Smiling faces

Lest you think I have abandoned my blog, I do have hopes of actually posting more regularly again. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the kiddos of late.  

Krieg played his first season of T-ball and loved it, not that anyone would have doubted that!

 

Reagan is about to turn one and into everything. She's till not walking, but managed to get into anything she sets her mind to. This particular day I finally let her crawl into a huge puddle the big kids had been playing in for awhile. It was pure bliss, as you cansee.

 And Karis, she is growing into herself more and more. Funny, independent, determined and oh-so dramatic.

 Love these three crazy kids of ours!

Good Friday

I read this to the kids in the Jesus Storybook Bible tonight...

"God was going to pour into Jesus' heart all the sadness and brokenness in people's hearts. He was going to pour into Jesus' body all the sickness in people's bodies. God was going to have to blame his son for everything that had gone wrong. It would crush Jesus.
But there was something else, something even more horrible. When people ran away from God, they lost God-it was what happened when they ran away. Not being close to God was like a punishment. Jesus was going to take that punishment. Jesus knew what that meant. He was going to lose his Father-and that, Jesus knew, would break his heart in two. Violent sobs shook Jesus' whole body. Then Jesus was quiet. Like a lamb. "I trust you, Papa," he said. "Whatever you say, I will do."

And later as Jesus was hanging on the cross...
"'Papa?' Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky. 'Papa? Where are you? Don't leave me!' And for the first time-and the last--when he spoke, nothing happened. Just horrible endless silence. God didn't answer. He turned away from his Boy."


What's a mama to do but cry when she thinks of a Son crying out to his Father and hearing silence. And knowing that Jesus knew full well that His cries would not be returned...

What a great Savior we have who loves us enough to endure separation from His own Father and bear our sin and God's judgement!

Let in snow, let it snow, let it snow

 "Smacking the snow covered tree" from The Snowy Day

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas from the Arrowoods!

 

Plus a little bonus from Christmas cookie decorating with Miss Lindsay!

 

The new normal

In case anyone still checks our blog, we are indeed alive and well, just busy trying to figure out how to do life in a new city, with a totally new schedule, and a baby. Here are a few snapshots of what we've been doing to keep busy and enjoy our new house and especially our HUGE yard, which we all love! 

 There has been lots of tree climbing going on. Krieg could probably go another 10 feet up this one if I let him, but I'm just not that brave!

 Both some pretend camping in the front yard, sleeping bags and all, and one night of real camping out back for Krieg and Kevin. Krieg LOVED it!!

And lots of loving on little Reagan. She continues to be the sweetest, most smiley, happy baby around. Except I can't seem to get her to smile for the camera since she can't see my face! And in case anyone was wondering, we did finally get Krieg's mop of hair cut. 

The house we are living in right now has an awesome yard, lots of shade, a long, flat driveway, a pear tree that was producing fruit when we moved up here, as well as a wild persimmon tree that we go and pick persimmons from every day. I never knew what we were missing out on not having a nice yard to play in. Krieg and Karis entertain themselves outside for hours a day, literally. It is awesome! 

I'm slowly finding my way around here, with a lot of help from the GPS. After living in small towns for the last 7 years, I still get a little overwhelmed by all the people and traffic on Saturdays! But we've managed to find some great parks, get acquainted with the library and find a few friends' houses and check out some churches. All in all, we are enjoyed being here, but missing all of our friends!

So glad...

...that this guy is home from Charlotte for the weekend! There have been a few kiddos around here who have needed some Daddy love and snuggles!

a few smiles

 Poor Reagan, such a third child. Having time to pull out the camera just doesn't seem to be happening these days. But I finally managed to get a few pictures of her sweet smile that has been making its appearance lately. Plus a few extras of the girls' first matching outfit thanks to Emily!

Krieg is still loving holding Reagan any chance he can get!