Lena turns Nine!

Lena Lu is Nine! Our darling girl is having another birthday and this time it feels like she's becoming a young lady!  Nine is sweet and what a year! This year you soared in your reading and we find that we have two Anne with Green Gables living here. You're busy playing Irish fiddle tunes on your violin, making up your own songs on the piano and singing almost all the time.  Perhaps more than anything else, you love to dance! You have such grace as a ballerina and have just had another recital.  You have adorable pink glasses this year and a brand new brother to love and adore. You are such a good mama to both of your little siblings.  Your favorite food is watermelon and favorite subject history. Your favorite song is "Carol of the Bells" and favorite book The Secret Garden. Your favorite thing to do is to sing! This year has brought new discoveries of the world you live in and some of them are hard. You've discovered that there is suffering and sorrow, sickness and struggle and your heart broke a bit when you realized we are not in Eden anymore. You wrestled through hard questions and came out stronger and more tender hearted, trusting God to help you as you walk His way.  We are so proud of you and love you for your big feelings, your courage to work at hard things, your beauty and grace and stubborn will. May God bless you and keep you always! 

 

Birdie at 3.5

Phoebe Bird is three and half and to document this little fairy girl we took some photos.  Phoebe at three and half is as much a firecracker as she has always been but there are so many precious memories right now.  Phoebe loves to organize things.  She "recognizes" all of the tea towels and laundry, Levi's clothes and socks and is a good helper all around.  She loves to cook and wear aprons and have a good tea party.  But she is equally happy to play in her mud kitchen and get as muddy as any boy around.  She loves ballet and has two good big sister teachers to help her learn her beginning steps. She knows all of her alphabet and seems almost ready to work on piano and reading.  She has a tender heart and a strong will and let us know what she thinks!  I want to remember her funny phrases:   "First Breakfast" instead of the Last Supper, "I don't have germs because only Germans have them". "I can't eat apples because of Adam and Eve", "I love Anne of Green Bagels", can I practice my "patechisms" (catechism), "Hankie Doodle went to town, riding on a horse", "meatover" (sleepover), "twinzers" (tweezers), "thank you God for zert" (dessert). She is so much fun at this age! 

 

The many faces of Levi

These are the many faces of the little baby we love, along with his beloved sisters.  I want to always remember your big eyes, your spikey hair, your dislike of all things cold and love of cozy blankets. I want to remember how you screamed when we put a hat on you, how you fell asleep in the bath, and how you perked right up whenever someone sang. I want to remember how your eyes lit up, even this early when you hear the voices you know and faces you are beginning to recognize. I want to remember  how long you are and how big already, and how your birth and size still take my breath away. I want to remember God's goodness in your delivery and how the sisters fight to hold you. I want to remember how you dislike dinner time and cry like mad. I want to remember sitting on the deck in the sun to relax you, and the mountains of laundry. I want to remember you, at this age, forever.