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....