Leaps and Bounds

Our little Bekah Jane is changing so fast I can hardly keep up with her! She started crawling over a month ago (right when she turned 8 months), and a couple weeks later started to stand! Now she is into everything and doing a pretty good job keeping up with her brother! Just the other day I left her in the nursery and the workers said to me "She seems so little and petite, but she can hold her own. She kept stealing the other babies' pacifiers! " Yeah, don't be deceived by her sweet face - she is an aggressive little thing! (They also told me that Ezekiel was very protective of his baby sister, which was sweet to hear).

In other developments...She is "talking" to herself and to us all the time, and she makes the sweetest little sounds. I love listening to her as she plays. And, about a week ago, she cut her first tooth (I was beginning to wonder where they were!). At her 9 month check up, she clocked in at a little over 17 lbs.... our little peanut.

I love seeing her personality come alive - a little feisty, a bit mischievous, super silly, assertive, and oh so loving. She's becoming more of a "daddy's girl" every day. When he gets home from work and picks her up, she lays her head and his shoulder and puts her arms around him. Crazy about her daddy. We are both falling more in love with our baby girl every day!

Some pics of our girl on the go!

All tuckered out. Night, night little one.

Baby Luke!

Here he is! Look at those kissable cheeks! What a cutie...

Luke Sharpe 8 lbs. 1oz. 21 inches

Proud daddy and his new son (I love seeing my brother with his babies. He is so cute with them!)

Morgan, Daniel, and Autumn admiring their new brother

So glad you are here, baby boy!

New Nephew!

YAY! Andrew and Melissa had their sweet baby boy tonight. Luke Sharpe Holbrook joined our family about 5:40 p.m. I love the name Luke... so glad they chose it! Sharpe is a family name on Lissa's side. So cute. We don't know stats yet because Andrew called us before they had even weighed him! So, I will post those along with a picture when I get one.

Can't wait to meet you, baby Luke! Welcome to our family!

Favorite Things Party!

For Ezekiel's 2nd birthday, we had a "Favorite Things" party. Rather than picking a theme, his party was full of all the things he loves. We had balloons, balls, swimming, horses ("neighs"), bubbles, hotdogs and a touch of Elmo! It was a huge amount of fun for Ezekiel (and me and Kevan too!). One of my favorite parts was watching E get up from his nap to find balloons everywhere, Elmo decorations, and bubbles floating around. He was ready to get that party started!

This pretty much captures how he felt about the day!

Some of the fun decorations:

The birthday boy with Aunt Alice and Uncle Matthew

And, now, for the main event - Neighs!! Ezekiel could not have loved this any more. He ran up to the horse yelling "neigh! neigh!" and when Grandma lifted him on he said "Yee-haw!" over and over! Such a crack up.

We got to play in the pool too!

Swinging with uncle Robert (Kevan's best buddy)

Kevan thanking God for Ezekiel before dinner

After dinner, it was round 2 with the horses. This time, all the guests wanted a ride too. It was so much fun to watch all the kids ride around the backyard with big grins on their faces (or looks of concentration!).

Ezekiel and his cousin, Cami, share the same birthday (they were born just over an hour apart!). Here they are sharing a horsey ride!

Cupcake time!!

The birthday twins (E kept stealing Cami's cupcake!)

Check out the frosting on the belly!

So, I know this post is long overdue but I couldn't help but put up these pictures. It was the perfect day and the perfect way to celebrate our little two year old!

No Deal.

So today we learned that we, in fact, are not going to be millionaires. It's true, we are going to have to work long and hard for our money - just like everyone else.

Here's the story: Kevan had this funny and wild experience recently that landed him in a recording of Deal or No Deal today. He was 1 of 33 people vying for 6 opportunities to play the game. And, while he did an outstanding job holding a briefcase for 9 hours, he was not one of the lucky lotto winners who got to make a deal. (But he will be on TV for 4 nights - since he held that briefcase for 4 different recordings! Hey, you don't get to choose your 30 seconds of fame!)

Anyway, as we anticipated the show I thought long and hard about what we would do with any amount of money he won. (Wouldn't you? Even when the odds are slim, it's still fun to think about!) $10,000 would pay off a car and help us buy a bigger one. $25,000 would help us adopt a baby like we've always dreamed of. Shoot, even a few hundred would fix up some overdue repairs around the house. I even thought "Could this be the way God will provide for us?" While He certainly could have chosen to, I think He had something much more valuable in mind. What I gained today was this: A new realization that NO amount of money would really "change our lives" - because the things that we are truly living for are not measured by dollars.

I found myself anticipating Kevan's phone call today - awaiting word on if he'd won anything. As exciting as that would be, it began to feel really insignificant as I reflected back on other phone calls I've received: word that Kevan was boarding a plane for America after 7 months in Iraq, news from our doctor that hormone levels were increasing and that the pregnancy was normal,
a message from my mom that the foreign exchange student we welcomed in our home had come to know the Lord... now THOSE were exciting calls. When you've receieved news like that, everything else pales in comparison. And you can't help but realize that God is already provding - everyday and in all kinds of amazing ways - and he doesn't need a handout from Howie to continue working miracles in our lives.

So, when Kevan finally called and told me "I had a great time!... but I can't quit my day job", it was without hesitation that I responded "So, when are you coming home?" Because, at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

Just like daddy

Today, while I was nursing the baby, I sent Ezekiel into the bathroom to get a tissue. After a few minutes I realized it was really quiet and still no sign of Ezekiel. When I went to check on him, I was relieved to see that he was simply getting ready for the day - by doing his hair all by himself. It's nice to see the young man take some responsibility for his grooming.






On another note, Ezekiel is really into counting these days. He can count to ten all by himself and loves to count whatever he's playing with - or really just about anything that crosses his path. His favorite, though, is two. If he sees two of anything it's super exciting in his world. "Two kitties!" "Two books!" "Two hats!" And my favorite? When I'm rushing to get somewhere, often times I will have Bekah Jane on one hip and I'll scoop up Ezekiel on the other. Ezekiel gets a kick out of this and, without fail, exclaims "TWO babies!" Such a great reminder that, indeed, God has blessed us with TWO babies. Love that.

Loved.

My kids are so blessed to have so much family - near and far - who love them so much. A couple weeks ago, we got to visit with my grandpa's sister and her husband. Uncle Jim and Aunt Darlene (my kids' great-great aunt and uncle!) love these babies so much and pray for them often. I am so grateful for that!

PS: We were all getting together to check out a potential place for my granparents to move to in Yorba Linda. It was so beautiful and I would LOVE it if they moved closer to us. During our visit, my kids were such a hit with all the residents. One man (probably in his eighties) even offered to "watch the little guy" so I could eat lunch. I didn't take him up on the offer, but isn't that so sweet?

The latest from Rebekah Jane

Here's our sweet girl drinking from her bottle - she looks so old to me!

And here she is just looking beautiful. Isn't she so pretty?! I can say that, right? Because I'm her mom and that's what moms are supposed to think. =)

The latest from Ezekiel

Ezekiel has been awfully busy being a boy lately. Some of his latest activities include:


Deploying army men for bathtime reconnassaince


Being silly with his best friend, Kate

"Find Kitty!" This is his new favorite game. Whenever we go out the front door, Ezekiel wants to go over to our neighbor's yard and look for their cat. He looks in the bushes, under the cars, and gets SO excited when Henry decides to make an appearance. Even though it takes forever to get him in the car now, I love this game. I think it is so sweet.


Riding his new pony from Grandpa

Petting the animals at the Farmers Market

Pretending to be a baby in Bekah's bathtub

Looking like such a big kid watching Elmo

Being a complete goofball! Thanks for the Olympic doll, Andy. Ezekiel loves it so much he wears it as decoration.

Little Gymnast

Bekah Jane is quite the little gymnast - we often find her sitting in the funniest ways as if it's the most natural thing in the world. Here is our future Olympian practicing her floor routine:

Visit with Nana

So, after a crazy couple of weeks, I begin my effort to update our blog! Hopefully more posts to come soon.

A few days before Ezekiel's birthday Nana came to visit! We had such a great time together, but I did a lousy job taking pictures. This visit felt a little extra special because I really felt like Ezekiel knows his Nana now and looked forward to seeing her so much. Each morning of her visit he woke up and said "Find Nana!" (He said it for a while after she left too). Kevan's mom loves our kids so much and we love seeing the joy they bring her! Here are a couple cute ones of Nana and her main man:

Lake Almanor!

For a ginormous post on our crazy-but-wonderful time at the lake, click on the post titled "My Cathedral." It is back-dated because I started working on it weeks ago and saved it as a draft until I could finish it. If you finish it, I'm impressed. This one was more for my memory book than anything else.