Introducing Little Lady Lullaby

Our little niece made her debut a few days after Christmas and we were thrilled to get to meet this little cutie. 

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  ~Elizabeth Stone

Congratulations Sarah and Jason!

Uncle Dustin holding the BEST Christmas Present

Can you tell I'm in heaven holding this little lady?

Proud Papa

Lullaby and her adoring Mommy

Visiting Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jason and Lullaby on the Farm

Aunt Missy snuggling one month old Lullaby

Myla helping Mommy feed sweet Lully

Merry Early Christmas

My heart is happy in my content little edge of the world, yet filled with grief. The families who have been affected by this senseless act of violence in Connecticut are constantly in my thoughts and prayers. My heart goes out to all the little children and parents who have to make some amount of sense out of this and then continue on and find a new normal. I think of all the siblings who are missing their sister or brother, the husbands missing their wives, children missing their mothers. There are so many questions without any real answers and my heart just breaks when I think about these innocent children and teachers. 

May God give these families comfort and peace in these extremely difficult times and reassure us all that He will prevail. That love and kindness trump any hate in the world and that we can turn to Him for peace. 

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos last week. 

Sending love and prayers your way.

Love, 

Missy

Calling for Piper "Woo Hoo" (they think their whistling)

Oh Oliver, where do I begin...

A lot has been happening in these neck of the woods lately and I am feeling like I need to catch up.

Oliver turned 4 towards the beginning of November and he had a super fantastic birthday week!  We had a fun party for him with friends and family at a nearby park where the kids ran around eating popcorn and cupcakes. Two of his favorite treats. :) We also celebrated his big day at home on that Sunday and made him a perfectly pink strawberry cake (his suggestion) but I made sure to make WHITE vanilla frosting, because you know...I couldn't go that far.

Oliver at his park party. Happy Birthday Oliver!

Oliver is super energetic and ornery at times, but this boy is definitely a sweetheart. He melts my heart when he says "Mommy, you look really pretty today." Or when he calls Myla "sweet pea". Today I told him I thought that was really an adorable nickname for Myla and he said " I know Mommy. That's why I made it up."

He is intensely curious and loves learning about new things. He still loves his trucks and trains, but has branched out into jets or helicopters (which he now flies around the house), Legos, drawing pictures, singing, reading a lot, and picking out books at the library. 

Oliver and his Daddy giggling in the kitchen

Making silly faces at Daddy's Ultimate game

And mulching the leaves, always good fun.

Sometime into November, Oliver and Myla decided to not listen to their mommy and come out of their "quiet time" rooms. They started giggling and thought it was just too much fun to run in and out of the bedrooms while shuting the door before the other one could make it in. Do you know where this is going? If you guessed, one of them got a finger smashed in the door, you would be correct!

Myla accidentally shut the door on Oliver's right middle finger and after going to urgent care and then being sent to the ER, the rest is history. Poor little man cut about 1/2 the way into his finger about a quarter of an inch below the nail bed. I did everything I could, but forgot to give him ibuprofen to reduce any future swelling (because it really wasn't swollen yet), which is part of the reason we ended up in the ER. He now has three cool x-ray pictures of his hand showing perfectly in-tack bones.

I have got to say that I am so extremely proud of my son. He did not cry once while he was being treated by the doctors and nurses, even with the cleaning and prodding. He was so brave! He did however release the tears just as we were about to leave when the nurse taped his injured finger to his ring finger and put a splint on it. Needless to say he was not too thrilled about that, but after a couple minutes of explaining the reason, he resigned to be super protective of his injured hand and swore he would leave it on for forty days! (He has this thing with the number forty, I think he gets it from the Noah's arc story.)

Oliver eating a super healthy meal at McDonald's after he was released from the hospital.

Sad boy

A glimpse of the injury the day after (it looked much better).

You can't tell, but half of his finger could be lifted up. Yuck.

It really didn't slow him down too much. :)

Today, 21 days after the incident, his nail finally fell off and now his finger is in a band aid until the nail grows back. Phew. What a long 3 weeks it has been, and I'm sure Oliver is so glad he doesn't have to worry about his "ouchie" anymore.

His finger, almost as good as new. 

Anyway, so that is what we have been up to. That, and we have all been nursing a cold that we caught almost a couple of weeks ago. So we are hoping for a healthier rest of the week!

Cheesie Cheesers

 I finally broke out my camera this morning (it has been awhile!) and captured these cute creatures cheesing it up.

Goofing off in the jogging stroller

Monkeying around

Sweet sibling embrace

Squeeze!

Happy Birthday Miss Myla!

Our little girl has turned two! We are so so thankful for this beautiful little soul in our lives. Her daddy and I just catch ourselves staring at her with awe. Myla is such a sweet, fun little lady! Her brother loves her to pieces and they are a very well matched duo. Her giggles are infectious and her smile; contagious and I am over the moon with joy that I get to be her Mommy.

This was actually taken on Father's Day, so she's grown some since then.

Smooch for mommy

Myla and her adoring Daddy taking a mower ride.

 We had a fun little family party for Myla on the 18th. She was so excited for her birthday to come. She would talk and talk about it with us over the week prior to her big day. She had the best little birthday and we are so happy that lots of our extended family could make it over to celebrate.

The guys. Looks like an album cover, doesn't it?

Birthday Girl and the Boys

The cousin line-up, with Will and Myla booty bumping the fence.

The kiddies finger painting and stamping with the help of their uncles and aunts.

Ornery boys having a laugh

Wedded Bliss

So our 6th year wedding anniversary was on August 14th and the hubby and I happily celebrated our wedded bliss by having an hour and a half date at Panera (drinking hearbal tea and a decaf latte on the terrace, no joke) while their Nana looked after them on the homefront. Sigh. We really need to schedule a date! It's actually gotten a little comical because we come up with all these brilliant ideas and then opt to save money and catch up on sleep instead. Don't think we aren't fun loving people who wouldn't love to travel and spend romantic moments away from our children and responsibilites. We so totally are, and one of these days we will make it work!

But honestly, I am just thanking my lucky stars, that I have such an awesome man that I am totally cool spending the days, weeks and years, hanging with our little family and doing anything and everything with them. Life it completely what you make it, and I don't have to remind myself very often that this is exactly what I always wanted. Maybe I just imagined it in a bigger house and with fancier clothes, but hey, that's the girl in me. ;) Life is truly all about the little moments, and for every day that I get to spend with my precious family, I am truly grateful.

Our wedding day on a beach in Jamaica

Newly Weds

Salida or Bust!

We had a wonderful time visiting my sister Becky, her husband Travis, and their two adorable kiddos in Salida, Colorado at the beginning of July. The little town of Salida is a safe cozy place where the river runs right up next to the edge of town. Luckily the wildfires hadn't reached their area, although we did see lots of smoke up in the mountains of Colorado Springs on our way to and from Becky's house.  My heart goes out to all those people who were affected in any way by the fires. It definitely puts whats really important into perspective.



On our way to Salida, we stopped in Canon City, mostly because we spotted TRAINS and Oliver had to go check them out.

Oliver looking cool in front of the old Royal Gorge steam train in Canon City, CO.

Dustin and the kiddos with a huge Cottonwood tree next to the train tracks.

Cutie pie Wynston

Good Morning! Time for trucks and a sword fight.

Goofing off with Langston and Wyn

Digging in the sand by the Arkansas River

Silly kiddos playing in the water

Becky and Me

Dustin and Myla splashing just below "S" Mountain 

On Travis' day off he and Becky took us down to River Runners in Buena Vista, which is where Travis is the Operations Manager. It's about 30 minutes from Salida. Travis was our guide for our little family float down a calm portion of the river. The water was low which makes for more technical maneuvering, so Travis had to keep us from getting stuck on the rocks and he did a fabulous job at that. We should have tipped him!

The kids had fun going down the river. Langston and Wynston were probably pretty used to being on the raft, but Myla loved it, especially every time we hit some bumpy water and she got splashed. Oliver liked it OK.

Once our trip was over, Dustin and Travis went back to do "Pine Creek" (the real white water rapids). Dustin said that they got themselves into the raft in the water and instantly he was knocked out by the rapids. Haha. He said it was a blast though and I think the guys ended up having a fun afternoon. Sadly I have no photos of Dustin and Travis' excursion.

Future whitewater rafting guide

Oliver feeling a little uneasy as he checks out the river we were about to go rafting on.

Myla and Mommy on the river

Our guide, Uncle Travis and Aunt Becky

Oliver and Daddy hanging out in the back of the raft

We said our goodbyes that Monday morning and headed out of town to take in the Royal Gorge Bridge and its spectacular view. Oliver was more than frightened to walk across the bridge, leaving us to hold him most of the way across. But I must admit, while Dustin was talking it up to Oliver before he would step foot on the bridge, Myla wanted to start walking across. She and I got half way and dear lord, I could definitely see why Oliver was so freaking scared. I was trying to play it cool for Myla, but then she let go of my hand and waltzed right up to the edge of the bridge and seriously started to climb up it a bit to get a better view! Talk about a heart attack for a mother. I made us walk back to Dustin so we could all do it together. I picked her up and held on tight the whole way across even when she sqirmed and tried to get down. That girl is not afraid of anything!

Mountain top view

The Fam on the Royal Gorge Bridge 

A breathtaking view from the bridge