Hi handsome! I started talking about writing Ezekiel's 2 year blog post and you were asking if I wrote notes to you too and I was like, "oooops..." well here we are 2 years after the last love note I wrote you, which was right before Ezekiel was born. We now have a 4th child too hahaha. Life just hasn't slowed down the past few years. Ezekiel was a WILD child- climbing everywhere and getting into everything. We had to gate our yard, childproof our refrigerator and fireplace, take away all the dining room chairs, etc. when we never had to do any of that for the girls. And as soon as he started to slow down even a little, the Lord literally dropped an adoption in our laps. What a story that is- and what a privilege and honor to get to walk that story alongside you! Anyway, all that to say that this love note is LONG overdue! Oh yeah...we also went through a worldwide "pandemic" last year so that was crazy too. So glad I didn't have to "social distance" or quarantine from you- in fact, we got to be mighty cozy and actually enjoyed a little extra family time Spring 2020 as classes were all cancelled during what is normally your busiest season. You have recently gotten really into disc golfing- like have several baskets in our back yard, dye your own discs, are trying to get a legit course set up on our property, want to spend all your free time playing, entering tournaments type of into it... it has been fun to see! You have really been getting in shape which is also fun to watch. Parenthood can take all of your time if you let it and you have been doing such a good job finding balance. Golf took too much time, painting figurines was too time consuming in the evenings, rubix cube got boring, disc golf it is! and i am here for it. The 3 big kids all spent the night at Grandma Sandee's last week (Zeke's first time!) and we actually got a night "off" with just Eleanor and we went disc golfing together and it was so fun to go walking in the sunshine and dive into some deeper conversations. We sure needed the time to chat as our last "getaway" was taken up by the birth of Eleanor haha but amazing to see the Lord's provision as that was literally the best timing for her! We chatted about passive income and the disc golf course and our new house plans. Gosh our new house plans... we still haven't even broken ground on it and it has been a literal thorn in my side, but I think the Lord used it to position us right where we needed to be for sweet Ellie to drop in our laps. But I am so excited to see it all start to move forward. We have been homeschooling for 2 years now and it has been a journey- I am excited for Junie to start kindergarten next year too and to maybe make it a little more formal than what we have going on right now which is basically nothing but survival mode ha. What a journey these past 2 years have been. In this season, we wake at 7 to hungry kids and chores. You typically start responding to emails from your phone before we have even had coffee... (side note on coffee, you bought me an actual coffee maker with all the plastic to make this season slightly less chaotic and it was amazing for 3 months until I dropped it and glass went everywhere ha) You are working a ton and even before Spring golf stuff started, you were working on Global Gap stuff like crazy! I have been trying to make food and keep a clean house and manage social events and homeschool and going crazy basically. It has been a lot. A lot of days, you get home to a disaster, a cranky wife, and needy kids. By the time we get the 3 bigs to bed, it is about 8pm and then we still have so much cleaning to do that we end up calling it a night at 9 and I wake up to a mess and it starts all over again. Ellie's sleep schedule has been wonky too- for her first 6 weeks, she literally wouldn't sleep unless she was being held and you were staying up til 2 every night with her and then we would switch. And now she actually sleeps at night, but stays up til 10:30ish so we never have real relaxing time... it is totally a season and I know we will miss the sweet baby gurgles and snuggles, but sheeesh I think we are both so ready to be out of the baby season! We are 98% sure we are done having kids and are starting to talk vasectomy and getting rid of pregnancy/baby stuff. It feels good. It also feels sad. I love our life and our babies so much and am so thankful for all the seasons we have been through and it is hard to close that door. This summer, we are looking forward to spending time at Hagg Lake, bbqs in our beautiful back yard, disc golf, and gardening with friends! we just started attending church in person again and we are excited about that! We have a family wedding in SoCal in August and are super excited about that trip as well. And perhaps planning for a trip to Cancun in the Fall for another wedding... maybe. depending on covid restrictions. I refuse to make my 2 year old wear a mask on a plane for hours and risk getting kicked off. You and I have had more fights this past year about the virus and conspiracy theories and guns and being prepared vs being scared than I think we have ever fought before. It was odd to feel like we weren't on the same side politically...I think as things calm down, we are meshing again, but it got heated for a bit there. Maybe someday, we will have the capacity to dive deep into those feelings, but certainly not for a while ;) I am praying for a long, peaceful life for us- I am praying that the mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports that are looming in the future disappear entirely and we don't have to worry about our kids fertility. that 5g wouldn't effect our home. that fires and government controlled weather doesn't destroy the area that we live in. Times feel scary still and the future unknown. I am so thankful I get to walk forward hand in hand with you! My protector. My hard worker. My lover. My friend. I respect you so much and trust you with my whole heart and life. I am so thankful you are my husband and best friend and that you show up every day giving your whole self to our family. You are such a good man. You are kind and patient and fun. You are sexy and you please me so well. You are tender and sweet. You are an amazing father. I am the luckiest girl to have you and I pray that I never take it for granted. and I pray that you feel as lucky as I do to be with me and that I would show up to serve you every day with a smile on my face- I sure try, but I know I fail a lot. Please know I am going to keep showing up every day because you are my everything. I love you!!
