Easter 2015

I started typing this post over a week ago. It's crazy how a week at home can fly by so quickly & with so little to show! But it was good to wait: it gave me time to reflect on what Easter is. There aren't photos that can capture that, so you will have to settle for some pathetically shallow ones of us in our Easter finery.

We had a beautiful Easter this year. I have to confess that it was hard for me to focus on what Easter really means with the little Fiona occupying all my waking (& a lot of sleeping!) thoughts. But going back to church & again hearing the beautiful story of redemption helped. And having little Fee has given my heart a glimmer of what it really meant for God to give His Son, His only beloved Son as a sacrifice that we might live. It brings tears to my eyes just to think about my sweet darling daughter being tortured & betrayed, rejected by me, the one she implicitly trusts & looks to to meet all her needs. Yet that's what God did, & more. For a wretched race of people, some of whom will live their entire lives belittling & making a mockery of His ultimate gift of love. How serious it is! And I am ashamed to confess I think of it lightly all too often. I take it for granted. I think of how angry & hurt I would be if people rejected my daughter's good deeds--& that is a weak comparison to Christ's act of love! It was good to think about.

We spent Sunday with Mom & Dan & the Sinn's. I'm so thamkful for our wonderful families!

And this man & his daughter...it's impossible to describe the love I feel for both & how soft I feel to see the adoration he already has for her. I pray we will be good parents; patient, kind, & loving, able to confess mistakes & ask forgiveness. I pray little Fee will come to know what Easter means by our everyday example & teaching. Right now, it's hard to imagine her sweet innocence turning to a need for forgiveness, but it will happen. And when it does, I pray she can think of what Easter means & reach out to her Savior.
Hope your Easter was as thought-provoking & lovely!

tulips & babies

I love tulips. They are kind of bright & gaudy, but they are unpretentiously so, & herald spring. It's hard to imagine looking at a field of tulips & not being cheered up. With the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in full swing, and since I've been feeling pretty good, it seemed a shame not to go. My brother Evan, & sister-in-law, Laura, were here from the Midwest, so we went. It was a little breezy, but was sunny & the cheery tulips overshadowed any chilly breeze. It was so fun to watch Livy tramp through the tulips--no tiptoeing there!

Evan was the only one of my family who got to see Fiona right away. He'd been planning to come out over his spring break anyway, & it happened to line up with my due date. Yay! He was thrilled (insert sarcasm) with his new little niece & couldn't stop holding her & exclaiming how adorable she was. Well, he didn't say that, but I know he was thinking it. He is a man of few words. And don't you love that curl in the middle of his forehead?

 Little Kaso was a good sport with all the females (& Ev). Ten months ago, there were no grandchildren in the Tom Sinn family. Now there are three! And this is only the beginning. I'm so glad my children with have oodles of cousins to pal around with out here. It will be another generation of Sinn closeness.

 Little Fee slept the whole time, bundled up. She's been a little peach when I've taken her out. . I am twitterpated:).

 It will be so fun when the cousins are a little older & can fight interact. The family dynamics will change, but it will be good.

I'm so thankful for my sisters-in-law & bright flowers! It is hard not to think of God's blessings when I look at these photos of the people I've come to love & the beautiful brilliance of acres & acres of tulips.

Fiona Kathryn

She's here!! 

And oh my, is she sweet. Fiona Kathryn has stolen our hearts shamelessly. I feel unworthy to be her mother, to be the one whose voice can calm her, to be the one she loves to snuggle into. We have been so blessed by her already. 

She was born March 18 at 4:03 pm. She weighed 6#7oz & was 20.5 inches long. She is healthy & loved beyond words!

 Her daddy can't stop loving up on her & has all sorts of nicknames for her already. He even knew I was taking photos of him here & didn't mind in the slightest! It swells my heart to see how gentle & enamored he is with her. His little Fiona. He has long forgotten he was hoping for a boy!

I have a feeling I know who will be dominating my posts from hereafter:)

Eagle Crest

Disclaimer: Before you question my sanity, I did okay this little trip with my doctor.

Since Jesse & Laura were out, the Sinn family took a little trip over the Cascades to "eastern" Oregon. Eastern Oregon is a world apart from The Valley: there are cattle ranches, cowboys, honest-to-goodness Indians, miles upon miles of uninhabited high desert country, mesas, & a piney smell so heavenly. It's rugged & everything about it is BIG. Big mountains, deep canyons, huge ranches, extreme weather. It's always so interesting to go through the mountain pass & immediately see/feel the change in scenery. The firs & ferny, mossy woods switch to sagey, dry junipers & ponderosas.

 It was unseasonably warm, which meant we got lots of walks in around our rented condo. There were bike trails through the junipers & high desert vegetation with occasional glimpses of the snowy mountains. Everytime we visit eastern Oregon, Dar strikes fear in my heart by claiming, "I could move here in a heartbeat! To have this view every day..." As for myself, I am content to spend my life in the lush Willamette Valley with my one snowcapped mountain. I'd be terribly sad to leave all the green & berries behind! Good thing he loves berry farming, or I might actually be worried he'd do it.

 I love how these two have the same expression! 

 The kids were dying to get one ski trip in before all the snow melts. Which was a legitimate concern considering it was 60 degrees that day!

 I was very glad to be watching from a window this time instead of constantly picking myself & aching body up off the slopes. I'll give it a whirl again sometime, but I was glad to have an excuse to sit back & watch this time.

 We enjoyed relaxing at our condo in the evenings, just being a family. I feel sorry for small families, I really do. It isn't easy packing along a big family places, but the Sinns do great.

 We took a different route home, stopping at a few places Dar & I had been before to show the rest of the family. I loved being able to show them places they'd never been to before! I felt like such a local:).

 This was probably the most exciting stop on our tour, due to the wildlife we stumbled upon. Literally. Most of the family walked over it, completely oblivious until one of the boys spotted it. It's a good thing I was waddling far behind the rest of the group, or stepping across this guy might've put me into labor! We decided, somewhat disappointedly, that it was merely a gopher snake & not a rattler.

I am convinced a Sinn can sleep anywhere, anytime. I hope our child inherits that gene!

 We made it home without any labor scares, although my poor neighbors were worried sick for me because our car was gone for two days & they heard nothing about any new babies!

Now, I'm back to waiting for babes to come. Anytime, little one, anytime. 

farm life update no. 6

Things are BLOOMING! It's an early year & the farmers are a little worried we might get some freezing weather & nuke the berry yield for the year, but there's nothing they can do. So we've just been enjoying it instead. "Take no thought for the morrow".

All the equipment's serviced & been put to work fertilizing & spraying. The swallows are here for the year, as sure a sign of spring as any. 

Dar's been putting in some drip line irrigation at one of the farms so they can water the blueberries even while they're being harvested. My mouth waters just thinking about handfuls of plump dusky berries! I can't wait!

The gardener's been hard at work at our abode, planting, pruning, mowing. Seriously. It was so strange to smell freshly cut grass last week through the open window. And, I know, open windows? I'm not trying to rub it in!

I've been hard pressed to stay inside & get things done. Good thing I'm supposed to be taking it easy these days:).

I can still see my feet if I lean out a bit!

My windowsill is always laden with flowers. May yours be too!