2016 IN REVIEW!

I love putting together these "year in review" posts. it makes me so happy to see the life we lived (and documented) over the past year + gets me excited for the year to come. I'm so thankful. thank you to those of you who have followed along with us this year! favorite reviews from 2015 here!

In January, we celebrated our guy turning THREE with love + a party! Abby came to visit us + our family both watched + sang frosty the snowman at least 8,000 times.

In February i went on a weekend girls trip to Texas + remembered why snow isn't so bad. We ZOOed, announced that we were pregnant with another girl + wrote down things to remember.

March talked about change, wrote letters to little ones + celebrated Easter.. He is Risen Indeed!

In April we shared recipes, said goodbye to perfection + shared a little home tour! Lucy was a dream, i wrote down MORE things to remember, a reminder to my 30 weeks pregnant self + Chris and I took a trip just the two of us!

In May there was talk of THEM, WEEKENDS + BROTHERS. I wrote a love letter to a 34 week Isla + that sneaky squirrel stole + ate our muffins.

In June we partnered with L'ovedbaby HERE, HERE + HERE, talked about having another girl, Food Truck Rallied + enjoyed slow mornings. We enjoyed our last bit of family of four summer here + here, and landscaped our backyard with the help of two dirty little kids. Isla was born!

July was mostly full of Isla Jane + adapting to life as a family of five! We hosted 4th of July, wondered why time passed so quickly, took lots of pictures + Isla's chunk proved that she had been around for an entire month. Also GOALS... see: lucy.

I celebrated + wrote about an entire month of being a mother of 3 in August, we had our family pictures taken, documented two months of Isla + didn't have much to say, but let the pictures do the talking.

In September we celebrated TWO YEARS of sweet lucy, saw the hot air balloons at Harvest Festival + made a little film. I shared a recipe for happy + why it's good to be Isla.

Sweet October, my favorite month of the year. I shared with you a few things to remember, we went to estes park here + here, pumpkin patched + isla was officially 4 months old. Halloween came + went, and all three of my children surprised me with a simultaneous nap sesh, BOOM.

November was quiet as usual. We shared our Christmas jammies, gifted to us by L'ovedbaby + celebrated the first snow of the season.

 In December, Chris took me to New York City at Christmas time here + here, we celebrated 5 whole months of sweet isla jane, reminisced on slow mornings, vacationed in Maui + had a very merry Christmas!

Cheers to 2 0 1 7 !

Merry Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning was a sweet one. Chris + I woke up early to play Santa + be ready for the kids to wake, and instead they slept until 9:30 haha! We are all still somewhat on Maui time. The kids were adamant about Santa NOT coming again this year, to the point of asking me to pray against it on Christmas Eve!!! BUT, someone had mentioned to me that maybe once they experienced the magic they'd be on board vs. talking about it... SO, Santa wrote a letter to our kids this year letting them know that he was very quiet + did NOT say "Ho Ho Ho!" (which apparently is what they were so strongly against him) + he brought them each one gift because they were sweet this year... Abel's response, "That was so nice of Santa to bring presents to our house!" - So, I guess Santa is welcome now, but stay tuned for next year. We opened gifts + ate breakfast, the kids were surprised at their bunk beds + loved the ship wheel. Still hasn't changed any sleep patterns over here, but I wasn't fully expecting it to, worth the try + they've enjoyed it regardless. Lucy opened her first gift + was content with that, we had to encourage her to open more haha, and abel loved everything he got, but we could tell with each gift he opened he was waiting for his pirate ship, so sweet, he loved that most of all + has played with it non stop since. I love Christmas + am thankful for this family of mine. 

We hope you had a merry Christmas + a happy happy new year!

   

M O R N I N G S

nothing beats mornings.

i've always always been a late night person, and really still am if i can keep my eyes open. the house is quiet + i'm alone to do whatever i please, like eat a double scoop cone or write or read or clean... it's nice me time. but mornings are where it's really at now. coffee + the fireplace going, reheating the same coffee a couple times, kids waking up at their leisure, isla, lucy, abel, and always in that order. slow mornings at home with my crew are truly the best there is. we stay in jammies too long (if the kids aren't already dressing up), we do puzzles, we make breakfast, we play games, watch movies... the demands are minimal. i know one day mornings will change. maybe be hurried + full, getting people out the door to where they need to be, probably running late... so, i am seriously soaking up these slow + simple mornings, stock piling them away to remember when our season looks different. thank you jesus.

NYC in two parts || P A R T T W O

Chelsea Market, Upper West Side + Central Park... can't beat it.

I have so many favorites in NYC, but these may be near the tippety of that list! I'm still craving those little donuts from the doughnuttery at Chelsea Market.

^^^orwashers bagels in the Upper West Side, YUUUUM. one of our favorite stops from our trip!

^^^minutes before we passed josh + samson (lovetaza.com) in the streets... i mean WHAT?! of alllll the people and all the streets and all the times to be walking those streets, we see 2 of the people i would have geeked out over most?! boom. next time, it'll be the whole fam, i juuust know it.

Walking Central Park with Chris is all time. Really doing anything with Chris is all time... look at that skyline. Thanks for the best time husband! I love you so much!