aren't the swings everyone's favorite?

when you live away from family it's hard to stay connected.
i often wonder 'what's my sister/mom/sis-in-law/nephew/niece's routine like?'
'what's a typical morning for them?'

well just in case you're interested in our morning
[which i assume you are since you're reading this silly blog]
here's how it went:

wake up and feed the kids and myself toast and fruit and milk.
putter around the house for a bit.
upload vacation pics [too many!!] get dressed and pack snacks for the park.
head out the door into the glorious sunshine and drive 5 minutes to our favorite park.
take a bunch of videos while at the park and enjoy the down time with my kids.
head home, nap evie and download a video editing app called 'splice'.
edit videos into this masterpiece [sarcasm!] and call it a day.

according to instagram.

[april (SoCal) insta's]

 road tripping to Cali- so much better than flying! and the whole family together again. 

 family pictures at the temple. and kate continues the face-painting tradition at sea world. 

 safari park was awesome! 

 don't mind me, i like to really get to know the animals. and the view from our room- gorgeous escondido. 

 it's vacation- that means you can have a whoopie pie for dinner. and poor kate was one exhausted kiddo. 

 jank and i snuck away for a beautiful morning at the temple and then grabbed some delish fast food for lunch [no sarcasm here. love chick-fil-a]

 coronado island- my absolute favorite place to be. 

chillaxing poolside

 me and my girlies headed to dinner at the resort [not yummy]. and the brick and bell cafe in la jolla [very yummy]

wandering around la jolla

kate and i on the edge of the world. and jank and i took the kids for one more day at sea world- we love that manta roller coaster!

bedtime routine

jank:

thanks for your amazing bedtime stories.

kate loves it when you tell her a 'kate-story'.

especially if it involves princesses and toots.

[downside of preschool- your kid learns about and becomes obsessed with bodily functions]

someday our little girl won't be begging us to stay by her bedside 'one more story? puh-leeeeze?'

or manipulating us into tucking her in again 'see? my blanket came off? and i'm cooooooold!'

or fake crying because she needs one more drink of water 'but i'm fiiiiiirrrsty!'

we'll look back with a chuckle at all her sneaky tricks.

and we'll remember the 'kate-stories' and how much kate giggled and how sweet she was.

[remind me to read this post when kate is 14 and rolling her eyes non-stop at me because of how uncool  her mom is]

thanks for being such a great father.

we are so lucky to have you.

a little of this and none of that.

evie rue:

these pictures are extremely misleading [but oh so cute].

you appear to be a good eater.

you, in fact, are anything but.

pickier than kate [didn't think that was possible]

you only like a few bites of things, then you tire of them and proceed to toss them on the floor.

soooo much fun for me. thanks kid.

how you maintain your deliciously chubby cheeks is beyond my understanding.

i wonder how much chunkier you would be if you actually ate???

maybe it's a good thing you're picky....

lemon brownies

found a new recipe and decided to try it out.

i love finding delicious deserts to make for dinner... and for breakfast.

because my parents taught me never to skip breakfast ;)

::Lemon Brownies::

found on pinterest [source of all wisdom and wonder]

Brownies

3/4 C flour

3/4 C sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick softened unsalted butter

2 eggs

juice from 1/2 lemon (about 1T)

zest from 1/2 lemon (about 1tsp)

Combine the flour, sugar and salt

 in a large bowl.

 Mix in the softened butter.

In another bowl whisk the eggs with 

the lemon juice and zest.

Add to the larger bowl and mix well.

 Pour into prepared 8X8 brownie pan.

 Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

You can double the recipe and bake in a

 9X13 pan for 30 minutes.

Remove and let cool, then glaze.

Glaze

1/2 C powdered sugar

1 T lemon juice

additional lemon zest

stir together and spread over brownies

ENJOY! 

[you're welcome in advance. these are sooo good]

castle park [again. it's kind of our favorite]

dear krew,

thanks for being the brother that kate doesn't have.
you guys fight like siblings and love like siblings.
so glad you guys have each other.

day trip to the beach

coronado island.

my favorite get-a-way.
love the beaches.
love the good food.
love the quaint beach cottages.
basically love it all.

i especially love that it's within 2.5 hours from our house and we can buzz over the mountains for a day trip.
so that's exactly what we did while the kids were on 'spring break'.
[i mean, really. who has spring break when they're in preschool??]

^just enjoying a cookie. plus some sand. isn't that how it goes when you eat at the beach^

^poor krew and jett were not fans of the wind. win some, lose some. maybe next time boys!^

instagram time!

[march and april insta's]

easter egg smash prep work [emptying, boiling, dying, filling and sealing eggs with powdered sugar]. and what evie looked like after we smashed a few eggs on her head.

 easter basket waiting to be filled by the bunny. and our easter feast was beyond delicious this year.

 tea party time. and pigtails for miss evelyn

 evie is content to sit on my feet while at the park. and how i babysit- spray the kids with the hose [i promise they loved it despite what this picture shows]

 a day trip to the beach with the saunders.

evie picks the most inopportune times to fall asleep but at least she looks cute doing so. and kate acting far too grown up for my liking [please life slow down. i'm not ready for her to be a 'big girl' just yet]

 evie adores her booster seat and climbs in and out of it constantly. kate and i love to go see the dogs at petsmart and pretend we're going to adopt one.

 snuggling with my chubster.

 so glad kate loves to play with the dollhouse [that sucker was a LOT of work]. and evie is starting to pull up to standing, although she is terrified when she finds herself standing. 

an overdue update

to all:

recently i had a friend ask how i was doing.

and not just a 'how ya doing? yah, that's nice', he really wanted to know how i was doing.

and i thought to myself;

'self, if one friend is curious and cares, then probably there are more people who are curious and care'

so.

let's have an update 

[and i'll just throw in some random pics of the girlies and i at the 'castle park' because a post with just words is pretty boring]

the short and sweet of it is that i'm doing really great.

and if that's all you need to know, then carry on :)

but of course there's always more to it than that so here's the long-winded version:

i am still medicated.

my dosage nor medication hasn't changed.

jank and i have discussed numerous times when the right time is for me to wean off my med.

post-partum depression 'usually' corrects/stabilizes in a year or so.

the clinical recommendation is after a year of taking medication, the patient starts cutting the dose in half and then takes the medication less frequently until they're done with it.

i'm just not ready for that yet. 

i know it sounds dumb, but life is so good right now i don't want to do anything to change how i feel.

even if that means i could be medication-free.

i was so worried when i started taking my med that i would become some altered version of myself.

i worried that the med would make me false-happy and that i wouldn't feel like myself.

well, turns out that was a stupid thing to worry about.

the med just helps my body/brain stabilize, it didn't turn me into a robot.

i still have emotions, good and bad days, moments of joy and moments of frustration;

but under it all, i am able to think clearly and logically.

i no longer feel like my world is ending if evie cries because she's fussy.

i can get frustrated at kate and her silly 3 yr old logic without worrying i'm the worst mom ever and thinking she'd be better off without me. 

and let me just tell you how amazing that is.

hallelujah for modern medication and sympathetic/patient/loving friends and family who've supported me and not judged me. 

i'm no longer curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor crying because there are too many dirty dishes.

instead i'm on the couch with jank, watching 'new girl' and laughing our butts off. 

work is still hard.

i can't say i love this hospital- it's overcrowded and understaffed.

but i do love nursing and helping people and my coworkers are mostly awesome.

and although this ER has tried to kill me many times, i have learned a ridiculous amount from it. 

i know i'll look back and be thankful for my time here 

[after i've forgotten about all the times i've had an intubated patient, a trauma, and 4 other patients all at the same time]

so that's where i'm at.

life right now is pretty fantastic-

evie finally cut the 3 teeth she's been working on for the last month [augh].

we're headed to san diego tomorrow for a family vacation with my entire family.

it'll be the first time we've all been together in a long time.

so excited to have time off work and be together with everyone!

thanks to all who've stuck it out with me.

really i can't thank you enough.

[pigtails!!]

egg smash

a not-so-great but still kinda awesome video for all who've asked:

she doesn't walk but she talks

this little bugaboo now says 2 words:

'da-da' and 'uh-oh'.

still working on 'ma-ma' but so far all i gotten is a big ole raspberry blown in my face.
she thinks she's soooo funny.

her version of kate is 'day!'
she'll pad all over the house until she finds kate and then she'll destroy whatever kate is doing.
ahhh, the joys of siblings.

egg hunt

I've heard a lot of families are moving the "fun" easter activities to saturday so they can keep sunday centered on Christ.
a great idea, me thinks.

but we heathens had our celebrations on sunday after naps like usual.
we had a feast that we all dubbed 'the best meal ever'.
so good this is the only pic i was able to take of it:

and then it was outside into the overgrown backyard for an egg hunt:

and to wrap up the evening we headed over to the local school and had an easter egg smash.

my good friend tyrel and i had a master plan to recreate the colored wonder of the color run but with an easter twist for our families.

we drained eggs, boiled and bleached them and then dyed them all sorts of fantastic neon colors.

once dried we filled them with colored powdered sugar and sealed them with tissue paper.

we set up the camera and attempted to capture the smash on video,
but due to the noisy wind and our inability to stay within the camera's field of vision...
it really didn't turn out.
so enjoy these three pics, because that really all we got.

all in all the easter egg smash was a success.
a few things we'll change for next year
[because this was way too much fun. it now must become tradition]

-spray everyone with a little water so the color sticks better [at the color run we were all sweaty and that made the colors stay. also, ewww gross]

-put the eggs in the middle of the camera's frame so people aren't running out of the shot to get eggs.

[i am aware that it's not necessary to video such festivities. but remember, if i don't have photographic evidence- the event didn't happen. so please excuse my insane and annoying habit of taking pics of everything and anything]

and most importantly:

-make 250+ eggs. we did 60 eggs and it was most definitely not enough. we were done in a couple minutes and would've loved to keep going. 

thanks saunders for a great day!!