so sad! so happy!!

so, my posts have been rather infrequent the last couple weeks, huh? well, there's a reason.....our computer is not recognizing the camera! this is very sad! we have lots of cute pictures, and no way to share them!!

but, we do have good news. great news. amazing news!! matthew's sister becky had a baby! she and her husband, tony, became parents to a precious little girl named kalea (kah-lay-uh. love that name, so beautiful! it's a hawaiian name meaning bright or light) on tuesday morning! we get to meet her today! there's a lot of exclamation points in this post so far! i'm not yelling at you, just excited! bye!

my kitchen

i have a special relationship with my kitchen. i was going to call it a

love/hate relationship. but it's not hate at all. more like a love/change relationship.

there are things i love, and things i'd change or fix.

it's open to the family room/which has lots of messy toys

plenty of cabinets/that i would love to replace or paint

beautiful fridge and dishwasher/want the oven to match the other 2 someday

i create meals here/but wish i knew more about "real" cooking

nice, big pantry/that needs just one more shelf

pretty wood floors/that get sticky very quickly

my sweet baby's high chair/with a perma-mess around it

looks amazing all cleaned up/which is really hard to keep that way

no matter all these things, because the kitchen is where my family gathers,

plays, bakes cookies, asks about dinner, eats together,

and becomes bonded daily- closer ties formed each and every day.

and there is absolutely nothing i would change about that.

Meet Toby, our 6-year old buyer's agent

a conversation while swimming

friday, while floating in our new innertube, i sigh and say: "i could stay right here for a week!"

toby replies: "you can't do that!" me: "why not?" toby: "you have lots of important things to do."

me: "oh yeah? like what?" toby: "well, you have to eat breakfast, and eat lunch, and dinner,

and you have to do lots and lots of laundry. and you have to take care of miller."

5 things i glean from this exchange:

1- he knows i'm important to our family

2- he thinks meals are very important. we knew this, as he eats literally all the time

3- he understands that i do a lot of laundry. he often says how boring it is to sort his little basket of laundry, therefore, "gets" that i do boring things for our family well-being

4- he loves his baby brother enough to want me around to take good care of him

5- he recognizes that miller needs me (and hopefully, he does too!)

matthew was there too.....

sunday was an interesting day. we all woke up very late, after such

a fun night at the wedding. specifically, we woke up at 745,

our normal time would be 7. i headed downstairs and matthew

brought miller down to me for his breakfast feeding.

as we sat together on the sofa, i said to matthew (at now, 755)

"let's go to the 830 service at church."

he said, "what?! really? we'd have to leave in like 10 minutes."

to which i replied, "yeah....well....we like to leave 20-30 minutes before

it starts, but we could make it if we leave by 815. i think we can do it.

you go jump in the shower, and i'll get the boys and myself done.

we can try, and if we don't make it, we just wait to go later."

(a big bonus of a multi-service church. and mind you,

i would never have suggested this if i hadn't had my

shower right before the wedding the night before!)

well, we pulled out of the garage at 813! as we drove,

toby pipes up and says, "mommy, i didn't eat breakfast."

snap! i easily skip breakfast all the time, not so easy for the littles.

i had finished miller, but didn't grab anything for toby.

matthew says "the commons?" (our on site coffee shop/cafe at evbc)

i say, "that'd be really yummy, but takes too long on sunday morning.

there's a mickey d's on ray at az ave, we'll run through there."

"ok, hope we still make it."

pull out of mcdonald's at 825. up az ave, turn on elliot, pull into

the parking lot at 830 on the nose! we made it, kind of- just have

to drop off the boys and get to the community center.

matthew takes tobes, i take mills, we meet outside, and only missed

1 song. what an exciting 45 minutes!! of course, the service was great,

and we headed home for a much more laid back sunday.

the morning finished, and lunchtime came and went. the house was

very quiet most of the day. then late sunday afternoon,

we wanted to get out of the house.

my parents? church. jim and sandi? not home.

so we decided to hit our old favorite place from just a short couple

years back, the train park, up in scottsdale. from the age of 2-5

with toby, we were here a lot. the last couple years has been a random

summer visit or christmas. it was a dreamy afternoon and

evening- although a little toasty still.

picnic, train ride, carousel, train again, ice cream, home.

time for baths and bed, and kisses on the head.

nigh-nigh...

Lisa and Mark's wedding

we had a great time celebrating a special day with a wonderful friend.

we know this union is truly blessed!

toby took this great picture

my sweet boys

dancing with "medium"

family pic

girls weekend in oc!! with bob!!!

a long drive, followed by a not-so-long rehearsal in this gorgeous facility

post concert gathering...

just a day at the beach- newport, to be exact

amazing time away with incredible friends!!!