5.

Oh, the dimples. And that grin... and the handsome blue eyes. He's gonna break a few hearts some day.

One month ago today this little guy turned 5. Briggs is a sweet, kind and tender-hearted little boy with a fierce loyalty to Porter and an undying love for entertaining Ford.

He is a great big brother.

He's the one who's always cracking up and making jokes. Talking in funny voices and making silly faces. He's the comedic relief around here and we all love him for it.

He's a reader. He loves to read and is so good at it.

He loves games more than just about anything else. His favorites are Magic Feather (thanks Heather), Blokus and Slap Jack. All of which he's really good at.

He loves Legos and building. Bridger loves to play with friends and is always trying to please other people.

Bridger still hates potatoes...in almost any form except chips. He's also not a fan of chocolate. Not a huge fan of cake. But he loves ice cream, strawberries, and carrots.

He's still a bit accident prone (hence the reason he spent most of our vacation in Oregon with an enormous goose egg on his head). But he is getting better balance and starting to realize that maybe he does have limits... but he pushes those limits to their breaking points!

He only asked for two things for his birthday, a scooter and a stuffed frog. He is a huge fan of all things that he can sleep with. Get the kid a blanket and a new stuffed animal and he'll go crazy.

Can't believe it's been more than 5 years since this cutie came to us. He's such a fun kid and an essential part to our little family.
Happy Birthday Briggs!

family pictures

We decided that since we would be together all week at one of our favorite places, maybe it was time for some family pictures. We haven't had them taken in quite a while and getting time off to get them done has not been the easiest.
So, I found a photographer who I think is amazing and whose work I really admire. Aaron Courter was so kind to meet up with us on the beach while we were there and he spent a couple hours taking photos while we played on the beach.

I love them! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we couldn't have found a better location. These are just a handful of all the photos he gave us.  I'm having a really hard time picking out my favorites and which ones will go up on the walls!
Hands down, my favorite souvenir from the trip.

Oregon, part one.

Since Kyle works a 8-5 job and I work every weekend, it doesn't leave much time for us together. We have a few hours in the evening, and on the weekend we just have a kind of "tag, you're it" situation going on. I give him a quick report on Friday night when I run out the door, and I see him briefly on Saturday when I wake up and head back into work. And let's just face it... Sunday's are a blur and while we may get to go to church together (I'm not normally all with it), then I come home and go to sleep. I rarely wake up until he's headed to bed.


Last October, Kyle came home from work one night, looked at me and said, "We need a vacation."
It didn't take much arm twisting for me to start throwing out suggestions. Disneyland, a cruise, Hawaii, Mexico, Carlsbad, Oregon... Oregon. I wanted to go back to Oregon, and luckily so did Kyle.
We wanted a vacation that was relaxing, one where we could sit down together and spend time with one another. We didn't want something where we were rushing to see new sites or busy standing in line waiting to go on rides. We wanted time together, and Oregon would fit the bill.

Two weeks later we had a beach house booked and ready to go for the end of February. Although the weather was sure to be a beast, it just meant that we would have all that much more time to sit in the beach house and do nothing more than stare at each other if that's what we wanted to do.

So at the end of February we headed out... and it couldn't have been a better decision

I was the navigator...and these were the items that helped get us safely to the coast. Two phones...one on google maps and one on mapquest... I love them and hate them both and I figured out what part of which app I liked and used them both to navigate through the mess of Portland freeways... oh, and the chocolate helped...a lot.

Speaking of Portland... it was raining the morning we woke up here and we figured it would just follow us to the coast.

As soon as we saw the first sign that said, "Beach this way" we took the detour and headed down to play and look at tide-pools. There's something very therapeutic about the beach. There were some dark clouds, but no rain. It was perfect.

(This is just in front of our rental...the proximity to the beach was fantastic.)

More to come soon.

7 months

 

This little guy just keeps getting bigger. 

I have so much I need to catch up on... photo-wise and laundry-wise...

but I can't let this kid get any bigger without writing down what he's doing.

Ford is a smiler. He smiles all the tme and is quite possibly the happiest baby I've ever seen.

He can crawl, and he's pretty fast. He doesn't get up on his knees yet, it's the army crawl, but he's really good at it.

He has gorgeous dark blue eyes with almost a caramel/green center that is so pretty to look at.

He's got some allergies (peaches and squash so far) and lots of skin sensitivities. Still haven't figured out what it is that makes him get little blisters all over, but we're trying everything we can think of. Eczema is the norm around here and we just slather him in all sorts of creams and lotions... and the pediatrician told me to keep the hydrocortisone close at hand and not be afraid to use it.

Ford thinks Bridger is about the funniest thing around.

Ford loves Porter and quiets down as soon as Porter is close to him.

He sleeps through the night for about 8-10 hours... can't really ask for more!

Ford is getting into everything, The cabinets, my nightstand, my purse...anything and everything he can get his hands on.

Cords are is favorite toy. He will drop anything he's holding to grab a cord.

He loves solid food and gobbles it down whenever he sits down to eat.

Ford won't take pacifiers or his thumb. If he is really sleepy, he'll latch onto his wrist and suck. It's left him with a few hickeys :) 

If you've held Ford, you should also know that he's a jumper. I don't think I've met a single person who has held him and hasn't asked, "Do you have a Johnny Jumper?"

Yes, we do. And it is used daily!

He loves to take baths. You normally end up just as wet as he is by the end of it.

I can't believe how quickly he is growing up. I love this stage, he's just so sweet.

Not to mention that I could just eat up those chunky cheeks!

a black and white Christmas Eve

It was a great Christmas Eve full of family, food, lights, bingo, an announcement, kids, presents, laughing, charity, a pinata, a goat, a llama and a sheep,

 

Couldn't have been better.