Happy 8th Birthday to Elijah!

Words can not express how amazing our Elijah is. I know each child you have brings a unique and special dynamic to your family. Elijah is no exception, but super exceeds our expectations. He is funny, silly, kind, compassionate, and determined. He is also so cute. I know he'd hate that but it's true. He is adorable.

Today he turns 8! I keep telling him 8 is great, and it is. A month ago I was praying for Elijah to have more confidence. As I was reading through the one year Bible. I came across this verse in Proverbs and began to alter my prayer for him.

When you lie down, you shall not be afraid: yes, you shall lie down, and your sleep shall be sweet Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes. For the LORD shall be your confidence, and shall keep your foot from being taken. Proverbs 3:23-25

I began to pray that Elijah wouldn't find confidence in himself but rather the Lord himself would be his confidence. The Lord would be his confidence as he does his schoolwork. The Lord would be his confidence when playing with friends. The Lord would be his confidence in all his decisions.

I love being Elijah's mom! It's been an amazing 8 years. I am so thankful for them and can't wait to see all that the Lord has for him.

Happy 11th Birthday to Isaiah

There is no way that he is 11 right? He is! Our first baby is 11!! Where has the time gone? I said last year that the first 10 years of his life went by in a blink of an eye and I have a feeling the next 10 will go by in half a blink.

Isaiah likes to tease me and say in 10 years I'll be....21, in 7 years I'll be 18, in just 5 years I'll be 16. I don't think I like how he can fast forward so quickly. That I do remember about being young, you just want to grow up. WHY??

I remember the day I found out I was pregnant with Isaiah. Peter and I had been married a little over 3 months. I felt so tired and just not quite myself. I will be honest telling you that I cried a lot when the test turned positive, and not so much tears of joy as tears of fear! I was scared to have a baby, to be a mom. And I will be totally honest with you again....I still have that fear. Not fear of having a baby (been there done that) but of being a mom. I sometimes fumble through hard lessons with Isaiah,trying to guide him in truth, but falling so short of perfection it scares me. I gently remind Isaiah that "I'm new at this" I am not always sure how to be a mom to an 11 year old boy.

Our prayer for Isaiah this year is that he continues to grow in his personal relationship with Jesus. That Jesus would increase and Isaiah would decrease. That the things of the world would loose their appeal. That his thirst for the Word of God would increase. That he would encounter the true and living God and a new, fresh and very personal way. (And if you are reading this feel free to pray that for ME as well)

Happy Birthday Isaiah. You are a joy in our lives, our precious gift from the Lord. (we always tell Isaiah he was our first anniversary gift since he was born the day before our one year anniversary) We are so proud of you and know God has awesome plans for you!

Isaiah's 11th birthday!!

We have entered into a world unknown....the world of an 11 year old boy. For anyone who knows me knows I love to throw big parties for my kids. But I thought that once it's their 11th birthday it might be a good year to stop the themes. This was perfect timing for Isaiah who said he just wanted friends over for pizza and to play the wii. So that's the party he got. Very low key as far as prep...but a house full of boys not so low key! Isaiah even asked if I could hang out upstairs during his party....what am I that uncool already? The party was a hit and his friends even let me play the wii with them. I can't believe he'll be 11 in 5 days! It seems like I am in someone else's life...I can't be old enough to have an 11 year old!A table fit for a pack and I do mean pack of hungry boys (this isn't even including the pizza)

These boys can EAT~

What do you get an 11 year old boy who is soooo over toys? MONEY!

Ok guys smile nice for the camera....

Ok now let's see you how you really are....

Pawty Time!

First you know it's a good party when you only took a handful of pictures. It was such a blast I picked up the camera twice and handed it off. So This is what I got, but I think you'll get the idea. So Hannah LOVES puppies. She loves real one and stuffed ones. But she has ONE favorite and it's a little Dalmatian that my mom sent her for Christmas last year. She has loved him, and loved him and it shows. So of course this year she had to a puppy pawty!

Just seeing the number 2 makes me sad. She's growing up TOO fast.

Her birthday banner

Adopt a pup station. All the kids picked out a puppy, got a certificate and a doggie bag full of treats

Inside the bag, puppy vitamins (gummy snacks) puppy chow (coco puffs) Dog biscuits (sugar cookies)

Dog bowls full of treats

Paw print cookies, made with a junior mint and 4 brown m & m's

Super fun puppy balloons.

This was so fun, balloon garland. It was bright and Hannah loved it. On the table are little puppy pictures that the kids colored.
Pupcakes, with the frosting is Oreo cookie, Hannah's favorite cookie. Aren't the toppers cute!

OH YUMMY

We practiced blowing out the candles before the party but she went right in with her fingers, I blew them our so fast.

Hannah's BFF

Her little "boy" friend

More guests

Present time. She loved the cards "oh a card" she said when she pulled each on out. I tried to open one for her and ripped the envelope in a way that was not pleasing to her, and she was very upset. "OH NO" she said. So I let her open them. It took a long time, but I thought it was sweet she appreciated the cards as well (just like her mom)

Her favorite gift from mom and dad....a Fur Real Puppy. She loves it. Although her trusted pup still made the cut at bedtime.
And for dinner....Hannah's favorite...Grammie's Chili!

We have AMAZING friends who have been like adopted family to Hannah. They have been there for her, loving her and filling in the gap where our families can't be here. We are so blessed to have these people in our lives,to love our kids and to invest in their lives. Thank you friends for coming out and celebrating with us.

It's time to CELEBRATE ELIJAH

After having to cancel Elijah's 7th birthday party last week due to sickness, I was so happy to reschedule it for today. I am still not 100% but I faked it for my birthday boy to give him a party he will never forget. If you know me at all you know I love birthdays, and more than birthday's I love parties...so I love birthday parties. I would rank throwing birthday parties for my kids it the top 5 reasons I love being their mom. I love making a memory that will last a lifetime for them. The boys (Hannah is old enough yet) can remember each birthday and what we did that year. I love hearing them talk about parties of the past. So this year Elijah requested a "Secret Agent" party and I was more than happy to comply.

Each guest got a special id badge, hat and glasses. This is Elijah in his secret agent gear.
And big brother Isaiah.

The id badges had a special agent number, Elijah's was 107 and his code name was "bomber"

Here's the table all ready for the rowdy boys.

First things first...you need to feed them...PIZZA of course.

Then it was on to the first mission "Bomb Detecting" Each agent had a bomb aka a spray painted hamburger take out box. I hid them all around the house like an Easter egg hunt. Each bomb had the agents number on it so they had to find their own bomb. Once all the bombs were found they all circled around to "detonate" their bomb full of candy. This was a huge hit.

I printed off a picture of each guest. Their task was to disguise their picture the best they could with markers,and I had mustache stickers. They absolutely loved this and took time to really do a good job. I was pleasantly surprised at these boys ranging from 6-10 could sit so diligently.

Some decided to wear the mustaches for themselves. I wonder if his mom would even recognize him.

This one impressed me the most. Check out the uni brow!

Then they practiced the art of dusting for fingerprints. I pre made the fingerprint dust ( I am glad I did) To do this you take a candle and a porcelain plate. Hold the plate over the candle to produce a soot then mix the soot with equal parts cornstarch...and there you have it. I stored it in some bead jars you can get at the craft store.
Then they pressed their fingerprint on a coffee mug, dusted, and there was their fingerprint. We transferred to tape to get a better look.

I ordered some ink less fingerprint ink, so the boys weren't covered in black ink. They each did their own set of fingerprints and then compared it to a chart to see which "type" of print they had. We discussed how God created us each so individually that no one has the same fingerprint.

Check out this band of characters.

I created a "case" for them to solve. The case of the missing birthday cake. There were 10 clues that took them inside and out. They had so much fun and it wasn't as easy as they thought it would be. I wanted to make them work for it.

Look at them all huddled around.
They found it in the end.

His specially made magnifying glass cake. He LOVED it.

Finally blowing out his birthday candles.

I love his face in this picture. He said "I think this was my favorite party ever" but he said that last year. =)

And of course some presents.

The kids had such a great time. It was totally worth it!

Happy Birthday to our Fantastic Elijah!

Happy 10 Year Birthday Isaiah

September 30 1999. Our little family, new mom and dad and baby Isaiah







10 years ago today I became a mom. But more importantly I became Isaiah's mom. Isaiah is our first born. I can hardly wrap my mind around the fact that he is ten. Because honestly this picture feels like it was taken yesterday. The ten year mark is big. I remember turning ten and so excited to be in the two digits. I wish I could have him just stay right here at ten, but as fast as the past ten have gone I am certain the next ten will go by just as fast if not faster. Isaiah is a fantastic kid. I am honored and blessed to be his mom.

Isaiah's 10th Birthday Pary

We pulled off another amazing birthday party for Isaiah this year. His actually birthday of course isn't until the 30th but we wanted to do something special since he's turning 10 this year. So in order to do it we had his party early so it wouldn't be so cold at night. We held his party at Milt's Pizza here in Lynden. During the summer every Saturday night they show a free movie on a big painted on a wall screen. I thought it would be totally amazing if we could do the same for Isaiah's birthday. I called and Lynn from Milt's pizza was amazing and accommodating us. So last night we had our own private viewing. The pictures do a much better job of showing all the fun so I'll let them do most of the talking.





First praise God for the weather. It was touch and go all day because if it rained we would have been rained out. It was cloudy and we had a few sprinkles in the day. I kept checking the web for hourly updates. I prayed and He held off the rain. Not only that it really wasn't that cold. We had jackets and blankets and it was totally comfortable.

I also won't get all mushy in this post about my first born turning 10! I will hold off on that until his actually birthday. I will however just state that Isaiah is an outstanding kid, and he said "Wow mom this was #1 of all my birthdays"




Ok aren't these the cutest cupcakes ever??? They looked just like boxes of popcorn. I got the wrappers from Etsy. Then of course mini marshmallows and a yellow spray from Wilton. They were a HUGE hit. Special thanks to Terra, Emma, and Auni for all your help!

Here's some of the gang at Milt's waiting for the pizza to come. They were all such great kids. They were well behaved and just were a delight to hang with.

Yeah so of course there were presents. Isaiah is super into baseball cards right now so he got a lot of them. He's so excited to sort them all out in his own special way. Mom and Dad got him metal detector! How fun, maybe he'll find me some bling?

Super cute kids!

Isaiah waiting for the pizza!

Can't say enough how much we love Milt's. If you are local go and eat there! The pizza is awesome and they staff is amazing.

The pizza has arrived!

Hannah LOVES pizza! She was so good.

Present time. Ok I have to say what a difference a year makes. Last year Isaiah didn't know too many kids for his party. But this year he had so many little buddies. He had prayed for friends and this picture could be titled "Answer to a little boy's prayer"

Happy Birthday dear Isaiah Happy Birthday to You.

The gang in front of the big screen.

The "silly" gang in front of the big screen

The movie Isaiah picked "Garfield Gets Real"

Waiting for the POPCORN! Can't watch a movie without POPCORN!

Arianna and Hannah.

And that is how we celebrate!