Big Sister

I think Katie is getting the hang of this "big sister" thing. We still have to remind her not to sit on Alex's tummy sometimes, but she usually plays really cute with him and likes to sing him songs before his naps. "Alex" is still too tricky to pronounce, so she calls him "Baby Lye-Lye" or "Baby Boy."

The other day when he was unhappy, she told me, "Mom, Baby Lye-Lye want Baby Lye-Lye luh-luh [blanket], and Baby Lye-Lye want Baby Lye-Lye minky [binky]."

It was so cute how attentive she was to him, but I was thinking, Katie's communication speed will fully double when she catches on to prounouns!

I love this cute age and don't want her to grow a minute older.

Spring!

I love spring! It's exciting to have our first garden this year, and I've really enjoyed working in it. I'm fascinated by the new splashes of color that appear each day. I've captured a few of the prettiest flowers from our garden to share:
My mom gets the credit for all of the gorgeous pansies, which she planted last fall. They "hibernated" for the winter and are now thriving. We also had some beautiful tulips come up that my sister Liza had planted, but they kept getting mysteriously decapitated. (With so many kids and critters in the neighborhood, who knows who the culprit was? Oh, well!)
We've also planted carrots, cucumbers, watermelon, and pumpkins in a patch in the backyard, so we'll see how those turn out!

The bunny isn't real, but we couldn't resist buying it, because it looks exactly like a darling, little baby bunny that has moved into our backyard. The girls just love watching the tiny, furry creature munch on greens.

Anniversary Musings

Eight years as husband and wife;
Seven years of schooling and internship;
Six countries explored (Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Mexico);
Five years of training to go (most likely);
Four address changes (in three states);
Three unimaginably precious children (even when they're naughty!);
Two hearts still in love, imperfect yet progressing daily on this eternal journey;
One future . . . together.

I love you, Luke!!

Abby's Birthday

Our little Abby is 5 years-old! We love our spunky "Sweetest of the Sweet Peas" and are so grateful for her life and good health. She noticed on Sunday that her legs were a lot longer than they had been on Friday, so this was quite a jump from 4 to 5! :)

She had a fun princess party on Saturday with some friends from our neighborhood and from church. Everything was pink~pink~pink and exquisitely fancy. (Any Fancy Nancy fans out there? This bash would have made Nancy proud.)

Here are the dainty princesses modeling the crowns they made at the party. (Princess Katie awoke from her beauty slumber later, just in time for cake and ice cream.)


The rest of the royal family attended as well:

His Royal Highness Dad; The Gallant Prince Alex; and The Queen Mother (a.k.a. executive planner, hostess, clean-up committee, etc.).

Easter

We hope you had a nice Easter! We enjoyed ours and wanted to share a few pictures . . .

Alex decided his chicky from the Easter Bunny wasn't quite exciting enough and that he should try eating Abby's book.

Here is our attempt at a picture of all of us . . . not bad for a self-timer shot, except that Katie is eating a comb! Ah, well, we try.

We loved watching the kids find all the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden . . . he was pretty sneaky this time, with all the nooks and crannies of our old-fashioned house! Abby ran around holding two baskets and one bag, stuffing eggs into all of them as fast as she could. Katie chose a more methodical approach: find one egg, sit down and eat the contents, then stand up and look for another one. She ended up with about 1/10 as many eggs as Abby, but she enjoyed herself thoroughly!