Everest's 1st Birthday!

My biggest Bear Boy turned ONE on Saturday! How can it be??? This year has flown at lightening speed. Like, really. I can't even describe how fast it's gone! And it's been the best year yet! Bear completes our little family. What would we ever do without his hilarious, brave, hungry and independent self??? He's just been the easiest baby ever with the sweetest little demeanor. Oh man. I want to bite his cheeks off!

With lots of help (as in she did the whole thing!) from Wren's mom, we threw Bear a Monster Mash birthday party! All the cousins dressed up and Hollie planned so many cute activities for the little people. Bear was all crawling around like the little monkey he was. His little tail was killing me! He'd crawl with his feet and hands, and he looked just like a monkey prancing up a tree! 

Here he is with his new little monster fur ball. He loves anything that is fuzzy. Immediate face plant!

As always, Hollie's spread of food was amazing.

Bear is so lucky to have cousins and a brother that love him so!

So shockingly, the person that loves food more than anyone, hated his smash cake. Poor Bear. Glad I was lazy, and just got a cupcake rather than a special cake. He wouldn't even touch it! Ha!

And thank goodness for my big naked baby, he opened all the gifts that Bear wanted nothing to do with. Who wants to open presents when there's a flight full of stairs to climb, right in front of 'em?! All he wants to do is climb.

But once the gifts were open, in heaven he was!

Classic Bear face right there!

Bear. Your Mommy, and Daddy and Brother just can't get enough of you!

Thanks for coming to us. You've rocked our world in the best way possible!

FIVE BILLION KISSES TO YOU!

My Everest Bear

My Everest Bear,
How could I love anything quite as much as you? Holding you, kissing you, squeezing you... These things just aren't enough. I need to bite your cheek off or something. I'm so infatuated with you I can't even deal. You are the the sweetest, most mellow and happy baby. I was looking at you tonight and the word that sums you up perfectly is just 'happy'. You're like Grandpa Dave! That's lucky. It's hard for you to nurse for very long periods of time without latching off, lurching your whole head up, and giving me your adorable, dimpled smile. You are aaaaaalways trying to catch my eye and the second I see you, you smile soooo big. I think you're obsessed with me and I'm obsessed with that. You love brother so much too. The second you hear his voice, you start kicking so fast and looking around trying to find him. He loves his Bearsie Boy so much too. I hope you guys can be the best of friends. Daddy loves you way too much too. He has big fat plans to take you and brother biking and skiing and camping and just anything with him. He asks me all the time if I think you guys will always want to hang out with him and be his best friends. I say, of course! You'd be crazy not to. He's obsessed with his boys and would do a anything for you guys. How lucky you are to have him for your Dad! There's no one that could show their love to you more. You are sleeping like the ultimate champ at night. We put you to bed around 7:00 PM (a complete Christmas miracle for us late owl parents!) and you'll usually only wake up once at night to nurse, and then wake up around 8:00 AM for good. Heaven my boy! You're more of a little cat napper during the day if we're not in the car, or I'm not holding you, but that's okay. It gets us out of the house and on lots of adventures for your busy brother, or makes me stop doing who the hell knows what, and hold you for a good two hour nap (I usually sleep for some of it too. Heavenly!) You are rolling over as of a couple weeks ago, doing the cutest talkies, you love your passy boy, and are getting really good with your fat little hands. You concentrate so hard on grabbing your toys and then bring it straight to your mouth. You are obsessed with sucking anything! If your Passy Boy isn't in, you are sucking any or all of your fingers. It's way too freakin' cute I can't handle it. You are getting pretty good at sitting in your Bumbo, you like your Mamaroo, and love your Lady Bro. We still swaddle you at night and put you in your light blue little sleep sack that makes you look like a nurse. Nurse Bear. You're hit or miss with nursing and I'm not sure if it's so much nursing or just food. You do not eat for comfort (unlike your older brother, it's allllll he wanted to do). You eat out of necessity and the second you're full you're done and wanting to look up at me and smile. Oh your smile! If you're ever crying really hard, needing me and I come to get you, the second you see me, you immediately stop crying and smile and start talking. I swear all your crying is fake. I've still yet to see you get too worked up crying and getting passed the point. You're just so even keel, I love it. Brother will come in your room when you wake up and sing you songs, sometimes for twenty minutes, and you just sit there and smile and squeal. He helps with you so much. He was pretty rough with you at first but he's really learning how to be gentle and sweet. You also love to watch him jump on the couch and drive his cars around your head. 
Thank you for being so easy, Mr. Bear. You've made having two as easy as two could be.
Love your Mommy Gwirl.

Everest's Nursery!

Okay, I have been meaning to post pictures of Everest's nursery for two months now and am just barely getting around to it. Finally!

This little room has been so many different things since moving in. First, it was Rad's nursery (you can see his current room here too, if you want!), then our makeshift walk in closet, and then a cluttered storage room. It was a lot of work to get it to where it is now but I'm happy to say, it's my favorite room in the house! I love nursing my little Everest Bear in there. It's just bright and happy like him!

If you like anything, here's where I got most of it:

Nightstand and rocking chair- West Elm

Lamp- Hobby Lobby

Book holder, checkered pillow, changing pad cover, and wooden diaper holder- Ikea

Drapes- Target

Picture Frames- Z Gallerie

Crib and dresser- Re-purposed 

Wooden shelf- My dad made (love that shelf!)

Aspen wallpaper (my favorite part of the room... Seemed only fitting for our Bear!)- JPLondon

Hope you enjoyed!

Breakfast At Our House

If there's one thing I'm not screwing up every day, it's breakfast... 
I have a love/hate relationship with breakfast time. I love it because it's the start of a new day surrounded by two, of the three dudes, I like most. Rad's right by my side, the entire time, helping me pour the corn into the pan, stirring the oatmeal, pressing the buttons on the blender, or just giving the kitchen table a good old fashioned scrub down as he sprays cleaner (all natural) over and over again, wiping it with his soaked paper towel. He repeats, "Daddy made a BIG mess of this table last night, huh!?" Yes, Rad. Yes he did ;) And if he's not down for a snooze, I'm usually wearing Evy Boy in the LuLu Wrap, trying my best not to splash water in his face while I do the dishes.
For the same reason I love breakfast, I also hate it. It's multitasking at it's finest. Some days my brain feels like it might just explode! And finishing anything? Just getting the bacon from the fridge to the oven can take twenty minutes with helper Rad needing me to help him with this, or move that for him, or Everest's passy boy falling to the ground, and the freakin' smoke alarm going off for the 20th time because it's positioned directly over the oven (that "beep" will kill me one of these days...) But you know what? It's all worth it for that hot breakfast.
We make the same thing every single morning... "Corn, tatoes, bacon, and soothie", as Radcliff says, and now we've added oatmeal after a friend told me it that it helps with milk supply (it reeeeally does!). We get the corn, bacon, gluten-free oatmeal and hash browns from Trader Joes. I love shopping there because they have nitrate free bacon and turkey bacon (we rotate these), their fozen corn tastes so fresh (don't bother with frozen corn aywhere else, it always gets stuck in your teeth), and their hash browns are to die for. I also love their gluten-free oatmeal. Even if you don't eat a gluten-free diet, it's so much better than regular oatmeal. Our smoothies consist of frozen fruit (we switch it up), avocado, spinach, coconut milk, in the carton and can (again, Trader Joes thick, creamy coconut milk in the can is truly what heaven's got to be made of!), chia seeds, flaxseed (another food that's supposed to help your milk supply), and then kifir. 
As big of a pain in the butt as it can be to make such a production out of breakfast, I figure, even if we don't have the best lunch or dinner, at breakfast time alone, we've gotten most of our fruits, veggies, proteins, and good fats in for the day that we need. And (it's a big AND!), I've never really understood how people eat cereal, or toast and feel good throughout their day. It's not a judgement, it's honestly something I don't get. If I eat a breakfast like that, I feel lethargic, I don't have energy, my stomach hurts, and I'm hungry like an hour later. So... I challenge all of you to make an effort to eat a big, warm, healthy breakfast every morning and see how you feel. Plus, as you can see, it really brings the family together too. 
I thought it needed to be documented so I can always remember these happy-crazy breakfast memories when I'm older. As stressful as this first part of the day can be, I know I'll miss having Thing 1 and Thing 2 by my side, in 30 years, when I'm still making the same damned thing.