nativity

grace was sweet mary for her preschool nativity play.
the kids walked on stage to this primary song:

picture the kind and gentle joseph.
picture the mother, mary, fair.
and can you see, so reverently
the shepherds kneeling there?
picture the little baby jesus.
think of his life and words so dear.
sing praise to him; remember him,
as you picture christmas this year.

it was so beautiful and we were so proud ♥

sacramento children's museum

a christmas post will come soon, but this post was already done and just waiting to be published and i haven't even uploaded christmas photos yet so who knows when that may actually happen:)

sacramento may not have come anywhere close to building something as awesome as portland, (seriously the coolest place) but we had a great afternoon nonetheless. especially since we went with friends!

i'm pretty sure this was grace's favorite attraction. she would describe it to you as, "a whole wall full of sucky tubes that you could put colorish scarves in and then they fly out!" she spent much of her time cramming scraves in one end and then running to catch them as they shot out the other end. we probably should have gotten her one of these for christmas.

and then there was the water section ... heaven for both grace & viv

viv carried this little stool all over so that she could reach the water better.

the art room had a giant window that the kids could paint all over & then hose off. doesn't that seem like the coolest thing for kids? what kid doesn't love painting on walls??

little known fact: when discussing possible names for grace before she was born, one of my brothers insisted that we call her "duck duck."

the girls are at such a great age for this sort of thing. they could both play all day together.

Grace is a Kings fan.

Grace and I went to the Kings open practice, or Fan Fest as they called it. Grace had only one item on the evenings agenda. Meet Jimmer. And she did!

grace turns four

on november 25th our gracie girl turned four. i tried to talk her into staying 3 a little longer, but she was quite convinced that 4 year olds have more fun. (she seems to think that age 5 is the best and that 4 is just a necessary step to get there). since her actual birthday was the day after thanksgiving, we waited a few days to have her party.
this basically meant that we celebrated for about a week!

karen got me the most adorable beehive cupcake pan for my birthday that begged to be used as a party theme. a bee-day theme, to be exact!

above: the kids decorating their beehive cupcakes.

below: viv painting herself.

pinning the stinger on the bee ...

grace with her girlfriends (and her cousin & friend). the gender segregation begins:)

this little group was so much fun. lots of screaming, running around, sugar eating, etc. a very good way to celebrate our bee-day girl.


grace's birthday requests were to drive the race cars at sunsplash & eat in-n-out for lunch. she's an easy one to please.

the birthday breakfast: german pancakes, her fav

singing happy birthday on the actual day. i love this sweet girl.

super excited about her new booster seat!

and finally, a birthday magic carpet ride from cousin henry.

grace is kind
she is thoughtful and sensitive and easygoing and smart
grace will try to bargain with you over almost anything
for example, when she asked me if she could get her ears pierced i told her that maybe 8 years old is a better age. she responded, "i think 5 will be good."
grace is funny and likes to be funny. she will often tell us stories and ask, "am i just so funny?"
we are so happy that she's ours.

i am thankful

i'm a little late, but i've stopped caring about punctuality in my blogging life. i'm bad enough at be on time to the things that really matter.

i have a lot to be thankful for, i really do. up until jared's accident i felt like i lived in a beautiful bubble. in the back corners of my mind i feared the day that it might burst, but i was always aware that my blessings were many. and now, even a year after the accident, i realize that i have an abundance to be grateful for.

these two little frosting lickers top my list. i love watching them, listening to them, holding them. i deeply love being their mother. they are funny and beautiful and wonderful and wise and they are mine.

we were able to host thanksgiving this year so i was pretty much in heaven. i must have some sort of condition because i find it truly soul satisfying to feed people. if everyone would just gather in my home for meals i would be happy. our group was about 40 strong and included an array of family, friends, and acquaintances who happened to be stranded for the holiday. i am thankful for my brother, jordan. he has overcome a lot and has stayed true to the positive changes he's made despite the huge odds against him.

my cousin greg is the first in our family to serve a mission. i am thankful for his good example. he is so wonderful to grace and she clearly adores him.

i am thankful for miracles. even though sometimes they take a lot of time and i don't like to be patient.

i am thankful for the parents that i was born to and for the parents that i get to have through mark. they all serve tirelessly and are perfect examples to my little family.

i am richly blessed and for that i am thankful.

tahoe like the locals

a while back we spent a weekend in tahoe. mark was refinishing the cabin deck so we decided to make a mini trip out of it. while he worked with harsh chemicals, i took the girls to commons beach. as you might imagine, lake tahoe is what one might call freezing this time of year. neither of the girls cared so i stripped them down to their undies and let them at it. vivienne would have gone ten feet out if allowed, so i tried to limit her lake time to a little hole i dug in the sand & filled with a bucket or two of water. for some reason this made it seem not so cold.

the sun was beautiful and the girls were happy. days like this make me want to make tahoe our home.

5 years ago ...

(taking pictures on auto timer is tricky. and apparently it makes me unable to pose normal.)

i married this man.
i love him and i love that i get to be with him every day.
each year has truly been better than the last.
this is the first anniversary that i haven't been pregnant or nursing, so we decided that year #5 was going to be something special.
we kissed grace & viv goodbye (i'd been emotionally preparing myself for this part for weeks ... turns out neither of them caredone bit!) and spent friday afternoon doing crazy things like taking our time browsing through shops, or trying on a hundred pairs of jeans. after checking into our hotel we got really reckless and made dinner reservations for 8 PM! that's right. a post bedtime dinner out. later on we ate candy bars in bed while watching loud movies and then fell to sleep without brushing our teeth. saturday morning we were a bit disappointed to discover that we're no longer capable of sleeping in past 8:30.

dates are so much better when you're married.
happy anniversary my mark.