Happy Birthday to Annabeth!

Annabeth turned two yesterday! Can you believe it?! My babies aren't babies anymore, are they? I can't believe that the baby phase of my life is over already...it went by so quickly! Now that Annabeth is two, everything will change. No more counting ages in months or free admissions to movies and museums. If we fly anywhere, we have to pay for FOUR plane tickets. Buffets will charge us for both kids. Soon we'll see the end of cribs, diapers and sippy cups. Life as we know it will get easier and harder all at the same time! :) I've learned this to be true with each new stage my children enter; each one is harder in some ways, and easier in others. I'm always sad to see one stage end...but I've also found that each age is more fun than the one before!


Queenie (my mom) flew in from California to be here for the birthday party. We had a good time; we had a small family party at Spaghetti Factory. While it was perfectly nice to celebrate at a restaurant and eat store-bought cake, I am looking forward to next year for both kids -- we will finally have a house of our own and I can start throwing my kids real birthday parties!! :)



Here are Ethan and Annabeth playing at the mall before the party:


All four of us waiting to be seated:


Annabeth and Grammi:

Queenie and Uncle Randall:


Annabeth and the Elmo balloon from Grammi and Papa:

Stealing frosting from the cake:

Mesmerized by the candle:

Annabeth helping herself to birthday cake while Uncle Nathan serves it up:
The very cool new sunglasses from Auntie Heather:

Ethan helping Annabeth open her gifts:

For Mom

Per my mom's request, here are some more pictures of the kids. It seems that blogging about anything other than the kids is unacceptable...I should know this by now, shouldn't I?! :) That's okay...they're my favorite subject, too.

Ethan playing with Sadie in front of the mirror:

Both making silly faces:
Annabeth in a VERY rare moment of chill:

And in a not-so-rare moment of eating dirt:

And just being cute:

And, last but not least, Brandon with our "foo-foo dog" (as he likes to call her). He laughs because he says he feels wierd taking his foo-foo dog in for her hair appointments...but she's even more foo-foo when she comes back from them:

That bow never lasts long...but it's cute while it's there:) NEVER did I think I would be making hair appointments for a DOG!! But...one of the benefits of a Shih Tzu is that they don't shed. The downside of that is that you have to trim their hair regularly. Who knew?

Reign in me

This week Brandon introduced me to a band called Starfield. I'm really enjoying listening to their album. There was one song in particular that spoke to me. I love the lyrics:

You thought of us before the world began to breathe
You knew our names before we came to be
You saw the very day we fall away from You
And how desperately we need to be redeemed

Lord Jesus come lead us
We're desperate for Your touch
Oh great and mighty One
With one desire we come
That You would reign in us
We're offering up our lives a living sacrifice
That You would reign in us

Spirit of the living God fall fresh again
Come search our hearts and puify our lives
We need Your perfect love
We need Your discipline
We're lost unless You guide us with Your light

Lord Jesus come lead us
We're desperate for Your touch
Oh great and mighty One
With one desire we come
That You would reign in us
We're offering up our lives a living sacrifice
That You would reign in us

We cry out for Your life to revive us
Cry out for Your love to define us
Cry out for Your mercy to keep us blameless until You return

Oh great and mighty One
With one desire we come
That You would reign in us
We're offering up our lives a living sacrifice
That You would reign in us

So reign
Please reign in us
Come purify our hearts
We need Your touch
Come cleanse us like a flood
And set us out so the world may know You reign
You reign in us

Snow Day

Can you believe it?! It's the end of March and it SNOWED! Not just a few flakes, either...the kids went out in full winter get-up and made snowballs and everything! Though Ethan and Annabeth loved it, Brandon and I weren't thrilled to see it. Where are the beautiful flowers? Singing birds? Twitterpated forrest animals? Even April showers??? It's supposed to be spring for crying out loud!

And then today, the sun came out so Brandon took Ethan out in the backyard to play some catch. After a little while they had to come in because it was HAILING! Go figure...beautiful sunshine and hail. What's next?

I'm outnumbered...

First the kids:

And now the dog!!

Brandon has converted almost the entire family to his love of computers! Except me, of course ;) But he's still trying..

Easter

Here is our Easter picture. Not the greatest picture we've ever taken, but the fact that we were able to get BOTH kids to be looking in the general direction of the camera makes it a success. Unfortunately, as you can see, Brandon was missing...he was busy painting our place so we can put it up for sale. We missed him. The kids had a good time hunting eggs at Grandma and Grandpa's house, though...they brought home LOTS of candy and goodies. :)

How was your Easter?

Angels and Pancakes

Luke 16:22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side..."

Do you ever wonder when this actually occurs? I mean, in today's world when people can be kept alive for years with machines and medications, when do the angels actually show up? When the brain dies? When the plug is pulled? Can the soul leave the body if the body still lives? Can the body live without the soul?

Last night at work I peformed CPR on a woman who went into sudden cardiac arrest and, as odd as it sounds, these were some of the questions I was wondering as I was pumping on her chest. I found myself thinking, "Is she still in there? Are there angels in the room right now taking her spirit even though I'm keeping her heart pumping?" Somewhere between 10 and 15 people hoovered around this woman for about 35 minutes trying to save her life and she didn't make it after all of our efforts. I wonder...was she dead when we began the code or when the doctor pronounced her dead? Her case may seem simple...maybe her soul was gone before we even started trying to save her. But what about the guy three doors down who is brain dead, but stable on full life support? In today's age of technology, we've made life a technicality and death a defeat...at least in the medical field.

I hope that this doesn't sound morbid or depressing to any of you! I personally find these questions fascinating. I'm surrounded by death and people who are dying every time I go to work so, as interesting as it is to see how it all works on this side of the veil, I'm more curious about what's going on on the other side. It makes me wonder when I'm in the presence of angels! :)

For those of you who don't like talking about death, here is the "pancakes" portion of my post: I took Ethan and Annabeth out on a date this morning since I've been working a lot over the last two weeks and haven't seen much of them. We went to Ihop for breakfast (they were having a promotion for the new Dr. Seuss movie that's about to come out) and the kids were excited to order what was essentially pancakes and candy:

Then, after I loaded them up with sugar, we went to hang out at the mall and play off some of their energy at the train:

(Ethan signing "I Love You")

We had a really good day! As much as I like being back at work, I have to say that there is nothing better than being home with these two. The hospital will always be my second job.