Easter Egg Decorating

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TRIPP!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE SWEETEST BOY IN THE WORLD!

We hosted a First Birthday/St. Patrick's Day Party at our house on Sunday

Lots of green food and Irish cheer celebrating Mr. Tripp's big day!

Instagram Slam

Things we've been up to recently:

Cooking, eating, gardening, sewing, trike riding, building, snuggling, dancing, laughing, more cooking and eating...

He walks!

someecards valentine's

I just love someecards!

If you're my friend, you've probably received one (or maybe 30) from me. I'm obsessed. They so accurately portray any sentiment!

This year I found two someecards that David and I should send each other, perfectly describing our valentine's dream dates. Can you guess which card would be from whom?

Which plan we go with is still up in the air! Will keep you updated on how it goes!

What are your married-with-children plans for Valentine's? And, if you need a reminder card for your significant other, can I suggest sending this?

Pinterest weekend

Things I did this weekend that I got from Pinterest:

1. Cleaned/scrubbed microfiber sofa

2. Spray painted wood rocking chair

3. Started bench/cubbies/hooks for entry wall

4. Replaced nonfat Greek yogurt for sour cream in recipe

5. Zucchini fries and sweet onion dip appetizer for a party

6. Party outfit

i heart pinterest.

(ok, honesty corner, i did this like a million weekends ago, but still...it was all in one weekend and useful things i wanted to share)

homemade valentine's for toddlers

Do your toddlers need to bring valentine's day cards to school?

Our school sent a random list home with each child's name printed and no other explanation. I took that as a passive aggressive gesture of saying, "Send a valentine for each kid listed below, you absent-minded mother, YOU!"

Since, I'm pretty much ANTI cartoon-character-cheesy-sayings valentines, and didn't want to spend any money, I decided this morning we should make some. Hmm, what to do? What to do?

{Remember the easy-peasy homemade valentine's I made when Scarlett was 8 months old? The ones with the stamped foot/handprints? If you have a newbie in your house, I highly recommend making these for grammas and aunties. Very swoon worthy.}

Luckily, I was able to dig up materials from my craft box, and not have to buy anything new. I used the same stamp, ink pads, and still had some left over paper and stickers to make just enough for Scarlett's preschool classmates.

And, now 2.5 year old Scarlett is DIY-ing the valentine's cards all by herself! 

I loved watching her concentrate and enjoy this saturday morning project!

{Sidenote: there has been some trouble with not participating in activities at school, so I've been doing more projects with her at home, emphasizing how it is SO fun to go to school...And we need to listen to our teachers...And clean up our work when we are done...And share with our friends...all in the up-tone, high-octave voice of a mother speaking to her toddler, with slight hints of desperation and pleading peaking through. We've all used that voice, you know what I mean.}

You can easily do these homemade valentine's with your toddler as well. This project was inexpensive to begin with and mostly reusable. I plan on using these stamps for years to come! Woot woot!! Materials from PaperSource and prices listed below.

Blossom 4-bar note card, pack of 25 - $3.25
white ink pad - $5.95
"happy valentine's day" stamp - $6.95
heart stickers - pretty sure they were $2 from walgreens!

I just laid everything out and let Scarlett have at it. I did, on occasion, have to guide her to the next card when she was stamping the same spot 38 times, but mostly, she did it all on her own. I just watched and enjoyed my coffee!

Another easy and perfectly acceptable toddler valentine's card idea: computer paper cut into quarters, red and pink markers, let your child draw. done. That was plan b if I couldn't find the stamps! I'm sure the kids in 2-year-old preschool will be perfectly happy with either one. What are you doing with your kiddos?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Recent Tripp

He's so big and giggly and amazing. Too bad he never sits still for me to snap a pic, but here's what Mr. T has been up to recently...

10.5 months
20+ pounds with chunky thighs that are extremely ticklish
crawls fast, pushing off with right leg out giving extra umph
stands on his own, will take steps when you hold both hands
doesn't want to be spoon fed anymore, but still wants you to hold his bottle
requires to go head first down slide, no fear whatsoever
climbs up stairs, under tables, over anything
loves blocks, trucks, books, and music class
is becoming attached to his little monkey stuffed animal friend
starting to say ma-ma, da-da and la-la
claps his hands and does "sooooo big!"
gives the best smiles and eskimo kisses around

Aaahhhh...

Vacation in Me-ji-co

Christmas 2012 in Chicago

We had a great Christmas in Chicago with my enormous extended family. It was busy busy busy, but we packed in lots of qt with parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, high school friends, downtown shopping, deeelicious food, and even a snowfall on Christmas morning!

Yay for time off and wonderful family to spend it with!

Wishing you all the happiest of holidays!!

Scarlett's first stage performance

It was a very surreal experience to be at my daughter's first Christmas program tonight. Is this real life? #WowImOld. But, also kind of cool. Christmas pageants = for real parental obligations!

I was pretty sure it was going to go badly considering the problems she's been having at school lately. When I picked her up this afternoon, the teacher said she refused to go on stage during rehearsal. Great.

We showed up with expectations low. Definitely knew she wasn't going to sing, that was a given. All I could do was hold my breath that she would get on stage with the others and not throw a serious screaming fit.

Well, prayers were answered. She did get on stage! Only after being carried there by her teacher, however.

And then...she proceeded to pick her nose for the whole performance.

Seriously. Finger up her nose the.entire.time.

Here's a special clip where she takes a little taste. #soproud

Classic toddler scared of Santa

Scarlett's terrified, Tripp's unfazed.

Alphabet soup

Oh hey! I missed you! How are you? Good to see you again!!

Yeah, I'm sorry for the extended pause. Long story short, past few months have stayed pretty crazy with continued construction requiring more stints staying with family and friends, David traveling frequently for work, seemingly nonstop colds and coughs for everyone, and general chaos of life with two little munchkins...

But, the great news is that life is settling pretty nicely now. Work is finished on house, we are finally unpacked and it's definitely feeling like home. We are balancing two work schedules, daycare and nanny situation is improving, and we are establishing good routines with friends and activities. Yay!

AND, I miss y'all! And miss recording events big and little in our lives!

Here is Scarlett cooking this afternoon in her new kitchen, and Tripp being the cutest boy on earth, per usual.

Love these kids and so grateful for my little family and our little house and making it a home. And I love looking back at our memories on this blog, so here's to taking the time to post about it all!

Thanks for checking in. Talk again soon!

New house! First bath!

Oh, hello again! Our time in Breckenridge has ended...We are back in Austin!

We've been home(-ish) since last Saturday, but had to spend a week at my mother in law's friend's because house was stillllll not ready.

Inspection not completed so couldn't turn gas on, which meant no hot water, and then the air conditioner broke and then a bajillion other little things, you know, like electrical problems, that prevented inspection from
happening, and we kept being told inspection will take place "tomorrow" for like five days in a row...

But!

After a stressful week and a half of starting a new job and kids starting new daycare and intruding on someone's home with our loud (especially at 3am and 530am) brood, and really no sleep at all, we are finally in the house and *most* things are functional! Yay!

Not to mention new and beautiful!! Double yay!! We love it!!

Unpacking has been a slow process because house/boxes/furniture/everything is covered with an inch thick of dust and debris, and it is difficult to properly unpack when plumbers and carpenters and painters are still working on your house, but it's coming along...albeit slowly.

It has been nice to uncover some old pretty things that were packed away LAST October when we prepped our condo for listing on the market. Wow! And then we've basically been living semi-haphazardly out of boxes and suitcases since December 18th when we left San Francisco! Double wow!

Well! It's not only good to be HOME, it's awesome to be home! And in OUR home! And I told the hubs we are not moving for a looooooooong time! (exclamation points!!)

Gave kids their first bath tonight in the new tub. Tripp was laughing as always, but Scarlett was a little too busy to smile for the camera. Not the best pics but wanted to update that we are In.The.House!

So happy with how things have turned out. Can't wait to share more pictures of kitchen and bath soon!