Today is your day to feel special. Whether you spend it finding some precious “alone” time or with your whole crew, I hope you have a great one.

He sits up, he has two teeth, he rolls until he gets stuck under pieces of furniture, he eats food (mostly puréed, but food nonetheless) and he is unreasonably pleasant in all situations. He’s half a year old and there is no one on earth capable of resisting his charms.

See previous monthly photos: One Month, Two Months, Three Months, Four Months, Five Months.

Who doesn’t love a bad pun to welcome a new season? I usually think of Easter as the marker of our transition from winter to spring. Typically, most of the snow would have melted and egg hunts could be held in still barren, but slightly defrosted yards. This year, notsomuch – the egg hunt will be an indoor event.

Despite that slight alteration in plans, we’ll still have the usual bunny cake, jelly beans, Peeps and brunch with the whole family. I’m sure there are a million amazing and creative ideas on Pinterest to make celebrating Easter super-complicated and perfectly styled (or just a complete homemade disaster), but we are keeping it real and just want to keep the kids entertained. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Pinterest, but sometimes there’s no need to create anything beyond fun memories.

There have been a lot of family posts lately, but I promise to get back to posting about fun creative projects, decorating updates and other art and kid stuff. For now, you’ll just have to suffer through the cute photos of my kids.

Have a happy happy Easter and splendid early spring.

I posted Freddie’s Four Month photo mere moments ago, and technically he was five months in the photo, so I’m a bit of a cheater. Doesn’t matter because this kid is so sweet it’s crazy – he’s definitely having the best time of any other five-month-old around.

See previous monthly photos: One Month, Two Months, Three Months, Four Months.

Sometimes when I don’t feel like unpacking boxes from our big move (which I haven’t written about yet, but if you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen some updates), I sit down and check out what’s happening on my favorite blogs. I came across these amazing food art images on Handmade Charlotte the other day and couldn’t resist sharing them here.

A woman in Oslo, Norway actually creates a new edible art piece every morning and shares them with the world on Instagram. Can you imagine creating masterpieces like this for your kids every morning? Mom of the Year material, folks, even if you just do it on their birthdays.

Click here for Ida Frost’s Instagram feed. She also has a blog with occasional recipes.

Freddie’s fourth month was a whirlwind of activity and winter sickness for the whole family (and thus his four month photo was taken after he was already five months old). A move into his new permanent home in Minnesota (!!!), a quick weekend journey to Los Angeles for a dear friend’s wedding and countless trips to Target made it a nutty handful of weeks.

See previous monthly photos: One Month, Two Months, Three Months.

Technically he’s three months and three weeks old, but I’m not going to let that stop me from posting my monthly photo of Freddie. I’ll give you one guess who he never takes his eyes off of.

See previous monthly photos: One month, Two months.

It was 6 degrees outside today. SIX. Degrees. Fahrenheit. It’s not the coldest day I’ve ever experienced, but it’s definitely the coldest I’ve experienced in the last, say, decade. Moving from San Francisco to Minneapolis isn’t an easy decision, nor is it one that everyone completely understands. Hell, on a day that doesn’t get warmer than six degrees outside, even I question it. But if you talk to people in Minneapolis, they’ll tell you a thousand reasons why it’s awesome here. If you can make it through the (long, often very long) winters, you will be handsomely rewarded by this energetic city. Food, beer, art, culture, lakes, SUMMERTIME! Cousins, aunts, uncles and best of all, grandparents. Loads of them, and even an amazing great-grandma for good measure.

As I sort of mentioned in my Christmas post a couple of weeks ago, I (along with Marty and the boys, of couse) made a huge move and now call Minnesota “home.” Marty started a great new job and I’ve been spending a lot of time learning about what this town has to offer kids and moms, along with doing all the other stuff that goes along with moving. It’s good. We’re having fun. We’re getting settled.

That said, please bear with me as my family makes this transition. We’re still in a temporary apartment and don’t have access to our “stuff” yet, so my ability to take on commissions will be delayed until I have workspace and childcare sorted out, my print orders might take an extra day to get shipped, my email responses will be a bit slower, my blog posts will be short or absent and so on. But that’s all temporary. Eventually I’ll be able to get back into the swing of things and I’ll get some new things in the shop and have more projects to share. For now, I’m calling every day the boys and I come home without frostbite a success.

SKOL !

Earlier this week I had a two-page word document filled with my new year’s resolutions. Then I realized that there’s no way I’ll be able to remember everything that’s written in a two-page document… and even if I do, there’s no way I’ll be able to live up to everything I’ve written.

Despite entering 2013 resolution-less, I came across an article from Fast Company that left me feeling inspired for the year to come. In the haste of my busy day, I skimmed through the post quickly, but the whole gist struck me as right on. We choose how to go into each day – it’s the only thing we can really control. (And if we’re honest, the biggest indicator of how the day will actually go.) Beyond that big thought, two of the principles the author touched on really stuck with me.

First, “be yourself and be courageous.” Be courageous! What a nice way to say take risks, do something scary, be proud of who you are. Challenge accepted.

The other one that stuck out for me was “do something new for the first time.” Sure, there’s not a ton of time to pick up a new hobby these days, but why not try something I’ve never done before? It feels like an extension of “be courageous” in a way, since doing new things requires a bit of courage anyway.

So that’s how I’ll enter this year. With pride, with anticipation and, most importantly, with courage.

{Live Courageously letterpress card from Sweet Afton Studio Etsy shop.}

New Year’s Eve didn’t become my favorite day of the year until this handsome guy came around in ’09. Now, when the fireworks burst above and champagne glasses clink and loved ones get kisses and the world sings Auld Lang Syne, we get to celebrate not only the dawn of a new year, but the birthday of the little man whose smile, charm and wit will brighten the cloudiest day. Happy Birthday, sweet boy.