//Aria Evelyn//

Sorry for being quiet over here in this little space. 

Things have been anything but quiet in our little home as this little lady made her arrival the day before her due date. 

On November 19th we welcomed our sweet little girl into the world.

At 8lbs 2oz we are in love. (Although shes closer to 10lbs now and over a month old - oops!)

She was 20.5 inches long & has the most kissable chubby cheeks you've ever seen! 

Not sure if this space will go private again honestly and just become a space for me to update family. We haven't fully figured out what to do with sharing pictures of her. 

It's been a little bit of a rough transition as I was diagnosed with postnatal anxiety a few weeks after she was born. But with lots of support from family and friends things are slowly improving.

We would appreciate your prayers though as we recover & adjust to being a family of 3.

Much Love,

Lisa

We've been keeping a secret......It's a......

Sorry I've been so absent. There's been a bunch going on haha!

Hopefully more to come soon.....

From Our Little Family to Yours.

We hope you have had an amazing Christmas this year. 

We pray that you know just how loved you are, by the one who sent His son this very day all those years ago. 

Born into this world to redeem us. 

Happy Birthday Jesus! 

We are so thankful for the best gift we could ever have been given! 

Love & Respect in the Family By Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

I read a lot of books. And since I have been down with a cold the past two weeks (maybe its just the crazy weather), I had a bunch of time to review yet another book through BookLook (previously BookSneeze). This title immediately grabbed my attention. I read the book Love & Respect which is written for the marriage relationship, it helped us understand a lot of our communication issues and shed a huge amount of light on why we were offending each other so much in the first couple years of our marriage. 

So when I saw this new title by the same author on a similar idea for the family, I totally grabbed it. I read parenting books fairly regularly, hopefully someday they will come in handy for us personally, but I also work with children and have done for several years now. 

I loved it, honestly. Dr. Eggerichs talked again about the love and respect principle and how it relates in a parent child relationship this time. He uses biblical wisdom and scripture to tackle common problems within the family unit and how children and parents can get into a crazy cycle where no-one feels loved or respected. It was very practical and approached a whole range of topics including discipline, encouragement, supplication, giving, understanding and instructing. I know it is going to be a great resource for years to come for me personally. 

I loved his emphasis on the fact that children are not a reflection of their parents. The mom in the grocery store with three screaming children is not a failure because she can't stop her toddler's tantrums. Children are humans and they make their own decisions. He talked a lot about what it means to parent unto Christ. How to raise children and see as doing the Lord's work, but not getting caught up in the idea that only good parents have good kids. 

It was easy to read as well with shorter chapters, making it my go-to for nighttime reading for a few weeks. It was helpful to me, although perhaps you mommies with more experience may know a lot of what was in here. But either way I thought he gave some great ideas to think about and practical ways to implement them, a refresher on truths about parenting and scripture interspersed throughout to show His ideas were completely biblical. 

I think its a great one to add to my list of biblical parenting books. 

Have you guys read any great books lately?? 

Christmas.

Sorry it took me a few days to write about our Christmas, we have just been enjoying a few days to ourselves. Working on projects that have sat for too long, watching movies and just being together. 
We had a pretty quiet Christmas Day which was exactly what we needed. It worked out perfectly in that way after going skiing at the beginning of the week. 
Just us enjoying each other's company on Christmas morning. Starting out the day slowly, taking it all in, reading the Scriptures together. Enjoying a small celebration together. 
Pretty perfect really. 


Probably much like the first Christmas was when I sat and thought about it. (little rabbit trail) 
Just Mary & Joseph and their sweet new baby. I wonder if they thought about how everything would change from that day on. How much that baby meant to the world, even if the world didn't recognize Him. 

In the afternoon we headed to my sister's house where we skyped my parents all together. Which was fun! Then the four of us headed to A's extended family Christmas celebration. So it was a great balance of our own family just being, and seeing the wider family and enjoying each other's company. 



I also got a fisheye lens for Christmas from my sweet hubby this year. So I had great fun playing with it all day. Now I just need to learn how to properly use it haha! 

Hope you guys had a great Christmas! White Elephant with 50+ people has to be one of my highlights. 

How our Christmas Week Started.

Merry Christmas Friends! 

Hope you had a great celebration and were able to take some time to step back and remember the hope we have in the birth of our Savior. 

We were blessed this year despite our change in plans which I shared about previously, just to spend time with our extended family and my sister & brother in law on Christmas day.

Today we also went with my hubby's cousins to watch the 2nd installment of the Hobbit.

God is good, even when plans change & things aren't as we thought they would be.

So.....in summary, we started Christmas week off with a ski trip. 

I can't believe this hottie chose me to spend winters with him for the rest of my life.

Where Thousands of Cranes can be seen at Sunset.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends! 

I hope each of you was able to spend a few days with your loved ones, whether your actual biological family or adopted family =) 
We had a great time with a mixture of both and traveled to a neighboring state where we were able to spend time together enjoying each other's company after not seeing each other for quite a while. Then in the afternoon we all went on a hike to see about 10,000 cranes as they came into a marshy wetland for the night. 
It was pretty spectacular, and such a beautiful sunset. 
We arrived home yesterday to celebrate again today with my hubby's extended family.
Hoping you have all had a wonderful opportunity to sit and be still for a few days cultivating an attitude of thankfulness before we dive headfirst into the Christmas season. 
There are so many things to be thankful for, even when life is in a tough season.

My beautiful sister and her hubby. They are such a riot. So silly.
We had a blast with so many siblings and family. 

As much fun as we had together, it was pretty cold. But in my opinion the mile hike to see all the cranes making their beds in the marshy wetlands was so worth it. I have never seen anything like it.

It was similar to being at an airport watching planes come in at night in their arrow formations. From every single direction you look. I won't forget the noise thousands of cranes make in a hurry. 

We also found that almost all the girls wore the same kind of shoes totally without meaning to. 

Who doesn't choose fur-lined Uggs when you know its going to be cold. Or at least Ugg style, since most of ours were imitation. 

Setting out to see the cranes & the gorgeous sunset, we saw the sun peeking through the trees.

So pretty.

Praying that whatever is going on in this season of your life friend, you know there is always hope.

And you are so very loved. 

//The Dream//

{Via}

This.

Such a picture of heaven to me.

Of redemption & adoption.

Of how heaven will one day look.

Where physical appearance is irrelevant.

We are family.

This is my dream.

My someday.

What I am praying for. 

This post is part of my 31 day series for the month of October, 
fighting through the fears and sharing the confusing passions I have. 
Hoping to figure out the bigger picture of all these interests.

Summer Photo Drop. [Blueberry Picking with the Sisters]

 Somewhere along the way we seemed to have created some family traditions. Like blueberry picking every summer. Remember that time we picked 25lbs!!!

This year I am super excited to have bought a tripod with my birthday amazon giftcard.

Meaning I can practice shots like these:

Do these thrill anyone else or just me???

That might have been the only Summer storm I loved. 

Usually you can find me burying my head underneath the covers shaking like a baby.

Celebrating the 4th in Pictures.