Chillin' on a Thursday morning

Nothing too special. I was just in the mood to film a little bit with the sun pouring in through my bedroom window like that :)

Frozen Newman Lake

I didn't want to forget these memories. One of the best things about winter is ice skating/playing on frozen Newman Lake. We just might make it a New Years tradition. (Here's the post from last year :)

***Happy New Year***2015***

Starting out the new year with a few selfies* of me and my love. (*For the record, I actually hate that word, but what else am I supposed to call it? It is what it is. This is the year 2015 after all ;) 

I think I'm kind of indifferent about New Years. I don't love it, I don't hate it. To me, it feels no different than before and New Years resolutions tend to stress me out. Haha. I don't particularly like making a huge long list of things that I have to get done throughout the year. I'd rather just do them on my own time and not feel like I only have so much time to do it. Steve will probably laugh when he reads this because he knows how much I hate "hurrying" and "rushing" to get things done. He knows those two words will make me tense up a little and so he tries not to use them :)

What I do like, however, is reflecting on the year past. 2014 was so good to us. We moved to Washington, Steve started his new job, we've moved into our own little home (just renting! but it's been good for us!) and we've made some really great friends. People like us here, like genuinely want to be our friends and look up to us. It's a nice change. Our ward is amazing. Everyone is so nice and inclusive. I basically never want to move, like ever.

Liberty Lake is like a dream little city to live in. Sometimes when I think of this place it reminds me of the movie Dante's Peak, the one with Pierce Brosnan. At the beginning of the movie, it portrays this perfect little Washington city--family friendly, beautiful, virtually no crime, a huge sense of community. Liberty Lake is just like that. (But we fortunately don't live at the foot of a deadly volcano;) Whenever we're driving home and see Liberty Lake from the freeway with the beautiful backdrop of mountains, Steve and I frequently tell each other how much we love this place. It just feels like home. We feel so fortunate to live here.

And Steve's job has just been so great. He's worked hard recruiting new patients and it has definitely paid off. Everything that Steve has asked his boss for, he has gotten. I don't think that year 1 in practice could have gone any better than it has and we both feel very blessed and grateful for that.

I'm looking forward to 2015. We are at a very happy spot in our lives right now. We live a simple life, but it's nice when simple is enough. I'm just happy I get to spend this upcoming year with my favorite people by my side, especially him^^ :)

Cheers to 2015!

Christmas morning magic-- a little video!

Some Christmas morning magic! This was the first year where Cole actually understood that Santa was coming. He ran into our room early Christmas morning saying "MOM! SANTA ALREADY SNEAKED INTO OUR HOUSE!!!" We had left some cookies out for Santa and a couple of apples for his reindeer and he saw that they'd been bitten into.

Christmas sure is a lot of fun with a four year old :)

I know that Christmas isn't all about Santa and presents (although those things are super fun!) We did tell Cole the Christmas story many times and he's got it down pretty well now ;) One of my favorite Christmas videos put out this year was the one below. We would play this on repeat on the tv and every time the scene with baby Jesus came on Cole would excitedly say "It's baby Jesus!!!" I am so grateful for my Savior this holiday season and always and hope that my boys will always know that HE is the true meaning of Christmas and the whole reason why we celebrate it in the first place.

You are my wild, pt. 3--Christmas jammies edition

I haven't done one of these in a while, I really should photograph every day life with my kids more! This is the first You are my wild featuring Logan!! Now that Logan is hardly a baby anymore and practically a toddler, Cole and Logan are able to play together more. I let them jump and wrestle around on my bed yesterday and they couldn't have been happier. It didn't hurt that they were both in their matching Christmas jammies. Yesterday was a "wear your jammies all day" kind of day. It was pretty dang cute to watch them running around in those gray and red stripes all day. And it all ended with nap time! (my favorite!!) I'm so grateful to have these boys and I'm grateful they have each other ♥


You are my wild, pt. 1
You are my wild, pt. 2

Merry Christmas.

+Cole's snowman Chritsmas craft (which I probably did about 80% of ;)

+homemade potpourri!! It doesn't look as great as it smells!! All it is is cut up oranges, cinnamon, allspice and vanilla extract. Add some water and bring it to a boil! Mmmm. It sure makes the house smell like Christmas.

+white chocolate dipped ginger snaps! I might have gone a little overboard photographing these babies but they were just so pretty and more importantly, they are SO GOOD. You can find the recipe for it HERE. I've seriously never tasted better :) Cole was supposed to help me make these but all he felt like doing was measuring the baking soda for me and then he was done. haha. This boy does not necessarily like to bake or craft as much as I try to get him to do it ;) We left these cookies out for Santa to eat, Cole was excited about that.

+And my boys matching in their Christmas jammies! I thought they looked so cute in them! Cole is actually completely obsessed with wearing pajamas lately. It is all he wants to wear! All the time! And it drives me a little crazy. The minute we come home from somewhere, he immediately takes off his clothes and puts on his jammies. And even when we go to Steve's parents, he likes to wear his jammies underneath his clothes so that he can just take his clothes off once we get there. Half the time it's a battle even getting him to put clothes on before we leave the house and it's getting exhausting! I'm just hoping this is something he grows out of haha. But all of this was to say that I think those striped Christmas jammies and those gray slippers were one of his favorite presents this year!

And here's few from my phone for good measure! :)


^^Family picture time!! I'm lucky I get to call those good-looking boys mine :)^^

^^My cherry red lips and his cherry red nose ;)^^

^^Steve MADE them this hockey net for Christmas! He was so excited about it, it was so cute. The boys loved it too :)^^