after school shenanigans...

Last week we had this sweet opportunity for down time before all the sports and activities kick into gear.  After our homework was done, we enjoyed the hours together of downtime activities...

lots of games, legos, reading, doll hair-dos, and getting as many snuggles as we could get.

I really missed these kiddos after being together for two weeks...

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Today we are off celebrating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

How thankful we are for this man and the sacrifices he made.

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"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

Girl Scouts!

An opportunity presented itself to join Girl Scouts with little buddies from Eden's class that live in our neighborhood, so we are excited to try this new adventure together!

 She got this bag with the purchase of her vest... and she was SUPER pumped about it!

 We have already had fun looking through her manual with the anticipation of what the new year will hold!

Super observant home owners...

We had been in our house for about a year before I realized that something wasn't installed correctly in our upstairs bathrooms... Can you see what it is?

The cabinet doors are fine and will last us awhile until we are ready to redo/update the bathrooms, but the mismatched doors have driven me crazy for about 2 years now.  I blame it on my OCD.

They also did it in our master bathroom:

(This is the grainiest picture from when we moved in, but you get the idea.)

On our bathroom, they decided to do each cabinet differently.  

So we finally took them off and made them go the right way:

 I used the tiny bit of white dap on the old handle hole. 

It's funny how something that was free and easy to do took us so long to finally get checked off the list!

Just as a reminder for me to be thankful, here is the bathrooms when we moved in:

Kids:

The Master:

It's probably understandable why I was distracted to the cabinets being mismatched...❤︎

I love this house and that we get to call it our home!

how our son winds down...

"Night Mom!  I'm just going to do my bible time now, ok?"

Oh this kid!  He hunkers down with his action bible, head lamp, and journal.  He spends about 15 minutes and then goes to sleep...

We are in a 21 day fast with our church.  On his own, Ryder gave up his ESPN app.  If you know this kid, you know what an incredible challenge that is for him. He is going through these weeks with such maturity and wisdom.  He blows us away...

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Ryder Rae, we can't get enough of you and who you are growing up to be... God has big things for you little man.  Our prayer for you is that you continue to fall more and more in love with Him.  That you would have eyes to see what He wants you to see and ears that always know His voice and courage to follow Him, all your days...❤︎

retreat

Over the weekend, we had an overnight retreat with the lead elder board of our church. We stayed local in Huntington Beach. It is such a privilege to serve our church with these men and women!  I am humbled by their servant hearts and leadership and the wisdom and discernment they bring to every discussion and situation.

They fill my heart with joy. 

(Did I get a group picture? No... I'm lame...)

We really never stay in hotels, so I get excited about every little detail...

 It was foggy but our group didn't care...

We ate together and we prayed together.   We shared tears and laughter and life.  We planned and dreamed and we went to the Lord together in prayers for discernment, wisdom, peace, and unity for this church community that we have the privilege to lead and serve.  We are excited for what the Lord has for our church and the ways that He is moving!  

The kiddos were with their Mia and Papa for a sleep over and had an amazing time having all kinds of sweet adventures together...❤︎

anniversary celebrations

Due to a last minute change of plans for our anniversary evening, we had the kiddos with us. To be honest, they have never been with us for an "anniversary" date.  They asked all sorts of questions about our wedding and when Kit asked me to marry him...
Ryder's question, 
"What has been your favorite part about the last 15 years."

Every anniversary, Kit and I plan and dream what we want this new year to be.  Getting married on January 4th helps with the New Year mindset.❤︎ Having the kids with us really didn't change that.  We are planning a big trip this year for our anniversary and we got to dream about that with the kiddos.  Talking about how much we love to travel and being best friends and being away to connect.  They want to go but were really cute to see that it was something special for moms and dads to do.

It was a special evening and the kids made it even sweeter...❤︎ 

Don't go, Christmas vacation!

Today is our last day of Chritmas vacation.  With the holiday and work and people being sick, our days were beautifully low key.  

Making fresh orange juice from our tree for our mornings to go with doughnuts:

Eating at Avila's for our kick off to Christmas vacation:

Playing countless games by the tree:

Consuming countless cups of cocoa in my favorite childhood christmas mugs:

Eating things like berry cobbler for breakfast... 

(and maybe putting ice cream on it too):

I felt like markers were out the entire break for various projects:

Watching movies all snuggled up together, while we did things like face masks and tiny manicures:

No uniforms for us...

 We baked cinnamon raisin bread!

And even things that we had to do, like making a trip to Costco was so much better together, of course because we said yes to pizza and smoothies...

He's always in school!

There was time to create and color and play play dough and dress up and practice baseball in the park.   We laughed and read books, learned new jokes (watch out everyone...), watched football and organized baseball cards.  We drew comics, played Madden, baked bread, and ate A LOT of tacos. We rode bikes, colored countless coloring pages...

The ability to be slow and deliberate and relaxed made life so good.  It's what we all needed...  

Don't go, Christmas vacation... We aren't ready yet. 

You have been so good to us!