Easter!

He has Risen! I love love love Easter. It represents so many things to me, like the beginning of spring, the right to wear white shoes and most importantly the glorious resurrection of our King! How wonderful is it that our God took on the form of a human baby and came and lived a perfect life on earth in our place? He took on our sin and suffered our deserved death. He then conquered death and sin by rising from the grave. Why would He do this for me? It makes absolutely no sense. The only conclusion is that He loves loves loves us so much! My prayer is that this holiday will become especially etched into my children's hearts throughout the years.
We started our holiday weekend out with a visit from Grandma, Poppa and Uncle Peter. Tyler headed out on friday night for a Turkey hunt and camping in Rock Hill with Poppa and Peter. They headed back into Charlotte for a real hunt at 10am Saturday with our church family at Latta Park.
Maggie enjoyed "hunting" for eggs with the other kids.
Check out all those well hidden eggs in the background. They disappeared in less than five minutes (my estimation), it was mass Easter egg hunting controlled chaos.
Checking out the loot inside the eggs and sharing with little brother "Henny".
"umm...could you help me get this to my mouth please." P.S. thanks for Henry's cute outfit Grams and Dog.
Relaxing back at the house with Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter really has a knack for this...it will come in really handy this August as he and Aunt Megan are having a little ankle biter of their own.
Easter morning treats! Note the "big girl underpants" Maggie is rockin'! She is potty training and quite fabulous at this potty scene, but is developing quite a sweet tooth since that is often her reward for doing her business.
Matching seer sucker tie and dress. Some of our Easter finest. However, the hat did not stay on very long at all and posing for pictures only lasted until a major meltdown took over our sweet little angel.
Remember how I made these Easter outfits way back when...well Henry's just barely fit for its big debut... as you can see here. But, perhaps he can pull off the man capris look.
And of course the family pic. I almost made myself a seer sucker skirt to match, but I just couldn't go full out matchy matchy.

6 Months Old!

Henry is six months old and we can hardly believe it. He is such a blessing to our family and we love him so so much. He has such a sweet disposition, he is always smiling or laughing it seems. And, if he misses a nap or two in his week (quite common as a second child) he will simply roll with it with hardly a frown on his chubby little face. His first two teeth are budding into place on his lower jaw and I only know because I looked, not because he was acting cranky (although he did run a low grade fever). He started rolling from his back to tummy just this week and I have no doubt that crawling is right around the corner. I can't get enough lovin' from this sweet little dude. So, feast your eyes out on our Handsome Henry!

Still Celebrating!

I think yesterday Maggie finally received her last birthday present in the mail. Thank you Aunt Roomie for all the goodies. Also, thank you to Grams, Dog, the Carlsons, Neitfelds and Tylers, all of whom sent Maggie birthday wishes from afar (and any I may have forgotten..my apologies). Maggie has felt like a princess and now believes the happy birthday song is always and forever about her.


Maggie models her one of a kind cat pj pillow lovingly handmade by aunt Christine!

The two year old two step

This past weekend we headed to the Black Mountain YMCA for our church's annual family retreat. We had a great time enjoying our church family and learning about our Savior through a study on archeology lead by an RTS professor here in Charlotte (it was a unique way to study our Lord by looking at our past and studying the same area He used to walk and interact with our world in a physical manner...namely Bethsaida). We had a hoedown on Saturday night and Maggie got to dance with one of her favorite buddies, Sam. We didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are a few.
Maggie and Sam in their western apparel.
Henry was asleep for the hoe down, and I missed a lot of it trying to get him to settle down in our room. So, sadly we don't have any pictures of him in cute western wear, but here is a sweet updated picture of him taken before we left.


Here's a video that captured just a little of the buddy cuteness. And if you can look past the toddler toe tappin,' there is some great man dancing going on between Ford and Rob that we accidentally caught on tape in the background.

take one and take two

Today is a very special day. It's our Grandpa Dog's birthday. And we hope it is a great day. We love you a whole bunch Dog and wish we could be with you in Kansas to celebrate today.


There we go.

umm..thank you

Tonight Tyler and I were invited to eat dinner at JWU by a student for class. We went and ate a delicious three course meal served to us by students and made by students. Just one of the many perks of being a wife of a campus minister at a fine culinary academy. I have been really excited about this dinner all week, ever since we were invited. Tyler met me there and said he was dressing "business casual" and that the other students that would be dining with us would be in their chef whites. So, I dressed up. I met Tyler at the school and walked in and sat down with him and another student. My sweet husband says, "you look great" and the student chimes in "yeah.. you look unusually un-momlike." What can I say I'll take a compliment any way I can get it.

"Happy ba-boh to me"

Maggie's birthday weekend was a blast even though it rained and rained. We headed to Chick-fil-a (or "moo" as Maggie likes to call it) for lunch on Saturday with a few buddies. We took over the back section and put six tables together so we could par-tay toddler style. We didn't get a chance to play on the outdoor playground due to the rain, but we had fun dining on some fine chicken cuisine nonetheless.

Here is Maggie playing the gracious hostess and greeting her first guest, Caleigh, with a hug.
I was going to make a "snow-mine" cake for Maggie seeing as how she loves to eat snowman shaped pancakes, but at the last minute she decided Elmo would be better. And, she was right. We sort of had an Elmo theme going with the hats and the Elmo juice boxes. So, an Elmo cookie cake was the only way to go really.
Here is one of our VIP guests. He makes that Elmo hat look mighty good...don't you think?
We made ourselves right at home. Taking over Chick-fil-a wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I think we have two parties going on in this pic.
This is one of my favorite pictures. I love how close Tyler is as he videotapes his birthday girl in action. What a sweet Daddy.
Grandma and Poppa came up on Saturday and stayed the night with us. Maggie was so glad to have them here for the big event. Here she is giving Poppa a very very long hug. She loves this man, and I must admit I do too.
Sunday was Maggie's actual birthday, so we started it off with some birthday monkey bread and cantaloupe before church.
After church Maggie enjoyed opening even more presents! Ahhh...it's good to be two.
And, finally here she is enjoying her new princess tent. The past hours, since March 15th, have been spent going in and out of this little pink hide away.

We are so thankful for our sweet little two year old. I can't believe how big she is getting. We are so blessed by her and are so thankful that the Lord has entrusted us with His sweet little lamb. Our prayer, almost nightly, is that the Lord would give us wisdom in guiding her through this life and most importantly towards Him. As happy as she was on her birthday, and in celebrating with friends, I know that true happiness is only found in a real relationship with Jesus Christ. So, I pray that she will find just that as she continues to grow year after year.