Our Life, in Pictures

Alternatively titled: So many pictures your retina's might bleed.

10 years.

A decade.

Wow, that went by in a blink.

As I was preparing for this post, looking back over old pictures, so many wonderful memories come to mind. More for my own purpose than anyone else's, I thought I would document a few of the highlights.

Location: Ontario airport. It was the first time I met Josh, and this was taken before I boarded the plane.

I cried the whole way home, even though he was visiting a month later for Christmas.

Thus became our life. Anticipating our time together, seeing each other for a week, and then profound sadness when it came time to leave. Oh, how I hated leaving.

This picture is from our wedding. I just loved how it captured the church.

Beads and lace and tiaras, oh my!

Blond hair for both

Our first apartment in Redlands. My parents rented this mini-van and we drove to San Fran.

Taken in San Fran.

The Herman Miller Picnic, 2003

Josh mocking my dad and how high he wears his pants. No idea why they are inside out.

Visiting for Christmas 2003

Josh's sisters wedding 2004

The old classroom, with air cranked full blast.

Carmelo the dog. We got him and found out we were pregnant the next week. Go figure.

Our backyard, large by CA standards.

The city of Redlands. This has to be summer, because it is pretty smoggy.

2 Coral Court. Seven Eleven was kitty corner, and we walked to get Slurpees at least three times a week.

Josh's banners for Boys Basketball:-)

Just found out we were pregnant with Kayden

Met my parents in Vegas

My parents took us all on a trip to Myrtle Beach when I was about six months pregnant.

We are just a barrel of laughs, huh?

Baby Shower for K.

Our first Christmas with Kayden

Right before we moved to Michigan

The car that we owned for one month. Josh was hit by a drunk driver.

Summer of 2006

Turning ONE and loving life.

Pregnant with Brycer

With our new little baby.

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In honor of our anniversary, Josh surprised me by gathering our friends at Applebees for dinner. Chelle put up some great pictures here. As my gift, he planned a surprise trip to NYC with two friends. I am still shocked he pulled it off without my knowing!

Some of you may know that my Grandpa Van is my hero. He died a few years after we were married, but I always had a special relationship with him. He was known for being a teaser; always in a nice way.

Right after I got back from my first visit to CA and meeting Josh, I went to visit my grandparents. I took along a picture of Josh and I in front of the Santa Monica Ferris Wheel to show them my new love.

He looked at it for a while, then looked back up at me. With a twinkle in his eye, he said "How did you get him?"

I honestly still don't know.

I am blessed and fortunate that I get to spend this "beautiful thing we call life" with someone as great as Josh.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Ten years ago, we made that promise.

My sincere hope is we have forty more as great as the first ten.

His Happy Place

A huge milestone passed in the Bird house, and not unnoticed. I just have not had time to sit down and do it blog justice. In the meantime, I found this pix from the preschool party.

I call it Big Boy Bookends, Bryce's Happy Place.

Wordless Wednesday

He missed the MEMO.

I asked Kayden to get dressed for preschool on Monday. Apparently he missed the MEMO that it is winter.

What to do with a Snow Day?

We took some time organizing a craft project for the fourth graders this week.

And then working on Christmas Gifts for a few others:

The supplies.

A few jars, some ribbons, hot glue, bells.

Oh, and LOTS of candy:-)

and leftover candy that is now gone.

Snow days for us are an unexpected treat. It is like getting a bonus Saturday in the middle of the week. My house is clean, I got to craft, I moved some things into the apartment for the Burmese refugees.... I even got to take a nap!

I {heart} snow days.

Brycer Update

We went yesterday to our final Pediatric Hemotology appointment.

Get this- Bryce is completely back to normal! Praise the Lord! His hemoglobin is 11.5, which is right where it should be.

Oh, how wonderful it has been to watch him get better.

• We have watched our child who never wanted to get down wander off with excitement.
• A full inch and one pound has been added in three weeks. Clothes that have fit him for an entire year are starting to get small.
• Eating is now something he does gladly.
• No more cardboard books!
• Walking is now put aside for running and jumping and causing mischief of one kind or another.
• His heart looks great and is beating normally.

He is a new kid.

The only bad side effect of iron is that his teeth have been stained completely gray. It bums me out, but is a small price to pay for a healthy baby.

The plan is to get his iron stores back up over the next three months and then he should be finished with iron.

This picture is blurry, but it represents Bryce these days. Active, Active, Active.

Chasing Cali, his favorite pastime.


Next stop- trying to get him to stay in nursery:-)

Does this kid know me, or what?

Our daily schedule is a bit different than a "normal family" in that I almost never put our kids to bed.

It was decided long ago that I would begin work around that time, and Josh would take over the nightly duties of brushing teeth, reading stories, finding Dylan the dog, and tucking in.

Each night after being tucked in, Kayden will sneak down to the computer and ask me to come up to tell him a story and promises one in return. Knowing full well it is his way of stalling, I often concede. There is something sacred about bedtime. The truth of what is going on inside his head and heart always come to the surface in the darkness of his room. Vulnerabilities are disclosed, so I hate to miss that special time.

The story he desires could be anything. A certain toy he played with that evening and when it was purchased, the last time he spent the night at Grandmas, something that happened between Bryce and him.

I always start my story with "One there was a little boy named Kayden, and he....."

At the end of my third tale, I ask him to tell me his story as promised. He habitually shirks responsibility, and promises indulgance another evening.

Tonight, however, he obliged.

"One, there was a big girl named Mommy, who loved to buy clothes from Gymboree and take lots of pictures of Kayden."

First snow

The Snow brought mixed reviews.

Kayden loved the snow and could have stayed out all night.

Bryce, not so much.

If you know Josh even a little bit, you know his feelings about snow.

I love the first snowfall, and think snow is great until January 1. After that, Janurary to April is a LONG stretch for me.

Standing in line at Subway today, I was contemplating what the various mattress sizes are and how big each one is respectively, and the most wonderful thing happened. More on that later.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out or keep straight the various sizes of beds. I fully remember the Single, the Queen, and King, but the other sizes in there get me every time.

Is a full bigger than a double? What about the twin, where does that fit in?

Back to Subway.

The lady in front of me gave me a big grin and said "Merry Christmas!!", and the two cashiers were smiling and looking at me. Almost as if they were waiting on me to say something. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable, what with four people staring and looking happily at me.

"Did I miss something?" I asked.

"That lady just paid for your sub!" said the cashier.

It made me feel good. Really good. Someone I do not know doing something for me for no other reason than to be nice.

Random Acts of Kindness. It made my day, honestly.

And then I thought of many of you doing the same thing.

As most of you know, the Social Action and Relief Committee is sponsoring a Burmese family. They are set to arrive December 9. I cannot imagine leaving everything I have ever know to fly to another country in which I did not speak the language. So many of you have donated items or gone to the store to pick up supplies for them. I know they will feel like I did today- loved by people they don't even know. It is a blessing to be a part of this story.

Matthew 25:40 The King will answer them "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

You Better Watch Out

Santa Claus is coming to Town.....errrr, my dad's work.