Happy New Year!

Hello! It has been such an embarrassingly long time since I last posted. I have been trying to post for the last two weeks and finally found time tonight. One of the things that keeps me from posting more often is how long it takes to download each photo. This post took about two hours!

I'll try to get you up to date in coming weeks about what the girls are up to. For now, here are some beautiful photos of the girls, taken last July by my talented sister-in-law, Amy Wenzel. Check out her site here.

Lily's first haircut! (kind of)

Lily just had her first haircut today (kind of! She got her bangs cut at 20 mos. old; we were on vacation and wanted good photos of her--and her eyes--but we had no scissors on us.) Here she is afterwards.

Here she is today, at breakfast with Jamin and Anabelle.

Before

Miss Michaela had a good time, I think.

Passing the time.

She wasn't at all nervous; she knew what she wanted. Actually, she wanted it as short as mine, but we said no.

After!

Our sweet girl!

Anabelle's baptism

Anabelle was baptized yesterday. It was extra special because it was Mother's Day, and also because it was Phil Ryken's last baptism at Tenth. (We are gonna miss him!) His blessing for Anabelle, whose name means amiable or lovable: "May the witness of her life help people to know how much they are loved by God."

Her hand-smocked dress is from Aunt Margie, my special great aunt in Knoxville.

Lily thought the whole thing was very special. I'm glad she'll remember it, because Anabelle won't!

At lunch with Mor Mor and Pop Pop afterwards.

Our beautiful church!

Sweet girl. Handsome daddy!

my nature girl

Lily made fast friends with a caterpillar today. Even though they were only together for about 30 minutes, they had a lot of fun together. She cried when she had to let him go to come inside. It was very sweet to see her care for him. She would say, over and over, "Awwwww, he's so cuuuute!" like she was talking about a puppy or a baby. I snapped a few pics of their fleeting friendship...

Kissing him goodbye...

Caterpillar (his given name) was teeny-tiny. The other caterpillars were more like the size of her fingers. In comparison to his beefy siblings, he was very cute.

Have a lovely week! Enjoy the weather, if you can!

Disneyworld!

Jamin has been doing our taxes while I have been posting these pics! I love you, honey!

We went to Disneyworld in late March. We had a GREAT time. Lily wasn't afraid of any characters this time, except Mike kinda freaked her out a bit! Anabelle had no fear!

Gotta ride the teacups!

All of the characters played their parts well. This Peter had a really great rooster crow.

One of many, many Princess pictures! They were all so sweet, and Lily had questions for them all. She asked Ariel why she wasn't wearing any clothes!

The weather was beautiful--not too warm, no rain, and there was a slight chill in the mornings and evenings. I can't imagine going in the heat of summer!

The girls LOVED the parades. We saw at least one parade a day, and three fireworks shows during the week.

It was such a joy to watch them both light up again and again during the week. We had a wonderful time!

my funny valentines

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. We have had a lot of snow in the past couple of weeks but, fortunately, we were able to get out of the house this past weekend. Lily and Jamin had a Daddy-Daughter Date Night on Saturday; yesterday we all went to see the dinosaur bones at the natural history museum.

I have to share a few pics from the weekend. Here is sweet Anabelle after Lily fed her breakfast. We had a good laugh over her new teeth.

I wanted to snap a few shots of her curls, which you rarely see because they quickly turn into crazy bed-head. (Note that the pieces at her temples are straight, just like mine!) The back is just long enough for little pigtails, but they fall out easily since her hair is so fine.

This is Lily posing in the rose barrette I made her for Valentine's Day. Look out, Giselle! (Check out the how-to instructions here.)

Pink Steel

The modeling session quickly turned silly and goofy. Surprised? (I'll spare you the shots of her feet that followed.)

Quote of the Day

This morning, while I was helping Lily get dressed, she tried to turn around backwards over her shoulder to see her own rear. Then she asked me:

"Mommy, does my bottom look serious?"

We had a wonderful visit with cousins Lauren and Jason this weekend: