more photos

I took these pictures yesterday for her 3 month old photos and couldn't resist posting her funny little faces.

3 months old

This is when it really starts to get fun! Our little girl is 3 months old...and the only age that a double chin is so adorable. Little blue eyes

What is our little Ansley up to these days? At 3 months old she is sleeping through the night (11-12 hours)...can you hear the Hallelujah chorus? She is just starting to find her hands to chew on them, but they don't quite cooperate and move right when she starts to chomp on them...this makes her very upset. She is starting to "talk" as you've seen in the previous post. She just started flipping over in bed (she is a tummy sleeper) and will cry until we come and flip her back over. She is just figuring out the flirting thing and will blink her eyes, flash her smile and sometimes give a little giggle while flaring her nose...good thing she can't see herself in the mirror because she kind of looks silly and cute all at the same time. When she lays on her belly she can hold her head up and look around. She is finally okay with riding in the car without crying the whole way (unless she's getting tired). And those drool glands (is it a gland?) have kicked in and she enjoys blowing bubbles. We look forward to the months to come as we keep getting to know this feisty, snugly, opinionated, sweet little girl of ours. We love her so much!

the wedding day

My little sister is getting married today. Actually she will be walking down the isle just a few minutes from when I am writing this. Because I've been long distance from her for so long I forget that she is all grown up now and not just 16 and learning to drive. I am sad to not be there to celebrate and witness this new beginning with her and her (now) husband but can't wait to see the pictures and hear all the stories. What a monumental day! Honestly, I never thought I would miss such an important day for one of my siblings...I would do whatever it took to be there, but having 3 kids 5 and under and living a 12 hour plane ride away made me think otherwise.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." I Corinthians 13:4-7

Jenny, may your marriage be centered on Christ so that his glory would be seen through you two. May you seek after Him during the happy, sad and trying times. May you love each other with the love that Christ gives you and forgive because He first forgave us. May you see that this isn't the end-all of life but that it will be a glimpse of the greatness of God on this side of heaven...Christ being our bridegroom, His unconditional love and selfless sacrifice, His forgiveness, joy that can only come when following and trusting in our great and awesome Savior. What an amazing day to give God the glory and trust in his plan for your future together as Mr. and Mrs.

I love you sis!

baby talk

I was getting breakfast ready this morning and overheard this conversation. There is something about her older brother that gets her talking and smiling up a storm.

ridin' along on my bi-cy-cle

Ethan has mastered riding a two-wheel bicycle. We tried a few months ago before Ansley was born and he just didn't have enough confidence in his balancing skills. Plus it's not very fun holding on to the back of a small bicycle and trying to run when you're 8 months pregnant. So yesterday we decided to once again try and he hopped on and took off. Now he's hooked!

Here's a couple of videos for the grandparents or whoever else is interested. This one is Ethan riding his bicycle:

And this one is Jude making "apple soup":

grand central station

What do you do when you only have one room in your house where everyone congregates?...watch your step. This exact spot is where the kitchen, family room, front door and hallway to the bedrooms all meet. For some reason it seems to be the best place to set up train tracks. At the end of the day the boys put these trains away, and first thing in the morning they are brought back out. It never seems to get old...other than the fact that I have to carefully step around it. I'm just thankful they are entertained and happy...until one of them has the train that the other one wants.

our little girl

As much as I love this little girl of ours, the newborn stage is so hard for me to get through. So I thought I would jot down what it is that God is teaching me through this time in our lives. I was just talking to a friend of mine the other day (as we were walking on the beach) and said "I think having newborns is the most sanctifying time in my life." Why? Because it is the most self-sacrificing/selfless time. So for this to be so hard surely does show me how selfish I am.

God has been teaching me patience lately. I am so bad at it because when I am tired I tend to let me emotions run the show...and, at times, get really put out when my agenda gets interrupted by someone that is dependent on me to take care of her/him. So the times I want to take a nap and she wants to wake up early from hers or when she is fussy and wants to be held and I really want to finish writing an e-mail. Or she's hungry but I really wanted to eat my lunch first. It all sounds so silly as I'm writing it. But one thing I was really struggling with lately and fighting so badly has actually turned out to be a blessing. When Ansley wakes up early from her nap (after an hour) she always goes back to sleep (for another 1 to 1 1/2)...only if I go in and rock her for about 10-20 minutes and put her back to bed. Sounds crazy I know but she is such a happier girl if she gets that extra sleep. So I was becoming really frustrated that I had to do this for her naps. But a couple of days ago I found myself looking forward to it because it was a quiet time where I could think (with no interruptions), pray, rest and snuggle some with my little girl (who loves to sleep all snuggled on my chest). So it takes 40 minutes total out of my day...no big deal. It's funny how God was answering my prayer...time for rest/to think and time to pray. I've definitely seen how stubborn I am with my own agenda rather than being open to what God has planned. It reminds me of the other day when Ethan asked "mom, do you know where my orange truck is?" and I said "yeah, right there in front of you."

say what?

After a Subway commercial, Jude comes up to me and says:

"Mommy, eat fresh."

baby rolls

I realize that Ansley isn't as rolie-polie as some babies but she has way more rolls than my boys ever did...and yet she has been my slowest gainer. They start with her double chin and roll on down to her ankles. I just love baby rolls!

party day for a 3 year old

Jude's day started out with his request of doughnuts for breakfast. As you can see he was very excited about this treat.

But the party really got started after dinner. It's funny to see the difference in my two boys. Jude is way more mellow and reserved and took opening his gifts very seriously...he almost seemed overwhelmed...and rarely cracked a smile. While Ethan is next to him saying "Wow, Jude look. Here open this one.", etc. We had to keep reminding Ethan that it was Jude's birthday and Jude's gifts and not his.

And to top the party off we ended it with a Thomas cake, which as you can see brought a big smile and lots of excitement. Gotta love bright colored icing...red and blue make purple.This is Jude telling us the names of all the trains on his cake and then flashing his "natural" smile. Sorry it's sideways but I don't know how to turn it.



Other attendees:

happy birthday big boy Jude

We just got an e-mail letting us know this is our last chance (yes, 3 years later) to purchase Jude's newborn pictures from the hospital. Has it really been 3 years? More birthday pictures and fun to come...

photo shoot #2

Like I said before, it's great having creative and talented friends. This particular friend loves to take pictures for her hobby and asked if she could take pictures of Ansley. She took a whole bunch of pictures and put them on a CD...these were my favorites. So sweet.

can I get a driver too?

Ethan: "Mom if we have any more kids, we need to sell our van and buy a limousine."

sunburn

Ethan is probably the only kid in Hawaii who gets a sunburn on a cloudy, rainy day. We were at a friends birthday party and for entertainment they rented one of those blow-up water slides. Since it was raining, I assumed that there would be no water play and all the kids would be indoors...15 kids ages 7 and under inside a small Hawaiian home...not a party I was looking forward to. But sure enough they still had the water slide set up and the kids were having a blast even in the rain. When we got home we put the boys in the bath tub to wash them off and we noticed Ethan had a sunburn. I didn't even think of putting sunscreen on him since it was raining. Poor kid, I think he's got my easily burned, freckle-y skin...not a good combo when you live in sunny Hawaii.

brothers

My friend came to pick up Ethan for Awanas and Jude turned to me with the above look...but a little more puppy dog-ish...and said:

"Mommy, I want Ethan."

Brotherly love is a sweet thing to see, even through their times of quarreling. I'm glad they enjoy each others company so much. It will be fun to see how a little sister fits into their play times as she grows up. She already gets a lot of their attention when she is awake, and I usually find a train or two tucked away in her bouncy seat when I go to pick her up.

update on our butterflies

So I just realized that I never told the rest of the story on our morphing caterpillars...I'm sure you were all on the edge of your seats. Ethan did well to document this whole experience on film, so all credit goes to him for the pictures below.

We left off with the caterpillars eating our plants down to the stems. Then they started to pack up and leave to find more food. So we captured them all and put them in our butterfly house that Jason built and went on a search for more Crown Flower leaves.

After driving all over town we finally ended up back at the plant nursery to buy a couple more plants. The very nice owner of the plant nursery must have felt sorry for my very large pregnant state and gave us two plants for free. So we took them home and gave our caterpillars food.All I have to say is those little things sure do eat a lot. Then they finally spun their cocoons (chrysalis')...look very carefully and you can see it through the screen. After about 10 days (I think...I was in a foggy sleep deprived state at this point and the days all kind of blended together) a beautiful Monarch butterfly emerged. They would just hang out for a little while until their wings dried and then they were off. Such excitement in our house.

announcement

I love having creative friends. This particular friend offered to make our baby announcements and all we had to do was pay for the development of the pictures, put the postage on and mail it.

And this is what she came up with: