i never get tired of the beach...

i am still having a really really hard time choosing my favorite pictures from our recent beach vacation! with beautiful scenery and six little beach bums running around, i have ended up with so many that i can't help but share! so who's ready to go to the beach!?

"MEEEEEEEE!"
this is the storybook path across the street from the house to the beach...

the beach was absolutely beautiful. there was so much "beach" between the dunes and the waves that the kids were able to run free and play as they pleased. anytime they headed toward the ocean, we had ample time to catch up with them! the little 2 inch pool of water in the middle of the sand was also a big hit. caroline's favorite activity was to pour water (or sand-mud) in and out of cups and buckets, while ethan was highly concerned with bulldozing half of the isle of palm's sand one little mound at a time. and if that wasn't enough to keep the boy occupied, he also devoted much time to running to the waves only to quickly retreat when the water started chasing him. and everytime, he acted as surprised as if it were the first time it had happened. :)

here's crazy haired caroline! thank you, aunt kristie, for putting
caroline's hair up in pigtails and a ponytail the next two days!!
when i took this picture, i thought back to this picture of ethan...
ethan is hard at work...running from the waves & bulldozing away!




the three little girls with older lydia off in the distance...
what a symbolic picture of growing up!


the girls were gettin' down! it was so funny to watch them dance...
my little surfer girl loved her pigtails!
the kids learned how to make their own little pools of water in the sand.
ethan had fun splashing in his!
this was a surprise shot for their mom...
i was so excited to capture their reflections!
i just happened to turn around and see the kiddos in this perfect line!
well, except karina who was lagging a little behind! :)
and ha! look at caroline's stride! easy there, cowgirl!

the last day at the beach, the older kids discovered little coquina clams that bury themselves in the sand. this was pretty amazing to them, and they spent at least an hour collecting them and observing them dig back into the sand.



we praise the Lord for our time at the beach with the owners of these little shoes! we made countless memories and enjoyed His beautiful creation!


there's more fun to come!

not so crazy after all...

so we got all kinds of "you're crazy" looks and comments when we announced that i was pregnant when ethan was just 8 months old.... now fast forward two years later. with caroline being 18 months old, baby number 3 is apparently considered "better timing" to the general public. ha!

when ethan was 8 months old, he was not yet crawling or talking, and he was still taking two naps (which meant two naps for mommy!). what peace! but now with this "better timing", sweet little caroline is perfectly capable of climbing onto. and bouncing. and bouncing. and bouncing. on nauseous mommy resting on the couch. at least till brother warns her not to crush the baby. :) thanks, ethan. :)

don't get me wrong. i am 100% thankful for this pregnancy and am confident that God has ordained the timing of it for His glory and for His purposes. and i know that we will see many positive things about having 2 years between caroline and this baby. i'm only halfway through the first trimester! but it just makes me smile to think about all the hidden jewels of having ethan & caroline "so close together". i know that list will just grow and grow as they get older, and right behind it will be my list of "great things about having kids 2 years apart". :)

as of right now, i'm making a mental list of "ways to pseudoplay with your 18 month old when you feel like you're about to lose your lunch"... any suggestions!?

how truly, how wondrously blest

i'm still sorting through the digital piles of pictures from our beach vacation, but i do have a couple to keep you all happy for awhile! when i got home from our trip, i printed out a few pictures of the kids from the beach for all the grandparents... and then i slipped these two pictures in the back...



we are beyond excited that God has chosen to bless us with another child! it still feels a little surreal right now, but the early-pregnancy fatigue has already hit...so the reality is starting to sink in.

one major difference that i can already see with this pregnancy is how much fun it is going to be to share this with ethan! he was only 16 months old when caroline was born, so he is obviously so much more aware of what is happening this time around. when we told him the good news, ethan looked a little perplexed at the fact that you could not see that there was a baby in my belly. (especially after just spending a week with kristi!) :) you could tell that he wanted to believe us, but he was really thinking this one through. throughout the day, he kept asking to see the baby, so i figured it was time for an object lesson. :) i got out a lentil bean, which is about how big a baby is at 6 wks. gestation. i held it in my hand and told him that the baby was smaller than this little tiny bean and that God was making the baby inside me and that it would keep growing bigger and bigger until it was the size of a real baby. his eyes got big, and he asked to keep the bean. i fastforwarded 10 minutes in my head when he would lose the bean and come crying that he lost the "baby", so i decided to tape the bean to an index card. ethan was so proud of that card and carried around "the baby" for the next two days. hopefully he will get the point by the time the baby is the size of a rutabaga!

the day that we told ethan about the baby, he was crawling on me on the couch and elbowed me in the stomach. it didn't really hurt, but i thought now was a good time to make him aware of the necessity of being careful around mommy's belly! well, 2 hours later, nana came over to receive the good news. she then turned to ethan and said, "so mommy has a baby in her tummy!" and ethan replied, "yes, and you better be careful!" haha. he got the point! the next day, i was sitting with my arms crossed as the kids were finishing breakfast, and ethan exclaimed, "mommy, don't crush your baby!" the big brother in him is already kicking in!!! since then, he has asked more than once if he was crushing the baby while he was sitting in my lap. i reassured him that God was keeping the baby safe inside me. :)

so it looks like this baby #3 will be quite an adventure for the whole family! caroline loves seeing babies when we are out and about, so as i get bigger and she gets a little older, i think she will begin to understand more. right now, we just tell her, "say baby!" and she smiles and says, "babiesssss!"

of course, we covet your prayers for this child that God has given us. it is so exciting to imagine another little one in our home, yet the reality of the responsibility of another child is also a humbling one. my mind keeps going back to a most wonderful quote from stepping heavenward by elizabeth prentiss... i first read it when my friend carrie announced her 4th pregnancy last year. it brought me to tears then, and it certainly does now! (carrie, i hope you don't mind that i am stealing your idea! of course you don't mind.. you've been waiting and waiting for this blog post!) i will end with this precious passage. thank you for your prayers for this sweet baby.

She says I shall now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoes, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing. Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister, in Christ’s name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother’s heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!
thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 cor. 9:15

there's still sand between our toes....

kristie and i and the kids just spent 5 wonderful days with kristi and family on the isle of palms, sc. (sigh). it was a great week. we stayed in the most adorable beach cottage, and we had beautiful weather the whole time. since i have always lived near the beach, i have had the luxury of spending a day at the beach whenever i wanted, but i've never stayed at a beach house. so this was quite a treat! what fun we had walking the kids down there in the morning and back after naps in the afternoon! and the best part is that there is no sand in my van!! (just 1,000 teddy grahams from our long drive home yesterday...) today, ethan told his nana, "we went to the beach over and over and over and over!" he's right! we did!

between the three mommies, we took over 1200 pictures and videos combined. i must admit, i most likely contributed over 80% of those pictures. kristie was the fun one, building sand castles with the kids... kristi was the very pregnant one, doing well just to make it down the path to the beach without going into labor... and i was the obnoxious one, snapping pictures of absolutely everything. so it's going to take me awhile to pare it down to my absolute favorites. but this picture is right there at the top. can you believe we got them all to sit down for this? we drew a line in the sand and told the older kids to sit. and they did! then we plopped the babies down, and i got this one shot before the youngest ones were on their way again. these days, a group picture of children is successful if you can see all the faces. they may not be looking and they may not be smiling, but we'll take it! :) i'm just glad i got it in one shot and not 50!

check back soon for tons of beach fun! thank you, kristi, for a week we will never forget!

growing so fast...

i took these of my baby girl on mother's day with these memories in mind. last night, i sat for a good while comparing the two sets of pictures, looking back and forth, back and forth. God sure is crafting a precious one right before my very eyes. she is saying new words every day with her abrupt, alto voice. ("yu you"..."love you" is her latest.) that hair is somethin' else, let me tell you. and well, so is caroline. i am getting a taste of my own medicine every minute of the day as she flashes those mischievous looks that my dad says he remembers alllll too well! but oh how i love my baby girl. the way she waves at sprinklers, the way she shrugs her shoulders to be cute, and the way she "splats" the foolish man's house with all her might. sweet caroline, you are growing up way too fast. dear Lord, please let me enjoy it. i want to slow down so that i can hurry up and catch every moment of Your Image in her...

here are some more recent pictures of caroline grace... as you can see, she sure did enjoy her first (and second) hershey's kiss!