i n s t a g r a m ON m o n d a y

heyyyy mondayyyy!
how is it still july?! it might be the longest month ever… or maybe i'm just pregnant & hot.
either way, we had the best weekend & i hope you did too! here's to one more week until flippin' that calendar page & we are closer to a cuddly baby & cooler days ahead!

below we have…
1. niece love 2. bath time lashes 3. a lovely cake 4. a 33 week baby girl belly
1. naptime 2. a 33 week belly.. again 3. God's artwork 4. a disappearing lap
1. shower leftovers 2. sweet snoozer 3. and another 4. mom & sisters pedicure date
1. new honest prints 2. there He goes again with the gorgeous sunsets 3. nana is 85! 4. my little puddle stomper
1. the hand 2. old town 3. beauty all around 3. a 34 week baby belly
1. paaasseed out 2. just reading' with his pup 3. dandelion lover 4. explorer
1.2.3.4. cheyenne frontier days to see gary allen & win abel an overpriced sock monkey :)
1. my tiny teenager 2. sisters 3. sour cherries 4. snugglin'

a year & a half...

hey there mister, 
remember when you were born & made me the happiest on earth?
& then out of no where you were one week old?
and then a whole month?
then we got to half a year and were like, what?! so we had a party to celebrate it.
life only got better & better with you since the day you came into the world & when we found ourselves at a whole year, i couldn't believe how quickly the time had passed & how much i wanted to freeze every second with you & store it away on a shelf somewhere so that i could never forget a moment, a smile, a milestone, your smell or the way you felt in my arms…
well guess what peanut…
nothing has changed.
you are still the best part of every day & i'm so thankful for the past year & a half of life with you. thanks for being the best kid around & for making me feel like a million bucks all the time. 
i love you tiny guy…
love, mommy

pretty in pink.



...or floral or polka dot or white to be more accurate. little girl things can be so beautiful. i personally, am the biggest sucker for a plain white onesie, or a cozy white blanket, or really anything white. cream is highly acceptable too. 
we are officially six weeks away from a little girl moving in over here & as i prepare for her arrival i find myself smiling at all of the beautiful colors & patterns filling up the nursery. we are doing a shared nursery (which i will do a separate post on) and it is coming together SO great! abel already had the cutest space ever, & adding in more color & some girly touches to her side of the room has been easier than i anticipated & has mixed well with his already bright & fun things! as i said though… that's for a different post! 
for today, i bring you a few little snippets of some lovely little girl things that are filling my heart with happy & getting me even more excited for our baby girl's arrival. enjoy & have a happy thursday!

my only...


lately my mind has been churning… and churning & churning. mostly it's late at night when the house is asleep… just me, my thoughts & the hum of our window unit. while i'm lying in bed, watching abel sleep like a big boy through the monitor, i can't help but find myself in a place of grieving (for lack of a less dramatic word). this is it, only a handful of weeks left before abel isn't my only…

it's not something i like to talk about or share, because with it comes so much guilt too. how dare i cry over the fact that we are adding another beautiful life to our family?! i wanted this. i WANT this. i'm so excited to have another baby in our home & i'm counting the weeks until she is here… in the exact same breath, i know that things will change & i want to freeze time & bottle it up because i love EXACTLY what we have going on right now.

i think these are normal feelings… at least for me. i felt this way before abel was born too. as my due date crept closer, i began fretting over it not being just chris and i anymore, and how things would be different & "oh my gosh, maybe we haven't had enough time together just us, i don't want things to change!"

…and well, that worked out… obviously :)

abel is our world. just tonight, we finished dinner & just sat on the couch watching him. running over here, throwing this over there, looking at us occasionally to make sure we were looking at him. his precious voice chatting gibberish about who knows what & the two of us looking at each other every 4 seconds to smile & laugh, and repeat for the 52,879 time, "he's so cute, i love him. he's the best." all the while loving each other more just in sharing this moment together. he is our only. since the day he was born, i remember thinking that i wanted to have a million more babies because i loved him so much, and at the exact same time thinking that i'd never have another, because i couldn't imagine loving anything more than him… since then, that love has only intensified.

i cherish our days together. every day, just me and him. walking around outside, up and down the hill picking dandelions. going to the snack cabinet every 5 minutes, snuggling on the couch watching bubble guppies & swinging for hours on end if it's up to him. this list could be endless. abel is my buddy, the beat of my heart, the constant in the chaos.

i know that just because we are adding another little around here that these times of just him and i are not over for good, but i do know that they will change. i also know that giving abel a sibling is the sweetest gift we could give him & that i am a good mom & that even though i can't see it now, i will figure out how to prioritize both of my children equally. our days will no longer be just the two of us, but will be filled with even more love than we can dream up right now, because SHE will be there too.

from the moment abel was born, every anxious thought i had vanished. he fit perfectly within the walls of our love & relationship, and the way it changed things was the most wonderful, welcomed change i could have imagined. silly me to have worried at all, but it's in my nature. i cling to control, i fear change, i worry about the unknown… am i human or something?

i believe that our girl will fall into place the moment we lay our eyes on her & the second abel touches her with his chubby, gentle, toddler hands our hearts will be filled with a joy beyond measure. until that day though, i will continue to cherish and soak up every last drop of abel being our only little one. less housework & more cuddling, sitting on the floor & pulling out every toy from the box, swinging him to his hearts content & chocolate chips every single day :)

lake days.



excuse you while you wipe the drool... haha! don't mind my handsome husband up top, he's just dreamy & the sweetest, he can't help it.
anywayyyy... remember last year when abel was teeny & rollie, and we went on the lake HERE? well we got out there for the first time of the year a couple weekends ago & it was a great one. ashton & i did a little role reversal & i tagged in to be the pregnant one this year, and i'm really hoping that this was the first of many more days out on the water, because this belly needs a tan :)
here are a bunch of iphone pictures to document the day... 
because expensive cameras just do not belong on boats!
hope you're having a good week!

abel + harvey.


is. he. serious?
abel loves the dogs, he pets them and gives them love, and throws the ball for them. if we are being 100% honest here, him enjoying them is their ticket to sticking around most days.
i think they are pretty grateful for him too. they are definitely second string around here & now that he's old enough to give them some attention, i'm thinkin' they are finding their new roles in this family to be pre-tty all right. 
i mean, who wouldn't want to be loved & adored by that face?

a baby brunch.


Over the weekend, we celebrated our girl on the way with a baby shower brunch! Because it was baby number two, I think people are calling that a sprinkle these days? Either way, it was a small intimate gathering with some of the people i love the very most. My sisters & mom put together some of the most gorgeous displays & the food was delicious. On the menu we had, mini donuts, yogurt parfaits, quiche, a waffle bar, hammies, & mimosas... izze for some, me to be specific. It was beautiful & pink & all that i hoped it to be. i was SO incredibly grateful for the friends & family who traveled as far as 5 minutes to an hour or more to be there! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to any of you who are reading this :)
i can't wait for our girl to arrive, she is already SO loved. 
thank you, thank you Jesus for all of the blessings in my life.
my autumn baby shower for abel HERE!

spam, pam, lamb, bam, ham, jam, ma'am, G R A M

happy gram day! life is good. if i could just freeze time for a minute or five that would be great. abel is the best, sweet & silly, smarty pants mcgee, always eating, still so quiet but officially saying hot & hat & i think on the brink of a lot more. chris is the best ever & if his job would stop sending him here & there that'd be appreciated by me, because i really just miss him when he's gone… life's just not the same. our girl is growing & permanently shoving the right side of my rib cage outward, which isn't where it belongs so if we are being truthful, it's not the best feeling in the world & all at the same time it is, because i love her. i can't imagine what life will be like with her once she's here, but i love her a lot. 
i hope Y O U are enjoying your one precious life as much as we are around here, happy weekend!

change.


on july 6th i slept without abel by my side for the first time since i've had him. a year and a half of listening to his sweet breath while closing my own eyes to drift off to sleep, a year and a half of his sweet, warm, snuggly self cuddled up next to me (and for the last few months or so pushing me closer to the edge of the bed.) a year and a half of some of the sweetest memories, hardest nights, cuddly mornings, & irreplaceable photo opps. 

my first night without my baby at my side, and all of a sudden he seems a million years older & time seems to be flying by quicker than ever. 

when i woke in the morning to find him still in his own bed, i had the most mixed emotions. i was SO PROUD. proud as could be, mostly shocked, a little accomplished, and then tears… i allowed myself a number of minutes to cry & soak it in (probably more than was appropriate, but pregnant, so you know…). a milestone. one that we have talked about getting to for months… but when the time came, i felt as if i had never prepared my heart. 

there are seasons in life, and for us, this one had come to a close. it's hard to let go of something so sweet, but it's so important to let him grow & it fills my heart with so much joy to see him develop & watch his little life unfold. morning number two, my toddler came running into my room to wake me up… at 8:30… amennnn child. that was a moment i had dreamt of too & it only proved to my mama heart that as each season comes to a close, a brand new one is opening & is full of even more splendor (and what looks like later mornings too, thank you very much.)

there will be more babies, more snuggling, scared in the middle of the night, crawl into our bed & wake us in the morning moments. i mean… as i write this, we are only on night 3, so i may be getting ahead of myself even. this moment deserved documentation though. hooray abel! what a big boy… and for me too, a mama stride.

our 4th of july weekend!


helloooo wednesday after the 4th of july! now seemed like a good time to share some of our weekend. i took a total of maybe 10 pictures, womp womp, regardless of not documenting well though, i did in fact have a wonderful time with family! i was a good mama to my son, wife to my husband & ate to my belly's content.
we started the day by taking abel to the parade in old town, the parade wasn't the best i've been to by far, but walking old town was magical as always. every house looked quaint & wonderful, and the flags on nearly every shady front porch just added to the usual charm. we followed that up with the waffle lab for breakfast… that. place. never. disappoints. & finished the day grilling out at the schmeeckle house with family.
it was a good day, and per usual i'm ready for fall now… for whatever reason, 4th of july marks the END of summer for me, see HERE & HERE. fireworks & i'm ready for orange & gold & crisp cool air. trying not to rush it this year & just be where i'm at… sweet husband, abel at the center of everything, and a baby on the way. time is flying fast enough without me rushing things, so here's to savoring summer, life just how it is & eating a few more popsicles!

we also went to boulder this weekend to see some of chris's family from out of town (we saw them this time last year too, HERE) and we checked out pearl street for the first time. it didn't beat out fort collins for me, but i do want to buy everything at the free people store there… too bad it's not free :)