

Yep, we are Hudson.

I was up in the attic getting Christmas stuff down and Hudson of course followed me. I don't know what exactly what it is about the attic that he is so drawn to, but he loves it up there. It could be the pull down ladder, the bins of mysterious stuff, or the slightly dangerous feeling he has up there, but for some reason he loves it.

When I moved Christmas tubs around to reveal our outdoor nativity set he looked at it and said, "OH! I forgot about that!" (Christmas decorations are so fun with kids, I love how they seem so new and exciting, but yet elicit memories for them at the same time.)

Then he said after a pause, "We are really big fans of Jesus aren't we?"

That is pretty high up my list of my favorite things my kids have ever said.

The Christmas Tree

There are lots of reasons I love living in Damascus. One of my favorites is being able to walk to Thompson Farms to get produce. It really benefits us every season because they have 8 acres of Christmas trees growing just across from our greenway. It made me giggle to think of the years we drove for miles to get to a you-cut tree farm. Here are the kids next to the tree we picked.

Proud Siblings

The adjustment to having a new sibling is going pretty well. Bringing Reagan home from the hospital to meet the kids was so fun. They were waiting outside for us and rushed up to the car, we had a hard time even getting her out of the car because they were so excited to see her.

They had made a big sign to put on our garage with my parents. It was so cute.

Ainsley is just so happy to have a sister. When we were at the hospital she wrote a song for Reagan that she sang over and over to her on the phone. When we got home she had written the song out on a little poster- this picture is when she was singing to her in person for the first time- the pink paper is the song.

The big surprise has been how Hudson just adores Reagan. He went from telling us he wasn't going to hold the baby if it was a girl, to BEGGING to hold her all the time. He is absolutely in love with her.

Camden is the one that has had his world rocked a little more with the new member of the family. This doesn't surprise any of us, being that he is the one who has had his position in the family changed the most. While he is being really clingy, he does exclaim at least 5 times a day, "she's so cute!" so at least he does enjoy her. He also has tried biting my feet, legs, and shoulder telling me that I'm feeding him, so we are for sure dealing with some issues.

I took Reagan in to the kids school so they could show her off. They both were so excited to show their friends how they could hold her and how little she was.

Everyone asks if Reagan looks like the other kids, she does. Her face is a little narrower than the other kids at this age, but she looks like Ainsley's baby pictures. She even has the same amount of hair. I'm so happy that they all match!

Turkey Bowl

As long as I'm trying to catch up on blog photos I thought I'd also jump back to Thanksgiving. One of our neighbors (thanks Katz family!) organized a Turkey Bowl out in our greenway. Hudson has been excited about it since Halloween when we heard about it. He wanted to practice all the time. It was flag football, but he practiced tackle, "the real way" he insists.

Ainsley was originally drawn to the event by the promise of donuts and hot chocolate, but ended up loving playing football. She found that her soccer skills transfered over and she did a great job of kicking off- perfect straight, long kicks!

It was pretty wet and cold, so Camden stopped about half way through, but daddy, Ainsley, and Hudson had a great time to the very end. Can you see the chocolate smeared all over Camden's face? Our kids didn't need Thanksgiving dinner- they were happy with their morning treats.

I would be a negligent wife if I didn't mention that Andrew scored not one, but two touchdowns. :)

Baby catch-up post

Okay- It has been three weeks since we had Reagan, and since I posted anything on our blog. It is not for lack of blog material- it is for lack of time, as anyone who has ever had more than one child can imagine. Someone at church told me that when you have one child you are a couple with a child, when you have two kids you are now technically a family, when you have three kids and you are now outnumbered and life really begins. I am adding that when you get to four kids it is a whole special kind of crazy.

The good news is so far it hasn't been very crazy- but come March when it is raining all the time, tennis season is underway, and my mom is not here all bets are off.

So, while I have the time here are some pictures to catch you up on little baby Reagan.

Here I am with her right after she was born:

I am so happy that I don't have to be pregnant again, but I will miss not getting to do "delivery days" ever again. All four of my babies births have been so wonderful- Reagan's birth was so calm yet exciting. What a blessing to get to have babies!

Here she is having her first bath, which she didn't appreciate much.

And here she is all dressed for the first time- in hospital clothes- see more about that below.

And here we are with her the next morning after she was born.

Andrew went to Lloyd center to buy clothes for her- we didn't have any infant girl stuff. Evidently 8 years is too long for me to keep clothes without giving them away. We discovered the night before going to the hospital that we didn't have girl stuff. I'm pretty sure that was Murphy's Law kicking in and that is why we ended up with a girl :) So actually that worked out well. (Although actually we are crediting Ainsley with the girl because she said she prayed every day in the shower the whole time I was expecting that the baby would be a girl. Her teacher told us that she told her whole class about her prayer schedule.)

Lots more pictures and stories to come!