Memory Lane

Came across a few pictures and figured I would share some memories:

First family picture: Eszter holding Sophia, Ashlee holding Josiah
(the babies are two days old here)

Family Christmas picture 2006

The Kids - Christmas 09

And here's current one from last week...Sophie and Sy taking each other on a walk

wow, this is late... Happy Birthday, Sophia and Josiah!

Here are Sophia and Josiah admiring their cake. We didn't get good birthday close-ups as the camera battery died.



What a joy these two have been!

Sophia is incredibly passionate, no matter what she is feeling. She giggles, smiles, flirts, and loves to cuddle. She LOVES her brother and sister. She is quick to help comfort when they cry, get something they need. She loves babies, and now has several of her own. She feeds them, rocks them, and sings Amazing Grace to them (okay, only we can tell that that's what she's singing) My dad calls her an imp from a bottle, and it's a pretty good description. She often has a mischevious twinkle in her eye and a smirky smile on her face, that Brian especially loves. She's still quite small (not yet 21 lbs, and several inches shorter than Josiah). Eszter's loves to play with her and read her the books she brings her.

Josiah has such a sweet spirit, and is SUCH a little boy. He loves to play with cars and trucks, point out all things mobile and loves to play with balls. He loves to fix things, and will take his hammer and tell us he's going to work like Daddie. He is tenderhearted and will often take Sophie's dolls and rock and shush them when she puts them down. He often gets into trouble for pushing Sophia, but is quick to apologize with hugs. He admires his big sister and calls out for her first thing in the morning. Eszter says her favorite thing about Sy is his smile, and Brian loves it when he says "awesome" and thinks it's great to have another man around.

Both Sophia and Josiah have a lot of words, and are learning to use them. They have started putting two and more words together. They are definitely two, and we are feeling it more than we did with Eszter. They both get frustrated easily if they can't express themselves.

What an amazing journey these two years have been, and we couldn't love these two more!


Their cake



Close-up of the froggies and ellies on their cake. They still love the snuggly ones Grammie Ellie gave them, so I immortalized them in frosting!

We're still here...

Hey, just wanted to let you know we're here, we're reasonably well, I just keep waiting to post until I can find my bleepity camera.
I'm guessing one of the kids put it somewhere, because I just found my keys after almost two weeks. In an old Brie cheese box. Normally, I'd blame that one on Eszter, as she's the Brie afficianado, but I think I'll have to lay the blame on Josiah, as he's obsessed with keys. Unless it's a conspiracy....
So, Eszter started school, Sy got his first haircut (and since his second), the kids are potty training, Eszter was Emily-Elizabeth from Clifford for Halloween. Snickers the dog got spray painted red to be Clifford (see why I need my camera?) Josiah was a cowboy, and Sophia was a ballerina.
Sophia got her first doll. Eszter said, "Ohh, Mommie, Sophie is a first time mommie, and now I'm an auntie!"
Sophia and Josiah are putting little sentences together and everyone is mostly getting along well. I have moments where I think I will go nuts, but I wouldn't want to be without any of them.
Brian's job is still good, busy, but good. I'm so thankful for steady, good work for him.
That's us in a nutshell. When I find the camera in the dog bed or something, you'll get to see the fun!

Happy Re-Birth Day!!

Today is a happy day!  This night, one year ago, I had the amazing privilege of helping Eszter ask Jesus to forgive her of her sins and thank Him for life with Him forever.  It is awesome to see this young child 'get it.' Sin and disobedience, repentance, forgiveness and restoration.  

What a proud and humble daddy am I.

Read the story here.

They really do like each other!

First, coming soon: Photos of Sy's first haircut and Eszter's first day of preschool.

Okay, ads out of the way. Sophia has this thing about babies. She LOVES them. She's not much bigger than them, and she adores them. Live ones, pretend ones, it doesn't matter. Shame on me that she doesn't have any of her own. She plays with Eszter's. Generally this is fine. Today Eszter decided that this was not fine. She said she hadn't gotten to spend enough time with her baby and wanted to have it. Sophia tried to take it from her and dissolved into a pile of sobs when Eszter wouldn't give it up. So, Eszter went and got her another one, which Sophie took (and also wouldn't give up the other). She immediately stopped crying and sat down to play with both babies. Eszter's eyes got big and filled with tears. I thought we were going to have another fight on our hands. I asked her what was the matter. She responded, "I'm so happy that Sophia is happy! I'm so happy I feel like crying happy tears!"
Then, in her joy, Sophia was running with the babies and fell. Hard. On top of the baby with the rubber/plastic head and appendages. It hurt. Bad, apparently. She cried hard for a very long time. Pretty soon, Eszter started crying. Great, what now. "Mommie, I'm so sad that Sophia is hurt bad. It makes me feel like I hurt, too." I tried to calm her down and tell her Sophia would be okay, but it wasn't working. Then, little Sophie's head pokes out from my arms, she looks at Eszter, and holds out a baby to her. Eszter took the doll gently, and smiled through her tears. So did Sophia.
Wow.
I was more than touched, and I was able to explain to her that she just experienced what doing to others as we would have them do to us is about. She did what she didn't want to do (give up her doll) because she would want Sophia to share with her. Sophia learned a little lesson about sharing and empathy, too!

The taste of freedom

so, Ashlee and I are sitting in a noisy resturant and are thrilled to
have finally come upon our first night of freedom in over two years.
You see, tonight will be the first night one of us has not put the
twins to bed. Ever. How excited are we?! Date night extrordinare!!
Now the only trouble is... what in the world are we going to do??

We're off!

Spare me...

We took the kids to the park the other night. Eszter was in a baby swing, as was Sophia. Josiah wanted to swing, too, so I put him into the back half of Sophie's swing. They were back to back and enjoyed it for about a second. Eszter said, "Mommie, you can get me down, I'm all done. I'll spare them from each other, Josiah can go in my swing."

walking on Balboa Island

My hair grew shorter!

We took Eszter to get her haircut last Wednesday. As many of you know, it was becoming ridiculously long.
Eszter visited Grammie at the salon awhile back, and decided that Miss Karen was the stylist for her. (She knows nothing of haircutting skill, just that Karen has candy oranges at her station)
Eszter did a great job, sat very still, and had her hair cut. Brian was able to make some time in his day at work to be there for the first haircut. It was really great.
As I was putting her to bed, I told her she had gymnastics class the next day. Here is what she said:
"I bet everyone will wonder what happened when they see me. They'll think my hair grew shorter! I'll have to tell them all about it!"
Mind you, we cut all of four inches off...