The Beauty of a Big Brother

I love watching the relationship between Thomas and Lily develop. Since the moment we told him that I was pregnant with her, he has wanted to be in on every stitch of the fabric of her life. Here are a few select shots of his time with his Sissy.

After spending the night sacked out in the waiting room Thomas was bright-eyed enough to ask "when can I hold my sissy? Her name is Lilianna Evelyn!" He got some help from Nanny and Chelsea.

Bursting with pride for his 1 day old sister.

Lily's first bath was quite an experience with 2 extra hands. I think Thomas and I ended up more wet than Lily!

Christmas 2006

All bundled up for a family road trip!

"We're taking this picture no matter what!"

Just another day at the park!

Look, Sissy, GG found a turtle!

Goats are soft!

The smile was unsolicited. He was just talking to her softly and saying what a good girl she was being.

I hope you enjoyed this small sampling of how Thomas has grown to love his baby sister. It still amazes me that we have seen very little jealousy from him. He just wants to love on her and see that she is taken care of well.

God Says "Ha"

Raise your hand if you have ever spent months germinating the seed of an idea into a plan that seemed ideal because it embodied your heart's desire then God stepped in and said "ha." If your hand isn't in the air you haven't been paying attention. Yep, we planned and God laughed. We're really happy about it though because as it turns out the Creator of the Universe, Maker of Heaven and Earth, Almighty God knew what was best for us better than we did. Who woulda thunk it?

As you all well know we had spent months developing the idea of our first home all the way to drawing up plans and finding a company for a log home. While that is still our ultimate dream God said not right now. He brought us to our new home, our first home, and we couldn't be happier!

From top to bottom you see the front view of our new home, a side view with our deck and one of the entrances to our basement, and finally our HUGE back yard. We still live in the Metro area but we found a lot right at an acre! We have also traded in a neighborhood full of gunfire for a fire pit built by my wonderful Eagle Scout husband in our back yard.

We are getting to know our new side of town and all it has to offer. I can finally let Thomas and Lily play outside without worrying about who might be out there and what they might be doing. We love our community center and the parks in the area.

I guess you could say that as with all children we have come to realize that our Father was right all along!

We look forward to having everyone over someday. We need more furniture first! That's the downside of going from 1300 square feet to 1900 square feet (not including the basement which is only partially finished.)

Just to say "Hello"

This is our first family blog. I must say I resisted the blog revolution initially but the convenience and economic benefits (no paper, postage, or printer ink to buy) finally outweighed my traditionalist nature. I still believe that letter-writing is an art and will continue to pursue it but I can also share my word-smithing skills more immediately through this blog. So all future issues of The Scalf Family Gazette will be posted here.