Sam's photo shoot

Crystal has outdone herself again! Enjoy.

We were blessed with family this weekend!

John's parents drove up Friday and stayed through church today. They were a huge help with the boys, and Ben especially thrived on all the attention. We also got to spend time with Ben, Rachel, and Finn, as well as with Great Grandpa Richard from Colorado!

Brothers

The brothers photo seems popular lately, so I thought we'd update it!

It was a little tough getting a good photo of both boys before church this morning, but here are a few attempts:

A new month

Sam is officially a sitter! I couldn't help myself and included a lot of pictures here... See Ben with bread below.

As I changed Sam's diaper yesterday morning, I heard Ben's gentle grunting and the scraping of a chair over the floor. A little later, he came into the baby's room to say, "Mmmmmm." He smiled and left. While changing Sam's clothes, Ben gave the same report, but this time with crumbs on his mouth. When I finally made it out to the kitchen, I found the cooling pumpkin bread resting safely on the counter, with a bite missing!

This is what Ben did when I asked him to show me how it happened:

The Saints

Sometimes I get all tied up in my own little world, my personal struggles, and my petty problems.

I love this song by Sara Groves. What an eye opener and happy reminder for me:


When The Saints

Lord I have a heavy burden of all I've seen and know
It's more than I can handle
But your word is burning like a fire shut up in my bones
and I can’t let it go

And when I'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought
I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard
I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

Lord it's all that I can't carry and cannot leave behind
it all can overwhelm me
but I think of all who've gone before them and lived the faithful life
their courage compels me

And when I'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought
I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard
I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars

I see the shepherd Moses in the Pharaoh's court
I hear his call for freedom for the people of the Lord

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

I see the long quiet walk along the Underground Railroad
I see the slave awakening to the value of her soul
I see the young missionary at the angry spear
I see his family returning with no trace of fear
I see the long hard shadows of Calcutta nights
I see the sisters standing by the dying man's side
I see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
I see the man with a passion come and kicking down that door
I see the man of sorrow and his long troubled road
I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them

- Sara Groves (one of my fave Christian singers of all times)

Updates

So Sam is almost 6 months now and barely fitting in some 9 month clothes... I can't imagine what it will be like having 2 teenaged boys!

Both boys are healthy and generally happy. Sam sleeps through the night consistently and loves his fruits and veggies. Ben is still not saying a whole lot besides "Ba" -- and "Mom", "No", and other word approximations. We fluctuate widely between acceptance and frustration.

Certainly, Ben will be speaking by the time he goes to college, but this gets hard sometimes. Children at the playground often seem bemused and/or drawn to his charasmatic style, or they withdraw and look at us confused-like. He gets frustrated when we don't know to which of his many "ba"s he is referring, but he also visibly turns off when we gently work on verbalizing. We don't want him to get too comfortable saying primarily "ba," but we also don't want to break him by pushing him too hard. Please pray for him and for guidance for us.

On the lighter side, the boys just adore each other. In fact, I'm not sure which suffers from the greater case of adoration!

Brothers

I finally succumbed to the matchy-matchy temptation and dressed the boys alike today!

What a weekend!

The four of us blew through the midwest last weekend for a whirlwind of family fun!

We enjoyed "samples," as my Grandma Maridene likes to put it, of family at Jessica and Theron's wedding in Nebraska and then at my grandparents' home in Kansas. Amazingly, the travelling itself was quite bearable. And what a blessing it was to see so many of our family!

Again, I only took a few photos. They're rather self-evident and really require no caption.

A little more Sam

We had a lazy weekend afternoon, permitting some nice family backyard time. Sam enjoyed the sunny sky through the trees and the grass in his toes! The blanket was a little small and flimsy, but he minded it not.

Ben turned 2

My dear friend, Crystal, captured Ben at age 2 a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

Roarrr

Thank you, Rachel, for the new glasses! Ben LOVES them.

Here are the boys right before one of our nightly walks this week: