Keeley Renée
Keeley - Irish "beautiful"
Renée - French "reborn"

(To type the é in her middle name, hold down the Alt key and type 0233 - when you let up the Alt key the é will appear. It's an "acute accent" rather than the "grave" accent that slants the other way... Credit for knowing this little trick goes to Deena who explained it when they had Josée)

Most of you have seen Todd's Facebook announcement, but just in case you hadn't here's the fun news!

We welcomed Keeley Renée into our family at 8:25am, Monday, April 20th. She was 6lbs. 12oz and 20" long.

She and I are doing well. The biggest praise right now (for me) is that she's eating well and has taken to breast feeding... Those of you who know about my experience with Sarah know that this wasn't an easy road the first time, so what a sweet blessing the Lord has given me that Keeley took to it right away! We're home now and will get used to our family of four... Todd has been amazing throughout this time and I appreciate so much how he has gone above and beyond to "be there" in all that that means....


Sarah REALLY has taken to her big sister role... We are thankful she is such a loving little girl and are amazed at how easily she has taken to Keeley...

Okay, now to get a little sleep while Keeley is!

Easter Challenge...

I'm so wanting to make sure that Sarah understands the TRUE meaning of Easter and it's a challenge when everything out there (activities of get-togethers, and gifts) seems to be geared toward bunnies, eggs and chocolate... I need to check out those Resurrection Eggs that you can buy, but for now, I'm happy with her saying, "Jesus is alive!"

Thanks Nana for the super cute dress & sweater (definitely a MUST in the PNW!) The only flowers blooming right now in my yard...

I LOVE the fruit trees that are exploding in their blooms right now... and the delicate confetti of pink petals they shower down...

When the weather gives you rain, go jump in a puddle (rather than complain)!

Getting used to always playing "catch-up"...

So obviously I haven't been "into" blogging myself lately... I've caught up on everyone else's, but haven't really been inspired to post myself. Anyway, thankfully it's not like housework where my blog can get really cluttered/dusty/dirty if I neglect it!

I'm up at 4:44 am sleepless/hungry/etc. so this is going to be rambling and perhaps rather boring so I can get sleepy again...Maybe more for me than you, so my apologies ahead of time!

We've been on the home stretch/in the land of "nesting" now for a while and seems like there's always "one more thing" that I want to get done before our newest little Lockwood shows up... No pictures yet, but we now have curtains in our living room and eating areas! Hooray! The combined rooms look SO much cozier/coordinated now after five years of being in the house... =) The lack of curtains seemed always to come down to indecision and not wanting to just throw up any ol' thing on the wall, and trying to figure out what the heck to do with our bay window... Hopefully I'll get some pictures soon... I also have a Roman shade that I need to finish this week and get it up in our bedroom. It's out of a dark fabric, so hopefully mid-day naps coming up soon will be even more possible in addition to making the room feel more finished...

Sarah has really taken to writing this past month or so and we are using some workbooks by Kumon that cover basic tracing, coloring (as in changing between/choosing different colors for different images instead of taking up the brown color crayon and coloring the whole page the same color), Uppercase letters and mazes... She's getting better and better at holding her crayons/pencils properly and really seems to be left-handed, so I think that 'll stick.

Imaginary role playing is her favorite form of play right now. I am forever taking on new roles that vary from "Annie" from the Magic Treehouse audiobook series that she LOVES (Thanks Aunt Heather for taking that suggestion as a Christmas gift!) and she is "Jack" who has his backpack complete with book/pencil/and medallion. We run away from army ants or examine dinosaur eggs on a regular basis... or I become Larry the "cute-cumber" who is the unfortunate victim in the Good Samaritan Bible story - she, of course, is the three travellers who pass by and eventually help Larry...

Just a cute pose I found her in when waking her from a nap on day...
She still often sleeps like she did in her toddler bed and crib before that...

Adventure Joe - Magnetic Bender toy
Found Joe suspended from our counter top the other day...
Can I tell you how thrilled I am that
Sarah knows what a snowboard and ice axe are?!?!! Seriously!

Sarah reinacting Laura Ingalls Wilder sewing by firelight... (her idea, not mine)

Sarah is now potty training and this is her "Baby Alive" that we are borrowing from friends. Pretty amazing toy even if she's quite annoying... "Keke," as named by Sarah, can really eat the baby food she comes with and drink a bottle of water. But BEWARE - she poops and pees it out again at random just like her human counterpart! Let's just say we don't really use her for her intended purpose, but she's played a small role in getting Sarah more in tune with her own body... =) The doll also "learns" and gives longer and longer times between her cues that she needs to and actually doing something in her little toilet... Weird and cool technology at the same time...

Sarah on her throne (man is she going to kill me when she's older for posting stuff like this!) doing her workbook of hidden pictures.

Today (probably in about three hours -ugh insomnia!) we'll start the egg dying, deck prep for restaining, cookie making, and prep for tomorrow's Easter meal...

May you be able to take the time away from eggs, chocolate, gifts etc. and be able to soak in/encourage each other with knowing the goodness and power of our Savior's sacrifice and ressurection!