Happy Birthday Geysin

Clearly, Thomas hasn't learned this song yet while Jacob can sing it while barely paying attention. We love you Grayson and can't wait to see you SOON!

Ordination!

Pretty sure I don't need to explain (and won't right now due to crazy packing and whatnot)!

Thomas and Cousin Dani before the service

Didi and Jacob being acolytes together<3

Luke wrangling in Thomas the wanderer.

Daniel and Bishop Talmage

Laying of Hands (by other clergy)

Megan became Thomas' best girlfriend in Berkeley (Eric -Jacob's BFF- was part of the graduating PLTS crew); this is where he wandered numerous times during the service.

Pastor Daniel Pugh!

Wahoo for Steven being here!

Just a quick check-in. In the past week: 

Yaya and Didi came to visit Berkeley.

Jacob had his last day of school at Mustard Seed preschool. (blue shirt getting hugged)

 

Daniel (and KD and others) graduated from Seminary with his Master of Divinity (and I'm hoping to get the better pictures soon. woof).

Daniel received a call from Augsburg Lutheran Church in Winston-Salem, NC beginning June 15th!

Jacob left Berkeley with Yaya and Didi to avoid the boredom and the overwhelming component of packing up his life.

Thomas and we parents packed and cleaned with the help of our sweet friends (definitely loads of Thomas love and cleaning assistance from KD, John, and their parents).

Wednesday at 1pm, we drove away from Berkeley and our incredible community. tears.

Thursday, just in time for dinner, we made it to Phoenix where Jacob treated us like he'd only been gone for an hour! Earlier, Tally and baby Dani (cousin who is 6 wks younger than Thomas) arrived and Jacob was already in love with this baby girl (thank you Rosie Roberts and Roman Worzala Dumke for teaching Jacob how to appropriately love on baby girls).

Saturday, Steven Fuller has arrived and everyone is getting excited because...

Sunday, Daniel gets ordained!!

Crazy. Emotional. Our children our incredible as are the people who keep loving us and helping us- from those helping us leave in berkeley, those helping us transition while here in Phoenix, and those ready to help-us adjust to life back in NC.

May!

This month marks the end of our West Coast adventure. Or, rather, the "sun is setting on our time here in California". Really, I just wanted to share what the huge moon looked like from our front porch.

Our kids have never been residents of the East coast....and certainly can't describe themselves as southerners. 

As excited, nay 'bursting from the seams with anticipation and possibilities', as we all are, this transition is going to be accompanied with some painful change, loss, and certainly tears. 

Fortunately, the seminary life has been good at teaching us all to anticipate change, embrace the good while learning from undesirable, and celebrate the now. 

So, we've been enjoying our friends, our gorgeous weather, and incredible community! (Thomas sat on this drum box and kicked/drummed along with music for over 30 minutes- without any smiling. Such the serious boy, but he loved it and stubbornly refused to get off despite numerous opportunities.) 

Daniel and I got to attend the Banquet for those graduating this month; our first date since leaving NC in January...yikes. I suppose that's the first blog post with my lack of hair? I cut if all off with our friends KD and John (parentals of Roman) for locks-of-love; the cut is horrible but it grows back and curly hair hides a lot!

There are many more memories to be made while we're here and we're doing the best we can to be intentional about our time.

This weekend, we'll be flying as a family to NC to meet people at a church that is very interested in having Daniel as their Associate Pastor. So, with all there is left to do with our short time left here, we've begun deconstructing our lives a bit...beginning with the bunk beds. Now, the boys have mattresses side by side. No worries, we cleaned up all the books before bedtime!

"Party Time, Excellent"

Per usual, our camera was MIA during most of Jacob's party (which was really a party for Jacob, and friends Olyver (turning 2) and our beloved Roman (turning 1). SO, thank you Casey for the pictures!

It was great fun with fantastic weather, as can be seen by the aerial view- check out those balloons!

And certainly a proud picture of Jacob eating bacon and a hot dog. Not only does that make most people want to throw-up just a little....it also makes this RD want to to cry a bit. But, it was his party....

Jacob decided about 2 months ago that he would like to have 3 angry bird cakes for his party; 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue. So, we made the red from cookie, the yellow was rice krispie treat, and though hard to see, Jacob's was a blue angry bird chocolate cake mound.

It's also easy to forget how exhausting parties can be- even for big 4 year olds.

Pacific coast fun

This past weekend Daniel as out of town (possibly exciting life changes are firming up!), we decided we needed a beach day. So, the boys, our sweet ladies KD and Roman, and I all headed to the beach and had a blast.

Though Jacob initially didn't like sand sticking anywhere- those who know him know he is rather particular ie. dislike for for feeling dirty. Clearly, he overcame that. He may still have sand in his ears. 

Roman seemed to love with the texture of sand on her feet, in her mouth (delicious), and seemed to have a blast chilling with the boys. Our little girlfriend even took some steps out there on that uneven sand!

And then there is Thomas. I have never seen a child face the ocean, sand, and general experience with such an utter lack of concern. There are only a few pictures of Thomas experiencing the beach because if I had the camera out instead of chasing him down, he would be in the freezing waters of the Pacific. Truly, he is in complete love with the ocean. He only left willingly because some bug (we think) stung his foot. As a side note; has anyone even been stung, experienced some sweeling and redness followed by intense bruising for the next few days?

The day before Daniel's departure, we returned to our beloved Zoo in Oakland. Here are the boys looking for the sea otters. They're both getting huge.

I believe there's a similar picture of Jacob from when we lived here years ago...except now he's a big boy!

Birthday Montage

Jacob got spoiled on his birthday with all kinds of goodies and love from family all over the country. We did our best to record each gift opening 'session' (we spaced them out throughout the entire day) in hopes of sharing his joy via blog with the gift-givers. Here's a taste of his silliness and sweet joy!