It's a small world after all...

My heart is so full and aching right now...I can't wait to see Mailey and Emry after a week of them being gone...where have they been you ask?
Well....quick! Go check HERE to find out!!!!! Go! Go!
And in case you need more prompting...Here are a few pictures to wet your appetite...Go look through the last four posts...they'll give you a giant dose of joy to get through your day!

The rest of Mendocino

our little americana cabin

 I wanted to get the rest of these pictures posted before I forgot or it got so far past the actual date that you guys all wondered why I was posting pics from 5 years ago...you know what I mean...

It was breathtaking. Mostly the cabin and the owners and the story..which I promise to blog about shortly.

here's the pictures.

look at those rosebud lips...(reagan's I mean hahaha)

John and the baby monster

I SEE THE BEACH MAILEY!!!

These girls are always holding hands...its so sweet....

look at this handsome gentleman! what a wonderful papa...

This is an incredibly symbolic picture for me...

Papa and his reggae

the only picture of me. taken in the bathroom at a cafe. now lets move on

the outdoor fire pit

It was so quintessential and charming...

This very old and well tuned piano stole my heart.

This was in the town of Mendocino..I haven't a clue whats going on but this statue sits a top a church. Its very avant garde and dark...an angel with a pick ax holding the hair of  a praying maiden...?! kinda creepy...

A very old home...so many homes looked like this with hundred year old water towers all over the place

And who doesn't need a good windmill pic?

Did it charm you like it did me? I will try to explain the significance of the family we met...this is a place we hope to return to time and time again when we need a reprieve. In fact, the couple staying there asked if our entire family could come for christmas...what do you think grammy zhanette? wouldn't that be amazing? Christmas in the wooded oceanic town of Mendocino, with smoke curling out the top of sleepy cabins, and trees and deer all around...oh! be still my heart!

Que the Mailey Monster!!

Okay Mai Mai...here's your photos!! Tomorrows post will be all the rest..but today is just for my darling little first born. The tender hearted Mailey monster. She really is such a tender, intense, dramatic, heartfelt little wonder. Mailey has this sensitive heart that seriously empathizes with everyone..literally. I don't think I've ever had her just tell me no and be obstinate about it...Emry, yes. Mailey no. She has such a sweet  passivity to her that really melts me. She is such an incredible help to me at only four years old, and such a great older sister to Emry and Reagan...She wakes up so excited to see her sisters and loves, actually BEGS, to help me. I love you Maizey Mai...She had a bit of a pre-nap breakdown in mendocino and so never got to see the incredible lighthouse, she keeps asking everyday to go back...my tired little mailey bug, you need your naps love, you can't outgrow them yet!!!
She loved mendocino, I think she was more heartbroken than I to leave! Here she is!!!

classic mailey smile..what is WITH these kids?!

One of my all time favorites..

Can you tell she's grossed out? hahaha

Collecting sea glass with nana...

And thats a wrap!!!

Emry Addyson in Mendocino...

Mendocino was like therapy for my soul...there was something so magical and peaceful about the very still quiet of the redwoods where we stayed. There were no highways bustling with traffic, no people hurrying about, no city noises...just the wind and the rain (boy did it storm that last day!) and the smell...I can't get over that woodsy, grassy, smell...it was like breathing in pure peace. Emry is my quiet, silly, raspy voiced little brainchild. This kid is SMART! And there's such a deep concentration in her when she's trying to learn...it was so sweet to see her observing the woods and the deer...her little self traipsing through green grass and picking up sticks...playing with sand and finding sea glass on the beach for daddy...so sweet...here's her pictures.

As you can see, trying to get this child to smile nicely...well...it doesn't really happen. In fact, when she was at the fence and I asked her to smile for a picture, she literally rolled her eyes and let out a big drawn out, Mo o o o o ommm.....yes, just like a teenager. Ha. however, it really does capture her little silly personality. I love you Emmy...you make me smile so much, you have stolen my heart completely...someday you'll smile little wild thing...someday.

Mendocino...

Since we have begun our endeavor into Chico, our family has not taken a break. We've gone to parks and out to eat, but we have not collectively left town and just relaxed like normal Americans. This year has been a great study in humanity and my own weakness...I have been stretched and tugged and shaped into something that is beginning to look like a woman of God. Slowly, I am learning how to be the mother and wife I was destined to be...but it has been a heart breaking, often confusing, sometimes bitter experience...there are no mountains without valleys. And the valleys have almost broken my spirit, have made me cry with exhaustion, and my heart has had to be checked so much. But boy...God is doing a work in this girl.
But I needed some time away. We all did. John's been working 12 hour days, and then pastoring. I've been mothering three small children, mostly alone. And we were starting to lose heart...then, (que the trumpeting, royalty has arrived, music) my parents booked a cabin in Mendocino and whisked us away to spend some time away from work and toil, and to just chiiii iii iiii lll llll.
My dad found this incredible little haven...called Antioch Ranch. It was founded by a couple in the early sixties as a place to bring the gospel to the hoards of hippies...literally, one time they had 700 hippies flood the ranch and Jerry preached and saw multitudes saved. The story is incredible. But the owners were on vacation and so some friends of theirs were standing in. They turned out to be one of the most intensely, radically saved, born again, Jesus was in their every word, type of couple. I have never been so touched. I want to save their story for another post, because it deserves it.
Antioch ranch was the most incredible blessing. No TV's, no radio's, no internet. Just this darling rustic cabin, beautiful woods, and Jesus. Mendocino, the little town close by, was breathtaking...a place where American colonists pioneered, and ships on their way to spain wrecked...the town is full of history and rich with character. Here are the pictures of our babies enjoying this beach town...and us..falling in love with God's green earth...
Thank you Mom and Dad. I felt like I let out the air I didn't realize I'd been holding. How did you know we needed this so badly? Truly...you blessed us so much. Thank you.
Lets start with Reagan's pictures...don't you love these ones with papa? oh he's so good with them..it kills me.

sleepy little reagan..hung with papa the whole time

mmm...this one steals my heart    

I'm in love with these cheeks!!!

My absolute favorite! smiling at daddy...

Standing at the fence watching her sisters play..soon baby girl...soon you'll be toddling around after them...

Tune in for tomorrows post, featuring Emry!!!

MENDOCINO BABY!!!

My parents...what would I do without them? They took John and I and our lovely wild things to Mendocino this weekend. We spent two and half days in wooded, beautiful, oceanic bliss...Our first vacation since we moved here...our first time doing something just for fun and boy, was it needed....Will post more later but here are a few pics from the trip...