I did it!

I made my first ever video montage!
See for yourself:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Einfeld Family News...long time no see...

[caption id="attachment_761" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our progress on the backyard!"][/caption]

I was editing my blog entries, so you can now find all of Esther's Story with just one click, but I noticed that there aren't many posts recently about our family! So here's one overdue quick update on us, and a few recent photos!

[caption id="attachment_772" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="New Color On Trim"][/caption]

We have had a very busy spring - painting the trim inside the house (window, door, and floor trim) and actually got that finished, painting the outside trim - almost done!, putting in new yard, front and back...not even close to being done but got a great start, new flower gardens and making last year's even better:,[caption id="attachment_770" align="aligncenter" width="262" caption="Esther loves to help!"][/caption]spring cleaning inside the house, and planning a camping trip with some friends!

[caption id="attachment_771" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="One of the new gardens"][/caption]

Updates on our family -

Daryl is working many hours, as well as working on car projects, a bike making project and perfecting his bowling game.

I am busy as ever and never seem to have enough energy/hours in a day to accomplish all I think I should in a day. I am doing great overall, but was socked with a couple of colds this spring that slowed me down. I am also enjoying bowling, and I am continuing to work on my guitar playing.

[caption id="attachment_744" align="aligncenter" width="162" caption="Jeremy at Work, Computer Networking"][/caption]

Jeremy will be out of the Marines in under 3 months, and we are so looking forward to having the entire family under one roof again! Five years is a long time! This spring he put a new engine in his car, and also started bowling in a league for the first time.[caption id="attachment_747" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Jason with his fancy phone...we have to take photos on the sly...he\'ll have my hide if/when he sees this!"][/caption]
Jason is still working full time+ and busy as ever with his sports (bowling, extreme Frisbee, volleyball) and hobbies (cars, video games, RC cars and airplanes to name a few)[caption id="attachment_775" align="aligncenter" width="276" caption="Such a great Smile!"][/caption]
Jessica is working for Snap-EZ, planted a HUGE vegetable garden this year, reading books, loving on Esther and the other children, volunteering at various events and caring for her dog (she's down to one now, but planning to get a new puppy once she saves enough money) and is on her first bowling league![caption id="attachment_750" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="So Sweet!"][/caption]
Jonathan is now working almost full time - 4 8 hours days and has already paid for a car and is now shopping for a good bicycle, and is also in a league with us[caption id="attachment_751" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The artist at work!"][/caption]
Rebekah has started working a little for Snap-EZ (cutting), and she still loves to draw. She's been dabbling in gardening too, and has made some nice garden art as well! She's also gotten her first pet, a little black and white kitten named Sweet Tea (she looks like our first kitten who was named Sweety). Rebekah is also planning to be baptized in August and we are so thrilled that she has chosen to follow Christ and make this statement of her faith![caption id="attachment_752" align="aligncenter" width="252" caption="Our flower child...she made the head band with real flowers from her gardens!"][/caption]
Rachel has really gotten the green thumb and has been buying plants, making gardens around her play house, and learning to do starts, as well as gathering seeds for next year - she hopes to do some selling at the Lynden Gardeners Market soon! Rachel is also planning to be baptized in August, and is very excited about this as she has wanted to for several years, but we wanted her to wait until she really understood what she was doing. We are so thankful that she has chosen to give her life to Christ at such an early age![caption id="attachment_753" align="aligncenter" width="162" caption="Reuben made this bow while we were camping!"][/caption]
Reuben LOVES to bowl! We are doing the Kids Bowl Free thing with the kids and he lives to bowl! He's in softball camp this week and is really enjoying that too. He also has a soft spot in his heart for Esther and takes a lot of time to love on her and play with her![caption id="attachment_754" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Construction Man"][/caption]
Daniel seems to like to stay home, he's our quiet boy, but he LOVES to read...he learned to read over the last year and has taken to it like fish to water. Daniel has finally gotten the knack of holding Esther and dotes on her much of the time.[caption id="attachment_755" align="aligncenter" width="227" caption="Dayton Loves our new kitten!"][/caption]
Dayton is so smart, loves to work with his Dad of projects, and is so sweet with Esther - he also loves our new kitten and loves to ride his bike![caption id="attachment_756" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="You just want to pinch those cheeks!"][/caption]
Elizabeth has recently learned to ride her bike without training wheels, and loves to play house and other things with Dayton (she bosses him around most of the time, but he loves it). She loves sleeping in Rachel's play house with her big sisters, and even slept in the big girls tent our entire camping trip! She has perfect pitch and rhythm, and loves to sing with me when I play my guitar. She also is known to play the piano and sing in perfect pitch to her playing...a future virtuoso![caption id="attachment_757" align="aligncenter" width="285" caption="Princess Esther"][/caption]
Esther is doing a perfect crawl now, and also "walks" on her hands and feet. She can stand up against almost any surface, and will also try to climb onto any surface, and will walk along the couches. She can walk if you hold her hands and can now stand for a second or two without support! She is so close to walking! She is our joy and such a delight, her laughter is contagious and she loves to make others smile and laugh! She can do "Itsy Bitsy Spider" now as well as sign for milk, more, bye bye and Hi! She loves to clap and cheer for others, so she loves going to watch daddy play church softball.

Our highlight so far this summer has been our camping trip to Gold Basin with two of our close friends and their children. We even went on a 2 mile hike to Heather Lake (it sounded so innocent) - man was that ever hair-brained, but we did it and we all got to the top. The kids did great, it was poor old mom who carried Esther over halfway up, and then had trouble finishing the hike ("just" 2 miles, but it climbs over 1000 feet!!!!) - now I found a site about trails, and should have read it first - it says the hike is 4 hours (took us 5 1/2), and is "more difficult" skill level...not for beginners like me! They say the you bond closely with people you share a life threatening experience with...I am now well bonded to my family! Here's photo from another website (we didn't have our camera and haven't gotten the ones the Thames took up there):[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Heather Lake, Mt Pilchuck"][/caption]
It was beautiful up there - peaks reaching another 1000 feet into the sky on all sides, waterfalls in several places, smooth as glass water, fish jumping, old growth forest all around, and more mosquitoes that we could handle, so after a short break for eating/drinking, we headed back down - 3 hours up, 1 1/2 hours down! Today I am finally not sore anymore (we did the hike last Saturday!)

So you can see, things are going along smoothly, for the most part, around here, but everyone is busy and growing and there always seems to be something new and exciting just around the corner!

Next week the kids are participating in our church's Extreme Vacation Bible school and I'll have the house to myself and the two little girls every morning...how weird will that be????
Here's a few more "Esther" photos I thought you'd like to check out:
[caption id="attachment_768" align="aligncenter" width="193" caption=""Can't I just read my book in peace!""][/caption]
"Can't I just read in peace?????"
[caption id="attachment_759" align="aligncenter" width="233" caption="It wasn\'t me!!!!!"][/caption]

Spring has Sprung early around here!

We are enjoying an early spring up here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest...I saw daffodils in bloom nearly a month ago, my tulip buds are showing themselves, our lawn is starting to need to be mowed, and we did some spring cleaning inside as well!

Here's some signs of spring around our place:

[caption id="attachment_533" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Future Berry, beautiful bloom now!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_532" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Waiting to be added to our gardens..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_534" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="These beauties never completely stopped blooming this winter, and they are in full bloom already!"][/caption]

Spring is for cleaning, and just for fun, last Saturday our livingroom was messier than usual, so we took a before photo, and then had it cleaned all up in 30  minutes!  Here's the before and after photos:

[caption id="attachment_535" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Before (notice Esther is enjoying dumping out her toy bin???)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_537" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="After - 30 minutes X 2 women = CLEAN!"][/caption]

We've been so busy this year, we've been doing homeschooling, music lessons, art lessons, a trip to my mom's house (with 2 kids),  and many other things.  We've also been busy seriously looking at deeper things.  We made some drastic changes to how we live our lives years ago, and have pretty much stayed the course we plotted out back then, but over the last few years we've been coasting along and gently breezes have blown us a little off course without our even noticing it!

[caption id="attachment_538" align="aligncenter" width="178" caption="One change is Esther started sucking her thumb..."][/caption]

So we've been re-evaluating some things, and looking at other things with "new glasses" for the first time!  We have decided we need to watch far fewer videos (Saturday nights after baths is all we are doing right now), play more games (we re-organized our school/toy/game-room last week), read out loud more (we just started reading The Magician's Nephew as a family, with the older member taking "parts"), and in general spending more time together doing things together!

[caption id="attachment_539" align="aligncenter" width="276" caption="Another big change is Esther is learning to climb the stairs...first time we've ever had stairs...time to buy a good baby gate!"][/caption]

So, that is my "excuse" this time for not blogging in forever, once again!  If you can get on facebook, you'll find me there...I'm not on as much as I have been in recent weeks, but I try to do little updates there from day to day...I'll leave you with some before and after photos of our school room make-over:

[caption id="attachment_541" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Before..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_542" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="After (Westside)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_543" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Eastside"][/caption]

Soon we willl be tackloing some long awaited projects...finish painting trim inside and outside the house, and putting in the back yard lawn!  Those are HUGE projects, but I'm sure we can get them done this year!

Esther in Snap-EZ Diaper!

We are getting all geared up for putting a half page ad in the May/June Mothering Magazine...they are doing a cloth diaper edition!  We will be having photos of several local babies on the ad, including hit photo!

[caption id="attachment_524" align="aligncenter" width="239" caption="Esther modeling Snap-EZ Eco One Size Pocket Diaper!"][/caption]

We have been working with Renee of Little Earthling Photography for the last few months to put together a selection of photos to use in the ad...and Esther will be one of them!  She's great at showing the the One Size diaper will fit even super chunk babies!  Just look how nicely the diaper fits UNDER her huge belly!!  Nice label placement too! LOL!

And Check out the wonderful review and giveaway - OhBabyOh

2009 in Review

[caption id="attachment_513" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our Family Dec 2009"][/caption]

I was looking through some old blog entries and found that in Jan 09 I had looked back through 2008 - first looking at it from the perspective of how we survived our most difficult year to date, and then also looking back at how God has richly blessed and upheld us through that difficult year (2008...The Year of God's Blessings ).  So I think I should do that again for 2009!

First of all, 2009 was much easier than 2008, that is for sure!  But we did have some trials as well.  And definitely some major blessings along the way!

Winter of 2009 was centered around Esther's recovery from her open heart surgery.  This went really well and she was able to go without her feeding tube in less than two weeks after her surgery - that was a major blessing!  We were soon preparing for Jeremy to come home on his pre-deployment leave at the end of February.  We had a great week with him, including an open house with lots of friends and family coming to see him (and our new home!).

Springtime found us getting some serious schooling to make up for the previous fall,  working with Esther through therapy to gain strength and begin to learn new skillss, putting in gardens, a new front yard, new driveway, and a great check up at Children's for Esther.  Esther did end up going to ER once in June - she got croup and was having trouble breathing - but they were able to fix her up and go home - no hospital admits this entire year!  PTL!

Summer was definitely busy - we planned and put on the biggest birthday party ever - it was so much fun!!!  We also went camping - but I was unable to enjoy it very much as I was sick the entire time and ended up with bronchitus and a sinus infection...we finished out the summer with a great day at the beach!  We also dealt with cancer on Esther's  face that was so traumatic for us as it bled profusely at the least provocation, but turned out fine after minor surgery to remove it.

Fall was a wonderful time to get back into schedules, schooling and planning for celebrating a whole month with Jeremy home in November - we had a great time with him home that long!  We did have some big struggles due to the economic troubles, but God provided for us through it all...even coming through in miraculous ways just when there seemed to be no way to meet all our financial challenges.  We also dealt with cancer on Esther's  face that was so traumatic for us as it bled profusely at the least provocation, but turned out fine after minor surgery to remove it.

We rounded out the year with our first Christmas in our new home - Christmas tree in front of the window, icicle lights on the house, game nights, puzzles, and best of all, Jeremy was home for 2 weeks again!  Esther really enjoyed her first Christmas...especially the wrapping paper and boxes!

Also throughout the year we've seen Esther stop struggling to grow, going from 12 pounds to a whopping 26 pounds from January to June!  She's refined down to a nice 25 pounds now due to being so active.  When Esther went to her first therapy session at the end of January she couldn't even hold her head up very well, and could not lift it off the ground if she was laying on her tummy....now she's camando crawling all over the house, sits up all by herself, gets up on her hands a knees, wave and says "Hi", waves "Bye Bye", gives the best baby hugs ever, has a great sense of humor, and loves music and Signing Time Videos!

So last  year, our blessings far out-weight the slight and temporary troubles of 2009,  and I can see God's hand upholding us through all.  His mercies are new every morning.

I'll end this post with a comparison photo of Esther just home in Jan, as compared to her at Christmas:

[caption id="attachment_507" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Esther on Jan 9,2009"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_510" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Esther's favorite thing...playing ball!"]

[/caption]

12/31/2009

Fun With Esther

We had some fun with Esther recently - she has a really unique way of getting around...a mix of camando drawl, the spits, sitting up, and rolling to get wherever she needs to go...

[caption id="attachment_487" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="If there's a will..."][/caption]

And as far as eating is concerned, she has no problems with that either:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Esther efficiently eats a piece of birthday cake"][/caption]

Did you seen her palm that piece for later with her left hand???

Hope you enjoyed this evenings entertainment!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Things are coming along nicely around here - we finally got to put up the lights I bought for the house last year - and they are sooo pretty!

[caption id="attachment_457" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Our House In Lights!"][/caption]

I also got to finally decorate our stair banister!

[caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Decorated Staircase (with our birthday girl in the shot for good measure!)"][/caption]

And here's some pictures of our Adventures in the Christmas Tree Hunt of 1009:

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

I hope you enjoy our photos!  We sure enjoyed doing it this year!  And don't forget, that "Unto Us A Child Is Born" - and little baby laid in a manger made from a tree - "A Savior Which Is Christ The Lord" - a perfect man who gave up his life to pay our penalty for sin, by being nail to a cross made from a tree! Make the most of your Christmas celebrationg by remembering that whenever you see a Christmas Tree!