Ellie's 9th Birthday

 My little artist (and oldest girl) turned 9 last month. She loves being with and being just like her momma. One of her favorite Christmas presents this year was her purse and wallet just like mine. She carries it everywhere!

As a fun treat for her birthday, Paul and I took her to get pictures taken. We do annual pictures in the fall for each of the kids, so the main picture I was looking for was one with Paul and I.  She is super sentimental, so I figured she would love to have a picture of "just her" with mom and dad. Something to treasure. With Asher being born in August, I have done lousy with replentishing our winter clothes. It's been more of a "make-do with what you have" and "I don't care how you look, as long as you're dressed" kind of season. Paul, Ellie and I had each dressed in the only coordinating colors we had... black and grey. Pretty drab. So while we were waiting to be called for pictures, Ellie and I ran a few stores down and grabbed a bright pink shirt with earrings and a headband to match.

Afterward we took her for a birthday dinner at TGIFriday's. It's pretty rare for us to go out with only one of the kids, so this was quite a treat. Before we headed home, we picked up a birthday balloon and stopped at Dairy Queen for a cherry dipped cone. :)

I enjoy Ellie. She loves to talk one-on-one with me and especially loves attention from her daddy. She eats it up when he walks by and tickles her or hugs her. Ellie tends to speak softly and think deep. She has lots going on in her head that doesn't always come out through her mouth. She has always had a tendency to be motherly toward animals and not so much toward babies (or not as much as her younger sister). That seems to be changing. She is becoming more of a momma to her baby brother Asher than she had with Selah a couple years ago.

Ellie definitely has siblings that she "gets along with" better than others, but... we're working on that. We've had some good conversations (many times about annoying boy stuff and how it goes away if there's no reaction to it.) She also desperately wants to be considered a big kid. The height difference between Noah and Ellie is quite a bit, so it's easy to forget that they really aren't that far apart, age wise (about 20 months). She tends to get  stuck into the "little kids" group with her younger sister, and Noah usually gets bumped up into the "big kids" group with his 2 older brothers. Giving her more mature responsibility this year will be a focus of mine for her, along with some purposeful mother-daughter time (which I am looking forward to!). I am excited about the young lady that she is growing into and can see her heart is soft toward what God has for her. What a blessing she is to me.

Ellie and her oldest, awesome brother, Caleb

Caleb's shaving lesson

It's pretty awesome to watch my kids grow and mature.  I am really enjoying it, ahem, *most* of the time.  I have been gently teasing Caleb about the random whiskers on his face and warning him that he's "going to have to start shaving pretty soon..."  Well, it's time, so Paul had the privilege of giving his first shaving lesson.

I guess it looks like Caleb is shaving without all the foamy stuff, but his face is actually slicked up with  our homemade shaving-soap-in-a-mug.  He put it on the old fashioned way with a shaving brush like this...  

Caleb zipped through his lesson with dad giving pointers about how to steer the razor around the curves (and mom taking pictures, of course).  

Here you have them, my clean shaven guys!

For each of my kids, growing up and working through the steps to adulthood is something that they are looking forward to. Learning to shave is one more of the "growing up" boxes that they get to check off. And needless to say, Paul's first shaving lesson went off without a hitch (or, shall we say... without a nick).

Asher Dedication

Asher's dedication

Our little guy was dedicated in church Sunday, March 2. He is just over 6 months old. We once again realize that each of our kids are only ours on loan and are making the commitment to honor the Lord in raising little Asher. We asked both of the Grandpas to pray a blessing over him.  What an incredible thing it is to have two Grandpas that love God and are investing their hearts in their grandkids lives.  I love the multi-generational thing.  A legacy that is truely worthwhile.

Grandpa Harold (Asher's grabbing for the mic)

Grandpa Les (Asher fought for the mic through the prayer)

Pastor Jim prayed the blessing that Jacob gave his son, Asher, in the Old Testament, and he also prayed that God would "oil" the workings of our family.