To Arkansas and back

A few highlights from our recent weekend trip to Arkansas to visit Uncle Todd, Aunt Na, and Henry:

On the way there we stopped by the Memphis zoo for a few hours. It was pretty hot and humid but we had a good time and it helped to break the trip up a little. Gabe only wanted to do one thing on this trip - go fishing and he got to do just that with Daddy.

Running around in the sprinkler is a great way to cool off at the end of a hot day.

This crew played really well together and spent a lot of time outside on Henry's awesome swing set/ play fort.

We also enjoyed a trip to the lake. It took Gabe and Mya a little while to warm up to the idea of swimming in the lake were you couldn't touch or even see the bottom but they eventually got used to it and had a great time.

And, on the way home we set a new personal family record of driving 6 hours home with no stops; thanks to Nae's acrobatic skills of getting into the back seat with Gabe and Mya to feed Eden. All in all it was a great weekend - Thanks Todd, Na and Henry!

"Self" feeding

This is perhaps why Eden has been slower than the other three to do things. I mean, if big sis will stand there and feed you puffs one by one why learn to pick them up to feed yourself?

Eden is finally crawling, however which means we all spend a good portion of our day keeping things out of her reach. Oh, just wait until she begins walking...

The birthday weekend

Okay, I'm finally getting around to putting some more of Alena's birthday pictures up. We had a playdate at the park on Friday to celebrate with some of her friends. It turned out to be really hot and humid as you can tell from all of the red faces and then right after we left it started to pour the rain.

Sunday birthdays are hard - we were so busy with church stuff all day that we decided to do our family celebrating on Saturday night with dinner out and the same blue cupcakes. Alena wanted chocolate cake with blue icing and then she did all the decorating herself. It worked very nicely to let her decorate and we just might do that for future birthdays.

I tried asking Alena the questions from our little birthday survey but I don't think she's quite old enough she was giving me the craziest answers so I think we'll wait until next year to start that.

Oh my, she's 3!

Alena Noi, May 16, 2007

Alena - 1 year old
I can't seem to find any pictures of her actual first birthday, not sure why but I'll have to further investigate. Can't have the 3rd child feeling short-changed in the picture department. Also, I specifically picked this picture, because Alena loves to choose this outfit for Eden to wear.

Alena - 2 years old
This was the year that Nae and I were actually flying to CA on her birthday while Grandmama and Carrie manned the fort here at home. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to have been traumatized by it all although her face in this picture does make me wonder.

Alena - yesterday almost 3

Alena has her sweet moments {"Daddy, you're the best Daddy!"} and her not so sweet ones, {like tonight when we were eating out for her birthday} but I guess that could be said of all of us. Despite it all, we love her very, very much and hope she has a wonderful 3rd birthday!

Gabe on stage

I love this picture of Gabriel taken right before his piano recital this weekend. He pulled through and did really well playing his little song although the weeks leading up to it were filled with nervousness - on the day of he was cool and relaxed.

Last night was Gabriel's spring play at school. It was a Wizard of Oz musical and the Kindergarteners were dressed as munchkins. He had a great time doing this and as you can see really got into the music.

Happy Mother's Day from the Absent Husband!

I hope to see you soon. Have a great Mother's Day. Thank you for being there for us. I love you.
-Husband.

9 months

Watching your children grow up is a strange thing. On the one hand, I'm oh so happy that my baby is 9 months old - that means she's healthy and strong, and growing, learning to do new things every day.

On the other hand, my baby is 9 months old. I saw a picture just this week of her the day she came home from the hospital and oh, what happened to that little tiny new born. So sad and so happy all at the same time.
At 9 months Eden is loving the doorway jumper. She cracks us up in it, and does this picture look like Gabe or what?

As an aside, this is my 400th post - hard to believe. I remember the very first post when Mya was just a few months old and Gabe was 2. That's a lot of pictures and a lot of memories...

Rain, Rain Go Away!

This has been a weekend to remember in Nashville - one that we hope will never be repeated. We have been very blessed that our house is dry and we have electricity; many, many others have not been as fortunate. The pictures and videos are just unbelievable. We've been glued to the tv watching water rescues and flood waters turn main roads (even interstates) into rivers.

Here's a few pictures just of our cul-da-sac during the heaviest part of the rain today but for more pictures click here. The picture on the front page right now was taken about a mile from our house - a place we drive by just about every day.

The kids and I have had many discussion about who controls the rain, thunder, and lightening as well as pondering just what the 40 days of rain was like for Noah. Tomorrow is looking much more promising weather wise so hopefully clean-up can begin. Also, as one who's husband has been working since yesterday afternoon to help get electricity back on, let's keep all those who have to be out in prayer for their safety!