Winter Olympics and a Birthday

I'll cook in snow.

 And why was I insane enough to suggest going faster? I guess I one of those moms.

Daddy tries slopstyle out. Too bad he doesn't have a sponsor, so no cool board for him.

 OH, yeah, a future Olympian.

 Pretending to be Susan and Peter in Narnia.

It is funny how the Chronicles of Narnia come out in normal life. Alden was watching cars go by, and he said, "A mommy car...a daddy car...a sons and daughters of Eve car...". Totally laughed at that.

 Corwin quickly tired of his Olympic training and decided Daddy needed to train for the winter Olympic biathlon.

 2 man bobsledding on a not so ideal track. A tree had to be moved off the track after an initial hit.

 Relaxing with hot chocolate in the lodge.

 Happy birthday to Corwin!!! "Who, me?".

 Monster yellow decorations. 

 He loved his homemade card so much he took it to a Dr.'s appointment and told the lab tech: 3!!! Great job, daddy.

 His fave toy from us...hand held rockets. He tried to convince me that daddy said he could sleep with them. I'm not so gullible yet.

 No more fighting over armor...just more real fighting now.

 Corwee's yellow monster cake...I was feeling like it looked lame until I put almond claws on it. Amazing what little finishing touches will do.

 Decorating his own monster cake for craft. These were so fun and adorable.

 Guess what he ended up eating when given the chance? The sprinkles and the frosting. He left the rest of the cake.

 Other friends working on their creations.

 Pin the stuff on the monster. They didn't like the random results and felt compelled to replace them correctly.

 A few of the creations.

 A monster treasure hunt. I hid monsters with clues to the party favors.

 Corwin insisted he could read his clue.

 Titus was so excited about the gift he was giving Corwin. Love little friends.

 Cousin Benjamin taking a monster bite.

 More gifts. This was funny b/c it was in a box, and after Corwin got the paper off, Alden said, "It's a box." Corwin took a disillusioned look at his friends Sara and Eli, dropped it, and walked off. We convinced him there was something in the box, and he is now enjoying his own pair of scissors and pack of construction paper daily.

 Granddaddy and Smiley aka Kallie.

 Opening rocket man with Grandmama.

Corwin counts up for blast-off. Yeah, I totally confused him when I started counting backwards. I decided we'd better stick to getting the counting up down first...get it...ha ha.

 When he opened his shield from NannyKim and Grandpa, he said, "My shield!". He asks daddy to fight regularly but gets mad at him if he does not submit to his onslaught.

He changes the last thing all of the time. Before this clip, it was "My mommy says be quiet!". Yes, he knows my phrases if not his ABC's.

New monster jimmy-jams. He has refused to wear anything else, but his old set had holes in the toes and was getting really tight. Thank you NannyKim for sending a 3T for our little boy.

What can I say about this little boy? He can be a terror and a joy, a cuddler and a pounder, nearly always messy, doesn't know his ABC's yet, just barely has learned to count to 10, hasn't potty trained completely yet, just a relaxed boy who enjoys life. He loves cutting and pasting, loves stories, has begun memorizing Bible verses, says he "wants Jesus" when he's feeling guilty/being disciplined, loves his "chocate drink" (cocoa) and Orange juice, loves bringing his noisiest trucks or toy horses to wake mommy and get some quality play time first thing in the morning on our bed, and always asks where daddy is if he is gone. He's growing so big and I hate to think of the time when I won't be able to cuddle and snuggle with him. I've never gotten this far without having another baby, so it is a strange feeling to have such a big little boy as my youngest. My prayer is that his heart's desire would always be to "want Jesus" and that he would grow in strength and purpose in the Lord.

Corwin and Christmas

Well, it seems strange to combine a baby post with a Christmas post, but I guess the 3rd child is just like that.

My baby boy is growing just fine and is larger than average (estimates are that he's already 5lb 9oz) even though I am measuring small. So no worries on that front, other than now I worry that he'll come early or he'll be enormous ;0) We finally decided on the name Corwin Ward. Corwin is a Celtic or Old English name meaning "Heart's Delight or Heart's Companion/Friend". We do pray that he will be this in our family and that Alden and Rhianwen will welcome him into their lives and activities with joy and thankfulness. We are finally done memorizing Psalm 139, and it is always so fun to hear Alden saying, "For you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you in my mother's lap." It should be "I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made", but Alden just says it this way. Anyway, Corwin is made just according to plan both in the timing and in the details of all that he is and will be. I also love the verse, "Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them." Corwin, you are desired by us and by God, and we are so EXCITED to see what God has planned for you. We love to be reminded that it IS God's plan, and He cares for you so perfectly. You are a wonderful surprise, and what God desires for us, we also embrace wholeheartedly with delight and anticipation. Ward means watchman or guard. We hope that Corwin will be a man who watches over those who need care and protection and will keep God's truth close to His heart. I've been studying the book of Luke this year, and it's been so special to see how Jesus notices people in such a way that brings true physical healing, spiritual wholeness, and restoration to their communities while providing a new identity defined by their relationship to Him and not defined by their weakness, sin, and failures. I hope Corwin will notice people in a way that reflects Jesus' wisdom, compassion, and desire for restoration.

Perhaps partly in preparation for Corwin's arrival, we have moved back into our family room. His nursery is now empty of all of the boxes, but still not set up yet. We are enjoying Christmas activities and finally got our Christmas tree this past weekend. It is nearly the most perfect tree we've ever chosen.

You can see how helpful our children were in selecting the perfect tree. It's hard work, but somebody's got to do it. Mommy certainly wasn't since she was taking so many pictures.

Alden helps daddy cut it down: a man's job. Rhianwen and mommy were the adoring cheerleaders.

Daddy likes feeling like he deserves a live tree, I think. No going to a lot and picking out a Frasier fir. Not even allowing someone else to cut and haul a freshly picked one will do. We really miss the tree farm up in PA which brought us down to the trees on a tractor-drawn hayride, allowed us to cut and haul back any way we wanted (hayride or dragging), shook and netted it for us, AND had an amazing Christmas barn full of decorations to buy and free cocoa and cookies. There is nothing like it here. We also miss the Blue Spruce. Here it's mostly Cypress. But we DID get the perfect tree, so I shouldn't complain.

Decorating with the fun star of David ornaments we made. They look really good on the tree. I'd like to make more. Rhianwen and Alden looooved using the glitter. It may seem odd to have such a Jewish symbol, but Jesus really is the King from David's line and the bright morning star (Rev. 22:16).

Serious work, but they were really quick at it! I've never decorated a tree so quickly.

The finished result along with nicely clad children and a beautiful family room floor. Ahh. Life is good...

...and so are sprinkles, icing, and fresh Christmas cookies.

We offer the last 2 pictures as evidence for our reasoning that we are keeping our Christmas cookies to ourselves.

Glory King!

"Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!" We pretty much yelled our verse of the week as if we were cheering at a big football game, and we waved our palm branches too. It was a lot of fun, and Alden would keep repeating, "Glory King. Glory King!" I guess the verse made him think of Hark the Herald. It's fun to see how his brain works. The other day he was trying to walk across a bunch of large rocks, and he started singing a song that I used to sing him in the rocking chair (it's a Nanny Kim creation from the infant-Skipper days). "Rock, rock, rock a baby" is what he sang as he stomped across (although he took some artistic liberty since we sing Rock, rock, rock my baby).

For the countdown to Easter, we did Benjamin's Box with both of them this year, and had to clean a lot of hay off of the floor after each devotion. Another special holiday activity was watching The Sound of Music during a couple of lunches. They were both transfixed from start to finish, which is a HUGE feat for Alden. Normally he only lasts 15 minutes before he's off to something else. But this movie just captured his attention.

Now this boy knows quality movies.

We've been getting ready for another nursing home visit, and I decided using a felt-board for storytime might be fun, so I made one along with some felt pieces for Rhi and Alden to play with. It's super easy, cheap, and beats the scare of magnets getting stuck in little intestines.

Here's how they found it in the morning. Rhianwen asked, "Is that a map?"

And here's what Rhianwen did all by herself. She totally understood using shapes to create an image without me explaining anything! I was pretty surprised that she could do it without help. Maybe this is normal for a 3.5 yr old?

I bought a prism to show the kids rainbows more easily and to talk about colors. Rhianwen loves to peer through it, and she discovered that you can always see a rainbow if you do this. It's so funny to be on the other side the prism looking at her little face changing from the refracted light. She'd often have 4 eyes.

We spent the good part of the week in the yard. Alden and Rhianwen did their first ever team sport all on their own initiative:

They rolled this barrel up hills, down hills, across ditches, all kinds of things.

Alden tried to make lawn-mowing a team sport too.

Dying Easter eggs. A good many were "smashed" by Alden.

You can see his handiwork in the front.

Easter morning chocolate. Rhi ate the ear off first (what I would have done), and Alden ate the middle off first (takes some skill to do that without crushing the whole thing).

Aw. Look at the bright family. (All these pics are for both sides of my family!). Rhianwen has been so excited about her Easter dress for weeks. She was SO happy to finally get to wear it.

"A jellybean for me? Really?!"

My most favorite Easter picture of all time. Notice the egg on the orange portion of the climby thing that she is completely overlooking. For 5 minutes or so she walked around and around and stopped right over top of it to search.

And here's a little movie for my mom especially, who is just going through grandchild withdrawal.

Funniest statement of the week:

Rhianwen in a weepy voice when informed that there were no more clean und*erp*an)ts b/c she'd had too many "accidents": "Well, I guess I'll just have to wear b*utt then!" Sniffle.