wordless(ish) wednesday: jc loves maru the cat

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.

{Linking up with The Paper Mama,a little king and i, and then, she snapped, Supermom, Live & Love Outloud, 5 Minutes for Mom, jenni from the blog and Baby Baby Lemon. Whew, that's a lot of linking up.}

november sponsor love, part three

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!

{blog}{twitter}{pinterest}{facebook}_________________________________________
{blog}{facebook}{pinterest}_________________________________________
{blog}{facebook}{twitter}{pinterest}{etsy}

november sponsor love, part two

Here are some more of my awesome sponsors this month! Interested in swapping sponsorship next month? Here's the info!




{ blog } { facebook } { twitter } { pinterest }__________________________________________________________________________________


{ blog } { twitter } { pinterest }_________________________________________


{ blog } { facebook } { etsy }

happy thanksgiving!

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.

november sponsor love, part one

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!



{blog} {pinterest}_________________________________________

{blog} {facebook} {twitter} {pinterest}{photography blog}_________________________________________
{blog} {twitter} {facebook} {pinterest} {@sweetshawntae on instagram}_________________________________________
Check back in a few days for more of my awesome sponsors!

week in iphone pics, w.26

So I skipped last week's iPhone photo recap because I only took two pictures. And both of them were pictures of shoes.

But this week, I got my new iPhone 4S!!!!! Finally! Needless to say, I was super stoked to play with my new phone all week. So you get 12 pictures. Now, I went from a 3GS to a 4S so this is a big step up for me. Hello forward facing camera!

Other updates this week: JC was obsessed with being shirtless, playing on the piano and "AP-PHA" (otherwise known as applesauce). Oh and god forbid you try and feed it to him. He HAS to feed himself. This stage is starting. It actually is kind of nice and he hasn't been too messy yet. That's actually how he ends up shirtless most of the time now. I also finished my scarf, got way too excited about a particular shelf of books at Goodwill, and watched my neighbors cut down THREE twenty foot trees. Crazy-ness. JC and I have also been nursing colds for the past few days so that's always awesome.










{Linking up with a good life and life rearranged.}

getting my knitting groove back & the purl ridge scarf

Oh my poor dusty knitting needles. My yarn, banished to the back of my closet. Something happened along the way that made me lose my knitting mojo.

It actually happened awhile ago, I think right before I found out I was pregnant with JC. For some reason or another, I stopped knitting. I had a not-so-awesome pregnancy which I think put me in a bigger funk. I didn't really want to do anything, let alone knit. Even though you'd think knitting away on little baby clothes would be what I would be most interested in. Eh, not really. I managed to knit one sweater for JC while I was pregnant, but I didn't finish it until JC was two months old.

And then of course, I was a new mom. Between learning how to take care of a person, breastfeeding every two hours, changing diapers at least twelve times a day and getting sleep in two hour increments, I didn't have time for hobbies. I finally became inspired to knit JC's Halloween costume last year. I also knit these monsters for JC's first birthday present from me. But, besides that, the knitting was few and far between.

I actually started this blog in hopes of sharing my finished knit projects along the way. I just haven't because I haven't been knitting anything! The blog has taken over all my free time! Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?

So, long story short, the cooler weather has made me start to long for my knitting. I decided to start small. I wanted to make something that wouldn't take too long, I'd be able to use right away and used yarn that I already had. So along came the Purl Ridge Scarf.




First of all, I have to gush about this yarn. It has been one of my absolute favorites to work with, Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage. The colors that this yarn comes in are amazeballs, it's so soft and has beautiful drape. This is actually left over from the romper that JC is wearing in my old blog button. If you've seen that floating around.





Sorry for the not-so-great pictures, me and the mirror in my dining room had to be the photographer today. If you're interested, you can check out all the project specs for the scarf over here on my ravelry page. I'm also going to add a ravelry button over on the ol' sidebar if you ever want to see any of my current and/or past projects.

With that, I think I've gotten my knitting groove back. I have a couple works in progress that I haven't finished and I've always been kinda weird about NEEDING to finish any unfinished projects before I move on to new ones. But, I think that is also what makes me not want to knit so I'm going to give myself the freedom to start new projects if I want and not feel guilty about it.

So check back, because I WILL be knitting more and I WILL be blogging about it.

wordless(ish) wednesday: baby meets candy apple

These are from our trip to Apple Hill that I wrote about last week.




"what is this?"



"ooo that looks good, bring it a little closer"



"this is going to be amazing. i wish i had more teeth."



"great success!"

{Linking up with The Paper Mama,a little king and i, and then, she snapped, Supermom, Live & Love Outloud, 5 Minutes for Mom, jenni from the blog and Baby Baby Lemon. Whew, that's a lot of linking up.}

officially entering the home market

Source: evysinspirations.tumblr.com via Melissa on Pinterest

We are finally taking the plunge people! Charles and I are going to become home owners! Not to the house above unfortunately. Oh my god, that would be all too amazing. But, to a pretty cool house hopefully that we can make all our own.

I'm so excited to start some of the many ideas I have pinned on my Pinterest boards that I have just been putting on the back burner because our stay in this house has always been undetermined. I didn't want to start any big projects without knowing how much longer we were going to be here.

So the market in our area is, I'm sure, very similar to markets across the country right now. It's great because housing prices are low enough that we have a great chance to get into a house. Unfortunately, most of these houses are short sales or foreclosures. I saw on the news the other day that in our county, something like 580 houses are just plain ol' for sale, but like 5,000 houses are short sales/foreclosures. Crazyness!

We've only officially been looking for the past couple weeks but we are so anxious to get into our own place and start a million projects. Charles and I both love our projects. We've only looked at three houses but we are quickly learning that this will not be a walk in the park. So much red tape. So many games. Why does the car/house buying process have to be so difficult? Why can't I just pay the price you are asking and be done with it? So frustrating.

For example, we looked at a house today that is only about fifteen years old but it has not been shown much love over the years. Plus, it's a short sale, so the family who lived there previously was forced out. And you can tell. They did not care that they tore up the wall when they had to move their washer and dryer from the upstairs laundry room.

Charles and I are not afraid of a fixer but we are trying to use an FHA loan and in order to qualify, the house has to pass an eight page inspection. Eight pages. Soooo, there can't be a whole lotta stuff wrong with the house.

So, we'll see how it goes. Wish us luck, hopefully we'll be in new place in less than a few months! Crossing our fingers!

apple hill

Wow I am so late with this post. I feel like I saw everyone else's pumpkin patch pictures three months ago and here I am, in November like "hey! we went to the pumpkin patch too!" But, in my defense, we did go on October 30th so it was kind of a last minute excursion.


Charles and JC

So a big group of us made our way up towards the foothills to visit the Central Valley tradition of going to Apple Hill for our taste of some autumn fun. There are a bunch of apple orchards, farms, vineyards, breweries, bake shops, pumpkin patches, Christmas tree farms all in one area. So much fun, most of it can be done for free or very little money. Beautiful scenery, all kinds of baked goods, crisp mountain air. What more can you ask for? I really want to try and go again before it gets too cold.


JC and his Grandma Stella


left to right: Charles, Brenda, me, JC, my mom, my brother, Jessica, Damian, and Garrett

The whole gang was myself, Charles, JC, my mom, my brother, our family friend Brenda, and our friends Garrett, Jessica and their son Damian. I was a little disappointed at the beginning because JC was kinda cranky, he was terrified of the cows in the petting zoo (they did smell pretty bad) and wanted us to hold him constantly, did not even want to walk at all. And of course, we forgot his stroller. He hates that thing anyway. After lunch (pulled pork sandwiches, hot chili, and cinnamon rolls) he was in a much better mood. We went to another farm, where there was a pumpkin patch and more room to run around. Then we couldn't keep him with us! All he wanted to do was run around, climb up dirt hills, try to eat apples off the ground, crawl under trees in the orchard. He was out of control. But it was a lot of fun chasing him around, I must say. I love my little toddler.







He LOVED the pumpkins. He had to go around and tap each and every one. He also had to carry a little bottle of lotion around with him constantly.


This "running-in-action" shot almost made me pee my pants







And of course, he had to try and get as dirty as possible in his little khaki cords. He's like "who wants to see those stinky cows? these leaves are awesome!"







I can't wait to go again next year and make this a family tradition. I'm a little surprised at how important the idea of traditions have become to me. My family never had a ton of traditions and Charles's family didn't either. But I feel like this is something really important to do for our family and our son. Plus it's super fun to go run around and eat cinnamon rolls that are the size of your head.

week in iphone pics, w.25

This week had so many festivities! We started the week out by going out to dinner at one of our favorite Fatty McFatterson spots (Texas Roadhouse). Then we went to Apple Hill and hit up some pumpkin patches and ate giant cinnamon rolls. Then of course there was Halloween. We also had one of the first cool days of fall; so cool, in fact, we had to fire up the fireplace for the first time this season. I love the smell of the fireplace going. JC seemed to enjoy the fireside snuggles too.

I'm looking forward to some grown up fun tomorrow night at our friend's housewarming party. Thank the high heavens for grandparents!

{linking up with a good life and life rearranged}

jc at seventeen months

Here we are again. Another month past. The fact that JC will be six months away from turning two next month is mind boggling. But I will try my hardest to live in the moment and focus on his seventeen month milestones! I took these pictures at our favorite nearby park. It's just a quick walk through the greenbelt behind our house and we are there. JC likes it because it has so many things to play on and I like it because it has shade and is not 99% sand.




Words cannot express how excited I am about how many changes JC has been going through. He really is the happiest little mini-person you'll ever meet.

Most of JC's days lately are spent literally running all over the house. I've saved myself a lot of sanity by just closing all the doors in the house except the door to his room. Since he is no longer happy just hanging out in the living room. He has to be EVERYWHERE. The whole house turns into his playroom. Speaking of which, the definition of "out-of-reach" has changed around these parts. Shelves that once were safe havens for anything you didn't want JC to get into are no longer safe. I found JC digging through his Halloween candy bucket yesterday that he had managed to pull off a shelf in the living room that I thought was out-of-reach. I guess not anymore.

JC also definitely starts to get a little stir crazy after being home all day. I try to make at least one "outing" everyday with him, even if it's just to Target or the grocery store. He loves to go out and about. By far, his favorite outing is going to visit Charles for lunch. We usually have to push nap time a little bit to do so but it's worth it.




Do you see how tall my little preemie baby is getting???? It's out of control.

While JC does love to get out of the house from time to time, he also LOVES nothing more than to bring me 100 books to read to him all day long. Usually I get a good variety but lately he's been obsessed with these Elmo's World books. I have seriously read "Food" and "Babies" at least 15 times each today. And the day is only half over. It makes me really happy to see how much he loves books. I feel bad because he'll bring me a book and pat my legs furiously while I am making dinner and I have to ignore him. He then likes to lay flat on his belly on the kitchen floor and suck his thumb in a "non-violent protest" kind of way.

He hasn't been too big on tantrums but he will get frustrated if I take away something he wants to play with that I don't deem a necessity (like my phone or the remote control) or if I take too long to make him food. God forbid he have to wait 70 seconds while I microwave his pancakes. I wrote a little bit about my foray into disciplining JC a couple months back and I have since decided to give the whole time out a try. I keep his pack-n-play set up in our room and place him in there for one minute. It isn't ideal (the pack-n-play takes up a lot of space, I don't want him to have negative associations with his pack-n-play, blah blah blah) but it seems to have worked a little bit. His biggest issue has still been hitting the dog or cat. So if I see him do it once or if he's about to do it, I tell him "If you hit the dog I will put you in time out" and that alone usually works. Now that he knows what time out is. I may do a more in depth post if this continues to be an issue. But for now, that is working in our house.



Please look at the shadow of the back of his head on the right hand side of this picture. His hair looks pretty neat and tidy in the front but is a crazy rat's nest in the back!

No new teeth this month, surprisingly. So we are still at seven teeth. I've been looking but still no molars. JC is wearing mostly 12-18 month clothing and size 4 or 5 shoes. He still has one random pair of jeans that are 6/9 months that still fit him. I really wish baby clothing sizes would be a little more uniform. Help us parents out. One nap a day, usually between 1:30 until 3:30 or so.

JC first fall as a toddler has been so much fun. We had a blast running around pumpkin patches and apple orchards the past weekend. Like I've said before, I am definitely more of a "toddler mom". I'm very much looking forward to Thanksgiving in just a couple weeks! Hopefully JC won't turn his nose up at the turkey!

wordless(ish) wednesday: happy halloween!

I've been itching to get these photos up. This is my first time opening my laptop in the last couple days. Had to take care of a couple orders of business first, speaking of which check out some of my new sponsors as well as some continued sponsors right over there -------->
I'm so happy to have them!

So, onto the Halloween festivities! This year was extra hard in the costume deciding department for some reason. We just could not decide what we wanted to be. The biggest problem I guess was that Charles was really adamant about all three of us matching. I actually can't wait until next year because I'm sure JC will be able to pick out his own costume and I won't have to worry about it anymore!

So after throwing around ideas for the past month, we finally decided that JC would be a baby monkey, Charles would be the daddy monkey (or, to be exact, a daddy gorilla), and I would be a zookeeper. I think it worked out pretty well.




This was JC's second Halloween but it was really his first time actually being able to trick-or-treat himself. Oh, we took him trick-or-treating last year and we shamelessly ate all his candy. But this year, he was actually able to walk up to the doors and hold his little bucket. It was adorable. He really started to understand how it worked at the last few houses we visited. Since Halloween, if you just say the word "Halloween" he runs over and points at his pumpkin bucket with candy in it. Speaking of which, I really should eat all his candy hide that sucker.




We only visited a few houses; I'd blame JC but I didn't think very much about walking around in boots with heels while trying to hold squirmy little monkey. My dogs were achin'. It was ok though because I really like to see all the other kids come up and hand out candy. We have this big inflatable cemetery scene that we have on our front yard so we get ALL the trick-or-treaters. We seriously went through about 9 bags of candy. We ran out and had to turn kids away while my mom ran out for an emergency candy run. Thanks mom! Next year, I definitely need to just get like 5 Costco sized bags and call it a day. Charles and I cannot just hand out one piece per kid, we like to give handfuls.

I'm super excited for next year's Halloween! JC was pretty scared of certain elements of Halloween this year (my brother wore a Bill Clinton mask and I think he may have scared him into being a Republican), but hopefully I'll be able to better communicate to him next year that it's all pretend and just for fun.

And just because I didn't have a blog this time last year, here's our costumes from last Halloween.




Where's Waldo family! Last year was so easy. My costume and Charles's costume were store bought. I knit JC's sweater and hat. Surprisingly, they don't sell fake baby glasses? So we bought some sunglasses and just popped the lenses out.

I love the look on his face, like "Sigh, these are my parents." Sorry JC, you never stood a chance.




This is how we rolled trick-or-treating. No shame in our game.




And one last one from this year. I cannot get enough of that sweet baby face.

{Linking up with The Paper Mama,a little king and i, and then, she snapped, Supermom, Live & Love Outloud, 5 Minutes for Mom, jenni from the blog and Baby Baby Lemon. Whew, that's a lot of linking up.}