when east meets south
This girl is fun on a regular day. But on a day like her birthday? With cake and candles and balloons and cousins and presents? No words. She loved every one of her presents: glittery Toms, a new backpack, some Signing Time DVDs and a tiny Asian family. But when it was time to move on to the cake, she… Read More
I’m not even sure exactly what to think about it yet. And I think Clementine feels the same. Some things about getting bigger she loves. Like taking care of her baby. Feeding herself. And telling her brothers and sisters what to do. But others? Well, she’s not interested. This girl is not ready to quit her bottle. And she’s not… Read More
We recently celebrated Jude’s 10th birthday. And, as the birthday-to-be boy, Jude got to choose his party favors. And he asked for Silly String. Normally I wouldn’t agree to a request so, well… messy. And not a request so expensive (because $3.50 times 10 ain’t happening for a party favor in this house). But seeing as he was turning double… Read More
How I love this boy-grown-into-a-man. I took these pictures when we celebrated his birthday during an all-too-short visit home and they represent so much more than him turning 21. I mean, he’s got a beard for goodness sakes. And he’s now technically old enough to go buy a six-pack of beer if he wanted. But he’s also grown into a… Read More
We continued this year with our theme of breaking away from our traditional Christmases past. And we continue to be surprised at how the Lord has blessed our meager efforts to reprioritize our time, our energy and our spending. We completed a third year with our wonderful Advent book, every night taking turns guessing which object would be the one… Read More
One year ago today, we met this girl. Since then, well… words just don’t seem adequate. She’s amazing. She has learned to crawl (sort of), pull to stand, climb, walk and dance. She had tubes placed and adenoids removed. She had a CT and 6 sedated bronchoscopies. She had tracheal-slide surgery and open-heart surgery, which required a two week hospital… Read More
I’ve shared before about our *ahem* spin on Halloween. This year we changed it up even more. The verdict is still out on whether or not we’ll do it this way again but, all things considering, it was a really good time. We used to do Halloween pretty traditionally. Here we are in 2008. Jude in that rainbow wig, oh… Read More
She turned six at the end of last month. Strangely enough, it seems like she’s even older than that. Poppy is simply an old soul. She’s a thinker. A watcher. And always keenly aware of everything going on around her. In fact, she’s more frequently put “in charge” around here than most of her older siblings. The girl likes to… Read More
Isabelle (not-too-long-ago) turned 11. This is a girl that thinks about her birthday for approximately 360 days a year, give or take. During the 6 months that follow her birthday I refuse her attempts to engage me in birthday-themed conversations. You know, all the things she’d like to get for her birthday, what kind of cake she’d like, what sort… Read More
Be forewarned. This is the first of several similarly themed posts. Between June and July, we celebrate four birthdays around here. But they’re all important. The older I get, the more I see time rushing past. I can’t stop it. But I can do all I can to squeeze every bit of joy out of each and every moment. Anyway,… Read More