Ben + Anita

Yesterday, my dear friend Anita married her sweetheart Ben... it was an amazing day!

Congratulations you two!!

Drew, Gavin, and Morgan had the honor of being the ring bearers and one of the flower girls. They did so well, and looked pretty adorable too.

She walks!!

Tonight, we were quite surprised when Annika took off walking! Drew, Gavin, and Morgan were screaming an cheering and calling Jeremy and I into the living room... they were SO excited she's finally walking. They said she stood up all on her own in the middle of the floor and took off! She has never stood up like that before without something to pull up on. After 7 months of crawling, she's off! She did about 20 laps between couches while we all cheered, clapped, and jumped up and down for her. Then she did a few laps around the kitchen island for show. We love you, Annie-girl!!!! You're such a big girl now!

out of the mouths of babes

This afternoon, Gavin was strolling by me in the house as he headed downstairs saying as he hopped down the steps, "You're going to forget all about me..."

"What???" I said.

"When you die! You're going to forget all about me." He yelled up the stairs matter-of-factly.

"No I won't, I'll be in heaven.... and..." I trailed off as he continued without stopping downstairs. That's as far as I got with my on-the-go little man. I'm not sure where that funny comment came from, that guy cracks me up!

You'll read about our bird adventure below... but I thought it was so funny how my 3 big kids reacted to the thought of losing him to death. I warned them that it looked like he might not live, and this was their reaction:

Morgan, the emotional: (sobbing) "But we'll miss him, and we'll never ever see him again!"

Gavin, the realist: "Oh, that's okay... we'll just take apart his bones and see if we can fit them back together again!"

Drew, the softy: "Well, I'm really glad I found him in that swimming pool. I'm an animal rescuer. First I rescued our 4 puppies, then this! I have to call Charlotte, she's in the Animal Club with us!"

Birdy Friend

Yesterday afternoon, Drew found this little chickadee left for dead in an old swimming pool behind our shed! He was freezing and laying on his tummy in some standing water. We have no idea how he got there or if he fell out of a nest or what... BUT we're so glad Drew found him when he was sneaking up an Annabelle, our doggy, yesterday!

We brought the bird inside, who looked like he would die any minute. We wrapped him in towels to get him warm and slowly he started to stand up and let us hold him on our hands and shoulders. He never gave any hint that he could fly. He accompanied me on my shoulder as I picked up the house. I felt like a cross between Mary Poppins and Dr. Dolittle for a while there. A bit later, when we were outside and he was standing on Gavin's shoulder, he took off all of the sudden and landed in a tree above us... next thing we knew he was off singing in the sky above us! I was wishing we could keep him and that he would need us to care for him, but we're so glad he was feeling better and we could rescue him from a certain death in the birdy-hypothermic water.

I think I'm realizing more and more that I love taking in anyone or anything that needs us. It feels great to provide love and warmth. I think I could love anything or anyone. Sure, there are some unlovely people in the world, but there's just something about a child or a frail animal that screams LOVE ME to this lady. This little chickadee helped me realize that!

I guess that's how God may view us... those unlovely at times, frail, children that need Him.. He wraps us up in the warmth of all that He is and carries us along.

Hoping that we'll stay and be awhile.

He looks pretty awful in these pictures, (as do I!) he dried off and became all fluffy and perfect again.

Bye-Bye Birdy, come back anytime!!!

Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year, we decided to do something different! Instead of staying home and having lunch with family, it was time to get out and enjoy the beauty around us with family! So we headed up to Eklutna Lake and it was beautiful and freezing and windy! We stayed for a couple hours on the shore after eating a fried chicken lunch in the van. Jeremy's parents along with his sister Heather joined us for the fun. My Dad was out of state, but it was fun to celebrate Jeremy and Dave and the amazing fathers they are to their children.

A wind-blown family photo!

Annika showing us were she wants to explore.

The Bits

Drew took this great pic of J & I! He was taking forever to take the photo and then we found out he was workin' the zoom! Good job, buddy!

Happy Father's Day, Jeremy!

You are a loving, caring, hard-working, and stable

Daddy for our brood and for that, I am extremely thankful.

Grandpa David posing with 2 of his 4! We missed you Jen and Aaron!

Heather is 30 weeks pregnant with their first baby! A nephew for us, and a baby cousin for the kids! WE CAN'T WAIT!

Luke & Mayerly... and the hair lady

Last Saturday, Luke & Mayerly were married! Mayerly was one of my youth group girls... my, how things change! She is now a married woman and we love Luke! They are a super fun couple, and it was a beautiful wedding. Mayerly asked me to do her hair for the big day, which scared me to death... I imagined her looking back at her pictures in years to come and wishing she had gone to a "real" hair lady. I was sick to my stomach all morning and praying that God would help me out!!! Well, he did and it turned out beautifully!!! Mayerly has long, gorgeous straight, thick hair that was so fun to work with. I also had the great privilege of doing Emily, Natalie, and Diana's hair as well who were 3 of her bridesmaids. The 4 of them are best buddies and I did prom hair for them when they were in high school... it was a great afternoon that ended in a fabulous and beautiful wedding. I LOVE these girls, and it is such an amazing thing to still be involved in their lives.

Almost done!

Done! The finished hairdo... and in her beautiful dress! She had her mother's wedding dress re-worked for her wedding. I think that is SO cool.

After the orchids were added!

Me with Natalie, Diana, & Emily! It'll be a re-run of events in August when it's Emily's turn to tie the knot!!! Can't wait. But it'll be one more gut-wrenching morning beforehand I'm sure for this not-for-real hair lady.

Seward campout '09

It was time to head back to our favorite yearly family destination with our adventurous buddies!

Check out the ocean view right out our tent flap!

Our great campsites! Our tent is on the left and the Kroons camper on the right... can you imagine a more beautiful backdrop?

The oldest Kroon Cutie!

The girls contemplating a trip to the mall when they're 16.

Our amazing friends Kep and Rachel

After a missed campout last summer due to new baby girls for us and the Kroons, it was finally time to head back to Seward, our family's favorite place to camp! We camped there the two previous summers with our Home Group families that met for a couple years for a Bible study of sorts... but the Pepperds and Morgans have moved away, so it's just us and the Kroons left to keep up the tradition. And a FUN tradition it is!!! After two years of rain, rain, and rain we opted for June instead of August at Drew's urging. He begged for us to change our dates and try for SUN! And we got amazing sun this year... we all are sporting nice tans/sunburns now! Enjoy the tons of photos we have to share!! Thanks, Kep and Rach for such a great time together. We love to laugh with you about the complexities of camping with kiddos and wouldn't trade one crazy moment for anything!!!

Quaint downtown Seward...

Matchy Dads carrying matchy babies.



Gavin tossing a rock into the beautiful ocean. We saw a group of sea lions both days that were swimming right along the shore.



The beach through Noah's eyes.



Where Drew spent the most of his time in the playgroung playing Lava Tag!



Sweet Annika taking a blazing hot tent nap on Sunday.






Jeremy joining in on Lava Tag fun.



The Camping Kids Gang!



Me and Noah... I love this little guy!




The happy couple relaxing on the beach, and yes, Jeremy was really flying a kite!
It was super windy and perfect for kite flying.



Morgan was forever picking dandelions. She made this bracelet all by herself!



Annika and Savannah are just 2 months apart and are such cuties together! Camping is never dull with 7 kids in tow. And sleep is over-rated too. The wind was blowing SO hard in the middle of the night, I kept imagining our tent flying out into the ocean!

Our campsites were right on the ocean with a brand new park and fun skate park just out our door! We would HIGHLY recommend camping there! The Kroons were able to fit 4 bikes in their camper to keep all the kiddos super happy! We didn't do the Sealife Center this time, but that's definitely something we'll do again in the future. Can't wait for next year... and we'll be stalking those campsites again, so if you're thinking about Seward next summer, watchout!!! :)

Check out the Kroon's take on the trip + more pics!

Give Me Your Eyes

New artist Brandon Heath has a lot of cool songs, but this one has gripped me this Spring! The words echo my thoughts exactly. Take a listen and comment too! Scroll down to the bottom first and pause the music player or you'll get a crazy mix of Brandon Heath and Michael Buble.

God, please show me how to best love humanity.

Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes from Brandon Heath on Vimeo.

How big is baby?

I love these two pictures! I was downloading some pics from my Dad's camera recently and came across these! They were taken just before Easter. Annika even has a place on the growth wall in Dad and Marla Kay's pantry... She had grown a bunch since the last time! As I type, my sweetie is "knee walking" across the family room. She now refuses to walk, and falls boneless when I stand her up to take some steps. She was getting really good... and now she prefers her faster knee version. It's hilarious... crawling without her hands. So if you see a 5 year old walking on her knees someday in the future, she's probably mine. :)

tRiAtHlOn

Well, the Valley Rookies survived the Gold Nugget Triathlon!

I am very excited to say that I completed (without feeling like I was dying) my first triathlon! It was also my first 5k run ever too... then just tag on a 9 mi. bike and a 300 yd. swim on the front and you've got yourself a FUN race! I honestly had so much fun training, getting ready, and racing with these women. We're all game and ready to try again next year with faster times!

Here we are the night before setting up our bikes and gear for the race. We had to leave it all out the night before and weren't able to touch it until we ran out of the pool soaking wet ready to jump on our bikes the next day.

We actually had 13 women on our team... but we didn't all set-up at the same time that day.
I was nervous even then!!!

Lined up on the pool deck waiting for our turn to take the plunge. Don't we look so tough with our numbers on our arms? :)

Thanks Dad, for all the great action shots! (and you too, Kep)

Ready to ride! Drew was trying to catch up to me for a high five. The bike portion was really fun and would have been my favorite minus my brake slipping off and me running into the drink lady at the 1/2 way point and me being lame-o at shifting bike gears... I just learned a couple weeks ago and I still have a lot to learn. I can't wait to get better at that part.

These ol' legs were a tad wobbly off the bike heading into the run. Ooh, that was tough!

But it got better after the first mile. Thank goodness!

WE MADE IT!

What a great day. Don't you like our orange matchy-matchy orange shirts courtesy of Old Navy? It was so cool to be able to so easily recognize our teammates on the course. The bike and the run both had a turn around point, so I was able to see all of my team members during each event. I love that Lynnetta, our triathlon guru, was so encouraging and persistent that we all could do it a couple months ago. I thought it was way too much for me, but that I had to start somewhere after all this work I've done all winter... and she was right. I was commenting to Jeremy afterwards, about how there was no way I could have done this a year ago being 3 months post-partum and that unless I had worked my booty off (literally) all winter I still couldn't have done it. It has really made it all worth it and such a tangible way for me to see progress and time well spent even when it was hard. So goodbye 22 pounds... I don't miss even one ounce of you.