5 years

today, my love and i are celebrating five busy and wonderful years of marriage. and for the next twenty-four hours, we will be relaxing and enjoying this beautiful view. God is good. and i can't wait to sleep in tomorrow!

relief

raise your hand if you're loving the weather today!


we were pleasantly surprised when we stepped outside and felt an almost cool breeze! we are looking forward to fall!!!

cannonbaaaaaaaaall!

ethan has gladly filled the position of our cautious child for the past four years. i guess it's partly inherited (um, not from me), it's partly the way God made him, and it's partly because we have told him "be careful" a million times since he could crawl. in the last two years, i've heard him say "mommy, be careful!" as i'm climbing on the counter to retrieve something in my tall cabinets or "mommy, don't hit their mailbox!" as i'm backing out of a friend's driveway. (thanks, ethan. you're a real confidence booster. for the record, i've never hit a mailbox.) ethan has never really been a climber or a daredevil. he's been perfectly content to sit and watch others having fun sliding down big water slides and such. you'd never know it now, but he even used to hate the sand. this all used to really bother me. i wanted ethan to be adventurous, to try new things, to have fun. but i reminded myself that on the other side of this, ethan has never run away from me in public, he's never just taken off down the beach where i couldn't find him, and he's never endangered his life as he scaled the bookshelves (that would be from my childhood). so this cautious thing does have its perks. and ethan has seemed perfectly happy just doing his thing.

ethan eventually got over his sand problem, and now he can run and frolic on the beach like the best of them. but water in his face?! no, thanks. going under water? no, thanks. having a drop of water come within inches of his eyelashes? um, no. and he really hasn't been all that crazy about floating around in the pool. he has been most comfortable just playing on the steps. so i knew it was time for swim lessons. i knew he just needed to get dunked a few times by someone other than me, and he'd see that he was still breathing. and he'd be fine. but you moms know what swim lessons entail. i've read your blogs. you drive 25 minutes with all your kids out to a public pool, and you sit in the sun with your other kids while your swim student does his lesson for 20 minutes. and you try to explain to your two year old why her brother is in the water and she is just watching. and then you do that every single day for the next two weeks. and you pay good money for it. i just wasn't up for any of that this summer. the driving and the sitting and the explaining and the paying and the everyday. so i just didn't worry about it. i thought that maybe next year, we'd consider lessons for both ethan and caroline.

well, deb must've read my mind. deb is ethan's wonderful sunday school teacher who happens to have been a lifeguard. who happens to have a pool. who happens to live very close to us. and who happens to have a quiet house for a napping baby. so when she offered to give ethan swim lessons this summer, i gladly took her up on her offer. ethan loves deb, and i knew he would be comfortable with her from day one. so it was a deal. we planned our start date, and we couldn't wait! i started telling ethan that he'd be going to mrs. deb's house for swim lessons soon. i didn't go into details about what he'd be doing there, but i just reminded him that whatever mrs. deb asked him to do, he would obey and do it. one day, he responded with, "but if it's a hard memory verse, then mrs. deb can say the first part and i can say the second part." he had no idea of what he was getting into! the big week came, and we forgot about our first day because our friends were leaving... after that initial glitch, everything went swimmingly.

the first day, ethan and deb worked on just getting his face wet and being comfortable in the water. they blew bubbles at the steps and they practiced kicking around the pool. mrs. deb's one rule was that parents could not watch the actual swim lesson... so the girls and i either ran a quick errand (which i gave up on doing after the first couple of days) or we played inside deb's house until they were finished. afterwards, we'd come out to the pool so that ethan could demonstrate what he learned. he loved showing daddy the pictures and videos of his daily progress.

here's my big boy doing exactly what his teacher asked him to do on his very first day...


he went from the safety of bubbles at the steps to kicking freestyle around the pool...



to blowing bubbles underwater while he floated...


and by only the third day, ethan was ready to take the plunge. this is probably no big deal to most four year old boys... but to my son, this was THE accomplishment of the year! he started out giggly and nervous, and he wanted deb to stay real close as he jumped...


by the beginning of the second week, ethan was jumping halfway across the pool. still giggly, but that was due to excitement now!


before long, he was jumping into that pool over and over and over. he would shout, "i went completely underwater!" he could not have been happier!


in those eight lessons, ethan got really good at the kickboard, too. he was swimming all over that pool with this board.



there was just one day that ethan got upset and begged not to go underwater....


at his final lesson, ethan slapped on the goggles and went underwater to search for diving toys. they weren't very far underwater, but he still had to keep his face underwater for a few seconds to get them.




so i'd say my boy came a long way in two weeks, wouldn't you!? from not wanting to get his face wet to submerging his entire body in a big splash... those were some great swimming lessons! ethan is definitely more confident in the water... definitely. deb has encouraged us to come over at least once a week to keep ethan used to swimming, so i know we will enjoy going back over there from time to time.

and what were the rest of us doing while ethan was splishing and splashing? amelia usually fell asleep...



and caroline checked on deb's birds.


thankfully (for the birds' sake, anyway) 25 minutes goes by rather quickly. a couple of times a week, deb would let us stay and go swimming after ethan's lesson. while amelia napped, caroline and i joined ethan in the water. we loved all of our swim days!


though caroline wasn't taking the swimming lessons, just being in the water on a more regular basis helped her gain more confidence in the water as well. (and the fact that she copies everything ethan does was a plus!) she never did jump in the water to me, but she was totally happy floating on her own. i'd say this is progress from clinging-onto-mommy-for-dear-life-even-though-she-is-wearing-a-floatie.


we really had some fun in the water! here are the kids, ironically on the steps. this moment was probably the only time in the last month that they were on the steps. quite a change!


here is ethan with mrs. deb. i love this picture so much! thank you so much, deb, for a wonderful first swimming experience for ethan. you are such an encouragement to our family, and we have been so blessed by your love!

sweet baby

in my attempts to get a picture of amelia's first tooth, i did end up with a couple of keepers...

goodbye gummy grin!

well hey! it's me, amelia! ya wouldn't know i was teething, would you!? i've still been my happy self for the most part. but i've been doing this...



and this...



and this...


as you can see, i've been wanting to chew on whatever i can get my hands on. my mommy has been saying that my gums are really hard, and a couple of weeks ago, she said she could see little lines where my teeth were going to be! then last monday, she felt something! my first tooth! and she could tell that the second one wasn't too far behind the first. so my silly mom set out to get a picture of my very first tooth. boy, that was hard. i love to stick out my tongue now, and i really don't stay still for very long... so day after day, she ended up with pictures like this...


but finally (finally!) my mom caught the first little bump of my first pearly white on camera... see it!? on the right!?



you don't see it? well, here, get a little closer...


and guess what my mommy found in my mouth yesterday!? my second tooth! so the first two really weren't so bad. whew! mommy hopes that the next ones are this easy...

well, gotta go! i see some toys just begging to be gnawed! my brother and sister have had some "firsts" this month too, so check back soon for more fun from our house.

another caroline to love!

it's time to crank out my fifth and final post about my june trip to nashville. (i know--i estimated three posts... so i was a bit off. i had more i wanted to say. shocker.) this post is dedicated to the second sweetest baby caroline i know. she belongs to my dear dear friend rachel. rachel and i go way back to summer orientation before our freshman year in college. she was from nebraska, and i was from the south. nebraskans apparently don't really hug strangers. southerners will hug just about anybody. i met rachel. i hugged rachel. she didn't know quite what to do with me. but we became friends anyway. :) and the rest is history. we buddied up for most of our speech pathology classes during undergrad, we ran together at night (i used to run!? and i liked it?!), and i even let her think that "pen" and "pin" were pronounced differently. (she wasn't from the south, remember?!) rachel was one of the smartest people i'd ever met. if i made an "A" on a test, rachel made a higher "A". everytime. but she was so humble about it, and i don't recall it ever even striking my highly-competitive-nerve. rachel and i never lived together during undergrad, but we made up for that by sharing a room during graduate school. this girl has the patience of job. she endured my sleep-talking (as if i don't talk enough when i'm awake!) and the life-size picture of brian's face that was plastered to the wall on my side of our room (though rachel did think he was such a fun guy-- get it, rach?!??). rachel surely humored my cheesy jokes and c-l-u-t-t-e-r-e-d desk, neither of which i managed to abandon after those grad school days. rachel was a rock. she came through the most challenging therapy assignments virtually unscathed, and she even passed our dreaded comps though she was incredibly ill the week of (including the day before) the big exams. most importantly, rachel was grounded in the Word. i was so blessed to live with such godly girls during grad school. we did share a good number of tears together during our school years, but we also shared the promises of God, the blessings of being in Christ. praise the Lord for that!

so all that to say... i really really love my friend rachel. since we graduated with our masters degree in 2003, our visits have sadly been few and far between. the last time i saw rachel was the summer of 2006, so when we were planning this trip to nashville, it hit me that it would not be out of the question for rachel to drive over to visit. i was beyond excited when she agreed to come to nashville for a day. yay! i knew i could squeeze in one more visit with one more loved one. :) and oh, what a blessing that day was. it was worth all the squeezing in to get to hug her neck and to see her precious baby. i loved seeing rachel as a mom. it was so fun to talk about motherhood with her and to just share that day with my friend. it made me wish we lived closer so that we could spend more time together more often. before i get too sappy and teary-eyed, here is a peek into the day with my friend:

caroline was eating when amelia woke up from her nap, so this is the babies' first time to see each other.



all four kids together



the carolines :)



caroline and amelia were so sweet to look right at the camera!



aaaaand they're done.


rachel sent this adorable outfit to amelia, so i had to get them in a picture together. looking at this picture makes me realize that i never got one of me and baby caroline. aw man! i guess i didn't have an extra pair of arms for that picture. well, rachel is gonna have to bring caroline down here soon so i can get a picture with her. ;)


so by the time rachel arrived, ethan and caroline were getting a little stir crazy in the house. it was blazing hot outside, so i refused to take them out in the backyard. instead, we went to mcdonald's to the indoor playground. (which ethan refers to as "old mcdonald's had a farm".) the kids played and climbed and played and climbed while my mom, rachel, and i sat and chatted and played with babies.


caroline got the hang of climbing up but was a little timid about the climbing down part. since she knew how to climb up, she just kept climing higher and higher and higher. she pretty much took on the role of the kitty cat stuck up the tree. (this picture was taken when she was just getting started.)


and what role did i get to play? the nice firemommy who climbs the tree to get the cat down. the firemommy told the bystanders that they were not allowed to take pictures, but they did anyway.


it surely was a wonderful visit with rachel and baby caroline. rachel, thank you so much for making the drive over for the day. i know that was a lot of time in the car, but it meant so much for me to get to see you. we need to do it again before these girls get too much older! i love you, friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (all those exclamation points are just for you!)

amelia meets more family!

our trip to nashville back in june had "family bookends". we started off seeing family, and we ended our trip seeing family. let's start at the very beginning... (a very good plaaaaace to start!)


after a day's drive, we were so happy to see my great-aunt norma and great-uncle clarence! as usual, norma had a table full of delicious food ready for us, complete with a texas sheet cake. if you do not know what that is, your pants probably fit you much better than mine do! oh man, it is good stuff. in our family, it is my grandma's and aunt norma's signature dessert. i grew up on it, and i don't know very many people who've even heard of it. shame, shame. ANYway, we spent a day or so with norma and clarence, and it was such a blessing. they have always treated me like one of their own grandchildren, and now they love my kids like they are their own great-grandchildren. (growing up, i was always amazed at how much they loved me even though i wasn't "theirs", but it hit me that karina's children and i will share the same relationship that norma and i share... and of course i will love those babies like my own!) when norma wasn't cooking for us, she was holding my baby.



or feeding my baby.



or rocking my baby to sleep.


while norma claimed "baby duty", clarence entertained the older kids with the dog and toy cars in the garage. looks like the dog needs to give my kids lessons on smiling for the camera. :)


we loved every minute of our time with norma and clarence. i have no doubt that norma will be my first comment on this post. :) she is quite the blog follower! i have affectionately called her "aunt email" for the past several years, but i may need to update that to "aunt facebook". :) we love you, clarence and norma! thank you so much for your precious hospitality!!

after the wedding weekend, we ended our trip by staying a night at my brother's house. the kids were so excited to see uncle ryan and his cute little dog! my mom and my brother actually watched the kids so i could enjoy christie's wedding empty-handed, so they got lots of time to chase lucy louise around. poor dog- i hope she has recovered by now! i was really hoping to have more time to hang out with ryan during our visit, but the day just got busier and busier. hopefully it won't be another year and a half before we see each other again! in a fluke moment of clarity and rational thinking, i had the kids pose for pictures THE minute we walked in the door. usually, i realize as we are packing up that i didn't get that picture i wanted... and by then, the kids are not feeling much like photography material. i'm sure there was some food that i used to bribe them, too. but i like to think it was my fine-tuned plan. haha. here are the kiddos with uncle ryan (who they called "uncle brian" half the time, confusing his name with their daddy's!). i love this picture of them....


my grandmother also got to meet amelia and play with the kids for a little bit. the kids had fond memories of spending time with her over christmas, and they were thrilled to see her again. (so was i!) i think she gets worn out just by watching them play and go crazy, but it seems like she enjoyed her time with us. this picture is pretty much priceless!! (can you tell that my mom was standing to my right trying to make the kids smile?)


amelia was perfectly content sitting with grandmother and playing with the edge of this table... had this picture been taken this week, she would have been gnawing on that table like crazy!


our cousin betsy came by for a quick visit as well... we had fun catching up and laughing. sorry, betsy, i think your eyes were closed in every picture. :( but i had to post at least one of us together!!


and here's me and my brother! it has been a long, long time since we've taken a picture together. so i'm glad we got this one. thank you, ryan, for letting us stay with you!


the kids loooooved playing on my brother's organ. it was a very close race between the organ and the dog for "most entertaining object at uncle ryan's house". i'm sure the dog was voting for the organ!



it looks like caroline votes for the organ, too. play it, sister!



don't let this look fool you. it surely didn't fool my parents 28 years ago!


i was so thankful that we were able to spend time with family on this trip. it was pretty busy moving from house to house every few days, but it was surely worth it. i would load and unload that pack-n-play a hundred times if it meant an evening with a loved one. and ok... i guess i'll take the texas sheet cake, too. :)