Some real time blogging after being sad for a few weeks

Life is looking up. Just a teensy bit, but life is looking up. I've come to learn that one can feel a void on the inside but rejoice in the happenings of the moment. A person can be thinking about a sad event 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but can also be thanking God and all of creation profusely for the souls that are physically here. Also, souls and personalities and words that come out of childrens' mouths and thoughts that run through loved ones heads are everything. They are the stuff of life. Physical bodies are truly shells, vessels, of the individual life each one of us have been gifted and I literally feel like I can see that. Like really see it. I am not joking. It's not like I see some aura of light around people's heads now, but I really mean that. Recognizing the specialness of unique souls around us is a side effect of the last few weeks that I will always be thankful for. Miscarrying has got to be one of the saddest ways to take a look around and think, "thank goodness for all of the people who have touched our lives!" but it sure is one effective avenue of getting there. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. I'm thankful.

One exciting thing in real-time life (as opposed to the cloud-like spiritual world I feel like I've been inhabiting), is that - wait for it... - Chad has uploaded all of my cell phone pictures I've been hoarding on my poor cellular since 2013!!!! Yes! They're all neatly filed under "Nicole's Phone Pics," easily accessible in our pictures folder (instead of the roundabout weird folder that pops up only when I plug my phone in). I know - this is a very basic thing I should do quite often, but I just get lazy about it. Now the next thing I need to do is transfer all of the OLD cell phone pics saved on the external hard drive. A gal just doesn't want to have to plug that thing in every time I want to revisit 2010, you know?

So I'm going to be doing family life updates BIG TIME, strictly for the sake of how much joy I get out of sorting through the years on here. Whenever I think, "hey, I'm going to record what we did today on the old blog," I'll think about how I'll have to upload thousands of pictures saved on my phone just to access the two or three I really want. So I won't do it and then all of a sudden 2 years have gone by and I hardly have any "real time" blog recordings. Not okay.

So in honor of this awesomeness, here's are the first few photos and a video from 2013. Thanks iPhone!

 ^^^The kids' 2 and 4 year old mini birthday party we had in our Ladera Ranch apartment! Breakfast parties are our favorite.

 ^^^A Carter selfie!

 ^^^A really great picture of the kids at Surfin' Donuts :)

 ^^^Not really sure what's going on here.

 ^^^The sweetest kid in all the world. He had just turned 4 right here.

 ^^^My wild animals when they got to go with me one night to Body Back. I rented out a My Gym after hours for 3 sessions - total kids paradise. Carter cracks me up. He has always been a humongo sweetie, but the older he gets, the more this really intense side of him comes out. It's like he's a major lover, but get that child in a physical situation and he becomes a beast. We saw it emerge in his first season of AYSO soccer and now in ice hockey and just yesterday in his first class of roller hockey. Forget about throwin' that child into a pool! He gets this crazy intensity going on about swimming. It's awesome. His hard work makes me so proud!

Well, that felt nice. There's nothing like lovin' on these babes in written form. Yay!

**And speaking of "real time" blogging, both kids just burst into our room with no undies or pants on and yelled, "LET'S PEE ON HER!" Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.