high fives

joy

these two just loved each other!

 my (only) Northwestern loves :)

I heard the cupboard door banging shut and this is what I found...

...and the face she gave me when I asked what she was doing. 

favorite way to sleep

Easter

Easter is my favorite holiday.  The last traces of winter are leaving as we get signs of spring.  Sunshine is starting to make our days warmer and longer.  And all the while, we are reminded of Christ's gift of grace in His victory over death.  We hope you were blessed by Christ's unfathomable love this Easter weekend.

And let's be honest, I love me some good Easter candy too (who doesn't love an excuse to eat good chocolate ANY time of year?)!  Lilia loved her Easter baskets...thanks Nate, Nicole, and Declan and Papa & Nana!

Easter basket grass is endless entertainment!

Ahh!! Puffs!!

Our little Easter bunny showing off her 2 teeth.

spring break

Lilia and I have enjoyed having Matt home for spring break.  Most years we are in the car as soon as the school bell rings on Friday, but this year we decided to stay home and relax and bit from the crazy pace of life.  We did manage a short trip to Louisville to see a part of the country we don't normally get to see.  On the agenda for the trip...

the Louisville Slugger bat museum of factory (of course!)

Day #2: Mammoth Cave.  Our tour was only 3/4 mile of the 400 miles of cave that they have explored.  Apparently every time they explore more cave, they get more leads of unexplored branches.  Right now, there are 50 pages of recorded unexplored leads - crazy to think how massive this cave is!

This face is a bit deceiving...about 1/2 through the 2 hr tour, Lilia decided she was hungry and tired but didn't want to fall asleep in mom's arms.  Couple that with the rangers turning out the lights to demonstrate how dark it can get in a cave, and let's just say we were a little unsettled.

The caves aren't always made with Dutch people in mind.

(finally asleep...yay!)

Lilia went swimming for the first time at our hotel and LOVED it.  She would splash the water and get it in her eyes and mouth...look a little unsure of what just happened....and then break out in smiles.

testing the waters

On the last day, we went to the Buffalo Ridge distillery for a tour...

...and stopped for lunch at Anybody's Diner before making the drive home.  I felt like I had stepped into a southern version of the Coffee Cup Cafe from my youth (take a look at what was the special for the day - I didn't see it until after we had ordered, otherwise I may have given it a try.)

Cinder-Lily

March madness is well under way and Lilia was not about to be left out. Matt helped her with her clever team name, but all the picks were her own. It doesn't look like Cinder-lily has a chance in the Van Schepen family bracket challenge, but hey...at least she made her dad proud by picking Minnesota to be in the final four!  Here's how she made her picks...

6 months

latest happenings

Fun fact: because of Chicagoland's latest snow storm, we are now only about 2 inches below our average for the year...which is pretty good considering the record we set earlier this winter for the most consecutive days without snow.  And I think snow is always prettier when it results in a snow day so Lilia and I could spend the day with Matt!  Here's a few pictures from from out our front door...

Lilia celebrated her 6 month birthday recently.  She's still rockin the 90 percentiles in weight (19 lbs. - 94th percentile) and length (28 inches - 98th percentile)!  She continues to be a happy baby that sleeps great through the night, and we are loving her little personality that develops more every day.  It's becoming harder to take these pictures by her moose because she is very into tags...

grabbing things like the camera...

or putting things in her mouth to chew on them.

Her latest trick that she's working on is sitting up on her own.  She's getting pretty good at it, but wanted to show off her leg strength in these pictures instead.  She's veeery wobbly, but loves to stand up with help.

looking pretty proud of herself...

My wonderfully talented husband made this book/storage shelf a couple weekends ago.  Add a rug, some fabric storage bins, and my own little name frame creation, and Lilia has her own little corner to keep her toys and books.  I still need to paint it...but that's a warmer day project for this summer.  Lilia seems to approve!