Fall Family Photos

We had some fall family photos taken by Brant Olson, a friend from church. I actually take care of their baby, 3month old Isla, part-time. Ella really loves her buddy Isla and has gotten to know her mom, Lesli and Dad, Brant a little and it turns out that knowing the photographer really helps her smile for pictures. Why that doesn't play out when mom's the photographer, I'm not sure, but none the less, we not only had a really fun time doing our pictures, but got some really amazing shots of our family. Some of our favorites follow, but there are even more on my facebook page. You can look at them even if you don't have facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150344747750009.348149.579960008&type=1&l=6720d507f5

30, Flirty and Thriving!

That's right folks, you read right, this mama just turned 20-10! And I did so in style ;) Lem and I planned a fabulously pink "Sweet 30" dessert/cocktail party at the house. The girls spent the night with Nanny and Papa; we transformed the downstairs into a very fancy, elegant, space for our soiree. We ordered tablecloths and table runners, even chair covers and ties to match the table runners. I was able to borrow some pink decor left over from a friend's pink wedding and mixed that in with pink candles and other table decorations here and there. We got all new (matching) platters for the all-dessert spread. It was a super fun evening and I was so blessed to be surrounded with friends and family, helping me celebrate this milestone. And I was super excited for the 6 Nordstrom's gift cars I received!

On my actual birthday, a few days later, my day was quite full of celebrating, too. My morning started with a present from my hubby. When I took Sycely to school the ladies in the office had made me a happy birthday sign to go with the frappuccino Lem had waiting for me. (Ella and I visit the frog and ladies in the office every morning so he knew I'd be stopping in there.)

Ella and I spent the morning at the mall with my BFF, Julie and her son Summit who is the same age as Ella (Scarlett's little brother.) We strolled a bit and had lunch then Ella and I headed home for naptime. Lem and Sycely got home after school and we got ready to meet the fam for birthday dinner at my favorite Mexican place, Gallo's. We enjoyed a yummy family dinner and I opened a few presents from Ian and Kathryn and Nanny and Papa. I even got to enjoy a tasty treat-a strawberry daiquiri-hooray for not being allergic to strawberries anymore!

After dinner we headed home and I opened present from Lem and the girls. It didn't take me more than about 30 seconds to snuggle into my new Mariner's hoodie. A perfect end to a perfect day, a perfect birthday and a perfect decade! So far, my 30s are pretty awesome :)

Family Fun Fridays

For the last couple years now we've wanted to host one of our church's small groups in our home. We were struggling with how to make the floor plan of our house work for having kids in one place while their parents were in another part of the house for study and fellowship. Then, I had the realization that maybe our group wasn't supposed to be about splitting up kids and parents so that the parents could be ministered to while the kids were "babysat." I really felt like maybe our group was supposed to be a time and place for families to come together. It took the floor plan obstacle to lead me to recognize that we could help meet the need of focusing on families as a priority. In our culture these days, we cram as much as we can into our lives- soccer practice, piano lessons, meetings, cub scouts, ballet class, bunco night, etc, etc, etc...we do alot of these in effort to give our kids the best in life, but sometimes, more than more activities and commitments, what our kids really need is us, our time, conversation, memories, relationship. So, we decided to start Family Fun Fridays. One Friday a month we're opening our home and sharing time with other families doing crafts, playing games, sharing snacks and fellowshipping. We're taking time out of all the other crazy busyness of life to put our families first and spend time with our kids having good ol fashion family fun. We had 5 families at our first group in September and everyone had so much fun. It felt great to be surrounded by folks who share the priority of investing in their families, and spending quality time together. We feel so blessed to have our spacious, beautiful home and are so excited to be obedient to the call to use it to bless others. We love opening our home to other families and are really encouraged by the turn out and enthusiasm for our group.