Laney is 5!

 This happy little pup turned 5!

When some sort of good smelling dried fowl head makes its annual appearance, Laney knows it's party time!

First a picture- 

But she only had one thing in mind- get that duck!

We paused the party for five minutes while she devoured it.

Then it was pupcake time!

And present time- this year's gift is a huge hit all around.  We call it the salad bowl!

I thought it would be a once in a while toy but she has eaten out of it every day since her birthday.  It's so cute to watch her snuffle around looking for food, and it's so much quieter than her usual tags clanking on the metal bowl feeding time. 

Every day is a good day to celebrate Laney!  She is the greatest little ball of fluffy joy in our lives.  She's always good for a laugh, she helps us feel brave, she gives us all so much love and she makes coming home extra exciting.

Snug and cozy!

The perfect little loaf- our forever pup!

Basking in the sunlight whenever it appears- 

Puppy in a bag!

Our little pup is FIVE!!  I thought she was turning four this year, so realizing that she is 35 years old in dog years makes my heart just a little sad.  We love our Laney Bear! Our home is a happier place because Laney is in it!

Time Stands Still

When you accidentally punch the ground and your finger pops in a direction it's clearly not intended to go and you have to decide whether a mid-night trip to the ER is in order (it wasn't, thankfully). 

When ice and snow and bald tires make it impossible to get out of the driveway, let alone up the street, so you have to reverse back down the driveway but get stuck even doing that and then you get rescued by a real life Prince Charming. (He even made sure I had fresh new tires on my car within 24 hours!) 

And he dug out a throne for Laney so she could use a patch of grass even when the snow was so deep. 

Look at that snow mountain! And those flying ears.  No time for sniffing around in this weather.

The view out Leah's window was impressive!  And, it turns out, impressively destructive. 

Time stands still when a little spot on the ceiling starts out looking like this- 

and before long looks like this- 

When the ornament you brought back from Mexico didn't make the trip- 

When babies get sick. 

And then more babies get sick.

And then you get sick but really nothing matters because you are too busy resting to care about much of anything at all.

But your babies make you food- thank you Emma and Adam!

And (not pictured) drive other babies around- thank you Leah!

And then dryer breaks and the repairman is back in Mexico so you just can't do laundry even though there has been a stomach bug going around the house. At least it wasn't the washing machine!

So you turn off the lights and light up the candles and just embrace it all.  Because it's such a good life, even when it's a bumpy one.

Mexico Day 6- Back to the Beach & Back Home

Because this trip had such a rocky and slow start, by the time our last day arrived we were all pretty much ready for it. We had already been given an extra day, and having an extra few hours in the morning before we had to leave felt like an extra, extra treat!  We still had time for one more morning walk on the beach- 

You can always tell when I'm nearing my end of a trip because I start making faces like this- 

I also love Daddy's face because he's clearly trying to say something out of the corner of his mouth. 

Hee hee, aren't we cute!

My new happy place- 

This guy rarely relaxes, what a treat this trip was!

Sun-averse twinsies!

Emma was made for the beach!

Leah was too!

Noah was made for the shade, and he had a great time digging around and creating a buried treasure experience for the kids back there!

They had a great time digging it up!

Adam was a pina colada convert!

It was another gorgeous day, and we were happy to spend our morning at the beach.  Everyone spent more time in the sand than the waves this morning.

I finally remembered to ask someone else to take a picture of all of us!

We were not ready to say goodbye to this gorgeous water.

But eventually we made our way back to our rooms to pack up

Emma made this cute card- we weren't trying to be messy but there were a few rough moments in our room!

One last moment of pause- (I'm confident the boys were playing the Switch while we were having our final photo shoot)

One last shot of the blue and green that we won't see for a few more months back at home- 

One last pass over Monkey Bridge- 

And then it was time to load up, fly out and make the long journey home.  The adrenaline that propelled us out of that crazy blizzard was replaced by post-trip exhaustion, and Daddy did a great job of driving our car full of sleeping babies the four hours back home. Even though we got in after 1 AM, the kids all wanted to get up and get back to school the next morning, and I'm pretty sure we all had sand in our toes and pina coladas in our bellies when we jumped right back into real life. This trip was an adventure to remember for sure, and I'm so glad we were able to push pause on the winter blues for a week to make some amazing memories in Mexico!