Happy 70th to Poppy

Kyle's dad turned 70! We had a special dinner honoring him in downtown Portland. All the siblings were able to share memories & special affirmations. We love you Poppy!

Crazy Dayz

Here we have a random collection of fun and exciting things mixed into our ordinary days.


- Kyle took the boys to visit the office one weekend, they had fun playing air hockey!

- Last minute baby shower celebrating our piano teacher, Miss Holly!

- With the winter months comes sickness, I'm so used it now after 11 years of parenting :) Here we have various sick kids in sad little states, and their their exhilaration at feeling better and eating again, ha ha! My poor loves!

Van disaster - wheelbarrow crashed through the back glass - ugh!!

-  A day in the life of Marcus

Working on his preschool name, with a pirate hat of course

You gotta clean your tools!

- Our Reunion marriage group, celebrating at Chevy's!

- He's just a love

- A peek into how we cope with Marcus' big personality, ha ha!!!

Phase 1: indignation over perceived slight
(siblings laughing and/or running for their life)

Phase 2: rejection of niceness
(siblings eye rolling but still waiting this out)

Phase 3: the acceptance phase
(siblings doing yoga, Marcus finds his peace)

Alternate ending - finding a person to snuggle (his favorite)

- We lost two chickens this winter. Our baby Lucky was eaten by a raccoon, our baby Zebra died of a longer, more mysterious illness (we even brought her inside but she didn't make it. Sad!!!) We had a "funeral" with my extended family for Lucky, per heartbroken Madeline's request. Everyone went around the room and shared what Lucky meant to them ;) It was soooooo sweet. I love my family!!

 - Date nights continuing with the Broadway Series - Finding Neverland (I loved it)

- Sweeties love to find a good spot for reading (sometimes you even jam to music WHILE reading!)

Pokemon. All day. Every day.

- Marcus celebrated his half birthday at preschool, and he REALLY wanted all six of us to participate in decorating his "All About Me" poster. "What is a word that describes you?": (he chose) HAPPY... so true!

 - Marin and her BFF enjoying some lunch after their first TAG weekend event together (TAG is the gifted program in our district, Marin was recently accepted! They got to do an acting class, and here they practice their poses.)

- Max was awarded the "Compassion" award in his class, and was honored in front of the whole school assembly! (One student chosen per classroom)  We are proud parents. Compassion is one of the most important things you need in life. He exemplifies this so well.

- Marin has been doing morning announcements for the school every Friday!

 - School pictures! Marin (5th), Madeline (4th), Max (1st) and Marcus (preschool)

- And finally, the theme of my notebook this year *thank you Jen Hatmaker* - Bless this Mess!

Happy Foh-Tay to Kyle

The big 4-0 is special, even if you are too busy to celebrate ;) Actually, our family gave us a gift card to McMenamins overnight, so we will take advantage of that soon! I keep telling Kyle to plan a guys trip, but again back to the busy thing. For now, we celebrate this special man, a milestone birthday.

Now they have matching hats!

Happy 11th Birthday, Marin!

My baby doll first born turned 11 years old. What a joy and delight she is to us! This whole Celiac thing is just one reminder of what kind of girl she is, brave... fierce... focused... kind... responsible... caring... smart... beautiful... resilient... thoughtful... I could go on and on!

One thing we've observed is she loves experiences more than physical gifts, so we are working on speaking her love language. For Christmas, she received a date coupon for Wings & Waves waterpark with BOTH Mom and Dad :) We plan to do that in the coming month. For her birthday, she received a date coupon for Tree2Tree Adventures (it's like an outdoor tree climbing adventure park) also with both of us (because Quality Time is her middle name). We will do that when the sun starts shining more, I can't wait to have these fun adventures with our girl!

For her birthday, her Daddy was in Germany so we had a little celebration of our own at home. Due to an overloaded month, her sleepover was in February. She designed her OWN gluten free cake, and helped me execute it to a T. Perfection because it's exactly what she dreamed of from her creative heart to mom's heart, to the table :) That, my friends, is the entire point of making your kids a homemade cake!

She and I also had a special date date (sitter for the siblings!) where we explored a new gluten free restaurant, and painted pottery at a local shop together. Quality time perfection.

Cake design

Cake in real life

Birthday cereal - Lucky Charms are gluten free!!!!!

Sister bought her a pair of very dangly earrings!

Birthday spoiling at the restaurant

Pottery painting!

She labeled our initials LMC, MEC (love)

My sweetie

The five of us out when Daddy is gone

We had her party late in February due to our busy travel schedule during her birthday month. A handful of besties over for a sleepover. They are such a beautiful and creative group of girls!

Brooklyn, Sophia, Marin, Hannah, Isabel (sweet x 5)

Dad was on a work trip overseas on her big day.
He brought her treats home though!