bottle him up

One of those "little moments like that" I wish I could bottle up and save forever...Caeden just out of bed this morning, clutching his little "Teddy-Teddy Bear" and looking so little and sweet in his footed fleece jammies. Lord, help me to remember these times, and be grateful for my children!

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." -- Luke 2:19

Shopping Trip!

Over the weekend, I went up to Schaumburg with 5 girlfriends from our LifeGroup for a shopping trip to Woodfield Mall! We went up on Saturday morning, spent the night, and came back Sunday afternoon. We had a wonderful time together!! It was so fun to get to know each other better, and just to spend time relaxing, having fun, and being with girlfriends!
We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, which was a fun first for me. (The kids would LOVE it!) We each found something we were hoping to purchase, and some good deals too.
When we got to our hotel, we hung out, snacked, ordered in Giordano's, went to the hot tub, and chit-chatted until 1:00 a.m. So, we were pretty slow getting all of us around in the morning, but managed to get in some more shopping before heading home. Some of the girls went to IKEA, and we also made a stop at Trader Joe's.
Back at home, Jeremy took the kids to Krispy Kreme for breakfast, and to Chuck E. Cheese's with another LifeGroup dad & kids to play and have lunch. He got them all to church by 8:00 a.m. and got them lunch and naps before picking me up at church in the afternoon.

Sylvia starts gymnastics!

One of Sylvia's birthday gifts from Mommy & Daddy and Gram & Grandpa Mc was gymnastics classes, which started this evening! She has been so excited, and for the past couple weeks has been counting down the days!

Sylvie is the youngest in her 5 & 6 year-olds class, and the other girls have all been to class for a while. But, Miss Elizabeth, the teacher, took time to help Sylvia and explain each thing to her. Sylvia just recently learned how to do a somersault, so everything in class was completely new to her! She took it all in stride though, and tried everything she was asked to do. Miss Elizabeth was very encouraging, and gave Sylvie lots of "fives." Sylvia bounced and flitted around between exercises, and was careful to keep her hands on her hips like teacher asked the girls to do.

(I was shooting these pictures through glass up in a balcony over the gym, so...)
Here is Sylvia's very first attempt at a cartwheel!
Sylvia also got to try jumping in the big foam blocks, stretches, forward rolls, backward rolls, trampoline jumps, hanging and swinging on the bars, and other things Mommy doesn't know the names of!

After class, when I asked her if she had fun, she said, "Oh yeah!!" and that she wanted to go back tomorrow. She was really sad to learn she has to wait a whole week to go back!

Field Trips!

Annah and Sylvia have both been on field trips in the past week! Last Friday, Daddy was able to go along with Annah's whole 1st grade class to Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago! The teachers have been planning the trip for months, but kept it a secret from the students until a week before the trip. Annah was very, very excited to have her daddy go with her, and they had a super good time!

Jeremy couldn't get the little camera to work, so I borrowed these photos from the Weidner Wonders! Thanks Christie!

They got to spend a bit going through the aquarium, but most of their time was spent watching the dolphin show. Annah thought the stingrays were cooooool!
Yesterday, Sylvia's preschool class took their field trip to the Gibson Area Hospital! When we got to school and she saw all the mommies that were going along, she was a little sad that I couldn't go along. But she was happy when she found out she got to ride with Mrs. Ramirez and Reece and Zachary.
Sylvia said they got to go INTO the freezer and refrigerator, see the laundry chute and laundry room, eat cookies and juice, and see hospital rooms where the beds could make the head and feet parts go up and down. She said she loved it, and came home with quite a cool goody bag of hospital things!

Tooth #4!

It seems like we've been trying to get Annah to pull this tooth for ages now...every evening making her try to pull it out, it was so loose. It finally came out during lunch at school today. We all feel much better now! ;)

I'm not going to say that spring has "arrived," but at least we have had a couple beautiful, warmer days! The kids couldn't wait to get home from church today to play outside in the yard! This sparse little tree row at the edge of our yard, they call their "deep, dark forest!" Ha! They drug a bunch of their toys out there and pretended it was their tree house today. They were having a bllllllast!

The kids all found their sunglasses before they went out, which was too cute. (Sylvia is holding a tiny pinecone, in case you were wondering exactly what that was!)
When we came out of church at like 12:30, Jeremy and I both knew we had to go to the store and get some stuff to grill out! We picked up some burgers and brats and fixin's, and Jeremy cleaned the grill and fired it up! It was 3:00 by the time we were finished with "lunch," but it was totally worth it!

Mary for President!

How cool is this? This is one very special lady--Mary! She is 96 years old, and one of the most amazing people I've ever met. This evening was our church's annual "Talent-No-Talent" show/competition. Our LifeGroup did a silly skit which was a Presidential debate with the candidates trying to win over votes from the two different worship services we have--Homecoming and Emergin--by playing on some of the most extreme stereotypes of the two services. Jeremy got to wear this crazy huge mohawk wig as one of the candidates, and then Mary surprised everyone by coming out as a "candidate" with her walker tripped out with USA bling and flags, and wearing the mohawk wig!
Not only does Mary love to have fun at 96 years old, but she is an amazing witness and servant for the Lord! She teases Jeremy (love it!), makes dinner (along with some of her slightly younger friends) every Wednesday night for our church, goes bowling on her birthday, and likes to play the drum set! I'm not even a fraction as cool at 31 as she is at 96! What an inspiring lady!!
(The man behind Mary is her son, and the woman with the shocked face is her daughter.)
Jeremy got pulled into Tracy's "Bucket Brigade" act, which turned out pretty cool! He chose these four guys to come up on stage and sit on buckets next to each other. Then he had one lay back on another's lap, until they were each lying on another. THEN, he pulled the buckets out from under them and told them not to move! Jeremy said they were holding themselves up with their legs, but man, it looked painful! They didn't fall, and Tracy put the buckets back under them and then knocked the guys off the buckets. It was kinda cool!

Annah's 1st Violin Recital

Annah played in her very first violin recital today! Oh, we were so, so proud of her! Her teacher has about 8 or 10 students in private violin/piano studio, but only 4 were able to be there to play. So, it was a very small, short recital.

Annah played Hunter's Chorus. I was honored to accompany her too! I let her choose if she wanted her teacher or me to play for her, and fully expected her to choose her teacher. It was so fun to practice together all week long at home.

Annah hoped she wouldn't have to play first, and actually played last. She went up there and just played beautifully, like she wasn't nervous at all! She did tell me after that she "was a little bit nervous," and she could tell because the back of her head got tight. (That's what she always says happens when she gets nervous.) But she said it was really fun too.

But we were just incredibly proud of her! Jeremy and I are just amazed when we watch and hear her play.

Annah and her teacher, Mrs. Skinner

I should mention that, we witnessed a miracle at the recital! Caeden sat still and listened, and clapped for the girls when they were done playing!!! At the end of the recital he said, "I was good!"
Caeden looooooooves Mrs. Skinner, and when he saw her move to sit down near her husband after playing for one of the students, he said, "Sit by me!" and was very excited that she did. He loves to give her hugs too.

Sharing some random things...

Just thought I'd share some random things that have come across my path lately that have made me think...

• Vegetable Orchestra! - Musicians that make their own instruments out of vegetables and perform real concerts with them, and serve soup to their audience!
  
  
• My Craftivity - a new online community for crafters of all kinds, including those who dabble in multiple types of crafts!!
  
  
• Focus On the Family Radio Online - Focus now has a 24/7 streaming radio station.
  
  
• Virtual Flower Garden - Grow your flower garden on your screen, since spring doesn't want to arrive outside yet!
  
  
• Free Rice - Help fight world hunger by testing your vocabulary skills.
  
  
• An Amazing Adoption Story - An inspiring story. Watch all 3 Oprah Show clips. (Lysa TerKeurst is one of my favorite P31 author/speakers.)
  
  
• Mistaken Identity - I haven't read the book [yet!], but watched Matt Lauer's 2-hour special on this unbelievable story. Did you catch it? Incredible. I can't wait to read the book!
  
  
  
  
• 5 Simple Hair Care Tips - (from Trish Berg's TIP OF THE DAY e-list.)
  
  1)DRY IT FIRST – Before you put any mousse or gel on your hair for styling purposes, dry it a little bit and get rid of the wetness. Otherwise, the extra water in your hair will dilute the styling product.
  
  2)BRUSH IT – When you put mousse or gel in your hair, brush it with a brush from root to tip to make sure to spread the product all the way through. Otherwise it will end up only in certain spots. (Yep, I have had crunchy spots…NO MORE!)
  
  3)ZIG ZAG IT – If you, like me, dye your hair to get rid of the gray, try this trick. When your roots start showing a bit, you can buy yourself some time by taking the pointy end of your comb and putting in a zig zag part instead of a straight part. It will hide those roots until you can get to the salon.
  
  4)ENAMEL BRUSH – To use a round brush to get curl in your hair, make sure it has an enamel base, which better holds the heat form your blow dryer, and makes the curl take better in your hair.
  
  5)COOL IT – Hot water damages hair, so never wash or rinse your hair with hot water. And, if you want shiny hair, rinse it with cool water, that will add shine to your hair.

Okay, so I'm totally random today! Sorry!

Caeden's Brother Samuel

A few weeks ago, we were sitting at dinner, talking about brothers and sisters, when all of the sudden Caeden gasped and said, "Hey! Where's my brother?! I want a brother!" While we stammered a bit, he thought again and said, "No, I have a brother. Samuel is my brother!"

Samuel is our friends' little guy, and is about 6 months older than Caeden. They have been best buddies forever, but now they've started calling each other 'brother' instead of 'my best friend!'

Most of the time, these two can't contain their excitement to play together when Sammy is here. Sometimes, they argue and fight a little. Constantly, they crack me up! Today they found the girls' bicycle helmets, and discovered they could hook them together. So they decided to stick them together, put them on, and walk around the house. Such sillies.