mary blair.

while i was shopping for serena's birthday, i came across this book. the illustrations were adorable and i thought serena would love it since she's all about babies and baby dolls lately. as it turns out, she's not much interested in the book, but i soooo am! i've been a little obsessed with it so i did a google search on the illustrator, mary blair. and then i took a long trip down memory lane...

my grandma had a collection of disney stories that my sisters and i would read before bed when we slept over at her house. my favorite was always cinderella, and the illustrations were all by mary blair. finding these images brought back so many happy memories. are they not gorgeous!?

peter pan was also in the book.

and alice in wonderland.

i think i need to own a copy of all of these {already on my amazon wishlist...}! and someday let my girls look at them, too :)

pink.

{pink cookies. pink watermelon. pink balloons. pink blossoms. pink bowl. pink cheeks x2.}

two years.

remember when we announced we were expecting our firstborn child?
remember the day this little nugget was born?
remember her first week?
remember her blessing day?
remember her first birthday?

well, i do. seems like yesterday. i can't believe i have a two year old. she is such a little girl now. this is what serena is up to lately:

saying all kinds of funny things:
favorites: i ruv you. i mees you. sit down ight dere {right there}. hold you.
least favorites: i no yike it. roun-an-roun. {meaning round and round. meaning put me by the computer and play every youtube version of "the wheels on the bus" you can find}
funniest: lissen me, harper! lissen me, ariel! seenie eat hogoggs {hot dogs} and ham! {this is what she wanted desperately when she was sick. random!}

she can count to 11. sometimes.
if you ask her what color something is, the answer is always "green".
she loves to sing and be sung to and listen to music and dance.
she loves taking care of her baby dolls.
she loves the park, especially the slide.
she remembers everything.
she loves to repeat what we say. {yikes!}
she often walks around with a play phone at her ear, jabbering away. and a lot of the time you can even understand the conversation. "hi-lo, russ! ear are you? oh. work. uh huh. ok. oh. buh bye!"
she tries to be really nice to her sister but is usually driving her crazy.
she loves to be around other kids her age.
she asks to go to grandma's house multiple times a day.
she loooooooves to be outside.

i'm so grateful for that day 2 years ago when we welcomed this sweet girl into our family.

mother's day.

it was quite an interesting mother's day this year. the girls came down with a nasty stomach flu on saturday night, so we spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up vomit and doing laundry. i will definitely remind them of this when they are older. just so they reeeeally appreciate their loving parents :)

so anyway, sick kids and stuff.

i also got quite spoiled by my husband and kids {ok, we all know the 2 year old and 6 month old didn't contribute...}. i got a lovely book, a pretty beaded belt, and season tickets to the utah opera {wooohooo!}. ok maybe i just spoiled myself and sean allowed it ?? sorry to rat you out, sean, but it's the truth :) WAIT. he did buy the tickets for me after i told him how many and what seats and whatnot.

so anyway, really nice presents and such.

and then we debated about it but ended up going to visit our moms with sick kids in tow. we gave my mom this recipe book which heather and i spent months working on. it turned out so well thanks to my dear sister, the amazing editor/formatter/designer. we compiled all of the favorite family recipes into one handy book. and i've already been using my copy. whipped up that yummy chicken chili the other day.

so to sum it up, i had a really nice mother's day. i hope our mothers did, too. sorry for getting you sick, mom! we just really wanted to visit on mother's day :)

silence.

oh how i miss the days of free time and daily blogging. they were good days. but these days are good too. these days are full of playing and working and cooking and singing and cleaning and entertaining and laundry and reading {her books, not mine...} and micky mouse and shopping {groceries, not clothes} and laughing and smiling and tantrums and time out and going to bed before 10 pm so we can wake up and do it all again the next day. busy days. but good days.

a few years ago my little sister went on a first date and was making small talk during the car ride to their destination. she asked him "so, what kind of music do you like to listen to?" and he said "i prefer silence". wait, what??? silence?? we never let that go and joke about it all the time to this day.

but i kind of get him now.

sometimes all i want is silence. like, to lay on my bed by myself and do nothing and hear nothing. and on my drives to and from work, sometimes i just want silence. no blasting my favorite tunes. not even soothing classical music. just pure, wonderful silence.

i try to never wish away these days, as hectic as they may be, but i do like to daydream about my kids being old enough for school....