… and then there were five!

“but the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender through your life when there will be no more coming after – oh, that’s love by a different name. she is the babe you hold in your arms for an hour after she’s gone to sleep. if you put her down in the crib, she might wake up changed and fly away. so instead you rock by the window, drinking the light from her skin, breathing her exhaled dreams. your heart bays to the double crescent moons of closed lashes on her cheeks. she’s the one you can’t put down.”
― barbara kingsolver, the poisonwood biblethat sweet baby girl is miss Harper Rey, my newest and tiniest goddaughter! i planned a special trip out to monterey, california to meet her (before she was completely grown!) and spend time with my cousin laura and four other god kids last week. it was packed full of sweetness. so SO many baby snuggles, playing barbies with kenzie, evening walks in perfect weather, watching the boys hockey games, makeovers, afternoons at the beach, bedtime stories, card games, a girls morning in carmel, good time to catch up with laura, and lots of updated photos… of course :) isn’t Harper such a doll?! and i think the crown suits her just perfectly ;) the kids are WAY too grown up for my liking these days! but aren’t they an adorable bunch?! :) these two have such a special bond. bobby is the BEST big brother, and kenzie completely adores him!i missed the ‘newborn’ window for pictures of harper, even though she’s only 7 weeks old here. but we still managed to get some pretty sweet expressions out of this little princess :)we found the most charming little garden in carmel, and took the two little girls over there one morning while the big kids were in school for some special sister photos. i can’t even handle the sweetness… and the sass ;) that’s kenzie’s “angry face” in the photo on the left, if you couldn’t tell ;) this girl has THE. BEST. laugh!hugga muggas all day long :) we worked on butterfly kisses, eskimo kisses (aka hugga muggas), and her personal favorite, fishy face kisses! as soon as my plane landed i had a video message from her saying, “i just wanted to say hi, and i love you bery BERY much, and you can call me whatever day you can because i want to talk to you every day… and i just wanted to give you a sishy kiss!” little girl, you can send me a “sishy” kiss anytime you want! :)
she’s the sweetest baby! look at those little puckered up lips!
ya know, just stopping for a little dance party in all the flowers :)and i will end with my new favorite photo (for many, MANY reason!) my goal for the week was to get a photo with all five kids, and this feels sort of like a “wildest dream come true” sort of moment :) don’t be surprised if you see this framed in every room in my house. they make my world a happier place, i’m so very thankful they’re mine. and when i said i could care less what they wore for the photo, kenzie apparently thought, “challenge accepted!” ;) she had been dressed as that fairy princess all day long, but i’m so very glad she chose to be the Pepperoni Princess for this specific photo! happy monday! :)