Top Ten Royal Wedding Moments...


Yep, that's me.

Yep, I'm wearing a crown I dug out of the ol' box of high school things in the basement.

Yep, I most definitely have worn it allll day...including in my daughter's carpool line, to the bank, and I will be wearing tonight.

No, I'm not kidding...just channeling my inner princess!

As many of you know I am quite a fan of the Royal Family, Princess Diana in particular.  So to say I was excited about the Royal Wedding would be an understatement.  I honestly considered flying to England to participate in all the hoop-la and festivities but didn't want to miss my little guys birthday this week! 

That being said, we definitely made it a special occasion here in our little corner of the world.  My mom spent the night and the evening before she, the kiddies, and I made special paper crowns to wear for the ceremony.  On top of that when I tucked Eva into bed she included Kate and Will in her bedtime prayers....love it.  The next morning we were up at 4 am (I let the kiddies sleep till 5) to enjoy the festivities!!  I even allowed Eva to be late for school so we could watch "the kiss" together - that's right folks, I have my priorities straight!  Ha!  Such fun and special memories!

All of that aside, I definitely have some thoughts on the special day!  My favorite moments are usually not the "big" moments the press talks about...mine are the more intimate unplanned moments.  Here are my TOP TEN very-favorite-made-me-get-all-teary-eyed moments...

1.  I started crying when Will and Harry were in the car on the way to the wedding and at one point they both saluted at the same time.  I just couldn't help but think how proud of them Princess Diana would be.

2.  I thought it was so special how Kate's dad would occasionally sneak a glance over at her as he was walking her down the aisle.  Can you imagine walking your daughter - the future Queen of England - down the aisle?  It was as if he just wanted to remember the moment.

3.  I loved it when Kate got to the end of the aisle.  She got situated and then reached over for her dad's hand...and gripped it tight.  So special that she leaned on her dad for support at that time.

4.  The cheers you could hear outside of Westminster Abbey when William and Kate were pronounced husband and wife were amazing.  I loved Kate's little grin when she heard it too...

5.  There were many special touches during the service that made it very personal and that means a lot to me.  I love all the pomp and circumstance...but I loved that the actual ceremony was personal.

6.  Loooooooooved the trees in Westminster Abbey...genius idea.  Such a fresh look!

7.  I got chills watching the massive crowd walk peacefully behind the British police as they descended on Buckingham Palace.

8.  Kate's expression when she walked out on the balcony (and you could tell she said, "WOW!") was just precious.  There is an innocence about her that I love.

9.  I loved the little flower girl on the balcony that kept covering her ears because it was so loud.  Absolutely hilarious.

10.  And my FAVORITE moment of the WHOLE day (drum roll please!!!!)...



I LOOOOOOOVED how William drove his bride out of the Palace at the end of the morning breakfast.  No pomp and circumstance...just a groom and his bride on their special day.  So simple, so sweet, and so innocent.  It was hands down my favorite moment.

In all it was an absolutely lovely morning...watching the ceremony and spending time with my family (on my mom's birthday to top it off)!  Stay tuned to hear my views on the wedding dress!!!  Also, you can read a bit about my affection for Princess Diana and my opportunity to actually see her wedding dress by clicking HERE. 

Favorite Quote of the morning:

While I was driving Eva to school I asked she and Jaden if they enjoyed watching the Royal Wedding.  Eva responded,
"Ya, but I wish it would have been Taylor Swift"

Jaden quickly added his two cents,

"and I wish it would have been Peter Pan."

In celebration of Jaden...a little story about faith.

This little cutie turns four today.  I seriously can't believe it....FOUR!  Someone once told me that when you are raising children the days go slow, but the years go fast.  I could not agree with that more. 

This week we are celebrating Jaden and all that he is and means to us (pictures to come soon), but every year around this time I also celebrate something else....God's miracles.

As some of you know just 3 years ago this month we received some pretty devastating news regarding our little guy...and in the days that followed watched God's hands at work on our little man.  Some of you know this story, but some don't so I thought on the day we celebrate our little boy it would be appropriate to share this little story with you...

When Jaden was one I took him in for his regular one year appointment.  The doctor noticed he was not gaining weight as he should be.  I had noticed he was thinning out but thought nothing of it because he was just learning to walk - kids always seem to thin out when they start walking.

The doc thought he may have Celiac disease or something of the sort so he ran a battery of tests.

We waited and waited...and waited...for the results of the tests.  It seemed like the doctor was dragging his feet a bit and that had me worried.  When the doctor did call we were in the for the shock of our lives...the doctor said he did not have Celiac disease or anything like that...but that his alkaline phosphates were off the charts.  Alkaline phosphates have to do the with the liver, kidneys, and bones.  The doctor said Jaden's liver and kidneys were fine and he was waiting for the bone section of the test to come back.

Again, we waited...and prayed...this time feeling more anxious about the whole thing.

When the results came back in the doctor called us and basically said it didn't look good.  Jaden's numbers regarding his bones were off the charts.  The doctor had never seen numbers this high.  I was instantly in a state of panic.  I can't even put into words how I felt.  The word "scared" is a complete understatement.   I had a sinking feeling in my gut - just the sheer sound of the seriousness of the doctors voice put me in a tailspin.

I am not sure exactly what put cancer in my mind, but I gathered my courage and hesitantly asked, "Could this be cancer?"

His response was, "I don't know what else it could be".

No...no...not my baby.

He went on to tell me the type of cancer he thought it could be.

I listened and hesitantly asked, "Is it treatable?"

Silence.

After what seemed like forever the doctor timidly responded, "it can be."

No....no...no...not my baby.

The doctor said he would be contacting Riley's Children's Hospital and that they would be contacting me on Monday to discuss our next step.

I hung up the phone and cried.  My baby boy may have cancer.  I couldn't even wrap my mind around it.

 I started calling family members and friends.  Between sobs I asked them all the same thing...pray. 

Please please please pray for our little boy.

During the course of the weekend Matt and I just held Jaden and cried and prayed....and continued to spread the word to everyone we could possibly think of to pray for our son.

We had originally planned on having Jaden dedicated at our church on that Sunday.  As difficult as it was we went through with this plan.  On Sunday we walked our son up in front of our whole church and dedicated him to Christ.

I will never forget our Pastor's words that morning.  He stood in front of us, looked us straight in the eye, and said, "God gives us these children to love and care for....for as long has HE allows."

We spent the remainder of the weekend surrounded by friends and family....and we continued to pray.

What happened next still blows my mind...the power of prayer just took hold.  Together with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends we spread the word and people literally all over the world started praying for Jaden.  We had prayer chains going across the country, prayer groups were forming at churches we didn't even attend by people we had never even met, even in other parts of the world.   Complete strangers were praying for our little boy.

We prayed like we have never ever prayed before.

We prayed that God's healing hands would touch our little boy.  We prayed that His protection would encompass Jaden's little body.  We prayed...and prayed...and prayed.

On Monday morning the phone rang.  It was our doctor.  I took a deep breath and prepared myself to talk with him.

"Hello?"

"Jamie, this is Dr. Yoder.  I have nothing but good news for you....I have spoke with Riley's Childrens Hospital.  We have gone completely through Jaden's test results....and Jaden is absolutely fine.  It seems that the irregular blood tests were a result of a growth spurt."

It was the most amazing news I've ever received in my life.  Again, I can't even put into words what was going through my mind.

Now, some may think that this whole thing is just an example of mis-read tests or something of the sort, but not me.

I believe in miracles....and I feel certain that God's healing hands were on my little boy.

I've always been a spiritual person and I've always had a strong faith, but this experience took it to a whole new level.  I have seen first hand the power of prayer and I know that God works miracles. 

This little guy is all the proof I need.



I love you Jaden Stone....more than you will ever know...and I thank God from the depths of my heart for loving you even more than I can fathom too.

"God understands our prayers even when we can't find the words to say them."

--Unknown

A Fun Easter Activity...

Happy Easter (a day late) everyone!!  I thought I would share an Easter craft activity with you, although at this point you'll have to tuck it away to try next year.  It was super easy and the little ones loved it! 

All we did was blow up balloons and paper mache them (just google a paper mache recipe...it's basically just Elmers glue, flour, and water).   After a few days of drying we went to work painting them...it was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezee, as Eva and Jaden say, and super fun!

 Hope your Easter was a Hoppin' Good Time!!

Easter moment I don't want to forget...

As we were riding in the car driving home yesterday Jaden looked at Eva and said,

"I love you Eva."

Eva responded,

 "I love you to buddy."

Don't mind me...just standing here bouncing my gallon of milk!

As I waited in line at the grocery yesterday and caught myself bouncing the gallon of milk I was holding (yes, more on that later) I had to laugh out loud and chalk it up to yet another item on my "you know you are a mom when..." list. 

This is a list I've had going in my head for years.  I add to it every time I do something that makes me think, "Hmmm my prior - pre-baby self - would have NEVER done that!!!!"  I can assure you - and I'm slightly embarrassed to say - that I have done every single thing on this list. 

Thought you may all get a kick out of my list so far....feel free to add your own too!

YOU KNOW  YOU ARE A MOM IF....

You instinctively reach your hands out to "catch" the vomit your child is starting to project all over the floor.

The thought of dirty sweaty feet on someone use to make you gag...but you now think nothing of kissing your child's dirty smelly feet...in fact you think they are quite adorable.

You have your child's pediatrician, school, ear doctor, and dentists numbers memorized...but at times can't remember your own cell phone number.

You've been on your hands and knees at 2 a.m. looking for a pacifier under a crib as if your life depended on it.

You lift your toddler up and stick their butt in your face to smell if their diaper is dirty.

You do the above mentioned act in public and think nothing of it.

You don't even bother to shut the door when you pee anymore.

You count the sprinkles on each and every cupcake to make sure they are even....and then remember that the cupcakes are for adults.

You hear a child yell, "MOM!!" in a store and without taking your eyes off the item you are looking at reach down, pat them on the head, and say, "yes??!" ...then you realize it wasn't your child...and your hand is still resting on their head.

You would never allow your baby to suck on the dirty pacifier that just landed on the supermarket floor...but think nothing of sticking it in your own mouth to clean off.

You are capable of talking completely normal with an entire cupcake stuffed in your mouth so that your children will not know you ate anything they weren't suppose to have.

Last but not least....my newest addition to the list..

You are holding a gallon of milk in line at the grocery store when it dawns on you that the whole time you've been standing there you've instinctively been rocking and bouncing it as if it were a baby in your arms. 

All I've gotta say it thank goodness I wasn't humming and singing to it!!  Ha!

The Ocean....

My love for the ocean dates way back....way way back.  

Me..at age 5 on the beach

As a child I often spent vacations playing in the sand, sea, and surf.  One year we spent 6 weeks enjoying the beautiful seaside...lazy days listening to the waves crash and sea gulls play. 

My sister and I chasing seagulls  - ages 5 and 3

I was blessed to have family that took me shelling - sometimes in the wee hours of the morning just as the sun was starting to rise - and taught me about all the treasures the ocean holds.


My grandma...shelling on Sanibel Island circa 1981

 I was a girl that was introduced to and fell in love with Jimmy Buffett before Jimmy Buffett was even popular...I loved listening to him and his songs about the sea at the ripe ol' age of 5.  Back then Buffett would just sit on the beach and play while people rode up on their surfboards and listened.  I would give anything to see him play like that now...

I have such fond memories of my dad and uncle fishing in the Florida keys.  They would catch sharks, huge crabs, and enormous stingray.  The would return from their trips tanned with amazing stories that they would sit around and share...and then there would be a feast....

My family enjoying a freshly caught seafood feast...circa 1981

To this day I have such a deep love for the sea...for all that it holds...the memories...but most importantly for the way it seems to restore my heart and soul.  It may sound crazy, but spending time at the beach seems to center me. 

It's important to me that my children have a chance to experience the magic of the ocean too...

Eva and Jaden shelling...in the wee hours of the morning.

I love to watch my children as they romp and play...as they learn and touch...as they start to understand how amazing the sea and all that it has to offer really is....



Stingray...just feet from us on the beach.

 I want them to be able to experience the ocean breeze in their hair and the taste of saltwater in their mouths.  I want them to understand that although the ocean is beautiful, it holds amazing strength and power...and one must always respect it.

Matt and Jaden letting the waves crash against them

 I want them to understand that part of respecting the ocean is to always take care of it...and never letting our waste hurt it or the amazing creatures in it...

I want Eva and Jaden to have a chance to see, touch, hold, and observe the amazing creatures that call the ocean home.  I want them to understand that their existence is reliant on our actions...we must care for the ocean so that they may live.

Sea horse...just a baby one. 



Starfish...found during our early morning walk on the beach.

 I want Eva and Jaden to one day be able to stand on the waters edge and feel the kind of soul restoration that only something as vast, mysterious, powerful, and beautiful as the ocean can provide. 

"Mother mother ocean...I have heard you call.

Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall...

You've seen it all...you've seen it all."

--A Pirate Looks at Forty

Jimmy Buffett

Sanibel Lighthouse...



"And there's this one particular harbor,

sheltered from the wind.

Children play on the shores each day,

and all are safe within."

--One Particular Harbor

Jimmy Buffett

I'm just sayin'...it worked for me...(and honestly that says a lot)....

I have shared before about my mission to get my children to eat their veggies.  I did everything by the books when they were babies as far as introducing them to a variety of veggies so that they would develop the taste and  "crave veggies in their daily diet".

Ya...whatever.

My children's "veggie craving" faces look more like this....

and some days a little like this...

I'm not kidding.  It's not a pretty sight.  Even though the above pictures are not of my own children I actually do have a picture of Eva that looks pretty similar.  I got such a kick out of the faces she was making while trying to choke down some vegetables I actually grabbed my camera.

Which made the whole situation SOOOOOO much better (not one of my best "mom moments" - ha!)

I think it's safe to say I'm always looking for ways to sneak veggies into my children's diet.  I have put pureed veggies in juice, I have made smoothies and snuck spinach into them (they had NO idea!), and I've added pureed veggies to food (with some successes and some failures). 

A few years ago my mom got me the book the Deceptively Delicious by the wife of the great Jerry Seinfeld.  The whole book is about sneaking veggies into kiddies foods.  One of the ideas she gives is to always have a veggie tray available to your children.

That whole idea lingered in my mind for quite awhile...like a few years...and just this week I finally decided to try it (not sure why I was dragging my feet on the idea, but oh well)...

OH. MY. WORD.

I put the veggie tray out when I notice my kids getting hungry.  As a family we had got in at bad habit of munching on food while I am making lunch or dinner.  Now I just set out the veggie tray - because honestly WHO CARES if they fill up on VEGGIES!  I have had to refill the veggie tray about 4 times in the last four days.  In fact, the kiddos came in from playing tonight and as I was making dinner they both said, "Mom, where's the veggie tray??!!!!"

Ahhhhh....my master plan is working.....munch away my little ones....munch away.....





"Welcome to the church of Holy Cabbage.  Lettuce pray."

--Unknown

And just because I believe it to be true I had to include this one too...

"It's odd that the produce manager is more important to my children's health than the pediatrician"

--Meryl Streep

Sanibel Island 2011

Ahhh....the beach.  There are very few things on this earth that can relax me more than the sand and sea.  There are also very few things that inspire me more...and don't even get me started on how the surf gets my photography juices flowing.  Let's just say I have about 1000 pictures of our vacation. 

No, I'm not kidding.

I won't share all 1000 with you, but I did think I would share a few highlights of the trip (that I haven't already shared).  Enjoy...

One thing I love about Florida is that you can bring the outdoors in.  In our neck of the woods it's just not that simple.  One of our favorite parts of the condo we rented was that the sliding glass doors opened allllll the way into the wall.  You could sit in the living room and listen to the ocean and feel the breeze off the surf.  Pure Heaven.

 Most of our days were spent doing a lot of nothing...and enjoying every single minute of it.

 As I said in an earlier post, we spent one day with our neighbors.  I love that these kiddies got a chance to play together while traveling so far from home.

 Another one of my favorite parts of the trip was renting bikes!!  This was our greeter at the bike rental place...loved her!

 Sanibel Island has bike paths everywhere and it was amazing!!!  We biked every single day that we could.  If we needed to go to the  grocery store - we biked there.  If we wanted to go out for breakfast - we biked there.  Our longest trip was about 4 miles and the kiddies did it with no problem!   I loved spending that time together!

 Biked to breakfast at the Island Cow...

 This was the only restaurant we visited that served a chai latte!!  I was so excited I could have peed my pants...just kidding...kind of.   Ha!

 It's always fun to venture to new restaurants on vacation and Sanibel Island was no different.  Sanibel is truly an island and there are no "chain" restaurants on the island.   Most were local places with a LOT of Island fun and flair!

 But the very best part of the vacation was just spending time together as a family.  We talked, we played, and more importantly we shared lots and lots of laughs...

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in."

--Robert Orben

I Interrupt these Vacation Posts for an Important Message....

I still have some vacation fun to share with ya'll...but I thought I would break up the vacation posts with this important message..

This is for allll of you photography buffs out there.  My 3 year old little guy taught me a super valuable lesson regarding my lenses that I felt needed to be passed on to you.

If you are into photography you know how important your lenses are...in my mind they are even more important than your camera...but they aren't cheap. 

At all.

In fact, a good lens can cost much more than your camera does.  Crazy..yes, but true.

When I started getting serious about photography I was reading everything I could get my hands on and I often read that when you purchase a good lens it's important to have a UV filter on it to protect it.  I always followed this advice. 

Recently I attended another workshop where the instructor told me the total opposite...that a UV filter will slightly distort the quality of my images and it should be  removed at once.  I left the workshop deciding I would remove the UV filters from my lenses and see if I noticed a difference.

Fast forward a few weeks.

We are packing for Florida.  I put my good camera with my best lens on it in my carry-on (yes, I know it should have been in it's own camera bag but I HATE traveling with extra bulk...that camera always travels in my carry on).   I've got all the suitcases lined up by the back door and I'm loading up the car.  I turn around and see my little three year old trying to help...by dragging my carry-on down 3 rock hard cement steps in the garage. 



I kid you not.

I tried not to panic and quickly opened the bag up.

Glass everywhere.

Panic begins.

Then I notice something....a very important something...I never took off my UV filter. 

And it completely saved my lens.

The UV filter was shattered...but the lens was in perfect shape.

That's right friends....my $50 UV filter completely protected my really good (and my most expensive) lens.

I'm a believer.  I'll never be without a UV filter again.

"You learn something every day if you pay attention"

--Ray LeBlond

Celebrating Matt....

I love this guy....love him.  I love his heart and soul.  I love the kind of husband he is...the kind of father he is... and this little life we've created together.  I can honestly say that every day that I am with him I am so very thankful he is in my life.  He is my very best friend.

This past week was his birthday...a day to celebrate him.  As many of you know birthdays are a big deal to our family and since we were out of town I wanted to do something really special for him.  This is how we celebrated...

We invited our neighbors (who just happened to be vacationing in the same area) to join our family for a sunset cruise.  We sailed through some of the Florida Keys aboard a catamaran/sailboat....soaking in the views...spending time together...enjoying a few cocktails...laughing...listening to a little Buffett.  These are the things I know Matt loves and it meant so much to me to watch him enjoying his special evening.

 Happy Birthday Matt...I hope this year is one full of smiles, laughter, and many many special memories.

I love you.

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count...it's the life in your years."

--Abraham Lincoln