The Moberg Family

Category: Colorado

  • Elliott is eight!

    Elliott is eight!

    And it sure has been great! (For the past 5 months….)

    It seems like my life motto might be “better late than never.” Sigh.

    So before I go any further, you all know we moved about 6 weeks before his birthday. So, to answer the question you will all be dying to ask–no, I did not choose the orangey-beige color on the walls and yes, I DID let the kids paint the walls and write verses all over them to make absolutely sure that the walls got re-painted. Win.

    Our mighty man hit the big 8 and we had lots of celebrating to ring in the new birthday year. One of the more exciting things is that we had the honor of a visit from Aunt Paula and Uncle Joe!! They got to join us for Elliott’s Mauss family birthday party a couple of weeks before his actual birthday! What a treat!!

    Let’s just take a minute and talk about Elliott. Oh this boy is just so special. He still chooses to wear his Carhartts and striped blue/navy blue shirt (that I got him for his 5th birthday, I think??) almost every day. If you’re wondering how it could possibly still fit this growing boy and how it could possibly not have holes in it from this active little buddy…well, it doesn’t really fit (see the sleeves?) and the elbows are basically two big holes. He loves the Paw Patrol (even though he’s still never seen the show) and boy is he into “stuffies”! Selah got him this little Marshall stuffie last year for his birthday and they are inseparable. He is also just hopelessly infatuated with turtles. I love his heart. Here he is on his birthday morning, wearing a 3 year old shirt, in his birthday balloon chair, with his birthday stuffie from last year. I just love this child of mine so much!

    On his actual birthday, he had testing at school for the morning (which he was really excited about, mostly because they got to chew gum, lol). Grandma and Grandpa were here to visit so we all picked him up from school, played at the park for a bit and then hit Chick-fil-a for lunch. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it??

    We celebrated as a family with mud pie (obviously). And…I discovered that I somehow lost all of our candles in the move. Hmmm. And I still haven’t found them. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a group of baby turtles out at our lake having a hey day with these colorful wax sticks that burn fire…

    I regress. I found some matches (matches?? who still owns matches??) so they served as our candles. It was a win-win because I also couldn’t find our lighters, so we just lit a match to light the match candles and told Elliott to HURRY UP and BLOW THEM OUT!!! We opened some special presents, one of which was the “biggest Lego set I’ve ever had!!” from Grandma and Grandpa. He might be a little excited.

    A different night, we ALSO went out to dinner at the Texas Road House (first year he hasn’t picked Red Robin!) which was fun because they put him on a saddle to sing to him!

    And, for the final celebration…One of Elliott’s best buddies, Quinn, has a birthday just 12 days after him. Our families decided to go to Great Wolf Lodge together to celebrate our boys. We ended up with two extra bands so each of the birthday boys got to pick one more friend to join in for the day. They went down a million slides, swam hard, bowled and even got to play in the arcade. It was such an awesome birthday!!

    Elliott is SO BLESSED with incredible friends. These three boys are no exception. This a group of respectful and kind, yet wild and super fun boys that I would happily have Elliott rub elbows with for a long time! They are such a blessing!!

    These two. I’m always tempted to pull out the baby pictures. Maybe I already have! It fills my heart with such extreme joy that these two were bosom buddies, and were friends long before they were born. What a GIFT and treasure from God!!

    Quinn’s sisters made a delicious Star Wars cake that was devoured pretty quickly for sure!

    Yes, we were all there too. And Grampa and Nonna joined us for lunch and birthday cake!

    Well, that’s a wrap. I will end with this picture, which I think is my absolute new favorite picture of my boy. But seriously.

    Happy birthday to our turtley awesome 8 year old boy!!

     

  • Elliott’s 7th Soccer Birthday!

    Elliott’s 7th Soccer Birthday!

    I know you have all been up losing sleep at night wondering what Elliott did for his 7th birthday. Well, now that he’s near turning 8, I figured I’d put a post up about it so you could all get some sleep. 😉

    We had a soccer birthday party for him with a little soccer program that the kids had attended the last couple of years. It’s super FUN and this coach was their absolute favorite. He’s like a cartoon character. So when we heard he did birthday parties, we were all in!!

    It started off with a hilarious circle time and some stretches…

    And then some super fun games…

    A much needed water break… (The kids and I personalized these water bottles for the guests!)

    And, of course…cake time! We bought Elliott a new soccer ball and each of his friends got to sign it!

    Some of you have had the blessed opportunity to partake in the Moberg family birthday cake tradition of…MUD PIE. Oh my, this is probably my all-time favorite dessert and all the secrets of the trade have been passed down to me from my father-in-law. I decided to tweak the recipe a bit to turn the mud pie into mini mud pie cupcakes and, of course, turn them into soccer balls. YUMMMMM.

    It was a super fun time surrounded by friends and family!

    Happy 7th birthday, biggest man!!! (Okay, is it me or did this kid grow up SO MUCH this year?!!! He’s practically a MAN!!)

  • Christmas Before and Afters

    As you all know, we moved into our new home just a couple of days before Christmas last year. We are so unbelievably blessed and grateful for this home; I love it more than any home we have ever lived in! But even so, I still have this teensy weensy little passion for making things beautiful and I couldn’t wait to make it ours. And it was Christmas! So while most may have thoughts of Sugar Plum Fairies dancing through their heads, my brain was singing a different tune. Despite the boxes and stuff literally wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling in some rooms (did I mention we downsized??), the thought that kept floating its way around the back of my head was…

    “These cabinets would look so beautiful painted white with fresh garland across the tops…”

    Sung to the tune of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas!” Do you agree?? Here was our home last year on Christmas day :).

    Merry Christmas to all and to all a…need to fit all of this stuff somewhere!!!! 

    You guys. I am such a sucker for a good “Before and After” photo. My Pinterest feed is filled with them, but I have never had the chance to do my very own before and after because we’ve always rented and Brian has–rightly so–not let me spend a dime or a minute putting effort into a home that wasn’t ours. (He may have been right, but all you have to do is mention the “bathroom wallpaper” from our last home and I may or may not shed a tear or two.) Anyhow, I regress. Here’s another day in our new home, after a tiny bit more unpacking progress:

    So, after several months of creative storage solutions, new appliances, a dab of paint here and there (shout out to Jillian who helped me paint the kitchen/living room!), my very first furniture make-over, a lot of elbow grease and some fresh garland…I present to you our kitchen this year on Christmas day 2018:

    *Squeal!* 

    Did you see that I even turned a counter-height square table into a normal height oval table?? 🙂 Just kidding. We had to get a new table that actually fit in our new kitchen. A craigslist steal with a little paint and stain turned into my most favorite table ever!

     

    Isn’t it amazing what can happen in just one year?!! I pray that as we enter this new year, that you would be able to look back and remember what the Lord has done in your life, and look forward to 2019 with great expectancy about what He will do in your heart in the year to come!!

    One more great before and after for you…check out how these two kids have grown up in the last six years!! #christmasjammies

     

    Merry Christmas and Happy 2019!!! 

  • Once Upon a Turtle

    Once Upon a Turtle

    Once upon a time, the lord of a not-so-faraway land came home after work and, as was the habit, asked his young son if he’d like to take a quick four-wheeler ride. The prince jumped into his cowboy boots and buckled his helmet on while the lady of the land got the princess ready for bed.

    But this didn’t turn out to be an ordinary four-wheeler ride. It seemed their Good Shepherd had planned an extraordinary surprise for them along the way: a Western Painted Turtle Mama, digging a hole in the dirt near the lake.

    Of course the son couldn’t wait to share this news with the female half of his family, so he and his daddy quickly drove back to the house to get the ladies to share in the joy. All four drove back to the lake to see this amazing phenomenon.

    The neighbors gathered round and called upon the all-knowing Google to tell us why this turtle was digging a hole. It was beautiful to watch this mama turtle s-l-o-w-l-y and painstakingly use her hind claws, one at a time, to dig through this dirt that was so hard I couldn’t poke through it with my finger. Shortly after, one neighbor announced, “I think she’s about to lay eggs!” the mama turtle stopped digging and silently dropped an egg into the hole. The children all gasped in amazement as they all watched this laboring mama lay not one, not two, but fourteen eggs into this hole. After each egg, she would tuck her claws in and pack the egg into the dirt hole before laying another one. It was a truly miraculous sight. As we discussed how to mark the nest, the daddy happened upon a piece of trash clearly left over from a shower…one man’s trash is the decor for another turtle’s baby shower.

     


     

     

    The dirt was SO HARD that the lord of the land had to use a hammer to get it into the dirt. The daddy also placed a large rock in front of the nest so the family wouldn’t accidentally drive a four-wheeler over it.

    After the mama turtle had finished laying eggs and started to cover up her nest, every little lad and lady went home to their respective houses. The lady of the land, however, couldn’t resist going back out there to see what this mama turtle would do next. And this is what she found:

     

    Can you find the turtle nest in the picture on the left?? She was amazed to see how that mama turtle camouflaged her babies’ hiding place, down to putting dried grass over the spot. (The nest is just above the big rock.) When she turned around, she found that mama turtle slowly making her way home to the lake…can you spot her in the picture on the right?

    It was a super fun and educational summer researching all things turtles and learning all about them. The prince and princess even wrote and illustrated their very own fictional books about turtles. (And Mama Moberg Publishing was delighted to officially publish their books!) The children counted down every one of the 72 days of their incubation period, periodically checking on the babies to make sure no fire ants had found the nest. And on their “due date” the children awoke and shouted for joy, threw on their clothes and ran down to the lake to check on the babies. Their mama tried to explain to them that due dates are not always accurate, but nonetheless they couldn’t contain their wonder. To their dismay, there was no hole in the dirt where the babies should have dug themselves out. And almost every day the children checked on the babies…for five long weeks.

    The lady of the house had lost sleep wondering  spent the summer researching how these baby turtles would find their way home to the pond. She had come across several articles talking about how sometimes the dirt is just too hard for them to dig themselves out of. It had rained a ton over the summer but the ground was still hard as a rock. After waiting five long weeks for the babies to dig themselves out and after watching a video on the procedure…the family decided it was time to do an emergency c-section.

    So they called on all the neighbors to come watch the delivery, poured a bucket of water over the nest, and began to gently dig into the dirt with their fingers. It wasn’t long before one cried out, “I feel one!!” And she pulled the world’s most adorable baby turtle out of the dirt!! Several mamas and Selah rotated reaching in and gently feeling around for them. Every time they pulled a baby turtle out, covered in mud, the little guy would take his hand and wipe his own little face off!! It was so adorable!! In the end, they found five baby turtles alive and well!! Five of them had died somewhere along the way. And they couldn’t find the remaining four egg shells, which was weird. Selah spent an hour continuing to dig once the delivery was long over because she was determined to find the last 4 babies.

    The first few seconds of the following video are the most exciting. If you watch on, you’ll be able to see one of the empty shells (which at first we thought was a squished turtle!)…


     

    After all of the kiddos got to “oooh” and “aaah” over the babies, everyone headed down to the pond to release them, which was always the plan.

    Each sibling pair got to release a baby turtle into the pond. However, can you see the amount of algae in it? Unfortunately, the lord and lady of this land still don’t know how to take care of a little lake like this one (it’s on “The To-Do List…”). It was filled with algae and everyone was afraid the turtles would get entangled in it. But the lady of the land assured them all that the turtles would know what to do…

    That is…until she watched one baby turtle trying to swim and realized that he couldn’t! Gasp!

    She cried out to the lord of the land who, to her surprise, said they could keep a couple turtles for a couple days to alleviate her fear. Overjoyed, she pulled three babies back out of the lake, two who were completely tangled up in the algae and the one who couldn’t swim.

    They told the kids who, obviously, couldn’t contain their joy. They asked if they could go find the other two. After searching through heaps of algae, they found the last two baby turtles completely entangled in the algae. It seems pretty clear that they would have either died of starvation or been eaten alive by the next duck that came by since they couldn’t swim away!

    The family’s neighbors fortunately had an extra tank so they made the baby turtles a little home within their home, safe from predators and strangling algae.

    The next day princess Selah discovered that their marking on their bellies were unique–and so they were able to name the newest members of their family. 

    (From left to right) Princess Selah’s turtle: Cutie Pie; Prince Elliott’s turtle: Claw Patrol; the lord’s turtle: Shelly; The lady’s turtle: Tortuga; The family turtle: Symmy

    The family is still trying to figure out when/how to release them back into their natural habitat. But for now, the family is living happily ever after, enjoying the world’s cutest baby turtles…who hold hands, snuggle and make totem poles all the day long!


  • New Mercies Monday: Gratitude

    I started this post LAST Monday, and after a particularly challenging week it feels like the perfect day to take a moment to stop, pause, think about how great our God is…and finish this post!!

    The truth is, I fall asleep every night thanking God for so many victories every day…small things that I used to take for granted…but isn’t it true? It’s often only when something is taken away that you even realize it was something you took for granted. There a hundred mundane-to-the-world events that are taking place in my world every day that spur on such a deep sense of gratitude. What’s one example, you ask? Doing the dishes. A year and a half ago that was literally impossible for me. I’m so thankful I can do the dishes!!!

    A year ago, we gathered with these same dear friends on Thanksgiving and the walk we took after dinner felt equivalent to climbing Everest. This year, piece of cake pumpkin pie! Thank you, Lord!!

    So grateful for these friends, for dear Suz whose warm hospitality oozes from every aspect of the day, from the mouth-watering gravy to the beautiful table to the strong embraces; for OJ who keeps us in non-stop laughter; and for their precious children who delight our lives. So thankful for the gifts of these beloved friends who love us deeply, extravagantly and unconditionally, who spur us on, and who share their lives with us.

     

    And the Wallaces!!! Sound the horn! We haven’t seen them in years but they squeezed us into their busy in-town-for-a-short-few-days schedule. Such a joy to see their boys all grown up (sniff, sniff…I have a picture of me holding Nathan as an infant!!!) and to get to visit with them. Today also happens to be Amy’s birthday…so shout out to Amy for turning another year older and STILL looking EXACTLY like she did when I met her…what? TWENTY years ago???!!! Unbelievable. Please share with us your secret to the fount of youth!!

     

    Ooooh and my precious family. Look at these cousins. We are missing Cypher, Andrew and Courtney…but they were in our hearts and their artwork was on the mug all the grandkids made for my mom!! My mom prepared a fantastic Thanksgiving feast, as always, and turned a year older the same day. Have I mentioned how thankful I am to be near my mom? What would I do without her? Without her prayers, without her laugh, without her friendship, without her stuffing and apple pie?? Thank you, Lord, for this dear mother of mine.

    My parents have generously and thoughtfully taken all the daughters/granddaughters to the Nutcracker each year. It is a tradition that we all very much look forward to, but I will say that Selah CANNOT.STOP.TALKING.ABOUT.IT starting from about July! “When’s the Nutcracker?” is a question we hear for months around here! This year Aunt Melanie and the girls flew in for the win and now we are just missing Joanne and Courtney…so…maybe next year!! 🙂 Seriously, could the girls POSSIBLY be any cuter in those matching dresses???? GAH!!!

     

    Your turn. What about you? What are you thankful for? What new mercies has He given you today? I’d love to hear your comments!!

  • Elliott plays soccer!

    Elliott plays soccer!

    Raise your hand if you remember this kid!!


    OH MY…the kid whose first word was “ball,” the kid who was only motivated to start walking when his Aunt and Uncle gave him a soccer ball for his first birthday and he realized he had to walk to kick it, the kid who has now had TWO ball birthday parties…this child has always loved balls!!

    If you’re in the mood for some throw-back videos, check these out. The first one just makes me laugh so hard!!

     


    And this Fall, Elliott was FINALLY on his first official soccer team. Look at how big my baby boy is!!!

    And not only that, Brian gained a title that is every dad’s rite of passage to becoming a REAL dad….”COACH BRIAN.”

    God ordained an interesting order of events that landed Brian the title of “Coach” and our dear friend Trevor the title of “Assistant Coach.” (Kari and I might have had something to do with that…let me just say that some days I think we could take over the world if we wanted to…mwahahahaha….) Elliott was THRILLED beyond belief to have his daddy coach him and, although some might call me “bias,” I will say that Brian was the best soccer coach on the planet! He was so good with those boys–such an encouragement for their soccer skills as well as their attitudes and hearts. When Trevor wasn’t flying around the world and could be there to coach as well I can say with confidence that those two as a coaching team were unstoppable! We ended the season with two wins, two ties and five losses…but if we add things up the way I do math, we ended the season with 12 boys who had FUN, who were exhorted and encouraged by their coaches, who learned teamwork and sportsmanship, and improved on their soccer skills. It was a WIN all around in my book!!

    Elliott loves playing defense and goalie and it was fun to watch him improve over the two months of playing. His trademark is a strong BOOT to the ball to defend his team’s goal. (In the video below, he’s wearing a white shirt and he’s the one who boots the ball towards the other end of the field…)

     

    What a fun, first official soccer season!!!

     

  • 2018 First Days of School

    2018 First Days of School

    Well, another school year is off to the races…and this year, our baby girl headed off to kindergarten. She got a big girl backpack and lunchbox, and I just had to include The Kissing Hand in there for a little surprise. It’s a sweet little book about a little raccoon being nervous about going to school so his mom kisses his hand and tells him that her kisses will go with him to school. Selah was FAR from being nervous about school but I think the book was really more for me than for her… (waahhh!!) I hadn’t been emotional about this whole thing until I sat to read her the book…and couldn’t make it through without crying! Gah! The kids think it’s hilarious when I cry during books, so I’m glad they got a kick out of it!!


    We went to back-to-school night and found her classroom, teacher, desk and friends!

    I’m actually not sure if there’s ever been a child in the history of all children more excited to go to school. This child was practically jumping out of her skin she was so excited. She picked out this shirt as her “first day” shirt…the panda sequins change when you slide them up or down.

    But honestly, have you ever seen such an excited kindergartener?? When she saw this picture, she said, “It looks like I’m about to jump up.” And I responded, “YOU ARE!! Don’t you remember how you couldn’t stop jumping up and down??” Hahaha!! And here she is showing off her panda sequins shirt…both when the sequins are up and down!

    Here she is walking into school for the very first time as a student, and waving goodbye as her class walks into the building…

     

    If it looks like she’s a giant in this picture, it’s because she is :). Actually, she’s not the tallest one in her class! She’s #2!

    She only had a half day of school so I couldn’t pack her a fun lunch, but I was happy to see her again after a few hours :). She even made us a kissing hand while at school!!

    And here is the self-portrait that she drew the next day for our first homeschool day. She is wearing a unicorn headband and holding a parachute, of course :).

    Selah is thriving in her kindergarten class. She absolutely LOVES going to school. One thing I don’t think I made clear before her first day was that she was actually a STUDENT, not the TEACHER. There are quite a few hilarious quotes from her first day, but this one is our favorite: She proudly reported to us after her first day, “Mom and Dad, I was really helpful today. I helped all of the little ones who didn’t know how to cut and didn’t know their letters. You know, all of the two- and three-year-olds in my class.”

    I looked at her and said, “Selah…they are ALL five…just like you…”

    Her eyes got HUGE and her jaw dropped and she said, “REALLY?? REALLY????!!!!!”

    Oh my word, we love her so much!!!!

    One thing that has been SO PRECIOUS to watch unfold is Elliott and Selah’s friendship while at school. At home, we have worked diligently to help them build their friendship with each other and prayed that God would form a strong bond between them. But of course there are definitely days filled with much tension between the two of them. We have spent many hours instructing and teaching Elliott about protecting and watching out for his sister while at school and he has just hit the ball out of the park so far this year. One day when she didn’t have anyone to sit with at lunch she went over and asked Elliott if she could sit with him. And he said…drum roll please…”Of course, Selah!” And he cleared a space between himself and his friends for her to sit. #heartgush #thankyouLord!!! He has been a valiant big brother, protecting and serving her while at school…and even telling his friends to go easy on her during Gaga ball because she was only in kindergarten :).

    And speaking of that Big Man, he’s an old pro at this whole “school” thing…

     

    This mighty man found this shirt at the store and INSISTED on wearing it on the first day of school. I will admit I was not the biggest fan of it…not because I don’t want to take some credit for this wonderful young man, but because we all know that he is who he is because of the MIGHTY GRACE OF GOD!! And of course, Brian and I have helped shape him and teach him…but if we’re gonna get a t-shirt, it might as well boast about our great God. I wish the shirt said, “I am who I am thanks to God and a little help from my dad and mom.” 😉 Regardless, we let him get it (I’m not sure I’ve EVER seen him so opinionated and persistent about an item of clothing) and wear on the first day of school…

    Aaaand, the caption on the picture of the two of us together reads, “Mom holds son at gunpoint and forces him to wear shirt that gives her credit for his awesomeness. Son is terrified.”

    Here the self-portrait Elliott drew on the first homeschool day:

    Elliott has a fabulous second grade teacher and he is, as always, loving school!

     

    My goodness, these two are just my absolute favorites!!! Happy first day of school, dear ones!!

  • 2018 Last Days of School

    2018 Last Days of School

    Apparently I’m making it a tradition to just barely squeeze the Last Days of School post in before the start of the next school year…

    Well, we did it! Another school year down in the Moberg history books. We continued another year of partial homeschooling–so two days a week, Elliott went to school and Selah went to gymnastics and then we homeschooled them the other days. We absolutely love this combination for so many reasons, but that’s a post for another day! 🙂

    Elliott has grown immensely in his leadership this year while at school and we just couldn’t be more proud of him. His teacher told me that often once he had completed the assignment given, she would tell him he could have free choice time. But then the next thing she knew, she would turn around and find him wandering from classmate to classmate, helping the kids who didn’t understand how to do the work. #heartgush

    Although Elliott has NEVER had a problem talking non-stop, sharing ideas and telling stories at home, this is the first year we’ve really seen him blossom at school. Probably one of my favorite things about this past school year was watching his friendship grow and deepen with his buddy Quinn. They are two peas in a pod for sure!!! An amazing team and great role models.

    To my somewhat dismay, Elliott fell head-over-heels in love with…MONOPOLY this year. (Thanks, Dad!!) 😉 Wow. I mean, the child eats, sleeps, and breathes Monopoly. He can’t get enough of it. They were tasked with the assignment to come up with an invention and so he–obviously–invented…wait for it…“a robot that can play Monopoly with me even when my family doesn’t want to.” (And just for the record, Brian in particular has played HOURS UPON HOURS of Monopoly with him, but clearly it’s not enough…) We have seen Brian’s entrepreneurial side bursting out of him this year as he really, really enjoys buying and selling. His math skills continue to shock and awe us. For instance, the kids had been slightly obsessed with the idea of the concept of starting a fire by rubbing two stick together. Brian mentioned that if either one of them ever started a fire by rubbing two sticks together (obviously under our supervision) that he would give them $50. A couple minutes later, Elliott said, “Well I’m going to start a fire 20 times so I make $1,000.” Brian was surprised that he did the math so quickly so started giving him other 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication problems, and Elliott solved them all…! Here are his stats…unedited. 🙂

     

    Selah, our sweet girl. She continues to be the most profound combination of strength and gentleness, service and leadership, hilariousness and, well, other strong emotions! She has excelled this year in so many ways. It is an absolute joy to watch her blossom into a little girl who loves the Lord and loves others so well. She LOVES to read and now that she is a strong reader you will often find her with her nose stuck in a book…and it’s not too unlikely that you will find her like that while doing a handstand. We have noted this love for reading, but I will say I was surprised that she said her favorite part of pre-k was reading books! She is whole reader, unlike her brother who is very much a phonics kid, and so we often hear some creative renditions to what she’s reading when she comes to a word she doesn’t know and simply makes up her own word for it. She also begged me to do flashcards with her most every homeschool day (I’m not a huge flashcards fan for teaching reading at this age, which is why she found herself begging…). However, she insisted that I hold the flashcards UPSIDE-DOWN so she could read them that way. HA! And she had a pretty nearly perfect record of reading them all correctly!

    This will also give you another glimpse into our girl…I took her last day of school picture and, I’ll admit, was quite proud of myself when she smiled beautifully and I got the picture in one try! But when I said, “Wow, Selah! We got a great one on the first try! Good job!” she busted out laughing hysterically and pointed out that she was holding the wrong side of the sign! Haha, very funny, Selah B :).

    And will the REAL Last Day of Pre-K girl please stand up…


    And, of course, it wouldn’t be a true picture of Selah if there weren’t some goofy ones thrown in there… The MOMENT we got (an accurate) picture of her, she ran over to climb a tree. In a dress. And that is how she rolls, ladies and gentlemen!

    And now for a little compare and contrast, especially because I never posted a “first days of school” post!

     Our Mighty Man!


    Our Tenacious Girl!


     

    Kindergarten and Second Grade, we’re ready for you!!!

  • Flashback Friday

    Flashback Friday

    Today isn’t Friday. But after a wonderful loooong weekend of having Brian home, it feels like Monday with him back to work. And I wish it were Friday. And I wanted to title this post “Flashback”…and so we have morphed into “Flashback Friday.”

    There’s my wishful stream-of-consciousness-thinking for you all today.

    I will be the first to admit that Google creeps me out. It has proved time and time again that It, indeed, knows the ins and outs of my life. Inner-workings that It should never know. Why do dark chocolate ads keep popping up on my screen? How did It know I was thinking about that? Why does It suggest eating at certain Mexican restaurants around town? How does It know that Horchata and tortilla chips are the main heroes in most of my nightly dreams? And how has It convinced my kids that It knows EV.REE.THING?

    Kids: “Mom, what time are our friends coming over?”

    Me: “I’m not sure exactly. They said sometime around 9:30.”

    Kids: “Well just ask Google!”

    It is just…creepy.

    However, for all of its creepiness, It does have some redeeming qualities. Such as flawlessly directing me to any Mexican restaurant in the city. And, the inspiration of this blog post: effortlessly popping photo memories up onto my phone screen.

    So here’s where we get to the good part. On May 21st, this is what was happening around these parts:

     

    Just look at these two.*

     

     

    And the next day, guess what Google showed me?

     

     

    UMMMMMMMMM………………………………………………..

     

    A. HOW ENTIRELY UNREAL IS IT THAT THIS HAPPENED ALMOST EXACTLY 4 YEARS AGO TO THE DAY? My jaw totally hit the floor of my heart.

    B. HOW CREEPY IS IT THAT IT PULLED UP THAT PHOTO? I totally looked over my shoulder and underneath the couch cushions. Where does It hide, afterall????

     

    Oh my word. Be still my beating heart. Look at those babies. And how grown up they are now! And yet exactly the same…

     

    Except I think Elliott probably has less teeth now than he did back then. What can I say…you live and you lose teeth.

    Who knew all that Alphabet Train-ing (haha) and conducting and riding would lead them to here, today?!! It was surely a foretaste of the feast to come…yet, of course, we had no idea. Don’t you think God was just smiling down on them that day, at 1 and 3 years old, knowing what would be happening 4 years later as 5 and 7 year olds? I love that. What joy to flashback and remember this. I suppose I should thank Google, for without It I would have never discovered this priceless treasure. Well, thank you, Google. (But enough with the dark chocolate ads. That’s not helping anything.)

    *Disclaimer: For those of you who are not fully aware of who Brian Moberg is in his entirety, I assure you that Elliott has been fully trained by his extremely thorough father to ride that four wheeler with excellence and utmost safety. There have been a couple of times he’s had the responsibility of taking his sister along with him, and their Daddy is always right next to them, watching and ensuring that they are wise and safe. But for all the kids and adults reading this: do not try this at home.

    Or, better yet: come by and Brian will teach you–and your kids–to ride one. And then you should totally try this at home. Because it’s awesome.

     

    Welp, happy Flashback Friday to you all!

  • Lady Selah’s and Sir Brian’s Birthday!

    Lady Selah’s and Sir Brian’s Birthday!

    Our Selah Beth…5 years old! My goodness, she continues to grow into a beautiful little girl–yes, with her adorable freckled face, but more importantly in her heart towards God and others. We are so blessed to be her parents!! She has thrived this last year. She is still loving gymnastics, learned how to ride her bike without training wheels back in June, and is reading wonderfully. She is pure joy.

    Six months before Selah’s birthday, she informed me, “Mom…I just REALLY want to have an olive birthday.”

    “I’m sorry…what was that?? An OLIVE birthday? As in…an OLIVE???”

    “Yes!”

    Although I think God has gifted me with a little bit of creativity, the creative olive juices just weren’t flowin’. Every so often for the next few months, she would bring it up and each time I would try to come up with alternate ideas for her birthday… A month or two later she suddenly said, “Mom, I just really would like to have my birthday with Daddy.” {heart melt}

    So in my spare time I tried to dream up what an olive joint birthday party with Brian could look like…Up until one sunny day in September when she said, “Mom, actually I think I’d like to have a princess party. With olive cupcakes. I want 5 olives on my cupcake since I’ll be 5. Well, make that 4 olives and a candle. Hmmm, maybe 3 olives and 2 candles…” Well alrighty then!! I had a little something to work with now!

    She then continued on for about 5 minutes (I have it on video!) of every detail of this princess party, including a two story castle that everyone could climb through. It was going to be a knights and princesses party and Winnie the Pooh was going to be there for cupcakes. Cupcakes with olives.

    So we settled on a Royal-themed party and decided to invite our close family friends who live in the city so Brian would have some friends there, too! My goodness, the party just came together quickly and splendidly… It will be a special memory forever…gathering some of our favorite people in one place and celebrating Selah and Brian!

    The invitation read,

    Calling all princesses and knights! Lady Selah has requested to celebrate her 5th birthday with her knight in shining armor, “Sir Daddy”.

    The morning of her birthday, Selah woke up to a present tied to 5 purple balloons. When she finally opened it, she discovered a (light up!) Princess Crown with a “5” on it!

    You all know Brian and how he is not the BIGGEST fan of being celebrated…but he was over-the-moon to share this special day with Selah. I should have thought of this years ago to trick him into being celebrated! 😉 Selah and I planned out a surprise for Brian and Elliott–armor that they could wear on the big day. Selah was thrilled to wear her purple princess dress (we got her that when she was 2! Ha!!) and she requested that I also wear a princess dress…and this was the closest thing I had in my closet! Here we are…the Royal Family! 🙂

     

    A princess with tennis shoes…that’s my girl :).

    Since we were entertaining a large group of girls and boys ages 3-13, we decided to fulfill Selah’s castle dream and rent a bounce house for the main party gig. Talk about bang for your buck! It was perfect for boys and girls alike of all ages. We had two crafts going on the side–shields the kids could paint (shout out to Grandpa Moberg for making these INCREDIBLE shields out of cardboard we had in the garage!!) and princess crowns that the girls could decorate. We also ordered inflatable swords for each kid both to joust with and bring home!

     

     

     

    We are so RICH to have all of these treasured friends of ours in the same city!!! 

    Look at all these awesome kiddos!!
    Amazing friends!!

    Selah really wanted to play “Pin-the-tail on the pony…no…wait…pin the tail on the…princess?” Hahaha! I suggested, “How about pin the crown on the princess?” 🙂 So I made up a Selah princess poster and then we surprised Brian with a “pin the helmet on the knight” poster! 🙂

    I have to give credit to Grandpa and Grandma Moberg who cut up all of the fruits and veggies for lunch–without them, the party couldn’t have happened! I made a crown cake for Selah (which she helped me decorate) and a shield cake for Brian. Then I realized we wouldn’t have enough cake for everyone so I made a batch of cupcakes as well!

    Then, just as Selah was putting candles on her cake, I remembered–THE OLIVES!!!!! Oh my goodness, I can’t BELIEVE we almost all forgot!!!! The pictures below are of me explaining to everyone why we were suddenly adding five OLIVES…of all things…to her birthday cake.

    The paparazzi:

    Brian got three candles. One for each decade of his life. 🙂 (And this may or may not be the last time that same equation would equal three…ahem…)

    Look at all the thoughtful gifts Brian was lavished with…he’s drowning in pink and purple and princess nightgowns and jewelry and baby dolls…all his favorites. 😉 Selah convinced him to share some of them with her…and he totally obliged. What a man! #realmensharebirthdayswiththeirdaughters

     

    The three amigos. These men and their families are our newest friends, and we are so enriched to have them in our lives.

    This girl and her faces!!!!!!!!!! Here are some of my favorites from the day…

     

    We were so unbelievably blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who love us. Such a special day!!

     

    Happy Birthday to our Princess Selah and her “Sir Daddy”!!