Wednesday, April 22, 2009

TWO!!!

It's so hard to believe that Graham turned TWO today (April 22)!! We have been blessed to watch him grow over the past two years and cannot wait to keep seeing how the Lord uses him every day that he is on this earth!

I'll do a bigger update on his birthday soon... Promise!

We love you so much, Graham -- Happy Birthday!!!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Big Boy Bed and Celebrating Easter

Time for yet another catch up!

Almost two weeks ago (it will be two weeks on Wed), we moved Graham into his "big boy bed!" We had planned on making the switch sometime in April to give some room for adjustment before his baby sister arrives, but that morning he climbed/fell out of his crib so we decided that it was time! Graham was super super excited that first night to sleep in the bed and when we woke up the next morning, he was talking in bed - waiting for us to come get him! I thought (and said) "This was soooo easy!" I ate my words that night and for the next day as he screamed every time we went near his bed. Thankfully, by Friday night's bedtime he was excited once again and it's been a smooth transition ever since.

Mr. Graham super proud of himself after his first night in the big boy bed!

Easter weekend was very busy and several times we had to step back from all of the flurry of activity to intentionally reflect on the reality of our risen Lord and to do what we could to teach Graham about the empty tomb.

One of the festivities of the weekend was our neighborhood's Easter Egg Hunt (I am still trying to figure out how hiding eggs is redemptive, but it is fun!). Graham gathered with our neighbors (who he absolutely loves) for a quick picture...
...then they were OFF! The funny part about this was that Graham thought this was a great game of chase (a mass of kids running around) so all he did for the first half of the hunt was run around aimlessly! We had to run over to him to explain that the game was to find the eggs and put them in his basket!
"A PURPLE one!" he yelled.
Checking out his loot with Daddy... a whopping 3 eggs :o) Two little girls were very sweet and "dropped" two other eggs in front of him once the hunt was over. Total: 5!
Nat preached the sermon on Easter morning for the two services so he needed to leave before Graham woke up! The two of us enjoyed the morning together and then headed over to church for a brunch that the elders and deacons put together for the congregation before the service started. I tried to snap a few pictures before we left the house!

After church and after nap time we headed over to the house of a family we've grown close to here in Houston. We enjoyed a long afternoon/evening of fellowship with them and their boys helped to teach Graham the meaning of Easter with their Resurrection Eggs (I had actually never seen Resurrection Eggs and love the idea -- we'll definitely make some before next year!). And we had another hunt for eggs!

Before we left their house, the boys all sat together so sweetly on the chair to read (on their own, without our prodding!).
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter!

"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." Luke 24:46-47

The Lord is risen indeed!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

DQ Treat & Kemah

We hadn't been to Kemah (to actually enjoy it) since Hurricane Ike came through, so we decided to pick up treats from Dairy Queen and head to the boardwalk to watch the boats come in. It looks like most (if not all) of the restaurants are now open and they might have even gotten new rides (although we've never tried those out). We all enjoyed the evening together!


Friday, April 3, 2009

Strawberry Pickin'

Today Graham and I went with some friends out to Froberg Farm in Alvin for a fun, strawberry-pickin' good time! Graham really loved finding the red ripe strawberries... we spent quite a bit of time learning to grab them by the green "string" instead of squeezing them off! Here are some pictures of the fun we had!


The Bucket
The farm has some beautiful trees on the property...
And a swingset for when we were done!
After a yummy picnic lunch (and paying for our strawberries, of course) we had fun "climbing" one of the trees.
It was a great morning outing!!