a gift

tonight,
Tal said "I want you, mom" and needed me in a way that he hasn't in awhile.
He was cold,
getting out of the bath, wet, tired, and cold.
I wrapped around an extra towel, pulled him close,
and he gifted me with sweet smiles and then
eskimo kisses,
lots,
looking each other in the eyes,
giving eskimo kisses.

I helped him with his jammies,
brushed his teeth, and tucked him in.
It had been a long day, and he needed his mom to take care of him,
not encourage him to do it on his own,
not make it a teaching moment, just serve him
and be his mommy.

Now that he's five, these moments are few and far between, but tonight was one that I consider a gift.

Thank you, Jesus, for your good and perfect gifts!

Picture Parade...Continued

fourth of July








Lindsay and Joey's wedding



hiking at Ragged Point-picnic on the private beach

















road trip...fun stop in Solvang with friends, visit to the new Cambria house, hiking at Ragged point-some of my favorite pictures are here, beautiful path down to private beach for lunch, a family favorite hiking spot...wedding of some dear friends, finished with fourth of July with Ene, our little Koreans hung onto their American flags ALL day

Picture Parade

Okay,
Not nearly as much time as I'd like to post these days so I thought I'd do a big picture parade of the past few months of funness. Some highlights have been: a road trip through California with a camping stop at El Capitan Canyon, April's Wedding, our exchange student, Ene, from Spain who we loved so much and had a great time with, a trip with just me and the kids and my parents to the big new house in Cambria...
they'll come a little at a time

here we go again

Another birthday, the big 5, I almost cried on this one. Saturday, we hosted a pool party for friends and family at Meme and Papa's house. Tal had so much fun with his friends and we did a "toy trade" where each child brought a wrapped outdoor toy under $15. They then drew numbers and selectively each chose a gift to open. We love doing this to cut down on massive amounts of useless toys and because Tallinn likes to invite so many people.

Sunday, we headed to Disneyland, but first gave Tallinn his big boy bike. We took it to Meme and Papa's house to try it out in their big driveway and he did pretty well. Then, we spent 9 hours at Disneyland. Oh my goodness were we tired that night. Tallinn had a great birthday and we made lots of new memories.

Ring Bearer

Tallinn was the ring bearer recently in our dear friend Lindsay's wedding. During the rehearsal, it didn't seem like he would even perform, but after a fun dinner with lots of attention from the groomsmen and bridesmaids, he warmed up. The day of the wedding, he was quite the little ham. We had a lot of fun watching from the distance. It was the first time we were watching him be involved in something that we weren't a part of. He felt so "cool" to be with the older boys and enjoyed the hugs and kisses from the beautiful girls, of course. His favorite girl was the flower girl, who he described the next day as the beautiful girl in white.

Tallinn also took the role of carrying the rings very seriously and we didn't have the heart to tell him the ones on his pillow were fake. At the point in the ceremony when the minister asked for the rings, Tal had a look of terror in his eyes as he desperately tried to get those rings off the pillow. Sweet boy.

We love our little ring bearer. Turns out, he's on big demand this year as he'll be the ring bearer in two other weddings, too.

3 years old

addie turned 3 on april 19th! she's quite the character so we decided to take her to a place where there are lots of characters...Disneyland. she actually made quite the commotion on dumbo, but settled into an evening of fun family time and, by the end, was ready to go on Space Mountain, although she's a little short still.

we are so thankful for our fun, feisty, girl, who handles her position in our family (squished between two crazy boys) quite well.

thank you, Jesus for our Adelaide!