dancing darlings

emma has really been into princesses, pretty dresses, SHOES!, dancing, and lots of other girly things lately and today, as she was watching ni hao kai-lan, i videoed her and elise dancing to the intro song. they are so cute together! and, notice elise's piggy tails. her hair is long enough for me to pull it back and she looks adorable, if i do say so myself! :) i am cherishing my moments with our last baby because she is going to grow up way too fast, just like our emma and lucas have. TOO FAST.

money well-spent

back in september, we had concrete added to parts of our backyard to create a larger area for the kids to play and ride their bikes/scooters. when it was first completed, i was really excited to usher the kids out to play by themselves, but they weren't interested in it at all. the new space was left unused for several months. as a result, allan and i thought it might have been a mistake to pour money into the project. but, all that has changed! lucas and emma got up and dressed and headed out by 7:30 this morning and played outside ALL DAY! it was awesome! they didn't come back inside until allan got home around 5 o'clock. i even sent elise out there for some of the time while i worked in the kitchen where i could keep my eye on her. my friend tammy stopped by with her little girl and all the kids played outside while she and i visited and enjoyed our lattes inside. i had such a great a great day...a redemption from last week! :) here are lucas and emma playing outside on their scooters (don't mind emma's outfit...she decided to put on a pair of lucas' old pajama pants). wahoo!

happy 5th birthday, lucas!

today is lucas' 5th birthday...whoa! he has been waiting for this day for the last two weeks or so, counting down to it on his calendar. :0) the whole day was gorgeous...sunny and warm enough to be outside. the neat thing is that on this same day five years ago, at 7:25 am when we welcomed our sweet lucas into the world, the sun was shining just as brightly. and, the name 'lucas' means just that - light. what a great way to be reminded of the day lucas was born. my verse for lucas on his birthday is matthew 5:14-16, which says, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." i love this verse for lucas because he definitely is a light in our house!

we celebrated by having a bunch of his friends over for a star wars-themed party where they trained to be a jedi and fought darth vader. ha! they all had a great time together and did amazingly well playing with one another. at the end, they all received their jedi robes and it was so fun to see them running around in them while waving their light sabers in the air. allan and i are pooped from all the preparation, but it was ALL worth it. we love you, lucas!

i give all thanks and praise to God for lucas and the amazing blessing that he is to allan, emma, elise, and me!

pics from his party today...more here
a look back

luke, i am your mother

so, i woke up this morning with a pretty bad attitude and complained about ALL there was to do even before i bid adieu to allan. i had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. :0(

on the brighter side, allan came home a little early and brought some sunshine back into our home after the kids got to spend the day with darth vader. i thank God for allan. really, i do.

hope y'all had a better wednesday than i did! just trying to keep it real over here.

a fun morning brunch

about a week ago a friend of ours was in town visiting. she and her husband moved back to texas about a year ago but he was sent back here for a project, so i got to see her! here's a picture of a group of us who had dinner together when they were visiting back in november.



while having coffee with this old friend, i ran into another old friend and mentor of mine. it was so good to see her! she ended up inviting a group of us over to her house for brunch and to see the remodeling she had done to her home. it was gorgeous. they put built-in bookshelves in their family room that flanked an awesome fireplace, and their kitchen was huge and beautiful. one of my favorites was a bay window they installed that shed so much light into their house. it made me want to do some remodeling myself. i wished i had my camera with me. anyway, we all had a great time catching up and updating each other on the going-ons in our current lives. it was sooo nice to have some girl time. the kids had a blast as well (thanks, cecily!). on the car ride home, lucas asked for a dog like theirs...a poodle...because they are non-allergenic! i always thought that i was free and clear from ever having to own a dog again because the kids are allergic to dogs (not that i didn't LOVE our chocolate lab, maddie). but, this presented a new dilemma. let's see how much will-power i'll have to say no to the kids when the time comes! :0)

double fun

happy chinese new year (goong hay fot choy!) and happy valentine's day! we had a wonderful non-celebration of both! :) we did, however, hang out with my sister and nate pretty much all day, which was fun. we headed to their place after church this morning and i got to watch the last episode of j&k+8 that vicky had taped for me from months ago. i wasn't a follower of the show. in fact, the first time i saw an episode of it was when i was in the hospital delivering elise. anyway, even for a non-follower, i was really saddened to see their divorce unfold in such a public way. honestly, my heart just went out to the kids. sorry for the rabbit trail. back to our day. we went home for naps and then took a walk to our neighborhood park where the kids had a great time just being outside. i can't say that i'm excited about 90-degree weather, but i am looking forward to warmer weather so that the kids and i can head outside more often. vicky and nate brought dinner over to us tonight so we were elated that we didn't have to cook. (if someone offered me 3 wishes, one of my wishes would surely be to have a personal chef!) we had a great dinner, a light dessert, and then laughed our booties off shooting at a target that vicky had balanced on the top of her head. allan won "best shot" hands down! i didn't have my camera on me all day, but here are some recent pictures of the kids.

the kids riding the tractor at brayden's birthday party

our cutie pie