A Royal Wedding Celebration

This morning I enjoyed blueberry scones and watched the royal wedding with my dear friend Helen visiting from Cambridge, England and my sweet Faith!

Anyone who knows our little three year old Faith knows she LOVES dressing up as a princess. She loves singing and twirling like a princess too, so it was an incredible day to find out that Prince William and Kate are now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Faith's birthplace)!  :-)

On Christmas Eve 2007 with our two girls riding down some of the beautiful bike paths of Cambridge.

This photo was taken of Brad and me at the most famous pub in Cambridge, the Eagle on my due date (October 5th, 2007) with Faith.

Moments after she was born.  It turned out to be the perfect day for an American born in England. October 10th is written the same on both sides of the ocean.

Happy 1st Birthday Anna Photos

We had so much fun the Saturday before Anna's birthday.  We even got to join in on Anna's birthday cake smash. The cake was delicious.  We all had a little bit of a stomach ache afterwards from eating too much cake for breakfast.

Our family is incredibly blessed to know and be friends with one of the most gifted photographers, Naomi Glenn. As always, Naomi amazed me with the beautiful photos she captured of our girls.  Thank you Naomi.

And Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Anna! We love you. 

The same chair Anna had her picture taken in at 6 months old! This rocking chair is actually in her big sisters' room but she loves sitting on it. 

I sat in this chair for maternity photos when I was pregnant with little Anna.

Only a couple more weeks until we met our baby!

Now look at my little baby! She is standing up on the chair all by herself.  

She was getting a little sad at this point. 

So we decided it was time for cake! 

She was so excited! She could NOT believe we were letting her eat the cake.  

She put her toes in the cake.

Then the whole family joined in to help her eat some of her cake.

While Anna had a bath, Jillian and Faith had a couple photos taken of them too! 

A-E-I-O-U

This past week, I have been working on short vowels with Jillian and Faith.  Jillian has already begun to read some (which gets me teary-eyed excited- but more on that later), but often gets the vowels "e" and "i" confused, so I thought it was time to do some more review on our short vowels.

We have just begun a book called Phonics Pathways and in it there are games as well as some great printables (to help with memorization) . I printed out the "short vowel stick" that has different letters with little caricatures to help the child remember what sound each vowel makes "A" is for ant; "E" is for exercise; "I" is for itch; "O" is for octupus; "U" is for umbrella.  The girls colored in their little letters and then I glued them on construction paper and laminated them.   They turned out really cute.

While Faith was admiring her short vowel stick, she looked at me and said "A" is for Anna! (I was so proud of her and loved that she was making a personal connection to the sound the vowel 'A' made.)

I then chimed in,  "'E' is Elizabeth, as in Faith Elizabeth";

Next Jillian added, "'I' is for Jillian, I have two of them in my name, J-I-L-L-I-A-N!"

Without missing a beat, Faith said, " 'O' is for mommy! "M-O-M" spells mommy ( I have told Faith on a couple occasions that it actually spells mom but she thinks mom and mommy are the same thing, even in the spelling world)."  :-)

At this point, I realized we had used a vowel for each member of our family except for Brad.  I asked myself, "What is a good descriptive word for Brad that has the short vowel 'U' in it?  I brilliantly thought of HUNK! The girls were not familiar with the word hunk, so I told them the meaning: "someone who looks nice, or is handsome". The girls adamantly agreed that hunk was a good word to describe their daddy.
Faith then added, "Dad a nice hunk." Jillian giggling added, "Dad is a nice hunk who eats ice cream all the time!"

The moment was so sweet and idyllic, it reminded me of the Sound Of Music musical scene "My Favorite Things".  It certainly was one of my favorite learning moments with my girls! :-)


This is a picture Brad took of the girls and me reading a book on the floor.  We read in the most random of places sometimes but I really believe our girls have developed a love of books, which I think is awesome! :-)

It's a BIG day... HOORAY!

Miss Anna took THREE steps in a row today!!! The last couple of days she has been standing up all the time and taking one little step and then sitting right back down, but today she took THREE steps in a row and then fell into me with the biggest smile on her face. She was so proud of herself.

Also, this morning, Anna and I were playing with some of the play food together in the kitchen.  She was so sweet as she shared her ice-cream cone and made little "yum, yum" sounds.  I could not believe I was playing make-believe with my one year old.

We are loving this time with our sweetheart, it is such a privilege to get see our Anna girl grow up a little more every day.

Larkspur Cove

Synopsis from Publisher:

"Adventure is the last thing on Andrea Henderson's mind when she moves to Moses Lake. After surviving the worst year of her life, she's struggling to build a new life for herself and her son as a social worker. Perhaps in doing a job that makes a difference, she can find some sense of purpose and solace in her shattered faith.For new Moses Lake game warden Mart McClendon, finding a sense of purpose in life isn't an issue. He took the job to get out of southwest Texas and the constant reminders of a tragedy for which he can't forgive himself. But when a little girl is seen with the town recluse, Mart and Andrea are drawn together in the search for her identity. The little girl offers them both a new chance at redemption and hope--and may bring them closer than either ever planned."


My Review: 
This was my first book to read by Lisa Wingate and it did not disappoint.  I really enjoyed the author's style of writing; she did an incredible job of drawing me into the character's lives.  


The entire book was written in first-person, Wingate alternated every other chapter to give the account of both of the main characters.  I appreciated being able to read both Andrea and Mart's perspectives and it kept the book moving quickly.  Their love story was sweet with some hiccups along the way, but mostly, their romance was a lesson in learning to overcome fear and to love again.   


But the book to me was much more than just a romance, I cared just as much, if not more about the other characters in the book.  Andrea is a counselor for Child Protective Services and is trying her best to help individuals overcome adversity and make good decisions for their families. One of those "clients" is Len; Len is a mentally slow man who lives in deplorable conditions and has recently been entrusted with the care of his grand-daughter.  Andrea and Mart's journey with Len and his grand-daughter, Birdie, teaches them a lot about their own faith and understanding of this life.


I definitely look forward to reading more of Lisa Wingate's books in the future. Thank you Bethany House for this review book.

Pajama Parties

Chick-fil-A always has fun events for families! A couple of weekends ago we went to a pajama party at Chick-Fil-A and had a blast. 

Jillian and Brad enjoying their dinner with a chocolate milk-shake. 

Anna eating her fruit salad from the kids meal. 

First we had dinner, then it was time for us to do the craft. Here Jillian is writing her name on her pillow case! They're actually super-soft, nice quality pillowcases.  The girls have loved having their personalized pillowcases on their bed and sleeping on it at night. 

I love Faith's determined look when she was taking the cap off the marker.

This is exciting stuff.

Jillian is such a pretty girl and so serious when she is concentrating on her "art"! 

I helped Faith write her name, then she had a lot of fun helping color it in with the marker.  (She was given several different color markers, but brown seemed to be her favorite for a while.)

Anna patiently hanging out in her stroller! She had some yummy chicken nuggets that night, so she was pretty content.

"Hi Daddy!"

Faith's finished pillowcase.

Jillian's finished pillowcase.

Next, came the fun of decorating sugar cookies!

Chocolate icing, sprinkles, chocolate chips, & much more.

Thanks Chick-fil-A for a wonderful evening for our family!

To welcome spring, our favorite ice-cream place, Bruster's has a free waffle cone when you wear your pajamas.

Faith thought her cookies and cream with sprinkles kids cone was delicious.

Our new friends, the Piersons met us at Bruster's for waffle cones!  I had sent an e-mail to our MOPS group telling everyone about the event, and Lindsey asked if we wanted to go with them. It makes it so much more fun to eat ice-cream with friends. :-)

This was actually the first thing we have done with our new friends (they just moved here from Seattle, Washington). So, Brad made the comment while we were driving to Bruster's, "This is either going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship or a really awkward memory."   That made me laugh, I guess it is kind of funny that the first thing we did together was go to a public place in our pajamas! 

All three of their kids are exactly the same distance apart as our kids, but their kids are 6 months younger.  

I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The girls and I had a playdate with Lindsey and her kids this last Tuesday and next Saturday the guys are going to take the girls on a hiking trip to Sugar Loaf Mountain and to Chick-fil-A!