5 Year Blogiversary

Today, July 30th officially marks 5 years of blogging for me! I can't believe how fast these past 5 years have gone!

When I started this blog, I chose to name it "living in his faithfulness" because when I look at my past, present and future I can see God's fingerprints all over my life. I know that he is faithful and even at times when I'm wondering why I cant sense his presence, I can look back and remind myself that he was always there guiding me and showing me piece by piece what his master plan is for my life. I can see how he has been faithful to us time and time again whether that meant providing for needs, answering prayers, making dreams come true, giving us unexplainable peace during the tougher times, and even joy beyond measure.

With my 5 year blogiversary I thought it would be fitting and fun to recap some of the highlights (and even a few low lights) from my life (our lives) over the past 5 years.

We saw some dreams come true!
-I went from being a part time front desk team leader at The Eye Center to a full time stay at home mom! This was truly a long time dream of mine that we thought couldn't happen financially and God made it happen.

-This past fall, after coaching for over 10 years, Caleb finally got to experience winning the State Volleyball Championship! That is a day I'll never forget. You know what is even sweeter than seeing your own dream come true? Seeing a dream come true for someone you love!

Family Life:
-I got pregnant 3 more times since starting this blog. Sadly, I lost one baby, but with complete joy we also welcomed Ethan James (now 3) and Emsley Jeannette (now 1) to the family!

-Life is 10x more crazy and busy now than when we had just our little Elliana Faith! It's also much more full and sweet.

It's so fun to see how much Ellie has grown and changed in the last 5 years, and how she slipped into the big sister role with ease. I can't believe our Ellie will be starting Kindergarten this fall!

Here's a collage of Ellie over the years. Each picture was taken during the summer of that year;

-I could show how each child has changed over the years, but that would that make this post very long, and I just wanted to show Ellie since she was the only child around when this blog started. :)

-The last 5 years have been full of sleepless nights, diaper changes, nursing, bottle feeding, baby food, pacifiers, sippy cups, crawling and toddling babes, potty training, etc. You get the idea. 

-I very much look forward to the next 5 years. We will no longer be growing our family (in numbers) but raising our school aged children. I look forward to learning who they are as little people and not just knowing them as babies and toddlers. It's going to be a great adventure!

-In our extended family, since starting this blog, we also gained 1 sister-in-law (Amanda, married to Caleb's brother Nate), 1 brother-in-law (Brian, married to my sister Alli) my nephew Josiah (born May 2010), my niece Ashlynn (born Dec. 2010), and my niece Kailey (born July 2013).

Nate and Amanda 

Alli and Brian

Travels:

-Over the past 5 years, we have been to the Caribbean on a 5 year Anniversary Cruise, Kansas City, Tulsa, Nashville, San Diego, San Francisco, Austin, Vegas and small short trips to Denver, Colorado Springs and Breckenridge! Whew, we sure do get to do a lot. I'm SO thankful! Here's just a few favorite photos from a few of those trips:

2010 Caribbean Cruise

Just me and Caleb

Jan 2012 Nashville

Just me and Caleb again

June 2012 San Diego

Extended Howard Family (Caleb's family)

March 2014 Vegas

Sanchez Ladies (me, my sisters, BIL Brian, and my mom)

New Interests and Hobbies:

-Over the past 5 years I have gained a few new interests/hobbies. I have become much more interested in health and exercise, and where I once loathed any kind of cardiovascular activity, I now really enjoy going to the gym to run, use the elliptical, or do my weekly Zumba class. :)

-Around this time 2 years ago I began baking, decorating and selling iced sugar cookies and cupcakes for special occasions. Even though I would say this was pretty successful, it required a lot of time. Once baby #3 arrived, AKA Emsley, I put this on hold and haven't returned to this little hobby/business yet.

-This past spring I made some DIY decorations for my MIL and FIL's retirement party. I had so much fun making the paper banners for this occasion that I've made a few more and *might* try selling them for special occasions. We'll see. In the meantime, I've really enjoyed working on them!

The Heartbreaks:

-Of course, the past 5 years haven't been all joy and no sorrow. The biggest and most unexpected heartbreak over the past 5 years was the loss of my beloved Grandma Nancy. I still miss her so to this day. Just today Ellie brought her up and said she was sad because she misses her. I look forward to the day when I see her again in heaven.

-Another heartbreak, although brief, was the scary news and journey of my dad's cancer. Thankfully this was a short-lived journey and he is now cancer free! Praise God!!

-One heartache that is very near to my heart, is the painful journey of infertility. I have loved ones that are still on this journey, and we don't know where their story ends. I have spent many hours in prayer for these loved ones, I still believe that God has a plan for them. Even though I don't know the specifics of his plans for them, I believe he will show himself faithful. My heart hurts when I see them hurt.

Other:

-One other major change over the last five years worth noting, was leaving the church both Caleb and I grew up in and finding a new one. This was not an easy process, but I am happy to say we have found a new church home that I can see our family staying at for many years to come. I look forward to the friendships that will grow from Mill City.

-Just this past spring Caleb and I both got smart phones! I also joined Instagram and am loving it!

Of course it's impossible to cover every important detail of our lives over the past 5 years, but I think I covered most of the highlights. I can honestly look back and say God was with us, faithfully carrying us through every joy and sorrow. 

I look forward to what the future holds for our little family. I love this crazy adventure we're on, and knowing God is with us through it all.

Arbitrary Autumn

Well folks, since I don't get much time to blog these days, I'm afraid I'll have to put all of my thoughts into another random post. I just had to come up with another word for random, so arbitrary it is. ;)

Suddenly I feel as though life is in fast forward. I'm not sure if I like it or not. However, I do like that we are in the middle of my FAVORITE season! I've been loving the beautiful weather and colors around here lately
.

We just came home from spending the weekend at the family cabin in the mountains and it was heavenly up there.

Speaking of life moving fast, my baby girl is 4 months old this week. FOUR months already! Even my sister Jenn agreed that Emsley's baby months are going too fast. I'll update on what she's like these days later this week.

Caleb's having a very successful and fun volleyball season. The team is currently undefeated and ranked 1st in 2A! Their record right now is 13-0 and they haven't dropped a game. I'm SO proud of him and his team. It's hard to believe that in 3 short weeks it will already be volleyball play-off time. It's going to be fun to see how far they go this year.

Speaking of undefeated teams, let's hear it for the Denver Broncos! Yeah, overall it's just a great year in our sports world.

I've got to say, I honestly don't know how any couple raising young kids survive without family around. I am oh-so-thankful for family that live nearby and have watched Ellie and Ethan a lot lately to let me go and support Caleb and watch his team. I've had so much help from my mom, my sisters and Caleb's parents too and it means the WORLD to me.

Elliana is loving preschool. I don't know why we ever hesitated about it. Every day I drop her off she has a smile on her face and never looks back. Then when I pick her up her smile is just as big if not bigger. I always knew she'd love school, and it's so much fun to see her blossom. I can't believe in less than a year she'll be in kindergarten and I'll be dropping her off 5 days a week! My heart is not ready for that...

I mean, seriously, wasn't it just yesterday that SHE was my little baby girl?

Ethan is so much fun. Every day I'm blown away by his wit and his ever expanding vocabulary. It's hard to explain, but he just makes me smile. Even though some days his crazy energy makes me want to pull my hair out, this boy has a special place in my heart.

I love how Ethan adores Ellie and how their relationship is SO tight! They are such good friends that some days I wonder how Emsley is going to fit into the mix. I'm hoping as soon as she's crawling around and showing more personality they'll become the three amigos instead of just the older two and the baby.

I'm sure a lot of moms can relate, but I totally wish I could get on one of those free makeover shows. I feel like I would be a great candidate. ;)  Most days I feel quite frumpy and I hate everything in my wardrobe. I'm working on becoming more aware of fashion and I'm looking forward to getting some shopping help from my fashionista sister Courtney next weekend. :)

I'm hoping I'll go from this, to this: Ha!

Now where can I get a new body? ;)

We're having family photos taken at the end of the month and I'm having a lot of fun putting outfits together for my kiddos. Our color scheme is going to look something like these photos:

I hope it all comes together well and I can't wait to see the photos!

That pretty much sums up life right now. I'd love to write more but I don't get a lot of kid-free time these days and I think I should go spend some of it with my man. :)

Camera Happy

First of all, I have to thank my oh so talented sister Jenn for another new, beautiful blog design. This ol' blog of mine needed a face lift and Jenn was kind enough to design a new one for me. Check out Munchkin Land Designs if you're ever in need of a new look. I'm not just saying this because Jenn is my sister, she is one talented lady and she never disappoints! She does more than blog designs too. :) Thanks again Jenn!

I LOVE this new design! The silhouette of  the family looks almost just like us. :) I can't wait to see what our family of 5 looks like after this last baby is born!

Caleb and I enjoyed a long awaited date last Saturday night. We decided while we were out to go shopping for a camera as we were in great need of one and we had some Best Buy gift cards burning a hole in our pockets.

We don't know too much about cameras and we only need a simple point and shoot to capture our every day lives. We looked around and played with a few mid-range point and shoot cameras and settled on this Sony camera:

As we checked out Caleb reminded me that we have 10x more photos and videos of Elliana than we do of Ethan. He asked me to promise him to make better use of this new camera and take more photos and videos  of the kids during the day. So, I've been doing my best to keep that promise and I've been a little camera happy this week. If only we could be outside more to get better shots when the lighting is better.

These are my favorite smiles of my 2 precious babes this week. 

I've commented before that Ellie is becoming more girly by the day. She loves to dress up (wearing several different dresses throughout the day), dance around the house and practice curtsying. 

Here she is dancing and curtsying. 

On Sunday my parents stopped by my house with my Grandma Rose to return Ethan's shoes that we had left at their house the night before. While they were visiting Dad insisted that we take a 4 generations picture with Grandma Rose, Dad, me and Ethan. I'm really glad he suggested it-ever since we lost Grandma Nancy I find myself wishing we had taken more pictures of/with her. 

I'm thinking I look awfully pale next to Dad and Grandma-I need to do something about that. ;-)

Since we finally have a camera again, I figured it was time to capture my first baby bump pic. Here's a collage of me with all 3 pregnancies. No, I did not mean to wear the EXACT same outfit from when I was pregnant with Ethan. If this wasn't my last pregnancy, I would be buying a whole new maternity wardrobe.

Sunday night a sweet friend handed me an unexpected and generous gift. They gave me a card with a voucher inside for a free latte and 2 free kids passes to Cool Beans Playhouse. I'd never heard of or been to Cool Beans before so as soon as I got home I checked out their website. 

Today we made a little visit to Cool Beans and we all loved the place! It's a big playroom full of all kinds of toys, a tree house with a big slide, an area for hanging from ropes and jumping into a soft pit, etc. One of the greatest features for moms is that there's a little cafe right next to the play area where you can enjoy a drink or a healthy snack while watching your little ones have a blast! I don't think we'll be visiting too often since it's not the cheapest place to take the kids, but we all had a great time!

Here's some of the best shots of the day:

 Ellie's favorite spot. As always, wearing a huge grin on her face.

Ethan nearly never stops moving so it's almost impossible to get good pictures of him. 

This is my favorite one from today. 

How about a toffee nut latte? Why yes, don't mind if I do. :)

I've decided that my long, lifeless, dull brown hair has to go. 

I don't know when, but I'm hoping to cut and color it in the very near future.

 I'll definitely post a picture after I have a new look. :)