The gratitude dance

These last few weeks have been... exhausting, emotional, tender, joyful and challenging. I feel tired and sore and sometimes overwhelmed, but more than anything I just feel grateful. Grateful for these two beautiful, healthy girls. Grateful for Seth. Grateful for friends who help. Grateful for modern medicine (I just don't know how the pioneer women did it) Grateful for the gospel and so grateful to be a mom.

Jane Elsa

Our Easter Baby

Happy Birthday Raegan M.J

My sweet little Raegan.
You are my very own angel. I love you.
You are a light and a joy.
When I think about you, my heart smiles.

I love you , I love you
xo xo
mom

Reverse Lense Photography

Two Years old
Loves:
singing
her babies
taking a nap with Dada's pillow
treats
swimming at the "pooooool!!"
Cailliou
books
painting and drawing
having Seth and I draw her a cookie, baby, bottle, apple and a paci
shoes
playing in the front seat of the car with dad
park (of course)
helping mom with dinner and dishes
Talking to Nana, Papa and Opa on the phone
Having her arm tickled before bed
giving kisses to mom and dad
doing something silly and saying "dad...dad...look"

In the Yard

On Saturday we made a trip to Home Depot in an effort to spruce up our yard a little bit. We have a big planter box that's been in the works, but we also wanted some bird feeders and a pretty flower pot for the patio. We had no idea what flowers to get or how to arrange them in the pot, so we kind of guessed. It seemed to work out just fine. It looks nice and hopefully everything will survive! It feels so good to have my hands in the dirt planting things. It's seriously a lot of fun to me. Especially when Seth is with me and Rae is helping us:)

We read that humming birds are year round here and if you make the nectar extra sweet the first few times, more will come!

I'm excited to have birds to watch with Raegan. Whenever she hears them singing outside she looks at me and says "whats that?...tweet tweet?!?" then runs to the window and shouts "HIIIII" and waves so hard! Hopefully now we'll have lots and lots of birds to say hi to:)

This tiny bird was our first visitor to the new feeder! We are counting on him to spread the word.

A walk in the park

Seth keeps telling me that spring and fall are the best seasons here in Portland & so far I totally agree. Last fall was beautiful and had such incredible weather. Now I am getting a taste of spring and loving it already. There are so many trees about to bloom, flowers popping up and the air is so fresh. We have been going on walks and playing at the park almost every day over the last week. I just hope its not a fake arrival and everything turns grey again!

Last weekend we got to visit the beach with our friends the Brintons. It was fun seeing Rae play on the shore and run from the waves. I miss the sand and the water and it felt good to hear the ocean again. We packed a lunch and had a BBQ on the sand. Then Seth and the Brintons went on a bike ride while Rae and I played with her baby in the sand and snacked on the leftover food.

Some things we've been up to

We went on a weekend road trip to Washington to visit Uncle Craig & Aunt Melinda. It was nice to get away for a little bit, be with family and eat some really good food that I didn't have to make myself! Plus the doll house and toys they had out was a dream come true for Raegan. She played non stop.

Then we gave potty training a try.....

Long story short, she is still in diapers and we are both okay with it for now.

Then we went to an amusement park. Well actually we played around on Photo booth one night after dinner, but Rae probably had just as much fun doing that as she would at a park. She really got a kick out of it.

She kept pulling Seth & I together and putting her arms around us. We must be in need of a good family photo or something.

This is a favorite pass time of Raes. She loves to get a pile of books (specifically "Cat & the hat" "On the night you were born" and "Poems for busy babies") and flip through the pages while singing. Yesterday she did it for 40min. straight. Which gave me time to unload the dishwasher, make dinner and set the table.

This is just a funny video of Rae playing mommy. She LOVES babies and loves to rock her dolls and sing to them. (Oh, and the head band she is wearing was a kick she was on for like one afternoon. She thought it was sooooo funny to have on her head. And it was:)