California Christmas

Christmas with the girls was a new experience this year! Jenna is old enough to understand about Jesus' birthday and that Santa comes to visit. For weeks, she had been telling everyone that she wanted a princess bike for Christmas. Thank goodness Santa already had that on his list! I was so excited for her to open her princess bike, and I thought she would be too. However, that didn't turn out to be the favorite gift:) Since she opened it on Christmas morning, the Dora umbrella (or rain flower as Jenna calls it) has been the favorite toy. She opens and closes it carefully, watches tv with it open, and goes outside frequently to see if it's raining. Next year--no big fun gifts for her. Just $5 rain flowers:)

Abby enjoyed Christmas as well. In the past week, she has become VERY mobile. She's crawling and climbing all over the place and having fun doing it. When she was first born, I was convinced that she was mellow and reserved. I am very wrong! As she crawls for things she shouldn't have or climbs the fireplace or speakers one more time, she has this little mischievious smile like she knows that she shouldn't be doing it. Even as I write, I hear Nate saying, "Abby--no, no. Don't climb the speakers!" She is elated at her new found mobility and is surely keeping us busy.

Christmas with the girls was such a joy this year, even if we have little redheads with minds of their own!

Bikes and New Friends

This may not be a big deal to most of you, but to me it is absolutely wonderful! We came home from a shopping trip today, to be greeted at the car by four neighborhood girls--all ages 7-9. We've met some of them before, but have never spent a lot of time with them. Of course, Jenna has been asking about them for weeks, but they are in school and we rarely see them outside.

School's out, and they are playing outside. They invited Jenna to ride bikes with them, and she had a ball! We have never lived on a street where Jenna could ride her bike outside with nice little friends (except in Texas, but she was 6 months old then). It was so wonderful to watch her race on her little trike up and down the street with four other little girls who want to be a "mother" to her. Very cute.

She'll be even more excited when Santa brings her a big girl princess bike for Christmas!

We are so happy to live in a safe nieghborhood where Jenna can play and ride her bike outside:)

Gialella

We have a new member of our family! Princess Gialella!

For several days, Jenna talked about Gialella and I just couldn't figure out what that word meant. I finally figured out that not only is Gialella a person, but she is the princess that Jenna turns into sometimes--especially when she is in trouble:)

I also wasn't sure how she came up with that name, but if you break it down it makes sense.

Jenna + Cinderella (her favorite princess) = Gialella :)

Christmas Shopping Craziness

For the first time in years, I've had my Christmas shopping done early. We decided to get Jenna and Abby one bigger type toy and a few small ones. We are really trying to teach Jenna that Christmas is more about Jesus's birthday as opposed to her only focusing on the gifts themselves. It's a hard battle, though.

Today, a few family members and friends gave me money to shop for our girls since we live all the way out here in California. After spending the afternoon in Target and Toys R Us, I am officially dismayed by Christmas materialism and how crazy it makes a person.

I have to admit, going shopping with someone else's money was fun, but I kept thinking to myself that my kids don't need all this stuff and that I was spending too much money. Buying many toys at once makes it seem like a lot, I guess.

Another thing that irritated me today while shopping was the fact that Barbie is really no longer a toy for little girls. When I was little, you could buy a Barbie and find a ton of matching outfits for her--appropriate ones, I might add. I was expecting to walk into the store, pick out a Barbie and find a few cute outfits. I was wrong. You can buy a Barbie, but the outfits are either in a really expensive three or four pack or are inappropriate for little girls to play with. Jenna's only 3! The outfits that went with Barbie made Barbie look like she was 22 going out on the town for the night. I ended up buying a pack with a Barbie and three decent outfits. In the end, I'm sad that Barbie isn't geared towards little girls anymore. Or if she is, I don't want Jenna to think that real girls have to look like that.

We'll keep teaching Jenna about Jesus and that His birthday is the most important part of Christmas, but I've come to learn today that Satan sure is at work during the Christmas season.

At Least She Didn't Throw Up on Santa

This morning, Jenna woke up telling me that her stomach was burning. I didn't think much of it because she often tells me her tummy hurts when she is just hungry. She didn't eat her breakfast, but that's not uncommon for her; I thought she just didn't like the new cinammon raisin bread I just bought. She drank juice and acted just fine on our way to the mall this morning for a fun Christmas event.

Our mall had the coolest event for kids! They got to decorate Christmas cookies, listen to a story that Santa and Mrs. Clause were reading, and dance to some fun music. Jenna was her normal fun, happy self. She even won one of the dance contests! ( Unfortunately, I don't have pictures, because as I took my camera out to take pictures of Jenna in her antler hat and "Santa's Little Helper" red apron, I realized I had left the camera on and the batteries were dead.)

We finish that event and then go over to Santa. We are waiting in line, when Jenna asked me to pick her up. Two seconds after I pick her up, she pukes all over me. All the other moms with their kids take three steps back from me and stare like their kids have never puked on them before. A nice man came over and got me some paper towels to clean up the mess, thank goodness. After about ten minutes of cleaning puke from the floor, changing Jenna's clothes, and trying desperately to get away from the gauking mothers, we rushed home with Jenna not getting to sit on Santa's lap.

The good thing in all of this is--at least she didn't puke on Santa. What a site that would have been!

A Conversation with Jenna

As Jenna approaches three, her speech amazes me more and more. I am not talking about new words or her ability to put sentences together. Instead, I am amazed at her ability to use words to try to manipulate me into giving her what she wants.

This morning, Jenna wanted scissors. I have a bunch of these crafty scissors--which is funny on it's own because even though I really want to be crafty, I'm just not. Anyway, I have these crafty scissors that cut in all kinds of different patterns. They all have different colored handles. Jenna loves anything that's the same, but different colors. For example, she loves to carry around those chip clips and arrange them on the couch in a specific order by color. She does the same thing with hair clips.

She saw a few of the scissors in the basket on our desk and tried her hardest to get me to give them to her. The conversation went something like this:

"Mommy, I would like those scissors."
"No, Jenna. Those will give you ouchies."
"But mommy, those are beautiful for me. You need to share with your Jenna. That make me so happy. Scissors are so special for me, so special mommy."

I tried my best not to laugh.

"No Jenna, I don't want you to get hurt because I love you."
"You make me nasty mommy! I'm angry! Can I watch Barney?"

She did not get the scissors, but I had enough entertainment to last the whole day. I'm sure there's more to come:)

Our Halloween Sweethearts

I bought these cute, hot costumes and forgot that we live in California where it is not so cold that you have to wear a jacket over your costume! The girls did well and had a great time though. We had a trick or treating event at church called Harvest Faire. As we walked in, someone commented that Abby looked like Blossom, Jenna's beloved bear. They are right. Abby was Blossom for Halloween! (I added a picture of Blossom at the bottom for those of you who have never met her.)

Our New Home!!!

After November 22, we will own half a house here in Silicon Valley! I say half because our wonderful church recognizes the out of control housing prices and will own the other half of our house.

Closing is Nov. 22 and we'll hopefully be moving soon after that. So, we have about three weeks to pack up! Reminiscent of seminary days, but this time we get to move to something that's ours!

God truly has His hand in this process and we are so thankful for all the people that helped make this happen. We are blessed to have a wonderful real estate agent and mortgage broker in our congregation who have been instrumental in all of this. The church voted on giving us housing assistance last Sunday and by Tuesday we knew where we wanted to live! They had to work fast, and we appreciate that.

We'll send you all our new address soon!

Like Mother Like Daughter

Two Sundays ago, I really hurt my neck. So for about a week and a half I have been pretty uncomfortable. I especially hurt at the end of the day after I've been lifting children and trying to do all the normal things that the day requires. Many evenings over the last week or so, I've asked Nate to do a lot of the lifting when he was home. Jenna must have picked up on that.

A few days ago, I asked her to pick up her toys in the living room. She looked up at me with her right hand cupped on her neck as she tilted it to the side and said, "I can't pick those up Mommy because my neck hurts!" She did the same thing this morning when I asked her to pick up her books from the floor. Both times I had to keep myself from laughing in front of her because I didn't want her to think she could get away with it like I did!

She's a smart little stinker:)

A New Call

It is finally official! Mt. Olive has called Nate as their Sr. Pastor!

Nate was called here right out of seminary as the associate pastor and worked with a great mentor, Mike Gibson for a year. Mike recieved a call to Southern California in June and was gone in August. Nate has been the only pastor since then. For about four months, Nate has been leading our church through the transition and enjoying his new responsibility and the ability to try new things.

Mt. Olive really is an exceptional church with people who are willing to take a risk for the kingdom of God. Come on . . . they called Nate, who's only 30, as their sr. pastor! We are excited to be part of what's happening here and know that God has us right where He wants us.

Another blessing that comes along with this call is that we get to buy our own home. Or part of a home! We will enter into an equity share with the congregation , so we hope to be in a new house sometime soon! We've moved four times in seven years of marriage and we absolutely despise the whole proces of moving. But, somehow this will be lots of fun knowing that are not renting anymore. Our money goes towards something . . . and we can paint the walls any color we want:)

Vacation!

It's been a while since my last post . . . sorry. We have a good excuse though. We were on vacation! Two, actually!

First, we went to Michigan for my friend, Katrina's wedding, and visited family too. It was a whirlwind trip, but so wonderful to be a part of Katrina's wedding and catch up with old friends and family.

Travelling is hard with kids though. Someone is always sick. Last time it was an ear infections and the stomach flu. This time Abby got another ear infection and Jenna got carsick twice. Not big deals, but pains on vacation.

The relaxing vacation came afterwards. My mom came home with us and stayed with the girls for five days while we went to Palm Springs with our good friends, the Lexows whom we met on vicarage in Houston and love dearly. The above picture is of me and Tamara. We had a blast. We sat by the pool, ate out a lot, and drank wine without worrying about being pregnant or nursing. (If you know me and Tamara, for our whole friendship, one of us has either been pregnant or nursing and having wine together was never an option).

Both vacations were awesome, but we're thankful to be home and back into a routine. Isn't it amazing what going three timezones away with kids does to you?

Peace out (as Jenna would say)

Friday Fives

Things I Can't Live Without
( I actually could live without them, they are just things I really enjoy.)

1. Dark Chocolate
2. Coke (as in Coca-Cola)
3. DSL
4. Our minivan
5. DVR (TiVo type feature on our tv)

Coloring With Red Marker Seems To Run In The Family

This is my niece, Alayna. She and Jenna must have talked about using red marker to color on things that shouldn't be colored on:)

A Little Cutie

Abby is almost six months old, and as each month passes, her little personality develops more and more. When she was first born, I thought she would be a calm, reserved little girl because everything she did was at her own slow pace and she was such a little cuddler with me.

I am being proven wrong every day! She is a ball of energy, a social little butterfly, and loves to laugh! One of my greatest joys is to watch Abby and Jenna interact.

Jenna loves to push Abby in her swing and they both just giggle themselves silly! Abby has an Exersaucer that she LOVES! Jenna loves it just as much because she stands on the outside when Abby is playing. She plays with her and does her best to make Abby laugh!

I know that my girls will not always get along, but for now it is such a joy to see their precious little smiles as they play with each other and to hear Jenna say, "Mommy, I wuv Abby."

A Little Artist

My sister-in-law has told me several times that she has had trouble with her kids drawing on the walls. I always laughed and thought that we were lucky because Jenna had yet to do something like that.

Our time came today. I was doing dishes with my back turned and Nate was changing Abby. Seriously, in a matter of a minute and a half, Jenna used the red dry erase marker to color all over two walls, the front of the refrigerator, and the front of our wooden cabinets. When I realized what had happened, I didn't know if I should laugh or be angry.

I laughed.
Nate was angry.
Then I called my sister-in-law to ask her advice on how best to clean up Jenna's drawings:)

Friday Fives

My friend, Jocelyn, pointed out that I haven't done Friday Fives since the first time, so here's another installment. I know it's Thursday night, but I'll forget tomorrow!

These are my five favorite shows from when I was growing up. Feel free to add your own in the comments. These are in no particular order.

1. Beverly Hills 90210
2. The Cosby Show
3. Knight Rider
4. The Jeffersons
5. Alf

Monsters

I have been up since 4:30am today trying to convince Jenna that monsters do not live in her room. She thinks the shadows are monsters and jumped at every little sound in the house when I laid in her bed with her last night. She also continues to tell me that ducks and chickens were there too. Not sure where that came from, but it makes me wonder what's going on in her head.

Any suggestions on how to get her to sleep and not be afraid of monsters in her room?

Binky Breaker Part 2

Jenna screamed for about a half and hour last night. We heard some phrases like,
"Mommy broke all of my binkies!"

"Oh, I need my binkies."

"My daddy will buy new binkies for me."

"I love binkies."

Nate couldn't take it after a while, and took her a stack of her movie cases that she loves to play with. Don't ask, she's just obsessed with looking at the pictures on the front and making up stories about them. She often tries to get us to let her sleep with them. We thought the movies would replace the comfort of the binky.

It worked. Jenna was asleep in no time. Hopefully, this is the end of the binkies!

Binky Breaker

I am a binky breaker.

Last week I took Jenna to the dentist for the first time, and even though we got no where because she refused to open her mouth, I became motivated to get rid of the binky. As I was filling out her paperwork, there was a question asking about "mouth habits." Basically, it was a list of things a 2 1/2 year old shouldn't be doing or have--like the binky. I had to write that yes, she still had a pacifier.

So, tonight, I cut the end of her pacifiers (leaving one in tact just in case we cave). I gave one to her and she immediately told me that it was broken. She, of course, asked for her other ones and I told her they were broken too. That little smarty pants asked to see all of them. So, I brought her one more and left the one in reserve in hiding.

At first, she seemed okay to just hold the binkies, but then she got really upset and started crying because "Mommy broke her binkies." How did she know that I cut the end of them?!?

Nate and I are trying to be strong, but she's still in her room crying her head off because Mommy broke her binkies. I'll let you know tomorrow how things go.

Care Calendar

For those of you in ministry, I found this resource on a friend's blog that turns out to be very useful and something we'll be implementing in our church. It's called a CareCalendar and can be found at www.carecalendar.org. CareCalendar is a web based system to organize efforts to help families during a time of illness or after a life changing event, such as the birth of a baby or death of a family member. CareCalendar can also be used for long term situations, including homebound and respite care needs. It's worth checking out!

Ghirardelli Chocolate

Jenna and I love Ghirardelli chocolate. Especially the dark chocolate. At Target today, there were bags of the little squares on sale for $2, so of course, I had to get one. We each had one when we got home.

Jenna's been asking me for more ever since we ate our first one, but I kept saying no. I finally said, "Jenna, you can have one if you finish all your dinner tonight."

Jenna replied,"Oh thank you my mommy! I'll eat my dinner and get chocolate and if you eat your dinner too, you'll get chocolate too! I'll be so proud of you!"

The Potty Song

I have never been fond of hearing about other childrens' potty training experiences, and I never thought this would be exciting for me, but I have a 2 1/2 year old and it's a big part of our world at this point.

Jenna started potty training a few months ago and did REALLY WELL until a few weeks ago. It was like she just flipped a switch and was trained! She's been on a potty training strike for a few weeks now which is entirely frustrating because I know she can do it.

Yesterday at church, she successfully went in the nursery, and she knew how proud of her I was. I sang the potty song--one Nate made up a while ago. I don't know the tune, but it sounds like some sort of song you would do the Congo dance to. "Pee pee in the potty. Pee pee in the potty. Pee pee in the potty. PEE PEE! POTTY!" Jenna loves to sing that song and up until yesterday, never sang it in public.

We walked out of the bathroom into the lobby area of the church with many church members around and she sang the potty song as loud as she could and at the end added, "I went potty, just like Mommy!"

I was mortified.

How many kids?

We've had a really busy few weeks and I had about 45 minutes today when both girls were sleeping and I could vege out and watch TV. I found myself watching this show on the Discovery Channel about this family who has 16 kids. It was pretty intriguing--a trip to the grocery store costs $700 and they have bus to transport the family around. They are a Christian family who sees each child as a blessing from God! It got me thinking about the number of children we might have. And, of course, that is a popular topic these days.

Nate is the oldest of 8 children, and I have a twin brother. We get the question all the time . . . "So, do want 8 children like Nate's mom too?" (And for the record, she really wanted 19). The other question I get is if we want to try to have a boy due to the fact that we have two daughters. I never really know how to answer that question because I don't really know how I feel yet.

Nate and I are leaning more towards the idea of being done having children, but even writing that makes me a little bit sad. Neither of us feel the need to have another baby for the sole reason of having a boy. We're perfectly content with our two princesses. The big thing for us is that we want to be able to financially provide for Jenna and Abby. If they want to be dancers or chess champions, we want to be able to give them those opportunities and not let money hold us back. We want them to go to college and go on family adventures and someday help with weddings:) I guess in a nutshell, we don't want to have more children than we can afford.

On the other hand, I'm not sure our family really is complete yet. I don't know when I'll know that because Abby is so young, but thinking about not having more babies around is sad. Our children are such a blessing to us and we know that God has given us a special gift in them. And even if we had ten more children, I know that God would take care of us (we made it through seminary!) and bless our family.

So, am I not trusting God enough, being selfish, or being practical?

I don't know who really reads this, but I'd be interested to hear about how others feel about this subject.

Friday Fives

I thought it would be fun to have something that I post every Friday called Friday Fives. Each Friday, I'll post a list of five of something. We'll start with my five favorite songs. This could very well change tomorrow. However, I'm pretty sure that the first three will always be the same. In order, they are:

1. Anna Begins-Counting Crows
2. Ghost-Indigo Girls
3. Crash Into Me-Dave Matthews Band
4. I'm Movin' On-Rascal Flatts
5. Cowboy Take Me Away-The Dixie Chicks

Cereal Blob

Abby's been eating cereal for a few weeks now, and absolutely loves it! She cries if I don't feed her fast enough in between bites and always wants more. So far, this cereal thing has worked out well for us. She's a happy baby at night and sleeps about 6 hours in a row now. It's wonderful.

Something happened during cereal feeding time that I can't figure out. I was wondering if you all could give some suggestions about how this might have happened. I was feeding Abby in the bouncer while Jenna was in the bathtub. I put a spoonful of cereal in Abby's mouth and then turned around to turn the water off in the tub for Jenna. When I turned back around I saw this big blob of cereal on Abby's head. (See the top left picture).

Now, I'm pretty sure that there wasn't any cereal on the spoon that might have fallen off and landed on her forehead when I turned around to help Jenna and I just can't figure out how this cereal blob got on Abby's forehead. Any thoughts?

Needless to say, Abby wasn't happy about the cereal blob. I included another picture of her being cute to offset the screaming cereal blob picture.

Any thoughts on how this could have happened would be much appreciated.

Happy 30th Birthday Nate!

Yesterday was Nate's 30th birthday and we celebrated by going up to San Francisco and seeing the musical Rent with some friends. Tonight, we're going with a bunch of our friends for swing dance lessons and dancing afterwards! Should be an awesome time!

Here are a few pictures of Nate as a baby. Isn't he so cute?


Happy birthday sweetheart and I thank God for your dedication to Him and for the wonderful life we have together with Jenna and Abby. You are a gift to us!

Gotta love 2 1/2 year olds

The other day, I told Jenna that I loved her. She said, "Oh, thank you Mommy. That's way cool!" Where did she learn "way cool" from?

Today, Jenna was eating lunch at the table which consisted of chicken nuggets, with ketchup of course, and applesauce. I was doing other things and not really paying much attention to her. She asked me if she could go in the bathtub and I said that bathtub time was for later.

Maybe not.

When I got a look at her, she had ketchup and applesauce all up and down her arms and legs. Apparently she was putting "sunscreen" on:)

Bathtime just got moved up.

Weather Anger

I swore that I'd never write about the weather, but the heat is getting a little bit ridiculous in these parts. We've been hovering right around 100 degrees for about a week now, and when I checked the weather for the next week, the next few days are going to be between 103 and 105. That flat out just makes me angry, especially since we don't have air-conditioning in our house.

When we moved here, everyone said that it rarely gets above 85 and that living here doesn't requre air-conditioning because even if it gets hotter than that, we don't have any humidity and it's just never unbearable. Well . . . it's been unbearable for a week and there's no break in sight.

I shouldn't complain though. Our friends in Arizona and Texas deal with this stuff all the time. And even though we don't have air conditioning for these few miserable weeks, we don't have to cool our house any other time of the summer. I think I've just become spoiled by such awesome weather here in San Jose.

I still want air conditioning though.

I still think it's too blazing hot.

And I think this warrants a trip to Target or the mall (or both) to get out of the heat:)

A big change in our lives

We've been here in San Jose for about a year now. And for that year, we've had the privilege to know the Gibsons. Mike, who was the Sr. Pastor here for 19 years (give or take), recently accepted a call to Southern California. Mt. Olive has been incredibly blessed by his love for God, the lost, and his awesome leadership skills. Christ Lutheran Church in Costa Mesa will be equally as blessed as he begins his service there in the coming month. Mike and Kathy have been mentors to us in so many ways, but especially to Nate as he evolves and grows as a leader.

So, what's the big change? We're not entirely sure. We do know that Nate is the only pastor here for a while and our lives are a lot busier! Nate is excited about the challenge and the opportunity to work with such an awesome staff. (All the program staff are females and younger than he is!)

Please pray for us in this transition and for the Gibsons as they continue to faithfully serve God in a new place.

Blossom Came Home!

As many of you know, Jenna has had her "Blossom" since she was born and loves her dearly. Blossom goes most everywhere that Jenna goes and has a special place in the Hartke family. Last Friday, we went out to run some errands and when we got home I realized that Blossom was no where to be found. I searched high and low, but no Blossom. I finally concluded that Blossom must have been lost in our grocery store, Safeway, or possibly in the parking lot of Safeway. We were all so sad--I think Nate and I just as much as Jenna!

Luckily, Blossom is a form of a Beanie Baby, and although she is retired, I was able to order one. So, for the week that Blossom was gone, we told Jenna that she was on vacation and was coming home in the airplane. She arrived via UPS today, and when Jenna first saw Blossom, she was beside herself with joy! She said, "Look Mommy, Blossom came home to me!"

How precious.

Welcome home Blossom!

Here We Go!

Okay, so I have been thinking about creating a blog for a long time now, but have been afraid to do it. I'm afraid that I won't have anything interesting to write about. Then we went on vacation. The first week was great, but the second week was not so great. Two words--stomach flu. We were so happy to be home! We're really starting to feel like this is home and comfortable for us. I am no longer thinking every second of how far we live from everyone we know and being upset about it. God placed us here, we are in a great church, and we are happy. We'd like to share our lives with friends and family members who are so far away, and this seemed like a great way. So, enjoy!