two two

Two years have flown on by.  She is becoming so much more big girl and less baby.   Celebrating with family and friends, and of course a pink butterfly cake.  Presents of crayons, baby dolls, and her own Fiona-sized baby carrier to wear them in.

 

Littlest One

Look at these guys.  Adorable.  They're getting along great, too!

Birthday Bash

This year was Trevor's turn for a birthday party with his friends.  Since he hasn't had one since he was three (yeah, I know, that hardly counts), I wanted to make it really special.  He picked a paint-your-own-pottery place as the spot for his party.  I thought that was a huge improvement over his first idea of you-know-where (you know, the place with the pizza and the arcade and the giant mouse?).  So when he mentioned this, I ran with it.  Invitations shaped like paint palettes, rainbow cupcakes and pretzel  party favors dipped in chocolate to look like paint brushes.  Everyone had a great time.  Trevor came up to me at home that night and said, "Mom, thanks so much for my party.  It was really great."

Awwww.

Anytime, Honey.  Happy 9th!

Together

We are giddy with joy.  We are exhausted from all the anticipation.  We are still adjusting to being whole again.  But we are looking forward to time with more cuddles, more eskimo kisses and just a little more "mommy time." See you again soon!

changing so fast

oink

Oh, yeah.  The cutest pigtails ever!

old and new

 Miles received his silver cup last week.  An old tradition carried on by a new generation.  My parents have generously continued the tradition of giving their grandchildren a silver cup with the child's monogram.  I wrote the story of Fiona's cup when she received it.  I can't wait until Miles can really use it and cherish it as the rest of us.  He is growing so fast and showing lots of personality.  Happy two months to my funny little man!

 

 

resemblances

Oh my goodness!  Can you believe how much these kids look alike?  Two sets of two!

girly things

When Nana comes to visit we take some time to do things just us girls.  This time it was making jam.  Jars and jars of jam.  Thanks to a visit to the farmer's market and the commissary we had a half bushel of peaches, several pints of blueberries and a few pints of raspberries.  So the three of us worked for two days to turn that into jars of beautiful, tasty jam and wonderful memories. 

Happy Fourth

Happy Independence Day, everyone!!

Contented

Can you believe this little guy is more than a month old already?

10 and Counting

I planned a really clever post about my anniversary today- great pictures from the past and funny commentary summing it all up.  But real life happens and I have one little guy that wants to be held and another little pair of hands that can't stay away from the keyboard, or the scissors, or the stack of papers waiting to be filed.  Ten years sounds like a long time.  At least it did ten years ago.  Now I know how fast they can come and go.  Ten years ago I married my best friend and the best guy in the world.  Here we are 10 years, 7 houses, 6 states, 5 deployments and 4 kids later and I can say it's been 1 great adventure.  Real life happened all along the way, and it's been amazing!  Here's to many more years of real life together!

Party of 6

We went for our first hike as a family of 6.  Memorial weekend we went up to First Landing State Park.  We saw lots of toads, and toadstools to go with them.  Trevor and Braden had some map-reading practice.  It was a great first hike for Miles.  You can see that he was really working hard.  We'll have to do lots more when the weather cools down again!

Welcoming...

Miles Everett... born May 14th at 7:01am. 

He weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds 4 ounces!!  He is a sweetheart, and we are all enchanted.  He has the most expressive face and already generously gives out many little smiles a day.  God has sent us a precious gift!  Thank you so much to my parents who were here to help with the big kids and hold down the fort while I was in the hospital.  We couldn't have done it without your help!  Thank you so much to our church family who has already gathered around us in support!  We thank the Lord for your fellowship and love!  I will try to be back on regularly to post pictures, but this week will be a little crazy so check back with us in a few days.  We're still adjusting!

Zig Zags

 I just recently finished this project for the baby.  I didn't think he really needed any knitted hats or booties- it's already  been over 80 degrees several days.  Not that he really needs this blanket either, but it is special thing to have and to make.  It's really the first time I've done anything like this for one of my own babies!  The pattern is from the Purl bee and it was just wonderful to knit.  Obviously, I picked colors and different yarn.  I have been wanting to use the Spud and Chloe Sweater yarn again because it is just deliciously soft and wonderful.  While I think the Purl bee color choices are beautiful, I wanted something just a little brighter for my little May baby.  Big Sister can't seem to stay out from under it, so I guess it is "baby approved!"

growing...

My garden space is growing and growing!  I have been really looking forward to having a vegetable garden this year.  I missed my garden so much while we were in AZ, and I was ecstatic to see that the owners of our home here already had a raised garden bed.  I promptly filled it up with seeds and waited anxiously for those first few seedlings to pop up.  I almost couldn't believe it when they actually did!

Of course I was excited to see my little plants get bigger and bigger, but I soon decided that I didn't have nearly enough space.  So Everett lovingly put in a second raised bed... and all this without even getting to anticipate enjoying the "fruits" of his labors. 

Even more surprising are these brave little seedlings.  These are from Morning Glory seeds that I collected our last summer in North Carolina.  They have been sitting, waiting patiently through all the AZ heat and two moves.  I can't believe they were brave enough to poke their heads up, but here they are.  They will be such a cheery sight by my deck this summer!

Six is Golden

We celebrated Braden's sixth birthday last weekend. Where have the years gone? I must be getting old, because I feel like I say that more and more. We were happy to have some extra visitors here to help us celebrate- Aunt Heather & Uncle Eric came down for the weekend. Mom isn't playing much basketball or running around on the beach these days, so it's extra exciting to have more people to play with.

Braden said he wanted angel food cake this year, with angels on it. It was pretty tasty, if I say so myself, and this fancy gold spray from Williams-Sonoma helped make it extra angelic! The trick candles I put on the top were maybe not so angelic, but awfully fun!

Easter

Last Easter I was terribly sick. So I feel like this was Fiona's first Easter, even though it really wasn't. We definitely downplay the secular elements of Easter, i.e. none of my kids think there is such a thing as the Easter Bunny. But once a year it's fun to have a little "treasure hunt" that results in deviled eggs for lunch. The kids and I got together with some friends to dye eggs on the Friday before. Yeah, I'm a traditionalist and I just can't stand to use those little plastic eggs. Besides, then how would you get those deviled eggs that we were talking about? I think we all had a good time watching Fiona try to find some of the eggs that I left out in the easy spots. Then I started to get a little worried as I couldn't remember exactly where all the other eggs had been hidden or exactly how many there had been. Pregnant brain!!! Fortunately, they found them all so we didn't have to bring in the egg sniffing hounds.

As always, we had a wonderful time worshiping with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We recognize that every Sunday- even every day- is a day to remember the sacrifice that Christ Jesus made. We are thankful for that sacrifice each day and praise God for his grace and mercy. Still, we like to make a special point to focus on that at Easter. I do apologize for not having a picture of the entire family on Easter- by the time I realized there was no place to put my camera it was too late to drag out the tripod. Maybe next year!