Easter Celebration

We had a great weekend celebrating our Savior's resurrection this past weekend.  Geoff was off on Good Friday and I'm no longer working on Fridays (or Tuesdays...woo hoo!) so we had a nice long three days together as a family to reflect and relax.  We attended church on Friday afternoon and then shared a 10 pound ham with our dear friends Adam and Jasmine for lunch on Easter day.

We decided to start our tradition of giving Olivia an Easter basket.  Over the past few weeks, I had been picking up things here and there for it.  I couldn't wait to give it to her and watch her check everything out.

Checking out the goods

Basket is way funner when wearing it.  Side note: I told Olivia she had to share her Reese's eggs with Daddy. So far, that's working out pretty well.

Trying out her new shades

No surprise that she'd rather eat them than wear them

 

New 'do

We decided to give Olivia a new hair style to see how she would look with something different.  Here are the results:

Before:
What I refer to as her dandelion hair because I think it looks like the dried petals of a dandelion.

 

After: 
Our attempt of a Justin Bieber type 'do.  

Give us your vote...let us know which hairdo you like best!!

Parent-Child Commitment

A week ago Sunday, we had the privilege of standing before God, our pastor and a couple thousand people at church to commit our daughter to the Lord and to raise her in His ways.  It was both exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  Exciting to think about watching Olivia grow into a little girl and someday a young woman, knowing that God has a special plan for her life.  Overwhelming to think about the responsibility on us as parents to raise her in the Truth and for us to lead lives that we want her to imitate.  A few days before the service, we attended a meeting at church along with all the other families who were going to be committing their children to the Lord along with us.  One of the pastors gave a brief admonition to us based on Deuteronomy 6:4-12 and I thought I would share his points:

1. Focus on your commitment to God first - We are going to have a hard time raising a godly daughter if we aren't first committed to God and then to each other, emphasizing the importance of establishing a family pattern of faithfulness (Bible study and worship) and protecting the covenant of our marriage.

2. Determine to demonstrate your faith to your children - We need to put our faith into action and openly in front of our children.  It must be seen by them.  Furthermore, he stressed the importance of identifying teachable moments - looking for opportunities in day to day life to teach our children about who God is.

3. Be careful in times of blessing - It's really easy when everything is going great to get caught up in the "blessings" so much that we loose focus.  This is usually never intentional,  but instead creeps up slowly.  So we need to always be aware and continually reminding ourselves and teaching our children dependency on Him who provides all things.

Good lesson to mediate on and then put into action.  Here are a few pictures from the day:

Not Olivia's most flattering pic but I thought it was hilarious so I had to post

With some of the other families dedicating their children - 37 babies in total

On the big screen

Afterwards with Mama Glory and Granddad

All worn out from working so hard to look cute and behave in front of everyone

Happy Half Birthday, Olivia!

We celebrated six months of life with Olivia a few weeks ago.  I can't believe she's six months old already.  I heard someone say recently that babies are no longer considered a baby around when they turn one year old.  It makes me a little sad to think that we are over halfway there to no longer having a "baby".  So for now, we just cherish each of her baby moments while we can.  She has had several milestones in the last month: bottom teeth appearing, rolling all over the place and starting solid foods and sitting up without assistance.  She continues to find her voice with shrieks and squealing.  It's hilarious. We are also seeing a bit of a temper appear when she wants food or to hold and chew on things that are not allowable.  Anyways, here are her stats from her six month check-up:

- Weight: 16 lbs, 15 oz (60th percentile)
- Height: 26.25 inches long (75th percentile)

Our good friends Jonathan and Blakely (check them out at framedbyfletcher.com) came over a few weeks ago to take six month pictures of Olivia.  They did an amazing job and were able to really capture Olivia's happy and easy going personality.