New Cousins

My sister, Kari, two nieces and nephew flew in this week for a visit. Cousins everywhere -- loud and fun! :) It has been over a year since we saw each other last and our first time to introduce Sammy and Zane. The day we got the call and God gave us Zane was the same day Kari found out from an ultrasound that she was expecting a boy! How fun is that?! God is always in the details - He loves to please us so!

Before picking them up at the airport on Wednesday, I was running around getting things ready when the phone rang and...WE HAVE A NEW NEPHEW/COUSIN! Eric's younger brother, Kevin, and his wife Alicia have been waiting for God's perfect provision to unfold and SO IT DID!

We are thrilled about Titus Andrew, waiting for his Mama and Dada in Taiwan. He is just two months old and oh so handsome! We are praying they will be holding him very soon! Just look at this boy - CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!


And speaking of God details, Kevin and Alicia began this adoption journey with a prayer that their child would come to them within nine months and SO HE DID, nine months to the day! How cool is that?! Thank you for hearing our prayers, Father God, You are good, so good!

Recital

Feeling not so sure about all this!

The recital came and went and fun was had by all! Elle had a great time these past few months in class and really worked hard on her recital piece. I wish I had remembered to bring the video camera to the last practice as she was very comfortable and confident in her regular ballet uniform with just me and the other moms watching.


Finally warming up! Elle had a tremendous aversion to her recital outfit (I didn't care for it either!). It itched and tugged on her neck and the Pooh ears were tight and unfamiliar to her. So when a Pooh ear-band went missing, Elle gladly gave hers up to the girl without.
















About halfway through, Elle stopped dancing and became irritated with her uncomfortable outfit, keenly aware that there were nearly 600 people watching her and determined to find us in the crowd. Enjoy....



After each class had performed, the girls sat center stage for the finale. They were again distracted as this was the first time the teachers had danced behind them. The closing song was uneventful, but Elle had something extra special for the real finale! Watch closely as I had to clip and clip and clip to make this G rated for the protection of our sweet girl who had had just about enough of her hair bow, outfit, Pooh-ears and just wanted a cookie!



Flowers from Mama and Dada.






A smile with her teachers.






Elle's favorite part of the afternoon was having her family there to cheer her on and the special dinner made by her Aunt and Uncle to celebrate.

Blooming Tree

My first Spring project is looming over Elle's bed. I've been wanting to do this for about ten years and finally have a little girl and her room to do it in. :) Eric trimmed a tree for me and then I used floral wire to wrap silk flowers around the limbs.

This morning Elle said to me, "Mama, I like being with you and I tell you what, you can kiss me always." 'I tell you what' is her newest and most favorite thing to say - she makes us smile!

This evening she asked Eric and me, "Do you like heaven? You obey Jesus, you go to heaven." Our little evangelist!


Elle has mastered the tricycle this week -- it was just too difficult for her to pedal last fall, but she has it now!


Her ballet recital is going to be something.... Below is a short clip of her hitting the stage at her last practice this past Monday. It's not a very good video, so here are the highlights...when she gets on stage she yells, "Hi Mama!", and waves to me. Then she manually moves her feet to first position (LOL!) and yells out to me, "I did it, Mommy!"

Bryant Farm

We had the pleasure of visiting the Bryant Family Farm on Friday. Several weekends ago my SIL, Alicia, and I attended a farm expo. Farmers from a 100 mile radius of the city came in to meet us city folk. We had the opportunity to learn more about their organic practices and connect with them to buy excellent product.

After meeting the Bryants, we were sure we wanted to eat some of their food. A couple of weekends later and an easy 45 minute road trip brought us to their front door. We spent two hours getting to know the Bryants and saw the love, care and hard work they and their five children invest in their land and animals every day. We even met the goats that supplied our milk - now that's cool!

This morning we feasted on eggs, milk and sausage all from the Bryant Farm. It was all fresh, delicious and organic - YUMO! It's wonderful to support a local farming family and great to know exactly where the food you feed your children came from.

I brought the camera but left the memory stick at home; can you believe it?! Elle talked about our visit non-stop days before, so I am very grateful for the shots the Bryants took for us with their awesome Canon. We had baby goats sucking on our fingers, held fluffy, yellow baby chicks, grass-fed the milking goats, chased a few chickens, fell in love with the baby jersey cow and eyed an Angus that we'd like to eat maybe later this year.

The biggest blessing of it all, the Bryants are Christians and the two hours together with Dana and her children was sweet fellowship! Their kindness and generosity sent us home with a little extra of this and that and we are thrilled about our new relationship with them. Isn't it neat how life paths cross, connect and intertwine? How grateful I am for their passion and dedication to raise healthy food that impacts our lives.

Recital Practice

Here's just a little, itty-bitty sneak of Elle's recital piece. I clipped several segments together. Elle's the third dancer from the left. You'll see them just arriving on the stage, Elle trying to move her feet into the first position, and the girls practicing their part of the finale that will include all the classes from 3 years old - 5th grade (Elle on the front row, third from right). There's just one more practice before the recital next Sunday.

Food

It's not like he hadn't eaten in forever...I think he had a snack within the hour. Such passion!

Reason to Celebrate

JESUS IS ALIVE! Happy Easter dear ones! It's wonderful to have a day and weekend of activities that celebrate His victory over death and our life in Him, but it's even more wonderful to live every day with this great hope.

We believe that the greatest joy of parenting has to be watching your child fall in love with Jesus to the point of surrender and the choice of His Lordship. We talk about Jesus, pray to Him, worship Him, and retell the Bible stories daily, but when your child starts connecting their life with His, that's just the best ever!

Elle asked if she could go to Heaven with Jesus and if she could talk to Him. We've explained these things a hundred times over, but for her to formulate the thought and ask the questions...it made the answers come to life for her in a whole new way -- this made for a very special weekend!

We started our Saturday at a church egg hunt. I think they were expecting a much larger crowd, so Elle got about four prizes at every booth and there were plenty of eggs to scoop up in the field. Zane even filled his basket. After, we met some friends for lunch and because of Elle's GREAT loot, she was able to pass along a great car racing set to her friend, a boy who could appreciate it.

A pause in the hunt to give Mama a dandelion.



Score, Elle!








Counting his eggs.

We attend Saturday night services and things are quite casual, but we dressed a bit up for Easter celebration. We are so blessed by the music and strong, biblical teaching at our church. Elle always has a great time of learning too. Her class memorized the Lord's Prayer during the last few weeks and got to look in the empty tomb (a decorated dome tent) to see that He was not there. What a glorious celebration with our church family!

Today was a relaxing family day with food, food, more food and playing outside. I really enjoy cooking. I have a passion for whole foods, fresh and organic produce. I like experimenting with spices, flavors and simplicity (thanks Mom, I learned it all from you!). The kiddos eat everything I make and really enjoy it. I was thinking today that getting a child to really enjoy all different kinds of foods definitely comes from modeling and introducing those foods early on while being creative with the preparation and spices. But I believe it also has a whole lot to do with knife skills. I'm sure this isn't an original thought, but I haven't ever heard anyone else talk about this.... Both our kiddos have eaten raw, veggie packed salads since they were one year old -- it's all in the knife skills. If you look at an adult's salad with its big leaves and chunks of vegetables, that requires eating practice and familiarity to consume. But take that salad and run through it with a chef's knife, well then you have a manageable, workable product for the inexperienced eater. You've broken down the overwhelming textures, chewy skins and different flavors and brought it to a level where they can just appreciate the flavors that meld together into a great taste. From there, they grow in to being great salad eaters and enjoying all kinds of other foods -- like the quinoa, tomato, spinach, basil, almond salad with a garlic, walnut oil and lemon dressing that they ate today.

We also enjoyed deviled eggs, squash, asparagus, roasted chicken with orange sauce and a yummy strawberry almond-shortcake with homemade whipped cream laced with orange essence. Mmmmmmmmm... enjoyed a second helping of that with a cup of amaretto coffee, later after the kiddos were in bed. Okay, enough about food....He gives for our pleasure - thank you God!

Elle decorated eggs today and when Zane found them later, I caught him with his hands in the 'cookie jar'! I allowed a few eggs to be sacrificed to get a few pics and video to capture that face -- boy, he knew he had sister's eggs! :)

Later at the park, Zane scaled the climbing wall and ladder like he had done it a hundred times before. Eric has said that he's pretty coordinated, and he sure looked like a true natural, knowing just where to put his foot next and how to pull up - WOW! He isn't even walking -- we should be scared! ;)

Elle and I went down the slide a few hundred times, then we hiked a lakeside trail where Eric snatched up Elle just in time before she stepped on a water moccasin sunning between two giant rocks. We went home tired and after a lighter dinner of leftovers (so we could enjoy that second helping of strawberry shortcake), we did baths and BTBT. (That acronym is for the Wolfe family, but for the rest of you, it means bedtime.)

It was a great Easter weekend! The best part, tomorrow we wake up with the same reason to celebrate, He lives 365 days a year!