Last week our little man turned 4 months! This past month he’s gained a lot of neck strength and now has no trouble posing for photos. Below are pictures of Ezra and Micah both at 4 months old. The picture with Ezra wearing the matching shirt is when he was 3 months. As you can see, Micah is a bit smaller than Ezra was.

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Micah’s new trick is rolling over from his back to his stomach, so now he can roll both ways. He can also move in a circle and has started making a little progress inching forward on his belly. He loves to grab things and can pull the hanging ring on his chair to make music play. He stopped sleeping through the night shortly after his last moth birthday. Typically he gets up around 3 or 4am to nurse. About twice a week he sleeps past 5AM. It’s unpredictable.

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Ezra continues to enjoy Micah and is a good brother to him. He even shares his favorite bunny (Malone) with Micah. If I’m holding Micah and Ezra wants to play with me, Ezra asks me to put Micah to bed.

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The other day I took these pictures and they reminded me of some similar ones I got of Clara and Anna when Clara was 1 month old. I’m thankful for these pairs and that they have each other. I’m praying that they will be good friends for the whole lives.

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Love our littlest man and all the joy he brings into our lives!

We celebrated Clara’s 5th birthday this month. We started on March 1st with Clara’s countdown calendar, which included small gifts, an afternoon at a pool with slides, treats, a movie, and more. On Clara’s birthday eve we gave her a birthday dress, and we all watched the original Parent Trap.

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Clara wanted to invite Uncle JD and Aunt Kim to her birthday Saturday, so they came for a hotdog, mac & cheese, baked beans, and veggie lunch. Clara designed her own cake this year. She is the first child to ever request a haystack included on her cake. After lunch we did gifts.

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Clara’s big present from us was a new bike. We usually give our kids their first bike when they turn 3, but since we were in the States that year, we didn’t. The bike is a little big, but it’s sturdy and should last her for many years. We put it outside Clara’s bedroom door so she saw it in the morning when she woke up. She was pretty excited!

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We very thankful for the ways we’ve seen Clara grow this past year. She’s doing well with learning how to read and is working on her math. I’m amazed at her range of expression when she reads stories. She’s become a better helper. She’s growing in self control. A year ago at this time, going to church was still exhausting for me, since Clara still needed a lot of attention. She now is able to attend the children’s classes and participate without any help. We are very encouraged at the Lord’s working in her life.

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We’re very thankful for our Clara and the ways she’s growing up. She’s a vibrant little girl full of energy and life. Happy Birthday, Clara!

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Caught these pictures of our three youngest sitting on the couch before we left for church. Should have taken an after picture, since they always come home from church quite dirty. 🙂

We had our family Valentine’s party on the 12th, since the 14th was a Sunday. In the morning, I did the girls’ nails.

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In the afternoon, we decorated heart cookies. We invited our neighbor who is one of Isaiah’s close friends to join us.

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Late afternoon the kids made their heart-shaped pizzas. It takes a while to cook 5 pizzas!

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We had a heart-shaped carrot cake for dessert. Then we exchanged cards – one of the highlights of the evening. Everyone puts a lot of time into designing his/her cards for each other.

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This year we tried something new for our evening event. We all participated in a Valentine’s art class (see picture at top). I forgot to take a picture of the one Josh and I did together. Afterwards Josh read the story of St. Valentines.

It was Micah’s first Valentine’s Day!

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The next day was Saturday and we had our neighborhood Bible Club. We didn’t say a thing about Valentine’s Day, but we did decorate heart-shaped cookies with the kids for snack.