Stop and smell the....flowers

We took these pictures in the park this past weekend. The girls really loved sitting in the flowers. Maggie had a hard time sitting still. She just wanted to poke around and pull the tops off from the flowers around her. Needless to say, we had to hurry and take her picture.

Emma and Lily smelling the flowers.

Marc with his girls. They are all daddy's girls and that's exactly how it should be. Happy Father's Day, Marc. We all love you very much!!!

Friends

These are our friends Nate and Katie with their two dauthgers Bella and Sofi. They live in Warsaw, just 30 minutes away, but we haven't seen them since last year. We were able to get together this past weekend and had a great time. Here are a few pics of their family.

This is their oldest daughter, Bella. She's 2 1/2 and a lot of fun.

This is Sofi. She's 9 months and looks just like her big sister. She's one happy little girl.

Kate and Sofi.

Here is a picture of all the girls together. We took them to the park and the girls had a great time.

Vacation in Texas

We spent our vacation this year with my brother and sister-in-law in Texas. This is the first time since they moved there 6 years ago that we all made it down here as a family. The flight went well even though we were bumped at the last minute. Even though we were running around the airport trying to make it to our new plane in time, it was a blessing. We got a better flight with a direct flight into Dallas. The girls did great on the plane. Emma was so fascinated with everything being so small and flying through the clouds. Lily was more interested in the ice cubes in her drink. And Maggie just ate her cereal. All-in-all, they did so well. We were so proud of them. We had a really good time. Here are a few pictures showing you just that.


Lily loved being in the pool while we were there. It took her a few days to get used to the water, but after that, there was no stopping her. It was really nice because the pool was right across the street from my brother and sister-in-law's house. Only their specific subdivision can use that pool. So it wasn't crowded and it was very clean. We loved it and were in the pool every day that we were there.



Maggie was very fascinated with the pool. She could never make up her mind if she wanted to stay in or get out and play on the side. She had so much fun!

This is my nephew, Alex. He's 2 1/2 now and is such a boy. The girls had so much fun with him. He and Emma would play in his room for quite awhile playing with his train set. We will miss him so much when we leave.

Marc with Emma and Lily!

These next few pictures were taken at a cement water park with a regular park attached. The kids had so much fun.


































My brother, Dan, and Alex. Don't they look so much alike?













This is my sister-in-law, Melissa and my niece, Kate. Isn't she so cute?!?!?!!!!!

























The Winters Family. Thank you so much for letting us stay with you. We had a great time. We love you all!!!

So Cute...

I just had to add these pictures. I thought they looked so cute in their new dresses.

Fun at the Zoo

We enjoy going to the zoo. The girls love it! Every time we go, we make sure to take their picture on this turtle! Here is the latest updated photo. Hope you enjoy the next few pictures. Some of them are really cute!!!


This must have been one sleepy camel. I've never seen one sleep like this!

We thought this turned out to be a pretty good picture. He wouldn't stand still and kept shaking his head. The girls really liked watching him -- I think it was because he was one of the few animals that were up and walking around that day and not sleeping!

I love watching this bird. I don't know what it is that attracts me to him, but I could just sit and stare at him for hours. Well, maybe not hours, but you get the picture. I always walk away taking the most pictures of this beautiful animal!

Lily loves to watch the Prarie Dogs. I think they're really cute, too. Because she's so short, she has to stick her head between the slats on the gate just to get a good look. It's a lot of fun to watch them create new tunnels. They really are hard-working little animals.

Emma just had to use the bison back scratcher. I love these things. If I could put one up in my house, I would be one happy woman. Of course, Lily had to try it, too.

Beautiful Evening

We had such a nice weekend last weekend. It started warming up again and Sunday was just absolutely beautiful. Sunday evening we took the girls out for ice cream and then came home in time for them to ride their bikes outside for the very first time before heading off to bed. We let them stay up a little later than normal because it was so nice out and they were having a great time. Grandma and Grandpa Rader stopped by to enjoy the fun. Even the dogs had a good time. For those of you who don't know our dogs, we have two of them. The white one is Herby, our Jack Russel Terrier. He is one hyper dog but we love him. We've had him for almost 7 years now. The tri-colored one is Daisy. She is our newest purchase. We've had her for about a month now. We rescued her from the humane society. She's 4 months old and is part German Shepherd, part something else. She'll be a medium sized dog. She and Herby get along very well. The first few days were iffy, but now they're the best of friends.

Anyway, back to the girls riding their bikes. Emma and Lily just got their bikes this year. Lily got her tricycle in March for her birthday. She and Emma have ridden the bike around the kitchen so many times. Since Emma liked it so well, we decided it was time for her to have one, too. So, we headed down to Ft. Wayne, IN and purchased her first Specialized mountain bike, complete with training wheels and purple tassles! According to Marc, every little girls bike has to have tassles. Of course, we had to get the Specialized. That's Marc's favorite brand of bike and he figured she needed to start out right. She loves her bike and rides that around the kitchen as well. Maggie is just big enough now to start riding the little tricycle that Grandma Rader bought from a garage sale last year. She had fun but had more fun pushing all the buttons on the tricycle. It plays music and has a horn. She loved it! That night there were a few tumbles. Emma flipped right over the handle bars. She stood up crying but came away without any scratches. So, no blood. But she informed me that since she's going to be riding her bike outside, she's going to need more Sponge Bob bandaids. So, we put in a call to Mimi Winters to tell her to send bandaids. Of course, the injuries get played up when we talk to Mimi on the phone. I guess she had to get sympathy from someone. Mommy and daddy just tell her that there will be a lot more falls and this is just the first of many. So get up, brush off your knees, and get back on the bike. I know, I know....no sympathy, but we didn't want her to be afraid of getting back on her bike just because she might fall. And wouldn't you know it, she got right back on and started pedaling away.

It was such a beautiful night and we're looking forward to many more weeks of that kind of weather. If that happens, maybe Emma will be off the training wheels by the end of the summer. Who knows!!!!

Happy Easter

We love Easter in our household! We love getting all dressed up in special dresses and going to church. It is the highlight of our day. Pastor's message was awesome! The music was great! What made it even more awesome is that the night before I was sitting down flipping through the channels on the TV and saw that "The Passion" was on. Neither Marc nor I have ever seen the movie, so I settled in to see what it was all about. It was down to the last half hour and I could barely watch it. Not because it was scary, but it was down to the crucifixion. Now I know it was all Hollywood drama and makeup, but it was so real. Like one of my friends put it..."You only ever hear the Sunday School version of it.". After watching what I could, I couldn't believe that people could ever treat another human being like that. O.K., I know that they had beaten Him and nailed His hands and feet to the cross. But for some reason, my mind didn't comprehend how horrific it really was. They weren't gentle about it at all. They did whatever they could to afflict more pain. After the movie was over I couldn't help but think how we treat Christ so casually. We don't remember all He did for us. We don't consult Him about little things, let alone the big things. We don't spend our days with our minds continually on Him. Our quiet time alone with Him is short and is usually fit into our schedules. And if we don't get to it that day, well, we'll try again tomorrow. The pain and the suffering was necessary for us to spend eternity with Him. The very least we could do is give Him our time and attention. Thank you, Father, for sending your son to die for me.