Reading with Leah

Meredith shares her love of reading with Leah, a good friend who lives close by.  

What naturally follows a good reading session...snuggling in bed with stuffed animals.

Kisses on the Nose

Love this sisterly love!

makes me think back to this day... :)

Responsibility and Mischief

Over Christmas break, Daddy made a chore chart for Meredith.  He made it very kid-friendly and super exciting with photos of each chore and boxes for stickers.  Woohoo!  

Mer thinks it's awesome, and we do too! :)

In the midst of maturity and taking on some household responsibilities... ;)

Meredith is still very mischievous.  

Twice she's been able to swipe Mama's camera, turn it on and take these shots...(!!)

wee one

Our sweet Eliza Wren is now 5 weeks old!  Where has the time gone?  She is growing by leaps and bounds - finding her voice more often these days (ahem) and becoming stronger.  

Best of all, we are catching smiles and are given an attentive concentration when we talk to her.   

Ah...these blessed days!

Christmas Festivities

We spent several days after Christmas with Jonny's family (Jane's brother) in Mechanicsburg, PA.  Jane's parents drove up from NC with Will so we had a total of 7 adults and 4 children altogether!  

It was wild - here are the photos to prove it. :)

Erik unwrapping his gift from Jonny.

Getting ready to go outside for some snow play!

Romping with Daddy!

This is possibly my most favorite winter photo EVER!

Ellie Belle charming us with her cuteness. :)

Ah..these girls are too precious together.

Eliza Wren taking it all in...amazingly quiet and peaceful with all the chaos and commotion around her.

Cousins = best buddies!

 Granddad and Granna with their FOUR granddaughters! :)

simple toys

We had a lovely Christmas filled with many dear people and many generous gifts.  

And, as always even with all the new toys, great books and games she received, the simplest and most basic "toys" often provide the most fun. :)  After unpacking a large box sent from Grandpa and Grandma Petersons, Meredith and Erik had a blast jumping in and out of the box...throwing the peanuts and pretending it was snowing...etc...SO MUCH FUN!!! :)

Christmas Day!

We spent a leisurely day together as a wee family of four this Christmas.  Our morning began with stockings and gift giving.  

We gave Meredith an easel we salvaged and fixed up especially for her.

 Meredith's favorite part of her stocking was finding the lollypops - Trader Joe's Organic pops! :)

 Daddy and his girls :)

 Erik recently found an old cast iron skillet that needed to be restored and reseasoned...so, as a Christmas gift for me he did it!  It worked out beautifully and now we have a HUGE cast iron skillet - something that's been on my wishlist for some time now. :)  We christened it on Christmas morning with a batch of cinnamon rolls.

 Erik's brother, David, made us a delicious chai mix.  

Chai + cinnamon buns = a delicious breakfast for a winter's morning!

 Then, off on a family walk around our neighborhood in the brisk late morning.  

Do you see Eliza snuggled up?

 One of Erik's favorite gifts from me was a jar of marinated herring. :)  He enjoyed it as part his lunch.

 We finished the day with a lovely dinner with dear friends - the Nothackers.  Meredith is a big fan of their sweet girls and energetic puppy, Tucket. :)