iheartfaces: hey girl...

The theme over at iheartfaces this month is "hey girl!" in honor of Mother's Day!

Here's one of the sweet, yet sassy reasons I get to celebrate Mother's Day:

U is for...

Upcoming!

Yep, you too will be able to own those adorable hair accessories C-Monk is always rockin'!! 

Keep your eyes peeled on Facebook for our grand opening; 

coming very soon!!

*If you look now (5/3) you won't be able to find the page because it's not active, yet!

You asked for it! People have told me they don't recognize C-Monk if she's not wearing one of my creations and that you "need me to make you one." Well, here it is!!

I'm really excited for this adventure.  It's a way to use my brain by running a business and be creative all while working on my photography at the same time! Plus, maybe make a little money along the way. 

S is for...

Service...

We were very fortunate to be able to partner up with the SIFE organization while on our trip to Barbados. It was the least we could do to take 6 hours out of our amazing trip to help out the local all boys school, Milton Lynch Primary School.  This school was identified by student volunteers from SIFE as in desperate need of some upkeep and inspiration.   Of the 208 people on our trip, about 40 volunteered for 6 hours on Thursday and 25 people on Friday.  Together we were able to give this school the lift they needed.

We painted three buildings...

Built a pergola, monkey bars, cleared, sodded and planted....a total face lift to their playground...

I didn't get any pictures of it, but we also created an educational garden on the other side of the school, relandscaped their entry way and built another pergola out front.

It's truly amazing how much work can be done in such a short amount of time when so many hands come together.  There were current and former students of the school who worked side by side with us on the project.  They were so fired up and excited.  It was so amazing to see the happiness on their faces.

And, to top it all off....J and I volunteered on Friday; Good Friday, an extremely religious holiday in Barbados. Not even 100 feet from our work site was an open air church, full of locals signing and praising the Lord the entire 6 hours we were there.  Talk about some inspiration! With the music and love pouring out of that church we could have powered on for weeks!

I can hands down say this was the best part of our trip!  We are so blessed and thankful to be able to go on these amazing vacations.  To be able to see the world and travel is a chance of a lifetime.  But, to be able to get our hands dirty, working side by side with these incredible people...that is life changing!  It snaps you back to reality in an instant.  Makes your day to day troubles seem so insignificant. And above all, reminds you why we're all here.  To love and serve others. No money in the world, no fancy vacation out there can revitalize your soul like seeing the love of God play out before your eyes.

P, Q, R is for...

Peaceful, Quiet, Relaxation....

Yes, I'm cheating. Three letters in one post! But, when I went to match up some vacation pictures with alphabet letters, they all seemed to fall under one of these three words!

When J qualified for this round of trips (back in September) we knew that with an almost two year old and a new baby that we would be ready for a peaceful, quiet, relaxing trip.  Looking through the book of options for trip destinations we kept going back to the idea of Argentina. I mean, come on! That's a trip of a lifetime (just like New Zealand was last year!). But, a trip like that means getting up early, coming home late....lots and lots of site seeing.  And, we knew, come March/April, we wouldn't have the energy for a trip like that! So, Barbados it was! (sad that Barbados is our "fallback" trip, right?)


Peaceful, quiet and relaxing are the perfect adjectives to describe this trip.  A "mostly" inclusive resort on a paradise island....doesn't get much better than that! We said from the get-go that we weren't signing up for the plethora of optional activities. Our plan: sleep late, drink daiquiris on the beach, soak in the sun and repeat...for 7 straight days! We were pretty successful in completing our mission. Add in a quick shopping trip downtown Bridgetown, a few KU basketball games (Rock Chalk! Final Four baby!), a couples massage, delicious food and an amazing service project (more to come in the next post) and that was our vacation! Perfect. Exactly what we needed. But, while it was Heaven on earth for a week, I was anxious to get home to my pride and joys!

O is for...

Old!

Yes, my little man is getting old.  I can't believe he's not my little baby anymore.  He'll be 21 months on Monday.  That just sounds so old. He's a walking, talking, basketball playing, Goldfish eating, snuggle machine! He truly has become a little "man." So handsome!


And check out my baby girl!

All that wrinkly newborness is gone!  She's all baby now.  Chunky thighs, big blue eyes, sweet smile and even little giggles. Man, they grow too fast! [don't worry, I'm not getting baby fever!]


Speaking of getting old....my main squeeze turns 29 today.  Unfortunately, next to my 3-0, that 2-9 sounds so young! I won't get too sappy on you, but I will say I'm a pretty lucky girl to have him in my life and my kiddos are the luckiest kiddos in the world; they have the world's best daddy!


To show their love for their daddy they put together a very special gift....the gift of quality time. I created a "date kit" for each kiddo to spend some special time with daddy.

Boogie's "Daddy-Son Date" kit is all about a fort building movie night, complete with sheets, string, clothes pins and of course some yummy movie snacks...

C-Monk's "Daddy-Daughter Date" kit is all about spending some time in the sun planting pretty flowers, complete with flower pot, seeds, soil, watering can and, of course, a cute sun hat [for baby, not daddy]...

Can't wait for them to spend their special one-on-one time together, but of course I'll sneak in and take some pictures :)

N is for...

Nappies :)

For those of you not down with the British lingo that means diapers! Yes, call me hippie, call me tree hugger....the HH has made the switch to cloth!

There are so many reasons why people choose to switch to cloth diapers; environment, health, economics, cuteness factor....I'm definitely not one of those crazy "crunchy" types with a picket sign demanding the world switch to cloth. Just like all other parenting styles; to each their own. When we first found out we were pregnant with Boogie, the thought of cloth crossed my mind.  At that point it was economic factors, if done right you can save hundreds of dollars buy using cloth instead of disposable.

I brought the idea up to J and he just looked at me like I was crazy.  I agreed.  I was already overwhelmed with the thought of becoming a mommy, that this was just one more thing I didn't want to have to learn. Cloth diapers have come a LONG way since the days of cloth rags and pins. There's covers and prefolds and AIO and AI2 and pockets and fitteds and liners and boosters and wet bags and etc and etc.  Holy cow! It's a foreign language and a whole new way of life. 

Once we added C-Monk to the mix, I started getting nauseous every time we had to empty two full diaper cans of stinky poop! Yuck! I really started to realize how disgusting it was to be tossing all those diapers into the trash.  I started picturing these mountains and mountains of poop....

Now that I have this mommy thing down (bah! haha!), I figured I could finally try to tackle the world of cloth. I started researching and learning and asking a million questions. Armed with a lot of knowledge, I approached J with the idea, again.  He still looked at me like I was crazy, but this time he said "you're the diaper expert, you make the call."  So, we bit the bullet and started stocking up!

I'll admit that initial cost was heart stopping.  All I could think was "and this is SAVING us money??!" But, when I got our first fluff mail and I put those chunky little diapers on my C-Monk I fell.in.love! I mean come on, is there anything cuter than a fluffy little baby butt?!!

Now I'm addicted.  I drank the cloth diaper Kool-Aid. Even though we've got our stash, I still find myself stalking the internet looking for deals and cute fluff.  That's my only regret.  I went with the deals and just got basic solid colors.  Now I'm finding all these cute patterns and styles....yea, J would take away my credit card and put me out with the trash if I bought anymore :)

I'm definitely no expert, I still have to ask a million questions all the time. But, if you're considering switching I'd be happy to help.  I've learned sooo much over the last month or so.  Two great companies that have helped me along the way are Cotton Babies and SweetBottoms.

i heart faces: beautiful b&w

It's been awhile since I submitted an entry over at iheartfaces! They have recently changed to a monthly photo challenge format and the first theme is Beautiful B&W. 


I snapped this one yesterday of my beautiful babies.  They love each other so much!!

M is for...

Mmmmm!

At C-Monk's 4 month appointment, the NP gave us the go ahead to try the spoon...


Again, we plan to wait till six months before starting solids, but we thought, why not give it a try?! Of course, my chunky monkey took to it better than her peanut brother did a first.


She got excited at just the sight of the bowl of yummy paste-like rice cereal...

Then in went to spoon and mmmmmm!! She gobbled it up!

J couldn't shovel it in fast enough apparently...

I love how she kept giving Boogie this look like "look at me! I can eat like a big kid too!" It so cute how she looks up to her big brother already.  She watches him in amazement at all the things he can do and laughs at all his silly faces and noises.  It melts my heart every time...

L is for...

Love!

I'm a little behind.  Time has gotten away from me over the last couple of weeks.  Everyone in the HH has been sick; we keep sharing this nasty cold.  I think everyone is finally on the mend and we're getting back into the swing of the everyday.


Last week (Feb 13) we had our first snowfall of the season! J decided to take advantage of the bad weather and stay home from work to spend some quality family time. While C-Monk napped, the rest of us headed out to play in the snow!

This was Boogie's second time playing in snow.  His first time was a year ago and he really didn't know what to think of it then...

This year, he got his hands dirty; making snow balls...

We decided to go ahead and celebrate Valentine's a day a little early and warmed up by eating some pink, heart shaped pancakes :) Later, we snuggle on the couch and watched movies. I LOVE days like this!!

K is for...

Kailua!


We'll get to the pictures in a minute...


Kailua is a region on the eastern coast of Oahu and home to a fabulous, beautiful, peaceful beach.  J and I have now been to this beach twice...once on our 1 year wedding anniversary and once this year.  That, in it's self is pretty amazing; going to Hawaii more than once.  Here are some pictures from then and now...

Sept. 2009

Jan. 2012

Jan. 2012

Sept. 2009

Sept. 2009

Jan. 2012

What's more amazing to me is to think....2.5 years ago, sitting on that beach...it was just J and I.  No kids.  No idea how awesome our life was about to become. At that time, we thought our life was pretty amazing; married to your best friend, what more could there be? 

Now, 2.5 short years later, back in that same place J and I....and our two beautiful children. Even with the screaming baby and the toddler who refused to put his toes in the sand, I couldn't help but to thank God in that moment. Wow.  Life is amazing.  What more could there be?!