Oh hi again! My goodness it’s been a while. I honestly have no idea where to start cause looking back on my bajillions of photos, so much has changed and happened and and and. But let’s start here cause these are some of my favorite pictures of Luke and I never got a chance to post them and now there’s absolutely no reason to except that I love them and my dang computer keeps telling me it’s full again so onto here they go ;) Feel free to never read this because it’s about to be the longest post of all time.

^^this was like the first time he actually sorta posed for me and it was just cracking me up. Plus, what’s more cute than a naked boy on a bike!?

I sincerely apologize if i’ve already posted some of these and yes these are from LAST summer hahah that’s how behind this lady is but I have high hopes of getting back on track this year ;)


So much trampoline fun. That sucker is proudly in the ground now. So many bee stings later, its one of the few things I’m supremely proud of ;)

He really is the best dad.

^^I don’t miss anything about our old kitchen except …. that step and stoop ….and I didn’t even really like it but I have so many memories of my babies sitting on it and I must say, it did make me a little sad to see it go… BUT onto new memories and I must say, so far they have been oh so lovely. Wooden plank leading to our back door and all :)

^^His poor swollen ear… The bees loved Luke too. I think he got stung like three times that week? Poor lil guy.



There were beach days


And so many home depot days

And then Fall began to poke it’s pretty lil head out :)







And then renovations started.

You guys, as excited as I am about this new space, I’m not gunna lie – it has been H A R D. If you are thinking of redoing your kitchen, laundry room and main bathroom through the holidays and sick season with two little kids, MAY I SUGGEST DON’T. Not one bit of it has been easy. I’ve been such a pain to be around. I know this because each of my family members has come to me separately and mentioned something along the lines of perhaps practicing gratitude :) and I AM so so grateful! but stressed out of my freakin mind. I’ve gone to the doctor twice for heart issues that, you guessed it, come back to stress stress stress stress. Every time a bill came in the mail, I’d just break out in hives and start itching my head incessantly. HA. I’m a bundle of fun. SO. Here’s the best we could come up with for a makeshift kitchen:

Cute, right? Yup, that’s our master bathroom. It was the only sink situation we could think of and then for bigger pots (because that sink truly is tiny) we thought we could wash them out in the shower. Hardy hardy har. Dishes took me about two to three hours every day whilst the kids reeked havoc on the house. Whoever lived in our house before us must have been very short because all the counters are unusually low. This particular counter hits me about mid thigh so any amount of time doing dishes k i l l s the back. Hence I frequently put them off. This led to so many ants and so many sleepless nights cause the stink was so bad. haha.
^^you know somethings not working when…. aaaand this is what it looked like the majority of the time. Everything got tossed in there. It was very very hard to navigate around and I was in tears most days :) and this was a good day.

Moving on! Luke was mighty adorable. He has LOVED watching the guys. The whole demo period, it took everything to tear him away!

We cleared out the garage and I had my own cheer team!

These are the places I find my daughter. I freakin love how weird she is :)

^^Swing pictures – I just can’t get enough of them :):)

^^Also my entire family on our stoop. It warms my whole freakin soul. Am I saying freakin a lot? My vocabulary and all mind sockets have plummeted in the last couple of months.

^^Alrighty. Their little relationship has full on blossomed and it’s the sweetest thing! They’re always hugging (and then tackling) and chasing and loving on each other. There’s plenty of screaming and crying and whining too but for the most part, they are just the sweetest. Luke looks up to his big sister SO much and wants to know where “Abbayyy?” is at all times. They are my favorite. So before you think all we do over here is giggle on swings and hug all day long, NO. My kids have been on a steady diet of cereal and TV for the last 8 months. All my good parenting has gone swiftly down the drain and I’m gunna have to work so hard once we get our house back, to get their brilliant lil minds working again. I am ashamed. But I’m just trying to survive over here so I’ll just give myself heaping amounts of grace thank you very much ;) Between all the decisions needing to be made, the mountains of dishes that would breed in there despited using paper plates, and the big ol saws outside that Luke what gravitate to like a fly to a lite, we stayed inside for a good portion of the time watching the same ol things over and over and over. I’m looking forward to outtings.



These are the majority of my pictures… but how cute are they all snuggled up together?

And here are some flowers to show there were moments when I tried.

I turned 30. This is the only picture I have from the sweetest surprise party Greg threw for me. I was actually surprised. It was a miracle. He planned the most amazing trip in Napa but then Napa started to burn so we had to postpone it till our anniversary which was just as fun :)

Then there was thanksgiving. I’m remembering it fondly now but if I really reach back I remember Abbie (supposedly) taking a nap in my parents room, but actually trashing it. Red wine everywhere. I believe there were other things too but this is a good reason to wait this long to post pictures. It looks so lovely! ;)

^^Their little table <3

Taylor fell in love :D

And we attempted another family picture.

This family of mine. They are my everything.

She’s all sass. I must say I love being a mom. But someone asked me a couple months ago if I loved motherhood and honestly I had a hard time saying yes. Life has been kickin my booty lately and it has just been hard. I swear there are days when no one stops crying and the freshly cleaned house becomes a hazard zone in a number of seconds and I just wanna quit. But thank goodness for new days and the sweetest husband and forgiving kids. So so thankful for it all.

Isn’t she the prettiest when she’s sick? Those rosy fever cheeks! Let’s talk about sicknesses. My kids were steadily sick from November to probably March. I’m not huge on medicine – I tend to turn to food as my first defense against sickness so it was definitely hard to not have a functioning kitchen for those couple of months. I remember simmering my chicken bones all night for a nice bone broth and I had about 3 hours left in the morning, so I made some coffee and promptly blew out all the power in our bathroom/kitchen. I rushed to the next room trying not to ruin my simmering stock and promptly blew out the power in the rest of the house. This happened quite frequently. We learned we had to disperse all our plug in cooking gear in different rooms to keep the lights on cause there were many days and nights with no lights. The roaster was in Lukes room, the fridge was in the dining room, the hotplate was in the bathroom and if you needed to plug in something new, my goodness, good luck. It doesn’t sound that hard but it got so old so fast, forgetting and not having power for a couple days. So thankful for outlets.

These were taken the day before Luke broke out with what I thought was chickenpox so we were quarantined for a week or so while it ran its course. I think it ended up being hand foot and mouth disease except that he got like one on his hand and one on his foot and millions everywhere else. But they never got itchy – they seemed more painful so I’m thinking that’s what it was. Abbie got it after him but not as bad. So there was that, there were the colds – there had to be at least 10 colds, there was the week where everyone was projectile vomiting out of the blue, I decided to get my wisdom teeth removed during demolition because i’m the smartest human, Luke and I got a wonderful case of the stomach flu – every morning I would pick him up out of his crib which would just be COVERED in poo, our only working bathroom was upstairs during that fun episode so… stories there ;) and let’s all remember, no washer or dryer. The cats. THE CATS. Didn’t like using their litter box and it got nasty. I got a corneal ulcer which turned my lovely bright house into a den from hell, Bentley ran away – like to the pound, and lastly I had a horrific cough that pulled my entire chest muscle out and although that was over six weeks ago, STILL hurts when I cough or sneeze. It’s been fun. I’m sure i’m forgetting things but man, for a while there it was just like, what next!?
But you guys, CHRISTMAS!

^^right before dad would come home, the couch would turn into a playground, the ornaments would go missing, and the presents would be snuck into. But you just gotta love em.

It was so nice to escape to my parent’s house of coziness when ours was cold and torn apart :)

Christmas morning with kids is the best. All of Christmas with kids is the best, really.

I don’t know why more people don’t go to the beach in December. Fall and Winter are my favorite times to frequent such places.
Supposedly we need another child? Is this a thing? Also, Abbie haha

I just love how he sits on the stairs :)

^^My most favorite thing <3 <3

So that little trip Greg was planning in Napa? That crazy man took me back to the French Laundry cause I was pregnant last time we went and I didn’t get the full experience ;) He’s nuts and I’m pretty dang lucky.



There was even an attempted hot air balloon ride!

Luke tried his hand at plastering

And painting

And house cleaning

The Lord gave me such peace about everything here. I was seriously struggling if that hasn’t been abundantly clear in this post and my goodness am I thankful for such a loving, patient God. He is such an incredible provider – not only financially when I can’t seem to find a way up, but just in everything. He is so so good.

^^Not kidding. SO so excited about every. little. thing. Like walls.

This was when OUR WALL OPENED UP after, what, four months of being closed off? It was like Christmas morning all over again. Every single little thing that has happened has made such a big difference. Not kidding about the obnoxious excitement over everything.

^^When your soap falls out of your car and the top breaks for the millionth time.

So many laundry days… I looooved when Greg would come with me because two kids alone and piles and piles of laundry is a mother of a workout


Greg braved our scary kitchen situation and made this for me on Valentines day. That guy blows me away! He just whips this stuff up and all of a sudden is Mr. Handyman. He fixed the toilet the plumber couldn’t figure out and installed a bunch of our lights and basically anything I ask if he could do it, he actually looks into fixing it and figures out how. OOOOOO BOY! I’m mighty impressed.


So many forts!

This is typical… she’s in his crib, she asks me to put him in there with her… I come back to this. Sneaky lil gal.

St Patricks Day was a bittersweet holiday cause it was supposed to be the day everything would DEFINITELY be done haha. A big party was planned. Sigh. Ah well. I have the best sister and she threw our little family a st pattys lunch bash to cheer us up. Bless her!
There was even a rainy day in there.

HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE HER!?

The outfits are my favorite. She is passionate about what she wears. Which is usually a lot or nothing at all ;)

^^When we rescued Bentley from the pound :[ So as I was sobbing in my car realizing we might not find him after driving around the neighborhoods, I hear this little voice in the back seat: “it’s gunna be okay momma… take a deep breath… Lord! Please help momma feel better!” My goodness children are a gift :)

That one time they slept together all snuggled and such <3

Easter was another holiday I was looking forward to hosting :-P instead I completely forgot about eggs AND baskets so, points for me there. Thanks goodness for Gummys.

Hey look! I finally found a place for my broken fish!

Her first all-by-herself-mani-pedi!


Banana Split Dates!!!

The :’) day :’) my :’) washer :’) and dryer :’) went into the same room :’) :’) no more snakes or scary neighbors!!! I might be more excited about this than my kitchen. Fa reeeeel.

But then the oven. You better believe we’ve been baking.

and baking

and baking

It’s been so dang fun.

The kids don’t even know how to handle a new waste basket…

How Abbie feels about being clean ;)

The clean pictures! The clean pictures! They are so rare!

When your little girl ASKS you to take a picture of her :D in your dress..

Not to mention, this kid.

Seriously, having a kitchen again has lifted my spirits so much. I consider myself a fairly easy going person but man. I had no idea how hard that would be. Still not done but so much closer!

So here we are! Whew that was a lot. HA! Happy Tuesday! Is it still Tuesday??