Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya, Tobi and Eli

On the day before Thanksgiving 2004, Andrej and I arrived at my aunt’s house where my dad’s side of the family had gathered to celebrate the holiday. No one knew we were coming. Andrej and I had decided to spend Thanksgiving that year in Michigan and volunteer at a soup kitchen instead of making the long drive down to South Carolina. That was until we had news to share and wanted to share it in person. As we got out of the car that evening, we could see my family through the glass doors gathered around the table just about to enjoy the feast. Our timing couldn’t have been more perfect and my only regret is that I wish I would have informed at least one person and asked them to video the moments that followed.  (Read more …)

I may not have had much time or energy for posting actual words on here lately, but I have been uploading a lot of pictures. I do want to blog about recent happenings, but until then enjoy the snapshots…they are worth more than words anyway, right?

Random family pictures are found here, and the rest are in their own albums found here. The most recent ones are: Kaiya’s 3rd Birthday Party, Camping at Cran-Hill Ranch, an afternoon at the lakeshore and a playdate at the zoo.

Out of all the recent pictures, the following two are my favorite. The first picture was taken by my dear friend, Trisha, and Andrej captured the one of Kaiya mid jump. If a picture really is worth a thousand words, then this post is actually quite lengthy.

These carpooling pictures were taken with Andrej’s phone (hence the terrible quality), but too cute not to share.

This post is a continuation of an account of our recent trip to SC/GA. Part one is found here, part two here and part three here.

Late Monday afternoon, Andrej and I left the kids in the capable hands of my parents and headed to Atlanta. We weren’t even a few miles down the road when Andrej shared that he had a knot in his stomach. Relieved that I wasn’t the only one sad to leave Kaiya and Tobi behind, I too admitted the knot in my own stomach. We have never left the kids overnight. Even when I was in the hospital for Tobi’s birth, Andrej came home each night to be with Kaiya, so we haven’t had much practice with leaving them for more than a few hours. However, we knew it would be good for us, good for them and good for my parents.  (Read more …)

This post is a continuation of an account of our recent trip to SC/GA. Part one is found here and part two is found here.

After two busy days, Monday was declared a lazy day and the only thing on the agenda was relaxing and playing with the kids. My grandparents joined us for breakfast and Kaiya and Tobi had fun interacting with their great grandparents.

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Never ever under any circumstances would I recommend you to mix the following items:  (Read more …)

This post is a continuation of an account of our recent trip to SC/GA. Part One is found here.

Sunday, was not just any ol’ Sunday, it was Father’s Day. Unfortunately, I forgot that and as I heard my dad bumping around the kitchen that morning (Andrej and I were sleeping on an air mattress in the family room next to the kitchen), I called out, “Dad? Do you have any coffee ready over there?” It wasn’t until a little later when my mom was busy getting us to sign the Father’s Day cards that I realized it should have been me serving my father coffee on this particular morning rather than the other way around. (Read more …)