Holding onto Tradition

A few weekends ago we gathered at my parents to celebrate my brother Ryan's birthday and do our annual pumpkin carving. It's a fun, messy tradition that I look forward to every year. When Rocky and I started our family we knew we wanted to have special traditions that our kids could look forward to each year.  Pumpkin carving, the Christmas tree farm, books and matching pj's on Christmas Eve....and the list goes on.

Over the years as our little family has grown into a biggish family those traditions have felt harder and harder to keep. At times we've had to modify because of kids' schedules or our commitments. Other times it has simply felt exhausting trying to keep up with all the traditions so we've let some slip. And some years the kids just don't need new pj's.

But last week spending the day at my parents with my sister and brother and their beautiful families reminded me how important it is to hold onto our traditions. These kids of ours are growing at lightning speed and as they get older I want them to have these memories. I want them to look back and talk about the funny and sweet moments together.

Just as we started to get prepped for carving the wind picked up something fierce and the kids made a beeline for the door to run wild and catch leaves. Shoes were optional.

My sister reminded me of when we were little we would stand in the front yard of our old house and wait for the wind to bring gusts of leaves over the roof of our house. We would run all over that front yard trying to catch leaves in mid-flight. 

The gap of years between our kids truly is a gift. 

It was not our plan to have 11 years separating oldest and youngest but I can now say how thankful I am for the space. Seeing how quickly my bigs are growing helps me appreciate so much more this time.  The evidence of speed sits in the driver's seat of my mini van. Time flies. 

I don't know that we can slow it down. Or that we can change much with our agendas but I do know I want to embrace these moments and soak it all up. 

In the crazy busyness I want us to keep the traditions and make room for the moments.

Because I know that's what will stick with our kids. Carving pumpkins, chasing leaves and laughing until their bellies hurt. 

And whether they need them or not...there will be 

matching pj's this year.

Ferry Riding [Summer Traditions]

For four years now we've had this tradition of taking the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle on a sunny, summer evening. It started as a spontaneous little trip (check out how little they were here) and has now become a summer must do. 

It was another fun ferry trip and one more check on the summer list. We're trying to fit as much in as we can in the next two weeks. I'm quite positive that each summer seems to go a little quicker than the last so we must soak up every last minute.

Sending our Love

Sending our love all the way to Ethiopia. Celebrating a birthday and the mother that gave life. 

And praying that he will understand how deeply he was loved.

                                 That he is loved.

Pumpkin Pickin'

 

 

Oh, what fun it is introducing Z to all the firsts.

I love that he seems to be enjoying the beauty of this season as much as I do.

 

We hit the pumpkin patch today. Well, more like the produce stand but it's just perfect for us. 

Jojo-always the clown.

I just might have to frame this one in the middle.

 





 

And this goof ball did NOT want to stop for 2 seconds for a picture. Hence the crazy eyes.

I can't imagine our family without this little one.

I am so thankful for the firsts we get to share with him.

 



 

Wouldn't trade one minute of this crazy, loud life. Love these monkeys.

 



Date Night

Saturday was the annual Valentine Father/Daughter dance. Our girls look forward to this all year long and love having a night of dancing and dinner with their daddy. Sam was feeling like a homebody this year {come to think of it, he does every year} so we stuffed ourselves on take-out and slices of pie from The Pie Goddess. The best pie in WA, I'm sure! My favorite time of the evening is when the girls get home and they are bubbling over with all the details of the dance. Best line of the night...."Ava's dad had really good moves so I just hung out with him"...Amelia. So apparently the future Mr. Amelia will need to have some smooth moves to keep this girl interested!

a little bit of Christmas randomness

Geesh, I got through giving thanks (not that we're ever done giving thanks) and just completely neglected documenting any of our Advent season. In my defense, we were hit like a freight train with the stomach bug this past week and I literally feel like I lost a week of my life. Between cleaning up, washing loads and loads of laundry and being sick myself I'm feeling so behind in every area of life. Thank goodness for a husband who does just as much around the house as I do-especially laundry.

The first Sunday of Advent we had a small group from our church gather at a local retirement center to carol and visit with the residents. It was a sweet time and I enjoyed every minute of chatting with the lovely women. I promise we will go back. I promised them we would be back. I have so many regrets that I didn't spend more time with my grandparents when they were in these same living environments. Maggie has such a heart for elderly and truly desires to spend time with them. So a promise was made to her too, yes we will go back.

 Next up, getting our tree. We broke tradition this year and just visited the produce stand down the road to get a pre-cut number. I'm a traditions girl but sometimes practical and time-saving trumps tradition. We looked ahead at our calendar and realized it was today or not for another week so with Sam fresh from the dentist with two pulled teeth we set out for our tree. I think it took us a quarter of the time it usually takes us to find the perfect tree.

This picture cracks me up for so many reasons. #1 it's not even the tree we ended up buying #2 Josie was in my arms because she was having nothing to do with the photo op, so once again it looks like we only have three children #3 Millie is totally sportin' some Kindergarten attitude #4 Maggie has the tween, hand on the hip pose and #5 the funniest of all, we kept telling Sam to smile natural and quit doing funny things with his lower lip when he finally reminded us that he couldn't actually feel his  lower lip. Poor guy was still totally numb from the dentist! This is one for the memory book!

What would the Christmas countdown be without the gingerbread house? Loved that my cute little egg crate got another use! The kids and I agreed that next year we'll have our own candy stash to munch on while decorating. While the Costco all-ready-assembled kit is great, the candy is rock hard.

Totally random, but I had to post a picture of something I made from Pinterest. FINALLY, I completed a project!

Our Chistmas Pageant was this past weekend and this Mary, Joseph and baby were just the sweetest. Maggie Lu was the only one of our kiddos in attendance at the program as Sam has outgrown the cast, Millie was still home sick with the flu and guess who didn't want to wear her sheep costume? Seeing a pattern with this three year old?

One last picture, if you're still hanging with me. Sam took this. For his Fine Arts portion of school he wanted to try Photography. Okay, let's be honest here. He really didn't want to try anything that had to do with arts but after he saw his other options, photography didn't seem so bad. Today was the first afternoon he played around with the camera. It was freezing out so we didn't spend a whole of time exploring but I have to say it was so fun to see him get excited and actually look for some artistic shots. He said he really liked how the red looked laying against the dark leaves. I'm looking forward to learning along with him and just maybe he can add photography to his list of hobbies and interests someday!

I'm looking forward to the rest of this Advent season and hopeful that we can slow it down just a bit. The last couple years we've tried to be so much more intentional about the season. I will be the first to admit that for years we have celebrated the season slave to the consumerism and materialism that surrounds us. It's hard not to. We have a long way to go but I pray that we are giving our kids the true message. Jesus came to love and to give of Himself. He came to serve others and that's how I want our family to live. We're looking for those opportunities and even if they come in small gestures I'm hopeful that in the process we are transformed and others might be blessed.

I promised Sam I'd be in bed by 11:00 pm....oops, time to call it a night!