Milestones and Easter plans

This week for the first time, Jonah reached out and grabbed something. I went to take him (in carseat) out of the car on Thursday, and noticed he was clutching his pacifier in his hand. He had an intense look on his face, like he wished he could figure out how to bring it to his mouth. Today he was stuffing his bib into his mouth, and he's started to drool. The teething begins.

Tonight after dinner we went outside to run around. Lavella was wearing a dress with a pocket in the front. Some neighbors came out and gave my children Popsicle (the kind that come in a plastic sleeve; sticks of icy, mouth stinging artificial flavor and color). Within moments, Lavella had ditched her plastic sleeve and was clutching the bare Popsicle in her little hand, juice running off of her elbow. After a few moments I heard people laughing, and realized that she'd put her Popsicle into her dress pocket for safe keeping while she ran around. It was a mandatory bathtime as soon as we got back upstairs.

Yesterday, we went to a friend's house (Heather, and her children Stella and Ezra) to dye and decorate Easter eggs.




After we'd completed our decorating and had eaten lunch (avocado, bacon and cream cheese sandwiches on homemade whole wheat -- so good!), we went out into the backyard. Heather has a huge, multi-level backyard that includes a garden house with fire-pit and mini-kitchen, and a huge trampoline on the highest (and biggest) tier of the yard. What follows is a random collection of photos from the day, as well as two super-short videos of the boys jumping (they especially wanted Greg to see them). You will notice an inordinate number of jumping photos -- I had a hard time paring them down, because the sight of a small child mid-jump is just too hilarious to me.

(These two small ones are videos -- click to view)









Heather walking with Ezra and Lavella










"I just like to sit somewhere comfortable." (Andrew and Stella in the garden house getting a drink -- quote by Andrew.)




I can't get over how much he looks like me in this pic when I was little. A very masculine version of me, of course. I'll have to try to locate some shots of me with that expression; I know I've seen it somewhere.




Elijah decorated Jonah with a dandelion. (Both photos by Heather.)






When the forsythia are in full bloom, I feel like it is at last truly spring.









Garden house




Lavella and Stella picking flowers










When I was reviewing these picks with the boys, this one made them collapse in giggles.










Tomorrow I will put together an Easter egg hunt for the children (with the candy filled plastic eggs from Poppy and Nana), we'll watch the Donut Man Easter video (can't remember the name of it, but we own it), and color pictures of the Biblical Easter story while discussing it. I don't have any special plans for dinner, because my little guys surely won't appreciate it, and it would be too sad to make something interesting to eat alone, so we'll have something happy and kid-friendly.

Hope you all have a wonderful, happy Easter, and are able to spend it with those you love.

Church at the park

Last Sunday, we decided to have church at a nearby state park.  One of the girls in our church wanted to be baptized, so we decided to combine it with a picnic/potluck.

Here are some random photos from the day:

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Random snapshots

Since there's still no new baby to report on, here's some random shots from the past few days.

Hannah, cuddling on the couch with Lavella.


Grace and Lavella creating art on the white board.


Grace had been in a bit of a funk yesterday, until Christopher realized that the only cure was to help her into the kiddie pool.


This morning, I asked Elijah to put his shorts on.  He thought that he should still wear pants.  Apparently, he felt this should be an acceptable compromise. 


Today I took Rachel, Christopher and my three little guys to the nearby library, and then to a playground.


Lavella, being a little monkey.


King of the playground.


There's nothing like the joy of a little child on a swing.


There were tons of these little red bugs in the one part of the playground.  I have no idea what they were, but I've seen them in Germany too.  Gross, and strange.


After we were done playing, we went and got some pizza, and then ice cream.

It's naptime now.  Should be a nice, quiet afternoon.  =)

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A whole lot of family

Caleb and Jom left for their respective States this afternoon, and somehow amidst the wrestling





And other such fun, we managed to get in a family picture (thanks, James!). I've included some of the out-takes, just for fun.

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Independence Day (and, of course, puppies)

Well, I promised these pictures several days ago, and everyone is home now to actually see them in person, but for those of you who are interested, here's a few pictures of the pups at 5 days.









Penny, the puppy that my parents kept from last year's litter (she'll have her first set of puppies next year), thinks that she should be considered a second mom. All that this does is confuse the puppies, and she's not allowed in the whelping box anymore, but I had to take this picture before she was kicked out (she's the one on the left, with the darker puppy thinking he's going to nurse):


What a head case.

Caleb and Jonathan flew in on Independence Day and my parents and all of the rest of our siblings drove back here from New Jersey. While they were en route, Hannah and I cooked a big dinner for everyone (well, I baked, Hannah cooked.)

Lavella helped me with the baking:








We made pound cake (pictured above, in batter form), zucchini bread, strawberry shortcakes and honey whole-wheat bread.

It was the first time we'd all been together in a very long time.





(The only people missing from this picture are Greg and I)

Happy Independence Day to all of our American readers!

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