A True Princess

Grace peeking out of her new pop-up princess house

Happy 3rd Birthday, Grace!

Part of Grace's festivities today included a girly twist on an old classic: Pin the Butterfly on the Flower. With the girls' help, Janelle made a beautiful poster-size drawing of a flower, which we taped to the wall. When the guest arrived, they got to color their own butterfly, which Janelle had earlier cut out of paper. The game was a great hit, especially when the kids realized they each won a lollipop just for playing the game!

The Princess Party House

Grace turned 3 today (yeah!) and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast party with mom & dad and her 3 sisters. The usual breakfast cereal got set aside for an awesome treat of cinnamon rolls, sausage and eggs. Mmmm! Grace got to open her family presents afterward, one of which was a princess pop-up play house. The house gave much pleasure to the girls in the morning, and was a popular hit in the evening, too, when a few families came over for Grace's big party. How many kids can you fit into a 3'x3' pop-up house? Apparently quite a few! Grace (far right) enjoyed this photo op with Ellie & Chloe (far left) and friends Justin, Alicia and Kirra. Fun times for all in the princess party house!

Blast Xtreme

Friday was a day of celebration in the Stoops household. Brad turned, um, well... Brad had a birthday AND the girls enjoyed their last day of Vacation Bible School, which concluded with a performance on Friday night. Hundreds of kids participated, and it was pandemonium until the youth director, "Captain Marshall", called the kids to report for duty. They responded to that amazingly well, and went on to do an awesome job singing several songs and reciting the several Bible verses that they memorized. Way to go Stoops girls!

Girls, Meet your Uncle Scott

A couple weeks ago, we gathered with friends & family in Covina, CA to say goodbye to an amazing woman, Billie Stoops (Brad's grandma). Despite the sad circumstances of our gathering, it was great to be together with family. One particular highlight was for our girls to get to see/meet their Uncle Scott. We'd not seen him since Ellie was a baby, so he had never even met 3 of his nieces (Chloe, Grace & Brooke). Our time together was brief, but enough for the girls to begin to get (re)acquainted with their uncle. We're all looking forward to more time with him when we head back east to Virginia this summer for a quick family visit.

A Chip Off the [Young] Block

We took some time to enjoy our outing to Joe's Farm Grill (see below) by walking around the surrounding farm. In the process, we stumbled upon a nice little park that the girls just couldn't resist. Baby Brooke may not be walking yet, but that didn't stop her from enjoying the climbing wall! The real treasure in this photo, of course, is seeing where Brooke got her beauty from!

Reconnecting

Our good friend and former teammate, Kathy, has been visiting with us for a couple of days during her 1-month hiatus from her new home in Turkey. Yesterday's 111-degree heat subsided enough that we decided to cruise on out Joe's Farm Grill. The other night, we had the cooking channel on and saw them reviewing a unique diner-type place. The food sounded amazing. A few minutes later we heard them mention that it was in Gilbert, AZ of all places! Turns out it is just 5 miles away, so we couldn't pass up the chance to check it out. We can vouch for the food, much of which is grown on the adjoining farm. What made the evening, though, was the chance to get some time to hang with Kathy. As you can see below, 10-month-old Brooke seemed to enjoy the reunion, as well!

Never a Dull Moment

We like to joke about there never being a dull moment in the Stoops' household. Well, another thing that apparently was not so dull was the glass that sliced & diced 10-month-old Brooke's hand last week...

Grace (almost 3 years old now) had been battling a persistent fever that she couldn't seem to shake, so we set up an apptmt to see the pediatrician. Just as Brad & Grace were pulling into the parking lot, the phone rang. Propitious timing, as it was Janelle phoning to tell Brad that Brooke had just gotten a bad cut and was bleeding badly. Walking into the doctor's office, Brad called for a nurse, who then talked to Janelle about what had happened while he was signing Grace in. Discovering that a bandaid was not a workable solution to this crisis, Brad put Grace's apppmt on hold, rushed back to the car, and headed for home. Once there, he & Grace picked up Janelle, Chloe & Brooke (Ellie was at school) and headed immediately to a nearby pediatric emergency care facility with Janelle holding a towel around Brooke's wrist to slow the bleeding. As we'd already realized, immobilizing a baby can be a challenge; it took a couple of hours with Brad assisting the 2 doctors as they cleaned Brooke's wounds and stitched her up (living in Central Asia provided great expreience for dealing with these type of situations). Praise God - no apparent damage to nerves or ligaments.

Once she was stitched up, Brooke seemed none the worse for the experience. As if to declare her disgust at being immobilized during the ordeal, she finally started crawling later that day. The ways she's going, she might punctuate the removal of her stitches later this week with her first steps...!

Grace's health also improved enough later that day that she enjoyed sneaking into our room to play dress-up with Janelle's jewelry, which she climbed on top of a dresser to reach. Discovering they were missing, Janelle's first thought was maybe they went down the kitchen drain, or got lost in the washing machine. Then she remembered, "Of course! I'm the mother of a 2-year-old!" After a very frantic night and day of scouring the house (including sorting through the garbage & recycling bins), we were very relieved to finally find Janelle's wedding rings safely tucked inside the hidden pocket of a play purse under her sister's bed. One side benefit of all this was the intensive spring cleaning that the situation mandated (if you're ever lacking motivation to clean and organize your house top to bottom, consider giving something very valuable to your 2-year-old...).

As we said, there's never a dull moment in the Stooops' house!

Celebrating 95 Years...

The girls enjoyed the chance to visit with their Grandma Gigi (Great Grandma Stoops) at her 95th birthday party. At 95, Grandma still enjoys her daily chocolate and is a serious contender in a game of Rook! Those things in mind, following are Billie Stoops' pearls of wisdom:

Pearls of Wisdom

• Always set the table first so that when your husband comes home, he thinks dinner is almost ready.
• Eat a little chocolate every day. Eat your candy slowly so that it can last a long time.
• Always tithe and always budget. Wait to purchase something until you can pay for it. Save a little money each month and put it in a sock to use as mad money.
• Love someone the most when they seem unlovable.
• This too shall pass! Give it the water treatment! The more the merrier! NO is a beautiful word.
• Never pass up a game of Rook or a chance to have a piece of chocolate silk pie with a hot cup of coffee.

Words of wisdom from a Godly woman with 52 sons, dauthters-in-law, grandkids and great grandkids (and about that many more foster kids!). Happy birthday, Grandma!

Family Reunion

The Stoops family had a great reunion this past weekend for my grandmother's 95th birthday. Great reason to come together and celebrate! Just about all of her children & grandchildren traveled from around the country for the weekend. Grandma has quite a legacy, and we know she felt blessed having all of us gathered to celebrate with her.

Beach Beauties

Elise, Grace, Chloe

This past weekend we were back in southern California to join 2 days of festivities to honor my grandmother on her 95th birthday. Time was short, but we couldn't resist a quick run to Torrance Beach to dip our feet in the water and search for seashells (Ellie & Chloe have really gotten into this - doesn't matter what color or how broken the shell is; it's all about size!). The tide was low and perfect for our little ones to have some fun.

Dig In!

One of the many highlights of our Easter weekend in CA was joining twin pals Samuel & Caleb for their 4th birthday party. It was a bug party. Bugs everywhere. A bug guy even came with his amazing bug collection and a robotic inchworm. The fun continued with a bug dig - dishes of gooey jello filled with bugs and other little critters. Ellie (left, with Chloe just behind her) was first up in her group, and, after overcoming her disdain for bugs, finally dove in and resurfaced with a snake and a frog. What a catch!

After some last minute change in plans, we found ourselves back in CA for Easter weekend. After a great morning service at our home church, RHCC, we drove out to Alhambra to celebrate with Janelle's brother, Dave, and his family (his wife Anne is pictured here on the left, their mom in the center next to Janelle), plus their parents and sister Christa and her family. We continue to be very thankful for family, and for how much our family is committed to one another.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter, too. Jesus is risen. He is risen indeed!

Brooke - Easter 2008

Brooke, who turned 9 months old on April 1, continues be a source of great delight to everyone around her! Janelle went to pick her up at Sunday School last Sunday and the childcare workers were taking pictures of her while she slept. We still often get asked if we've tried to market photos of her. If you know a good agent, or hear of a good photo contest, Brooke's college savings fund would appreciate hearing from you :-) As my friends back in Azerbaijan used to say, "There's a little bit of truth in every joke!" That may be so, but most of all we simply delight in the great joy that Brooke brings to others. We hope this photo will put a smile on you today.
- Brad

Feathered Friends

This past Saturday, sandwhiched between our usual early breakfast (our girls are early risers!) and Ellie's dance class, we piled into the car and headed off to the Riparian Preserve just a few miles down the road from us here in Gilbert, AZ for the annual Feathered Friends festival. The weather was fabulous and there was tons for the kids to do - crafts (making masks, bird feeders, etc.), animals, activitives, etc. We only had a brief time to enjoy all that they had to offer, but one of the highlights for the girls was getting to hold some of the beautiful birds on exhibit (see below). Grace, who at 2 1/2 years of age is still a bit uncertain about whether she likes animals, surprised me by touching a large gopher snake as well as a fairly large lizard. Fun times for all!

Long Overdue!

Perhaps Janelle's favorite gift on her birthday was a UCLA license plate frame. It may not endear us to the local ASU population, but she'll definitely enjoy scooting around town a bit more knowing that she's sporting some Bruin pride!

Happy Birthday, Janelle!

Janelle enjoyed an awesome 1st birthday here in AZ this weekend. The girls awoke early (6am) as usual, which gave us some time to decorate the kitchen area with streamers and then head out to pick up some special breakfast treats along with a bouqet of carnations (a very long-lasting birthday tradition). It was fun to watch the girls get so into the preparations, including deciding to hid behind the sofas so they could yell "Surprise!" when Janelle came down for breakfast. Very fun! The day was enjoyed from beginning to end. We look forward to more special memories here in our new home in the AZ desert.

Visit with Jui

We continue to be blessed with visitors here in AZ. Who'd have known that the Phoenix area would prove to be such a hot spot for reconnecting with family & friends?! Our most recent visitor was Janelle's dear friend from UCLA, Jui, who was in town for the weekend. Janelle was able to enjoy some wonderful time with her, first doing a pottery project at As You Wish, then for a birthday dinner at Olive Garden and cake & presents back at our place.

Uncle Keith

Uncle Keith is always a hit with girls (and with us!) so we were excited when he called last week to let us know that he'd be in town for a few days for work. We finally got to see him briefly on Sunday. The girls enjoyed some good park time with him and an early dinner before he had to jet back to So.Cal. We've been very blessed, and surprised, to see an assortment of extended family members and friends since moving here a couple of months ago. We hope many more of you will come pay us a visit! For you baseball fans, this area is quickly becoming the spring training mecca for pro baseball teams, so come on down! You may just find yourself featured right here on our blog site!

Our 4 LIttle Princesses

We took this shot just after Christmas while we were still in CA. Grandpa & Grandma Stoops gave all 4 girls matching outfits, and, thanks to the continuous shooting mode on Brad's camera, we were able to catch them all smiling for the camera at the same time (unlike the shot below, this one took more than 1 try!). We continue to be amazed by how often we are stopped and asked if we have twins or even triplets, even when they aren't wearing matching clothes!