Jack turns 5!

Happy birthday to my son Jack, he is now 5 years old, I can't believe it!

I have been reflecting all day at how much more I fall in love with him and his sweet silly personality everyday! I love how he will surprise me with some out of the blue comment that makes me laugh out loud! I love how much he wants to learn and soak everything around him up! I love how he loves to make people laugh with his silly words! I love that he can't pass a pile of dirt without digging it up! I love his heart for the outdoors, especially for getting really dirty in it! I love how much energy he has and his desire to enjoy every bit of the day he can! I love his tender moments when snuggle up with digger books or when I am putting him to bed and he surprises me again with his thoughtful questions. I love that he has a soft heart and he thinks deeply about his experiences with friends and at school. But most of all my heart melts as I hear him speak honestly about his faith, he loves to remind me how much Jesus loves us and I am now seeing a desire of his own to love Him back!

When I think back to 5 years ago this day, I think of the girl who was crying tears of joy, holding her first born son. She had dreamed of being a mother her whole life, yet she would have no idea how much this little life would change hers! I have loved and cherished every minute of these 5 years. Yes, there have been challenges and bumps in the road, but I would not trade even one bit of it! Jack has grown so much in 5 years. But through his growth, God has grown me much more in 5 years, then in the 27 before! What a wild and amazing ride it has been. I love you Jack, happy birthday!
Here are some pictures from the past 5 years!
1 week old 2004

1st birthday 2005

2 years old 2006 (just before little sister is born)

3rd birthday (the digger party) 2007

4 years old (first big snow) 2008

Our little blessing!

Hello there,

Yes I know it has been a very very long time since I have written. By now I bet that no one ever follows this blog, so I could probably just write whatever I feel like and nobody would notice. Well it has been quite a busy year for our family. Filled with many wonderful and fun moments and also some challenges and lots of growth! In the last few months I feel like God has pursued me so much and has really worked on my heart a lot. I feel so much joy as I write that because it reminds me how much He truly loves me. So here I am writing again and feeling really excited about where God is taking our family right now.

Our biggest news right now is that we will be having a new little VP next Spring! We are so excited! We had been hoping for about a year now but, of course, God's timing is way better then ours! It is fun to start to think about becoming a family of 5. Fun and honestly sometimes a little scary. I hear many people say that going from 2 to 3, is much easier then going from 1 to 2. Well I am sure it won't be easy! But we are excited none the less! Truly, we feel really blessed by this little one, I am now in my 13th week!

It did gave us a little scare last week with some bleeding. But they sent me in for an ultrasound right away, I got to see the baby moving around with the heart still beating strong. What a relief it was! I felt like God had poured out His grace and mercy on us. The baby was fine, I am doing much better now too after a taking it easy the rest of the week. This truly is a little blessing and we are so excited to meet him/her next May!

Interview with a 4 year old

Here is a fun little things I did with Jack recently. He loved being interviewed and now ask me to interview him every night before bed!

Cut and paste these questions and ask your kids their answers....it is a RIOT!

Jack's answers:
1. What is something mama always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes mama happy?
by doing my chore

3. What makes mama sad?
by biting you and not eating my dinner

4. How does your mama make you laugh?
by tickling me

5. What was mama like as a child?
a family

6. How old is mama?
10

7. How tall is mama?
7 tall

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
wiggle our noses together

9. What does mama do when you are not home?
clean and take care of Josie

10.If mama becomes famous, what will it be for?
for hugging my moose

11. What is mama really good at?
playing with my backhoe

12. What is mama not good at?
throwing things

13.what does mama do for a job?
put the trash on the deck

14.What is mama’s favorite food?
chicken nugglets

15.What makes you proud of mama?
by singing

16. If mama were a cartoon character, who would she be?
goofy

17. What do you and mama do together?
dig in the dirt

18. How are you and mama the same?
Our noses are the same, see (squishes his nose against mine)!

19. How are you and mama different?
your bigger

20. How do you know mama loves you?
you volunteer at my school

21. What does mama like most about daddy?
That he eats all his pizza!

22. Where is mama’s favorite place to go?
China, no wait to a restaurant where you can rest!

Happy brithday Josie!

Josie is 2 today! She was born on December 27, 2006. We thought for sure that she would be born on by Thanksgiving, then on Jack's birthday, and then maybe on Christmas, but she had her own date in mind. I can hardly believe it, the last two years have flown by. Looking at her now, she is definitely not a little baby anymore. Now she is talking, walking, jumping, playing with dolls, having tea parties, hugging her animals... all of the fun things that little girls do!

Here she is a week old with big brother Jack, who had just turned two.

We love you so much Josie, you are such a delight to have in our lives. Your sweet smile lights up the whole room.

Happy birthday sweet girl!

A gingerbread party!

Since Jack turned 4 on the 12th and Josie will be 2 on the 27th of December, we decided to do a combined birthday party this year. The theme was gingerbread and each child got to decorate their own graham cracker gingerbread house. It was really fun, a little crazy, but the kids all had a blast!

The week before Tyler and Jack put together a gingerbread house to have as the centerpiece. Then I made a sign out of gingerbread cookie letters, and made a bunch of gingerbread boys to pass out. The night before we made 20 little graham cracker houses, after two trips to the store for more graham crackers and 6 different kinds of frosting attempts! Finally it was party time and Jack and Josie could hardly hold still they were so excited. We rented a long kids table that everyone could sit down at and then brought up the houses and tons of candy! I was really surprised at how well they did. It was fun seeing some of the kids get really into it and try piping frosting all over the houses. Other kids were pretty quite with their mouths stuffed with candy!
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Afterwards we had pizza and snacks. We sang happy birthday and had candy cane cupcakes with peppermint ice cream. Jack was ready and know just what to do to blew out his candle. Josie was a little shy so she got some help from some friends with her candle.


Even though I had told everyone not to worry about presents the kids were still blessed with some really nice gifts. Thank you so much! I think one of the highlights was after opening gifts the older kids took all the colored tissue paper and started throwing it up in the air. They were having such a delightful time, I didn't worry about the mess.
Even the parents got to sit and relax and enjoy the party. I think we had 26 kids in all, with a couple little babies. Little Ketziah sleep right through it! Jack and Josie both had a great time, I think that they still felt their birthday was special even with it being during such a busy season. Thank you again for all those who helped to make it so special. Whew, now for the clean up!

Happy Birthday Jack!

I can't believe our little guy is 4 today! Has it really been 4 years since that amazing day that he was born? tHere he was on December 12, 2004. We had no idea how much our lives would change and how you could possibly love someone so much! Happy birthday Jack! You bring us more joy then you could ever imagine!

Sacramento

We just got back form a trip to visit my mom and Mike in Sacramento. It was my first trip ever to California and it was nice to feel a little sun. The kids were great travelers, they were really excited about the airplane. Especially because they got to eat dum dums during the take off and the landings! We stayed at a nice hotel right on the river by old town Sacramento.

The next day my mom took us to the California state train museum. It was one of the coolest museums I had ever been to. Jack was in awe at all of the old trains. We got to go inside a bunch of them and see what life was like on trains in different time periods. Upstairs they had a huge toy train exhibit and of course a big Thomas exhibit that the kids could have stayed at all day.




Later we all went swimming in the hotel pool.

The next day my mom had a big early thanksgiving dinner for us. She made a huge turkey, we gave Jack the giant drumstick to see if he would eat it. He actually did, for some reason he just loves to eat the drumsticks!


We had a nice time but it was good to get home. Here is Jack being super helpful with the luggage!