The World Needs More Ninjas

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Hey Girl

There’s this thing going around right now online, particularly on Pinterest, where people post pictures of Ryan Gosling saying some funny line that starts with “Hey Girl.” Here’s an example: So this other blog I follow is having a contest where you can upload a picture of your hubby in his very own “Hey Girl” [...]

Aha!

I had one of those “Aha!” moments this week. You’d think after 4.5 years of being a parent I would have figured this out by now… Evie is really into playing Polly Pockets these days. We have two Polly Pocket cars and her favorite thing is for her to have a car and me to [...]

Just Like Me

Kaelyn is in the process of making her own Valentine’s for her classmates. We are starting early so she can work on them a little at a time. They aren’t very complicated, but it just takes a while for those sweet little hands to cut things out. A few days ago we printed off all [...]

Speechless

When a woman completes a marathon at 39-weeks pregnant and a 100-year-old man runs a marathon, then I’m feeling less impressed with myself and my own marathon training. Come on people, can you stop overachieving so I can feel good about my own marathon experience?! Seriously though, these stories leave me absolutely speechless. But then [...]

Random Observations

A few thoughts from today… (1) Timing is everything. For example, the last bits of chip crumbs spilled all over the floor would usually result in much stress and anger. But today, the last bits of chip crumbs spilled all over the floor just before I was going to vacuum anyway = “Yay! I get [...]

Words

Kaelyn’s two favorite words today: investigate inspire Evie’s two favorite words today: Hold Me! Hold Me! Hold Me!

Check, check. Is this thing on??

Well hello there. It has been a while, eh? There are too many stories to tell to try to catch up on everything. I will just do a quick run down of the basics from the past few weeks. We went to Ohio to meet our niece, Lila, for the first time. She is beyond [...]

My Little Comedians

This morning I had just taken off Kaelyn’s night time pull-up as I was getting her dressed. Then the following conversation happened: Kaelyn: “I’m going to put on this pull-up and throw these dirty panties away.” Kaelyn: “But not really.” (giggles) Evie: giant roar of laughter Kaelyn (in sarcastic tone): “Was it really that funny [...]

Mommy Weekend Away

This weekend I spent my very first night away from kids in almost 3 1/2 years! I took off by myself to Charlottesville, VA to visit my brother Jared. We had an awesome weekend! My drive up was nice. It was all back roads and I often felt like I was driving back in time [...]

Research and Explore

This morning I was reading a baby book to Evie. The book had a simple drawing of a butterfly. Somehow Kaelyn and I got on the subject of butterfly legs. I claimed that butterflies do in fact have legs. Kaelyn claimed they did not. I’m not sure if she was trying to prove me wrong [...]

Christmas Cards

It has always been our Christmas tradition to send out Christmas cards and to also include a letter with the highlights of our year. It’s a fun way to look back on the year and remember some of the things we did. It’s also fun to look back at past years and remember things we [...]

Diapers for Haiti

Friends of ours moved to Haiti a year and half ago to be parents at an orphanage. As if that weren’t challenging enough, in January the devastating earthquake took place that has left millions without basic needs. Our friends, Nick and Gwenn, serve tirelessly each day not only taking care of their large family but [...]

Be Still My Heart

I was running around frantic this morning trying to get teeth brushed, faces washed, and hair combed (a girl has to look her best for Bible study). I went looking for the girls and I found them like this. They had climbed on the bench in Kaelyn’s room all by themselves and they were reading [...]

What We Did Today (2)

Asked Kaelyn to pose and this was what she came up with: Evie helped everyone with their shoes (while she was sporting her All Stars): Got all these groceries (including the organic milk) for $21!

What We Did Today

Kaelyn practiced being a princess (the socks are part of the outfit obviously)… Evie practiced being a hippie… And it appears that Mommy needs to practice dressing her children in complete outfits.

Things I’ve Noticed

(1) If people write words on a sign and hold the sign up and play some nice music it usually makes a nice marketing campaign. For example, this video for moms. (2) If you put any kind of food on a skewer it is immediately much more fun to eat. Like chocolate covered marshmellows… (photo [...]

My Three-Year-Old, Kaelyn

It’s hard to believe you’ve been a part of our lives for three years now. Even though I can’t remember life without you, it still doesn’t seem too long ago that I was pushing your cart around the maternity ward. Last year, you were just getting to know your new sister, Evie (“Nice hair, baby [...]

This Blog’s For You (Charissa)

So my friend Charissa called me out last night on how I haven’t blogged in a long time. She’s right. Matt just left to take the girls to the pet store (a free, yet entertaining way to spend some time on a hot afternoon), and I had a random thought pop in my head. So [...]

Shanghai Travels

So, I just got back from a business trip to Shanghai, China…my first time to Asia. It was a lot different than my previous international travels (Ecuador and Spain). The first thing that hits you is the sheer number of people. The roads are crazy…bikes and scooters everywhere. If you use your horn you can [...]

A Few of My Favorite Things

One of Kaelyn’s favorite things to play right now is pretending with her toy flies. Here pictured is what she has named Baby Fly, Mama Fly, and Grandma Fly. They enjoy doing many things together. Among their favorite is jumping on a pretend trampoline. Kaelyn informed me this morning that “we need to buy a [...]