Oh when the saints...

Go marching in. Or win the Superbowl. Or pretty much whatever they do, we'll be there. Cause we're moving to New Orleans. (or the general vicinity.)

Yep. Moving. Again. We are very excited to be moving into what will be our 6th home as a married couple, in not quite 6 years. Woo hoo! Mark, (not surprisingly to me :), received a promotion more quickly than we anticipated...so now we have only about a month left here with our dear family and friends.

Very thankful to the Lord for his continued provision for us, despite the many changes that have occurred over the last few years in our life! He has been so faithful! Below I've included my anthem of late. Troubles aren't necessarily rising against me, but I love the chorus!

"Oh my God, he will not delay. My refuge and strength, always. I will not fear, his promise is true, My God will come through always. ALWAYS!"

COME VISIT THE BIG EASY! :)

When the dads are away....the moms pretty much still do a lot of work

You know you are an extrovert when flying alone with 3 kids is the lesser evil to being alone for 11 days. :) Mark was headed out for a few different reasons and I was very blessed by the conspiring of he and his friend Ben who figured out a way to get us to Michigan for a bonus trip.

This flight was better than our last though because a)we didn't have a layover, and b)Mark came thru security with us and he's just so great to have around. :)

This picture is blurry-but I just wanted to document that the Honda Odyssey IS in fact, an 8 passenger vehicle. 6 kids. It took Allison and I about 42 minutes to load everyone when we left, but we did it.
I'm not even gonna get started on this love affair, but I sure hope it continues...
Ava was just a tiny bit excited to see her friends.


Got to sneak in a quick visit with my sweet sis before she jetted off to the Dominican Republic on a missions trip.
When you are co-mothering 6 kids 4 and under, quiet times are an essential part of every day. We let them stay up because "they weren't tired." You can totally see the zest for life in their eyes.
My great love Michelle working on cake balls. (Thanks STEPH!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
The great thing about Allison (beside that she hosted me and my crazies for almost a week) is that when they moved to Grand Rapids, we had about 7 mutual friends. I couldn't go anywhere in town without hearing about her. :) I'm thankful!
Just a few kids.

Precious friends! (who babysat! thank you!)

So we could go out with more mutual friends :)
Dave was up north with Ben and Mark, so Christina and her cuties got to come visit, too! (In case you're counting, this made the total number of kids living in Allison's house 8-4 and under).
This is the worst picture of me ever, but I love how engaged that sweet little Cruz is. So fun to see him!
Phew. Finally the Dads came home! Hooray! I love how happy they look. We are so blessed with AWESOME dads for our kids!
Then we made them change and sent them outside.
And we went out again. It was so great to have them back. :)
Another highlight was seeing our Michigan family who we miss more than words can say.
Reese has really mastered the cheese.
Yay for getting to see Grandma Betsy 4 times this Spring despite our move!
Auntie Barbie...xoxo

Our last day was spent at the pool where we used to go. Love all these little munchkins!
I highly recommend bringing Dads to the pool!

So you can sit on the side... :)
We missed seeing a LOT of people we love dearly this trip because of no car and a tight schedule and lots of kids...but can't wait to get back to the motherland again soon.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Y'all. I love my mother-in-law. She is such a blessing in our lives! Not only is she a fabulous oma to our kids and mom to us, but she truly has one of the purest hearts of anyone I've ever met. So thankful for this pretty lady!

Here are a few reasons we adore her...

1. She takes ballet. Isn't she beautiful?? Lucky Dad!

2. She takes pictures of us that we would not otherwise have.

(I put this up mostly because it cracks me up that all three of us are doing the exact same thing with our eyes.)
3. She loves the farmer's market as much as I do. (horse rides are an added bonus.)
4. She brings a dozen donuts as a carry on for my girls. And maybe me.
5. She reads, and reads, and reads.
6. And dances. (7. She made that cute skirt from a sundress she bought at Target that was too big. Just sliced it up and made it. I'm so jealous of talented people.)
8. She leaves her house SEVEN hours after we called her to tell her we were getting baptized to come spend the weekend with us. Seven hours. Got on a plane. Flew here. Seven.

Side note: We had the very awesome experience of having my brother baptize us together. Turns out I thought I had been, and Mark was as an infant. If you're curious why we believe this, this link provides a snippet of info and biblical basis for our choice. You can also go HERE, and click on "Why we avoid baptism"...for a more in depth read.


9. She has picnics with my kids.
and cuddles.
10. She tells the girls to wake her up in the morning, not us, then shows them videos of her ballet on the computer so we think they slept til 8. :)
11. She does crazy things to get a picture like this.
See?
12. And dances more.
We love you so much Mom/Oma! Thanks for being such a wonderful part of our life!

memorial day. 2011.

Why can everybody in the free world get a picture of their kids except me? They looked so cute in these cute little dresses Grandma bought. You will just have to believe me though.

Oh wait, this is waaaaaay better.
My brother is a prince of a man. Truly. Here he's playing hide and seek with my children despite having 9,003 other things to do. I just adore him. He did this for me when I was little, too.
See? A prince. He power washed the mats from my car. This is somewhat akin to cleaning up a nuclear disaster.
This cleaning proved to be great entertainment, also.
These pictures crack me up. I love that Ava is big enough to swim with her cousins!!



On the actual day of Memorial, we grilled our with our dear friends The Johnsons. Kaiya was slightly obsessed with Baby Fiona. Baby love seems to run rampant in our family. :)
I mean, I guess why NOT eat corn this way. Keeps the butter off your fingers!
I post this picture ONLY to highlight the exceptional photography skills of our friend Justin Johnson. He's amazing.

Love these cuties!

happy memorial day!