Our Big One-Year-Old

Ahhhhh, I've said it before and I'll say it again - TIME FLYS!

Libby turned one yesterday. She's been such a sweet addition to our family and we are so thankful for her. She has forgone the process of learning to walk and is working on her ability to communicate with us. She signs for "milk" quite well and she likes to make sounds like a dog - her barks sound more like monkey noises but she's trying! And her peek-a-boo skills are quite astounding, covering both eyes continually. Watch out though (no pun-intended), if you start playing with her it may go on for half an hour - but you will be rewarded with lots of giggles.

Here are some pictures from the big day. We were blessed to have good friends come and eat some of the cake and help us sing "Happy Birthday." Libby was a little cautious of the cake at first but then she, er, really got into it. :)

As my friend Lisa said, "Welcome to the world of sugar, Libby!"

Juxtaposition

Easy Easter :)

We had a very relaxed Easter - it was wonderful. Even easy, one could say. On Saturday, as I woke up to do my devotion, I thought of what it must have been like, that Saturday after Jesus was crucified. It was the Sabbath, a day of rest. The disciples and the women didn't even have work to keep their minds busy. The grief (and fear) must have been palpable. Then on Sunday morning the women prepared the herbs to anoint Jesus' body in the tomb and went worried about how they were going to move the stone away from the entrance. But the tomb was open and empty! Was it easy for them to believe Jesus had risen? Probably just as easy or as hard as we can make it today. It was a day of rejoicing after the mourning as they slowly began to understand the teachings of Jesus in regards to what He would have to endure. How thankful and joyous the women's chatter must have been!

As a family, we rejoiced going to church, celebrating the very core essence to Christianity. That Christ lived a perfect life, sacrificed Himself on behalf of our sins and overcame the grave by rising on the third day. And to take hold of this core essence, we need to trust that this is true and accept it on our behalf as payment for all our sins.

After church, since it was just us here, we went out to eat. We had an Easter egg hunt in the afternoon after naps and then I "grilled out" (Midwest vernacular) or "barbecued" for you non-Midwest people some yummy steaks that Mom and Dad had brought with them.

I was feeling pretty excited, having made it through a holiday without any of the kids being sick. However, my excitement was a little premature as right before Mike and I were about to turn in, Libby started crying because she had thrown-up. However, she went back to sleep and recovered very easily - praise the Lord!

Garden UPdate

Things are coming UP! Thus, things are looking up too :). Yesterday, I started clearing out some of last year's growth that we left for er.....winter "interest." I had to stop when the yardy was full but I know I can fill it about twice over. The robins are here now - we saw our first one on Sunday in the southern part of the city and by Tuesday they started showing up in our yard. Here's a list of some other things we've found in our yard:

• The crocuses are popping up.
• The tulips are poking their heads through too.
• The rudbeckia (black-eyed susans) have some fresh growth at the base.
• The irises are spreading - hopefully we'll get some more blooms!
• The sedums are putting out new growth too.

Here's the seeds I have started in the basement at this point.

• Blue Viola Pansy
• Purple Petunia
• Scarlet Verbena
• White Verbena
• Blue Lagoon Verbena
• Little Boy Pepper (Hot)
• Tomatoes: Tip Top, Black, White Wonder, Yellow Pear, and Big Italian

The only one not to sprout has been the Yellow Pear. I don't know where I'm going to fit all those tomatoes. I'm seriously thinking about doing just a salsa garden this year: tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic (and of course cilantro!). Too bad I don't have a lime tree. ;) But then the urge to plant other things will come in: like cucumbers, beans, butternut squash...oh the list goes on.

The Lips Ice Cream Store

We had the privilege of being invited to a very small, intimate wedding today. Afterwards, around 2PM we thought it would be fun to get an ice cream treat since the sun was shining so brightly and we had a gift card to Dairy Queen. Luke automatically wanted to know where we were going. As we drew near he said, "I know where we are going. We're going to the "lips" restaurant." I don't think I'll ever look at the Dairy Queen logo the same ever again.

Success!

S-U-C-C-E-S-S That's the way we spell Success. La Dahhhhhh, Mike and Tanna are the best, La Dahhhhhhh - We're better than all the rest...... (am I the only one who remembers this cheer? if you haven't heard it before, please ask me to recite it for you the next time we talk).

So, to the story. The other night, I was bumming around on-line and Mike was doing the dishes (he's a great husband!). All of a sudden a thought pops in my mind.

"Alfalfa pellets!" I say out-loud.

"What?"

"Rabbits like to eat alfalfa pellets." I explained.

See with the advent of spring around the corner and our crocus and tulips soon to be poking their heads out of the ground, we had been thinking about our bunny situation. They're currently living under our shed - we've seen the burrow and everything. Lots of fertilizer on the snow and plenty of bunny tracks going around (and I'm not talking about ice cream here.) We had been trying all winter to catch the darn things. Frozen carrots are obviously not their thing in the wintertime. So, we thought we'd try a new bait.

On our date night last Friday we went to the pet store to get some rabbit food. On Saturday we put it out. Mike sneakily spread some out and then piled it in the cage. Sunday morning we anxiously looked to see if we caught anything - nothing. So on and so forth. Until this morning!

Here is the proof that we indeed caught a bunny.

The kids thought it was pretty cool. Here is Libby with her first up-close look at one of the little buggers.

So does anyone have a good recipe for rabbit? (just kidding)

And did anyone notice the above font was made up of contorted bunnies?

A Resprite!

We are going to break the snowfall record here in Cedar Rapids. I just KNOW it. As of yesterday we were 3 and something inches away from breaking the record which I believe was set in the 50's. It is currently snowing and there is a chance for snow through Thursday. It has been a long, cold, snowy winter. And we've dealt with a lot of sickness in our house. In fact, I took Libby in Friday to the doctor to find out she has Influenza A. (She's doing quite well but teething on top of the fact has left her feeling somewhat grouchy.) So on Sunday, with the sun shining and the high near 50 degrees we took advantage of the beauty of the day and decided we needed to eat outside. So, we packed up the kids, went through the drive-threw at Wendy's then made our way to a nearby park. Now, everything was and is still covered with snow so we tailgated. Then we went for a walk on a sidewalk that was mostly clear of snow. As you can see from the first picture - the sun was quite bright and everyone was having a hard time keeping their eyes open for the picture.

So now I have spring fever. But I will rejoice in the day that the Lord has made. We may be doing the Easter Egg hunt out in the snow but we'll have the opportunity to say - "Remember the winter of '07, this is nothing!"