April 2010 Update

JARED Jared continues to love his job, and now that Spring is here, he has been busy working in our yard. He also just finished up making the end tables for our living room. I think they turned out really nice, especially for his first furniture making project.

NATHANAEL The bath tub is Nathan's second favorite spot (the first is in his high chair eating). He loves to splash, kick, and play around in the bath. I came in Nathan's room one day to find that the girls had been playing dress up with him again. Here he is as a little Soviet comrade. Nathan has developed a lot this month. He still eats huge amounts of food, but luckily he mastered Cheerios so he can feed himself a snack while I get dinner on. He can't crawl yet, but that's okay with him, he just rolls around to get to where he wants to go.

MADELINE

Maddy's favorite color is purple, can you tell? She is holding her favorite purple bear that she sleeps with every night. She continues to be our sweet little bear. She is talking more and surprises us with her understanding of things. She loves nursery rhymes and songs and we will often overhear her reciting or singing to herself when she is alone. Today she was talking about Mary Quite Contrary as she watered her flowers in the garden.

Maddy has just learned how to dress herself and is very proud of herself for it. She refuses help with dressing and comes up with some pretty interesting outfits on her own. Here's a picture of her and Abby after they raided Nathan's drawers and put his clothes on. The girls are so skinny they fit in his 12 month clothes--although they are a little short in a few places.

ABIGAIL

Here is Abby with her favorite white unicorn (the small one) that she insists on sleeping with every night. She loves to dress her up and do puppet shows with her too. The other unicorn is her favorite for riding around the house. The other day she asked me how old she had to be to get her own real flying unicorn.

Here's Abby all ready for ballet. I thought her love for ballet would fade after a while, but it is still the highlight of her week.

MARY

I turned 31 this year and had a nice family party followed by a fun trip to the park. I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I was really spoiled for my birthday this year. Jared made me a delicious cake, gave me some Harry Potter movies, and got me a Bosch mixer! He said it was to make up for all of our poor years when he didn't really give me much, but I feel like he more than compensated this year. I also got a beautiful new dress and exercise clothes (a hint?) from my parents.

Here I am with my three beautiful children. As I blew out my candles to make a wish I was reminded of my three years of infertility in which I wished for a baby each year as I blew my candles. I thought about how blessed I am with my three wonderful children. Jared, my children, and my family really are my greatest gifts. Okay that sounded kind of sappy, but it's true.