Happy Birthday, Simon!

Simon came down the stairs this morning and Ezra said, "Hey, Simon!  Happy Birthday!".  Simon looked down at himself, gave himself a once-over, and said, with wonder, "Am I 4?".


Yes you are 4, sweet boy.  You are not a baby anymore.  I can't believe how much you've grown up.  You make us laugh ALL THE TIME.  You love your friends and your brothers.  You can pray like a wild man, and you always know just what to pray about.  You love to dance, and Daddy and I often look at each other with a look that says "Can you believe how good he is????".  You love for us to read to you and you also like to "read" to us (the books you have memorized of course!).  You are very ornery which is cute most of the time but gets you into trouble at least once a day.  :)

Daddy and I were wishing for a girl before you were born, but the moment you arrived we knew you were just what we needed.  I can't imagine our family without you.

Three Boys

I really love am obsessed with pictures of all three of our boys.  I will never need to wallpaper my house because the walls are filled obnoxiously covered with pictures of the three of them.  So, I recently had the idea to do a blog post with pictures of the three of them from the time there first were three of them (when Simon was born) until now.  This was a fun trip down memory lane, with a little sadness that they will never be this little again, but mostly a lot of excitement about the boys they are now and what they will become.  Before Isaac was born, a wise friend told us that every stage just gets more and more fun, and she was so right!!!

in the hospital, soon after Simon was born

hanging out on the porch at home

on the porch again, dressed up for church

the 3 chipmunks for Halloween

our Christmas card picture 2008

Easter 2009

hanging out at home

visiting the Enkoffs

a photo shoot outside

and a photo shoot inside

playing in the snow

spring break 2010 trip to St Louis

Easter 2010

Disney World summer 2010 to celebrate 

Daddy's MDiv graduation

three sporty boys summer 2010

St George Island Summer 2010

hiking at Turkey Run on Daddy's last Sunday 

working at First Christian Church

Christmas 2010

Deming Park Summer 2011

Milligan College Fall 2011

Christmas Card picture 2011

Firefly

Ezra started taking piano lessons from Daddy right after Christmas.  Ezra's mama used to teach piano lessons over ten years ago, but she wasn't very good at it, so she took that out of her tool box.

Anyway....Ezra has LOVED piano and is picking it up very quickly.  This is our first duet entitled "Firefly".

Every promise kept, every need You've met...

My poison ivy, although healing, is so itchy and gross and I had to make Ezra wear dirty socks today because we couldn't find a matching clean pair and I need to iron Tim's shirts but I also need to do laundry (clearly, since we couldn't find matching socks) and we have 2 or 3 projects started in the house but not finished and this morning I realized we had not paid our state taxes yet even though in my brain I was thinking it was all taken care of BUT on the way to school I put my ipod on shuffle and I heard "...May the love that caught my heart to set it free be the love that others see in me.  And may this hope that reaches to the depths of human need be the song that I sing in joy and suffering. For you are the love that never leaves, the friend that won't deceive.  You're the one sure thing...Faithful God every promise kept, every need You've met, Faithful God..."  (Laura Story's "Faithful God").  Everything around me is the same, but it all loses its significance when placed beside this truth....when I'm only looking at my issues, they seem so big, but placed beside God's faithfulness, my issues become so small.

Project Treehouse: Day 6

This was our last official work day before Daddy goes back to his real job tomorrow.  We were hoping to get the knee braces put up, the trap door framed out, one remaining floor support up, and the floor boards up.  We got the knee braces, the floor support, and a few floor boards done, and Daddy says we can finish the trap door and the floor boards when he gets home from work on Saturday.  Friday night he has to work late because of the Passover meal...we are not Jewish, but he gets to have a Passover meal with some Jewish folks which he loves...but, well, that's a story for another day.

Anyway, Day 6 was a lot of fun.  We spent the day outside with a fire all day because it was a bit chilly.  For lunch we cooked eggs and sausage over the fire, and for supper we roasted hot dogs.  We even made "fire coffee" (Ezra coined this new phrase) which everyone loves except Daddy (although some of us require more cream in it than others to like it!!).

Isaac was determined to do the entire

bolt by himself, and he did.

...and little brother, not to be left out,

did this whole bolt by himself.

We decided not to tell him that his

was three inches shorter than Isaac's.

Enjoying "fire coffee"

the high-tech "fire coffee" operation

Silly faces for the camera

The knee braces are finished.

Oh, wait, NOW the knee braces are finished.

Daddy starts on the floor boards.

Floor boards mean we are getting closer to a finished platform.

LOVE this boy.

Drilling in those floor boards

Project Treehouse: Day 5

What a fun day!!!   Not only did we get interviewed by our local news station (see the story here), but we got quite a bit of work done as well.  The pictures look about the same as previous days, but we cut out the hole for the fire pole as well as put in the remaining supports in the platform.

Ezra gets the tools ready before the news crew arrives.

Daddy is the first to be interviewed.  He swallowed

a bug while he was talking which was pretty funny.

The boys watch Daddy's interview

Of course, Simon is eating Cheez-its.

The cameraman included this in the

video for the news story which was

hilarious to us.

Gina was so sweet and fun.

Besides eating Cheez-its, Simon also

made funny faces.  His job is to

keep us all laughing.

We actually got two support beams 

put up while they were filming.

Isaac was feeling a little sheepish about being 

interviewed, but he did a fabulous job!

Our work is done...we had a blast and made two

new friends!!  We wish you could come every day,

Gina and Tony!!!

Great memories for this family.

We are grateful.