Be Merry!

Despite my best intentions of getting Christmas cards ordered and in the mail it just didn't happen this year. So this will have to do... 

Merry Christmas from all of us,

Bryce, Emily, Audrey, and our newest addition (a boy!) due to arrive in April 

Building

It's been awhile. Am I still allowed to blame my unexpected and unexplained absence on moving four months ago? Probably not. Oh well.

Lots has been going on around here, but mostly I didn't feel much motivation to visit the blog. In fact weeks went by that I never even looked at it. The break was kind of nice.

There has been too much going on to even try to recap everything in one post. But becoming an aunt to the absolute cutest baby boy ever and starting the building process on our house definitely are at the top of the list.

It has been amazing to see this...

turn into this.

And actually, I took that picture a couple of days ago. Audrey and I drove by this morning and the windows are in, the window trim is up and they were putting on the siding. Due to a delay with the truss company the roof will be done next week.

My parents built the house we grew up in almost entirely by themselves. The building process of that house shapes a big part of my brother's, sister's and my childhoods. From the time my parents started until we moved in was years so it is absolutely mind-blowing to me how quickly this project is moving along. They started working on our house September 10th. It hasn't even been two months and so much has been done.

Oven-Puffed Pancake with Berries

You must try this recipe from Two Tarts for Oven-Puffed Pancakes with Berries. It is delicious. I pinned it awhile back and have made it several times since. It comes together really quickly and easily and is a great crowd-pleaser.

Fernie, British Columbia

Last month we took a trip with my family up to Fernie, British Columbia. It was beyond beautiful and a place I would love to go visit again. Here are a few photos from the trip.

 Audrey is trying to make "moose ears". It was a challenge for her the whole trip. These are actually some of her better ones, usually she would just put her pointer fingers on her head and yell, "moose ears!" Unfortunately with all the "moose ears" hype we didn't actually see a moose, although a few other people in the family did. 

If you're interested my brother posted more, and even better, photos from the trip. You can see them here. While you're there take a minute and look around, he has some amazing photographs.

Photo Friday: The Moving Fairy

While we were unpacking the garage boxes a couple of weeks ago Audrey pulled out her tutu and found my cleaning gloves. She went to town dancing around the garage and yelling hi to anyone within earshot. By the time her show was over she not only had her dad's and my attention, but a few people across the street had stopped to watch too!

Peach Picking

Yesterday we went peach picking. 

The first available of the season. 

They're absolutely delicious. 

Here's a peek into our morning via instagram.

Happy Thursday!

Guest Posting at Johnny In A Dress

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today I'm guest posting over at Johnny In A Dress.

Hop on over and see the appliqued onesies I made for my nephew. And if you're here from Johnny In A Dress welcome, I hope you find something you like.

Tie Baby Shower Invitations and a Free Printable

My mom, sister-in-law, and I had a baby shower for my sister this weekend. She is due with a little boy in September and we are all so excited! My first time being an aunt. My sister-in-law came up with the great idea to incorporate ties into the shower because this little boys dad is obsessed.

Here's what I came up with for the invitations.

I was really pleased with how they turned out. It is always such fun to design something like this. And if anyone is interested I made a fill-in-the-blank version to share.

Click here to open the Tie Baby Shower Invitation pdf.

I have yet to even look at the pictures I took over the weekend, but I'll be sure to share some of the decorations from the shower when I do.

Linked to: 

Motivated Monthly: Hello Baby! at Etcetorize
Pretty Things Thursday at Johnny In A Dress and Scissors & Spatulas 

Falling Trees

Last week Bryce and I spent a few mornings out at "the property;" which is how we affectionately refer to the piece of land we bought and where we will start building our house.  Here's what it looked like in January when we put in our offer.

And here is what it looked like last week, from the other direction.

Although the trees were really pretty they just couldn't stay. Not only are they sitting right about where our house/yard is going to go, but they are also walnut trees. If you've ever dealt with one of those you know they make a huge mess; something we didn't want to have to deal with. And one of them was obviously dead, so that made that decision easier.

 

We started with the dead tree and then moved on to the tree in the middle. Bryce helped me make a little picture slideshow with the pictures I took of the tree falling. It was a big tree.

We spent the rest of that morning and a few of the following mornings cutting it up and stacking it for firewood.

Here is what the property looks like now. Aren't the wildflowers beautiful? They only bloom in the mornings and are completely closed again by midday. We also have plans to take the biggest tree out on the right, but we'll leave that to someone a bit more professional.

And just in case you were wondering, we plan to plant several trees on the property, hopefully making up for the ones we just cut down.

Photo Friday: Sugar or Salt?

A few days before we left Sacramento Audrey and I made banana bread with all the frozen bananas I found in our freezer and refused to move with us. She loves to help in the kitchen and is notorious for one, making the job much messier than necessary and two, sneaking extra handfuls/spoonfuls/fistfuls of sugar when we are baking. This time it backfired on her. Instead of reaching into the sugar canister she grabbed the salt container and wasn't so pleased with the result.

Have a great weekend! 

Settling In

I can't believe almost a month has passed since we moved. It's been a whirlwind. But we're here and unpacked. Well mostly, we have four boxes left just sitting in different corners of the house, but I honestly doubt if they will ever get unpacked.

We've moved back to the same town I grew up in, so being here has been a little surreal. On one had I am very familiar with the area and know my way around for the most part. On the other hand a lot has changed, including me, and it's like learning a whole new place all over again. Bryce has this whole month off so it has been fun to figure it all out together and for our little family to start putting down roots in this new town. 

Speaking of Bryce having time off, it has been great having him around. Audrey and I are soaking up every minute with him. Have I mentioned how much I absolutely adore these two?

Hope your summers have been as fun filled as ours so far!

He's Done!

We are currently up to our ears in moving business right now. The packers showed up this morning and it is amazing just how fast they work.

I'm usually a very do it yourself kind of person, but this is definitely the way to move. As I sit here two very nice men who keep calling me Ma'am are loading box after box with all my stuff. It's pretty great.

But that's not really the reason for this post. This guy is...

As of today Bryce is officially done with his medical residency. He worked his last shift yesterday, he signed off on all his patients, turned in all the final paperwork today and got his official certificate of completion in return.

He's done! Yahoo!

I can't even begin to tell you how hard he has worked for the past seven years or how proud we are of him. Not only is he a fabulous doctor,  but even in the midst of 30 hour shifts, 80 hour work weeks, and countless sleepless nights he comes home and is a wonderful husband and a great dad to Audrey.

So congratulations to you Bryce... we couldn't be more proud of you!

Packing Up

source

Things have been a bit quiet around here and will continue to be for the next few weeks. I'll be popping in every once in awhile, but mostly I'm focusing on crossing things off the ever growing to-do list before we move next week. I'll be back more regularly once we are settled into our new house.

Saying Thanks

Growing up in our family a big deal was always made about sending thank you cards in a timely manner. Whether we received something for Christmas, or our birthdays, or any other reason in between we were reminded, daily, to write a thank you note. To be honest, it got to be a little annoying (sorry Mom!). Now, all these years later, I'm glad my mom nagged us as much as she did. Writing a thank you note when I receive something is just second nature at this point.

Now that I'm the mom I guess it is my turn to pass this nicety onto my kid. So Audrey and I sat down over the weekend to "write" her thank you notes for all her birthday gifts. Obviously she wasn't going to do much of the writing, but I wanted her to take some part in the process.

She was in charge of painting the front of each card and I would write a little note. As I wrote I asked her what she wanted to say to each family and she dutifully responded with "thank you", which when she says it sounds much more like "kank you".

Some Monday Randomness

1. My bean plants have little beans starting to grow!!! T minus 17 days until we move; is there any chance there will be enough to make a batch of dilly beans by then??

2. That reminds me, we're moving in 17 days! Eek. I have packed exactly two boxes, which is exactly two more boxes than I packed last time we moved (see #6).

3. The Bottle Cap Map over at the Family Ever After Blog is beyond amazing. It was a project at her kids' school. I'm thinking of maybe doing a smaller somewhat adapted version for our new house... we'll see if it happens.

4. My heart melts when I watch Audrey and Ryan, her best friend, play together. Last week they took turns pulling each other in the wagon on the way home from the park.

5. You've probably already seen this marriage proposal popping up all over, but in case you missed it (like me) or need a little something to brighten your day you should watch it right now. It will definitely make you smile and shout out to Oregon... the coolest things always happen there!

6. Have I ever mentioned before that the last time we moved, literally next door from where we were living before, I was five months pregnant and moved all of our stuff one laundry basket at a time? Bryce was working crazy hours and basically left for work from one address and came home to a new one. I'm feeling pretty lucky these days to get to use a moving company for this move and even more lucky that we aren't footing the bill... thank you Bryce's future employer!

Happy Monday!!

Photo Friday: Audrey's 2nd Birthday

One last birthday related post.

On Monday, Audrey's actual birthday, we spent the morning at the California State Railway Museum. I wasn't quite sure if it would be age appropriate for a two year old, but Audrey had a blast.

In fact she might have had a little too much fun and partied a little too hard over the weekend because by 5:00 that night this is where she ended up.

Have a great weekend everyone. We will be spending it attempting to get organized for the move (I've done nothing so far!) and also being spoiled by friends with a going away dinner.

Airplane Mobile

My good friend Cate is due with her second baby in just a couple of weeks. When I saw this mobile over on the Silhouette blog I knew it would be the perfect gift for the new little munchkin.

It was extremely simple to put together. I used the 3D Airplane and 3D Cloud shapes on the Silhouette. I used this Mobile Photo Clip from Kikkerland Design Inc. and modified it a little to give everything room to hang.

I helped Cate hang it up yesterday in the little guy's room and it looks great. Now I'm just anxiously awaiting his arrival... I'm hoping for a very on time delivery so we get to meet him before we move.

Posted at: 

The Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello
Saturday Seven Party (No. 29)  at Positively Splendid
Mingle Monday  at Add A Pinch

Audrey's Second Birthday Party

We celebrated Audrey's second birthday on Saturday with a small backyard party.

We kept it very simple and barbequed in the backyard. I lined the tables with brown paper and set out crayons for the kids to draw with. A few fresh flowers and balloons completed most of the decorations.

For favors I got fun drink bottles with straws from the dollar store and filled each with milk, so each kid got to pick their bottle to use at the party and then take it home with them.

I think Audrey's favorite part of the whole day was when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She was beaming with all that attention.

 And eating the cake wasn't so bad either.

It was amazing to see how much difference a year made in the atmosphere of the party. Almost all of the same kids were at her first party and at the time only one was walking and none were saying more than a word or two. This year everyone was running and jumping and talking up a storm. It is so fun to see them all growing up. We will definitely miss this group of friends when we move.

Posted at: 

The Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello

Happy Birthday Audrey

Audrey turns two today! We had her birthday party over the weekend. It was a lot of fun and Audrey definitely "got" it. She knew right away what all the balloons and cake and presents were all about. I'll share pictures later this week. For now we are off to celebrate for one more day!

Happy birthday to the most amazing two year old ever!

A Big Girl Bed

It was a big day for Audrey yesterday. We bought her a "big girl" bed. She tested it out as we wove our way through Costco.

Although it took her a lot longer than usual to fall asleep once she did she slept the rest of the night and even slept in. 

Seriously, how is it possible she is so big already?

I'm off to work on a busy book order, happy Tuesday all!

Single Serving Lemonade

It has been pretty warm around here lately and we are spending most of our time in the pool. While Audrey splashes around I enjoy the easy task of sitting with my feet in the pool "supervising". (The perks of being a stay-at-home mom!) The other day I was craving a glass of homemade lemonade, the perfect poolside drink companion, but didn't have the motivation or enough ingredients to make a big pitcher so I figured why not just make a single glass. It took about 2.5 minutes, tasted delicious, and left very little clean-up.

Single Serving Lemonade:
2 lemons
1 cup tap water
3 teaspoons sugar (or more if you like it sweeter)
ice


In a glass combine sugar and water until the sugar dissolves.

Squeeze in juice from 2 lemons and stir to combine. Add ice to fill the glass. Taste, if it is too tart add more sugar.

Drink and enjoy!

Posted at:

Saturday Seven Party (No. 29)  at Positively Splendid

Mingle Monday  at Add A Pinch

Packed Away

I'm not a superstitious person by nature, but motherhood has made me be a little more careful. Odds are the second I say some matter of fact statement, "she went to sleep so easily tonight" or "this is her favorite meal," she is awake and crying or spitting out mouthfuls of food and refusing to eat. I know I'm not actually causing whatever reaction follows, but nonetheless it still makes me a little fearful to say/type/think the next four words...

Audrey is potty trained!

Woohoo! I'm so glad to be done with the diaper stage. I never minded the work that went along with cloth diapering while I was doing it, but now that I'm not doing it I realize how much extra work it really was and am happy to have it behind me.

In order to make it official I stripped (washed them a million times to get rid of any built up residue) the FuzziBunz one last time and let them line dry in the hot sun for several days to bleach any stains out.

And then I packed those suckers away for another kid somewhere down the road. Let me just say how much I LOVE Space Bags... one of the greatest inventions ever.

Although this isn't a review post, if you want my opinion on FuzziBunz one-size cloth diapers they get a definite double-thumbs-up from me. After just shy of two years of every single day use (22.5 months to be exact) they still look near new and show no signs of falling apart anytime soon.