hooray for ethan!

sorry i haven't been around much... the weeks seem to fly by as i attempt to enjoy every little moment with ethan & caroline while keeping some sort of order around here! ethan's big accomplishment over the last week is... (drum roll, please!) that he's putting words together! yay!!!!! for a speech therapist mommy, this is a big big deal! :) for the last few weeks, it's been "kick.... ball.", but now at ANY given moment at our house, you can hear "kick ball" (actually, it's more like "KEEEEEEEK ball", "KEEEEEEEEK ball"). he also kicks around his 500 soccer balls saying, "FOOT ball", "FOOT ball", but daddy's working on that one... ha. he's saying new little phrases every day, and i just can't write them down fast enough!

he is also learning to love his sister more every day. he continually asks to hug her, and if she's down on the floor or in her car seat, he crouches down and in the cutest little voice, he says, "heyyyyy!" as much as i love the name we chose for her, it is a little challenging for ethan to say right now... so he's shortened it to "caaa" (if you're a three amigos fan, just picture steve martin on the ledge saying, "caa caa! look up here! look up here!" and you've pretty much heard ethan say caroline's name. kristie and i get a big kick out of that one!) :)

stay tuned for some sweet brother/sister pictures...

happy birthday!!

a special happy birthday today to my sweet grandma and my dear friend kristi! i hope both of your birthdays are wonderful!!! i love you.

a little ode

i love this picture. (kristi and i really don't have many pictures together because we're usually the ones taking them!) i told kristi the other day that i still can't believe they came and surprised me... i wish i could write a page or two on how it blessed me for them to make the trip down here, but i honestly don't think it would be enough. i had just written on how i missed her, and then days later, there she was in her usual place in my living room... as if she'd never left. man, that did my heart good. there are days that it hits me that she's no longer right down the street, and i just want to cry, but more often than not, i don't HAVE to miss her because we're on the phone or sending 10 emails in 10 minutes past 10 pm (and our husbands say, "just get on ichat!")... and usually, when she calls, i was JUST about to pick up the phone to call her (i tell her that her radar was on- ha). God picked up kristi from her hometown and placed her right down the street just when i needed her. i am a better wife, mother, and friend because of our friendship. and now she is in a new neighborhood, blessing the socks off whoever she meets (even the avon man!). i am thankful God's blessing of her friendship to me did not end when she packed up her house and moved (too far) away... thanks to cell phones and the internet, my dear friend is just a speed dial or a few clicks away... oh! i just got an email from her... i'd better go. here's a few pictures from the rest of the weekend with her and the kiddos...

natalie & lydia were so happy to see each other!

i didn't have enough hands to keep steven & ethan off of caroline!

car seat cuties!
karina- 5 1/2 months, meredith- 4 months, caroline- 2 months

meredith thought i was pretty funny!
(or at least funny looking!!) :)

ethan in b & w

hey meredith...for real!!!

well, this morning started out to be a pretty normal day... caroline was napping, ethan was reading books, and i was taking pictures of him. :) (check my next post for those.) and then we heard a knock at the door... i looked out the window to see whose car was in the driveway, but there was no car. instead, there was a man hunched over behind our van with a camera. i thought i recognized him, but i guess i dismissed that idea because i was awfully surprised when i opened the door to find this adorable little package on my doorstep.....

YEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! meredith drove all the way here just for me to hold her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! boy oh boy was i surprised!!!! eric & kristi have been planning this trip for about a month so that we could meet these babies... and of course it's fun to see each other, too. :) oh how glad i was to see kristi jump up from her hiding place on my porch!!!

so it's pretty obvious that my day was MADE!! i'll write more about all of this later because it is waaaaaaaay past my bedtime! i'll share these pictures for now. it's gonna be a fun weekend. :) :) :) :)

lydia & steven were so excited to see ethan! and his toys!

my friend is back!!

caroline gets an overwhelming "hello" after her nap

fake aunt kristi finally gets to hold caroline!!

do they look like great friends already, or what??

if only your daddies knew you were sporting beads...

thank you for coming to see me, mere-mere!!!