seven sweet years

two became three and so our family started to be.

september 22, 2002.

our gentle, nurturing, generous, funny selah is SEVEN!

we celebrated her in our own fun family-tradition way...she picked out every meal of the day, including the type of dessert we were to have after dinner. Then she chose a special friend(grace who lives on our street!) and their family to join us for an fun evening of tons of balloons, squeaky horns and silly party hats (all selah's idea!).

the highlight of the night for dan and i was the fact that selah made it through the happy birthday song without excusing herself to another room until we finished singing!

so much has changed!

her best present by far (she says) is her upcoming trip to visit her cousin and gram and papa in New Castle (northern callie!!)

i will get to be alone with her(for more than an hour) for the first time since she was 16 months old! i think it is my best present too!

you are a delight to our hearts selah...we love you so!

lighter load

the heaviness of life has been weighing me down of late.




many life lessons being learned...all at once.





been doing lots of praying...for my own struggles as well as many of yours.







God is gracious, good, gentle and merciful.









i pray that this truth and these fotos lighten your load.











:)

peace to you from us

counting the cost

moving to L.A.: $8,000

monthly rent in L.A.: $3,000

gas prices in L.A.: $3.50/gal

monthly phone bill keeping in touch with family back home:$75/mo

sitting in the sun with sand on my skin,

smelling the salty sea air, sun screen and surf

while watching my many sweet blessings be completely entertained

by the morning waves: priceless!

weathering the change

Fall is what i think of as i watch some of my many small blessings walk out our front door and back into their classrooms.



summer is still sticking around though...literally! the humidity levels have been like living in Texas...except with no AC!!



but, despite samuel's groanings about it being too "summerish" to start school, start we did!



our first is now in second and our second is now a kindergartner! (our third even gets to "start school" this year...we were incredibly blessed with an opportunity to attend a little preschool two days a week, for free!)



for those of you who are trying to keep track, that means two days a week, for three hours, i will have only two little small blessings in my care! after a summer of five all day every day, that sounds pretty calm!



here are pics of our "first morning getting out the door before 10am",



and samuel...hanging from the playground equipment before his big day.


our fourth was (as usual) just happy to get to come along.




















the pool pics??

welp, it seems Rite Aide was blowing out all their summer stuff. so...we grabbed a cool pool and have been loving it!

so even though school has started and fall is supposed to be here, we are still soaking up the summery days.


little elia is not in the pool, as you can see. she claims the big kids "mash" her. i think she means "splash"!