Happy 7th Amber!

Happy Birthday Amber

The day finally arrived - we've been talking about it since October last year. And what a celebration you crafted!  The menu, the decorations, the kid party, everything had your imprint on it.  It was fun.

She made great strides in Kindergarten this past year.  At first, it wasn't so fun.  But then she made friends and learned her way around this school.  Amber and Taryn would swap stories about friends over dinner (trying to outdo the other in who has the silliest friend).  Some of my favorite stories came from Amber over dinner.  If you hear someone in our family say 'el stinko', it came from Amber.

We knew that Amber would make friends easily.  Before school let out for the summer, she invited all the girls in her class to her party.  Summer parties are hard, but (thanks to Sandi) there were 10 kids around the picnic table working on crafts.  Sandi organized a crab craft, a jellyfish craft and tie-dye t-shirts all in the space of 3 hours.  Amber had a great time and the kids all like Amber.

Amber, you are a budding artist and are a sponge when it comes to learning.  It's fun to see your creativity come alive. I can't wait to hear the stories you tell from school this year!

We love you!

Happy Birthday Taryn

Our little girl is four!

"Oh, I laughed." I've said this to Sandi many times when talking about Taryn.  (A close second is, "...and she floated away.")  Even at her young age, she mastered the fine art of dead-pan.  I'll never understand why it's so funny to me to have her walk right past me with a serious expression on her face, but I remember laughing when we passed each other on the stairs and she gave me naught a glance.  

Her songs are hysterical.  She can belt out any tune at the top of her lungs and at the top of the scale.  One time, she started out low and in the wrong key.  She cleared her throat, chose a couple octaves higher, and sang with all her might.  I fell down laughing.

We still don't know if she can read or not.  She takes books, opens them and tells the story.  Her stories are so captivating, I forget we haven't taught her the ABC's yet.

 

Taryn has an incredibly sweet and empathic spirit.  But, she is also one of the more aloof people I know.  Sandi and I were upstairs in the one day and Taryn came in to tell us her prince was downstairs.  We asked her what she did with the prince.  "I walked away."  Oh, I laughed.  ...and she floated away.

 I could tell stories about her fierce indecisiveness, her ability to dink around, or her love of pushing buttons.  But the last vignette brings it all home for me.  The four of us were talking one day and Taryn says something really off the wall.  We asked her what it meant, and she responds with 'means nusthing' and floats away.  Oh, I laughed. 

 

Happy birthday, Taryn.  We love you.  You have a God-given joy that I hope other people find as contagious as we do.

Merry Christmas (2021)

 Merry Christmas,

It was a quite Christmas Eve (after a long week) so we just had a nice meal and then sent the kids off to bed. Christmas morning was a little more animated.

Merry Christmas!

Amber Turns 6!

Happy Birthday Amber!

Amber turned 6 this year (though we've only been talking about her party for four months).

There was plenty of excitement when we woke up Saturday morning.

The big news is that she got her very first pedal bike!

After breakfast we took it for a spin.

You should see her face when she is riding and her hair is blowing in the wind.

Saturday was only part of the celebration.  The real party was Sunday afternoon.  Amber ordered hamburgers (and no green vegetables).

All of a sudden, a party-favor war broke out!

I love this kid's smile

Happy birthday Amber!  You are such a creative, kind and generous little girl.  I love it when you are coloring and making things as gifts to bless your friends and family - oh the joy it gives you when you get to give a package to someone.  You are my crazy/silly one.  I had no idea you could be so silly until you came home from school talking about the things you did with your classmates.  The friends you will make at school are in for a treat when they get to know you.  Your teachers are going to love your curious mind and your sweet spirit.

Love Daddy

Taryn Turns 3!

 Happy Birthday, Taryn!!

Let's celebrate with chocolate chip/cocoa pancakes with bacon.

Taryn, you have a unique gift of sliding into people's laps.  In one minute, no Taryn; all the sudden there's a Taryn cosy-ing up and making herself at home. 

It cracks me up when you come down in the morning with a huge smile on your face and announce "It's Me!" and then go to the art-table for a snack.

 

 

I love how you sing with reckless abandon.  Your ability to jump two octaves without breaking a sweat astounds me.  Mommy can testify how I fell down laughing hearing you sing 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' in high C (I still laugh whenever I think of it). 

You are a little girl full of empathy and concern for others.  You have a sensitive soul and a kind heart.  Your smile is disarming and charming and can melt the hardest of hearts. 

 

You are a funny girl.  Not only are you very clever, you have also mastered the art of dead-pan.  I remember asking you one evening if you were a cow.  You looked at me from the couch, said 'No' and went on with what you were doing.  Oh, I laughed.

 

Taryn, we love you.  You will always be our wee-lass from the Home Land. 

Office and Dining Room Makeover

 The COVID shut-in is lasting longer than anticipated (says everyone everywhere).  For us, it meant converting our guestroom/office to an office (with a guestroom).  

The card-table just wasn't doing it for us as a long-term solution...

...and the bed was taking over a lot of space.  

So, let's take out the bed, paint the room and rearrange our office space.

Instead of blah-white, we chose a green-ish teal and repainted the ceiling (which was also blah-white).

We are really pleased with our new digs.  Working there will be much more pleasant.  Phase 2 is building and installing a Murphy-bed.  Stay tuned...

Since we were on a painting role, we decided to finish the dining room.  It took a few sample pots to get it right be we really like how it turned out.

Taryn's First Haircut

 We took this picture of Taryn's amazing hair back in May 2020.  Fast forward to January 2021 and you can imagine the unruly length of baby wisp going on.  It was time for a haircut.

I took this 'before' photo right before we left for her haircut.  It doesn't quite capture her need for a cut, but it's still a cute picture.

It was fun to see what car Taryn would choose.  I thought she might go for the fire truck but she chose the black muscle-car hot-rod with flames.  Taryn did not waiver in her opinion.  Whoa little girl.

When asked what movie she would like to see she chose "Cinderella" without a second thought.  She was a great little client.  She only refused the hair dryer because of the noise. 

And she chose a yellow balloon at the end.

Here is our little princess now.