Happy Late Birthday Dad! (It was the 12th)

Evelyn's Blessing

Yummy cake for the kids' blessing.

Evelyn and me on Sunday, January 11th at the Renton Community of Christ at the reception after the blessing.

The Dahlquist family were there to support and celebrate with us!

Lauren, Makayla, Kaleb and Jade with the cake the congregation had for us. I can't believe how the time goes so fast! It seems just yesterday that I was baptizing Lauren as a little girl!

Some of my favorite people: Janet, our co-pastor, Peter, my brother, and Bruce, Janet's husband and Todd's Xbox buddy!

Grandpa Jim (my dad), Uncle Mark and Grandpa Burt holding Evelyn as my dad gives the blessing prayer.


Sorry the pictures are so dark! Evelyn was blessed at our congregation in Renton, January 11th, along with her two little cousins, Makayla and Kaleb, my niece Lauren and her husband Jade's, kids. Usually this is a baby blessing, not a toddler blessing so Lauren and I were both a little nervous to see how this would go! Makayla had a hard time but it was a new setting and a lot of new people she didn't recognize. Evelyn just kind of chilled out in Grandpa Burt's arms, and Kaleb just beamed the whole time during his!

In our denomination, Community of Christ, a baby blessing is just that. A blessing and show of support by the congregation. It is a sacrament that represents Jesus' blessing of the children and holding them up as the example of the purity and joy of the kingdom of heaven. This isn't a theology lesson, but I do like that our tradition inclues this wonderful ritual of recognizing that children don't need "saving", but rather that parents do need support and children thrive in communities that love, empower and protect them. It feels really healthy to me.

My brother David played his guitar, including an orignal piece he composed. It was absolutely beautiful. Dad gave the blessing prayers for all three, with Grandpa Burt assisting with Evelyn's. He did a really great job, keeping the short but eloquent and meaningful. Not an easy task! My older brother Mark, gave the sermon and did an equally wonderful job. He talked about the "stories" we tell ourselves about our lives and how those stories are powerful and important and we need to pay attention to them. What kind of stories are we helping our children tell about their lives? How do we incorporate the stories of each other's lives and piece together our experiences as a community to create a meaningful, loving and supportive body. It was really good stuff!

Catching up with growing kids...

Finley's preschool class had a "drive-in movie theater" the other day. Each child brought in a big cardboard box to decorate like a car. Then on the Friday of that week, they got to watch a movie and eat popcorn in their "cars." They had so much fun! The other boy is one of Finley's favorite friends, Max.

It has been so long since I've updated my blog that I thought I'd just take some pictures of the kids to show how they've grown. We hadn't been to Evelyn's little one year old class at the pre-school in so long and we finally made it this week. It was class picture day on Wednesday and I figured we better show up for that to prove we were actually in the class!

These pictures were actually from February 12th, as we were gettting ready to go get Finley's hair cut. They are getting so used to each other as brother and sister. MOST of the time, they are very loving to each other and that, of course, warms a mother's heart. When Finley is impatient with her or she is learning how fun it is to bug him or mess up his toys, I feel like pulling my hair out. Fortunately, those moments are outweighed by more fun and gentleness.

We've moved Evelyn into her own room now. While she loves having all her "stuff" in one room and having a new area to play in, it has disrupted all our sleep habits. She has been waking up a lot so I end up sleeping in her bed with her and then, Finley has started coming in to join us every night about 2:00 a.m! Maybe not so conventional, but we get a lot more sleep that way and everyone wakes up happy to be together. (Okay. I'd rather be in my own bed with Todd, but from past experience, I know this is just a phase and won't last too long. I should have them sleeping through the night in their own beds by the time they're 13 right?) :)

Finley's First Haircut In A Salon!

We have been so lucky with my mom being willing and able to cut Finley's hair. He's never had his hair cut at a barber's or with a stylist so this was a big deal. We have been going past the new Kids Cuts place near the post office in Covington for months now. Finley decided he would be willing to get his hair cut there yesterday. It was getting so long and we hadn't been able to get to Grandma's to arrange a haircut and his pre-school pictures were today so we decided to brave it.

He did great! Even with the clippers. It should be a lot easier for my mom to cut his hair now that he's discovered how painless the clippers are. Even if they do make noise. There was a fun play area for Evelyn, too, so she was busy while he had his hair cut.


A little shaggy and a little apprehensive...
Well, I guess this is okay....
You can't see it in the pictures but each station had its own TV with a DVD player. Finley got to watch a video just like when Grandma cuts his hair! It was a Barney music video.
Ahhh. The finished product and he got a sucker for being so good! I let him play a while in the play area since he was envious of Evelyn just getting to play while he was getting all "beautified."

Fun Time at Great Wolf Lodge, Grand Mound WA

Last Sunday and Monday, February 8 and 9th, we went to a fun family indoor water park/resort with Todd's brother Gregg and his wife, April and their two boys. We had a lot of fun! April took some really great pictures and I have posted a couple here that she took, but you can also visit her site to see more. After the initial shock of finding our very out of shape bodies in swim suits, Todd and I had a great time playing with the kids, watching them discover new things.

April (pregnant with Boy #3!), Finley, Todd and Gibson in the wave pool.
"How do you like my green life vest?" Evelyn wasn't sure about this whole thing at first.
"Come on in! The water's fine!" Really fine! It was very warm, and the air temperature is kept at 85 degrees F all year round.
Finley really had fun! He was exhausted at the end of both days.
Gibson and Finley on Sunday night after our treats at the sweet shop at the lodge. Gibson had a blue slushy and Finley had vanilla ice cream. 20 flavors to choose from and he was determined to have vanilla. At least he knows his own mind!
Finley on one of the slides.

In the kiddie pool they had these stationary "jet skis" from which you could direct water spray at the other jet ski riders. Really fun until someone trains their stream of water on your head and parks it there!

Todd and Finley with more wave pool action.

The wave pool was really neat!

Cousin Grady and Evelyn sitting along side the little toddler pool. AFter they got used to things they both enjoyed it. It was quite the sensory overload at first for the little ones.

Me, Evelyn, Grady and April hanging out in the kiddie pool. It had lots of things to climb on and there were so many other kids to watch that they were entertained for hours. April is expecting their third child, another boy cousin!, in May. Grady is just a month older than Evelyn so they had fun sitting next to each other and trying to communicate in their own pre-verbal way!