Warm Spring Day

FINALLY, it seems that spring is here to stay, but I'm not keeping my hopes up too high...as long as we don't have any more snow, I will be happy! We took advantage of a 76 degree day today and spent a lot of time outside in the backyard (Greg went to church solo because we all have colds and didn't want to spread the germs). Joel practicing his slapshot...Maren hanging out in an adorable little dress.

Cutie pies...

Maren's Milestones

Well, Maren is growing, changing and getting more fun every day (except for the cold she has right now!). She cut her first tooth the day before Easter (april 7th) and the second one came in a couple of days ago. I was finally able to get a picture of tooth #1, so here it is!
She has also started sleeping on her tummy, now that she can roll over easily. She seems to sleep better and for longer this way - last night she slept for 7 1/2 hours!

More Easter Pics

We had to take many many pictures to get it just right...here are some cute snapshots we got in this photo shoot...
Joel...look at the camera!! (Maren, too!)
Sigh...are we DONE yet?

Easter

Our family on Easter Day...
Joel posing for the camera...what a handsome young man!
Hi everyone! Here I am in my first Easter dress!
We had an Easter Egg Hunt for Joel after church (Maren was sleeping - not that she would have participated anyway!).
Notice the winter coat - it was in the 30's today! Joel LOVED doing the easter egg hunt, though, so we did it again (and again, and again) inside!
All the eggs were filled with jelly beans and suckers (he was only allowed to eat a few, then we put the rest away for gradual consumption!)

5 Years!

On March 23rd Greg and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! It is amazing to think about how much has happened and how much our lives have changed in those 5 years! Just to name a few: I graduated from PSU, we moved 5 times, Joel and Maren joined our family, Greg successfully completed 3 years of seminary and earned an MDiv (in May)...this is A LOT! We hope the next 5 years are not quite so eventful, but just as filled with growth and love!

On the day of our anniversary we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo with the kids - it was a bit cold and misty, but the animals were active and it was fun to get out and do something as a family.

Here's Joel in a floor to ceiling "maze" that kids can climb through. There is only one way in and one way out, so it was stressful for me to have him up so high and with lots of other kids (some big 5 year olds!), but of course he loved it!

About a week later, we went out alone to a nice dinner at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba to celebrate both our anniversary and my 30th Birthday (April 5th). The food was amazing (Spanish Tapas) and we would highly recommend it to anyone living in or visiting Chicago! We forgot to take a picture of us on this night... :(