Easter

My Easter post is coming a little late, but that's how I roll these days!  

We spent the weekend at my mom and dad's house.   It was the best weather we've had all spring so we spent much of it outside.

This was Liam's first year really hunting Easter eggs, and he was pretty excited about it. 

I just love how my boys have matching sleepy faces in this picture.    

My parents got Liam these Superman pajamas, which he thinks are so cool.  They have a little cape that attaches with velcro.  When he wears them, he pretends to fly, and let me tell you, I don't think it gets much better than watching your two year-old son pretend to fly!  Pure awesome.

Here he is ready to go on the hunt.

He was pretty proud of himself each time he found one.

See the cape?  You can also see that the Easter Bunny kept his hiding pretty simple this year. 

After he hunted for his eggs, he got to come inside and open his presents.  He had picked out this excavator at the store, and we wrote the Easter Bunny a letter telling him about it.  Liam was really excited when he opened it. 

I feel so very blessed to get to experience the world alongside this little guy.  He brings us so. much. joy.  And truly makes every holiday so much sweeter!

xoxo

Holidays

Well helloooo!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  I am just now dragging myself off of the couch.  I had a bit of recovering to do!

So now I'm recovered just in time for the arctic storm.  Excellent.  Perhaps I should just go back to my couch....

Anyway, here's a little recap of our Christmas.  Despite a little bout with the flu, this year's holiday season was extra special.  I think it's because Liam is old enough to *sort* of understand what is going on.  I don't think he really understands presents and where they come from, but he definitely enjoys opening them!  In fact, ripping off the paper may be his favorite part!

There is just something extra sweet about experiencing the holidays through the eyes of a child.

We were gone for 9 days as we traveled to spend time with family.  We had five different holiday gatherings, and we got to spend some quality time with our loved ones.  It was a wonderful whirlwind. 

Liam enjoyed several days of playtime with his cousins as well.  

These two are pretty close in age.  They're going to be buddies. 

Dressed up for Christmas Eve mass

So much excitement on Christmas Eve

I wish I knew what they were saying to each other....

We  barely got these two to sit still.

He also got to spend some time with all of his grandparents and aunts and uncles.  

Like a little bird wanting Grandma's peanut butter pie

Legos!

Great Grandparents

Checking out Grandpa's new shoes

Andrew's brother gave us matching hats

It was quite the holiday for our family with so many memories to cherish.

Life is good....and we are so very blessed!

xoxo

Merry Christmas

We are headed out to begin our holiday travels.  I likely won't be blogging while we are away.

As you can see, I used a quirky photo booth picture on our holiday card this year.  We definitely don't take ourselves too seriously around here so I decided to give folks a nice laugh.  

Have a very Merry Christmas!  May your season be filled with love and light!

xoxo

Lately

I think I've finally recovered from my trip to Dallas last weekend!  I'm not even going to bother to write a post about the whole fiasco because it's just not worth the energy, but let's just say I came home exhausted!  

The conference itself was awesome.  Getting stranded and having to deal with American Airlines was not so awesome.  My flights kept getting cancelled, and I spent many, many hours on the phone trying to get re-booked.

But alas, I made it home safely!  

Life has been a whirlwind so here's a little update:

• My semester has officially ended!  It was a great semester teaching.  I got wonderful feedback from my students.  I did not, however, make nearly as much progress on my dissertation as I had hoped.  That means its time to refocus and re-prioritize.  2014 is my year to finish!

• While I was away, my boys surprised me and put up our Christmas tree.  You have no idea how sweet it was to come home to those twinkling lights. I was so exhausted from being up all night and seeing the tree nearly brought me to tears.  It was so sweet. Liam is completely obsessed with the Christmas tree by the way.  Every morning, the first thing he does is ask me to turn on the lights!

• I love looking at our tree and seeing ornaments from my childhood.  Growing up, we were given a special ornament each year.  There are so many happy, special memories tied to each of those ornaments.  I have continued the tradition with Liam.  This year, his ornament is a Cozy Coupe.  It's fitting considering how many hours he spent in his this summer.  

• Speaking of holiday decorations, I look at this holiday house tour and this one, and I'm completely inspired.  This year, however, it's just not in the cards.  This year, we kept it super simple with just our little tree and a few other decorations. Perhaps one day, when I'm no longer a graduate student, I'll have the time and energy to really do it up!  

• I just started reading this book.  I was a vegetarian for several years into my mid-twenties. Recently, I've felt an inclination to return to the lifestyle. I do, however, enjoy eating meat. And my husband is definitely a meat eater.  I think this might be the perfect compromise for us.  The book is full of really insightful nutritional information.  I consider myself pretty informed in this area but he's touched on several things I didn't know.

• I have also recently started doing yoga again.  I am using this DVD, which I love!  Since this past summer, I have had lower back pain, on and off.  I decided to take a break from my high impact, cardio workouts and do something more gentle, in hopes that the lower back pain will go away.  I have always enjoyed yoga and have read that it's one of the best ways to combat back pain.  In terms of yoga though, I only really like it when it's challenging.  I still want to feel like I'm exercising!  Ashtanga is a more rigorous form of yoga and I am definitely challenged.  Already I feel stronger and more flexible.  It's kind of remarkable.

• Liam is totally into Christmas this year.  I'm not sure he really understands what is going on, but he talks about Santa a lot!  I just got him a few books to help him understand what Christmas is really about.  This book is my favorite.  I cannot get over how much I love this story....which talks about the trees, the animals and the stars all rejoicing over the coming of  Jesus.  Truly, a beautiful story.

• I am currently drinking this hot chocolate.  So good!  Have I ever talked about my love of mint combined with chocolate?  I can't get enough.

• Which is why I plan to make these brownies to take to my family's holiday gathering.  I hope they are as good as they look!

• And speaking of Trader Joe's, have you ever had Cookie & Cocoa Swirl?  Whoa.  I don't think I should be allowed to buy this stuff again because somehow, I just end up eating it straight out of the jar!

• Andrew and I just finished watching Under the Dome.  I wasn't sold on it at first, but now I'm hooked.  The series was renewed for a second season, which means that the final episode totally left us hanging.  I hate it when they do that!

• We are happily gearing up for the holidays!  We'll be gone more than a week travelling to various locations to be with our families.  My grades are done.  Our gifts are wrapped.  And I'm truly looking forward to spending some quality time with the people we love~!

Grateful Monday

To start my week off on a positive note, here are five things I'm grateful for:

• A nice, lazy, snowy weekend which allowed me to catch up around the house.
• My grades are done for the semester!  Woohoo!
• All of our gifts have been purchased. 
• The twinkle of Christmas lights, Christmas music playing on Pandora, hot cocoa, and spending time with my sweet boys.  The song below from Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan is my current favorite.  I can't get enough!
• The excitement of spending the holidays with our families next week.


I hope you have a wonderful week!


xoxo

Four Gifts for Christmas

Last year, during the holidays I was reading this blog post and was very inspired by the "Four Gifts" idea.

I told Andrew about it, and we agreed that we would adopt this approach to giving Christmas gifts to Liam.  

Let's face it.  We live in a world that is consumed by "stuff".  As a parent, I think it would be very easy to fall into the trap of over-buying for your children.  I'm grateful that I came upon this idea when Liam was only a year old so we can organically make this our way, without having to get him on board. 

Here's the idea:

Source

Instead of giving an overabundance of presents, the child receives four meaningful gifts:

Something he or she wants
Something to wear
Something he or she needs
Something to read

I really love this idea.  I love the simplicity.  I love the focus on making the gifts meaningful. I love that it will teach Liam to be grateful for the gifts he receives.

I will say this isn't easy for me, because I love to give gifts.  An unexpected surprise, however, is that it has made me more intentional in what gifts I choose for him.  Rather than just buying because I think he's going to like it, I find myself being much more selective.

As he gets older, I would like to incorporate these four actions into the mix as well:

Source

My hope is that by starting these traditions, Liam will grow up understanding the true spirit of Christmas, which isn't about receiving but about giving.

4th of July Fun

We recently spent the 4th of July visiting my parents with my brother and his family.  It's been quite awhile since we've all been together so it was really nice to have several days to catch up.  

My brother has 3 beautiful children and Liam is finally old enough to really enjoy playing with them.  It was such a joy to watch him with his cousins.  He felt so big!  

Here's a little peak into our visit.

Our neighbor gave us this little rocking horse.  It was in pretty bad shape so my dad took it home and fixed it up.  Now it's good as new, and Liam is happy to have his "horsy" back. 
 

Here's Liam and Grandma playing some piano while waiting for the cousins to arrive.

Each of the grandchildren have a little treasure chest at my mom and dad's place.  When the kids come to visit, my parents fill them with goodies.  When the kids arrive, the first thing they do is check their chests.  This was Liam's first time getting in on the fun.  He was pretty pleased with his treasures!

We were so lucky that the 4th of July was such a beautiful day.  We actually really enjoyed our time outside.

The boys went fishing on Friday morning.  Here they are showing Liam their catch!

Here's Grandma leading an art session.

Liam and "Wibby" spent a lot of time with the bubble machine.

Isn't she the sweetest?  Poor thing is the only girl, but she doesn't let it stop her!

There's nothing like cousins!

Speaking of cousins, we also gathered with my cousins and their families for a picnic.  It's been far too long since we spent time together.  It was so nice to catch up and reconnect.  As you can see, we've got some pretty adorable kids between us!

Liam enjoyed shooting some hoops.

He also got to skip his nap which resulted in this look.

Although he did find some energy to climb a tree!

It was such a lovely visit.  I am very aware just how precious these times are and so thankful for the moments we get to spend together watching our children laugh and play. 

I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday!

xoxo

'Tis the Season

I adore the holiday season.  Every year, I get excited as Thanksgiving approaches.  The holiday season always reminds me of my childhood and the anticipation of decorations, parties, sweets, gifts, and precious time spent with my family.  

Here are some of my holiday favorites:

Family gatherings.  Each and every year I am reminded of just how blessed I am.  And now that I have a child, I consider these gatherings even more precious.  Family is truly what it's all about.

Liam and his cousins last weekend in their Christmas jammies

Food.  I love to eat.  And this time of year gives me a happy excuse to indulge!  I'm also obsessed with all things peppermint.  I made this peppermint fudge last weekend for our family celebration and it was a huge hit. 

Source: 4littlefergusons.wordpress.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Twinkling lights, Christmas trees, garland, all of the holiday decor.  I have always enjoyed decorating for Christmas.  I love nothing more than sitting in a darkened room next to a lit Christmas tree.  By the way, my tree looks nothing like this.  Ours is only decorated on the upper half because of a certain curious one year-old!

Source: http://pinterest.com/luxechronicles/it-s-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like/

Christmas books and music.  As a little girl, I loved reading Christmas books and singing carols.  These days, I'm enjoying reading those same stories to Liam.  And every afternoon we listen to one of the holiday stations on Pandora.

My Balsam and Cedar Yankee candle.  I have been burning this everyday since October.  The smell reminds me of the burning pine in the fireplace of the cabin where we stayed in Colorado.  It's a perfect holiday smell!

Hot chocolate.  Even though it hasn't been that cold out, I still love a good cup of hot chocolate.  Now, if I only had these cute reindeer mugs to go with it....

Source: http://pinterest.com/pin/107171666104305966/

Watching my son experience Christmas.  He's still too little to really understand, but he is already learning to enjoy the holiday fun.  I can't wait to watch his excitement grow each year as he experiences pure joy.  Children give the holidays a whole new meaning.

Learning to open presents

Grandma lets him lick the fudge bowl.  Yummy!

May your season be filled with peace, love, and joy.


xoxo
M