Mother's Day and Sarah's Dedication

Ok, somehow the pics got a little out of order but it is too much of a hassle to move them and it really doesn't make much difference.  So, in order of appearance...

Sarah wore a very special dress on Mother's Day, a dress that my mom and aunt wore when they were babies.  It is a beautiful vintage dress and I am so blessed to be able to let her wear it!  She of course was such a little cutie that I had a hard time choosing which pics to post.

After church we had burgers at the park with my parents and Bartel grandparents.  

In church on Sunday we dedicated ourselves to raising Sarah to know God's love and the church dedicated themselves to helping us in this.  My dad took pictures and video of  the dedication service for us.

As part of the dedication service the parents choose a verse for their child.  We chose Zephaniah 3:1 for Sarah.

 "The Lord, your God, is with you.  He is mighty to save.  He will take great joy in you.  He will quiet you with his Love.  He will rejoice over you with singing!"

Sarah was perfect for the service and as we walked down the isle introducing her to the congregation and letting them give her blessings, but soon after we got back to our seats she was ready to eat so she and I went to the nursery.  Leah wanted to hold her once she was happy again so here is a cute pic of them.

This is my favorite pic of the day.  My three precious children.  I am so blessed by each one of them!

Random fun...

Luke has always loved babies and he loves Sarah and being an older brother to her.  He takes any chance he can get to rub her head, hold her, get her to smile, etc.

Being a big brother to Aaron can go either way for him but despite the look on his face in these pics they were actually getting along really well.  Luke was showing Aaron something cool on a game and Aaron was having fun playing peak-a-boo with me and Sarah in between watching Luke and saying, "oh, cool!"

The other day Mom said she thought shse saw a yellow swallow tail butterfly at their house and soon after Luke and I saw one visiting some wild phlox flowers close to Walton Rural Life Center.

  These next few are for Mimi and Papa!   Aaron loves wearing his Pilot's hat, though he is not always in the mood to smile for pictures.  (-:

We have learned recently that sometimes Sarah just wants some space.  Usually this happens in the evenings when she is fussy, yes she does occasionally fuss.  Then if we have tried everything else sometimes we lay her down on the huge beanbag in our living room and she instantly becomes happy.  The other night I think she stayed there for a good 30-45 minutes just kicking and stretching happily until she finally fell asleep all on her own!  I took a little video of her kicking here... http://youtu.be/cTsNkVReeD8

Sarah also likes being on the changing table and looking in the mirror, and if I put her in the fisher price thing we got from Mimi and Papa and she is awake she is happy much longer if we mover her from room to room with us so she can see what is going on rather than leaving her in a quiet room where the boys will let her be. She is a social little girl, but doesn't want to be held constantly.

This dress was made for Sarah by Kathleen Neff!

New bikes and a visit to Grandma and Papa Bartel's new house!

We promised the boys bikes for Christmas and their birthdays and we finally got them yesterday!!!  They had other small presents from us for both but the bikes were a little more involved and really we wanted to wait until the weather was nice enough for them to enjoy them when we got them.  Grandma and Grandpa Bartel just moved into their new home this week too and we had made plans to go let the boys see the new house anyway so after we got their new bikes we brought them over to the new house!

Aaron decided that pedaling was too hard and the two boys had lots of races with Luke riding and Aaron pushing his bike but he was perfectly happy so we let him do it!

Grandpa was a big hit with Sarah!  She was in a great mood after we got there and just gave him smile after smile!

Ivan and Joe stopped by on their way home and Joe go to hold Sarah too!

Grandma also got some really great smiles!

Aaron got tired of pushing his bike after a while and decided to help with the yard work instead.  (-:

Papa helped fix Aaron's brakes that were sticking!  Thanks Papa!

Today after church this was the scene at our house!

Random goodness from 4-30 to 5-2

Mostly pics of Sarah, she is changing so much everyday.

Sweet sleeping babe, didn't move even when I set her down to take these pics.

She has started smiling a lot now when she has her awake times and it is so much fun!  Her interactions with us are getting much more direct and purposeful now and I love her sweet smile!

Above Aaron fell asleep on the couch and just looked so sweet and innocent (usually so mischievous!) so I had to take a pic!  Below he and Luke decided to get out some instruments and play along with the music we were listening to that night!  So much fun when they play nicely together!