Category Archives: family

Father, Dad, Papa… you get the idea.

I woke up unusually invigorated and chipper this morning. I remember at some point last night I woke up in Phoebe’s bed and she wanted to switch to our bed, so this morning I woke up with little toes burrowed into my side and the sound of Josh already in the living room with Enzo who decided to wake up early today. I don’t think Josh was amused by all of our unexplainable energy. Maybe (just maybe) I’ll let him sleep in a bit on Sunday since it is Father’s Day after all. And because of that, I thought I’d throw a little love his way.

Dear Josh,

While it may be annoying that the kids probably think of you as the fun parent, I appreciate so much that you are fun with our kids. It’s the moments where you all play silly games together that they will look back on one day. Even when they are teenagers and think you are so embarrassing and we all try to pretend we don’t know you, they (and me) will always be grateful for your sense of humor and fun loving spirit.

Love,

Your super awesome and humble wife.

Through the ups and downs, we’ve been a fairly decent team when it comes to parenting and I’m glad to have you as my partner in this whole raising kids thing. You’re the yin to my yang and the peanut butter to my jelly… or maybe the frosting to my cupcake. Either way, you’re necessary and together we made some pretty adorable kiddos who think you’re pretty awesome too.

Last, but certainly not least, a thank you to my own dad who gifted me my first camera and instilled in me a sense of wanderlust and appreciation for the beauty that is all around us. Some of my favorite memories will always be of waking up early to go on explorations and long drives.

Let’s not do that again…

Oh, weather and it’s unpredictability. We had been watching the weather app (which is usually pretty accurate) leading up to the weekend and decided to still go camping when the forecast said there might be a shower at around 4pm and then at 8pm. After that, Sunday was supposed to be a bit overcast, but there wasn’t supposed to be any rain, and we figured the kids would be fine with a little damp.

True to the prediction it started raining around 4:00 and about half an hour later we arrived at the campground. It wasn’t coming down really hard, so Josh and I set up the tent and everything in the rain and then got the kids inside the tent. It decided to keep on coming down, though, on and off with only a brief respite here and there where Enzo and I would run to the bathroom and Josh grilled up some hot dogs. Still, the rain continued, though, and the kids were kind of whiny. They didn’t want to get wet, but they were bored in the tent, which was also starting to drip here and there. We decided to distract them by singing Happy Birthday to Josh a day early and eating his “cake.” (I am not a professional cake decorator).

Thankfully with the clouds, it was getting a bit darker and we were all a little chilly so we decided to crawl into bed and watch a movie. .. until we started getting dripped on… A LOT. Josh and I ran outside and grabbed a tarp and managed to slide it between the roof of the tent and the useless little tent “tarp” that came with it so we could stop getting dripped on. We crossed our fingers that it would stop raining soon and then tomorrow we could dry out a bit. Except, it didn’t stop raining; it rained pretty much all night and the next morning continued to rain on and off. Phoebe was especially whiny and the other half of the tent was wet, which made both kids whiny. We got some breakfast ready for them, but every time I left the tent or stood up or did anything Phoebe would start crying because she wanted to sit in my lap. I tried to bundle her up, but she was over it. I had to listen to her wail when I went outside to go to the bathroom, and get coffee, and when it started to rain harder Josh and I shook our heads and decided to pack it up. We had no way of knowing if the rain was ever going to stop and we doubted our camp neighbors wanted to hear the weeping and wailing and whining coming from our campsite for another day and night. So, as quickly as possible we packed everything up and back into the car we went.

Lessons learned:

Never trust a weather app.

Unless we get a camper it might be easier to hold off on anymore camping for a couple of years with our kids. Enzo might have been okay, but Phoebe was a hot mess. “I wanna go home!!!!”

Unplugging

Well, it’s raining, which isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but hopefully we won’t get too drenched tomorrow. I have a feeling we won’t be finishing up our mulch right away, though. Ha ha! I need to take pictures of our landscaping progress so far, but have a few from the past weekend. We still have so much on our list, but are making so much headway!

Such an improvement over the out of control chives and the grubby shrub that lived there when we first moved in. Is there anything better than lilacs? I think not. However, our sprinkler heads need to be adjusted because one or two of them are hitting the the poor thing head-on.

Looks like we still need to pressure wash the other half of that rug, but you can see some of the chives that we kept and a few flower additions as well. Plus… kitties!

Amazing what a few pots of flowers can do to brighten things up. I’d like to eventually do more with the front “porch” but I’m not entirely sure what.

If we had more time and money, I think we would have done some major damage at the nursery last weekend. There were so many beautiful flowers and plants. We’ll need to return soon to add a few more plants to the section we’re currently working on, but until I saw what we bought laid out, I didn’t want to buy too many things and I wanted to make sure a few of the flowers would flourish. I’m thinking we’ll be getting more lilies. It felt so good to be productive and it’s been ages since we both felt like we’d gotten that much done. It made me start thinking and really part of the problem is distractions. There are so many of them. Before kids we didn’t have smart phones and while they are enormously useful, I also feel like I’ve never wasted so much time in all my life.

So… we’re trying a little experiment this upcoming weekend and following week and seeing what happens. Aside from a Snap here and there and maybe a quick photo upload to Instagram, I’m staying off of social media and my phone in general – no games, no anything… well, except reading. Josh said he’d be willing to try it out too. My hope is that it’ll help me to get out of a rut and force me to quit procrastinating and figure some stuff out. It’s amazing how easy it is to scroll and scroll through various medias and while I enjoy seeing what everyone is up to… let’s face it, for the most part it’s just a time waster – at least the way we’re using it now.

Time to reset, become more present and hopefully awaken some fire within myself that motivates me to do… well, I’m not sure what yet. Either way, it’ll be good for us all, I think and I’ll report back either during the week or after the full week is up… I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll blog.

I’m hoping to get a lot more pictures without a phone in anyone’s hands. 😉

Happy Friday!

Bring it on!

I am planning on a busy weekend spent mostly outside thanks to a good forecast. I bought a deal online for some plants from a nursery nearby, so we’ll be heading there, but also will have to clean up the spots where our new purchases will be going. One area is completely overgrown with chives and I’m thinking a smaller lilac bush would be perfect there. The kids will most likely be content to help us for about 10 minutes before they’re bored, but they love being outside and will find plenty to occupy their time.

With luck we’ll be able to eat outside tomorrow night, but we’ll see. I’m planning on homemade pizza and ice cream because it is time to bust out the ice cream maker! Then we just have to all decide on a flavor, which will mostly depend on what we have on hand.

Then there’s camping prep to do! I want to try and pare down what we bring with us, but we enjoy a certain amount of comfort when we camp so I’m not sure we’ll be able to leave out too much. One day we may just have to get a little camper. In the meantime, our giant tent is good for when it’s buggy outside so that way there is plenty of room to still have fun without being bitten to death. I’m hopeful, though, that this year it won’t be an issue. So far the mosquitoes haven’t been bad at all and considering we’ll be headed north, I think we’ll be okay. And by north, I mean very north. I almost wish I had a passport since we’ll be so close to Canada. Haha!

I’m hopeful it will be a good trip considering the drive, but it wouldn’t be the first time we packed up early if it just ends up not being enjoyable. With luck we’ll see some wildlife and there are plenty of trails to walk on and, worst case, a town close by where there’s a park if we can’t exhaust the kids near the campground. Absolute worst case, I’m not against slipping them a bit of melatonin (we use only the amount and type the doctor recommended and not regularly – usually just for Enzo when he’s having an especially hard time shutting down). We are also not completely against letting them wind down with a show on our portable DVD player, especially if it means letting the campers around us also get some peace and quiet in the evening.

Sure, they look sweet and innocent, but the sibling squabbles started up around the same time Miss Phoebe entered the stereotypical “terrible” part of the twos. She knows precisely which buttons to push with her brother and will do so gleefully when there isn’t something else to occupy her time. I’m trying to explain to Enzo that it’s best to just ignore her when she’s being a stinker, but he thinks he should get the last word since he is the eldest. He has fully stepped into his roll as the bossy older brother. Some days it’s really kind of hysterical listening to the two of them whether it be when they’re playing nicely together or bickering over the most ridiculous things.

Happy weekend, all!

Today you are 4.

And just like that, we have a 4 year old. Gone is my baby with the chipmunk cheeks, but he still has his blue eyes, a dimple, and a laugh that is just as infectious as ever.

Where to begin? Our boy is growing up, which is terribly obvious, but sometimes is so easy to forget and admittedly to try and ignore. He’s becoming his own person more and more each day, which is probably why there won’t be as many pictures of him on the blog either. More often he has requested that I not take his picture, so I will respect that. I still manage to take photos here and there, but if he specifically asks me not to, down goes the camera. It’s actually a good reminder to be more present, which I sometimes forget to be.

I am loving the independence of our 4 year old. For the most part he dresses himself and if he doesn’t like what clothes we’ve picked out, he’ll request a change. I like seeing what he’s in the mood for and we’re going to go shoe shopping as he noticed his sister has a lot more shoes than he does and he would like more options as well. Fair enough!

As far as interests go, he still loves books and is working on learning how to read. His favorite shows are Power Rangers (any incarnation), Paw Patrol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Sonic the Hedgehog. As far as movies go, he loves Disney and right now his favorites seem to be Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast (he finds the ending when the household fights off the village to be hilarious). He is really into Legos and anything he can build with.

His imagination is fantastic and he has his own little worlds and stories that he acts out with his toys. While he really likes it when he has someone to play with, he also enjoys playing on his own just as much. Much like his dad, he could spend endless amounts of time playing video games, but we’ve been limiting him. His favorites are Disney Infinity and Skylanders on the TV, but he loves Angry Birds on his Kindle as well as some really great learning apps. Thanks to the warm weather, he’d rather be outside and has hardly picked up his Kindle at all lately.

Most importantly, we have such fun with our Enzo. He has a wonderful sense of humor and picks up things so quickly. He is a caring older brother and always looks out for his sister. He has a dimple and a smile that go straight to my heart (and he absolutely knows it!!) which often causes me to cave and give into little requests like just one more book or one tiny piece of candy before breakfast. We love you, Enzo!

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures