Spring Break

When Eric looked at his schedule for the first year at his job, we discovered to our delight that his spring break aligned with the girls' spring break. Then, when we realized that he only had one week of summer break before starting summer classes, we started making plans for our big trip to happen in March, instead of waiting for summer. We chose a new place we'd never been to, invited another family to come along for the fun, and we had a great week in South Carolina.

We stayed on Edisto Island, just off the beach. We followed a dolphin along the shore our first day there!

We visited Charleston several days during the week. We walked around downtown and saw The Battery, Rainbow Row, Waterfront Park, King St and Market St, and tried real southern pralines and Market Street Sweet's saltwater taffy.

We switched off with our friends for date nights, enjoying seafood and moonlit views of the beach.

We took the ferry to Fort Sumter and saw dolphins in the harbor.

We stood on the shore off Folly Beach to catch a glimpse of the Morris Island Lighthouse.

We walked underneath Angel Oak.

We drove through the corridor of Live Oaks to see Boone Hall Plantation.

And we wandered through a forest and marsh to see a hidden beach on an old plantation on Edisto Island, seeing an alligator on the way back!

We played games, ate good food, watched HGTV, laughed with friends, had some great evenings with just the adults after the kids went to bed, and spent over 24 hours in the car during the week!

Like any other vacation with kids, we relaxed, but not a lot. We slept, but not really. We got along, but not all the time. :) We're just grateful for the experiences we had and that our photos are full of smiles!

Spring Growth

On the first day of spring we discovered something growing that wasn't green and coming up out of the ground:

Mierae's front tooth.

It had been wiggling for a few weeks, but Mierae knocked it on the wood slats of her bunkbed the night before, so we knew the time would be soon! It was bothering her and hurting her, and she wasn't able to pull it out on her own. I said a prayer that night that Mierae's tooth would fall out so she could get on with her life!

The next day when the girls got off the bus, Mierae came running to me and held out a little pink treasure box in her hand, grinning with a wide gap at the top of her mouth.

I sure love her smile.

Keepin' It Real

I made sure Eric got a photo of me just as I was on my birthday...or at least on the day we had birthday cake with the family: spit-up on my shirt (I think I had worn those clothes as pjs the night before); messy hair (don't know if I had even done it that day); oh, and I had actually just washed off the mascara from under my eyes before snapping the photo.

This is me at 33.

But as every photo simply records a slice of life, here are some more slices of my life during my birthday week.

Waking up to donuts!

Gift from the girls :)

My biggest fans ready to party first thing in the morning

Playing with the birthday balloons

My sweet friends planned a lunch date for me. We met up at Piada just after I took Ollie to get his shots, and I wrestled with Henrik in line during the lunch rush. The food was yummy, and it was fun to be out with friends. On top of lunch, one of my friends made me a cake and invited everyone over to her house to eat and chat some more. Henrik fell asleep there, and I was able put him to bed upstairs and hang out while he slept. It was wonderful.

I loved getting cards in the mail and texts/phone calls from my sisters that day. If nothing else, it's nice to have a birthday as an excuse to catch up with family far away!

We tried our best to take advantage of my birthday freebies. We made it to Cold Stone on a day with only mild sickness, but the infections and stomach bugs were hitting hard. It wasn't until a week after my birthday that Eric and I were finally able to go to Bravo for my free birthday meal. Again, my friends spoiled me and let me leave Henrik at our playgroup while I ditched them to be with Eric for the afternoon.

That same night we brought the whole family to Dairy Queen for Blizzards to top it off.

All of my birthdays have been very sweet, and this one was no exception. This year has brought me my fourth child, our first job, a new city, a new job at church (Young Women President), and wonderful new friends. As always, I have much to be thankful for!

Six Months

I have obviously been horrible about documenting this little guy's growth. When he turned six months just before my birthday, I thought back to Henrik at this age: at six months Henrik had his corrective surgery and then started his series of UTI's leading to his diagnosis of urine reflux.

As I remembered those hard times, and yet the happiness of Henrik as a baby, I was so grateful that Ollie has that same happy disposition, and even more grateful that he is so healthy! He has been a blessing to our family, and we all adore him. Life is definitely different for all of us now, and having Ollie in our family somehow grounds us and helps us to keep coming back to the basics of life.

I am thankful for this sweet ray of sunshine in our home!

Wishing for Warmer Weather

Two weeks ago the sun was shining, the temperature was mild, and I was more than happy to finally take the boys out with me to pick up the girls at the bus stop. We even went for a walk all together after the girls dropped off their backpacks at home. I thought it was really starting to get warmer and that maybe more of these days were just around the corner.

That day I caught a cold.

The next night Jolie got pink eye.

The day after that Mierae had a horrible head cold.

Two days later Jolie got a stomach bug.

A day after that Jolie's other eye got infected.

Two mornings later Oliver woke up with both eyes infected.

Then it had been 10 days since my cold started and I was still feeling awful. I went to Stat Care and was diagnosed with a sinus infection.

Two days after that Mierae got an ear infection....

(I'm really hoping we don't need to add anything else to that list!)

Thankfully we are all on the mend now. And even if warmer weather isn't on its way quite yet, we at least have spring break in South Carolina to look forward to in a week!

Hope all of you are healthy!

My Husband Loves Me

In mid-January Eric and I were talking about how to remedy our lack of an updated family photo. I had been the one to say how we needed to get this photo so we could have one with Ollie in it. I kept wondering out loud how we could make it work: where to take it; use the timer or ask someone to stand behind the camera; what to wear; how to pose...  Needless to say, family photos aren't Eric's favorite thing. I had almost just decided to step away from the idea for a while.

Enter Eric.

He knew this was important to me, and he took it upon himself to make it happen. He decided on the wardrobe theme and made sure there was something each of us could wear. He figured that we could just take a photo after church one Sunday, like I had done for a couple of families before Christmas. He knew there would be someone willing to take a few snapshots for us, so we didn't have to use the timer and just hope for the best.

On a Saturday night he got all the coordinating clothes out, making sure the girls were happy with what they had so there would be no fighting about it in the morning. Sunday he dressed the children and made sure the camera was packed with our other stuff.

After choir practice, when the kids were restless and Henrik was already long overdue for a nap, we grabbed my friend Melissa along with a few of her kids and decided it was now or never.

 

When I look at these photos I feel so grateful for a lot of things. But the first thing that always comes to mind, is that my husband loves me.