9.29.2010
Beach Weekend
For the second year in a row now we have had the privelege of going up to Port Ludlow, WA and staying in this adorable beach cabin off of the Puget Sound with some good friends of Adam's parents. This time we got to actually meet the ladies as they have another house there they've recently built. (GORGEOUS place) What WONDERFUL and welcoming people they are! Both girls just adored them and had a marvelous time hanging out at the beach. The weather for the most part was awesome and even on the day it supposedly rained and poured in the towns all around us it somehow missed where we were at til much later when we were in bed! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend:
Lil Conversations
Hannah has really gotten into the "rules" of driving. She likes to tell you when a stop sign is coming up and when the light is green or red. She's constantly afraid she'll get a ticket. If she sees a policeman she waves and says: I waved so he wouldn't give me a ticket. (That's right Hannah just act natural.) haha The other day we were driving away from our house and there is a 4-way stop on the way out. We went thru the 4 way stop and suddenly I hear this little voice from the back: Mama...there was a stop sign there.
Mama: Yes there was.
Hannah: Well. The thing is I don't really think you stopped for it. You kinda only paused.
(Ha! See if I pull the ole California stop with her again!)
The other day for lunch she was having a few things to eat including peach yogurt...only the yogurt wasn't really getting eaten.
Mama: Hannah you need to finish up your yogurt so you can get down and go play.
Hannah: Ya. I can't eat it.
Mama: Why?
Hannah: There are peaches in it.
Mama: Oook...I don't understand you love peaches.
Hannah: Well. Actually mom I love peaches like in the orchard and like on trees. But...not in my yogurt soooo...I just can't finish it.
Yesterday was...a day. It started off at 3 am and snowballed from there picking up more frustration as it went along. I still don't feel 100% and I feel more snappish than normal...but to be fair the day included many pee accidents and one bout of poo all over the crib/baby incident. So after a morning of craziness I was visibly frustrated. Hannah picks up a toy microphone (which just happened to be handy!!) and proceeds to sing me a song in the fashion only those who know my family would appreciate. Many of us (as far as I know all four of us kids!) will make up some random tune and sing random words...usually having to do with whatever is going on. Completely made up...on the fly. My dad used to do this ALL the time (it's hilarious) and still does. Hannah has clearly inheritied this madness and does it often. This day was no exception. So she picks up the mic and says: For you mama. And begins to sing her song...When you just aren't listenin and you pee in your pants all over the floor you say sooooorry. And when you are mad and frustrated you get ooooover it.
That was it...frustration difused. I died. I laughed so hard I cried and gave her a gigantic hug. This girl knows how to pull you out of a funk that's for sure. :)
Mama: Yes there was.
Hannah: Well. The thing is I don't really think you stopped for it. You kinda only paused.
(Ha! See if I pull the ole California stop with her again!)
The other day for lunch she was having a few things to eat including peach yogurt...only the yogurt wasn't really getting eaten. Mama: Hannah you need to finish up your yogurt so you can get down and go play.
Hannah: Ya. I can't eat it.
Mama: Why?
Hannah: There are peaches in it.
Mama: Oook...I don't understand you love peaches.
Hannah: Well. Actually mom I love peaches like in the orchard and like on trees. But...not in my yogurt soooo...I just can't finish it.
Yesterday was...a day. It started off at 3 am and snowballed from there picking up more frustration as it went along. I still don't feel 100% and I feel more snappish than normal...but to be fair the day included many pee accidents and one bout of poo all over the crib/baby incident. So after a morning of craziness I was visibly frustrated. Hannah picks up a toy microphone (which just happened to be handy!!) and proceeds to sing me a song in the fashion only those who know my family would appreciate. Many of us (as far as I know all four of us kids!) will make up some random tune and sing random words...usually having to do with whatever is going on. Completely made up...on the fly. My dad used to do this ALL the time (it's hilarious) and still does. Hannah has clearly inheritied this madness and does it often. This day was no exception. So she picks up the mic and says: For you mama. And begins to sing her song...When you just aren't listenin and you pee in your pants all over the floor you say sooooorry. And when you are mad and frustrated you get ooooover it.That was it...frustration difused. I died. I laughed so hard I cried and gave her a gigantic hug. This girl knows how to pull you out of a funk that's for sure. :)
9.12.2010
Abby Girl
Well she is almost 8 months this one. She is so much fun. She keeps herself so nicely entertained and LOVES her big sister. She is crawling like a pro and pulling herself up on everything she can and has started trying to cruise from one place to the next while propped up on things. She's a doll and we love her. She always has an enormous grin ready for you. Here are some recent pictures of her:
9.01.2010
The Secret Ingredient
I hear it asked all the time of various couples…What’s the secret to a successful marriage? What makes your relationship so succcessful? How have you managed to stay together so long and be so happy? and etc… I personally believe every successful relationship stems from the same basic things at the core…love and respect, but after that it depends on the couple. What works for some marriages does not in fact work for the next.
This year Adam and I celebrate 7 years of marriage! Hardly a lifetime, but these days with people falling left and right around us and people checking out of marriage without really giving it the ole college try more often than not, 7 years feels good. I think the secret ingredient for us, besides the basic things, is humor. The ability to laugh at, with, and for each other…Adam and I are both very sarcastic people…it’s a family thing on both sides, our girls are doomed. We give each other a bad time! I’ve heard many a comment or seen many a look after we’ve said something to each other, where people feel like the other should be seriously upset after a comment like that! But it works becaus that’s what we do. We don’t take ourselves and each other too seriously. It’s how we work. There is no doubt in either of our minds the love we have for each other. It’s there on a daily basis. As Adam once said; “If I’m not giving you a bad time you should probably be worried.”
Case in point: Yesterday morning, the day of our anniversary we woke up to Hannah, who if I believed in past lives, I would believe was once a rooster because of her daily race to be up before the sun. She came bounding in before the sun was even thinking of making an appearance, crash landing her way into our bed. As I took her back to her room, pointing out the obvious lack of sun and the fact that Abby was still trying to sleep I got a wiff of something. It wasn’t pleasant but I was still half asleep so I quickly forgot about it. Awhile later Adam had to get up and get ready for work and Hannah was getting antsy. A minute later Adam appears back upstairs with a look. Come on down stairs and see this he tells me. So I get up, but I don’t have my glasses on or any contacts so at this point all I’m seein are shapes. Turns out at some point in the night our little dog got up and barfed a mighty pile by the door and then proceeded to have explosive liquid poo all over the living room floor. We just stood there for a moment looking at each other and he starts laughing and says, “I hate to point it out and leave it for you to clean up but I seriously have to get ready for work or I’m going to be late.” That was it, we both just start laughing. “Happy Anniversary,” he says. And all I can do is laugh! Now in the moment, one or both of us could have decided to be angry, or get frustrated and take it on out on the other or let it ruin the morning or our day, but we didn’t. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes which says, “Some people spend their lives searching for happiness, when happiness is actually a choice.” (kind of paraphrased) It is true. To be happy is a decision one makes on a daily, hourly, and minute by minute basis. We decide and choose what our reaction will be to anything heaped on our plates, or to any hand we are dealt.
I do not worry about Adam and I. I know we will encounter obstacles, I know we will at times face things that seem insurmountable, or even things that may test and try us. But we both know it’s what we choose to do moving forward that makes the biggest difference. It’s how we handle it, it’s what we do together and in response. As was quoted in a tv show that I never planned to start watching but got hooked on, (Cougar Town): “ She is wigged out by our fight because she doesn’t know what it’s like to be in a good, healthy marriage. When a marriage really works, the tiny bumps in the road don’t matter. You don’t have to be scared because there’s never any real jeapordy! You have a built in safety net because you love each other so much.”
I don’t claim to have all the answers. I don’t think what we have is better than anyone else. But it works. For us. And we’re having a really good time. We have fun together, with our girls, we have fun being parents together… And that makes such a big difference. To have fun with the person you are with for life…it matters. I am blessed to be walking through the rest of my life next to Adam. And at this seven year point where there’s so much talk of all that could go wrong and the dreaded “7 year itch” (what is that anyway!?) I am mighty glad I have the person next to me that I do.
This year Adam and I celebrate 7 years of marriage! Hardly a lifetime, but these days with people falling left and right around us and people checking out of marriage without really giving it the ole college try more often than not, 7 years feels good. I think the secret ingredient for us, besides the basic things, is humor. The ability to laugh at, with, and for each other…Adam and I are both very sarcastic people…it’s a family thing on both sides, our girls are doomed. We give each other a bad time! I’ve heard many a comment or seen many a look after we’ve said something to each other, where people feel like the other should be seriously upset after a comment like that! But it works becaus that’s what we do. We don’t take ourselves and each other too seriously. It’s how we work. There is no doubt in either of our minds the love we have for each other. It’s there on a daily basis. As Adam once said; “If I’m not giving you a bad time you should probably be worried.”
Case in point: Yesterday morning, the day of our anniversary we woke up to Hannah, who if I believed in past lives, I would believe was once a rooster because of her daily race to be up before the sun. She came bounding in before the sun was even thinking of making an appearance, crash landing her way into our bed. As I took her back to her room, pointing out the obvious lack of sun and the fact that Abby was still trying to sleep I got a wiff of something. It wasn’t pleasant but I was still half asleep so I quickly forgot about it. Awhile later Adam had to get up and get ready for work and Hannah was getting antsy. A minute later Adam appears back upstairs with a look. Come on down stairs and see this he tells me. So I get up, but I don’t have my glasses on or any contacts so at this point all I’m seein are shapes. Turns out at some point in the night our little dog got up and barfed a mighty pile by the door and then proceeded to have explosive liquid poo all over the living room floor. We just stood there for a moment looking at each other and he starts laughing and says, “I hate to point it out and leave it for you to clean up but I seriously have to get ready for work or I’m going to be late.” That was it, we both just start laughing. “Happy Anniversary,” he says. And all I can do is laugh! Now in the moment, one or both of us could have decided to be angry, or get frustrated and take it on out on the other or let it ruin the morning or our day, but we didn’t. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes which says, “Some people spend their lives searching for happiness, when happiness is actually a choice.” (kind of paraphrased) It is true. To be happy is a decision one makes on a daily, hourly, and minute by minute basis. We decide and choose what our reaction will be to anything heaped on our plates, or to any hand we are dealt.
I do not worry about Adam and I. I know we will encounter obstacles, I know we will at times face things that seem insurmountable, or even things that may test and try us. But we both know it’s what we choose to do moving forward that makes the biggest difference. It’s how we handle it, it’s what we do together and in response. As was quoted in a tv show that I never planned to start watching but got hooked on, (Cougar Town): “ She is wigged out by our fight because she doesn’t know what it’s like to be in a good, healthy marriage. When a marriage really works, the tiny bumps in the road don’t matter. You don’t have to be scared because there’s never any real jeapordy! You have a built in safety net because you love each other so much.”
I don’t claim to have all the answers. I don’t think what we have is better than anyone else. But it works. For us. And we’re having a really good time. We have fun together, with our girls, we have fun being parents together… And that makes such a big difference. To have fun with the person you are with for life…it matters. I am blessed to be walking through the rest of my life next to Adam. And at this seven year point where there’s so much talk of all that could go wrong and the dreaded “7 year itch” (what is that anyway!?) I am mighty glad I have the person next to me that I do.
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