Mimi and Stefan...

...and a new train. He is totally into Thomas and Friends.

I love these two sweeties!

My baby is three months old!

And yes, she does have other outfits. I know she was in the this outfit in her 2-month picture I posted, but these were too cute to not post. Forgive the outfit duplication. I'm sure that is some mothering faux pas. Oh well.

Mother's Day Re-cap!

I had a lovely Mother's Day and felt very "loved." Ah yes, loved indeed. I mean, who wouldn't feel loved with these two little ones to love on. Hearing Stefan say, "appy moder's day" was enough to nearly melt my heart, and then add to that the coos and smiles of a nearly (gasp) three month old. Yep, I'm sold on this mothering thing! Don't get me wrong, it's not all rosy. In fact, just yesterday I said to my mom, "it's on days like this that I think, how again did you have five children?" Ahem, it was one of those days. Anyway, Mother's Day was a great day. Our Sunday service was wonderful and the message (the part I heard anyway-I was out doing the mothering thing for part of it) was a huge blessing. I especially appreciated the pastoral prayer which included the mothers, the mother-less, those with bad memories of their mother, the barren women, and the single women with no immediate hope of mothering. It was an excellent reminder that Mother's Day can bring very different emotions to people. We need to be mindful and considerate of them all.



Here I am with my sweet babies. What an awesome blessing and responsibility it is to mother these two precious children. My prayer is that I would be kingdom focused as I mother them, (again, from Sunday's message) and that I would have as my motivation to make disciples.

And here I am with my beautiful mom. It is the first time I have been with her on Mother's Day since I have been a mother as well. Very special. She taught me everything I know about being a Mom and then some. (We all know she taught me more than I actually know. Maybe someday I will learn it all)

What is one of my favorite memories with my Mom? Thanks for asking, I'd love to share! Reading aloud together the book, A Woman's High Calling by Elizabeth George one summer, culminated by going on an overnight together to a bed and breakfast. The little get-a-way included shopping, a concert (that was for me, thanks, Mom!), touring a castle together, and of course some more shopping. Oh, and talking. We always talk a lot! (Make that I always talk a lot. Mom is a good listener!)

So to all you ladies, whether or not you have mothered your own children, if you have ever loved, nurtured, discipled, and cared for children as a Mom, an Auntie, or a mentor, I hope you had a lovely day on Sunday!

The bonding continues!

Mimi's here!!!

We are so excited to have Mimi here for a visit. She and Olivia are bonding beautifully, as you can see! We're so thankful for the unexpected provision of a way for my Mom to come visit us. Check out Olivia's double chin. She is obviously not starving!

Catching up!

We've been enjoying some unexpected flowers popping up in our yard. It's so beautiful to have a little taste of spring sitting on our table. It just makes me smile when I walk by them!

Since it has been so long since I have posted, I haven't told you Olivia's two month stats. We had her appointment at two months and two days and she weighed 11 pounds 1 ounce. Check here to see how she compared to Stefan at exactly two months two days. Just a hint. He had her beat!

What a joy to see my two children "playing" together. It really is such a blessing to see how much Stefan loves his little sister already. I just know they are going to be great pals someday!


Olivia is becoming quite a Daddy's girl, and I'm pretty sure she has wrapped her finger right around her Daddy's heart already.

Happy Weekend!

Busy Week!

Yesterday we met Daddy for a picnic on his lunch break. It was such a beautiful day, and it was fun to be able to see Brian in the middle of the day!

Today, Stefan had his first swimming lesson. One of the great perks of Brian working for a college is that the whole family can take classes for free. We wasted no time in signing Stefan up for swimming. Though we are signed up through the college, the lessons are actually at the Dolphin Swim Club in town. I was really impressed with their facilities and the teachers there. According to Kasandra, Stefan's teacher, Stefan was very comfortable in the water! I like that they keep the classes to a maximum of four children. There were only three in Stefan's class. He did great, didn't make a peep about Mommy leaving him with a complete stranger, and had a blast. He was smiling the whole time -- except for when they put the goggles on! He'll have to get used to that.

You think they might be related?!

Two months old!

Cousins!

Patience and Corban were over here for a little while tonight. They got in some cuddles with Olivia.

How cute is that?!

Who made the trees?

God made the trees.

That is how a lot of our conversations have been going lately. With the coming of warmer weather we have been spending more time outside. It has been wonderful to teach Stefan about God's beautiful creation. Today, since it is cold and and we can't go outside we decided to keep thinking about creation in a little project.


First we tore up paper and then put them in two piles by color. This was a really good color sorting project for Stefan.

We then stuck the paper on the tree outline with glue. He did amazingly well at this. Just a couple of months ago I did a project similar to this with Stefan and he didn't really get into it, and didn't "get" that we were making a picture. What a difference a couple of months makes. He totally got it today! I love seeing him catch on to new things.

Very pleased with himself. (Side note...when Stefan saw this picture right now as I type all he noticed was the garage door---boys!)

Stefan's absolute favorite book right now is a french book of objects with the words. He looks at that constantly .There must be something about the way the paintings are that he really loves. This is what we had sitting up as our model for our tree project.

What's this, Stefan? "TWEEEEEEEEEEEE" (Someday we'll get that 'R' in there!)

Happy Easter!

I love my little family!

He felt quite snazzy with his suit "like Daddy."

Always cute and sweet!