- Tea for TWO!! -

I saw this [not-flattering] throwback pop-up on my Facebook yesterday morning and wowzers!  [Trying for three hot seconds to look past the giiinormous whale/human and focus on the craziness that the fetus inside the bump was still called "it" because we didn't know yet that Baby F. was actually a "she!"]

A couple days later brought this...

...[and this]...

...and now a couple YEARS later, there's this! 

I know it just sounds super sappy and stupid, but I legitimately canNOT remember my life AT ALL before this sweet soul joined our family!  And now I/we canNOT imagine life without her...like...........at all.  

Happy happy happyyyy [almost] 2nd birthday, Harper Bear!!!  Daddy and Mommy love your playful spirit and joyful heart! 

Oh, TWOOOO-dles!!! Turning two and having tea with Minnie is so much fun! :)

[Party pics to come!!!]

- Harper rides a bikeee! -

Brian has been salivating over this pretty pink Strider since Harper was a wee little one...

...and finally [1.5 years later!] she LOVES IT!!!  Watch out, everybodyyyy: Daddy's [bi]cycle-lovin' BIG GIRL is on the loose!!! :D

- VAY-CAY FOR EVERYONE! -

...That is, vay-cay for everyone ........besides Baby Bear and Momma Bear. #boo #boo #doubleboo :/

It went a little something like this:

Daddy packed his bags and bolted for Colorado to tear up the mountains on his snowboard for the week.

So we guilted Grammy Resa into coming down for an evening visit ........the night right before she jumped a plane to Colorado to stay with Uncle Blake and Sarge for the week.  [Hi, Sarge!]

It's no secret that single motherhood is not the life for me, soooo in Daddy and Grammy's absence, we begged Papa Mark to come spend a night! He took Harper to daycare the next morning ........and then he flew out to Colorado to ski with his man friends.

 

Grammy Ann and Papa Ron were on vacation too, so we couldn't go visit them...

...so after an abnormally long string of days of only being able to gaze upon her troll mom, Harper be like:  Yo, yo, where's err'body atttt?

When the work week was finished and the weekend was upon us, we cranked up the music and bolted a sign to the front door that read, "GIRL HOUSE!" and partied it up to the nth degree!

#whenyourbestfriendisaoneyearold:

We played outside and looked for airplanes...

...then perused the Valentine's Day aisles at Wal-Mart and picked out the perfect gifts for everyone!

"Hey Mom, did you say I could pick just one .....or just one of each color?"

Next, we visited all the fish, birds, and rabid rodents at the pet store in town...

...and also had a some very special visitors in the form of GREAT grandparents! :) 

 We bathed all the babies...

 ...finished washing all the dirty laundry...

 ...made lots of cakes...

...played with ALL the toys we could find...

...and diapered every single animal in the house!

And before we knew it, we woke up one morning and...

...the coffee was brewin', pancakes were cookin' and DADDY WAS HOME [with souvenirs in hand, too; Baby Bear's first pair of ski socks from Aunt Laura!]!!!

Hope y'all had great vay-cays; Harper and I are glad you're home! :-* :-*

- Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun... -

...Pleaseeeeeee shine down on me! 

SOME-BUDDY 'SPLAIN THIS:

A couple weekends ago, the weatherman warned 'bout 'dis doomsday ice storm that was fastly and furiously headed our way.  All of our favorite TV shows were recurrently interrupted with new and improved updates, and everyone was instructed to stay off the roads for days on end because it was supposed to be rulllll bad.  Our young-spirited, brave-hearted, daredevil, invincible days are long gone [which is just a natural part of progressing into parenthood, I suppose], so of course we nicely heeded the warning and spent a few days on lockdown making paper snowflakes to decorate the windows [that's the spirit!] and rearranging snowman window clings for hours on end...

...and dreaming up/drawing up future house plans and constructing models of said plans...

...and baking muffins, cutting each others fingernails and toenails, having way too much screen time with the best Christmas gift there ever was... 

...AND doing a multitude of other things including [but not limited to] brewing extra large pots of coffee,  grilling dinner indoors, making messes, washing every piece of dirty laundry in the house, and driving each other mildly insane [because HOW MUCH LONGA WE GOTTA STAY INSIDE???].

[Did I forget anything? Surely not.]

THE EXPLANATION IS THIS: ICE AGE TWENTY-SEVENTEEN [And I'm a fair-weathered friend in its most literal meaning so I ain't a happy mama.]

But thennnn, turns out the "ice" wasn't too bad after all [another false alarm from the weatherman?!], and we quickly worked up the courage to step foot into the sub-zero temperatures [more like ~25 degrees but same diff because anything below 50 is sub-zero in my book]. To-do list included: 1) loading up three carts at the grocery store and 2) Sunday evening Mass and.........and then right back to the warm house to don our fleece PJs and get on with our nightly snuggle sesh.

A one-hour Mass was good for the soul [you pickin' up what I'm layin' down?], but the cold days and cabin fever raged on .a.l.l...w.e.e.k...l.o.n.g. and right when I was about to bust out of the nuthouse and dash to Target to purchase Antarctica-approved snowsuits for the fam....................

...God heard my psychotic pleading and sent a little blessing in the form of 60 DEGREES AND SUNSHINE!!!

Hallelujah, hallelujah, amennnnnnn! Helloooooo, sweet bliss!  Hello, park!

Side note:
THE REAL EXPLANATION MUST BE THIS: GLOBAL WARMING [...Which I know to be true because I Googled it and also because it's T-shirt weather in February and what other explanation could there be?]

...But actually, I'mma leave that right there because I don't dare argue with geography or politics ...or God forbid a combination of the two... ;) :) So, real or not, alllllz I'm sayin' is that I'm just rull happy for this unexpected, giant dose of Vitamin D.  Because who doesn't love the typical February morning, outside at the crack of dawn with no coat or mittens:

...and then a nap before heading off to the park again?! #yesplease

[Spotted: airplane!]

^^ Big smiles for days!!! I'll probably be eating my words come July when we're melting in the sun, but for now we're gonna soak up all 'dem rays!

Enough rambling... Baby Bear's just waking up from her nap, so it's time to wrap it up and hit up the great outdoors!!! *party emoji*

Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun...

...please shine down on, please shine down on, please shine down on meeeeeeeee! 

 

- Merry Christmas! -

In the spirit of 2017.........(!!!)...

...let's revisit 2016.

Ok, maybe not all of it.

Just Christmas at least? 

I got all wrapped up in keeping my RSV-ridden child alive that I skipped right on over posting the Christmas photos!  We did our traditional "four party" Christmas again this year [we've gotta stop! With a midget in the family, it's too much packing up and driving here just to pack up and sleep there and wake up here to drive there and ...well first of all it's totally exhausting, but second, I really want my kid[s] to sleep in their own beds on Christmas Eve and wake up in their own house on Christmas morning and find the presents from Santa under THEIR Christmas tree............  We have our own mini-family now and I would love to start our own new traditions. Buuuut for this year at least, we grudgingly rode the crazy train again because we love our families and truly do want to see everyone on the holidays!] ...Anywayyyy...

Christmas Eve Mass with my Grandma!  Harper has become a nose-picking fiend when she knows she's supposed to pose for photos [how did she learn that?]...

...then Christmas morning breakfast and presents at Grammy and Grampy's!

How 'bout 'dem matching family PJs, though?!??  Our childhood babysitter sent me a link to them and I couldn't refuse! Brian is a good sport for going along with it... ;) :) ...turns out he'll do just about anything for his Lil' Bear!

Hit another family Christmas...

...and another!  Boo isn't spoiled or anything... ;) :)

All day on Christmas Monday, she ran around the house yelling, "TOYZZZZ!" and truly just couldn't get enough of all these fun new things to play with! Immediate favorites [pictured below] were the baby stroller and the vet kit [though the baby stroller quickly found its way to the basement after Brian witnessed her ramming it full speed into the bottom panel of our stainless steel stove!].

Last Christmas was pretty great, but this year was AMAZING!  It's beyond magical to witness the awe and wonder of the season through a child's eyes! 

...And now...to fast-forward back up to 2017...

[...and to find a place for all these toys...!]

Merry Merry Christmas!!!

- Resolutionzzz for the record book -

A little bit ago, I was driving into town to get some groceries and got stuck at the world's longest stoplight right next to this old junker car with a smashed in driver door and bashed out back window.  When I drive sans husband, Jesus music is my jam and the radio station is allllmost always set to 99.1 -- "Joy FM" [when Dear Husband rides along, we rock out to 93.7 -- "The Bull," or 92.3 -- "Some Other Unnamed Hillbilly/Redneck Wannabe Station"].  

So anywayssss.....  My dad is a State Farm agent and we more or less grew up helping him survey all sorts of damages, so of course I glanced over to assess this wadded up car for a hot second and immediately noticed that the driver was continuously muttering some words.  I'm sort of nosy by nature, so I quickly pretended to look forward again while secretly still staring at her out of the side of my sunglasses [my 27-year-old eyes and their peripheral vision is on point!] and .....you guys! ...Turns out she was singing along to the exact same Big Daddy Weave song that was playing in my car!  I stared at her for a few more verses to make sure I was taking this in correctly [because, like I said, this is the longest stoplight ever] before the light turned green and she floored the pedal and disappeared. 

[[This post already seems like a bunch of random rambling and it's simultaneously painting me as a psycho... Maybe it's only because I'm sugared up on Starbucks AND today is my first day wearing Joy EO so I'm feeling extra real, raw, and energetic; or maybe it's that I'm actually taking the cliche "New Year, New Outlook" approach to heart. But for a few milli-seconds after she drove away, I sat there frozen and dumbfounded at the simple realization that this total stranger had the same exact song playing in her car and the exact same praises for our awesome God and the exact same heart for Jesus!  This is a really big world ...and me and my desires and wants and wishes are just like a drop in the bucket.
 

I'm not much of a resolution maker considering all my prudent promises usually fall through by the second week of January, but here's to 2017:  making legit strides to be a more conscious daughter of God and more readily recognize the good in everyone! And all deese things too:

...See how good I am at setting non-measurable goals?! Hah. #winwin

But fo' real:  Happy New Year, friends!!! Set your resolutions high, because I have a feeling this is gonna be the best year yet! 

xoxo