Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Summer is my favorite!

And I'd better enjoy it while I can! For 19 more days! Maine is a whole new ball game :)

sprinklers!





water fountain ;)




snack time outside in pajamas


splash park fun (or not that fun, but still cute)






better than the splash park!






ummm. yucky.

naked dinner outside

feeding Bella some dinner

the gang's all here :)


father and son wrestling time

Happy 16th Cade! Blow out the candle on your blizzard and make a wish.

Olivia made a wish, too :)


"take a picture, mommy."

helping with the boat

too precious for words.





Saturday, June 7, 2014

And so it begins. And ends.

If you've ever read my blog, or if you know me in real life, you know that my biggest desire is to be home with my baby girl. Only she's not a baby anymore. She's two and a half! And just like that, my heart drops, my stomach flips, my mind reels, and every cliche comes true IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE.

...But...

Things, they are a'changin'. How often do you follow your dream? How often do you chase it down? How often do you say, to hell with the fears and questions and doubt and just take the leap? I hope everyone in their lifetime has a dream come true at LEAST once. It can be hard, though. Logistics. Comfort zones. Budgets. Fear of the unknown. The list of reasons not to follow a dream can seem endless. But the dream? The dream is the soft cloud you land on after you make the jump.

Jeff, Cade, Olivia and I have jumped. We're still falling, slowly, and relatively painlessly. And in about two weeks, we're going to land on that cloud. We're going to stretch out our legs and lift our arms and faces to the sun, wrap ourselves up in the coziness, and rest IN THE DREAM.

Jeff's Dream: to move out of Colorado. To build a boat. To live near water. To be a family of four full time.

My Dream: to stay home and raise my baby girl. To support Jeff's dream. To be a family of four full time.

And so it is. Cade will arrive here today. For good. In two hours I will walk out of my office building forever. In two weeks we are moving to Maine. In two months we will settle into a new home that will hold the memories of our family of four. In two years we'll look back from inside our dream and think, yep. It was risky, scary, stressful and hard. But it was worth it.

I can't wait to make notes about how things turn out in our dream. Because we're not dreaming. We're awake!

Let me be real, though. There is still a lot that has to fall into place. There is a lot of change going on. The past two months have been full of tension. And while I've waited 2.5 years for this, I'm totally nervous about how it will work. I'm sad to say goodbye to sweet Olivia's second mommy. I'm scared to be far from home and family. I'm anxious to get things right with a toddler and a teen. But more than anything, I'm so excited.

In a while I'll try to tell the story of how it all came to be. I'll tell you what, things really fell right into place. Applications went out. Interviews came through. Offers came in. The house went under contract in one day. Badda bing, badda bang, badda boom. Hello dream come true :) I think we'll stay a while.

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Olivia Layne - 29 Months

Dear Olivia,

You are at the BEST age! You are always doing and saying hilarious things that make us laugh. Your personality is so sweet. I can't believe what a daredevil you are-always climbing and jumping with no idea about any danger. My heart thuds to my chest WAY to often for comfort. But I love that bravery. Stay brave, my sweet child. Daddy and I will try to protect you, we will try to catch you if you fall, and we will kiss your ouchies and pick you up if you do. You are still an adventurous eater, usually not afraid to try new things, and you usually still eat a LOT. I love to listen to you talk. Someone once said parents wish and wait for the day their kids can talk and then suddenly wish they would stop. Not true, little one. Your sweet voice is so precious, your sentences and thoughts. Hearing you figure something out or say something knew or tell us you love us. My heart explodes. I love to hear you exclaim about things. "Oooh! Look at the pretty purple flowers!" or "Pink is my favorite color!" If I respond that I love pink, too, you get upset and say "NO! I love pink!" Someday you'll understand that we can both love something, but it's pretty cute that you think if you love something, you are the only one who can. I love hearing about who you play with and what you did at Nadxieli's. You are usually very happy on the days Tgen and Logan will be there. You love to help. Help mama cook, help daddy in the garage, help clean, help fold laundry. What a sweet girl. You love to play with other kids and it seems like you always want to follow the big kids and do what they do, even if you have no idea who they are! It gives me a little ache in my heart to see you want to play and do whatever they want, knowing how tender you are and that someday I want you to know there are boundaries and you don't always have to do what people tell you. You mention Cade quite often. Sometimes you pretend to call him and sometimes you just bring him up in conversation. Sometimes when we talk about doing something with Mommy or Daddy you will say "and Mommy and Daddy and Cade and Livi and Scottie." Seriously, can't you see why my heart melts ALL THE TIME?! If we say "Come here my princess (or baby girl, or silly goose or whatever else)," you respond with "me not princess, me just Liva." You've started saying "I wish" often. "I wish I had a blue house," or "I wish I had fruit snacks" or things like that. Your memory is unbelievable. And your awareness. You notice the smallest changes, like when Daddy moved the seat belt to a higher position on your car seat. Or when we taught you to blow dandelions and make a wish you said "like the water fountain at the mall" where we throw pennies to make wishes. We got to go to The North Pole last weekend and we all had so much fun! You rode every kiddie ride they had, some more than once. We would ask if you wanted to do the car ride (or boat or whatever other ride) and you would exclaim "Oh! yes please!" and start running toward it. You and Daddy tried to ride the space shuttle, which is basically a giant swing going back and forth higher and higher. Daddy mentioned that it made his tummy feel weird and pretty much right after that you started crying and saying your tummy hurt so they stopped the ride for you. You also did NOT like the roller coaster, which bumped and jostled so much that daddy had to squeeze you tightly to him so you wouldn't bonk your head! But the rest of the time was awesome and we basically rode rides until you literally fell asleep in Daddy's arms. It was like our last Colorado hoorah with you. We're heading out in 3 weeks for our new family adventure. I'll write more about that soon! I love you so much I can't even really comprehend it. To the moon and back a thousand times.

Love,
Mama

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Latest from the cell phone

the biggest and longest hail storm I've ever seen! 


our little big jumper



too cool for school









chasing the chickies


having a snack outside






so happy to have nice warm weather!




helping Daddy with the boat bumpers
a picnic snack

trying out the headband look

it's bright






helping Daddy some more!












shower bath









tulips from our yard :) 






I made coasters using photos Scott took on his hikes!



just a little home improvement shopping. she made a little family out of those supplies so...


getting stuck on mothers day



An open letter to the school district

 So the plan for school this year, at the K-5 level, was pretty complicated to begin. (the plan was made after lots of meeting and planning ...