stacie's sacred space

for our friends, the martins

thanks for the vacation recommendation. it's awesome here in destin! you are going to love it. just 8 more days till you'll be here.

so here's unit 112's patio from the pool (these bowers kids wish you were here right now with us!) ... i think that's the one you told me you are in, ang.

and here's your patio from our unit ... we're directly above a few floors up!
  

i was standing at your gate for this view of the pool :) 

and here's what you'll walk out to ... right now that big pool on the right is ccccold but the hot tub is wonderful (although i haven't had the chance to get it because i'm always jeffrey holding and i surely don't want to shock his system with that hot water!) 

another view of the big pool and the splash park and the beautiful beach out there! 
 
life is really, really good here. we'll take your vacation recommendations anytime! maybe deep creek, md is in our future :)

we have a new neighbor

and she is teeny, tiny. 

she was born on the ides of march, and now she's home with her family! she's our next door neighbor, sweet little josie b. yay! i can't wait to watch her grow and watch jeffrey become *friends* with her. it's fun to have them next door ... their three girls balance out our three boys!!

i'm so happy greg and danielle invited us over to see her day one. joey and janie loved all over her too!! we all love newborn babies.

i am praying for a smooth transition and enough rest to get everyone through the long days of having a brand new sweetheart in the home. 

 

 

celebrations go on and on

around here, we're very lucky. there are lots of people who love us and want to celebrate birthdays with us ... tonight we completed janie's fifth birthday celebrations with a girls night out with sydney and wendy. since sydney and janie's birthdays are two days apart, (and four years :)) and the rest of the crew is all boys, we decided to go out with just the girls. we're making it a tradition and this was our first annual february birthday girls night out. we did it at the moms' favorite spot, of course, to kick it all off. next year, i think sydney will get to pick because she'll be 10! we had a lot of fun :)

 

and i know i never got the chance to post pictures from the night of janie's bday with other dear friends (and cousins) she wanted to celebrate with: ellie, maura and emma

 
we appreciate everything you all do to fill our lives with joy! thanks a bunch, dear friends and family (near and far) for making janie's 5th birthday a very, very special one!!

i am lucky!

to have good friends in my life ... the kind of friends that can go months without catching up and start off where we were last.  lisa t. is one of those friends! she's in my life for good. 

we met training for the 2003 columbus marathon. we ran and chatted and struggled and achieved a big life goal together! then we cooked for each other each time we had babies. dave and i have gone to most of the t's annual christmas parties. we usually have at least a couple lunch or coffee dates a year too. this was one of them. and what fun we had with our babies playing around us giggling and catching up! 

thanks, lisa for making time to come over and see us. thank you also for your compliments and very kind words telling me what a great mama i am!!  you are very special to me.

lauren loved holding jeffrey 

and smiling next to him too!
 

a great little get-away

 

last year, larissa and spencer invited us to hocking hills for a night of mlk weekend. we had so much fun we decided we should make this a tradition of find a way to spend some adult time out somewhere this weekend. we have a few drinks and dream big - dominican republic, caribbean islands, south beach - this time we decided for milestone anniversary years or birthday years we might do it big. other years, we'll just do our best to keep the tradition going :) 

this year we picked an over night at the german village guest house. and it's a place i think dave and i will go back to! it was modern, cozy and right in the heart of the village. you can walk to the local restaurants, bars and shops. i think winter would be the least appealing season to be there although we had no problem enjoying ourselves and relaxing. jeffrey got to come along because i am his main food source. he was great too! 

thank you so much, andrea for hanging with the j kids at home. they had a blast and got to see a movie and have lots of fun with their cousin. we had a wonderful time away from the kids and the house and all the work that comes with both of those. of course, we were happy to get home and play and lay around with the kids on this dreary, rainy, winter day. 

we are very lucky to have the good life we have!

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy birthday, wendy!

two of my friends from high school and i started a birthday tradition nine years ago ... we make each of our birthdays a girls night out. it just so happens that our three birthdays are just about four months apart too. how cool is that?! so we talk and catch up and laugh and announce pregnancies and cry and nurse babies and pour our hearts out to each other and support and love each other. all over yummy dinners and wine and always dessert for these occasions. so much has happened over the past nine years. we got married, we've had 10 kids between the three of us, we celebrate, we share, we struggle ... we are so lucky to have each other on this journey ... and thank goodness for our wonderful husbands who support us and take care of our babies so we can celebrate life on our birthdays together. 

happy 34th, wendy! it's a very special thanksgiving day!! i'm thankful to have you as one of my best friends. wish BIG, blow out all of your candles. it was so much fun celebrating at the melting pot this year. 

 

 

 

 

little buddies

jeffrey's got a little buddie, isaac. isaac is the only buddie jeffrey has so far that his own age. a peer. this is the first time they've really engaged in *play*, and oh, was it a cute encounter! we're looking forward to watching these two grow up together. thank you, theresa for sharing your babies with us on friday afternoon!!

 

beat michigan

hooray for the buckeyes who won the big ten this year. rose bowl here we come!! 

saturday was really all about the super fun beat michigan party we went to hosted by the yost family. thanks kelly, adam, maggie and jack for inviting us! you guys know how to put on a very nice party and have a great crowd that you party with :) it was a big deal to the j kids ... especially joey (my sports nut) and janie (my social butterfly)! and dave missed the party because he went to the game. lucky duck! a fun time was had by all.

big hugs before daddy leaves town.

 

pre-party time ... one of jeffrey's favorite spots these days :)

 

my dear friend, kelly. oh, she helps so much and loved snuggling with jeffrey when i needed a second set of hands throughout the party she hosted :). kelly and i met about five years ago when i desperately needed help organizing my home and life. she does that for a living (you can check her out here) and is AWESOME at it! she's become so much more than someone i hire for help around the home ... a great friend, an angel, someone i can have spiritual conversations with, someone who's cooked many dinners for my family, a babysitter, a prayer partner, a peer elbow deep in parenting young kiddos, someone i can call for anything. i am so thankful our paths crossed on this journey. she's an avid blog reader too! thank you, kelly for all the support you give me and the joy you add to my life. you're amazing!!

 

we enjoyed the outdoor part of the party a lot - johnny was happy riding his trike all around the parking lot.

 

janie ran around cheering for the kiddos playing football, riding bikes or scooters, whatever she could cheer for, she did it!

 

joey always wanted me to say, "ready, set, go!" and have the iphone stop watch ready to time them riding around.

 

there were flipcharts and markers for when the kids felt like being artists (that's me in the background - janie was the artist).

two happy buckeye fans!
 

birthday surprise

we surprised joey when he got off the bus from school this afternoon and went to coco key waterpark. it was a splashin' good time on joey's birthday. now i'm EXHAUSTED! pics will be posted tomorrow (hopefully). thank you so much saint kellyn and the whole donnelly family for taking jeffrey under your roof for FOUR hours. i think that's the longest we've ever left him in his whole little life. you really helped us make joey's birthday special.

birthday celebrations are big with us

when you're the birthday kid at our house, you get spoiled! we don't necessarily believe in *spoiling* our kids with stuff or even events or activities because well, it's a lot to manage (logistically, financially and emotionally). we do spoil them with lots of siblings and lots of love and life's necessities and when it's time for their birthday! 

this spoiling stuff is all a matter of perspective though. i never felt spoiled growing up. kids went to the mall more often than we did, they got stuff more often than we did, they went more places than we did, they flew in airplanes more often than we did, blah, blah, blah. i was spoiled though ... and i think i learned this when i went to college and continue to learn it everyday. 

• i was loved. a. lot. (and i still am :))
• i lived in a very nice, warm, cozy home. 
• we had nice clothes and things. 
• there was always plenty of good food to eat. 
• mom and dad paid for my college education. 
• mom and dad paid for a lot of the expenses for our wedding. 
• mom and dad were always working hard so they could be generous. 
• mom still does work hard and is very generous with her time, love, gifts, whatever she can give, she gives. 

i am spoiled by dave, mom, my sisters, my brother, my inlaws, all of my dear friends, the whole big home team who loves and supports me. for this i'm so grateful. really, really lucky and thankful. i hope that i spoil you too - dave, joey, janie, johnny, jeffrey, mom, family and friends. i hope that i spoil you with my love, support, encouragement, generosity. i want to touch you and make a difference in your life. 

so okay, back to the birthday we're in the midst of celebrating ... joey turns SEVEN tomorrow!! we started the celebrations yesterday with a dinner out at the restaurant of his choice, quaker steak and lube with the rankin family. it was so much chaos fun! we played video games, ate, drank, sang happy birthday, laughed, the kids colored, the adults reminisced. good old fashioned family fun.

my three little bikers. i loved janie holding onto joey :)

 

the kids part of the table (minus baby jeffrey who didn't get an activity book this time!)

 

happy birthday, joey!

we love playing this new game already. thank you e, w, s, a and e!

our big boys riding the motorcycles. joey and alex are good little buddies who play really well together.

daddy's got johnny's back!

who knows what johnny's trying to convince elliot of here or is elliot holding onto something johnny is trying to snatch right out of his hands. they are three ... i won't get inside their heads to figure them out :)

big daddy, dave and the whole troop of kiddos!

okay, it's my turn first playing hoops against wendy. she says she won. the machine wasn't working to count for us. i think i was laughing to hard to keep track of all of them that i swished right in.

with those pretty red fingernails, i'll give her the win! no really, i think she did make more than me BUT i still can't believe it. we need to rematch, that's just not our kind of girls night out restaurant. maybe next year for alex's seventh birthday.

me and my boys!

seven superstars celebrating joey's 7th! thanks, rankins. it was a great night!!