A surprise golden

I'm about a month overdue, but have been wanting to write about my golden birthday.  It was a fun March this year because Abbie and I both had a golden birthday!  For me, I had been waiting my whole childhood for a golden birthday since I had to wait until I turned 31.  When I was a kid, that seemed SO far away!  But it finally came!  And I don't feel old at all!  But to make the celebration even better, Matt surprised me with a party.  I couldn't believe he pulled it off!  I had been planning to go to the twin cities to celebrate my birthday with my extended family, but I had many extra family and friends there to pull off the surprise.  Unfortunately, Matt couldn't even come because Ella was sick with pneumonia.  I guess that's what happens when you have a birthday that falls right in the middle of the cold and flu season.  Even though they couldn't be there, I still had a great day and definitely my most memorable birthday!

six {!}

I'm not sure how it happened, but six years somehow have passed by since our beautiful Miriam entered the world and joined our family.  What a blessing she is to all of us!  We are so proud of her.  Today (and this weekend!) are full of celebrations for our Miriam Jean.

the resident birthday queen

Last August when Miriam turned 5, Abbie suddenly began to realize what birthdays were all about. So since then, she about daily asked when HER birthday was. It's unfortunate that their birthdays are almost exactly 6 months apart. But all her then 2-year-old mind could comprehend is that it was in March (whatever March meant to her), and that it involved balloons and cake. So by the time her birthday finally did roll around, we tried to make it exactly the way she wanted: with cake, balloons, and a celebration just for her. When her birthday was over, I figured we'd be getting her asking us daily when her next birthday was. But alas, she instead discovered my birthday was coming up and got just as excited for that. She began asking me what kind of cake I wanted and if she could help make it and if she could yell, "surprise!" So if it wasn't for Abbie, I'm not sure that I even would have made a cake as my birthday fell on Easter and I knew we'd end up with other desserts that day anyway. However, so as not to let her down, we made a cake together. And we put one candle on for each decade. She didn't seem too disappointed that I didn't get balloons or that she didn't yell, "surprise!" at any time throughout the day. I think the Easter festivities easily trumped the need for those. So, now that my birthday has wrapped up, I figured we were in the clear on the birthday question for awhile...except that she recently asked when Matt's birthday is. Unfortunately his is still three months away. So we begin again with the daily countdown. But we love our little birthday queen. She makes all of our birthdays more fun by her excitement of them.

a new decade

Tomorrow I enter into my third decade of life...and although I feel like many people dread turning 30, I'm actually kind of looking forward to it.  My twenties were FULL of about every new life change: graduating college, getting my first job, getting married, moving to a new state, having three babies and buying a house.  Of course there were many, many wonderful things that came along with that, but also a handful of challenging moments as well (starting over in a new city, pregnancies (I could list about 1,000 challenging moments that came with that alone), lack of sleep, demands of raising a preschooler, toddler and an infant, home remodeling, discovering my extreme selfishness through the incredible refining process of marriage and being a mom, wow...the list could go on and on).  I feel like I really grew a lot during that time.  And I pray I can learn just as much or more through this next decade.  Thankfully, no matter how much older I get or how many new things life will throw at me, God is faithful.  He continues to prove Himself over and over to me.  I'm excited to see where He takes me and my family in the next ten (and hopefully more!) years.  I'm thanking the Lord for my Easter birthday tomorrow!

big, big catch up!

Blogging has gone by the wayside for us over the past 9 months. Life has gotten busy and sitting down to update here has been lost in our routine. I do hope to continue to post a little more regularly as I feel like we're back in a pretty stable routine now. So...here are the biggest changes since last July!

Miriam started Kindergarten. It has been a great school year for her. She has a wonderful teacher and has learned so much. I still can't believe we've become parents of a school-aged kid! Where does the time go?

Ella has grown leaps and bounds! She turned one in January and is now, scooting, pulling up, cruising, attempting to walk, saying a few words, waving, smiling and loving her sisters. She is a delight. Still no teeth, however, at almost 14 months old!

Abbie turned 3 a few weeks ago and is growing up so much. She loves to chat, cuddle, color, and generally do whatever Miriam is doing. She is a good big sister to her little sister.

Matt is still working at church and keeping busy doing so. We are thankful for his job. I am still at home full time, although I just finished up a brief position as an after school teacher for a math club. It was about 8 weeks and a great way to keep up a bit on my teaching. Matt and I were also able to briefly escape this extremely long winter to Florida for an extended weekend (thanks to our parents!). It was wonderful! Other than that, life is carrying along as usual! Here are a few pictures of life lately...