An Evening of Service
Dear Hayden and Owen,
We spent this evening packing TONS of food into meal packs for Feed My Starving Children. FMSC is an amazing organization! They send food around the world to people who need it. As of this mobile packing event, our church has done 1,000,000 meals worth of FMSC mobile packing!
I love the feeling in my heart when we are all serving side by side. There is no place I would rather be!
Life is Good: February 2016
Dear H, O and B,
We had a very fun February!
You gave out some great valentines to your classes:
We started an ant farm:
Hayden, you donated a blanket you made to Project Linus with your Girl Scout troop:
Jet woke up from his long winter’s nap:
It was a great month!
Love you,
Mama
On Two Wheels!
Dear Owen,
You’ve been working on this for a little while, and today you took off! No more training wheels!
You kept shouting, “Mom! I’m riding!”
Love you,
Mom
PS – Here’s another one from the next morning!
Life is Good: January 2016
Dear H, O And B,
We had a few memorable moments in January!
Hayden, we went to an ASU Women’s Basketball game with Tonja and Dyllan! While we were there, you asked me if I’d cheer for ASU if you ever played there — I told you that is the ONLY scenario in which I would HAPPILY cheer for ASU!
Hayden, you got to spend a day as a teacher’s aide in Miss Sue’s class when Bennett had school while you were home for Project Week!
We played laser tag at Benjamin’s birthday party:
Owen and Bennett — I hiked with each of you while the other was at school:
We went to Tucson for my birthday weekend and hiked and had other fun!
We’ve also played with your Chrismas gifts a lot — you got a lot of board games and we are having SO MUCH FUN playing games together!
Love you,
Mama
Halfway to Four!
Dear Bennett,
Today, you are three and a half. You are such a great guy! You have a great sense of humor and you are so, so silly. You are very rarely serious, but when you are, you make sure that we are listening. You started preschool this fall, and you are loving it! Also, you are very interested in fire trucks right now. You spend a lot of time playing with your buddies: Josiah, Jacob and Luke. You also really love playing with your brother and your sister.
You are such a special dude. You make everything more fun just because you are here.
Love you,
Mama
December 2015
Dear H, O and B,
We had so many fun moments celebrating Christmas this year! We went to the Christmas festival at the Princess, had the Gutes, the Keatings and the Georges (from Florida) up from Tucson, we visited the train park, and went to see the zoo lights. We went to your holiday piano recital, Hayden, and your preschool Christmas program, Owen and Bennett.
Grandma and Jiddoh came for a long visit the week of Christmas. Jiddoh helped us with a bunch of house projects and we celebrated his birthday with him (even though it is December 31st) because we aren’t usually with him on the actual day. It was so nice to have them here! Uncle Joe, Aunt Tonja, Dyllan and Karsen came from Alaska, too, and we had so much fun having them here.
The Christmas season has always been my favorite time of year, but nothing compares to the joy it brings me as a mama. I feel so blessed and so lucky to be able to plan and participate in so much holiday magic with the three of you. I just know that when you are all grown up, I will long for these days when we shared such joy over the holidays.
Also, I wanted to take a quick second to tell you that I hardly ever take any pictures on Christmas day. I spend most of the day cooking and really being present with you and with the people who fill our home. It is my favorite day of the year, and I don’t want to miss a minute! I know myself well enough to know that if I spent the day taking pictures, I would fell less a part of it, so I make the conscious decision to participate fully. I love making memories with you.
Love you,
Mama
Five!
Dear Owen,
Today, you are five. This seems impossible to me as I remember bringing you home – a tiny baby – just in time for the holidays and it feels like it was yesterday!
You are a sensitive and intense individual. We love how much you feel things, because it makes us all remember to think about other people’s feelings. You are also the silliest guy around! You love to make up silly words, tell jokes and listen to funny stories. When something is funny, everybody knows it because you have the loudest, most contagious laugh I’ve ever heard!
This was a great year for you- you have become a super reader and you love school. You are an electronics fanatic, with Dance Central, Minecraft and Mario Galaxy taking the lead as your favorite things to play. You love swimming, riding your bike and playing at the park. In fact, on Saturday, Dad took the training wheels off your bike and you started learning to ride without them.
One of my favorite thing about this year for you is that you and your brother have grown so ver close. I feel so happy when I see you two playing together and becoming such great friends. You fight a bit, too, but brothers do that.
I’m grateful every single day that I get to be your mom. You’re just amazing.
Love you,
Mama
Grandma and Jiddoh came up this weekend to celebrate your birthday with you. We took the training wheels off your bike and you are working on riding it on 2 wheels!
Boo!
Dear H, O and B,
Halloween was a blast this year! We had a chili dinner with all four grandparents, the Wilelands, the Burbanks and Meggy’s cousin Ben’s family! Then, we trick-or-treated in the neighborhood until you were all tuckered out! It was a really fun time!
Love you,
Mama
Read-a-Thon 2015
Dear Hayden,
Today was the read-a-thon at school! You are the cutest Pippi Longstocking there ever was! Dad and I took snacks and read to your class this morning. We love to be where you are. It was such a fun day!
Love you!
Mama
Day in Our Life
Dear H, O and B,
My mantra in this life stage is this quote I read once:
Recently, my amazingly talented friend Kelly spent the day with us to photograph our daily life. For the first little while, you were all very aware that Kelly was here. After a short time, though, you seemed to forget that she was around. These are possibly the most profound images I have of your childhood because they show you as you truly are. They show our personalities, our expressions and a genuine glimpse of our relationships and what our family life is like. Here are some of my favorites. There are about 5 times this many images, and it was SO HARD for me to narrow it down to these. These pictures capture the moments that I know I will long for, even as I live them.
I love you and this life we share.
Mama
