Girls just wanna have fun!

Olivia is so blessed to have sweet little friends close by. Her friends Ava & Emme brought over a darling birthday gift. Girls, you are very kind! Olivia's Gam has made a tradition of taking her up to Green Bluff each summer/fall for berry, peach, or apple picking. This year she got to go with two of her cousins, Clara and Charlotte--who just moved down here from Alaska. She had a wonderful day hanging out with the girls and her Gam. She said she especially loved the suckers and gum they got from Gam :)
The Girls playing dress up, and putting on all their bling, bling
Olivia wants to say "thank you Ava & Emme for the charm bracelet you got me for my birthday"!
Cherry picking with cousins Charlotte, Clara, and Gammy
This is fun!
Clara climbing the cherry tree
Yummy!
Thanks for a fun day out Gam, I love you!

What Summer Brings

Here's a few more of my favorite pictures of the summer. I especially love the one's with family I don't get to see very often. First and foremost I want to tell my Auntie Mary and Uncle Pat that I miss them a lot already. We are so glad that we were able to spend a week with you. It is always such a breath of fresh air to hang out, and visit with you. You're always so encouraging, inspiring, unconditionally loving, and truly two of the happiest people we know. Thanks for adding such a light to our lives. Second, April, it was so great to see you! I had a great time with you and Jen at Clinks. How random was it that we ran into each other on the main strip of Cannon Beach? Thanks for keeping in touch and remaining one of the best pen pals & friends ever :-) We've kept it up since 6th grade. Wish we lived closer! You will always be one of my dearest friends, love you lots. Some of the other pictures are from the 4th of July (with the Sander, Walker, and Hennessy Clans,) and a few more from the Oregon coast. Summer is going by so fast, I've got two special birthdays to plan, August and September will be here before I know it. Hope you're all doing well and enjoying summer!

Our annual trip to the Oregon Coast

We've taken a vacation for the last 3 summers with two special families who have been in our lives for many years. We seem to keep adding another baby to the group each year :) So far we've gone down to the Oregon Coast each time. Every year has been quite different, and you never know what the weather will bring. This year was the first time it did not rain, and we were there 5 days. Yahoo!!! Sunny skies the entire time. Can't deny that it was still pretty chilly on the beach. Wells and Ruff's, thank you for a wonderful, very memorable summer vacation. Here's to many more together!
Some of my favorite moments while on our holiday~
*Walkie Talkies while driving
*Walking around barefoot in the sand
*Nolan discovering the sand(and yes, he ate it, YUCK!)
*Eating, eating, and more eating
*Watching all our kids play together
*Reminiscing about some of the good ole' days
*Playing apples to apples and laughing until our sides hurt
*Guitar Hero!
*Staying up with friends until midnight :) Thanks to the condo that could fit us all!
*Shane and the stairs, LOL
*Shopping with the girls in Cannon Beach
*Surviving our dinners out with 6 kids
*Walking along the boardwalk in seaside(especially the people watchin')
*Olivia and Ella's first time flying a kite
*Waves of Grain Bakery

More pictures, and stories to come. Couldn't resist just adding a couple tonight. Love you guys! Thank The Lord we all made it home safe. That felt like the LONGEST car ride ever on the way back. ps-i think the kids are going through withdrawals and are bored without all their buddies. They had so much fun together!

Attatchments(and my momma's boy)

Should it stay or should it go? I have been contemplating cutting my hair(short) for months now. I have to change it every couple years, I get bored with it. It's gotten really long, and I like it, BUT I don't want it to start looking like the long, boring, high school hair I used to have. Ladies, I'm counting on you to tell me the truth if it starts looking that way.

It's actually Nolan that is now preventing me from cutting it. He's become super attached to my hair, especially when he's nursing. It's really sweet, he grabs an end piece of my hair, and then he rubs it across his face. It obviously comforts and sooths him because he often falls asleep while doing this. Sometimes he's a little stinker and just likes to hold on to a piece and then keeps pulling it. He can get a little wild with it too. Tonight you'd of thought he was holding on to the reigns of a horse instead of my braids. If I try and move it away from him, he growls at me. Or if I wear it up, he starts grabbing at my hair and tries to free a piece from my ponytail. Funny little guy! I really would feel terrible if I took it away from him right now. So my sweet prince, for the time being, you win, and my long hair stays.

Who has time for baby books?

Olivia has always been interested in babies. I think she will be a natural little momma if she's blessed to have children of her own one day. Her interest in "mommyville" became constant when I was pregnant with Nolan. I remember the first couple of times I nursed him Olivia would be looking at me with blank stares, wondering what the heck I was doing. Nearly 10 months later she's still just as interested, and always copying things I'm doing.

A couple days ago after I got out of the shower I noticed it was very quiet. If you are a mom, quiet isn't usually a good sign, unless your children are asleep. There she was sitting in my closet tinkering around with the breast pump, with her baby doll hanging out on her lap. She said, "mom, I want to feed my baby like you feed Nolan." Once again, I had to go in to the explanation of how, & when mommy's get their milk. Then she said, "okay, well I'll just pump out water then." I cracked up! Then I found myself explaining why she wouldn't get any water out of her body either. So she headed to the sink and filled her little bottles up with tap water.

While my days at home with my children can be as exhausting, and demanding as ever, moments like this make up for it. My kids give me a good laugh or two daily. I wish I could say I've written down all the silly moments like this, but I fail to do so all the time. I have written down some of my favorite memories, but seem to run out of time, get too distracted, or simply forget to write down the rest. Who knew life would be so busy with two kids? I was pretty consistent with Olivia's baby book/milestones, but have to make a conscious effort not to forget to stay on top of Nolan's. Does anyone else fall short here? No wonder my mom didn't have our baby books filled out perfectly, who would 5 kids later? I can barely keep track of what my two kids are doing. I am a picture fanatic, that counts right? Pictures tell stories too :)

Chaps, Farmer's Market, & Ya Ya's Birthday!

It's my moms birthday today and we spontaneously decided to take her to breakfast. We went to a little place called Chaps, it was AWESOME! It reminded me so much of the restaurant my brother had in Brooklyn. Great food, adorable environment(very vintage,) and to top it off, there was a farmer's market going on. There were all kinds of random things being sold by several different vendors. I know I'm a complete dork, but I bought a vintage apron, not the one I'm wearing in the picture, and I think it's so cute! Olivia suckered us in to buying her an old rocking horse, which she's named Ali. The men were not as thrilled as my mom, Liv, and I. I think Shane tried to make his way back to the car 10 different times. I love walking around little markets, and could have spent hours there. Next time I'll leave Shane at home where he'd be more content with a good game on t.v., and a beer in hand :) It was a perfect morning, and I don't use the word perfect very much.

Mom, we hope you have a beautiful day! Take time to do as you please, enjoy all the things that make you happy, relax(I know this will be hard for you to do, you can't sit still,) and focus on all the blessings that surround you. You are such a beautiful woman, I can only hope that I will age as gracefully as you have. May the Lord bless you abundantly in all your years ahead, and may you see all the good things he's doing in your life. We love you! By the way, I stumbled across these old photos of my mom, she's probably only 22ish. Mom, you are smokin' hot in these and I had to post them, hope you don't mind. I think they're great!

Here's To Adventure In Cleveland!

I had to do something that I have been dreading all week-say goodbye(temporarily, I HOPE,) to my brother Joe. On a side note, nice going mom! I have to laugh about this one-my parents had already said goodbye to Joe this morning, and then my mom called him to say "we're on our way to Kelli's too, you forgot your sweatshirt!" Now, those of you who know my mom are aware that she will stall as much as possible in hopes that maybe she can keep you around for one more day. She's notorious for accidentally misplacing plane tickets, wallets, keys, etc...she's a stinker! The whole point in me writing about that is because I know she must have purposely misplaced Joe's sweatshirt just so that she would get to see him one more time before he left. I can't deny I'd probably do the same thing if one of my babies was moving away :( Not a bad idea!

Joe is one of my best friends, and I spend time with him every week, so this will be an adjustment for me. Olivia is also very close to her uncle "Jo Jo" and will miss him dearly. Who's going to stop by and eat all my cookies and brownies? I really am so excited for him to do something new and different with his life. And for all the career opportunities that lye ahead for him. Not to mention he has one of the most adorable girlfriends on planet earth Tabitha "Tab" (in picture above w/ Joe) who also lives in Cleveland. We hope you have a fun, safe, & blessed 4 day road trip to Ohio. We love you and will miss you very much-xoxo