3 Days of Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We are doing the 3 days of Christmas, because we have celebrated Christmas at 3 different places, 3 different states! (yes...with a newborn!)One week after Sophie was born, we celebrated Christmas with our family of 4! We wanted to keep our tradition of doing our own Christmas before we visit our families. It was really special! It was especially fun this year, because Olivia enjoyed her presents a little more than last year.
Sophie, on the other hand...just went with the flow!Olivia was pretty easy! She LOVED her blanket that I made her and she LOVED her Elmo slippers!Her third favorite gift was her CamelBack. She could have her sippee cup in her hand, and still want mine and BJ's CamelBack. So we got her one she could have! Sophie was also easy...she just got a new toy! A tradition that BJ and I started our first year of marriage was that we would go to Walmart or Target together and split up in the store to shop for each other's stocking stuffers! We have done this every year since then. This year, we thought it would be fun to still split up but with the kids. So, because I was pregnant, I took Sophie and we shopped for BJ and Olivia. BJ took Olivia in the shopping cart and shopped for me and Sophie! It was really fun, especially because we always seem to see eachother and try to see what each other have in their baskets!

Tomorrows 2nd day of Christmas: Oklahoma!

Welcome, Sophie Jo!

Christmas came a little early to the Sanders family!!

Little Sister, Sophie Jo, came into the world Monday, December 12 at 7:51 am
Big Sister Olivia was excited to meet Sophie, but was VERY excited to receive her gift that Sophie gave her...BIG BIRD!!
Olivia loves her!Sophie weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches longWe aren't really sure yet, but I have been saying she is going to be a lot like BJ! I even said that when she was in my tummy. She has just been a lot calmer than Olivia. Michelle would call BJ melancholy...and I think she may be too! Olivia and daddy playing in the hallway! So cute!! Family walk! Olivia is already such a big helper! It was actually really funny! She was wanting to push really fast, so BJ and I were "slowing it down" on each side to make it safer!!

We love our family of four! Thanks for all of your prayers! Please continue to pray for my fast recovery and Sophie's bilirubin. It's a little high, so we are monitoring it.

Waiting until Christmas!

Sorry Facebook friends, this is going to be a lot like our album that we just uploaded; but we have friends and family not on Facebook, so we are putting the same pictures up!!We are now in the waiting process! It seems like we have everything taken care of...the house is decorated for Christmas, all of our presents are bought and wrapped, our house is clean, our hospital bags are packed, etc. We are just waiting now for Sophie to make her grand entrance! So in the mean time, we are taking some fun family pictures! Olivia is starting to like the idea of Sophie! She tries to say her name and it comes out Sissy...which definitely works! We have been trying to prepare her by saying, "Whose car seat is this?, Whose bed is this? Whose closet is this?, etc." and she she answers Sophie. Well the latest question is, "Who is coming to see you next week?" and she answers "SISSY!" So we think that she is getting excited!!

She is already a really good helper! She LOVES, LOVES caring for her babies. And she treats them all equal (except Elmo might get a little more attention!) If one baby needs to be fed, she feeds all of them, if one baby needs to lay down to take a nap, they all lay down! It's really sweet! Jam mama got me this Hallmark singing penguin thing, and Olivia loves to press it and dance to it. She has even taught Elmo how to dance to it!

Like I mentioned earlier, if one baby has to be fed, they all eat! She started with the monkey and worked her way down the line! I think she'll be really great with Sophie!

Again, feeding ALLLLL her babies! And dada has to read to all of them too! He's so great with Olivia! And to think...he used to say he wouldn't know how to raise girls!! And to end with just a sweet picture of our baby girl! She sure is setting the bar high for Sophie!

Homemade presents!!!

BJ and I are trying to be creative this Christmas! We know our girls are/will be too young to really understand what they are getting, so we don't want to go overboard. Olivia has a lovey (thanks to aunt lyndsey) that she is obsessed with and she also loves "blanchets" (blankets)! So we decided it would be sweet to make Olivia and Sophie their own blankets! And yes...I am barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen, and sewing!!! After much frustration and wanting to quit (not pictured!)...here are the finished products! Olivia's is the light pink and Sophie's is the dark pink.
Of course, there has to be tags on it. The first thing Olivia does when we hand her lovey to her is find the tag and put it in her mouth...so there has to be tags. It just so happened that I had this tag from Olivia's "Olivia the pig" doll, so I used that one. Sophie's has a tag too, but it just says Jumper. Anyways, I am very proud that I actually followed through with this and finished it. I think it will be something that the girls will love for a long time! Merry Christmas!

Everyone's Napping...

So, last night Olivia decided to remind us what it was like to have a baby... yep, that's right. She cried and cried from about midnight till 1:30. What in the world?! Sophie isn't here yet! We are not supposed to be up in the night... gyahhh! So, that was a big wake up call. Except, everyone knows that baby no. 2 is always the perfect baby... or wait, aren't they the really awful ones? I can't remember...

Well, everyone is napping today, except me. I am doing phonetics homework... pronouncing beet, bit, bait, bet, bat... fun stuff!

Also, I think this is the first "holiday" that we are spending at "home" ... in other words, we are not driving anywhere this weekend! Crazy. So, I guess that's it for now... I am on my way to work in the tech center!

Could we be Mennonite?!

Probably not. The fact that we are in a car, says we are probably not Amish or Mennonite! But it was fun getting to experience their way of living for a day!
Our ELINK group (just a group of staff and students our school put us in for mentorship and fellowship) went 20 miles down the road to a Mennonite community! It was incredible! To see people 20 miles away, living with no electricity and driving horse and buggies to the store...Very eye opening!Olivia looking in on the Mennonite world...although she had red hair, like many of them there, she still appeared to be an outsider from the beginning! After we went to the gift store, dutch bakery, and quilt store, we headed off to the auctions! If you have never been to an auction before, you should try it out! They really do talk as fast as movies portray them! It almost sounded like the guy was singing! We were able to see them auctioning off produce mainly, but if you were lucky, you could score a wagon wheel for a good price!
This is a picture of a little girl who came up to Olivia and was pretty much petting her! I think she thought Olivia looked strange because she was not dressed like all of her friends. "What is this crazy hat that you are wearing?!" Olivia can make friends anywhere!

The last place we went was to the Mennonite store! This place had amazing prices! We were able to get spices, pasta, coffee, etc. at an incredible rate! I think Olivia was starting to really enjoy the whole "Mennonite experience" towards the end of the day! Although she looked cute, we did not let her buy it!

We had a great time getting to experience how the Mennonite live. They are so friendly and welcoming! Like we learned in our Love and Respect class....just because people live differently from us...it's not bad, it's just different!!

Last of the traveling

Well we finished our traveling with a bang! The last weekend of October was the last weekend I can travel until Sophie Jo arrives! We decided to take a crazy trip and meet some friends in the middle (of Roach and Waukesha)! We had a great time seeing and encouraging each other again!!

The three are back together again!!

Our friends, the Crabrtrees...so cool!
Me and BJ! One of the only pictures we've taken without Olivia!

The Hambrices...our long-lost friends! Good to see you Baby Paisley! We got to go to Springfield, IL's last farmers market! They had a Halloween costume parade for children and dogs! We didn't go to the parade, but we still wanted Olivia to have a chance to wear her costume!
And what a cute, little pumpkin she was!!! Is anyone else surprised at how many teeth she has?!We had to get one of all the babies in their pj's! So sweet! And then...things started to get a little crazy! "Nora, let's pick on the new kid!!"

We had such a great time with our friends (Sorry you couldn't make it Richards)! Hurry up January and get here. Mandy and Jeremy will be joining us at New Tribes Mission Training!!

New Classes!

We are constantly finishing and and starting new classes. We just finished foundational bible teaching, child protection, form and meaning, and love and respect. They were all really great! The next block of classes seems to be a little more...challenging! We just started Stewardship- managing your time and money, teamwork-learning to work well with others, and Phonetics-the study of speech sounds. This is the class I want to focus on today!



Here is a simple definition of Phonetics: the study of speech sounds. Each letter stands for ONE speech sound and each sound is represented by ONLY ONE letter.

Some of you smarties might understand this right away, but I think I can speak for most when I say that it is very foreign! Here is a silly example:

Does anybody know what this word is phonetically?! "GHOTI"



I'm not sure if I'm giving you enough space to actually guess, but if you said the word "fish", you'd be correct!! You see,

the gh makes a "f" sound like in the word laugh

the o makes an "i" sound like in the word women

the ti makes a "sh" sound like in the word nation



Basically, what I have been learning, is the English language is VERY complicated...and I am sooo glad that it is my native language! I feel like once I understand all that goes into our language, larning a different language will seem easy! We have been taking every consenant and vowel and trying to figure out where and how it comes out of our mouth. Do our lips go together on the word, like if we say "mouth"? That would be considered bilabial. Does our tongue hit the back of our teeth when we say words like "tiger"? Do our teeth bite our bottom lip when we say words like "vitamin"?

If you are anything like me, you have NEVER, I mean NEVER, even thought about this. Most of you might not ever care still! But it is starting to become interesting to me. And because I am going to learn a new language soon, I need to start becoming aware of sounds and how we use our mouth to say them.

They say phonetics is important, because it is very consistant. When we learn how to write phonetically, we can begin to write any language phonetically! And this...excites me!

Schnuckel time!

This past weekend was such a delight! Our friends from Wisconsin came to visit us! We got to show them around "ROACH" and the surrounding area! We had so much fun catching up and meeting their new addition to the family!!!

Olivia and Kojo!
Family pic at Ha Ha Tonka.

Ha Ha Tonka is actually a state park 5 miles away from where we live. It started out being a castle that a man had built as his dream house. He died before it was built, but his sons were able to finish it. The castle burned, but is a site to be seen by many now!

Loves her daddy!

and her friend! He was such a helper!

Thanks so much for coming to visit! We had soooo much fun with you guys!