ten smile tuesday

1. the results of my crafting time last week...i can share now that they've been gifted to the recipient! :) also fun that at the shower another girl had made some embellished burp cloths...and she just happened to use the same dot fabric i did...so they coordinated....how fun is that!? :)

2. baking monster cookies with my little helpers...i felt like i'd conquered the world after having all three girls up on chairs and actually helping! and besides, they tasted really good!

3. kate's first piggy tails!

4. fabulously warm and sunny weather...for lots of outside time!

5. enjoying a glorious date night with my hubby...free of childcare costs thanks to our lovely date night babysitting swap! now that everything is up and running we should end up with two date nights a months and one night per month of watching the other two couples kiddos (5 extra kids total...ranging from 3 months to 4 years). i will admit that we did end up enjoying dessert at costco...i mean, really, they do have the best ice cream desserts ever...and you can't beat the price!

6. grilling out...and capping off the meal with fresh strawberry shortcake...yum-mo! and what could be sweeter than watching elizabeth and kate giggle with glee as they used their spoons to play peek-a-boo with one another!


7. a fun and friend filled saturday...a relaxing morning at home, a delicious and fun cook-out lunch with friends, and then a baby shower....fun times!

8. air conditioning...i'm not going to lie...my prego self was toasty, sweaty, and ready for some cooling down in the evenings over the past few days...so yes, we did it, turned on the A/C in april! but in my defense, it did feel a lot more like july than april! :)

9. a last minute decision to head to the zoo yesterday morning when the weather surprised us with one more day of sunny warmth before the rain. i loved the special time with my two favorite girlies...and though we usually use our +2 part of the membership to invite guests, it was kind of refreshing to just go by ourselves...gave me more time to focus on libs and kate. and kate was SO into the animals...especially the bears and elephants...and the ducks...of course! i think she could have watched the bears all day (thats what she is checking out in the first and last pic).

10. perhaps the most amazing animal-ish thing i've witnessed...a swimming elephant. seriously, he was completely submerging himself...and the only thing separating us from this bathing beauty was the fence...seriously, he was no more than 3 feet from us. WOW! even the zoo employee was in awe, saying she'd never seen one of the elephant submerge himself quite like that!

11. and last but not least...i'm really looking forward to tasting the cake i made for dessert with some friends this evening. its called a tres leche cake...and i think it is going to be seriously yummy...but i'll let y'all know after we test it out! ***update...it was SO good...rich and creamy with a hint of cinnamon flavor...it got a thumbs up from everyone. that said, i promise to post the recipe soon...but be forewarned it is far from being "light"....

side by side...

kate is sporting her first ever piggy-tails this morning, and that, of course, inspired a hunt for the pictures of elizabeth's first piggies (i couldn't find the picture of the first ever libber piggies--but honestly, they weren't very piggy-tail-ish--this one is from last spring at this time...maybe her second or third ever piggies!). we've known that kate has A LOT more hair than libbers did at this age (in fact, i think she has as much as elizabeth has right now!). to put it in perspective, kate is 20 months old right now...elizabeth's first piggies came when she was 2 1/2! the picture below with elizabeth in the orange shirt shows just how little hair she had at kate's age...

here's our little piggy...for the record, she wasn't thrilled by the process of getting the piggies in, hence the thumb and blankie clinging! :)

elizabeth (L), kate (R)

looking through old pictures was too much fun, so i decided to do a side by side perspective. actually, i was amazed as i looked through pictures. i have been thinking that kate seems SO much younger than elizabeth did at the same age...and then i looked at the pictures and was brought back to the reality of just how young libbers really was. its amazing how quickly you forget how little they once were! these are pretty accurate age to age comparisons, as both girls are between 20 and 21 months in the photos below. elizabeth is always on the left and kate is always on the right.

can you believe elizabeth's wispy, "barely there" hair?! especially in light of kate's head full of thick curls!

ten smile tuesday

as i sit to post my smiles and look back on the pictures i'm actually amazed to think i took these pictures just days ago...as right now it is chilly, chilly out again and drizzly, and this morning we had to dig out MUCH warmer clothing and jackets and forego the sandals for our trip to target. (although, to be honest, i don't mind right now...as it is helping me get some things accomplished inside without feeling like i'm "missing out" on the sunshine).

1. garden progress. we've been planning to have a garden for the past two years...we've even had it marked out and ready...but it hasn't happened. BUT this year is our year...we already have seeds...and friday mike rented a roto-tiller and got the garden tilled. now we just need to get some soil, and voila...we WILL have fresh veggies this summer. HOORAY!

2. lots of fun time outside. we've been grilling, swinging, sliding, chasing balls, sidewalk chalking, and bubble blowing. this pic captures one of my favorite moments though...elizabeth pushing kate in the swing...precious moments (that aren't necessarily always the norm....).

3. "sunnies". elizabeth used to call sunglasses "eyes", but apparently this summer they are to be known as "sunnies"...not sure where she came up with that, but i love it. kate was clamoring for her own pair...so i busted out this old pair from when libs was a baby. they're a bit small, but kate found them hilarious...belly laughs burst from her whenever she has them on. LOVE it!

4. ending a fabulously sunny saturday with a tasty bowl of ice cream...and, of course, sharing that pleasure with the girls. and then, once the girls were in bed, relaxing with my hubby and watching a funny movie...lots of laughing, lots of simply enjoying and savoring a fabulous day.

5. officially hitting the 20 week mark of pregnancy. (we hit 21 weeks tomorrow). i must say that i feel as though i'm as prego at 20 weeks as i was at 30 weeks the previous two pregnancies...and yet, i have gained far less weight this time around (and am in general feeling great). it is strange how different things have been this time...food aversion and ickiness at the beginning (whereas before i felt fabulous the entire first trimester and could eat anything)...and now feeling great at the point where i was starting to have an intense aversion to certain foods (namely chicken!).

6. kind of a follow-up on #4...but deserves a smile all its own. elizabeth and kate already can't get enough of the baby. they love to kiss the baby, adorn it with stickers, and love on it. i frequently see those two little faces peering up at my belly (in fact in the above picture of kate she is doing just that...saying, "baby! baby!" and patting my tummy). elizabeth seems to have gotten over her fear of "hurting the baby" (she didn't want to sit on my lap for quite awhile) and now loves to snuggle up and hug my belly, putting her face right on my belly, and talking to the baby. it is beyond precious! yesterday she said, "baby...i think it's time for you to come out!"

7. a bittersweet smile. the blooms have finally popped out on the tree we planted in remembrance of the baby we lost this fall. while i am so incredibly thankful for and in awe of the life God is knitting together in my womb at this very moment...and for His incredible plan even in miscarriage, i must admit that it is still emotional and sad to reflect on this baby we didn't get to meet this side of heaven...to realize that he/she would have been due in less than a month. i am praising God for the beauty of these blooms...reminding us of the lessons He taught us during that time of trial and suffering, reminding us of His faithfulness, reminding us of that dear, sweet baby that we hoped for, dreamed about, and love so fully and incredibly.

8. a successful bread batch. our home-milled wheat hasn't been the easiest to work with, resulting in many frustrating, less than perfect batches of bread...so i just had to share my success--two perfect loaves...chewy, soft, and flavorful. the girls and i definitely enjoyed our PB&Js for lunch yesterday...on bread that was still a bit warm and fresh from the oven...yum!

9. this moment. elizabeth and kate peering out the window, longing for sunny warmth instead of the rain. elizabeth actually did sing, "rain, rain go away...come again another day." notice her tank top...in spite of the 50 degree temps...i had a quite productive weekend switching out the girls clothes...in with the spring and summer, out with the winter....

10. the promise of some sewing! what better way to spend a rainy spring morning than running a few errands...and one errand just happened to drop us right next to jo-anns...and i just happened to have TONS of coupons for the daffodil days sale...and i just happened to leave the store with some projects to work on this evening! mike has his monthly Gideon's meeting, meaning i will have a quiet evening to break out the sewing machine and create, create, create! the picture is what i purchased today...perhaps next week i will have some pictures of finished projects to share! :)

11. last but not least (even if i did forget to mention before posting this the first time!)....a delightful date with my hubby at our annual MOPS banquet. tasty eats, good company, and a motivating, encouraging, challenging message from pastor mark. definitely good stuff!

ten (err...twelve) smile tuesday...

here are some of our smiles from the past week...well, at least the ones i didn't already share in my "snippets" post the other day. i think most of these actually go through the week backwards since that is how the pics uploaded into the post.

1. my Easter present....a newly mounted over the range microwave. mike gifted me with the microwave a few months back, but we had to tear out a cabinet and do some new wiring to actually hang it, so it was just hanging out on the counter. well, thanks to mike and our friend chris, it took its place above the stove after our Easter lunch! i'm SOOO excited about my extra counter space (although i randomly go to microwave something...say the heating pad for my achin' back...and momentarily think, "wait, who stole the mircowave!"...yep, pregnancy and the girls have completely sucked my brain away!)

2. old cabinet=new toy...is there anything more exciting for a three and a half year old and one and a half year old!?

3. a tasty Easter lunch and great fellowship with friends. we ended up having our friends chris and chrisy (and their sweet almost 1 year old daughter) over for Easter lunch. mike grilled lamb, chrisy brought potatoes and green bean casserole, and we even managed to save/make room for dessert...strawberry pretzel jell-o salad. yumm-o!

4. Jesus is ALIVE! what a blessing to go to church Sunday morning and worship with brothers and sisters in Christ. and oh what a blessing to hear elizabeth's little voice starting to "get" and repeat "He is risen INDEED!".

5. the girls in their matching Easter dresses.

a smile from elizabeth....and then one from kate (not sure what is with libs expression in the second one..but i love the pic anyway!)

they are doing ring-around-the rosy here...gotta love the candid smiles! i need to look back on these on days/minutes when they aren't playing so happily together!

6. egg hunting...they officially did some egg hunting inside Saturday morning (since it was chilly!), but in the afternoon we tossed the eggs across the yard and had at it again. kate was the egg hunter extraordinare...she ran around like crazy shouting "ball!", plucking up eggs and plopping them into her bunny basket (my grandpa and ethel sent the baskets as a gift...so cute...a monkey for libs and a bunny for kate)....and to think, i wasn't sure kate was going to "get it".

7. it is never too chilly for a green ice pop. aunt kim brought the girls one of those make-your-own popsicle thingies...and elizabeth was thrilled to make popsicles...green, of course. and the poor girl was beside herself waiting for them to freeze all the way! nevermind that it was cold enough outside for jackets saturday afternoon, she savored that ice pop just like it was a mid-summer afternoon!

8. a visit from aunt kim and grandma and grandpa (mike's sister and parents). kim had Good Friday off and was able to come to town, and we enjoyed a fun visit saturday morning...brunch at our house and then lunch at one of our local favorites.

9. this was the first year we did Easter baskets...but when grandpa and ethel gave us the cutie baskets i couldn't resist filling them with some odds and ends. kate was quite thrilled by the mrs. potato head in hers!

10. monkey bread...elizabeth helped me shake the biscuits in the sugar and cinnamon...and then was delighted, of course (as were we all), to partake in the ooey-gooey goodness saturday morning at brunch!

11. a "date" with elizabeth. mike wasn't feeling well at all friday afternoon, so he decided to stay home with kate while i took elizabeth to the Good Friday evening service at church. it was a nice chance to spend some one on one time with elizabeth...not to mention, enjoy a fabulous church service, remember Christ's suffering and sacrifice for us. and, any "date" needs to end with yummy dessert (at least as far as a 3 year old is concerned...so we hit wendy's for a frosty on the way home!).

12. and finally...i'm just lovin' how much elizabeth LOVES to help around the house...doing ANYTHING i ask her to, as if it is the most interesting and spectacular thing EVER. i was mopping friday and gave her a pack of cleaner wipes. she scrubbed around all the baseboards and under the edge of the cabinets and then proceeded to clean the front of the oven, dishwasher, and the "mugho level" of the patio door. gotta love my helper!