life simplified. we are doing our best.

life is crazy. time is passing me by and i don't feel like i have a minute, a second even, to actually be in it. to enjoy it. to breathe in everything around me and count my blessings. i have a lot of them.



i forced myself to sit at my computer today and hull through images this morning. i opened up this folder from our thanksgiving trip up north and broke down into tears. these pictures are in no way perfect, but it is my family. them being them. i love my family. more then words could ever express. on a daily basis i am constantly fighting an inner battle of self doubt as to whether or not i am giving them enough. am i doing all i can to protect them, to love them, to provide for them, to encourage them, and to teach them. am i doing all i can so as to not screw them up. kids are like a parents best recipe. a little of this, a lot of that, and when you realize something isn't working you substitute it for something else.

baker recently was out golfing and when i checked in via text message he wrote back to tell me that he was playing awful and wasn't having fun. without blinking i replied "just do your best and make the most of it." i quickly realized i wasn't living my own advice. i spend a lot of time and energy battling my own self doubts. the bottom line.

i am doing my best.

some days my best is worse then the day before. on a good day, better. but for me right now, in this moment, i am doing my best. that is all i could ever ask from my kids. to give it their all and do their best. so for them i can do the same.

i love the winter

but this picture makes me miss the summer. sigh.

hi

some one has some new tricks.




and this picture just makes me smile.

the land of oz

dorothy and the cowardly lion in full effect. just the beginning of our week of halloween extravaganza. a little amuse bouche for our aunties waiting to see the kids all dressed up.

raspy lady

my kids have been sick. it's been miserable, and the only thing that i have loved about it is emmy's special sick voice. i love how raspy it is. (my new favorite word of hers is pocahontas.. so this video is like double bonus for me)

raspy lady from jenny morphy on Vimeo.

so i loved her voice, until 2am when we had to make a trip to the emergency room for BOTH my kids. em has croup.. they gave her some roids and called it a night.. little daner pants has bronchitis.. one breathing treatment and an inhaler later we're finally home.

my kids are troopers. troopers i tell ya.

let's just hope they let me sleep a few hours before they wake up right!

a morning with emmy and lilly

the glenn family was nice enough to come out when we blessed dane back in august. emmy l-o-v-e-d having her cousins here. i wish we got to see them all more often. on both sides of the family.
emmy and lilly cuddled up on my bed to watch shows (as you can see lola did less cuddling and more exploring), and then enjoyed a nice mini sausage and pancake blanket (wondering what that is? sausage wrapped in pancake..normally served on a stick like a corndog. they are delicious, especially dipped in syrup). and of course they both had to have a dora sippy cup. because one can't have one and not the other. of course.

i love all these chicks.

the old saying goes

"you are what you eat"

but in this case:

"you are what you read"

can you believe this little pouty "i'm not moving" face. where does she get the attitude?

too busy to blog

been hanging out with these crazy kids too much.

to my future son-in-law

good luck. the girl likes jewelry. and lots of it.

emmy on ohdeedoh

there is a childrens blog that i follow that featured emmy this week! you can check it out here.

click here to see it.

and since dane had his video yesterday.. emmy wanted one today. sorry to all the family members she didn't get to.. we didn't forget about you, just preoccupied.

i have a 2 year old

am i even old enough for that? well apparently i am, and we celebrated emmy turning two last week. we kept going back and forth about if we wanted to throw her a party or not. i came to the conclusion that birthdays are special, and my kids will get parties every year. even if they only invite two or three friends. she is only going to turn two once in her life.. so we have to celebrate.

the theme this year was "emmy's favorite things". move over oprah there is a new favorite lister in town! ha. rather then have people over, we opted for emmy's favorite meal, at our favorite breakfast joint (ohana cafe.. aka the bread crumb), and the kids grubbed on her favorite.. mickey mouse pancakes. success!




we asked everyone to wear her favorite color. red. it was fun to have everyone matching, and i loved that most of the parents played along too.

the goody bags were filled with all of emmy's favorite things. playdough, bubbles, fruit snacks (kelloggs brand. yes she is that picky), a shovel for her favorite place; the beach, stickers, and whistles. right now her favorite thing to do is blow all of her whistles in my face while i am nursing. thanks.



when the kids got restless sidney was nice enough to take them on shopping cart rides.




emmy with charlie.. and proof that she actually does have fun and smile sometimes.


i just wanted to point out the fact that she has a cupcake in front of her. at 10:30 in the morning. but instead she wanted an orange. no wonder she is so skinny.


and finally, this is the dress that i made her for her birthday. not the best picture (she wouldn't stand still.. after all she is two now), but i just love it. there are a couple things that i want to fix, but am proud to say that i whipped this out the night before.. impromptu.

after emmy's least favorite thing to do, take a nap, we all went to her other favorite place. the happiest place on earth, and celebrated with mickey.

i can't believe my little girl is two. i hope she knows how much we love her.

Dancing Queen

Emmy is really into dancing lately, and apparently really into dancing along with the Easter Bunny that my dad and Kathy got her. Go figure. The funniest is the very end. Who does that?

It's Been Hot

And I mean reeeally hot. Like "I thought we were nowhere near the desert" hot. Extremely hot since we don't have AC at our place. Something about we will never need it because we have the ocean breeze uh huh, yeah right... also, did I mention it has been hot?

Really it's not too bad, but maybe that is because my little Emmy gets to stay in my favorite outfit all day long. A pampers cruiser.



Apparently Miz Emmy was not into the camera this day. I couldn't find a single one of her face. I guess she was more interested in the leaf, which eventually ended up in her mouth.

I would also like to assure you that we do feed our daughter. Although it may not look like it she does get a healthy nutritious well rounded meal with extra fat everyday. She just can not pack them on. I don't get it. I try to give her the fatty stuff too, but it is just not working in our favor. Any suggestions?

Love

So I know it has been awhile. I promise that I will be back soon.. in the meantime please enjoy this picture of Em and her cousin Lilly. We only got one shot in before the two of them went crazy. Lucky for us they were both looking cute. Too bad it was the one with the 80's rug. They are mighty adorable though. I promise there will be an update soon.

In Rare Form

I would like to say that Nora and I have two of the happiest babies. Why wouldn't they be? They have the two coolest moms on the planet, already have the cutest spouse lined up for them, and are always fed and changed.

Thats why this is rare form. Never do we see them cry, especially not at the same time. Charlie was so scared to fall, and Emmy was just so sad for him. I love how she just couldn't take it anymore in the last one.

The Day I Never Wanted to See

My daughter no longer needs me.

Thats right people, you heard it here first. Little miss priss is no longer a nursing child. I'm heartbroken. It would be one thing to if I had weened her myself, but it was like she did it all on her own. There was no getting this chick to stay still for more then 20 seconds without sitting up laughing then diving in for more. She eventually was eating like a dog, on all fours. What? Who does that?

So a few days ago I decided to nurse her cradle, like we did when she was a baby. The first thing she did was bite. Ouch! So we reverted back to feeding in bed. She still went crazy, but ate for a couple of days.

This morning, everything changed. My daughter has teeth.. and she wasn't afraid to use them. Do I endure and nurse her for three more months while she is biting every other second just so I can get to the goal of a year like I had hoped? Or do I save myself and let her go. I played tough when Baker was here before he left, and when he left I lost it. Am I going to be able to bond with her anymore? Is she going to know that I am her mom anymore? Ughg it's so sad.

My little girl no longer needs me.

Meet Mary Lou...

AKA Purple Grandma

One of my very favorite people on earth is my grandmother. Always has been, always will be. That seems to be no different for my little girl and her cousins.

We all went for a visit this afternoon to "Grandma with the Monkeys" House. I loved watching her with the girls. It reminds me of when I was a little girl. I loved to go to her house to eat black olives, pickles and snickers. She ALWAYS had an ice cream treats in the freezer for us, and it was in her home that my love for turkey skin came to be. She always got down on the floor to play memory or do puzzles with us. I was 4 she was a grandma, but she still was down there with me.

Over 20 years later, times haven't changed. Only now it is my daughter she is kneeling with, getting toys for, making smile, and doing whatever her little heart desires. Purple Grandma loves her great grand babies, and boy do they love her.

Love Affair

( Blogger is really buggin right now. It WILL NOT post this picture the right way so for now you will have to look at it this way until I can fix it.)

Emmy girl is having a complete love affair with her cousins. She is utterly and completely enamored by them and everything they do. It's amazing to see. She will just stare and watch them for hours. She laughs every time they even move, and kicks and flails her legs and arms whenever they look her way.

I am so glad that they are here, but at the same time seeing the way the girls interact makes me so sad at the same time. They live so far away. Ughg. I really wish Emmy had her cousins close by to play with and grow up with. This goes for either side.

On a lighter note though we had lots of fun with the girls today. We went shopping, and had lunch at our favorite mexican joint, Fiesta Grill. After lunch we did our very favorite thing.. laying on the carpet in the sun doing nothing but talking and laughing. I absolutely love my sister and am so glad that she is here for the next week.

We also made a trip to the Doctors today. It seems as though Miss Emmy has two very bad ear infections. This must explain the sleepless nights we have had the last couple of days. Not only ear infections, but also conjunctivitis. Goopy eyes and hurting ears. Poor little bit. The doctor did mention how incredibly happy she is given the circumstances. I told her it was her cousins in town. I hope she feels better soon.

Machines and a Teeny Bikini

So this last week was organizing week. I started with the storage closets, and then ended with my sewing stuff. Felt good to fold all my fabric, make an inventory of what I have, and plan some upcoming projects. I really can't wait. The closets weren't enough, so I used this machine:

to clean my carpets.. how great do they look?

It just feels good to know that my daughter is rolling around on a clean surface... which is more then I can say for my dining room floor, and that is her favorite place. Oops, my bad.

Speaking of Emmy rolling around on the floor. We (as in Baker, Emmy and I) went to our old stomping grounds, the beach walk, to soak in the hot tub. It was Emmy's first time. Wow, she loved the over sized bath tub. She couldn't get enough. But what I couldn't get enough of, was my little girl in this little Bikini. Too die for.


BTW, my daughters butt is finally big enough to fit in a swimmer diaper. So no more of those uncomfortable plastic ones. Yeah!