I am quickly learning that family pictures are a total crapshoot. How will they go!? Who knows! The babies have good naps? Doesn't matter. They are happy 5 seconds before the shoot starts? Oh well. Somehow we have managed to always get one "decent" shot, but it's still totally hit or miss. 

This photo shoot went about as expected - Clara cried for a lot of the time, but like I mentioned, we still managed to get some good shots (to the credit of the photographer, no doubt! Katie Perkes did an awesome job). We did this photo shoot with my side of the family. When I look through these pictures I am reminded, once again, how incredibly blessed I am to not only have my own little family, but to come from an amazing family full of love and laughter. I love these people so much!!

And I must mention the cool location! This photo shoot was already a reschedule due to a crazy windstorm a few weeks prior. And then, wouldn't you know it, the day of our reschedule had bitter cold temperatures! Luckily my sister knew of this awesome abandoned warehouse in Spanish Fork. It had the best light!

Our family has grown!

My parents and their grandbabies (aka the reason they moved from Spokane to Utah this past summer :)). This was just as Clara brought some real tears. haha!

Must. Distract. Keep. Moving. 

Aaaaaand a smile! I love my curly-haired girl.

Max is Mr. Cheese. We can always count on him. :) He warms my heart.

Checking out the scene with Grandpa!

The fab 5. 

I feel so lucky to have the best siblings. I love these two people so much.

 Life sure is good!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Max and Clara had their first encounter with Santa Claus. These pictures make me so happy - their little faces of amazement and wonder. Even though these babies are still too young to "really understand" what is going on during this Christmas season, I can already see how having kids makes the holidays so fun! 

The "other" nursery

You may remember the Gender Neutral Twin nursery I made for Max and Clara before they were born. I love, love, love this room - it truly was a labor of love. I worked so hard to make a calming, peaceful room made for two different genders (not an easy task, trust me!). After our babies started getting older, it became obvious that having Max and Clara share a room was not the ideal situation. Max is just not a good sleeper (sigh...) and I didn't feel it was fair to Clara to always get woken up by her brother. It was stressful for everyone! We had Max in a pack n' play in the guest bedroom for a really long time until I finally conceded and just moved his crib permanently. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little mad about this! We lost our guest bedroom and I worked so hard on their nursery... now I had to make a whole new room for that little stinker! Haha. Well, luckily it soon became a fun design endeavor that I actually really enjoyed. 

I present Max's "other" nursery:

My main goal with this room was to try and use what I had around the house and not spend too much money. For instance, the curtain rod was an old black rod that I spray painted gold. That chair is actually a dining chair from World Market we bought on clearance a few years ago. And we've had that bookshelf since we moved into our house (a random lucky find from the online classifieds). I just gave it a new life with some bright paint! This bright green is way out of my decorating comfort zone, but I love the result. It's "Once Upon a Time" by Benjamin Moore, matched at Sherwin Williams. Here's the before:

And the after!

The lamp used to be in our bedroom (from Target a few years ago). The gold "M," whicker baskets, hexagon box and feather print are all from Hobby Lobby. The diamond basket used for diapers is from Home Goods.

I used most of the same art from his collage in the first nursery. The "woodland creatures" print is from the Painted Arrow. The rug, curtains, tan pillow and yellow storage ottoman are all from Target. :)

And how can I not mention the fun triangle wall?!? I love this wall. The lovely people at Walls Need Love hooked me up with these 2" triangle decals after I used their circle decals in the first nursery. I love their products, and their service is amazing! I would recommend Walls Need Love to anyone. Check them out! Getting those triangles perfectly aligned took more time than I expected, but the OCD in me had to have every triangle straight and perfectly spaced. 

The deer head is from Hobby Lobby. I was going to buy it from an online shop, but found a black one at Hobby Lobby for more than half the price. Spray paint is my friend!

 So there you have it! Max's new space. I really have loved this little project and love his cozy little space. I'm pretty sure he loves it too :)

Now can you just sleep better, Max?! Thanks in advance, buddy! 

A Bedrock Halloween

Max and Clara made the perfect Pebbles and Bam Bam for Halloween. They seriously fit the characters perfectly! Clara love eating/playing with rocks. And Bam Bam? Well I think the name fits his actions perfectly. Max is such a little boy and likes to bang everything against, well, everything! Ha. 

My mom helped me with the costumes, and I was so happy with how they turned out! This whole "twin halloween" thing is pretty fun! Normally Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday (I know, I'm a grinch), but now that I have two little babies I think I can get into this! 

We "trick-or-treated" to a few houses in our neighborhood with Max and Clara's cousins. It was a fun night. Hope everyone else had a fun and happy Halloween!

Double the One, Double the Fun!

Before it's no longer October I better document the fact that my two sweet babies turned ONE on October 15th! I cannot believe that I have two 1 year-olds. Actually, wait, let me take that back. I can believe it because life has suddenly hit a whole new level of craziness. My day is consumed by cleaning up messes all over the house, chasing babies and keeping them from dirt or rocks or anything else they can get their hands on. But it's also consumed by double the giggles, smiles and cuddles. I really feel so grateful for Max and Clara.

A lot of people have asked me if this year has gone by fast - the answer to that is mostly "no." :) This has been, by far, the hardest and longest year of my life. We have been beyond exhausted for over 365 days, and I know that exhaustion probably won't really go away. We have had a lot of loooooong nights and early mornings. But it does seem crazy that my two itsy bitsy babies are now huge 1 year olds! I say "huge" because, really, they are big babies. 

Max at 1 year:

Weight - 24 lb, 87%

Height - 32.3 in, 99%

Head - 49 cm, 98%

Clara at 1 year:

Weight - 22 lb 4 oz, 83%

Height - 30.5 in, 90%

Head - 47 cm, 93%

We celebrated a few days after their birthday with some family and friends. It was a fun little party in our backyard. Max and Clara are so loved!

Toys are obviously meant to be eaten.

The highly anticipated "double cake smash" didn't really go down how I would have hoped. Both Max and Clara kind of just poked the cakes. It may have been that they were just so distracted by all the people staring at them. Silly babies. If only they knew!

Pom-poms and confetti!

I love my little family of four! 

Leaves

I think one of the greatest joys of being a mother is watching your babies discover things for the first time. Like leaves, for instance. Such a basic, ordinary occurrence of life is a novelty for these babies who know only those things Russ and I have exposed them to. But boy, did they love leaves!

We drove up to the American Fork canyon today for a picnic and scenic drive. I love living here in Utah where the mountains are a short drive away. I feel so incredibly blessed to be surrounded by such beauty every day. The babies love being in the mountains. Every time we have gone they get so excited and just liven up. 

They were so excited, in fact, that it was pretty much near impossible to get them both to look away from those leaves! :)

I love, love, LOVE Max's face in this picture. 

My handsome boy! He looks like a kid. SOMEONE STOP TIME PLEASE!

And my beautiful, sweet and sassy girl! Those eyes kill me every time.

"Hi, mom!" 

I kind of have a thing for "throwing pictures." Luckily both of them love to be thrown! 

 We made sure to stay until both Max and Clara were nice and dirty.

 ... and sufficiently wet. No one can keep Max away from water!

Little Mill campground seriously was amazing! Look at those yellow leaves and that gorgeous river. 

And then we continued our drive through the other side of the canyon. Breathtaking is the only way to describe it! 

The quaking aspens...

... and an array of fall colors. 

And that was our day. I can't wait till our next "mini adventure" with the babies! They bring so much renewed excitement to life.