Spring Break

Spring Break was great! We enjoyed our time together as a family. To start off our vacation, the Rollin and Pam Thorley family (David's uncle & aunt) came to Fresno to visit with us Reynders. We enjoyed spending some time with them and two of their children. Stone is one of their kids, I think he is eight or so... Peter had a great time playing with him. Peter identified Stone in one of the videos we took while they were here (Peter enjoys watching family videos). Stone made an impression on him, he remembered who Stone was a week after they left! The weekend the Thorley's were here was also conference weekend. As perusal, conference was wonderful. We enjoyed receiving guidance, inspiration, council, and hope from living prophets, seers, and revelators.

On Tuesday David and I took Peter to the Fresno State Farm. We got to see the cows and the sheep. We were real close to the cows, one cow came close enough to touch but neither Peter nor myself wanted to touch it's slimy nose and David was caring for Evelyn. Peter enjoyed seeing these animals and I was glad to see the reaction on his face. We have books with farm animals in them that Peter loves to read and his experience at the farm enhanced his understanding. It was a great opportunity for him to realize that they are real living things.

On Wednesday Michelle and her daughter Lily joined us at Woodward Park. This park is huge. There are several little lake areas with ducks and geese, playgrounds, a small waterfall and stream, tons of beautiful big trees and more. We fed the ducks and geese and played on a couple different playgrounds. Peter and Lily had a blast. Those two would spend all day outside if they could.

Saturday we had a family Easter gathering at the park area behind the Fresno, CA temple. We enjoyed the company of lots of family from my mother's side. Michelle and Lily joined the fun. Lily and Peter enjoyed hunting for Easter Eggs and just running around outside.

Sunday was Easter. We enjoyed a quiet morning together as a family. We had a little Easter basket for Peter and Evelyn. We enjoyed church, as always, but it was a little more special. We are grateful for the opportunity we had to remember more fully the sacrifice our Savior made for us and the gift he gave by praying in Gethsemane, atoning for our sins and overcoming all afflictions, trials, and sickness, and by dying and rising on the third day. We are grateful that He overcame sin and death so that we can become like Him and live with Him and our Father in Heaven again.

We're on Vacation

Peter and Evelyn are doing great! We are on spring break and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We will post a summary of this week when it has passed. For now, here is a great picture captured after about 20 previous attempts at a good photo. If Evelyn was content and smiling in a photo, Peter had a blank expression or was half way out of the picture. Peter didn't want to sit still or smile long enough for me to capture a shot and Evelyn wasn't too happy about me sitting her up on the couch. Inspite of this I was finally able to capture a good shot of both of them together. Well enjoy :)

Come Listen to Living Prophets

Life is good in the Reynders’ home. We are thoroughly enjoying our two children. Peter has adjusted wonderfully to his new sister; I don’t think he can remember what it was like before she came. He loves to give her kisses and pat her back and rub her head as he says, “soft”. He is a great big brother. I think they will be good friends. Peter is also talking a lot! He knows so many words and phrases now. Our favorite thing he says to us is, “I love you”. So precious! He still loves to read with us and on occasion we will find him sitting in his room reading to himself. He also likes to pretend play with cars, animals, and household objects (phone, mommy’s hair dryer, etc.). He already engages in symbolic play too; for example he takes a funnel out of the cupboard and pretends it is a trumpet. He sure is a joy to have around. He has grown so much! He is a toddler now; he is no longer our baby! However, Evelyn is filling the baby role rather nicely. She is also growing rapidly. I can’t believe she is already 8 weeks old! She is more and more alert during the day. She can follow things with her eyes from side to side and up and down. She melts our hearts now with cooing noises and adorable smiles. We are in love with our new little girl, Evelyn, and our big boy, Peter.

Well, here are some recent pictures of our precious kids.

Peter likes to wear daddy's shoes and play with daddy's guitar.

Evelyn's Photo Shoot

Our good friend Gwen Hawkins took some nice photos of our little girl at 1 1/2 weeks.

Our Little Evelyn

It seems that I am a terrible Blogger! I just can't keep you all up to date with our little family like I wish I could. I just don't care to go online very much. It's not that I don't like to go online or that i don't like to keep a blog, I just find myself wanting to do other things instead. I like to have a clean, orderly home, I like to write in my handwritten journal (personal and family), I like to sit and read books for an hour with my son, I like to cook dinner... there are many things I would like to accomplish or do before I will get on the computer and write a blog post. This is the reason I am a terrible blogger and will probably be forever! I am not giving up though, we have family spread all over and this blog is one of the best ways to keep them all up to date with our little family.

Well, a lot has occurred since the last "catch-up" blog post, but the most important and exciting news I will share with you all is the birth of our little girl, Evelyn Deline Reynders. Evelyn was born January 27th 2012 at 4:35 am. She weighed 7lbs. 7oz. and was 20 and 3/4 inches long. She is doing great! Although she has her night and day schedule a little confused... we are all doing well. Peter is adjusting OK, he is pretty obsessed with Evelyn though. Well, we put together a short video of her arrival for those of you that would like to meet her. Enjoy! :)

Here are updated pictures of Peter and Evelyn, taken on Sunday, February 5th.

Catch-Up

It has been too long since I last posted... I have lost the charger to our camera! I was hoping to find it so I could post pictures and video from our trips this summer. We have decided that we will need to buy a new charger... Anyway, we have travled to Southern Utah the Thorley Family Reunion at the cabin, with a stop in Lancaster, CA to visit with the Blair Family. Then we took a flight into Bellingham, WA and drove across the border into Vancouver, BC Canda to visit with my sister, Vanessa, and her new little girl, Brooklyn Pearl (who is too cute for words). We had a blast exploring Vancouver and Langley, BC. We got to see the Beautiful temple that was dedicated last year in Langley. Vanessa lives less than five minutes away. We actually walked to the temple from her house! It was nice to see so much family and create memories this summer.

Peter is getting sooo big! He has learned so much and continues to learn new things each day. It is a joy to see him grow. He knows how to say mom and dad well, and a few other words not so well. He knows several signs. He will sign eat/food, milk, juice, more, all done/finished, bird, light, and he does some of the cutest gestures and facial expressions. I love it when he comes and grabs my hand to take me to something he wants. He definitey knows how to communicate his needs and wants. We sure enjoy being Peter's parents and feel privledged to have been entrusted with such a wonderful, sweet spirit and son of God.

For those of you who do not know... we are expecting our second child. We are having a little girl! Her due date is February 4th 2012. We are excited and anxiously preparing ourselves for her arrival. We know it is a big change form one child to two. We just hope we will be as prepared as possible to make this change.