Five!

This Saturday we are celebrating my son Miles's fifth birthday!  The days are long, but the years are oh so short.  I cannot believe five years have passed already.   He is catching up more and more with his peers and that makes me happy.   He is unbelievably coordinated and intelligent.  He is loving and tender-hearted and still loves to cuddle.  He builds really elaborate set ups between his marble run and his Angry Birds game.  I feel that he is really engineer-minded, much like his Uncle Jared and Grandpa Mark.   He loves to follow around and copy his big sister and I think that is about the sweetest thing to watch (although at 7, she doesn't find it so endearing!).

His actual birthday is on Monday and I think I'll make cupcakes for his preschool class.  I always, always pictured myself having a little boy and I'm so glad God blessed me with Miles. 

Birthday # 30!!

I can't believe in just over one month I'll be turning 30!  I've seen a lot of my friends on Facebook mourn their 30th birthday and that makes me sad.  This is a time on life where you become sure about who you are and where your place in this world is.  30 is going to be a time for me to make a difference! 

On that note, I've started a campaign to raise money for the International Justice Mission.  Here is my campaign link!

http://ijmfreedommaker.org/account/508/Jamie-Arendes

Also, I'll be participating in The Birthday Project!  Here is a link to what that's all about!
http://www.thebdayproject.com/


Life is beautiful people, let's celebrate it with compassion and kindness.  30, can't wait to rise up and meet you!

Coming up for air

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last wrote here!  Ahron came home March 1st, he had a week off in which we all got sick.  Not the dream family time I'd imagined it was going to be but c'est la vie. 

He then began his shore duty assignment which took some adjusting to, as starting any new job would.  New places, new faces for him.  New workload. 

As for myself I've been busy with spring activities and conferences, getting my landscaping plans in order and trying to keep up a very full house between all of the cleaning and cooking and mothering.  Being a stay at home parent is no joke!  I'd probably get a lot more accomplished if I wasn't on Facebook and Pinterest half of the time. 

I've also noticed I need to stop eating so much crap junk food and start working out more.  Having Ahron home means we go out to eat more.  So I've made a commitment to cut out fast food, soda and candy for the time being until I can get on a better work out schedule. 

The weather here so far has completely been awful this spring but I'll take what little sunshine we can get and use it wisely.   All in all, I'm feeling really blessed and starting to breathe a bit more.  Having my best friend at my side, well, we are definitely stronger together. 

This weekend we'll be spending Easter at home in Yakima and I'm looking forward to it!