Celebrate: Welcome To The World My Little Love

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 

- 1 John 4: 7-12

Yesterday my newest nephew was born and tonight I'm thinking about love and what I would whisper in his ear if I could be in Virgina holding him close. I would whisper little words of love and hope, I would say something like "I love you, your family loves you and The Lord God Creator and Sustainer of the world loves you, yes you are loved. I hope you have a life full of blessings, that you grow strong and wise, that you find joy in the morning and rest at night and more than that I hope you feel all of this love everyday of your life." it would all be about love, every word, because every person should be born surrounded by love.

Actually if you think about it the unconditional and undeserved love we give babies is a way that we model God's love. For this little person has done nothing for me, yet I would do so much for him, just because I love him. So tonight instead of whispering my words of love in his ear I will pray that my little dear will be surrounded by love all the days of his life and that as he grows he will model God's love by loving others.

Welcome Dietrich I love you, I love you, I love you! 

Celebrate: Happy Birthday Kels!

If you knew my sister in-law Kelsey here are a few fun things the two of  you might do:

• Play Board Games (and card games)
• Eat Popcorn
• Watch Friends
• Talk About Young Adult Distopian Fiction (I kinda can't believe that is a thing)
• Walk Around Target
• Text About The Voice
• Visit Historic Homes & Museums
• Take Road Trips
• Laugh & Laugh & Laugh

Happy Birthday Kels, my life is better because you're in it!

Visit: Louisville Slugger

You probably can't take a family vacation to Louisville without visiting the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. This is a great activity for folks of all ages. We didn't have any little kids in our group, but there were others on our tour and they all seemed to be having a great time. Now I'm kinda a sucker for factory tours, I love seeing how things are made, but the Louisville Slugger people make the whole thing so interesting and entertaining that my sister, who doesn't care about baseball at all, said it was her favorite place we visited.

More Kentucky Posts:
My Old Kentucky Home
Kentucky Horse Park
Day At The Races

Visit: Kentucky Horse Park

The first stop on our Kentucky trip was at the Kentucky Horse Park. I went to the Horse Park a long time ago on a trip to Kentucky with my aunt, uncle and cousins, but it was way cooler than I remembered.

The park and museum are full of horse related and inspired art pieces. The museum is also full of interesting facts about the history of horses. We watched a few of the shows, which I recommend you do. We saw the Hall of Champions show, where you can see champion racing horses including Kentucky Derby winners and the Horses of the World show which highlights different horse breads from around the globe. And best of all every where you turn you see horses, in every field and barn and even just walking down the paths.

Live: Four Days In Kentucky

Last week, while I was absent here, I was gallivanting around Kentucky with my parents, sister, a sister in-law, a couple of brothers and a niece. We rented a house in Louisville for the weekend and stopped along the way in Lexington to spend the day visiting the Kentucky Horse Park and to see a horse race. Louisville is a really easy drive from Michigan and it was great to get into real spring weather for a few days.

We found our rental on craigslist, it is a private home that the owners rent out for weekends. Renting a house works really well for us, we like to be able to cook our own meals and have a place to hang out in between tours and activities. While we didn't get to all the places I would have liked to visit, we had a full trip and were able to get out an see a fair amount of this fun city. Here is a little round up of what we did.

Kentucky Horse Park*
Keeneland Race Track*
Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory Tour*
Church Hill Downs
Jeffersonville, IN
Locust Grove*
Louisville Zoo
Old Louisville*

*I will have additional post about these places

It is a little hard to get eight people out the door to all the places you might like to see so we defiantly missed a lot of fun things to do in the Louisville area, but it just leaves us with something to do the next time we visit.

Check out some more travel posts here:
New York I & II
Cousin's Lake Weekend
Sister Road Trip
Girls Weekend On Lake Michigan

Celebrate: Happy B-Day Lyd!

What can I tell you about my dear cousin Lydia on this her birthday? She is so dear to me, we are friends and family all rolled into one. Last week Lyd gave birth to a sweet baby girl, her sixth child. Little Rosie was born at home and I was honored to be there to help welcome her to the world. That night, as i sat next to Lydia in her bed cooing at this wonderful new person, I thought about how glad i am to be so close to Lydia and her family. We have been around the bend together, we have grown up a little (okay - a lot!) together, we have cried together and laughed together and I can't wait for for all the new things we will do together in the year to come!

So happy birthday my friend! I've been testing out 29 for you and it's not so bad!

Eat: Fish Fry

Even though the ground is still covered in snow I had this feeling today that winter is ending. Yes March can be snowy and it will definitely be cold, but still I know our days together are numbered. So I am trying to embrace winter at every turn. Otherwise these last few weeks can end up feeling dull and gray.

Two weeks ago on one of my favorite kinds of winter days, when we have snow in the morning, but it warms up in the afternoon so you get a wonderful misty fog by early evening, we had a family fish fry. Days like that make me extra glad to come from a big, close family. About twenty of us gathered at my Aunt and Uncle's house for a time of family fellowship. My dad and my Uncle Steve spent the evening frying fish on the patio with everyone else contributing in there own way (making salads, baking cornbread muffins, walking to the corner store for pop and beer, bringing babies).

A couple of cuties in their makeshift kitchen; my uncle and my dad!

Yum!

Pete, like everyone else, liked watching the action outside.

Some cousins meeting for the first time.

Things moved fast and everyone had more than their fill of fish and it was a perfect way to spend time together enjoying a warm (for winter) Friday night and a wonderful meal. It is fun to celebrate holidays together, but I love this kind of casual, low key, relaxed family times most of all!

Do you have casual get togethers with your family? Is your dad really into cooking in his new deep fryer? No, just mine? I'd love to here about how you get through the inbetweeny times of life!

Celebrate: Happy Birthday Naomi (I think you're cute and I stole this picture from your facebook)

** Oooops this post went up early, so Happy Early Birthday Naomi! **

Today I am wishing a very Happy Birthday to my fabulous cousin Naomi! I am increadablly lucky to have a bunch of cousins that are also great friends and she is most certainly among them. She is smart, fun and stylish! I'm so glad I "saved your life" all those years ago so that we could be grown up friends today!

Celebrate: A Little Valentine's Day Party

 Last week I made a pinata and filled it with small gifts for my cousin Lydia's kids, then I hatched a plan to have them over for a tiny Valentine's Day party. I thought we'd have Hot Cocoa and I'd make some cookies or a cake, but when I stopped over to invite my guests their mother suggested that we decorate the cookies their Aunt Hannah had sent them. It was the perfect activity for a bunch of kids, but my dining room was a mess by the time they were all packed into the car.

My favorite part of the day was when they all had to wear the destroyed pinata as a hat in a sign of victory! 

Give: Valentine's Gifts for Little People

Are you looking for a little gift to give the kids in your life for Valentine's Day? I found these sweet mailboxes in the dollar section of Target last week and filled them up with a few goodies for a quick and easy gift for less than $3.00 each.

My older niece (3 years old) is getting a pink mailbox filled with a bracelet, some stickers, candy and heart shaped fruit snacks (everything except the stickers came from my Target trip, the stickers I think are also from Target, but I have had them kicking around for a while).

I sent my nephew (18 mo) a blue mailbox stuffed with fruit snacks and a wind up bath toy (again from Target).

So there you go, no need to fear quick and simple gift giving!

And I didn't forget about the newest niece (2 and 1/2 weeks old). She got a tiny hand embellished hat. Sigh, all the cutest stuff in life, new babies and felt hearts!