our own pink ABCs

After eyeing this poster month after month in the Land of Nod catalog, I finally decided to just make one myself. Instead of spending $99 plus shipping to get one, I went about making my own. Not only was I then able to choose my own font, color and frame, but it was staggeringly cheaper doing it myself. I actually found the frame almost two years ago. I bought it on some super sale at Michael's at the time, and since it was comprised of "letterpress letters", I couldn't resist. I put four coats of white spray paint on it, and voila! It was the perfect frame for this project.

I considered silkscreening it using our screen at home, but decided to take the much easier route of simply making it in InDesign and printing it off our own computer. (If you don't have a tabloid printer, it costs less than $2 to print a color tabloid-size poster at Fedex Office. And if you don't have InDesign, you could also just type it into a Word document.)

And yes, it is pink. A deep coral color, to be exact. I have gone off the deep end with pink since having yet another girl. It's completely taken over my design judgment. But Bentley loves inviting friends into her "pink room," so that's all that matters now.

babies galore!

I love that I am getting calls left and right to borrow maternity clothes. It seems apropos to have just celebrated Easter with all this new life coming into the world. And with each new baby shower invite, it gives me an excuse to bust out my sewing machine and try something new. A dear friend of mine gave me some handmade burp cloths at my baby shower which prompted me to try the idea myself. I have also been having fun appliquéing onesies. There's a boy, a girl, another girl, an unknown, and a 'just-found-out'. I love it!

our church body in Tacoma

Here is a small video vignette of one of our elders, Jeff, talking about our church body's heart for Tacoma and what it looks like to live as Christ did in our city.

Drew and I co-lead a Missional Community, which Jeff and others refer to in this video. We are reminded that we don't just go to church on Sundays, but are the Church daily.

How does living life with this lens affect our relationships with neighbors, with people we happen to meet and with our own friends and family? While God calls us to be Holy as He is Holy, we will fall short until all will be made perfect in heaven. However, how do we, as the body, reflect Christ in this broken world now? For me, it is daily realizing that this life is a gift, it is not my own, but it is to be stewarded well; as a wife, mother, daughter, friend, neighbor. Living for Christ and not my own self, should always affect how I love others, live daily, how I spend the resources God gave us, share our home and time each day.

Enjoy this little snippet into the Family Drew and I feel led to be a part of, that helps lead us to love Christ and others well.

Soma Communities - Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

one, two, three.... months!

Our Miss Emery Anne turned three months Monday.
(I believe it is the same onesie - you can see it stretching with each consecutive month!)

1st haircut

When Bentley was much younger, people used to ask me if I had cut her hair. It curled around her head in perfectly sweet wisps. These perfect sweet wisps turned into a seemingly untamable feathery crazy mane. I would always try tame it with pigtails, braids or a ponytail. I tried watering it down, but eventually it would dry and feather up.

So our dear neighbor, Kaeli, came over and evened out Bentley's hair. While it still maintains its personality, it looks a bit more manicured.

"It's a triangle mommy!"

"It's a triangle, mommy!" Bentley cried from the dining room. To be honest, I expected to see just scribbles, but when I looked at her little chalkboard, sure enough, she had drawn a triangle and colored it in! She drew another and then graciously pointed them out to me so I could take a photo.

easter sunday

a risen Lord.

finding eggs.

family gathered.

market tulips.

joyful smiles.

bubbles in the rain.

story-time.

mimosas.

blessing.

Handmade Bentley and Emery dolls from mommy. I used these as inspiration.

There were "better" photos, but this one makes me smile.

Bubbles with daddy.

Carrying on the tradition of finding coins in our eggs.

Tulips from the brother from Pike Place Market.

Emery likes her Uncle Josh.

Story-time with daddy.

the "Local" bartender

My brother was recently featured as bartender of the week in Seattle Weekly.

photo: Julien Perry

The article was well-written, communicated his personality well with selected quotes and even gave him a public platform to naturally plug his non-profit start-up.

Proud sister.

spring

generations

My mother and I, along with my two daughters (Bentley Brooke 2 1/2 years-old and Emery Anne, 2 months old) left on a road trip to California just over two weeks ago to visit my grandparents, father, brother and his family as well.

To watch my grandmother and grandfather enjoy time with their great granddaughters gave me joyful moments of reliving my childhood memories of visiting them. From the fresh orange juice we made from the oranges we picked in their backyard to pancake mornings and putting together pieces of the handmade puzzle made by my grandfather; to riding a tricycle around the cul-de-sac and trying on my grandmother's shoes, I was overjoyed watching them now enjoy these simple moments and the grandparents that I was in awe of as a kid.

I will post more anecdotes and photos from the trip soon.