Poppy and the Park

When Alomae was a baby I loved capturing her joy as she explored the park! I hardly ever remember to take a shot of Poppy so I have tried to be more intentional about capturing this sweet joy!

 I would say her and the park get along just fine...

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!)

A letter to my girls.

Am I the only one that sometimes feels overwhelmed with the world we are currently raising children in and the influence it has? Now don't get me wrong, I fully understand that people have always been a bit crazy and they always will be, but whew, the responsibility I have as a mother to guide my girls properly and give them the the right perspective on how to decipher what is right and wrong, true and false, gospel and not, is just a really really big deal.

So here are my thoughts. As I sit here at 30, processing all I hear and see, here are just a few things  I want to say and influence those two beautiful girls asleep in the next room...


My girls,

I hope to always start everything I pass onto you with Love. I know I do not always do this by example, but I always want pure love to be the driving force in all that I and all that you do. The reason why love is so important is because love covers! It covers the good AND the bad. It's not up to us as to whom we love and to what degree we love, we are simply and clearly called to love. Even when you are tired of loving and feel like you have no more love to give, still I say, love!

Throughout your entire life you are going to see things that you do not agree with. Something you must know though is, there is a difference between an injustice and disagreement. You cannot fight every battle nor should you try and let your opinion be known in every thing that rubs you the wrong way. Know when to turn the other cheek and when to stand up for the one who has had their voice taken away. Save your energy for the things that are really important so that when you do speak up, the people around you will listen!

You have the ability to create beauty in yourself and in others. By the way you speak and the way you listen, you have the power to raise someone up (and the same power to tear them down). You have been created in the very image of the living God and to see yourself as anything less then is a shame. No you are not perfect, and sometimes your imperfections will be more obvious then others, but more importantly then the way you see yourself, I want you to see the way God sees you through Jesus. True beauty shines so bright through the understanding and ability to see yourself and others through eyes that are far more gracious, pure, and enlightened then your own.

More then anything I want you two to be gracious, generous, empathetic, loving, true, just, and kind. I want you to take on the heart of your maker and have the ability to see his people through a glimpse of the lens that he sees. I so desire for you to be slow to speak and really weigh your words carefully for they have so much power to build and destroy. Recognize the influence you have to breathe life and to share the hope I pray you will grow to know well. Changes of the heart do not come from being attacked and belittled, but come when we extend the grace we have been given, especially when it is not deserved.

Be slow to anger, quick to forgive and always always be ready and willing to love and love well!

You create beauty with your attitude, your behavior, your actions (it's all up to you).

I am already so proud of you!

your mama


Our kids are going to hear MANY MANY voices in their days, make sure yours is one they know they can always always trust and come to!

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.

the birth of Poppy. video style!

So, Poppy is two now... but I feel it is never too late to help the fight to normalize birth!

When I was pregnant with her I had all these grand plans of how my home birth would go. A beautiful lit room, warm tub, light music, candles lit. All setting the tone for a beautifully edited video that would capture the moment we got to meet our sweet girl! Well...candles were lit and the music was playing... :)

Poppy Grey just came too darn fast! from my first contraction to the last was one hour flat! There was not an extreme intensity that told us her birth was near either. Nope, just some easy breathe through contractions and me chit chatting away and then BOOM!

Andy did have his iphone handy during this anticlimactic (or so we thought) time. So now today, these clips have given birth to my very own, badly edited, poor quality, birth of my sweet baby girl into our tiny, shallow, luke warm tub!

by far one of the best days of my life!

Enjoy :)

disclaimer: I am having a baby here but nothing overly graphic is shown(that is her head sitting there for awhile) . Oh and, do not try and watch in full screen, it makes the quality even worse!

you can read my entire birth story here

Halloween 2013

it was not even 8:00 am before Alomae was begging my to put her in full Dorothy costume

Poppy was suppose to be a cute little Munchkin but would not keep a single part of her costume on...

So by evening time, Dorothy was still Dorothy of course (though she did have a few wardrobe changes throughout the day)

and my munchkin became Punky Brewster!

Sometimes you gotta just throw all plans out the window and just work with what ya got.

Fun was had by all. Now I just need to make all the candy disappear (and not into my belly!)