With This Ring, I Soon Wed...

A few weeks ago, within days of each other, both Dave's and my family were blessed with good news - our families are going to be growing! Both Dave's younger brother Jeff and my younger sister Tricia are engaged (not to each other!)!!! We are so excited for them and look forward to having Beth and Rob as apart of our families. To the happily engaged couples, we love you and look forward to celebrating with you soon on your wedding day - July 12 (Jeff and Beth) and September 6 (Tricia and Rob), both taking place in Iowa.


Gotta go now...plane tickets to find and book. :)

Time to Update!!!

It seems like we have so much to post about...like so much has happened.

Probably the biggest thing around here lately was my birthday - May 21. That's it...I'm a year older now and I'm okay with that. :) I had a great day with my family and friends. Dave made sweet rolls for breakfast and even decorated with balloons, a birthday banner and streamers. (Elijah and Dave actually went shopping the night before my birthday and had a blast picking out special birthday surprises for me.)





Then for dinner, we all went out with friends to California Pizza Kitchen. Yum-yum! Once we got home, Natalie had to go right to bed but Elijah stayed up a little bit longer to watch me open presents. He chose some very special presents for me (from the dollar bins at Target). I got a 2-pack of emergency glow sticks, Jiffy popcorn and pink earrings (actually from Natalie). Fun gifts! :) Then from Dave I got a Bible study book, journal, shorts and vintage-style phone for our recently painted/re-done bedroom. (yes, that's another thing that has happened but we'll wait to share that once we have finished it more and taken pictures.) Finally, after Elijah was fast asleep in his bed, Dave sang "Happy Birthday" to me and we ate cake and ice cream, while watching David Cook win American Idol! (yay!) I had a great day and felt very celebrated by my family and friends. Thanks, everyone!

Today we actually continued celebrating for both Mother's Day and my birthday. We went out to lunch at Souplantation - probably my favorite restaurant. The food was all just as delicious as I remembered! The rest of our day was spent napping for the kids and me while Dave planted our garden. (Can't wait to enjoy the fruits of his labor!) Then we all watched Toy Story 2, ate dinner, hung up a curtain rod in our bedroom and called it a day.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to me (and all other moms reading this)!

Today has been a fun day for our family. This morning for breakfast we had yummy sweet rolls and I received a card from the kids! Dave and Elijah worked hard on the card yesterday. (Dave made the people while Elijah colored the hair, eyes and mouths.)









Then while Natalie took her morning nap, we built a tent in the living room and had fun reading Bible stories inside. :)









After Natalie woke up, we drove downtown to the Flower District where I picked out flowers to make my own bouquet from the kids and Dave. We had never been there before and liked it! There were tons of beautiful flowers, all at cheap prices! I chose large red Gerber daisies, small fuschia Gerber daisies and sunflowers, plus some "filler" grassy stuff. :)









The rest of the day we just spent relaxing and then ate Pizza Hut pizza for dinner. Even with the craziness that kids bring, like Elijah spilling his drink at both lunch and dinner so we're cleaning up instead of eating, dealing with loud crying and having to discipline..., I couldn't have asked for a better day! What amazing blessings I have in Elijah and Natalie!!! I am so grateful God has given me the opportunity to be a mom! There is nothing like it and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!!!

And to top off my day, without any promptings at numerous, random times throughout the day, Elijah would tell me, "Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" I loved hearing that!

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Here's just a few random pics from the day too:

San Diego

On Tuesday, we made a trip to San Diego to visit Laura's Cousin, Lindsey, who is going to school for Acupuncture.

We spent the whole day in San Diego. Our first stop in the morning was Seaport Village. We took a walk around the area, Elijah rode the 100 yr old carousel, we got free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's (free cone day), and ate lunch outside at Margarita's (since the weather was so nice).












In the afternoon, we went to the Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park. Elijah had a great time checking out all the trains. It was really neat! All the displays were very detailed and we even had the chance to talk to some of the people who made them...very interesting. Elijah got 2 trains from the gift shop and wouldn't stop playing with them all day.










Before dinner, we picked up Lindsey at her house. We drove about 15 minutes to her school, she gave us a quick tour, and then we headed over to the Corvette Diner for some hamburgers. Elijah especially loved the music and even spent some time dancing during dinner (see video below).











Elijah Dancing!!!



In case you didn't hear what Elijah said in the video, he said, "Get down everybody!"

We had a good time with Lindsey and had a very full, but fun day.