week five.

 

This weeks photos....

Mabel: Practicing her letters and sounds. We're so proud of her love of learning. She talks about going to school all the time and tells me not to be sad when she goes because she'll always come back.

Gus: He got a sticker from the checkout woman at the grocery store and his response was, "Wow, Say-nk You!"

week 4.

 

 

A beautiful day chasing bubbles in the park. 

week three.

 

Mabel: All this spring like weather calls for picnics at the teepee and she's wearing a shirt my Mom saved of mine from when I was around the same age.
Gus: "Because" and "Why" are his most used words as of lately.

week two.

 

Mabel: She insisted on wearing pigtails everyday this week. She is growing so fast and I often can't believe what a big girl she is. Sleepy moments remind me she's still my baby. 

Gus: His hair has been wild and AMAZING lately. I love when he wakes up from a nap and he's a little delirious. We have some pretty great conversations mostly about dragons & fire trucks.

We are still a little out of sorts from our 3 week vacation in North Dakota. Even though the weather has been amazing this week (70's and sunny) we've been spending a lot of time relaxing at home and getting back into a routine. Both kids are very excited to be home. Mabel was especially excited about ballet class and sleeping in her own bed. Gus was quite happy to see his banjo but refuses to go near his crib after 3 weeks of sleeping with Mama. He has taken over our bed and I have a feeling he's not going anywhere, anytime soon. He's so sweet but it's been a little frustrating. I'm not quite sure what we'll do to get him back to his own bed. I guess I will just enjoy snuggling with my little guy while we figure it out.

PS. I do realize I skipped a week. I will throw in a bonus round somewhere down the line.

week one. a year of portraits.

This year I'm going to start posting weekly portraits of my kids. I've seen this idea around the web and I always think it's so sweet to see children through their mothers eyes. Lately with life being so busy and of course my handy iPhone, my good camera hasn't seen much action. I hope this encourages me to get more creative with my photography and more organized with my photos. And you can never have too many photos of these two if you ask me.

Gus: A long nap in Grandmas bed, he slept until just after 6:00 pm. The cold weather really takes it out of him. I love the way he looks when he's sleeping.
Mabel: We took her sledding for the first time and of course she loved it.

happy holidays. a simple card.

After way too much thought about what to do for our holiday card this year, I decided to put the kids in some "nice" clothes and take them to an old barn I found one day while running by our old house to take some pictures. I'm pretty happy with the results. There is even a little plaid/dark denim theme going on. With all the pressure to have a really great holiday card out there and the fancier/more expensive they get each year, sometimes we need to take a step back and remember the purpose of sending holiday cards which are in my opinion:

 1. to let loved ones know we're thinking of them even when we can't be together for the holidays by sending a little cheer.

 2. document your family at the end of the year and update those you love on how your family fared the year.

Ours were pretty in-expensive as we took the photos ourselves and had them printed through Peartree Greetings. I chose the simplest DYI photo card and added a simple "Merry Christmas" on the back.

I can't believe how much these two have grown since last year.

Happy Holidays!

a slight move

   

This morning when we woke up we spent some time soaking up the beautiful light that enters our house every morning through our eastern facing bedroom windows. We're packing up and moving to a new house. Even though we only rented this house and it was never technically ours, we lived here for 2.5 years and during that time a lot has happened. I'm a little sad to be moving from our quirky house where our family started.

There are many little memories I will always cherish that took place here. I remember flying solo with a 5 month old Mabel to meet Sam in our new home and being picked up from the airport in a limo, and taken to this house. Surprising Sam with a blue balloon in a box when we found out Gus was a baby boy. Decorating our first real Christmas tree as a family. Bringing Gus home from the hospital and getting comfortable as a family of four.  Watching a big sister love on her little brother. Both of my babies learned to walk on these floors. Countless hours of reading and playing. Holidays and celebrations took place here with our family and friends.