Reuel's Placenta Tree

My beloved Placenta has gone to its final resting place beneath a beautiful Japanese maple tree! 

So if you were following my blog when Keziah was born you might remember my love for my placenta and my desire to honor it. (You can read all about Keziah's placenta tree here). We had been planning to do the same with Reuel's placenta but the time just kept getting away from us. It's been hanging out in my freezer between breakfast sausage and frozen fruit for well over a year now. Every time I opened the freezer I'd think, ugh, we really need to get a tree for Reuel. Well we finally got it done today. The best part of waiting so long was that Reuel got to help! 

He had a blast helping daddy dig.

And then it was time for me to add the special fertilizer!

Saying goodbye to my awesome placenta - that my body created, and then used to nourish a baby for nine months growing him from a tiny spec to an 8 pound healthy baby boy. (seriously, how cool are placentas!)

Keziah insisted on helping a little bit too.

The tree is in!

 We chose a Japanese maple because we've always loved them and they seem to convey a nice balance of beauty and strength. We looked at several trees at the nursery today and this one just seemed perfect the moment we saw it.

Reuel was equally excited about playing with the now empty pot.

A few buckets of water and this little tree is on its way to growing up along with Reuel.

We ended the evening with a prayer and little dedication of our baby boy to the Lord.

God bless you my little Reuel. May you grow up strong and live a beautiful life!

Wordless Wednesday: Puddles

Wordless Wedneday: Peacock Show

Easter Pictures!

Ahh the lovely Easter tradition of family pictures. I hated it as a child. You come home from church and all you want to do is change into play clothes and get on with the easter egg hunt and eat yummy bar-b-q. But nooooo, you have to pose by the big oak tree for a million pictures first. Well, as much as I would like to not put my kids through this yearly torture, I totally get why adults insist on it. It's basically the only day of the year when all four of us look our best. Any other Sunday, and I'm at church in my jeans or yoga pants, no make up, and my hair pulled back. And my kids get to wear what they want which means, well, anything goes. And lets face it, if it's not Sunday, or errand day, I'm probably still in my pajamas, or at least one of the kids still is. So Easter... yes, we need to get a family picture to replace last year's pretty pitiful one. (Look to the right at the scowling child and sleeping baby). I was very much anticipating a fabulous pic to update my very outdated sidebar here in my bloggy space. Well, not fabulous but probably an improvement. After several shots, here's the top three. You can help me decide the winner for this year's family photo. 

Ok, not too bad except the kids are clearly not interested and looking down.

Almost perfect, Reuel is adorable. except we have Keziah doing her forced smile. Michael Paul calls this her Elise face because her cousin Elise use to make a similar face when she was this age. It's cute but not really what I was going for here.

And then we have the 'bribe the child with candy' picture because they were so over it by this point. Again, not exactly what I was hoping for.

Oh well. I'll spare you the 20 shots that were just insanely bad.

Michael Paul and I got a decent one together!

OK, enough of the formal shots. We changed into play clothes and got on with the fun. Here are the pics you probably care more about:

Reuel was only 5 weeks old last Easter and slept through most of it. So this was his first real fun Easter. We weren't sure how he would do with the egg hunt. He did not grasp the concept of "mark, set, go!" and took off ahead of his sister.

But he did grasp the concept of hunting eggs pretty well and started putting eggs in his basket.

Of course he found all of three eggs by the time Keziah had found almost all of them.

She was very proud of herself!

time to check out the goods!

true to my food snobbery self, our kids' eggs were stuffed with organic lolly pops, organic fruit snacks and fruit leathers, and coins for their piggy banks. But in the spirit of the 80/20 rule, I did get Keziah one Reese's peanut butter egg! :)

And my favorite picture is Keziah's reaction upon realizing that some of the loot was for Reuel! She started grabbing everything while screaming no. Too funny. Reuel, true to his laid back self, was just happy to be outside.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Wordless Wednesday: Hang On

Reuel's First Birthday!

We celebrated Reuel's First Birthday last weekend. He shares a birthday with Dr. Seuss. That made the choice of party theme obvious. This might not even be the last Dr. Seuss birthday we have. We served Green Eggs and Ham, "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" crackers, and "Cat in the Hat" cupcakes. Books and Dr. Seuss characters made decorating easy. A fabulous time was had by all. In case you missed it, here are some pictures.

Wordless Wednesday: Sledding