June Vacation

Earlier this month we traveled home to see our families and had the best time. My only regret is that I only took out my real camera once during the whole trip! Oh, but don't worry... my smart phone was handy, so there are a few instagram pictures.

Early morning Texas, beautiful in it's own way --- But Kansas melts my heart.

Theater in the Park to see my brother, Adam, perform in Sweeney Todd. He's on the left.

 Homemade ice cream.  I really want an ice cream maker now!

 I got to spend some quality time with 2/3 of my best friends and meet the newest club-kiddo, Jonah.  These are always precious times.
(Thanks for the pictures, Michaela!)

 I was blessed to spend Father's Day with two of the greatest Dad's ever - my own and my baby's Daddy. What better way to celebrate than play Settlers and go swimming?

 Daniel's family lives on the way to and from my parent's home, so we book-ended our trip with two evenings there. This is the one and only time I pulled out my real camera, and with such adorable subject matter, I'm so glad I did!

Micah was very proud to show us all that he's learning in swim lessons.  Here he's instructing me on how to float on my back. Daniel and I were looking through some old pictures and compared this to one of him at three. Amazing the difference two years can make!

Stinker-face.  This girl gets more and more expressive every day, and sillier by the minute! She makes every day so much fun.

I remember sitting on the back patio last summer, passing newborns around, like it was yesterday. They grow so fast!

Look at these precious curls!!!

The kids did more swimming on our second night there, and Daniel showed Micah Plants vs. Zombies. :)

More Vacation

 I know; I'm ridiculously spoiled, but yes, the girls and I got to spend some time with family last week. Since we returned on Saturday, Elli has asked me about 3,492 times to go to Papa and Nonna's house.  I think she had a good time.

 Although we love to see all the family, time with the ever-growing and changing cousins is perhaps the most precious.  We even got to celebrate these twinsie-cousins' birthdays, born only thirteen hours apart.

 In addition to seeing our beloved family, we also got to meet some baby-friends.  As you can tell, Baby C was pretty enamored with Cara, but she played hard to get.  :)  Pretty hilarious, considering his mama was her daddy's first kiss at the age of three or four.  I think they probably even got married several times over in the elaborate play dramas invented by older siblings.

 The weather may seem like a minor detail, but for me, I soaked up every cool spring breeze I could, knowing it could be my last.  Thank you, Lord, for one more week of spring this year!

 Elli and Micah continue to grow in their friendship, playing more and more independently.  Oh, how they love to laugh together. The hammock was a big hit, although not so much for lounging as for rolling and flipping and tickling.

 The last night we were there, we had a birthday celebration for Papa, Cara and Brynn.  I couldn't resist the opportunity to dress my girls up in matching dresses.  Who knows how much longer that will be cool!  

Yum.  I could just eat them up!

Can you believe my little girl is one??? No longer my little baby.  Elli told me this morning that Caroline is getting so big, and she wants me to get a new baby in my tummy.  

Not so fast, big sister.

 I am so enjoying this stage, challenging as can be, and I know it will be gone in a blink.

(Thanks, Aunt Marty for the pic! I love it.)

 Brynn practices her walking any time someone gives her a hand, and I expect to hear any day now that she's off on her own.  We got to bond on this trip, and I am just in love with this silly, spunky sweetie!

 What a special time with some of our favorite people.  Our summer trip can't come soon enough!

Vacation

 Three wonderful days on a beautiful lake with some of my favorite people. Time to slow down, uninterrupted by emails or even phone calls. Disconnecting from the world at large, reconnecting with the people nearest and dearest.

 Simply put, this vacation was sweet and relaxing and full of love.

 The time moved slowly but was anything but boring.  There were bubbles and canoe rides and fishing (video to come!).

Elli learned how to play Old Maid.

And learned how to be just a little bit sneaky.

 We enjoyed getting some quality time with my grandma and aunt Kristie, reminding me of vacations of my childhood.

The uncles got and gave plenty of attention - coloring, making paper boats, and giving lots of snuggles.

Of course there were roasted hot dogs and marshmallows around the campfire

Chilling on the hammock.

And I personally spent almost all of my waking hours sitting out on the deck, enjoying the wonderful weather, view, and company. I hope and pray for many more sweet times like this to come.

Country Music Half Marathon

There really is nothing quite like an early morning in a beautiful city with 30,000+ other sweaty people. :) I had pretty high expectations for this run, and Nashville did not disappoint. It is such a lovely city full of lovely people; and I really enjoyed running on an unfamiliar route because I had very little idea what was coming around the next corner.  The weather was beautiful (if a little warmer than I was hoping for), and running with Daniel and my brother, Michael, made it really special.

The course itself was much hillier than I was prepared for, so I'm not going to lie - around mile 9 I shed a few tears.  But I did it!  According to my official results, I ran an average pace of twelve and a half minutes per mile, but because of a few stops (some necessary, some to see my peeps), my real pace was closer to eleven and a half minutes per mile, which is perfectly fine with me.  I'm just so happy I was able to run the whole thing with all those hills!

Here I am running up the very last hill (my family was waiting for me at mile 12.5 -- Thanks, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Kristie, Elli and Cara!).  I was sooooo happy to see them and hug the girls, but after a few moments I realized how badly I needed to get to the finish line, because I started to feel like I could collapse.  No worries, I made it safe and sound, though!  (thanks, Dad for the pic!)

All three of the runners were pretty glad to put those hills behind us, and I think the whole family was grateful to put all the crowds behind us for a few days of this:

 

Easter

 I loved Easter this year.  First of all, my parents came to visit, which makes any weekend awesome! We had a sweet, relaxing time with lots of books, sandbox time, tricycle rides and snuggling.  Perfect. 

 
 Three out of four smiles is not bad.

On Sunday, our church did things a little differently this Easter - we met at a local children's amusement park, opening it up to the surrounding neighbors, sharing breakfast tacos and the Good News.

There was no scurry to get all done up in Easter finest or to hurry and get the Easter eggs hidden; instead, there was an eagerness to be amidst our brothers and sisters, serving in joy!  Children shouting "Jesus is alive"; families connecting to the body of Christ; and at least two prayers for salvation as a result of Easter Sunday.  What an awesome God we serve!

Sunday was also a special day in our family, as Elli expressed a desire to have Jesus living in her heart, and acknowledged Him as her Lord and Savior to the best of her three-year-old ability.  Truly a day to celebrate and remember.

See that grass growing?  I got the idea from Pinterest, and absolutely loved how it turned out!  No annoying easter grass making a huge mess and showing up for weeks on end!  Elli enjoyed helping me plant and water it!  We had a little Easter egg hunt when we got home from church. 

Elli would have done it over and over again all day long.

When she had found all of them, she lined them up and counted them in true Elli fashion... "one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve".

Despite a low-grade fever (due to teething, I think), Caroline joined in the fun a bit.

I'm not sure she got what all the hype was about, though.  Maybe next year.

Celebration

This past weekend was good.  Very good, in fact. 

Not only did we get to enjoy a long weekend with both sets of parents, but we got to celebrate two special little girls!  On Saturday, we had Elli's birthday party, which was fun and crazy and silly as only a room full of three-year-old's can be.

 Loosely western themed, we made construction paper cowboy hats.

 

We played some "snake in the boot."

We sang "Happy Birthday" to this special girl, who specifically requested blue "tuptates" for her birthday treat.

We had a pinata.

This picture never gets old.  He went all Braveheart on that pinata.  "Freedom!"
And Elli was all, "Boys..."

The bouncy castle was our grand finale, and it never disappoints.  Elli has such sweet friends, and having them come over was so special to her!  (And thanks to Gwampa for letting me have your pictures!)

Although Caroline slept through a good portion of the party, she did get a kick out of the balloons afterward.

On Sunday, we got to celebrate Caroline's baptism.

The service was so sweet and memorable.  Caroline didn't cry at all, and we loved having both sets of grandparents there.

I loved how after the actual baptism, we walked down the aisle and our brothers and sisters in the Lord had the opportunity to pass the peace to Caroline.  You can also see Caroline's favorite part of church in these pictures - name tags.  She will dive towards anyone (stranger or friend), as long as they are wearing a name tag. 

We praise God for two such special reasons to celebrate!