uncle ryan and rattletrap car

papa turned the key, "brmm, brmm, brmm, brmm..."


ethan loved having uncle ryan read to him before bedtime! more pictures from our trip to TN very soon...

seasonal siblings

while posting those egg hunt pictures, i saw the one of caroline propped up with all the eggs and it reminded me of this picture of ethan.... she's about 2 months older than he was in this picture, but i still had to compare them. neither of them could actually sit up yet in these pictures (she's still working on it, actually...), and they're both such seasonal looking pictures. caroline makes faces or does something almost every day that reminds me of ethan, but i usually don't have the camera handy! (no, it's not around my neck all day...).


(pictures from our trip are next... hang on another day or two!)

eggs!

the sheriff's office where pappy works had a spring fling a couple of weeks ago, so ethan experienced his first egg hunt! because nana has been practicing with ethan on finding eggs, he knew just what to do on the big day! :) he was so excited to wear pappy's badge--he thought he was big stuff!! ethan was equally thrilled to see football, baseball, soccer ball, and basketball eggs, and once he found a few of these, he overlooked the traditional colored eggs in pursuit of the boy eggs. ethan helped karina fill her pink basket, and he was also happy to share some eggs with his sister. here's some shots from the egg hunt...

don't worry, daddy!
ethan found these pink ones for me!
karina took this egg inventory thing very seriously
she would NOT let go of her basket! :)
"look at all the eggs my brother found for me!"
karina, just say please, and caroline will share her eggs. :)
how much nutrition is in plastic grass?
grass angels
thanks, nana and pappy, for a fun morning!

nighttime routine

ethan's favorite bath toy right now is this set of floating blocks from papa & grandma joy. not only do they float, but they stick together when they're wet! fun fun!!



here's some pictures from bedtime around our house. you can see that daddy always gets a few more smiles from the kids before they're off to bed. the picture of ethan and me was taken while we were reading, though you can't see the book... his favorite book right now is rattletrap car, which we checked out at the library. what a cute book!! (thanks for the recommendation, kendra!) hopefully i can share more later about ethan's first trip to the library... he loved it!



nite nite!

behind....

i know, i know... i'm behind in my blogging again. my mom and i took the kids to TN this weekend to see my grandmother and brother. caroline also got to meet a few of my dear college friends, and we had a great time... it was a whirlwind trip, and there were several other people we would've loved to have seen either during our visit or on the way, but there just wasn't time. so please forgive me if you're reading this, thinking, "well, i didn't get to see them!" (aunt norma!!) i hope that next time, i can carve out a little more time to spend with everybody.

hopefully, i'll be able to post pictures from our trip soon. i also want to share pictures from ethan's first egg hunt. it was pretty entertaining.

until then, enjoy this picture in honor of my being "behind"... ha. are all you moms out there wondering how these babies were still and patient long enough for the artwork?? what is their secret?? i'm thinking photoshop...


have a great week. it's a beautiful one here!

spring baby

will i ever get tired of taking these?

caroline is 5 months old!

i promise she's teething...

papa rocks!

my dad & joy came over for dinner last weekend, and they came loaded with grandchildren goodies... including a new drum (it is actually pretty quiet), a very cool notepad that "paints" with water, and ethan's favorite of all the loot...... pop rocks! i think grandma joy about fell out of her chair when i said it was ok to give ethan some of this fun candy that i remember loving as a child. honestly, i thought ethan would be scared of it-- he's funny about things these days. i put some in my mouth and let him hear it sizzle first, and then i gave him a little. he loved it! (i mean, what's not to love about pure sugar? and did i mention this was at about 7:30 pm?) it wasn't long before ethan was saying, "hold please, hold please"... noooo son, you may not hold the whole packet of poprocks, but good try. :)

we really enjoyed our evening with them.... here's a sweet picture of caroline with her papa.


hope you all had a great weekend. ethan went on his first egg hunt. more on that soon...

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

easter is the most wonderful day of the year. it is the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! yes, we as christians celebrate our risen Lord with our daily lives all year long, but what a glorious day to join with brothers and sisters in Christ to proclaim, "He is risen! He is risen indeed! alleluia!" our pastor made an awesome point in sunday's sermon:

without easter, christmas means nothing.
what a precious gift God gave in sending His Son to this earth as a baby... but praise God that the story doesn't end there! Jesus Christ grew up from a baby to a man, a perfect man without sin. and while i did nothing to deserve His love, He died on the cross to pay for my sins. He was buried, and He rose from the earthly grave! He lives today! Jesus Christ triumphed over death and saved me when i was dead in my sins! my justification is wrapped up in HIS works, and i am being sanctified every day by the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. i boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ and daily lean on His grace...all for the glory of our God! now THAT is something to celebrate!

really, without easter, my life means nothing. and as a christian, i cannot help but share that story. i cannot hide behind the easter bunny as "the reason to celebrate"... if my daily aim is to glorify God and to point my children to the cross, i must strive to speak the Truth in everything. and american consumerism cannot get in the way. i fail in this area on a daily basis, i know, but i must keep looking to the cross. praise God for His mercy and grace. praise God for His risen Son, Jesus Christ.

my dear friend sums it up in this poem. i hope you'll read it and remember that He is risen!

here's a little about our easter...

after church on sunday, we celebrated easter with a wonderful lunch at jeff & kristie's with brian's parents, my mom, and kristie's parents. here's a few pictures from our afternoon... i meant to get some with the rest of the family, and i guess i was just a little excited about the food and forgot!


ethan's first time to actually hold caroline.
3 generations
saturday night-preparing for sunday
"hurt! hurt!" ok, so maybe the coat is a little too snug...
meanwhile, caroline was very happy with her easter dress!

hope your easter was a blessed one...

babies all a"round"

i have tons of pictures to share from this weekend...but i'll post just this one for now to whet your appetite! here are all of caroline's little friends at church... all dressed up to celebrate our risen Savior yesterday. you should've seen us trying to get all of them to look at the camera for this picture! i'm sure this will be a favorite to look back at in the coming years. thank you, Lord, for our babies!

oops- caroline is really 4 months old now!

when you're a mother of 2 small children, some things just have to fall through the cracks. whether it's mopping your kitchen floor or getting all your laundry put away before it's time to do laundry again, something just has to give. well, i finally mopped the floor yesterday, and laundry is almost done....but i realized i never posted caroline's 4 month pictures-- from over 2 weeks ago. call me a slacker, but at least i have a clean kitchen floor.....



so there's our baby girl...her 5 month pictures are just around the corner....

smiley

just one more in her cute little hat....

matchy matchy green squared!

caroline & cousin karina sure do love their nana for countless reasons... one of which is the supply of matching outfits! being a mom of two boys, nana has never had the pleasure of shopping for little girls... until now! and she is making up for lost time!! :) kristie and i enjoy dressing our little girls alike, and they don't seem to mind it....yet. :) you can see some more of karina in her hat on kristie's blog.




karina tries to give caroline a little lesson in body parts...
"here's your ear..."
"aaand here's my leg..."
"and here's an arm!"

oh what fun these girls will have growing up together!
and we'll have a good time too...

(if the title of this post makes no sense to you, you've obviously not seen return to me as many times as kristie and i have.... go rent it. it's a good one.)

son, take your finger out of your nose... and the corn...and the peas...

ethan loves corn and peas. i do too...they're good for you, easy to pick up, and even when a whole bowl of them lands on the floor, they're relatively easy to clean up. i consider them great finger foods... and apparently ethan considers them great "nose foods" too!!! yes, ethan crammed peas and corn up his nose today. (sigh.) right before naptime. (sigh.) my naptime. (sigh.) we were finishing lunch (which on wednesdays is required to be completely fruits and vegetables because we eat chickfila before church), and i told ethan to get his finger out of his nose. this direction has become quite common this week, so i really chalked his behavior up to a boy wanting to stick his finger up his nose... until i saw something yellow hanging from his left nostril. the corn was easy to remove. i looked real quick and saw something green up the same nostril. peas. i couldn't get it out with just my finger, so i had to get the tweezers. it took a few minutes (yuck), but out came the pea. i thought that was it, but i decided to be safe and do a little nose exam with daddy's flashlight just in case. ok, now i could see green in BOTH nostrils-- way up in there. i called ashley at dr. tom's office, and she said to bring ethan in and she'd get them out. of course, caroline had just laid down for a nap, so i called mama d to come sit with her... before she arrived, ethan came into the kitchen and delivered a pea to me... but i wasn't sure if it came from his nose or if it was stuck in his clothes from lunch, so i figured we should still get his nose checked out... plus i figured a trip to see the doctor would show ethan that this was serious stuff and we don't stick food up our nose.

he sat up on the table like a big boy and let both dr. tom and ashley look in his nose with their nose-instrument-light-thingy (can't you tell i have my master's degree? ha). i was glad he cooperated, but unfortunately, i think he thought this was pretty cool. they didn't find any more peas up his nose, so i guess ethan blew it out himself before we left. this probably didn't really warrant a trip to the dr, but i knew our friends didn't mind us coming in... and i could rest assured that there was no green giant up ethan's nose! as we were leaving, e.j. asked if ethan got a sucker, and i told her no thank you. that's all we need is him shoving food up his nose every day in hopes for a sucker from the doctor!

so this is one for the baby books, as mama d said. i'm sure it won't be the last time he does it. i apologize for those of you who visited today hoping to see pictures and instead had to hear about peas in the nose!! :) i'll post the pictures soon.

bathtime & smiletime!

ethan likes to "help" with caroline's bathtime... really, i think he just wants the soap...




caroline loves grabbing the toys hanging from karina's gym-thing that we've borrowed.... do ya think she's teething? watch out, little monkey!



i think ethan is just as entertained with the exersaucer as caroline is... i've said this before, but whoever invented that thing really deserves a big fat prize!




still more pics to come...

sleeping cutie...

when ethan sleeps, he is likely to be found curled up in a ball with his bottom sticking up in the air. it's especially precious to me because i remember feeling and seeing it bulging out when i was pregnant with him! i captured this quiet moment during a deep-sleep-of-a-sunday-nap. when he's 10, i'm sure this picture will make me cry!