- A weekend for showers [in every sense of the term...] -

Our life as of late has been a fast-paced blur of jumping from one event to the next.  This momma's been back to 12-hour night shift slavery nursing for a couple weeks now [that was a suuuuper fast 12 weeks, no?!], and the few free minutes I have to myself every day are very groggily/wisely spent washing the bare minimum of laundry and dishes that we need to survive.  Excuses excuses excuses, but here's what it very simply comes down to:  why waste time on the blog when I don't even waste time to shower? 

Welp...

...That mentality shalt be no mo'!  [Why?  Because showers can always wait......doyyy. ;) ]  But actually: the blog is our little family's diary, and I always love love LOVE to read back!  Some day long and far away, I'll come back to see what happened in June 2015...and..........there will be nothing archived when actually LOTS of things happened.  And so, back-tracking/catch-up blogging is for another day; today, I'm starting in the here and now.  

[Harper be like: MOM, no one currrrs, get on with the show...]

Ho-kayyy, baby.

Today, we are "recovering" from a very long, fun-packed weekend at the Raymond 4th of July celebration!  My grandma has the "open-door policy" house on the corner of town that has hosted the entire family on this weekend for as long as I can remember. In between walking back to Grandma's house for food and non-porta-potty bathroom breaks and maybe even an occasional nap, we normally spend the weekend entertaining ourselves uptown at the carnival + stage events.  This year was EXTRA special, as my cousin and her husband road-tripped their brannnnnd new [1 month old today!] baby home from Minnesota to meet our crazy fam!  Saturday night after the parade, we took the babes on a stroller cruise down Main Street to experience their first gamble at Bossy Bingo.  <---What is that, you ask?! Oh, just a little small-town farm-town game where you a) buy a numbered ticket and b) stand around a gated in area where you c) watch a cow get out of a trailer and d) hope it takes a sh*t on your square so that e) you are the lucky winner of $500!!! ...Yes, this is a for real thing.  [Do you metropolitan-ites know what a cow is?  Ooooo, ok, just checking.] As crazy as it sounds, our grandma is a very frequent winner of Bossy Bingo!  Maybe it's the luck of the Irish?  Or maybeeee it's just because this weekend "the 4th be with her!"

[Harper still thinks I'm boring.  Have your toothpicks poked through your eyelids yet?  Let's talk about that new baby... Everybody loves to see pics of a baby...]

Logan, meet Harper!  I hate it that these two will grow up living so far away from each other! :(  [...And the remnants of Bossy Bingo pictured on da right!]

Besides playing Bossy Bingo, Harper also met Kylie + snuck in lotsss of snuggle time with Grandma and Great Grandma! 

Sunday was a reallyyyy rainy day; and while the men stupidly golfed through the downpour, the women more appropriately responded to the forecast by throwing Theresa and Logan a SHOWER [pun intended, hahhhh, so not even funny].  Love these little buddies in their carseats! 

Shower hostesses with their niece and great nephew! 

THESE COOKIES... Oh man.  Good thing I allot myself about 4,000 extra calories per day and brush it off like, "I'm breastfeeding, bro..." because:  hello new favorite snack. 

Shower fun all around! 

And cousins, cousins, everywhere!!  Big family events are so much fun now that we are starting to have little families of our own!  [Lotsssss of great cousins missing, but we needed a pic of the ones who made it to the shower.]

^^Note Harper's bottle that I used for smiling bait...  It's all fun and games 'til the baby cries; and man, oh MAN, did she cry!!! Not sure what the dealio was, but Harper Bear was NOT a happy camper at the shower and definitely made her presence known!  Minus a little nap on the bed and another catnap on her Great Aunt Margy's shoulder, the Bear was either eating...or crying...or crying...or crying even louder... :(  Awfulness.  I hope her cousins still want to hang out with her next time we come around!!!

Thanks to our wonderful family for a great weekend!!! We loved catching up with all of you and are especiallyyyy sad to see little Logan go! :(   

Safe travels, everyone!  Can't wait to see you again soon! :)

- Big Momma's FIRST M-Day -

Wellllllp, now that it's damn near Father's Day, I guess I should go ahead and rewind to:

May 10, 2015:  my first Mother's Day! 

I'm a mother, what what?!?!?

My thoughts on being a momma are still so humble jumbled.  Mother's Day came and went like any other normal day, but as I reminisce back on last month's memories and photos it's STILL so surreal to think that I'm a mother.  Delicate and forgiving and beautiful and joyful and trusting and tender and loving and feminine and embracing and steadfast and cultivating and and and and annnnnnd... <--- ALL qualities that I bunch up together and stuff into one fluffy little person that we traditionally call "MOM."  I don't think the fact that I'm a mother has sunk in yet, and maybe it never will; I doubt I'll ever be able to fully wrap my head around how unworthy I am of the big important fun special GIANT job God gave me to raise a beautifulllll little baby girl.  

Holy profoundness! 

Today, I decided to see if Google could help me put some words to the awesomeness of a "mother":

But nope.  Big fat fail.  [#1, yes.  #2, I'd like to always hope that's not the type of "mother" I am.............]

Whatever.

Enjoying a very special cup today while I go through pics + reminisce on my very FIRST Mother's Day!  [Yes, I made my own gift... Go ahead and judge me real good!]

M-Day 2015 started off with 10:15am Mass with my family + brunch at our house.  Pic credited to the dear [onlooking] husbands, because even on Mother's Day there is plenty of dish-washing and cooking to be done by the mommas... 

Resa's first "Grandmother's Day!"

Time to feast...

...and then open gifts! Harper made some special surprises for her grandmas.  [Ditto on the gifts for her Grandma Ann, but she was celebrating M-Day in New Orleans!]

Thennnn we enjoyed a lovely afternoon at Copper Dock Winery!  [All of us were there, but again, onlooking fathers...]  Harper loves to be outside! 

Heading home.....but not before cleaning up a suuuuper stinky explosion of the poopy sort.  Yes, it definitely takes three people to change a diaper of that caliber after an afternoon of wine chugging. :/

Happy Mother's Day to my momma and all the other beautiful mothers out there!!! You are so loved and appreciated!!!

- Bottoms up! -

Prettttty sure this year was the first time I've ever celebrated Cinco de Mayo when the milk supply tops the margarita supply, but there's a first for everything eh? ;)

I loved being pregnant alongside some of my very best L&D nurse friends, and I love even more now that our babies are all similar ages and will grow up together!  It's so much fun for all of us to discuss the babies' milestones and send pictures back and forth that we thought it would be a good idea to get all the new mommas and babies together for a Cinco party.......BUT.......we had .n.o..i.d.e.a. how chaotic it would be!!!  So many babies!!! We could barely carry on a conversation with each other without this baby pooping or that baby puking or two or three babies crying...

...So for the lack of conversation, thank goodness there are photos that sum up our night!  ;) 

Bottoms up, bay-bay!  [Milk bottles, that is...] 

JR meets his future wife! We have been waiting for this moment for 7 weeks!!!

Milk coma x 2.  [They really do love each other though.]

If arranged marriage was still a thang [or is it?], these two would FO SHO be tying the knot in about 20-25 years.  

Harper hangin' with the big girls! 

I spy FOUR crying babies!!!  Cinco: you have a new game face...

...but I have to admit, it's pretty damn cute and I like it. I like it a lot.

Cheers! 

- The Promise's curtain closer...wahhhh! -

I have been DVR-ing the A.D. - The Bible Continues mini-series on NBC. [Anyone else doing the same?!]

Last night, Brian and I watched the first episode...

...which is another story for another day...

...[although it was sooooo good!!!]...

...but the ways in which the disciples were fearlessly spreading the word of God reminded me...

...ohhhh to the d-a-mmmm-n, how how how did I ever forget to pen THIS POST?!??!

Nine weeks and four days after the fact, but this special life event cannot be brushed under the rug:  Harper made her acting debut in The Promise!

Background note:  What is The Promise?  It's a passion play/musical/Christian drama on the life of Jesus Christ from birth to death.  Actually from birth to resurrection.  It originated somewhere in Texas, but the Lutheran church in our tiny hometown bought the script and has been putting it on with local cast and crew members for the last 25 years.  Tickets are free, and the play is performed for 2000+ audience members every year!  Big feat for a little town! So blessed.

Another background note:  My family has been in the cast of The Promise since...hmm...roughly 1996-ish [??].  I think I was in first or second or maybe even third grade when I begged my mom to let us join.  Our family had been avid annual audience members for YEARS; each year as we sat in the seats, my desire grew stronger and stronger to be up on the stage!  My first "part" in the play was a little angel who waved her arms wings up and down as Jesus was born.  The next year I was a glitzed out page who brought up one wiseman's gift of gold [or maybe it was myrrh?!], and the year after that I was an energetic little Hosanna dancer who flipped cartwheels up the aisle and danced with a tambourine as Jesus entered the temple.  My dad and brother were also cast members for a few years [both taking on small non-speaking, non-singing parts AKA wiseman and shepherd and pharisee], and my mom was also a cast member for a long time but eventually found her way off the stage and onto the ticket sales team.  But me?  Oh, I couldn't get enough of that stage and those acting parts.  Around fifth grade [I think?!] I finally scored the part of Lisa, one of the main characters who sits on a bench with her Grandpa and narrates the entireeee play.  It took three years of failed tryouts and devastation to finally land that part.  I had been begging my grandpa to join the cast for a couple years; he grudgingly promised me that third year that IF I got the Lisa part [and that was a big IF, because there were a lot of good contenders + I had already failed twice!], he would join the cast.  Annnnnd long story short?  I got it.  So he joined.  And 15 years later, he's still kickin' it on the stage. :)  THEN, of course my all-time faveee part was portraying Mary; I was so lucky to do that for several years!

When I graduated high school, I solemnly vowed to come home from college .e.v.e.r.y. weekend for the months of practices leading up to the performances.  BUT...college was college and it didn't work out [although trust me, MANY a drop of blood/sweat/tears were shed over this decision...many many many].  Although not on the stage, I always blocked out the performance weekends on my calendar and was home cheering on the cast and singing along from the audience.

College graduation eventually came along, and soon after I started my big girl job.  NOW I'd finally be able to join the cast again!!! But what what??  ...The nurse curse threw its evil head back with a giant cackle; how did I forget that patients are still sick on Sundays and I couldn't have my weekends free to attend practices?!  Boo, boo, boo.  Boo to the max.

[Yes this novel is coming to an end! The light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to flicker!]

Fast forward to the present: the year is 2015 and The Promise cast and crew makes a mind-boggling announcement that this 25th year of the performances will be THE LAST AND FINAL YEAR!!! What what what no no no how how how?!?!?  Head ---> spinning.  Heart ---> sinking.  I was 20-something weeks pregnant when I heard this announcement, and hormones be not my friend that day.  So. so. so. saddd.

...Until I realized...

...that my fetus was due three days before the second weekend of performances.

And then the lightbulb flicked on.

Baby F. was immediately booked for his/her first on-stage appearance.

So THAT is the saga of how a 9-day old Baby Harper became a rockin' Baby Jesus.

As usual, the performance and actors and soloists were breathtaking!  I'm shocked that I actually held my sh*t together as I sat in the front row with my family and watched my beautiful baby "perform" on the stage that was so special to me for so long.  There wasn't a second of the performance that I wasn't grinning from ear to ear; I had either goosebumps or misty eyes [but holding back crocodile tears!] literally the entire time.  

A few favorite memories from the lastttt and final performance:

-- Grandpa as the Prophet Micah

-- All four prophets + the modern family prophesying the birth of Jesus 

--...and the birth scene! There's my our sweet Harper!!!

-- Four generations in The Promise! 

-- Grandpa + Harper // Eric + Harper ["Big Jesus" and "Little Jesus"]

-- Friends that have become family! <3

-- Cast call

-- I spy the littlest member of the cast.............do you?! :) 

I really just canNOT believe that this era is coming to an end! 

BUT:

So proud of Grandpa Jim for yet anotherrrr year as an amazing prophet + apostle! 

So surreal that MY baby was Baby Jesus in front of a 450-person sellout crowd! 

So blessed to be a part of this amazing production for so many years and be there in person to witness the curtain closer.  *tear*

:( 

Thank you to all of our dear family and friends who have supported The Promise over the years!  I hope it won over a little piece of your heart just like it did mine. :) 

- Sh-nuggle Seshesss -

Some sweet lady at church yesterday was like, "Every time I see you guys at Mass, you always look so rested!" 

And I just laughed.  

But then I realized we probably look that way because.......we ARE well rested!  

[I mean, "well rested" considering the circumstances...]

"Sleeping" + "newborn" should never be in the same sentence, right?!  Nopeeee, that's not quite the case in this house.  Brian and I love cuddling our babe alllllmost as much as we love[d] naps, so this whole "sleep" thing hasn't been as big of a deal as I originally imagined/dreaded it would be.

Documented for Harper's future viewing pleasure are some of our fave cuddle seshes to date:

Oh.  She almost always eats breakfast around 6am, and I'm in a no-good very-bad habit of letting her into our bed every morning when she's finished... [Bed rules go out the window when yo' mama ain't a morning person!] She always starts out in daddy's empty spot and allllllways wakes up in my armpit... Funny how that happens, huh? 

 

SOMEtimes it's just one of those days when all we have time to do is eat, snuggle, sleep, and repeat...

#lazyladies  ...but...  #noshameinourgame  ...because...  #welovetocuddle

And besides, Brian and I are both are soaking up Harper's sweet shnuggles before she realizes how embarrassing we are and won't be caught dead anywhere near her dorky parents... ;) 

Dear teenage Harper: please refer to this post to always remember how perfect and sweet you are!