This summer, we got to have some of our dear friends’ four children over for the whole day to spend time with us. Below are some pictures:
Sandbox fun
Swingin’
and more swingin’
Lauren loves Nati so much. And she’s going to prove it by shooting him with a water gun.
Silly Silas
Miki on vocals
Resting after a long day 🙂
Did I mention we had some make-up posts to do? Well, Liam actually turned 5 in May, and yes, we are just now getting to a post for him…
We are grateful for this little guy. Seriously, the age five is proving to be my favorite with the hilarious things said, the sweet actions, and the deeper conversations. Liam is a very, very kind and loving boy who has a huge heart for people. He loves his friends, family, and well, every stranger he meets. He is always making up songs, games, and stories with a crazy imagination. He warms hearts with his hugs and by saying things like, “Bye! I love you so much! Have a great day!” He is quick to help out around the house with whatever he can and is a great big brother.
The thing that has brought us the most joy this year with Liam, though, is his increasing understanding of his sin and need for a Savior. We don’t yet know the depth of his understanding, but we are often blown away by the things he says. We especially have gotten to see God’s work in Him through the miscarriage I had earlier in the summer. I have a post written for later with more details, but for now I will let you know he had a difficult time with the whole thing. However, his eyes were opened to God’s goodness in a way we could never have imagined. We are praying that God gives Him a full understanding of the gospel soon and calls Liam to Himself. Below is a copy of the first song he wrote that showed some amount of understanding. He has written many more since. 🙂 Silly pictures follow.
Translation: Powerful God, You are powerful. Oh God, we forgive. God, we sin. We cannot go on ourselves. Sin, God we need somebody, God. God, can we come? “Yes, you can come. Oh, come.” Oh, God. God, you are God, God-Man. Oh God, we sin. Oh God, we need somebody.
Wrestling with Mommy 
“Slothing” around at one of our favorite playgrounds
Thumbs up during tee-ball
We got to visit one of our favorite families in the world for the 3rd year in a row this past weekend. This was the second family we met when we moved to this area 6 years ago, one of the first dinners we shared, some of the first people who knew we were pregnant with Liam, and our first swap dating experience (which was amazing!). I cannot express how dear they are to us. Brian pastors a church “way up north.” He is truly gifted, and the Spirit works in my heart each time I hear him preach. Kacie is a kindred spirit. She is full of wisdom, joy, and encouragement. It’s clear the moment you are with them that their first love is the Lord, and they minister to us each time we have the joy of fellowshiping with them.
Kacie posted pictures of our visit here. As always, we had a wonderful time.
It’s rare that all four kids are awake and happy long enough for me to take a picture of them, but I tried to make it work one day. The last one is actually decent.
Random, but here is a not-great picture of all six of us at a Maple Syrup Festival we go to each year. Again, it’s rare to get all of us in one picture.
I can’t believe it! My youngest baby turned one, and I am not pregnant. That is, no joke, a first for me. It’s surreal to me, to be honest. We have had many people ask us about it. Basically, we would love more children, but we are trying to give my body a much-needed break after some difficult pregnancies right in a row.
Miriam is a fun little girl. She has definitely come into her own personality, which is best summed up by calling her a ham. She is the entertainment every night at the dinner table, and she knows it. We are always cracking up at this little girl. As you’ll see below, her favorite person in world is not Mommy or Daddy but is her super, big brother.
She is currently pulling herself up and is cruising, and we don’t think she’s far from walking on her own. We love her so much!
Wrestling Liam
Initiating play with her little friend, Amaris
Anybody see a theme here?
Drool and all
Pretty blue eyes and fauxhawk
Her spring birthday cake
In lieu of doing an Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday, we do lots of the “traditional” activities on or close to the first day of spring. Here are pictures of our backyard egg hunt. We also dyed eggs, had a bunny breakfast, and went to another egg hunt through a local church.
We’re starting to catch up! Our middle daughter, Esther, turned 2 in February. I remember that the first birthday blog post we did was when Liam turned two. It’s sweetly sad to watch them grow up.
Our Essie is an absolute delight. She walks around with the sweetest smile on her face and is happiest when she is hugging someone in the family or sitting in Mommy or Daddy’s lap. The fact that she is the third, though, has definitely made her a fighter. One of my favorite memories of her was when her older brother and sister came running to me at the same time crying and yelling, “Esther just hit us!” Yes, I dealt with Esther, but not until I excused myself to go in the other room to laugh about the fact that she just took down two kids who were both twice her size. She knows how to get what she wants. Now we just have to work with her on a sinless way to pursue those same things.
Her favorite things right now are singing, looking at books, and trying to keep up with Liam and Ariana.
Many of you know that she has been in physical therapy for a little over a year now, and she is thriving. A year ago, she couldn’t sit on her own. Now she is almost running, the last goal we have for her before she stops her therapy. God has been so good with our little girl! She is now in speech therapy to help her learn how to communicate without yelling. Here are some pictures of her birthday party and of her in general.
Piggy Cake
For my 30th birthday, Bill did a ton of things to bless me for two weeks and beyond. One of those was a surprise day when he took the day off work and took all of us to Newport Aquarium. The battery started to die on the camera, so we didn’t get many pics.
Liam petting a horseshoe crab
The 3 oldest looking in one of the fish tanks. We did have Miriam, too, but didn’t get any pictures before the camera died.
There was a Frogger game there that you played with your feet. I used to play it on Atari!
We had sweet family time that day seeing lots of fish, jellyfish, turtles, rays, and sharks. The kids and Bill all got to pet small sharks (I politely declined). Liam even impressed the staff member who was working at the shark petting section. When the worker mentioned whales, Liam shouted, “Oooo, whales eat krill!” My little animal loving boy…
Bill has a certain pose that is just, well, the “Bill pose,” kind of his relaxed stance. I watched Liam one day work carefully to get himself in this position, from leaning against the wall to crossing his arms, all the way down to one leg behind the other. They really do pay attention.
We were blessed to have tons of snow this last year, and got to take advantage of it several days, especially with the older kids while the babies were sleeping.
Lots of sledding
I think our house would have been invisible if not for the red door
Liam decided he could go outside dressed like this one day. This was as far as he got.
The kids’ first snowman
The Bell Family 