Happy Easter!

May God bless you at Easter,
And keep you all year through.

 May God give you all the faith it takes,

To make your dreams come true.

May His love and wisdom always help,

To guide you on your way.

 May His light shine down upon you now,

To bless your Easter Day.

Wishing you a blessed and joyful Easter.

Love,

Matthew, Leah, James & Baby

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James Birthday Celebration {Part 1}

Matthew had to work on James's Birthday this year, so we decided to have a 2-day family celebration in honor of the little man turning 2.

***************************************Day 1*************************************

We started off the day by going to the Children's Museum.  The Ball Area is James's favorite:

We also checked out the cars

 And the choo-choo trains

 The little guy even had fun playing with a doll house and some doll babies (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that his interest in doll babies will extend to his new baby brother or sister!)

 We had fun at the sand table

And last but not least, played with some farm animals

Moo!

After his afternoon nap, he wanted to play with some more choo-choo's, so we headed to the library where they have a pretty sweet train table

***************************************Day 2*************************************

I decided to let James dictate what we did on his actual birthday.  After a breakfast of cereal-blueberries-milk-in a bowl (of course!), we went to the YMCA to play IU basketball

He surprised me by wanting to go to the day care area, so he played there for a bit while I got a little work-out in.

In the afternoon, we played with stickers

And watched some Finding Nemo.

When Deda got home, we attempted to take some birthday pictures, but someone wasn't too keen on having his picture taken

  He was a much more cooperative when Deda got in the pictures with him

He also wasn't too crazy about our new family birthday tradition: marking his height on the amazing 6.5ft tall ruler that James's Grandpa built for us.  At first he acted like this:

But after giving him Mama's phone, he settled down a bit and let us mark his height

 After our traditional lasagna dinner, James got to open his birthday cards

I thought it was pretty funny that he had two cards addressed to "Master James"

And then he opened a couple of presents from us

 He had some birthday ice cream

then we headed downstairs for playtime and one more present

A TeePee!

He played one of his favorite games, which he calls "Ride, Deda! Ride!" 

Where he basically climbs on Matthew's back and when Matthew raises up to his hands and knees, James "falls" off.  He can't get enough of it! 

We also fit in a little letter recognition

I'm so proud of our little guy!

Before bedtime, we took a family picture

 How things have changed since one year ago!

PS - I feel like it looks like I'm hiding one of these under my shirt in the pic above :)

We hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

Love,
Deda, Mama, James, and Baby Basketball

March {2013} 10 On 10

{March has been a busy month for us...so busy I forgot to post these pictures I took almost three weeks ago!}


On March 10th, I took part in the 10 on 10 project.  Once a month on the tenth, participants (when they remember!) take a photo an hour for ten consecutive hours to document the life and beauty among the ordinary things of our day.  Click HERE or on the button to the right for more information about the project.  Enjoy!

Happy 2nd Birthday, James Hardin! A Year in Review

Just like last year, we put together a slide show of our favorite phone pics of the little man from the past year.  Enjoy!

(FYI - the video is almost 13 minutes long - yes, I know I take too many pictures)



PS - I'll be back later to share how we celebrated the big day!  James sends a big thank you to all who called, sent letters, and emailed.  He feels very loved :)

PPS - For those who haven't seen it, here are James's Basketball Season Highlights: