Ring Bearer

Tallinn was the ring bearer recently in our dear friend Lindsay's wedding. During the rehearsal, it didn't seem like he would even perform, but after a fun dinner with lots of attention from the groomsmen and bridesmaids, he warmed up. The day of the wedding, he was quite the little ham. We had a lot of fun watching from the distance. It was the first time we were watching him be involved in something that we weren't a part of. He felt so "cool" to be with the older boys and enjoyed the hugs and kisses from the beautiful girls, of course. His favorite girl was the flower girl, who he described the next day as the beautiful girl in white.

Tallinn also took the role of carrying the rings very seriously and we didn't have the heart to tell him the ones on his pillow were fake. At the point in the ceremony when the minister asked for the rings, Tal had a look of terror in his eyes as he desperately tried to get those rings off the pillow. Sweet boy.

We love our little ring bearer. Turns out, he's on big demand this year as he'll be the ring bearer in two other weddings, too.

3 years old

addie turned 3 on april 19th! she's quite the character so we decided to take her to a place where there are lots of characters...Disneyland. she actually made quite the commotion on dumbo, but settled into an evening of fun family time and, by the end, was ready to go on Space Mountain, although she's a little short still.

we are so thankful for our fun, feisty, girl, who handles her position in our family (squished between two crazy boys) quite well.

thank you, Jesus for our Adelaide!

Palm Sunday Fun

The kids were sick last weekend and we decided to do an "in-home" Palm Sunday celebration. We decorated eggs-Cardiff mostly knocked over all the dye , and Brian even came into the family room riding on a rocking horse. I pulled branches off the trees and we shouted "Hosanna!". Then, we told the story of Palm Sunday. I even brought the kids into the kitchen and had them taste vinegar :). All in all, it was a very fun day and I think they learned something. Although, the other day Tallinn said to Brian about Cardiff "I know, maybe we should call him the king of the Jews." Kids!

Big Stander, Funny Faces

Car cracks us up with some of the faces he makes. While we were at the zoo the other day, he was standing for awhile on the grass and showed off some of our favorites.

Prima Ballerina, or Little Gymnast

Addie started gymnastics last week for the first time. We were waiting until she turned three and since she's almost there, she just made it. After watching Tallinn for a few sessions and getting comfortable with the teacher, mostly because the teacher always gave her a stamp, she decided she wanted to do gymnastics, too. Pretty cute! Auntie Alicia gave her her little ballet outfit as a shower gift.

Going Back

So, today I found some sweet pictures I hadn't seen of the kids preparing for Cardiff to come at the airport with their cousin, Bella. I thought I'd share them.

Around the World with the Dear Family in 26 letters

I saw something similar to this in the Land of Nod catalog and decided to customize one for our family. Since I told a few of you about it, I thought I'd post it on our blog. One of the few things in life I've really started and finished and not got burned out in the process :).

I chose cities around the world that either we've been to, want to go to, support a missionary from, have hosted a student from or are our children's names :).