we are praising God for our freedom.... freedom as americans and freedom in Christ! 
red, white, and blue cousins
the obligatory silly picture
my sweet girls
ethan and his buddy joseph
ethan can't wait to ride his bike with joseph (and the rest of us) down to the fireworks tomorrow night!
after lunch on father's day, my dad took ethan and caroline out for a little batting and fishing. it was so nice to spend the afternoon with him, despite the fact that it was so stinkin' hot! before everyone got all sweaty, i did manage to get my kids and papa in a quick picture.... 
now it's off to the ball field!
watching my dad pitch to ethan brought back lots of memories...
i spent many a church softball season cheering on my dad out there on the mound. this was definitely a familiar sight.
ethan connected with the ball several times, which made his first time hitting on a real ball field a treat. i love how caroline is cheering on his line drive.
i was really glad we brought caroline along to chase ethan's balls! 
she really hustled!
i blinked and caught a glimpse of a much older ethan there for a second... 
it kinda made my heart stop.
we gave caroline a break from the outfield, and she was ready to pick up the bat! papa showed her what to do... just like he did with me so many years ago. 
her game face cracks me up!
caroline is wearing my first softball jersey-- we thought that'd be a fun surprise for papa!
after an hour in the heat, we headed over to fish in a slightly cooler spot on the lake.
this picture cracks me up. dad spent more time fixing ethan's rod than fishing!
"i don't know why papa wanted me to wear my puddlejumper!"
they didn't catch any fish, but i saw smiles all around! 
it was a fun father's day with you, dad! we love you!
easter came and went this year in one big blur. resurrection sunday was one day before moving day, so we did not spend Holy Week exactly how i would have liked. we did talk a lot about the significance of easter... but then again, Jesus dying for our sins is a year-round discussion! we did make it to the passion play. and Jesus ascended to the same incredibly awesome worship song as last year. brian and i spent friday and saturday prior to resurrection sunday cleaning out our new house, so i just was not on the ball this year. ethan had no new pants (translate: the cuffs were at his ankles) and his hair was long overdue for a haircut. but i knew he could sing "Christ the Lord is risen today" with a shaggy head in his highwaters... and that's exactly what he did! thankfully, i'd bought caroline's dress at a consignment store last year, and amelia is always the proud hand-me-downee from caroline's dresses (which were hand-me-downs or consignment to begin with!). i usually take a picture of their easter clothes all pressed and hung up the night before... but did i mention we were moving!? so this is as good as i could do this year:
the clothes on the kids. and a whole bunch of boxes. 'cause we were moving. and every room pretty much looked like that.
so when we got to church, i tried to get a shot of the kids outside. i thought i could get a better one than this, but our friends pulled up, and my kids were totally distracted by their kids. (we got them back later when our car alarm went off while they were doing their pics right in front of our van!) this was definitely not the year for perfect easter pictures, but hey- we're showcasing real life here at tenlittletoes. :) (and i'm sooooo glad i carefully ironed caroline's dress only to have it crumpled up by the car seat.)
after a wonderful worship service, we headed over to jeff and kristie's for a delicious steak lunch. we bribed the kids with jellybeans in an attempt to get some pictures before they went crazy. apparently jellybeans do not motivate amelia....
kristie and i melted when the girls got together for these sweet cousin pictures. they were loving the talking eggs from nana!
and here's a close-up of each kiddo in their easter duds...
ethan is looking way too grown-up these days. 
i love caroline's lil' finger sticking out!
amelia even kept her bow in her hair. i guess that makes up for our family picture. 
these sisters are growing closer and closer every day. i love hearing caroline include amelia in her play. and amelia pretty much does whatever caroline does. amelia really does love her sister... despite her expression in this precious picture!
easter sunday was a few weeks ago now, but we continue to praise God for The Lamb Who was and is and is to come! 
can you believe that this silly girl turns TWO today?! she is still so much my baby, but she so wants to be just like her brother and sister, "eees-eh" and "caa caa". she loves them so much. she is talking up a storm and at a very loud volume! she has to be loud to be heard around here! she loves her baby dolls and sings her little night-night song to them every night. she can be found wearing a variety of shoes all day every day around the house....and then as soon as we get in the car, she takes off her shoes. she can almost open doors, and she is very good at finding important papers on the kitchen table. she can finally play in ethan and caroline's room without ingesting legos or ripping (very many) books. she loves to be read to and really enjoys doing little puzzles. i forgot how much a two-year-old can understand and how much they can repeat! i know i will look back next january and think about how little she was when she turned two.... but today, she seems so big. my big baby girl.
amelia is getting a beautiful little toddler bed for her birthday later tonight, so i had to snap some pictures of her last night in her crib. she looks so cozy, doesn't she?!
we will be doing a lot of this today!
(this was take 3, so they were a little tired of singing...)
i love this precious birthday girl....
christmas morning! christmas morning! there are very few days that top the excitement of this day. our kids, thankfully, did not get up at the crack of dawn. we did make ethan and caroline stay in their room for a few minutes while we woke up and got amelia up. she probably would've slept another hour, but we didn't want her to miss anything. little miss sleepy-head had the privilege of letting her excited brother and sister out of their room. (she really wishes she could open that door all by herself... she can almost do it!)
ohhh, i love these girls and i love their christmas nightgowns! amelia would not stop eating her apple to take a picture, but at least this is proof that they ate something other than christmas treats during december!
the kids couldn't wait to dig into their stockings! 
and then it was time for the gift-giving... the kids had fun watching each other open the gifts they'd bought. 
ethan was surprised that caroline did give him legos! (remember her tricking face?!)
and amelia was thrilled to have a little swing for her baby dolls. this poor doll always either ended up on the floor or face down in the swing.... but amelia didn't seem to mind. 
caroline's big surprise was dress-up clothes for her beloved jenny doll that my grandma gave her the week before. ethan picked out some outfits for jenny, and we snuck some princess dresses home from disney. caroline loves her trunk for all of jenny's things. and amelia has figured out that it makes a great stool. 
oh look! i managed to come out from behind the camera! i couldn't wait to give amelia this remake of the old plastic record player i had as a little girl. anybody else out there remember this toy?
after we opened our gifts, we headed to the kitchen to sing happy birthday to Jesus and to celebrate THE greatest gift! thank you, God, for the gift of your Son!
even after we blew out the candles, amelia kept singing "happy birthday"... and you know what? she really hasn't stopped!
we enjoyed our quiet christmas morning! more family gathering pictures to come.
no, i haven't finished writing about christmas. yes, i know january is 1/3 over. but things have been a bit....
crazy.
as if coming down off the sugar high that is called christmas isn't enough craziness (after coming down off the disney high, mind you), the stomach bug hit a portion of our family (praising God it was only a portion) on christmas day and the next few days that followed. and now i spend entirely too much time looking on real estate websites we are working like crazy to get our house ready to sell. we're not going anywhere... just praying that we will be able to move to a neighborhood and home that better meets the needs of our family. but this post isn't about that. it's about all the reasons why i still have sweet christmas pictures waiting to be edited. and oh look! here's three of the crazy reasons right here!
amelia's birthday is next weekend, so my goal is to be all caught on the blog by then. this is a very necessary goal... writing out of order drives me absolutely crazy. but then again, isn't that the title of this post!?
hoping crazy is not the theme of 2011!
these kiddos are giddy with excitement that christmas is just around the corner! Jesus' birthday. God made flesh. behold, the Lamb of God!
behold, the Lamb of God...Who takes away our sin.
behold, the Lamb of God...the life and light of men.
behold, the Lamb of God...Who died and rose again.
behold, the Lamb of God...Who comes to take away our sin.
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