Girly Fun!

This fabulous photographer who did pictures for Jared & Nicole has used some absolutely adorable accessories in her photos. Dressing up is one of the things that makes having little girls so much fun. Good thing I was blessed with two because I love all things girly! Check out these Etsy shops, Paislee Lane and Les Minis Jujus. I am going to order from both for Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers for the girls. Good thing they are young enough that I can get them what I want. :P Lord knows they have enough toys but what girl could ever have enough accessories??? :)

Wait...what?

So THIS got signed into law on October 15th by President Obama. Honestly, the only part I really care about is:

"This Act strengthens the Coast Guard as a military service and branch of the Armed Forces in the Department of Homeland Security by providing organizational flexibility for the Coast Guard and allowing for improvements to its military housing. "

I love our house. It has charm...but let's be honest...it is beyond in need of an upgrade. It was built in the early 1930's and basically nothing has been updated since. We have old school radiators, windows that leak every time it rains because they don't shut anymore. We live with creosote and mold, so much so that they are closing houses left and right. We have a dishwasher on wheels that you have to hook up to the sink. I didn't even know those existed until we moved here. We have no vent above our stove, so our fire alarms go off frequently...and I'm a good cook! :) Some houses even have a separate faucets for the hot and cold water in the bathroom. So...to wash your face, you have to try to splash them together to make warm water. We have one bathroom, which isn't ideal but it really isn't so bad for us, but we have friends who share one bathroom with 5, 6 or even 7 people. So this would be huge if they actually follow through and improve our housing. If you've seen other military housing (Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force), our housing is a joke. Our budget is minuscule compared to the other branches, and the President was actually cutting it more until the oil spill. I guess that's probably the only good that's come from the oil spill. So...here's to hoping the government actually follows through. ;) I'd be thrilled if I didn't have to put towels in the windows all winter, and I'd be down right over the moon if I had a real dishwasher.

Christmas List

Here are the things I've been drooling over lately. Perhaps my husband will check this out and get some clues for Christmas. ;) Who am I kidding? He never reads the blog, but maybe I will just email him the link. ;) Obvious much? Now in all fairness, he's very good at gift giving on his own. He made me a whole craft area for my birthday with a new desk and bookshelves. He cleaned the entire basement to make room for me too (which was no small task.) But...he couldn't even begin to come up with the girly things on this list. Maybe someone on your Christmas list would like these too...or you could just buy them for me. ;) I'll be sure to send a nice thank-you note for your generosity. :)

I love, love, love the Pioneer Woman. I love her recipes even more. I have made quite a number of recipes from her website and not one of them failed me. I even made some for the first time for guests...which is dangerous. I mean if goes wrong and tastes down right terrible...what do you do? Tell them dinner will be ready in 45 minutes when the pizza man arrives? EMBARRASSING! Anyway, her cookbook has pictures of each step as well, which is completely ideal for rule-following, perfectionists like me. I want to follow the directions to a T, unlike my husband who wings everything. And somehow still gets it to come out just right. Pft. Whatev. I like following the recipe. :) I have wanted this since it hit the bookshelf, but just couldn't ever bring myself to buy it for myself. This would probably not be in the best interest of my husband to purchase this for me considering her recipes probably aren't so much what he'd call healthy, but shhh...just don't tell him that.Now I really fell in love with a Michael Kors white watch, but let's be real. I'm a stay at home mom, so anything Michael Kors is not really in the cards. But I like this one too. Problem is that I am style clueless, so I emailed the best friend for style advice. Are white watches still in style? Can you wear them after Labor Day? I really should probably stick with my mom style, but I really, really, really like this. Still waiting on a response on the stylishness of the white watch. I also feel like this watch will only look good on the left hand. I've always worn my watch on my right hand despite the fact that I am right handed and it always got in the way. I think if I get this watch, I'll make the transition.

Wait...did I really just reference mom style? Mom style is evil and should not exist. It consists of plain shirts with stains, pony tails, and blue jeans (though thankfully not mom jeans...they really should be banned). My dear husband hates mom style, so I try to make an effort. Some days. But usually it just gets peanut butter or milk or even worse...poop...on it and it's back to the mom style. Perhaps one day I'll be able to wear cute clothes and not have to worry about what nasty, nasty thing will end up on it. Maybe then I won't have to vacuum and mop every day too. That would be fabulous.

Anyway...back to the list. This next item is really more of a necessity.


I have this Vera Bradley wallet, in a different pattern of course considering it is a couple of years old. For those who are not Vera obsessed, they come out with new patterns all the time and "retire" old ones, so basically none of your stuff every matches unless you buy everything imaginable all at once. And they have everything imaginable...trust me. Well, I love my wallet, but it's had some abuse. You see while camping in Oregon for 2 weeks, it rained every single day. It was cold and wet, and being my first time in the PacNW, I was completely unaware that the end of May could be anything other than warm and sunny. I packed nowhere near enough warm clothes of all of us compounded by the fact that two toddlers don't stay clean long, especially in muddy rain puddles. Therefore, I found myself at laundromats more than I would have liked being on vacation and all. While at somewhere in Newport, Oregon doing the umpteenth load of laundry, someone snatched my wallet. I realized this about 20 minutes later when the loads were done in the wash and I had no quarters for the dryer. Ugh. I spent the next few hours doing the obvious card canceling and check replacing phone calls. Fast forward a few days after we left Newport and Brett gets at call from work saying they have my beloved wallet at the Newport Police Station. Yes, they somehow figured out Brett worked at CG Station Golden Gate and called them. Weird, huh? We finally got in touch with the police station and found out that an employee of Taco Bell found my wallet in the trash can in the ladies bathroom. They mailed it back, without the cards and cash of course, and despite better judgment I've been using it ever since. Needless to say, I'm cheap because what sort of person would continue to use a purse that was in the Taco Bell bathroom trashcan? Oh my goodness, I better stop before I gross myself out and have to go wallet-less until Christmas.

And last but not least, I want to put this above our fireplace. It's wall art that just sticks right on the wall. Don't you love it? When you live in military housing and you know you are only there for just a short time, you have to make it homey any way you can. They have a ton of different sayings and you can even make your own at this website. You can customize the color and everything. You should check it out. I'm sure someone on your Christmas list would love it! http://uppercaseliving.com/


I'm sure I'll think of many more ideas between now and Christmas, but that will give my husband a good start. ;)

So what's on your Christmas list???

Photog Workshop - Do it. Do it.

So Amy is an AH-MAZING photographer in Kodiak. She took incredible pictures of Jared, Nicole and Ava while they were stationed in there, and she is doing a photography workshop for beginners like me in Sacramento and lots of other places across the country. You should check it out, especially if you are like me and still have your fancy camera set on Auto. :)

I'm hoping to work it out to go and learn with her, so I can take more pictures of my little beauties. I promise I'd post more pictures if I could learn to take decent ones. ;)

Anyway, check it out and if she's in your area or you can meet her in one of these amazing places, you totally should. Hello...VEGAS in February. Sounds perfect to me!

http://simplybphotos.com/basics-of-photography-class/

Brought to you by the numbers 1, 2, 3...

Kayleigh is so smart...and so stubborn. She is counting everything these days, but she only likes the numbers 1, 2 and 3, so she just counts everything in sets of 3's. :) She used to count to 10 (missing a number or two along the way), but now she has decided that 1, 2 and 3 are where's it at. If you mention the numbers that follow 1, 2 and 3, you will get a very not nice look. ;) Ah, I love my stubborn, strong willed child. She knows what she likes. She is as cute as ever and very polite. She says please and thank you all day long, and it. is. precious. Despite her stubborness, she is my easy child and is so, so sweet to her sister. She makes sure Campbell is always taken care of and loves to love on her all day long. She is also a eye spy freak. She LOVES her look and find books and literally has them memorized in a day. She is just too smart.

Campbell is a hot mess! She is my screamer. She is my tantrum pitcher, and she is so darn cute pitching them. That one little dimple that she flashes mid scream just melts your heart. She is also stubborn but in a totally different way. If you tell Campbell no, she will promptly turn to smile at you and go right back to it. :) She is so smart though. She is saying quite a few things. Her favorites are "mama", "sissy" and "what's that?" She is just as inquisitive as her mommy. She asks "what's that?" ALL. DAY. LONG. It doesn't phase me a bit and Brett is pretty good about humoring her and answering over and over and over... :) She is getting her molars to add to her 8 front teeth, and she is an eater. Cheerios are like candy and she loves fruit, but she's not so big on her sister's favorites like hot dogs and chicken. Despite her excellent eating, she is a tiny, little peanut! She is just barely 19 lbs now. She is getting tired of the rear facing car seat, especially since her big sister faces the front, but she's stuck rear facing for a while it seems.

I've been busy doing projects around the house. We finished up painting the downstairs and the bedrooms (mom and dad helped paint while there were here too), and I love our painted house. For those of you non-military readers, sometimes it's not worth your time to paint when you just have to repaint when you move. Not to mention, you have to get permission to even paint, so it is a bit of a luxury. It makes it feel so much more homey, though we dream of the day we will have a place of our own to fix and paint just how we want. I've been crafting and sewing too. I'm working on canvases for Kayleigh's room to match her bedding. So far, they are super cute. I'm also in the middle of sewing her Halloween costume. Campbell's ladybug costume came from Costco because it was a really good deal, but I am making a mermaid costume for Kayleigh and it is coming out pretty good, especially for my first try at a costume. Watch out Martha! :) Brett made me the perfect craft/sewing area downstairs with a new desk and shelving for my birthday, so I'm all set to get creative.

We are also getting in shape! Brett and I have started working out after the girls go to bed, and it feels great. I have a bit of a cholesterol problem (thanks Dad!), so I'm trying to get in tip top shape to see if that helps. I've been doing about a hour a night for 5 or 6 nights a week. If you know me, I don't do exercise, so I'm really proud of myself for sticking with it...past the first night. It helps to have a huge motivator for a husband. He loves to work out and be healthy. He could work out for hours every day (and actually does most days), so he's keeping me motivated. My ultimate motivation is the beautiful, new, very expensive purse I'm going to buy myself when I get to my goal with absolutely no guilt or buyers remorse! :) I am the returning queen. I'm actually afraid Target is going to call me out and not let me make any more returns, but after all the sweat I am putting in, I will not feel one bit guilty once I earn that purse. I have my eye on a Marc Jacobs bag, but I'm sure I'll do lots of drooling and window shopping between now and then.

Other than that, we are just enjoying fall, watching our favorite sports teams (minus the Bulldogs which just makes me a grumpy to watch), and enjoying our girls. I really wish the weather would get a clue and cool off, but in the mean time, I'm enjoying having calm seas and Brett home.

Hope everyone is well. We miss all our friends and family far away. Planning a trip to GA/NC/FL/SC June/July 2011, so mark your calendars. We should be out 3 or 4 weeks for a couple of weddings and family time. YAY!!