birthday fun in texas

going to Texas to celebrate Emerie & Josh's birthdays was too much fun. watching you play, hug, kiss your cousins was quite precious. as with all our travels, there were many lessons learnt and good times had with your sweet cray cousins. the dancing (so much dancing), playground fun, back flipping and way too much food. spending good quality time with my siblings and all six of you together is truly one of the most treasured blessings in my life and my prayer is you grow up remembering these times and go through life anchoring each other through it all. and your older cousins are already getting things settled..
'I'll be Zoe's big brother, since she doesn't have one' Ari
' I've always wanted a little sister, and now I have one' 'no don't call me cousin, I'm her sister' ' here Zoe, let me teach you sign for sister' big sister Jenny

the reactions to our leaving was a reminder why keeping making the trek to the country:) goodbyes are always the worst part. Jenny crying on the way home from dropping auntie Chenai at the airport, or Jaden clinging on to me as we walk to the car. truly the worst. and so we count the days until we see each other again. thank God for FaceTime.
'I leave tomorrow josh.' Chenai
Josh 'no Chenai no. Read me bedtime story'
'Jenny? No auntie Chenai?' .jaden

'Noooo don't go bebe' Jaden
'You can't go bebe' ' no don't go bebe' Josh
'uncle mark no' Jaden
and we forgot your water bottle at auntie danai's house, and sweet jaden was looking for you..'Zoe, Zoe come get your water' so I guess they miss us too:( until next time, we'll just enjoy looking at all the fun times we had. Happy happy birthday Emerie & Joshie!!


http://www.photoshow.com/watch/hA2EP9HZ

 

 

 

 

 

just another week in the life...

today was a good day, not only because it's love/valentines day but because we got our baby back. sick Zoe is a real bummer, i mean we enjoy the extra cuddles but the sick sad eyes and half smiles are a real doozie. so i'm happily worn out and glad to have had to jog to the park (since mama got her parks confused, wasn't expecting to jog by three parks to get to the right one...jeepers mama)  for our almost two hour playdate so you could let all that bottled up energy out, outdoors rather than indoors.
 now that could have gotten ugly. well a mama has to do what she has to do.

 including signing up for mud runs in an effort to live life fully at the best. as your aunt danai often remind each other, we can't just tell you and cousin jenny one day to live your best life and experience, chase your dreams if when we have no stories of doing the same to tell you. i guess we are on a mission to hopefully be your role models instead of you looking for role models in magazines and movies
i'm not a lover of the running, i do enjoy it and to run to raise $$ for cancer and with you strapped on papa's back cherring me on, well that's the stuff my dreams are made of. so in honor of Clemence, taken by cancer, i ran so maybe one day i can inspire Clementine.. plus it was loads of fun and there's nothing better than team sports to bond with your friends. even with our dear friend heather running late, the other girls who didn't know her from a can of beans, waited with me so we could run as a team instead of "catching" up. turned out to be awesome as we were the only six in our heat so no waiting on those ahead or rushing for those behind. just good ole girl fun, although it was pretty awesome to catch up and pass teams that had gone before us. so my dear if you ever want to run in the mud, you have one teammate right here. want to see what you might have in store,?? thanks to papa & heather you can...

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/aW3id2zD

23lbs of inspiration..

i am a better person and a more motivated woman because of you. you daily inspire me to be my very best. even when i've had a long day, or someone hurt my feelings and made me feel 'not good enough', or we have had a "boring" day for you-which is it's cold & rainy so we both get cabin fever and you're literally bouncing off the railings itching to get out with my hands on my hair itching to pull. now it's lol, not then-even on those days you inspire me. the way you love so deeply teaches me to love differently so i can teach you as much as i can to love but also protect your massive heart, your energy drives me to take better care of myself so i can have the energy to keep up; your love of pretty things and your love of throwing yourself up on the couch inspire me to embrace my own complexities so maybe i'll be as fun and cool as you. i am a better woman, wife, sister (so the people above have mentioned:)) and am so excited to keep watching, learning and growing just from being your mom..i will draw the line at being inspired by your fashion sense, for now i'll dress us both. no tutu's for mama.

 

 

now for the really cool stuff in 3 days you'll be 16mos old, and you're dying to talk, but mostly words that relate to food..eeeish. as in it doesn't shock us that "cook" & "yum yum". this one is of course accompanied by the licking of your lips. thankfully "oh no" means when you fall for the umpteenth time, you just exclaim it and keep going. thank you Jesus..of course "all done" is like your universal remote.
names so far: "mom" yep you stopped saying mama, now you say mom with an almost british accent, it's bizarrely awesome. "papa/dada" depending on your mood. "nai/nai nai" for auntie chenai, especially when you have my phone, oh i'm sorry your iphone, you like to sometimes call "gogo"
and every 15mos old needs to know where she came from. so when something amazing happens and i sing my line 'God is great' you loudly back me up with "God, God God.." or 'amen'. we're a heavenly duet. and on that note..God is great, for blessing us with you. cue Zoe ..Amen. mama smile.

if it were me...

fun playdate @ the zoo

..i'd be taking 3 hour naps. but for some reason

our efforts are in vain or have backfired. we figure you're afraid you'll miss out on something. trust me baby girl the world will still be waiting, and the best part mama & papa will have had a chance to recharge before your next highly anticipated adventure. but i'm not mad, we're just happy, you're happy so carry on napless ( i made that up, please don't use in school one day) baby girl...

loving your music class