Wednesday, March 30, 2016

afternoon on the UVA lawn

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i think i mentioned that traveling with little kids is not exactly easy? but if we were able to just let them run free, sleep and eat wherever/whenever/however they wanted, it would be a breeze! the highlights of their trip were definitely the moments when we let them just run around and be kids. part of me felt really bad whenever we had to put them in the stroller or back in the car to get somewhere, because just look at their faces in these pics! they were so happy running around on the UVA grounds on friday afternoon after evie's nap. i wished we could just spend our whole trip right there, watching them glow:). this is basically evie's idea of heaven — freedom to roam, grass between her toes, and spring sunshine. but then i guess we probably all feel that way, huh? at one point evie just sat down in the grass and went into a little zone. it was so cute. i just love her at this age so, so, so much. and wilder is the biggest sweetheart right now. so inquisitive and learning so quickly and always coming up with something crazy and hilarious to talk about! i honestly can't keep up with him, and i adore his energy so much.

like everywhere we went, our time here was too short. we didn't do much besides see edgar allen poe's old dorm (which is kept behind glass, so cool and strange, right?) and run around a little on the lawn. then we got back in the stroller and went to dinner on the downtown mall. i didn't get any photos of that (mealtimes with kids is where the crazy really is, amiright?!), but we have lots of video footage that we will hopefully make into a little movie soon.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

monticello!

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we are back from our road trip to charlottesville, va! our first big family (of four) trip! and i have a newfound respect for everyone who travels with children and even more so for people who take photos + video of their travels with children. it is not an easy feat! we are still figuring it out. and while it was definitely a little crazy and the trip felt way too short for all that this area has to offer, i know that this is one of those trips that we will cherish in our memories. i can't tell you how much i fell more in love with my kids and our family on this trip. and even though having a baby sleep in the bathroom (in a travel crib) is not ideal, i think i could totally get used to living in one room as a family all together. it's so much fun! haha, of course it's also fun not having to prepare any meals in that room!;)

the kids were phenomenal on this trip, over all. for the amount of time we had them sitting in carseats alone, they deserve gold stars, and then they hardly even complained about it! which was like hallelujah! all that time spent driving to/around atlanta from the suburbs has paid off;) on the way up, we broke the drive up into two trips. wednesday night we drove up to charlotte, nc and stayed with j's sister and her family, which is always so much fun for all of us. wilder especially loves getting to see grandma, grandpa and his cousin beau who is only five days older than evie! tonight at bedtime i was telling him that grandma and grandpa were going to come stay in evie's room next weekend and then he asked where were great-grandma and great-granddaddy (who we visited in roanoke, va on sunday) going to sleep? i think he is like me and would prefer if all his family could just live all together in one big house! the highlight of his trip was definitely being around family. :)

on thursday we drove to charlottesville, got settled into our hotel and visited with one of j's childhood friends and had the best coffee of our trip at shenandoah coffee, which looked like nothing special on the outside but was really the best we had while we were there. then on friday morning, we drove out to see thomas jefferson's house, monticello. i was a little regretful at the time that i had done the tour of his house. haha! is that crazy or what? because now i'm definitely glad that i did. but at the time i felt so rushed and was worried that i hadn't really had time to take in the sites or enjoy playing with the kids there. the tour is forty minutes long, so evie and i went on the tour while j and wilder played on the grounds. i took a few photos of the grounds afterwards (no photos allowed inside and i'm not enough of a rebel to sneak some shots;), and then it was time to grab a quick lunch at michie's tavern (another cool—but overpriced—must-do there!) before we had to make it back for evie's nap. i was really strict about nap time because evie was already getting a lot less sleep than usual, and i felt so bad for her. so when we had to rush back after the tour, i was a little disappointed. now though i'm glad i did it. his house is so cool! and he was (obviously) such an amazing, interesting person. i highly, highly recommend visiting monticello and charlottesville in general. we had so much fun. (a lot of craziness and crabbiness ensued, too, don't you worry;). but overall, it was a really good trip.


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quick photo before heading into our tour

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looking at the picture he colored with papa

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this girl is so spunky! i can't even handle it. i love her so much!

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see?!

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my sweetheart.

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view of the dome at UVA

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activities with papa

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my cool dude.

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she badly wanted to get into that dirt!

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when i put her in this sling, she gets instantly calm and quiet. it's amazing!


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running away, haha!

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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

goings on around here

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we've been running errands and doing all the laundry and spending entirely too much time in the car and negotiating with toddlers about getting into the car again (both of them are not so happy with that) this week. I haven't experienced atlanta traffic in a while since being a stay-at-home mom means that you get to not be on the road during rush hour, and i have not missed it one bit. and i kind of forgot how horrible it can be.

but it looks like we're getting all the things done on our to-do list (one of life's simple pleasures is checking things off a to-do list, am i right?), and i am currently feeling much happier with life than i was on monday. monday was a small bear, for reasons which are all small and uninteresting. i was a grumpity grump, and then of course my children followed suit, because that's what children do. which has helped me in the past realize that i needed to change my attitude because i'm passing everything that i am down (such a scary thought!).

but tuesday has been much better, and it is always a mood lifter to realize that we have leftovers for dinner. these photos have not much to do with this post except that they show us as we are in life at this stage: climbing + baskets + plants + everything in the mouth = that's my evie-girl. goofy + crazy + obsessed with star wars and blue's clues + so imaginative = that's my wileybear. he reminds me more and more of myself. and she is becoming such a fascinating little person. i think i like these two poppets a lot.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

dear future self

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dear future self:

first of all, i hope you're over the trauma of tonight's poo in the bath incident. i know it's not that traumatizing and i'm sure it's happened to every other mother out there (right?!?) but right now i feel like i will never be clean again. but i'm sure you've put it behind you and forgotten all about it. you're welcome for the reminder. ;)

i bet you've also gotten much better at living in the present. i'm going to applaud you for it, in advance. that's how sure i am of your progress. (uh, just now it occurred to me that i'm applauding myself, which seems kinda wrong?) i heard a saying recently about how kids live in the present, young people live in the future, and old people live in the past. i don't know what age category to put myself in now. i'm not a kid and i wouldn't really say i'm a young person (maybe you would though?) but i'm not old yet. and i feel younger now than i've felt in a long time. after years and years of living in the past, i'm starting to live in the present again. the future has been on my mind a lot, too. sometimes it's just the immediate future. for instance, our road trip at the end of this week has made me all kinds of bonkers today. this afternoon i held my two-year-old's hand through an hour of traffic on our way home from an errand because he was crying and begging me "please please please" to hold his hand and i really couldn't not, i just thought about how much i have to be in these moments. my to-do list is long and pressing, but what will i remember in the future? i hope you remember holding his hand and laughing with him at evie shaking her head and saying "na, na, na" (first word: no?) in her carseat next to him. but also, i hope you aren't looking back yet. i hope you are even better than me at being present, at living in the present, at taking it all in.

i hope, too, that you are content with your life. that you are at peace with whatever house you live in (even if it's still this ol' shack;), the clothes in your closet, the schools your kids go to, the vacations you take. i hope you have learned to not constantly look over at the bright green grass on the neighbor's lawn. i hope you are finding deep contentment with whatever muddy, shady, snake-inhabited gardens you find yourself in. i hope you love it even. because i am learning that there is beauty everywhere, if you just but look.

i hope you've kicked that night-owl habit and have finally found your inner morning person. kind of. i mean, i feel for the night owl (hello insomnia!), but i also want to be a morning person, so i understand either way, really. i just hope you're finding some quiet, alone time to spend with God, whether it's early or still kind of late in the morning.

i hope you're still jogging, and i really hope you've restarted your yoga practice, because i'm hoping that is in the cards for me (you) soon, although i'm not sure it's gonna happen until the babies are out of the baby stage.

i hope you've gone on many, many, many more best date night evers. at least a thousand more. you owe it to yourself and to your love. i think someone told me that love is like a plant. it needs tender care. and we both know how you've been with plants. but i think i'm falling in love with plants! so hopefully your love plant is getting lots of love.

i hope you've written a story that is worth letting someone else read. because i want to read it. ;)

also, i hope you've figured out whether or not you're going to be the kind of person who makes fabulous, interesting meals (probably not) or orders take-out (more likely). i really hate this in-between stuff you've got going on. ;)

but mostly, i hope you are pouring yourself out for the ones you love. and showing them how much you love them.

until you, i'll just be me. still learning. learning, though. and thankful for this life. so very thankful.

bisous,
B.


*photo from a year ago, when evie was brand new, and i was a brand new mama of two. how was she ever that tiiiiiny???

Monday, March 21, 2016

a papa and his babies

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because i spend most of my photo-taking time during the work week when it's just me and the kids, it's easy to miss out on all the photos of the papa with his babies. weekends have always been a little whirlwind in our house, as we desperately try to squeeze in all the fun + errands + naps we don't get to during the week, and this weekend was no exception. relaxing in my pajamas with a coffee in my hand while sunlight streams through the windows and everyone is making happy noises and without having to jump out of my seat every five seconds for something on a saturday morning is currently on my hope-to-do-soon list, but so far it's not to be. i don't know why, because i feel like everyone else in the world does this, but not us! haha.

our papa works so hard during the week, and so when he gets home in the evenings it's usually a mad dash to get in a few bites of dinner before it's bath and bedtime for the kids. usually there is no time for photos or relaxing around the table of any kind (little kids are unacquainted with this idea of relaxing at the table, or table manners in general apparently;).

but for a few moments there, friday and saturday afternoons, everyone was relaxing and happy at home and i got some shots of our papa with his babies. everyone else has said this, and it's totally true: seeing your man loving on your kids is just THE best feeling in the world. it makes me deliriously happy.

here are some happy photos to make you happy too :)

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