Our Little Ballerina

Tonight, we attended a spaghetti supper and fundraiser for Jordan's ballet studio. Not a recital, but her class did perform a dance. I'm always amazed at how easily Jordan learns the steps. She LOVES to perform! She is totally in her element performing. Its such a joy to watch her. I continue to be in awe of the effort she puts into ballet. She has a genuine love for it! I'm also in awe of the way God continues to give us the desires of our hearts with her. Despite the fact that Jordan has lost some ground this year with academics and speech, she was just a typical kid tonight. You just can't even begin to understand what that means to me.

The bonus this year, of course, is that I was NOT in labor! :-)

The video isn't the best - and you can only see her some of the time - but she is in the back row, on the right, with a blue kite. I'm so proud of my girl!

My Beautiful Girl!

Her cutesie face!

Happy Birthday, Bubby!

In some ways, it seems like forever ago, but in other ways it just doesn't seem possible that an entire year has already passed since our little man arrived.

I still look back on May 31, 2008 in awe. Its a day we'll remember not only for Jace's birth, but also for Jordan's first (and in all likelihood only) ballet recital. I was early pregnant with Jace when I found out the date of the recital and I remember saying to a friend that I would be at that recital unless I was in full-blown labor. Ha ha! I lied. I stood in that recital for an hour, with contractions 5 minutes apart. It was BRU.TAL! But completely worth it.

Jace was born a couple hours later. It was so wonderful ... beautiful ... amazing. My second homebirth. Easy delivery, despite the fact that he was a whopping 10 pounds! Jakey helped Ed cut the cord. Our family of SIX was piled on our bed when Jace was just a few minutes old. My mom, Ed's mom, my little brother Erin and his girlfriend, Beth were all at our house. It was as wonderful as a birth can be. Precious memories! But, you already know about all that. Can't help my little trip down memory lane!

Jace is a sweet little guy. He's known as Bubby, Bubs, Bubs-a-rooni and Jacey-bace around here. Where all these silly little names come from, I don't know, but somehow they stick. He's a happy little guy as long as he's not hungry. He gets downright mean when he's hungry. I have NO idea where he gets that from! Interestingly enough, he is our 'worst' talker of all. He says fewer words at this age than any of the others did. But, he has the cutest voice when he does talk! He's our first 'normal' crawler. The other 3 all had the same weird crawl. Jace is a major momma's boy. I love it (most of the time), because I know my time's limited! :-) He also loves to eat. So far, we haven't found much he doesn't like ... except, as it turns out, birthday cake! He adores his brother and sisters. Jadyn is his current fave. He calls for her when she's in another room. SO cute! He gives the biggest, sloppiest kisses ever ... and nothin' beats that!

Yesterday, we celebrated his birthday with a house full of people who love him! It was so much fun and the company so good, it lasted all afternoon! Thank you to everyone that came - we had a blast! The weather was perfect and the kids all played great together.

A cake of his own

Happy Birthday to You!

New toy from Grandma

Hangin' outside

Soccer, MayFest & More

You might want to grab a tall glass of sweet tea or a cup of coffee before we get started. This is a long one. And should be. Its been a while since I've updated things here. I would say that I'm going to do better, but you've heard that before ...

Anyway, here are the highlights of the past couple months. Enjoy!

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Spring Soccer ended with a bang. The boys played in a tournament - which meant we were at the soccer field from 7:30am until 3 or 4pm. It was a looong day, but loads of fun! We had a canopy and cooler of food and drinks. Ed brought his hammock and horseshoes to enjoy between games. And, the weather even cooperated. It was a beautiful day (by Houston standards, anyway!)


5 of the 8 boys on the team (2 couldn't make it to the tournament & one was injured in the last game)

My proud boy ... AKA "The Scientist" ... showing off another trophy to add to the collection!Proud Sharks!!!Hangin' in the back of the van between games. Jace is crawling around in there. That didn't last long!Ed's first attempt at getting into the hammock didn't work out so well!

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Jadyn also had a fun end-of-the-year event to show off her gymnastics skills - called MayFest. She's made a lot of progress since she started and really loves it. She's moved up with each evaluation and thinks she's hot stuff. I didn't think she would notice or care about the evaluations, but it turns out, she cares very much and makes it her goal to move to the next level each time. Cracks me up. Who would have thought THAT child would have such FOCUS??? We love her gym - and her coaches!!
Balance beam

Backward rollRingsTrampoline (her favorite - go figure!)Forward roll off the springboardHammin' it up for Daddy!Getting her trophy Not that you can tell by her face (this is her camera-smile) - but sooo excited!!
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Jordan will have her end of the year program for ballet next week. I'm sure I'll have a picture or two of that to share! :-)

The rest of the pics are of random stuff of late ...

Fun with Uncle Eric

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Jace's first spaghetti dinner. Think he liked it? I'm sure I've mentioned how much the boy likes to eat!! He eats more than Jadyn most of the time! And better - we haven't found anything he doesn't like! His first birthday is this weekend - so more pix of this cute guy to come!

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Grandma brought Kylie over to play one afternoon and the kids had a blast in the backyard! She loved riding the glider with Jakey!

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Jadyn's booboo. She was running in the house (Despite the fact that I'm certain I say "No running in the house!" about 400 times per day) - and she fell in the entry hall. As she went down, she nailed her head on the front door - right on the edge where the leaded glass insert and door meet. OUCH! As you can tell by her face, she was NOT a happy camper. But, thanks to Arnica, it was almost gone within a couple hours. Good stuff, man!***********************************************************************
My cute boy in a box. You know what they always say ... just give 'em a box to play with! This is the box our new curriculum came in and he had a ball!

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BOTH of my Magnolia trees bloomed!!! We had so many beautiful blooms ... and I wasn't convinced the trees were even going to survive, much less produce these beauties! Right outside our study and dining room windows. Love it!

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A baby bird in our backyard. Jordan chased off the mom before we could stop her! Fortunately, the momma came back and got this cute little thing. Another birdie in our yard was not so lucky after it flew into our window - that one didn't make it.

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After 7 weeks of waiting, we got new curtains in the den. The ceilings are 18 foot and Ed is afraid of heights, so this was no DIY project! They are just side panels, but look beautiful. I said to Ed that they just look like they belong. Well, I must be right, because both our moms came over and neither one of them even noticed the curtains! You can't really see the fabric, so here's a close up. Its not something I would have picked out without help, but I love it!

That's all for now. I have a few more pictures to upload - later.

One of our best weeks ever.

Right up front, Ed is typing this blog, so don't expect the same quality that you are use to.

Thursday Jacob had his final soccer game. Gummie was here from TX and Jakey could not wait to show off his stuff on the soccer field. He scored two goals and has been on cloud nine every since the.

Saturday was Jordan's Ballet Recital at 5:00 pm. We have waited 18 months for this day (Jordan did not start ballet early enough last year to be in the 2007 recital). Both Grandma and Gummie were her for this event. It was such an event that even Uncle Erin came to Iowa to see it. The morning of the recital, at 4:30 am, Angela went into labor with our 4th. She was able to keep it under control and we all went to the Ballet Recital. Jordan was simply amazing, she did not miss a single step and performed flawlessly (at least in the eyes of her dad).

Saturday May 31, 2008, 8:25 pm, the Midwife showed up at our house, by 8:52 pm and few simple pushes (again perspective from the dad and not the mom) Jace Eric Sustala was here. He weighed 10 lbs, not our biggest baby every, but a close second. He was 21 1/4 to 21 1/2 inches. We are not sure on the length as we have two different lengths recorded. It was absolutely amazing. Jakey helped me cut the umbilical cord, he thought that was cool. We had a sleepless night, but all is well. Mom and baby are resting and we can now make plans for our final move to Houston, TX.