Friday, May 30, 2014

just some randoms {17}

Mia picked out her very own hiking outfit and she couldn't wait to try it on ;) ha ha! My (semi nakey) baby is very proud of her handiwork! 

Just playing with her puzzle, on her belly, kicking her legs up in the air like she's 10 years old... no big deal.

My (nakey) sleeping baby, because I need one in every post! I should have known better, but Mia totally ruined her outfit at my color me rad 5k, so I washed it at my parents house. I didn't think she'd actually fall asleep while waiting for it to wash because she likes her clothes, even though she hates getting dressed (make sense?) but voila!!

17 months and still going strong with the binky! To be fair, besides the past 3 weeks of teething h e double hockey sticks, she only gets her binky at nap and bed time. Buuuuut I'm terrified to get rid of it. Ugh! Oh hey, don't forget to enter our Kissy Kissy giveaway so that you can win an adorable outfit like this!

My (nakey) future blogger! Eric will be thrilled about this ;)

Thursday, May 29, 2014

talk to the hand...

Being a hairstylist I have had many, many conversations where I am offered advice... whether I want it or not. Sometimes it's good advice, other times it's really weird advice, and a few times it's been just plain crappy advice. By putting myself "out there" in the social media world via my blog, Instagram, Facebook, etc, people offer their two cents... whether I asked for it or not. Most of the time I love it, sometimes I've rolled my eyes at it, and other times it's just pissed me right off. People will always be giving their opinions, whether you wanna hear it or not. Being a hairstylist I've discovered that people sit in my chair and they just need to talk. So I let them! It's what I decide to do with their opinions that truly affect me. Thankfully all those years of doing hair and subjecting myself to the internet world taught me an important lesson before becoming a mother (which is when people love to share their opinion most, as I'm sure most mommas would agree, ha!) on how to "lovingly handle when someone shares their opinion"...

I'm sure the suspense is killing you...

Let it in one ear, and out the other.

That's it! That's all I've got for today. It truly is that simple! If something is super hurtful or offensive, vent to your husband, mom or best friend and get the annoyance out of your system and then... let it go :)

From Here to EternityWords About Waverly
my delicious adventure Photobucket
My Delicious Adventure                  The Life Of Faith
Running From The LawThe Olive Tree
Running From The Law             The Olive Tree          

May 29:        When People Share Their Opinions and How to Lovingly Handle it
June 5:         Traveling with your Toddler
June 12:       How to get your toddler to eat their veggies…or their food at all
June 19:       How to make time to blog in the busyness of motherhood
June 26:       Bedtime Battles (nap or bedtime)
Come link up with us every Thursday!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

kissy kissy {$50 baby outfit giveaway}

I am so excited to offer the chance for you to win a sweet little number by Kissy Kissy for your little babe, or a gift for a baby you love dearly :) One winner will get an outfit valued at at least $50!! But first, a little info on Kissy Kissy:
  • Kissy Kissy has been a go-to for new moms and gift givers for the last 16 years. 
  • the uses collection's super soft Peruvian Pima cotton 
  • they have a wide variety of sweet prints that underscore everything that's special about those first days with baby
  • they have coordinating accessories that complete the look of an outfit
  • sizes spanning preemie through size 4T and offers playwear, take-me-home, christening, special occasion, accessories and gift items.
We adore our outfit from Kissy Kissy. It's sweet, feminine, light weight and so soft it practically screams "I'll stop being a raging monster-toddler if you cuddle me in this sweet outfit!" True story. I you all could win, that's how much we love i!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

weekend review


I admit that I got jealous for a split second as I scrolled through Instagram and saw so many fun photos of friends camping or playing at the beach, wishing we could escape our neck of the woods for some fun as well... but only for a split second because I quickly realized how grateful I am to spend time with my little family, no matter where we are or what we are doing! Eric surprised me by staying home on Monday so we had another day to just relax and hangout together, it was the best!!
On Saturday we took a drive up the mountain and braved the *chilly* 38 degrees to explore Cedar Breaks National Monument. Luckily the hiking warmed our bodies, Mia is obsessed with being outside no matter how cold the temps are, and the scenery was breath taking!
We took it easy the rest of the weekend since Mia came down with some kind of bug. The poor girl had a rough time fighting her fever and just wasn't herself. BUT the cuddles were out of this world! Gotta soak those up while we still can ;) We were able to enjoy a BBQ, late night ice cream/movie dates and donuts for breakfast! We figured we'd go all out since it was a lazy weekend, HA! I suspect this summer is going to be a crazy one so even though I hate seeing Mia sick, it was the perfect excuse to take it easy and relax together. I hope everyone had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend! I am so thankful for the service of our military... Land of the free because of the brave!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

my two cents

A throwback to Mia at 6 months because this is one of my all time favorites!
Let me start this post with a little reminder- we all have our personal struggles. One can't compare to another because we neither know the whole story or understand the situation. With that being said... I must admit that I don't suffer from mommy guilt, and I know what a blessing that is! Especially as I find myself suffering from mild depression brought on from the hormone changes in my body due to stopping nursing. Proof that we all have our own personal struggles, but that is another story for different time.
I feel like the bar is set so high for mothers thanks to social media... too high if you ask me! Before blogs, instagram and pinterest we had no one to compare ourselves to other than our friends and family. Life would be so much easier if we didn't compare at all, but lets be real, we all do it. But how do we compete with the whole world of amazing, creative, crafty, healthy, smart mommas? Corners of the Internet that can be so inspiring and supportive can also be our downfall. Motherhood needs to be brought back to the basics. Love and nurture your kids to the best of your abilities! Teach them in the ways that you know how. Let your children learn by your example. Trust your instincts!
Despite how foreign being a mother can feel at times, you were made for this role! When you catch yourself feeling guilty because you can't throw a lavish party like you see on pinterest, just don't. Five years ago you wouldn't have even known parties like that existed, and luckily for you, your kid still doesn't. Or when you feel like a failure because you've never once said night time prayers with your 17 month old and you find out your friend's 17 month old folds her arms to pray before being put down, just don't. You can start a new routine adding bed time prayers because you were inspired with the idea from your friend, just like she has been inspired to brush her child's teeth twice a day when you told her it's in your daily routine!  Or when you feel like a bad mom for sitting your kid in front of the TV so that you can finish homework, work, making dinner, etc, just don't. Hello? Your kid is loving the opportunity to watch a show and you are teaching responsibility by missing out on the fun to finish whatever project you are working on. Or when you feel like a slob because the house is a mess and your baby is still in pj's (let's not even talk about the condition of your hair or your yoga pants), just don't. We all have our good days and our bad days and every other mother understands it. You have no one to impress but yourself. If loving your children is enough for them, it should be enough for you. If loving Mia is what makes her world go 'round, then it should be enough for me!
Mommy guilt is a nasty battle that most have to fight day in and day out... but when I truly stop and realize just what Mia needs from me... I realize that I am good enough. It's natural to have my bad days, my rotten moments and my pity parties, but I refuse to feel guilty for that because I am human! Maybe if I had spent more time teaching Mia sign language, she could tell you that I'm one of her favorite humans in the world (I'd like to think that I make the top 2 in that category) ;) And that's good enough for me to let go of all the ridiculous expectations I have and let the guilt melt away! I am a good mom and it's okay to believe in myself!

From Here to EternityWords About Waverly
my delicious adventure Photobucket
My Delicious Adventure                  The Life Of Faith
Running From The LawThe Olive Tree
Running From The Law             The Olive Tree          

May 8:          Taming the Temper Tantrums
May 15:        Weaning from Breastfeeding or From Formula to Cow’s Milk 
May 22:        Dealing with Mommy Guilt
May 29:        When People Share Their Opinions and How to Lovingly Handle it
June 5:         Traveling with your Toddler
June 12:       How to get your toddler to eat their veggies…or their food at all
June 19:       How to make time to blog in the busyness of motherhood
June 26:       Bedtime Battles (nap or bedtime)
Come link up with us every Thursday!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

my h a p p y place


It's official. Hiking is my happy place. I may be stressing as I am trying to get out the door to get to our hike; I may be cursing myself as I realized I forgot this, or I wish I would have grabbed that, etc; or I may be complaining on the hike (my back will thank me when I get a new hiking pack!) BUT I love hiking! I love the memories made with friends, the conversations we share, the beautiful and breath taking views I get to experience, and most of all, I love showing Mia the world! I literally have a physical craving to go hiking at least once a week. I need to get better at making more time for this amazing hobby!
Mia and I went hiking with Shay (a long lost blogger who is sorely missed here!) a couple weeks ago (and I'm dying to go back out!) and we enjoyed a gorgeous hike! The river walk hike is the easiest ever, you can even take strollers on it, so Mia was able to run and play but we soaked in SO much beauty! I only wish I could show you just how breath taking Zion National Park is in person, especially since I'm not photographer :) I am looking forward to more days like these in the coming months!
I'm ready to plan my next hiking trip... who wants to come?! :)

P.S. I have a giveaway over on my Instagram that may include Freshly Picked moccs! Go enter now!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

happy 17 months to my love bug

- Mia girl is a pro at climbing/pulling herself up these days. She successfully pulled herself onto a park bench a few weeks ago and since then she has perfected climbing on couches, boxes, chairs and even pulling herself into vehicles! This is terrifying for me because I can easily see her going too high and falling back without me there to catch her, AH!
- She is the biggest helper and loves to throw stuff away. She finds trash (usually random pieces of paper) and throws them away all on her own! And of course she will toss her diapers, or anything else we ask her to throw away.
- Mia is obsessed with flushing the toilet. When she sees me heading for the bathroom she gets SO excited and runs in after me, shuts the door and waits until flushing time. Disgusting, I know. But all you mommas get me, right?
- On that note, she has finally caught on to getting a clean diaper (when we ask) which makes her much more willing to get her diaper changed! I wish I could just get her to bring me a diaper (without being asked) when it's time to be changed!
- Mia kinda understands blowing her nose. She sometimes gets a runny nose while teething and a couple weeks ago I caught her holding a tissue to her nose and making the blowing noise :)
- Her favorite (or one of her many favorite) things to do is play in the drivers seat! We make her day when we pull her on our lap and let her turn the stealing wheel and mess with all of the knobs. The windshield wipers and volume knob really get a workout when Mia is in charge!  
- She had officially made the switch to one nap a day. I was kind of bummed about it at first, but it's been great for freeing up time to do more activities. Plus her naps are usually 3 hours long :) 
- I don't really know what to say about her eating habits. Mia pretty much eats anything we put in front of her, but some days she's not in the mood. For example, one day we can't give her enough blue berries and the next? She won't touch 'em! But I can always count on her cleaning up a plate of pasta or oranges. Those two are by far her favorites! 
- Mia has added "bye" (byyyyyye), "baby" (bee-ee), "boo" and "binky" (gee-gee) to her vocabulary. I'm not excited about the last one... we need to get rid of the binky before she becomes any more attached... but I'm scared!
- She used to be terrified of animals but lately she is obsessed! Anytime she sees one outside she yells "hey!" and runs up to pet it if it's a little cat or dog :) She got brave and petted my parents boxer dogs all on her own this last week!
- Mia still wears 6-9 month and 12 month clothes, but I busted out her 18 month summer clothes (which are adorrrrrable!) and she fits in some of those really great! She's a size 3 shoe and still just a tiny little peanut! She looks a lot bigger than she really is in photos!
- She still wears size 3 diapers but I think it's about time to move up to size 4!
I really wish her wardrobe came in my size!
I can't believe we are a month away from Mia turning a year and a half old! I know I say it all the time, but it's crazy how time keeps flying! A year and a half used to seem like such a short time, but I barely remember what life was like before Mia came into our lives. We are so lucky that she's the funnest, sweetest little girl around! We are just as whipped as the day we laid eyes on her!   

Monday, May 19, 2014

life lately


It's a bitter sweet feeling as we start a new week today. Last week was quite the roller coaster. We experienced major highs and lows... I'm sad to have the 'highs' end but more than happy to kiss the 'lows' goodbye (hopefully)!
Eric was in Texas all week for work and we missed him like crazy! He made up for my less than glamorous Mother's Day by cleaning our home, taking me out for lunch and gifting me to a day at the spa before flying out Monday night. He really is the best (when he wants to be ;) ha)! Mia and I kept busy while he was gone and it was quite the week. We only had one more puking episode (which I caught with my hands, lucky me) but Mia was quickly possessed by the teething demon, which is anything BUT cute, in case you were wondering. All four of Mia's canines made life real hard for us last week, poor girl was in a lot of pain! But we tried to make the best of each day!
We spent a couple nights at my parents house which entailed lots of playing outside, walks with the dogs and never ending spoiling. We did have one sleepless night (seriously, 3 hours of sleep. I have never come so close to throwing Mia outside and letting her bunk with the dogs ) that ended with a drive at 3am to get Mia to sleep... which I've never had to do in her entire life. I'm really making motherhood sound good right now ;) The rest of the week(end) was spent babysitting kids and Mia was in heaven (aside from her teething pains)! This entailed lots of playing outside, an amazing playroom with never ending kitchen toys, babies and dress ups (I was in awe of the playroom, Mia was so lucky to experience it for a few days. She was all business as she efficiently moved from one toy to the next... without cracking one smile the whole time, ha ha!), dance parties and endless ball throwing in the racketball court, splash pad play dates, swimming and endless spoiling and loves from two doting kids. We really had the perfect distractions while Eric was away, I only wish that teething wasn't a thing... because then we would have slept great and been in the best of moods the whole week :)
Now Eric is back and we are all reunited at home. The best part is that Mia is acting like herself again so hopefully we will be getting a break from the teething demon for a few days. I'm ready to get back on a schedule and dive back into blogging! And seriously, any tips for the poor girl who seems to be getting all four canines at once? She's not one for teething toys, so what are some other options to help relieve the pain (besides Tylenol. She was doped up every 4 hours and it still didn't seem to totally relieve the pain)??