Happy Anniversay | Nine Years

Nine years ago on this very day, I married Ryan Hollen. We have been together for a decade now and it makes my head spin a bit when I think about how fast the past few years have gone. Swiftly. I blink and a decade has come and gone. A decade!

 He was the person I wasn’t looking for when we met. Meeting another guy, a potential love interest, was very low on my list of priorities at the time. I was broken and broken hearted but there he was being introduced to me in a local coffee shop, the very coffee shop we would have our wedding reception a little more than a year later. I had only been back in Colorado a grand total of about four days. I had a camera in my hand and a bruised and broken spirit from the season I had just moved away from. We were surrounded by friends, music, and coffee. My happy place. A mutual friend introduced us and my life has never been the same. Somehow, in the depths of my soul, I knew that one day I would marry this bearded man, and I did. I’m so glad I did. 

Happy Anniversay, Babe! I look forward to many more years of winding down on the couch and having dinner after long days at work, once the kiddos have had tubby time and are tucked away in bed for the evening. I look forward to many more years of building a home with you, one project at a time. I look forward to many more years of going to see movies and getting to actually go have date nights. I look forward to many more years of little getaway trips, going to concerts, and just going out for breakfast every once in a while. I look forward to the day to day, the laundry folding and the emptying of the dishwasher. I look forward to playing more music, in whatever capacity that we can in the different seasons of our lives. 

I’m so glad I was at that coffee shop that day, all those years ago. I’m so glad I said “I do” in front of our friends and family nine years ago. Ryan, you are my person forever and always. I love you! Thank you for taking care of me and our kids so well. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Forty Eight

I can feel summer inching its way in a lot lately. Our air conditioner has been working overtime the past few days. It's been a hot, sticky kind of heat and I'm never really ready for it once it arrives. I am much more of a fall kind of gal and long for the days of hot coffee, tall boots, and falling leaves. I'm pretty basic like that but I am alright with that. Pretty much just let me live in an episode of The Gilmore Girls during the fall season. I'm set. 

This week has been filled with a few days of work, helping lead worship at church, a garage sale. Marin has lived in every Elsa dress from Frozen that she can get her hands on. I finally had to pry one of the dresses out of her arms just so I could wash it because it was nearing the point of being able to stand up on its own, covered in apple sauce, chocolate milk, and who knows what else. It was getting pretty stinky. We've been re-watching Frozen a lot lately around these parts....that and Finding Dory is a current favorite. 

I've been working with Sullivan still on crawling. We are even at the point where I have placed some puffs just out of his reach in hopes that he will just crawl to get them. The little man loves his food and what better way to get him moving than tempt him with banana puffs. He just looks at me like.."Seriously mom? Not happening. Even for a puff." He is getting there and kind of scoots a little bit, mostly in a backwards direction. It's still a process. 

He is growing at such an alarming rate. I will have a one year old in less than a month and I can hardly believe it. We just moved him up to size 5 diapers. Size 5! I'm not even sure that Marin ever wore size 5 diapers before she potty trained. He's not tiny. That's for sure. 

His new thing is splashing during bath time. It's become kind of an annoyance because we are pretty much completely soaked by the end of the bath. He shares the tub with Marin and we worked really hard at getting her to only make "little splashes." She always says..."Little splashes are okay, Sully. Just little splashes." I know this is a phase and he thinks it's the coolest thing ever but I would prefer to not be soaked by the end of bath time. I usually like bath time. It's one of my favorite times with both of the kiddos. Another work in process. 

This week has me thinking a lot about life and how it can come and go so swiftly at times. My grandfather, my mother's dad, is not doing great health wise and everyday I wake up and pray that he would be comfortable and have peace during this time. I just realized too that he has never met Sullivan and that makes my heart hurt. I think the last time I saw him was a few weeks before Sullivan was born. Visit the ones you love, spend time with them when you are able to because you might not get the chance at some point. That's resting pretty heavy on my heart today. 

Here's Marin at Week Forty Eight. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Forty Seven

Today, June 3rd, Sullivan James is 11 months old...give or take a few days in the grand scheme of things. This time last year, I was uncomfortable and quite pregnant. We were getting ready to have air conditioning installed in our home and that has been one of the best decisions we have ever made as home owners. Seriously, life changing. 

Anyways...11 months old. I can hardly believe that in a month we will have a 1 year old in our home. No more formula and bottles, hallelujah! He has slowly been wanting bottles less and less and his preference is most definitely solid foods. I feel like the transition to just milk at meal time and no more bottles will be fairly easy with him. Just like with no longer breastfeeding, it just sort of happened one day. One day, he decided he was done and that was that. I, of course, am still kind of sad about no longer nursing but I am working through that a little more every day. 

Sleepy dude after the Splash Park with Grammy. 

I need to start planning a 1 year old birthday bash for Sullivan now. We have never really been the type of parents that go all out for birthday parties. I am not the mom that invites every kid from school and life to a party at our home. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that but we just love to open our home and lives to those we are closest to, our family. I am looking forward to the fact that Sullivan has a summer birthday (July 3rd) and we can be outside. With Marin, she was born in February so we are always cram everyone into our living room with over flow into the kitchen and up the stairs. 

In other news, we bought a new car after the great Hail Apocalypse of 2018. It's still crazy to me that we even had a storm like that but we are moving forward. We ended up leasing a Kia Optima for Ryan and he is nerding out with all things new car. It's super nice and we got a killer deal on it from a local dealership in town. I know leasing isn't always the best option but it worked within our budget for now and we went for it. We weren't exactly planning on having a new car payment right about now, especially now that I'm working a lot less hours than before. 

This week is shaping up to be a busy but good one. I somehow conquered most of the laundry this weekend and tomorrow will just be for bedding and towels. I'm off tomorrow and this house needs a good scrubbing. I didn't really do it last week and I can always tell. Next week, Ryan and I are going on a little trip and to say I'm excited is an understatement. First off, we are seeing pretty much my favorite musician ever at the best venue ever. Ryan Adams at Red Rocks. It doesn't get any better. We are then going to spend some time up at Blackhawk. I am looking so forward to getting away for a few days, kiddo free. The last time we were up in Blackhawk, that was the weekend I found I was pregnant with Sullivan. Good times. 

Here's Marin at forty seven weeks. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Forty Six

This week has been a doozy, one of unexpected frustrations and financial burdens. It's almost strange for me to write these words because most people don't believe what I'm saying until I show them photographic evidence of the spring storm that totaled our car. Yes, totaled...

Tuesday evening, I was driving home from work ever aware of a dark storm rolling in. I knew that I should get home before it hit and that I might not be able to go and grab that drink with my lovely friend that evening at a local brewery as planned. The sky continued to get darker and darker as I made my journey across town to our home. 

We were able to get the mom van in our single car garage. I tend to not park in there very often so we needed to move boxes and a bunch of other stuff. As the storm was starting to hit, Ryan moved the van into safety. Little did we know what would hit next. There was a lot of hail and rain. We knew Ryan's car was probably going to hit with some gnarly hail but we didn't have a garage to pull it into in time. We got the kids ready for bed, potty time, diaper changed, teeth brushed, stories read. In the course of probably about ten minutes, the storm hit hard. 

After the kids were in bed, we looked outside to a sight I wasn't expecting. Our entire street (we live in a cul-de-sac) was under water. The water was reaching up our drive way. Our neighbor's mail box was almost underwater. Ryan's car was toast. If only we had moved it up on the driveway, it would have been safe. But, our car is ruined. We vacuumed out 25 gallons of water the next day. The city had to come and haul away all of the hail. I couldn't even drive out of our street the next day...in the month of May! Our neighbor's basement has flooded. Numerous cars have been totaled. We have all been picking up the pieces this week. 

I want to cast blame to our neighbor that loves to blow all of his yard debris and leaves into the storm drain pretty much every day. That probably has a lot to do with it and it irritates me that he's already back at it with his leaf blower. The storm drain filled so quickly that it couldn't handle the storm.  But, this freak storm obviously wasn't planned. So now, we have a rental and get to go car shopping. Big bummer. It's been a crazy week. 

But, even in the midst of this situation, Sullivan is growing like crazy and is forty six weeks old. He's so close to crawling and I can't wait to write those words...it will happen soon. I know it. We are giving him lots of floor time even though he still hates it. He's close. 

Sullivan also decided that he was done nursing this week. I was not ready yet and was hoping to make it to one year, even though we were only nursing once, maybe twice a day. But, we woke up one day and he just decided that he didn't want to any longer. He's our last baby and this mama heart wasn't quite ready for this abrupt change. Luckily I had been only feeding him once or twice a day so I'm not in nearly as much pain as I was when Marin quite nursing. Now I walk around smelling like peppermint oil because it helps ease the pain. At least I smell minty fresh. My little baby is growing up so quickly. 

I'm ready for a new week. I'm not ready to go buy another car but that's what has to be done. I plan on working with Sully a lot with crawling this week. Hopefully we will get some time spent getting dirty outside in the sunshine. Hopefully there are no more freak storms. Lord willing and the creek don't rise. Literally. 

Here's Marin at week forty six.