Ghosts of Christmas Card Pasts

Jake and I have never really sent out a typical Christmas card. In fact for the last two years we didn't send any out because we couldn't quite get my vision of our family sitting on a buffalo to work out. It would have been epic. Here's a look back at a few of our favorites.

Well this was normal, I suppose. Sweaty and un-showered for a few days always makes for a great photo op.

And then there was the Jane Fonda inspired workout Christmas card.

Had to follow up the next year with our fancy clothes..and add in our freaked out cat. Yes, let's throw him in the air! Good idea.

Back to backpacking. Three weeks in Canada going to the bathroom amongst the bears. Definitely Christmas card worthy. And please note how close to the edge I am...

Henry came along and we thought maybe we shouldn't throw him in the air. It was our first year in Wyoming so we had to wear cowboy hats. It was 7 degrees and Jake complained how cold he was.

This year,we did take a picture. Jake came up with it at all and it might just be my favorite one yet.

A mere 1,460 days

Somehow four years has passed since I had this man-child. He entered the world much smaller than anyone would have ever imagined and of course full of noise. He hasn't stopped making noise since, but he sure didn't stay small. I'm scared to measure how tall he is; he'll probably be taller than me by age 7 and that is quite a feat.

2 days old

Every chance I got in the last couple of months, I referred to Henry has my three year old. Partly because I liked seeing people's reactions to his age. Aside from his size, he has quite the vocabulary and has always seemed much older than he is. And partly because four just seems so much older. Three seems like a baby. Four might as well be graduating high school. That thought right there makes me sweat.

One year!

This man child of ours loves anything active. Dancing, basketball, hiking- it doesn't matter, if it involves moving his body he is all in! He spends his days playing cars, going on pretend picnics, building, and causing chaos. When asked what his favorite thing to do with daddy was, he responded with "pee together!" Ha, this kid keeps us on our toes.

Two years!

Henry has never met a stranger, and has most certainly has never met a family that he didn't try to claim as his own. Your grandma is his grandma and he would like very much to go on vacation with you too.

Three Years!

Henry James, you sure are loved! We hope you have a great birthday and enjoy those light up character shoes- your mama had to put her pride aside to buy those ugly things. ;)

4 years!

Evie at 18 months

I still think my name is Sissy. I am not sure who this Evelyn girl is.

I will try and do anything Henry does. This has resulted in two bloody lips in the past week. I will probably be the first in our family to break a bone.

Unlike Henry who has never met a stranger and would willingly go with just about anybody, I have one focus when I am out in public: Do not go more than 1 cm away from my mama. And if at all possible, I will attempt to make my mother not only carry me, but my blankie and three or four baby dolls. I will smile and wave at you, but do not even think about looking at me for more than five seconds. I want to say hi to you and then promptly want you out of my space. :)

I cry when Daddy tells me no. I am training him to always give me what I want, but he doesn't know that yet.

I am going to attempt to nurse for at least another decade.

I love  dolls, trains, books, chewing on crayons, and going outside. I also love to bug Henry and scream if I don't get two turns in a row.

I would like to be fed within .7 seconds of waking up. Do not try and go to bathroom before you have made me breakfast or I will wake the whole house up. And do not try and give me cold cereal for breakfast either. It must be something warm and it must come with a side of fruit-preferably blueberries. Oh, and there must also be a large sippy of milk.  I would also like your banana that you just finished peeling. One banana in addition to my two full size waffles simply was not enough. Hand it over.

If there is a cup with a straw in it, it is mine. Don't try to negotiate.

Kissing noises are fun to make. Kisses are fun to give, but if you come in for a kiss and I didn't initiate I will duck my head down and you will be forced to kiss the top of my head instead. I think this is a riot.

Music makes me happy. I don't care where I am or what I was doing- if a song comes on I must dance. Please don't let me know that strangers are watching me when I do this. I will get shy and cry and then I have to cry and dance at the same time. That is almost too much work.

Evie, we love love love love love you! Sorry you are getting the poor second child treatment with no blog posts anymore! xoxo

Someone, please help my children.

Two years in a row.

2014

2015

At least Evie isn't buying into it. Look at that face of pure disgust. It probably has nothing to do with the fact that she was mistaken for a boy many times today. Do boys wear skinny jeans and purple Nikes with their Oregon jerseys? Maybe they do.

The Little Lady is 16

Thank the good Lord that I'm talking about our sweet sissy turning 16 months and not 16 years. And fingers crossed that we will still be calling her our sweet sissy when she's a teenager. One can hope, right?

At our dear friend Lindsay's wedding. See Henry in front of her? Decided to take one of the decorations down the aisle.

This ever growing girl is always on the go, loves to try and do everything her big brother does, prefers to scream and point over using real words, has recently discovered her belly button, will currently only eat fruit and cheese, has discovered how to climb on top of the kitchen table, steals toothbrushes, still nurses but loves cow milk as well, loves to slide and swing, takes her blankie with her wherever she goes, attempts to put her own shoes on at least 17 times a day, and  has absolutely no patience for eating out a restaurants.

And...check out all that hair she's getting. ;)

If you have a pool, we will come.

And we will of course do something similar to this:

Taken at least five years ago. No one cried.

Taken at least five hours ago. Half of the people cried. Now this was the second jump because the first one (where we all looked much better and much less frightened) wasn't in focus. Oh our poor kids.

Don't worry not all of their pool memories will be of terror. There has been plenty of fun too.

I mean, this is obviously the look of pure joy.

And these two kids are the definition of photogenic. ;)

Our sleeping Diva

Little Miss E took her first camping trip. She loved it minus the whole sleeping at night part. Our sweet little angel screamed and screamed and screamed until she was tightly nestled in mama's mummy bag for the duration of the night hours. If any of you have ever slept in a mummy bag, let alone shared a mummy bag with a 14 month old, you know how much sleep I got. Evie, on the other hand, slept like she was made for it.

It's not nighttime so look how happy I am!

What? You don't let your baby brush their teeth with dirt? For shame!

Teamwork to move the cooler into the shade. This would later evolve into using the bungee cords to drag anything they could find around camp behind their striders.

These two were really quite helpful when it came to cleaning the dutch ovens. Right, Holly? ;)

Yep, she's starting the little turd grin her brother was infamous for at this age.

Just a couple of cuties enjoying a popsicle. Only a luxury those staying in camper can bring.

What is yours is mine!

Oh Evie.

A boy posse.  No idea where sis was at this point. And I"m guessing the three without the stick are moments away from running away from the maniac with said stick.

1,000 miles in and we've only just begun.

Our favorite time of year is here...summer travel! And boy do we love driving miles and miles in our car with our two little loves. Nope, I've never once seriously considered flying and meeting Jake at our destination.

Jake has taken some amazing, like really amazing photos of the places we've been.  But cell phone pictures are almost just as amazing, right? You might want to become FB friends with him if you're not because the dude captured some incredible shots of our travels and I am far too lazy to upload all of them on here.

Fort Collins was our first stop. Our good friends graciously let us and the monsters stay with them and showed us enough good places to eat that we now would like to move there- just for the food. Thankfully we didn't take pictures of the food, or of us eating the food and now it's like all those calories and cholesterol never happened. Fort Collins also happens to have a few mediocre outdoor areas. ;)

Emerald Lake. A gorgeous day, a gorgeous hike, not such a gorgeous group pic. I believe both children were contemplating jumping into the lake.

See that man? Yes, the one with Henry on his lap. Yeah, we don't know him...

Henry zipping around a little mountain bike course. He went and he went and he went and he went. I think I shall request one of these to be put in my front yard.

Thanks Vinnie and Delena! Watch out we might end up on your Japanese doorstep next.

Onward to Moab. We stayed in a little stucco cabin. Henry called it a shed. It definitely was more shed-like than cabin-like but it had AC so it was heaven to us, and it had a nice beer drinking spot as well so we'll call it a definite win.

Arches was amazing. Even with a bajillion other people and sun so strong that we thought we would surely melt, it was amazing. We of course got many congratulations for hauling our kids up there. Most people oohed and awwed over Jake because apparently carrying a 36 pound child is more impressive than carrying a 20 pound one. I smiled while he got all of the glory while secretly plotting to push these people off the cliff.

I know she looks slight but I swear she does get heavy!

More sweating in Canyonlands. Like a lot more sweating. Whose idea was it to go to Moab in June when the temps average in the 100's?

Cooling off in a creek with creepy creepy crawdads. Look how blissfully unaware our children are.

And back to Arches for nighttime photography. While Jake was out doing what he does best, I was back at the shed doing what I do best- drinking beer and watching HGTV.

We went on a family bike ride on our way out. Henry just about gave me a heart attack as he flew down the hills. He is definitely made for biking with his daddy. And yes, his shirt is tucked into his undies in only the most adorable way.

Next up, Evie's first camping trip. Spoiler alert. She is a camping diva.

A Hiking We Will Go!

Last summer these kids got off easy. Evie was such a newbie and mama was out of shape so there wasn't a whole lot of hiking. This summer there are no excuses...especially because we just bought a second plush child carrier and dang it, that thing will get used!

It's about time for a new sunhat for this fellow. He's in a cave and he was convinced that there were snakes in this cave. I wasn't quite in the cave...someone has to be able to run for help!

Evie has no idea what a snake is, but she does know that where Henry goes, she goes too. Hopefully he doesn't lead her right off a cliff.

This won't scar our children, right?

Love our little hiking family! Especially love that I get to pack the lightest member, but let's all be real honest for a moment...you know Jake is going to make me carry that beast of a child at some point!

38 Days Ago, She Turned ONE!

Keeping with the trend of second children not having completed baby books, or timely blog posts...Happy (really late) Birthday to our sweet Evie!

This is the proud owner of 4 teeth..and yes, those top two teeth are incredibly far apart. I suppose I don't need to worry about flossing with her quite yet.

That there is almost 29 inches and just shy of 20 pounds of adorableness. She still quite short considering the stock she comes from. I do believe the Dr. uttered the words "around the 20th percentile" in regards to her height. For shame!

If one were to compare the amount of hair she has, she would have to be in the 10th percentile and that might even be stretching it. I mean, the girl really has no hair. My arm has more hair than her head which is not good for either of us.

When she gets really excited she does a very low laugh/growl. It is said to be heard from across the street.

Favorite past-time? Throwing anything she can find down the stairs and then attempting to go down and get it. She is getting more successful at this, but still tries to hold onto the very high handrail as she goes down the stairs- this has yet to work out well for her.

Love you Sis, we really couldn't have dreamed up a better little lady!

Easter Blessings

 Henry 3, Evelyn 11 months

Baby girl's first Easter.

In some places there is sun and warmth.

For the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, we went somewhere warm for Spring Break. And while we didn't go somewhere tropical where I laid on the beach drinking adult beverages while a nanny (that someone else was paying) chased after my children, we did go to a land that had both my beloved Target and amazing outdoor recreation.

Having fun at the park on our first evening. Poor kid wasn't used to the heat and may or may not have thrown up on the pool deck an hour or so later. Whoops.

The adorable girl. Those poor leg warmers didn't stand a chance at staying clean.

The Narrows in Zion. Amazing and even more amazing is how prepared I was for this hike.

The bus was loaded with people in rented wet suits. Jake at least had water shoes and some fancy pancy Patagonia pants. Me? Workout leggings and Nikes and Jake's extra jacket. And well that's his hat too.

And, yes, I was quite worried that I would trip during this adventure, but trip I did not.  Stumble a bit? Maybe.

Hidden Canyon Hike

Four adults, four babes. Lots of attention. Too much attention. Hard to say if they were in awe of us, or just thought we were plain dumb. And as a side note, our wonderful friends pictured above are sadly moving at the end of the school year. Not sure how many other families we can find to pull stunts like these with us!

Jake later would point out that the sign Nora and I are about to walk by shows someone falling. Onward ho, yo!

The addition of the chain for you to hold onto made this hike seem a little more terrifying than it really was. Are 1000 foot cliffs really that dangerous?

Matching blue shirts for the win!

Swimming take 2! No one threw up at the pool this time, and more importantly no one seemed to remember us from the night before.

Snow Canyon State Park. So, so, so much fun...until it wasn't!

We hiked and climbed and explored some caves and then one of the shorter members of our group melted and there was no turning back.

 Now don't worry, Jake wasn't empty handed while I carried the troops back to the car. Someone had to hold the car keys...oh wait, I had those too. :)