Easter 2016

Another Easter has come and gone!  I think whenever a holiday rolls around, I declare it as my favorite, but so far this year, Easter has been my favorite!  When Liam saw his Easter basket, he came over to me and whispered: "the Easter bunny came!"   Heart melting. 

   This weekend was a whirlwind of travel, food, and family and we wouldn't have had it any other way.  I'm pretty sure Liam's egg hunt count is up to five, so now we have this huge stash of candy just sitting on our kitchen counter.  Just. Sitting. There.  Way to test my self control!   I contributed orange fluff salad and coconut cream pie dip to our little gatherings, both of which were delicious and sweet (and super easy).  After a weekend of not so careful eating I told myself I'd eat really well this week to recover.  So, of course, I started off the trend by eating my weight in left over coconut cream pie dip.  Whoops.

The weather cooperated a little this weekend, so while it was still a little chilly, we were able to get outside for the egg hunts.  We have a bird friend who made a nest on our wreath on our front door, so we also made some cheerio bird feeders to hang on the tree, which Liam had a lot of fun with.  Liam got bubbles in his Easter basket, so he spent about half an hour blowing and chasing bubbles around.  On Friday we went to a local flower shop that hosts an event called "follow the bunny trail," where kids can collect candy and eggs (without the aggression of competing with older kids during an egg hunt), while visiting the Easter bunny and farm animals.  Liam would not go near the Easter bunny, but he did enjoy the farm animals, as did Eva.  

Although we didn't make it through the whole church sermon on Easter morning due to a crying baby, we didn't forget the true reason for Easter.  

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  John 3:16

Currently Coveting

Sanitas Skincare aha skin care, Eyelet bow dress | Gap, Solid slip-on sneakers | Gap, Smith and Cult, Clarins Radiance-Plus Golden Glow Booster

No joke, I am working hard to save some money, which means controlling my impulse shopping.  I'm trying out a new system in regards to my purchases.  If I see something I want, I put it down on a list.  If I continue to want it after two weeks, I will budget it in and if I'm good living without it, I delete it off the list.  So far this is working well and I've already deleted a couple items, which would have been regret purchases if I would have impulsed shopped like I have the past.  So far, so good.

These are a couple items I have on my list right now.  Some for mama and some for the kids.  I am trying to prep my skin to be makeup free most of the summer.  I just ordered the Sanitas oily skincare set and am waiting to see how that works out before ordering the brightening pads.  I've heard great things about the brightening pads.  For someone like me, who has a lot of acne scarring and texture, they are supposed to work wonders!  They are pricey, so I'm waiting to see how I like the skincare in general before diving in with other products.  Along with getting my skin summer ready, I just recently heard about these Clarins Radiance drops.  I would love to use self tanner, but I hate replacing my current moisturizers with something like Jergens and this seems like the perfect solution.  They're drops that you put into your current moisturizers to give you a self tan.  Honestly, I'm not necessarily looking for a deep tan, just something to get the skin glowing a bit!

It's been three years since I've been into painting my nails, but I find myself enjoying painting my nails lately after the kids go to bed (and praying they don't wake up mid-paint).  Smith and Cult is one of my favorite nail polish brands and this yellow would be perfect for spring!

I do have a couple items on my list for the kids, including this dress (among others) for Eva.  I'm waiting closer to summer to buy any warm dresses since I'm not sure what size she'll be.  She is eight months now and is still fitting in her six month clothing.  We had shoes similar to the ones above for Liam two summers ago and LOVED them.  Just slip them on and go!  I don't know if they didn't have them last summer or if I was too late to the game to get them, but I could not find them anywhere!  So, we may have to take the plunge and ditch the list for this one to make sure we have a pair for summer!

Sunday

Another weekend down, another week to go.  While Saturday was a really productive day for us, today was an absolute bust, and I'm totally okay with that.  We lost an hour due to spring forward, the weather was a gloomy, and everyone in the house hold could have used some R&R.  So, we spent the day in our lounge clothes, made chocolate chip cookies, and took a drive to look at some real estate.

I'm prepping to be gone for most of the week at a conference, which will be the first time I'm gone overnight (or multiple nights) from both kids (insert anxiety/sad emoji). I'm incredibly thankful to have a job that allows me to easily access learning opportunities to further my knowledge base, and honestly, learning is my favorite part of my job.  If I could be a professional college student, I would do it in a heart beat.  With that said, the heart strings are definitely being tugged.  I am going to miss the kids like crazy and am having some serious guilt with leaving Greg to handle everything while I'm gone.  On the flip side, I plan to take full advantage of the little taste of freedom and hit the hotel gym up, do some shopping, and enjoy a couple uninterrupted nights' sleep. 

Easter Baskets

SpunCandy Doll, BeckandBelle Headband, Ralph Lauren Jumper, Firetruck Puzzle, Tractor Slippers, Sleeveless Hoodie

Since having kids, one of my favorite things about Easter is making up the kids' Easter baskets.  Getting to fill a basket with pretty spring themed toys and clothes makes this mama's heart happy!  Since Liam's first Easter, I knew that I did not want to fill a basket with tons of candy and little trinkets.  I absolutely hate buying little trinket like items just for the fact that they may hold my kids' attention for a day, then they just sit in a toy basket, or on the stairs...or in the refrigerator (it's happened).  Since Christmas wasn't too far away and Liam just had his birthday, I also do not want to completely overdo it.  My happy median is finding one toy, books, or puzzle for each child, then throwing in some "fun" essentials.  Both kids need some spring clothes, so at least one item of clothing is a go to.  Bright slippers, socks, underwear, or pajamas can round out your clothing items.  Something to keep their little hands busy, like art supplies, is also a nice option.  In our case, Liam prefers stickers, so I found some really fun spring stickers in the dollar bin at target.  I did bite the bullet and get Liam a chocolate bunny for his basket, but a good alternative would be Annie's Cheddar Bunnies.  To fill out the basket, I like to put some items they can play with outside, like chalk, bubbles, or water toys for their water table.

It's Been A While...

So, it's been a while, as in a month and a half since I've "blogged" last.  I definitely go back and forth on whether to delete this blog or keep moving along.  Sometimes I feel like a trucker trying to connect to someone over the walkee talkee when i'm blogging.  "Niner, niner, is anyone out there?"  Regardless if I'm connecting with anyone else or not, it is fun to have a spot to look back to with your family stories, pictures, and things you love.

Since January, we've had fun celebrating Valentine's Day with the traditional Papa Murphey's heart shaped pizza, cupcakes, and our own Valentine mailboxes.  We've also celebrated a certain little boy's third birthday, John Deere style.  Both our parents and ourselves pitched in and got him his own Gator.  Luckily the weather has been nice a couple times, but for the most part, it's still too cold to play with it on a daily basis.  I think he has big plans to stroll Eva around in the passenger seat, but we're not quite there yet...

Eva turned eight months old and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that is even possible.  I've said it before, but I felt like Liam was a baby forever and Eva is just zipping through this phase.  She's babbling, eating pureed food (with some puffs), and crawling.  Although, her crawl is more like an army crawl.  We're pretty sure she is going to have the buffest upper body any baby will ever have, but her legs will be atrophied since she hasn't been using them to crawl at all.

We'll see if I can keep this blog up a bit =)

Valentine's Day Prep

Candle, Valentine's Day Card, King of Hearts Shirt, The Day it Rained Hearts, Dress

Well, it's day three of Liam's fever and the doctor confirmed it is RSV.  Wah.  Poor little guy has been sleeping for three days straight and has barely eaten.  We're snuggled up in bed right now while he watches Ice Age on the IPad and I "window shop" for Valentine's Day items.  

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays.  First of all, there are the cutest books that go along with Valentine's day.  The Day it Rained Hearts would be a great one to read before making your own Valentine's Day cards with your kids.  Such a cute story!  I'm not going to lie, looking at all the Pinterest homemade Valentine cards to get ideas for Liam's classmates gives me a certain level of anxiety.  A robot made out of a fruit cup and juice box...seriously?  I do not have the time nor the skills.  I lied.  I have the time, but I'd rather be watching Making a Murderer.  The skills part is true, though.

Greg and I don't typically do anything romantic, but I'm swooning over that card pictured above.  I'm pretty sure I have to get that.  We will most likely make some sort of dessert with the kids and make heart shaped pancakes for breakfast (or a heart shaped pizza for dinner...just know that some heart shaped food will be happening this day).  

The Never Ending Saga

I hope everyone had a healthy start to the new year, because we certainly have not.  For the past two months one of us has been sick with something, with maybe a gift of a day of two in between of everyone being healthy.  We had a streak of about five days where we were all good and I thought the germs were all behind us, until Friday night, when Liam woke up with a fever around midnight.  Now it's Sunday night and he's worse than he was Friday night. I hate seeing him this ill.  He's a kid who can be sick, but will still run around and play, but this round, he's pretty much couch bound and cries every time he coughs.  We took him to urgent care, but they said it's viral and we'd have to wait it out.  So, here I am, waiting it out with him, at 7:00pm in my bed (yup, writing from my bed).  I'm just hoping the rest of our family doesn't catch anything.  Being a stay-at-home mom is always in the back of my mind, but these times especially are the times I wish I could just devote 100% of my time to caring for my family.  

In happier news, Eva Las Vegas is a whole 6 months old!  I can hardly believe it.  I felt with Liam time passed so slow that first year as we were anxious for him to meet his first milestones.  I feel with Eva, if we blink, we'll miss everything and she'll be talking and walking before we know it.  She continues to be fairly easy going.  She loves hearing herself  "talk," rolling on her belly (and sleeping on her belly), watching Liam, looking in the mirror, and has recently discovered pulling the kitty's hair.  It's so fun to see how much more Liam attends to her now that she is getting her own personality and can respond with giggles and smiles to him.  She is working on sitting up by herself and can hold it together for about 10 seconds before she topples over (which Liam loves).

In unrelated news, after eating three meals of pizza this weekend, Greg and I decided we really need to eat healthier and actually took some action and wrote down some meal ideas, which is about one step further than we usually take when we mention we need to eat healthier.  I even prepped some over night oats for tomorrow.  Props to me.  Hopefully we can keep this health kick going...although I will admit, the idea of giving up pasta gives me a slight panic attack.  I think I'll compromise with that one by just adding spinach to the lasagna.  It's all about balance, right?