a holy experience

Just had to share this incredible blog I found through my friend Tara's blog. Go to it, and savor.

More birthday

To celebrate Bean Town's birthday (yes, we call her Bean Town...long evolution on that nickname), we had a joint-party with a family whose youngest son is about a week younger than Caroline. As you can see in the final pictures, we are unabashedly trying to arrange their marriage.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Happy Birthday, Caroline!

Caroline, oh, sweet Caroline, we love you so much. You bring such unique joy and happiness to our family. We love your slimy open mouth kisses (that sometimes involve biting), we love the spider walk you've figured out so you wouldn't get tangled in your dress, we love how you never fail to hear a single airplane that flies overhead (about 45 a day), but most of all we just love YOU! Happy 1st birthday, little Peanut/Bunny/Carebear.

March 20, 2009A few days oldApril 2009June 2009July 2009August 2009October 2009December 2009March 19, 2010

You know it's Spring when...

...the Dairy Kastle opens!

I must admit. Ever since the warm spell we had a few weeks ago, I've been compulsively driving by the Dairy Kastle several times a week to see if it's open. Yesterday when the girls and I were out for a walk, I saw that the boards had been taken off the windows...could it be? We strolled over and the owner told us that it would be open tomorrow...which is today! So, did we go? You betcha!

As if it weren't enough for the Kastle to be open, Katie also had a St. Patrick's Day party at her preschool...and I got the privilege of helping with it! It was so fun to visit her class and see the other kids, although their teachers said they were being unusually quiet. I like to think that they were blown away by the cupcakes and punch I made (which I confess I was a little stressed out about...but that's another blog post).

New tricks

Our littlest sweetie will be one year old on Saturday! She started celebrating early by taking her first steps this past weekend. I've yet to capture her "walking" on camera, but I did manage to get some of her other tricks this past week.

Desperately trying to see what sister's doing

I climbed up all by myself!

And now I'm going to really spook my mom

and try to stand up on it...

Sorry for being a doof and not having the camera turned the right way (and for having an incredibly annoying 'mommy voice'). Any ideas on how I can fix that? The video, I mean, not my voice...although if you have any tips on the voice I'll take them too! And just in case you were wondering, she did NOT fall off the box at the end.

How we celebrate being 11 months old

As of Saturday, Caroline is 11 months old. Unbelievable. My little baby will be one in one month! She is a joy--loves her sister, loves climbing on things, and loves pointing at objects(especially photos) and saying "Da."

So, in honor of her cuteness, we went to Chuck E. Cheese on Friday night for dinner. Okay, so not really for Caroline (as you can see in the picture, she was not amused), but fun nevertheless. I loved Chuck E. Cheese as a kid (until I almost drowned in the ball pit at my brother's birthday party, but that's a story for another day). I hadn't been to Chuck E. Cheese since then (except for the time we went there for Homecoming in high school, super-fun). I had vague memories of the pizza being pretty decent, but I went on Friday with very low expectations. The pizza actually wasn't too bad! I think I ate most of ours! Here's a pic from the night as well as a video of the 11 month old Caroline.

Friends

Have you seen those gratitude posts on blogs lately? Like my sweet friend Tara's? Or Maggie's? I love these posts and am encouraged by them, but I must confess that they also make me feel guilty for not being as disciplined in the practice of thankfulness as I need to be. I need to incorporate such a practice into my life and hope to do so soon. As a start...

Recently, I have found myself incredibly grateful lately for friends. I mean, real friends...the ones you can spill your guts to without fear that they will judge you or misunderstand you or think less of you. As I think back through each season of my life, the memories that give me the greatest joy all revolve around remembering who my friends were during that time. In preschool there were Peter and Brad and Jack. In elementary school there were Kathleen and Ethan, Mark and Ann. In middle school Susan, Kathryn, and Marni. In high school, Sandy, Veronica, Kathryn, Susan, Sallie, Rob, Shannon. In college there were dozens, but especially Jenny, Jaclyn, and Hannah. In China there was my whole team. And now, one of the joys of being married is that I get to live with my best friend without ever fearing that one of us will have to move away. In Louisville God has provided Cari, Melanie, Cindy, Laurel, Lisa, Emily, Megan, and Ashley. Even as I write these names, I'm sure I'm inadvertently leaving many out whom the Lord used profoundly in my life to love me, support me, encourage me, and (maybe the best part of friendship) to actually like me! How would I have ever made it through life without friends?

Reflecting upon sweet friendships makes Christ's statement in John 15:15 that more meaningful: "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

I can't help but think of Lewis' chapter on Friendship in The Four Loves. Here are two of my favorite parts that have come to mind recently:

"In a perfect Friendship this Appreciative love is, I think, so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before all the rest. Sometimes he wonders what he is doing there among his betters. He is lucky beyond desert to be in such company. Especially when the whole group is together, each bringing out all that is best, wisest, or funniest in all the others. Those are the golden sessions; when four or five of us after a hard day’s walking have come to our inn; when our slippers are on, our feet spread out towards the blaze and our drinks at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim on or any responsibility for another, but all are freemen and equals as if we had first met an hour ago, while at the same time an Affection mellowed by the years enfolds us. Life—natural life—has no better gift to give. Who could have deserved it?"

"In Friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say to every group of Christian friends, 'You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.' The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by Friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good Friendship, increased by Him through the Friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host."

So, thank you, Father, for my friends.