December 31, 2008

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Another month has gone by and I’m happy to say, there hasn’t been anything dreadful, like last month, phew!

I can’t believe another year has passed. Time really flies the older you get. Our days are filled with things to do, so I suppose it really shouldn’t be such a shock. The Christmas season has been very modest for everyone I know. For me, it was a huge reminder of what the season is truly about…and for that I am grateful.

We had the boys from the time school ended for the holiday break, until this past Sunday. We all love to have them here. Elise loves them so much and every morning would say Shh Shh (for Shannon) and De De (for Devon). It is so great to watch the three of them interact. It brings out a considerate and compassionate side of the boys that they generally do not have for each other. Over the past year and a half, they have made some really significant improvements with how they treat each other…a little more concern, respect and sensitivity. I’m really proud of them for that.

Another first this year, was that Shannon and Devon both purchased gifts for others with their own money! I took Devon, and Brian took Shannon. I know for certain how excited Devon was to buy gifts for his family…he wrote on the gift tags that he paid for them with his own money, and it was tithed. Both of the boys were very thoughtful and generous with their gifts, realizing perhaps for the first time during a Christmas, how much more fun it can be to give, than receive.

We opened Christmas gifts on the Tuesday before Christmas because Brian wanted to make sure he was able to spend some quality play time with them before they left to go back to Lakeland. All the boys (dad included) got Nerf Dart Guns for Christmas. They played inside the house, built forts/shelters, and got to play soccer a lot. I think they were all happy to have the extra time to play. The time was extended even further when their mom decided to not come to get them on Christmas. She didn’t come and get them until the Sunday after Christmas, which left the boys all a lot of time to play with their gifts and read their new books.

Grandma Campbell and Grandpa Ken came over for Christmas brunch and brought lots of goodies for the kids and a wonderful present for Brian and I, which was a certificate to watch Elise and the new baby during this coming year. It was great to see Elise really enjoy Christmas. Last year, she was more interested in the paper and garbage. This year, she really loved the gifts she received and hasn’t stopped playing with them yet!

There really isn’t too much to say negatively about the month. From what I understand, most every family got some kind of cold/flu during Christmas. We weren’t immune to it either. I did take a trip down the stairs and hurt my shoulder. The doctor thinks it’s sprained or fractured, but I don’t want to get an x-ray to see. No matter what the results were, there isn’t a lot I can do…being pregnant. On the positive side of pregnancy, there were no trips to the hospital this month and the baby is strong enough I can feel kicks every now and then. We’ll find out next month whether or not it is a boy or girl. During Christmas brunch, I started having some pretty strong contractions that kept me in bed for a few hours. The doctors say I should expect continuing complications during the pregnancy, but not to worry about them. They’re more of a nuisance for me, than a concern for the health of the baby.

We’d love to hear from your family to see what’s been happening with you all. I really don’t know, (because I receive so few responses to these emails/blog posts) if this even gets read by most of the people I send it to. At any rate, I hope you all are well. We think of you often and pray for you always!

Love,
terrah, brian, shannon, devon, and elise

Okay, so I’m a few days late for this month’s update, but as they say “Better late, than never”.

November has been a very busy and sobering month. Between soccer games, holidays, and the pregnancy, there is the regular hussle and bustle of every day life.
There have been some really trying things happening this month. Our friend from church was in a horrible accident where his wife was killed by a drunk driver, and he remains in the hospital. Our other friend from church has a son who is dealing with brain cancer/surgeries etc. And our very own sweet bun in the oven, put us all in for a scare yesterday that landed me in the hospital to make sure everything is okay. Trials from heaven never cease, and neither does the love and mercy we feel from our Heavenly Father. Our gratitude for the many blessings we have in our lives is full to the top of our cups this month.

We were able to visit Hawthorne for Thanksgiving with the boys and Elise. They loved it! Elise can now moo like a cow! She loved seeing all the animals. The boys did too…they even helped feed the cows with Luke. They really enjoyed watching movies (Iron Man, Spiderman, and Nacho Libre) inside, and playing soccer with Brian outside. They kicked the ball into a tree and it took us a long time to get it down. It was too dangerous to climb that particular tree, so Brian took a large fallen limb and poked at it until it fell out of the tree. Brian and I were able to locate so many constellations in the clear winter skies of the country. We tried to use our telescope, but the eyes truly seemed to be our best tool for viewing the stars.

Shannon is starting to mow the lawn to earn money and did a great job this weekend. Devon helped around as well. They both like to work if there is a paycheck at the end of the road, especially Devon!! He wants to save up hundreds of dollars for some automatic derby race car thing (he said) OR he wants to save up all his money to buy a ton of Legos (which would only make the ridiculous amount of Legos they already have even more ridiculous. Seriously, there isn’t an inch of shelving space available for any more Lego ships! I have no idea what he’d do with them all.

Elise continues to sign. She’s doing great with following directions, and telling us exactly what she wants. Her new favorite thing? First thing in the morning, she says “BA!” She means bus. She loves looking out of her bedroom window at all the school busses. Second to that, she can say ball now, and I mean say it, not just sign it. So she’ll stand by the door and say ball, ball, ball when she wants to go outside to play. Brian set up the soccer goals in the back yard and she loves playing and kicking the balls around.

We hope everything is going well for each of your families. You’re always in our prayers, and we love you!!

--The Denhams

Halloween!

Please forgive the layout of this blog, I still haven't got the hang of multiple pictures in one blog down to a science. If I can keep up with this thing, in a few months from now, my blog should be beautiful. Until then, you'll have to just bear with me :)

Elise had her first Trick or Treating experience last night and LOVED it! Shannon and Devon came over this weekend. Shannon dressed up like a wrestler, Devon a chainsaw guy, and Elise a little 50's girl. We were able to go up and down the street, candy baskets in tow, before Elise was too tired and grumpy. She got a lot of attention from everyone who was handing out candy, and by attention, I guess I mean extra candy. There were a lot of "oh, she's so cute" and "what a beautiful girl" statments in between the gobbs of candy they dropped into her basket. She would sign thank you, and more after each handful. That only made everyone even more excited to give her candy! She got at least 3 times as much candy on that street as the boys. When we came back home, Elise changed roles and passed out candy. As each child came up, she eagerly dropped candy into their baskets and chased after them as they walked away signing more, more, more! She really liked Halloween. She also, for the first time in her life decided she wanted to eat a piece of candy. She picked out a Twix and ate the entire thing! After that, it was time for a bath and a good night's sleep.

After setting some ground rules (call us every 15 minutes and stay in this particular section of the neighborhood)the boys continued for about an hour and came back, baskets full to the top with Candy. Devon unfortunately though, was victim to some major rudeness in the neighborhood. Apparently some kids came up and just stole candy, right out of his basket!! He surely had plenty to share and would have given it up, but geez! Shannon and Devon made it home safely with plenty of candy and goodies.

October 2008

There are so many things to be excited for this month!

I am really excited, because I'm actually keeping my word in keeping current with this blog!! But more than that, we're having another baby!!!

The baby is apx 8 weeks old, and everything looks good so far.

As for the rest of the family, we are doing well. I'm a bit sick from the surging hormones of being pregnant, but other than the typical prego-symptoms, I'm okay :)

We are trying to have Elise talk to the baby and give kisses. She is such an affectionate baby, always blowing kisses, running up to hug us or kiss us. Her signing vocabulary continues to increase (which means Brian's and my vocabulary is increasing as well) and she is able to communicate so well. I've said before she loves to go outside and used to be very persistent, signing 'shoes, outside. shoes, outside' over and over until I would finally take her out. Now she signs 'outside, birds' over and over. Unfortunately, birds are hard to find in the neighborhood. There aren't enough trees for them, so the place for finding birds is in a parking lot at Target or Wal-Mart. She loves to go out and see the birds in parking lots.

Elise is also showing her nurturing side more and more with her baby doll. She often tries to have the baby fold her arms for prayers. She also tries to feed the baby with whatever snack or drink I've given her. She will be a wonderful big sister. She is a helpful baby, very curious as to what I'm doing in the kitchen, and will sign help often. The other day, I had a craving for pancakes, so I started to make pancakes and she wanted to help. I gave her chocolate chips to drop onto the pancakes. When she was finished with the handful I gave her, she signed more...so there were a LOT of chocolate chips in the pancakes. I was excited to have her give some to Brian. I did my taste test, and realized that my pregnant absentmindedness caused me to accidentally put baking soda in the recipe instead of baking powder. So, we never gave the pancakes to Brian, instead, Elise helped me turn on the garbage disposal to destroy my botched up batch of chocolate chip pancakes.

Brian is using his green thumb to beautify our yard. He's been working almost every day this week planting and moving plants in the front yard. It's beautiful!

Halloween is tomorrow and out theme this year is 1950's. Brian will be a greaser, and Elise and I have poodle skirts we will wear. I made them this year, to try and save some money. Elise found the only thing I could not sew on the skirt and ripped it off...the jewel in the dog collar! She seems to like her skirt. Kea and I took Eden and Elise to have their pictures taken in costume. I'll post the pictures when we get them back from the studio mid November.

It is a joy to have Elise and Brian in my life and I am so grateful for them and the opportunity to add another little bundle to our package :)

the other blog page for the Denham's

Okay, so here are our two blog spot addys

http://www.avaelisedenham.blogspot.com/

http://www.brianandterrah.blogspot.com/

I'll try to keep them both updated.

Wish me luck!!!

t

September 2008

Well, it’s around that time of the month to update the family…although, I’ve seen most of you this past month, so you all know what’s going on!



It was a great blessing to have Chane down to visit. It was really nice to have the siblings together, even though it happened completely different than anyone could have imagined. Chane, we love you. When you come back, Joanna, you better be here too, with kids in tow!!!

As for our end of the family, we are moving right along. Elise is still just full of life and excitement. She’s opening up more quickly than ever before to more people, and has taken a great liking to Hawthorne!! Brian, Elise and I were fortunate to have been able to go the UF game over this past weekend (thank you Ken and Nyla, it was so much fun!), and Elise got to become more acquainted with Gramma and Grandpa Bradshaw’s house (thanks Momma and Dad). I think she loved Gramma’s exercise machine, Luke’s loose CD’s and rubix cube, & the wooden coasters the best. This was also the first time she was around the lov sac and didn’t totally freak out!

Here at home, she’s decided hiding behind curtains and trying to sneak into the office is the most fun she can have. So I finally gave her a sheer panel to hang over the stairs to run through and play in, my old laptop that will never ever start again, and an outdated old cell phone with no sim card or battery. Go figure, the enjoyment only lasted a moment or so until she realized they don’t have glowing lights. It was a good effort though, and she still plays with them occasionally. Check out the albums on the facebook account to see her in action! Her signing vocabulary expands as quick as I can teach her the signs.

I believe I have shared a list with some of you, if not all, but here it is again:

Baby
Ball
Bath
Bird
Blanket
Book
Brush
Cat
Cereal
Dog
Down
Drink (she makes the sign for water when she wants a drink, unless she wants milk, then she’ll sign milk)
Duck
Eat
Fish
Flower (Also, Eden)
Good Morning
Good Night
Happy
Help
Hat
Horsey
I don’t know
Look
More
No
Outside
Please
Popcorn
Quiet
Shoes
Socks
Sleep
Smell
SorrySwim
Telephone
Thank you
Tired
Toothbrush
Up
walk
Water
Where
Yes

She can also say a few things:
All done
Amen
Mama (she actually says this now!)
Da da
Ba ba
Elise
Shhh


And she makes these noises:
Deee dill dee dill (she does this when she wants to sing to daddy)
Snake
Pig

She can also point to these parts of her body:
Hair
Head
Eyes
Nose
ears
teeth
mouth
feet
belly
arms
legs
fingers
toes
tongue
neck

She understands so many commands, like go upstairs, jump, sit down, put your toys away, go get a diaper, go find your baby etc. it would be so hard to name them all. Let’s leave it here and have it suffice to say, the kid’s a sponge!!

She’s becoming more brave in the water. She tries to swim to and from the wall to me or Brian. She also will throw a toy in the water, and fully clothed, attempt to turn herself around to try to retrieve it from the pool.


We are getting ready for Halloween and I’m making a poodle skirt for her and I, Brian, of course will be our greaser! J

Shannon has started wrestling and won one of his matches, yay Shannon! And Devon is signed up for soccer again this year, after a lot of effort.

The last time the boys were here though, I was in Hawthorne to see Dad, so I didn’t get to see them very much. Brian had them clean up for me so I came home to a freshly cleaned living room and kitchen.

Thank you to everyone who has been so willing to help Brian and I this coming week. For those of you who don’t know, my surgery is scheduled for Wednesday to have the screws removed. It hopefully will end the pain I’ve been having so acutely in my shoulder.

Thank you everyone for your generosity toward Brian and I this past month. We appreciate you, and you know who you are!!!1

We are praying for all of you, for your individual needs, physical, economical etc. and give thanks for your presence in our lives daily.

Talk to you next month!

Love,

The Denhams