How sweet to hold a newborn baby

and feel the pride and joy he gives

But greater still the calm assurance

this child can face uncertain days

because He Lives!

Because He Lives, I can face tomorrow

Because He Lives, all fear is gone

Because I know He holds the future

And life is worth the living

just because He Lives!

Cotton Cupcake

Congratulations to my friend and cousin Amber on her new business!

She's just 'opened' the cutest little shop online for personlized kids clothes and they are all SO cute! Plus, she did a really great job with the site.

Check it out if you've got time - it'll be worth it!

http://www.cottoncupcakeblog.blogspot.com/

A Little Behind . . .

So apparantly I'm bad at keeping up with the whole blogging thing! I was just looking back a bit and realized that I haven't posted Oliver's "month" pictures since he was six months old! Good thing he's too little to care :) I think I'm going to be doing a few "catch-up" posts in the next couple of days with a bunch of pictures so just bear with me!!

Here's Oliver (with Kalia) at Seven months old:

Okay here's 8 months - didn't even do the photo shoot - oops!

9 Months Old . . .

And the current one! Ten months old!

Random

Here I have just a bunch of random pictures of the kids from the last 2 months or so just mostly hanging around the house and having fun together! It's been a fun winter watching the kids change and grow and become friends who love hanging out and spending time together. Oliver adores his big sister and watches everything that she does with fascination! Kalia thinks that Oliver is just the best, and she always wants to show him how to do things or share what she is doing with him. I can't wait to see what kinds of fun (and trouble!) these two will all find together as they grow up.

You'd think this was taken close to Christmas, but no - this is actually last week! Kalia just loves putting on her Santa hat on and dancing around to Christmas music all year round!

This was Kalia's idea for the two of them to climb into this toybox together. Her next (favorite) words were "Mom, take a picture of us!"

Just about crawling! He does get from place to place, but not usually on all fours yet. Mostly Oliver is just content to hang out in one spot and watch the action around him.

Here we were trying to enjoy the 'last snow' before it all melted into spring . . . HA! Now we have way more snow than we did then :) Erik and Amber invited us along to Gary and Karen Hildebrandt's for sledding and crawling around in their snow tunnels a few weeks ago. Where did that nice weather go?!

not very impressed with the bright sun

Poor little sickie Oliver! We found out later that day that he was not just tired, but getting sick with a fever. Yeah, I felt like a real winner for bringing him out in the snow :(

trying to get going down the hill . . .

Kalia just loves to sit and play on the floor with anyone who will volunteer. She has such an imagination for what she all comes up with that her people 'say' and do! Here I think they are making the animals mimic her favorite real life game - chase!!

Me and my little buddy :)

Story time with Papa Joe - I just thought this was so cute I had to snap a picture

Kalia loves reading stories and ususally memorizes some or all of the story pretty quickly. Here she is telling her version of the story to Oliver before bed. This is something that happens pretty regularly around here.

Playing happily together.

Rolls and chubbs, and some more rolls . . .

For some reason, these two just love playing together in Oliver's crib. Sometimes they spend quite a fair amount of time in there together just bouncing or playing with the mobile or ocean wonders music as well as any toys they sneak in. I love it!

Happy Anniversary!

On my Valentine's post I mentioned the dinner that we went for with my family for their 30th anniversary! We had a wonderful time together and the food was amazing! We hardly ever go out to eat as a family to restaurants because of the kids, but it all worked out pretty well. Oliver even had a nap in the stroller (after a little resistance). It was so special for Mom and Dad to take us out to celebrate this way. We dressed up and went to an amazing little place just outside of the city. My parents are both such a wonderful part of my life, and I've always loved that it is easy to see how in love they are and how much they mean to eachother. Love you both!