This dude. My life shifted course five years ago when I first held this bundle of passion, laughter, and amazement in my arms. When I look through my “monthly” collage for Dylan I can’t help but realize how fast those years have gone by – I vividly remember so many of those moments like yesterday and when I see how little he was and...
My heart swells with gratefulness for the gathering of Whitney’s all-star friends and family at her sixth year parade. We know that friendships for six-year-olds are pretty simple (hey – you like Ariel, so do I? My favorite color is blue, too!) and are grateful that Whitney’s school community has made a very accepting environment for her to have so many connections to her...
This sweet soul turned six today. The partying has begun – her uncle Jason (a.k.a. Mr. Festive) happened to be in town and made sure she was engulfed by balloons, streamers, banners, and everything Frozen when she came downstairs in the morning. We brought in one of her favorite books (Crankenstein) to class and she helped me read it to the kids. We also...
Leslie turned one today! From discovery and anticipation, through birth, and now this first trip around the sun this little sprout has been such a blessing. She’s almost walking (just a few steps here and there), says mama and dada and signs more. She loves chasing her siblings and laughing at them, giving kisses, flipping through book pages, everything active, pen and paper, eating...
This boy. The fourth year has meant a lot of things for him. To begin with there was an unquenchable desire for building (legos, marble runs, blocks), farm boy early morning wake ups, lots of bursts of energy and silly words and sounds. He has collected thousands of “treasures” in all the empty boxes and canisters he can get a hold of. Treasure means...
Whitney is 5! Whitney loves dogs, Clifford, books, Berenstain Bears, iPad (YouTube), dance parties, ballet, Frozen, Bear Necessities, playing piano, singing, cupcakes, Costco hot dogs, dressing dolls, baby Leslie, the zip line, hammock, swinging, “going to the beach”, “driving the car”, making smoothies, cooking in her play kitchen, going to school, circle time, riding the bus, greeting everyone, hugs, kisses, and life in general!...
How will she know which is snack and which is lunch? Is it enough food? healthy? too messy? what are the other kids going to have? Let’s practice opening the container at breakfast to make sure she can do it. Braids. Can’t have her hair falling out all over the place or dropping in her food or art. Is this skirt too short? Gotta...
Our little bundle made her peaceful debut on Friday afternoon. Leslie was due on June 3rd, and Tyler’s parents were able to be in town for a few days last week, so we were getting a bit impatient when baby hadn’t arrived. I started googling old wive’s tale suggestions for convincing baby to get a move on. Caster oil was out of the...
Whitney had her tonsils out. Poor sweet girl didn’t know what was coming…and neither did we. Originally, we had a surgery scheduled just to put ear tubes in – an outpatient procedure, she’s done it before, involves anesthesia which nobody likes, but other than that a pretty simple deal. She was getting tubes put in (again) because for the past 6 months she has...
We’ve started a tradition of gathering some close friends and family every 5 years to reflect on our marriage, renew our vows, and be encouraged by those in our life now to keep choosing to love and honor each other. As a bonus, we’ve had a number of our guests comment that the time was really encouraging for them as well – making them...
I have some catching up to do here…on all fronts. But I’ll start with the most significant, and most recent… Our world has been rocked this week by the passing of Tyler’s brother, Nick, after a long endurance run with lymphoma. His health started declining quickly after a most recent round of chemo challenged his already weak body. We got “the call” over the...
Happy November 3rd! We spent our first night of November in a yurt. Did I say yurt? I meant damp icebox. But of course we were all squished in the same double futon bed – all 5 of us. Did I say 5? Yep. We’re expecting to be a quintet come early June. We got a sneak peak at the little blob (did I...