right before christmas, six adults and four children under the age of 3 embarked on our second group vacay. our first trip was to bodega bay earlier this year. this time, we rented a house in south lake tahoe.
it was a whole lot of people, in a small-ish cabin, with not a lot of snow but it was a whole lot of fun. next time, we'll definitely wait until january or february because we were all definitely disappointed in the snowfall (or lack thereof) this month. luckily, just a few minute drive up the road, we found enough snow to get our sledding on.
jc LOVED sledding. he would grab the sled out of whomever was holding a sled's hands, set it on the ground and sit in it like "alright, let's go!" as soon as he would reach the bottom of the hill, he gave high fives to everyone. with his little mitten hands. adorable!
the adults managed to have some fun adult time after the kiddos went to bed. we realized the first night that all parts of this house did a horrible job of filtering noise so we had to be mindful but it was ok. loaded questions, scattergories, hot tubbing, coffee with baileys and vanilla ice cream taste tests occupied most of our evenings.
i think the kids had a great time hanging out and playing together. we even had a little mini early christmas for the kids. we had turkey, mashed potatoes, and presents. all you need for a mini christmas.
all in all, we had a great time and i can't wait for our next super friend vacation!
found this suit hiding in the back of jc's closet on christmas eve. we were looking for something dressy for him to wear to christmas eve dinner at the in laws. he received it as a gift at his baby shower. it kinda looks like he could prepare your taxes or help you with your bankruptcy but i think it's adorable.
his BIG gift from the in laws was this massive train table that will probably stay in the box until we move. just for my sanity. he got down to business when it came to unwrapping it.
so a few days ago, i was tagged by jessica from sweet green tangerine with this really fun post idea. basically it's a great way to learn more about certain bloggers with 11 facts & 11 questions. then you tag 11 more people with 11 new questions. all for the end of 2011! ok, i think we are all on the same page now.
Here are the rules.
1. You must post these rules. 2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog. 3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer. 4. You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her. 5. No tag backs and you legitimately have to tag 11 people.
11 things you may not know about me...
1. i was born in dallas, tx but only lived there for a couple years. my family then moved to las cruces, nm for eight years, then to tucson, az for five years and ended up here in sacramento, ca since 2000. we never lived in the same house for longer than 3 years. 2. charles and i met our freshman year of high school on the first day of school in our first period class, computer technology. 3. charles had a girlfriend when we met... but not for very long. i was a 14 year old homewrecker. 4. i have one large tattoo on the side of my left calf. it is of a couple daffodils, a couple gladiolus flowers and a blue sparrow. it represents my brother and sister. and the fact that i'm OBSESSED with bird tattoos. i'd love get more tattoos, i'm just not set on what i want. 5. i played the viola in my elementary and middle school orchestras. i have no idea how to play it now but i'd love to learn again. 6. the house we are renting now belongs to my soon-to-be mother-in-law. it is the same house that charles lived in since he was three years old. his old room is now jc's room. 7. i'd love to be fluent in another language besides english. i took french for all four years of high school but it didn't really stick. i would love to put jc in a school that does language immersion. 8. if i could live anywhere else (realistically) i would probably live in the pacific northwest. either seattle or portland. we visited the area on our babymoon before jc was born and i fell in love. too bad my hair would always be a frizzy mess. 9. i love musicals. especially seeing them live. my favorite musical is chicago. 10. my secret fantasy dream professions are to be a stand-up comedian or a police officer. but i'm pretty sure i'm not that funny and i'm not prepared to risk my life for my profession. 11. if money were no object, i'd probably have six kids. but i'll probably end up with two or three.
and here are the questions given to me by jessica...
1. What names did you have picked out for your kids when you were little?
one name i really liked for a girl was olivia. then it became super popular so i lost interest. i never had a boy name picked out, probably why i didn't protest too much when we named jc after his dad. 2.What's your favorite YouTube video?
oh man, this is a good question. i have probably watched this video a million times and shared it with that many people.
it makes me literally laugh out loud everytime. 3.What is something/someone you are currently missing?
i miss my sister. she lives in southern california and i wish she could live here. 4.of your Pinterest boards has the most pins? (and if you're not of Pinterest, let me know & I'll get you an invite)
i have two wedding boards (that i really should just combine) and they total 69 pins. on it's own, my food board has 44 pins. 5.What is something you are proud of yourself for?
i'm proud of myself for taking the risk of quitting my job to raise my son. it definitely wasn't a hard job to leave but we were worried about having financial security. so far so good! 6. Do you have any vices/bad habits?
oh god, where do i begin? biting my nails and staying up too late are probably my worst bad habits. i've bitten my nails for as long as i can remember. 7. Name a Fictional character you want to be more like.
i wish i could be tina fey in real life, but i'd settle for liz lemon. 8. Share a quote that you feel defines your personality/philosophy.
"the journey is the destination" is a quote that i'm trying to follow. so much of the time i worry about the end result that i don't enjoy the process. 9. What is/was your favorite children's book?
i loved to read the babysitters club series. 10. What is the most played song in your playlist/iTunes?
probably anything by justin timberlake. he's my go-to for dance jams and working out. 11. What is your favorite era/cast of Saturday Night Live?
anytime will ferrell or tina fey were in the cast.
and here are my 11 questions...
1. what are your television show guilty pleasures? 2. is there anywhere in the world that you are NOT interested in visiting? 3. what is one thing about your personality that you would like to change? 4. are you a dog person or a cat person? 5. what would you do differently if you could go back to high school? 6. what is your favorite alcoholic beverage? if you don't drink alcohol, what is your favorite coffee drink? if you don't drink either of those things, what do you drink?? 7. if you could create a new ice cream flavor, would would it be? 8. what is your dream profession? 9. if you could live (realistically) anywhere else, where would you live? 10. do you play any musical instruments? if so, which ones? 11. what kind of car do you drive?
that is our holiday card that we sent out to our friends and family this year, featuring the infamous crying child on santa's lap. i got so many comments from our friends that they loved the card, it made me so happy!
i hope everyone's christmas was magical and sensational and everything you wanted it to be! we had a great christmas and we all made out like bandits. i've spent most of today running around trying to find places for all of our new stuff. jc got 1008439893 toys but the highlight has got to be this yo gabba gabba mega blocks set that we got him as his "santa present" this year (although when we bought it, it was NOT $99!). i walked in on him giving foofa the BIGGEST hug i've ever seen him give anyone/anything. it melted my heart. he also loved the yo gabba gabba blanket that his great aunt got for him and this awesome fisher-price iphone case that protects my phone so the baby can play with it and reduce the risk of damage to my phone.
but this may have been my best christmas in a very long time, in the presents department that is.
my soon-to-be mother-in-law and father-in-law got me the sewing machine and charles and my sister got me the ipad!! i couldn't believe that i received either of them. i've been coveting the ipad for as long as i can remember but couldn't justify spending the money on myself. i've been trying to learn how to sew for the last year but had a jenky hand-me-down machine that did not work properly. i'm so excited to finally learn!!!
i feel like i have so much to blog about that i'm a little overwhelmed. we had a great time in tahoe and i have tons of pictures to share with you from that trip. we also went on a crazy house hunt when we got back and put in an offer on a house!!!!! of course, it's bank owned so who knows how long it will take to hear back if they accept our offer or not or what kind of red tape we'll have to cut through but at least we a step closer. i'm also thinking about the new year and the changes it will bring. especially the fact that our wedding is only about five months away. eeeeek!
i'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to finally catch up on all of our vacation laundry and fill up our now empty refridgerator. i hope you are all having a nice calm day after the crazyness of christmas!
eeep, this post is a little late. time is just going so fast! i can't believe that we are halfway through jc's second year and well on our way to turning TWO. i don't even want to think about it. i don't want to rush it. this time with jc right now is so awesome and i don't want to miss a thing. ok i might have just sung that in my head like aerosmith but that's beside the point. point is, STOP GROWING JC! STAY LITTLE FOREVER! /crazy mom rant
this is how most pictures of jc are these days. blurry. and he's well aware of the camera. either he's running towards it to play with buttons or he's hamming it up big time. and that's pretty much how he is when there isn't a camera around either. he's usually a little shy at first around new people, which i think is pretty common for most people. but once he warms up, he loves to be the center of attention.
i was sitting here trying to count all the words he can say this month but it's really hard to keep track at this point. he is constantly babbling and saying things that sound like actual "words" but are kinda hard to pinpoint. he can say a lot of words that start with the letter b, but they all sound very similar. i usually know what he is saying, mostly due to the context of the situation, but i don't think other people know that he's even trying to say anything. but there are several words that he says very clearly. he's also started imitating the dog and the cat. which is pretty much the cutest thing ever. what is really astounding to me is how much he understands. he's always listening, even when you think he's completely occupied in something else.
he is a very curious little boy. even at our own home that we spend most of everyday in, he discovers new things. and points out where i'm lacking in the baby proofing department. although, i'm becoming aware that it is almost impossible to complete toddler proof a home. he does really well while running errands (except for the fact that he expects me to hold a bowl of cheerios or goldfish the entire time we are at target so he can snack at his leisure) because he gets to look around and see new people. he wants to hold and inspect everything before it goes into the cart.
he's getting better at sharing and playing with other kids. i babysit my good friend's 1 year old son, damian, twice a week and it was becoming a little problematic between the two of them for a minute there. jc didn't want to share and this would result in yelling, hair pulling and biting. no bueno. just stressful for everyone involved. i started trying time out and i don't know if it actually worked or he just got over it, but he's doing SO much better. he lets damian play with 95% of his toys without a problem. there's still that 5% that are SUPER DUPER special (oh, like that empty salsa cup from the mexican restaurant we had lunch at the other day) that cause a problem, but i just try to recognize those toys before the issue begins and hide them. neither of them notice and no fights ensue. win win. he's even started OFFERING toys to damian. oh and giving hugs and patting his head. so cute!
jc is still a teeny tiny little guy. he weighed in a whopping 20 lbs 15 oz earlier this month and is 30 inches tall. he still wears mostly 12 month sized clothes but a few 18 months sized items fit him as well. but since he was a preemie, they still compare his size to babies about two months younger than he is and he is average in that age range. his head is huge though and is larger than average for his actual age! i've finally come to terms with jc's size and no longer fret about it so much. it used to bother me so much when people would make comments about his size, even when i knew they weren't being judgmental. it just always felt that way. his doctor is not concerned and he is a happy and healthy little boy. and hey, i'm getting more use out of every size clothing than any other mom that i know. what else could i ask for?
all in all, i think jc is settling into toddlerhood very well. i'm so excited for christmas this year because he sort of gets it. of course, he doesn't quite understand santa yet but he loves all the decorations everywhere and he will definitely understand getting presents everywhere we go for a couple days. i love him so much and i hope he has the best christmas ever!!
speaking of best christmas ever, you won't see me around these parts for the next few days. we are heading to tahoe this weekend and won't be back until wednesday. i am so so so excited to spend a few days with our best friends and their kids in the snow (hopefully, it's raining here today so hopefully that means snow up there!). i'll probably pop in on twitter and instagram (you follow me on both right? ok good.) but the blog will be a little quiet. i can't wait to share our trip with you when we come back!
I am so overwhelmed by the amount of lovely ladies who have agreed to swap sponsorship with me this month. I probably get about an e-mail or two a week. Because of this, I might have to stop doing sponsor highlights after this month, simply because there are too many to highlight!! I am going to try my hardest to get everyone's highlights up this month and hopefully in the months to come. These girls are awesome and each of their blogs are great. Check them out!
If you are interested in swapping sponsorship with me, check out this page for all the info!
after visiting the state capitol on sunday to take our engagement photos, we were inspired to go back with jc and take some family photos. we spent the day playing around the capitol building then we went out to dinner at pizza place we've been meaning to visit for forever. then we came back to the capitol to see the tree all lit up at night. jc loved it and passed out as soon as we put him into the car. we might even have a replacement photo for our holiday cards! i still need to go through the "fancy" photos we took today but here is our day via instagram.
here we are. another week closer to christmas! i can't believe how fast it's approaching. it's great though because i'm totally in the christmas spirit this year (last year i was feeling a little grinch-y). not too brag or anything, but we've got most of our christmas shopping done and the house is decorated all festive-like. it's so great to see jc's excitement over our christmas tree. he is obsessed with balls so of course, he spends a good portion of the day pointing at all the ornaments on the tree and saying "ooooooooh!" and "A BALL!" our poor tree is looking a little barren on the bottom 1/4 but i'd rather have it look empty than have to worry about jc pulling off all the ornaments within his reach.
so besides getting our christmas on, we had a nice little week. jc and i were super productive one morning and rewarded ourselves with a trip to the park where jc made some new friends. i went on a hunt for some baby sized snow pants and mittens (for our trip to tahoe this weekend!!!!) and got distracted by teeny tiny itsy bitsy baby clothes with a fox on them. my ovaries were screaming. jc got super into his blocks again. he'll stack them up and when one of them inevitably doesn't fit right or falls off he says "oh no!" it's pretty much the cutest thing ever. i had my last day of school and my teacher is so awesome that he brought in pizza! you should have seen a room full of adults turn into second graders when we saw the stack of pizza boxes he carried in. yesterday was super busy. we went and took our engagement photos (FINALLY!) in the morning, so i curled my hair using stephanie's tutorial and it worked great! it was a little wonky at first because i normally straighten my hair with my right hand but she uses her left hand; but i figured it out. then we went to jc's bff's first birthday party and had a blasty blast. when we came home, we were all super tired and just watched some tv, ate some cheese and i tried to be productive and folded some laundry. super exciting!
i hope to share our engagement photos soon, well as soon as we get them back from our photographer but if you want to see a preview, you can see a couple at our photographer's facebook page. hope you all have a great week!
i just wanted to check in, in case anyone was worried.... no one? ok that's fine. but seriously, i'm not sure why i haven't even logged into blogger for almost an entire week. charles was home for most of the week, i had to finish my final project for my photoshop class and i've had christmas on the brain.
i'm about to go tackle the project that is my hair so that i don't have to do it in the morning. we are going to take engagement pictures tomorrow! finally! now that we've been engaged for more than a year and half! then we've got jc's bestie's first birthday party. super amped for that.
so i'll leave you with a picture of our trip last weekend to go pick out our christmas tree. i'm pretty sure it's going to be our photo for our christmas card too. our plan is to use a photo from tomorrow for our save the dates for the wedding and send both our christmas cards and save the dates together. save on postage. because we are cheap like that.
i hope everyone is having a great december! only fifteen days until christmas!!!
this photo dump is pretty all inclusive of fall/winter festivities. i haven't posted my iphone photos in a couple weeks so we've got some thanksgiving pictures, meeting santa pictures and getting christmas tree pictures. sorry for the photo dump but there's a lot of goodies in the bunch.
so excited for the upcoming week. we finally went out and got our tree today but didn't have a chance to decorate so jc and i will be doing that tomorrow hopefully. we'll see how much tree babysitting i'm going to have to do. my parents have their tree up and jc spent a lot of time trying to pull down every ornament. hopefully he'll get it all out of his system and get over it. otherwise, we will have a half decorated tree.
as weird as it may seem to many of you, i strongly considered not telling jc about santa claus. i didn't like the idea of lying to him or making him sit on a stranger's lap. eventually he would find out the truth and i worried that he would be angry with me for lying to him. i thought about doing the same with the easter bunny and the tooth fairy.
then i realized that it would be inevitable that he would find out about santa from somewhere else. and i didn't want to be the scrooge that stole his childhood magic away from him. i guess i will just deal with the resentment that will inevitably come my way when some mean kid tells him "SANTA ISN'T REAL!" part of being a kid is believing that magic is real. could he still feel this way without having santa claus in his life? probably. but i do love christmas and santa is a big part of the christmas magic.
that being said, we took jc to visit santa for the first time on wednesday! it was one of those things that i didn't get around to doing last year. he was only six months old last christmas so i didn't really think it was important. looking back, i do wish i had a santa picture for every year. oh well, whatcanyado?
i fully anticipated jc to have a meltdown when he saw santa. he's only eighteen months old and has no idea who santa is. i tried to show him pictures of santa and used his name frequently within the past couple weeks. but, it didn't really help.
i actually think these santa freak out pictures are kinda cute! it's only made all the more glorious by the awesome fancy title that they had to add to the bottom of the picture. the whole idea of making a toddler, well into his separation anxiety phase, sit on strange man's lap with a giant beard and a crazy outfit is just hilarious anyway. the lady who took our money told us that she straight up put a picture of santa up in her house all year round so that her kid wouldn't be scared. i'm not about to do all that but hopefully he'll understand the concept a little better next year? a two and half year old? ehhhh?
i'm happy we did it and i'm excited to take him again as he gets older. as we waited in line, i saw a couple older kids tell santa what they wanted for christmas and that's when i really "got" it. ooooooh that's why people tell their kids about santa. i'll definitely have fun baking cookies and leaving out a glass of milk for santa with jc as he gets older. i'm thinking about starting the "elf on the shelf" tradition with him now. i'm excited to hear him ask all the awesome questions that come along with santa magic. "how does he get to everyone's house in one night?" "how will he fit down our chimney?" "how does he know if i'm naughty or nice?" i don't know how i'll answer these questions yet but i'm looking forward to opportunity to do so.
More videos for you! If you are a regular YouTube browser and you regularly search for "funny cat videos" like me, you are probably familiar with Maru the cat. He's pretty much the most amazing cat ever. While wasting some time last night, we decided to let JC see Maru for the first time because I was pretty sure he would be totally into it. JC is completely obsessed with cats and thinks that everything they do is absolutely hilarious. We were definitely not disappointed.
And here is the video that he was watching.
Cut to about 45 seconds for the good stuff. Oh and if this is the first time you are seeing Maru, you're very welcome.
here is the last roundup of sponsors for the month of november! all three are new sponsors to the blog so show them some love. wanna swap blog sponsorship next month? check out the information here!
It is Wednesday night, here in my neck o' the woods and we are smack dab in the middle of our Thanksgiving festivities. We already have one Thanksgiving dinner under our belt and two more tomorrow. Oh yes I plan on eating two Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow. Don't hate.
I just thought I'd pop in real quick and say happy Thanksgiving to everyone! My sister came into town last night and we got to hang out a little today. So of course we had a Glee marathon while JC took a nap. After he woke up, we continued with one more episode. Mostly because I knew this would happen.
That is what I am thankful for his Thanksgiving. Fun with family and friends and my baby's sweet dance moves.
I am so lucky to have so many awesome sponsor swap buddies this month! I am so happy that I decided to open up the blog to sponsor swaps. I got the chance to meet so many awesome ladies with their awesome blogs and gained new followers in the mean time. Here are the first round-up of sponsors for the month. Please check them out, their blogs are all lovely.
If you are interested in swapping sponsorship with me, check out this page for all the info!
