The LAST day with a two year old.

This morning when Levi got out of bed the first thing Grandpa Paul said to him was, "Levi today is your last day as a two year old". And suddenly, just like that our ordinary Monday morning turned into something much more monumental. Something that needed to be recorded. Documented. Sealed in my memory forever. My last day having a two year old in my home. EVER. Ready or not this day was here. So I was going to record it.

As luck would have it we had a fairly fun Monday morning planned. Mommy & Me exercise class down by the beach followed by a MOPS playdate at the aquarium. So all in all, not a bad day to document! And Levi was a fairly willing participant in my "must photograph every moment" mission.

He's a Texan through and through. As we were leaving for our morning of fun he told me "Mama I'm freezing. I need my mittens" and insisted I went back into the house for said mittens. It was 58 and sunny! Oh and that sweater remained on him until it was a solid 70 degrees outside. 

Highlights of our day include for me: watching Levi watch the dolphins with pure joy radiating throughout his entire body, enjoying the sunshine and beautiful ocean-front views, and Levi keeping his undies dry all morning while out and about. And for Levi his favorites included feeding the sting ray (he thinks the sting ray was trying to eat his hand!), watching the 4D movie and watching the "baby, mommy and daddy fish" swim (ie dolphins).

Levi is such a fun and joyful addition to our family. I can hardly believe he's been ours for 3 years (tomorrow)! And yet at the same time I can barely remember our life without him! He lights up our family and lives. God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave us this kid. Our bubba.

New Year. New Undies.

Not for all of us of course. But this little cutie patootie got new undies this new year:) Paw Patrol of course!

And oh my goodness he is doing so well potty training...thanks to my mom finally starting the process for me. My other kids all potty trained around age 2. This kid probably could have potty trained then as well however I wasn’t ready! One would think that after a solid decade of having a child in diapers I would have been eager to get him in underwear. But nope. Thank you mom for motivating me.

Funny little story. Mostly funny because I wasn’t there and didn’t have to clean up the mess. On Levi’s third day of potty training Joe and I had a date night. And by “date night” I mean an interview dinner for medical students for his residency program. Which means my parents had the kids for bedtime. Which (I think) means my mom does all of bedtime routine while my dad hides. So the story goes like this. Grandma got Levi all ready for bed and tucked him into his crib (with a diaper on). She then gets the girls ready for bed. Tucks them in. Reads a chapter of their book to them.  Then Grandma heads out to the living room to tell Isaiah to get ready for bed. Isaiah is sitting in one of our big comfy chairs reading. This is when Levi announces his presence in the living room. Grandma turns around to find Levi in the other comfy chair. Reading a book. COMPLETELY naked. 

And it just so happens that he chose this book for his reading material that evening....

Grandma quickly discovered that he had taken his pajamas and diaper off in the crib. Peed all over his crib. Including multiple blankets and stuffed animals. Then climbed out and found a good book. 

Like I said funny because I wasn’t there to deal with it!

Merry Christmas!

It was a Cousin Christmas. 

For the first time since 2013. My sister generously opened her home to all 22 of us for a long weekend. And despite South Dakota's lack of snow and the temperatures staying well below freezing we all had fun. Just being together is good enough for us! The cousins played...everywhere...the house and the barn. The adults talked and cooked and snuck in a few card games. I'm so grateful for the time we were all together Christmas and I hope it's not another four years before it happens again. 

Us. Then & Now.

Joe's first year of residency a medical student and his family stayed with us for two weeks. The medical student was doing a month long rotation here at the hospital and his wife and kids wanted to come down from Iowa...I mean who wouldn't want to come to the beach in the fall? We had never met this family before so it felt somewhat risky inviting them in. And yet by the time they left they felt like old friends. I seriously loved those two weeks having another adult around. It made me think that residency families should be required to live together. Or at the very least very close together...like on a commune or something. Kidding! But really...the built in support was amazing. She made dinner one night and then I cooked the next. The kids played and we moms had adult conversation. Win-win! Oh and we were all happy and pleasant when the guys came home from the hospital. Win-win-win!!!

Ok back to the original point of this story. The wife was not only a lovely person, but a photographer as well. And she offered to take our family pictures for free. Ummm...twist my arm:) So to the beach we went all dressed up...

And I will forever be grateful for these beautiful beach pictures that she captured of our family. They are some of my favorites. These were also some of my favorite ages for my kids as well. Levi was 7 months old, Hannah had just turned 3, Charlotte was 5 and Isaiah was 8. BABIES! All of them.

This being our last fall living here at the beach I decided it was time to go back and re-create those family pictures. To see how we had grown and changed as a family. Now I am obviously not a professional. And my mini tripod and self-timer is a far cry from a professional photo shoot, but I'm thankful to have captured us at this stage as well. Levi is now 2 (almost 3!), Hannah is 5, Charlotte is 7 and Isaiah is 10. And the wind was absolutely out of control that day. Blowing sand in our already blinded-by-the-sun eyes.

We sure are going to miss this beach! We've been spoiled living so close to the ocean.

Charlotte's Wedding

This past summer while the kids and I were in Wisconsin visiting our best friends Charlotte married her friend Max. It was the sweetest little wedding planned completely by the mini bride and groom. 

Not so coincidentally Charlotte's uncle was married in a real and nearly as sweet a ceremony the weekend before....

The real wedding gave Charlotte lots of inspiration for her wedding...

Max and Charlotte spent the morning planning the big event together. They handmade their invites. Sleeping bags were laid down as an aisle. Fake flowers were gathered. Their outfits were chosen with care. And Max's big sister styled Charlotte's hair. They even made a perler bead heart with their initials in it. Hannah was assigned the coveted role of flower girl. And the rest of the siblings and I watched the ceremony. 

Though admittedly for a hot minute I thought the bride was going to call off the wedding when the groom was taking too long to get ready for her liking! But alas the event went off without a hitch:)

The couple's first dance was complete with twirls and dips. The groom even picked up the bride at the end. The two of them couldn't stop smiling and giggling and smooching (on the check only!). It was adorable. 

Afterwards we all celebrated with a mini-donut and root beer reception. Admittedly the bride and groom had planned a pillow fight and board game reception but the mothers stepped in and changed the plans a little. As mothers of the bride and groom tend to do:)

Speaking of mothers, the two of us are trying figure out how to keep this romance alive so there can be a real wedding in 15-20 years....