moments...

She pushed the bar stool over there all on her own, grunted and pointed and then tried to get up by herself.
Once I put her on the stool, she must have sat up there for a good 10-15 minutes re-arranging things.

She doesn't have a lot of words yet, but she sure does know exactly what she wants and how to figure out how to get it. atta, girl.

~~~~~~

Across the room, her brother sat perched on his own bar stool. He was dipping his pizza into ranch and honey and wearing his new cookie monster hat that is extra big and therefor, extra cute.

It is moments like these that make me so happy I have done a 365 projects.
Little moments that I will more than likely forget about next week, until I look back at my pile of photos and see it all again and smile.

Late December Sky

Where is all of our snow???

Things don't really feel like December without snow on the hills and in the mountains. Perhaps Mother Nature is making up for such a long winter last year? Who knows, but it was down right balmy out today, almost 60 at lunch time. It sure is pretty out, but seems a little strange to not have any white on the hills surrounding our valley.

I am wrapping up my 365 project for the year.
I can hardly believe that it is coming to an end and I might be just crazy enough to go for it again.
 How about you?
Any big plans or personal challenges for the new year?

What a Wonderful Weekend

What a perfect holiday weekend we had. It was just the right balance of places to go and things to do. But most importantly, there was relaxation, lots and lots of relaxation, actually.

 It was just what I wanted for Christmas, and I got it.

We spent time with family, friends and with each other.

The kids played and played and played with their new toys.

We tried to get outside and out of pj's, but it was pretty sweet to just hang out in our comfy clothes and not go anywhere.

The weather was almost warm so we did sneak in some 'football' and bubble blowing pre-nap time.

The kids got to play with all the grandparents and Daddy-O and I got our rooms cleaned up. 
Guess what, there really is a floor in our bedroom!

The year is wrapping up wonderfully and I am looking forward to 2012.

Hope your holiday was a bright and merry as well.

Believe

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!
Here is to a beautiful holiday.

holiday crafting

Over the weekend in Greagle the kids (and adults) got to craft, holiday style.








It's really fun that the kids are old enough now to all participate in the making of gingerbread houses and puff ball pine cone trees.

Thanks Aunt Ra and Aunt Lo for getting all the supplies-
These are traditions in the making, I love it.

356:365, pre-op

Fifi did great today with her surgery. She is snoring away in her room right now. I can't believe she was in such a good mood all day despite the fact that we couldn't feed her before the procedure.

She colored, read books, charmed the staff, listened to my ipod, pulled everything out of my purse a million times and only asked to nurse a handful of times- each time one of the nurses helped me out by distracting her with something or playing peak-a-boo. And you should have seen the glow when Daddy-O got there. It was all much easier than I thought it would be.

According to the doctor her ears will filled to the brim with gunk. With all that gone and her being more comfortable, I am hoping this means more sleep at night for ALL of us.
Thanks for all your positive energy, prayers and notes!

Winter Walk

Walking in the woods, by myself on a cold Sunday morning.

  It cleared my head and I could just be.



I love that photography has given me the gift of time.
I have an excuse to wander aimlessly around an area, exploring like a kid
and truly see the world around me.

34

A week and a half ago was my birthday.
That Sunday morning, my dad in law asked, "Well, you've made it around 34 times, how do you feel?"

My answer?
I feel pretty good.

The day didn't really pan out the way I had hoped, we were packing up the house in a last ditch effort to get it done. I had visions that I could kick back and hang out with my little family. I pouted for a little while in the morning and then decided to just suck it up and make the best of it- I did get to give my husband grief all day about having to lift heavy boxes and get paper cuts. And I made sure to tease him about how big he owes me for having to move on my special day.



We wound up going out for a really nice date that night, thanks to my sis-in-law for watching the kids!
I also made up for it by making sure to celebrate all week long. Dinner at my mom's house one night, drinks and eats with my girlfriends another spread out the celebration and made it all the more special.

This year has been a hard one. I have felt older this year. Mostly emotionally older. The stress of all that has happened can wear on a girl. I have realized the weight of being an adult, we have made some very big kid decisions over the past 12 months that have made me grow and stretch and reach in deep for things inside that I didn't know I had.

growth isnt' always comfortable, change isn't easy.

But both are a part of life that are guaranteed to happen. As I come out on the other side of the tunnel I realize that I am stronger than I knew, and that is a huge gift.

I have also realized the joy of being a kid again. I can't tell you how much I have looked to my babies for laughter and comic relief on a hard, hard day. Watching them discover, learn and grow helps me remember to slow down, to enjoy and to not take it all so serious.

As I look back over the year, at my goals, I feel pretty proud to say I checked many of my wishes off the list. Some of the wishes were granted in ways I never could have imagined, some snuck up on me as part of everyday life, so were more lessons than wishes, but you always have to be careful what you wish for, right?

Some were lucky and others sweet friends made possible.

I like having a list, I like that I can look back and see where I made huge leaps, tiny steps and where I want to try again this coming year.
I plan on working up a list in the next few weeks, sort of a birthday/new year plan, if you will.
I think this year is going to rock, in the best possible way.

addition and subtraction

My silly girl goes in for the addition of ear tubes and the subtraction of adenoids tomorrow at 11am.
Please keep her in your thoughts for us. I am sure it will all go well and fingers crossed it will mean a better sleeping and healthier baby.

Kisses!

christmas blur

It has started... the blur. You know what I am talking about.

That moment when you think, oh I have plenty of time to do all the things I want to do for the holiday:

shop, bake, decorate, visit, have a glass of wine...

(she sooo wanted to pull that beard off of him.)

That last one is especially true as I come to my senses and it dawns on me that:
a) we leave tonight for my husband's family gathering in Greagle

and
1)I haven't even stepped foot in a store with the intention of walking down the toy isle for gifts for all the cousins.
2)We don't have any clean clothes for us or the kids. Even if they were clean I really don't have a clue where the

h. e. double hockey sticks

they are since we have 3/4 of our life in a storage until and the other 1/4 strewn about my in law's garage and two bedrooms we have taken over in an otherwise quite house.
b) I really want to bake cookies and whip up a batch of peppermint bark wearing my holiday apron.

But again, I have no idea where said apron might be stashed or stored and I am not so confident in my mother in law's kitchen.

Every time I try to start the oven I inevitably just turn on the timer or the microwave, but don't realize it until beeps and bops start going off and when I put my hand in the oven realize it's colder than our refridge in there. Or I forget I am cooking on an electric range instead of a gas one and start to burn all sorts of things because I forget that the cook top remains hot well past the time I turn the nob to "off".

It's okay- we're gonna make this Christmas happen no matter what this year. We might have had a dooooozy of a previous 11 months, but what I have realized is that our love is stronger than ever, that we have two kids who make us laugh so hard every.single.day.

 Last night by the fire O was singing, "Police Navidad, Police Navidad. Propeler anno and policy dod"

So  you know what, it's gonna be an awesome Christmas, even if it is a little blurry....
And just incase you want to see the singing in action, here is a video my mom got from the show.
perfection.

342:365, piggy tails.

I love that her teacher puts her hair in pig tails these days.

I smile big enough when I see her after work, but this just puts me over the top.

getting into the spirit

With the move I wasn't sure how we were going to get into the holiday spirit. All last week O kept telling us that we needed to put lights up on the house and in the yard. "Why haven't we done lights yet Mommy?"


last year's antler appearance

We kept telling him that we weren't sure if we were going to do lights this year and I wasn't sure just how much of our Christmas box we would actually unpack. Grandma and Grandpa brought home a surprise last weekend and came back from Greagle with a fresh cut tree.
O could hardly wait to get it up and put all the ornaments.

And when I say all the ornaments I mean all the ornaments. We actually had to hide the box of them so he would stop pulling things out and weighing down the branches.

We also had to adjust the level at which the fragile pretties were places since we have Fifi around and mobile this year. She is like a magpie when it comes to shiny things and can hardly contain herself at all the sparkling glittery goodness of the season.

I was able to go through all our books and sort out the Christmas themed stories that I have been collecting over the past 30+ years. I am really proud of the collection and we have been reading one or two of these stories at night before bed with O, he loves it.



I had big plans for making some sort of an advent calendar this year, but I think I will keep gathering ideas over on pintrest and when I get the space to pull out my sewing machine or crafting supplies again attempt this task, even if it is the middle of June.



I hope your holiday prep is off to a good start. Do you have any favorite traditions for getting into the spirit?

ham and beans...it's not just for dinner

My posts have been few and far between and perhaps a little more cryptic than I realized as of late. The things that are happening on this side of the screen are hard to share right away. I promise to catch you all up when the dust settles a little bit more, which I am hoping is soon, soon, soon.



I also realized that I haven't posted many photos or about the kids lately.
So here it is your O and Fifi fix.

These two have been so silly and fun lately.
They are our light and our laughter.



They are hard work and sometimes little sleep, but they make up for it in a big way by just being themselves.

 O is either yelling at me to not take his picture with his hand in my face and tears in his eyes or demanding that I point the lens right at him and snap, snap, snap...

Case in point:

and then it starts to get silly...

wait for it...

Let the HAM begin.
Doesn't he look like such a little boy in these shots? I took these over a month ago and it blows me away to realize just how big he is getting.

I have decided that Fifi might grow up to be a hairstylist. She loves to touch, stroke, and even eat my hair. She has started to 'brush' her own locks (all of about one and a half inch of length) when I hand her the comb and loves to have me put a clip in just so she can take it back out again and grunt at me to put it back in.
rinse, lather, repeat.
 

She is also coming up with her own line of hair product, the main ingredient?

Heinz 57 Beans
brilliant, right?

Maybe it's the pretty turquoise can they come in-
Packaging can really sell a product you know?

yep, ham and beans-they aren't just for dinner anymore.