Monster Truck

Our friends, Joy and Tim, gave Peter a monster truck kit, like the one he got for Christmas from Mike's parents.  Peter asked to do it every day until it was done ;).  

He ended up taking it in for show and tell on St Patty's Day!

Birthday Celebrations

We went to Mom and Dad's for my birthday weekend!

And some of our favorite people joined us for dinner!

Peter and Lily enjoyed cake, of course!

The kids enjoyed time with Uncle Henry!

 Lily and Henry read the paper together in the mornings!  ;)

 After we came home, Lily helped me open my gift from Mike!

 Its a beautiful jewelry box that Mike MADE for me.  He made it out of mahogany that he bought while we lived in Morocco 6 years ago (how has it been that long?! makes me feel like I need to go back!) but never finished it.  He's spent many "spare" hours recently finishing it for me.  I love it!  He came up with this name design for us when we were dating/engaged.  So he carved it  under the top of the box.  Its my name right side up and his name from the other way.  And he made a little stamp out of the design (while we were engaged) and sealed my birthday note with it.

 Kathy came over one afternoon of the following week and brought a mini birthday party to us!  Cupcakes!

(This is when we were all 3 sick... can you tell in Lily's eyes?!)

Finally, Mike and I went out for a fun date night the following weekend.  I love stretching it out.  Since it was great weather, we walked up to a favorite restaurant near us!  

Picasa has lots of fun new editing effects (these pics are done in "HDR"... so you may be seeing lots of those on here!  :)

best medicine

Now Mike is sick.  Well, he has our bad cold & explosive-feeling head, which we'll take any day over last winter's mess, but nonetheless annoying and crappy.  Just not anxiety-ridden.  

The kids and I are feeling better after antibiotics.  Yay!

And I feel too overwhelmed with all I haven't blogged, that I can only do this one pic.  :)

Plus, you can see our new quilt... isn't it FUN?!  Its called "Casablanca".  It was meant to be.  :)

Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. 

Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. 

Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance, because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

Blaise Pascal, 17^th century

C minus

Clouds, colds, congestion, coughs... apart from yesterday's sunshine, it feels like that's all we've had for the past 10 days.  I'm so over it.  The clouds as much as anything else... come on, sunshine & warm weather, together!  Come on, clear heads!

Lily draws me

I can't get this picture to rotate clockwise but its what Lily drew this morning.  No guidance from me, she just drew it then showed me.  I have no idea where this came from, I can't remember ever drawing "people" with her.  Note the 2 legs on the right side of the picture and the arms on each side of the face.   She also drew a "headband".  :)

the prettiest time of the day

This one is for you, Glenda!  :) 

Its gonna be long, but how do you decide b/t all these pretty pics taken during the prettiest time of the day. 

Oh, I've loved breaking out the side walk chalk this week.  There is something so wonderful about it!

 This is Lily's happy face when she sees her dog who she left outside the afternoon before...

 Lily checks out brown dog...

 But then she realized there is a "bug" on her dog... OH NO!  At closer look, it was a baby slug... gross!  

 But she recovers and watches Pete swing.

Going really high... do you see him?!  I've heard swinging is good for muscle tone, it sounds a little like a stretch but I can hope!!  We are also gonna try working on swinging sideways or straddling the swing to work on obliques.

 This is a picture of happiness for this boy's LIFE!  Bright sun on my face and a tight hug from my boy whose life has not been easy but IS a gift!  

(and sorta interesting/appropriate that the shadow is a thumbs up.)

 

 

 

 

And we've been working on "apart-togethers"... required in between your turns on the swing.

 We listened to "If our God is for us" by Chris Tomlin over and over in the van yesterday on our trip to Target (praying it, claiming it, singing it for us and those we love!)... I'm always trying to get them to "raise it up!"... here is Peter doing that at my request.  ;)

 And another side note... our girl is a monkey!  :)  This is one of her favorite things to do!