My baby is 8

I was remembering the other day when Gabe was first born. Holding that perfect little newborn in my arms, I couldn't imagine my baby being old enough to say those first words, take those first steps, go to kindergarten, let alone be in second grade. And then, practically in the blink of an eye, it happens. Your baby is 8 years old! 

Yes, to the mother of a newborn baby, 8 years old seems so very old. But believe me, those 8 years have flown by without warning. So cherish every minute, every hug, every kiss, every 'I love you mommy.' It all goes by so fast.

I plan to have a mini photo shoot with my eight-year-old, but I haven't had a chance as of yet. So, I'll instead share some photos from his eighth birthday party. 

Gabe had two of his closest friends over to spend the night for his birthday. They're all on the same football team, so following practice we loaded up the Yukon and headed to Planet X, our local indoor fun center. Here are the boys in the backseat on the way to Planet X...

Little brother Cooper got to tag along for the fun, which he loved, even when he was being given the bunny ears...

My husband has been to Planet X many times, as a substitute teacher and youth pastor, but this was my first experience. It was a lot of fun, with so many games to play. There was ski ball, which apparently, Jason and Cooper take very seriously...

And bumper cars...

Tons of video games...

And even mini-bowling...

We stayed away from the mini-golf, as Gabe is a bit of a curse with a golf club (thought you'd appreciate that Val! ha!) Yes, Valerie's son, Brayden (who is Gabe's bud since they were practically born) had a birthday party a few years back in which the kids played put-put golf. There was an incident with Gabe, a golf club and Brayden's head, which led to poor Brayden having to spend the rest of his birthday in the emergency room with a gushing head wound. Ouch! Hence, Gabe being a curse with a golf club. But I digress...

With the tickets the boys won from their play time at Planet X, they all chose vampire teeth. Aren't they a scary crew...(DO click on the photo to view it larger. Aren't they a hoot!)

The next morning, the boys awoke to birthday cake and donuts. Such a well-balanced breakfast, I know...

Not sure what prompted Gabe to break out in a ballad, but ya can't help but love him...

And lots of presents and fun... (and bare bellies?...)

I think it's safe to say that Gabe had an awesome eighth birthday! And mom didn't shed too many tears either. I just wish there was a way to stop my babies from growing up so fast! 

Happy birthday Gabe! We are so very proud to call you our son, and so very thankful for the heart God has given you. Go let that light shine and continue to be a blessing to others in your next eight wonderful years!

Gavin - 20 months old

Our youngest, Gavin, is 20-months-old this month. And I was thinking, I've never had a 20-month-old and NOT been pregnant with the next! Isn't that crazy! We're really messing up our kids-every-two-years schedule! ha!



But I don't think Gavin minds being mom's only 'little' one. He's such a happy little ham! He's always clapping, or dancing, or spinning in a circle. He's often saying, "Look!" and wanting me to follow him so that he can show me something he's discovered or done. He's very affectionate, and loves to snuggle and give hugs. And he's always giving me those huge puppy dog eyes...



Gavin, my little heart-breaker!

Iowa Pee Wee State Wrestling Tournament, 2011

“Once you’ve wrestled,
everything else in life is easy”
- Dan Gable

There is so much truth in the above quote. No, I’ve never wrestled. And neither has Jason. No, the closest I've come to wrestling experience is my brothers who wrestled, and my dad who was a referee. But watching our sons, Gabe, age 7, and Cooper, age 5, wrestle has shown both Jason and I that there is so much to be learned through the sport. There are life lessons to be gained through both the victories and defeats. There’s self-control, pride, hard work ethic, integrity, endurance. And there’s character to be built.

This past weekend, as Gabe and Cooper wrestled at the Iowa Super Pee Wee State Wrestling Tournament, I saw their strength of character shine through in so many ways. I saw the boys willingly shake hands with their opponents through their wins and losses. And I saw both boys take their wins with quiet humbleness, and their losses as a challenge to go out and win the next match.

Yes, even if wrestling is not your favorite sport to watch, you can’t help but appreciate the character built through every hard-fought match. And this past weekend was filled with hard-fought matches for our boys!

We really had no expectations going into the tourney except one: for the boys to do their best. That's always our one and only expectation with any sport they compete in. All we ask is that if they're going to do something, they do it to their best ability.

The weekend started on Saturday, with Cooper wrestling in the Kindergarten 42-pound bracket. This is Cooper’s first year of wrestling, and state was his sixth tournament ever. While the other tournaments Cooper has competed in have been relatively small tourneys where Cooper had 4-man round robin brackets, which means he would wrestle three matches per tournament, state was completely different. It's kind of a BIG deal...

{Look at all these boys getting ready to compete. The arena was packed!}


Cooper was placed in a 32-man bracket. With several first-round byes, Cooper was up against 24 other wrestlers all vying for a spot on the podium at the end of the day.

Cooper had a first-round bye, then ended up winning his next two matches both by very close margins. The first match was back and forth, and ended up tied at the end of the third period, placing him into overtime. Cooper managed to get the first take down to win the match. The next was also a very close match, where Cooper ended up scoring two points for the win with seconds left on the clock. It’s really hard to describe how emotionally draining it is watching your son out there on the mat. And the close matches are ten times worse!

{Cooper looking quite serious on the mat.}


But after two close wins, Cooper was in the semi-finals! He then lost his next match to the eventual state champion, but not without a fight. And following his next match where he got another win, Cooper was in the top four, wrestling his final match to determine who would win third place.

Cooper ended up losing his final match, but had nothing to feel bad about. He wrestled five tough matches, made his way into the top four out of 24 wrestlers, and got a fourth place state medal! In addition to placing at state, Cooper finished the 2010-2011 season with a record of 16 wins, 4 losses, and never got pinned. Pretty good for a kindergartner who was scared to even compete in a tournament until December! Click here to read about Cooper’s start to wrestling and very first tournament win.

{Cooper with his medal.}


{On the winner's podium, 4th place!}




One down, one to go.

Big brother Gabe wrestled on Sunday. This is the only Sunday tournament we’ve ever participated in because we normally don’t miss church for sporting events. But since Gabe was in the second grade division this year and they wrestled on Sunday, we made an exception since state is the culmination of all the hard work from throughout the season.

Gabe has wrested at state before as a kindergartner, but only had a few meets under his belt before he competed and was eliminated after two losses. Last year Gabe had planned on competing at state, but broke his arm only weeks before and was in a cast. After much waiting, Gabe finally had his second chance at competing at state.

He was placed in a 32-man bracket in the 58 pound weight class. But as with Cooper’s bracket the day before, there were several first-round byes, actually making it 22 boys in the bracket. Gabe’s first match, similar to his brother’s the day before, was way too close for mom’s comfort! It came down to the final seconds of the match, and Gabe ended up scoring to get the win, 6 to 5! Yes, he won by one point! Talk about almost sending his mom to the emergency room with a heart-attack! Yikes!

The next two matches, Gabe won handily. He got a pin the second match, and won by technical fall, 15 to 0, in the third match, which is where the match is stopped after you score 15 points on your opponent. Gabe was pumped!

Three wins, and now he’s in the semi-finals! He understood that if he got two more wins, he would be the state champion. Only two wins away, which I believe is one reason the next match came as such a hard loss to him.

Yes, he did lose.

Gabe lost that fourth match to last year’s state champion, and the eventual state champ again this year. And to make matters worse, Gabe got pinned. Gabe had set a goal at the beginning of the year to never get pinned, so this was a very hard loss.

{This photo shows a bit of how upset Gabe was as he is surrounded by his coaches...}


It took all I had to hold back the tears as I watched him get off the mat, red-faced and trying with all his might not to cry. He was devastated! And so the character building begins.

Because as much as we desire for our kids to win, they’re not always going to. There’s always going to be someone better out there, someone with just a little more experience or a little more talent or skill. We can’t win them all.

And after such a loss, there’s a choice to be made. We can either give up, throw in the towel and be defeated. Or we can choose to have strength of heart and come back with all we have for our next match. And I am proud to say that Gabe did the latter.

Gabe’s next match was wrestling for third place. The two were so evenly paired. Much of the match went without score. Then they each managed to score two. And by the end of the third period, with the score tied two to two, Gabe’s opponent managed to work his way around Gabe in the final seconds of the match and score another two to end the match. Again, Gabe was faced with defeat. And another hard loss.

{Gabe shaking hands with the opponent's coaches after a loss.}


But again, he came back to his final match determined to give it his all. And this time, it was enough. He did win that last match, 7 to 4, and earned 5th place on the state podium. And he earned the right to be proud of his strength of heart. Because when it would have been so easy to give up, he kept going. And with that, Gabe’s season ended with a record of 22 wins, 5 losses.

{Gabe, on the podium in 5th place.}



It’s funny because the boys don’t even understand what they’ve accomplished. For two boys used to wrestling in 4-man brackets where they’ve usually managed to take home first place, 4th and 5th place don’t seem like much. Maybe someday they’ll understand that fourth and fifth place out of 24 and 22 boys IS an accomplishment. But for now, Gabe is already talking about what he needs to work on to be first next year. What can I say, the boy has tenacity!

And they have both obtained valuable skills from hard wins and even harder losses that will take them places in life. They’ve both become boys of character. And of that, I couldn’t be more proud!

Ski Trip 2011

A few weeks ago, we went on our annual ski trip to Copper Mountain, Colorado.

Getting ready to leave is always a chore packing for four kids. But for some reason, it seemed especially challenging this year. Photo sessions needed to be finished editing and client orders needed to be placed before we could leave for our vacation. And that's just for my business. Add in shuttling the boys to wrestling practice, helping Jason with youth group activities calendars and all the other day-to-day to-do's, and I was in much need of a reprieve!

So, after driving all night long, barreling our way through a snow storm in the mountains, and getting the kids tucked in for a good night's sleep in actual beds instead of car seats, we were ready Sunday morning to start a wonderful week of skiing.

And wonderful it truly was!

In addition to our family, we had several friends with us this year, one of which just happens to be the family of our sons' best friends. So, needless to say, Gabe and Cooper had a blast sharing a room and beds with their best buddies, Brayden and Easton!

And then there was skiing together!

The boys all had a blast and were making their way down double black diamonds like nobody's business by the end of the week. Yes, there were several almost heart-attack moments for this mom, in case you were wondering. Our five-year-old is a dare-devil and likes to go fast. While going down a steep black diamond run early in the week, Cooper thought he'd go straight down instead of doing his turns as I'd just told him to do at the top of the run. So there I am, watching from behind as I see Cooper skiing straight down the mountain at supersonic speed. It looked as if he thought he'd zoom right by our friend, Jeff, but he instead barreled right into the back of his legs and they both went down. It was completely horrifying. I still wish that I would have somehow captured it on video, although I would have never wanted to watch it again myself.

Thankfully, both Cooper and Jeff escaped the incident unscathed, and it taught Cooper a valuable lesson to make sure you're under control while skiing. The rest of the week Coop skied without incident, and life was good!

So many stories I could share from our wonderful week, but I'll get on to sharing some photos...

This was Chloe's first year on the slopes. She was so excited, but a bit scared too. After getting over her fear of the lift, she did great. Here she is all bundled up. It was so very cold for most of the week...



Cooper lost his first tooth on the second day of skiing. He's so cute and proud with his missing tooth...


The lift below is very tricky, as you can see, because there's only a little bar you grab and place between your legs as it proceeds up the hill. You miss the bar, it's strike one. You fall down, it's strike two and you're out...they only give you two chances to get 'on' the lift. It was the boys' first time on this lift, and they all made it on the first try with flying colors!{From top to bottom: Me, Cooper Gabe, Brayden and Alex, going up the lift. Jason was in back with the camera.}


At the top there is this sign to remind you that the stick you were just holding on to can be brutal if you allow them to then hit you...


At the top of the lift, you literally feel like you're on top of the world! At the very least, on the top of a very big mountain! Here's Gabe, Cooper and Brayden taking in the view...


We had to ski down this to get down from the top of the mountain. Very steep stuff! We didn't tell the boys until they got down, but this was their very first double black diamond run...


The run is so steep, and so full of fresh powder, that even veterans like Jason's dad fall down sometimes. And Dwight, this is payback for last year's tree run incident...you remember, a certain photo of me {and my behind} trying to work my way up from an run-in {literally} with a tree. That was a nice photo, but I like these couple better...



And to be fair, Dwight wasn't the only one who fell on this run. Here's our friend Alex on the ground, as Cooper and Gabe watch...


Here's the boys at the bottom of the run, with the huge mountain in the background being where they just skied down from. What studs...


Some of our crew on the lift...


A BIG thank you to Jason's mom, Grandma Sanders, who volunteered to again go along on the trip and watch kiddos so that I could ski! I think the kids and Bonnie both had fun watching the slopes from the nice warm condo...


I love this one of Easton and Cooper playing the DSi's on the floor. They were so into gaming, they didn't even realize I was there...


But Nolan did! He quickly grabbed his little laptop and posed for me like the big boys...


Speaking of Nolan, his personal mission throughout the week was to help take care of Gavin. Hey, he's older than Gavin, so why not! ha! But Gavin wasn't always so keen on the idea. Love this photo below. Gavin: Mom, stop taking pictures and help a guy out already!


Our friend, Joanna, playing princesses with Chloe...


Our little Dare Devil, Gabe, doing a jump on the terrain park...


You don't have to look long to see who Gabe takes after. Here's Jason doing a jump...


Here's our friends during an impromptu photo session...

This family went with us four years ago, and they had their truck stolen on the way out in Denver. Seriously, their truck was stolen along with all their belongings! No wonder it took four years for them to work up the bravery to try it again! We are so thankful they came along, and so happy it was a MUCH better trip!

Here's all the kid skiers from our group. Left to right, Chloe, Gabe, Brayden, Cooper and Easton...


And our family, minus Gavin...


Our Dew Run crew...


And what's a Dew Run without the Dew...


And we can't forget some gorgeous scenery...








Photo overload, I know. And this was just a small portion! What a blessed trip!

Chloe + Valentine's Day = Love

My heart overflows when I'm with this girl of mine...



I think besides the candy they get, the boys could take or leave Valentine's Day. But Chloe, she was sooo looking forward to valentine's day so that she could "love on all my friends," as she said. When I told her that she didn't have to wait for valentine's day to do that, she told me, "Yes, but the candy shows my love that much more!"

I just want to squeeze that little giggly face...



Chloe was so looking forward to Valentine's Day that she even made this necklace to wear for the big day using a kit I bought at a local craft store... {Owl Be Yours}



In addition to buying mom flowers this year, her daddy also brought her some flowers. Perfect little red tulips. Chloe politely said, "Oh thank you, Daddy! They're beautiful," and gave one of the tulips a little hug.



Oh how I love her...

15 years

Fifteen years ago on Valentine's Day, my valentine asked me to be his. I was a junior in high school, and Jason was a senior.We went to see a movie, 'Twelve Monkeys' featuring Brad Pitt...strange movie is all I can say. And we went to a matinee to save money. Looking back, this was a first glimpse into the person Jason is...cheap, er I mean fiscally conservative.

Then we proceeded to eat at the Applebee's, where my all-too-comfortable date not only licked his own plate clean (and yes, I mean literally licked his plate,) but he also ate the half of my meal that I couldn't. Charming, I know. The fact that he actually licked his plate on our first date in the middle of a restaurant and I found this to be cute (at the time) really shows that ours was a match made by the Lord. Thankfully, Jason's manners have come a long way in fifteen years, as has our life together. Yes, he continues to eat my leftovers but no longer licks the plate, ha!

We continued dating through high school and college, married in 2000, and now have four children. Where does the time go? Really, the rate at which our days, weeks and months have been passing by lately has me in a bit of a panic. I don't want it to go by too fast. I don't want to blink and have my kids grown and out of the house. I don't want to turn my head and find that I've missed the days that only come once in a lifetime, that I've missed out on all the little blessings God has given us. Blessings like a husband who loves the Lord with all his heart, loves ALL of God's people and possesses a passion to share Christ with them. A husband who is thoughtful, caring, kind, strives to see the best in people, and sees the best in me, even when I may not believe in myself. A husband who holds my hand as we send child by child off to school for the first time and this sensitive mama cries the day away. A husband who encourages me to achieve more than I could have ever imagined, and reminds me that it's all for Christ's sake.

Who am I that I have been so blessed?

No, I don't want to wish any of these blessed days away, for I can see that they pass by fast enough on their own. I pray that as we celebrate this Valentine's Day, the Lord would help me to cherish every moment and always strive for more passion and love that can only come from Him. I pray that He would continue to mold me into the best wife that I can be, and that I would allow Him to do so. And I pray that our children would see in their mom and dad that a love formed by the Lord is one to strive for.

Jason and I have been through a lot. We've grown up together in a way, as we've now spent nearly half our lives together. We've grown in our faith, we've grown in our relationship with each other, we've grown as parents and as friends. We've experienced life together, traveled together, served the Lord together, and learned how to do so many things together. And my valentine taught me how to ski so many years ago, just recently returning from our tenth ski trip together where we worked together to teach our three-year-old daughter how to ski as she laughed and cried down the mountain. (She's soooo like her mama in some ways!)

Yes, life is full of so many memories and so many of mine are filled with you, my valentine. And for that, I am forever thankful.