Favorite Five: April

April. 

What a month. 

A trip to Colorado...Spring Break...two birthdays...10 days with Papa and Mormor.

So much joy and beauty.

Here are my favorite five shots of joy and beauty from this month.

SIX!

Samantha, my oldest, is SIX today. 

Wow.

It's funny because when I think about this six year old I think about how she is part baby and part teenager. Maybe that is the beauty of an age like six...the innocence of childhood and the maturity that comes with awakening to the world, all rolled up in one darling Kindergarten size package.

I was telling a friend the other day that when Sam was three I felt like we had failed society and were doing a horrible job parenting. Yet now, my almost Kindergarten graduate, is a delightful, helpful, sweet, snuggly, nurturing DREAM (most of the time). Actually that is what her teacher has called her repeatedly this year...a dream student.

Here are SIX quick things I want to share about my SIX year old.

1. NURTURING. This is the word for Samantha. This child was made to nurture. She loves babies, loves toddlers, loves taking care of hurting classmates, LOVES her little sisters.  And then there are the dolls, animals, and random trinkets she builds beds for and nurses back to health in her play. If I had to bet on it I would say she will go into teaching or medicine, and I can already tell you she will be a great mom someday.

2. INTERNATIONAL. Whether she is requesting to eat Indian food or sushi, raising money for Africa or asking when we can go to Kenya together, Sam is surely developing a world view. If she doesn't know where someone or something is from she usually guesses "Egyptian". Her favorite movie lately is Babies which pretty much combines #1 and #2 from this list. I love that she is learning about and getting interested in this big, beautiful, diverse world.

3. CREATIVE. We often joke about Sam that you could give her 10 random objects and she could either build something cool out of them or create a complicated story with them. I so admire her creativity and I know this will serve her well in life.

4. COLLECTOR OF LOST THINGS. I kind of thought this was a phase when she was 3. Apparently not. Sam loves finding stuff. Another translation of the word "stuff" could be garbage. I guess creativity lends itself to garbage-collecting.

5. EMOTIONAL. Oh my. Soooooo emotional. I'm not going to lie, this is a hard one for me sometimes. Her emotions wear me out. On a positive note, one cool way I see her emotions play out is in how she feels music. She loves music and I watch her be moved by certain music. She has also been moved to tears while watching a few movies. I am so excited I am going to have at least one kid to sob through movies with.

6. SPIRITUALLY SENSITIVE. Sam loves God and has a beautiful and tender faith. Her "singing prayers" are our absolute favorite and we often get a summary of everything she knows and believes about God in the lyrics of her singing prayers. Lately Sam has been asking what she can do to "change the world." Wow. If she is asking this question at age 6 I have a feeling that she surely will change her world.


What a joy, what a privilege to mother this wonderful girl for 6 years. This precious girl who loves fancy dresses and jewelry, but is most happy when soaking wet and covered with sand at the beach. Our tiny little peanut who is strong and brave. Our feisty firecracker who is also ridiculously sensitive. The best big sister ever who sometimes just wants to be babied herself. What a complicated and delightful package she is.

6 years ago today 7 pounds and 11 ounces was placed in my arms and I was never the same. Thank you Samantha for making me a mother. Thank you for all that you bring to our family and to the world.

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl.

Aspen - Part 2, we got to ski!

Top Ten Continued: #6-10...
(Here is #1-5)

6. Ski day. We didn't plan to ski as it seemed like too much to pull off with three small children. However, once we were there we realized we would be CRAZY not to do it. It was A LOT of work, but we made it happen. Sam did half a day ski school (and loved it!), Abby went to childcare at the base of the mountain and even got an hour on skis (they said she did great!), and Hannah was well taken care of in the super nice nursery. Chris and I got to ski/board together for 3 hours and it was, in a word, heavenly. No crowds, decent snow, warm weather. Skiing is my most favorite activity and it was so nice to feel totally free and totally alive. It was one of the best dates we have had in a long time and it brought us back in time to the years in CO (before kids) when we used to hit the slopes regularly.

Look at this amazingness...

7. The condo time. We scored with this place. There was a pool and hot tub, a mountain view, and a shuttle around town when our legs were weary. We enjoyed movies, ipad time, dance parties, eating, and lounging. It is amazing what fun you can create with kitchen toys and the contents of Mom's diaper bag. Contrary to what I envisioned, I didn't read one page of the book I brought, but really, what was I even thinking bringing a book? Did I forget the kids were coming too? We had a great time in our little home away from home.

8. The adventure of it. Do not be deceived by all these pictures of smiling happy children and a smiling happy Mama. There was plenty of this too...

...and not just by the baby. This trip was a wild and crazy and sometimes challenging adventure.  It is A LOT of work to do anything with three kids and this trip required A LOT of energy. I don't know why, but I imagined that our kids would magically be self-sufficient on this trip and that there would be a cook and a maid. Apparently we didn't get that vacation package. I still had to make food, clean up, dress and clean children a million times, and as an added adventure there was the getting on and off buses with three kids, a large stroller, and an average of three bags. It wasn't a vacation, it was an adventure. But I needed an adventure, and I feel super empowered that we did it.

9. Abby's birthday. Our girl turned 3 on the last day of our trip. We did a little makeshift birthday party for her in the morning and took a gondola ride as a birthday outing. We also were in airports, on a plane, and stuck in LA traffic for much of her birthday. Hopefully she forgets about those parts.

10. The gondola ride. I pretended that this gondola ride to the top of Aspen mountain for hot chocolate was for Abby's birthday, but really it was for me. The ride up and down, and view from the top were definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Thank you for an amazing 5 days, Aspen.
We will never forget this trip and I am already hoping and dreaming that we can do it again someday.

Aspen - Part 1, a circus side show

What do you get when you combine Paid Family Leave + Spring Break + years of unused frequent flyer miles? We got 5 days in Aspen, Colorado.

When Chris got approved for 5 weeks of family leave "to bond with our new baby" (who was 6 months old by the time the paper work was filed and approved), we decided that most of those weeks would be used at home in the context of normal life to recalibrate as a family. We desperately needed some recalibrating.

We also decided we would be crazy not to use at least one of those weeks to get away as a family. After all, there is nothing as "bonding" as traveling with small children. When we started talking about where we should go Chris kept throwing out Ireland. Ireland? Really honey? I'm still not exactly sure where that came from. Perhaps his recent obsession with Mumford & Sons? Wait, they are from England. Anyway...I laughed him off and then one night he suggested Aspen. Compared to Ireland, Aspen suddenly didn't sound so extravagant. When we realized we had enough miles for all of us to fly FOR FREE direct from LAX to Aspen it was a done deal.

Let me tell you, it was a riot traveling on that very small plane with the fancy LA to Aspen crowd. As a dear friend put it so well, "you could be a circus side show and yet you are in Aspen." Yep, that pretty much sums up our whole trip...a circus side show in Aspen. Hey, CARPE DIEM we always say.

There are so many pictures and so much I could say about this family adventure, but in keeping with past posts I will limit myself to our Top Ten. Here is #1-5.

1. Just Aspen. "I'm talkin' about a place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talkin' about a little place called Aspen." Name that movie! And if you can name it I'm sure we are already friends.

This is a super special place for us. We celebrated our anniversary in Aspen every Fall for years when we lived in Colorado. On some of our anniversary trips we even brought our dog, our new baby, Chris' parents, or friends (nothing says romantic anniversary getaway like babies, friends, and in-laws). Aspen is one of those magical places on the planet for us. It is a small town in BIG mountains with an isolated, European feel. We had never been there when there was snow (Nov-April) and decided it would be great to take our family for some cold weather fun and change of scenery. We found a good end-of-ski-season deal on a condo at VRBO.com and our goal was just TO BE there. No agenda. No plans. Right here...

2. Just the five of us. As I alluded to in #1 we aren't very good at getting away by ourselves. With one exception in 11 years we have never taken a trip or used a vacation day that didn't involve being with friends or family. We wouldn't change anything about how we do things, but we are also realizing that as our family grows it is important for us to get away just the five of us. We so enjoyed the down time together.

3. The weather. There was plenty of snow on the mountain, but the temps in town were mild and the Colorado sun shone brightly. It was perfect. We needed coats, but not boots. Some people around town were in shorts and sandals. There was even a dusting of snow one night that resulted in all the trees being freshly covered in the morning. MAN I miss that!

4. Wandering. Aspen is a small enough town that you don't need a car. We enjoyed simply wandering around with the kids. When we wanted to wander further out of town there were great FREE buses to the other fun areas nearby.

5. Ice skating. Samantha is on a big ice skating kick lately. We knew we needed to make this happen for her, so we did. She did amazing. Abby even got to get on the ice in a cool sled they let us use. We had the whole rink to ourselves.

 To be continued...

Abby is THREE

Here is Abby this morning, celebrating her third birthday (in Colorado).

What in the world? THREE??? How, when, where did this happen?

In front of my own two eyes and under my roof is the answer to these questions, of course. And when I think about Abby, really think about her, it makes sense, this THREEness.

Our little Abs is a big girl, and not just in stature (90% for height), but in behavior. She talks a blue streak, can do big girl things like get herself dressed, wears undies (THANK YOU LORD!), and has been sleeping on the bottom bunk for some time now.

Abby continues to be fiercely independent. We sometimes joke that she doesn't need us. Unfortunately, that independence gets her in a lot of trouble. This kid single-handedly changed her preschool's dismissal policy due to deciding she would walk out the gate on her own and wait for me on the sidewalk.  The positive side of her independence is that she can play really well on her own and can focus and get engrossed in an activity.

We recently learned that Abby can run. We always knew she could run away...but we now know she can run in the exercise sense of the word. Abby decided she wanted to join Samantha for a few laps during the elementary school's jog-a-thon in March...and then she decided she would run a few on her own (see previous paragraph on independence). Before we knew it Abby had run 8 laps on those little legs. That is over a mile! And to think, we were worried this child would walk on her knees forever.

This spirit of determination has also been observed by us in the swimming pool, where Abby wants to "swim" back and forth between Chris and I over and over and over again, despite being tired and water-logged and not really knowing how to swim. She is brave and strong and determined, this girl.  I am so excited to see where these qualities take her.

Abby is really growing into her role as older sister and her interest in and affection for Hannah has taken a spike recently. She likes bringing Hannah toys, making Hannah laugh, and talking to her in a baby-voice.

Other things about our Abby-cadaby: confident, charismatic, strong-willed, Daddy's girl to the max!, persistent, strong, tough, loves dresses and costumes, loves baby dolls, good fine-motor skills, enjoys figuring things out and building, finally sits still for books (that only took 3 years), stubborn, ADORABLE (blonde curls are still hanging on), loves doing whatever her big sister is doing, can nap for hours, loves her two preschool mornings each week, loves one-on-one time (which is hard to come by), and this girl is still HILARIOUS as always.

Love you Abs. 

You are full of joy, full of life, full of shenanigans. 

Can't wait for another year to discover more about you.

Favorite Five: March

Time. 

It drags and it flies by all at once.

Such is motherhood...long days and quick years.

I am so thankful for pictures that capture and freeze precious moments and memories in time.

Favorite shot of Hannah so far.

Such a big girl now.

Sometimes they really do sit and color.

And sometimes they do this.

Helping Daddy clean off his surfboard.

And now on to April...Spring Break, travel, birthdays, a big family visit. Here we go!

Homework and Rest

Here is a recent homework assignment for our Kindergartner. They are studying weather.

This made us laugh. She is right, so I didn't correct her and have her add other types of weather. The assignment does say San Diego...and I did watch her think about it before drawing four suns. Ha!

Consequently, it just so happens that this San Diego family will be fleeing the sunny warm weather and spending Spring Break in THE SNOW soon. My husband shows his love for me by bringing me to the cold. Thanks honey.


Chris and I have had some homework from church recently too. Our whole congregation has been encouraged to start practicing a real Sabbath.  We have been prompted to take seriously God's example and command to REST. Within that Sabbath framework, we have been encouraged to include the following "rules for rest": identity and rest...simplify and contemplate...glorify God and do good...delight and play. Sounds good to me! It also sounds good for me.

For two weekends now Chris and I decided to experiment with a family Sabbath from Saturday at noon through Sunday at noon. We decided to stop "working" during this period and to unplug from technology. So far the experience has been both wonderful and challenging.

It is hard to rest. Hard, but also so so good.

It has been good to have a Saturday afternoon outing with our kids and without our phones. Good to play and explore with our girls. So good to slow down and focus on each other and our blessings more.

Here are a few pictures from one of our Sabbath outings on a strangely warm March evening. It was one of the best times as a family I can remember.

Rest up everyone.

"A Dream So Big"

There are certain people, who, when we get the opportunity to cross paths with them, even if just for a short time, leave a mark on our lives forever. Steve Peifer, and his wife Nancy, are just such unforgettable people.

Chris and I had the privilege of crossing paths with the Peifers for one year in 2001-2002 during our time at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. We were fresh-faced, wide-eyed, recent college grads, and we were engaged. Steve always thought it was a big deal that we were putting off marriage for a year to serve together in Kenya and was super encouraging of us. We just figured marriage was forever, and this opportunity might not come again so we better take it, even if we didn't have time to walk down the aisle and say "I do" first. That year in our lives was absolutely amazing for so many reasons, and meeting incredible people like the Peifers was one of those reasons.

The Peifers are very atypical missionaries, which is probably why we loved them so much. They are regular people who chose an irregular path and are making a big difference in the world. We even got to witness Steve and Nancy adopt their twin Kenyan children while we were in Kijabe that year. They have inspired us in more ways than they know. "Beauty from ashes" could be their family motto.

We have followed the Peifers journey in Kenya for the past 10+ years and will always consider them friends. And when a friend writes a book, especially one that shares an inspiring story about a place I love, you better believe I am going to SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS.

So here is me shouting from the rooftops...BUY THIS BOOK!  Right Here.

The book was released today and I ordered it and can't wait to read it. Knowing Steve Peifer I can promise you that you will cry, and laugh (Steve is one of the funniest people I know), and be inspired that you can dream big too.

Here is a synopsis from Amazon:

A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools, and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools. Steve and his wife, Nancy, were enjoying a successful management career with one of America's high tech corporate giants during the dot-com boom of the 1990's when, in 1997, he and his wife Nancy discovered they were pregnant with their third child. Tragically, doctors said a chromosomal condition left their baby 'incompatible with life.' The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died. Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy began a pilgrimage that thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy---drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. They didn't arrive in the service of any divine calling, but the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubled hearts. A short-term, 12-month mission assignment as dorm parents for a Kenyan boarding school turned this ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero, and his story will inspire you to pursue similar lives of service.

Here is A LINK to Amazon so you can order it for yourself.

If you read it I would LOVE to hear from you.

Favorite Five: February

My birthday.    The beach.    Dressing up.    Community Serve Day.     My three.

Thanks for this one Stacy