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12 June 2015

if you're happy and you know it ...

Not that I'm ever not around here but I'm going to be honest and admit that I'm a terrible (terrible!!) last minuter when it comes to birthdays and holidays - including Father's Day. Terrible. I can hide behind the, "oh, the kids!"


excuse but pre-kids I was only slightly better and came across a myriad of tangible proof while we were packing up: an album to celebrate our engagement anniversary! another album for Valentine's Day! And yet another to mark our time together in Kansas City before we got married. You'd think photo albums were my sole love language but I can count on one finger the number of photo albums I've made since we've been married on one finger: our honeymoon.


{not our honeymoon but ... I did wear my hair similar to Phoebe's on the daily back then ;)}

SO when Walgreens {post sponsor!} asked if I'd like to make a little something something {spoiler alert: photo album!} for Simon for Father's Day I freaked a bit and checked to make sure I wasn't cutting it crazy close yet again (nope! June 21st! you're good!) and then saw all the fun gift options the Walgreens Photo Center offers since I've last printed photos (yearS ago) and was in.


Phoebe was thrilled, like usual.

I rarely take the time to print out our nicer digital photos so it was fun to sit down with Julia to sift through the thousands (!!!) of photos on the computer from the past 4 1/2 years of parenthoood and pick out some our favorites of Simon and the kids for a nicely bound 8 in. x 8 in. {think book!} album.


I think throughout residency it's been easy (especially for me) to dwell on the interminable call weekends and rougher rotations but we've had a lot of really great times and made some great memories that may have slipped through the old aging memory banks had I not been such a snap happy fiend which only fuels my near and distant future photography fire in an effort to preserve and share life's happy ...


We are in such a state of flux at the current moment being in between houses, Simon finishing up his last rotation of residency, and on the (semi!) brink of meeting baby #5 so it was fun to sit down and go through all the happy times of the past few years. I get a little too wrapped up in the omnipresent mindset that we should always be on some frantic pursuit of happiness but the album illustrated that we've had some pretty happy times in our marriage and throughout our brief tenure as parents and maybe the pursuit hasn't been in vain at all ...


Happy Father's Day Simon! And to all the amazing fathers out there ... I hope your day is enjoyable and that your family got their act together in the tangible (and more importantly!) intangible gift department.

And as a fun way to celebrate Walgreens' Pursuit of Happiness campaign and a fraction of the incredible fathers out there (I'm sure the blog has a high volume of dad readers - ahem) Walgreens is giving away a $25 promo code (perfect for ordering the exact album I did! hint, hint!) to FIVE separate readers today.

All you have to do is share a happy life moment in a comment below or share something on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) with the hashtag: #sharelifeshappy and leave a link to your post in a comment below. Winners will be announced 6/19/15. 

GOOD LUCK.

60 comments:

  1. My happy moments have been savoring our last days pre-kids, but would love to use the album credit to fill with pictures of our showers and our new baby coming in July!

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  2. We're celebrating our 5th anniversary (today!) and I've been looking back at photos of our happy moments too! I think our favorites are simply exploring the neighborhood of our first home, especially stopping for donuts at our favorite bakery.

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  3. My most recent happy life moment is baby #7 safely arriving on May 29 th :)

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  4. My happy moment lately has been taking my son to the pool! He loves the water, and I love seeing him so happy!

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  5. My happy life moment is seeing my baby start eating solids. He gets so excited and it is so fun to watch him try new things!

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  6. My most recent happy life moment has been witnessing what a sweet (albeit sometimes crazy) girl my 4 year old is growing up to be. The next major one will be the birth of baby #2 in July and while I am excited for new squish, I'm even more excited to see what a good big sister I know the 4 year old will be.

    P.S. I am delivering at Mercy and I'm sort of sad I won't get a chance to spot Simon or you and the kiddos visiting. <---Crazy fan confession. :)

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  7. Most recently, watching my husband coach our son through pitching 6 great innings - they were both so happy!

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  8. My happy moment was seeing my daughter meet her baby brother for the first time in the hospital. Happy tears then and now! :)

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  9. I just LOVE these pictures of Simon and the kids, so sweet! Happy life moment = all the mini adventures we do as a family such as going for ice cream, going for a walk, watching the kids play outside...it's the little things that make me smile!

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  10. Happy life moment...seeing our two little boys loving our baby girl and wanting to play and interact with her more and more even when they get more aggressively affectionate than I'd like...and she's squealing with delight!

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  11. Happy life moment was stacking solo cups with my three year old and her delight in knocking them down.

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  12. I love reading stories together, and I especially love listening to my husband read to our kids.

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  13. My happy life moment is enjoying time in Yosemite National park last summer with my son and husband.

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  14. Our happy life moments are spent camping... and we are leaving today for another weekend out. My 4 kids LOVE to run and play all weekend long with way less rules then they have when we are home and I love hearing all the giggles and seeing the worn out babes snoozing away in the camper beds each night. :-)

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  15. Happy life moment... when netflix adds seasons to your binge watching shows.

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  16. Watching my husband show the ocean to our daughter for the first time this past weekend. She was concentrated on, "toes, cold!", but it was a precious moment nonetheless!

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  17. Happy life moment: making a last-minute decision to go to a garage sale together, only to find the perfect chairs we've been wanting for months at a fraction of the retail price.

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  18. happylifemoment - Sharing the first snowcone of the summer season with my 11 month old son & 4 year old son. They were giddy with frozen goodness last night.

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  19. Happy life moment: walks around the block. Bonus points if I have an ice cream cone in hand while I walk. :)

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  20. My 10 month old just took his first steps! I'm not an emotional dryer in the least but when he walked toward me I sure sprouted some tears. It's just so crazy watching this person grow, through very single phase, good and bad. I'm just lucky, is all. Le sigh...

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  21. Happy life moment: getting milkshakes to celebrate the last day of school.

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  22. happy life moment: baby #1 joining our family a couple months ago!

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  23. Happy life moment: our oldest of 5 finishing up her final year of homeschool in preparation for her first year of highschool!

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  24. Happy life moment: being done with 10th grade as of today :)

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  25. happy life moment is having your 20 years olds still at home(and working to pay off school loans) and want to be home and everyone gets along!!

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  26. Happy life moment: (that I really wish was caught on film): Long story short, we moved from eastern Washington State to western Ohio. That was 40 hours of driving time which included scaling/descending the Rockies. I was 7 months pregnant with a four month old (adoption occasionally does that), along with a 7, 5 and 2.5 year old. Husband drove the moving van while I drove the packed-to-the-brim Astro. Back story: From numerous previous trips over the Cascades to visit family, one such extended member was horrified that I don't stop the van if/when a toddler/baby is sleeping. Never. We have mastered pottying in any size container. I drive and child quickly unbuckles, aims (I'm holding container, of course), finishes and buckles in less than a minute (usually) and sleeping babies are let be, as we say here. Horrified family member bought us a mini port-o-pot for the move east. Husband said, under no circumstances will child poo in toilet. "It is for URINATION only!" (I'm told that was his emphasis at the time.) Frankly, I forgot that command and a mere hour into the trip, the 7 year old had to move his bowels so he did. A few hours later, and on the other side of the Rockies was our first stop. Apparently pressure builds up and since the 7 yr. old was lacking muscles, pot hadn't been flushed. Husband was irritated. That is actually an understatement, but I forgave him already. With lid open (because he totally forgot his other command which was based on the bold lettered instructions of the pot to ONLY FLUSH WITH LID SHUT), he used all his might to push that pedal down with his hand (picture pot wedged behind driver seat so Dad is leaning over, on knees and grunting to fight the pressure build up). Oh yeah. Mount Crapper exploded into his face and all over van ceiling. I was on the parking lot ground howling in laughter as husband was frozen trying to process what had just happened and how it could happen and where did he go wrong. That vision seriously provided me with much happiness over next 37 hours of driving and for the ten years since (husband also laughs about it now). And it only took me one box of wet wipes and thirty minutes of wiping everything down. No stench. The travel, pregnant, mother, poo gods were with me!

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  27. My kids playing happily together in the tub is pretty great right now.

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  28. Happiest life moment lately was finding out I had passed 2 more of the CPA exams. I was so sure I hadn't so I was shocked when I actually did well.

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  29. Last week (on the same day!) my 3 year old told me: "you're a perfect mom!" And "you're the best mom in the whole world!" What could make a mom more happy than that!

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  30. I brought home 4 pounds of strawberries tonight and the kids ate them all...summer stuff like that is some of my happiest life moments.

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  31. Labor and delivery was hard and painful but having Marcus there and seeing how awesome he thought I was during the process was probably the happiest experience of my life and finally understand how people have more than one baby! Ha

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  32. My newest niece was born today, and seeing my two sons (5 and 16mo) meet her was a happy moment I will always remember! They are both smitten with her!

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  33. Current happy life moment? I'm 10 minutes away from putting my three (9,6,4) to bed :)

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  34. The most recent happy moment happened tonight when my hubby dropped me off at a coffee shop while he took the kids (3, 3 and under!) to Menards. Then after my sweet alone time and dirty chai, he made supper while I wrapped up the project I was working on at said coffee shop. My hubby rocks and deserves an awesome book of happy memories. Regardless, I am looking forward to celebrating him all week long as Father's Day and his birthday are in the same week!

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  35. My happy life moment was watching all three of our kids run to meet Daddy in the driveway tonight.

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  36. Had a happy moment watching my son go down the waterslide at swim lessons today with no fear!

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  37. Finding out we are expecting our first baby. I cried and took two more tests to make sure. This will be his first father's day and I too am a devoted album maker.

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  38. Too many as we are visiting my parents after a year and seeing my two--old just soaking up the attention from Grandma and Grandpa and his aunts and uncles!

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  39. My husband likes to give our son beardy kisses. The toddler thinks this is HILARIOUS.

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  40. My happy life moments have been the births of my three beautiful baby girls!

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  41. My happy moments are going to the NM balloon fiesta! I HATED being uprooted from Texas to ABQ but can now say, I've had lots of happy moments here as I'm sure you have!!!

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  42. Happy life moment: when my two daughters start making each other laugh and one giggle leads to another until they're both laughing over nothing at all except that the other one is laughing, and just a smile starts it all over again. I love that.

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  43. My happy moment recently was seeing my 14 month old finally take his first steps this week!

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  44. I always have great intentions of making photobooks and then never remember! It's such a great and personal idea!

    Paige
    http://thehappyflammily.com

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  45. My happy moment had been watching my young babies grow up and my husband and I as parents. They are my life!

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  46. a happy moment: my daughter saying "mommy" for the first time :)

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  47. My happy moment was finally seeing my daughter happy! For so long she has struggled with anxiety and it took us a while to figure that out but now we've got it all under control and she's happy! So great to see!!!

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  48. My kids are definitely my happy life moments!

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  49. My most recent happy moments have been seeing the genuine love my 3 year old son has for his 7 month old sister. I love hearing him tell her "I wuv you."

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  50. My happy moments are watching my daughter grow into an amazing young lady (almost teenager....ACK!) !!

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  51. My happy is watching my husband prepare for baby number one-- the little things like changing the outlets in the baby room, feeling the baby kick, and working on refinishing the changing table. It makes me so happy to see him happy.

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  52. I think our most happy moment was the birth of our daughter. We hope to have more of these happy moments in the future!

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  53. My most recent happy moment was getting to rock my 13-month-old to sleep last night. Usually he is so on-the-go these days that I don't get to hold him much. He is our third child, so I've learned by now how quickly the time really does go, and I'm trying to really cherish all those moments and commit them to memory. Although a photo album is really helpful for all the things I would otherwise forget. :)

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  54. Happy moment... Watching the first soccer goal of the season!

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  55. #sharelifeshappy
    My Sunday family dinners are always a happy moment!!

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  56. My most recent happy moment is getting ready to purchase our first house and become home owners.

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  57. I love the moments watching my 2 year old love on our new baby. She is so good to him! She wants to hold him, and "pet" him, and give him a blanket or one of her dolls when he is crying. So sweet. I have to remember those moments when she is being a two year old and exerting her will!

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  58. Just this morning, seeing the boys actually play nicely together. Last summer, Peanut was too little to be much of a playmate, so it's been amazing to see them actually get out and entertain each other!

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  59. My happy moment has been the opportunity to take on the beautiful vocation of motherhood.

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