She said "yes," too!!!

And then, just a week later, MY brother, my BABY brother, convinced his beloved to marry him!

(I am still a little stuck on the fact that he is even old enough to get engaged, let alone married.  MARRIED. As in, a husband... whaaaaa? It seems like just yesterday we were moving him into his dorm at Tech.)

I have lots of pictures from their engagement, because we were there for it!  Well, not the actual proposal- Matt wisely chose to keep that private and just between the two of them.  But, we threw them an engagement party afterwards to celebrate!

(The banner says "She Said 'Yes!'" Thank you, Pinterest!)

Abby was totally jazzed up because she LOVES Becca. And parties.  And people.  She's a bit of an extrovert....

Aaaaaand aparently my mom was a bit jazzed up too...

So glad Meredith could come!  She is a good friend of our family, a former student of mine, and now my co-worker!  

Abby waited very patiently for them to arrive

Here they come here they come!!

After visiting for a bit (and getting food!  The food was amazing!), Matt and Becca shared the story of their engagement.  He sent her on a scavenger hunt around Williamsburg to all of the places that hold special memories for them and their relationship.  And he had a sweet note for her at each of the stops.  Isn't that so sweet and creative?

Here we are!  The new and improved, ever growing Berlin family!  Looking at this picture, it takes my breath away a little bit to realize how blessed we really are.

And this next series, I call "the faces of Charlie..."

The "I want a piece of cake right now!" face

The "I just had a piece of chocolate cake and I'm HYYYYYper!" face

The "seriously?  You are cutting my off?  I want more cake" face

And lastly, I had to include these two.  Charlie parked herself in Dan's lap at one point and it was so sweet.  She loves him.  And, I think she reminds me of him a little?  I wonder if she's going to be like him one day.  Which would be fun since Abby is pretty much a carbon copy of me.  And I happen to think the world of him.  So it gives me hope that they will be great friends one day.

We are all so happy and excited for Matt and Becca.  They are such a great match and compliment each other so well.  They love the Lord and are committed to pursuing a Godly marriage that keeps Christ at the center.  It has been a privilege to watch them start making some of their first big decisions together and really start living out what it looks like to take all of the advice, wisdom, and opinions of others, weigh them all, and make a wise and discerning choice about what is best for THEM, even if it's not necessarily what others would have chosen.  And, I couldn't be happier about his choice for a bride. I can't wait to have Becca as a sister! 

Congrats guys!! We love you!

She said "yes"

So many exciting things have been happening around here lately!

First, this guy:

convinced this girl: (the one in the middle..):

to MARRY him!!!

Andy's brother Chris is getting hitched!!! This fall!! To one of the coolest, most laid-back, easy to talk to, creative, BEAUTIFUL girls ever.  Seriously, we love Su and could not be happier.  She and Chris are the perfect compliments of each other.

And I'm also pretty sure that out of everyone, Abby is the most excited about it. She's going to be a flower girl and will NOT stop talking about it.  We even watched a youtube video of some flower girls the other day so she could learn the proper petal scattering technique- she is very concerned about doing it "just the right way."

We are so happy for Christ, and so happy to have Su join the family this fall!!

Abby's first crush

This post will probably TOTALLY embarrass Abby when she's 16 8, but I HAVE to record this huge moment in her life.

Abby has her first crush.

It's really cute.  One afternoon last week she came up to me while I was working on dinner in the kitchen and said, "Mommy, I want to marry Matthew.  He is SOOOOO handsome."
Then the other day while we were at the library, the girls were playing with some letter magnets on the wall.  Abby turned to me and asked, "Mommy, how do you spell 'Matthew?'"

Ohboy, here we go.  We are really in for it.


I have to add, I asked her teacher, Mrs. Edwards, to point Matthew out to me and told her I thought Abby had a little crush on him. She told me that that made sense, because Abby and Matthew are the two "leaders" in their class, and naturally they gravitate towards each other.  Haha. That just made me crack up, I don't know why. 

In other news...

Also, in other news, Little Benson #3 is looking to make his/her debut in early August. I'm 16 weeks as of yesterday, just starting to feel the fog of early pregnancy beginning to lift (including the all day nausea and vomiting, praise God!!), heard the heartbeat again on Tuesday and just started feeling movement this week.  There is nothing in the world like that.  Even the third time around it hasn't gotten old, and it hasn't become any less amazing or miraculous.
In fact, I think this one feels almost more miraculous to me.  A lot of people I love have struggled or are struggling to get/stay pregnant right now.  It's a hard, painful place to be. I feel more aware than ever that I have no control over the life and health of this child. That there is absolutely nothing I did to deserve this baby (or my other two amazing girls, for that matter).  Sometimes it seems so unfair. And, I struggle with emotions that seem so conflicting- grief and deep sadness for my friends, guilt (why me and not them??), fear- there is so much that could still go wrong, hope (I felt a kick! Everything will be okay!), excitement and love for this new life inside of me.  Sometimes I just don't know how to reconcile it all.  But maybe that's not the point?
 So, most days, I just try to be thankful.  To have gratitude.  To learn the daily eucharisteo.  It's all from Him, anyways.

So focused

We take our art verrrrry seriously around here

As you can see

Our silliness, too..

It's all quite exhausting, really

Sneaky girl

This is her favorite thing to do lately:

Drag a chair over to the counter and climb up,

Start eating whatever food has been left on the counter (in this instance, sprinkles from our Valentine's Cupcakes)

Get as many as she can before Mom notices...

But who could deny this face?

Closing Time!!!

We close today on our house.  Let the mayhem begin! The walk-through is at ten, and then we will zip over to the closing agent and sign about a zillion papers and then it will be all done! My mom is here this week to help with packing and watching the girls, cleaning the house, etc.... and I am SO thankful!!!
Once the house is ours, we will start with the floors- sanding, staining, sealing; then the walls, and then our stuff.  And one day at a time, this old and tired house we start to shine again.