snippets of happy

First of all, did you notice anything new? Yes, my blog is getting a small facelift. It still (obviously) needs a lot of work. I'm still trying to work out the technical stuff and I'm pretty much sucking at it. 

Second of all, I've done many different variations of the "happy post!" It really is one of my favorite things to blog about because my cell phone is filled with a lot of pictures that make me happy in the moment. Its nice to gather all those happy pictures together in one spot and do a post. Once its all done...its one big happy! So here are a few snippets of happy thats been making me happy! Ok, that was a lot of happy in one line. #sorrynotsorry 

^ Sorry for the grainy i phone pic (c/o of auntie May!) Sophia has been taking ice skating lessons for several weeks now and she LOVES it. ^

^ Mike babysat for a few hours and I came home to happy, hot cocoa sugared up, spilled on the shirt, messy home...but did i mention that everyone was happy. :) ^ 

^ one of very best friends and roommate in college came to visit! These girls loved spending every minute with their auntie may! ^ 

^ did i mention that i love her? She is sister from another mother :) And we had the very best visit to San Francisco together! ^

^ come on, how can a happy blog post not have a picture of a donut! Aren't these mini donuts adorable? They were hot, sugary, and perfectly fried! ^

^ She is my happy! Her smile radiates and its pretty dang contagious! ^

^ two peas in a pod. literally. :) ^

^ I have been to SF a dozen times but have never been on the Golden Gate bridge until recently. We drove through the bridge during the golden hour and it was magical. ^

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" A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2014."

Sophia: my dreamer, my traveler, my adventure lover.

Zaylee: looks like a teenager in this photos. She's growing up. 

the little things in life.

Happy Monday friends! Although Monday's are always the hardest days to wake up to, I feel so refreshed this morning and ready to take on another week. To be quite honest, I have not felt like myself for the last 5 weeks and I just found out Friday that I had a double ear infection! I saw two different doctors and was put on wrong medications for a wrong diagnosis and finally, finally... I am starting to feel better. Let me tell you, living with muffled congested hearing is the worst. But, I can hear again now and its been wonderful. Its the little things in our life, especially our health that sometimes we can take for granted. 

Besides the ear infections, another big thing we did this weekend was start the beginning stages of building a garden in our yard! We made it through building half of our garden bed before the sun went down yesterday and I can't wait to finish it. I have dreamed of having my own garden for a long long time and we are finally doing it. I'm not all sure what to do and pretty nervous nothing will grow, but it feels good to check things off a bucket list. I felt so inspired yesterday that I even suggested we get some chickens. We are going to wait on that idea, for now. :) 

Anyways, I am wishing you all a happy and healthy week. I will be potty training my 20 month old starting today tomorrow! I absolutely hate hate potty training. Thankfully my oldest caught on pretty quickly and there were hardly any accidents, but I just don't like it. Wish me luck. Say a little prayer that very very little accidents will happen. I just hate cleaning up accidents, especially the numbero dos ones...but i guess who really does. :/ 

Okay, venting done. Bye! 

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Sophia: only four year olds can wear three different shades of pink and still look wonderful. 

Zaylee: when you are 21 months old its hard to look at the bigger picture, therefore most paintings look like this: all colors blended in one spot of the paper. I remember Sophia doing the same at that age. 

* I decided to take myself and husband out of this series. 

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014"

Farm to table: Pizza my heart!

One of the perks of living close to farms in this city is having a box of fresh seasonal produce delivered to your door weekly. To be quite honest, I don't always know what's in season when I go to the grocery store and I usually end up buying the same bag of grapes and carrots that I'm used to restocking every week. So when I started receiving my first box, I found half of the contents in the box intimidating. First of all I didn't even know what some of it was (hello, kiwi berries!) and then most importantly...i didn't know what to do with them. After a few rounds on Pinterest, I found that the possibility is endless! I find it exciting now to see how my produce has changed from the Fall season to now Winter and also watch my adventurous children wanting to try it all. 

So this week, I was given red potatoes and leeks...and I turned them into a delicious Potato Leek Pizza! I found this delicious recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I love that woman. Everything she makes looks drool worthy. 

 I modified the recipe a little bit. I obviously used red potatoes instead of Yukon Gold and used turkey bacon because thats all I had in the fridge. Although it was still good, I would still recommend the good ol' fatty bacon for next time. 

^^ Disclaimer: those are not my chubby dark arms rolling the pin ;) ^^

Voila'! Enjoy! 

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"A portrait of my family once a week, every week, in 2014."

I'm so excited about this new series that I plan on doing this new year. I plan on getting one picture of each of us and posting it each week. Looking forward to seeing how much the girls will grow week by week and also watch myself (and husband) age this year ;) 

Sorry for the grainy iphone pictures.. 

Husband: He found the biggest bottle of beer at the store. 

Me: Don't ever ever ever cheat on your hair stylist. Otherwise you will end up cutting your hair 3 times in one week to try to fix it.

Sophia: This girl has been counting down for new years since the day after Christmas just to put on her Hanbok.

Zaylee: First year of wearing hanbok and bowing to her grandparents. She did a great job and loved receiving money. She couldn't take her eyes or hands off the money. :) 

2 0 1 4 !!!

^^ Zaylee couldn't stop looking at the money she received from grandma after her new years bow ^^

^^ sorry for the poor grainy iphone pic. Zaylee was giving me a fake smile in this pic.  ^^

Happy New Years everyone!!! I can't believe that we are in 2014! As I get older the years seem to go by faster and faster. 2013 was an incredible year for us. I am so so thankful for so much and I look forward to the new memories I (and my family) will make in 2014. 

As for new years resolutions...I do have a few. I love making new years resolutions each year. I look forward to it. When I was younger I was always gifted a new journal for Christmas and I couldn't wait to start writing in it the first of the year. Every year, I still have that same excitement in my heart... to open a fresh empty journal to start writing. To fill it with new things to come.

So here are my new resolutions for 2014:

1. Exercise! I probably say this every year but I don't do it. This year I am doing it. One thing I am proud of in 2013 was learning to eat right. But, I still feel sluggish because I am out of shape. I'm tired of feeling tired and so this year I'm going to change that. I'm turning 30 this year and I want to work at being in the best shape of my life. 

2. Live and be more simple! No explanation needed. 

3. Love more wildly! Going to work more on loving and living out my faith more wildly. This category also goes for my husband and children.

I also have a few other small things and bigger projects that I am hoping to accomplish this year...all very exciting and exhausting to think about. :) 

Do you make resolutions?? If so, what are some of yours? 

As for this blog, I am hoping to keep up with it this year. Thank you for reading and I can't wait to share another year of our little love feast with you!