Busy, but Fun

We've had a busy couple of weeks. April is always a pretty crazy month, but full of good things. We had the kid's birthday party at Pump It Up this year, and our kids loved it. They talked about it for weeks as the big day approached! Then had the best time jumping and sliding with all of their friends and family. After the party they came home excitedly talking about the party. Then they got to spend the afternoon/evening playing with their new toys. Thank you to everyone who made it such a special day. We love each and every one of you so much. The only thing I would've changed about the party, would have been to just spend more time getting to talk to each of you!
I've edited the jumping/sliding photos, but not the party/cake/presents photos yet, so here's all I really have to share from their party so far. :) And I would post the fun pictures of everyone going down the slides, but I think they may kill me for publicly posting them, so I'll just share this. :)


The weekend after the kid's party I got to go to the beach for a few days with 3 really special photographer friends. Stephanie & Amber flew over from Idaho, and Jamie drove up from Eugene. I'll post more in depth about our weekend on my photography blog, but let me just say it was one incredible weekend, full of inspiration and encouragement! Just amazing. What a gift these girls are!


Jamie took these two beautiful house photos below. Aren't they lovely? This is Cornelius House. One of my Dad and step-mom Janet's vacation rentals. I LOVE staying there.


Amber snapped these two pics of me that weekend:

We girls talked, cooked, laughed SO hard, shared information, tried new camera tricks, played with old film cameras, explored, talked about our precious husbands and children and balancing that with businesses, soaked up sunshine and salt air, ate out, slept in... simply wonderful.
And after that long weekend away, I was so excited to come home to these precious faces!


How I missed them! We bbq'ed and soaked up the kids when I got home. And we hit the ground running again Monday morning. :)

Jude had sensory therapy this week and did great. The kids had swim lessons. Jude started speech therapy today, which I can tell is going to be great! I'm excited for that. I got to meet with a wonderful bride and groom for coffee tonight and I'm excited to shoot their wedding this summer. The kids did great in school today...



I'm not sure I've shared this update yet, but the kids are going to go to a little Christian school next year. I'm really excited for them. Jude will be in Kindergarten (specifically because of his size and the medical issues he's had, we knew that would be the best decision for him) and Selah will be in preschool, but it's all one school. We'll continue to loosely work on our Kindergarten curriculum this summer so that the kids are ready for school in the fall. I feel so great about how it all came together. Selah is such a social person that I think a small classroom will be great for her. And we'll continue to figure out school a year at a time.


Benjamin continues to climb on everything. He figured out how to get up to the top of the dining table today. Wow. Neither of our other kids were ever climbers, so it's pretty funny to me to see this other world.

One other funny thing about Benjamin is this sudden development in him (he's 16 months old), where he suddenly REALLY wants his way. If he doesn't get it he'll lay on the floor and kick his legs while looking at me to see what my reaction is, which is usually to ignore him. Then he usually just gets up and goes and plays with something else. But if he's really mad he'll go find something and throw it and then see what my reaction is. Which then usually results in a 1 min. time out. He thinks that's pretty fun/funny. He likes to sit on the step and wait for the beeper and smiles when it beeps and give me a hug. I can't help but scoop up that sweet boy and love on him. He's learning. He's very aware.
Today I said, "let's change your diaper, Benj!" and he ran for cover behind the chairs, and then smiled so big because he wanted me to chase him. :) I tried to get that sweet smiley face, but just got this before he was running again:

Benjamin loves to stir up a little mischief here and there too... and it's somehow all with a smile. :) Sometimes I feel like he's a tornado, flying through the house. I clean up one mess to turn around and find the next one! This morning he turned on the faucet to the bath tub and then threw the tv remote into the tub. He loves to pull all of the kid's books off of their bookshelves, color on floors and furniture with any crayon remnant found who knows where, to empty dish towels and bowls from drawers and and to throw all of his food off of his high chair tray, swipe toys that the big kids are playing with and take off running... yep, the kid has a little naughty streak. :) But I know this also just comes with this age. And really, mischief aside, :) he's such a good boy. He loves to be my helper, plays wonderfully with the big kids, and is such a content, happy boy! I love seeing his mind at work. I couldn't love that boy more!

Tonight some friends came over to play, and the kids did great all playing together. They piled into the castle, played a video game all together, circled around the dinner table, played race cars on the floor... good kid time.


And lastly, the quiet spot in my day that keeps me going: tea, devotional & Bible. My mom gave me this really wonderful devotional a couple months ago called Jesus Calling and I love it! It's been so wonderful! If you're looking for a great devotional, I'd encourage you to pick this one up. (They even sell the Jesus Calling app, which I think is cool.) :)

I hope you've all had a wonderful week!!
xo
Bethany