Christmas

Merry Christmas (three weeks late!)

We had SUCH a mellow Christmas this year and it was so refreshing and nice. Andy and I didn't do gifts for each other and saved all our money for our weekend away in Vancouver BC.  The girls had a blast opening up stockings and presents and Andy and I enjoyed sitting back and watching them play with contentment all day! definite win-win I'd say!

holiday movies my the twinkle teepee lights

little girl and a BIG tree (at church)

silly alomae channeling her inner Mary on christmas eve

Santa gifts for alomae

and for Poppy

of course Alomae needed a princess dress OVER her christmas Jammies

overnight blueberry french toast for our x-mas breakfast

 my crew eating

sweet pops never got out of her new ariel nightgown!

play dough! this mamas enemy...

but they do play for hours!

We had two guys over for dinner who didn't have family in town and ended the night with a fierce game of Settlers of Catan (and bbq pulled pork sandwhiches. I highly recommend food you don't actually have to cook on christmas day! made my day so relaxing as well!)

into the woods

We did a little family photo shoot a few weeks ago with two gals I just love to pieces. Lauren has quickly over the past couple years, become one of my best friends. She is kind, real, creative, real, fun, real... All the things that make me tick! We are pretty like minded on a lot of things and it makes being her friend effortless and fun! Lauren styled the shoot, I swear with just me in mind! (did I tell you we have the same taste!)  and the wonderfully sweet and fun Caroline took the photos! 

It was kind of a crazy time as Poppy did not want to sit still and carried around a minnie mouse lip gloss the entire time, but somehow Caroline managed to get some really cute photos of us! 

reading (or am I just trying to keep poppy from running away?!)

the only way to get Poppy in the shot sitting still... allow the lip gloss! haha

close up!

kissing under the mistletoe

loving on my big girl

love how tender Andy is with his girls

me and my man

tangled in lights

just a real life moment

getting squeezed

more k-i-s-s-i-n-g

beautiful girl

cozied up with our first born (while poppy is off somewhere with her lip gloss)

looking out on the city we love

PDX

up close with Poppy

Thank You so much Lauren & Caroline for being patient and good sports working with this crazy crew! I adore you two so much!

tree

Man, Thanksgiving was LATE this year. Usually I am not so overly zealous to get our tree but being that it was really almost December,  we decided to take advantage of the dry Saturday and venture out!

Dont get me wrong, I love love love getting our tree! I just like to celebrate one Holiday at a time :)

beautiful poppy in a sea of trees

sweet baby wonderer

family shot on the hayride out to find our tree

 can this girl get any prettier?!? 

Daddy giving me a funny wink (love pops in the background!)

anxious to cut!

Alomae hugging the tree after Daddy cute it down!

And oh my is our tree big. It did not look so big in the woods, but in our little house it is grand! I just LOVE the girls ages right now and how fun these little adventures are.

two weeks of rest

we were able to take two and a half weeks off in October to rest and restore.

fot the first week we snuck off to Sunriver for some adventure!

Adventure came to us in an unexpected way when Andy decided to drive the Land Cruiser out onto the bank of a river which in reality was very deep, thick, quick sand like MUD.

we got stuck here for 3 hours in 25 degree weather and finally was rescued by an Angel of a white truck!

a pumpkin decorating contest happened

and a couple beautiful hikes

We had a great morning of corn mazing, horse carriage-ing, cotton candy eating, pony riding and the most AMAZING pumpkin donut I have ever had

there were plenty of moments at breweries and coffee shops as well

and of course lots of PLAY

During the next week Andy and I snuck to the Oregon game. it was such a treat to have an evening kid free!

Vacation was Awesome and I cannot wait to do it again. Taking that much time off back to back was LIFE GIVING and so very needed after a long and busy year!