Oh hey.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Up until Saturday, I had two children under the age of two, so…there’s THAT. And my main mode of internetiness is an iPad, and I am ROUGH at typing on that thing. So here I am, camped out at my mom’s where they have a fancy desktop! So I am going to knock out a much needed update post.

Let’s start with our newest member,
Mr. Thatcher Stephen Saldanha.

• Brother, brother, brother. How you melt me, young sir. He is such a sweet, contented little baby. He’s only waking up about once or twice in the night to eat, and the only way we know he’s hungry is because he starts to make very polite squeaks. “Excuse me, mama? Can I trouble you for some milk?”
• He sleeps like a champ.
• He eats like a champ.
• He pees and poops like a champ.
• He takes after his father. (see all of the above. ALL)
• He is MAJORLY loved by his big sissie. We haven’t encountered any jealousy issues. The girl ADORES her little bruver. She has brushed his “teeth”, sings to him, talks to him in a very high pitched voice, and has given him many love-scratches. (We are working on being gentle.) Just the other day, I was getting ready in the bathroom and Brother was hanging out in his bouncy seat. As far as I knew, Sis was reading or whatever, until I hear, “Mama come! Come, mama! I DID it! I did it! Hooray!” I go in, and she had DONE it! She had successfully climbed INTO his bouncy seat and was laying ON TOP of her brother! In a panic, I pulled her off of him, only to find him serenely gazing up at me. (Rememeber this visual, as it will come in to play twice more in this blog)
  
• Thatcher, or Brother, as his OFFICIAL name is turning out to be, is such a sweet lump. We are so blessed by what a chill baby he is. Because we have our hands full with Sweet Sis!

Miss Eisley Christine Saldanha

• Miss Baby just turned TWO years old! She is an absolute JOY to be around. If you’ve been around her at all, you have heard her vocabulary which is INSANE. She talks ALL the time, and the words that come out of her mouth, I’m like, “Where did you learn that?” I love hearing her SENTENCES. I am loving having conversations with my daughter! Weird and wonderful.
• She loves putting on makeup, painting her toenails, having pones in her hair, and nursing Doma. From her belly button. I’m afraid Doma is going tobe a touch malnourished. But on top of her oh so feminine ways, Miss E also loves motorcycles, collecting rocks, and smearing her poop on her bed. So…yeah. I wish I could capture how talkative this girl is. And observant! And delightful! She is starting to realize that she can make people laugh and whatever initially gets a laugh gets repeated over and over and over again. She is known to exclaim, “Oh my WORD!” and “Oh my GIDNESS! (goodness)” Just today when I put her egg salad sandwhich down in front of her (yeah, I know), she yelled, “Oh my WOOORD!!!!” So, SOMEONE was grateful for their lunch!
• On top of being a sheer and utter delight that leaves me laughing and shaking my head with joy, we have also entered a very rough time of “The Twos”…okay fine…”The Terrible Twos.” Tantrums, incessant tears, “Stop its!” and “NOOOs” have unfortunately become an every day occurance. I’m not one for putting on airs and pretending everything’s hunky dory, so let me tell you it’s been TOUGH. Sometimes it’s like I’m raising two different girls. We had a fit yesterday at Grey’s Lake, and of course we were about a half mile from our car, so the ONLY thing to do was push a screaming toddler back to the car through throngs of people.  I’m pretty sure some thought I was abducting her, seeing as I was struggling to strap her into her seat among shouts of “Stop it! I want my mommy!” Cooool…
  I checked on brother in the seat next to her in the double stroller, thinking he would be bothered by her screams, only to find him serenely gazing up at me. (See? There it is again!) We were laughing last night saying that Brother, with his hands folded sweetly under his chin, looked up at me as I peered at him in his car seat, WINKED, and said, “I wrote you an encouraging note, Mom.”
  So, we’re working on praising and rewarding good behavior, redirecting her when it seems like a fit’s upon us, and remaining consistent in disciplining her when she doesn’t obey first time. We’re seeing some fruit in this – glimpses of immediate obedience, a repentant spirit, and the desire to the right thing. So, WORTH it, yes, but oh my WOOOORD, is it tough!
• Aaand…she’s super cute.

C & K Saldanha

• So, we’re doing well! I’m exhausted as all get out, but over all, doing well. Especially since brother eats so fast at night and falls back asleep quickly, I KNOW we are getting much more sleep than we did when E was 7 weeks old. It’s been a challenge juggling nursing every 3 hours and wrangling a very busy toddler, but we’re getting the hang of it. If only I can figure out that DANG moby wrap! (Side story: I’m hesitant to use it as a few weeks ago, I thought I had him strapped on me pretty tightly, but turns out he kind of slipped to the side. No problem, except when I rounded a corner, I bashed his head against the wall. So I stopped moby wrapping for awhile. You know, just to give his SKULL a chance to de-swell.)
  
• Chris and I have had the opportunity to lead worship together at our new church. This has been SO much fun, especially since I am loving seeing him LEAD lead, like welcome everyone, open in prayer, briefly talk about the message, etc. He’s so gifted in this, it’s awesome. I’m working at getting over my nervousness of being on stage as me. I know that sounds weird, but give me a wig and an accent, and I’ll do whatever you want, no prob. But when it’s KATIE up there, uuuuggghhh….
• C LOVES his new job at Integer and has had a lot of responsibility right off the bat. But with that also comes really late nights the past two weeks. He figured he clocked about 70 hours last week. And if you know Chris, you know that his SUPER PRIORITY is his fam, and it killed him to be there so long. We could tell. He would call and check in all the time and invited us to come visit during his late hours, as he couldn’t leave.
  
  (ANOTHER side story: back around Easter, Integer held an Easter Egg Hunt for their employees with children. We took E & T and E was a little standoffish when the guy dressed up as the Easter Bunny came around. She refused to give him a hug but instead stood at a distance, waved, and called “Hi over there!”So now, all you have to say is Integer, and she’ll say, “Easto Bunny, no hug, dus HI OVO DEYO!” Try it. You’ll like it.)
  
• The awesome family we live with (I’ll have to blog more about them sometime), told us that a requirement to living with them is that Chris and I HAVE to have a weekly date night. So once a week, E & T hang out with their big “brother” Josiah and their two big “sisters” Claire and Elley, and they all put them to bed while Chris and I have some time together. It’s so awesome. I look forward to it every week. Last night we hit up Americana for dinner and Baru 66 for dessert. Yum and yum.
• I’m learning to take things all in stride. FOR example. Let me tell you about our day last Wednesday. I decide to take my Sugars over to the lagoon by the old science center. There’s a little deck that wraps all the way around the pond so you can stroll around leisurely. Which was the plan. On one side of the walkway there’s a railing and the other side is open with about a foot, foot and a half dropoff into some prairie grass. We had just started on our journey of discovery when I spotted a fairly large hairy spider on the railing. So E and I walked over to look at it. I’m not sure what caught my attention, but I look over, and Brother’s stroller is rolling away from us toward the grassy dropoff. I couldn’t get there in time and it rolls OFF the walkway, ONTO the grass, and FLIPS UPSIDE DOWN! My coffee goes flying, my purse is strewn all in the grass, AND BROTHER IS UPSIDE DOWN IN THE STROLLER! I freak out, and run over, and yank it back up on to the deck. Eisley is crying as am I, thinking T has hit his head or has popped out of his buckle and is lying in the grass. I throw back his car seat cover only to find him serenely gazing up at me.  (#3!)  I was just shaking, but he was fine. I believe I had only had one sip of my latte, but oh well. Brother was still with us, so that’s all that mattered.  Eisley was worked up  (have I mentioned how alike we are?), so I let her jump in some puddles fully clothed. Because hey, let your kids get wet…they’re still alive aren’t they!??! What’s a little water? She got soaking wet, so I let her wear just her diaper home. About 20 minutes into the drive home, still reeling from seeing Thatcher’s stroller upside down, I realized that I had left Eisley’s jeans on the top of the car. I didn’t see them go sailing off as we sped away.
  We got a treat lunch that day. NEEDLESS to say.
  (Oh, and, my sweet dad went back the next day and FOUND EISLEY’S JEANS! They were a little rainsoaked, but I was sad I’d never see her grey skinny jeans again! Beacuse a girl GOTS to have her skinny jeans!)
  
• On a completely unrelated note, to ADD to our rough week last week, we got the saddest news of all – Chris’ sweet Grandma passed away unexpectedly on Thursday night. She was a feisty little lady who loved to play Wii bowling and had tons of friends at her retirement community where she was actually IN THE COMMERCIAL for it! She was a great lady with great stories.
  We’ll miss you, Grandma Lois! We love you!

Thatcher Stephen Saldanha!

Well, presenting him a month ago. Yeah, that’s right, Thatcher is already a month old and we have yet to blog about it. The thing is, we’ve been kind of busy. Starting a new job, moving in with the Sabino family, giving birth, raising a toddler . . . blogging falls by the wayside.

So here are photos of Mr. Thatcher. And, of course, we can’t forget his biggest, bestest sister. Miss Eisley has become quite the little lady. More on that to come.

Well, the time has come. Today is my last day at Publicis Healthware, tomorrow we move into the Sabino’s basement in West Des Moines, and Monday I start at the Integer Group.

A couple months ago, I started writing a post about why all of this is happening. It turned more into a novel than a blog post, so I abandoned ship. Maybe someday I’ll publish the novel, but here’s the clifnotes version.

In December, our friends Paul and Jenni Sabino decided to move with their kids to the Waukee area to become a part of the pastoral team at Westwind Church. Paul had been a pastor at our church in Ames (Cornerstone Church) in a lot of capacities. He became the college pastor my freshman year at ISU, family pastor, weekend preaching, etc. A couple years ago, Cornerstone helped plant Westwind, and now they were looking for a new head pastor. Paul accepted the position, then called us.

Two weeks before Paul called me and asked if we would consider uprooting our comfortable life and head to Des Moines, Katie and I had this conversation: what would it take for us to be comfortable moving to Des Moines? We love our community in Ames. Cornerstone is amazing, I have a great job, our friends are fantastic. But we knew we’d always move back to Des Moines some day. It came down to one thing. If there were a group of people from Cornerstone committed to planting a church in Des Moines, we’d jump on board. So maybe it’s not a church plant. And maybe it’s a bit further west than we imagined. But obviously God listened.

So without a job offer and without knowing the logistics of selling a house and moving with a (now 38-week!) pregnant wife and toddler, we said, “Yes!” I won’t lie, it’s really tough. We have a great thing going here in Ames. How we have become a part of Cornerstone over the last 5-10 years has been amazing. We love our friends so much. We are in a great rhythm of life. But we also know that life brings change, and every now-and-then you are given an opportunity that you have to take.

But why move to Des Moines? First and foremost, we know God is moving there. Sure, He may be moving us there, but He is at work. This might sound strange to some, but it is our belief that our primary objective in life is to show the love of Jesus to people. Not to brainwash, not to beat people over the head with guilt, but to love people and serve them like Jesus loved us and served us. Right now, Waukee is exploding. God is moving and we’re excited to be a part of something at the ground level.

Our family is there. We always knew we’d want to move closer to family. It sounds silly, but being 45 minutes away is just far enough that you have to make a plan to visit. Especially when Eisley was younger, when we had to consider naps and feedings and schedules. Now that brother is almost here, we know the grand parents will appreciate a 5-minute trek to come say, “Hi.”

There’s so much more I want to say, but this isn’t the time nor the place. We have been a part of Westwind Church since January, and it’s steadily feeling more like home. Katie and I have jumped into music, and I’m sure drama and the rest of the arts will soon follow. After this weekend, we’ll finally be IN Des Moines, working and living, and it’s going to feel strange. The Sabino’s have graciously offered to let us live in their lush basement apartment. I start a new job Monday that I’m incredibly excited about. But it will seem so foreign.

I don’t know if it’s maturity or necessity, but I’ve found that I’m not so nostalgic these days. We committed to moving, it’s finally happening, and I’m ready to be there. It will be good to be fully connected to the community we are striving to be a part of and to help grow.

So definitely pray for us. Katie has graciously followed my lead, though I know at times she probably thinks I’m an insensitive jerk (and at times, I probably am!). Eisley has been a champ, but a lot will change in the next 2 weeks. Her world will be completely rocked. Brother is coming. Oh, boy!

It’s often scary walking in faith, but I know this is nothing but good. Jesus came into the world through messed up circumstances. Though at times it’s tough, we are far from being born in a filthy trough and being despised by the world. To God be the glory!

This warms my heart like you would not believe.

Growing up Catholic, you got pretty jaded with the motions of religion. Mass was a big production every week. Ashes, palms and giving up stuff I liked like t.v. and meat during the Easter season. Midnight mass on Christmas Eve when I really just wanted to be in bed.

But as a (hopefully) maturing believer and lover of Jesus, I’ve come to appreciate the “liturgy” we can infuse into our life of faith. By God’s grace, I have been able to see the horrific flaws of religion, and be moved to a love relationship that results in outward actions that reflect inner realities. Just like I love buying Katie flowers, I love doing things to show my love for Jesus. Sure, you can go through the motions of getting stuff for your wife because that’s what you’re supposed to do, just like Catholicism for me was going through the motions because someone told you that’s what you have to do to get close to God. But the more in love you are with your wife, the more you desire to do those spontaneous things to show your love. And now, the more I get to know and fall in love with Jesus, the more I desire to pray, fast, serve, give, celebrate and honor Him with all I have.

So here’s my problem with Lent. Even in the “evangelical” Christian world, we make it about duty rather than privilege. Today, all across the world, people are scrambling to find their thing to give up for the sake of giving something up. We’ve slipped back into religion.

Lent is supposed to be a time of preparation. Don’t just give something up to change your behavior, do something that will prepare your heart to enter into Jesus’s passion and triumphant ressurrection. I like to think of the days leading up to when I proposed to Katie.

What? What does engagement have to do with Lent? How about this: on the cross, Jesus proposed to us. Just like me offering Katie a ring to be united in marriage, Jesus strung Himself on a cross to propose an eternal marriage with us. Heaven is described as a wedding feast. The Church is described as the bride of Christ. And the only way to be in that relationship is to accept the proposal of the cross. Just like Katie accepted my ring.

So how did I prepare for the big question? Well, I gave up soda, of course. Sounds ridiculous, right? In actuality, I prepared myself with wise counsel, prayer, meditation, reflection, planning… and it took the form of giving some things up and starting to do some things that I hadn’t done before. Preparing to celebrate the fruition of Jesus’s ministry, His proposal to us, should cause us to stop and reflect. What does my life display? Does it show I’m married to myself, or Jesus?

This year, sure, give something up. But make sure you’re giving up religion as well.

Whoa whoa WHOA! What is HAPPENING?? A blog post?

That’s right. For the first time in a while, I am bored and E is still sleeping. The house is spotless – we have back-to-back showings this afternoon – so yes, it truly is spotless, as in things are hidden in the oven.

Everything on Pinterest was stupid, so here I am. I know that Chris is perfecting a lengthy post about the hows and whys of our upcoming move to DSM, but he said he got bored even writing it, so I’m sure THAT post will be on its way SOMETIME.

I wanted to hop on here and update everyone on that sweet, sweet girl of ours. It is no accident that she is twenty-fun months old. YESSSSS!!!! This girl is a freakin riot. She’s got a comedic bone (or 50) in her body and I am loving every second of it. We’re meandering out of the “NO MAMA!” stage and slowly making our way into the “SURE, Mama!” stage (which for some reason is always said in an octive about 3 times higher than her normal range). Here are some other goodies about Punkin:

1. She has named her buns. Seriously. She refers to her backside as her “booninis” like boo-nee-nee, but she always says it very Italian – “booNInis!”

2. She has a very VERY tender heart. I thought she was asleep yesterday afternoon and I dropped my cell phone in the room next to hers. All of a sudden I hear, “You okay, mama?” Love her.

3. She has quickly grown out of her shy stage and will talk to just about anyone.

4. When we’re doing something and I’ve decided I’m ready to be all done throwing the ball/reading the book/singing the song/putting product in our hair and I say, “Okay, oooone more time…” She’ll ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL come back, in an exact mimic of my voice, with her chubby little finger by her cheek and a huge smile on her face and say, “Okay, oooone more cookie…”

5. The girl wears tutus evuhreywhere!

6. She loves to be naked. Sometimes she’s naked but wearing a tutu as well.

7. She loves to do gymnastics…as in pushing herself up between the toilet and the tub and swinging her legs back and forth. Believe me, she’s HEARD my harrowing tale of the time I was doing that as a child with a pen in my mouth…”Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Mama…”

8. Girl calls us BY OUR FIRST NAMES! Not quite sure where THAT came from, but a while ago she popped out with, “Bye Chwis!” And then just lost it like she had just won Last Comic Standing. I have heard “WayAHoo, Katie??” (where are you, katie) from the other room. I didn’t respond. She ALSO has taken a fancy to nicknames, which has been something I’VE loved to do ever since I named my father Brentar, Master of the Universe when I was 8. She sometimes calls me Mamalee and Chris she calls Babaloo. It’s so great.

9. The girls a dancin fool. She’s also gotten quite good at a little shoulder shimmy shake when she’s strapped in a carseat/sitting in a chair. She’s gotta dance even when she’s sitting down. She’s got music in her soul.

10. She is so interested in family. As in, she is CONSTANTLY asking me to give the rundown of the names of her friend’s moms and dads, siblings and puppies.  She’s getting really good at knowing who’s YaYa’s mommy/daddy/puppy. (Although, she has a special place in her heart for that family, as do I).

11. Lately, she has been requesting to take books with her to nap time. Which is cool…I love that she loves to read. However, she’s not requesting StellaLuna or Playful Puppy or How Are You Peeling (which is hilarious and terrifying at the same time).
She’s selecting Dante, Vita Nuova, The Prayer of Jabez, and a Witness For The Prosecution. So THAT’S cool…

I know there are tons more, but I have a serious case of pregnant brain lately. I told Chris I was excited for him to get his new computer today.
He’s not getting one.
He’s getting a guitar.
I can’t finish thoughts and I also have been screwing up the order of my sentences. Nonsense, I tell you! So yeah, there are TONS more sweet sweet things about LoveFace. But I’m going to be done now. Here are two pics to make you smile. The first one makes my heart melt and the other one gives me immense, immense pleasure.

My two favorites, cuddled up on her “nest” watching Yo Gabba Gabba.

And E and her cousin Tate, who is only 10 months older than she is. Here they are, dancing together. Half naked. Tate’s face is priceless and I like to pretend that Eisley is doing her sweet shimmy moves towards him. Isn’t that what it looks like?

Wow, it’s been a while. Usually that’s a sign of chaos in our life, and this time of silence is no exception. So, here’s a quick update of what is happening in the life of the Saldanha’s.

As you can probably tell from the photo, Eisley Christine the Teeniest Bean is no longer teeny. In fact, she’s a big kid. Running, playing, singing, dancing, talking up a storm, making jokes, getting into everything… it’s amazing. Just the other day she asked for a bowl of toast for breakfast. She often requests to wear one of her many tutus, and wants Baba to play some of “her” songs on the guitar. Thankfully, she loves great music and worshipful music. It’s pure delight. We are past 20 months, and it seems like she’ll be 15 years old tomorrow. Yikes. Slow down, time. Thanks.

I’m sure most people know this by now, but we’re in the process of moving to Des Moines. There will be a detailed and incredibly long post about all of that later, but for now we’ll just keep it light. Our house has been on the market for a few weeks and we’ve had good traffic, but no offers. Equally disappointing has been the houses we’ve viewed so far. But hey, we can walk away with lovely memories and gems such as the smallest bathroom ever built.

Baby Brother is still chugging along. Honestly, we tend to forget about him throughout the day. It’s easy to get caught up in everything that’s going on and just not think about him because he’s not here. Then he sticks his elbow through Katie’s belly and she’s fully aware he’s here. Only two more months, and we can’t wait to meet him!

Baby Cousin Sloane arrived at the beginning of December. She’s lovely! Eisely adores her and still talks about how she cuddled Sloane with a pillow. Don’t worry, she didn’t smother her, the pillow was on her lap.

The elder Saldanha’s are hanging in there. Full disclosure: it’s been a rough couple weeks. I’m not afraid to expose the selfishness in myself and say that I have been the cause of much turmoil in our house. Circumstances have taken a toll on the ol’ Chris Spirit and I find myself discouraged a lot more than usual, which leads to conflict in our house. I think we’re getting better at it, but it’s safe to say this is one of the more challenging moments in our life together. If only to expose the ugliness in my heart and to be better at communicating with and serving each other, I’m thankful for this crazy time. It is such a good reminder of the brokenness that is all around us, and how amazing Jesus is. We destroy, He repairs. Daily. I want to be more like Him every day, and I’m sure Katie wouldn’t mind that, either.

In conclusion, pray for us. Please. PLEASE! We have a house we’d like to sell, a house we need to find, a toddler, a newbie-in-process, work, relationships to maintain, relationships to build, marriage, family… just lots of stuff.

But if this angel face tells me anything, it’s that we’ll be alright.

For Christmas, Eisley got a baby doll and aptly named her Doma. Seriously, we asked Eisley what the doll’s name was on multiple occasions and she refers to her as Doma. We think Eisley is going to love being a big sister.

Well, it’s been almost a month since I threw a baby shower for my sis and my very first NIECE. Sorry for the delay. Sometimes I forget about blogging.

I’ve decided that I absolutely love decorating and planning for parties. The food prep, however, not my fav. But if I could just team up with someone who loves doing food, we would have a pretty sweet business. Thankfully, my sweet mom was on hand to help with EVERYTHING. I knew that I wanted to go with a grey/silver & yellow theme, since these are the colors of Baby Girl’s nursery. I figured any cool thing that I made/bought for the shower, Em could potentially use it in her room.

The vintage, French country, shabby chic loving side of me had to take a backseat if I wanted to plan a shower that EMILY would enjoy. It wasn’t too hard coming up with simplistic, modern ideas for her (thanks, Pinterest!)

We spray painted babies breath metallic silver and I found that chevron table runner online for really cheap! Who knew you could spray paint babies breath? Well, you can. And it’s awesome. The picture doesn’t do it justice. I also spray painted old glass vases I found in our cupboard. The ones on the mantel in the first pic look pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. I think they look like mercury glass! Whoda thunk?

…to make sure that EM got the comfy chair…

The ladies chatting before present opening…

All the love for Baby Girl…look at all that PINK!

Me & Sis…and Baby Fetus Cousins…

Big Girl Cousin wanted in on the action…

Phew! Em got TONS of sweet, girly, NEW things for baby! No more hand-me-downs for THIS girl! Well, except from Eisley of course! We’re so excited for Baby Girl to come any time now, really! Emily is due the first week of December, and GavieLove was nine days early, so sweetie could come SOON! I’m especially grateful that Miss E is going to have a girl cousin so close in age, because if Saldzie’s keep having boys, then Baby Girl Hulling may be the closest thing E will have to a sister!

We love you Em & Baby! So exciiiiited!

Cool tricks, Eisley!

Might want to grab a tissue before you watch this.

I’ve decided to add something to my prayers for Eisley: That she grows up loving to GIVE.

Only forty days until Christmas!