weddings, anniversaries, and some inspiring words

Brian and I got to go to Bonker's wedding as well as celebrate our own anniversary in San Diego. It was a treat not to have the kiddos and to be able to do something on our anniversary besides Presbytery!! We enjoyed seeing our JMU buddies and making some new friends like Bonker's wife and her bridesmaids!

Groomsmen with the groom!

Sara-Beth posing with the colorful birds at Balboa

Beautiful architecture at Balboa in San Diego

The top of one of the museums at Balboa... reminds me of the gateway of India

Rehearsal dinner night

Brian sneaking up on Eric and Sara for the photo

Brian, Eric, Josh, and Matt

These guys are great friends of ours from JMU. We actually got to live in community as newlyweds before we all went our separate ways for seminary, work, and missions. Unfortunately only Eric's wife could make it. Sara and I missed Tab and Carly!

Mrs and Mrs. Bonker

Sara-Beth, me, Dawn (sister of the groom and also my Bible Study leader from college)

Brian and I posed for a wedding day photo

After all of the wedding madness, Brian and I enjoyed a day to ourselves where we celebrated our anniversary by walking around Balboa Park, looking at all of the artists' work, walking on a local beach and taking in the sights.

One of them was an enormous bulldog that trotted around the beach with the other dogs. This bully had at least 20 lbs on Zoe!
We ate at a quaint sandwich shop, found a sushi place for dinner (sooo good compared to East Coast sushi!) and even treated ourselves to frogurt for dessert. They still had peppermint from the holiday season so I was ecstatic!

As we celebrated our friend's marriage, reunited with friends who are married, and contemplated our own marriage, I always enjoy reading over some of these truths from Mike Mason's book The Mystery of Marriage. They ring true every year for me.

“Love is the only true power, because it is the only thing that does not want power, just as love is the only true wealth because it is the only thing that can afford to give itself away.”

“A vow is, per se, a confession of inadequacy and an automatic calling upon the only adequacy there is, which is the mercy and power of God.”

“In purely human terms the marriage vows are impossible: impossible to keep, and impossible to walk away from…The saying of them requires about thirty seconds. But the keeping them is the work of a lifetime.”

“To keep a vow, therefore, means not to keep from breaking it, but rather to devote the rest of one’s life to discovering what the vow means, and to be willing to change and to grow accordingly. It might almost be said that the sign of a vow being kept is the realization of how far one is from keeping it. In a very real way, the vow keeps the man rather than vice versa. “

Christmas in the noke

The Advent calendar was a hit b/c Chase was excited every day to put a magnet on and we worked on number and re-emphasizing the reason that we celebrate Christmas in the first place. The last magnet is baby Jesus whom he clearly recognized and when we got to the 25th... it was Jesus' Birthday!

Daddy finishing his work before the Christmas weekend begins! Sophie is helping him count down by showing him her fisher price Nativity. She actually knows which one is baby Jesus ("bay-be Jeeshus") and the donkey ("eeh-aww") and the cow ("moo") but we are working on the camel.

Brian showing Sophie her new owl slippers that mommy was probably the most excited about! Clearance at Old Navy and they just happened to be owls for my little Sophie owl!

the curlies

I love that Chase now laughs in photos and Sophie has like a triple chin and adorable hair

mommy and Chase buddy

Sophie with her Aunty Nu-Nu
(I think Nu-nu was officially the first extended relative whose name she learned...
ok maybe Papi. But Nu-nu was a close second)

Chase with his toy camera that actually takes pix! He loved it!! Doesn't he look like a boy and no longer a toddler?... sniffle.

I love the look on Chase's face. I think he will be a cool dude in school. I put him in a blazer for church that Christmas morning. I think he looks mighty handsome.

cousin Asher

Future rockstars!!!!!!!!
LOVE the look on Asher's face! He's rocking out on his new drumset!

Sophie and Chase want in on the action!

Not pictured: Grammy B (who unfortunately was sick on Christmas), Papi (who was in India though we did facetime him), and Uncle B who was there and I just didn't catch him in a photo! Sorry Bry!

Photo dump!

There is too much to catch up on from December to January to be able to thoughtfully type in blog updates.... so here's a photo dump of random pix. Some involve the kids playing together, some involve Zoe, some involve Brian and Chase with the "tough mudder" headband and other Christmas photos.

Sophie making herself comfy on Chase's lap. I love this about her
and hope this uninhibited trait of assuming others love
her affection stays with her as she grows!

(Notice Chase's legs coming out from the blanket.
He asks her "Sophie will you please jump on me?")

Sophie making herself right at home with Zoe.

Sophie giving Chase a "squeeze-squeeze"

my little crazy man who runs around with
daddy's "tough mudder" headband

quotables from the kiddos

Chase: Is Zoe Sad? Why does she have a frown?
Mom: She's a bulldog, so she just looks like that all the time.
Chase: Sometimes I get sad when I poop in the floor.

Chase: The yellow is smashing.
Mom:You mean the yellow light is flashing (at an intersection)? (realizing we thought it was cute Chase says smashlight instead of flashlight... now Chase has graduated to the gerund form of smashlight)

Chase: Yes that would be wonderful, mommy! (referring to chocolate milk)

Chase: Can we listen to huh-rise huh-rise please? (the "Arise, my soul, arise" song is his favorite car song)
Sophie: (copying Chase) "her-riiiise" "her-iiiiiise!"

Sophie: No! No! we-we! (telling Zoe she can't come through the gate as she sticks out her leg just as mommy does to block Zoe.)

Chase: Do you want to take a bath Sophie?
Sophie: Uh-uh (shaking her head)
Chase: I think she wants to stay stinky, mama.

Mom: Sophie. Look! Who is this ornament?
Sophie: We-we (referring to Zoe). Buh! (followed by 5 min of laughter. Apparently hanging a fat bulldog ornament on a Christmas tree is funny to a one year old.)

Mom: Do you know what these are for? (referring to Christmas stockings hanging over the fireplace)
Chase: For your shoes. (pretty clever kid. only there are 4 right feet.)

Love, love, love Christmas traditions

I love traditions more than I love the actual "stuff" of Christmas. In fact, sometimes the pure materialism of it all can be quite overwhelming and frustrating. Why are we celebrating CHRISTmas again? My mind doesn't need much to get distracted from why we celebrate Christmas. I think our human nature clings to what we know won't last, but in our hearts we know that the most meaningful gifts are those which you can't purchase. Thought. Time. Energy. Creativity. Giving of ourselves. Spiritual Encouragement. I think the simpler the better, so we can focus on what really matters. Thus far Brian and I have created some fun family traditions:

- Each year we buy a book to add to our collection (which we read to the kids in the days prior to Christmas). We always read one on Christmas day before the gift-opening begins. In years past, we've bought: The Tale of Three Trees (I cry every time as does someone else I know... wink. wink.), Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Lucado's You Are Special, Henry's The Gift of the Magi, and The Night Before Christmas. Any suggestions for this year?

- Each year Brian & I choose a Christmas CD. In years past, we bought: Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God", Sufjan Steven's 5 CD Collection (prob our fave!), "Christmas with the Rat Pack", "Your King Has Come," and don't forget "The Jackson 5 Christmas album"! No clue what we'll choose this year. Maybe an Appalachian instrumental CD with the hammered duclimer. Wish there was a compilation of folksy eclectic artists with a Christmas CD. Regina Spektor or Ingrid Michaelson? If we can't be hipsters we might go for Muppets. I'm just saying....

-Each year we usually go to one Christmas event as a date: Scrooge, a local Christmas Pageant, a Christmas concert like Behold the Lamb of God, or our church's Christmas dinner. I think this year we may take the kids to a live nativity and let Sophie practice her sheep sounds.

- For two years, I've helped organize a cookie decorating party for the kiddos and done a cookie swap for the mamas! We'll see if I have enough energy this year.... No promises. :)

- For gifts, I usually make a smorgasbord of delectable treats including chocolate toffee grahams, peppermint bark, mocha fudge, cream cheese brownies, iced sugar cookies, preacher cookies, dipped pretzels, etc. I try to make tins for all of my family. Last year I even made some Kahlua cookies- my own creation!

- For cards, have ordered them from shutterfly (totally redeemed all of my PAMPERS rewards!) and they are on the way.... yep I dressed us in Christmas colors at Thanksgiving with that in mind.... though the photo doesn't do justice to Sophie's adorableness. I look foward to collecting Christmas cards from everyone and putting them on the back of my front door. I usually quiz Chase on who everyone is. I'm sure Sophie will rip them off and give them to me (READ: WARNING-send us your Christmas card early so that you don't get stuck at the bottom of my door where your card might be eaten/torn/crumpled by my one-year-old!!)

-I also hope to continue with my annual blurbbook where I capture the years best photos of my kids and make them into a photo book. (Check out blurb.com) Hoping Santa gets me a new camera this year so the quality of my photos won't be so bad! (READ: Brian, are you listening?)

-And my most recent tradition which is kid-friendly.... completed in the Nick of time (yep pun intended- get it? Saint Nick?) ..........Drumroll please.......

An Advent Calendar! Woohoo! I did it! I finally made the Christmas Countdown calendar I had been wanting to make for like 2 years. I saw the idea on a blog: http://tatertotsandjello.com/2009/11/cookie-sheet-advent-calendar.html and it looked to overwhelming and the perfectionistic part of me was like "there's no way I could produce something that I like because I don't even own that kind of crafty stuff." Well... shout out to my dear friend Liz V!!! Thanks for leaving me a ton of cool crafty paper! All in all, I think I only bought the Christmas-themed scrapbook paper (for the backdrop), two sheets of sequenced stickers (like the snowflake and present and stocking), one roll of green ribbon for the bow ($1 at dollarstore) and one cookie sheet (also $1 at the dollarstore). In fact don't get the expensive kind of cookie sheet b/c the non-stick kind won't allow magnets to stick.

It's hard to see from the photo, but each day is a magnet (25 in all since it's a countdown to Christmas day) and on Christmas there's a nativity ornament to remind us what it's all about.

So that's what's in store this year. Haven't tackled the tree yet or much decor... I think I'm in disbelief that tomorrow is December!

in need of a feel-good "awww" kinda moment?

I'm not sure what is funnier:
a) that B sent this to me b/c of my owl-obsession
b) that I have the same expression when hubby rubs my forehead after a long day!
c) or that I asked B if we could get an owl for a pet after watching the video at least 3 times in a row.