7 months of Hartley Lane

She's at that sweet age.  She stays where you put her.  She's toothless.  And a huge mama's girl.  She's squishy, and has that perfect kissable skin.  Oh goodness life with a baby is sweetness.

 oh, and she waves.  Adorableness!

and it is a legit wave too.

Christmas 2014

This marked Christmas #4 spent away from our extended families in Oregon.  It doesn’t get easier.  Last year I had my work family, and our fantastic neighbors who made the holidays away from home a bit easier.   The holidays snuck up on us this year.  Amidst what seemed like sickness that lasted forever with our entire family, paired with the chaos of adjusting to my new job, Paul and I agreed it sure would have been nice to have a holiday do-over.  I was in the midst of my week on working 7pm-7am.  I had Christmas eve off, but if you've ever tried to work night shift, let alone work 3 nights in a row, have one day off, then work 4 more night in a row, you'd know the haze that was me.  It was a big blur of half awake-half comatose and to be honest I’m not quite sure what even happened on Christmas day because I was so exhausted.  But I have pictures, and happy kids.  So that is that.

What is a Christmas without a forced picture of before-the-chaos…don't they look thrilled.  Hartley was still sleeping...

Then sweetness woke up, and daddy squished her face

and I made them take another obligatory in-front-of-the-tree photo again.  This was the best of about twenty-two-five-thousand outtakes

But the magical crop because these bookend Loprinzi kiddos were too cute not to crop out the grumpy, crazy eyed siblings to their sides.  Proud big brother, smile-filled innocent baby :)

So the prized Christmas gifts - Christmas (stuffed) cats, which were the major thing they requested.  These kids and their “cat game” crack me up.

It was Hartley’s first Christmas.  Her stocking, picked out just for her, happened to be handmade from a local Oregonian seamstress on Etsy website, which made it just so much more sentimental.

 and even though we didn’t go anywhere I decided it was essential to dress her up for the occasion.  

Jovie’s number one requested gift – Puppy surprise.  Imagine her disappointment when “alls I got was free (three) puppies, and the mercial (commercial) says there a be free (three) or four of five.  I wanted four puppies a cause there is four – Ryker, Kip, me and Hartley.”  Girlfriend has good logic, darn Puppy Surprise putting a damper on her most prized gift.

 She quickly coveted those puppies to her pocket :).

 Aunt Jenny won prized gift with an Ariel barbie doll.  Sister loves the Little Mermaid.

Kip and Ryk really wanted these air hog RC cars that were suppose to race up the walls.  Only one ended up working, and after about two days, the excitement of the racing up the walls quickly wore off, and they were back to their “cat game” play.

Kip's other noteworthy gift requests - another stuffed cat and the Paw Patrol look out tower.

Ryk got Mariocart 8 for the WiiU, I told him I’d kick his butt at it, and boy was I wrong.  This mama has no skill with WiiU, such a difference compared to the Super Nintendo I grew up playing.  Of note, my kids stand up and dance around with the controller just like I did (still do).  It makes the Mario guy drive better, I am convinced.  Ryk was NOT in a camera mood, and so he is not pictured because he either stuck his tongue out, or covered his face.  In my sleep-less-ness mood I wasn't having it, so I just didn't take pictures of his hand/tongue.  But this gem, cute brothers, makes up for his camera-hating during the day.

Wait - a Ryk face.  One treasure of the day.  Small victory.

 Finally - my favorite treasure when looking back on the photos of the day.  My Mr. sneaks behind the camera and captures these real life gems.  A mama and her babies, in the haze of Christmas 2014.

Merry Christmas 2014

Christmas light exploring

It started with a daddy and middle son sneaking out after bedtime one night with a flashlight, for a solo daddy-son outing to look at Christmas lights.  Since the initial outing, this has become almost an every evening occurrence.  They will be so bummed when the Christmas lights start coming down.

Front porch view - baby on my hip, spying my other favorite people just loving life.

 and the Walmart Christmas light aisle sort of vomited all over our front bushes, because, well, we have children.

 and these $.99 a piece cheese ball candy cane lights are Kip and Jovie's favorite thing in our yard.

After light exploring, they play flashlight tag in the front yard,

 which just turns into this loud, wild, giggling, screaming situation.  Sorry, not really though, to my neighborhood.  Childhood joy is blissful

 The headband lights (thanks to GRB for them, they sure get lots of use around here) are a constant source of excitement for the outdoor festivities.  We have started needing to keep track of who wore them last in an effort to keep the peace.

 Making memories, running off last minute bedtime energy, and just soaking up this season of life we are in.  Chaos and all.

I love my crazy crew.

32

32 years old today, but not too old to request a nerf shot gun for a birthday gift.

Happy birthday to my Mr., a kid at heart, always.  He spent the day doing solo daddy duty while I slept - such is the life as a nightshift working wife/mama. 

December day at the park

Sunshine peaking through the trees was the perfect set up for a December day at the park.

A house full of restless fussy kids, turned all smiles and joy once we escaped for the outdoors.

We loaded the scooters in the back, and goodness they had fun.

 I enjoyed hanging back taking in the scene - leafless, giant trees, a daddy riding a pink scooter, the sound of their happiness.  This is a good life.

5 year olds who turn the ordinary path into obstacle course ramps, and ask for me to clap when he does neat tricks = adorable.

 And this, up here, this is the north pole hiking path because there was a giant hill they had to climb to get to the top.

 Then the down hill scooter racing made me slightly tachycardic, and wishing they had helmets, elbow pads, and well maybe just a safety bubble.

While my fearless boy-crew scootered, I enjoyed a snuggly baby bear, and some pretend play at the play structure with an adorable 3 year old.

 It has been a while since she let me take pictures of her, so a little Jovie photo overkill, but too cute not to share.

 This girl's joy, just shines through.

 So does her spunky attitude.

The way she shows she is three with her fingers makes me smile, my non-traditional girl.  she rocks her own style.

 Then we did some pinecone collecting, she has plans to paint them green and turn them into trees.

 We stayed until the sun started "hiding behind the trees" and took it was our cure to leave when Kip complained his legs were hurting.  Poor kid was walking strange back to the van with sore legs from scootering.  I'm concerned Paul will not be able to walk right tomorrow after being all hunched over on a Jovie sized scooter for over 2 hours.  But every one had fun, and came home tired.