My little boy turns 2!

Today is Curren's 2nd birthday! Two years that have just flown by, more than I can remember with Maggie. I so love my sweet little man. He is full of energy, loves all things music, iPhone, iPad, and drumming, knows almost all his ABC's by sight and in the last few weeks loves to identify any letter that comes across his radar, can count from 1-10, is gentle and kind to his sisters and loves to be outdoors.

His birth was one I will never forget (my first VBAC), the experience worth every moment until I held him in my arms. I love raising a boy; he is a true joy and delight to our family.

We love you, C!

Maggie turns 4!

Maggie turned 4 years old on December 11 and as you all know, time flies. It was a rainy, wet day when we had her party, rescheduled from a previous day due to me being sick. Maggie really enjoyed the morning, complete with a half dozen friends and all their siblings. An added bonus was my sister and her family were in town for the holidays so were able to be at the party, too. It was definitely a full house, but fun! We played, opened gifts, let the kids run out some energy briefly in the wet outdoors, and ate cake. I'm so grateful for all the sweet friends and their mamas who came and gave Maggie some wonderful gifts.

Maggie continues to delight us. She truly loves her siblings, loves her friends, playing with princesses, playing "voices" (where either Aron or I pretend to be a whole host of characters from various shows or books), drinking juice, learning and loving Preschool and AWANA, and singing and drawing as often as she can. We love you, sweet girl!

A creative gift from my friend Lindsey--a sugar cookied shaped "M" with a little jar full of individually wrapped sprinkles and other decor, and several bags of frosting for her to decorate the cookie!
A tried my hand at the Rainbow Cake featured on The Idea Room blog here. Overall, very easy, and Maggie said it was her favorite part of the party. :)

Happy birthday to me!

I don't normally shout accolades of birthday joy to myself (although I'm a HUGE birthday lover), but wanted to share the incredible birthday gift Aron gave me. He took Monday (the day after my birthday) off from work, cared for all 3 kiddos, and sent me down to the San Diego Botanic Garden to have a vision/reflection day.

All day.

It was absolutely incredible.

He knew just what I needed, sacrificially gave of his time so I could be renewed, and put great thought and detail into my "agenda" for the day.

It started with having me find a quiet spot to reflect and pray and settle my heart. I chose the above bench under a grove of trees; my soul felt at rest immediately. Aron had me journal and reflect on the past year: what were my greatest joys? My greatest sorrows and failures? I took time to pray and reflect and seek the Lord. Aron allotted a certain amount of time for each activity (ranging from 15 minutes to 60 minutes; I modified as I went).

The meat and potatoes of the day was writing down my *3 Hopes* for the coming year, in great detail and with practical application; this is something I've been really struggling with (possibly the greatest understatement of the century) for quite some time now. I want to DO so much. All the time. I want to be good at EVERYTHING. I want to excel in ALL areas of life. And I cannot. I'm learning to embrace my humanity and my limitations and instead focus on what I AM good at, what I LOVE, and what I want to LEARN.

The poem I wrote on the giant chalkboard above (it was GIANT) summed up my day, despite a misspelling (I loathe misspellings): "Solitude brings chaos and amidst the chaos quiet and hope." One of my activities Aron laid out was to create something; I think this counts?

I walked away with a renewed sense of vision in my life. I really did. I'm forever grateful to my sweet husband.

The day ended with a manicure and pedicure and a delicious Thai dinner out.

(If you are interested in the actual doc he wrote up, let me know and I'll email it to you).

happy birthday, curren!

1 month old
3 months old
5 months old
8 months old
Birthday boy!

Today is Curren's 1st birthday!! Happy birthday, little man! Really, where did this year go? I remember thinking that Maggie's first year went by very s.l.o.w.l.y. But, his has just flown. I'm sure it's a combination of having an older child to take care of (life just moves at a faster clip) and that we moved cross-country.

It's currently 8:30am as I write this and at this time last year, Curren was 2 hours old and we were settled in nicely after our incredible delivery. God was so good and so faithful to our prayers: Curren was born via successfully, unmediated VBAC after 6 hours of labor. It was painful, oh my, but worth every second. Birthing him was one of the highlights of my life. It was such a beautiful, invigorating, empowering experience. Lord-willing, this will our story again with baby #3 in July.

We are having a small party on Friday, so cake pics to come!

_______________
Dear Curren,

You bring our family such joy! Maggie loves you more than I thought possible and for the most part, you two get along famously. You light up at the sound of her name and any time we go into her room in the mornings or after naps. You are a busy, busy boy and love all thing electronics, eating wires, pulling over speakers, and climbing under and behind anything you can. You are more serious than your sister, but have a killer laugh when you get tickled. I love to watch you chew your green blanket when you get sleepy.

Your milestones this year include:

Rolling over, front to back: 2 months
Rolling over, back to front: 4 months
Crawling: 5 months
Pushing yourself to sitting: 6 months
Pulling yourself up: 7 months
Cruising the furniture: 7-8 months
Walking: 9 1/2 months

Needless to say, we've been following you around from a very young age as you've been on the move for so long. You make the BEST noises and sounds, so different than Maggie. You say "mama," "dada," "Maggo," and "ah-duh" (for "all done"). You love to play peek-a-boo, wave, and pretend to talk on the phone. And how can I forget dancing?! You dance like no other baby I've seen, twisting and turning and falling down. It's the best. You didn't eat solid foods until almost 1-year, nor sleep through the night until last month, but you've arrived and it feels good. You were the best nurser and weaned yourself at 10 months of age. We had some rough months this summer, but God used them to teach me more dependence on Him and to take life slower. It was a good lesson.

We look forward to what this year holds!
xoxo

birthday heirloom signs

I commissioned my incredibly talented friend, Tina, to make birthday signs for my kiddos. We've been friends for over 12 years, meeting that long ago at a Bible college in Estes Park, Colorado. She is an incredible mom, wife, and friend, and is very artsy, though she is remiss to admit it. :) Tina had made similar signs for her two kiddos and when I saw the pics, they instantly struck a chord with me. I really wanted one. Badly. And I LOVE the idea of hanging up the sign every year on their birthdays--the kids will learn to anticipate their birthday and enjoy seeing their special sign decorating the living room. I love her handwriting and she said she created a stencil for each sign.

If anyone is interested in one, let me know and I'll pass along Tina's info!

rainforest cafe

On Saturday, we went to the Rainforest Cafe to celebrate Maggie's birthday as a family. She LOVED it, all the animals and sounds. We sat right next to the elephants and at first, she got a little freaked out when they'd stomp around, but then she liked it. I think she liked the huge alligator the best. She devoured her meal and polished off her free birthday sundae!

maggie is 3!

Last Friday, December 11, Maggie turned 3 years old. In most ways, I really CAN believe she is this old, but in others, it is hard to believe that she is already 3. We kept things simple for her birthday part: a few friends over to play, lunch, cupcakes, and presents. We did a "red" theme, as her favorite color is red: red flowers to decorate, red fruit, red velvet cupcakes, red decor, and well, I think that's about it. I will admit the party did not go as I had planned: I had to run to the store that morning to get an ingredient for the cupcakes and I had my first OB appointment that morning, and thus, was actually LATE to her party! I was just an emotional wreck before it even began. You know that feeling of just being totally spent, of feeling emotionally raw? That's how I was going into her party and I hated it and I prayed about it and tried to embrace and finally, I was able to, but it took many hours. I'm not sure why I was so spent, I have to attribute some of it to being pregnant and just feeling very, very sluggish. It takes me for.ever these days to get things done. I think I was just running amok that morning and it left me feeling raw. I hate to run amok (and yes, that is the correct spelling for that word!). But, at the end of the day, the party was a huge hit and I'm most assured the kids liked decorating their cupcakes the best. Thanks to my friends who came, loved on our sweet Maggie (and me!), and helped us celebrate.








I love Maggie's face in the background!