Happy Easter!

This year was our first Easter without Clint (he's in Egypt and we miss him like crazy!) But I took some photos of the kids right before we left for church, so here they are Clint, in their Sunday best....

This is Noah's "forced smile"

And this is what Autumn does if you ask her to smile, or change her heart to a happy one. The eyes close first, then comes the smile

Was it only a year ago that Autumn looked like SUCH a baby? She's wearing the same dress, last year it almost came to her toes :)

They are going on an egg hunt later today, but my favorite part of the day was when I was telling the Easter story to Noah and Autumn in the car as we were going to church. I was talking about what they saw when they came to the tomb... and Noah said "the door was open and it was empty cause He's alive!" And I said, well what WAS inside the tomb? And Autumn said "An ANGEL, he said Don't be afraid, he was VERY bright, and scary." --such a big sentence, I didn't know she had been paying attention so much to our story Bible. :) Then Noah said "why does God like everything to be bright in heaven?" And I said "because he LOVES light, and God is light and there is no darkness in Him cause there is no sin in heaven." And then he said "can you pray that WE get resurrected to heaven too?" We usually have the best talks in the car, but that was just a sample, I love how new everything is to children and what they ask!

A Easter-y day

Today I went to a little Easter-y fair with the kids. They had swings, but Autumn started crying, and they stopped the whole ride just for her, which was really nice! But Noah loved it.

They had face painting too, Noah asked to be a pirate. I couldn't tell how she was painting a pirate face at this point:

Or this one....

But she made him into quite the grizzly pirate! He loved it.

Autumn said to her "I want flowers on my arm, pretty"

Showing off the face and arm

Her's turned out really sweet, she's stare at it and smile

We met their friend Evan at the fair and he got a shark!

They gave him a balloon sword, so he'd go around saying "AARGH!"

Autumn found a big easter egg, she kept asking me to "open please, chocolate inside?" but she didn't realize it was just for decoration

Then the Easter bunny came and my kids were VERY shy of him.

We got a little pic with him though

Afterwards they had a magic show to which Noah shouted "Look he did a MIRACLE!" It was quite funny. I had to tell him about the difference between a miracle and a trick. The magician made both my kids laugh out loud quite alot, so it was fun. :)

"Make my hair pretty"

Autumn saw me straightening my hair with my straightener, and she asked me "Please make my hair straight, so pretty!" and so....I did! She was very patient, and kept saying "your making my hair look pretty mommy!" This is the straightest I could get it!

And a hug from Noah right before sleepy time :)

Spurgeon in the kitchen

If it's a really hot day in Durbs the rain will come in like 4 or 5 ish in the afternoon. Then the kids ask for "Spurgeon in the kitchen" time. We are outside dog people. Especially since I'm SOO sensitive to smells with baby #3, and wet dog is about at the top of the list. But since he'd be out in the rain, and the kitchen is easy to sweep, we oblige. The kids LOVE this special time with their doggie.

He's usually pretty calm in the kitchen vs. on the grass, so they usually sit on him and hug him and give him lots of love. Autumn gave him about 30 hugs this afternoon.

Then there is usually the "report" to us about what happened "he lost his ball" or "he licked me"

After Autumn hugs him she gives us the report..."I give him a hug, he's happy!"

Baby #3

Noah: "Is THIS what you will look like when your tummy gets bigger?"

It's so fun this time that the kids actually understand that we are having another baby. Autumn is the most "motherly" little girl I've ever met, she's ALWAYS taking care of her babies, or her little Minnie Mouse, putting medicine on them, feeding, bathing, changing etc. So I'm wondering what it will be like when her brother or sister enters the world, if she'll be the mommy, or if I will :)

Ever since we told Noah we are having another one, he's taken a tiny, short-lived interest in Autumn's "hospital baby" (she has one that looks just like newborn with a hospital tag).

He got all excited one day and asked me if he could learn how to change a diaper. He says he'll only touch it if its "not wearing pink"

He tried pretty hard, but needed lots of help :) He likes to pretend to be the daddy.

Autumn learned that you have to "burp the baby" as well to take care of it.

I've been having quite alot of "afternoon sickness" where I just feel super urpy and tired after lunch, so I usually rest when my kids do. Noah's been super compassionate with me and asks me all the time how I'm feeling. He's had some really good questions and always says "tell me more about the baby in your tummy." He's fascinated by little things like when the baby's born it can't hold up it's head, and that its attached in your tummy by a cord and that's how it gets fed through the belly button etc. He always asks when I'm eating if I'm chewing it enough so the baby can swallow it ok. And he still talks through my mouth to the baby.....REALLY loud. Autumn will pray every night for "mommy's baby in the tummy" and will sometimes lift my shirt and say "where's the baby?" It's been fun watching their reaction to it all!

Baker Baker

Today's menu: Muffins

Taking turns pouring and mixing

Stirring is kinda hard when your just 2

The taste test:

I think we have a winner!

And the aftermath. I didn't take one of my floor lest you gasp. :)

My 2 year old

I know this is a little overdue, but I have a 2 year old, I just can't believe it! It REALLY seems like just a few months ago we were bringing her home:

And now this party-haired spunky little girl is in our lives. By the time she turned two there were no more diapers, woo hooo! It was SO quick with her I really didn't even have to train her! She's so proud to wear her little "prince-ness pants"

We threw a "girly safari" theme cause she LOVES Lions and Crocs and Elephants. If I tell a story it must have one of those in it.

Her cake! I was SO pleased with how it turned out, and it was my 1st time making 3d characters, so fun!

Family pic

Singing to her, she loved this

And she knew just what to do!

We had some friends over for her party, as well as her Grandpa from Pretoria, she had alot of fun! Her favorite was playing with her babies with all the girls, and how the older girls in our Young Adults read her new books to her.
Autumn at 2 is the girliest girl I've ever met. She LOVES babies and dollies, she spends much of every day putting them to sleep, wrapping and unwrapping them until it's just perfect, and rocking them in her pram. She is quite the independent girl, she'll often just sneek off to her room to make a pretend cup of tea for her dollies, and you find her there an hour later still happily playing. She loves to be read to and will ask for more stories after reading for over an hour (Noah's the same!) Her favorite Bible story is with Moses because there is a mommy, a baby, and a princess who comes to take care of the baby in the basket. She asks to read that one every day. She's often found saying "I'm a ballerina" and will dance around on her toes. She loves going on walks and will stop and talk about every bug and every flower. Since she's been out of diapers and moved into her big girl bed, Noah's been MUCH more interested in playing with her, since she's now a "big girl" and they will play chase and draw together. He's still confused why she needs a pacifier though (we'll work on that one later!) She's my super brave girl and will try anything daring, jumping off high rocks and no matter how high you swing her she'll say "higher" or "faster". We love her to bits!

Dubai

On the way back to SA we stopped off for a few days in Dubai to break up the crazy 16 hour, 8 hour flight sequence. AND to visit our friends who live there the Penny's. I was amazed at how it was just DESERT with TONS of buildings everywhere, and crazy big malls. It was so cool seeing the church there as well and how multi-cultural everything is.

Noah and Autumn made very very good friends with Donna and Hannah while we were there. They talk about them all the time and ask if they are going to live in South Africa.

It was hot even in winter (it's the desert!) so we rode little bikes to the pool every day.

And had tons of fun swimming!

Walking hand in hand to the pool

It was fun to have some "daddy time" since his studies were all done!

Noah took some swimming tips from Donna, he's getting better!

The beaches are beautiful, and the kids had lots of fun

The city is really beautiful at night!

Thanks Penny's for hosting us, we had so much fun with you!

And we saw the tallest building in the world, it makes you dizzy when you look up at it. It's the Burj Khalifa standing at 2717 feet tall. My camera had a close zoom lens so you can't get the full effect, but it was pretty stunning!