Rivers turns ONE!

June 18, 2009

This past Friday our little man turned ONE!!!!!!!!! WOW has this year flown by. Rivers has brought so much joy into our home. Anyone who knows him can testify that he is the sweetest most lovable baby! Its crazy how much little ones change in the course of a year. As you can see from the pics above and below, our precious baby is quickly turning into a toddler! It's been so fun to see his personality gradually show this year. He is our "quiet" one most of the time, but he is the happiest kid I have ever met (except when he is hungry, sleeping, or teething!) He loves to be around people, especially people he knows really well. He is SO curious about everything, and loves examining and studying things. He started crawling (well army crawling) around 10 months old and is into everything now. He is beginning to pull up and let go now, so I know its only a matter of months before he takes off and is a full blown toddler. He loves to laugh and his sister can make him laugh more than anybody else. He is an EATER. He eats twice as much as Madeline, and I think I'll be in trouble once he gets older! He is very affectionate, and loves giving hugs and kisses these days.

June 2010

We had such a fun day celebrating his birthday. We woke up and had breakfast with the Murrays and then went swimming with most of the Frantz cousins. Rivers had a feast of pizza and birthday cake for lunch. He demolished his piece of birthday cake... yes he shares his Daddy's sweet tooth. Not only was it Rivers birthday, but it was Will and James' 3rd birthday, so that afternoon we went to their birthday party. We had lots of fun celebrating the life of our little man. What a precious blessing from the Lord he is, and what a blessing it is to be his MOM! Happy Birthday Rivers, WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Pics of BIRTHDAY
Hangin with the cousins

Some Pool time

Opening presents

Ready for cake

Mmmm... good

The birthday boys

Pickin Strawberries

Mike has an incredibly busy week this week, so on Saturday we took full advantage of his day off and had a Frantz Family Day of FUN!!!!!!! We shopped the neighborhood yard sale that morning. We found some great deals, but even better made some new friends! Then we went strawberry pickin at Huber's Orchard over in Indiania. It was a sweet treat... as you can tell from the kids faces!

Introducing Madeline to fresh picked strawberries

Workin hard!

"There are just so many ... can't I eat some!"

"Mmmmm. . . Good!!"

Brother liked them a lot too!

Our beautiful bushel of berries

Tractor ride back in from the fields

"I didn't eat many strawberries?!"

Top it off with homemade strawberry ice cream, YUM!

I think we can honestly say that Huber's is our new favorite Saturday spot! We finished the day with naps, an local cultural festival, and dinner with some of our great friends from church! It was an awesome weekend to say the least!

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Then

Now

Well yesterday our little darling turned TWO! My how these two years have flown... and I was assured by my Granne yesterday thatthey only get faster. We had an extremely fun day yesterday. We started our day by going to breakfast with the Murray clan, and then we headed to the zoo since it is probably Madeline's favorite place on earth right now! It was the perfect day at the zoo too, cloudy, which meant all the animals were out and active. Madeline even went on her first carousel ride, which she loved, except for the part where she had to get off! Next was lunch, naps, and mommy trying frantically to get the promised "Elmo cake" iced. Daddy helped Madeline fly her first kite, thanks to Mamaw, and do her next favorite thing, play in the dirt that afternoon. Dinner was of course Maddie's favorite Mac n Cheese! We ended the day with cake of course which turned out quite nice :) Marmie and Papa even joined us over Skype to watch Madeline blow out her two candles and open her gifts!

We cannot express how grateful we are for our precious Madeline's life. God has brought us so much joy and taught us so much by being her parents. I was asked a few weeks ago in one of those random "get to know you question" things "If you could have any job in the world what would it be?" My answer was quite simple and profoundly true... DO EXACTLY WHAT I AM DOING RIGHT NOW! I love getting to be a stay at home wife and mommy (thanks to my incredible hard working husband!) Madeline's two short years of life have absolutely been my BEST two years of life!

Here's some of the highlights from our day... ENJOY!

Recent Pics and Video

I have a longer post coming soon.... I promise! All my time on the computer has been spent making Madeline a photo book for her 2 year birthday coming up in just a little over a month. Can you believe it?! So as soon as I get that done I am going to try and devote a little more time to blogging. I just wanted to give y'all some pics from the past few weeks. Our kids can't get enough from being outside, and love dirt, as you can tell!

I love this pic because it captures Madeline's fun loving personality. And yes, that is dirt on her face. It is this way most days if we are outside longer than 5 minutes. I think she will make a great horticulturalist one day!

Baby boy loves being outside in the grass... we don't always get to him before he eats it though!

Some family pics from our time in Mississippi and Easter morning

The kids absolutely love the swingset Missy let us borrow for our backyard. In Maddie's words "tanku aunt mizzy"

Here is a recent video of Rivers. When in a big group, he is usually our quiet, introspective child, while Madeline likes to be the center of attention. But when he is with just us he is quite the funny boy as his personality is really beginning to show. So for all of you who haven't seen that side of him yet, here is a little look into our funny boy!

Welcome SPRING!

YAY Spring is officially here, and OH how we have missed warm weather! We had such a cold couple of months that about a month ago it was 46 degrees and we had the windows down in the car because it felt so great! Over the past 2 weeks we have really enjoyed some beautiful weather and have taken full advantage of it after being cooped up all winter! Madeline and Rivers have LOVED it. We have been to the zoo, out for numerous walks, to parks, everything enjoyable about the temp being above 50 degrees again! We literally have to force Maddie to come back inside. Right now we are in Mississippi, missing Mike, but having a good time with Marmie, Papa, Erica and Alan. Here are some pics of our recent adventures!

Zoo time!

Cuddlin with Papa

Lunch out with Marmie... first Japanese food (unsure about the chef)

Swingin for the first time Unsure...... Lovin it!


Couldn't get her off of the slide!

Sweet Nights

Sorry I haven't been posting a lot lately. My camera has been out of batteries, and we have been adjusting to a new life of another family coming to live with us... (yes, you read that right, but that's another post for another time for those of you who are wondering what I am talking about). Anyway, I really hope to be posting more regularly!

One of my favorite times of the day is when we put the kids to bed, and no its really not because they are going to sleep. They are sharing a room now so when Michael is home we put both kids down to bed together. Our routine usually goes something like this. He reads the kids a book while I get Madeline some milk and Rivers a bottle. Then we read a story out of the Big Picture Storybook Bible (aka... the "B-I-" as Madeline calls it from the little childrens' song that spells out BIBLE). We have found that using this book has helped us start teaching Madeline some basic truths about the Bible. Even at such a young age she loves reading it and loves to point out new things she is learning like "the temple." We then pray and rock the kids as we sing a hymn. One of Maddie's favorites has become "Jesus Loves Me". I caught it on film tonight and thought y'all might enjoy hearing her sweet voice sing it (ignore mine in the background). It brings joy to our hearts hearing our little girl learning and singing such a sweet truth!




Here are some of my favorite pictures that I haven't posted yet since my batteries ran out!

Snoozing after a hard day of play!

Baby boy... 8 month old... where has time gone?


Bathtime together... double fun!

Maddie's "cheese" face

Our Snow Day

We woke up this morning we woke up with about 5 inches of snow on the ground! Here is some video footage of Madeline in the snow. She absolutely loved it, as you will be able to tell from the video, and it was really hard for us to get her back inside. It is so much fun to see her wonder and excitement!! Poor Rivers didn't get to enjoy it because he has a fever and an ear infection. (Warning: the video is a little long, but you can always skip around)! Its mainly for mom to see Maddie in action... we haven't seen Marmie in a while so hopefully this is a treat! ENJOY!