OC marriage conference

Our church hosted it's annual marriage conference this last weekend.  We were able to attend the entire thing.  It was really sweet to go to the conference together and to create a date out of the two day event.

There were great questions and conversations and I feel so close to this man!

Kit Rae, how thankful I am for who you are and how you lead our family.  You are the greatest gift and blessing in my life and I am thankful that we get to do life side by side and hand in hand... I love you!❤︎

I'm a little tea pot...

Eden and I were at Michaels and they have these amazing foam kits for families to do together.  She picked the one she wanted and we worked on putting it together!

 Pink glitter stickers are pretty much Eden's idea of heaven on earth...❤︎

Our finished product...

 We were so very proud of ourselves...❤︎

Celebrating our baby's 4th birthday!

Yesterday we had a nice lay low kind of birthday.  We will be celebrating her with family in about a week, so today was not the end of the festivities but we still wanted to make it special!

Doughnuts on her birthday plate are a must...

Right now, one of her favorites is Fancy Nancy.  Her upcoming birthday party is a Fancy Nancy themed tea...❤︎

 Her goodies from the morning!

 Snuggling on our four year old and looking though her birthday book...

 We have the tradition of letting the birthday person choose dinner.

She chose Ruby's, which lead to car making and strawberry sundaes.

Well played Eden...

 This big brother is just the absolute best!

We just can't believe that our baby girl is four.  It goes so fast and I know that time has n intention of slowing down.  We love you, Eden Marie!  Our family was not complete until we had you!

Today our baby is 4!

Commence the crying in disbelief!

I can't believe that this was 4 years ago...

Ryder meeting her for the first time...

 Watching her our first night at home...

 And all the joy she has brought  since...

I look at these early years and pinch myself that it really happened.  It goes so fast!

Eden Marie!

You are beautiful and strong and vibrant and full of life.  You are fierce and nurturing and gentle and kind.  I love having a front row seat to watch you grow into the woman that you are becoming.  We love you.  We cherish who you are and look forward to all that the Lord has for you!

100 days

On February 18, Ryder has his 100 days of school celebration.  To be honest, I thought the whole thing was funny that 100 was the magical day, but everyone at school was so excited about it and they had a serious count down to it.

The kids were all asked to place 100 items in a bag and to write clues for their items:

Can you guess ours?

 Yep, We put a 100 cotton balls in a bag and called it a day.  

The kids were so confused why it was so light!

And then the teacher made a crown for all of the kiddos...

I just can't even tell you how much I love this kid's face!

So we made it... 100 days of school, now about a billion more and we can call it a day!❤︎

trips down memory lane

This weekend we went back to Biola to watch a basketball game with our close friends and to dinner afterward.  We got to the campus early so we decided to stop by the nursing building:

Then we headed to the gym, where the kids were given cotton candy and sweat bands:

These guys are our people.  They were room mates freshman year and have been close every since.

I remeber thinking how fun it would be to bring our kids back to our old stomping grounds, and this was the first time I saw that dream realized:

Since Mark (affectionately referred to as Kit's first wife) had played basketball, there were not many games that we missed while we were in college.

We sat right where we had always sat and cheered as loud as ever...

Then we watched as Coach Holmquist received an award for over 900 wins:

We had come to know him through Mark and we were so proud to witness this accomplishment.

It was such a fun night!

We then proceeded to head with our group of 6 adults and 8 children to a local pizza spot.

We talked and laughed and had the BEST TIME.

On the way home, Ryder said he wants to go to Biola and live with Hank.

These are our people.

They know us.

They love us.

We are family...

little league

Last week Ryder started on a team in our city's little league.

They are the Dodgers.

Ryder's is ELATED to be back in sports after our last season with soccer.

This kid is growing up too fast!

He takes sports very seriously, and the truth is, this kiddo is athletic and coordinated and reminds me so much of all the stories I heard about Kit when he was growing up and playing sports.  He is such a little encourager to his team mates and loves getting directions from his coach and running through practice plays and drills.

Eden and I take him to his practice...

 ...and try not to be too embarrassing.❤︎

We are excited to try something new as a family this baseball season!

Mexico 2016!

We had an amazing long weekend in Mexico.  We enjoyed every second!

Highlights:

The view:

Tidepooling:

The beach:

The food:

Dinner at Ollie's:

 Happy Valentine's Day!

And watching the cousins get as much time together as they could...

There were dance parties, games, eating, lounging, talking, and SO much laughter!

I am so thankful that we had this time together...

We can't wait to go back!