her first swim

thanks to the birthday of our little friend, ciel, emma got to go for her first swim yesterday. she didn't really like the water at first (maybe because it was on the chilly side), but warmed up to it once we got settled into the pool. i don't have any pictures of her actually in the pool because i forgot to bring my camera, but here are some of her looking rather cute in her little swimsuit and cover-up. oh, and there's also a random picture of her in her jammies the next morning. even with bedhead she is adorable.

lucas goes camping

...in the backyard! lucas has been asking us to take him camping because we've been reading (over and over again, per his request) a "curious george goes camping" story to him. so, we started planning a trip with our friends and they came up with the fun and smart idea of going camping in the yard first to test out how the boys would do. so, last weekend, we pitched our tents and rolled out our sleeping bags in our backyard and went camping. brady even brought his fire pit so that we could roast marshmallows. it's not really camping until you've roasted some marshmallows and had your share of s'mores, right?

overall, the boys did great. lucas wasn't so sure about sleeping in the tent and actually asked to sleep in his own bed. but, we convinced him it would be fun to sleep outside in the tent with us. i made it halfway through the night...i slept inside the house after feeding emma around 2am.

we're hoping to do the real thing soon...we'll let you know how it goes!

a happy father's day

here's to the best husband i could ever have and the best dad to our two little ones...happy father's day, allan!

nothing to do with the kids

i had an anomaly (or maybe miraculous is a better description) morning today. it all started with last night. we have had the blessing of co-leading an awesome small group (bible study) with our really good friends this past year and last night was our final gathering of the year. we ended it by playing a little ultimate frisbee, which, if you haven't played it before, involves a lot of running. well, "a lot" is according to my standards. so, needless to say, i found myself running out of breath as the game went on. i thought, "wow, i'm really out of shape. i really need to exercise." i've had this thought often recently. i knew it was getting bad when i heard myself asking allan a month or so ago if i could buy one of those exercise gizmos you see offered on a paid advertisement. anyway, after the game was over, i decided to treat myself to a refreshing cup of iced vanilla latte. unfortunately, decaf wasn't available so i went ahead and allowed myself to drink a 2-shot cup of iced vanilla latte not caring whether the caffeine would affect me at 9:30 at night. well, it did. i couldn't fall asleep until 3 am. around 4 am, emma woke me up for a feeding, which wasn't bad considering she went 6 hours without waking! (okay, i lied. this entry does have a little something to do with the kids.) anyway, after i nursed and changed her i climbed back into bed and found myself unable to fall asleep...again. around 5:15 am, i decided to go for a run remembering how out of shape i am. that's the miracle...I WENT FOR A RUN AT 5:15 THIS MORNING! those of you who know me well would know that isn't just one miracle. not only did i go for a run, but i did it at 5 o'clock in the morning! it felt good. God knew what He was doing when He gave me that caffeinated latte last night. :0)

caught on camera

a good little monkey

this is george. he was a good little monkey and always very curious. this afternoon, george went to the library to see all of his little friends. boy, were they excited to see him...especially one little boy named lucas!


(1) admiring george from afar (2) scared of george up close
(3) excited to see george from a (safe) distance