Dedication Weekend

This weekend was PRECIOUS, FULL of absolutely fantastic family time. Blythe and Joy sealed the deal on making it the perfect weekend, shocking us all by BOTH rolling over for the first time... within one minute of each other... and we caught part of it on camera...

Today was so, so special as our official day of dedicating our youngest girls to the Lord.

We had a wonderful peanut gallery of family there at the church and at my mom's after for a delicious lunch (thanks everyone for such yummy dishes!) All the cousins on the Elliott side after church!

All the cousins on the Gross side...

We have the unique honor of having two heirloom christening gowns that are both around 100 years old. Joy wore her great great grandmother's christening gown.

Blythe wore her great great grandmother's sister's christening gown (that would be her great great great aunt's gown!) I wore this same dress when I was dedicated.
And yes, we had to have dedication Sunday cupcakes- dark chocolate with Sprinkles' recipe for strawberry frosting! Very easy and seemed to be a big hit!
Thank you to our precious family for loving our babies and making this weekend so wonderful!

Back from Cambodia

Jake got back on Saturday afternoon from a very successful and productive trip to Phnom Penh with his research team at APU. It was an act of the Lord to get him out of Atlanta on that first leg of his trip- this is the wings getting de-iced before takeoff!

Here are the members of the team who were able to make the trip: Alex (faculty), Rebecca, and Jake, on their 12 hour layover in Seoul. It was 12 degrees there on the waterfront! They got to go to a church service with a pastor friend of Alex's, had some good traditional Korean food to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and enjoyed a VIP lounge at the airport.

One view of the school grounds there at Logos International School, where they are conducting their research. They've only been on this new campus for a couple of months, and it's in a developing area of Phnom Penh.

The cafeteria- open air!

They kept a full schedule while there, conducting interviews, etc. This is when they sat in on a class. Jake will be conducting research on a few of the Cambodian Logos graduates when they come to the States for college as part of his dissertation.

They did take part of an afternoon to tour the high school (Toul Sleng) that was used as a prison (and now museum) during the regime of the Khmer Rouge... very sobering.

Here is a video Jake shot one afternoon from their touk touk. Watch for the family of SIX sharing a moped. Hilarious.

On his layover in LA on the way home, Jake got to have a guys night with a few of our dear friends- such a treat! Whenever Jake is gone, I develop a deeper sense of respect for single moms. I am so grateful to have him back and our family all together again!

It's in your head

I'm done with the cold, and the snow flurries outside are definitely the 7th time we've seen snow this winter! So this is what I'm doing to think warm thoughts...

1. talked to Jake in Cambodia via skype this morning- HIGHLIGHT of my day

2. made Abby Jane a tofu burger for lunch (first time to cook with tofu) in tribute to a warmer place, namely California. She said, "It's gooooood, Mom." She had tofu burger, snap peas with hummus, smoothie... and a Valentine's cookie for lunch. I like it.

3. am wearing a funky shirt and headband, also in tribute to LA

4. am drinking green tea (from my fav Coffee Bean in Malibu) because it makes me feel green and healthy while I read The King's Daughter for my women's study on Thursday night

5. cleaned the bathrooms and dusted during naps today- cleaning= not my first choice, but clean house= happy me

p.s. extraneous blogging this week is for Jake's benefit, so forgive me in advance!

How we do snowday!

Friday afternoon, a boogie board became a sled.

Yard bags and duct tape became snow pants.


Cherry tomatos became eyes, a baby carrot became a nose, celery stalks became the mouth, and celery tops became cool hair. If Jake had been home, the snowman would have been twice as big.
Blythe and Joy were snuggled wearing buntings inside their "BundleMe's" under the eave of the house and out of the snow. They slept while we played.


Saturday morning, I was not inspired to recreate the snowpants again, and Abby Jane did not ask to go outside, so we made a couple dozen of these instead.



As everyone said, it was the perfect snow, because by Saturday afternoon, the roads were clear enough to go to cousin Luke's 1st bday party! Happy birthday precious Luke!

Early Valentine's

Today, Jake barely escaped the crazy snow and made his flight out to...

as part of his research team from his PhD program. It's a fantastic opportunity to be able to not only be able to contribute towards his team's goals, but also conduct some interviews that he will use for his dissertation.

So this morning before he headed out, we celebrated Valentine's Day with the girls!

Jake had cards for all the girls, and they had cards for him as well!

We had heart pancakes with my new favorite mix... Trader Joe's multigrain- I am obsessed. Abby Jane also had a Valentine's straw for her daily smoothie.

This afternoon, the four of us girls played in the few inches of snow we have in our yard for an hour and a half or so. Abby Jane sledded on our boogie board, and we made a big snowman. It was fantastic! I'm not sure how to upload the photos I took with our video camera onto the laptop Jake left with me, so that may have to wait until after my world traveler returns home.

Hope you enjoy your snow as well!

3 months

Three months already! They're big on charm and huge smiles...

Joy weighed in at 13.6 lbs right at 3 months! In the last few weeks, she's been a little less chill than she was, but she is still a laid back sweetie.
Blythe was 12 lbs at 3 months. She's become a little more relaxed than she was, so the two of them are balancing each other out!

On tummy time: Blythe lasts little longer than Joy, but neither are too keen on it.

On hanging out on their backs: both dig it and have acquired very feminine bald spots on the back of their heads to show for it!

Sleeping: As you know, this month they have been making it through the night, on average from 7:30 t0 7:30. However, they are individuals here, too: Blythe is a night person and has more of a struggle going down. After she's out, though, we usually don't hear a peep from her until the morning. Joy is oblivious to the world when she goes down, but she's a morning girl who typically needs a paci replaced a few times before it's officially after 7:00 and she's allowed to wake up!

Rolling over? I don't think so, but both have rolled off their Boppys while I wasn't looking. I think that's how they ended up on the floor... poor kids!

Abby Jane is still loving her role as big sister, and the only "rough" things she's done is shared her hard-headed dollies with too much force. This is what I turned around to see this morning- can you find Joy?!

They've discovered their hands and are becoming escape artists from their naptime and bedtime swaddles, especially Blythe! Blythe is also more of a wiggle worm in general. I'll lay her down and she'll be perpendicular to that position in just a few minutes. Joy's pretty much good to go as long as she has her paci.

They both have some talking to do, and it is obvious who's example they are following there! I love my girls!

She's two!

On this day, two years ago, Abby Jane entered our lives! She is the living form of her name: "source of joy" (Abigail) and reminds us by her precious life that "God is gracious" (Jane) to us.

We celebrated on Saturday with a family party. Though we missed my siblings and their families, it was otherwise the perfect crowd and the perfect day! We were going to do it all outside at a park, but it was far too cold, so we moved it to my mom's home.

I spent last week learning my new sewing machine and making her a butterfly dress (with a LOT of help from my mom!) for her butterfly party...

We had butterfly cupcakes that I found in my new Hello Cupcake! book that I am obsessed with!

And here is the big moment, in STARK contrast to her reception of her birthday cake last year (see video at end)!

She was inseparable with her cupcake!

Until it was present time, that is!

Cade and Abby Jane are dear friends, as well as cousins, and I think as far as highlights of the day goes, getting to play with him on her party day was right up there with birthday cake and presents, if not higher.

Blythe and Joy were passed around like hotcakes the whole time. It's really convenient having multiple babies to satisfy the need of multiple adults to hold one!

Now for my thoughts on this precious day...

Abby Jane is ... I've typed a word and deleted it to try again multiple times here because you can't incapsulate her in one category.

She's SO girly and love pink and dolls and tea parties and taking care of Blythe and Joy and must wear a bow at all times, sometimes even to bed.

But her favorite play with Jake is their "kaboom" game where he drops her on her back on the sofa from four or five feet up in the air. She loves to jump and sing and dance and run and build towers with blocks, play with her trains, and yet is very good at offering cream and sugar with your "hot hot tea" when we have our multiple tea parties a day. Reading is the most consistent activity that happens all day. She LOVES her books and will read to herself in bed during the "quiet playtime" that has replaced morning naps.

She speaks very clearly and picks up new words all day long. It's fun to make her say long ones, just because it sounds so comical from one so small. Car rides are actually long conversations, now, with 20 questions and the whole nine yards. She delights in tiny discoveries and comments on everything she sees. She does the praying at meals frequently, and is very decisive in saying, "Dear GOD, thank you for that picture and the salt and Mama's water and Abby Jane's fork and Daddy's salad and THIS button on Abby Jane's shirt..." and the list goes on as she describes the table. Every night when Jake asks her how we can pray for her at bedtime, she includes Ho Ho Ho and "Buckum Palace" (Buckingham Palace is a fabulous old poem that she learned from my mom) on the list.

She loves being a big sister and can't wait to see "Bwhyf" and Joy when she wakes up. She wants to make sure they're going wherever we're going and helps take care of them in the backseat, reinserting pacifiers, telling us which one's eyes are open, etc.

We are dealing with some of the two-year-old issues, like needing to beef up on our strategies for discipline as she test new boundaries and learns her world, but because she is so cognitive, we are able to do some reasoning with her. I'm reading Dare to Discipline by Dobson right now, and I'm really enjoying it so far. She has a tender heart, though, and it is so sweet to be teaching her about the Lord and making the connection between obeying us and obeying Jesus... and know that she is of an age that this knowledge will be taking root. Entering the two's also has been neat as it's given us yet another angle of understanding how the Lord looks at us when we disobey- disappointed and saddened to see our poor choice, but LOVES us ridiculously anyways.

All this is obviously for our records, so I'll be impressed if anyone actually got this far! Today is so dear to us as parents, because it marks the first day of the beginning of the most precious stage that we are in. We are so grateful to be Abby Jane, Blythe, and Joy's parents, and we know that we are totally inadequate to be who they need us to be apart from the grace of God. Praise Him that we don't have to wing this, but that He will give us the wisdom we need to raise these girls!

Happy birthday, my sweet Abby Jane! We love you so, so dearly!

They did it!

We fed Blythe and Joy at 7:15 last night, put them down at 7:30ish at the same time as Abby Jane... and they slept until morning with no middle-of-the-night pacifier reinsertions or re-swaddling!! Until this week, their late night feeding has been getting moved earlier and earlier, but the jump from a 9:30 feeding this weekend to a 7:30 feed was a big one! YEA for growing, progressing little girls!

Sometimes things go differently ...

Than you anticipate! Here is our crazy cabin adventure in 2 minutes and 49 seconds...

Before running out to the waiting car so we could make it home before the roads got bad again...

Bless Uncle Wayne and Aunt Boo's hearts, they were doing everything they could to help us from Atlanta, but I think the Lord just had a good memory-maker in mind for us!

But we still had to show Abby Jane what a s'more is... even if it was over a glasstop stove!

She is a fan!