One Year Here

I can't believe a whole year has gone by since we made our big move here. What a sweet year it's been!

I feel like I could categorize it all into the different parts of my heart's contentedness. :) But for simplicity sake I'll just sum it all up by saying that for the first time in a long time I just feel sooo at home.

Our summer days are filled with kids riding bikes, playing outside with Lonely (our solo chicken) & Lucy (our outdoor cat that I love calling Lucy-Lu), helping in the garden, reading together on the couch, we randomly take family walks in the evenings with our warm cups of tea, and there are hours of imaginary play and Legos in the house. Josh works in his office and comes down for lunch. He has been working from home almost entirely full time now (he went into the office only once in the last 2 1/2 weeks) and he goes to jiu jitsu a few times a week. I edit photos in the dining room so I can be central to all the kids are doing, and we feel SO blessed to see family so much and that they are a regular part of our weekly lives. I love that Selah is taking an art class this summer with girlfriends and that the kids will get to do VBS again.... It just feels good to be really rooted again and not feel like we're living in limbo. The last couple years of living in Portland I often described as limbo because we were praying about moving back here, so our hearts were kind of divided, and during that time it felt like we had one foot in Portland and one in Corvallis, but weren't 100% anywhere. We loved our decade+ in Portland and our dear community of friends, but longed for our kids to enjoy a childhood that was surrounded by family, like we got to experience growing up. So this past year has been sweet and I love that it's been full of what we had hoped and prayed for. And I love that I can stay so connected with all of my dear P-town friends through social media and text/email. I feel like I still see you all and your precious kids!

I'm just so thankful for this peace. And yes, of course there's plenty of crazy mixed into our life with working on Jude's Foods, on top of Josh's normal career, and my photography!! ;) Yes, we're kind of nuts. But I'm thankful to feel so at home and grounded here. :)

I haven't blogged many iphone pics these past couple months as life has gotten busier with photography season. Even though I'm working much less than in years past, it's still busy. So here's some of what I often refer to as "the real and the not-so-put-together", compared to my professional camera and the care I take into framing a shot when shooting that way. I always have a feeling that these phone pics will be the photos I value on a deeper level when the kids are grown. :) Because they are the quick snap shots of daily life... does that make sense to anyone else?

Spending time reading outside on a blanket in the sunshine... or avoiding the sunshine... ;) Selah's made great progress this summer with her reading.

Spending time with Lucy

Climbing ladders into trees with friends who came to stay and play!

The best way to teeter-totter. ;)

Running through the field of daisies beyond the orchard in our pj's!

Helping daddy work...

Today I found Josh working outside like this and had to laugh. He said he was just mixing things up for a couple hours. :)

This was the envelope that held Josh's birthday card this year. It was perfect because when we were first dating I told Josh that I wasn't going to tell a guy I loved him unless I knew I could marry him. Somehow, after a year or more, when "I like you" felt inadequate, it transitioned into "I love U...nited airlines." ;) It was this silly little thing we said for a couple years that was sweet and lovey and still makes me laugh today. ;)

Who knew a rock pile could provide so much fun?! :)

Small houses and worlds were built into this rock pile. ;) <3

I have no idea what I'm doing here, but I think I was talking with my friend Sheri, because I remember Selah coming downstairs and falling asleep all funny on the couch one night when company was over. 

Cuddles with Ben after a long emotional day of "death of the front tooth". Man that was a hard day. But he's the cutest little toothless guy! :)

Dinner with friends in the orchard.

Strawberry picking with friends.

Learning to make friendship bracelets.

This is Lonely, our chicken! She and two of her friends were left here months ago by farmers who raised some chickens here. Her two friends didn't survive the wild, but Lonely did! She's amazing. Selah named her Lonely because she was the last lone chicken to survive and she's now a part of our family. We love her and that she loves to spend time with us!

Selah loves and adores all animals, but especially Lonely & Lucy (and her hamster Honey.)

This is what happens when Lonely is done being held. :)

Selah was really excited about being a flower girl for Uncle Caleb & Aunt Jen's wedding! She wore her dress for many personal dress rehearsals. :) I loved how much she loved the whole process and she did a great job at the wedding.

We grew these blue corn flowers to be used for the wedding and were so happy they came up!

Ben and Jude looked so handsome in their suspenders and bow ties the day of! I'll post lots of wedding pics in the near future.

Ben dresses up in all sorts of things these days. I always love seeing what combo he puts together! 

And as usual, he's managed to make it past me with no shoes. Aint nobody got time for shoes! ;)

Speaking of shoes... Selah came down wearing these the other day. :)

Enjoying things from our garden...

This was my first experience growing potatoes, beets and onions. It was a lot of fun and kind of amazed me when we were harvesting the potatoes. We planted about 6 times this many for our first try. We'll definitely plant more in the future! ...and our onions got HUGE! 

This is one of our favorite things to make with our garden veggies! We just roast the veggies with lots of garlic for 20 mins and they are amazing!

I love spending time with my dad.

Grandma Chris came by to hang out. Ben was in his favorite outfit. ;)

I loved watching this moment and wanted to freeze it in time forever. (not iphone, but instagrammed)

I LOVE this pic my friend Missy captured of Jude and me during our family pictures. It's so authentic and so us. 

(I was reading with him the other day and at one point he started to get silly, so I started tickling him and he was laughing so hard that I stopped because I was anticipating him asking me to stop, but instead he said, "More please!" :) )

I feel like it's been a long journey for me as a mom, having navigated so much of Jude's health issues and developmental issues, and we've come so far and he's made such amazing progress... this photo just makes me want to beam and squeeze him tight. I love him so much and I'm so proud of him!! xo