Day 1650 | Celebrating Moms

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Growing up, you have no idea the amount of sacrifices and energy and love that goes into raising kids. You’re so enveloped in your own world that the concept is not only unimaginable but unfathomable—as it should be, I guess. 

I’ve been a mom for seven years now and every single day I’m realizing what it means to be a mom. As much as I have to teach them, I have an equal amount—if not more—to learn from them. 

I love these boys. I love being a mom. And I’m beyond grateful to the two women pictured above (Chris’s mom on the left, my mom on the right) who raised their babies into the people who could raise our babies.

Day 1649 | Dragons

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We’ve been waiting since February for the How to Train Your Dragons 3 movie to come to our neighborhood budget theater (movies for $5!) and our dream finally came true tonight. Toothless, the main dragon in that movie, might be one of my all-time favorite animated characters.  

In honor of the movie, I forced the boys to pose with the new dragon sculpture outside the movie theater. It was meant to be, right? 

Day 1648 | Homemade Bread

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Is there anything better than homemade bread? Knowing exactly what the ingredients are, the smell of it baking, eating it warm…it’s all so good.

I checked out this book from the library, The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and it has inspired me. You make one batch of dough and it lasts in the fridge for two weeks. Then you take out 1/4 of it at a time and make a small-ish fresh loaf for dinner with just a few minutes worth of work. Genius, right? And the bread is really delicious, too. There are a bunch of different recipe variations that I haven’t explored yet, but I’m excited.

Day 1645 | Dance Competition

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We’re missing one of the girls in this photo and one of them pictured has a fake bruise on her face, but it’s the best we could do. These girls were crazy busy all afternoon and we couldn’t catch them for a better photo. We’re so proud of our girls for the work and effort that goes into these completions and love watching their passion come to life on stage. 

Day 1642 | Blue-Footed Boobies

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Today Robbe asked me to find, print, and frame a photograph of [preferably dancing] ducks. He settled on this one of two blue-footed boobies. You know how google searches veer sometimes. He is so very proud of this photo. Can you tell?

Side note: I’m sorry I’ve been such a deadbeat on the blog lately. This past week has been one of the busiest in a long long while. I’m almost through the haze, though. Stick with me.  

Day 1641 | Cousins

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I’ve been having a really hard time taking photos lately. We’ve been super busy and I guess I just haven’t been thinking about it in the moment. And then I get home and realize that I’m left without anything for the blog [again]. Sorry about that! 

I’m in the same predicament tonight so I’ve decided to go back into my camera roll and post this gem from Easter. It might not be today, but it is cute!  

Day 1636 | Flooding

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It was a gorgeous day in Wisconsin. Chris was off work and the boys were off school so we made the most of our bonus weekend day.

Remember how I’ve mentioned the spring flooding that happens in Eau Claire (here and here)? It’s back again. I think the river is the highest we’ve seen it, in fact. Chase snapped the photo above when we were at the park this afternoon. Do you see the tree line on the other side of the ducks? Usually there’s a sloping hill after that and then the river starts. It’s crazy!