Sam is Two!

We're still kind of in a state of shock, but Sam has just turned two. We've really enjoyed his first two years - most of which have been spent on St. Simons. (When we moved here, he was three months old! It's hard to believe that Elliot is already older now than Sam was when we arrived.)

We had a nice, relaxed day for his birthday, with some friends coming over for some dirt cake in the evening. Everyone got a kick out of Jess' creative use of a truck for the dirt cake. (We just had to keep Sam from dumping the cake out of the back of the truck!) Here are a few pictures of the birthday festivities.

Resurrection (of Blogging)

We've made it to the other side of Easter, and so it's time to give you a quick update on how things have been going (at least in pictures). We had a busy but wonderful Easter. It's a bit strange to celebrate Easter when it's such a big work day for a pastor. Troy was out the door by 6:00 a.m. to help lead a community sunrise service. That meant that he missed the kids getting their Easter baskets (sniff). Jess got all three kids to the church so that she could run the three nurseries she set up for today. Church was followed by an Easter egg hunt, so the kids had a blast grabbing as many eggs as they could. This could have been an awful day because of how much was going on, but - God be praised - it was really great. Enjoy the pictures.

Care for some pollen?

After living here for almost two years, I can say that spring is absolutely amazing on the island. The azaleas are now blooming all over the place (think of what you see when you watch the Masters). The air temperature is perfect. We don't have to run the air conditioning yet. I just wish I could pause this time of year here.

Of course, when things bloom, the BLOOM, which means we get pollen like crazy. Just check out the pictures of our car. It's a good thing we don't have terrible allergies. I also included a picture of one of our friendly lizards. I can only hope that he's taking care of the sand gnats.

Holy, Holy, Holy Rollers

Leave it to preachers' kids to run around in circles, chanting "Holy, Holy, Holy," for a game. I'm not quite sure where this game came from, but it was a lot of fun for them. If only they were always this happy!

Can't Help But Smile at This

It's been fun for us to see our children's personalities emerge around the four month point. Elliot has a very infectious smile and laugh when he gets going. Check it out.

MOSHing

Jess and Elliot were in Chicago for the past several days, so I decided to reward Annika and Sam with a trip to the MOSH (Museum of Science & History) in Jacksonville for putting up with me for several days. We had a great time together - other than Sam's freaking out in the planetarium. Annika and Sam got to pet an opossum (not pictured), baby alligator (fun!), and a tortoise. We had a great time today. Originally I was going to take them to the zoo, but our unseasonably cool weather (low 60s) drove us inside. I'm glad it did.

3 months with Elliot

Hard to believe that three months have flown by. First are a couple of shots of the older kids mugging for the camera. Then two pics of Elliot at 3 months. I (Jess) am thinking he looks a bit like his Uncle Cameron in the close up :) Enjoy!