Wordless Wednesday

This is what Sophie will do when we ask to see her "special face." Yep...pretty special.

Easter Weekend - Part II (Sunday morning)

After a lovely Easter service at our church, we headed over to GiGi's for brunch and an egg hunt. Sophie really caught on to the whole hunting for eggs thing and loved it! (Good thing, too, because we had another one to go to afterwards!) When she realized the eggs had something in them, she would find them and shake the living daylights out of them. The weather was perfect and it was an ideal Easter Sunday.

Brunch was DELICIOUS. Matt's mom is an amazing cook and always goes all out for the holidays. Sophie especially loved all of the fruit. She was the first one to dig into GiGi's creation (see picture below...it looked professionally made)!

Sophie and her GiGi (Matt's mom). I was so impressed that she left that hat on the entire time. Love that little grin.

The masterpiece...before Sophie tore into it!

Easter Weekend -- Part I (Saturday)

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. Life is busy and crazy and we've been bad about taking pictures of everything. Let's face it...that's all you want to see anyway.

I'm going to post about our weekend in parts. The first part was Saturday when some cute bunnies hosted an egg hunt. Remember Arika and Aliva? Well they were back in town, and Arika's mom's bunnies were kind enough to have us over for some fun. So we went over there on Saturday morning. It was overcast and a bit chilly, but we were determined to have a hunt. By the time it was all said and done, the sun was out and it turned into a gorgeous day!

So proud of her basket.

I was really impressed that she caught on so quickly.

Peek-a-boo, Daddy!

(There was also an egg in the fence that Sophie was reaching for.)

This is a picture I will cherish forever. Melt my heart! Sophie loves her Pop-Pop!

And now, a little friendly hug-o-war between the girls. It's a tradition for them to get a little frisky (see this post), and after all, it's Spring!

Anyhoo...Alivia had her game face on for the tough competition.

First, they decided they should arm-wrestle to warm up a bit.

The hug started off nice enough...
...but then things got a little out of hand.

Alivia is down for the count. Sophie's on her way up and ready for a re-match.

Let's try this again...much better.

After a tough match, Sophie decided she needed some down time and went to look for the cuddly bunnies and thank them for the lovely egg hunt.

Apparently the rabbits needed a little alone time, too, but eventually Sophie managed to coerce one out of the burrow. However, it managed to get away. Those little suckers are quick.

The brown and white one was a much more agreeable and talkative host. She and Sophie had a nice conversation.

And she let Sophie scratch her nose. She had quite the itch.

Then Sophie decided to sit for a while and check out the goods from the hunt.

Alivia came over to make sure there were no hurt feelings after the take-down.
One little girl doesn't mind the bunny ears too much.
Another little girl isn't so sure how she feels about them. "Mom...do I look silly?"

Bonita & my mom with the grandgirls in an easter basket.

"Let's kiss and make up, k?"

Sophie got a little hot at lunch, stripped off the tights, and let it all hang out for a bit.

At the end of the day, Sophie was all smiles. I'd call that a success!

Gardening

As many of you know, Matt and I started our first garden last year. You may have followed the progress on this blog or on Matt's Facebook page. You can still go there to see MANY pictures of all the produce we collected. We loved it! There's just something so rewarding about being able to walk out to your backyard and gather everything you need for a meal. Someday we hope to have some land out in the country where we can have a huge garden with enough produce to start a co-op or just store it for the winter and be completely self-sustaining as far as produce goes.

Anyway, last year we planted seedlings that we bought at a local gardening center. This year we're going to try starting from seeds. I have no idea how this will go, but we like the idea and it's a lot cheaper.

I read some gardening blogs and this week The Greenest Dollar has a giveaway for seeds from Hometown Seeds. One option is to leave a comment and hope your name was chosen, and the other option is to be the first of three people to contact Hometown Seeds and be willing to post a link to your own blog to receive free seeds. Well I hopped right on both of those bandwagons! They aren't choosing winners from the comments until Wednesday (so head on over there and enter to win!), but I just got an e-mail back saying that I was the second person to e-mail Hometown Seeds! Woo Hoo!! I'm so excited!!

The coolest thing about Hometown Seeds is that they sell survival seeds. "What are survival seeds," you ask? Well...The Greenest Dollar says this about them, "Survival seeds are not genetically modified, which means you can harvest the seeds from this year’s harvest to plant again next year. Survival seeds enable you to have a garden and not depend on buying new seeds year after year." VERY cool!

Anyway, hop on over to The Greenest Dollar to enter the contest (you have until Tuesday night), and then head over to Hometown Seeds to check out all of their flower and produce seeds.

Growing Hope for Haiti

Haiti is on my heart lately...like it is for most people, I assume. If you're reading this and haven't had the opportunity to donate or just don't know which organization to choose, may I make a suggestion? Growing Hope for Haiti is a charitable foundation that a friend of mine from college set up with her husband. Ever since I've known Heather she has had a heart for Haiti. She spent a lot of time in Haiti as a missionary and married a Haitian whose family is still in the country. Prayers were answered the other day when they got word that his family is safe and accounted for. Gerson and Heather are putting together a team of doctors and translators to travel to Haiti to aid the people there. They are in need of medical supplies and other support, and are collecting donations through their foundation. I'd like for you to read this letter from Heather and consider donating to Growing Hope for Haiti. It is a good cause and you can be assured that every penny will be well spent to help those in Haiti. Please also pray for their safety as they travel and that God would use them in mighty ways!

(Letter From Heather):

Hi,

It has been quite an eventful night/morning. Gerson was able to get through to his sister's cell phone for the first time a few hours ago! He talked to his sister, his brother, and his mom, and they confirmed that everyone in his immediate family is accounted for!! Some minor injuries...a lot of fear and shock...but they are all ok! I can't tell you how happy we were to hear their voices.

The situation they described there is overwhelming and heart-breaking. They said that their yard has become like a refugee camp, with many people who have lost their homes and some who are injured, sleeping there because they are the only house in the neighborhood that has a yard. They said that food and water are becoming an increasing concern, as everything is running low. They said there is a dire need for medicine and medical care. They have seen people die there with them because there was no access to a clinic or hospital. They said Gerson's 5-year-old niece, who they think has a broken arm, stays within the yard because she is afraid of the dead bodies in the street. None of them have slept since the earthquake.

We have been up all night, talking to people and making plans. We have decided to get to Haiti as soon as possible, to do what we can to help. Gerson is going to take the semester off school, and I am going to take a leave of absence from work. Gerson will be flying into the Dominican Republic on Monday (there are no flights into Haiti right now), where he is going to meet up with a group of Haitian and Dominican doctors and medical students. They are going to buy medical supplies in the DR and take them into Port-au-Prince to set up mobile medical clinics. This group has already had thousands of dollars worth of supplies donated by the med school and a local hospital in the DR, and we hope to raise thousands more. There are many injured and hurting people in Port-au-Prince, and not nearly enough resources to treat them all. This is one of the most immediate and desperate needs, so this is what we're going to focus on for now.

My plan is to go in shortly after Gerson-- probably next weekend-- with a small group of doctors and nurses from the U.S. We have talked to several medical professionals here who are looking for a way to get in and a place to serve. They have the medical skills, and we have the knowledge to coordinate the efforts, get them set up in Haiti, and translate for them while they're there....so we feel like it is a good match. Gerson and I are not able to meet the medical needs of the people ourselves, but we are in a position to enable those who can.

We will be raising money for this trip and for medical supplies. Many of you have been asking how to help-- here is a huge opportunity! We personally will be using this money to meet the needs of people in Haiti, and we can assure you that every dollar will be well spent. We are working on getting online donation capabilities set up, but for now, you can send donations to:

Growing Hope for Haiti
927 Wooden Drive
Florissant, MO 63033

Growing Hope for Haiti is a 501c3 organization, and all donations are tax-deductible. We are pleading with all of you to join with us in these efforts by praying and giving. Thank you for the compassion and love you have already shown in this crisis. We are grateful to be surrounded by so many people who genuinely care.

I am going to try to get some rest now, after being up all night. We are physically and emotionally exhausted, and I know we need to take care of ourselves so that we can be of use to the people in Haiti. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to go.

Thank you,
Heather

Arika & Alivia

Things were a little crazy before, during, and after Christmas...so I'm just now getting the chance to catch up and share a few things with all of you.

This post needs a little background info: My mom's best friend, Bonnie, has a daugher Arika. Arika is my brother's age, and we grew up spending a lot of time together. I'll never forget our many roadtrips to Winter Park, CO. Good times. We were quite the little ski-bunnies. Well, Arika now lives in Japan with her hubby and gorgeous daughter, Aliva. Aliva is just a few months younger than Sophie, and they got to spend some quality time getting to know each other while they were in town for a visit.

We were able to get together two times. The first time they all went to the zoo while I was at work. After the zoo I met them at the mall to introduce Alivia and Sophie to Santa.

Here they are at the zoo:

Here's my mom, Bonnie, and the granddaughters at the mall:


This next one needs no explanation:

Priceless.

That sums up how she feels about the big man in red. Not to fond of him yet...neither was Aliva.

After Christmas we got together again to go swimming at the YMCA. The girls LOVED it!!

The girls were getting a little frisky before jumping in, but once they hit the water they were the best of friends and had a blast.

That's all for now, friends. I'll post more about our Christmas adventures soon! Stay posted.

Doing it Sophie Style

Sophie has been a bit of a picky eater lately. If she doesn't like something, she pushes it out with her tongue or throws it on the floor. She does pretty well during the day, but dinner just isn't her thing. Tonight she wasn't interested in what the house had to offer, so I counted on her trusty favorites to come through for me. (Considering she's 18lbs at 16 months old, we don't have any room to miss a meal around here.) Two things Sophs loves: black beans and frozen peas. I threw some in a bowl and let her go wild. Usually she chooses to eat them with her fingers, and she started off that way tonight, but it wasn't working for her. This was the more efficient method in her opinion:

"Yeah, so what?"

As you can see, we are clearly still working on our table manners.