indoor campout- wahoo!

It's cold outside. Not like Idaho cold- thank goodness- but still pretty darn cold, enough to keep me and the children inside and snuggled up on most days. Since I knew it would be sunny (but cold) this weekend we came up with the idea of an indoor campout! In our living room. It was a pretty awesome idea if I say so myself :]

We put tents up- one for Talmage (its a play tent meant for inside) and one for us (our actual camping tent that we haven't used in over a year....I have excuses okay). We connected a tunnel from one to the other -- the kids had a hayday with that!

C's static-y hair, hehe

For lunch-dinner we had grilled cheddar bratwursts (a camping MUST), watermelon, and my all-time favorite cherry coke. Can you tell we are a little bit eager for the summertime? I can hardly wait till we go for real camping outside, road trips, farmer's markets, swimming in the pool, and berry picking!!! Anyway, back to the hot dogs....they were the debut of Jonathan's new outdoor stove (Christmas present from me). He was so excited to cook them dogs. how I love him.

she loved the watermelon.

a true campers meal. hot dogs & coke.

yep, he did take a picture of me eating a hot dog. love you too, hun.

When it got dark we shone our flashlights on the ceiling and made shadows with our hands, ate lots smores, and read bedtime fairy tales to Talmage. Charlotte slept in the crib but we let Talmage put his crib mattress in his tent to sleep. BAD IDEA. I mean he loved it but he was soooo hyper that he didn't fall asleep until midnight, then woke up at 6 am wide awake. And since he had access to everything in the kitchen....well you can imagine. Basically, he ate a lot of gum and sugar from the sugar jar. It was bad.

did you know there are marshmallows just for smores?! crazy new age ideas...

Not to mention Charlotte, Jonathan, and I are all sick with colds. So the combination of T getting out of his tent and C crying meant very little sleep for us. We probably should have picked a better weekend to camp out in our living room but oh well....and no, we didn't sleep in our tent. I hate sleeping on the ground and there is no comparison to my soft squishy bed.


and just because these pictures make me happy...here you go.

have a good week everyone!

all about how materialistic I am (jk!)

I'll be honest here...since I had Charlotte I have taken very little time out for myself. This includes everything from shopping to girls nights to sometimes forgetting to brush my teeth. I've started to take a good look at myself in the mirror and realize how frumpy I've become. While I don't regret spending all the time and attention on my children, I do think its about time that I started feeling like a woman again- a girly, pretty, woman :)

before you say it- I know that outer beauty isn't everything. I feel pretty confident in the things that make me inwardly beautiful, but this post happens to be about outer beauty because it is what I'm seriously lacking right now :]

So here are some things I'm trying out...and even though the hubs has a job now we are still on a tight budget, so these are all fairly simple concepts.

1. Honey face wash. My friend Jill told me about how she washed her face with honey and it made her skin all soft and evened out. So I've been doing it for the last couple of weeks and boy what a difference! I love how my skin just soaks in the honey and after I get out of the shower it is soooo soft. Even Jonathan told me one night as we were reading in bed that my complexion looked "glowy". And its not because I'm pregnant. Awesome!

2. Out of my comfort zone clothes. I realize that wearing jeans and t-shirt is far from galmorous, but it's what I usually wear because it's "safe". I'm turning it up a notch and wearing colored leggings now. Wowza. At first it felt weird but now I love my colored pants, and I feel semi-fashionable when we go out. With the clothes I currently have that fit me in an awkward way- I'm working on re-purposing some of them to make them cuter.

3. Hair & Nails. first, my hair. It's pretty long right now because I haven't cut it short in about a year. Right now I'm debating whether or not to cut it really cute & short again or keep finding new ways to love it long. Regardless, the fact is that I am finally DOING my hair! baby steps ;)
and nails. I have short, stubby, chewed on nails. But I have this clear nail polish from Sally's that grows them really long really fast (I just always end up biting them down again because of stress) I'm really going to try and NOT bite them. I know, it's a gross habit. When they do get long, I'm going to soak them in a hydrogen peroxide-baking soda mixture that makes them all pretty. Can't wait!

4. Bold jewelery. When I wear a pretty set of earrings or necklace, I feel pretty. I haven't worn jewelery for a LONG time because we all know that babies love to pull on it and put it in their mouth. I have this one necklace with plastic beads that C loves to chew on, and it entertains her for the entire Sacrament hour. It doesn't bother me because I know she can't hurt her mouth on the beads, so I've decided to start wearing baby-friendly jewelery (mostly necklaces) to dress up my outfits. Best thing is- plastic jewelery is wayyy cheaper!

5. Getting sweaty again. I hate exercising. Whenever I start to be the least bit active my joints get really sore. So I'm focusing now on things that will be easy on my joints but still do the job. And I accept the fact that 10-15 minutes is about the best I can do for myself. That will change someday when the kids get older.

So that's the plan. Ideally I would be able to go the spa every week and pamper myself endlessy on mud-masks and french manicures--but that's not at all realistic! If I can take a few minutes each day to do something for myself then I feel like I can take on the kids and whatever chaos they create.

...and now she's a toddler!

The year came and went so fast, and our little Charlotte is 1. I could go on and on about how much I love her and want her to be my baby forever, but my attitude is a little different this time than it was when T turned one year. I understand that children must grow up and learn and explore and be even more fun! And I welcome it :)

About a week ago I took some pictures of C to use for the party. She's so easy to photograph because I can just sit her down and let her do her thing without propping her. We did some inside with a backdrop I sewed and lots more outside in the sunshine :]

here are just a few.

 

Her birthday weekend was INSANE. and this is why:

1. I decided last minute to throw a bday party of sorts for her, and invited our closest friends to come. I did not think all of them would, but they ALL did (except my awesome SIL who was very much missed!). good- but stressful.

2. I bought waaay too much food and stressed myself out over making stuff from all of it.

3. The weather was threatening clouds and rain for Saturday all week, which stressed me out more. (It just so happened to be partially sunny)

4. My in-laws came from Idaho and of course I stressed about all of that going well.

5. Charlotte became sick and feverish Saturday right before the party. STRESS.

You might notice that in each of those 5 points there was some cause of stress. A lot of people don't know this about me but I pretty much stress about anything. Throwing parties is not my thing. I hate it. I have nightmares about it. I get cold sweats as the hours pass just waiting for it. I break out all over my face. And this time I also lost 10 lbs. I have so much anxiety about everything and I don't know why because neither one of my parents are that way.

So why throw a party you ask? Because we did one for T's 1st birthday- we had a BBQ with our friends and it was Curious George themed. It was such a wonderful time and is still a lovely memory. I think 1st birthdays are special and I wanted to make a good memory for Charlotte's, too. So, truly, it was all for her.

Despite me being totally nuts about the whole thing, the party went perfectly and I wouldn't change a thing. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends come all the way to our home and celebrate with us. We are blessed to have a baby that can be happy and sweet even when she is teething (thanks GOODNESS). And we are blessed that Jonathan's parents came because I could NOT have done it without them.

We did a *pink and red* theme because her birthday is just 3 days after Valentine's, and it worked out great cause I used my Vday decor for the party- you can't go wrong with hearts ;)

Like always I took way too many pictures, so bear with me. She downed her cupcake in under a minute so I was going shutter crazy.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Call me weird, but I didn't get a single picture of her on Sunday- her actual birthday. I had this cute dress all picked out for church and she woke up completely miserable. She had a fever of 102 so I gave her ibuprofen and we took her to church after it cooled down a little. Not the best idea, but I had to go to teach my class and I did NOT want to be apart from her on her birthday. She slept through most of church but was very fussy and by the end her fever returned. Since her face was wet and puffy and sad all day, I didn't take any pics. So it's a good thing we got plenty from the day before :]

I am still in shock that she's 1 already...she's been very snuggly and clingy attached to me all weekend so it still feels like she's my baby girl (perhaps the only good outcome of teething ever). Oh how I love her!

Happy birthday Charly Mae! Don't grow up too fast please!