pictures and thoughts

These kids are growing up too fast... Motherhood is such a pull of the happiest happies, the deep fear of complete failure, and the undeniable sense that your life is not your own. Everyday all these emotions flood into my head and by nighttime I am so exhausted from these feelings that I fall asleep the minute my head hits the pillow. I only write this to capture how I am feeling at THIS moment. So that one day, when I look back and read my blog I can remember that my days were FULL. I know people tell me all the time how fast it goes, but lately, I've been telling myself that. That my days are long, but this year went by like a blur. That as angry and frustrated as I can get, it doesn't change even an ounce of the love I feel toward Lucy and Olle. After watching the news for hours on Friday night and seeing the tragedy of a city struck by a horrible attack, I was reminded yet again, how short our lives are and to be truly grateful for each moment, never knowing when it will be our last.

So with that, my life in pictures over the last couple weeks.

 carving pumpkins and "smiling"

 trick or treating downtown. The hat + boots are a midwest staple!

 handsome little Olle

 This tree stump at Elmwood Park has affectionately been named "The Giving Tree" How sweet is that? It's one of Lucy's favorite books, and when she saw the tree stump she ran over and sat down.

 Here was a "non-napping" day. She fell asleep on the way to the grocery store, I hoisted her into this weird cart seat, and she slept the WHOLE time I shopped. It was one of my best grocery store runs ever :)

 Giving Olle the scoop on how the bouncer works

 This weather!!!!!! Look at Lucy-- no shoes or socks! November, you are SPOILING us!

 He loves fresh air, and I can't get enough of this sweet face.

 Lucy doesn't look for pictures anymore, so I snapped this was right after I told her I had a squirrel on my head....

 Reading princess books to Olle man.

 This is Miss. Debbie, our librarian. This Saturday they had an event where you got to bring your stuffed animal to storytime and then the stuffy spent the night at the Library! We picked up our stuffy on Sunday afternoon and we got a book with pictures of all the mischief the stuffy's got into at the library... we love our library. It's been one of our favorite outlets- especially now that is getting cooler.

 another day, another park. This time with DAD!

 Swinging with Olle

 She loves driving us, anywhere... I hope someday she'll be my chauffeur as I'm not much of a driver myself, and prefer the passenger seat. This day we drove to Starbucks, Grammy's in Chicago, and church to see friends.

 Joking with dad... her smile....

 Last big event of the weekend was watching FROZEN! Lucy just loved it. She was in a complete trance the whole time. Sten also loved the extra snuggles he got from his girl. When we talk about it, she also makes sure to remind us that she also got to eat popcorn :)

This is her Frozen trance...

And lastly, just so I can look back and laugh I snapped this picture when I told Lucy she couldn't have a second package of fruit snacks.... Full melt down.

Stay little for as long as you want to. Play princess until you're 15, carry around that ugly baby everywhere, fall asleep in the grocery store, dance around to your favorite songs and eat popcorn with your Disney movies, Lucy girl. 

I'm beyond thankful for this little family of mine.

XO. erica