Sure, she looks all cute and innocent...

See this little sweet thang?

 Take her to a park and she will sit on your lap. She will smile sweetly and cuddle in your lap. You will think she is the best thing on earth. Take her on a flight and she will twist and contort her body making it near impossible to hold her. She will attempt crawl under your seat. She will scream. You will think she was sent straight from the devil himself. You will take the free alcohol they offer you...no matter the time. Then you will  chug it because your sweet girl turned beast will think it is for her.

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. ;)