nj at three months

this baby keeps getting better. she is less fussy and more smiley, but i couldn't catch her smile today even after fifteen minutes of singing every song that came to mind, shaking anything i could grab, and leaping/prancing/jumping jack-ing for this kid. 

it's pretty obvious that miss nora is enamored with her sister. we just put them in the same room and sage likes to tell me, "mom, nora can stay. i want nora to be with me." the photos of them together are basically the reason i decided to have children. i live for those moments of pure love.

we love her so!

snowpocalypse?

it's been nice that the polar vortex hasn't affected where we live that much (except it did ruin my flight plans multiple times...). i like how north carolina rolls: a few snow days, then it's all melted a week later with nice temperatures once again. 

i did laugh at our six inches of snow being called a "snowpocalypse" though. i instantly remember the bone-chilling cold and ten-foot snow piles from our downtown chicago years. that was a snowpocalypse.

after the initial snow, an ice storm froze everything overnight. it was beautiful and eery the next morning. 

after a few days of down time (and potty training! heaven help me), we built a snowman and went sledding in our backyard with our cousin neighbors.
contrary to what it looks like, we actually do own snow gear, but it's conveniently at my parents' house right now. we threw on hoodies, hats, whatever coats we could find, plus some rain boots, and called it good.


babies in bear suits melt me.

one thing led to another, and somehow our snowman ended up as the chiquita banana snowoman.

i loved these few days of cuddling up in blankets next to our heater, staying in pajamas, and duke cancelling school! i'm sure we'll miss this low-key student life someday.

happy love day

i love holidays. any excuse to do something out of the ordinary!

better yet, any excuse to dress my children in coordinating outfits. see below:

valentine's day fell on a cold snow day, which meant all of north carolina was holed up inside. nate was supposed to be out of town, but his trip was cancelled. instead, he made dinner and did the dishes, which is better to me than chocolate and roses. er, maybe just better than roses actually.

we had a belated little party with our fellow MBA families where the kids played pass the parcel, exchanged valentines, and ran around in chaos. sage didn't want to leave, but nora had another opinion. 

some things i'm loving at this minute in time: nora's cheeks, sage's constant singing, nate's willingness to pick up chipotle when making dinner is the last thing i want to do in life, 60 degree weather, and my mother for still sending me valentine packages even though i'm inching toward thirty years old.

happy love day!

mattbeezevedane

a little throwback tuesday?

any family pictures we have are 99.9% of the time taken by belize. 

on any given day, sage includes "mattbeezevedane" (matt, belize, eve, and dane...their celebrity name is just one word) in her prayers. 

we live approximately 59 seconds walking distance away, but it feels like 59 minutes sometimes when it's freezing outside and you didn't wear a coat.

we love these guys, and matt wrote a great post about our adventures here.

but before eve and dane, we had a lot of good times with just the mattbeez part...

phone cameras were obviously very high quality in 2007. 

i also had a pretty good hoodie collection thanks to nate's employment at zumiez.

 80's ski day at park city

 we took many flattering photos, like this one.

and went on summer adventures

the boys surprised us with tickets to a colbie caillat concert. we listened to her first album on repeat for months.

matt graduated from college with a real job, so he splurged and picked up the tab for us at red robin.

good times, great oldies. and more years to come!

nora jane at two months

ooooh her cheeks. i just love this baby.

she's much smaller and daintier than sage was at this age.

and her cry face is so good.

my favorite thing of all is when S wakes up and stops in her tracks as she's running into our room.
"i hafta hi to nora!" and then she smothers N in kisses.

seatown

trips to visit my parents in seattle are just dreamy...few responsibilities, green green green, traditions, lazy mornings, outings, and on and on. my mom organizes my life and helps me run errands that i feel too overwhelmed to do by myself. my dad charms my little girls and helps create a workout plan for me. not to mention all the extended family we get to see too. 

i always hate to leave. and i always leave feeling more gratitude than ever for my parents.

my parents picked us up from the airport and we spent a sunny afternoon down on the pier, feeding the seagulls at ivar's. sage ducked when they got too near, but laughed as she chucked handfuls of french fries in the water for those aggressive birds. my dad had a work appointment near the american girl store, so we had to take miss sage to see it. sage doesn't sleep without her bitty baby doll, and her eyes got wide and sparkly as she walked into that store. 

we had a lunch date with great grandma kay at the boarding house, where i lunched with my great grandmother as a child too. i love that sage gets to do these things. plus, you just can't find better apple crisp.

it just so happened that nate had an interview in seattle during our stay, so he flew out for the weekend. my parents kept sage and we stayed in the same downtown hotel as our wedding night...only this time we had a +1 with N. i ordered washington apple fritter french toast for breakfast and it went down as the best french toast of my life.

 

we went to the cougar mountain zoo with my aunt and uncle (sage thinks they are her second grandparents i'm sure), then lunched at top pot. a pink sprinkles donut for lunch? you can see why sage loves her auntie m and uncle matt.

 

 nora was thrilled about those white bengal tigers.

my mom planned a date at the aquarium with a carousel ride too, and if you ask sage what her favorite thing in the world is, she'll tell you "carousel!" without skipping a beat. when the girls were finally asleep in the car, we wound our way through queen anne for danish pastries at nielsen's bakery. traditionnnn! tradition. is food becoming the theme of my recap?

my mom and i hit a few late night movies where we were the sole viewers. it's a whole new experience when you can walk the stairs while watching with a baby strapped to you to keep from falling asleep.

^^^ a sage elizabeth original design

it was all wonderful. 

even those moody gray skies. even the long travel day back to durham. perhaps not when sage threw herself on the ground in the middle of the busy san francisco airport because she could not walk another step though.

a few things

just a few things i want to remember about my girls...

 okay, fine. this has nothing to do with my girls. but look at this amazing sunset from january! 

seen from our house on a horribly cold day.

 we had a for real tornado warning. my phone began beeping with a warning from duke, and all of a sudden the winds got super strong and swept branches from the trees in our yard. sage was completely prepared with this get-up.

nora's cheeks get more amazing by the day. she smiles, coos, and is a delight when she's not fussy. 

i just borrowed my cousin's exercise ball to bounce her with, so...you can guess how often she's fussy.

but really, i die when she smiles at me. babies are worth the hard moments!

and i quote, "i so proud of you, nora!" sage is a parrot and repeats what i tell her to N.

ignore my unmade bed and focus on those adorable outfits from their grandmother, and those sweet faces too.

we intentionally gave them the middle names jane and elizabeth like the sisters in pride and prejudice, among other reasons. i hope these little girls will realize what a gift it is to be best friend sisters.

the dirty thirty

our dear friend turned thirty and threw quite the bash with a ski weekend in park city, utah. sage happily played with her aunt and uncles for a few days (thank youuu!) so we could be mostly kid-less. nora's at the perfect sleep-through-anything age anyway.

we stayed in a beautiful home in tuhaye and mostly just relished being with some of our best chicago friends. skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, hot tubbing, ping pong-ing, gaming, eating gourmet food (doritos and jelly beans with a side of grill bread), and pretending like we were 18 again. by chance (fate?), we all had babies around the same time, and sage doesn't even know she has the coolest posse of kids that will be her friends some day.

our first flight with two went surprisingly well. nate got to be sage's bed, and nora was content only if against a warm body at all times.

that's a baby inside my coat. nora gets brownie points for sleeping the entire time, even when i fell over in the snow (so graceful).

p.s. singapore ruined me. i'm a total wimp in the cold.