Beach combing

These are pictures from a couple months ago, but worth posting. Cora's friend Clay is an expert beach comber and teaches her all kinds of things about marine life.

More pictures soon of our summer fun.

Happy Days

So, yes, I know, I'm the most sporadic blogger ever, and most of you my friends have given up on me and probably never check here anymore unless you have a blog reader that alerts you to the off-chance update. Just so you know I have started many blog posts over the past few months (and even more in my head) but there seems to be so much to say that I never finish until its just old news and so they keep sitting in the draft box. Here goes another attempt, but I find it's so difficult to try to capture what's going on in my head and heart and life. Life is so full to the brim of joy and excitement around here that it can hardly be expressed in my faltering words!

We reached another milestone of our lives in April: the excitement of David graduating with his MDiv (which as his professor said at the graduation ceremony does not mean becoming a Master of Divinity, but rather Master of becoming mastered by the Divinity. Truly.) It has been an unbelievable journey of change and growth and profundity and humility. It seems surreal for him to be finished. But he has sucked every drop out this experience and is so excited about God's next adventure in store.

Right now that adventure means a summer of parenting and continuing life as it is while I spend a gorgeous Vancouver summer madly trying to take two courses and write a 40,000 word thesis. All while struggling with mommy brain during those final months of pregnancy (only 18 weeks left. Eek.)

It also means taking some much needed downtime before starting the craziness of a brand new career. Which for David, of course means sailing. He has joined a few guys that own a sailboat in doing a bit of a co-op so that he can sail regularly this summer. This weekend he is out with one of his best guy friends on a weekend sail over to the islands. I am missing him terribly, as are the girls who are ridiculously attached to him. He's sort of the stable center around whom all we girls flit about. When he's missing we're just going in circles!

Hannah and Cora are keeping us laughing constantly. They keep me grounded in what's important after long days in my head at the library! They have such fun personalities. Every day I feel overcome with feelings of gratefulness to God for allowing me to be the mother of two such amazing people. Already I can see they are so diverse and yet equally so gifted and beautiful. Their crazy antics bring so much exuberant joy to this home!

At a recent parent-teacher meeting, Cora's teacher gave us some fabulous insight into her strengths--things we know so well, but hearing the perspective from someone so experienced in child development was fun. Some of Cora's particularly strong traits she mentioned are her compassion--she's always noticing and caring for others; strength and confidence--she stands up for herself using her words, and knows just what she likes to do; tells stories and loves to make people laugh (David and I get this side at dinner every night!); happy to share and take-turns; absolutely loves story-time and is a great listener.

Another thing about Cora is her growing spiritual awareness. Sometimes she surprises us with the sweetest things. A recent example is in the car one day when we heard the song "There Will Be a Day" and it speaks of seeing Jesus face to face. David told her that this song is about when we are with Jesus forever. She listened for a moment and said, "It says we'll see His face! And we're going to run to Him, right? Yeah, 'cuz I love Jesus so much!" It was one of those melt-your-heart moments that lifts your own heart in worship.

Olympics Fever

Hannah was fascinated with the lights and tall buildings.

Watching the US-Canada hockey game on the big screen.

Taking a rickshaw ride.

School Photo...1st of Many!

Hannah's Birthday

Sweet Hannah turned one on Thursday! Cora's first birthday involved a huge party with all our friends, visiting grandparents, a cookout, balloons, and lots of presents. Hannah is the stereotypical second-born. She got a nice family dinner, a birthday cake celebration with our close family friends Dana, Justin and Clay, skyped-in grandparents, and no presents except a handmade butterfly card from Cora, which actually turned out to be quite exciting for her. However, another perk of being second-born: there was a lot more sugar in this birthday cake than my super-healthy carrot cake for Cora. Hannah loves her food, and she gobbled this!

Hannah Shalom's stats:

Disposition: Constantly laughing and smiling, unless she's hungry or mad when she can throw big fits

Personality: Spunky, determined, independent, our wild child

Favorite place: Anywhere outside, or if inside, on top of the kids table

Favorite things: shoes and avocado

First steps: About a month ago, but still much prefers crawling

Hannah, you bring so much life and joy to this family! Thanks be to God for the blessing of this special first year with you.

Festival of Lights

Last night in celebration of the completion of our semester we went to the Festival of Lights at some nearby gardens. There were paths and paths of enchanting lights, and Cora led the way running down different paths and exclaiming "Christmas lights!" over and over, just as she does in the car every time we pass them. She also enjoyed a visit with Santa and dancing with the Dancing Lights to the Nutcracker Suite. Oh, and the Gingerbread house. She couldn't get enough of playing in that!

A Preschool Christmas

Last night was the preschool Christmas party. The kids were so so cute with their singing and playing and visiting Santa. Cora, Clay, and Charlotte are a bit cliquish, and haven't branched out very well into developing other friendships. When Cora mentions someone from class, we say, "Oh, is that your friend at school?" And she says, "No, not my friend. Clay and Charlotte are my friends." Needless to say, the three were running around together last night, holding onto each other and giggling and running into adult's legs. I overheard their teacher saying "Those three are so cute!" Ahhh, that's a relief to hear, rather than just "Those three. Sigh." Cora and Clay were particularly crazy, dancing and giggling together for ages. I decided to get a little video, and what I ended up with is pretty scandalous.





The concert:

Cora asked for a ball from Santa. No problem.