our christmas party.

it's almost st. patrick's day & i'm finally getting around to blogging about christmas.
hope you folks are okay with being patient with me, especially since another kiddo is making it's way into our family & without help from the papa on this here blog it might take a hit. or shall i say a bigger hit than it already has?

i love having parties. we don't do it that much anymore- we use to have at least two big ones: christmas & halloween. this year's christmas party was low key in the amount of people that showed up but fancy in the sense that my good friends johnny & amanda (from the samba project) played some music for us. we did a lil trade & it was so cool.

on decorations... i didn't buy any, except for the flowers. can't go wrong with fresh flowers. i did make a few wreaths out of shell pods in our backyard. finn helped me collect them & then i cut circles out of cardboard boxes & glued those puppies on. i think they're quite purty. we finally got rid of the broken t.v. that had been sitting there collecting dust for over 4 months & i made that a christmasy station. a few holiday cards we'd received & some candles.

& a few of the guests: tina & kyan. sweet boy!
sarah, tim & heather & of course finnster.

they were so great with letting him play & explore.

okay that's it. sorry, i didn't take many pictures. i wasn't feeling so hot that night- pregnant but no one knew about it yet!

photos from christmas in louisville are next! & if you live in phx please check out samba project- they're an amazing group & they have a few live shows this weekend!!!!

having fruit trees in our yard...

is pretty awesome. we have four fruit trees: a huge grapefruit (which unfortunately goes mostly to waste because neither of us likes grapefruit, so we try to give it away) two orange trees & a lemon tree. we've had a blast showing finn how to pick them & then peel & eat!



and they really are delicious!

happy monday!

huge day in our household.

HUGE. not just big but HUGE!

the day started with finn having 4 bowls of cheerios & playing nicely around the house with his recycling truck. then we went to a friends party at bounce jungle, happy birthday myra! that was a lot of fun.

finn fell asleep on the way home & took a nice nap. so did mama. bryan watched the cards & tried hard not to yell too loudly while they went into overtime.

big day reason no. 1: then we decided to go hike A mountain. it's a tiny lil hill on one side of asu's stadium. it's really nothing special -to most people. but bryan called me soooooo excited from arizona while on his interview for grad school... "there's this mountain right on campus... we could hike it everyday." he was sold. this was where we were supposed to move & start our new lives of not being long distance together. so we did. fast forward 6.5 years later to today & it's the very 1st time we've ever hiked it. seriously. we can walk to it from our house & we've never done it together. i've hiked it once & he's run it several times, but never together. it was lovely.




big day reason no 2: we took our first belly picture of peanut number 2 on the top of A mountain. we are 4 months along now & this baby has finally chilled out a little! i feel much better.

then we came home & made dinner. salmon, twice baked potato's, spinach & cucumber salad & watermelon. pretty decent. then the evening went on like most evenings: we played & watched a few old videos of finn & laughed hysterically at how funny he was as a baby, so expressive. we let him have some naked time, which is becoming a nightly thing. then we pick out a book & sit on the potty (hopefully for the whole book). we aren't necessarily trying to potty train him, but get him comfortable with it & then maybe one day he'd accidentally pee while sitting on it & we could hype it all up & he'd love it & tada! so far that hasn't been working for us. he'll read a few pages & get up. we don't make a big deal of it. but tonight. tonight!

big day reason no 3: he went POTTY!!!!! he peed! i'm at my desk getting a post ready for this very blog & hear bryan say "finn!!!!" so i grab the camera & run in there. he peed! for the first time ever on a big boy potty! we made a huge spectacle, let him have a treat (thin mint girl scout cookie) & danced around. he grinned his huge grin, very proud of himself. i had to take a family portrait of this occasion!
shuey! bryan is in there putting finn to sleep & i can hear him singing rainbow connection- their little tradition. he just stopped & said good night finn. you went potty- i'm so proud. finn giggled.

now bryan and i are going to celebrate by eating probably an entire cheesecake & watching a movie. life is good.

hope you have a great week!

found this lil beauty & love it. thought i'd share it with you.

When Your Children Are At Their Worst….

You need to be at your best.

You need to set the tone. Quietly.

You need to calm down.

You need to use your hands gently to help.

You need to approach your child in a true manner that shows you actually want to help them.

You need to be able to pass this duty to someone else in your family if you cannot do it right this minute. This does not mean you have failed, it means you are human.

You need to still be able to love your child, even if you don’t like them this minute.

You need to know this too shall pass.

You need to know life is full of these moments.

You need to know there is no perfect peaceful house.

You need to know that your child is not doing this on purpose.

You need to know your child loves you and wants to connect with you more than anything.

You need to know you are doing your best.

way overdue announcement

bryan, finn & i are going to be welcoming a new wee one in july!

we are going to attempt to wait until the birth to find out what our new babe is... so we'll see if we're strong enough to do that!!!!!

we told family at christmas & have slowly been informing friends as we've seen them. it's so strange that the whole world doesn't know it yet, but i figured i should put it out there, finally!

:0

finn loves his daddy's baseball cap

here's a few somewhat recent pictures of finn. one of his new obsessions is putting things on his head, whether it be my headbands (which you've seen pictures of before) or bryan's really old, sweaty baseball cap.

this one is just cute- from when we were playing outside.


he adores kylie wakes up saying ky ky bone. he loves giving her a bone & fights to give her more than one a day.
he can now open all the doors in our house- including our sliding glass back door, but scarier is that he can lock it while i'm outside & he's inside! i've had to get in the habit of putting my keys in my pocket before i go outside!
he talks on his cell phone a lot & for quite a long time now. he talks mainly to his "cuckoo cuckoo clock pop". grandpa paris has a cuckoo cuckoo clock that finn is just a lil bit obsessed with.

what a cute lil face.

well, he's just woken up from his nap. so i must go grab this cutie & cuddle for a bit. have a great week!

a little emma & finn for ya.

some mamas & our babes met at the botanical gardens awhile ago to get out in the perfect weather. we should do that more often! these pictures were all taken inside the butterfly tent.




oh man are these two best friends. i know we keep saying boyfriend & girlfriend, but honestly, i think a friendship their entire lives would almost be cooler...