An impromptu #remotelycandid photoshoot with Lydia and Elliott  // Elliott trying to sneak a banana muffin when I was distracted making dinner 😂 // Lydia asking if I was “shoveling” the “candylane” cards // catching up on @nbcthisisus with Stephen // throwing a ball up and down the stairs with L&E // Elliott's static-y hair after he rubbed it on the couch // the pork street-tacos I made for dinner 👌🏻// Quincy’s smiles after the bath // listening to Lydia teach her friends how to play "candylane" // date night with S @oakwoodfirekitchen [THE PESTO 🤤] // Elliott fake coughing to communicate when he wants a drink 😂 // when someone at church commented that they’ve never seen a baby as smiley as Q // Elliott kissing his toes and giggling // Watching L & E watch old videos of themselves // running a few errands sans toddlers 😂 // Pizza for breakfast // Elliott's chocolate chip pancakes face⁣

⁣

Lydia Quotes:⁣

“Mom, can I do the raspberry on Quincy?" 😂 ⁣

“Mom I'll try really hard not to sting on my shirt!" (She meant stain)⁣

Randomly in Costco: “Bulldozer! …That's a funny word!"

This morning, a blog post I wrote two years ago popped up on my facebook feed. As I read through it, I realized that I miss blogging more than realized. Like, I knew I missed it a little bit, but I have been so busy (hello MARCH, how-did-you-get-here-so-fast?) that I really don't give myself much time to think about it. This probably feels redundant because I think I've said something similar the last four times I've posted on here, but recording memories on a blog really does feel more permanent than a quick instagram post, so I need to make it a higher priority. I'm not making any promises to blog more, but maybe I should?

I'm realizing more and more that I need to be more intentional with my time. It's hard because on any given day I might have 30 minutes of "free time" while both kids are napping or I might have two hours and since I never know what I'm going to get it's been easier for me to have zero exceptions for myself and what I'll accomplish during that time. Then, if I do only get 20 minutes I don't have to be frustrated/disappointed. The reality of what that means, though, is that I end up wasting a LOT of time watching other people's instagram stories instead of spending that time proactively preserving my own thoughts and family memories.

I can't believe Elliott will be 10 months tomorrow! TEN MONTHS! In my mind 10 months is basically 1! (Stephen will roll his eyes at that because I always make these ridiculous jumps in my head with rounding up like that. hahahha. It's one of his favorite traits of mine, no doubt ;))

...And right before Elliott turns one, Lydia will be 2 1/2! In a lot of ways Lydia feels so much older than that though. I'm not around many other kids her age, but I am constantly blown away by how much she knows! She can sing her ABC's, count to 14 (sometimes she skips 7 but I'm still very impressed by it, haha) and sings lots of songs! Some of her favorites are "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "I am A Child Of God." (She also loves Jingle Bells and Oh Christmas Tree <- which is particularly funny because neither Stephen nor I know the words so we just sing "oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches" over and over again.)

On Sunday we were sitting on the couch and she was calling "Daddyyy!!" I started calling with her, and then I turned to her and said, "Lydia, do I call Daddy, Daddy?" "No," she said. "What do I call him?" I asked. "Stephen," she replied without hesitating!! I then asked her what he calls me and she said, "Hannah." KIDS, MAN! THEY ARE SO STINKIN' SMART!

Elliott still doesn't have a SINGLE tooth, which I love! Something about those gummy baby smiles just makes me SO happy. He still isn't very close to crawling, but he finds ways to get around when he wants (by rolling one way and then the other). He's usually content to just sit and play with toys in one spot, though, which I ALSO love. Have I emphasized the fact that he's the BEST baby enough yet? (#neverenough)

Speaking of #neverenough that boy will never have enough food! HE EATS SO MUCH FOOD. He easily eats double what Lydia eats (which isn't hard because she eats like a bird) but sometimes i honestly think he would eat forever. After a while I just get tired of giving him food so I stop, not because he gave any indication of being done, but just because I've been giving him pieces of food nonstop for 15 minutes 😂. The other night I was out and Stephen texted me "How do you decide when to stop feeding Elliott? He's almost eaten an entire chicken breast and shows no signs of stopping." hahaha. I laughed when I read that text because I ask myself the same question at every mealtime!


One of Lydia's favorite things to say right now is "Mom! What chu doing?!" She asks me everytime I leave the room and sometimes multiple times while I'm in the same room. It might be my favorite thing she says. She also loves changing kiki's diaper (and I have to hide the wipes because she hasn't quite grasped the concept of the 'wipe ration' I instituted. haha).

Watching Elliott and Lydia together continues to be the best. The first thing Lydia says when she wakes up every morning is, "Elliott!" and she wants to see him ASAP. Usually he's still sleeping, so I have to distract her until he wakes up and she can go into the closet where he sleeps and climb in his crib with him. Sometimes she'll take books into his crib with her and read to him/show him the pictures and sometimes when I go in there to get them she'll kick me out! "Mom! Not ready yet!" She'll say. (Or when she doesn't take books, she just sits on his head. He doesn't seem to mind 🤷🏻‍♀️😂.)

Elliott had been saying something very close to "mamamama" for a while, but now every time I ask him to say it he VERY distinctly says, "DADADADA" it's the WORST. haha! That stinker.

I don't usually think that Lydia and Elliott look that much alike, but I took some pictures/videos of them together in Lydia's crib the other night and when I was looking at them after I saw all of their similarities! Turns out they DO look a lot alike! I'm sure once Elliott thins out a little their similarities will be even more obvious.

Good job for making it this far in this random brain dump of random things I don't want to forget.
I sure love this life of mine.
_ _ _
han.

Wilton Animal Crackers Pan

Ohhhh videos and my love/hate relationship with them. haha. I love making them, and just when I think I'm finally getting the hang of making sure the light and audio levels are good...we record this one and it is borderline disaster. (One step forward, two steps back, I guess 😅.) Thankfully I at least had the foresight to use my phone to record the audio as a backup - if I hadn't, the whole thing would have been completely unusable. The lighting is not great, but I was able to at least brighten it some by taking it into Lightroom and messing around with the settings. (Granted, I know the colors look a little weird, but trust me when I say it looks much better than the original.)

All in all it was a good lesson in getting all my settings right in-camera because I could have saved myself A LOT of time in post-production! If the video had been a different format I probably would have made us redo it, but due to it being a question/answer type format there really wasn't a way to "recreate it" and have it be authentic. Plus, DONE IS FUN! RIGHT?!

Anyway, I'm not saying all that to make excuses, I'm just saying it to point out the fact that making these videos may not always (ever) be as "effortless" as it seems. haha.

Thanks to all the people on instagram who encouraged me to push through with the editing even though I was ready to call defeat!

And now we wait for BabyBoy!
(...who officially has a name!


...I think!)

_ _ _
han.

Lydia's hair when she wakes up each morning never ceases to impress! Especially now that I usually put it in a ponytail during the day and take it out just before bed - the shape of the ponytail combined with static from Lydia jumping around in her crib (that still has a blanket over the top of it to block out the light) is quite a great combination! Here are some snapshots from the past few months:



I am always so bad at doing the monthly updates. It's really overwhelming to me to try to sum Lydia's current stage in a single blogpost, so I put it off until another month passes and end up not recording anything because I couldn't record everything. It's a vicious cycle and it makes me sad because I'm sure I'll forget so many of the hilarious things she does over the years! I'm giving myself five minutes to make a list of what Lydia's up to right now and although it will be far from complete I'm not going to let myself stress about it...

(Note: She's not actually 18 months yet, she will be in about 2 weeks, but labeling this a 17.5 month update just felt plain silly.)

Lydia currently....

LOVES being outside more than anything. Her favorite word is "GO!" and will bring me my shoes and her shoes and pack the diaper bag if I even hint at the idea of going out.

LOVES BABIES. It doesn't matter if they are older than her and/or bigger than her. She points out babies left and right and gets really sad when a baby that she points out gets out of eyesight.

Loves Costco samples. She's a fairly picky eater at home, but at Costco...she is willing try anything and usually likes it!

Is very tidy. She will often refuse to do anything until all of the drawers and doors are closed. She also really loves to wipe up the floor, counter, and her face.

Is a very good helper. She loves to help move the laundry and empty the dishwasher. Having her help makes these tasks much more enjoyable for me too so it's a win-win!

Is officially down to one nap per day and it ranges from 45 minutes-3 hours... we're working on it. ha

Says the following words: (this is a quick list and I'm sure it's missing some)
thank you, ball, hi, bye, mommy (mama) (mom), daddy, baby, doggie, ducky (often sounds exactly like doggie haha), uh oh, Kiki, ya, no, ow!, ohhhh, keys, kiss, snow, go, meow, okay, more, cheese, pop(corn), bubble, tree, i love you, me, papa (meaning grandpa..or, old man, hahaha), babo (which is the closest she could get to grandma) and lately she's working on saying "Lydia"...but it's proving to be a toughy. She's getting more and more expressive with her inflections (on things like OKAY! and 'owwwww!' and we find it hilarious.)

She also makes sounds for dog, cat, giraffe, lion, cow, sheep, monkey, duck, elephant, horse, snake, owl, and firetruck (I have a video of her doing many of these words and sounds that I'll have to try to put together...sometime 😅).


Words can't even express how much we love this girl!
_ _ _
han.

Despite all of the craziness and stress, I'm still a huge advocate for family photos. I'm in love with my people and our current stage of life, so any preservation of our family as it currently stands is something I'll gladly sign up for. (Stress and all.)

_ _ _
han.

_ _ _
han.

_ _ _
han.