4th of July Fireworks

I love the 4th of July. It's my favorite holiday. I don't know entirely why... it could be the pool parties, or the tank-tops cut-off jeans and sandals, or perhaps it's the family togetherness that often happens due to yummy cookouts on the grill. In any case, I love it. Here are three cool pictures I took of the fireworks that we set off in our front yard with our neighbors this year. (we had a fabulous block party - it was so fun!)
More pics of the block party to come, but for now, enjoy the fireworks! :)

Happy Independence Day!

Grampy and Abuela

Today was fun, Grampy and Abuela (my dad and his wife, Lupe) came over for a visit and we enjoyed a yummy lunch and then some fun with Liberty. (When is it not fun with Liberty? She's such a little "ham") Here are the two best pics from the day.

Abuela and Grampy

Liberty as she is being tossed in the air... I absolutely love this smile!

The Birthday Party

Ok, so this past Saturday was Liberty's first birthday party. It was a blast... at least I thought so and I assume Little Miss Social liked her first party too. Anyway, here are a few of the captured moments from the big event.

Liberty in her pretty party dress!
(notice the tiara too!)

Princess for a day...
(ok, really she's always my little princess, but especially so this day)

First cupcake!
Mmmm! Yummy!

I love this shot... not sure if it's just that she's so darn cute or that it shows her incredible eyelashes or just that she's so pensive. Anyway... I love it.

Friends...
there were a LOT more than this, but this is the only group shot I managed to get.

This is another random candid, but for some reason it struck me and I liked it.
I think I feel like it describes us (me and Liberty) well.

The Princess with her grandparents
Momo and Grandpa (which Liberty has named "Papa")

Liberty, Mummy & Daddy

I want to say a special thank you to my best friend Michelle who was so gracious to use her photography gifts to capture this special time for our family allowing us to sit back and enjoy the festivities and not worry about getting pictures. (about 80% of the pictures that day were taken by Michelle, the other 20% were taken by either Chris or myself) So, thanks so much Michelley! Love you friend!

Happy Birthday Liberty!

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Liberty, happy birthday to you!!!!
My sweet baby girl is 1 today. I can hardly believe that it was one year ago today that I was holding her in my arms for the first time. She has grown so fast (as they all told me would be the case) and I am loving being her mummy ("mommy" if you're American and "mummy" if you're Australian). I readily admit it's difficult especially at times when she's fussing for no reason or the separation anxiety kicks in, but overall so very worth the sacrifices. In the end, my life is so much richer with her in it. What an amazing gift children are from our heavenly Father.
Well, Chris and I got ourselves a new camera. We needed one anyway, but we decided that it was kinda our anniversary gift to each other too. (June 9 marked 7 years for us!) So here are some pictures I have taken recently using our fun new camera. Enjoy! :)

Mummy and the baby!
Mummy's little "helper"

Playing with the twins

Sitting pretty in my rockin' chair

In the backyard baby pool - though this didn't last long because while it
looked like lots of fun in the picture on the box, it was not since the water was too cold and there were no friends to share it with!

Liberty the morning of her 1st Birthday with all her presents and the fun water table from Momo and Grandpa! (too big to wrap in a gift box!)

Liberty and Mummy with the presents Uncle Dan sent... which of course included
a SOCCER BALL!!!

My Camera Broke

So, just wanted you to know that I am not intentionally ignoring my readers. My camera broke so I have been unable to take any pictures as of late. I tried borrowing my mum's camera a couple of times, but it's really difficult to get the pictures off of it because when you plug the stupid thing into the computer it sometimes pretends that certain pictures are not there (even though you can look at them on the camera and know that they ARE! Grrr!)
Anyway, Chris and I labored over what to do and finally settled on buying a new camera which we ordered on Amazon. But it's taking FOREVER to arrive (we chose the free shipping and apparently the free shipping options takes many moons to get to you!)

So when I get the new camera I'll be giving you some more updates with pictures of sweet Liberty. Until then, she is growing fast, trying to learn to walk, saying about a million and one things, signing a whole bunch too and is generally just a busy little person, but she is cute as can be! I am scrambling to get everything together for VBS for the church that I work for and Chris is scrambling to finish up all the end-of-the-year responsibilities that he has as a teacher for high school seniors. Mum is scrambling to get everything ready for her mission trip to Sudan that is coming up in two weeks.
Needless say there is a lot of scrambling going on here at our house. We covet your prayers because we are all weary from the craziness. Summer cannot come fast enough!
Ok, that's all for now. Later!

Not So Funny...

Ok, so this one is not so funny, but I feel it important to pass along. People are dying from water they are drinking and there IS something we can do about it. Please check out www.onedollarwater.com Donate today and save someone's life.

Funny Blog

Ok, just briefly, I want to recommend a website to anyone who is interested... it's a blog dedicated to Christians who have a sense of humor and like to laugh at themselves. I find it very entertaining and if you choose to check it out, I hope you do too.
It's called "Stuff Christians Like" and you can find the link over in the left-hand column of my blog under Other Bloggers.
Enjoy!

Australia!

AUSTRALIA!!!

This was the view off the southern coast of Tasmania - a place called Devil's Kitchen

(near the blow-hole)

Just wanted to let you all know that we were very fortunate to travel to Australia over the last three weeks. (thanks to frequent flyer miles) What a blessing it was! My mum, Liberty and I made the trip and had a wonderful time. Liberty proved to be a great little traveler and amazed everyone with how well she did considering how far we had to go... not that we should have been surprised due to her "Snow family traveling genes" and the amazing number of people who were praying for her to do well on the trip.
We stopped for two days in Melbourne and visited some family there...

We spent four and half days with Uncle Daniel...

Daniel... all I have to say is "Deep-fried Mars bars!" Ha ha!

At "The Dome"


Liberty's first beach experience was in Hobart, about two blocks from Uncle Daniel's old apt.

And the rest of the time we stayed with my grandparents (Liberty's great-grandparents) and visited different family and friends everyday.

Gigi (G G for great grandmother) with Liberty

Four generations


Poppy and Liberty looking at one another... so sweet. :)

Overall it was a fantastic trip and we were sad to come home. (we missed home, but it was still hard to leave and come home)

This was the day of our departure... it was so hard to leave.

So busy

Happy Valentines Day!!!

(one week late)

Ok, so I know I said I'd be better about this in my last post, but life has gotten in the way (as it always seems to do) and I have neglected the blog. Anyway, I thought I'd let you know that Liberty got her first tooth (front lower left) last Friday (Feb. 15th) and yesterday (Feb. 19th), she made her crawling debut! My goodness, time sure does fly.

Below is a pic Chris snapped the other day when I was trying to teach her to clap (which she now does frequently and is quite pleased with herself!) (Isn't she adorable?)

Apologies

Ok, so my most profound apologies for not updating since OCTOBER!!! I'm terrible, I know... but seriously you have to know that I've bee SO busy! I will do a longer post at some point with some better (longer, more detailed) updates, but in the mean time, just know that I haven't forgotten you! Here is a picture of my little family the Sunday after our church's praise team's CD release about a week ago(we're all wearing our matching t-shirts!).

(Liberty is now 6 months old! Isn't she so cute???)

What's in a name?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
Shakespeare ~Romeo & Juliet~

So I've been thinking a lot about the name that I believe the Lord gave Chris and I for our daughter. Liberty. Liberty Grace. I really do believe that God gave us that name for her and it has such rich meaning behind it that I thought I'd share it with you. Her first name, Liberty, is what we like to call a "prophetic name." We prayed earnestly about what her destiny could be in God's Kingdom. We believe that Liberty will be used by God by being part of "liberating" her generation from sin and death. Her middle name, Grace, is a testament as to how she will fulfill her destiny. It is by the "grace" of Jesus Christ that she will make any difference, whatsoever, in this world. Hence, Liberty Grace is her name. (Just for clarification: Liberty is her first name and Grace is her middle - Grace is not part of her first name)

Now, many of you have heard her referred to as Libby. Which is cute and all, and I love the nickname; however, it has become a problem. You see, so many people think it's so cute that it has gotten to the point where no one is calling her Liberty. Which is such a shame... how is she to have the opportunity to reach people, possibly even reach them by explaining the reason behind her name, if everyone calls her Libby? (Libby is generally a nickname for Elizabeth) I would be absolutely grieved if she lost her rich God-given name, to a cute nickname. Therefore, I am going to make a request that everyone call her Liberty, for that is her name. If later in life she chooses to go by a nickname, that will be her decision, not ours, to make.

I hope those reading this understand why I would make this request. I'm not trying to offend anyone or hurt anyone's feelings, I just cherish the name God gave her and want others to as well.

Ok, I suppose that is all for now. And because I know all my loyal readers (yes, I know who you are and how often you faithfully check this blog) I will include a couple of recent pictures of Liberty. :) Enjoy! (And thanks for listening... err reading... whatever)

Daddy making baby laugh at the pool

Mummy and baby at the pool
(doesn't Liberty look adorable in her little polka-dotted bathing suit?)

Liberty in her "party dress"
(she went to her friend Veronica's 1st birthday party so she go all dressed up for the occasion)

Liberty in her "Bumbo" chair!

Liberty's progress

Ok, so I "made" time and here is your Liberty fix. Last time we went to see the doctor for a well-baby check-up doc said she's in the 91%tile for her height and the 75th for her weight! Whoa! She's getting so big! She is smiling and on occasion gives us a laugh. (her first laugh was Friday, September 14th) She can mostly hold her head up, but she's not real steady with it. This coming Monday she'll be 3 months old! My goodness where does the time go?
Well, anyway, here are a couple of pics that I thought you all may enjoy.

In the bouncy thingy
(with Mr. Elephant behind her to prop her up)

In the jungle

Mummy and baby
(look at Liberty's cute little feet!)

Daddy making Liberty smile and laugh!
What fun! :)

Skit

Ok, this is a skit I came across that I thought was really powerful... I know I haven't done a Liberty update in a while, but I will do that as soon as I get a chance to upload the pictures from my camera and get time to load them on Blogger. In the mean time please take the time to watch this very cool video of a skit.

Libby update

Well, folks, I know it's been a while, but I've been super busy! I've gone back to working now... grrr. While I am very happy to get to be with the co-workers that I love (we have a great office environment), I wish I could be home everyday with my little one... home without having to work, that is.
Anyway, thought I'd give a little update on Libby. She is almost 8 weeks old now and she's growing like a little weed! She's already 11 and a half pounds! (I read somewhere that little girls gain about an ounce a day until they are about 3 months old) She gets cuter all the time and is now smiling at us and making all those adorable cooing and gurgly noises... Chris and I can hardly stand it, she's SO CUTE!
Ok, well, gotta get busy... I have a million things to do. Enjoy the pics!

My American Accent

Ok, so a fellow blogger friend of mine had this little quiz result box on her blog and I thought the quiz looked like fun so I took it and posted my results. Do you agree with the results? That I basically have no accent? Let me know and if you decide to take the quiz too, let me know your results!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Some more cute pics

Just thought I'd update with some more cute pics of my sweet baby girl. Enjoy!

Libby and Mr. Bear
(I think this might be mummy & daddy's favorite picture)


Daddy & Libby

Libby on her Boppy

Libby with her Grampy & Abuela

Libby in the swing

More friends and some pics with Uncle Daniel

My good friends Michelle, Rebecca and Kasey came over on Thursday to see me and Liberty (I think mostly to see Liberty though... ha ha). We had a nice visit...Liberty was an angel! Here are some pictures from the visit. (Michie, I realized as I was uploading pictures onto my computer that we didn't get any pictures of you with Libby! We must rectify that ASAP!)

Aunt Rebecca & Aunt Kasey (Bubba)

Aunt Rebecca & Aunt Kasey

Here are some shots of Liberty and her Uncle Daniel! She seems pretty peaceful... Daniel you must have that special touch! :)

Uncle Dan & Libby after dinner one night

Uncle Dan & Libby just kickin' back
(Of all the pictures taken in the last two weeks, I think this one might be my most favorite... I just love it!)