happy birthday snuggle bug!

she was such a perfect little glow-worm baby

early smiles

you look so much like daddy!

such a wonderful big sister!

nursing




you finally got hair!




marit is three today. she is growing up so fast! i wish i had a recording of all the silly conversations we have all day long. she is such a talker and has lots of questions about things. the other day at dinner she asked "sooo (she uses this teenagery way of introducing many of her questions) what makes you bleed?". we then talked about the blood vessels in the body leaking when something sharp broke the skin. the next day she was talking about it again and she pointed to her rear end and said "when you bleed, your bottom, it leaks." after all, what is the difference in body and bottom?
another day, she was preparing dinner in her little play-kitchen. she brought me a huge bowl of random wooden and plastic foods-you know steak, orange, cupcake-and said "here's dinner, mommy." to which i replied: "thank you so much! what is it?" she thought for a minute, made a serious face and said "just eat it, ok?"
she is growing in independence and in understanding and it is such a joy to see as well! her favorite Bible story to read is the straight up Gospel story of Jesus dying for the world. she often talks about his "booboos" and if asked why Jesus was wounded and killed, she will say something about "to take my booboos away!" it is precious. really. today she let me cradle her in my arms for a few minutes while she chattered and made faces at me and i was reminded of those early days when we had no idea what we were doing as parents (that is still the case on many days!). we are so thankful for her sweet life and for the lessons the Lord has taught us about our own sin and the unfathomable heavenly Father-love He has for us.

happy birthday sweetie pie... love you bunches!

footage from the most recent daddy-daughter date

adam is trying to be more consistent about spending one-on-one time with snuggle bug as she is rapidly growing up and has about 5 billion questions a day like "did God make poopies?" or "can i get into your tummy again like when i was a baby?". she loves to spend time with daddy chattering his ear off.



she has been really into the wrinkly nose camera smile lately too.


so graham and i dropped the two of them off at a local sweetery where they shared a slice of strawberry cake (because it was pink and every thing that is pink is awesome to marit lately, even if it is just sweet 'n' low) while we went on a grocery shopping date. i think they had more fun than we did because graham pretty much fell apart in the middle...he's been a bit of a mess lately, but oh so cute (and it's a good thing, if you know what i mean!).

with his children

"for you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." 1Thess 2:11-12

sweet husband:
i am so thankful for you. for exhorting, encouraging, charging our children. for living a life of repentance before them...ever acknowledging your faults and at the same time assuring them of your love for them and striving to point them to Jesus. my love for you has been enriched as i watch you love our children...growing into your fatherly roll with each passing day and with our growing family.









happy father's day adam!

mostly recent photos of the little people

she likes to wear her helmet "like daddy does" when she rides her bike

drying off

the beginnings of our neighborhood babysitting co-op (and this is about half the kids!)

my handsomes

from a recent nature discovery walk near our house

marit is probably trying to persuade graham to be just like her in some way. seriously, graham imitates just about everything she does these days...

think his feet will be as big as daddy's? so far, so good in that respect!

dancing to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, which is appropriate since adam impulsively bought her this "ballerina dress" that she wears nearly every day

even ballerinas get tired

marit fell and hit her eye on the corner of a stool...this is when it was starting to look a lot better...SO sad!


these blocks were a fantastic garage sale purchase. adam likes them almost as much as the kids. you can see the kind of tower he likes to build and the kind graham likes to build. the main challenge is to keep graham from knocking over all in-process structures no matter the size.

ready for the summer sun!

marit likes to pretend she's pregnant

i have kind of struggled over how to blog about this. my blog is not intended to stir up controversy, to preach to anyone (though i hope the Gospel is evident in our lives), but simply to take note of life as it quickly passes by and to also note God's faithfulness in small and big ways. i will include the email we sent out when we decided to baptize our small children. if you are totally opposed to infant baptism, please don't be quick to judge that we think our kids are safely going to heaven now or anything, but more importantly as our pastor eloquently put it "they are being baptized into discipleship," which is so much of parenting. we would love to more thoroughly explain ourselves to you if you think we have fallen of the deep end or something...we invite in-person discussion. my family falls on both sides of this discussion, but many of them came to support us and there were no major fits, squeals, or meltdowns that distracted from the sweetness of the day.

from the email we sent out:
we finally decided to have marit and graham baptized! we have been off and on stewing over this decision since ellen was pregnant with marit 3 years ago...read a lot of Piper, Grudem, Keller, Driscoll, and other people mixed in. basically we feel like there is scriptural support for both believers and infant baptism, but the thing is that we are raising our kids to know about Jesus and pleading with the Lord daily to give each of them a love for Him that they might not ever remember not knowing Him. Of course, it is our hope that they will one day make the Christian faith their own, but it may not be a specific moment in time that they can point to because we are raising them Christianly. The baptism is simply a symbol of that commitment to teach them about Jesus and to try to get to their little hearts and the sin that is there and their desperate need for the Gospel in every area of life. We do not believe it "saves" them, and we will not teach them that they are going to heaven because they are baptized...rather it is a symbol of our covenant with God to raise them in the faith and of His faithfulness to call people to Himself that they might come to depend on Jesus for their salvation. we like the case that this guys makes for it.


in addition, after the funeral of the 4yr old daughter of our dear friends, things began to click a little clearer for us in this area (covenant theology speaking). and because we go to a pca church that baptizes both believers/converts and infants and children, we feel like this is an important step in our submission to the church leadership. we feel like there is a lot of mystery surrounding the sacrament of baptism and so feel that there is much room for grace. we hope if you disagree with our decision, that you can offer us that grace

Why we stopped the whole baby food thing.

This is gross and a bit lengthy...documents the joys of baby food. I know we should have been better about disciplining during these episodes, but she just made me laugh. I hope I can take future infractions more seriously...