Another Season...

Today marked my last time being a part of Exhale (formerly MOPS). It is bittersweet to close that season. I so appreciated the ministry and friendship of other moms with young kids, but after 6 years, it's time to move on. I'm not sure what next year holds (even though I've been asked numerous times what I plan to do), but I do know that though I will miss seeing many of the moms on such a regular basis, I know this was the right next step for me.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we took a trip to St. Cloud to celebrate birthday's and what better way to celebrate Mother's Day...then with your mom! The kids enjoyed fishing in the pond out back, and of course playing with their cousins (we're blessed that they all have cousins that are similar in age to each of them...that makes for fun times!) All in all...it was another great weekend!

My family....brother, mom, sister, me

The "MOMS" on Mother's Day...me, mom, sister, sister in law

**did you happen to notice my new necklace?? A very pretty present from my hubby and 3 kids!

Cabin Fun...in the rain

We have had some busy weekends lately, but they have been a lot of F-U-N too! Two weekends ago we headed up to my brothers cabin and our families hung out along with my mom and step-dad. The weather conditions weren't ideal, but the kids found ways to have fun in the rain anyway. I love great family time

Good Friends = Good Times

These boys have been a good example of maintaining friendship. They were forced into friendship by their parents (b/c we are friends), but it's paid off. Even after more then 2 years of living in different cities, they still write letters to each other and seriously anticipate getting to hang out again (just like their parents). It's pretty sweet...ironically enough, they lost their other front tooth at about the same time so we needed to have a picture of their gap faces together. :) Good times, good conversations and we look forward to visiting again sometime soon!

2 year old + Markers = ?????

Get angry...or get the camera?? I opted for getting the camera. Really, it was pretty funny all things considered. Don't get me wrong, we still had a serious chat, but I was more rational at least. You can't tell by the picture, but the water had a serious green tint to it because of all the marker on him. The kids know to keep their markers up high on the shelf...bummer is...he is now tall enough to reach the shelf. UGH!!!

Gap Face

We officially have a 2nd grader with no front teeth. He wiggled and wiggled and wiggled that tooth and it finally came out. How is it possible that he is still so cute even with a gapping hole in his mouth?!?!

Scaling Back....

There are a few things I need to update on here, but I'll start with something that I'm/we're working through right now. If you know us well, you know that Dan and I don't function well being super busy and not having margin in our life. Well, for the past 6 months or so it has felt that way.

Dan has been more busy in his role as part-time principal and part-time teacher...surprisingly enough over the last 8 months or so my business has grown that I am working more and more all the time. What's my primary job? Graphic designer? Nope...wife...mom. To be honest, I feel like I have been spending more time working and less time being a mom. We are blessed that we now have the opportunity to make some changes. Why and how you might ask?

Last week Dan was offered an assistant principal position at West Fargo HS and he accepted. (HOORAY, this was a LONG TIME prayer request!!!) Initially we planned on having me continue working...after a weekend of craziness and God working on both our hearts, we sat down Sunday night to reconnect and talk and we came to the conclusion that something needs to change. God opened the door for Dan's job and we're so thankful for that and for this season while we have young kids I want to go back to having more focused time with them. It will be an adjustment again, but it's kind of a breath of fresh air!!