3 lovely years.

happy birthday to my sweet little girl.  i took a stroll down memory lane and picked some of my favorite pictures from her three years.  

she had a 'square face' for awhile... can you tell?

happy first birthday to my girl!

she's an odd one 

she still does that bossy/'i own this place' walk

winter runs with mama

we knew we were moving to indonesia and were too cheap to buy her snow boats...
so she wore bags on her feet.  :)

still loves to read, but doesn't find daddy's snow hat laying around anymore

and now, life in indonesia.... 

we love going on motorcycle rides together... she sings the whole time and loves every minute of it!

carrying her baby indonesian style

she loves to sing and play her guitar

mary, we love you so much.  you are sweet, fun, and loving.  you crack us up more that we'll ever remember.  you test your boundaries and you're hilarious doing it.  you ask me to hold you when you know i can't, like when i'm driving or in the shower.... i still don't know why.  your favorite bible stories are "the man the with the funny hair" (Jesus healing the blind man, who apparently has funny hair), lazarus being raised from the dead, and adam and eve disobeying God... but we always talk about the Good News on that day too.  Jesus is going to come and step on the snake!  :)  you love to do exercises... like all the time.  you love to go 'jalan-jalan' around our neighborhood everyday.  you are still very much in the process of learning to share with your brother, but sometimes you can be the sweetest thing ever to him.  you love to laugh and scream with luke.  you're favorite song is 'how great is our God.'  you love going to wendy's.  you talk like a little adult and try out new words and phrases everyday.  sometimes we battle with you for hours to go poop on the potty, and sometimes you still go in your underwear... and then i have to repent of my bad attitude to you about 30 minutes later.  i'm looking forward to you being over that fear.  you love 'family hugs.'  you love to watch veggie tales movies.  you've started to pretend a lot and sometimes even pretend that you have this robot from elmo with you (which is totally fine, i had an imaginary friend and i'm totally normal).  :)  you drew your first 'self portrait' this week, complete with a head, a face, hair, two arms and one leg.

i could go on and on but since mary can't read and no one is as interested as me and danny in all of these little memories i'll stop.

we thank God that He has given us our daughter.  we pray that one day she'll know that she was lovingly created by God and for God's glory... and that she will joyfully submit under His love and Lordship.

sweetness

they love each other.

mary was being so sweet to luke.  she gets this sweet voice and says, "i love you bubba" and puts her little hands on his shoulders while kissing him.  like she's so big and has to be so careful with her baby brother.

and here's luke showing his love for mary... blowing her a kiss.

this is my favorite... i love the screaming/laughing together. 

the empty egg.

this is kind of the story of luke's first easter egg hunt.  that is his camo basket (from a friend, but very appropriate for my manly little boy) and the pink egg 0.7 inches from it.  the pink egg never made it into the basket.  he threw it a few times and kicked it a lot.  i tried to show him how, but gently placing eggs in a basket is for the weak.  he preferred to chuck them across the grassy knoll...  

... and kick them.  we're in asia, he can't help but learn soccer.  though danny and i both agree that he will be a basketball, football and baseball player in the end.  

or open them.

but if i'm honest, this picture best represents his day.  it was a rough one!!!  i like to tell myself it was because he is getting his molars in right now, but not sure if that's really why he was so cranky.  i love him all the same, but man, holding him outside that long made me hot!  this is when i put him down for 12 seconds.  he wanted to be held again, can you tell?

he was totally fine once we got home.  he got a new cup with a straw (just like his big sister's) and he was pretty excited about it.  after this moment was one of the best "photo ops" of my kids together yet.  pictures to come tomorrow, but it was one of those moments that i love.  one of my favorite sounds is hearing them laugh hysterically together.  

mary had a great time at the easter egg hunt... i think she understood the objective a bit more.  :)

 the tomb (and egg) is empty... 

HE IS RISEN! 

the service before the easter egg hunt was wonderful.  my kids were great (thanks to the cheerios that mimi brought from america) and we were really able to reflect on Jesus and the victory over sin and death and destruction that comes with his resurrection.  we are so blessed now and we have something unimaginable to look forward to.  i pray that one day my kids understand what the empty tomb is all about!

mary picks those little flowers by the side of the road almost every day when we go on walks... and she's excited to give them to her daddy every time.  

lastly, our attempt at a family picture.  one day... one day we'll all be smiling.  

and after mary got a basketful of eggs, she got one on her forehead that night too.  poor little girl.  she was playing with a friend on the bed and fell off onto the tile floor.  she was fine a few minutes later, but she's still telling me to be "hati-hati" (careful in indonesian) with her booboo every time i wash her face or put a shirt on her.  

together again.

a family from boston just moved here and we are thrilled they are here! we've been waiting their arrival for months and are so glad they've finally made it across the big ocean. it's fun to have people we're comfortable with and people that know our history and stuff... it was also fun to see that our kids acted like we just were at their house last week.

mary and eli are only 5 weeks apart... here they are at the very beginning.

they have been playing super well together the last few weeks. you know, sharing personal secrets and stuff.

they started school together this week and have enjoyed that... though i must confess, eli is doing much better than mary. mary is getting there. every day she's a little happier and a little easier to drop off. here she is in her little classroom. i wish you could see her outfit... she has this adorable grey dress on and then insisted on wearing this "dress up" purple vest backwards to school. sometimes, you pick your battles with your 2 year old.

anyway, after school today eli came over to play and i took the two of them on a little adventure. we walked down the street and waited for the "angkot," the public transportation here. here they are waiting.

on the "angkot" or as they called it, the blue bus

waiting of our juices. uhh, how funny is the obvious difference between the boy and the girl. mary kept saying she wanted to roll down the hill like eli, she would get all set up and then say "i not want to do that."

and then we got our juices which i didn't take a picture of because eli sucked his down in about .7 seconds. it was hilarious. he kept sucking and his straw was making the slurping noise and these sweet older ladies were laughing at him. meanwhile, mary had about three drinks and was done... and eli wanted to finish it. i drank most of it because i thought two juices would be a bit too much sugar for him. :) and, here they are playing in the water.

celebrate good times.

we've had two celebrations this weekend.  friday mary had her first day of school.  we actually had a first day of school (trial) on monday too, but we didn't love the school so we decided on another one which i think is going to be great.  more about school later... but here we are off to mary's first day of school.  

don't mind my squished cheeks.  my power ranger helmet is tight and safe!

and then on saturday mary went poop in the potty.  yep, we're having some REAL trouble with that.  she's been trained for three months for numer one but we have a long struggle almost every day for two... even if we put her in a pull up.  anyways, we will take the small victory and celebrate.  took her on a motorcycle ride to get "ice cream" (or a fruit bar) and we sat on a curb by these huge letters that she likes.  they're in this big neighborhood and she always talks about the green letters... they aren't even letters, they're just a design but she says that it says "M-A-R-Y".  

this may bore some of you, but i want to remember... our bed time routine.  mary calls daddy to 'get the light', danny runs in and i hold mary and they fight to turn the light off.  i lay beside mary at the end of her bed and we all sing amazing grace.  i throw the blanket towards her pillow and crawls there to win the race.  we say good night mary... and she says "mommy, will you hold me one more time."  i say yes.  "but i want my dad to hold me.  and then after daddy's turn, it's your turn and after your turn it's daddy's turn more-gin."  daddy picks her up, she places her blanket over his shoulder and we sing the last two lines of amazing grace.  i take her and she wants to be held like a baby.  we sing the last two lines again.  she wants us to do "family hug" all through the song.  i lay her down and we say good night.  as i'm walking out the door... "but mommy, i need something."  she usually wants water or socks... because those are the only two things that she'll get.  though sometimes i just want to say, GET IN BED!  danny reminds me to be patient and let her have her little quirks (maybe because he has them too so he understands her mentality more than i do).  i write this because one day i'll forget... she's has so many 'bed time' quirks that we have already forgotten.  i also write this to tell you, if you have a two year old just stop it before it starts!  :)