Snow Day

Okay, not yet. But maybe soon. But the boys and their neighbor decided to make frost angels since they were testing out their snow gear. We thought it would be wise to find all their snow gear now and test for proper fit BEFORE the morning of traveling up to the mountains!

Lucky Winners

The names have been drawn for the card giveaway! Kelly, I'll email you your code. Rhonda, leave a comment with your email address (I won't publish it) and I'll send one your way too.  Congrats, ladies!

Beautiful 2

This little lady turned 2 today! Happy Birthday, beautiful Bereket! On the coattails of her biggest brother's birthday on Tuesday, she was so prepared for all the attention and fun today. She knew just what was going to happen and that she was the special one today. 

Before I barrage you with a zillion photos of today, I want to share a little snapshot of Bereket at 2: 

• Such a talker! She is speaking fluently, and can express a myriad of emotions with words and expressions. She seldom has tantrums anymore (yay!) and instead says, "I don't want to play with you anymore, ___________!!" For fun, I'm going to include this little video of her saying this a couple nights ago. Listen closely at the beginning because she's YELLING behind the door and had been doing so for at least a minute before I could grab the camera. Sorry, it was dark--bedtime around here.

• Girly in a way that surprises me still. She is ALL GIRL. I never imagined encouraging others to buy her tutus, princess dresses and dolls. But, this is what she LOVES. She loves "pink!!!" and "nail polish" and "sparkles!!", "party dresses!" and "shoes!!!!!!" All those exclamations are because I hear her high pitched voice squealing those words as I write them. She loves her baby dolls and takes them for walks, feeds them, cuddles with them, etc. She is a nurturer. She is a girl in the truest sense, and I love that about her. I love it especially because it is so different from my boys (and me!) and is uniquely her. In case you missed it on facebook, here is a video Mark took yesterday after she asked if we could get new nail polish, which I obliged. 

• She is emotive! She is fun, fun, fun and loves to party. She also feels things deeply and expresses her feelings so freely and can articulate them so well. You never have to wonder what Miss B is thinking. She wears her heart on her sleeve. Gone are the days of withdrawn/quiet/anxious Bereket. She is confident and joyful. She is also so loving and affectionate. She kisses Mark and me several times a day, gives hugs all the time, tells us she loves us often and enjoys cuddling. 

On to today! We spent her birthday doing things Bereket likes. Mark took the day off (I already had today off) and we started the morning off with a dance party ala kid-style, followed by a mother-daughter trip out to our favorite neighborhood bakery for her favorite berry croissant. She picked out her cake mix from the store and was so proud of the little Mickey Mouse balloon I bought her. She wanted to wear a new tutu from Grandma Jean, and her "polka dots" from Etta and rain boots, so her outfit was all self-selected (for the record, folks). We spent the morning at a park a few blocks away from our house and enjoyed just hanging out as a family. With how busy things have been lately, this was a huge treat for all of us. We climbed and played. We didn't want to leave, but Ashen was already late for school so we ate a quick lunch and took him to school. Torin and I made her requested pink cupcakes while she napped. Dinner was her favorite (pizza!) and she couldn't wait for her cupcakes. She received at least five phone calls today and soaked each one up. She received some books and a doll today. She named her doll "Hanna" after herself and they are sleeping soundly together after quickly becoming best friends this evening. Hanna is even wearing a matching purple sleep cap :-) 

For those of you who don't personally know our Bereket Hanna, these pictures capture her quite well. She is bright, kind, loving, curious, empathetic, sharing and absolutely breath-taking. We are so blessed to wake each day with this girl. I love you, baby!

A Day in the Life of my FIVE year old

November 8, 2011: Today he turned five. He was excited. He couldn't wait to tell his friends, "I'm five!" Today was special. I took the day off of work and spent it making him feel like King for a day. Waking to streamers and the birthday banner, little boxes of sugar cereal, opened nerf guns (little lighted ball for Bereket), and watched the movie "Rio" which they loved. Then we headed downtown on the train for lunch out (did I really just take three kids out to lunch at a sit down restaurant...alone?! Yes, and I was the one who spilled the whole up of water on the floor :-). This afternoon I was a guest teacher in Ashen's class, which was so fun for me, though I was a little nervous to be honest. I did a lesson on diversity: "we're all different, but we're all the alike" complete with a craft, puppet show and a story. Then on to banging open a pinata---a first for most of the kids in the class. Ashen chose that over cupcakes. It was filled with glow bracelets, dinosaur tattoos and 2 pieces of candy each, leftover from Halloween loot. They had so much fun!! Tonight we had BBQ chicken sandwiches and a bacon spinach salad, which Ashen said was his favorite meal ever. He opened two gifts (walkie talkies from us and books from Aunt Judy) and had a low-key evening as a family. Ashen's loved every bit of it! So blessed to have such a special 5 year old boy!! Today,  I think of the special woman who gave birth to this miracle in my life five years ago. I'm sure she is thinking of him today too, and I pray she knows how grateful I am for the gift of our son.


His birthday in photos:

Happy Birthday, Ashen!

You Did Not Choose Me

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other."~Jesus (John 15:16-17)

I introduced our family to the congregation (it's a small congregation, so we know most folks, but just in case)

We talked with her thoroughly about the happenings of the day, but I was shocked that she went willingly to Renee--she does not like to be in the spotlight in crowds or with strangers. Renee and her husband, James B. (on left), are our pastors. I told her that they were going to put water on her head because Jesus loves her so much. Later she said, "Mama, water on head. Jesus loves me."

notice the larger than life photo of her in the left corner...

 
Seeing this photo of Torin looking up at her in the corner reminds me of the boys' baptism. 

She was in heaven in her "Ethiopian princess" dress as she calls it. I bought it in Addis last year, not knowing it would be the perfect dress for this special occasion. Between my mother-in-law and I, we spent several hours altering the dress and reinforcing seams to fit and last through the day. She was absolutely gorgeous. She felt special. And the shoes? Well, those were icing on the cake. I bought the the night before the baptism and my dad was here to spend the night, and she ran over to him, "Grandpa. Look. Fancy shoes!!"

Her big brother was pretty proud of her too. I am not sure how much longer he'll be able to pick her up like this. Guesses?

She was baptized. My niece, Dahlia was baptized with her, as were our good friends' son and their niece. All of our friends and family were there to show their support. It was beautiful to see the kids together, all being ceremoniously shown how much He loved them first. Before they could even try to love Him back. That is why we chose the verse above as her baptism verse. Jesus loves her no matter what, and we pledged to make sure she always knows that.