Benjamin is 3 months old!

Dressin' Up (Halloween)

Bet you'd never guess that this pirate is Sam! Great costume, aye? Actually, it isn't Sam. It's our neighbor. He puts on a massive Halloween event every year, drawing around 1,000 kids. This year's theme was, obviously, pirates. He turns his porch in to a stage for lifesize blacklight puppets and has games for the kids in his front yard. Very fun! The little duckling is ours, first as she dressed for trick-or-treating and then as she dressed for preschool earlier in the week.

Here we are dressed up for the Midtown Historic District's Annual Hometour. Our house was on the tour so we tried to dress in period clothes. I'm wearing my Grandpa Albright's step-mother's wedding dress and headpiece (c. 1929).

July and August 2009 Photos

A trip to the zoo.

Eliana playing at the birthing center.

Grandma and Grandpa Sackett, Uncle Joey, and Great-grandma B.

Four days old.

Eliana's JC Penney shot.

Benjamin has his hearing tested - our little monkey.

Benjamin Wit Stover Sackett

Ben was born July 31 at 3:01 p.m. weighing 7 lbs. 2 oz. Benjamin means son of my right hand. His first middle name, Wit, has Latin origins meaning life/of life/life-giving. His second middle name, Stover, is Sarah's maiden name.

Grandma Sackett arrived in the afternoon Friday and is spending time with Eliana this weekend. She has been a great help allowing us to be with Benjamin.

Sarah's sister, Rebecca (right), flew into Wichita in time to be present for the birth. She and our friend Becky Ullom (not pictured) were both wonderful coaches and support for Sarah at the time of delivery. Also, special thanks to Chris Stover-Brown and Natalie Moore for coming to our house at night/early morning while Eliana was sleeping so we could go to the hospital.

Eliana gets to hold baby brother for the first time.

Here's Ben a few minutes after being delivered. Sarah did a great job during the labor. There were no complications which allowed her to deliver 'naturally' without medications. The doctor and resident doctor commented how they wished they could have recorded the delivery to have as an example of a woman who is able to maintain control during the process without drugs.

We are grateful the Lord has blessed us with this new life. We would appreciate prayers for rest as the days/weeks progress.

We will post more photos and updates later. We expect to return home Sunday morning.

Deserea's Graduation May 2009

Eliana and I travelled together for Deserea's gradution. She looked beautiful, very college-like, and we are very proud.

Opening gifts.

Papa and his trifle.

Trifle enthusiasm.

Trifle toasts.

Papa and Franklin.

The house and yard were decked out for the occasion.

We got to meet Deserea's brother Rico (not pictured) and her god-sister Misty (pictured with Misty's husband Art and Aunt Nancy).

Eliana discovered the dollhouse.

Papa's father was given this house for Papa's sisters to play with.

Spring 2009

It's May and I've created several posts with photos from this past spring (see Spring Break, Easter, and House Renovation posts). It's been a busy spring, with lots of visitors and a full schedule for Sam at work. We are all doing well and are anticipating the arrival of another Sackett in early August! (Will we change our blog address from "3sacketts"? Stay tuned.) This post is a hodge-podge of photos, include a few from our house warming party earlier this month.

Eliana is 2.5 now.

Jelly toast.

Cousin Molly and friend Lydia at the first softball game of season.

Unfortunately cousin Clara found some slick mud under the bleachers.

Eliana helping to fold the napkins while wearing Dad's clean socks.

Everyone in the block tub.

(Finally!) Our house warming party.

Everyone was invited to wear something they'd normally need an excuse to wear in public, which explains Chris's hat, Clara's clown suit and the Scarecrow in the background. Jenny and Jeffrey (a.k.a. Delores and the Pickin' Fretter) provided music for the evening!

Jenny and I wore bridesmaid dresses from Mom's wedding (c. 1972).

Did I look like a honeydew melon? Yes.

House Renovation Spring 2009

Recent house projects include stripping, repairing, and painting two walls in the study; removing, stripping, and polishing door and window hardware from the second floor; cleaning and refurbishing all the doors on the second floor (not pictured); and stripping a portion of the living room and downstairs hall in preparation for carpet.

Eliana "hiding" in the study with big dog and little dog.

We found this color green inside this small study closet.
We think the color is original.

We left two walls papered as they were when we bought the house.

The wallpaper was in the house when the previous owners bought it in 1978.

Polishing brass and watching Seinfeld.

This is the floor we un-covered then re-covered in the study. Stunning.

Eliana looking down a living room vent on the day the carpet layers came.

The rope outlining the curve from the front door to the hall.

Finished. The same carpet is in the study.

Easter 2009

We hosted Easter this year. We had 17 around the table for Easter Dinner. What a feast! Everyone brought something and we had a filling weekend. I don't have pictures to prove it, but the cousins enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt and put on yet another parade, this time in their Easter best.

Amelia and Eliana help Sam make breakfast.

Molly (4), Amelia (2), Molly (1), Eliana (2)

Franklin (4 months)

Spring Break, 2009

This March, during Jenny's spring break, we loaded three little girls in the back of our car and took a road trip. First stop: Little Rock, Arkansas. That's all day in the car and not a single nap taken. We stayed at Rebecca's house where the girls played with chalk, watched Disney movies, made pizza and smoothies, and rode the trolley downtown.

Our second stop was Springfield, Missouri to visit Elizabeth, Bryan, Amelia, and new baby Franklin. The cousins played together and paraded together. We went to church then hit the road for home.

"Say cheese!"

Five cousins on a couch.

House Progress, August 2008

I put together a collection of before and after pictures in August to show (and to remind myself of) progress on the house.

Last spring we had two wells put in the backyard with a line into the basement. One well serves as supply for our ground source heat pump. The other serves a disposal for the water. The heat pump was installed in August, providing much anticipated cool air. For those of you not familiar with ground source heat pumps here's the skinny: During the summer, the heat pump tranfers heat from the air in our house into water which came from the water table and is returned a few degrees wamer. During the winter, the heat pump takes heat from the water (a constant 55 degrees) and tranfers it to the air in our house. The water is returned to the ground slightly colder than it came in. Pretty nifty and very efficient. Install one now and you, too, can qualify for a federal tax credit!

Carpet removal in the living room.

A painted dining room ceiling.

Sam paints "harvester" in the stairwell.

This wall in the basement isn't actually finished, but it's primed.

The windows are cleaned, painted, and working.

Bye bye ZZ Top. Hello workshop clutter.

In the "before" photo you can see the holes in the walls where we removed ductwork.

Eliana helps whitewash another ZZ Top tribute.

Sam spent all weekend sawing a hole through one of our chimneys -- a layer of brick and a ceramic liner. This chimney used to service the coal-then-gas furnace. Now that we're using the heat pump we turned this shaft into an air return for the second floor. He accessed the chimney through a small cupboard above the linen closet.

Sam stripping trim from the dining room windows.

Our gutters, straight from the sheet metal fabricator. We ripped off the gutters on the porch level of the house (120 feet) and had these fabricated to match the original look. In order to remove the original gutters we lifted the first layer of shingles. We learned our lesson on this level -- for the second level (180 feet) we designed an insert that would fit inside the existing shell. We were so grateful not to deal with replacing tar paper and shingles, or with painting the gutter. I've never been such a weather hawk as I was during the months of gutter work -- constantly checking to see when rain was expected. This is one project we hope we did right the first time. Our enthusiasm for a repeat performance is low.

Summer 2008

This summer while Eliana and I traveled east to Springfield, Missouri to visit Elizabeth and Bryan in their new home. We joined forces with the Springfield crew and traveled south to Little Rock to stay with Rebecca for a few days. Her apartment is directly over a theatre, and that weekend she was performing in the theatre's production of Godspell. Bryan volunteered as Bartender and I volunteered as House Manager (I vaccuumed before the show and closed the lobby door...). The show was amazing and we had a great time touring downtown Little Rock with the girls. Back in Springfield once more Eliana and Amelia hiked a nature trail and swam in Amelia's backyard.

Amelia just waking up at Rebecca's. She slept in the kitchen.

Hiking.

Swimming.

Back in Wichita, a visit from the Hoovers.

A trip to the Wichita zoo with members of our playgroup.

Eliana trying to peddle on the porch. By next spring her legs should be long enough.

Thomas Stover-Watts and Mirjam spent a day with us enroute from New Zealand to Germany. It was lovely to meet Mirjam and to catch up on the news from Down Under.

YoStover Reunion, Summer 2008

This summer all of the Phil Stover's and some of the Ann (Yost) Stover's gathered in Iowa for our annual YoStover reunion. Iowa was chosen as the vacation destination because Elizabeth gradutated from Medical School at the University of DesMoines. We played Rack-o, Quiddler, and Bocci, toured the nearby town of Pella, climbed a tall watch tower, had a beautiful lakeside Sunday service, and survived a tornado scare unharmed.

Pictures Coming!

I intend to post pictures today...stay tuned. -Sarah

Mary Nell's Visit and Riverfest, May 2008

Sarah's Aunt Mary Nell came to visit recently, and we had a lovely evening with Grandma and Grandpa Albright and the Stover-Brown crew.




Wichita's annual "Riverfest" is going on now. Jenny and I took the girls down on a very windy day. Some of the activities were closed because of the wind, and we had to keep a tight hold on the stroller, lest they blow away. Here Eliana and Molly sit in a firetruck.


The highlight of the outing was the Wichita Children's Theater production of The Three Bears. Eliana loved baby bear, and I was impressed at how still she sat through the 30 minute show. This week she's been repeating "baby bow, baby bow." Perhaps she'll start a fan club?

DC Trip, April 2008

One of the perks of Sam's new job as communication's director for Rep. Tiahrt is his need to spend time working in the DC office. In late April Eliana and I joined him for a week-long stay in DC. While he worked, Eliana and I visited friends in the morning and took naps at the hotel in the afternoon. Or rather, Eliana took naps at the hotel and I read the newspaper and anything else I could find stretched out on the floor, hidden from her view.

My dearest friend Nancy and I braved hoards of overexcited school children to take Eliana and Simona to the zoo. Here they are in the invertibrate building -- a favored spot for its tanks of water ("er!") and lack of crowds.

Sam and I took some photos of Eliana at Union Station. As you will see, the theme of the day was RUNNING.

Running!

Pausing long enough to point out the flag, one of her favorite items.

"Where is your hair?"

More running.

Spinning around.

Getting dizzy.

Making eyes at a friendly tourist.

Collins' Nebraska Visit

After the poetry festival we hit the road and drove to Nebraska. We had the unique privilege of visiting with some good friends of ours, Sara and Gilbert Collins, who are serving in the Peace Corp in Botswana. They were in the States to have their first child, Timothy. Sara's Dad lives in Nebraska so we visited them while they were visiting him. Eliana loved being around the baby and we loved the chance to catch up in person, even if we did get cremated by Gilbert in a round of "Trains" (a board game).

Fourth Annual Enid Stover Poetry Reciation Festival

The Fourth Annual Enid Stover Poetry Reciation Festival was held in Manhattan Kansas on April 19, 2008. My Aunt Merrily and my grandfather - Papa - organize this event in honor of my grandmother, Nana. She was a poet and had an amazing gift for memorization. The festival invites poets to recite work from memory, although folks who read are also welcome to participate. This was the first year we'd be able to attend.

The day was beautiful. Sam and I recited some of the nursury rhymes we know by heart (learned as bedtime stories).

The pictures are of 1) my Aunt Merrily, 2) my Papa, and 3)my sister Jenny with her two girls and Me-maw Ann; 4) Dad spent most of the afternoon followng Eliana around the park; 5 & 6) Cousin Amelia, hiker in training; 7) Sam with the cousins.

Eliana's New House

Eliana made the transition to our new house easily. She is 18 months old now and has five more teeth coming in! About a month ago she started repeating words: octopus, tea bag, lilac, heavy, panda... Watching her language develop has been a lot of fun.

Eliana loves to play outside and I'm so thankful to have a yard for her to play in. She has a strong preference for the front yard, where she can watch for cars and buses and where there are no fences to keep her from sprinting off down the sidewalk or into the neighbors’ yards. She also loves to play with her cousins and runs to the door whenever we mention going to visit.

Eliana discovered she could crawl inside and empty the cupboard.

Riding cousin Molly's bike on the front porch.

An "Eliana-sized" wheelbarrow at Grandma's house.

Wearing Daddy's tie in her favorite hiding corning in the dining room.

Learning about pockets!

This picture says it all.

Eating O's on a cold morning.

The day she learned to climb onto the counter - and found brownies.

"Little Orphan Eliana" - she loves to mop.

We've Moved (Again)!

Forgive us for allowing this blog to get so out of date. Out last post was in November, about the same time Sam was offered a new job. After a brief 3 months in our "new" two bedroom apartment, we moved again – this time to Wichita, where we’ve purchased a home just down the street from my sister.

Life is good, very good. Sam is settling into his work and I am enjoying being at home with Eliana and working on the house. You asked for pictures, so here they are – with a bit of commentary.

(Our House)

We moved in mid-February, and had been hoping the ground would be frozen when we arrived so we could back the truck up on the lawn to the steps of the porch. The ground was not frozen, but to our amazement, the front sidewalk is wide enough to drive on! Loading the truck took parts of three days; unloading took two hours. We even moved the piano with only the help of Sam’s Dad and my sister. (!) This move had zero stairs, unlike our previous apartment moves.

That first week was an adventure. It was cold, and the furnace did not do a good job heating the house. Most of the time I wore an undershirt, a long sleeved T, and two sweaters. Several days I turned the stove on for heat. But every day we’d find a storm window that was open or a door that wasn’t sealed, and things began to improve. The biggest change came when we found that the blower wasn’t able to work because it was completely blocked by a filter that hadn’t been cleaned in decades. So we pulled that filter out and wa-la! – blowing heat!

We had electrical work done first thing to bring our supply line up to modern standards. When the electricians turned the power back on they blew most of our light bulbs. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong (everything was getting too much power), so we spent that night at my sister’s. Fortunately it didn’t get cold enough that night to freeze any pipes, and the electricians came back the next morning and got the power on. (They’d never worked on a fuse box as old as ours, which is why they connected things wrong.)

(Fixing a leaky valve. Our monster furnace, air return and "blower".)

Once it warmed up a bit we headed outside to clean up the yard. We (and several helpers) raked twenty-four bags of leaves in the front yard alone. We’re assuming it hadn’t been raked in a few years – at least I’m hoping we don’t get that many leaves on an annual basis.

(Jim, Katya and Eliana work the wheelbarrow while Gayle washes windows.)

Our house was built in 1920 and has quite a bit of deferred maintenance to catch up on, but we fell in love with the spacious rooms, the leaded glass and built-in cabinetry. We have plans for big renovations this calendar year: painting inside and out, new storm windows, replacing rusted gutters, installing heat pump and new ducts (removed asbestos covered ducts from basement), etc. Most recently we cleared about 180 pounds of dirt out of our gutters. (Yes, I used the bathroom scale to weigh the bags. I was curious.)

(A Hepa5 Kiss)

(Asbestos removal.)

Sam’s family has visited several weekends and has helped immensely, replacing cracked or missing window panes, watching Eliana while I work, and helping us finish our asbestos removal. Christy and Nathan loaned us their truck for several months, which was a huge help.

(Joey and cousin Molly demolish the dog house in the back yard.)

(Joey climbed one of the trees in back to down a broken limb - see the red speck?)

(Nathan and Sam cleaning the gutters.)

(Christy watched Eliana while we were on the roof.)

In the beginning I met with several contractors a week and put together the paperwork that goes along with our renovation (for state tax credits on improvements, for the historical society, for the city low-interest loan, etc.) I’m really enjoying being at home, taking care of Eliana, and researching options for the house.

We’ve met our immediate neighbors. The guy across the street hosts a Halloween event at his house that draws a thousand kids! My sister, who lives a block away, said they had 750 trick-or-treaters last year. Whew. And the house up the street has so many lights/decorations at Christmas that it has become a “must see” in Wichita during the Christmas season, with limos and cars lined up down the block.

I see my sister and her husband, Chris, frequently. We cover child care for each other on occasion. They'll be moving away for two years in fall 2009 so Chris can attend seminary. If anyone knows anyone who wants to rent their house for two years, let me know. ;) Seriously, we’d love some more good neighbors down the block.

Beans and Birthday

Eliana enjoys some refried beans as beard.

Will Smith on Veterans Day.

Eliana tastes her first Dairy Queen ice cream cone. She was not interested...

Happy with birthday balloons!