resolution.

UPDATE: Find a fresh new kit design here.

A new kit has been created for 2017!

Happy New Year, friends!

xo

new years eve. really?!

twenty-thirteen. sounds a little crazy.

+++

the boys are so excited to open their letters from last year.

and i'm looking forward to sitting down with my husband 

as the clock counts down.

to plot the year ahead, together.

twenty-twelve felt a lot like treading water.

and this coming year we resolve to get things done.

make changes. and work hard.

we've got big plans for twenty-fourteen.

i'm getting ready to bundle up our kits right now. 

+++

i grabbed some fancy gold foil seals today and stuffed a little paper sleeve with everything we'll need to fill out our lists and write a little letter to our future selves. there's also a special children's list just like years past for the kiddies to compare how they've grown and changed these last twelve months.

i love that you do this with me. 

it's so fun to hear that you'll be sitting down with these kits and your own families this evening, too.

happy new year, friends! 

love, lindsay

and many thanks to danyelle 

for her late night photo styling ideas/help from the labor and delivery wing!

from our home to yours:

for you. from jane.

we've been busy holiday-ing over here. 

and i've been busy working on some cool projects.

i can't wait to share them all with you. 

+++

i've been doing some custom work for jane of see jane blog.

she's up to some really great things over there this holiday season.

i had to share these labels i whipped up for one of her clever projects. 

they're perfectly simple.

go here to download a few for yourself.

collect all your trimmings,

turn up the sufjan and let's have a little wrap party.

all i need.

it's ten-thirty-eight pm.
am currently putting off climbing into bed.
procrastinating with blogs. and good music.

my winter insomnia has hit.
which means that even the most tiring of mothering days finds my head hitting the pillow around eleven o'clock each night and still wide-eyed and awake come one or two.

i catch up on my shows. my faves these days involving burly old men living off the wilderness in alaska. or burly bearded men who make duck calls for a living.

then i'll toss and turn and fluff my pillows.
under the covers? nope.
on top of the covers? nope.
maybe a glass of milk? nope.
a book? nope.

then i'll give up.

i'll just lay there.
eyes blinking up at the ceiling.
and my mind wanders.
the racing thoughts keeping me up at night are so silly, too.

eventually i'll feel a kiss on my forehead.
andrey leaving for work. it usually wakes me.
which means that somehow sleep does actually find me.

this until spring...
where my best and most delicious sleep hangs out.

be more.

this is what fall/winter looks like in tri-town.

with the stoyan boys.

+++

we met andrey at the front door as he came in from work the other day.

we were bundled up and hoping to catch the last little bit of daylight.

we kicked dirt.

jumped puddles. 

climbed rocks.

collected feathers.

and poked at a giant dead salmon with our walking sticks... then we ran.  fast!

+++

making a promise to get out more.

let these boys of mine wander a little.

 

wild charlie turns two!

we celebrated our little charlie 'chooey' a few weeks ago.

complete with:

the most delicious coconut flavored birthday cake.

shiny yellow puddle jumpers.

and a foxy tail.

we had dinner with grandpa.

cake with cousins.

and happy birthday 'hooray!'s' all day long.

this kid is one of a kind.

he's a full sentence talker.

(our favorite being his lunch table small talk)

real competition in the stoyan boy wrestling ring.

and still puts in a good rock-a-bye session with his mother at bedtime.

happy two.

keep on, charlie-choo!

boo!

calling it a night. a good one.

but not before i raid their candy buckets.

goodnight, interweb.

halloween 2012 | costumes

lucas: silverback gorilla

gavin: ghosty

charlie: dancin' skeleton

books on books. on books.

today our errand running took us across town.

today was library day.

+++

charlie heads straight for the mini computer.

gavin always - right to the books on tape.

and i start my hunt.

today we hit the children's book jackpot.

our book crate is full to the brim.

i remember being lovely little lindsay 

and my cathy would let us fill a laundry basket.

a laundry basket! 

full of library books!

+++

the littlest boys are napping.

and i'm going to sit in the quiet and read this whole stack.

i love children's books more than i love grown up books.

today's finds:

numbers - orla kiely

little birds ABC's - piet grobler

bear dispair - gaetan doremus

people - blexbolex

up above + down below - paloma valdivia

looking at lincoln - maira kalman

otto carrotto - chiara carrer

clara and asha - eric rohmann

sweet dreams - rose a. lewis

tumford - nancy tillman

head/heart

the tickets had been sitting in our desk drawer for over a month. yet even up until the night before - i still hadn't nailed down our babysitter plans.  even so - i very clearly imagined the two us snuggled up front row.  and thanks to my sweet amelia - last tuesday morning found me and my man concert bound.

we are a funny team. andrey and i. very different. but what i love most about andrey is that he let's me - be me. and it makes him happiest to watch me in my happiness.

just before we pulled in to spokane - i told him: we'll be going up to the front, ya know.  i won't be able to sit still up in a seat. i just love the music too much.  he laughed and said: for sure.

we sat still way up top through the two opening acts. and i debated my bravery. a sea of hipster teens making me second guess my happy heart - until he leaned over to me as the set was changing and whispered: let's go? 

we held hands. all the way to the front. and i danced in circles around him (standing just like that up there). a silly smirk on his face as my heart pounded and my feet stomped. you can't help but move when you're up that close. and by the fourth song we were keeping the beat together. snuggled in for the slow songs. hand claps on the happiest ones. lost in the music with everyone else.

he was the best concert date ever.
they were one of the best played shows ever.
+++

we drove home to our babies in the middle of night. and spent the whole two hours trying to decide what instrument we'd have been in the band. i assigned him the drums.  and i got the tambourine.
he totally gets me.

first day: grade one.

so far. so good.
pulling my heart strings further and further.

one | two | three | four | five

next up: first grade!

today was one of those days where parenting came effortlessly. 

these days are hard to come by. it had to have been something in the air. the last-day-of-summer-vacation-air. our last day of sleep-ins and lazy play. the last day of come-and-go-as-we-please. tomorrow is rise and shine! tomorrow is first grade. 

my feelings tonight are completely different than how i felt last year - on the first day of kinder. i am confident that lucas will be just fine. i know what kind of boy he is. and i know how eager he is to learn. we will miss him during the day - but the summer days were becoming sooooo long for him and i know he is anxious to get back to having a daily routine. 

daily routine = not my parenting strong point.

tonight we walked down to the school to meet his new teacher and find his desk. real desk cubbies this year! no baby tables. and no baby toys. we found our after school meeting spot and pinky swore not to forgot (or be late). we talked about first day butterflies/jitters and how to be on the look-out for someone who may need a new friend.

tonight we said, CHEERS! over ice cream sundaes. topped with the back-to-school usual - kindness, happiness, bravery, obedience and extra love. 

i love lucas jude. love, love, looooove him.

...hello, wonder.

just checking in.

+++

here comes the sun

miss us?

we've been busy summer-ing.

+++ 

this day was spent listening to this and this.

doing chores for treats.

taking long afternoon toddler naps.

and then parking our lawn chairs down by the river as the sun went down.

 

it was such a good one.

+

sister.

the light in my sister christine's downtown apartment was perfect.

and so is her new pup.

a kinder-year.

we did it. 

a full school year under our belts.

+++

and he was only late once!

ok, ok - i was a few minutes late to pick him up a time or two.

the first few minutes of him at home after school were my favorite. 

we played a game. 

a game he didn't know we were playing. 

i'd ask him as many specific questions as i could - trying to get as much out of him about his time spent away from me.

sometimes he'd talk. 

and sometimes he'd just say, 

MOM! we did school stuff!

he was so eager to learn.

he's reading like crazy. anything he can get his hands on. 

road signs.

junk mail.

cereal boxes.

and gavin's bedtime story.

his kinder favorites? 

making patterns.  red, yellow, red, yellow.

making rainbows.
hatching baby chicks.

a spunky little boy named jai. sidekick.

and mrs. sisemore. 

i am so grateful to her and the time she spent daily with this kid of mine. 

in the pines...

in a matter of ten minutes on saturday afternoon we'd made the decision to jump in the car, had an overnight bag packed with enough for everyone in our little family, loaded up the boys and hit the road. andrey had come home early from what we thought would be a weekend spent working. seattle had been calling to me for months and i couldn't take it one more day.

i've been surprisingly responsible since lucas started kindergarten. we haven't travelled on a whim like that since last summer. i was beginning to get stir crazy. the daily phone calls from my mother started to sound something like this:

cath: hi, linny! how's things today?!

me: we're in the tri-cities. still.

some days the boys and i will pull up to andrey's job site with the road trip tunes on loud hoping we can tempt him into running away with us - always ending up with a kiss on the cheek for everyone and just enough time to get lucas to school by the first bell.

but not on saturday. 

he was easily convinced by promises of fresh sushi.

and a cuppa morning starbucks on the pier. 

we spent the entire day on sunday wandering around my city. and that city - she even rained for me. because despite what they say - it doesn't always rain in seattle. the sweet little sprinkling was a lucky one and only added to my happiness. it meant buying an umbrella. 

and hopping in city puddles. 

we rode the monorail from the seattle center to westlake and then wandered a few blocks to pikes. we drove through the u-district and i replayed some of my happiest lindsay memories there. when the babes started to doze off - we took the scenic highway through the pines and ended up in snoqualmie for a mini hike in the misty rain with the wild ferns. we buckled ourselves back in as the sun started to go down and kurt sang me and my sleepy boys all the way home at the top of his lungs.

the magic in an unplanned adventure is just what i needed.  just what i needed.

i can hardly wait to do it again. 

i have enough.

all of a sudden - i have a full calendar.

daily to-do's. 

a ringing phone.

i am stepping outside of my comfort zone.

i am being brave.

and all of a sudden - i have all the time that i need.

i am up with the sun.

moving and doing.

being present. 

i have more patience.

i have the energy to be what they need.

i have a clear head. 

a full heart.

i have a new calling.

an experiment

we made slime!

+ it was a hit. 

happiest boys ever. 

+++

i found several recipes on pinterest. 

we decided to go with this one. 

pour your glue into a bowl. 

(we used 2 - 4oz. bottles so that both of my boys could do the pouring)

fill the empty glue bottles up with water.

give it a little shake before pouring the water into the bowl.

stir it up and add a drop or two of food coloring. 

we went with gavin's fave - GREEN!

add 1 tsp. of borax to 1/2 cup of warm water. 

slowly add the borax solution to your bowl.  keep stirring!

your slime will develop quickly,

you'll need to use your hands to finish mixing it.

have fun!

be more.

   i can't get this post out of my mind.
she is speaking of photography. mostly.
but it spoke to something else in me.

her words:

'i adjusted my settings. and adjusted them again.

and again and again.

it was work, but it was worth it...'

'am i who i say i am?

am i authentic and real?'

+++

i am trying to be more. 

still.