Ah Spring! What a wonderful breath of fresh air! It seems every hillside in California is blooming with wildflowers. Every year it's like a surprise, and it is splendid.

We've been keeping busy, making small updates to our backyard and taking all our regular local adventures. So this morning, we are slowing down a bit. Another cold seems to have caught up with us, and we are getting a nice dose of April Showers. A perfect day to stay in and play at home. Hot tea for me, coloring projects for the kids, and too many movies.

Happy Spring!

Happy February! The second month of 2016 is off to a beautiful start. After some crazy winds, we experienced several days of the most gorgeous weather. Beach weather, some days even hitting 80 degrees! Hello bathing suits!

I've been trying to keep these kids busy every day with the beach, a museum, or excursion of some kind, on top of going to the gym every morning. It has been an amazing couple of months. My energy is up, along with my mood. But it ain't easy staying on the go all the time with two kids. The kids caught a cold last week, and I think it finally caught up to me this morning. This is the first Monday in weeks where we're skipping the gym and staying put. Listening to my body and resting up sounds just right.

There's another fun reason to stay home today. We added a new character to the mix. Seems smart right? Busy mom with two small kids and one senior dog definitely needs to care for a puppy too. Haha. I must be crazy. In any case, we've been wanting to get a family size dog for awhile. A labradoodle puppy in need of a home surfaced and we knew he was ours. Bowie joined our family on Saturday and we're pretty excited about it. I heard Bennett talking in his room saying, "I am so happy about my new dog." Be still my heart! I know the bond Bennett will share with this dog makes all the extra work worth it.

Now I'm off to make some Valentines and drink round after round of throat soothing tea. Happy Monday!

Happy New Year! Fresh starts and new goals everywhere, I love it! Though I don't personally set any specific goals, I do try to take this early time of the year to assess where I stand. Am I being a good wife and mom? Am I giving, loving, moving, BEING enough?

Even with the best intentions its easy to get side tracked and lose sight of what's most important. This year I hope to spend less time preoccupied with the trivial matters, material possessions, and more time saying "YES" and playing with my babies. My baby boy is going to turn FOUR this Summer and will probably go to preschool in the Fall. With only one more year until Kindergarten, I really want to make the most of these days together. More adventures, more active play, more memories for my boy. I want to reflect back on this year and on my life knowing that I lived it in the moment, that my kids saw me trying and smiling, and loving them, that my husband was always happy to be married to me. None of this is new of course. But as I said, it's important to do a self-check from time to time. 

So here we are, first week of January. We can officially say El Nino has landed in Southern California. He packed a few punches in this week and the rains came down! I looked out my front window to see a river floating by my door. No kidding. The water quickly went down, but for a while there I was wondering how I would get in or out of the house. The kids and I stayed put (not like we had a choice in the matter) and did some puzzles and built and demolished lego towers. Today is supposed to be worse, so we are planning some art projects, and treat making. Praying our house doesn't float away!

Hope our friends and family are having a great start to the New Year. Stay dry!

True to form, the last few weeks of our year have gone by in a blur. We celebrated our girl turning one along with our family Christmas this year. Friends, family, and neighbors joined for a wintery soiree at our new house. Spirits were flowing. Having our loved ones so close together definitely added to the excitement of the season. The schedule was packed with parties, lights, Santa visits, and plenty of toddler-Santa bribery. This was the first Christmas Eve where the excitement in our house was running at it's highest. Bennett was SO excited. When Saint Nick was scheduled to arrive, we heard him on the roof, jingle bells and all! ;) Albin "missed" it. I've never seen Bennett's eyes look wider. He was scared to death I think. "We better go to bed. He's bringing me Paw Patrol!" And that is just what he did. We had a great time playing Santa this year and Albin and I had some hilarious behind-the-scenes laughs. These are really the greatest years for Christmas.

Now we are just a couple days away from the first of a brand new year. Our house is clean and we've got Daddy home for the remainder of the week to enjoy some quiet family time.

​Happy New Year!



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"Merrrrry Crifmas!" As my little Bennett would say. We are cruising right through December and feeling the busy-ness of the season. We've taken family road trips (Fresno and Palm Springs), done most of of our shopping, decked the halls, and are currently celebrating Colette's birthday week. She is ONE! Nooooooo!

This past year has been beautiful. After bringing Colette home last December, the weeks just flew by in a giant, lovely blur. I have my sweet girl to dress up and kiss and love on. My two babies are growing and thriving. The joy in my heart that comes from my little family seems to make any heartaches disappear. I'm so lucky to have my sweet people to hold tight this season.

And December! Oh, December! The bite in the air, the music, the movies, the LIGHTS, even the consumerism. Ha! I go full-tilt-boogie for Christmas and we try to really get into the season. Of course there's Santa, the boat parade, Christmas movies, driving around to look at lights, drinking eggnog, and making tons of treats. I hope my kids will have the same magical childhood memories that I do around the holidays.

Although I totally spoiled my kids this Christmas, I am really feeling the urge this year to start teaching about the other joys of this season, especially in this troubled world we live in. I'm hoping to show my kids how volunteering, charity, and giving to others brings deeper meaning and joy to our lives. Start early, right? Even though my kids are too small to really grasp this, I know they are watching me.

We will be donating toys and clothing to kids in need in our area and looking for other ways we can be of service to someone in our community.

Wishing our friends and family comfort and joy this season.