Princesses

Princess and her prince!


Ta-Da!


Pssst...I have a secret to tell you!


Summer Beauty


Almost there...she'll be crawling soon!

Faith like a child

Shortly after waking up and making our way downstairs this morning Hannah and I had the following conversation.

Hannah - "Mom, I can feel my heartbeat."
Me - "You can?"
H - "Yes, and I think Jesus is calling me."
Me - "What is He saying to you?"
H - "That I'm going to be the most beautiful ballerina in all of the world."
Me - "Wow! That's great!"
H - "Mom, I think Jesus is calling you too."
Me - "What is he saying?"
H - "I don't know."

Yummy Biter Biscuit!!



Filling the pool on a hot day!



Sad day...Mommy killed the flowers!



Pretty Princess

Squeaky Clean

After their bath tonight, I had the girls model their new matching jammies. I couldn't resist! I had a hard time getting Ellie to smile (which is rare)...she was pretty pooped and was quite focused on getting her hands on H's sippy cup!

Memorial Weekend

We had another great Memorial Weekend up in Michigan. Our friends Dan and Mar came along for their annual trip, this time bringing their 5 month old son too. (Jackson) We enjoyed our time of relaxation and time with family and friends. We even hit the beach on Sunday and Monday, which made us happy too. :O)

Too long...

That's how long I've been sitting at this computer playing around with a new look for this thing. (leave a comment and tell me what you think :o) I have to admit, I've been having fun, I've just been doing it for too long and I'm tired! I also found this cool thing called a Visual DNA...check mine out here...it's kind of interesting and if you want to and have a little time (like I did tonight), click on the link and try it yourself! :O)

Here are some pictures of Hannah at her last ballet class. She absolutely loved it and looked forward to it every Thursday afternoon. However, when I asked if she wanted to take ballet again or do gymnastics, she chose gymnastics this time. So, in a few weeks, we'll be off to the bars and beam again! :O)








These pics of the Giere/Johanik kids are from tonight when we celebrated Grandpa Giere's birthday. How fun it is to relax and enjoy time with the family! (and try to get all of the kids together, SMILING for a picture!)





p.s. for all you grammar police out there :O) I promise that when I did the "I'd Like To" picture about being on a beach (for the DNA thing), I did put an apostrophe in "there's"...not sure why it's not showing up now.

Life is beautiful and so are our girls! :O)

This past Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day and the dedication of Ellie at our church. It was so great to have our entire family with us for two very special occasions. I don't think we got to really express to everyone how thankful we are for the support and love of our families and what an honor it is to have them all in our daughter's lives. So, if you're reading this, thank you and we love you. (We really feel the same way about so many of you reading this too, even if we're not related!) We are so blessed!

I had to also share this sweet story about Hannah...Recently, our brother-in-law Jim's father passed away and a few days ago I was telling Hannah about his death. I told her that Jake, Derek, Peter and Jeremy's "other" grandpa got sick and his body just couldn't fight it and he died. She got a shocked look on her face and then with all seriousness, she asked, "But how did he get up on a cross?" I carefully explained that people don't die like that anymore and that what Jesus did was special, dying on a cross for us. I'm not sure it sunk in, but I love watching the wheels a turnin'.

Here are some recent beauties!

The "I'm a little stinker" face! (she's "chewing" Cheerios in this one and the next and yes, I'm a messy "feeder!" :o)


Can't resist those baby blues!


Lovin' the Cheerios!


Jumping in a puddle this afternoon after a short rain!


This is what being a kid is all about...maybe adulthood should be the same?!

Enjoying the beautful day...and beautiful girls!

Hannah, Ellie and I ate lunch at a nearby park today and soaked up the gorgeous sun! On the way home, Hannah was enjoying a chocolate chip cookie and broke it in half. She asked me if I wanted some, but I declined (I had already eaten all of mine :O), so she then said that she would save it and give it to Daddy when he got home. I couldn't believe it! What 3 year old who LOVES chocolate chip cookies, saves some for her Daddy?! I told her that I was very proud of her and she said, "Yeah, and Jesus is proud of me too." I couldn't help but smile.

Hannah loves to "fly!"



Ellie is not too sure about the swing yet.



I just realized I should give an update on Ellie's latest "achievements"...
*she turned 8 months old!
* she started drinking from a sippy cup...sort of. It's pretty cute, when we hold the cup up for her and she sucks and gets some water in her mouth, she starts kicking her legs and flapping her arms!
* she started eating Cheerios and Gerber puff things...she hasn't quite gotten the pincher thing down, so we've been feeding them to her (don't worry, we let her try too :O)
*she says, "da-da", "ma-ma", ta-ta" and makes a funny, long grunting noise to simply hear herself "speak" (I keep telling her it's not very lady like. :O)
*she's not crawling yet, but we think she'll get there soon. She has been SO unlike Hannah in that she is absolutely content to be where ever she is placed. She'll lay or sit in the same place and be happy as can be. By the time Hannah was 6 1/2 months old, she was ALL over the place...we couldn't keep her still!

Here's a picture to prove it! (Hannah - 8 months old)

Sisters in spring

Hannah and Ellie truly love each other and actually show it! I can't wait to watch them grow up together and I pray that they're always willing to give hugs and kisses, not matter how old they are.

Dance

Hannah started ballet class last week and is loving it. I must admit that seeing 6 little 3 year olds in their tutu's is one of the cutest things I've ever seen! Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday.

Coming back from class


I asked Hannah to show me something that she had learned that day...not bad! ;O)

Beauty

We just returned from a few wonderful days in Michigan. As always, it was great visiting with Jane, Lisa, Stacey and Grandma Smith (who just turned 94 on the 16th!!!). With the beautiful weather last weekend, we even made it down to the beach! It was Ellie's first time with her toes in the sand! What a treat!

Hannah had a blast hanging out with Luke and Taylor several different times during our visit. And, of course, they loved their time with Grandma and Papa too!

Beautiful sunset, beautiful girls


Taylor and Stacey


It's hard to capture the beauty of a sunset that you experience in person, but I tried....one of my favorite things in life.


Goofy girls in the jammies!


Great Grammy and the girls


Ellie found a new fun toy!


The first of many, many times on the beach!


Hannah LOVES every minute on the beach...she never wants to come in!

Buddies

Baby Jackson has been coming over on Mondays and he, Ellie and Hannah have already become best buddies!