More Eden firsts...

Eden started singing this week, and it's about the CUTEST thing ever! Her favorite is "Baa, Baa, Black sheep"... probably because she can say the first 2 words :-) And, she actually sings on pitch for the first couple notes! Hope to get it on video soon.

Anniversary...a month ago!

I realized that I didn't ever post pictures from our anniversary the beginning of June.

We had a gift card for the Angus Barn - yum, yum!


They even brought us a complimentary pound cake because it was our anniversary. Nice smile, Daniel.

Daniel was so frustrated with these balloons - they put 2 on your chair if it's a special occasion. Daniel specifically asked for them not to bring us any, but our waiter didn't get the memo. Then, our waiter found out that we had two little girls at home, so he brought us more balloons to give to them. I thought it was hilarious that Daniel had to carry them all out....

Fun night!

back soon!

Sorry for the lack of posting recently! The power cord for our computer broke... Ordered a new one so hopefully will be able to do blogging catch-up soon. Meanwhile, Eden cut her first tooth on Saturday! ...Finally :-)

Bad sportsmanship

If you don't know already, I married into a family of SERIOUS Alabama fans... and my sister Deirdre married into a family of SERIOUS Tennessee fans. We've been able to keep peace for the last few years... until about 2 weeks ago.

While Daniel was in Missouri recording, I spent several days with Deirdre and her family. One day, the kids were playing in the hallway right at the top of the steps. I had my back to them, but heard Deirdre say, "OH, well, that seems like a bad joke from an Alabama fan...." I turned around to see that my little 2-year-old BAMA girl, had chucked a UT cheerleader doll over the stairwell, where it dangled from one leg from the light fixture.



The poor doll stayed like this ALL day until Adam came home to rescue her that evening.

It was a rough day for Tennessee fans.

Eden's stats

Eden had her 1-year well baby visit yesterday and here are her stats:
Weight: 19 pounds, 5 oz. (25%)
Height: 29 inches (49%)
Head: 44 cm (20%)

Everything looked good at her check-up - thank the Lord!

"Sprinkles" at Lilly's Pizza

Uh-oh...

On Tuesday, I walked upstairs where Deirdre was getting ready for Grandma's viewing, and discovered....

.... oops. We brought the SAME outfit to wear for that day. We got a lot of, "So, you must be Marlene's twins, eh?" Eh.

Road trip

Daniel and I just got back from being up in Canada for a few days for Grandma's funeral. It was a hard trip - hard to say bye to Grandma, who we loved so much, and hard to see the heartbrokenness of our family. Also, while we were up there, my aunt had a brain aneurysm... please pray for her! She is still in ICU. And because of this my uncle and cousins weren't even able to attend Grandma's funeral. Our hearts are very heavy, but it's sweet to hope in God's goodness and faithful to us in Christ.

We did have a really good time with my sisters and brother-in-law, David, on the ride up to Ontario. We left the Charlotte area around 7:30AM on Monday and didn't get to the farm until almost 11PM... but that included several fun little detours. We had a blast talking and laughing together in the car and on our various side trips. Here we are at an overlook at the New River Gorge.




We had a little race all the way up the stairs from the overlook... probably a quarter mile "straight up"!


Daniel won, despite losing his shoe and having to go back and get it :-)


We also stopped for a little ice cream somewhere in PA.



The chocolate dip wasn't a great idea on a really hot day.


There, much better.


Then we stopped at Niagra Falls. I've been many times before on drives up to see Grandma and Grandpa, but I can never get over how spectacular the falls are.




Hello, down there!


I'm thankful we were able to go up... and a big thanks to Daniel's mom, who kept the girls for us so we could go!!

Confessions of an identical twin

I was looking through the pictures I took last week while we were in Charlotte (which I still need to post!!), and thought, "Huh. I don't remember taking this picture with Bennett..... Oh. Oh wait. That's because it's not me. It's Deirdre." Nice.

1 year old!

Here's what our little one year old did on her birthday:

Smiled a lot... as always!... and banged that metal measuring cup on everything. Cute but obnoxious :-)

Played with balloons! yippie!

Watched Bennett open the birthday present she got her - big ball, fun times.

Ate ice cream birthday cake - yummm!

Actually, prefered bottle over ice cream cake... we gave most of her cake to Bennett (and Bennett still stole what little Eden had off her plate - stinker! see last post...)

Opened a very special birthday card... my Grandma sent this card for Eden before she passed away. I was waiting for Eden to open it on her birthday... didn't realize that Grandma would be in heaven by then.

Got lots of big smiles from big sister!


Here are a few things that Eden is up to now:

Eden is such a smiley girl and laughs all the time. She is sleeping from about 7PM or 7:30PM until about 7AM, and napping twice a day... from about 8:45AM until 10AM and then from 1PM until 2:30PM or 3PM. I usually put her down with a paci, but I think she'd do ok without it. She says dada, bye-bye (which sounds a lot like "dada", thank-up, uh-oh, no-no, bennett (which sounds a lot like "thank you"). I'm still giving her bottles of formula... only because when I tried milk a few weeks ago it upset her stomach. I'm going to try soy milk, but we haven't been in one place long enough since then to get it! She loves giving big wet kisses on the nose when I say "I love you". She is all-out walking, and has been for a few weeks. Pretty much from the time she took her first steps, it only took her about a week to get the hang of walking completely. Loves water!... bath, kiddie pool, puddles, sippy cups. Loves to play with anything Bennett is playing with. Working on that :-) But her main toy of choice right now is a spray bottle of sunblock. I think she'd be perfectly content for hours with it. Her hair hangs in her eyes if we don't pull it back, so she's always got it pulled back. Still rocking the mullet, but I think we'll cut it soon... she loves wiping food it in - gross :-)

Progression of Mischief

1. Birthday Girl enjoying the last few bites of her ice cream birthday cake.


2. Birthday Girl joined by Sister who has finished her birthday cake.


3. The faces say it all.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Eden Hope!

It's hard to believe that our smiley little baby girl turns 1 today!

Last night, Daniel and Ben put together her birthday present - a little wagon.

She and Bennett were so excited about it when they woke up and saw it this morning. (Or maybe they were more excited about the balloons?? ha, ha!)

We took a little family walk (boy, is it HOT... even at 8AM. I would love to blame the weather on my amazing hair in this picture, but honestly, I just rolled out of bed and left it like that :-) ).

We have some other fun plans made for today... more pictures to come!


Happy Birthday, precious Eden. You bring so much joy to our lives.

Sad news

My Grandma passed away this morning. It's a sad morning, but we are so thankful that she is with the Lord now, worshipping with all the saints!

We'll be going up to Ontario for the funeral sometime this weekend. Would appreciate prayers for the family and safe travels. Thanks!

Grandma update

Grandma made it out of surgery - thank the Lord! The next 2 or 3 days will be crucial in her recovery... she's not in the clear yet. Would appreciate continued prayers.

Meanwhile, Daniel and the guys are traveling back from Missouri after recording ALL night. Praying for safety!... and lots of Starbucks along the way.

Grandma's surgery...

... has been moved to 4PM today. Would appreciate prayers!

The moment I've been waiting for...

Someone finally caught Daniel on video doing his "vocal warm-ups". This is a moment I have waited on for years. Enjoy! (The warm-ups are at the very beginning, but the rest of the video is just as cool... and check out the sneak-peak of "Hark the Herald" about 2 minutes in!)

Would appreciate prayer...

My grandma up in Ontario has been in the hospital for about a week with an intestinal blockage. None of the non-surgical options for treating this have worked with Grandma so far, so she's schedule for surgery tomorrow morning. Honestly, her chances of surviving this surgery at 90 years old aren't good. Would appreciate your prayers for her... and my grandpa (who has also been in the same hospital for almost 2 months), my mom (who's up there now) and the rest of the family. Thanks!

On the Incarnation

Daniel is in Springfield, MO right now recording a Christmas album. Check out danielrenstrom.com/blog for updates! We miss him!!

7 years ago...

All our wedding pictures were taken on film cameras, so I decided, after 7 years, finally to scan some of them so we can have them digitally. Here are a few of our big day!











Then, on to St. John, USVI, for our honeymoon!!



Oh, yes, back to when we were a bit toner, blonder and tanner. (Sigh...)


I discovered very soon into our marriage that Daniel has an unhealthy obsession with killing ants. This bottle of Raid was his best friend while we were there.


We still laugh about the "killer sharks" that chased Daniel inland. There were 2 little fish, just a couple of inches long, that decided that they did NOT want Daniel in the water. They chased him in over and over... he would even go all the way down to the other side of the beach and they would find him and chase him in. Maybe they were good friends with ants?

Happy Anniversary, baby! The last seven years have been amazing.

The girls

About 2 weeks ago, Daniel sang at a service at Southeastern. The girls and I played outside for a little while and had such a good time. Of course, I could never get the girls to look at the camera at the same time, but here are some pictures of them anyway...

Eden with her classic find-something-on-ground-and-put-in-mouth pose.



"OK, Mom. Put the camera down and help me please."

Little family outing

We love going out to Duke or UNC's campus and just walking around when we have a chance. Here are some pictures from Duke on Saturday.


Taking walks are so much easier now that Eden can "walk" (with the help of a push-toy) and isn't on the ground eating things all the time!

Canada trip

Last week, I was able to be up in Ontario visiting my extended family. My grandfather's health is failing and he has been the hospital for about a month now. And then 3 weeks ago my grandma fell and broke her hip. My aunt, uncle and cousins have been doing this amazing, exhausting juggling act to care for them. My mom flies up as often as she can to help, but because of her work schedule she had a gap of a couple of weeks before she could get back up. So, thanks to a bunch of help from our family in Charlotte, I was able to leave the girls and fly up to help (My sister had Bennett and Eden, plus her two, for 3 days - 4 kids, 3 and under, bless her!!)

While I was up there, I spent most of my time just hanging out with Grandma - and had such a sweet time with her! She is doing remarkably well, considering she's almost 90 and just broke her hip! We played dominoes together, went to see Grandpa at the hospital, even did some errands, and mostly just spent hours and hours sitting and talking. I also would go about twice a day to the hospital to help Grandpa eat his meals and visit with him for a while. And, I got to spend time with my aunt, uncle and cousins... especially my cousin Lisa who runs the office for the family farm, so organizes most of my grandparents' care. It was such a good trip, although I wish different circumstances brought me up there.

But, I thought I'd share some of my not-so-shining moments of the trip:
1. Trash-talking my almost-90-year old grandma over a game of dominoes. (What? It was an intense game!)
2. Being passed on a country road by a white haired man in a Buick.
3. Realizing that I say "I'll see ya'll later" in an excruciatingly slow way that makes Canadians cringe.
4. Nearly dumping grandma out of a wheelchair when I hit a little bump on the sidewalk outside the hospital. Oh dear!!

I wish I could have stayed longer... but it's so good to be back with Daniel and the girls!!

Guess who's walking!!!

Eden took her first steps on Monday! We actually weren't there to see it (the girls were in Charlotte while I was in Canada)... she took about 3 steps towards a toy she wanted at Daniel's parents house. Since then, we've seen her take 2 or 3 steps a couple of times. Here she is in action...

Splinter

We have some plastic tongs that came with a bottle sterilizing kit. I never used them, so they ended up in the toy box. Yesterday I looked over and Bennett had them like this (below), and said, "Splinter, Mommy."


Speaking of splinters... Bennett has had a lot of them in the last few weeks. Somehow or another we've convinced her that "splinter parties" are second only in awesomeness to birthday parties. We let her have a dum-dum and watch a movie while we get the splinter out... and she sits completely still for us. I think she actually gets excited when we tell her that we have to have a "splinter party." So glad we thought to try to make splinter removal fun... it's saved a lot of tears and frustration!!

11 months!

Eden celebrated turning 11-months old today by emptying an entire drawer of my clothes onto the floor.

I could hear her down the hallway giggling her head off as she was doing it. Little rascal!

She also flushed the toilet for the first time today. Seems that 11-months is going to be very exciting for all of us!

Eden has also recently started saying "Thank you" - quite often, actually. It's kind-of funny that she only says about 5 words, and 2 of them are "thank you." - "Dada", "duck" and "Bennett" are her other ones. (Yes, "Bennett.") They all have to be prompted, except "Thank you." She actually seems to understand how to use it correctly - like, if you hand her something she wants, we'll hear her say "than ew". (Not always, but enough that we think she understands when she's supposed to say it.) She's already such a polite little girl :-)

(Edit... Eden actually has another word "Uh-oh" She says it all the time when she drops something - usually her bottle. She actually doesn't say it, she hums it. Too cute.)

Marriage retreat

Daniel was asked to do music this year for Providence's marriage retreat, so last weekend we were able to spend an amazing weekend away at Fort Caswell. We had such an awesome time!

We got in Thursday afternoon and then went out to eat at a place called "Fishy-Fishy" with the rest of the couples who were already down there. (The retreat didn't actually start until Friday evening, but we were given the option of coming down early to spend an extra day at the beach.) Then, on Friday morning, Daniel and I got up and left early "to get some coffee"... well, somewhere along the way to "find coffee", we found ourselves on a ferry crossing over to Carolina Beach! HA! How's that for a little detour?!

It was a fun little 30 minute ride "across" the Atlantic.

It was cloudy in the morning, but around 10AM the clouds cleared out and we spent a little while walking and reading at Carolina Beach (after coffee, that is :-) ). Then, we drove up to Wrightsville Beach and ate at our favorite little restaurant, Sweet and Savory. YUM!!! This picture makes my mouth water.... probably the best salad and Reuben I've ever had.

After lunch, we went to a theater and watched "Angles and Demons" - thought it was a really good movie. That evening the retreat officially started. Daniel did a great job with the music, and it was great to be able to hear teaching which challenged and encouraged our marriage.

It was also so fun getting to know other couples on the retreat. Since Providence is so big, I hadn't met most of the people there before. On Saturday, we had a blast playing beach volleyball for a few hours with the other couples. (No pictures - bummer!)

This is the only picture I have of Daniel and me together!... despite that, we really did have a great time :-)

Oh, and a big thank you to Daniel's family for watching the girls for us!!!

Congrats, David and Emily!

Daniel's cousin, David and wife Emily just had their third little boy, Graham Ward Gossett. He was born last Monday (5/11), weighing 6 lbs, 13 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Congratulations, you guys!

Mothers Day

I know this is a bit late, but here are some pictures from Mothers Day.

Daniel and Bennett are so funny when they play together... check out these looks....They really weren't mad! Just playing!

This picture makes me laugh out loud every time I see it...

Eden with her best "deer in headlights" look

Daddy and Eden playing too...

I'm so thankful for my family!!

Funny Bennett

Over the weekend, we checked out this book from the library and have read it with Bennett several times over the last few days.


Tonight, we got some ice cream and went to a park to let the girls play. Once we got there, we realized that there was a Little League baseball game going on in a ball field right next to the playground. So, we sat down on the bleachers to watch. Bennett looked around for a little bit, then turned to me and asked, "Where are the bears?"

Eden at Christmas

My sister Deirdre took this cute picture of Eden at Christmas and I forgot about it until now...

When daddy does hair...

Daniel's hair piece of choice for Eden?

A twist tie he grabbed off the kitchen counter. He said "It looked easier"... whatever that means. :-)

Punch me in the face moments

A few days ago, I was remembering a story and thought, 'If I had been another person in the room, I would have wanted to punch me in the face." Since then, I've thought of a few "punch me in the face" stories... you know, things you didn't really think much about at the time, but in hind-sight you realize you were the biggest jerk in the world. Here are a few of mine:

1. My Junior year of high school, I would walk up to people in the hallway at school and tell them to "Share a Verse" they read that morning, or I would "punch them in the stomach." Hello, zealot.

2. My Senior year of college, I went on a history/archive trip with some classmates. We were all packed into a van and 2 of my friends and I decided to make-up a history song and sing it AT THE TOP OF OUR LUNGS for probably an hour. Didn't understand why some of the baseball players, who were there for the class credit and not exactly because they wanted to be there, had steam coming out of their ears. "A primary source, A primary source, a statue of a horse, and a primary source. Turabian, turabian..." It had such a nice ring to it.

3. My Freshman year of college, I fell asleep on my friend's bed during a break in between classes and drooled excessively all over her bed.

(Drumroll... this is the best one....)

4. My Junior year of college I was talking with some friends in the dorm, and started to complain about how many guys had asked me out over the past few weeks. In the course of conversation, I threw myself down on a bed and said something like, "I just don't know if I can handle it if one more guy asks me out." PUNCH ME, please.

Okay, 'fess up. What are your "punch me in the face" moments?

New phrase

Bennett coined a new phrase today, heard mostly after she disobeys me: "Posta not to?" (Not supposed to?)

Teenager in Training

"Well, I don't know if I can tonight. I might need to babysit Eden...."

"Oh, yeah, totally..."

(Seriously, Bennett is way into pretending she's on the phone. This is what I usually hear when she puts the phone to her ear: "Hi. It's well.... Okay... Okay... See you soon. Bye." Puts the phone in a purse. Wait a few seconds. Pull it back out. "Hi. It's well... Okay..." etc.etc.)

Why is it...

... that when you try to pour it in your coffee, nothing comes out; but when you give it to your baby to play with.... (look at her shirt.)

The inspiration for Eden's hair-do

"Don't worry, little plant, someday you'll be able to grow a cool mullet like me."


(YUCK! Bennett smudged a banana on the end table - didn't realize how bad it was until I looked at these pictures!)

Bye-Bye tax refund, hello cool air and hot water

Our air conditioning and hot water heater are fixed - thank the Lord! It's been a busy day around here... this is a picture of all the service vehicles in our driveway this morning.


(How's this for God's sovereign timing - our federal tax return hit today, the same day we had both units replaced... and our return is almost the exact amount needed to cover both repairs. :-) )

Bad Birdie

Yesterday we were stopped at a stop light. Bennett looked up and saw a bird sitting up on a power line.

Bennett: "Look! Mommy, look, birdie!"
Me: "Oh, yeah, B, I see it! There's one birdie sitting by itself up there."
(Bennett quiet, thinking...)
Bennett: "Birdie in time-out, Mommy?"

Cleaning the porch

Yesterday morning, we went outside to clean the porch. Those little pine/pollen seed thingys were everywhere, (Anybody know what those are called?) and every time one of us would come inside from the porch we'd track in a bunch. I'd have to sweep them up pretty quickly because Eden loves eating them.

When I started sweeping the porch, Bennett ran inside and grabbed her vacuum to help. She worked very diligently beside me until she got distracted by a caterpillar on the gate... they were great friends until Mr. caterpillar started moving - would have thought a bear was after Bennett by the way she screamed :-)

Eden thought the whole thing was quite entertaining!

Yep, It's hot in here

We miss our A/C! Hopefully by this time tomorrow our new unit will be installed and we'll be back to normal. In the meantime, we've got lots of fans going. We even packed up the girls and spent yesterday afternoon and last night with Chris and Kristen for a little relief from the heat. I keep trying to remind myself that a lot of people around the world don't have air conditioning and we will survive just fine without it for a few days!!

You just have to laugh at days like today....

Our hot water heater broke earlier this week. (Thank the Lord that He protected us from the electrical fire that made it blow!... we had no idea until the repair man told us.) Daniel and I attempted a few cold water showers (brrr!!!), but quickly decided that we needed to find other options... especially for the girls. So, the last few days we've resorted to grabbing showers and baths where we can - the gym, the church office, our friends' house (thanks, Nick and Allison!).

So, imagine how thrilled I was when I looked down today at the playground and discovered that a bird flying overhead had perfectly targeted Eden's head - splat!! It was actually pretty funny. I just had to wipe her up with some baby wipes until we could get over to the Roark's house tonight for baths.

Meanwhile, our air conditioning unit also decided to kick the bucket. It'll be fixed on Monday... but the next few days are going to be in the 90s! Oh dear! We might be bumming more than showers off the Roarks... extra bed? :-)