"Mommy, I want pretty hair like 'Punzel!"

*Sigh*  And so it begins.  We borrowed Tangled from a friend of ours since Marin watches it at her house on the day I work and we watched it everyday for 2 weeks.  This is really Marin's first exposure to princess-anything and she decided she really liked Rapunzels hair.  After requesting to wear her princess dress (Easter dress) one morning, she then requested to have hair done like " 'Punzel".  I then French braided a portion of her hair and she loved it.  She would then proceeded to tell me, her stuffed piggy and anyone else she saw that she had pretty hair like Rapunzel.  My french braiding skills are a tad rusty, and she has such fine hair, that it was a bit of a challenge, but nonetheless!  We triumphed! 

Last weekend at the creek throwing rocks with daddy.  This girl has quite the arm, her throw is pretty impressive for being 2&1/2!

 She picked some buttercups for me, and I asked if I could put them in her hair...like Rapunzel....of COURSE!

 Hey there happy fella!

 This boy almost ALWAYS has a smile on his face, what a happy guy.

 Hey there happy baby!

 I can't believe he is going on 4 months...just amazing!!

I love my beautiful family!  I have an incredible, loving husband...a sweet, chatty little girl and a happy smiley baby boy.  My days are full of laughs, tickles, tantrums, mac and cheese, baby drool, "Can I see your eyebrows mommy?", and little baby laughs.  The only adult conversation I have on many days is with my husband...I just about talk his ear off when he gets home from work!  I spend each day thinking about keeping both children fed and rested and then it's time to think about what to have for dinner.  I've given up on makeup most days and have relegated any weight loss to strict diet changes since my time to exercise is...nil.  But I leave my daughters bedroom at night and smile when she yells "I love you mommy, go niiiight!", it makes my heart happy.  And I get at least a hundred smiles from my sweet boy each day and sweet snuggles when he drifts off to sleep in my arms.  It's the hardest job I've ever done and has required me to sacrifice everything about myself and more, but somehow, I'm happier and more fulfilled.  I have so much love in my home, and I wouldn't trade it for all of the make-up and work out's in the world.

Death to Lappy

In case you are wondering why on earth I just haven't been keeping up with blog posting, let me indulge (for myself mostly) momentarily.  Our main laptop has died.  Yes, it died.  We have a small notebook computer that has recently contracted some very serious hard drive ailments and allows me *maybe* 30 minutes of internet time before shutting down.   While we were able to back up all of our photos from the other computer, I haven't been able to load any new pics from our camera.  HOWEVER, the happy news amidst all of this is that today we received a very wonderful gift from the Fed-ex man....a NEW (to us) lappy from a generous family friend.  I have yet to experiment with it, but am very excited....hopefully I can get some new pics up very soon!

Some Kind of Wonderful

I have perfectly wonderful children.  Yes, it's true, I really do!  Granted, they are more work than anything elseI have ever done in my life, but it is certainly a labor of love.  I have been focusing lately on 'letting things go', and it has helped me to be a mother of two, treMENdously.  Instead of getting so uptight and worked up over temper tantrums and a house that's less than clean with no time to clean it, I just...let it go.  It makes my life SOOOO much easier and happier!  A clean house will come and go, as will laundry, temper tantrums, refuse-to-eat-lunch-days, opportunities to love my children, make crafts and cookies with my daughter and storytime.  It will all come and go, you just have to decide which ones you will let..go.  I am far from perfect in this department, believe ME!  It's always a work in progress, but I find my days are happier when I don't stress about getting a TON of things done every day.  I have children, that just doesn't happen anymore.  I have been relegated to the 'slow-lane' on the highway of daily accomplishments, and for someone who is used to driving in the fast lane, that's a hard transition!  So here are more pictures of my lovely babies:

Marin looking at my birthday cake the other week.  She and daddy made it for me, so sweet :)

 Say :Haappppyyyy!

 Marin loves all things sweet, what kid doesn't?!

 Awww, Marin's birthday card to mama.

 Owen has to be one of the happiest babies I know, he is just a smiley face ALL the time, such a sweet little guy, I just love him!

 Just look at my handsome little buddy, I could snuggle this boy all day....well, I do, and I LOVE IT!

 This is an egg.

Wait, how do you open this thing again?

 Oh, yes, the craccking part, that's what I'm forgetting!

My sister in law Austin gave me some great advice about having two kids:  At 3 months it get's easier, at 6 months it's a relief, and at 12 months, it's a piece of cake.  So far, how true this is!  Things are so much more organized now, and perhaps some of it is a having a baby that's a bit older, but the I think much of it is having come out of those first 3 months of 'baby boot camp', alive!  Everyone is struggling those first 12 weeks for sleep and peace and order...after 12 weeks, you have just enough experience under your belt to not be freked out every morning that you have to do it all over again.

A Beautiful Day

Hopefully we are back on track here!  Our camera has been found with some pictures from a few weeks ago, so here are a few pictures not to be missed!

We went to one of our favorite parks, next to the library and fed the ducks.  Marin loves to feed the ducks!

 A 'duck-couple' followed us around the lake hoping for a few more pieces of bread.  Marin would turn and throw a few pieces at them every so often.

 Running after the very assertive geese.

 Awwww, baby goslings!

We can't wait for even more beautiful days this summer!

Bed Head

Marin in the morning is the sweetest.  She is ready for a hug and a kiss from mommy, and then some breakfast.  This morning however?

"I want mine daddy."

Marin LOVES her daddy, and, I think daddy likes her a little bit too   ; )

Park Pictures!

The weather has FINALLY been decent enough for us to brave going to the park just a block down the street.  I have felt just terrible not being able to take Marin outside, the little girl just has so much energy some days, she needs to run it off!  And, it's helping me to become acclimated to taking both children out of the house...don't laugh...it's a new challenge when there's TWO instead of ONE!  

Little boy looks so pale...that's what you get when you're a winter baby in Oregon.  Hopefully the sunshine did his pasty skin some good, eh?

 Such a big girl!  She isn't a fan of the big girl swing though, I think she's a little afraid of falling.  She much prefers the baby swing, but she get's stuck every time we try to take her out. 

 Mommy hung some baby toys for me!  We finally busted out the bin of baby toys the other day, and Marin has been having a ball with all the 'new' toys in town, we've had to make sure she knows they are 'baby' toys, not her's.

 A mouthful of juice.

 Say "Happppyyyyyy!!!"

 Riding the duck, the sun was dead in her face, save for my shadow, so she looks a bit disgruntled.

I would have had a FABULOUS Cool-Foodie-Mama post for you, but alas, the pictures of my delicious Goat Cheese Tart were all on the camera, so you'll have to wait until I make something new.  Soon, my hungry friends, soon!

Squishy Face, Happy Face

Since our camera has run away, I'm enlisting the help of my phone to get back on track with pictures and blogging!  We'll start with Owen.  Such a happy little guy, and he (like his big sister did) has the best cheeks ever for squishing, ah I just love squishing me some baby cheeks!  

All of these are so darned cute, I just can't pick a favorite.

 Awwwww!  He is so happy in the morning, I just can't stay grumpy for longer than 2 seconds after I see this happy face cooing at me from his basket.

 Love it!  I have this one set as my phone background.

 A BIG smile for daddy   : D

 What a handsome little buddy, we're fitting him into 6 and occasionally 9 month clothing right now, yikes, I'm running out of clothes...fast!

We are so happy Owen has joined our family, he is such a sweet little guy.  I never knew I could love another guy as much as I love my hubby, but Owen has proven me wrong.  He makes my heart so happy every day.  I'm spoiled with all his snuggles, oh, it's so wonderful to have a baby that loves to be snuggled.  I'm perhaps a bit more lenient with putting him to sleep...I should be laying down the law and putting him to bed awake so he can fall asleep on his own, but now that I realize how quickly this time will pass, I enjoy and snuggle every little moment I can.  He won't say no ;)

And can you believe...Owen is 12 weeks old today!!  Amazing!!  *Sigh*  From here on out, we're counting in months instead of weeks, how quickly it's going!

Unintentional Hiatus

I've been just short of peeling up my carpets searching for our lost and lonely little camera, it's been missing since my birthday!  I feel terrible that it's been so long since I've last posted, but I've been holding out in hopes our wayward camera would return.  Perhaps tomorrow holds more promise....*sigh*.  A picture-less update will have to do for now.

So....I had a birthday!  Although, I think I've just about reached the point where birthdays are annual reminders of my ever fading youth.  Truly though, I do still look forward to my birthday's, mostly because my husband always has the best birthday surprises for me *squeek!* (that's an excitement girl squeel).  Things have been extremely tight this year, but my fabulous gift was a trip to the hair salon (by request).  As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I used to splurge on my hair as a single gal, and LOVED it!  Sleepless nights and no make-up/shower days are all rendered a bit more bearable when you have a fantastic color and cut, you just don't have to work as hard to look...not-dead (?) when you have a great haircut, honest to blog.  So what did I opt for?  Summer is coming and Samantha chose...highlites.  Ahhh, I have missed being blonde, but, I have returned to the fold my friends.  And the time to myself and chat with my young and hip hairdresser about her wedding was just sublime.  I was able to read girlie magazines and not worry about my children and walk away with a bombshell cut and color.  Thanks ;)  Oh yes...and now I'm 27...I'm not sure how I feel about that.

And our wonderful children, they are just so sweet.  Marin is Marin, what a strong personality she is.  I struggle each day to find the best parenting method for her.  She still needs a lot of one on one attention, but she is becoming better at independent play, which is great.  And I think she has finally figured out how to do puzzles.  For about 9 months, she has been terrible at putting them together even after Kris and I would try to teach and explain to her, but the other day, I think it finally clicked.  She put three together by herself and kept shouting, "I DID IT!!" every 7 seconds, it was really cute!

Owen is such a sweet little boy, I just love my son!  He starts off our day with big smiles and coo's, ah, it just melts my heart.  And he is such a snuggle bug!  I know I should be grooming him to not need to be held to relax and fall asleep, but he loves his mommy and settles right down with a happy sigh as soon as he's in my arms.  He is fairly consistent during the day and still eats every 2 hours, and at night we put him down at 8pm and he'll wake up around 3am and 7am, and be up for the day at 8am.  So, I'm at least able to get a bit more sleep.  Owen weighed in at 14 pounds on the money the other day for 11 weeks and measured almost 24 inches, he's a big guy! 

We are excited that summer and drier weather is on it's way here in Portland so we can do some family stuff again, it's been a long, rainy winter, blah!  And, cross your fingers that our blasted camera shows up!