When I agreed to scheduling our wedding the day AFTER my birthday, I had only one stipulation: 

We were NOT allowed to combine my birthday celebration with our anniversary celebration. 

Obviously, I was highly against the idea of getting gypped out of two HIGHLY necessary celebrations. At some point (while we were engaged) we agreed that we would celebrate future anniversaries at the end of the April, when we got engaged, so that we could spread out the celebrations and have more to celebrate year round.

And so that was the plan! ...until we realized that that meant celebrating our "one year anniversary" only six months after getting married. ha. Every year we say we're going to celebrate in April, and every year it just feels awkward and we don't. And when our anniversary comes around we usually don't do much since we just celebrated my birthday...and it becomes EXACTLY WHAT WE SWORE WOULD NEVER HAPPEN😑. 

This year, though, I was determined to make our anniversary special! When I realized my parents were going to be in town for my Grandpa's Rasband's birthday party the weekend of our four-year anniversary, I coordinated with my mom to have her and my dad stay with Lydia and Elliott and planned a little surprise getaway for Stephen and me. It was a blast! We did a "zipline tour" in Park City (sounds a lot cooler than it is hahaha, see video) and then spent the night at the Zermatt Resort in Midway! Considering it was our first time away from Lydia overnight, AND the first time we'd stayed in a hotel since our Honeymoon...it was long overdue! 

Here's a little VLOG I made throughout the busy and fun-filled week! 

I've been so busy lately concentrating on instagram and growing my youtube channel (oh yeah, and being a mom of two under two 😅😂) that I'm afraid I've let this little blog of mine fall through the cracks. I really don't want to let it die completely, but I'm not sure I'll be able to consistently make time to post new content on it, so I'm going to start posting my instagram photos here as well. For those of you who already follow me on instgram, these posts might feel a little redundant, but I have a few siblings who STILL don't have instagram (no matter how much I plead for them to jump on the wagon ;)) AND since instagram's feed is no longer in chronological order, it might be nice for people to keep track of it on here. Most of all though, this space is still primary my "life story" if you will, and I think it will be nice to have more of my story in one place. (I'm going to try to be better about posting my youtube videos here right away as well.) 

To take full advantage of this moment with both kids napping, I'll provide a quick update: Life is GREAT. We have love love loved the addition of Elliott to our little family and he continues to be the happiest, chillest, and chunkiest baby ever. I would guess he is WEEKS away from surpassing Lydia in weight and I daresay his head is already bigger than hers. haha! Stephen continues to work long and hard for our family and we have LOVED the long summer days that have allowed us to get out of the house after he's home and still have hours of daylight to hit up the splash pad or the slide at a nearby park. Thinking about the fact that soon he will be coming home after dark already has me a little apprehensive (is it just me, or do days seem to DRAG AND DRAG when the sun is out for such a short time?). Thankfully I feel like the kids and I are in a really good routine (although don't ask me how I feel on Friday - SNOW is in the forecast😭!!!) and we are SO GRATEFUL to be living in our apartment with so many friends around during the day. 

Thanks for being here and I'm really hoping to back here again SOON! 

_ _ _ 

han.

This evening, entirely unprompted, you grabbed a book off of the shelf and took it to the couch to read to Elliott while Dad and I were finishing up dinner. You draped a burp rag over your legs like a tiny blanket and flipped through the pages of the book, showing Elliott the animal on each page and making their sound. When you finished the first book, you wrapped the "blanket" around Elliott and walked across the room to the bookshelf to get another. The stack of books next to you grew as Dad and I watched, and we silently mouthed to each other just how blessed we are to have two incredible babies, not wanting to ruin the moment by making a peep. We smiled and each other and agreed (yet again) that you are, without a doubt, THE BEST big sister.

_ _ _

han

A few weeks ago Stephen and I were sitting out on the balcony watching Lydia play in a small bucket of dirty water and we decided to film a video talking all about Lydia. Although it didn't feel like it (Stephen agrees!!!), we ended up with almost 25 minutes of footage (🙈) so I did my best to narrow it down to closer to about six minutes, but I realize it is STILL one of those videos that is going to be infinitely more entertaining for parents and grandparents (and hopefully her someday) than for anyone else. haha. (In other words, if you think it is boring, I will do my best to refrain from saying "I told you so." ;)) 

It's crazy how much Lydia has changed just in the last three weeks since this was filmed! Very few things we talk about in the video are still true, and she knows SO MANY more words now, but it just makes me glad we filmed it when we did because every stage at this age is so fleeting!

Last night, on a spur-of-the-moment decision, we headed to the zoo.

As in, at 3:47 pm the decision was made, and by 4:07 pm I had both kiddos loaded in the car and we were pulling out of our apartment complex parking lot to pick up Stephen. THIS IS MONUMENTAL. I don't think I've ever gotten the kids out the door and in the car that quickly AND at least seven of those minutes were spent TRYING TO FOLD UP THE DANG STROLLER. 🙈  I didn't realize that I had the seats on backwards, and needless to say, I'm 100% certain any passerby would have gotten a good laugh watching me wrestle that badboy into the back of the car. (Although I wouldn't have taken it very well because I was both mentally and physically heated by the end 😅 but I am CLEARLY getting off topic.)

For Stephen's birthday Mom and Dad Olson gifted him (aka us) passes to the Zoo, and we hadn't been back since the day before Elliott was born. And since Stephen was having a slow day at work (which rarely happens!), we decided to take full advantage and head to the zoo.

Stephen LOVES the zoo. His family lived just a few miles away when he was little and he has lots of fond memories of going to the zoo. He wouldn't hesitate to spend all day there if he could! 

...I can't say I share the same level of excitement ;) but I love how much he loves the zoo, and the fact that Lydia is starting to catch on is, obviously, an added bonus for both of us.

We made it to the zoo about an hour before closing and it was PERFECT. Perfect because the hottest part of the day was over. Perfect because the crowds had gone home for the day (as in, we were some of the only people there!). And perfect because it was an hour. ;) If every zoo trip could be like this one - I'd go every week! 

Although it might be argued that Lydia's favorite part of the outing was running from one set of stairs to the next (that girl and her stairs obsession!) she also got a plethora of opportunities to show off her lion, elephant, owl, monkey, and cat sounds. And watching her wave to a seal while exclaiming "HI!" just about melted my heart. 

^^Lydia would also point and say "GUG!" every time we passed one of these mechanical bugs that are currently on display. (And I would still like to know - WHY?! They are both pointless and slight disturbing, IMO.)

As the zoo was nearing closing, we headed toward the exit, and Lydia spotted the carousel. She pointed at it and then ran towards it, eyes wide with excitement. I don't even know how she knew what it was or that it was something she should be excited about, but she walked right over to it and tried to get through the gate! Not wanting to pay the fee to ride it, and knowing that there was a strong possibility she wouldn't actually like it, we were about to turn her attention to something else, when the worker running the carousel invited her on board - free of charge! Much to my (happy) surprise, SHE LOVED IT. Her huge smile when she came around the bend gave me GOOSEBUMPS. Oh how I love that girl. Oh how I love my sweet little family. 

And (dare I say it?!) oh how I love the zoo. 

_ _ _

han. 

Stephen and I were some of the first of our friend group to start having kids, and while we are by no means experts, we have learned a thing or two about the newborn stage that I would have loved to know sooner. Recently, many of our friends have announced that they are expecting, so I wanted to make a quick video with a few things that we've found helpful with our two kiddos. 

The problem with making videos like this is that somewhere between the filming and the posting I think of about 10 more things I wish I had included, so I've already started a list of things to include in my PART II video on the same topic. 😂 

Below are (affiliate) links to some items I mentioned in the video, as well as a few other items you might find useful!

The swing we are currently borrowing (Elliott LOVES it): http://amzn.to/2t1JFlT

SleepSack Swaddle: http://amzn.to/2sN9fad <-- I forgot to mention that it's important to be care of what you put in a load of laundry with a velcro swaddle because it's very likely the velcro will attach to another article of clothing and may cause some damage depending on the material 😬

I mentioned that I like to keep my newborns right next to me, and I do this by a combination of cosleeping and using my co-sleeper crib: http://amzn.to/2t1PKib

The wrap I have: http://amzn.to/2sNiF5l

A carrier I've heard people LOVE: http://amzn.to/2t1HKNW

Can you think of anything else I should be sure to include in my next video?! Thanks for watching!

I did the bulk of the work while Stephen was on a business trip, and whenever Stephen is out of town, I have the bad habit of staying up wayy too late. By this point I felt like I'd seen all the photos in the slideshow at least 100 times, but then one night morning at about 2 AM I came across this one (yet again) and -- it sent me into a laughing fit. (You may have witnessed this event via instagram stories 😂😂😂)

Can you guess why?!

I'll give you a hint...

I was one the of the few in my friend group who never had braces or retainers to make my teeth perfectly straight, so I guess you could say over-analyzing my smile was a fairly common pastime.

When I got to college, however, I started worrying less about that tiny gap between my two front teeth and more about the coloring of my teeth. I would often compare the brightness of my smile with other people's and get really self-conscious when it didn't measure up.

A few months ago, I was approached by a teeth whitening company called Smile Brilliant, that offers a professional teeth whitening system that can be done entirely from home. As someone who tends to avoid the dentist as much as possible (😬) I thought this was a great option for me! It had been a little over 5 years since I'd done any teeth-whitening, and I was excited to try something new. Smile Brilliant was kind enough to send me all the materials needed to provide me with a whiter, brighter smile from home!

You can read more about how the process works by visiting the  Smile Brilliant Website, but to sum up my experience, I have been extremely pleased with the results! (I particularly loved feeling like a dental assistant at the beginning of the process when I got to take impressions of my own teeth, and fulfill my life-long dream of having whitening trays that look a lot like retainers (although serve an entirely different purpose), hahaha. Stephen thought I was being a little ridiculous with how giddy I was when I put my whitening trays in for the first time and was expressing my excitement about how my voice sounded while I was wearing them. 😂

I really enjoyed my experience with Smile Brilliant's teeth whitening system. I found it was very effective and I only had a few, very minor issues with teeth/gums sensitivity (although I know that varies a lot from person to person). The hardest part for me was simply remembering to put the trays in! I typically delay getting ready for bed until the last minute possible, but to get the best results with this system you want to leave the whitening gel on your teeth from 30 minutes-2 hours, and the desensitizing gel for an additional 30 minutes, so Stephen would often have to help me remember to start the process shortly after finishing dinner. 

One thing I think is important to mention is that your teeth will look a little speckled after applying the whitening gel. This worried me initially because I thought the speckled parts would stay whiter and my teeth would look that way permanently. I emailed the company and was assured that this was normal! It turns out that the whitening process temporarily dehydrates the teeth, which can appear as white spots or patches. When your teeth remineralize and re-hydrate, the speckles go away! (The desensitizing gel that comes with the kit also helps re-hydrate your teeth.)

Although it doesn't look like anything drastic, I've definitely been able to see a whiter smile develop over the past few weeks! 

If you want to try out Smile Brilliant's teeth whitening System for yourself,  enter my giveaway!  
OR use the code 'merryhappyblog' to get 10% off a system of your own! 


...Now if only I could say that was the end of all of my insecurities... 😏😅😂

_ _ _

han.