Easter Eggs

Emma's first Easter Egg Dying party was a rousing success! Nana is here for the weekend and then some, Uncle Tyler came over, and Grammy and Papa too. After I put Chloe to bed, the party began, and Emma was completely enthralled! You should have seen the look on her face when she pulled the first egg out of the cup! In white, but out a brilliant blue.

All ready to go!

And the first egg goes in.

Wow, so pretty!

A shot with mommy while waiting for the eggs to dye.

Miss Gracie keeps us in stitches with her adult level of humor.

Okay, I think it's time for bed so the Easter bunny can come.

Just for fun!

Who's who? These next four pictures are of Chloe and Emma, both at around 6-7 months. You can certainly tell they are sisters can't you! Can you guess who is who?

Emma and Mommy, January 2005

Chloe and Mommy, February 2007

Emma, February 2005Chloe, March 2007
Are my girls beautiful or what!?
Start saving up those cattle to stake your claim for your little sons:)

A month gone by

Wow! It's hard to believe a whole month has passed since I last posted pictures and an update. In mommy time, it has only seemed like a day, can anyone relate? This first picture is one of my new favorites. Emma has become so nurturing to Chloe these days, sometimes I wonder who the mom is! She's always asking to hold Chloe and making little coos at her, giving her toys, helping her sit back up when she falls down, tickling her, kissing her goodnight before naps, feeding her and talking to her the same way I do, nick names and all. She's even invented some of her own nick names for Chloe that have stuck, like Chloclock, Coa, and Baby Moses.

We had a nice little get away to visit my parents and sister and family last weekend.

Chloe's first experience in a swing was a hit! Especially with Nana's face zooming in and out as she went. We are loving these gorgeous spring days, gotta love CO.

One of the best things about staying at Nana's house is getting to make breakfast with her. Emma thoroughly enjoyed pouring all the ingredients in the bowl for pancakes and then wisking them up, she was so proud.

I call this my angel baby shot of Chloe. The sun was coming in one of our bedroom windows one morning and gave Chloe this glow that just made us want to eat her up. She doesn't need a glow to give us that desire, but it certainly increased it.

Miss Moses is sitting by herself now quite well. In fact, she much prefers sitting to laying down any day and is sure to make that clear. She can roll over both ways, but hasn't really had much interest in the skill. I think crawling is just around the corner, but I hope she holds off a little longer. Once they are mobile, watch out!

Chloe's adoring Papa. She's quite smitten with him as long as mommy is around. In fact, mommy has to be around for her to be happy with anyone these days. I must be honest, it's flattering that she is such a momma's girl, but at times it would be nice to get away without knowing that there is waling going on at home.

My poor girls, and I, were stuck with a nasty cold a couple weeks ago. I really thought it was against some ancient law for mothers to be sick at the same time as their children, but aparently not. This face Emma is making sums up how all three of us felt. Nothing like a good cuddle in Grammy's arms though to heal all wounds.

We sadly said goodbye to my grandpa Gale last month. What a wonderful life he lived, he will be so missed. But it was a great time to reunite with family. This picture was taken at Granny's house after the memorial service. Nana and Grandpa just can't stop smiling when their precious grandkids are around.

This next shot is my silly little peanut needing to "be little" like her sister. Every now and then she asks to nurse or sucks her thumb or wants to sit in the front pack like Chloe does. She'll always be my baby, and I must admidt, I'm happy to ablige! But I was a little worried that sucking her thumb might stick, so a quick little scare tactic did the trick. I told her that when big girls suck their thumbs, sometimes they fall off! I highly doubt that tactic will work on Chloe when she needs to stop the habit, but who knows.

Chloe looks quick grown up in this next shot, she just loves being with her sister, she's just facinated with her.

So we're thinking Chloe may have Daddy's face/head shape, nose, chin and mouth. She's definitely got my eyes we think, but some people think she looks so much like her daddy. I think each of my daughters is a Travis clone in her own way, maybe if we have a son next he'll look like me?

Well, not much new to report, other than we are absolutely gleeful that spring is here! We have big plans for walks to the near-by school playground and picnics and gardening and BBQ's! We'll be pouring our back patio soon and seeding grass. A fence and other landscaping will have to wait until next spring. Stay in touch, and God bless you! Happy spring!

Love, Sarah

Personality or Practice?

Once in awhile, a topic or issue comes up so much in my life that I feel I must talk or write about it, just to process it. Have you ever heard someone say, in the defense of a certain behavior, "that's just how I am!"? Or have you ever been the one to say it? Here are some examples of phrases I've heard, "I'm just a blunt person, if people get their feelings hurt, it's their problem, they just don't want to face the truth." Or, "I just don't like conflict, so I'll just ignore the person until the problem disappears, that's just how I handle things." There are countless other phrases I can think of, "I'm not a trouble maker, I just have a bad temper" or "I'm not lazy, I'm just not domestic or my bosses are difficult" but you get the idea. And believe me, I'm preaching to the choir! Isn't it amazing how quick we are to blame someone else or some unchangeable quality in us for the behaviors we don't want to change? If we convince ourselves that it isn't broken, then we don't need to fix it, right! So I've been thinking about this concept of the difference between who we are and what we choose to do, and this is what I'm coming to. I think far too often, we blame a practice, a behavior, a life style, on a supposed personality characteristic, our genetic make-up as it were as a cop out to continue in, and feel okay about, that behavior without a need for growth. Because after all, how can someone expect us to change the essence of who we are? But I would propose that we are far more changeable than we want to admit. After all, for those of us who have received the Lord, we are a new creation, "the old has gone, the new has come!" And is there ANYTHING God can't do in us?! Amen! So where am I going with this? Just right to the heart hopefully, mine included. Sure we all have certain bents or struggles that are different than those of others. Someone who's naturally verbal may have a harder time biting their tongue, for instance, but are they any less responsible for the words that come out of their mouth simply because they have a harder time with it? Of course not! But this in no way means that we should be any harder on ourselves, especially as woman, than we already are. The Lord knows we already live under far too many umbrellas of inadequacy than we should. But what I'm suggesting is that we own up to what our struggles REALLY are. Don't call apples bananas! I would propose that it is nothing short of a clever plot of the evil one to convince us that our sharp tongue, or laziness, or insecurity, or whatever the case may be is simply an eternal part of "who we are". We are people in process, always needing growth, being sanctified. We will never "arrive", and we're not supposed to here on earth, so we also need to give ourselves and others the Grace we've been given, amen!. But we ARE supposed to grow, so let's not be stagnant, believing the lie that we can't, nor should we try to change. Vulnerability is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and others! It's not going to be easy to admit where we need to change, nor is going to be easy to do the changing, but as I've always believed, anything worth anything often treads the most difficult path. But thank goodness we don't have to do it alone! And God even promises to carry us when it gets too hard, to be our strength, our everything. So the victory belongs to Him! Bottom line, let's start calling apples, apples so we can be refined into all that God has called us to be. That's my opinion, take it for what it's worth.
Sarah

Chloe's six month birthday!

That's right, our little "pickle" as we call her, due to the fact that she can make some of the cutest sour faces, turns six months old today! We can hardly believe a half a year has passed since she miraculously entered the world! So much has happened in those six months and our baby girl is growing up. She appropriately had her six month doctors appointment this morning, complete with vaccines (ouch!) and some big show off smiles for the doctor.

Stats:
Weight: 18 pounds (90th percentile)
Height: 27.5 inches (95th percentile)
Head circumfrance: 17 inches (75th percentile)
She's growing beautifully, as the pediatrician put it, and my aching back is in agreement. It was only natural that after her appointment, Travis and I headed straight to the chiropracter!

Here we are, me and my girls, in their matching valentine dresses. That was one of the things I was very excited about when we learned we were having another girl, matching dresses! If only I could find them in my size, we'd be set!

Giggles galor! Miss Chloe Paige loves to laugh, especially at her big sister, which Emma loves. I just want to eat those chubby cheeks and sweet druely mouth! Only a parent can understand that desire.

It's a good thing miss "Biddle" has chunky thighs to cover her parts in this shot, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it. Chloe loves to be naked before and after her bath at night, she gets very frisky. Travis loves to tickle her armpits with his wiskers.

Did I say she enjoys being naked?

Our little thumb sucker. Part of the reason she's been such a great sleeper is that she's always got her trusty thumb attached to her for self soothing. We had such a hard time getting Emma to sleep through the night because she was so dependant her her pacifier. Every time she'd lose it, we had to come in and put it back in for her. I'm sure we won't think it two years from now, but there's just nothing cuter than a baby sucking their thumb. I'm sure I'll be asking for ideas for weaning her from it in a couple years though, so fire away!

Chloe is such a messy eater! But oh how she loves it! As soon as the food hits her mouth, the babbling begins and the hands go straight in her mouth. Then of course the hands proceed to goober up everyone/everything within reach for the entire feeding. But we're so glad she loves to eat! She's tried sweet potatos now for three days and just tried apples this morning. She's a bit slower to down them, it's almost as if she's savoring the new flavor. We're thinking she takes after her daddy in that respect. His favorite thing to do is savor good food, it's almost a hobby for him. It makes cooking for him fun (when I've got the energy and time to be creative in the kitchen)!

Our happy eater!

Chloe's newest discovery over the past month has been putting her feet in her mouth. She can now pull her socks off to get to those tasty little piggies!
We are counting our blessings every time we behold our happy, healthy little girls! God is good! Stay in touch, please send us pictures and updates of you and yours as well!
Love, Sarah

House pictures at last!

Okay miss anal retentive perfectionist, just get some bloomin pictures of the new house up already! That was me lecturing myself. I have finally decided, pushed by many of your requests, not to wait until my house looks like a page of Better Homes and Gardens to put pictures on my blog, so here you go.It's a 3 bedroom, two full bath ranch style home on an awesome lot! There will never be anyone to the right of the house, the way you are looking at it, and beyond an irrigation ditch is a huge farmers feild that is technically a flood plane, so no development there most likely. There will likewise never be anyone on back of us either, horray! There are tons of very old, very large trees surrounding the development, so even though it's a new neighborhood, we're in an older part of town. The development is plotted for only 40 new homes, so we're not talking mega suberbia, which we like.This picture above is the view out the back of the house (i.e. two of our bedroom windows and our master bath). I took this picture during one of our recent snow storms, notice the deer.This is the view out our side picture window and our courtyard style covered porch. This is looking south, remember the farmer's feild and irrigation ditch I mentioned? This is it. Very country feeling eh!The living/family room. Plans for paint and furniture and more wall decor are all on the hope list, but time and money will be our guide.Looking down the hall at the front door and down the stairs to the unfinished basement. We have nine foot ceilings, both on the main floor and in the basement.The kitchen and dining room. I plan to do a faux finish in the dining room. The dining room ceilings are 16 foot, that's the tower you see from the front view of the house.

Our master bedroom and bath. Excuse the clutter in the bathroom, somehow it and Chloe's room have landed at the bottom of the to do list. I'll be sure to send pictures of completed projects too. Rooms that did not appear in these pictures are the girls bathroom (it has two sinks as well), the girl's bedrooms (they are napping as I write this), and the mudroom/laundry room. I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our home, sorry it's taken me so long to share it with you. Stay in touch!
Love, Sarah

"I can do it!"

This post could also be titled, "Emma's brag box"! That's right, there have been some new accomplishments in the world of our sweet little two and a half year old, she's officially potty trained! Now when I say officially, I mean about 80%. She still has an accident here or there, but she is waking up each morning dry and using the toilet more often than not. If she doesn't make it, it's usually due to the fact that she's engrossed in one of her favorite movies, like "Little Bear's Rainy Day Tales".More exciting news, which I only forgot to mention in my previous post, is that Emma has been sleeping in her big girl bed ever since we moved in to the new house and has been doing wonderfully with it. We have a nice little routine of reading about 10 books, then lights out and a back rub, then it's off to dream land. She doesn't come out until morning, we are just so pleased!I'll be honest, as exciting as it is to see my baby girl reach these milestones, it also makes me sad to think of what's soon so come as she enters school in a couple years. I'm no fool, I know there will come a day when I will look back and long for these days when my children were at home with me all day, full of life and emagination and learning, never missing a moment, being a part of every new discovery. But that's why I don't have much guilt when the laundry piles up or the house needs cleaning and I just haven't gotten to it yet, because this time is precious and I've heard the advice of too many seasoned mom's to know that it will be over in a blink, never to be relived. I highly doubt I will look back with remorse over postponed chores, amen!