3 cutest kids EVER

I know I know I am biased. But they really are adorable. And watching them interact is even cuter. I love that my girls have a cousin that lives close by that they can adore, share clothes and hair accessories with.

Ahh, the cuteness. And yes, it did take like 10 shots to get these two. Love those cutie pies.

Elena really wanted Elizabeth to wear her hair clip. I love how incredibly ridiculous it looks with her tiny amount of hair, which thankfully, is finally starting to grow.

Heiresy or Hillarity?

"I'm Jesus" she says "And these are my twelve disciples."
I wonder which disciple is the dancing piggy?

Smurf Feet

Turns out, not all ink that claims to be "ultra washable" actually is. I would say I found this out first hand, but really Elizabeth was the one to bare the brunt of this unfortunate realization.

It happened like this. We have been supporters of the prison ministry Kairos for some time now. The Chapel and Valley Baptist are both involved. Kairos ministry has special weekends twice a year where churches and individuals make home baked cookies and write letters to the inmates. The candidates are blessed by the letters and cookies and through the weekend are loved on and presented with the truth that they are not forgotten, and that God has a plan for their lives. Gunnar has attended the closing ceremonies and it is truly powerful. Rodger is a yard pastor at Donovan Prison and has spoken at both Valley Baptist and The Chapel and has been a family friend for years. You can click here to listen to one Rodger speaking at The Chapel if you would like to here more about this amazing ministry.

We had a letter writing and cookie making party at church. After all, it is more fun to write letters and cook cookies in a group. I didn't help with the cookies, but the kitchen group put out and made 56 dozen. Grace, however was a proud member of the cookie making party and had a blast.

I know at this point you are wondering where the whole ink thing comes in. Well, last year, Ann, my awesome sister-in-law, stamped Elena's foot print on her letters, and I thought it was such a great idea. I thought I would copy her. On a side note, getting a squirmy 6 month old to let me stamp her foot is harder than it sounds.

I got Gunnar to take some pictures so you could get in on the whole experience. :) Here it is. The ink.
The stamp.
Cute little print. I love how she looks so bored.
And here is where the non washable supposedly washable ink comes in. After washing, look at those little feet.
I know, I know, we all want a closer look. Look at those piggies. Adorable on any day of the week, who knew they could wear smurf blue so well.
The feet sacrifice was well worth it though, look at how cute the letters turned out. I forgot to take a picture once I got done writing them, so you will have to image all forty with the text written in. I basically said that in my time of sadness God had sent Elizabeth to cheer me up and I hope her foot print reminds them that God has not forgotten about them either. It had a verse and was longer than that, but after writing it 31 times (my friend Karaline did the last 9 for me) I have no desire to write all again.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, after three days and multiple washing, her feet went back to normal. :)

Where the Wild Things are

A few weeks ago we went to the Wild Animal Park with our friends the Smith's. Matt is the pastor of Barabas Road, and we enjoy hanging out with them as we have a lot in common. Unfortunantly, Gunnar had a lot of unexpected work come up that week so he was only able to join us for a little bit and then took off. They were gracious enough to let Grace, Elizabeth and I tag along with them, which was awesome as we had been cooped up in the house a lot that week.

We had started off with the stroller, but it is so heavy with both the girls that when Gunnar took off, he took the stroller with him and I carried Elizabeth and Grace walked.

Funny thing about the stroller though, the Smith's showed up with the exact same one. Great minds must think alike.

We hung out by the elephants for a while before Gunnar had to take off. There was a new elephant born only a two weeks before, which was super cute.
Before Gunnar took off we took a family picture. I love that overly cheesy Gracie smile!
Gunnar took my camera, but Becky was so kind as to send me the pictures that she took. She took this of us checking out the tigers. The baby elephant picture and the first stroller picture were also hers.
The Wild Animal Park is beautiful this time of year, and it is even better with great friends!

Flashback Friday: Now and Then

REcently, my mom lent me the album with my baby pictures in it. It has been fun looking over the old pictures and especially interesting now with my own girls to see the similarities. I find it intersting sometimes pictures that remind me of each other adn so a little while back I pared a couple that reminded me of an older/newer picture.

The first two are from the nights Elizabeth and I were born. Gunnar said he thought my dad was smiling bigger in the second one becuase he knew he didn't have to pay the hospital bill. Either way, you can tell it is my dad's signature newborn hold.
The next two are just of Elizabeth and I, both around 3 months.
The last is us both around 5 months. Obviously we are diffrent babies from different times in history, but it is fun seeing the similarities.

Hasta Luego!

Last month we said goodbye to our good friends George and Evie. They moved to the east coast to live with their daughter. George was the pastor of our church back in the 70's. They were one of the few people at the church when we got here and have been a constant encouragement to Gunnar and I.

I don't know that I can properly verbalize the impact that this godly couple has made on our lives, but I will try.

One of the things that has made a profound impact on both Gunnar and I is their perseverance in the ministry. George lead the singing at the church when we got here. In his 80's and with asthma, it wasn't always easy for him, but he was so faithful. He had a Bible study in his home every Sunday night. Even the last day they were here, he took Gunnar over to meet neighbor who needs to know to the Lord. He officially "retired" in the early 90's, but he has kept on serving the Lord to this day. I honestly believe that this perseverance is in large part why Valley Baptist is still here.

A story Gunnar often tells about Evie is from when we first moved here. During one of the meetings talking about the new plans for the church Gunnar was saying how he wanted to take things slowly as to make it an easier adjustment. Evie looked at him earnestly from across the table and told him not to take his time. He needed to hurry. They were dying and wanted to see what the Lord was going to do. This made a huge impact on Gunnar. Her plea was not taken lightly by Gunnar, but more importantly, I think God blessed their faithfulness and their heart of service. Praise God that on their last Sunday at Valley Baptist there were 90some people there, the church has grown and reached new people and people have come to know the Lord.

One thing I have loved about George and Evie is how sweet they have always been to Grace. "Evie" was one of the first words Grace learned. At the Sunday evening Bible study, Evie would insist we sang "The Lords Army" for Grace. It was always funny to see all the adults singing and doing the hand motions together. The last day at their house, we all sang it together with their daughters in the empty livingroom with scattered boxes. I teared up and had a hard time singing. Grace, trying to be such a mature 4 year old, just looked at us like we were crazy.

Through the years, George has supported and encouraged and prayed for Gunnar as the up and coming young pastor. I have no doubt that Gunnar wouldn't have been able to accomplish all that he has done without George. George needed Gunnar's youth and strength to carry on the ministry. Gunnar needed Georges wisdom and support and experience. And so they developed a special bond. This is such a rare thing between retired pastors and young pastors. Rare, but so incredibly special.

I can remember so many stories Evie told me of her younger days. Stories of God's provision, stories of church functions and of her and George's courtship. She has a great sense of humor and always made me laugh. Her eye sight was failing and I know she had other health problems, but she never complained and always has such a good adtitude.

Lastly, one of the things that made an impact on us was that George and Evie had been married for 61 years. They have been faithful not only to the Lord, but to each other. In today's day and age, that isn't something that we should take lightly. Gunnar and I hope to follow in their Godly legacy, although Gunnar got married a little later in life, we might have trouble making it to 61. :)

Here are a couple pictures that I love from their going away of Grace and Evie playing the piano.
And a group shot:

Faithful encouragers,
Prayerful supporters,
Godly role modles,
but most of all good friends.

We will miss them, but thankful it wasn't a true "Good bye", but just a "See you later".

Another Sweater

On our trip up to my grandpa's, I knitted another sweater while in the car. I love how quickly baby projects go. And I love how sweet my babies look in them.

Such sweet sisters snuggling in special soft sweaters. Splendid!

1 to 6

Half a year has gone by already since the birth of sweet Elizabeth. I think that she gets cuter and cuter every day that goes by. When I recently compared pictures, I think maybe I am right. Although I miss that tiny baby and especially her non-mobilness, nothing compares to that big smile and the way she buries her head in my shoulder.

So here she is at one month and again at 6 months. You have to love those little chub rolls. :)

Red Chair pictures: 6 months

I am loving the progress of Elizabeth's growth from the pictures in her little red chair. She was in a super silly mood when I took these pictures, look at that cheese ball smile!
Apparently, cheesy smiles run in the family!
Getting a picture of the two of them was a little tricky. I am guessing it will just go down hill from here. Or up hill. We kind of like the crazy kids.
After that, I put Grace down for a nap and took a couple pictures of Ellie, since it was her 6 month birthday and all. For some reason the light coming in the window were making her eyes look amazing! No touch up on the color at all. So incredibly precious.

Flashback Firday: School pictures

I know, it has been like a month, but I was in a funk, so although I didn't forget to do flashback Fridays, I didn't have the emotional energy to do it. Believe it or not, being my cute witty self takes a lot of energy.

For today's Flashback Friday I thought I would share some pictures from Gunnar's past.

I was always jealous of school pictures. If you actually went to school or if you have ever seen a school picture, you are probably laughing at this point. School pictures are so rarely flattering. Gunnar, lucky guy that he was, has his fair share of school pictures. Flattering or not, you can judge for yourself. Unfortunately, I only have about half of his school pictures. I may scan his year books for a couple more at some point, but I am missing a lot of the early years.

Here we are though, cutie pie Gunnar:

That should should say 1983, Mission Park Elementary.

After he moves to San Diego, they got a lot more fun. Who doesn't love his hair in this picture? And everyone needs a good braces picture.
And Jr. year. Oh so good looking. No wonder all those girls from High School had crushes on him.

Birthday festivities

A month late is better than never right? Here are the pictures from Grace's birthday celebrations.

We started out with a little singing and cupcakes at the Superbowl party at church. Big girl loved all the attention.
And the cupcake.
She posed for a few pictures with her buddy Lilah! Such cuties!
Lilah's face in this one cracks me up.
The morning of her birthday started out with birthday band aids. She LOVES band aids and we don't normally buy the Strawberry shortcake ones, so she was super excited. Go figure she had some terrible crisis every day (or twice a day) and went through those suckers at an incredible pace.
We hung around in the morning and around lunch time took off. We got word shortly before leaving the house that a man from church was dying, so Gunnar and I weren't really in a partying mood. Thankfully, the family was able to pick up the party mood and it really doesn't take much for Grace to feel like celebrating. Like Cheetos with her sandwich, for example. We ate at subway and the outside table was more or less in the parkinglot. Grace exclaimed "Are we having a picnic OUTSIDE" and was super excited, so I guess it is all perspective.
Our first birthday stop was Grandma Carols. We had a nice visit and Grace opened her gifts. She got a fun card making kit that she LOVED.
Group picture!
Our next stop for the day was my parents house for the party time. As usual we played the "pass the baby game." I love that everyone loves my baby. Even if they try to "eat" her at times. :)
My mom had made a big castle out of a refrigerator box for the girls to play in. She also made Grace and Elena crowns. They were super cute.


Other than that, the evening included pizza, more cupcakes, gift opening, the usual birthday stuff.

Grace and Elenea made trumpets. I think they were trying to blow down the walls (like Jericho).
Grandpa Pa and Ellie. I love this picture. :)
Before everyone left, Grace took pictures with everyone at her party. She made she to let us know she is 4 now!

With Grandpa Dick and Aunt Sonja.
With Tia and Auntie Ann.
With the Uncles.
Grandpa Pa!
Grandma Ta and Grandpa Pa and her sister.
We took some family pictures. Have you read the book called "Inside, Outside, Upside Down?" They remind me a little of that.

I am so thankful that Grace has so many people to love her. Although I don't think she realizes it now, I think that someday she will realize how blessed she is to be surrounded by people who think she is awesome. And really, when it comes down to it, that is the best gift of all.