favorite foursome

Seven! What? Oh, and he is fast approaching his first lost tooth...which may or may not have been my driving motivation for a photo shoot.

Twirling in her birthday dress

Gotta mention Tilly's dress. It was handmade and hand smocked by my mom. She's amazing.

If I loved em any more my heart might burst! Kuddos to this cute bunch for letting me drag em down the street for pictures. O-man made it feel like this picture is some sort of miracle! Whew! next time I need a sidekick.

now & then...

Emerson has visited TN four times now. The first was about a month before my Grandpa passed away. I have so many sweet memories from that trip. The way my Grandpa interacted with Emerson was priceless and I'll never forget how he called Emerson a miracle...this from a man that delivered many hundreds of babies during his career. He never lost the awe of new life. I sure miss him!

Elijah and I took EJ back to TN just before his first birthday. Then two years ago, My mom and I drove back to TN with three kiddos. This June my mom and I were able to fly (because of the kindness of dear family) with all FOUR kids. I had fun looking back at pictures from our last 3 trips. We did a lot of the same things each time. Such great memories. So, I put together some collages comparing kids and the "now and then". Enjoy!

EJ is on the left here with Oliver on the right. E was 11 months old and O was 13 months.

 This wooden swing has been around since my Grandma was a little girl. It is in her front yard. EJ to the left and O on the right.

The kids and me with Grammy Honey at the carousel...then and now.

I guess we started EJ young on frogs! He chose the frog this year and it wasn't until I looked back at the pics that I realized his first ride was on the same frog!

EJ, Then and now at Clumpies....YUM!

We visited the children's museum two years ago and again this June. Tilly danced her little heart out for a loooooong time. It was fun to look back and see she also enjoyed the stage at 15 months old.

Here's a fun one! Can you tell who is who? :-) The left side is from 2011. EJ and TIlly on the top and Tilly on the bottom. On the right is from June. Tilly and Oliver on the top and Oliver on the bottom. I was really struck here by how much Tilly and Oliver resemble each other at similar ages! Oh, how they LOVED the water play area at the children's museum. This time, Grammy Honey felt well enough to join us. I'm not sure who had more fun...but it just might have been my Grandma. The delight on her face was radiant as she watched her great grands play.

 I still have fun TN pictures to share....that will be another post.

Clara's Tangled Garden Party

Clara invited sweet little girls to celebrate her 5th Birthday with a Tangled garden party. Her mama had too much fun planning and preparing! Clara loved every second of her party which made it the perfect day. We could have done without the crazy wind...but I think it bothered me more than them. 

She requested a Rapunzel tower on her cake. Thank goodness for pinterest! I was delighted to screw a wooden dowel into a wood circle base to avoid the catastrophic tornado incident of 2012. After sliding the cake over the dowel, I stacked up these mini donuts for the tower. it was so easy! I decided to use a cake ice cream cone for Rapunzel's room on top, and then a sugar cone over that worked great for a pointed roof.

Not complete without Rapunzel and Pascal...thank goodness for plastic.

The idea was to make miniature gardens in the backyard under a pretty canopy. Well, if we had put up the canopy...it would have ended up in another neighborhood. We tried being outside but I was afraid all their little garden decorations would blow away so we headed inside. Oh well. It all worked out. And look at their colorful pots. I found them all at a yard sale...for free! A little spray paint did the trick.

I must say, it was adorable watching them create their little gardens. They each had a little bag full of goodies like a  butterfly, a little table with a plate or teacup, umbrella, pennant to hang from a twig "tree", tiny bottle of fairy dust, and a tiny pot of flowers. I had fun with my dad's orthodontic wire bending tools and made copper wire arbors for each garden. I also had my kids gather twigs so I could make and paint little tiny chairs. Might have been the most fun project I've taken on in awhile.  There's something so sweet and whimsical about "miniature". Tiny things make me happy.

moss, a little plant, and colored glass stones

Look at all these pretty girls with their sweet tiny gardens!

We didn't really get pictures of the food! My friend Sela baked me some loaves of pink bread. We had pink butterfly shaped peanut butter and jam sandwiches, little fruit kabobs, pink mac n cheese, and strawberry lemonade...all served by the handsome butlers.

Royal cake tasting. Notice she ate the chocolate cake from the middle first? That's my girl! Later she was found licking her plate...daintily of course.

EJ, Elijah, and Papa were the handsome butlers. They slaved in the kitchen and served lunch to all the little ladies and their mamas. He took this pic of himself.

secret garden

We've been planning, gathering ideas, and secretly working on this garden for almost a year. Clara LOVES gardens and gardening. I thought it would be delightful to transform a corner of our yard into her own little garden. As I looked for ideas, I thought it would be adorable to incorporate a miniature garden into her child-size garden. It has been so much fun working on these things. Elijah put in tons of time building the arbor, cutting wood for the path, digging, moving rocks, building benches. Kuddos to an amazing hubby and daddy to help bring the vision to life. Clara has already rearranged flower pots and has lots of ideas of her own. It will be a joy to help her make the space her own.

Clara Joelle, you have grown and matured so much this past year! You are becoming a little lady with lots of spunk, a tender heart, and an eye for beauty. We love you and cherish the gift that you are. Happy 5th Birthday!

Her miniature  "Tangled" garden..housed in a birdcage

do you see the yellow braid in the back? That would be Rapunzel's hair...let out of her tower. Clara is loving Tangled and all things Rapunzel. It was a fun challenge to include it in her tiny garden. Thank you, dollar store, for selling little lighthouses!!!

Always nice to have an orthodontist for a dad. He contributed wire bending tools so I could fashion a candelabra and a little arbor. Oh, and don't you think every tree should have a candelabra in it? :-)

"Wrapped" and ready. We waited until she was tucked in bed and then scrambled to get everything planted and in place before the darkness took over on her birthday eve. I was pleased to see that it had actually turned out ok when we saw it in the light of morning! ;-)

Here's the excited Birthday girl.

There are sweet truths tucked into her garden...like this one. Praying this will be a sweet place for her to enjoy and grow in her love for a creative and garden-loving God.

Happy Birthday, Clara!

Emerson's First Musical

EJ has had a fantastic first grade year. A high school teacher and fellow homeschooling parent at our church had the vision to begin a homeschool enrichment charter school that meets every Friday and offers an amazing assortment of classes. I had five pages of class descriptions to read through with EJ and he let me know what he was most interested in. This past spring semester he took a phys. ed. class, piano lessons, an art class (his favorite), a human body hands-on science class, musical theater, and spanish. On the last day of school, the musical theater class performed their play, "The Emperor's New Clothes". There were about 40 1st through 6th graders and they did a fantastic job. His teacher, Mrs. Seibert, often leads the children's programs at our church and coordinates the VBS music crew. She did an amazing job working with these kids each week.

This was EJ's first taste of the stage and he seemed to enjoy it. He practiced the music a lot at home over the past three months and never complained. We are so proud of him for his hard work and effort. Being in first grade, he was one of the youngest kids in the play. He was a "townsperson" and had one speaking part, a small chorus part, as well as being in the large chorus. In all, he memorized 6 songs with choreography.

I have one little clip of the song where he had his speaking part. It's less than two minutes. He's the only boy in the chorus line. ;-)

waiting for the show to start

He got an origami $5 frog from Gramma Jo and Papa.

His bouquet of paper flowers with dollar leaves. You were a fantastic "townsperson", E.J. We are so proud of you!

First Birthday

Where did those twelve months go? Truly, as I look back and think through the last 365 days, on one hand, I can hardly believe how quickly it went...and on the other, I can hardly believe how much life and change and growth has transpired. Oliver went from being a struggling infant in the NICU...prayed for by those we may never meet this side of heaven...to a busy, healthy, inquisitive, and delightful one-year-old. God is good - no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. We thank Him every day for breathing life into our baby boy and letting us enjoy him this year.

Here is a link to his birth story if you missed it:
Oliver's Birth Story Link

Oliver loves to play peek-a-boo, can get into almost anything, can dismantle almost anything (His favorite right now is dismantling the pack-n-play instead of sleeping in it.), waves, says "hi", waited to say "mama" until the day after turning one, rubs his ear to fall asleep, drinks more milk than a baby cow, has 4 teeth, loves to fly in his jumper and in our backyard swing, tries to sing along, makes us laugh every day, and has a smile for anyone who will look in his big blue eyes. He doesn't like cake, pancakes, applesauce, peas, or most baby food...or oatmeal...well, maybe I should just say, he does like bananas, strawberries, sweet potatoes and MEAT. Just give the boy his meat and he's a happy man. He's been expensive since the day he was born!

Happy First Birthday, Oliver!

the dimple...those eyes...

A little bit of Silly. And don't you love his tie and shorts? Gramma Jo made those.

blowing a kiss

 

Here is his first year slide show. If you want to pretend you were at his party: grab a bag of popcorn, turn down the lights, and pretend you're watching it with a room full of awesome people!

 

Or the youtube link: 

Oliver's First Year Slideshow

The Birthday Party!

I think I may have subconsciously chosen a circus theme because there are lots of days where I feel like I manage one...or TRY. There always seems to be at least one ring in shambles. But so far...no one has fallen from the tightrope and no tigers have escaped. I do think the elephants stampede through my house once a day and the clowns take their roles too seriously.

Oliver's cake (he wasn't impressed)

cupcakes for his many friends

This is for you, David & Melinda!

We invited our discipleship team and the 26 kids they represent to help us celebrate Oliver. Yay for the best friends ever! It was these friends that delivered meal after meal to our house while Oliver was in the NICU and who would come pick up our big kids and take them on adventures to lighten the load for my precious mom-in-law who was holding down the fort that week last year.

We set up activities for the kids. Coloring animal masks, bingo, basketball, disc golf, and a bounce house!

This is Oliver's beautiful Grammy (Elijah's mom). She arrived in CO from CA just hours before I went into labor. She spent the whole week caring for the older 3 while Oliver was in the NICU. We were so happy to have them here a year later to celebrate his Birthday!

MEAT

The grandparents! Thank you, Grammy and Gramma Jo for helping me set up the party!

sweet big sis

skeptical

really skeptical. Why are there 45 people singing to me?

and then they chanted...Eat the cake! Eat the cake! Oh, and see the pretty lady in the back with the camera and pink strap? She came early and worked SO hard to help me get his party set up, and she came with favorite coffee drinks in hand! Truly blessed!

you're kidding...right?

doesn't taste like meat

the only bite

Clara adores her bro

ready for the circus act

If you lasted through this loooong post...you must be a grandparent! ;-) 

And a note to some DEAR friends that may feel sad about not joining in Oliver's celebration. We THANK YOU for loving our family and pouring into our lives. So many of you have loved us with prayer, meals, and encouraging conversations. When I planned his party our resources determined that we needed to "keep it small" by including our church discipleship team and family.

WE LOVE YOU!