happy easter!

samantha jean is 9 months old today!! and this morning, while her daddy was sleeping, we took these pictures. thanks grandma v for the cute bunny ears!

mom why are we taking pictures so early in the morning? i just woke up.
a smile - i suppose just a half smile. but i do not promise to hold still.
i am still very interested in that thing you are holding to take my picture.
how do these things taste?
not as great as i had hoped...
oh well, at least i can bend the ears
and there is this headband type thing - i usually like things on my head.
happy easter from samantha jean! He is risen, He is risen indeed!

jacob's birthday

we went to bellingham saturday to celebrate jacob's birthday. it was a wonderful celebration of a great guy!

here is sammy, showing us how big she is -
so grandpa how does this thing work?
playing with grandma, and again samantha is concerned with all of us knowing she is so big.
defense and jacob
taking toys out of a basket, nothing better. here, however, she is a little distracted by the basketball madness on the television.
sammy making her auntie laugh
a great, great day!

the joy of clapping

yesterday samantha began clapping and i don't think she has stopped since. she went from happily banging both hands on her high chair tray to putting them together. it is my great delight for her to have such an accomplishment!

another precious moment came this morning - we were sitting on the bed together and she took my hands and clapped them together. i am sure this was her effort of teaching me to clap. she found teaching me to clap very funny and giggled throughout her instruction. maybe she shares her father's love for teaching, or she is just simply overcome with the joy of clapping that she has to share it. either way we all have found much to clap about lately.

recent pictures

i love the outfit she is wearing today - shown in the photo below. some days i am really pleased with my choices for her... others... not so much. today is a good day. also sammy has recently gotten into books and we are having fun reading. this week has been full of pink. here she is in her pink sweatsuit. hood up, just like her daddy.



showing faith her cracker - fantastic...sweetness in a crazy, furry, pink coat
(my friend from church loaned us this coat - very cute, not something i would buy, but very cute).

Samantha's Dedication

Sorry the sound is such poor quality. I guess our camera's microphone isn't the best for this sort of thing. And we also apologize out camera man is running around for the first minute trying to find a good angle to tape from. But if you are willing to put up with jerky camera movement and fuzzy sound, enjoy!

Untitled from Kristi Knipp on Vimeo.

a bit of an update

life is moving right along in vancouver. a few of the highlights:

sammy said her first words - "all done" - it is pretty cute. all done is usually said after she eats, but also comes out throughout the day. all done with diaper change, all done with playing with books, all done looking at faith. all done. i also think she has tried to say banana (her favorite food), and hi dada. maybe other things but i can't think of them right now.

p90x is here. and we are sore. we started last monday in a effort to get back into shape. ok, i can be honest, tim is in shape. this is an effort for me to get back into shape. and tim and i are doing it together while sammy naps. all and all it is a good but really exhausting time. oh, and if you don't know what p90x is - it is a crazy work out program.

sammy is getting close to crawling. the girl can go back and turn around in a circle but has yet to conquer the forward crawl. she can get up on her knees - and even sometimes on her toes - and rock back and forth but she hasn't figured out how to get one hand in front of the other.

tim continues to enjoy school - he has 5.5 weeks left of this semester. after this he will have 2 more classes to go, which is hard to believe. we are currently very much in the process of praying through what the next year will look like. we would greatly appreciate you joining with us in prayer.

thanks for reading. i hope to post some videos of sammy jean in the next few days.

until then.

papa, i am ready for spring training

go mariners!!

close to crawling...
curious about everything

we all know who sammy will cheering for
lets go to arizona grandpa!!

10 things that make me happy

abby - this is for you :) (go to abby's blog to see her list)

10 things that make me happy, in no particular order

1. my husband, he is crazy - in a really wonderful way - and he makes me laugh every day
2. sammy jean and her sweet smile - how she gives them so freely to people - and yesterday for the first time she stuck out her tongue the whole way, oh my she has a long tongue, and it was hilarious!!
3. bananas - samantha finishes almost every meal with some portion of banana - some days it is her primary solid food when nothing else seems to please her, we now have to have them in our house at all times
4. coffee - i just love coffee, especially first thing in the morning
5. talking on the phone - or any form of staying connected with those i love, but mainly talking on the phone. a good conversation does my heart good.
6. sleeping for 7-8 hours straight - this is becoming more normal and i am very thankful
7. Survivor - it is almost embarrassing how much i look forward to thursday nights
8. the moser children - after living in the same house for not long enough they have captured my heart forever and make it feel so happy
9. a long bath - quiet, warm, un-interrupted
10. worship - i love church. i love singing to the Lord. i love hearing biblical teaching and thoughtful prayer. and being with the Lord in this way makes me happy.

what makes you happy? hopefully you have a chance to do it today!

ps - knowing there of some of you who take the time to read this makes me happy too!

yesterday

what do you get when you put sammy jean in a very cute outfit (much thanks to defense's best friend jenn) with the perfect lighting?... some great pictures.

dedication day

Samantha was dedicated to the Lord on sunday. The short service was an incredible blessing to us, as we committed to our great God this precious gift He has given to us. Sammy looked awful cute in her red, white and blue. We were blessed by those who came - my family, erin and kurtis, and joyce, calum and finely. Dan, our dear friend and pastor, prayed a thoughtful prayer over Samantha - and she did well with him holding her.

Here is Dan and Sammy as he is praying for her. (silly music stand in the way)
after the service - the family
sammy with her parents
with kurtis and erin
after the service we had everyone over for pizza. :)

it was a special day - powerful for Tim and I to dedicate sammy to Jesus in a public way. and equally meaningful to have some of those we love most to also dedicate themselves to Samantha. we did, however, miss our family and friends who live too far away!!

pictures from auntie d's camera

here are some cute pictures from my sister's camera-
sammy loves to empty her basket of toys! this is her new favorite thing to do.
bath time in the sink
all clean and reading books with auntie!
this particular night my sister and mom watched samantha while tim and i went out to dinner. thanks sis so much for the night out!!

pictures from friday

the morning - waiting for the torch - an over-exposed half smile :)
sammy and her friend ayana
the torch is coming.... and there it is - i was disappointed to not get the face of the gal holding the torch, oh well. the whole things was slightly anti-climactic - all of the waiting for a few moments of watching the torch pass by, but i am glad we went down and saw it (and the hundreds of school children waving flags and dressed in red).
the afternoon:
her first protest :)the mass of people - there were presenters who were difficult to hear and some chanting before we began to march. we are about in the middle of the crowd. the papers said around 1500-2000 people that were there. there were also very-pro olympic participants who walked through the crowd yelling, "go canada!!" (which was a bit much for me).
the art museum
we ended up leaving before the whole thing was over. it was very crowded and we happened to get in front of the anti-government group dressed in all black from head to toe, except for their eyes showing. the group was yelling things, which i will not repeat here and which were unfortunately stuck in my head for a few hours afterward.

so we stepped out of the march. and continued down the street. when we got towards the place where the opening ceremonies were being held we saw mass amounts of police behind barriers. probably good we left, in case things became 'un-peaceful.' thankfully nothing major happened, no one was arrested and the opening ceremonies continued just as planned. and we had pizza for dinner, just as we planned.

today's olympic events

only in vancouver could we be planning to go to see the olympic torch in the morning and a protest of the olympics in afternoon - haha!

the torch will come through our neighborhood and be just blocks away. a friend from church, who also has a little girl, is coming over this morning and we will walk to see the torch. once in a lifetime!

this afternoon we are going downtown to raise peaceful awareness of the ways the poor have been oppressed by the games - low-income housing has been decreased due to hotels and other places wanting to make money during the games, promised housing for homeless individuals has not come through and individuals have been mistreated in the name of security. in an effort to stand with the poor of vancouver we will show up today. peacefully.

today's olympic events - will keep you updated from vancouver.