On the Edge of a Decade

9 years ago was our wedding day. We were both so nervous, and so young! (I was 20, he was 25!) We were broke, and there was no Pinterest when we got married, so our wedding was very simple (Wal-Mart wedding cake! No joke...) and not very photo-worthy (in fact, the few pictures we have are really horrible, which still makes me incredibly sad every time I think about it.)

When I listen to friends and family's wedding plans, and see their beautiful photos and how well they plan everything out, I realize how weird in today's culture Matt and I were as we stepped into married life - we were two very poor, shy virgins with zero pizazz and a lot of awkwardness who decided to step forward in faith that God would honor the blessings he promises to two people who honor Him in their relationship. It was so important to Matt to honor God with our relationship from the very beginning. I can not even start to express how thankful I am for that about him. It has meant everything, and has been a rock I have leaned on over and over when times have been tough.

I tease him every so often for how "unromantic" he was in our dating relationship (his proposal consisted of handing me my ring in his old F-150,) and how horribly awkward it was to have our first kiss be in front of all our family and friends at our wedding (I'm cringing thinking about it!) But what he did give me, was the very real assurance that fancy words and stylish weddings meant nothing to him in comparison to how much honoring Jesus in our lives together meant. That's why I chose him. That's why I still choose him! It's why I have every hope and confidence that we'll be together till death separates us. And I can attest, with all sincerity that YES - God does keep his promises. His blessings are real and so much more valuable than any physical or material thing in the world.

(Though I always will be a little sore about my (lack of) wedding pictures...) ;-)

(And if you do decide to wait until your wedding to kiss, and it's HORRIBLE, don't panic too much about it - a little practice and you're golden.) ;-)

Birthday Week

The first week of April is always one much-looked-forward-to in our household. Olive celebrates her birthday on April 1 and Silas is right behind her on April 3. (We also had the coincidence of Easter falling on April 5 this year, which made the week all the more festive and sugar crazed!) 

We've always been able to mash up both birthdays into one big family celebration, but this year Olive really wanted to have her own day that didn't have to be shared with her brother. So, trying to be understanding parents, we decided to try doing two separate birthdays this year.

Never again, you guys. *Wink.* But seriously, it was a lot of work. I think the kids enjoyed it though, and that was the most important thing. We agreed when Olive was just a newborn that we weren't going to do parties for out kids, but that we'd try to keep birthday celebrations casual and focused more on family time. Of course, we needed some help getting rid of two birthday cakes in one week, so we had friends over both nights to lend a helping hand with that job, and that was really special.

Gosh, time really does fly. I was looking back to the last two years of birthdays with these two and they have changed so much!

Looking Back

In  January the big event of course was the arrival of sweet little Oona Caroline. Oona's birthday was one of the best days of my life. All the birth days of my kids are memorable and special in their own ways, but Oona's delivery was so peaceful and sacred. The calm before the storm! While the delivery was easy and peaceful, the settling in period was anything but. We struggled, and thankfully we persevered all the better for it. 

In  February we attempted a little Valentine's day photo shoot for Matt. It was one of the few, short + sweet distractions we enjoyed during a very hard month. It was bitterly cold and we were frantically searching for a house as our landlords needed us to move out of our rental. Nursing Oona and figuring out how to manage three children was proving to be a bigger challenge than I had expected and I started feeling really overwhelmed.

Oh  March, you beast of a month. We finally found and purchased a house, and though it needed considerable work it was love at first sight during our very first walk through. God provided a house that met nearly every single unique need our family had - what a tremendous blessing! In early March we took a break from packing and flew down to visit my parents and sister in North Carolina. It was good for us all to spend time relaxing at home with Mom and Dad, and I'll treasure those sweet memories of them meeting Oona for the first time for the rest of my life. Then it was back home and time to move. Moving with a 4 year old, a 1 year old and an infant was just awful. There's just no way to sugar coat it! On top of the stress of moving out of our rental in the middle of winter, we decided to paint as much of the house as we could before moving into the new house which meant many late late nights working until the wee hours of the morning. The day after we finally moved in, Matt had to fly to NYC for work, and left at home with the babies in our unpacked house feeling totally exhausted from the move, I came down with the worst post-partum depression I have ever experienced. 

Things started getting a lot better in  April with the arrival of my wonderful mother-in-law. Sharon's week long visit was just what I needed. We celebrated Olive and Silas' birthdays and the weather finally started warming up enough to start spending time outside. Tulips started peeking through the dirt, and I finally started coming out of the post-partum depression fog. Spring was the light at the end of a dark tunnel for our whole family.

May was gorgeous and warm. We enjoyed our second Tulip Time, watched the parades march past our new front yard, and took lots of walks in our new neighborhood. Mothers Day was extra special this year, hands + heart full with my three beautiful, rambunctious little ones. I finished out the month with a really big bang and got braces! (Yikes!)

Summer really arrived in  June and it was such a fun, busy month. We celebrated Matt on Fathers Day. I only freaked out a little about turning 28. My Dad drove up to Michigan for his very first visit - we had SUCH a blast, hiking and kayaking and exploring Holland with him. We enjoyed every second of his visit with us.

July was packed with almost too much fun to handle. We spent a wonderful week in gorgeous Glen Arbor, MI with Matt's whole family. It was so good to see his brother Chris again, who traveled from Colorado to join us. Soon afterwards MY whole family (all the siblings included) came and spent a week with us in Holland! 

Olive started kindergarten in  August and has loved it ever since. During this month we got a lot of work done on our house, and it really started to feel like home.

Things started cooling down in  September. We had some fun little adventures, exploring a dahlia farm and spending a fun day in lovely little Rockford. 

Matt and I attended Art Prize in October which is becoming one of my favorite parts of autumn in west Michigan. We also took a quick trip to Ohio to celebrate our nephew's 16th birthday.  

The holiday season officially began in November. We celebrated a quiet Thanksgiving at home, got our first blizzard of the season, took a couple of trips to IKEA, and got our Christmas cards finished in record breaking time! 

How is it already the very end of December? I took an unplanned break from blogging this month because I just couldn't catch a breath - lots of church and social activities, Matt had a week long business trip, then we decided last minute to spend Christmas in WV with Matt's parents! We only just got back last night and I'm feeling happy, content and a bit overwhelmed at what a crazy-wonderful whirlwind 2014 has been. Thank you for taking the time to follow our simple story through this little blog. Those of you who have reached out and connected through the "blogosphere" have truly made this year sweeter to me. An extra special shout out to the lovely Veronika for helping me give "The Sweetness" a much needed face lift this year. She did such a beautiful job!

Happy Happy 2015!

It's going to be a great year, I can just feel it!

Picking Our Tree

We went back to the same tree lot that we loved so much last year - and loved it just as much this year! Nicest folks ever - they go out of their way to make sure you're getting a tree you love, and insist on getting a family picture with your tree on the lot...which was great after we got a series of "fails" - it must have been too cold for small Freys to feel cooperative!

Outtakes, for your entertainment:

Oh boy.

Our Thanksgiving

We enjoyed our four day weekend tremendously - it was quiet and simple and just what we needed to rest up and prepare for a very busy upcoming December. Grace and a friend joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. Matt and I cooked a lot, and we got in a little over our heads, but we really enjoy working in the kitchen together and it all worked out in the end. We brined and baked a big turkey, made a brussel sprout salad, gluten free cornbread stuffing, a maple pecan sweet potato casserole and cranberry salad. 

Dessert was homemade cookies and a chocolate coconut pie. 

If you hadn't guessed, we're a little coconut-crazy in this house. Those cookies were too good, I had to give them away and get them out of my house ASAP before I went into self-destruct mode.

I had some good phone visits over the weekend, and received the best news from some loved ones that has had me stopping to do an excited happy dance at least 5 times a day. Also, one of my best friends here in Holland delivered her fourth baby over the weekend and Matt and I got to go hang out with them at the hospital for a bit yesterday. There's nothing like holding a brand new baby to fill you up with wonder, joy and gratitude. I have felt really overwhelmed this week with just how many things we have to celebrate and be thankful for this year, praise be to God! It feels like a great start to this holiday season. (Gah, I'm getting emotional just sitting here typing!)

Last night we began our observation of Advent. Matt and I are still learning about this tradition as it's something neither of us observed as children. Last year we read a verse each night with Olive, but this year we're using the book "The Advent Jesse Tree" - it has devotionals and discussion starters for children and adults so we can use it to have a family Bible study each evening with Olive and Silas as well as a devotional to do together each day. I think this is going to be my favorite part of the Christmas celebration this year!

Oh and we can't forget - it's time to listen to ALL the Christmas music guilt free! I can't get enough of Sufjan Stevens' Christmas albums. I listen to them all the time. Matt put on some Michael Buble the other night that I had never heard that we all really liked, so that might be this year's special soundtrack. (Do you adopt a specific Christmas album as a favorite each year? We tend to do that - past favorites have been Jars of Clay's Christmas Songs , A Very She & Him Christmas and Christmas With the Rat Pack.)

What are you most excited for this Christmas? What are your favorite traditions, big and small? 

I'm Most Thankful For...

...These guys!

We've all got so very much to be thankful for. Let's celebrate it today, and every day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ladies Night

I had a group of friends come over one night last week to paint wooden beads and make necklaces. It was so nice to just relax, chit-chat, eat and be creative together. 

Something that I genuinely love to do is play hostess. Observing my mom's hospitality had a major impact on me during my growing-up years. I learned from observing her that you don't have to have a perfect house or lots of finery to have a great get-together. You just need good friends, a place for everyone to sit comfortably, and always a pot of coffee brewing ready to serve. (Oh, and some chocolate never hurts an occasion either!)

This is something that I would love to do again before summer ends!

28

Yesterday was my birrrf-day.

So how does "28" feel, you ask? A heck-of-a lot closer to 30 than 27 felt, that's for sure. 

And as mother's luck would have it, I woke up with a summer cold yesterday - fever, sore throat and uncontrollable sneezing. But it's ok, because...

-Matt brought me home my favorite cookie and a coffee, which I ate unashamedly for breakfast.

-Olive wrote me a "little-bit-scary" book about a mother that turns into a dragon. (Hmm.)

-I successfully held myself back from interfering as I watched Matt suffer through baking a german chocolate birthday cake, which entailed at least 6 different trips to the grocery store and multiple start overs. (In the end it turned out amazing.)

-Matt forgot to get ice cream, which meant we had to get little sundaes from Captain Sundaes after eating our cake. I didn't complain. (But I will tomorrow when my pants won't button.)

-Matt surprised me, (and I mean REALLY surprised me,) with BALLROOM DANCING CLASSES. I'm still reeling from that one. I am so excited!

-Matt's Aunt Mary called me, and we had a nice long catch up. I love her.

-My friend Brooke stopped over right before bedtime with beautiful yellow roses. So, so sweet.

So basically, it was an epic birthday!

I'm really, really thankful for this new year, and most of all that I get to spend it with the people I love most. 

Father's Day

I've written and re-written this post several times in the last few days, and I've come to the realization that I just can't put into eloquent words all I would love to say about how I feel about the father of my babies. So this will have to do...

In 7 and a half years, our family has grown from two naive newlyweds to a noisy, crazy family of five. We have been blessed with three beautiful, healthy babies and have also grieved over the losses of two babies that I miscarried. Through all the highs and lows and love and heartache we've experienced as parents, I've watched Matt grow into an amazing father. I am so proud of him. He is the rock that Olive, Silas, Oona and I lean on - he's the glue that holds us together. He is a peacemaker, humble, and so kind. I can not imagine going through life without him.

You are so loved, husband.