Four generations...

My dad (Gramps), Isaac, Pawpaw, and Steven:


Now, the version with Steven and Isaac's arms crossed:


LOVE these guys!!!

(these were taken on Resurrection Day 2011)

Resurrection Day Lunch

On Resurrection Day, after our church service, we had some wonderful family time at my parents' house with them and my Granny and Pawpaw. I'll let my pictures tell the story of our time:

My dad, Isaac, and Pawpaw, spent some time blowing bubbles and sitting outside while the final touches on lunch were being made:



Hugs abounded:



Isaac and Gramps played with toys:


Granny and Pawpaw were their sweet selves (and funny, too!) We had a great time visiting with them!


Elise got really messy eating my Mom's homemade strawberry pic (YUM!)


The messier she got, the cuter she got:


And then Steven made her laugh:


We made lots of memories and left with our hearts and bellies full. A great day!

Resurrection Sunday at Church

On Resurrection Sunday (yes, we know most folks call it "Easter!" We're just wierd. Ask us why sometime.), we had a wonderful time of corporate worship with our church family. Because it was such a gorgeous day, I was able to take the kids to the playground at the hotel where our church meets, before the service started. Here are some sweet pictures I took of them playing:








Before we headed out for lunch with my parents, Isaac had some time to play with his friends Jeremy and Bethany. Here they are, playing in the hallway:


What a glorious day celebrating our AWESOME Savior!

Two firsts...

First #1:
Today Isaac wrote the letter "S" all by himself and with no prompting from me. He simply told me that he'd drawn and "S", and when I looked, I was blown away! We've never shown him how to write this letter; we've simply written it as part of his name and pointed out that he has an "S" in his name. I was so excited that he'd done this that I made a big deal out of it to him. Well, it's obvious he doesn't like to be fussed over because the next thing he did was to scribble all over his brand new letter "S". :)

First #2:
Tonight, our family tried out our new fire pit. Well, it's actually used, but it's new to us. I saw it sitting on the side of the road in a neighborhood near Ballantyne last week (I was out there to purchase some puzzles from a homeschool mom.) I pulled into the driveway where it was sitting and knocked on the door of the house. The man who owned it said he didn't like how some of the decorative ceramic was cracking a little, so he was tossing it. I asked if I could take it, and he said, "It's yours!" He helped get it into the van, and I brought it home. Now we have a fire pit to roast marshmallows over!!! And to add ambience on evenings when we want to spend some time outside. Tonight we tried it out for the first time by starting a fire and roasting marshmallows. The kids loved it! They especially loved the marshmallows. (even the un-roasted ones! They kept sneaking them from the bag!) After that, I grabbed my small cast iron skillet and decided to do an experiment. I'd read about how you could cook with cast iron over a campfire, so I thought I'd fry an egg. Well, it worked great! The egg fried up nicely and tasted great! That was a first ever for me - cooking an egg on a campfire! (Now I am really wanting to get a cast iron dutch oven to cook some big-time meals! Whenever that happens, I'll definitely be blogging about it!)

YAY for two fun firsts today!

Holiday-Eve Dinner...

On the day before Resurrection Sunday, we had a dinner with my extended family at my parents' house. We were able to visit with my Granny and Pawpaw, Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Leon, Ray and Kati, and of course, my parents. We had a delicious dinner, great fellowships, and lots of laughs.

We didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few...

Isaac enjoying blowing bubbles with Uncle Leon:


Elise playing with sidewalk chalk:




Stay tuned for the rest of the holiday weekend!!

Mountain Trip

This past weekend, we took a short trip up to the mountains. We left Thursday night and came back Saturday afternoon. The kids enjoyed every minute of it! Steven and I concluded that we might need to start drinking coffee at this point in our lives, though. We were awakened shortly before 7 am on Saturday, so by 10 AM we were both about to doze off! Friday was rainy and cold, so we stayed around the cabin and played and sang together. We did venture out for lunch at Smokey Mountain BBQ and a later dinner at Shokudo Japanese. We can't take a trip to the mountains without eating at these two places. Saturday was a gorgeous, warm day, so we played in the creek a bit and then headed to downtown West Jefferson. We ate lunch at a brick oven pizzeria and then walked around the town a bit. The kids napped in the van on our way back home for a holiday-eve dinner with my extended family. We were again so blessed to be able to stay in Steven's cousins' cabin (thanks Tammy and Kyle!!) We can't wait for our next trip! Here are some pictures we took during our stay:
Elise, wearing Steven's shirt because her coat was in the washing machine (it had gotten some sweet gooey something on it) and we'd only brought short-sleeved shirts. This didn't work too well, um, obviously. So thankfully I found her backup jacket in the van in the nick of time:


Isaac, shooting cousin Patrick's gun, and having a blast!


Elise, brushing her teeth (one of her favorite things to do these days):


Isaac, on the keys:


Steven, playing his guitar, while being accompanied by Isaac on the keys. They were playing "Never Let Go" by Matt Redman. Video footage to come...


Isaac, on the way home:



Yay for family trips! Isaac loves the mountains. Only thing is, he thinks the cabin is "the mountains." Whenever we left the cabin to go eat or shop, he kept asking, "Are we going back to the mountains??" We explained that we were still in the mountains, and he'd continue to say, "Are we going back to the mountains? Where the toys are?" :)

Purple Sweet Potato Fries

Yum! Last week, we got some purple sweet potatoes in our organic produce box. I wasn't sure what to do with them, so I cut them up, slathered them with a mixture of melted butter and local honey, and baked them. They were delicious! (Well, I liked them. The kids ate one each and then decided to move onto their mac-n-cheese.)

He's handsome and inquisitive...

Tonight after we tucked this handsome little man in for bed, he called out and said that his sound machine wasn't working. Steven went in to check on it. After some testing the machine and the outlet where it was plugged in, Steven found that the breaker had been flipped. This was the breaker for both kids' bedrooms. That meant that Isaac's nightlight was also off, as well as Elise's sound machine (thankfully she didn't wake, though). Steven tried to switch the breaker back on, but it didn't want to go into the "on" position. It even sparked a little. We went upstairs and told Isaac that he'd need to try and sleep without his sound machine tonight since the entire power source to his room was currently broken. Isaac responded with, "Maybe it was the money I put in the lamp." What?!? We asked for clarification, and Isaac pointed to his little nightlight. Since we couldn't see anything, we got a flashlight, and sure enough, there was a nickel sitting right on top of the nightlight's plug-ins. Since the nightlight didn't have a ground (a third plug-in), the nickel had caused a electrical surge when it came in contact with the plug-ins, and the breaker had flipped (thankfully! otherwise there could have been a fire!) We talked with Isaac about the importance of not playing with the outlet, and especially not putting coins near it again. (Note: this was the only coin in his room and we don't even know how it got there. Probably was a prize from an Easter Egg that got snuck in...) We told him how the coin could have started a fire (it was actually fried a little - it has two indentions in it where it came in contact with the plug-ins). Isaac then said, "Like the blue fire?" Again, what?!?! Blue fire?! "Isaac," we asked, "was there blue fire when you put the nickel there?" "Yes, right here." And he pointed right above the nightlight. We're guessing that was his way of describing a spark that must have happened when the coin got on the nightlight. Whew. We then moved into talking about how God's angels protected Isaac and how it is really really important to not mess with the outlet again!!

Thank you Lord for always taking care of our babies! Tonight and always...

Isaac's latest art project...

Isaac loves to punch paper (as well as cutting and drawing). He loves it so much that he can't get through a meal these days without doing some sort of art project.

Watching Mr Rick mow the grass...

Elise says, "Mommy, don't take our picture, okay?!" (hence the scowl!)

Lunchtime with Elise!

I love to watch my kids eat... so I got some pictures of Elise eating on Tuesday while Isaac was at preschool. Here they are:





That quesadilla was finger-lickin' good!!

Isaac's thoughts on a sneeze...

Isaac sneezed a couple days ago, and it was a huge sneeze. Afterwards, he said, "That was a lot of bless-you's!"

Strawberry Plantin' with Gramps!

Last week, we bought a couple of strawberry plants. Once I got them home, my Dad and I came up with a plan for getting them in the ground. He built us a small raised bed to plant them in, so that we didn't overcrowd our tomato and pepper beds (of which I'll post pictures soon, I hope!). Isaac and Gramps had a great time getting the strawberries planted together! Here they are:

Getting the dirt ready:


Planting:


Patting down the dirt:


Ta-dah!



We look forward to seeing these strawberries grow! Thanks for all your help, Ba!

Piano time!

So Steven got the little keyboard out to have some fun with the kids a couple weeks ago. They loved it and started to play and sing along. It was such fun!!


And, yes, it is sitting on our kitchen table!!

Elise's Half-Birthday!

Little Sticky-Face!

On March 30th, Elise turned 18 months old. A year and a half! It's hard to believe that in six short months, we'll be celebrating our sweet girl's second birthday.

She really has grown so much over the past six months. Physically she has grown taller and is wearing 24 months/2T clothing. She can still fit into 18 month clothes around her waist, but they are quickly becoming too short.

Developmentally, she is growing in so many ways too! These days she is such an imitator of her big brother! It's fun to watch Isaac say or do something and then see her version of it. Recently while I was pushing them on our swings, Isaac said, "I'm ready to go way-up-high!" Elise then said, "Ready! Ready!!", which was a brand new word for her. Speaking of vocabulary, it has grown quickly over the past few months, too. Here are most of the words I can remember off the top of my head that she says:
Hey
Bye
Water
Cup
Ready
Upstairs
Out
Look ("lut")
"Where Isaac ("Idee") go?"
"Where Daddy go?"
Yay
Oreo
Molly (her lovey)
Pap (pacifier)
Jesus
other family names (Daddy, Isaac, Ba, Nana, Ray, Kati, Pawpaw, Gi-gi...)
Outside
Yeah
No
Thank You
Yes Ma'am
Why?

She also loves (loves loves loves) to sing. She sings all the time. In the car, while eating, while playing, in the swing... She can sing the Alphabet song in it's entirety and most of it is understandable. She can sing Ba Ba Black Sheep, Jesus Loves Me, and Twinkle, Twinkle all the way through, as well. She also loves to listen to us sing to her each night and in the car. She especially loves to sing along when we all sing together as Steven plays the guitar. She gets into new songs easily and bobs her head up and down with the beat. Lately, too, she's started clapping along to songs we hear on the radio.

"Yes, those are goldfish in Mommy's shoes! Mommy always told me Crocs were awesome; now I see why!!"

Over the past few months, Elise has also mastered climbing up and down our stairs. It's obvious that she loves to climb because she also climbs onto our kitchen chairs and up onto the table. She'll stand in the middle of the table and try to touch the overhead light. I have to tell her no several times each day in addition to removing her from the table. And then she gets right back up! Ahhh! I'm trying to get more creative with distractions, but she loves standing up on that table! She also loves to go to the neighborhood park and climb on the playset. Sometimes she climbs up and down several times without even going down the slide. But she has definitely had her experiences with the slides, and she usually loves them too! We help her a little and catch her on the way down so she doesn't bounce off, but she wants to be as independent as possible.
On the table!

I guess all this activity wears her out because she is a great sleeper! She sleeps through the night from about 8 PM to 8 AM, and she is just about down to one nap per day. She would probably take a morning nap each day, but because we usually have errands or activities going on, she is getting used to staying awake all morning and then taking a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. It seems like she and Isaac are finally on a matching nap schedule. I pray that lasts a really long time! :)

Elise also loves to read. While Isaac has almost always seemed too active to sit still and read (he's just now getting to that point), Elise likes to sit and have a book or two read to her. We usually read a book and sing a song before she goes down for nap or bedtime. She lets us know, by pushing the book away, if she doesn't want to read the book we've chosen.

Elise is such a sweetheart. She is generally very laid back and doesn't meet a stranger. She walks up to people in restaurants or stores and says, "Hey!" Also, she isn't very clingy and will usually let people other than me or Steven hold her for lengths of time. However, she does know how to tell us what she wants. If she spots her pacifier (which she's usually only allowed to have at nap and bedtime), she will yell "meh-meh!! meh-meh!!" (which means "more" in her language) until we give it to her. This is how she lets us know if there's anything she wants.

What a wonderful 18 months it's been as we've been able to experience the joy of raising precious Elise. We love you little girl! Happy Half-Birthday!!

Our latest family adventure...

Last Tuesday night I didn't sleep at all. I had the worst stomach pain I've ever had, along with lower back pain. I felt nauseus and was constantly going to the bathroom because I thought I needed to throw-up. I never did, but I felt SO sick. It was horrible. The next morning I felt even worse. Maybe because I knew that Steven would be going to work and there was no way I could care for the kids. I was in so much pain I was crying and asked Steven to help figure out childcare for the kids. Thanks to my Dad, my neighbor Amy, and one of our sweet babysitters, I was able to rest and sleep throughout the day. I took prescription strength Ibuprofen and started to feel better. By the end of the day, though, my back pain had returned and I had a feeling that I needed to get checked out. I thought I probably had a kidney infection or the stomach flu. We loaded up the kids and Steven took me to the new Immediate Care center near our house. I saw a Nurse Practitioner within a couple minutes of arriving, and Steven took the kids to Niyoshi for dinner. My kidneys were fine, and I seemed to not have the flu. While she was doing my exam and feeling my throat glands, she asked nonchalantly, "Had a sore throat?" I said, "No, just a little scratchiness from allergies, but I've been taking Claritin." Immediately she said, "I'm swabbing you!" I couldn't believe she thought I might have strep throat! She sent the sample to the nurse quickly and then went out of the room. Within minutes I heard the nurse say loudly, "Yep! It's positive! She's got strep!!" So, I had strep throat. With not a sore throat in sight. Apparently you can have strep without feeling it in your throat. Even though it's an infection of the throat. The human body amazes me. Even though I didn't have a sore throat, I definitely felt like I was dying, which is what I've heard from friends who've experienced strep throat. I was really thankful to have a treatable diagnosis because part of me was worried that I just had some strange virus that I'd just have to let "run it's course."

That's not all, though. The Nurse Practitioner said, "You probably want to have your kids tested too." I said, "OK I'll see if the Pediatrician can see them tomorrow." Then I thought better and asked if the Immediate Care Center could check them. Yep, of course they could. Of course they could take two, well, three (oh, why not get Steven checked while we're at it?!) more copays! Of course! They'd be glad to! Seriously, they were super awesome people and helped us fill out paperwork for the kids and Steven and got them back very quickly. We had everyone get tested and guess what...

They ALL tested positive. Steven. Isaac. Elise. The nurse even showed me their tests and the pink strip that showed the strep. Whew. No symptoms, but they were all sick. Yep. So we headed out of there (with two cute little teddy bears for the kids as a gift from the staff) and onto Harris Teeter to pick up four prescriptions for the same antibiotic that we'd each need to take twice a day.

God is SO good. I wasn't planning to go to the doctor that evening. I was planning to go the next day if I didn't feel better - my friend Hallel had volunteered to take me, and I was going to leave the kids with my parents. If I had done that, I would have found out I had strep by myself and then had to take the kids later to get tested and then take Steven even later... or possibly not get him tested and then find out he was sick in a few more days... Instead, though, we were all together, there was no one else at the Immediate Care, and we were able to get everyone started on antibiotics at the same time! AND this new clinic only charges a Primary Care copay versus an Urgent Care copay, so instead of paying $280 for all of us to be checked, we paid $140 (four $35 copays). If we had gone to either of the other two Urgent Care clinics, we would have had to pay the $280 price. Again, God is SO good. He knew exactly what was happening in my body and exactly what our whole family needed that night.

Since then, we've all been taking our antibiotics and feeling really nauseus because they are so hard on our stomachs. (Well, Elise is bouncing off the walls still, but Steven, Isaac and I haven't been feeling so well.) But we are recovering! And hopefully this strep bug will be behind us very soon!