Growing Up

(Isaac one month & 3 1/2)

I've found myself being a little over-emotional this last week looking at pictures from our St. Louis vacation. Have you seen Isaac lately? I just can't believe how big he is getting! I've been looking at him thinking "You're a kid. Like a real kid...not my little baby anymore." And then I start thinking about Ansley, who is still my little baby, but not for long...

Why is it that parents lament the growing of their children so much? We long to hold them and care for them like we can when they are babies. We love them in the same way, but we have to let them grow up, and unfortunately that means not always being able to hold them and protect them. And then as they grow we see how very human they are. Steve and I like to say "If you need proof that you don't need to teach a child to sin, look no further" as we gesture to our boy. It's not as much fun to see the sin of your children compared to the innocent images we have of them as babies.

Most of all, I lament the world that I have to let my children grow up in and be a part of. I'm not very old, but I've been around long enough to know that the world is full of false promises of fulfillment and satisfaction. The road is wide and easy that leads to destruction, this I can see every day. But the road is narrow and difficult that leads to Life. I am challenged every day to lead my children towards that narrow gate in the hopes that they will one day take up the Narrow Way for themselves. My greatest longing and prayer for them is that they put all of their hope and trust in Jesus. Growing up is inevitable. I can't protect them forever and that wouldn't be what is best for them anyway. Only Jesus can give them what they need. He can give them Life, and He promises to give it abundantly!

A Few Farms

St. Louis has some really great free attractions. We visited Purina Farms and Grant's Farm with my parents, Grandma and Papa Bill. Did I mention they were free?

Petting the baby pigs:

 Tractor riding:

Cow Watching:

Grant's Farm Tram Ride:

Ansley on the Tram: (she obviously loved it) 

Grant's Farm Carousel:

Feeding the goats: (never a pleasant experience...this time they tried to eat my skirt)

Much better vantage point for goat feeding:

Enjoying Grant's Farm: (where it's not only free to get in, they also give you free beer)

A Visit to the Old 'Hood

I got to take the kids to Memphis for a weekend with the help of our awesome friend Colby. I took zero pictures, but you can go here for some pics of a baby playdate we had. The three little babies are all within a month of each other. Ansley is two weeks older than Simon who is two weeks older than Karis. Too bad we aren't closer so they can grow up as buddies! And the 'big girl' in the pictures was Isaac's first friend from church! He is only a month older than her and they had many playdates as babies!

Happy Easter!!

Yesterday we joined in a neighborhood egg hunt sponsored by our Neighborhood Task Force. LOTS of kids from in and out of the neighborhood came for candy and fun prizes:

We failed at getting a family Easter picture, however we did try to get some pictures of Ansley. It started like this:

But ended like this:

A New Adventure

In case you haven't noticed...diapers are expensive. I would rather not know the total amount of money we spent on diapers for Isaac. I bought some cloth diapers for him once, but they filled with pee in about an hour and I wasn't dedicated enough to figure out a good system.

Well, this time I was pretty determined to master cloth diapering and save same money (and the environment I suppose).  I got some recommendations from friends and decided I liked the gDiapers the best. You can either use cloth inserts or biodegradable ones that you can flush or compost. We are using the cloth inserts because the others are just as expensive as disposable diapers. We lucked out and found them buy one,  get one free on Cyber Monday so we bought everything we would need until Ansley is potty trained. (total cost: $180--what we probably spent in a couple of months on disposables)

The verdict so far...they are AWESOME. If you have ever had a newborn, you know that in disposables they have "blowouts" pretty often. We haven't had a single one in 2 weeks of cloth diapering. The part that makes it super easy: the diaper sprayer. It is attached to the water supply of the toilet and has high water pressure to spray all the gross stuff off without having to swish around in the toilet. Definitely worth every penny!

Catching Up

You'll have to forgive the lack of updates since Ansley has been home. Literally someone in our house has been sick since we brought her home! I will spare you the details, but thankfully it seems we are on our way to a sickness-free household. Let's just pray it stays that way! Here are some pictures from the last month:

Sweet sleeping baby girl:

A visit from Nana:

Passed out in the bed:

Rising hockey star:

Isaac making his sister feel better with his bear/blanket:

Tongue exercises:

"Really mom? Stop taking my picture already"

COLD

It's COLD here. Not sure "Fair" is an accurate description of any weather like this, I don't care how much the sun is shining. I think it may be a PJ day for us!

	Today	Tonight
Fair	Mostly Sunny	Clear
-14°F	6°	1°
Feels Like: -33° Get FREE weather on your desktop	High	Low