E’s birthday

Happy birthday to the greatest man I know!

Eric is at the end of his thirties now and I think his wisdom and strength surpasses his age. He is my rock and my refuge, that's for sure. So grateful for every year he has spent on this earth and that he spends with our family.

His birthday comes at such a crazy time--right after Christmas and Kacin's birthday. Unfortunately, this year by the time we reached his birthday it was day 5 of celebrations and I was tired. We tried so hard to let him know how much we love him, though.

Eric and I went on a beautiful, long bike ride together.

He took most of the kids with him and went around to all the restaurants that give birthday rewards and they came home with a big spread. We divided everything up to get an awesome sampling for lunch.

His birthday "cake" request is always the same every year--pumpkin pie. I think we need to buy some new candles soon. The best we could do was 3 for 30 and 3+6 for 9. Ha!

It feels lame that these were the only pictures I took that evening (again, tired...).

But the lack of pictures is not reflective of the love we all have for this hardworking, loving, playful, involved, thoughtful, fun, smart, loyal, faithful man! 

We love you, E! Happy birthday!

father’s day

As the father of our family, Eric is our rock, our safety, our healer. There is not a better man in this world than he is. 

At our home church on father's day, I asked each child to share how dad helps them to draw closer to Christ. All of their examples and thoughts were beautiful. He lives his life with such great faith, devotion, patience, humility, generosity, repentance, forgiveness, and unconditional love. He points us to Christ. We are so grateful he is ours.

The kids made him his favorite for breakfast, e.g. waffles, and then presented him with gifts to show their love.

Kyler made him this cake for the occasion (again, thank you dairy queen job). We loved his joke of writing mother's day first and putting it on discount. so funny.




So glad you are the father of my children, E.


Layla also created this nearly life size image of her dad so she could sit by him all day long. Hahaha. 

I can't believe I never got a picture of Perry with Eric. But he loves his dad, too. Even though he doesn't like to admit it sometimes. ;)

Happy father's day, E!

And Eric is older, too

Kacin turned a year older and then two days later his dad did, too.

A letter to the birthday man:

Oh, Eric.

How much we adore you!

You have done so much work over this year to grow and become an even better father, husband, and contributer to the world. And you have done just that! You set some pretty specific and personal goals at the beginning of 2019 and it was inspiring to see you achieve them. You take time for each person in our family (including yourself) and you show us such great love. 

How fun it was to celebrate your birthday with free food all day long when you took each one of us out individually to share in your birthday treats. 
You are hardworking, humble, faithful, patient, wise, fun, easygoing, and always up for an adventure. 

We are the luckiest to have you!

We love you,

LKKPLB

MBA

Presenting Master Eric!!

In less than 18 months this man earned his Master of Business Administration. We are so proud of him!

He worked so hard to get it all done as quick as possible. He would’ve been done within a year except that he took a few months off during my chemo season.

We celebrated him with dinner out and gifts and a treat. 

It was a perfect evening at Joe’s bbq.

We love you, Eric, and we are so grateful for all you do for our family! You work hard and keep improving and learning and we think are pretty amazing.

Brazil presentation

All of the second graders at Perry’s school are “taking a trip around the world” and studying different countries. Eric got to go into the general education class that Perry goes to for some of his day to present on Brazil.

Eric did a fabulous job on his presentation and I know Perry loved having him there. Also, Brinna was so excited to see Perry. When he walked into the room, she shouted his name and ran to him. I'm so glad those two siblings have that special bond.

Eric brought in Brazilian candy and Perry was proud to hand out to all of the kids.



Such a great class and a fun opportunity!

happy birthday to you two

All Kacin wanted to do for his birthday was go quading. (really, that is all he ever wants to do, but we can usually only make it happen on his birthday..) So we borrowed the Schlink’s two ATVs and headed out to the desert.

It was a little chilly for these Arizona kids. But it was such a beautiful day in the desert!















Brinnie got her first ride.



Kacin invited a few friends.



Brinnie spent most of her time playing happily on the trailer.



Layla was so excited to try driving, but Perry was content riding along in the back with whoever would take him.





We brought food from in-n-out back with us to the house and then sang happy birthday to our 14 year old!!





Kacin is a pretty spectacular 14 year old. He is tough, kind, smart, clever, hard working, an amazing big brother, sweet, energetic, athletic, and full of life.

He also spent part of his birthday at radiation with me. Now that is a good kid. These three got a tour of the radiation room and saw what I do every day (it meant the world to me to have them there!).



Kacin is quite loved in our family!

Two days after Kacin's birthday is Eric's birthday. It worked out this year that a sweet friend watched all of the kids for us so we could sneak away for 24 hours. We were so grateful for the getaway! We spent the morning on the atv's in the desert. We spent the rest of the day eating brazilian food, shopping, going out with friends to dinner and games.



It was so refreshing to spend a couple of hours in the beautiful desert. Mud, sun, cacti, and mountains--Yes, please!












Happy birthday to Kacin and Eric!