New Year's Eve

Here are Lily and Emily bidding farewell to 2008. Emily is 5 months in this picture, and Lily is 30 months.

Merry Christmas from Emily

You may recognize this Santa suit. Lily wore it for Christmas 2006 and that picture ended up on our blog too. Now it is Emily's turn. Merry Christmas!

O Christmas Tree

Here are a few pictures of the family (mostly Lily) decorating the Christmas tree...

Halloween 2008

Last Halloween's jack-o-lantern was Harry Potter, to commemorate book 7...

And, if you know anything about our daughter Lily you know that this year's jack-o-lantern just HAD to be Dora. Lily is VERY excited about the Dora pumpkin and keeps giving it hugs (when the candle is not burning) and saying, "I LOVE you Dora!"

We also took Lily to a halloween festival at a local church and she got to meet Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too. She was so excited and even gave Pooh bear a kiss...

Emily is 3 months

Here are a couple of pictures of Emily at 3 months...

Big sister, little sister

Here's a picture of Lily (2 years 4 months) and Emily (12 weeks) wearing their matching "big sister" and "little sister" T shirts...


And here's a cute picture of Lily Grace...

Emily 9, 10, and 11 weeks

Today, Emily 11 weeks and 4 days. Here are some recent pictures of her. In this first one she is 9 weeks old, trying to raise some money since she doesn't get an allowance yet...


And here she is 10 weeks old, in her carseat...


Here she is with her loving big sister Lily, who is 2 years and 4 months...


And I took this one today, 11 weeks 4 days...

Emily is 2 months old

Emily reached 2 months on September 28. She is doing great, smiling and cooing and interacting with us a lot. Here is a picture of her at 2 months...


And, going back in time, here she is at 6 weeks, lifting up her head...


And, at 7 weeks, looking rather philosophical...


And, another shot of her at 2 months old, with her big sister Lily (27 months)...


We thank God for our two beautiful little girls.

Little mommy

A two year old will copy everything you do and say, and Lily Grace is no exception. She's been observing mommy feeding baby sister Emily for these past weeks, and this morning she announced that she was going to feed one of her baby dolls. She sat in mommy's chair, strapped on mommy's nursing pillow, and assumed a perfect feeding position with the doll. After we snapped the picture, Lily put the doll over her shoulder, patted her on the back to burp her, and switched her to the other side. Lily is going to make a good mommy some day...

Emily smiling

The "experts" say that newborns can start smiling at about 6 or 7 weeks or so, but Emily got a bit of a jump on that. Check out this lovely smile at 5 weeks and 5 days...

Lily and Emily together

In these pictures Lily is 26 months and Emily is 5 weeks...

Emily at five weeks

Here is Emily at 5 weeks...

Three weeks plus or minus two days

Here is Emily at two weeks and five days...


And here she is after her bath this morning, three weeks and two days...

Tuckered Out

This picture of Emily yesterday (6 days old) pretty much sums up how the whole family feels these days!

Emily on day 3

Here's a picture of Emily today, day three of her life outside of mommy. She is doing great. She had a routine check-up yesterday and the pediatrician said she appears to be in perfect health. Mini is also recovering well, much improved from 2 days ago. Lily is also enjoying her baby sister very much. She is helping us take care of Emily, "reading" to her, counting Emily's fingers and toes, etc. It's very sweet. Thank you all for your prayers, congratulatory emails, and love. We are grateful for you all.

Announcing Emily Faith Palmer

With great joy we announce the birth of our second daughter, Emily Faith Palmer.

Mini and I both love the name Emily. (It’s quite the popular name these days, so we’re obviously not the only ones!) We also like the way Lily and Emily go together. We chose Faith for our daughter’s middle name as it is the virtue and divine gift that we pray will mark our daughter’s life. We pray that she may follow the example set out for us all by the people of God described in Hebrews chapter 11.

Emily Faith was born at 1:09 am today, July 28, 2008 (seven days past her due date). She is doing great so far – sleeping and eating well. Mini lost more blood than usual and she is weaker and more weary than she was with Lily’s birth – but she is not in danger. She just needs some time to get her energy back.

Mini started having contractions at 5:30 am yesterday, July 27. The contractions were steady all morning, but slowed down in the afternoon and early evening. Then they came on very strong from about 8:40 pm, until Emily was born four and a half hours later. Mini did great and I was so proud of her.

Emily was 7 pounds and 12 ounces at birth, and 21.5 inches long. She looks quite a lot like her big sister Lily. We look forward to you meeting her in person. If you do come by to see Emily in the coming weeks, may I encourage you to also show some extra love and attention to Lily as well, and not just to the newest center of attention!

Lily is enjoying getting to know her baby sister. Please pray for us all in the weariness and adjustments of the coming weeks. We’ll do our best to post more pictures of both of our girls on our blog in the days ahead.

Baby overtime again

Lily's baby sister was due yesterday (July 21), but she is still inside of mommy. Lily was born two days past her due date. We'll see if the same goes for her sister. That would mean being born tomorrow...

Of course we'll get the news out asap when the baby is born!

Sailor girl

Here's Lily (25 months) in a cute sailor outfit that was passed on to us by a dear friend in Sacramento...

Lily Grace is Two Years Old!

Lily Grace turned two years old yesterday. Happy birthday Lily! We shot this video last week of her "reading" her "Little Girl's Bible." (She does this with quite a few of her books now -- she has heard us read the page to her enough times that she has it memorized word for word.) Here's the page she's "reading" in the video...

Lily plays in the snow

Our family went to church camp at Big Bear over Memorial Day weekend, and it snowed on us (in late May!). Lily got to play in the snow for the first time...

She owns the road

Here's Lily cruising on her new tricycle, a gift from her grandparents... She's 22 months old in these pictures.

Little camper

Lily was given a little toddler tent by a friend this past week. She loves to put her dolls down to bed in it, and lay down next to them. We're pretty sure she'd sleep overnight in this thing, though we haven't tried that yet...

Bubble bath

Here are two cute picture of Lily in the bubble bath, at 21 months old...


The creature from the bubbly lagoon!

Lily at 20 months

Here are a couple of pictures of Lily at 20 months old doing some of her favorite things -- swinging on the swings at the park, and eating oatmeal...

Lily is going to be a big sister

Here is Lily's reaction to the news that she is going to be a big sister, if God wills, come July...

Valentine's Day

Here are the two loves of my life on Valentine's Day...