if you need a little motivation...

for spring cleaning and shopping, here it is:

our wonderful across the street neighbors are in the process of adopting a sweet baby from Ethiopia. seriously, i cannot even express how dear this family is to us. jason teaches school at one of the city schools nearby and nicole homeschools, crafts, loves on people. as you might imagine, fundraising is in full-swing to bring this baby home and you can help!

*may 7th is a huge yard sale...donations and shopping encouraged

*check out nicole's etsy shop
she makes beautiful things (i have quite a collection myself) and can do special orders too...such a talented artsy gal.

*you can check her blog to follow this beautiful adventure and to keep abreast of ways to donate and help out as they work toward providing a home for one more orphan. after all, isn't that what true religion is?

a parental milestone

i suppose if your family has less than three children, this milestone may not be necessary. however, we are pleased to announce we have now entered into the incredible world of minivans. practicality has officially trumped image...not that i ever thought about it that much before. we knew this day would come and we have been saving for the last year or so by way of adam doing a little moonlighting in the icu on his easier months. we found a great deal and had a lot of parental advice (and a little financial help until we can sell the subaru).
here she is: a 2006 toyota sienna (ended up being just the right combination of mileage, age, and basic model to make it affordable for us)

we will miss this good ol' girl...we are getting her cleaned up and ready to sell if you know of anyone interested in a 2000 subaru outback.

driving will be so much more pleasant...and my groceries will no longer fall out of the front seat and pax will have a proper place and we can travel more than 10 minutes without marit and graham fighting over the armrest and pinching each other and pulling hair...
before

ahhh...since i took the picture, marit got lonely back there so now both toddlers are in the back

she is sparkly now, but this will be true only too soon:

adam had today off...living it up with the kiddos

Easter 2011 footage

we spent Easter eve dinner with adam's parents. the kids had such a good time finding the eggs that Grandma hid and we had a delicious meal together

Easter treats

grandpa teaching them the 'hot and cold' game

complete with bunny cake (adam's dad has made this every year for pretty much ever)

adam was on call all day and night of Easter day (2nd year in a row we have not gotten a family Easter pic...stinkin' call schedule, but oh well!) so the kids and i decided to take a day trip to visit my brother and his sweet wife and kiddos. we went to early church (SUCH a beautiful service and sidenote:i love, love, love our church) and then left for the nearly two hour drive. i borrowed a friend's dvd player since i was by myself and i would say it made the drive about 500 times more peaceful than it would have been otherwise. that is one good use of tv i think. it was the subaru's final tour because tomorrow we pick up our new-to-us van (we are so thankful for this provision for our growing family as the old station-wagon is a rather tight fit with all those carseats).
here we are going on a walk with 5 kids, a double stroller, a tricycle, a bike, a scooter, a pushing truck, and miles was in the ergo

thank you tom and kelly for welcoming us with all the chaos we bring and for loving us so well, feeding us so much food, and generally being beautiful instruments of grace to this tired mama. love you!

quadruple swinging


plus we were there for my nephew's birthday cupcakes and gifts so that was so fun too! my old college roomie and her husband even stopped by for some cake (good to see you guys, rach!)



we are thankful for sweet family with whom to celebrate, but even more thankful for our redemption in Christ...taking failing, struggling, weak me (us) and welcoming us at His table of life-giving bread.

Happy Easter

i have posted just a few of my favorite hymns for this beautiful weekend in which we celebrate our Redemption in Christ. click on the titles to listen to innocence mission's versions on grooveshark. may your Easter celebrations point you to our Savior!
O Sacred Head, Surrounded
( Traditional )

O sacred head, surrounded
By crown of piercing thorn
O bleeding head, so wounded
Reviled and put to scorn

Our sins have marred the glory
Of thy most holy face
Yet angel hosts adore thee
And tremble as they gaze

The Lord of every nation
Was hung upon a tree
His death was our salvation
Our sins, his agony

O Jesus, by thy passion
Thy life in us increase
Thy death for us did fashion
Our pardon and our peace



Were You There

Were you there
When they crucified my Lord
Were you there
When they crucified my Lord
Oh, oh, oh
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when they crucified my Lord

Were you there when the sun refuse to shine
Were you there when the sun refuse to shine
Oh, oh, oh
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when the sun refuse to shine

Were you there when He rose up from the grave
Oh, oh, oh
Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble
Were you there when He rose up from the grave


Christ Is My Hope
(Karen Peris)

You can say the word.
Unworthy though I am,
O bread of life,
O bread of life,
I will be healed and come.

Hold me in your arms,
bridegroom of my soul,
O bread of life,
O bread of life,
I will be healed and come.

Christ, Christ is my hope.
Christ, Christ is my light.
Christ, Christ is my hope.
Christ, Christ is my light,
O my light.

I have been afraid
but I’m on the way to this table.
O bread of life,
O bread of life,
I will be healed and come.

spring zoo trip 2011

adam had his first day off in 8 monday and so we spent the beautiful day as a family at the zoo! it was exhausting of course, but we had such a good time. i love to see little faces light up at the wonder of enormous animals and giggle at their antics. this year, both marit and graham were afraid of the monkeys and gorillas. favorites included the koalas, lorikeets, merry-go-round, and the farm animals
i think this is the saluda river...on the way to the botanical gardens that adjoins the zoo

graham loved this

miles and i took pictures of ourselves while we waited on the big kids to ride the train

cutest way to keep that bald head from getting sunburned (thanks for letting us borrow the hat kel!)

planning our next destination and rocking out the kavu visor (we have both enjoyed that hat since you left it at our house a few visits ago, dad)

hydration stop

marit's dream house

just their size

seriously getting our money's worth out of the ergo this time around...in the beautiful botanical gardens



feeding the lorkeets

marit's very favorite part...she told me she rode a "turkey-horse"



lazy kangaroo

intimidated by this huge gorilla



the way home...graham fell asleep immediately, marit closed her eyes for about 5 seconds and then resumed her normal chattering. the ride home was a little unpleasant. any tips for getting toddlers to keep their hands off each other in the car (can't really address behavior when i'm driving...ends up being a lot of screaming)? we are saving for van

we are so thankful for such a sweet family day!

happy half-birthday

little smiley miley is 6 months today! i can hardly believe it. this sweet snuggly fellow kind of makes me want to have 6 more kids(no, i'm not pregnant, though marit was 6 months old when i got pregnant with graham)...such a little gift. i wonder if he will be the most challenging when he is 2? anyway, we celebrated his half-birthday by eating leftovers and a little rice cereal.

he is still well-loved by his siblings, finally fallen into a fairly predictable nap schedule, getting all grabby and rolly, and loves to hop in the johnny jump up and his exersaucer (thanks jen!)

rice cereal time!

lots of encouragment

not such a fan

my blue-eyed babes

proof that i do spend time with my children (sometime in the last year or two adam and i switched roles as primary photographer and i'm afraid the kids will think i was just absent when they look back at photos...). here he was ready for his final feeding of the day and bed. sleepy babe.

recent joy makers

we are hanging on for dear life over here during adam's cardiology rotation. been in the "trenches of motherhood" lately with lots of correcting/disciplining/instructing and i think a lot of times i see my sin reflected in my children. they just aren't quite as good at covering it up, but the same old discontentment, heart of ingratitude, inside complaining comes out in them too. we must "first self-parent" before we can give words of life to our little ones as someone wise said. if i snap a photo here and there and go back and remember it, i find that i am noticing everyday graces, cultivating a heart of thankfulness in the mundane...just a few from the last week or so:

pretending to be pregnant with twins, but oh how this picture makes me laugh

new tandem use for the rocking moose!

Popsicles (with cream in the middle!) and neighbors make me happy

loving this patch of color in our front bed right now

she asks to paint nearly every day

miles' baptism

miles was baptized a couple weeks ago. we celebrated with family. you can see the post about how we came to this decision about our children here. baptism is a beautiful "means of grace" given to us by Christ. we are thankful for this handsome boy with whom the Lord has seen fit to entrust us. upon his birth we committed to raising him in the faith and teaching him that the Bible teaches that we must turn to God through Christ in repentance and faith. we baptize our children as a sign of God's faithfulness, not of our (or miles') worthiness because we know that ultimately salvation belongs to the Lord.

it was early church and very torrential rain. marit promptly sat down on the floor in front of the font while graham held miles' hand.

here we are afterwards before we changed into play-clothes and ate lasagna and yummy pound cake and strawberry-rhubarb pie (thanks dave and carol!)

furrowed brow...already a thinker

height

thankful for this climbing apparatus down the street


hooray for buds on the old tree!

a resemblance?

i don't know, but i love to just stare at these two...together or apart:)