6 month pictures of caroline

while we were in marco island, we thought we'd take advantage of the beautiful scenery and attempt some 6 month portraits of caroline. i don't know if any of these will be able to be enlarged to a 10x13, but i was pretty happy with how they turned out. she's still a little wobbly sitting up by herself, so anytime she got excited and smiled, she toppled right over! since we didn't get any really smiley ones, i might try to capture her sweet smile on another day. i changed most of these to b&w because the white balance was a little off with the sand. i'd love to know your vote for her portrait!








(this last one isn't portrait material, i know, but it was her first time in a highchair, and i just had to share it!)

go out and buy this today!

this is the best bible storybook i have seen yet... my mom read about it on somebody's blog, and she couldn't help but order a copy for ethan. and now i know why! the jesus storybook bible is full of truths that christian parents long to pass on to their children, not just facts about commonly heard bible stories. from the beginning, you read of our need for a Savior and God's amazing grace! starting with creation, the person of Jesus Christ is presented in every story, and this book includes "unlikely bible story book stories" like genesis 3 and revelation. brian was so happy to see that it did not go from the garden of eden straight to noah's ark and skip right over the truth of the fall of man...ethan's typical toddler bible story book does just that! here is my favorite excerpt from the book so far....

(from the story of genesis 3)
"you see, God knew if they ate the fruit, they would think they didn't need Him. and they would try to make themselves happy without Him. but God knew there was no such thing as happiness without Him, and life without Him wouldn't be life at all."

isn't that great? i love it. i haven't read through the whole book yet, but i'm confident in my recommendation. go out and buy this book...even if you don't have kids. you'll be so glad you did.

(ok, after i wrote this post, i visited girl talk, only to find that they had just reviewed this story book! so see, i'm not the only one who loves this book! check out their review, too.)

c'mon in- the water's great!

we have surely gotten our money's worth out of this spring float. i love that it has the canopy-- i don't have to worry about the kids getting too much sun. the pool at the marriott had several sprinklers for the kids to run and play under, and ethan was very disturbed by these! it took him about 30 minutes to warm up to the idea of getting in the pool because of these pesky sprinklers, and then of course, he got so upset when it was time to leave! the pool also had a slide (see picture on last post), and ethan loved watching the kids slide down into the water.




our last evening in marco island, we decided to take a picnic dinner down to the beach. ethan loved looking for shells once he got used to walking in the sand! he hasn't really walked in much sand because i was a pregnant lazy woman last summer and we didn't make it to the beach much... so i am determined for my child to get used to the sand and to NOT have sensory issues about sand and dirt!! (especially after just attending 2 conference sessions on sensory issues!!) so, as soon as we got to the beach, ethan and i threw the football. i intentionally threw it where he had to walk to go get it, and he stood in one place, asking, "football please" over and over (what 2 year old boy stands in one place at the beach?!!!!?! only mine!). i took his hand and made him walk over to the football. he didn't protest, but it was so hilarious to watch him make each step so slowly and deliberately! (i was imagining him saying to himself, "it's just sand. you can do it, ethan!") he actually didn't mind walking in the sand the rest of the evening, but we ended up putting his crocs on so he could walk on the shell-filled part of the beach without hurting his feet. what can i say? he's just like his daddy and he doesn't like to get dirty. caroline, on the other hand, will probably be eating sand next month... here's a couple of pictures of our family and caroline's first visit to the beach. she loved watching all the people and feeling the wind in her face.

finding shells with daddy
one wind-blown family!
"look! i found a little man in my shell!
hello, little man!"
"i can't wait to come back to the beach!"

waaaaaaaay down south

brian and i loaded up the kids in the van last week and decided to drive to the very southern tip of florida (at least on the west coast).... "why?" you might ask?? 1) because our van needed some permanent lovebug skidmarks? 2) because gas is so cheap? nooo... actually, i attended a great speech pathology conference at a beautiful resort. brian watched the kids during the day while i learned so much more about autism and sensory issues, asperger's syndrome, phonological disorders, and bilingualism in children.... and then after my sessions, we relaxed! here are some views we enjoyed... the last 2 shots were taken from our hotel balcony. ethan loved going out on the balcony to "see pool! see pool!" more pictures to come...

bye, na-eee!

well, nana is on her way across the world to uganda... we said our goodbyes at the airport yesterday morning as she and the rest of the team from our church began their journey. she's going to be busy helping with music and teaching conferences over there, and i can't wait to hear how things are going. she emailed today to say that they'd made it to london, so hopefully we'll hear about their arrival to uganda soon. our family would appreciate prayers on glenda's (and the team's) behalf.... for safety and good health, as well as effective work for the Lord.

it's gonna be a long month around here without nana! ethan woke up this morning, and the first thing he said was, "na-eee's plane go round and round!" and then he said it allllllllllll day!!!! we sure will miss our nana....

caroline goes bananas!

well, ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a little....

caroline, like her brother, made quite the sour face for her solid food debut of very-watered-down-bananas tonite. but also like her brother, she kept opening her mouth for more! (you can see in the second picture that she IS smiling!) she loved the spoon and would not let go of it once she grabbed hold of it (we'll be teaching her "hands down" very soon!). i am hoping that the introduction of solids will rid us of this new fun game of "wake up hungry at 5 am", but i'm guessing that 2 tsp of watery bananas won't quite do the trick. :) baby steps, baby steps.

*oh, i almost forgot- check out the cute lil bow my mom made for caroline! we have several in all different colors. they're sort of a challenge to put in, but oh, how i love to see a little bow in her hair already! my daughter is destined to be a bow-head.

caroline is 6 months old!

yep, our baby girl is halfway to her first birthday! here's a little recap for you...


these pictures are getting more difficult to take. 2 seconds after her picture was taken, caroline had her sign for a snack! (notice big brother helped decorate her sign this month.) :) happy half birthday, baby girl! it just gets better from here!

a big sigh

they really are going to grow up, aren't they?

counting my blessings...

in honor of mother's day, i thought i'd share some things that the kids have been doing recently. i'm guilty of usually waiting to blog until something absolutely hilarious or precious or horrific happens. and in my little head, i think i have to have a picture to go with every post. i know, i'm a tad OCD (and i wonder why ethan insists on the drawers being closed ALL THE WAY!!). anyway, i'll try to just share little moments from our little world more often. here's a few:

ethan is putting 3-5 words togther now, such as "daddy's white car go" and "ca-ine's bib fell down" (in speech therapy terms, i'd say his average MLU is 4.0)

he answers the question, "what's your name?" with "e-FINNNNNN!" (huge emphasis on the 2 yr old version of "than")

he is WAY into counting right now. for a while, everything was "3,4,5...TWO cars!" as of this week, here's how the counting goes...."2,3,4,5,8,10,several,14....FOURTEEN!" it's stinkin hilarious. where did he get "several"?

thanks to the leapfrog letter factory dvd (and nana & gram!), ethan knows 9 of his letters. he's constantly bringing me his magnadoodle, asking me to "draw A".

ethan now calls the balls their appropriate titles: soccer ball, baseball, and football... but the favorite at our house is "bakaba, bakaba, bakaba!" he says it so fast, and it makes me laugh every time!

i haven't forgotten caroline! she is our steam-rollin' baby these days, rolling all over the place! it keeps her entertained, that's for sure.

she's still working on sitting up, though she's almost got it. she tries to reach for a toy in front of her and ends up flat on her face! the boppy is our friend right now. :)

caroline's favorite laugh is this almost-frightening gasping noise that sounds as if she's lost her breath. i have to assure the grandmas that she's just fine as she does this noise at a very loud volume...over and over!!

caroline is responding to her name, which makes this speech-therapist mamma SOOOO happy!

i think i had more cute stories to tell, but my brain is tired... maybe i'll remember them in the morning. i am so thankful to be the mother of these precious children. may God get all the glory in every cute little story...

"chase unca ryan!"

well, here it is 3 weeks later, and i'm finally finishing up sharing pictures from our trip to TN!! my brother and i took ethan to the park on a beautiful (hot) saturday afternoon, and he had a ball with uncle ryan. (side note: the whole weekend, ethan would accidentally call ryan "brian"-- which i also do-- and then correct himself. it was pretty funny, especially because ethan technically shouldn't get mixed up since brian is "daddy". but then again, kids are usually smarter than we think they are...) anyway, back to the park. ryan picked a great park... it had a toddler-friendly see-saw (ethan's first time), big pipe chimes (ryan gave ethan a music lesson), and what every park needs....a big DRAGON! it's covered in mosaics, so it was actually pretty interesting to look at. ethan also loved chasing ryan around the park. now that we're back home, at random moments in our day, he blurts out, "chase unca ryan!" with a huge smile on his face. :)








after a hot hour at the park, we ventured over to one of my favorite spots to visit when we are in town-- the popsicle place with the fun name. i can't think of it right now, but i think it's "the popsicle" in spanish or something. now you are thinking, what is so great about a popsicle? oooooh, let me tell you. these are made with fresh fruit and they are nothing short of scrumptious! i have never craved a popsicle in all my life, but if this place was local, i just might crave a cantaloupe or plum popsicle on a daily basis. sounds gross? you are SO WRONG! it tastes like you are eating a PLUM! a real plum! now i'm sure they've added plenty of sugar, but man o man, are these good. i was absolutely sure that ethan would be so excited about trying his first popsicle (especially b/c plums are like candy to him), but he wanted nothing to do with them. i let him try THREE KINDS, and he was content sitting there watching us eat. for the first time in his life! ha. it was probably just too cold for him. i bet next year, he'll be lickin his lips.


thanks for a fun day, uncle ryan! we love you!

a mini-reunion

an extra blessing when we visit my grandmother & brother is to see 3 of my dearest college friends that live in the same city. this time around, the kids and i stayed with lynsay-- thank you, lyns, for letting us invade your weekend!! christie & ashley came over saturday night... the girls played with ethan and caroline till their bedtime, and then we all stayed up (way too) late catching up. it's really a neat thing to watch your friends love your kids. i can't explain it, but if you have kids, you probably know what i mean. being with the girls that night really made me even more excited about our annual summer reunion. this year it's in savannah--i can't wait!!!!!

here's some pictures of caroline with my girls... she loved meeting mommy's friends!

hey grandmom!

i'm so glad my grandmother finally got to meet caroline. we had such a good visit to TN a couple of weeks ago... it was a quick trip but definitely worth it. you know, a few months ago, i was sad that grandmother hadn't seen caroline yet because i knew how quickly this baby girl would not be a baby anymore. but as i watched caroline smile and giggle at grandmother more than she ever would have 3 months ago, i was so thankful that we took our trip when we did. i think grandmother really enjoyed watching ethan running around, playing with whatever he found on the floor (rather than the big bag of toys i brought!). the last time we visited, ethan was barely walking and not saying much that we could understand yet... so grandmother basically saw a completely different ethan! hopefully we didn't exhaust her.

during our visit, we drove by the lot where granddaddy & grandmother's precious house once stood. now, there is a huge huge castle in the place of their sweet little cottage. i had a sad, sinking feeling in my stomach as i took pictures of the new house, so i can't imagine how my mom and grandmother were feeling. but as i've said before, praise God that our hope is not in the things of this world. i'm sure my grandmother reminds herself of that often. if her heart was sad as we drove away from what was her home for so many years, i hope that she was cheered by ethan's little voice calling, "hey grandmom!" all weekend. he loved saying her name, and as we drove away, he would not stop saying, "bye grandmom! bye grandmom!" he continued saying "bye" to her at random times throughout our next week at home, too. :) grandmother, we love you and we look forward to the next time we see you!!

ethan loves the blinking light on the camera timer!
caroline was so happy to be the 4th generation in this picture!
caroline was all smiles for grandmother

more pictures from our trip to come....