A Good Influence

That Frankie Kendziera. She is a dear little friend of ours and just about the sweetest 4-year-old you're ever going to meet. In fact, Saskia (Frankie's mom) just posted on her blog about Frankie's kindness and I was just thinking how I need to pray for this quality in my children because it doesn't seem to come naturally. To any of us, really, I don't mean to beat up on my kids. But after spending the day with Frankie and the Kendzieras today, literally a minute after they left, here's Claudia and Jake's conversation...

Jake: Claude, want to play with me?

Claudia: Sure! What do you want to play?

[as you're replaying this in your head, be sure to give my kids the highest, most polite voices you can imagine]

Jake: I don't care! We can play mermaids! Or whatev! [YES! He said WHATEV.]

Claudia: Mom, what do YOU want us to play with?

Me: I don't care, guys. How about these building sets?

Claudia: Oh yes!

Jake: Ooh yeah! These are the best toys EVER!

Maybe that doesn't seem over-the-top wonderful to you, but believe me, after the bickering we've had the past few...weeks...this conversation made me stop in my tracks (is that the saying?) and immediately get on the computer to document it. Bless you, Frankie, for rubbing off on my children today.

Plus, I just went upstairs to look in on them. I got this whole post out and they're STILL building nicely alongside each other. Hallelujah! And on that good note, send them to bed!

Quick, post something!

Quick, the kids are watching their morning cartoons! Here are a few pics to document, in some small way, our past few months!!!

The first swim of the year at Nana and Papa's. I had to double check the date of this swim, but just as I suspected, it was the earliest ever -- April 5!!!...which is why the kids are in their undies...I did not expect the kids to be swimming over the Easter weekend!

One of my favorite pictures from Florida this year - Sam with his great

grandparents. What a blessing to see my grandma, age 89, holding my son! And

just outside the picture, other adults getting ready to catch him JUST in case. :)

Florida was a much-needed break for Ed, and it showed. Here, he's

leading the kids on a lizard hunt while singing AUDIBLY (a rarity for him).

And this is what Ed spent most of his time doing. Meghan said it best,

"Ed's been holding on to that baby like somebody's going to take him away."

The whole family, still on speaking terms, after a week together in Florida.

We spent Mother's Day with Ed's parents this year. And we got a pretty good

picture! Quite a feat! It's just Sam who's not looking at the camera. And who

can blame him? He can't be expected to lift those cheeks up!

Claudia chose to have her friend, Haley, spend the night for her "birthday party" this year.

They also went to a carnival with Ed and came home with these beautiful princess faces.

Sam is 100 days old! It's a Korean tradition to celebrate this milestone in a

baby's life. Look at that face! Ooh! I just want to kiss it! And kiss it! And nibble it!

Thank you, God, for this beautiful 100-day-old child! How could I

NOT want another one? And another? And another? Somebody stop me!

Guess I Won't Update My Blog Today...

I had high hopes of quickly updating my blog and getting some pictures of 4-MONTH-OLD Sam on here. Claudia and Jacob are playing superheroes, shooting arrows around the house while dressed as Batman and Robin. I thought this would entertain them for a while, but Claudia just asked if I wanted to play too. I said no, I wanted to get this done a minute. She responded that I could just be the Mom who's busy all the time. Oops. Better go play...

A Flash (or a Twinkle) from the Past

I came across this video of Claudia singing "Twinkle, Twinkle" at 2 years old. It's hard to remember her at this age...I'm encouraged to take more videos! Enjoy!

One Month Old!

Sam is a month old already, and what a great baby he is. I know life will probably get more difficult as he becomes less of a sleepyhead and then, eventually, mobile (yikes). But for now, the transition to 3 has been great. Thank the Lord Sam is a good baby! Here are some pics from our photo session...

And here's a look at our other kids at 1-2 months old for the sake of comparison...

Most people comment that Sam looks just like Jake, but I definitely see some resemblance to Claudia too. We love our newest addition!

Just had to document this...

Jake loves to dress himself in the morning, and he loves to pick out his clothes the night before. Normally, he just sets them in a pile all ready to go, so that at 6:30am, he can jump out of bed and jump right into his chosen dirt biking or superhero shirt... The other night, however, when I went in to check on him before going to bed myself, I found he had taken some extra care in setting out his clothes for the next day...notice that even his socks are hanging under the window. I cracked up. And then gave him an extra kiss. And then went to get the camera.

Jake the Jokester

Jake and Claudia enjoy making up "jokes" sometimes - I use the term loosely. Here's Jake's best attempt at a knock-knock joke just a few days after Sam was born.

Jake: Knock Knock

Me: Who's there?

Jake: Glad

Me: Glad who?

Jake: Aren't you glad you're not pregnant anymore?

Guess I mentioned my feelings on this subject a few times!