A Summer Lovely

Happy baby eating watermelon and fresh corn. That, my friends is a summer lovely.

Not wondering anymore.

Remember this post when I asked if anyone else worried they could not love their second child as much as their first. Well, I'm not worried about that anymore.

My little Collin is pure sunshine and has brought more joy to our family than I ever thought possible. Did I mention he's walking?!? I'll get a video posted soon. Ah, love. It's just going by too fast.

Keep baby cool.

Kids are napping. Usually I don't blog during the day, but I'm so hot I can't get off the couch and I don't like daytime TV. We went to the park as soon as breakfast was over. We basked in the "cool" mid-eighties and ate chilly watermelon. By 9am we were dripping and the kids were exhausted. I think I'm going to hold off going to the park again until September. 

A while ago I read this really cool book called Baby Body Signs about how to "read" your babies signs to tell if there is a health concern. A great parenting resource to keep on hand. The book's authors recently wrote a great post about "Keeping your baby safe in the heat" that I highly recommend. When the temperature nears 100, you can't be too careful. You can read the article here. 

What are you doing to keep cool?

Remembering home

When I was visiting my parents last month, I had the idea to put together a book of photos of the things that comprise a home. The small knick knacks and pillows and books that make up the memories and comforts of a house. I would have loved to have photos of the things that made up my childhood home. The project will likely take me a few more trips to complete, but I thought I would share a few of my photos. Maybe to inspire your own "Home Album".

Doesn't my mom have cool style? She's was into birds long before they became trendy.

My dad has quite the fashion sense himself.

I have no idea what these things are, but we've had them for as long as I can remember. 

On the hunt. Man my hair is LONG!

Now I just have to photograph my own home.....

Let me know if you decide to do your own home album. I'd love to see your photos.

You can't escape gravity.

Thoughts while perusing my recently taken photos....

"Ah, so cute. She really is learning how to jump high!"

"Great expression. I might just have to frame this one for the playroom"

"AAKK!!! What the...????"

This is straight out of the camera! No photoshop here. (I don't even own photoshop sadly.)  I guess we know what Lydia will look like as a 80 year old women. She'll still be (kind of) cute.

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Quick note:

GO SEE INCEPTION. LIKE NOW! IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!

Things making me happy this week.

I've been eyeing this hutch for literally years. Finally I told Shane to go pick it up. Now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long. Isn't it perfect there??? I'm loving my new kitchen paint too. Shane had it all done when I came home from Spokane. Now I need to think about painting the living room. Any ideas? Are the hydrangeas too much? I think I like the hutch better with nothing on top, but I really have very little eye for these kind of things. 

Look at the lovelies that showed up in the mail this week! Usually I only participate in one blog swap a year, but when I saw that Modblog was having an accessories swap, I had to join up. You know I'm addicted to jewelry. (By the way, I'll be hosting an awesome jewelry giveaway next week.) My swap partner Anna, sent me this darling handmade friendship bracelet in my signature color, and this amazing necklace! I made the earrings to match. I'll change up the yellow beads to match closer once I find some. Thank you Anna!

Now adorning my fridge is Lydia's new masterpiece. A painting of she and her preschool "boyfriend". 

Getting married. Ah, sweet.

I love fresh flowers on my kitchen table. I like them even more when they are "guilt flowers" from Shane admitting he was wrong in an argument. That's just double satisfaction. He He He.

And lastly...., this room is now clean!!!! Hurray! 

Hope you're having a good week too. (This is Collin waving bye bye.)

Seattle

One of our favorite parts of our Washington vacation was going to Seattle to visit two of our very favorite people. Carrie, my best friend since I was 15 and her husband Xander.  (And their twin boys of course!) The best part was it was a total surprise to Carrie. Xander called Shane back in October to see if we would like to come up to see U2 in concert and surprise Carrie. Two weeks before the concert, Bono hurt his back and canceled the entire tour. Which sucked, but we didn't let that deter us. (This is the worst photo of me, by the way, but it was the only one with all 4 of us.)

Oh...and did I mention we left the kids at home????

And that our friends live right on Puget Sound! This is the view from our guest bedroom. Where Shane and I slept in (together!) until after 9am. And took a nap. How's that for a vacation?

Shane admiring the view. As am I :)

Of course, no trip to Seattle is complete without a visit to Pike Place. 

Perhaps the best mac and cheese I've ever had. And I consider myself a connoisseur of the delicacy. (You can find it at Beecher's.) Recipe here. 

Yea. That's my husband. 

Yum.

I could shop the produce here daily.

There is some random stuff there too...

All bundled up. In June. 

If I lived here, I would buy fresh flowers weekly. The most incredible quality and prices. Makes me miss my days of working in a flower shop.

One of my very favorite flowers.

While spending our days with the entire family was fun, we really really wanted to get out on our own. Carrie did her best trying to get a babysitter.

Moments after finding one available! Nice Xander.

Off we went for a little grown up time...

View from our table at Saltys.

Oh my. There are no words.

Engrossed in stimulating conversation...that doesn't revolve around kids.

Okay, maybe the best night ever. Spending the evening with our "soul mate" couple, eating dinners that cost more than an entire week's worth of groceries. NO KIDS. After dinner, Xander said, "Man! We should have taken you to get some wasabi grilled cheese sandwiches!" Shane replied, "why can't we go now?". So after stuffing ourselves with seafood, we headed out to a little hole in the wall bar for grilled cheese. Then we went to Dick's for shakes. We finally rolled ourselves home after 1am. Had it not been for the fact that we needed to relieve the babysitter, we could have stayed out all night.

Carrie and Xander, we had that most amazing time! Let's get on planning that trip to Hawaii soon!

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Birthday Countdown....

So my birthday is about 7 weeks away. Yippee! I love my birthday! There are many reasons why but a big one is I always get myself a new outfit to wear out.  I usually spend at least a month putting it together. It's just something nice I do for myself. The outfit I have in mind looks like this little collage I put together. I'm still not sure about the shirt. I will spend some time searching for something perfect. I scored some J. Crew flip flops for $3 at an outlet. My parents are getting me the bag. Shane got me my "summer scent" for mother's day. I'm always looking for a great yellow cocktail ring.

Now here's the thing. I did something a little risky. I have been on the lookout for amazing wide leg black linen pants for a while now. Years actually. I've found them several times, just never under $200. Well, this weekend I was shopping at the Loft and found the most gorgeous pair. On sale from $69 to $30!!!! I was ecstatic. Until I realized they didn't have my size. Sooo....I bought one size too small.

Deep breath....what that means is I have to lose at least 15 pounds by my birthday to make these babies work. Possible? We will see....

Almost a week without sugar. I am eating the BIGGEST piece of cake for my birthday. Maybe two.

I miss home today

I'm homesick and the last couple days have been awful. Yesterday Collin, Lydia and I all had a good cry. Together. All for different reasons. It was exhausting. Being covered in their tears (and mine) was just sad. So I cried some more. Shane came home and started dolling out the hugs. I went to take a shower.

Now that they're in bed, I've decided I must finish going through my photos from my trip. Anything to keep my mind off chocolate. Of course, going through all these photos isn't helping my state. I can't believe I never realized how spectacular home was when I lived there. If course my parents added the fire-pit just recently. Too bad because that would have been a blast in high school.

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I miss my family.  

Day 4 of sugar detox. That s'more looks really yummy right about now...

Labeling Pies

I recently bought the William and Sonoma Message-in-a-cookie cutters after lusting after them for over a year. I can't wait to try them out this Christmas. While in Spokane, my sister Abby wowed us with her chicken pot pie skills. However, with over a dozen people to feed, she had to make some adjustments for some of the pickier eaters. I came up with the (I must say) brilliant idea of labeling the pie crusts with the pie filling specifics.

My brother hates onions. I mean detests them. Don't get him started on how gross onions are....
No worries! It says right on the pie which one is "safe" for his consumption.

As for me and two brothers in law, no peas please. I really don't like peas. I also don't like mushrooms in creamy sauce. It's a texture thing. Same with any shellfish other than crab. Other than that, I'm pretty easy. Oh wait.

Okra is yucky too.