Cousins

Because of our schedules, we go through spurts where we see Brad, Lindsay and Kelsey frequently and other times where we just catch up at church.  We have spent a good bit of time together recently and it's been such a blessing because Kelsey and Caroline have turned into the best of buddies.  They often will run upstairs and play by themselves and then we get to listen on the monitor which is always lots of fun.  :-)  I think one of my favorites was Kelsey asking Caroline if she could jump on the bed.  Caroline said, "My daddy said no more monkees jumping on the bed!"  Whew, she's actually listening sometimes.  :-)  Kelsey responded happily, "OK."  When they were infants we always talked about how great it would be when they could actually run off and play together.  It has begun!

Vern took some sweet/funny pictures of them both while they visited a few weekends ago.

Something really interesting I'm sure...  :-)

Love them both!!

6 months old...

and maybe a few days.  :-)  I took Libby to the doctor for her 6 month check up and she is doing great.  She is now only the in the 75% for weight at 16.5 lbs but still in the 90% for height at 26 1/2 inches (I think that is right).  The past two months have been very good for her.  She has started sleeping through the night.  She sleeps 7:30 -6:30/7:00.  She is on a good napping schedule too.  Thankfully, she naps at the same time as Caroline every afternoon so I have a bit of a break.  She has also started eating baby food.  The first few weeks of eating were not so great.  I have never met a baby who cried and fussed so much about food.  She is finally getting the hang of it but she certainly has her good and bad days with the food.  A mess is sure to be made whether or not she wants to eat.  I have resorted to stripping her down during meal times.  :-)


The greatest change is that she can sit really well.  If I plop her down with some toys she can stay content for quite awhile.  She is a lot different than Caroline though.  I can't go too far away from her because she doesn't just sit...she's a mover.  She loves to roll and scootch all over the place.  I will often find her stuck underneath a chair or under Caroline's bed!  She is still such a sweet pea.  She is happy as can be...unless she is tired and then all you have to do it hold her to make things better.  We're very thankful for the joy and smiles that she brings to us!

Pictures

We had "movie night" in bed tonight and watched Sleeping Beauty.  Mark says "my face doesn't represent my heart." and I agree!  He's such a sweet Dad to watch the princesses with Caroline.  :-)

My sweet, sleepy Libby!

One of my favorite times of the day when Mark is home is 5:00 PM.  When he gets off work he jumps right in to playing with the girls.  I LOVE watching them play but it is also a great time for me to cook dinner.  Cooking dinner for my family is one of very favorite things to do.  It's definitely one of the ways that I like to show love.  Healthy, creative meals that they will hopefully enjoy....at least that's the goal.  We all know that I sometimes don't follow all the directions or make a few too many substitutions!  :-)

Libby enjoyed her first time in the swing too!

Libby's Baptism

We were so grateful to have a bit of family come into town for Libby's baptism this past weekend.  We only get to see my Dad a couple of times a year and he flew in for the weekend.  Mom and Vern also made the trip.  I'm not sure if it's my age, the "maturing" of my parents or something else all together but it brings me such joy to have my "whole" family together.  Of course our family life has not been perfect but it brings me great joy to see a little piece of family togetherness.  We had a low key weekend together...just catching up.

Saturday morning we did go to see Mark in his "last swim lesson" for this session.  He has already signed up for the next session.  We enjoyed getting to watch him swim.  He is doing such a great job.  Afterwards we played outside on the playground for a few minutes with the girls.

Sunday we all headed to church for Libby's baptism.  The baptism was a good reminder of our responsiblities as parents but also an encouraging reminder of the love of God and the support of our church family.  Thankfully, there were no tears.  :-)

Another fun note about Sunday was that Caroline stayed in the church service with us and many of the things we have been teaching her at home are starting to click. She recognized the cross right away and then pointed out the Christ candle.  We taught her the verse about Jesus being the light of the world so it was fun to be able to explain the candle/light.  She also recognized "this little light of mine" in the anthem and she sang "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" since that is one of the hymns we have been singing with her.  It was pretty fun to watch her little face throughout the service...even if it was a bit of a struggle to make it through the sermon.  :-)

We feel extremely blessed with two sweet girls and a family that is so loving and supportive.

Valentines

Last year I felt like the worst Mom ever on Valentines day.  I was determined not to let that happen this year!  We had to start early to make sure that didn't happen.  Of course we got our Valentine idea from Pinterest.  We made these little cards with her fingerprints and then attached them to a bag of teddy grahams with a ribbon.  They were pretty cute.

On Monday we took a bunch of Valetine's treats to work at the church/daycare.  Caroline was pretty excited to pass out all of her goodies!

Valentine's morning Mark surprised all of his girls with flowers.  :-)  I have a friend who says that every time she visits her Dad she feels like a princess!  It really is a dream of mine that Mark makes Caroline and Libby feel the same way...valued, loved and worth some extra time, attention and devotion! 

I made heart shaped pink pancakes for breakfast...although they looked a little more like Mickey Mouse heads.  I'll have to work on that for next year.

Libby and I then got to attend a little Valentine's party at Caroline's school.  Those parties are really disasters...who came up with that idea?!?  I seriously can't imagine that any kid or parent enjoys it!  Half the kids were screaming their heads off because their schedule was different and the parents all stand around the edge of the room staring at the kids as they eat cookies.  What fun is that!  I'm not complaining about the preschool (we really like it there)...I imagine all the preschool parties are pretty similar!  You can tell from the picture I actually sat on the floor for a bit next to Caroline before I started feeling like a goon and moved over to the wall to stand like the rest of the parents.  Peer pressure!  :-/

Mark is in town so I have some extra time and I decided to make this a week of new recipes.  Brussel sprouts anyone!?  In my defense Mark enjoyed Mondays dinner.  Tuesdays will probably not be repeated...good thing I still have 5 more days of new recipes to try!  Although the dinner was not that exciting, the decorations made up for it! 

Caroline was also pretty pumped to open her Valentine's after dinner.  She got 2 new books and a princess card.  Oh the excitement on her face as she opened her princess card!!  The smile alone was worth celebrating Valentines day with a little more gusto this year!  :-)

DNOW 4.1

This is our 4th year hosting DNOW at our home.  People often say I don't know how you do that or I would not want to do that.  It seems so easy to me to be around youth.  I just forget that it can be intimidating or hard for others.  Mark and I have both been blessed with 8-10 years a piece of experience in youth ministry but we are far from experts.  The students have taught us way more than we could ever teach them.  We just both enjoy the silly choas and questioning hearts of youth.

Our 6th grade boys came in sweet as could be tonight and quickly made themselves at home throwing around a ball. I fully expected that they would be kind to Caroline but I was not expecting Caroline to jump right in to play with them and she did!

Here they are trying to teach her how to catch...

The theme for the weekend is "Who do YOU say that I am?" 

Mark and I came up with a few different thoughts but we are looking forward to their responses at the end of the weekend.

Although Mark and I enjoy the kids a bunch, hosting has been made much easier because we've had some super help!  Several folks from Sunday School have lent tables and chairs, brought food over, are helping serve meals and driving the students back and forth to church.  I even had some little hands helping me make a pizza ring tonight.  :-)

We're looking forward to a great weekend!

Girls.

The girls' pictures have been lacking from the blog lately.  It's time to update the grandparents...get ready for picture overload!

Thanks to Gigi for the new Valentines shirts!

Libby and her "sweetie" bear.

Libby and her favorite friend Reese playing together.

We, as in all 4 of us, ran in a 5k a few weekends ago.  We had a great time and may have to do it again soon!  Thanks to Katie for letting us borrow (or steal since we still have it) her jogging stroller.  :-)

Not a great picture but a great memory!

We shopped at Whole Foods after the race and I felt like that deserved a candle lit dinner.  Caroline was pretty impressed; Libby not so much!  :-)

The weather this winter has been very warm.  We've spent a few afternoons playing outside.

We went on a date with the Smith family.  I love this picture!

Caroline has been honored with her first chore...putting away silverware.  She came home from school one day saying, "this is the same.  it matches."  I figured she could match the big spoons with the big spoons and so on.  It's been fun to watch her learn.

Mark and I are working on a little white dress for Miss Elizabeth.  She is going to be baptized next weekend.  Hopefully I can get some sleeves on it, a collar and a hem before the big day.  :-)

I think that is all the pictures that I have for now.  Hopefully I will start being more regular again soon!

Wild World

I'm sure you can tell from the blog posts the past couple of months that things have been a bit rough.  Truly, there hasn't been a specific event that has been hard.  I've just been reminded of what a yucky, sinful world that we live in.  God is certainly present and working and there is good but wowzers there is also just yuck!  Sometimes I think of this little chorus from Wild World, "oh baby, baby it's a wild world. it's hard to get by just upon a smile."  As a young girl I remember my Dad telling me that people liked others who smiled.  For a long time smiles got me through... but then I grew up!  Smiles certainly don't make the pain and yuck of this world go away.  I think one of the hardest things that I am learning is that after you are hurt or experience pain that you can't just get angry, close up or cut yourself off from the situation.  Lately, I've found myself thinking, maybe if I could just live on a farm in the middle of nowhere then I wouldn't have to deal with most of this hurt.  The truth is that I could never do that!  I would be way too lonely.  However, instead of physically moving I find myself putting up little walls around my heart to protect myself.  While I think it's "normal" to want to protect myself from pain or hurt I don't think that is what God wants from me at all.  He doesn't just want me to box up my heart.  I think God wants us to remain open and even tender to the sin and pain in this world.  I think that is part of what Scripture talks about when we hear about having faith like a child.  A heart that is still willing to trust.  A heart that is still full of love and compassion regardless of the pain that has been felt.  I'm not suggesting that we let ourselves be trampled all over.  I am just saying that God doesn't want us to turn cold and bitter due to hurts but to experience them, learn, grow and remain a loving, faithful servant.  All of this is so hard to do in this wild world!