happy mother's day

a day devoted to the thing i love doing the most...being a mom! how awesome is that!
josh is quickly teaching elle the importance of spoiling mamma on this day. first with a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers sent to school on friday...loved the smell and brightness all day. then on sunday they brought me pancakes in bed! elle loves to help cook up food in the kitchen, mixing it herself. she snuggled up with me in bed and ate pancakes and strawberries together with some sunday cartoons. we had a great time a church and then came home for a fun lunch with gram, gramps, and aunt sue. and as if flowers weren't enough josh said i could start looking for a new computer...woohoo!! so let the shopping begin

elle is such a joy to have in our life. she makes us smile all the time and each day she learns more and more. it's amazing to think she's ours and what a blessing it is to raise her and teach her about God's love- which she shows everyday. maybe we learn from her too!!

i'm excited for next mother's day to have 2 amazing kids to love!

spring break in gp...finally!!

after a 3 hour night trip across the state we finally made it to see some good ol' friends
the smiths: allie, dave, emily, peter & josh
the gants: jen, jason, emerson & ben
the o'donnells: cheri, pat, morgan & caroline

elle was a trooper although my plan of her sleeping the whole way didn't exactly turn out that way, she finally fell asleep 45 min. outside of detroit. we had a great time catching up with old friends and finally getting the chance for most of them to meet elle and for me to meet some of their new additions.

when we lived in gp over 4 years ago we were in a small group with these families and at the time between the 3 of us couples there were only 3 kids, now we're up to 8 between us all. crazy how time flies and how families grow.

elle quickly jumped in on the fun and emily, peter, and emerson were more than willing to help her out. we had some fun playing outside on what we like to call "the smith playground" as they have EVERYTHING. love that lady- allie, she's the best! and of course once the kids were in bed we chatted until we were falling asleep. it's fun to visit with friends when it doesn't matter the about of time that passes between seeing each other.

thanks ladies for an awesome trip! love you all

ben and elle enjoying their afternoon snack...so cute together, only 2 weeks between them.

elle loves to hang with the big girls

what a ham!

just chillin' together

elle LOVED the trampoline, once she got the hang of it and the other big kids were off so she could actually stand up. so cute to watch her bounce across and her proud little face. she is not afraid to try new things.

our attempt to get all the kids...morgan and caroline had already left. hard to get 8 kids at once in between naps and play.

fun with emily and auntie allie getting pulled around the house as i quickly tried to pack the car in the down pour. it rained all 3 hours across the state and of course elle fell asleep 40 min. from home. at least she was a good back seat driver, starring out the window and only making a peep every once in a while.

can't wait for the next trip...perhaps josh can come along next time.

it's official...

we're excited to announce that Elle is going to be
a BIG SISTER

baby #2 is due Oct.13, 2010

our savior lives...happy easter everyone

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...
1 Peter 1:3

I know that my redeemer lives
And now I stand on what He did
My Saviour, my Saviour lives
Every day a brand new chance to say
"Jesus, You are the only way"
My Saviour, my Saviour lives

we feel so blessed to celebrate this Easter season with our families

elle's first play dough experience...thank you grammie and grampie for the Easter basket

the vogel cousin egg hunt
elle quickly caught on and found tons of eggs.

Happy Easter!!

our little musician

elle's Easter basket

dying Easter eggs with Gram
Elle loved dunking the eggs in the colored water. She surprises more and more with what she knows and wants to do. She's growing up fast!

wordless wednesday

happy birthday

yet another birthday blessed with a wonderful family and awesome friends. josh had a busy week with work and school, but we still found time to celebrate. he surprised with a little blue box, which anything that comes in a little blue box has to be a good thing!
thank you josh for another beautiful necklace...seriously you have great taste.

then my parents surprised me on my birthday when they showed up at my house with a yummy cake and fun gifts. growing up i did lots of sewing projects with my mom, actually she did the sewing and i tried it on. anyway she thought it'd be fun to do a project together again so we're making a kitchen apron. the best part is they (and yes, they my dad did help pick out the fabric-so cute) found a pattern to make one for elle too. so the idea is once elle gets old enough to help i can make one with her that matches mine. love the idea!

on saturday josh took me out to a fun romantic dinner at bentwood tavern- awesome restaurant in new buffalo right on the water then a restaurant hop to zoes (our favorite spot) for dessert and coffee. it was so fun to just sit and talk. sad enough we were tired and ready to go home at 8:30...how old are we??

thank you to josh's parents for the AWESOME camera lens...check out the cool pictures at the end of elle. the new results of my lens. still playing around with, but love the blurred effect.
thank you to everyone for making my birthday so special.

had to take it, it was too funny!
no she's not smiles all the time, although most of the time.

childrens museums

elle has been checking out the local children's museum this month with 3 visits in just 4 weeks...surprising that we have the time for all that! earlier in the month we meet my sister and her family at the children's museum in GR. elle tries hard to keep up with the older ones and doesn't seem to mind trailing after them.

josh and i spent a saturday afternoon at curious kids museum in st. joe and then strolled around downtown eve though it was a very COLD day out. elle was trooper bundled up in her cozy stroller. special picture to emily dock: elle might just have a future in broadcasting- check out the picture below, em.

eewww....grossology is visiting st. joe's curious kids museum on the beach. elle enjoyed a fun afternoon checking out the new exhibit with grams, gramps, and aunt anna. there's everything from smelling body odors to a life size OPERATION...so cool! might just need to take my 3rd graders there. of course elle was much more interested in the WATER!! the carousel on the other hand was another story, she's still not so sure about it. still we had a great time.

wow, what a month! we are cherishing all these fun times with her just one on one.

curious kids on the beach:

what do you think auntie em???

toddler farm at curious kids:

GR kids museum w/ the cousins: