Birthday Pictures

The girls birthdays were two weeks ago, but better late than never! Abigail's birthday is February 7th and Alathea's birthday is February 10th- just three days apart. So we thought it would be fun to have a big combined birthday party for them. It turned out quite fun. Above is my first attempt at making my kids their requested birthday cake. I am horrible at baking and even worse at cake decorating (or I should say I have never decorated a cake in my life!). But Alathea LOVED it, so it was all worth it. It was a "pink cinderella castle cake"- her specific request, in case you couldn't tell. I have to admit my sister and Liz Shea were over that night and helped me with it too. 

Here are a bunch of pictures from the party (and I do mean a bunch!)...

This is as good of a smile as I could get from the birthday girl :)

And below the kids were SO enjoying their cake they couldn't even take a break for a picture!

Another cake picture...it was very important to Alathea that Cinderella was on the top. My favorite part of the party was Alathea screaming in delight when we carried her cake outside :)

Abi had her own (free Harris Teeter) 1st Birthday Cake. Lets just say she almost ate the entire thing! I got distracted cutting the big cake I forgot to watch her and then someone said, "Uh, Jeanie, you may want to stop Abi...she's almost eaten then entire cake!" She was quite happy...but did through up the next day (poor thing). Lesson learned for me :)

The best I had of the birthday girls together.

As if Abi hadn't had enough cake, Alathea started feeding Abi hers too!!!

Alathea was so excited about her pinata. So was Joe...he was secretly hoping the kids wouldn't break it themselves and that he'd have to "help" them....his wish came true  :)

Kristie (or Dee-dee as the girls call her) made them these adorable Tu-tu's. They LOVE them, and Joe encouraged them to wear them on their heads.

Alathea was blessed with lots of princess stuff. 

The Big Kids. 

I love pictures of the kids because a few years from now

 it'll be fun to see how little they looked!

Two very special guests...Kenni & My Sister!!

The babies. 

Grammy & Abi-girl.

God was so kind and blessed us with a 75 degree, gorgeous February day!! What a great surprise. We did most of the party in the back yard! We ate a chicken nugget lunch, the toddlers made necklaces, hit the pinata and enjoyed hanging in the beautiful, sunny backyard.

Growing up my Mom made birthdays into a huge event. It was our "special day". No chores. We didn't have to go to school. We had two parties- one with extended family and one with friends. An all day birthday date with our parents. Our favorite dinner. And the best part- our "camp-in". We got to sleep in the living room- kinda camp inside. We'd choose 3 movies and whatever candy & snacks we wanted and could stay up as late as we want. Such FUN, special memories. Joe & I haven't done all that yet, but I do enjoy making a big deal out of their birthdays. 

 The girls are such gifts to us! 

I Love My Girls

We've been staying pretty busy around here lately. The past few weeks we've had two birthdays and one big birthday party, an awesome visit from my sis, a night at the circus, a great trip to the Mt.'s with our friends...and in 11 days we're heading to Rekindle '09! And in the midst of this one good friend had a baby a week ago and Reba's due next week (can't wait to meet him/her)...the next best thing to having your own baby is to have some of your closest friends have one!

 In the midst of this wonderful busyness I am very aware of how quickly life flies by. And I've been seeking the Lord as to how to make the most of the time I am given. And at the top of my list is loving and serving my amazing man, of course. He is so easy to love :) And next comes my girls. And I have been loving seizing as much time with them as I possibly can. They are already 1 and 3...I'm sure I'll turn around one day and they'll be 11 and 13 (that takes my breath away!). 

Lately I've been "noticing" more things about them. I try to take a few minutes every day and really watch them and enjoy the moment. And its got me thinking about how very, very alike they are, yet how completely different they are at the same time...and about all the things I love about them.  Just for fun, here are a few...

I love how BOTH of them have gorgeous blue eyes and melt your heart smiles

I love how Alathea breaks out in dance ALL throughout the day. 

And I love how she tries to teach me and everyone else her "ballerina moves" :)

I love how the girls are becoming the best of friends.

I really love how they ADORE their Daddy. (For good reason!)

I love how they both drag their "lovies" wherever I let them

 (Abigail: pink blankie above and Alathea: her bunny)

I love how Alathea really thinks she is a princess (which she is, of course)

 and if you stopped by my house randomly this is how you'd find her dressed :) 

I love how Abi is just so squeezable :)

 And that she still loves to be squeezed.

I love how Abi eats with such passion :)

And I love seeing Abigail's personality blossom. She is such an explorer! I have to keep an eye on her. Lizzy & I turned our backs on her & Jason for a minute and we found them having a grand ol' time with the toilet paper. In a very different way then her sister, I think she's gonna keep life interesting too :) 

Its gonna be fun watching the two of them grow up!

3 Years Old...how time flies

Alathea Joy Lechner

2-10-06

5 days old

3 Months old

7 Months Old

1 Year Old

18 Months Old

2 Years Old (and a new big sister)

2 Years Old (getting pretty used to being a big sister :)

2 1/2 Years Old

3 Years Old!!!

My *baby* turned THREE today. That sounds so big to me. I was pretty emotional when I woke up this morning, while everyone was still sleeping, reflecting back to the day that we first became parents. What a HAPPY DAY! I can remember it SO vividly. I fell instantly in love with Alathea Joy and have loved motherhood with an inexpressible joy. I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would love being a Mom this much. God has been so kind to give us these precious gifts, our two little girls. Its been quite a week with their birthdays being 3 days apart. Today I had the joy of taking Alathea on a birthday date for the entire morning (huge thanks to Laura Parks for watching Abigail). It was amazing. I have missed my big girl so much this past year. I know that sounds silly...what I mean is that I miss having so much one on one time with her. So that made this date extra special. I'll have to do a post on the day...it was that great that it deserves its own post. Anyways, Happy 3rd Birthday, my sweet Alathea Joy. You have truly brought much Joy to all who know you.  I love how you are so full of life and personality (for better or worse :) You make life so fun! I pray that you would grow to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind & strength. I love you, baby girl.

One year old

My sweet baby girl is now a 1 year old. Wow, amazing how fast a year can go and how many amazing memories you can pack into it! Abigail has been a complete joy, truly an ideal baby from the start and that hasn't changed yet. I love her squishy cheeks and huge blue eyes. I love her snuggles and how content she is to simply sit on my lap and watch whatever her big sister is up to. I love her sweet "talking" from her bed each morning. I love how excited she is to see Alathea or Daddy. I love seeing her little personality blossom and how happy and laid back she is, yet how she loves people and other babies at the same time. I love watching her interact with other babies and give them toys (its like she knows how to share :). I love how she follows me around the house and wants to be where ever I am and how I often find her pulling on my leg to look down and see her sweet eyes asking for me to pick her up. I love watching her attempt to walk and how proud and excited she is to take any steps. I love her laugh and her huge full face smile and scrunched up nose. And I really love watching Abigail and Alathea's love for each other at such young ages. What precious gifts sisters are!! I'm so, so grateful to God for this daughter of mine. Happy 1st Birthday, my sweet Abigail!!

Sleeping Beauty

My little, baby Abigail is turning ONE on Saturday! She still seems like such a baby to me. Its hard to believe she'll be one. Sunday's after church, Abigail is so tired she falls alseep when I nurse her, and then cannot be woken back up. I like to use it as our special snuggle time since that is so rare now. But last week I had to get Alathea ready for her nap and laid Abi in my bed for just a minute. When I walked back into the room she looked so pretty sound asleep so I took a bunch of pictures of my little sweetie. She was out cold :)

My Little Ballerina

These two held hands all the way into class and to the circle.

I really cannot believe I am saying this already, but Alathea is now in a Dance class! As I drove her to it this Friday, I was struck by how grown up she is. The class is for 3-4 year olds at our church, and she's still two, which makes her the youngest in the class (you can see in the picture above how tiny she is next to everyone else). But despite being so little, she LOVED it. She payed close attention to the teacher and took everything very seriously (but with a smile, of course). Joe & I were concerned that she would be shy during the class, but she was quite the opposite. Even being the shrimp of the bunch she was quite bossy..."Avery, turn around. Emma, hold her hand". Oh, my :) I think it helped having a bunch of her best buddies in the class. As she said goodbye to me and walked into class holding Avery's hand to sit in the circle (it was adorable...see the top two pictures), I felt what most Mom's must feel when their babies go to Kindergarden...my baby is growing up! I did get a little teary eyed, but mostly had a huge smile. Eileen, Kristen and I had a great time peeking through the window watching our girls in their cuteness :) And now all Alathea wants to do is "teach" Joe & I her new ballerina moves. She sleeps in her tutu. And she keeps asking for Abigail to do the class too :) When I tell her Abigail is too little, then she promises to help her. Its pretty sweet.

Hopefully I'll get some better pictures in the future. I had to take all of these through the glass window on the door. And if anyone has any hand me down leotards or ballerina shoes, we'll gladly put them to use :)

2009

It's hard for me to believe that we are already a few weeks into 2009! 

I had every intention of posting sooner, but we seemed to be caught up in what I refer to as the "Christmas hangover"...trying to establish normal life again after all the wonderful holiday festivities. I am always amazed at how long this takes. We've been staying home a bit more and I've been in spring cleaning mode...reorginizing our home, our weekly schedule, the girls clothes, our clothes, meal planning, the girls routine, etc, etc! Its been productive, but I guess you could say I have a case of "spring fever". Not that I want to speed up life any faster than it already is, but I just wish it could be bit warmer. Its been unusually cold since New Years. I've been thinking about spring & summer so much, that I spent a while last night looking at pictures from last spring & summer. I came across some pictures I had on CD, but never loaded onto my computer (pretty unusual for me)...I thought they were fun, and they made me think of spring, so I thought I'd post them. 

 Ahhh. They make me smile. They are from a field that is next to our neighborhood. Most days I'd take the girls on a wagon ride right by the field, and one day I decided to stop in and take some pictures. Then we went back many more days because I really liked it...and one day Alathea was wearing her princess fairy costume which was pretty cute. 

Anyways, back to January 2009... in addition to our cleaning & organization kick, we've started seriously thinking about potty training. I took Alathea on a date to pick out her big girl underwear and she was SO excited. I brought my camera and took a video of her dancing in circles super excited at target holding her sleeping beauty underwear. For anyone who reads this who is not a mom yet, I'll stop now at the cute stuff and I'll let you know when she's actually truly potty trained :)

Abigail is turning into an almost one year old! She turns 1 on February 7th!! Unbelievable!!! She's been standing on her own for 2 months now, but still not walking. Her favorite thing to do is walk with her walker, but still no steps without it. Alathea was full-blown walking by now. Maybe Abigail will be one of those "talkers" instead of "walkers"? She's been saying 'mama', 'dada', 'yay-yay' and 'uh-oh'! "uh-oh" is super cute :)

 

My favorite thing so far this year has been watching the girls friendship blossom. They are starting to really play together. Yesterday they played for 2 hours in our living room. Alathea turned our coffee table into a tunnel that connected to her new tent. They just went crazy having fun together. It was so sweet. I could have gotten a lot done since they were so happy with each other, but I couldn't resist joining in on the fun too!

Well, that was a long post! Kuddo's if you are still reading. Once I load up my January pictures, I'll post again. You know I can't do a post without pictures :)

A bunch of happy news...

First of all, My Dad is now engaged! He started dating Rachel, last July, and they are now engaged as of Christmas Eve. You can read more of their romantic story on Rachel's blog here. Rachel is an answer to much prayers for my Dad. When Mom died 2 1/2 year ago, he was the saddest I have ever seen a person (understandably). It is a delight to see him so happy again. Rachel is an incredibly godly woman, who loves the Word of God and is very devoted in prayer. She has an incredible testimony and was saved 8 year ago (I could be off a few years :) She also has an amazing sense of humor and is a blast to be with. She shared over our Thanksgiving trip that she felt the Lord told her that during the days Mom was dying that Mom prayed for Rachel to enter Dads life. Wow, that thought blew me away and really helped me deal with the emotions of Dad getting married to someone who is not my Mom. And I'm sure its true, Mom often would tell us she wanted Dad to remarry once she died (she's incredible, thinking of others while she's on her death bed). And she listed off the qualitie's he needed in a wife, and Rachel fits them perfectly. I'm sure Mom did pray for dads future wife many times those last few weeks of her life.

Dad & Rachel came to visit the past 5 days  over New Years. It was a fun trip & I took some pictures of them. We also spent a day in Columbia, Sc visiting my Grandma again.

One more bit of news about my sister. No, she's not engaged (although she is very happily dating). But last month we learned that she made 1st Team ALL-AMERICAN for college soccer! If you know college sports at all, you know this is quite an honor. And she was the only defender to make the list too. My brother & I played soccer all through the years and always joked with her about how we got all the honors, but now she's one up on us! And the thing I am most proud of, is Julie's heart for the lost on her team. She's got quite a platform to share the gospel as she is captain and a well-respected player, and Julie has been very faithful to do this! I am so proud of her!

Just thought I'd share some "happy" news in the Bowers family to start off the new year.