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Cher Joy

Cher Joy

Once upon a time.

I had a blog. It’s been over a year since I’ve written here. And I miss it. After all, this place was really for me. It never went anywhere. No one sponsored my posts. It’s just a place I’ve used to remember my feelings, and thoughts. To document special moments I don’t want to forget. And maybe one day a place my children can come back to to read and remember as well. Walker just turned 4. Callen just turned 3. And my first, Jace turned 7 this year too. They are shooting up like beanstalks. Jace literally looks like one. He’s so tall and skinny, and how his face melts my heart. Walker is taller and still stalky but oh so perfectly proportionate. Callen is tall too, but small. We’re still waiting for his weight to catch up with his height. Right now Walker likes to pretend that he’s going somewhere, driving in the power wheel, cozy coup, or his bike with training wheels. He says he’s going to “get donuts.” Callen is Mr. stealth. Always grabbing for something. Escaping out the front door. Hiding in a corner. Always scheming. Yesterday he threw our Apple Game remote in the blow up pool. Jace is 7 going on 17. He loves his after school show, Henry Danger. The lead character is also named Jace (in real life) and is a teenage super hero, who fights bullies and is ridiculously goofy but kind. I can see why he’s starting to idolize him. Jace graduates from 1st grade tomorrow. Rob and I are in a new place in our marriage. Cats out of the bag. But we’re healing and growing, finding grace. And more importantly trying to communicate better. More on that another time. Tonight as I watched the boys in their bath, Jace and Walk brushed each other’s hair to style it, and were so pleasant with each other. They smiled and wanted to care for the other. It was so sweet, their giggles and embrace. A moment like this is worth all the fretting I put into this mothering thing. I so pray and hope to support them in becoming kind and independent and content adults, with all the right life tools, faith included. So instead of opening up my social apps, like Instagram, I’m going to attempt to blog more .. we’ll see how this goes. Full time working momma over here. Bare with me. Also. One more memory for the blog memory book. Jace looked at me tonight and said, “what’s going on with your hair?”, I said “they’re called ‘curtain bangs’, see, sort of like long bangs”; (mind you this is a week after I did the cut), then he told me he wanted to whisper something to me. He leaned in and said, “you’re pretty.” How was sweet was that. Dead. OK, well again, I’m trying to sign off here. Let’s see how I do with this blogging thing again.

Activities for Kids, Aptos, California, Cher Joy, Family, Felton, parenthood, Phoenix, Santa Cruz

The Summer To Do list

At the start of summer we decided to plan out a monster to-do list for our little family, filled with new and old things we like to do. But looking back a lot of time was spent at our little rental house here in the Cruz, playing on the patio, making pillow forts, having balloon parties, picking blackberries on our street and riding bikes in the neighborhood. Continue Reading

Cher Joy

Things to share!

What brought me joy this last week?? Oh, my! So much! For one, my sister got engaged! And I am of course beyond excited for her and her man Kevin and all the wonderful things that are to come this year for them. She is blowing my mind with all her life changes lately but it’s all amazing and I’m so happy she’s happy!! And I can’t wait to be an Auntie. But first, lots of celebrating and showering to do for this sister of mine. Can’t wait! Congrats sister!!!

A friend sent me the sweetest care package (Kristin!!) this week, to my surprise! Now I just need to find time to pamper myself.  My Birchbox also came in this week, too which is always a treat. Double the beauty this week, yay!

Friday we popped some popcorn and went for a sunset walk on the beach. What a beautiful night. Seeing Jace climb the sand mounds and hit balls, Walker’s skeptical face and beachy pull over, and Rob’s muscles ;) .. can’t get any better if you ask me.

Last but not least, my absolutely lovely tea party baby shower, thrown by my best friend Heather. More to come on that, but she really is the sweetest friend and always makes things so special with her Heather-ly touch. And afternoon tea with my girls was just what I needed. I even washed my hair for it! And now I have lots of diapers for baby #3, which we needed desperately!

Aptos, Cher Joy, weekend

About today

So, about this day .. it was perfect. Borderline heavenly (queue some Russell Dickerson). There was so much happiness flowing through our veins this day we almost couldn’t stand it. It was a Saturday and the weather was gorgeous. The beach was glowing. And the whales jumping! After all the stress of moving and putting our house up for rent, and the long nights with a newborn, and the trials with a toddler .. we needed a day just like today. To remember that life is good, and we are together as a family. That things feel slow again; not yet easy, but slow. We packed a cooler for the day with some delicious snacks and a bottle of the American Summer Chandon (thanks to our Heather!) .. we put Tom Petty on the blue tooth and just beached out all day. Jace is officially obsessed with the beach. And how on point is his beach outfit? Including his new shades from Grandma and Papa. Humpback whales are migrating to Alaska right now and are all up and down our coastline eating anchovies, so all day we stared into the waters to see whales jumping up and their fins splashing. Whale watching is so awesome when it’s free! The smell of the ocean air, the warm sun .. it really doesn’t get better than this. At times I get these rushes of guilt, like I don’t deserve this expensive California life we’re living and the relaxing beach days, but then I remember that it all happened for a reason. We wouldn’t be here if things weren’t set in motion to bring us here. I love seeing Jace run up and down the beach, and Walker’s little chubby baby feet in the sand. So for now, I’m going to keep soaking in these summer beach days as we have them and not feel too guilty that this is where we live again. It’s real, I just need to enjoy it!

Activities for Kids, Cher Joy

Around here lately

Oh, hi. Coming back to share a few things that brought me joy last week. One being Mother’s Day. Although the day was spent running around celebrating our Moms around town, I was still fortunate enough to enjoy all the travel time with my boys.  Here are some blurry shots of me with my sweethearts!

I’ve also been enjoying Walker’s chubby thighs. I just want to bite them! Instead I kiss them all day long. So deilcious. 

Rob and I had our first date night last week, too. We went to a Rours and Pours event at the Phoenix Zoo .. it was such a beautiful night and my first time just strolling the zoo without having to run after Jace face. I think Rob and I are going to need more regularly planned date nights, now that we have two kiddos to wrestle. It’s so important! 

We have a hummingbird nest in our backyard that Rob has been obsessing over – Mr. birdwatcher that one – and he even captured some up close pictures of the Momma and babies. Too cute. We definitely can’t go without documenting this fun day, staring at the hummingbirds one Sunday.

I always love doing little art projects with Jace, to keep his mind exercised in some way! This one lasted like 5 minutes, but it was fun all the while! Jace gets pretty excited about any activity or project we give him, which just melts my heart. I’m also loving Jace’s new Daddy-style hair cut .. !

The Arizona heat is here just about so we’re trying to prep ourselves with pool time and early day plans. Then we walk into our cooled house where we keep it at around 73 degrees >D Hope you’re having a nice week in your parts!