I'd like to introduce you...

... to our son!

Yes, you did read that right.

We had a BOY!!

Nearly two weeks ago this little fellow joined our family:

and we are, of course, head over heels in love with our tiny man.


He's the perfect addition to our three girls, and we couldn't be happier to welcome this blessing into our family.

I look at this picture and I'm kind of staggered by the fact that we have four kids now.

That fact (four children!) and the adjustment it has been is really my only excuse that it has taken me nearly two weeks to blog about such an important and long-expected thing such as the birth of our baby.
Well, that, and the sleepless nights and exhaustion.
and the constant nursing (or in this kid's case, trying to get him to nurse).
and the endless laundry.
and the 3-year old who needs some extra mommy-lovin' whenever I can give it to her.
and two older girls who go a little stir-crazy when we can't leave the house and it's over 100 degrees outside.
and the smooshy baby lips and round cheeks that need lots of kissing, the soft velvety head that begs to be touched, the teeny little fingers and toes that charm me, and the ridiculous amount of newborn baby snuggles that simply must be had.

oh yes, even in the midst of some new challenges, we are in baby heaven over here. It's so fun getting to know this new little person more and more every day, and to simply try to enjoy as much as possible these fleeting newborn days.

someday soon I'll write more about his birth, about what it means to me to have a son, about seeing my girls with a little brother, about life and what it looks like with baby Bennett in it.

And I will share many, many more pictures, of course. :)

But for now, I leave you with his sweet face (those lips, oh those lips!) to melt your heart like it has mine...


Welcome to the world and to our family, Bennett-boy. I praise God for you everyday.

some things.

Since it's been a month and a half since I've blogged anything at all, a bit of a catch-up post is in order. There's no way I could catch up on everything (we've been busy 'round these here parts!) but, here are a few of the highlights, as well as other random things that will pop into my brain as I sit here and finally type in this white square of a "New Post" box.
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On May 24th, I had my 3rd annual recital for my piano students. I absolutely love the recital-- it's more fun than I can say to listen to each young person play their very best in front of their friends and families, to see the look of pure accomplishment on their faces when they play that last note, the nervousness gone, replaced by joy. I'm beaming with pride by the end of the night. We all work very hard on our songs for months, and the recital is our big pay-off-- a reward that is totally worth it. Have I mentioned how much I love my piano students? I really do. Since the recital I've given not one piano lesson (I decided to take the summer completely off, figuring a new baby might keep me busy enough) and while I love having the afternoons free for other things, I do really miss seeing each one of them.
Our own Emma Joy participated in the recital too. She played a song called "Lavender Sunset", and it was absolutely lovely. And then she and her teacher, Ryan, played a fun duet together, and her smile was infectious and wonderful to see.

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The day after the recital the girls and I headed down to LA to visit my brother Elijah for the day. Two very important things had recently happened, and we needed to celebrate, oh yes we did.
one. He got engaged! On May 19th (which is also my sister Lydia's birthday), to a beautiful redhead named Lindsey! And we are so excited!
two. He was made a Captain in the Air Force! We couldn't be there for the actual ceremony, since it was the day of the recital, but Lydia was able to go and be there for it, and Lindsey had flown out too. They both said it was very impressive. And I think he looks so very dashingly handsome in his dress blues.

We had so much fun all hanging out together, as per the usual. My girls pretty much adore Uncle Elijah... and now they adore almost-aunt Lindsey too.
We even went to the beach while we were down there, where it was extremely and incredibly windy and cold. Rosalie peed on herself in the first ten minutes, and Annabelle got knocked over by a bigger-than-expected wave and "almost went into the sea" (her words) after which she was simply done with the whole thing. But Emma got soaking wet and loved every minute of it, and the rest of us tolerated it for as long as we could. :)


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At the beginning of June I got to have my "last hurrah" away in the form of a last-minute beach retreat with some women from my church. We stayed in Cayucos at the cutest beach house I had ever seen, ate way too much yummy food, slept in a room full of bunk beds and stayed up much too late laughing over ridiculous things and talking, lazed around in our PJ's, went shopping, and enjoyed every minute. I'm so thankful for each of these beautiful and godly ladies.
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As the Bakersfield heat has increased, we've been hitting up the spray parks as much as we can with friends. There's nothing like the smell of suncreen in the sunshine, little kids running around in swimsuits, snacks on the hot cement only to run happily back into the water.

Rosalie and some of her best buds, Lucy and Chloe

These are the simple summer memories I treasure with my girls, with family and friends.

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We of course celebrated Father's Day, in a simple and quiet way, which is sometimes the best way, I think. The only thing lacking was getting to give my own dear and wonderful dad, who lives in Wyoming, a BIG hug. I miss him, and appreciate him more and more over the years for the great dad and the godly man he is.

The girls bought their daddy a Star Wars mug that said "I AM YOUR FATHER" and filled it with Werther's Originals and scraps of paper that each had something they loved or appreciated about him. It was so sweet to watch him unfold each scrap and read it as they eagerly looked on, giggling at the silly ones and smiling shyly at the other ones. I'm so thankful for the daddy he is to these three-- and can't wait to see him with our little one.
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Speaking of the little one, I'm 38 weeks pregnant. Every time I write how far along I am, I want to follow it up with "HOLY MOLY!" or at least a very emphatic "WHAT?!" The end of this pregnancy is coming, is suddenly upon us, any day now, and every day brings us so close to finally meeting our baby, to finally knowing the answer to "boy or girl??", to having four kids. I have so many mixed emotions these days, but mostly, I just can't wait to hold my baby and to fall in love with this little blessing.

I haven't taken any recent pregnancy pictures, but here is one from two weeks ago. Not too much has changed since then, except for my feet are now the size of small balloons and my ankles are huge. oh, the fun that the end of pregnancy brings!
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Jeremy bought me a spa package gift certificate for my birthday way back in January, and I finally used it a couple weeks ago. It was five hours where I padded around the quiet halls of a little tucked-away place in a huge bathrobe, going from room to room where I was pampered with such things like a facial and a pre-natal massage, a pedicure and a manicure. It was so sweet of him to do that for me, and thankfully my appointment came on a day when I really needed the time away and a bit of pampering. But by the end, the mommy guilt was setting in, and I felt horribly selfish... whixh made me wonder, why do we moms do that to ourselves? My husband wanted to give me this, it's something I never get to do, and it was a huge blessing. I decided I shouldn't feel guilty or selfish, and to simply be oh-so-thankful instead. :) and I am!
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It's things like my day at the spa that make me realize all over again how much God knows our needs, and how good He is even in the little things. As I look back over these past few busy months, and look ahead to what the next few months will bring, I think that's the thing that stands out to me in the midst of the happy memories as well as the hard days: God is good. Always, forever, no matter what is happening. I can't even count the ways in which He shows it, I simply stand in awe and thanks for what He has done and what He is doing all the time in this life of ours, from simple summer days at the spray park, to the wonder of new life and new beginnings.

our day in the magical kingdom

Friday last week at this time, we were in the midst of that most wonderful place, Disneyland. (I do realize I've been a horrible blogger lately, but do you see this?? It's only taken me ONE week to post about our trip! Not a month. Not six months. Not a year. ONE WEEK. That's got to be a record for me! heh.)

The last time we took our kids to Disneyland-- the one and only other time, actually-- was when I was pregnant with Rosalie and ohmygoodness, Emma and Annabelle looked like babies! It was so fun to take all three of our girls this time (especially since Rosalie was still free, woohoo!) and have an entirely new and different experience with them all. The only thing not different is that I was, once again, pregnant in Disneyland. I seriously think I've been to Disneyland pregnant more times than not. Just ask me what you CAN'T do there when you're pregnant-- I know!

Anyway. Prepare yourself, for I am about to bombard you with what is probably far too many pictures. (if you're my facebook friend, you've already seen these. but, come on, you know you want to see them again!)

The night before, with all three of them tucked into the cozy hotel bed, they were SO excited they could hardly sleep. Went to bed at 11:30, up by 6. Kids are crazy. I expected them all to be tired and dragging the next day, expected Rosalie to crash in her stroller at some point, but none of that. We had our tired moments, but considering the short night they had, I was so happy that they were all happy!

From the instant we walked onto Main Street the next morning and made our way back under the castle into FantasyLand, their faces were just LIT up, so joyful and excited and thrilled to be there.



This was Rosalie's first time at Disneyland, and I almost couldn't stand how cute she was, pointing everything out and smiling constantly. This kid kills me.

After the merry-go-round, it was time to take another spin... in the teacups!

Emma and Annabelle loved the teacups the last time, and it was no different this time. And Rosalie couldn't stop giggling as we spun round and round and round, all sliding into each other and getting dizzy. It was one of my favorites with these three too, I think!

When we got to the teacups, we noticed that one side of it and the pathways that led past it were roped off. Turns out that the show Modern Family was filming there. RIGHT THERE. Like twenty feet from us. Some of you out there are probably going "so?? who cares??" WE care! :) It's one of our favorite shows. HI-larious. The characters are amazing and quirky and so funny. So when were actually able to spot some of the stars only feet away from us, well, we got a little excited. (we don't see celebrities very often, you know.) But don't worry, we didn't turn into crazy weird stalker fans. I only snapped one teensy weensy discreet picture, just to prove that we were there and we saw them.

After the excitement of spinning teacups and celebrities, oh my, we headed off into calmer waters (ha! ha! sorry.) and took a ride on the jungle cruise. I'm pretty sure Rosalie thought 90% of everything in that jungle was real.
"Look, it's fell-e-phants!"


While we were there in Adventureland, my husband was kind enough to buy me one of the Dole pineapple soft-serve ice creams... oh my. It was good. I'd never had one before. But now I want more.  I snarfed that thing down.

Since we had park hopper tickets, we were able to head over into California Adventure for a few hours too, and the first thing we did there was to ride the new Ariel ride. So fun, so colorful. The kids (for the most part) loved it.
Right now, at the ages our kids are at, their favorite place in that park is the Bug's Land. We rode every single ride in Flik's Fun Fair, oh yes we did.
We went a-munching with Heimlich the caterpillar...


Daddy and Emma and Annabelle took a ride in Tuck and Roll...

we had MORE spinning fun on the scowling ladybugs...

and we flew up, up, up, and away in an animal cracker box!


Lots of smiles, lots of happiness, and absolutely no "scary" moments. Perfect.
We also took a trip through Monstropolis on the Monster's Inc. ride, because my kids adore that movie. At the end Roz (you know, the green oozy slimy monster who wears the glasses and is always onto Mike about his paperwork) is standing there to say different things to those getting off the ride, and she happened to tell us that we aren't allowed to take little monsters out of Monstropolis... at which statement Annabelle got very worried that we weren't going to be able to take Rosalie with us! Rosalie can be a little monster sometimes, so I understand her confusion. heh.

As we entered Disneyland again, Minnie and Mickey Mouse themselves were right there in the town square, practically waiting for us! I was SO excited, because I had been really hoping that we would get to see them, especially since it was Rosalie's first time and she loves all things Mickey Mouse.

Minnie was the first character she had been close to all day, and she actually hugged her! (I missed the moment by thismuch, unfortunately). However, after the hug, she decided she wanted nothing to do with these huge mice, or any other Disney character to follow. She would wave and smile and call out their names, but no hugs or pretty posing for pictures, thankyouverymuch.

Her sisters, thankfully, were more than happy to hug and to smile and to pose.

Rosalie looks terrified in this one. poor child.

While we were there we also got to see Ariel...

and Jasmine...

Princess Tiana...

Tigger!!!......

Eeyore!!! oh, I love Eeyore, he is the cutest thing ever.

The best part about watching my kids meet the characters they know and love is the look on their faces when they go in for that first hug. So precious.

We love Winnie the Pooh.

This picture makes me happy... all of us together and Winnie the Pooh too!


We were blessed by the fact that we didn't have to wait in line TOO much the day we were there... it was busy, but not overly so. Part of Disnyeland is the lines, though. The waiting and anticpating what's coming next, the people-watching while you stand there, the conversations you have with other folks who are just as excited as you to be there.

While the three girls and I stood in line for the princesses, a mentally challenged lady spent ten minutes talking to me about who her favorite princesses were and why, and how she HAD to be there at the parade later because Tinkerbell would be looking for her specifically. She was sweet.

More waiting in line, this time getting close to Pooh and friends!

Ready for our cruise around the world, and for the Small World song to become lodged in our heads semi-permanently.


Toon Town is another favorite place for the kids. They love just goofing around back there, playing in the characters' houses and being generally crazy.

Annabelle rode the Toon Town coaster with Daddy-- her very first roller coaster ride! and she loved it!

By this time, we were ready to sit down and take the train back to the other side of the park in time to watch the parade. I must admit, the parades are one of my favorite things, They're just so happy.
We found a pretty good spot and settled in (ah, it felt good to SIT) to eagerly wait for the start of it.




Unfortunately, right after I snapped this picture of Main Street all lit up, my camera battery completely died.

It's ok though, because after the parade, dinner, and the disappointment of a cancelled fireworks show (booooo), we were all ready to head back to the hotel and rest our tired feet and put some VERY tired girls to bed.

Next morning it was sleeping in, getting ready to go, checking out of our hotel, a very late breakfast where we happily talked about all of our fun the day before....


... and then on the road again, headed homeward.

I already miss Disneyland, and wish we could take our girls back! But I'm SO thankful and glad we got to have such a wonderful little family getaway, so chock-full of happy memories and fun.

oh Disneyland, you are always good to us. We can't wait to visit you again someday!