new play rug

I'd seen various versions of these around the blogs for awhile now and then discovered that Ikea has one for just $15! I'll take it! The kids, and especially Asher, have been having a lot of fun with this. Ash loves driving all his cars along the road. He calls it "my rug".

light and dark

mimi and mama

We were playing on the rug in the early evening sun and gave Jared the camera to take some pictures. I like having these moments with my baby girl captured.

after a bath

Asher was sick all last week and is still not totally back to normal but doing much better. Luckily, it seems that Miriam has escaped whatever virus he caught. Thank goodness for that! It is so hard to keep little ones healthy in the winter. I am REALLY looking forward to Spring's warmer temperatures that will allow us to get outside more without risk of so many germs. Asher has been sick more this winter than the rest of his life combined! Nothing serious, but no fun either.

This is a pic I snapped last week after bathtime. They were being so cute sitting together on the bed. I love how much they love each other!

pinterist-- you're gonna love it!

Ok, you might hate how addicting it is too, but it is so great!

So what is Pinterest? Here's how they describe it:

Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.
People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

You really just need to check it out to see for yourself. I'm loving it as a way to keep track of all inspiring images I come across on the web. Really easy to keep them in one place and share them too.

Here's the link to my boards. Come request an invite and follow me and I'll follow you!

this man i love

This man I love

Is good and kind

Brilliant and generous

Affectionate and resourceful

This man I love

Makes our life joyful

Works hard for our family

Shares his gifts with the world

This man I love

Made me his wife

Fathered my children

And cheers me on when I fly


This man I love

Loves me and always will



Happy Anniversary, Jared dear. I love you more.

playing

Every once in awhile Miriam will play by herself like this. I peaked from the kitchen and saw this the other day and had to grab my camera. She spied me too as you can see.

the view from our front porch this morning

Last night the rain turned to snow and this is what we woke up to! I knew we were going to get at least one more good snow. The sun is now shining bright and working on melting the snow away already. I think Spring can come now.

update

I feel like I have lots to blog about but no time to do it. Here's some of what we've been up to...

Last Thursday I photographed my first birth! Very exciting and totally wonderful. It went perfectly. And the timing couldn't have been better. I got to the birth about 7:15 am, the baby was born at 9 and then I stuck around until 11:30 to get pics of the baby being weighed and measured. It was also perfect timing because Jared wasn't teaching that day like he normally would have because of spring break. Miriam even survived being away from mama for nearly 5 hours quite well. Hopefully I'll be able to share some pics from the birth on my photo blog after the family sees them. I'm going to be busy this week going through them all. As to be expected, I took a lot!

Friday night we went to a party at our Hypnobabies instructor Liz's house. She invited over past students for a little reunion. We ended up staying until almost 2 in the morning! We were just talking up a storm with Liz and her husband and sister. Kindred spirits for sure. Amazingly, Asher actually stayed awake that whole time too playing. He didn't want to leave. Definitely has his dad's night owl genes.

Um, I can't remember Saturday. Hmmm... I know we slept in and I took a nap too, so maybe all we did was try to catch up on sleep? I feel like there was something else.

Sunday was busy. We went to a baby blessing of one of Jared's cousin's new babies. Afterward we had lunch at Jared's uncle's house with all the family. Then we came home and Jared made dinner, I made a cake, and my brother's came over. It was Nick's 19th birthday. Can't believe my baby brother is 19!

Yesterday Asher's eyes started getting red and goopy and he ended up sleeping in our bed cuddled up to me all night. He's definitely not feeling well although his eyes seem to be better than they were this morning. We put some breastmilk in them last night but he hasn't let me put more in today. Breastmilk really helps clear up eye infections.

The big kids are also off school today. They are currently watching Justice League.

So that's the boring update for ya'll. Miriam hasn't been going to bed quite as early the past week and I've been going to bed earlier so my two hands free computer time has been sorely limited. Hopefully I'll back into the swing of things this week.

be inspired

I saw this on facebook today and shared it there, but had to post it to my blog as well. What an inspiration this man is. He feeds the homeless, ill, old, and forgotten members of his society. He bathes them and cuts their hair. He loves them when no one else does. Sounds like someone else who lived a couple thousand years ago, doesn't it? This man is also a Brahmin, the upper caste, so he shouldn't even touch the people he's caring for.

EDIT: Jared put this in the comments, but I wanted to add it here too so you all see it. You can donate to this man's organization here: http://www.akshayatrust.org/

Not sure why its cropped the way it is but you won't really miss anything.