Laina loves her new (well used, but new to her) ride-on toy. Here is a video of Jay taking her for a ride on it and she is having a blast. You can't see her expression all that well in the video, but trust me, she is loving it (and Ella, too)!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The Big O-N-E part 2
As promised, Here are some highlights of the big birthday bash last Sat.
I know, I'm not very good at posting when I say I will, sorry for the long wait on this one!
I know, I'm not very good at posting when I say I will, sorry for the long wait on this one!
Laina loved her balloons! And the fun carrot cake cupcakes that my mom and I made
The birthday girl with her very 1st cupcake and a nice action shot of the kids
Laina loved her cupcake!
Laina did so well opening her presents. She actually enjoyed the presents more than the paper! She got a cute bracelet from my friend Julie and she kept admiring it!
Jay's parents (with Ella), us, and my parents.
We were so blessed to have both sets of grandparents fly in for the big event! It really made for a special weekend and Laina was so happy to see everyone! She didn't have any "stranger anxiety" even though she only gets to see her grandparents a few times a year. It must be the pictures we show her of her relatives all the time!
We were so blessed to have both sets of grandparents fly in for the big event! It really made for a special weekend and Laina was so happy to see everyone! She didn't have any "stranger anxiety" even though she only gets to see her grandparents a few times a year. It must be the pictures we show her of her relatives all the time!
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Big O-N-E!
We celebrated Laina's first birthday on Saturday! I cannot believe she has crossed the threshold into toddlerhood by some standards. I still say not, since she isn't walking yet, and I'd like her to be my little baby for a few more months yet.
Here is a little slide show we made of Laina's first year in review...one picture from the day she was born then one picture from each month after that. It was really hard to pick out just one picture from each month! It's getting late here so I will have to post pics from the party tomorrow.
Here is a little slide show we made of Laina's first year in review...one picture from the day she was born then one picture from each month after that. It was really hard to pick out just one picture from each month! It's getting late here so I will have to post pics from the party tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Pics from the park
We went to Westlands Park a few weeks ago and I totally forgot to post the pics until just now as I rediscovered them on our memory card! Enjoy.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Stuff Christians Like
I grew up outside of "the church" and Christianity for the most part. Having lived my entire childhood, adolescence, teenage, and early adult years in blissful ignorance of the Christian subculture around me, it seems that missed out on a lot of the collective awkwardness of growing up in church. Having been in churches for about 8-9 years now, however, I like to think I've got some experiences under my belt.
While I take my relatively newfound faith in God very seriously, its only by being diligent enough to differentiate between His truth and the ramblings and trends of His well intentioned but sometimes completely off-the-wall followers. Christian church culture, therefore, is fair game for open mockery...
In celebration of said subculture, I discovered that a new blog has emerged, in classic form, by ripping off the idea of another blog. Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to our new favorite, slightly sarcastic blog, Stuff Christians Like. [click on the link already]
Were I to add my own post to the already long list, it would be this:
_____________________________________________________________________
STUFF CHRISTIANS LIKE
#1000 Greeters:
At some point in every church's history, someone expressed the concern that new people may not feel welcome. So the position of 'greeter' was born. Much like the greeters at Walmart, greeters sole responsibility is to say hello and make you feel more welcome, and answer any questions. Unlike Walmart, there isn't an ulterior motive involving a statistical reduction in shoplifting, but just a genuine hope that their greeting will put you at ease and help you feel comfortable, and a desire to demonstrate some level of love, respect, and helpfulness toward everyone who walks through the door. In that respect, I can get behind the greeting thing.
However, some churches take this position to extremes. By using the position of greeter as the default "getting plugged in" ministry, and apparently taking the position that "more is better", they have literally lined the entries with greeters, so that walking into a church is more like running out onto the field at the Superbowl! We've been to a few where you literally shake hands and say hello to 8-10 official greeters before finally making it inside... Sometimes they even fan out into the parking lot (and I'm not even talking about the people directing traffic)!
Unfortunately, although its good to see a people getting involved, when it comes to somewhat canned greetings and forced smiles (which you just can't help when saying hello to hundreds of people), I have a limit of about 2-3 greetings before it quickly goes from "making me feel welcomed" to "creeping me out". At the churches we've gone to regularly in the past, we usually have one at each door, so you say hello to a max of two designated greeters. I don't know if that's by design or we just go to particularly unfriendly churches, but I like it.
While I take my relatively newfound faith in God very seriously, its only by being diligent enough to differentiate between His truth and the ramblings and trends of His well intentioned but sometimes completely off-the-wall followers. Christian church culture, therefore, is fair game for open mockery...
In celebration of said subculture, I discovered that a new blog has emerged, in classic form, by ripping off the idea of another blog. Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce you to our new favorite, slightly sarcastic blog, Stuff Christians Like. [click on the link already]
Were I to add my own post to the already long list, it would be this:
_____________________________________________________________________
STUFF CHRISTIANS LIKE
#1000 Greeters:
At some point in every church's history, someone expressed the concern that new people may not feel welcome. So the position of 'greeter' was born. Much like the greeters at Walmart, greeters sole responsibility is to say hello and make you feel more welcome, and answer any questions. Unlike Walmart, there isn't an ulterior motive involving a statistical reduction in shoplifting, but just a genuine hope that their greeting will put you at ease and help you feel comfortable, and a desire to demonstrate some level of love, respect, and helpfulness toward everyone who walks through the door. In that respect, I can get behind the greeting thing.However, some churches take this position to extremes. By using the position of greeter as the default "getting plugged in" ministry, and apparently taking the position that "more is better", they have literally lined the entries with greeters, so that walking into a church is more like running out onto the field at the Superbowl! We've been to a few where you literally shake hands and say hello to 8-10 official greeters before finally making it inside... Sometimes they even fan out into the parking lot (and I'm not even talking about the people directing traffic)!
Unfortunately, although its good to see a people getting involved, when it comes to somewhat canned greetings and forced smiles (which you just can't help when saying hello to hundreds of people), I have a limit of about 2-3 greetings before it quickly goes from "making me feel welcomed" to "creeping me out". At the churches we've gone to regularly in the past, we usually have one at each door, so you say hello to a max of two designated greeters. I don't know if that's by design or we just go to particularly unfriendly churches, but I like it.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Pulling Up
I also caught this pic of Laina pulling up on the kitchen chair. Sorry so dark, I had to be quick and there was no time to open the flash! You still get the idea.
Sweet Baby
My sweet baby girl is almost a year old! I can't believe it. A speaker at one of the mom's brunches at our church once said with kids, the days last forever but the years fly by. So true!Laina has been teething again (I think) and not sleeping well at all. I hear her in the middle of the night awake, and if she's not the one waking me up, the dog is :( Today for her morning nap she cried for 1/2 hr after I laid her down, I thought she must have pooped or something needed attention, so I went in to check on her but she was fine. I rocked her and sang to her and laid her down again and she cried for about another 1/2 hr and then finally went to sleep at 10 am. Not good timing when church starts at 10:45. So I skipped church today and decided my baby's sleep was more important.
Besides teething and sleep, Laina is turning into a little crawling machine. I had her in jeans this morning and when I put her down she got very upset as they were super restrictive and she couldn't get into the crawling position via crawling forward through the splits position! She didn't know what to do and thought she couldn't move at all and started crying. It was so sad, I had to change her into some baby leggings so she could move! Then she was happy again and started crawling and smiling all over the place! She is also a big chatterbox and "talks" all the time. She says whole sentences, I just can't figure out what they mean! She does say a few real words, too. I cannot wait for her grandparents to come for her birthday next week and see how much she has grown and all the neat things she does and says now!
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