Five on Friday (The Easter Celebration Edition)

1) Mali's new favorite book is a personal ABC scrapbook made by her Grandma Deni. "A is for Apple"...featuring Mali herself eating an apple, and so on.. What a great Easter present!

2) Brinnly struggled with a virus and teething for a few days, but made a full recovery and then delighted us all with her rolling and giggles.

3) Mali also spent her time in Michigan dying eggs and eating her grandparents out of house and home.


4)While not eating, Mali danced to a singing bunny "Let's go to the Hop" and insisted that everyone else did too, especially Grandpa.


5)My charming husband gets a shout-out for spending part of his guys time out with our best man, Mike, making Easter basket surprises for all of their girls. Kim, do we have good taste in men, or what?

Binky, pajamas, and bunny ears

Necessary ingredients for driving a minivan across four states.

Alleluia

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Five on Friday

1) Happy, Happy Birthday to our girls' buddy, Jack Ryan. One year ago he was actually a tiny newborn. Now he's about the size of both of my girls put together. Mali made a special phone call to him yesterday. "Hi, Jack. Happy. Love you. Bye." We love Jack's visits and the blue he brings into our pink world. He'll be a wonderful big brother to his little sister who is arriving soon.

2) A friend of the family called a store the other day looking for "nut cups" for a baby shower she throwing for her neice. The clerk replied "you mean for sports?!" We haven't stopped laughing over that one.

3)Brinn is teething and probably fighting some sort of virus. Fever, drool, crabiness are combined with lots of sleeping.

4)Jonathan's mom, Deni, and I are coordinating my parent's new redecorating effort. Think "While you were out", minus the tackiness.

5)A verse for Good Friday: "But one of the soliders pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water come out. And he who has seen has testified and his testimiony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe--John 19:34-35. God's blessings as you observe this Easter weekend.

Spring is here

Holy Week

I meant to write a reflection on Holy Week and especially Palm Sunday, but this week has gotten away from me as we prepare to travel home for Easter. The following is a quote from a blog I read (Serina Toman's )on her experience with Palm Sunday. It's my favorite church holiday too.

"I love Palm Sunday. I love seeing everyone, young and old, swaying their palms toward the sky, toward Jesus, singing His praises all the while. I even love the feeling of dreaded anticipation, knowing something great is coming, but that He must first die. That I must ponder His sacrifice for me, and how much I don’t deserve it. Friday we will mourn, but Sunday, we will sing! He will rise! Easter. My favorite day of the entire church year."

By the way, if you're looking for an excellent children's book on the crucifixion and resurrection, we recommend "The Easter Cave" by Carol Wedeven.

One-half of a year...

She is so grown-up lately! She loves her jumpy-swing, much more than Mali ever did. She rolls over quickly and then smiles for the applause. She also has enjoyed several new foods, but still no luck with bottles of any sort. And once again, she had a better hair day than her sister.

Not completely Pittsburgh

Try this quiz--I think it's pretty accurate. And I'm glad to know I'm still Midewest, accent and all.

You are 69% Pittsburgh.

 

Come on. I know you knew the right answers, but were ashamed and scared to admit it. Do the quiz again, and this time be true to yourself.

How Pittsburgh Are You
See All Our Quizzes

Five on Friday (an occasional series)

1) Brinnly went in for our six-month check-up yesterday. She now weighs 14 pounds, 1 ounce, and is 24 inches long. Everything looks good! She handled her shots very well and somehow Mali came home with a band-aid and a sticker.

2) We had one day of really warm weather this week and the girls wanted to spend all day outside. We finally had to coax Mali in to eat dinner around 7:00 pm. Usually nothing gets between her and food.

3)Mali made big progress in the area of potty-training yesterday. (We'll spare you the details) She ran in the bedroom to tell Brinn about it and later made calls to Daddy and both grandmas to share the news. We WILL be embarrassing her as a teenager with this story.

4)Has anybody else tried out the recipes from Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook? So far we're impressed by muffins, coffee cake, and quesadillas, but after two attempts at "pink pancakes", we've decided that one is a loser. Even when it was around Valentine's Day, there was no way I could disguise the beet puree for Jonathan.

5) Finally, please keep our friend's friends in your prayers. Check our their always well-written blog including updates on Clayton's fight against cancer.

A Visit from Aunt Hannah

Our dear friend Hannah traveled all the way from Milwaukee to spend a long weekend with us. Brinnly was thrilled to finally be able to meet her mommy's former roommate and hear about stories from our single, twenties-something life on the Eastside. Check out our night out sampling a yummy new Ethiopian restaurant:







Thanks Hannah, and we hope for better walking weather next time!