Let's Go Fly A Kite...

Tuesday we spent several hours out on the beach. The kids just loved it and had a great time shoveling, building sandcastles, and flying kites. The weather started out overcast, with some sprinkling, and then burned off to be quite a hot afternoon, ending with a gorgeous sunset! We took a bunch of pictures (of course!). Sadly, not one of the amazing sunset, but many of our amazing kids. :)




I'm so in love with this incredible man! (Happy 9 yr. Anniversary Joshua!) xo

Inspiring...

I absolutely loved photographing this family. So united. So in love. So much fun. And clearly, an amazing example was set by these two! I'll share more from their session when I'm finished editing them soon!

Summer is coming!!

I know we have a bunch of rainy days coming, here in Oregon, but I just came across these photos that I took last summer as the sun was going down one evening, and they got me all excited for summer! It is coming! :)

Allie & Aussie, I could photograph you two all day long.

I love this picture!

Every time I see this photo, I laugh. Probably because I've known Miss Everly since she was born (on my birthday - yay!), and I'm pretty sure I've only heard her cry twice. This brief contrast of her voicing her opinion just cracks me up!

Oh Everly, you're too cute!

Mother's Day

I hope all of you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! My mom is in Cabo lying on white sandy beaches, soaking up some sun... I think that sounds like an okay way to spend Mother's Day, especially when you're an Oregonian. :)

We've been out of town a lot lately, and Josh ended up traveling 3 weeks in the month of April for work, fitting it around celebrating the kids' birthdays, plus all five of us had doctor check-ups in the past 3 weeks, so I asked if we could just lay low this weekend. It was just what I needed! I'm so glad to be getting back to our regular weekly routine now.

So, if you know my husband, he likes, no loves, to bake. This hobby has really come to life over the past year. I've never been much of a cookie, cake, or chocolate person, though. (I love fruity things!) But I think Josh has slowly been wooing me to the dark side. :) Since our family went gluten-free, dairy-free over a year ago, Josh has been quite impressively making desserts that I love. He takes a regular recipe and tweaks it with g-free ingredients like almonds and oats and cashew milk, etc. and makes these great desserts that taste completely normal. (I don't care for g-free products that use ingredients like garbanzo bean flour, tapioca, or xanthan gum. They just taste too strange to me.) So this weekend Josh took a regular cake recipe and created a really moist, incredible g-free, dairy-free, chocolate-cheesecake-brownie-cake! I was amazed. Really amazed. Thank you, Love!



He and the kids also got me peonies, my favorite flower, and made me a card that was so sweet.

(that's a picture of me from when I was a little girl on the front)

This weekend I also made a few more hair clippies for Selah. :) I wanted to try making these little felt flowers, which turned out to be super easy to make... thank you youtube. (If you want to make them just google "felt flower headband")


I found myself crying in Josh's arms last night. I'm soooo thankful for my amazing husband. He listens so compassionately and is always supportive and helps me process through the things I'm thinking. I was crying over wanting to be a better mom. I know that might sound silly, or if you are like me then it makes sense. :) I sometimes agonize over the job, because I really want to do my absolute best. I want to be the best example to my kids. I want the fruits of the Spirit to really be the foundation of my parenting. I want to be a great teacher, even though "teaching things" isn't necessarily one of my greatest strengths.

Raising kids isn't easy. When you're tired, your fuse is shorter. When the house is messy then one more mess makes you think you're going to pull out your hair. :) But God's grace and God's Word, I can cling to. He is strong. One day recently, as I was reading through the book of Daniel, I had to laugh at this verse, because I felt like it completely fit my life that day... Daniel 4:34, "I... raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored." :)

I read encouraging words from other (blogs) moms this weekend about this subject too that made me realize I'm not alone in my thinking, but just like every other mom out there. We love our children deeply, and want to do our best! One mom shared this sweet verse:

… he gently leads those that have young… Isaiah 40:11

I'm so glad He does! I love you Jude, Selah & Benjamin and I'm so blessed to be your mom!