Looking Back

What a year... and what a decade!

In the past year...

Buzz graduated medical school in May and started his pediatric residency, necessitating our family's move to the Midwest. He is gainfully employed for the first time in many years in a job that he loves. His ladies are very proud of him and are grateful for the life that he is providing for us.

I have had the privilege of settling happily into my role as a full time stay at home mom. In September we welcomed our third daughter, "Sevvy". For the first time in my experience with motherhood, I have met my baby's third month with a sense of peace rather than the dread of going back to work.

Sparkle celebrated her fifth birthday in March. In August she happily climbed the school bus steps on the way to her first day of kindergarten. She has spent many a happy afternoon hard at work on her "projects" and no roll of tape is safe for long around this girl!

Sunny celebrated her second birthday in May and is presently mastering her potty training skills. Her language abilities continue to develop and she constantly amazes us with her exceptionally well developed vocabulary and ability to correctly conjugate tricky english verbs.

Sevvy has what her daddy describes as a "tractor beam" smile. She can draw a person in from across the room with a single glance. She is our roundest babe yet and we delight in the silky softness of her highly kissable cheeks. She has added such indescribable joy to our family in her short three months... I am forever grateful that God saw fit to bless us with such a sweet little soul.

Ten years ago tonight...

I was engaged to the love of my life and planning to join my life to his in our June wedding. We lived in campus dorms and shared a $1200 car that my dad was kind enough to purchase for me and provide insurance for. I was about to officially enter the nursing program at ORU, and Buzz was half way through his junior year of college (also at ORU) on his way to earning a degree in pastoral care and missions.

The past ten years have seen us move a total of nine times (!) from a $400 a month apartment in Tulsa, to our current five bedroom three and a half bath house. This decade also saw Buzz decide to pursue a medical career, go back to school for pre-requisites, and successfully complete his MD. We have welcomed three of the most beautiful girls in the world into our arms and there is no end to the joy that they bring into our lives. I could spend hours listing the events and experiences that we have lived in the past ten years... lucky for you I'm not going to. :)

We are truly blessed beyond measure and are excited about what the next year... and decade... will bring for our family. God bless, and happy new year to you and yours!

Merry Christmas...

...from the Buzzmeo Family!

"...for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord."

For Daddy...

We miss you! Wishing you were here with us to enjoy the festivities.

We'll see you tomorrow. Merry Christmas!!!

(You've never seen our little girls jump into bed so fast!)

Finally getting around...

...to figuring out this camera.

We bought our SLR camera in April of 2008. I took it out of the box, turned the dial to auto and never opened the manual. I've recently decided that we spent far too much money for me to be dissatisfied with the photos I'm getting. Today I cracked open the manual and played around with different settings.

Figured out the blurry background thing...

...but messed up a lot of cute photos before I figured out the ISO adjustment.

Oh well. Practice makes perfect, right? I've got some pretty amazing subjects to practice on, if I do say so myself.

Now if only I hadn't lost my photo editing software. Looks like photos are going to be straight out of the camera for a while until we can get the computer to cooperate with us again. That will be high on my priority list during Buzz' upcoming vacation week!

Fit Test

It's cold outside.

I've spent the last couple of evenings making a new hat for Sevvy.

So glad she likes it.

Sometimes...

When I look across the room

And see her playing alone,

I miss her.

A glorious milestone, one I've been waiting for.

She's happy...

And she's not in my arms.

She's growing up before my very eyes.

My newborn is no more.

We shall call her...

Sevvy*

Let it be known that Clara will no longer be known by her given name here on the Buzzmeo Chronicles!

*Sevvy is a word that is used often in our household. Sparkle made it up years ago. It is a word used to describe anything that is exceedingly soft and/or silky. If only you could pinch and kiss her sweet little cheeks for yourself, you would understand precisely why we've picked it!

Comfort and Joy...

Catching up: Halloween

It's been a busy time in the buzzmeo house these past several weeks. We've had a lot of visiting family from out of town and we are so grateful that so many loved ones made the trip!

Buzz' mom and sister's family were here for Halloween. It was great fun to round up all the kids and hit the 'hood together!

Sparkle dressed up as Cinderella, and the younger girls were her little mice friends. I wasn't sure Sunny was going to make it very far...

...but once she figured out that candy was involved, she perked right up and persevered along with the other kids.

Doesn't our family look big?!

Special thanks to mom who stayed at our house to hand out the candy!

And props to Aunt Bean for making a super cool Halloween dinner!(I told you that Sunny was having a rough night!)

Surveying their haul. Not bad!

From the mouths of babes...

When putting Sparkle to bed tonight...

Sparkle: (Looking thoughtful) Mom, can I tell you a secret that T (cousin) told me?

Me: Sure, what is it?

Sparkle: Our president thinks it's okay to... the babies in mommy's tummies... to... to give them bad medicine... to kill them. That's very bad, Mommy.

Me: Yes honey, some people think that it's okay...

Wow.

The discussion continued with me telling her about how God creates each and every baby and how sad it is when people don't love those little babies like He does. I also made sure to tell her how excited I was to find out that she was in my tummy and how I loved her and wanted to protect her so that she would be healthy and strong.

What heavy bedtime conversation! What a world we live in that I would have this discussion with my daughter at the tender age of five. While it saddens me that my baby would have to think about such weighty issues, I am proud that she recognizes the value of life and glad that she felt that she could come to me and talk about something that was difficult for her to think about.

What a good reminder for me to pray for wisdom! Lord knows that many more conversations like this one are in our future. What a daunting privilege motherhood is!

Mmmm...

Have you ever seen such scrumptious cheeks?

I didn't think so...

Yum!!!

Oww!

Sunny asked for a bite of one of the Milk Duds that I was enjoying earlier today. I bit one in half and she opened her mouth so that I could put it in. She bit down hard, but missed the candy that had landed on her tongue...

"OWW!" I yelled. "You bit my thumb!"

Sunny looked startled and confused, then disgusted, and finally worried as she very carefully leaned over to spit out...

what she thought...

was my thumb!!!

We've been laughing about that one all day. :)

SO good...

...to see my friends again!

This past weekend we had a visit from two of our favorite ladies and their sweet little babes.

Isn't she beautiful?

I'm sure there has never been a more happy little guy!

So thankful and touched that they and their families made the effort to get them out here for a visit!

Thank you girls for all of your help! I don't remember the last time that I got to shower two days in a row. :) Thank you for loving my family and spending so much time playing with my girls. Thank you most of all for just being here with me, nourishing my soul. I've missed you so much and it was beyond good to spend time with you again. Looking forward to the next time!

And finally, a picture of sweet Clara for those of you who have been asking. :)

Pizza party!

Just a few pictures from when we had the cousins over earlier this week for pizza and Wii. Fun times!

On a side note, I'm really enjoying being able to see my feet again!

Adjusting...

The past couple of weeks have been a sleepy, happy, snugly time for our family. Buzz' program has been wonderful about getting him time off to be with his girls and we've loved all the time that we've been able to spend getting to know our sweet little babe.

I won't lie. I've been a little sleep deprived. I even told another mom at Sparkle's soccer game that we had named our baby Julia. I was more than a little embarrassed when I had to tell her that I had gotten it wrong! You see, we didn't have a name picked out before Clara was born. We took a full two hours to spend with her and decide on a name before we even called anyone to tell them that she had been born. Rest assured though, almost two weeks in, her given name has stuck and now the only name that we call her besides her own is Sunny's. Still not sure when that issue will resolve... probably we shouldn't have given all three girls such similar names!

Sparkle has taken the addition to our family in stride. She's in school much of the day anyway and has been through this before, so she seems to be doing very well. She runs home every day and washes her hands so that she can touch and hold her sister. Look at her smile... she just adores her little Clara!

Sunny has had a harder time adjusting to her sister's homecoming. She was a bit mopey the first week or so, but she's coming around nicely and marches around the house saying, "I am [Sunny]! I a big sista now!" She loves to sit next to her baby sister and do puzzles and read books. Clara has been busily wrapping us around her tiny little finger... she has a the sweetest little smiling expression on her face much of the time. Not to mention to most fuzzy little head of hair ever! She is perfect in every way... or at least she will be when she is sleeping through the night! :)

Yes...

Our newest little one DOES have hair.

Isn't she gorgeous?

Introducing...

Clara Dianne

Born 9/20/09 at 12:06pm

7 pounds, 5 ounces

19 inches long

Mom, Dad, baby, and big sisters are all well!

Thank you all for your prayers for a safe arrival! More pictures to come when Mama isn't so tired. :)