Never a Dull Moment

We like to joke about there never being a dull moment in the Stoops' household. Well, another thing that apparently was not so dull was the glass that sliced & diced 10-month-old Brooke's hand last week...

Grace (almost 3 years old now) had been battling a persistent fever that she couldn't seem to shake, so we set up an apptmt to see the pediatrician. Just as Brad & Grace were pulling into the parking lot, the phone rang. Propitious timing, as it was Janelle phoning to tell Brad that Brooke had just gotten a bad cut and was bleeding badly. Walking into the doctor's office, Brad called for a nurse, who then talked to Janelle about what had happened while he was signing Grace in. Discovering that a bandaid was not a workable solution to this crisis, Brad put Grace's apppmt on hold, rushed back to the car, and headed for home. Once there, he & Grace picked up Janelle, Chloe & Brooke (Ellie was at school) and headed immediately to a nearby pediatric emergency care facility with Janelle holding a towel around Brooke's wrist to slow the bleeding. As we'd already realized, immobilizing a baby can be a challenge; it took a couple of hours with Brad assisting the 2 doctors as they cleaned Brooke's wounds and stitched her up (living in Central Asia provided great expreience for dealing with these type of situations). Praise God - no apparent damage to nerves or ligaments.

Once she was stitched up, Brooke seemed none the worse for the experience. As if to declare her disgust at being immobilized during the ordeal, she finally started crawling later that day. The ways she's going, she might punctuate the removal of her stitches later this week with her first steps...!

Grace's health also improved enough later that day that she enjoyed sneaking into our room to play dress-up with Janelle's jewelry, which she climbed on top of a dresser to reach. Discovering they were missing, Janelle's first thought was maybe they went down the kitchen drain, or got lost in the washing machine. Then she remembered, "Of course! I'm the mother of a 2-year-old!" After a very frantic night and day of scouring the house (including sorting through the garbage & recycling bins), we were very relieved to finally find Janelle's wedding rings safely tucked inside the hidden pocket of a play purse under her sister's bed. One side benefit of all this was the intensive spring cleaning that the situation mandated (if you're ever lacking motivation to clean and organize your house top to bottom, consider giving something very valuable to your 2-year-old...).

As we said, there's never a dull moment in the Stooops' house!

Celebrating 95 Years...

The girls enjoyed the chance to visit with their Grandma Gigi (Great Grandma Stoops) at her 95th birthday party. At 95, Grandma still enjoys her daily chocolate and is a serious contender in a game of Rook! Those things in mind, following are Billie Stoops' pearls of wisdom:

Pearls of Wisdom

• Always set the table first so that when your husband comes home, he thinks dinner is almost ready.
• Eat a little chocolate every day. Eat your candy slowly so that it can last a long time.
• Always tithe and always budget. Wait to purchase something until you can pay for it. Save a little money each month and put it in a sock to use as mad money.
• Love someone the most when they seem unlovable.
• This too shall pass! Give it the water treatment! The more the merrier! NO is a beautiful word.
• Never pass up a game of Rook or a chance to have a piece of chocolate silk pie with a hot cup of coffee.

Words of wisdom from a Godly woman with 52 sons, dauthters-in-law, grandkids and great grandkids (and about that many more foster kids!). Happy birthday, Grandma!

Family Reunion

The Stoops family had a great reunion this past weekend for my grandmother's 95th birthday. Great reason to come together and celebrate! Just about all of her children & grandchildren traveled from around the country for the weekend. Grandma has quite a legacy, and we know she felt blessed having all of us gathered to celebrate with her.

Beach Beauties

Elise, Grace, Chloe

This past weekend we were back in southern California to join 2 days of festivities to honor my grandmother on her 95th birthday. Time was short, but we couldn't resist a quick run to Torrance Beach to dip our feet in the water and search for seashells (Ellie & Chloe have really gotten into this - doesn't matter what color or how broken the shell is; it's all about size!). The tide was low and perfect for our little ones to have some fun.

Dig In!

One of the many highlights of our Easter weekend in CA was joining twin pals Samuel & Caleb for their 4th birthday party. It was a bug party. Bugs everywhere. A bug guy even came with his amazing bug collection and a robotic inchworm. The fun continued with a bug dig - dishes of gooey jello filled with bugs and other little critters. Ellie (left, with Chloe just behind her) was first up in her group, and, after overcoming her disdain for bugs, finally dove in and resurfaced with a snake and a frog. What a catch!

After some last minute change in plans, we found ourselves back in CA for Easter weekend. After a great morning service at our home church, RHCC, we drove out to Alhambra to celebrate with Janelle's brother, Dave, and his family (his wife Anne is pictured here on the left, their mom in the center next to Janelle), plus their parents and sister Christa and her family. We continue to be very thankful for family, and for how much our family is committed to one another.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter, too. Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!

Brooke - Easter 2008

Brooke, who turned 9 months old on April 1, continues be a source of great delight to everyone around her! Janelle went to pick her up at Sunday School last Sunday and the childcare workers were taking pictures of her while she slept. We still often get asked if we've tried to market photos of her. If you know a good agent, or hear of a good photo contest, Brooke's college savings fund would appreciate hearing from you :-) As my friends back in Azerbaijan used to say, "There's a little bit of truth in every joke!" That may be so, but most of all we simply delight in the great joy that Brooke brings to others. We hope this photo will put a smile on you today.
- Brad

Feathered Friends

This past Saturday, sandwhiched between our usual early breakfast (our girls are early risers!) and Ellie's dance class, we piled into the car and headed off to the Riparian Preserve just a few miles down the road from us here in Gilbert, AZ for the annual Feathered Friends festival. The weather was fabulous and there was tons for the kids to do - crafts (making masks, bird feeders, etc.), animals, activitives, etc. We only had a brief time to enjoy all that they had to offer, but one of the highlights for the girls was getting to hold some of the beautiful birds on exhibit (see below). Grace, who at 2 1/2 years of age is still a bit uncertain about whether she likes animals, surprised me by touching a large gopher snake as well as a fairly large lizard. Fun times for all!

Long Overdue!

Perhaps Janelle's favorite gift on her birthday was a UCLA license plate frame. It may not endear us to the local ASU population, but she'll definitely enjoy scooting around town a bit more knowing that she's sporting some Bruin pride!

Happy Birthday, Janelle!

Janelle enjoyed an awesome 1st birthday here in AZ this weekend. The girls awoke early (6am) as usual, which gave us some time to decorate the kitchen area with streamers and then head out to pick up some special breakfast treats along with a bouqet of carnations (a very long-lasting birthday tradition). It was fun to watch the girls get so into the preparations, including deciding to hid behind the sofas so they could yell "Surprise!" when Janelle came down for breakfast. Very fun! The day was enjoyed from beginning to end. We look forward to more special memories here in our new home in the AZ desert.

Visit with Jui

We continue to be blessed with visitors here in AZ. Who'd have known that the Phoenix area would prove to be such a hot spot for reconnecting with family & friends?! Our most recent visitor was Janelle's dear friend from UCLA, Jui, who was in town for the weekend. Janelle was able to enjoy some wonderful time with her, first doing a pottery project at As You Wish, then for a birthday dinner at Olive Garden and cake & presents back at our place.

Uncle Keith

Uncle Keith is always a hit with girls (and with us!) so we were excited when he called last week to let us know that he'd be in town for a few days for work. We finally got to see him briefly on Sunday. The girls enjoyed some good park time with him and an early dinner before he had to jet back to So.Cal. We've been very blessed, and surprised, to see an assortment of extended family members and friends since moving here a couple of months ago. We hope many more of you will come pay us a visit! For you baseball fans, this area is quickly becoming the spring training mecca for pro baseball teams, so come on down! You may just find yourself featured right here on our blog site!

Our 4 LIttle Princesses

We took this shot just after Christmas while we were still in CA. Grandpa & Grandma Stoops gave all 4 girls matching outfits, and, thanks to the continuous shooting mode on Brad's camera, we were able to catch them all smiling for the camera at the same time (unlike the shot below, this one took more than 1 try!). We continue to be amazed by how often we are stopped and asked if we have twins or even triplets, even when they aren't wearing matching clothes!

 

A Nana Hug on Her Birthday

Still playing catch-up here with the photos... This was a shot of Ellie on her recent 6th birthday, enjoying a hug from her Nana, who gave her a beautiful musical box that reveals a dancing ballerina when you open it up. Ellie was THRILLED to have her Nana fly into town to make her birthday just a little more special!

Brooke Does Food

4 kids into parenting, a baby's first time eating solid food is still a mandatory photo op! Brooke started chowing on baby food back in January (yes, I'm a bit late posting the photo!) and is eating like a pro now. Except for the little chunks of bananas that we just started giving her. Those mostly make the route from hand to mouth to high chair, where they eventually make their way under Brooke's bottom and are transformed from a solid into a gooey, near-liquid substance. But thus far she is not launching food, or face painting with it, so we'll enjoy this stage while we can ;-)

Pudding Art

My apologies at the outset that there is no accompanying photo for this post, for "a picture is worth 1,000 words." But in this case, Janelle does a pretty fine job with her words, and I think you'll enjoy reading! - Brad

The material for these musings on motherhood is from my day Saturday. It all began when I was reading through an email from my sister, Christa and my niece, Kate entitled "Things I would love to know about you." Question #34 read "What are you listening to right now?" At the time I read that question I was listening to the sound of the mop swish over the kitchen floor as my husband mopped it for the third time that night.

It had all started a few weeks earlier when I was listening to a seminar on "The high calling of motherhood" at my church. The speaker that particular day was talking about enjoying your children. She said that she was a "fun mom" and that when her kids were growing up she had let them finger paint with pudding on the kitchen floor, and then would give them a bath, put them to bed, and mop the kitchen floor. "I want to be a fun mom, too," I thought, and tucked the idea away for just the right time. That time arrived on Saturday night. After a fun day with our four girls, Elise (6), Chloe (4), Grace (2) and Brooke (7 months), they were ready for a bath and bed. Grace is learning not to walk around with her sippy cup, but the learning process has been a slow one, and the floor is covered with dirty spots from where she has spilled her juice. (Evidently our sippy cups aren't spill-proof!) Dirty kids, dirty floor, it was the perfect recipe for fun, or so I thought.

The girls enjoyed painting with the pudding, but were soon ready for their bath. I told them not to move and ran upstairs to get their bath ready. That was my first mistake. I heard shouts and giggles as I started the water. Hurrying as fast as I could, I came downstairs to find that the girls had stepped in the pudding, and were sliding over the floor, thus taking our nicely contained art project and spreading it all over the floor with vanilla pudding. They had also grabbed the refrigerator and cupboards, thus extending the canvas of our art onto more than just the floor. I wiped them off the best I could, and sent them upstairs. I felt a twinge of guilt knowing that they would be getting into the tub without any supervision, but what could I do? The pudding had to be wiped off before they scurried up the carpeted stairs, and I could only wipe down one girl at a time. Elise, then Chloe headed upstairs, and finally Grace and I followed. The pudding sat. Clean girls, fresh jammies, brushed hair and teeth, and all were ready for bed. I nursed the baby, put the other three to bed, and then headed downstairs where I was greeted by.... pudding.

Sensing things were going to get messy, I put my hair up into a pony tail, got out the mop, hot water, and the Mop N Glo. I started in the kitchen, moved to the dining room, out to the entry way, then down a few stairs to the bathroom and laundry room, swishing, rinsing, and scrubbing as I went. All was well, or so I thought. About a half an hour later my husband returned from running some errands. As he put the bags down on the counter he said "That's funny, my shoes are sticking." "What?" I cried in astonishment, "it can't be!" I took a few trial steps to see for myself. But his first judgment was correct, and the floor was indeed what can only be described as sticky.

It seems that by starting in the kitchen, where the bulk of the pudding "artwork" was, I managed to actually spread the pudding over the entire floor. Exhausted, I sank down on the couch while my dear husband picked up the mop and bucket and set out to mop the floor again.... and then again. We awoke this morning and headed downstairs. As I grabbed a bowl for oatmeal, my sock stuck to the tile. I may be killing their dream of being an artist, I may never be able to describe myself as a 'fun mom', but there will be no more pudding art in this house!

- Janelle

Family Portrait - Feb 17, 2008

Ok, now this one was hard to believe... Several times a year we attempt to capture a good photo of our entire family. Typically we enlist the support of Janelle's parents or a friend, try to time the photo just right so that nap times (or the need for them) don't interfere, and think of something really creative to do to try to get our 4 little ones to all look at the camera at the same time and smile (we'd usually settle for having them look at the camera even without a smile!). A typical photo shoot will include about 15,000 photos, from which we hope to find one keeper. So imagine our surprise last Sunday when I threw up my tripod out back, lined up the girls, pressed the self-timer, ran to join the family, and then discovered that we captured this beauty of a photo on the very first attempt? Miracles do happen!
Note: If you want a copy, click on the photo below to load the full resolution image.

Backyard Photo Op

Grace, Ellie, Chloe
Feb 17, 2008

Happy 6th Birthday, Ellie!

Feb 1, 2008

Ellie hit the big old milestone of 6 years of age on Feb 1 (minus her top 2 front teeth!). We enjoyed a fun little morning celebration, then a full party later that night at Chuck E Cheese with a crew of her new girlfriends from school. We were especially grateful that Janelle's mom was able to fly out to join us for the celebration!

4 Sisters

Just a quick pic of our 4 little blondes!