A Collage of March and April Happenings

I downloaded lots of photos onto our computer tonight and realized that it is about time I post a new blog! It has been over a month since the last post so here are some pics and description of what has been going on in the Stowers family lately.

Isaac has been really growing into and even beginning to enjoy his new role as big brother. That is not to say there are not moments or entire days when he struggles with being kind or patient or sharing, but we have noticed that those times are becoming much less frequent--such a welcome answer to prayer! As you can see, one day at lunch Isaac asked to be the one to help feed Chun Le. Typically, she prefers to feed herself, but sometimes she will be more open to trying something she doesn't like if we make a game out of it and feed her. So that is what Isaac was doing and you can see that they both had fun. Another really cool thing happened just two mornings ago. Isaac told me he had a secret to tell me. I came close and put my ear up to him and he whispered, "I love Chun Le." What wonderful words to hear!!!

Had to share these two "what I can do with a stepstool" pictures as a continuation of our previous post. Chun Le LOVES to use the electric pencil sharpener but it is out of her reach so she needs my help to be lifted up to use it (until today!). While I was doing breakfast dishes she was indicating that she wanted help in sharpening a pencil. I told her that I would help in a few minutes when I was done. While I finished up, she decided to go get a stepstool and figure out the pencil sharpener herself...Miss Independent! You can tell how proud she is of herself for doing another thing all on her own.

I need to back up a week and share about Easter--the celebration of our Risen Savior! We spent Saturday at mom and dad's house with my sister's family and Aunt Betty enjoying ham and other yummy dishes for lunch, had a Easter egg hunt for the kids (Chun Le's first one!) and colored eggs. It was a fun time together with family.

Chun Le got a hold of a chocolate chick and enjoyed every bite of it. She is typcially very neat with eating but her love for chocolate was much more powerful than any desire to stay neat while she enjoyed this Easter treat. :)

On Easter Sunday we had an exciting worship service complete with awesome worship songs, 5 baptisms, and an encourgaing message from I Peter. It was wonderful to be together with church family celebrating that HE IS RISEN!!! After church and a quick lunch, the kids got to find their Easter baskets hidden in the basement and then we went to my Uncle Ed and Aunt Margaret's house for a Fitzgerald family Easter party. There were lots and lots of extended family there who we enjoyed seeing and spending time with. This is the one extended Fitzgerald family get together that we are able to join in on each year and it is fun to see relatives you don't get to connect with very often. My Dad's brother, Uncle John, hosts a chocolate easter egg hunt for the kids that they really enjoy each year. I will include a pic with all the kids that participated this year. A few of them are my cousin's kids, but since I am on the younger side of the Fitzgerald family cousins, our kids are closer in age to many of my cousin's kid's kids...confusing probably...sorry!

Here is a quick family photo taken at Aunt Margaret's house...a bit blurry and not everyone is looking at the camera...but it is the best we can do to get 5 people posed all at the same time. :)

This past week both Phil and Rachel have been on Spring Break. It was great that both of their school district's happened to be the same week this year! Phil had to spend some of each day either at tennis practice or a tennis match, but having him home a lot more than usual was a treat! On Thursday, my parents treated us to ice skating with a Groupon they had. Mom and Dad played with Chun Le and watched the other four of us ice skate. For the first 15 minutes or so we were the only ones on the rink and there were never more than probably 10 people on the ice at any time! I have never ever been to such an empty rink and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! I did not have our camera to take pictures that day, but wanted to mention what a fun treat that was for us. Then on Friday, to celebrate the end of spring break and take advantage of a good coupon I took the kids to Jump Zone. That was Chun Le's first time to a place like that. It really appealed to her daring spirit. She needed my help to climb up many of the huge slides as her legs were just not long enough to reach from rung to rung, but she had a blast. She preferred (and so did I!) that I sit next to her and hold her hand as we slid down the huge (and I mean some of them were very tall!) inflatable slides. I had a great time too!

One last picture of our kids enjoying a fun moment hanging out on Rachel's bed. It is fun to see the three of them enjoy being together. Of course, like every home, we have our share of sibling rivalry and petty arguments as we live in a sinful world, but we also have three kids who are learning to love each other and enjoy their relationship.

Phew...that was a long post...if only I could find moments to post shorter ones more often...