Caroline's First Dance Recital

Caroline has been taking ballet for about 6 months, and her first recital was today. The class is actually ballet/tap combo. This is the first time one of our kids has been part of a public performance - a milestone in our family's life.

Her first dance was ballet - the place was very crowded, and she's in the back row, so it wasn't easy to get good video, but you can see her well enough. Mom and Dad both had an emotional moment realizing our little girl was up there performing in the first real performance of her life. We're so thankful for our precious kids!


And here's her tap number.

Joshua helping make pizza

He LOVES to help, especially in the kitchen.

Our first snow

Caleb took this video.

Caleb's own funny video

Caleb loves watching funny videos - now he decided to create his own.

Our Home Birth

You probably already saw the blog entry from when Joy was in labor - she was so at peace, content, and relaxed for the difficulty of labor. Now we pick up the story with video, right after Elisa was born. I know these are quite dark, but if you get get your settings right, you'll be able to see well enough. And that's kind of the point - we got to have the home birth just like we had planned, which included soft light and gentle music. But if you look closely, you'll be able to see well enough.


One of the things we anticipated about home birth was having our children be able to meet the baby moments after birth. Elisa was born at 10:06 pm, and I went to get Caleb out of bed just a couple minutes later. We had prepared them for this moment with many discussions ahead of time and knew he was ready for this moment.




Caleb was in such awe, and it was such a wonderful experience to introduce him to her in this way. You may notice the soft music and the candlelight. Jeni (pronounced like Jenny with a Y instead of a J at the beginning), our midwife, said it looked like a romantic setup when she arrived - another benefit of being able to have the baby at home. Joy could have it just the way she wanted it, and Elisa could arrive in peace and serenity, without bright lights, beeping machines, and somewhat flippant workers, as we've had in the past at the hospital. Every birth is special to Jeni, and it makes it even more special for us.




We woke up Caroline a few minutes later - she was groggy, but she eventually figured out why I was waking her up.




Here I bring in Caroline to meet Elisa - she is filled with awe, wonder, and love as well!

After the birth

So gentle - a significant contrast to the other three births we experienced.






Weighing Elisa - Jeni warmed the little sling on the heating pad so as to keep Elisa comfortable.

Joshua meets Elisa

Here he comes.





Everyone wants to hold her.

Caroline Reciting Hey Diddle Diddle

She learned this in school with Caleb and can recite it so cutely.

Fishing Fun

Caleb has loved fishing for quite a while. Saturday morning, I had the day off so we woke up early and went fishing at a park nearby. It was absolutely amazing! It was a last minute trip, so we didn't buy bait. We just used a lure I had in my tackle box. Just an old, generic, lure. But in less than an hour, Caleb had 9 fish on the hook, and 7 of them made it to land (2 got off). He's an awesome caster - so once he found the hole, he just kept dropping the lure in there. He kept me so busy getting his fish off, I never caught one myself! And he caught them so consistently, I decided I could probably catch his excitement on video - and I got it twice! Most of all, I thank God for sending the fish - and for a delightful memory!

Caroline's New Baby

Caroline finally got to open her last present of her birthday season this year. It was a good one! Watch the excitement as they lay siege to the package.







As Caroline expresses her delight over her new baby, the boys are equally excited about their "gift" - everyone's thrilled with the package!







Next day:
Joshua loves Caroline's new doll - after breakfast, he saw the baby Caroline got yesterday and went right to it. This is the first time he's really taken to a baby - maybe it's a good sign since he'll be a big brother soon. He has been heard squabbling fiercely a number of times for control of the new baby, and Caroline's maternal instincts are strong in return. This is also a good clip of Joshua's developing vocabulary.

Caroline's new friend

We enjoyed a picnic at the park tonight with a number of families from church. Caroline made better friends with Lizzie - a cute girl a little older who loved entertaining Caroline. I took this video from a distance so as not to distract them, but you can still hear the squeals of laughter. What a blessing to have wonderful kids and to be making more great friends! We wish Mom could have come to this picnic, too.

Caroline's Ballet Class

Caroline just had her first ballet class today - she absolutely loved it! She's happy her friend Pearl is in class, too.



The angle was better for videoing her in the mirror on this one. No sound b/c we were on the other side of the glass.

Now you can see our videos

We're experimenting with a new video page where you can see recent home videos. We'll see if we can get it working and you can see them when you want - if you have dial up, we don't recommend viewing this blog.

Joshua & Caroline on the tire swing at the farm

Silly kids

Caleb and Caroline thought it was soooo fun to slide down the stairs on the parachute!

Caroline doing ballet at home

She is so thoughtful in her moves...we like this one because she looks light on her toes!

EAT MY ARM

We were all having fun at the dinner table and were being silly.
Ben offered his arm to Joshua to "eat," due to the hair on his arm, Joshua wasn't too interested in it and made these funny faces. Meanwhile...Caleb and Caroline we cracking up!!!!