really really really fun

Peek-a-boo with Grandpa Look i picked some of mommies tulips!
Walking by the river.............
Singing a tune
Oh my dear, i am seeing myself in my daughter...i truly felt like i was visiting my early life in a dream this morning. I put Julia in an old shirt of mine, and Nana put her hair in a pony tail....and wooooooooooooow.....i saw myself scampering about my home....wierd...... sooooooooooooooooo cute! :)

day one continued

I'VE GOT A BIKE!! mmmmmm supper
PEEK A BOO!

DAY ONE, WE'RE GONNA HAVE SOME FUN!

WOW. Grandpa and Nana build and painted this baby cradle for Miss J. :) Miss J also received her honorary uke from the Uke Master (my dad).
ANIMAL FARM: we are so at home here.... haha
See the family resemblance?? :) haha. WEEEEEEEEEEEEE
This Llama REALLY liked us. celery. yum yum.

THEY MADE IT!

MY FOLKS ARE HERE NOW!! HOORAY!

PICS COMING SOON.

:)

Finally,it's been a while... ha

Hey all.

Life just grows and changes with each new day, isn't it beautiful? Here was our spontanious sunday....Aunti Karli took a break from crunching numbers to color on our chalk board, while Julia gave herself highlights....
Then....we had a tent party (since we are dreaming of camping this summer..) and ate supper in it. Julia received a camping-adverture-ish set of toys for her bday, so the lantern and camp stove came in handy for this trip of imagination.
Finally After two years, she can wear a shirt that i made for her before she was born! :) Isn't she sweeeeeeeeeet???
Ah, the brave man .... painting our 'awkward' spots....yes, the paint job is NEARLY done!! hooray! Our neighbors are soooo appreciative...they hated the blue from the previous owners.

And here....our last stop for today...another moment of spontinaity... we MAY become the proud owners of a second home for remodling....MAYBE. still hasn't been confirmed. THis is the place:
it is right across the street from us. :) so the reno work would be simple. :) yep, that's dave's summer project if we get it. HOpefully it will end up paying off some of our loans and such. My brain is beginning to think in ways that were once foriegn to me. Dave is quite the business man, and God has slowly brought us along this far....so....we'll see what happens next.

love from us.

SpringyDay

Hey there! Yesterday was BEAUTIFUL , so we spent the morning playing in the sun , dirt and grassiness of our yard. :) As you see, we have a good crop of dandilions, very pretty. (there are many surprizes in our yard actually...daffodils, tulips, sweat peas...lots of fun things to watch grow)Here is the princess.......Dandilions in her hair! :)
This is part of our front garden, we have spent SO MANY hours plowing out the stones and other random objects left by previous owners. (peanuts, fake nails (the finger kind, yuck!), screws, kitchen spunge things....crazy) The time we have spent tells me it should look better than JUST dirt...but it looks gorgeous to me who saw the nastiness from which it came.... what a beautiful picture of God's love for us , eh? we still look like dirt, but He knows what we 've come from...so we are beautiful to Him....
sorry. haha. spiritual lessons from mamaSue's garden class.
Speaking of garden class.....here is Julia's garden, from which we learned that plants need Sun, Clouds and Rain to grow (julia added the 'cloud' part herself...). :)
Love from SDandJ

flirting

Hi folks, it's us again...so soon , i know! haha. well, here is a post i wanted to put up for a while, and just kept forgetting....you know how it goes: oh yeah, the laundry, oh yeah,our lunch, oh yeah, the mail, oh yeah, the phone bill, oh yeah, the grocery list, oh yeah, that shower, oh yeah, my lunch guests..... okay, so maybe it's just me????? haha.

Aunt Karli came over and taught Julia how to flirt. (fluttering eyes) it is quite funny, because Julia can't do it fast, so she just blinks REALLY HARD and long. hahaha. keep up the good work. :)

These pics were just some of her facial expressions while 'flirting' the first is the blinking, and the others are just her silly faces. :)

love from us.

Continued from yesterday....

Here is the birthday girl...... we decided that a trip to a friends' home on birthday evening would be a splendid way to end the day. Since our big party is next week when my folks come to visit, i didn't plan much 'party' stuff for this day...just family fun. Our friends just had 9 golden retriever puppies, and MAN ARE THEY CUTE! (I am soooo glad that kids don't usually come in that number at one time....i couldn't keep track of where they were...and usually i was tripping over a puppy, while holding one, while being chased by one...etc...)
Surprize!!!!! What fun!! They had a cake for Julia!! and a present!! and balloons....wow. what a blessing . It was so sweet of them. We totally didn't expect or need it at all, but it was so delightful. Did I mention that at this home there was lots of grass to explore, 10 dogs, 4 cats, some chickens, a playhouse, a swing, a slide, a campfire and lots of kids!!!! ???? Julia was exploding with joy!

This is post-bday-day and we enjoyed the hottish weather. :) Bearing her backpack we trudged to a local park and spent 2 hours in the sun....it was a long walk for her short legs!

Ah, the good life! Joy#56 of being a mom: playing on play grounds for life. Joy#78 of being a mom: walking so slowly (next to a toddler) that we always get to 'smell the roses'.

BIRTHDAY!!

Dear Folks, here is a tale of splendidness. Today was a delight, a reminder of the joy simple things can bring. Julia turned two. I think she is more of a mysterious joy every day (there are trials...but they are small in comparison to the amazement we have from watching her grow everyday). So much happened.....we began the day with her small gift from us. Because of our love of the out-of-doors, we bought her a rake to accompany her wheel barrow, hand rake, and shovel.
Then we set the scene: I laid scrap material all over the living room floor and we placed the wheel barrow and rake nearby. Rushing in to get her from bed, we sang happy birthday and cuddled. Daddy told her a big mess had been made, and of course, we had to check it out. (oh our particular and organized little girl, how cute) She immediately began cleaning it up with her NEW rake. :) what fun. she could have done that all day...but breakfast awaited. so we ate together....


.............not long after , a piano arrived(our little miracle piano, that came for free...all of it, move and all!!) !! After giving coffee and cake to our movers, we settled down to play a tune! Perfect for playing the BLUES. :).............we had a lovely surprise for lunch. Opa called to say he was bringing lunch. So Dave, Aunti Karli, Opa, the 'girls', Javier, Julia and I had a party at lunch. Krystal and Sarah bought miss J a dancing outfit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she wore it all lunch hour! :) ahha.
Our little architect announced to me that this play-doh sculpture was, "a house with a swing, mommy"....those were her words......i think she' s onto something....perhaps we shall have a swing on our porch.....

Here is Oma. She came to visit before work today, bringing a lovely gift for Jules. A wooden table and chair set!!!!!!!!! it is awesome!!! Julia loves it! I am sure she has been longing for something "just her size" and now...it is here!!!
Well.............that was the FIRST half of our day....the rest will be posted and told either LATER tonight, or tomorrow. much love from us to you. THANK YOU to all that have given their love, time and laughter into our lives. it richly blesses us!!!!

love from sue.

HE IS RISEN!

HEy folkies,
we had a fabulous Easter day. Fellowship at church was incredible, i don't remember ever being at a service on Easter sunday that felt so much like a glimpse of Heaven. What great anticipation it developed in us all to watch for His return and live out the excitement we have because we are saved.

here are some memories of the day:
aaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww aren't they cute? the birthday pair on their party day. CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oma and Opa bought a lot of chocolate, because there were....10 people searching for it!! yikes! Julia caught on quickly...funny what a good reward can do for the memory...hahaa. chocolate.mmm....Daddy helped her find all the good ones, here they caught some hiding in the moose rack! Uncle Adam was up to his usual shananigans....here he shows us how talented he is...wow, he can lick the egg sticking out of his nose....fabulous trick uncle! haha.


This was a pic from today. BONITA stopped by!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ooooooooooh dear dear Bones. She is forever a great encouragement and inspiration and refreshment to me. (and probably everyone she meets) her enthusiasm for life is crazy! unquenchable! haha. She is a busy girl, buther perspective on life is so valuable. :)

any way. i must go. good day all!
from me.

GOOD FRIDAY

Today we celebrated our salvation together as a family. Jeff and Tasha came from out west to visit us this joyous weekend. We spent the morning worshiping the God of the Universe, then lunched at Mom and Dad's and stayed all day.
Julia thrived in the love of two of her aunties today.....
Then she relished her moments of baby-love while holding Baby Ella, our friends' girl. sweet.
And here....the artwork for the day. Play-doh snails. ;)

As the sun sets on this quiet day of remembrance, we look forward to remembering the rising of the Son on sunday! Praise God for the gift of LIFE. I wish all could see the joy in His sufferings as we do.

Praise His Name!

Justin Thomas

Thank you for the rain.

man, there is just something about this song that fills my heart with joy and peace. It bubbles, overflows, makes my body feel like jumping, dancing, singing. I just love the praise it brings to my lips, praise for God alone. He alone deserves our upraised hearts and hands....

refreshed by grace. (my closest rain-like picture.....haha, mental note...take more pictures in the rain. speaking of rain, Janie, my one fondest memories of Pre-dave Janie was dancing in the rain with you at lunch hour!!! yippee for random-school-craziness)

EightDays to BirthDay!!

Seems like yesterday. What a glorious gift from God. Here we are snuggling in the cozy-not-so-homey hospital bed. But God is good, He truly helps the memory forget the not-so-lovely parts. In my mind, i enjoyed labor. Memory tells me it was short, fast and not as bad as all the hype. Perhaps i'll think differently in the midst of another labor...ha. you never know. I"m praying for a 'christa' to happen to me. My friend has three gorgeous children....all of whom came faster than the first. I suppose that is typical. but i'm looking forward to the next labor's all being quicker than the one i've already endured. (about 6 hours beginning to end.)

Anyone have any good birthing stories to tell??? Any exciting, scarey, funny things to let us all know about???? I usually find at least ONE person in a crowd has something strange to tell about a doctor or nurse or something......let us in on this one! Do you remember certain details as though it were yesterday that you were there????
ah, and here she is now, Princess Julia.

I'd love to hear from all of you our there in cyberspace about your experiences with kids this age. (2) what do you believe their spiritual capabilities are? With every child sooo different, i know this is a tough question. Every child thinks so differently. but let me see a glimpse into the great expanse of brain that a 2 year old can have. Please tell me stories, or book quotes or personal opinion about what a 2 year old can understand about our GOd and Father.

Ah the memories...

Christmas at Opa and Oma's house.... wee cousin HOlhol and Me....haha.
Susan, Neighbor Jen, and Sister Sarah....chillin. sorry about the blurriness.

Plant a new Truffula

Our home could use a few Truffula's, clean water and fresh air.....i think it will look splendid once we are done. THis is the light brown, which we have a dark chocolate to accent with on the trim of the porch, and the pillars. :) Now the warm weather just needs to visit us . (without giving us snow every other hopeful sunny day! arg) haha. So, it hasn't been bad weather, just agrivating!
Since the cold returned we spend more time doing "Art Working", as Miss Julia puts it. We created beautiful flowers on a flower-less spring day! :) heehee.Daddy has been busy with work, reading about real estate in his small windows of free time, and polishing up the home. His skill never ceases to amaze me. he is even helping me design curtains...well, more-so the technical parts.
Aren't i cute with ink all over my face?? who says the stamp pad is just for rubber stamps!! my fingers work marvelously!

love from us three.