we are officially a young family

we are going to a pumpkin patch this afternoon :)

pictures to come...

pretty girls

spending a week in upland with the mosers was so good. refreshing, encouraging, good. oh my we love them!! isa was incredible with sammy. she showed her such attention and care. isa certainly has a nurturing spirit and samantha ate it up!

sammy loves her auntie b!

dedicated to the Lord

while we were in colorado sweet ellis jane was dedicated to the Lord.
sleeping in papa's arms. a mighty nice place.

we love you dear ellis jane. you are amazing. you have shown us your strength from day one. and i know the Lord will use you in mighty ways for his glory. he certainly has great plans for your life. and it is our delight to commit to loving you and showing you Jesus.

ps

faith also plans to rest all day today. rest or pout - it is hard to say which. she loved her time in bellingham with my parents and tried to sneak back in their house when it was time to leave.

don't worry faith - we wouldn't forget you - much to your dismay.

thanks so much mom and dad for watching and caring for our ball obsessed doggie!! so much so that she is in a deep depression after leaving. :)

goal for today

goal: unpack and do some laundry.

we will see if it happens. sammy and i were asleep at 8:30 last night after waking up at 3:15 am (indiana time). two plane flights and a two hour drive, a birthday celebration (my grandpas) and a 1.5 hour drive and a trip through an international border and lots of awake time later - we arrived at home.

our trip was amazing to say the least. i have a few great pictures that i hope to post in the next few days. we LOVED seeing everyone. LOVED!

samantha did great. she was a wonderful traveler and we believe she really does seem to have a relaxed personality. it was fun to see her take everything in. we already scouted out her room at taylor, and she and hannah b plan to move in year 2027 :)

ok. sammy is ready for nap number 1 of the day and i may just join her.

cousins!

sammy met her cousin ellis on saturday!! these two were so cute together.

here they are checking each other out:
be gentle with your younger cousin ellis :)
two cute little ladies
we all agreed that christmas will be very fun to see these two hang out more. i know they will be great friends!!

hanging out in the airport

sammy did great on her first flight! she ate, took a nap and did some wiggling.

celebrating mom

we traveled to bellingham friday night to celebrate my mom (and spend the night for our flight out of seattle on saturday).

here is sammy taking a snooze on grandma
danielle offering peace and a happy mom and dad
uncle jacob
birthday cake - i made a lemon cake and it turned out pretty well
happy birthday mom! we love you so much!!

strawberry sweetcake

and so much thanks to marilyn for the super cute hat!! we get compliments everywhere we go :)

samantha's photo shoot

this is one of the many amazing images mark schulz, our dear family friend, took of samantha on her two month birthday. mark takes pictures as a ministry to families in ministry. we feel completely blessed by both mark and marilyn, his wife. sammy now has three of the cutest hats knit by marilyn, and i hope to post some pictures of sammy in those hats soon.

check out a few more of the pictures here.

we love you mark and marilyn and are incredibily thankful for you!!

sammy jean is 3 months old and loves her daddy

these pictures were taken on oct 4, samantha's three month birthday. it is so fun to watch sammy grow and see her change before our eyes. she can track people from across the room, turn her head to the sound of my voice and is regularly putting her hands in her mouth. she loves to talk and smile at everyone. she does, however, need her alone time and enjoys laying on the ground and wiggling in circles on her back. she wakes up once or twice a night to eat but goes quickly back to bed. she is beginning to laugh more and more - her favorite time to laugh is when her clothes are being changed.

sammy is going on her first airplane ride on saturday. we would appreciate all of your prayers for this first travel experience! :)

fall festival

this outfit of sammys reminded me of our dear friend keri. keri loves the fall and while we lived in aurora we would have a fall festival with her and charlie, which really meant keri would cook all kinds of ymmy fall foods for us all to eat and we would watch football. such good memories!!

rain

last night we walked home from dinner at a friend's house in the rain. it wasn't raining hard but definitely a steady drizzle. sammy had a sweatshirt on with a hood. the whole way home she kept tilting her head back, at which point the hood would fall down. at first i quickly pulled her hood back up. after a few times i realized she was intentionally putting her head back and letting the rain fall on her face. she had the biggest grin as she felt, for the first time, rain. amazing. she loved feeling the rain. so after i realized what was happening, for the last 2 blocks we had to walk, i let her experience the rain. and it was the coolest thing watching her experience with great delight the rain for the first time.

so much i have to learn from a baby girl who is simply taking all of life in. today may i, may we, even if it is hard or doesn't make any sense, remember there can be delight in the rain - for the Creator of the rain is present with us.

overalls

my first day wearing overalls. don't worry auntie stina, i have an engineer pair too :)

and much thanks to auntie nico for pointing out sammy is indeed sticking out her tongue in every picture. she loves sticking out her tongue!