hope

i can’t begin to express my sorrow for the tragic events from last week. my heart has broken a million times over for each family-every parent, sibling, grandparent, friend-that has been involved. i have no words. just tears.

on sunday morning our pastor spoke on the subject, and tragedy in general. the message was simple. truths i already knew, but needed to hear again. i jotted down a few points that were especially helpful to me:

-sin and evil are NOT God’s will. ever.

-because God gave us the capacity to love freely, there is also the capacity to hurt.

-there is hope for heaven. our hope must be there, otherwise we will harden to the world.

-God can bring healing and redemption in all situations. he can take something that was not good, not a part of His will, and bring healing.

and this is what struck me most of all…

-of all the broken hearts out there, God is grieving the most. He has shed the most tears.

Such a painful and beautiful thing to remember.

finley’s 5th birthday

this week Finley turned 5. i’ve been a little wistful about my first baby turning FIVE, but i loved watching her excitement and joy on her special day. we kicked things off with her birthday date-her special outing with JUST mommy and daddy. in true finley fashion, she chose to go to dinner at red robin. after dinner we let her pick out a small gift. she made a bee-line for the princess aisle and chose a little carriage for her princesses to ride in. it was, of course, quite an exciting night for my girl who loves quality one on one time more than anything.

on her actual birthday she had a little tea party with a few of her girlfriends.

it has been sooooo long since i’ve been able to do anything crafty, so her and i had so much fun planning a girly party.

her little friends were so sweet her, and you could tell that she felt extremely loved and celebrated. that’s a success in my book!

more photos in the album.

counting down

3 more sleeps until her 5th birthday. she’s been talking about turning 5 for months, and for the last few weeks it’s been the talk of the house.

we’re making a few decorations for her party- one of which is this ombre ‘5’ for the door. she insisted that i hang it immediately and take her picture. of course adalaide had to be in it too.

pumpkin patch

 we tried out a new local patch-i think it’s called Pumpkin’ Time. It’s a small patch compared to some of the other big farms in the area, but we really loved the simple little farm. The happiest old farmer took us for a hay ride around the property (and shamelessly flirted with mom, by the way). It was lots of fun and definitely got me in the mood for fall.

more photos in the album