Monday, February 28, 2011

February

Wow, can you believe it is the last day of February? How is it possible that we are already in the third month of 2011? Crazy! Well, we have been busy this month. As the weather has warmed up (a perk of living in Phoenix) we have been spending more time playing outside and at the park, and we also celebrated my birthday about a week ago. L turns 18 months on March 15th, and I can't believe it. It's amazing how 9 months of pregnancy can drag on, yet 18 months of his life have flown by.

Anyway, I don't have too much to report, life has just been trucking along, so I'll leave you with some pictures to end the month of February.

VALENTINES DAY

 I made S these yummy cupcakes as part of his gift.... but then I ate most of them! :(

 S's new car stereo deck from mommy and L

 L opening his present... with some help.

 OK, this was like this dancing, singing frog creature.... L loves it and dances along
 Dinner at our local Sushi place... Yum!

Farmer's Market


 we spent like 20 minutes at the petting zoo, L loved all the baby animals!
 It got soooo windy and cold, I was ready to leave, but L and S were having a blast getting blown away!

Fun with boxes!


Seriously, this boy has more toys then he knows what to do with, but give him a box? He's in 7th heaven!

So I guess this is goodbye to February! See you next year!

Friday, February 18, 2011

I believe

So, I have seen this post going around facebook lately, and while I'm not usually one to participate in the "chain game" type posts, I read it and really liked it. I like the concept behind it, and I like the idea about reaffirming to ourselves what we believe in. If you follow my blog, I would love for you to repost this to!

Here is the note that went along with the facebook postings. I want to make sure I give credit where credit is due, because I did not come up with this on my own.

This comes from an annual blog post that my dear friend Taylor does every year.  I thought it would be neat to see what all my other friends believe in.  Start thinking about your own "beliefs" , when you're done tag your friends (like me) so we can all share.  Thanks for playing!

I believe.

I believe in bubble baths.

I believe in the power of a baby's sweet laugh to make anything better.

I believe in love.

I believe in Sunday morning soccer games.

I believe that a good cry is sometimes necessary.

I believe in Yoga.

I believe in the equality to marry the person you love, regardless of your sexuality.

I believe in happy hour.

I believe I was meant to be a mommy and a wife.

I believe ice cream actually is a food group.

I believe a football game isn't complete without a beer and a hot dog.

I believe in singing at the top of your lungs.

I believe old friends are sometimes the people who know you the best.

I believe in theme parties.

I believe in copious amounts of wine and laughing and crying all night with girlfriends.

I believe in having no regrets.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day!

I admit it, I am a sucker for this holiday. Actually, I am pretty much a sucker for any and all holiday, any reason to celebrate love and life and bake cupcakes and cookies and eat yummy food and decorate your house is all good in my book.

I love shopping for gifts for S even after I promised him I wouldn't buy him anything. And I love that I know get to shop for L as well. I can't wait for the schooldays where I will get to help L address little valentines to all the kids in his class, and maybe even help put on a classroom party. (Do they still do classroom parties on holidays anymore? I know the school I work at doesn't, and frankly I think it's lame.)

Don't get me wrong, I've spent my fair share of VDays' celebrating "singles awareness day" and going out to dinner with a group of girls and drinking copious amounts of wine, all while groaning and moaning about the lack of good and available men there were out there. But even during those times, I still kind of loved February 14th. I mean, a holiday that gives you free rein to gather all your closet girlfriends and bond and gossip and laugh and cry together. Love it.

So this year, we are having a date night, with a plus one. S is taking me out to sushi (Yum!) and L is coming with us. A lot of people have seemed a little perturbed that we aren't going out sans child tonight, but first of all, I felt kind of bad asking anyone to babysit on Valentines Day. Second, we live fairly far out so it would be inconvenient for any of our friends to come out to our house to watch him, and third, we like having L around. Yes, there are some times (like movie dates) that it is necessary for us to find a sitter but for the most part, L goes where we go. Ever since he was a newborn he has come with us to restaurants and social events and pretty much everywhere. When you have no family in town, you don't have the option of dropping your child off every time you want some alone time, so you learn to incorporate them into everything that you do. And I think both S and I are really OK with this. L is incredibly social and (usually) well behaved when we take him places and I attribute this partly to the fact that he is so used to it.

Anyway, that was kind of a side note. The point is that S is taking us to dinner and I am super excited. I am skipping the gym after work today and instead am going to go home, bake my hubby some Valentines Day cupcakes, wrap his gifts, and then, once L is down for his nap, take a nice long bubble bath and get all prettied up for tonight.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! If your attached, I hope today is just another day of many for you to show your love for each other. And if your single? Grab the wine, your best girls a sappy movie and some carb loaded food! Seriously, those night are some of my best memories!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Hello February!

Hurray! January is OVER! I don't know what it is, but ever since I was a kid I have not been a fan of the month of January. I hate the let down feeling I get once the glitter and excitement of the holidays are over, and I hate that January tends to be cold and dreary and, for me, it stretches on endlessly. Once February hits, my funks lifts. February brings with it Valentines Day and my birthday and the promise of a fast approaching spring.

So here is what we have been up to so far in February:

Baking Cupcakes





S isn't a hug fan of chocolate so I usually steer away from it when I bake, but I was craving me some yummy chocolaty goodness, so I went with it. And they are delicious. And I did not eat three in one sitting yesterday. I promise.

Laundry.
And Laundry and Laundry and Laundry.


 Pleas someone make me feel better and tell me I am not the only one who waits for 4 or 5 loads of laundry to pile up before finally caving and throwing them into the machine. And even worse, those 4 or 5 loads of laundry then tend to sit in the dryer, on the kitchen table, in the basket, just waiting to be folded for days on end. So today I finally made myself sit down while L was napping, surrounded by mountains of clean clothes, and fold them all. And now all these clean, folded clothes are sitting by my dresser just waiting for someone to put them away. *Sigh*. Sometimes it's just never ending, and my lack of motivation for all things laundry related does not help matters.

Packing things away.


We spend an hour this past weekend going through L's closet and dresser and pulling out all the clothes, shoes, toys, etc. that he has outgrown. It baffles me how fast he is growing, I feel like half of the clothes I packed away he has only worn once or twice. He is now fully into 24 month clothes, so all the 18 month stuff I bought a few months ago has gone in the bin. It makes me kind of sad every time I do one of these clean outs for him, it's a reminder that my baby isn't really a baby anymore.

Nap Time




There is not too much to say here, except how frigging cute it he. Don't you just want to snuggle up next to him? He is such a good napper too. He is super easy to put down and usually sleeps about 2 hours every afternoon. Very nice for when mama needs to get stuff down around the house (like fold laundry) or, more importantly, when mama wants to lay down for a nap also!

Rockin' a new 'Do


I went in for a haircut a few weeks ago and just got hit with the urge to try something different. So I cut bangs, which I haven't rocked since the 7th grade. I'm digging it, except it is a lot more upkeep then I'm used to. I tend to be a roll out of bed and throw my hair in a ponytail kind of girl, and the hairstyle is not conducive with that mentality. So we will see how long it lasts, but I'm liking it right now.

Story time





L loves his books. And I love that he loves his books. I think I have as much fun tripping over the Dr. Seuss rhymes as he does listening to them. So we have been doing a lot reading these days and picking up lots of new books from the library, which makes this mama very happy.

So that's what life has been like around our house lately. The fog of January is gone and we are reveling in baking and books and the start of our soccer season! Happy February!