Birthday girl pictures.

Since we are poor students, I had to take capturing my four year old birthday girl in to my own hands. 

I couldn't be happier about how they turned out.

She's absolutely perfect!

My Olivia is 4.

Dear Olivia,

I can't believe you are four! It seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital and I was holding my brand new baby thinking about how perfect you were and how blessed I was that I got to be your mommy. 

Olivia, you have brought so much joy and light in to your mom and dad's life. You are full of positive energy and love everything about life. You are sweet, spunky, silly, sassy, and smart. Everything a girl should be.

You have given this momma of yours a run for her money that's for sure but you have taught me more about living than anyone has ever taught me before. You have taught me about patience and forgiveness, and savoring every second of life. 

Growing up all I ever wanted to be was a stay at home mom. And although it is so much harder than I thought, I wouldn't trade my time with you and your sister every day for the world.

You are precious and perfect in every way and I am beyond blessed that you are my little girl.

I love you!

Love, Mommy

Mickelson's visit for the weekend.

Michael's family came down to visit for the weekend and of course we had a wonderful time.

We met them in Portland to go to the food trucks. I think everyone was pleased with their food. Except for me because I had my heart set on getting an elephant ear but that particular truck was no longer there. (I always get these intense cravings for things that I literally have to have or I'll freak... and no I'm not pregnant.) Olivia mostly wanted icecream. And Clara...well she'll eat anything and everything!

Everyone wanted to try Voodoo doughnuts and yes it's true, good things do come in pink boxes!

After lunch we went to the Woodburn outlets to do a little shopping.

And ride a few of the rides.

This picture pretty much sums up what these two thought of the ride!

After some shopping we went to their hotel and took the girls swimming.

Clara is hilarious in water and literally has zero fear.

She will just march right in and go under. So of course we have to grab her and the funniest part of it all is that she is always giggling as she comes up. And proceeds to do it again.

She's a "peculiar little creature" as Michael likes to call her!

After swimming we went to dinner at the Ram. It is right next to Willamette and I have always heard good things about it but had never been myself.

It was super good even though the serving size was literally enough to feed 4!

Sunday was Olivia's primary program and she did amazing!

Michael snuck a quick video of her saying her part.

And I am dying it is so cute!

It was so fun for her to have her Pa, grandma, and aunts there to watch her!

Here is a short little clip of one of the songs she practiced so hard to learn for her program!

After church, we spent the rest of the afternoon eating lunch and cookies and watching The Little Mermaid.

We loved having them come visit. It was a fabulous jam packed weekend doing lots of fun things and  eating lots of good food!

Rocking my baby.

"The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow. But children grow up I've learned to my sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs; dust go to sleep! I am rocking my baby and babies don't keep."

---Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

My mom had this quote framed in my room growing up and she always made sure to take time to rock us to sleep.  This was always so comforting to me. Having my own children now I  realize that her rocking us was perhaps more for her that it was for us. 

There is nothing more precious than snuggling my sleeping perfect baby knowing that Michael and I created her. And that she's ours. We are so blessed.

And we're back to reality.

For once in my blogging career I am pleased to say that the reason why I am behind once again is because our computer had several problems. It needed a new hard drive and something was wrong with the video card. That being said literally 6 weeks and 500 dollars later I now have my computer back.

And now to catch up!

Coming home from vacations is always hard to do. Especially the ones where you literally sit on the warm beach all day shoving your face with food. And if that isn't hard enough, try adding a sick little girl to the adjustment.

Olivia came down with a cold on our last day at the beach but thankfully we made it home before things got too bad. As usual with colds the asthma begins. And sometimes it gets quite bad. Thankfully we are more prepared now with her medications but we still usually have to make a few visits to the doctor to get additional steroids. Because of the terrible colds going around especially enterovirus Olivia will be doing a preventative breathing treatment everyday throughout the winter.

And as we all know if one child gets the cold so does the other. Luckily Clara didn't get it as bad. But Michael and I got it too so that made for one sick little family.

I am already getting anxiety about the upcoming winter months and flu season.

Hoping that we can try and stay healthy this winter!

I love my new little chalkboard and finding quotes to put up every so often.

Painting our nails is always fun to do!

When I go to rock Clara to sleep for a nap every day I never know what I might come out to find...

At least she was happy and unharmed!

Some afternoons during Clara's nap, Olivia and I like to get out all my barbie stuff and set up little houses for her ponies.

She absolutely loves to play pretend and I could not be happier.

Morning snuggles with this sweet one.

One afternoon, while watching Giada on food network make cinnamon chocolate fudge, I decided to I just couldn't resist making some for myself.

Mmmm it was AMAZING!

And for your viewing pleasure. A little glimpse of Michael as a daddy!

Our little Clara loves to read. Sometimes when it is a little too quiet I will come out to the family room to check on her and find her exactly like this.

I hope she will always cherish reading and get lost dreaming in all the beautiful stores that are being told.  Reading has the ability to take us places we never thought we could go.

One of the things I love most about living outside of Utah is the chance we have to closely associate with the missionaries and have them in our home frequently.

I also love having the missionaries over because it makes me feel closer to my brothers Emerson and Matthew who are both currently serving missions themselves. 

It's a little crazy with my two hyper littles but mostly its spiritual and wonderful.

This sweetie got a special kiss from her momma who is in love with her new lipstick!

Life is sometimes scary, stressful, and hard. But it sure can be beautiful and magical.

And looking through all our pictures of our little adventures makes me realize we really are so blessed.

Newport Beach pt. 4

We just couldn't resist taking some more jumping pictures because seriously it was so fun!

I'm so glad that my sisters are my best friends.

While laying on the beach watching my littles play I saw this business going on.

I thought Clara would be crying but nooo she was laughing hysterically the whole time.

They seriously played this "little game" for at least 20 minutes which is a long time for them to occupy themselves by themselves!

Another game we loved to play is called bobbing.

We would lay under our boards and wrap our legs around and then see who could stay on the longest when the waves came.

SO MUCH FUN!

Whenever Clara would run in to the waves she would always hold her arms up like that.

So cute!

See video below.

And then we all ran in to the ocean!

And I fell and got a pretty bad sand burn.

The best thing ever!

Sadly it was time to go home.

But we were very ready to see daddy.

Thankfully the girls were "fairly" pleasant the whole time and I even got a few minutes to snuggle Clara while she slept.

What an absolutely perfect week.

I found this quote and it pretty much sums up my love for the ocean. 

"And the ocean taught her to drown all the things bigger than herself. The ocean loved her and knew everything that made her. And every time she'd walk to the shore, she'd smile at the ocean because the waves told her story."

We love you Newport! Hopefully we will be back next year!

Newport Beach pt. 3

The sunsets were to die for.

If I didn't have littles to feed dinner, bathe, and put to bed I would have laid on the beach for hours watching the sun go down.

For breakfast one morning, Sophia and I walked over a mile down to another pier where there is this cute little restaurant Ruby's right on the end. It was definitely a little interesting walking that far in the heat with two hungry babies but boy was that cinnamon roll french toast absolutely worth it!