Of Family and Falls

Shortly before our move we did a mini family photo shoot.  This is one of my favorites.  :-)


Also, right before the move (about two weekends before) we decided we needed to see Nigara Falls before leaving.  We couldn't have lived so close for a year and half and NEVER have gone... so we made a quick trip!

What an AWESOME God we have!!!!

Finally... some recent pictures!

From just a couple days ago.  :-)  Goofy kidos!  They were so cute all sitting in a row there watching stuff on the computer.

Father Daughter sweetness!

More posing with Daddy.

Loving their new bathtub!

Sticker time with Great-Grandma D.

Lunch break... one of the things we REALLY like about Daddy's new job!  :-)

More bathtime fun!

My precious girl and our new kitty.

Not Dead...

...just moved!  We are now Kansans, folks!  We are happy to be back in Stephen's home state and getting settled in!!! 

We got here middle of last month and are settled in at home to a functional level.  We've reached that level where you  don't really HAVE to keep doing more.... so the motivation hasn't been there to keep unpacking, etc., like I could.  :-/ 

Leaving was bittersweet.  We were happy to be moving to KS and looking forward to being close to some of our family.  But we also had friends we were leaving behind who had been so good to us!  We were so blessed to get to know them and be part of their lives during this last year and a half!  You all stay in touch now, you hear???!!!!!  :-)

The kids have been enjoying having a super yard to play in, fun times at Grandma and Grandpa's, the excitement of a new kitty (who really hasn't been that much fun just yet, because she is extremely scared of us and just wants to hide), and yesterday they even got to experience the MASIVE city pool! 

We've been very blessed to have already found a church that looks like it is going to be a good fit for us and may be what the Lord has for us right now!  Thank You, Lord!

Stephen is very happy with his new job.  He's got a great boss.  :-)  And one of the things the rest of the family has been enjoying is that work is only about 7 minutes away, so he can come home sometimes and spend his lunch break with us!

Well, that is all for this quick update!  I'll try to post pictures soon, and now that we're settled in, be back to regular posting.

A Boy and His "Hoy"

"Hoy" is Hilkiah's word for horse.  During horse rides he can sometimes be heard exclaiming "Chaw! Hoy!"  Usually, his horse rides are done galloping around on Mommy or Daddy's (more frequently Daddy's :-)) back.  However, here was another version that happened recently.  

The Creek

We have this drainage, runoff creek that runs through our neighborhood, and our kids think it is one of greatest places to play!  :-)  Though it may sound kind of nasty, with all the surrounding trees, it's a rather pretty spot.

And one more post below...

Grey and Rainy...

Today has been a rather grey, rainy day with plenty of grey, rainy attitudes to match.  Eventually, Mommy decided rain or no rain we were getting outside for a little bit.  What started as a little bike and push car drive, quickly turned into a ride through the puddle, run through the puddle, and crawl in the puddle excursion.  :-)

Snaps of Our Blessings

Both kidos like climbing trees and pretending to be, as Hil says, "Ooo  Ooos" (monkeys)!

Clara decided to sit in the tree like Daddy does and hold Hil.

Cow!

It's spring!  And our favorite farm is up and running!  They have new babies in the petting zoo section and we visited the cows a couple days back.  Clara wanted to touch those cows so badly!  But Momma was pretty worried about the fence... I wasn't sure if it was electrically charged or not.  The cows look like they were worried too... either about the fence or Clara.  :-)

A Special Blessing

Thank You, Lord for the extra special moments You bless our days with!  

While Clara, Hil and I were out taking a little walk yesterday we made an absolutely adorable find... this sweet little turtle!  He was such a cutie and hadn't seemed to have learned much yet about hiding in his shell.  He'd stick his head and legs in occasionally, but spent quite a bit of time with them out.  And when he thought he had a chance to run, he could really move.  As you can tell from the pictures, our little girl GREATLY enjoyed the experience.  She named him Mr. Turtle.  Hilkiah wasn't nearly as impressed.  When I did let him hold the little guy at one point, as soon as the turtle tried to run, Hil quickly dropped him.  Thankfully, as far as I know, turtle was not hurt.  

Clara wanted to bring Mr. Turtle home to show Daddy, but the pictures are our souvenir of a special moment and experience the Lord blessed us with.  

Don't miss Hilkiah's birthday post below!  :-)

It Flew By...

Our little man turned 2 today!   Sometimes we ask ourselves, "how could that be?"  But it's true!  And such a gift from the Lord he has been to us. 

Hilkiah, there are so many things about you that bring us such smiles and joy...

The way you say "Mama", "Dada" and "Yaya" 

The ways you are just such a BOY, like tackling sister and running all over the place

Your love for balls

Your fascination with trucks ("Cha"), motorcycle ("A-cha"), fire engines ("Woo-woo") and trains ("Choo-choo")... oh and don't forget airplanes!

The way you ask about "Yaya" in the morning when she isn't up yet

The way you pray for each of us by name

Your love of taking orders for "tea?"

Your kisses and hugs

We pray you grow into a man who loves and follows and believes the Lord Jesus with all your heart!

This was actually from a few months back...

And here is some birthday fun from today!  We went to Daddy's work and Daddy bought us all lunch.  After eating, Hil got to open his presents... a soccer ball and football!  And of course we had to try them out!  Enjoy!

The Hazards of School

Ok, let's start with the hazards of school.  First of all formal "school" around here has thus far been VERY hit and miss.  We don't do it MUCH more then we do.  However... we did sit down and do just a little today.  Here Clara is working on the number "3".  We've just barely started doing any writing at all, so the neat ones you see there are either ones I did or she traced.  

Ok. Now for the hazards.

1. There is a great danger of giving yourself a green nose without knowing it.

2. Then if you have a rascally mother, you're in peril of having the green nose captured in a photograph before you've been informed that you even have it!  

3. And once you know about the colored nose, you never know what that information is going to do to your brain!!!  :-)  Talk about mad skills!

Hopefully, we gave you a smile!  Don't miss Stephen's post below.

Song About Worship

This is Stephen.  I ran into this artist and really liked the song and his video.  Enjoy.


Jimmy Needham - Clear the Stage from jimmy-needham on GodTube.

Moments

A few moments to share with you from the last week.

The other day Clara got dressed up in her favorite dress and then wanted me to tie a bandana around her waist... I figured it was part of the outfit.  However, awhile later I noticed that a little baby was tucked inside and it was being used kind of like a baby sling!!!   Clara loves to dress up and sing and cook and care for her babies.  And she still has LOTS of rambunctious energy!  

Ice cream bar moment!  :-)

And the precious picnic that preceded the ice cream bar. 

And a fun story from a couple weeks ago.  Stephen asked Hilkiah if "he was going to be an engineer?" It would seem that Hil shouldn't have the foggiest idea what Daddy was talking about, which made his response extra funny and ironic.  He said "No. Fuh-ball! (football)"  Then raised his little arm and gave his "Wooooooo!" cheer!  :-)

Some of the latest!

Yesterday was our latest check up for Baby I.  

Weeks: 19

Sono results: measurements were good, baby looked healthy, heart beat 144!

Gender: We chose to wait.  So.... we'll take any guesses!  :-) 

The appointment went very well.  I had been worrying about how it would go, because there were several things that we were wanting to do differently then I figured they would want... but my worrying  was for nothing.  The LORD REALLY means it when He says NOT to WORRY!!!!  In the morning I had been reading in the Bible where the Lord parts the Jordan river for the children of Israel and feeling that maybe He was speaking to me and that and I needed to trust Him to go before us.   I NEED to learn to trust Him!  We had no disagreements at the office.  The issues I was worried about were hardly even mentioned!  Thank You, Lord!  

The whole family was there for the sono.  Clara was positive she saw the baby sucking it's thumb.  :-)  Nobody else did....  :-)  Hil was saying "Baby. Baby."  So sweet!

Couple shots from today:  Got to love the outfit the girl put together!  :-)  

There are some tulips not too far from our apartment that we've kind of been keeping out eye on.  They were starting to bloom today!  What BEAUTY the Lord has blessed us with in this world around us!

Last weekend, Clara was gone with Daddy, so Hil got to help Mommy with baking more then he might have otherwise.  As you can see, the idea of placing the dough on a mat that is sitting on a slick surface wasn't too smart on Mommy's part.  Cute little assistant anyway, though!

Setting In Stone

Some people near and dear to us, namely our brother and lovely sister-in-love, have started a GREAT new business called Setting In Stone!  Check it out at:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/SettingInStone.

"Airplane"

This boy really likes seeing airplanes!!!  And "airplane" is one of his most well pronounced words.  Here's a sample.  

Exhaustion Personified

This adorableness happened at lunch today!  Sorry about multiple videos... my phone can only send videos if they're 30 seconds or less. 

And some camera time for sis!

Half a month has gone by and no posts!  Forgive me.  Let me catch you up a bit!  

First of all, a Baby I update.  We're currently at 17 1/2 weeks.  I'm starting to feel some little movements that I think may not be just bubbles!  The last several days have also been nausea free!  What a blessing!  This time around also seemed a little lighter then with the first two!  We had a second sono a couple weeks back and it showed a healthy, growing, moving baby with a good heartbeat!  Thank You, Lord!

Our other two munchkins keep us hopping and are such a joy... with plenty of challenges in there too!  Clara is so often coming out with something cute!  The other day I was looking up a Texas sheet cake recipe online.  After I told her what I was looking for she says "Is that Kansas food?"  :-)  

We also get told things like "Shh.  My babies are sleeping."  

Lately, when she remembers something she's been wanting to do and hasn't been able to yet she'll suddenly say "I forgot to go to the mall and ride the horses!"  Or "I forgot to ride in your car, Daddy!" 

Hil has been slowly adding to his list of words.  Many of them are single syllable, like "Wa" (water), "Pa" (pacifier), "Bay" (blankie).  However, one of his good ones is airplane!  Slightly mispronounced, but almost totally there!  He really enjoys kicking balls around and seeing vehicles: trains, trucks, motorcycle, airplanes.  A true boy!  

Ok, now for a few moments from the last few weeks captured in video and pictures.  First us if  a video of the kids enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we had a week ago.  There's nothing super special about the video... but if nothing else the grandparents will enjoy it.  :-)  My finger was even in the way the whole time... sorry about that!

Next we have some father / daughter sweetness.  

So fun to watch a girl mother her babies! 

Gotta keep the baby warm!

This boy REALLY likes his ice cream... but doesn't like the cone.  Here he is working on getting the ice cream OUT of the cone.  He did quite a thorough job!  :-)

Yesterday

Yesterday was gloriously springy, and we were able to spend quite a bit of time out in the beautiful weather!  Here we are out for a walk in the afternoon with our two neighbor friends.  

Earlier in the day we even got to have our first picnic out in the yard of the year!  This is Hilkiah enjoying the picnic.  :-)  Yep.  He totally missed it.  Poor boy has been having a rough time getting over the flu and he started dozing on the couch while Mommy worked on lunch.  So, he slept while Mommy and Clara...

... enjoyed lunch on the grass near an open window, which enabled us to check up on the sleeping gentleman.

After a little rain in the morning, today is again beautiful!  Thank You, Lord!  This is the day that He has made!  Let's rejoice and be glad in it!

More About Our Twins

Hello all... I thought I'd share a little more info. about our twins, for those of you that haven't heard anything except our brief post with the picture of "Baby I".  Last week was our first prenatal visit.  I went in not knowing if anything was or wasn't out of the ordinary with this pregnancy.  It turned out to be an appointment of mixed emotions.  As standard procedure, they started off with a sonogram, which showed a healthy little baby, with a good heartbeat and appearing to be almost 13 weeks along!  They set the due date as September 5th.  However, the sonogram also showed that we had twins and one had died, they think at about 8 weeks.  I was able to see both sacks and tiny "Baby R", as we are calling our little one who past away.  The young lady asked if I wanted a picture, so we do have a picture of both babies.  In the weeks leading up to the visit, I had kept thinking it would be fun to have twins!  But the Lord knows what is best.  And we are blessed to have one who appears to be healthy and thriving.  

The office wants to monitor the pregnancy more closely.  You can be praying we'll have wisdom how to proceed.  

I think it is easier to have found out there was two after one was gone then it would have been to have known before hand.  God is good.  He gives and He takes away and He does what is best.

It was so sweet.  At one point we were talking to Clara about how there had been two babies but one had died. And she asked with a serious little face "so we can't have it?"  Too precious!  Thankfully though, we are able to tell her that there is still a baby there that appears healthy and well, and she hasn't taken the news hard at all.  

In other updates from here - we have ALL been sick this last week with the flu... but are blessed to be on the mend.  Cute story from yesterday.  Realizing that Clara hadn't had anything to eat in a long time, I asked her if she would like some mashed potatoes or rice (some of the leftovers that were available).  She responded "A crepe would be fine."  Knows what she wants!  :-)  

I love this picture!  It was captured a couple weeks ago at chapel.  First a word about Clara's unusual outfit!  :-)  She wanted to wear one of her flower girl dresses to chapel and Mommy's wedding veil, and her wise Daddy decided "Hey, why not?"  As for the actual picture, Clara said she wanted hold Hilkiah and he was willing to oblige her mothering.  I believe one of my friends said "You need a picture of that, Gracie".  And I'm sure glad I was able to capture the moment!  :-)