currently. v.1

wendy over at This Amazing Day and randolin at Harvesting Kale co-host this "currently" link up every thursday. every week, they set up a new set of prompts to follow to describe how you currently feel. since i've been a little m.i.a. from the blogging game for a couple months, i decided to join in this week. the next part of the "our wedding" series will be up in the next couple days!

currently, i am...

missing my car! while braving an outing with our partially potty trained toddler, charles's car broke down yesterday. so i've really only had to share my car for one day but i felt so cooped up today! i didn't even have any plans to go anywhere but the fact that i couldn't was enough to make me feel claustrophobic.

craving a bunch of new stuff for our house. since we've had to many ongoing projects, it actually feel like i get new stuff because when we get a room ready, we get to unpack the boxes for that room that have been hanging out in our garage. so it's like shopping our own stuff! buuuuuut that feeling does where off and it would be nice to get a few new things.

anticipating the satisfaction of having a fully potty trained kiddo. while jc has been doing GREAT with peeing in the potty, we are holding off on night training him and he still has yet to go number #2 (sorry non-parental readers!) in the potty. jc is still in his crib so we are going to wait until the changes of wearing underwear all day seems less new before we transition him into a toddler bed. then we can work on night training. as far as the #2 situation, this kid is SO stubborn. he will hold it all day until naptime or bedtime (when he will be put in a diaper) to go. he'll tell us he needs to go, we'll go sit on the potty and nothing happens. we'll sit quietly, read books, talk, listen to music, play on the ipad and still nothing. i even bought him a bunch of matchbox cars that now live in a vase on top of the toilet as an incentive. told him that he can't have one until he goes #2 in the potty. still nothing. i guess he'll just do it when he wants to!

thinking about going on our first family trip to disneyland in october! my mom is trying to get this whole thing planned and i really hope it happens. charles and i have been to disneyland tons of times but jc has not been. i think he's just old enough that he'll have a good time. i am definitely nervous about hundred different things because i over think everything but i am trying to just focus on the good stuff.

singing this:


you're welcome. i HIGHLY recommend you view the original review "un-songified" because it is also one of the funniest things i've ever seen.

again, check out wendy's blog or randolin's blog to link up your post too!

jc and i vlog for the first time!

i am alive!! i have made it through the worst of the moving process and we have internet!!! instead of blogging about all the moving updates, i just wanted to do something fun. so jc and i vlogged!

a couple weeks in iphone photos

why do i keep doing this to myself? i seriously just spent way too long going through all my iphone pictures. i need to do this every week, not every other week. if you follow me on instagram (my username is melissajenkins) you've already seen all these but hey, they are just as good the second time around. highlights include jc coming out of his teething/being sick all day everyday funk, a girl's night out with my mama, valentine's day, and jc's first sleepover with his bff damian. so much fun! and now i'm going to enjoy some more oscar's preshow before jc wakes up from his nap. have a good rest of your weekend!

linking up with a good life and life rearranged.

wordless(ish) wednesday: the world through jc's eyes

charles and i have joked many a time about getting a helmet cam and strapping it to jc's head just so we could see how he sees the world. we also joked about doing this to the cat and the dog but that's beside the point. jc got his little mitts on the flip cam the other day. and the result is this hilarious video of him running through the house, trying to evade my takeover of said flip cam. he actually took a bunch of one second videos but because my man has mad video editing skillz, we have one forty second video.



{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.}

our last bit of 2011 via iphone

here's a glimpse at some of the little moments that made up the last couple weeks of 2011. there were birthday parties, our trip to tahoe, christmas celebrations and jc just being his generally cute self. including leaving me speechless in his new harajuku mini romper that is auntie kimberly got him for christmas. i died. twice.

linking up with a good life and life rearranged

the super friends go to tahoe

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!

wordless(ish) wednesday: christmas at the capitol

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.











{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.}

jc's first santa encounter

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.

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.}

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.

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}

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.}