Bed Head

These pictures were taken Saturday. . . Jonah woke with the COOLEST hair! :) I couldn't bring myself to wet it down. . . Such a surfer dude! ;)

Sword fighting with Popi
Jonah has since gotten a hair cut. . . the shortest of his life I think. I'll try to post pics tomorrow. He looks SO OLD!! :) I think his new look is adorable.

Seeing Eve

These photos were taken last Wednesday before and after we saw Eve. I was so grateful my Mom and friend Lindsey (not pictured, unfortunately) were able to come! Sharing the joy of our daughter is so much fun!

Jonah wasn't in a picture taking mood after the ultrasound. He kept hiding from the camera. Both of our kids were camera shy that day it seems.
I'm never more grateful for my Mom than when I'm pregnant and with my kids. . . Her sacrifice to give me life is so pronounced through them! I'm deeply grateful that we're able to share this season together. . . I pray that the sacred bond my Mom and I have been blessed with will one day be cultivated between Eve and I. . . I'm so grateful to have such an incredible Mom who relates with me on such a deep level. She truly is one of my best friends!

Correction . . .

I stated in my previous post that I felt like Eve had a unique look. . . Browsing Jonah's baby pictures this morning, I feel quite confident I was wrong. . . It appears that she IS her brothers clone! :) They definitely won't be able to deny each other!!

The Face of Eve

Eve's umbilical cord, legs, and arms prevented us from getting a lot of clear footage during our ultrasound today, but we definitely had an opportunity to glimpse her face. . . She has the Willis nose and Willis toes for sure! :) Though I see a bit of Jonah in her, she's not at all a clone of him! :) Can't wait to hold this sweet girl and integrate her into our everyday! We are head-over-heels for her already! :)

Eve Pancakes

For Valentine's Day, Allen bought a 4D ultrasound package at Focused Imagining. . . the BEST gift EVER!! :) Which means we get to see Eve TODAY at 5pm! I'm literally counting the hours! I have been all week. . . There's something so magical about glimpsing the life evolving in your body, you know?! We have friends who were scanned at the same facility during the same week of gestation (we'll be 29 weeks tomorrow), and their baby girl came out looking exactly like the images they captured! :) I'm a tad bit excited!!

I decided to use a mix I bought at an after V-Day sale to make pink, chocolate chip Eve pancakes this morning! ;) Seemed like a fun way to celebrate seeing our daughter. :)

Promise to post pics of Eve as soon as we get home tonight!! :) I may even have some video footage. . . :)

Random . . .

Allen took these pictures. . . He loves close-ups of Jonah's face and features. And so do I. We're totally obsessed with him if you can't tell. :) He is one of the greatest joys of the life we share. We can't imagine existing without him. . .

Saturday night we registered for Eve. Jonah loved the gun, and I went NUTS! I was in girl heaven. . . It's still strange to me to gravitate toward pink (as I'm so accustomed to blue), but it's an exciting change, one I entirely welcome. I get an overwhelming sense that Eve's presence is going to bring such beauty, grace and feminine charm to our home. I'm so excited to receive her and integrate her into our everyday!

And a few close-ups of Jonah's eyes. One of our favorite features (among many). :) I was so excited that Allen was able to capture their heavenly, true-blue color. It's difficult for me to do with the camera for some reason.

UGH! I love these kids! We're so incredibly blessed. We don't take one single day with them for granted!!

Our Saturday

We LOVE weekends!! It's so nice being together as a family! This morning we ventured downtown and had lunch at The Dog, dessert at Savarino's Cucina, and played at Dragon Park. It was LOTS of fun! :)

I love this picture of my boys!! :)

Jonah's Ethan hat! ;)

Philia Love Party

Hospitality is one of the core passions Allen and I share and a virtue we hope to instill in our children. We want to live our lives wide open to others, sharing the ordinary and extraordinary with those God invites into our story. . . We believe it is essential to the Christian life, a pertinent aspect of being the "body" and sets the stage for unique encounters of God though relationship.

That being said, our current house isn't exactly ideal for huge parties (particularly our urban-sized dining area), so we've typically limited get-togethers at our place to one or two couples at a time. . . Last week, however, we both had an overwhelming urge to get lots of our friends together and felt like Valentine's week would be a great time to do it. . .

So in the spirit of celebrating Philia love (Friendship in Greek), 10 of our closest friends and their kids gathered at our house last night. We shared lots of stories, laughter, and life over an Italian dinner and fondue. It was perfect (in my opinion). . . so wonderful to be surrounded by so much love and new life!

We missed our friends Angela and John and their girls Baylor and Briley. Hopefully, we'll have another opportunity to do this soon and they'll be able to join us! :)

Thanks to my mom-n-law for the 6ft table, table cloths, candles, plates, and silverware. Our party wouldn't have been nearly as successful without you! :)

For those of you who don't know my husband well, he is quite the party king! Most men sit on the sidelines while their wives decorate, cook, and prepare for big events. He's right in the middle of it all, helping and offering creative ideas every step of the way! There are no words to describe how grateful I am for such an involved husband! I absolutely adore him!!

Josh, Sam, Ben, and baby Elsie
Jeremy and Adeline
Ben with a goofy smile and sweet baby Elsie (also smiling)! :) She's just 5 weeks old!
Adrian and Lindsey
Jonah had a bit of social anxiety as people poured into our house. He started sweating and looked really concerned. He came to me in the kitchen, pulled on my leg and said "Hold you, Mom." (with a frightened look in his eyes). I made a bottle to calm his nerves. It seemed to work. :)
Baby Elsie
Jeremy, Adeline, Adrian, Cole, and Jonz in the background
Ben and Elsie again
All of us at dinner. :)

The boys.
Adrian and Cole
The kids watching Cinderella. . . Lydia brought a special dress. She wanted to dance with Jonah! :)
Kristen and Elsie
Adrian, Lindsey, and Adeline
I wish pictures could capture the noise, laughter, and energy of our home last night. . . They just don't do it justice in my opinion! :)

Cheers to the gift of friendship and the beauty of evolving families! We are so blessed to share life with these incredible people!!

(PS: This is the 3rd post of the morning. . . playing catch up. Scroll down to see what else we've been up to lately.) :)