Baby's First Easter (Wrap Up)

Hello, hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend!

We had a fairly busy one.  Saturday we all went to Taste of Hillcrest. (All of us being: me, my BF, the boy, and Nana)  Hillcrest is a very cool part of town, and is also where the hospital is that we spent so much time at last year.  There are TONS of great restaurants around and the vibe and people are great.

It was so fun!   

Basically, you pay $30 and then walk around the area to get tastes of food from all the participating restaurants.  There were over 40, but we only made it to about 15 of them.  By the end we were tired and stuffed, but it was a lot of fun.  Some of the food we got to sample: pizza, bratwurst, Indian food, BBQ, escargot, sushi, frozen yogurt, and other desserts. Definitely looking forward to more of these events in the future. 

Sunday was actually pretty mellow in comparison.  

The Easter Bunny left a big basket of goodies for the boy and we had fun playing with all the new toys for most of the day. 

The packed basket.  Besides everything I mentioned in this post, I added any bunny related items we already had on hand for a little extra stuffing.  :-)

The loot partially unpacked....The puzzle (as anticipated) has been the biggest hit so far.  (Although he does also bang the remote around fairly regularly.)

My little bunny!   (He hardly holds still anymore so it was hard to get a good pic!)

See above comment re: never holding still!   It was basically impossible to get him to keep the sunglasses on and hold still at the same time.  hahaha   He pretty much just wanted to chew on them or bang them on the ground.  I still think they are cute, though!

He also was not a fan of the bunny hat (although he wore the ears pictured at top for a while with no complaints!) 

In his EGG-stra Handsome bunny outfit.  We didn't put this on until the evening, so...he might have worn this all day Monday, too.  haha

That's about it for our first Easter with the baby.  

I am looking forward to a little more understanding and participation next year.  

Dying and hunting eggs will be so fun!  :-)

Currently... (Sunday 3/16)

Thinking about: Baby proofing!  The boy's a fast crawler now and is CONSTANTLY pulling himself up on EVERYTHING!  We got some baby gates to keep him in one spot when Nana needs a bathroom break during the week when she is babysitting, or when Mama needs to put in a load of laundry, etc.  We don't necessarily want him to be stuck inside the gates all the time, but our house just isn't ready for the tornado he has become!  We'll have to keep working on it in the coming days/weeks.  For now we have 2 gates hooked together making a little area for him in the living room.  Not a good permanent solution, though.

Reading:  The Outlander series, for the 3rd time.  With the show in production & the next book coming out later this year, I figured I might as well refresh my mind.

Via

Listening to: all kinds of music on the iPod playing over the surround sound in the living room.  It's nice to have it on as background music as we are doing laundry, some gardening, and other house chores on this lovely Sunday. 

Watching: Nothing today but we've been watching the first season of Vikings that we have had saved on the DVR.  The second season just started up and we've enjoyed the show so far.  Also looking forward to watching the next episode of Amazing Race! 

Via

Thankful for: Our new lives.  Everything is so different now with our baby, and there are some days it seems crazy/busy/tiring... but we wouldn't change it for the world!   He's made us both better people.  We may have imagined, but never really knew how much we could really love our little man! He's the light of our lives.

Linking up today with A Mama Collective! 

4/52 Sunshiney Day

 

Last week was our little guy's 8 month birthday.  It's seriously amazing how the time flies.  
He seems to be THISCLOSE to crawling, which is both exciting and scary!  
He's a champion eater.
He sleeps great sometimes and not so great other times.  
He delights us with his smiles and personality every single day.
We love him to the moon and back.

A picture of my son, once a week, every week, in 2014 

Hanging outside in his Go-Pod while Daddy mowed the lawn last weekend.  
It's been gorgeous weather here and it was a really nice day to be out in the fresh air, and he loves spending time with Daddy.  
(Yep, we're still rocking some Christmas clothing. 
It just seems silly to put it away after one wear if it still fits!) 

Some of my favorites from last weeks pics:
Roman's wispy hair and smile remind me of my baby.
Evita has got to be the coolest toddler around with her skateboard.
TOI's extremely new family of four is adorable.

Inspired by Jodi, just click the lovely button to join in the fun.

Weekend in Review

Hey!  I'm alive.  Been in a funk.... But I'm trying to get back with the program (somewhat)!  

I have a few sponsorships/features going on and I don't want to get totally out of the habit of writing my blog, and reading everyone else!   I've been slacking at both.  Anyhow... thanks for sticking in there! :-)

Last week (the last 2 weeks actually...) we spent a lot of time taking care of our crazy stapled up dog.  He got the staples out Wednesday and we took him to "day care" at the vet all last week, since we didn't trust him not to scratch or lick at the staples/wound all day long!  He did pretty well. He likes to charm the ladies at the vet.  He's still pretty obsessive about licking at it when we take his t-shirt off.  

But... we left him home today, so hopefully he behaves himself!  

(On the way to the vet Friday morning... He likes to have his paw up on the center console thing while I am driving. Check out his cool turtle neck.  hehe)

Saturday morning we went and picked up our Christmas tree!   We ran a few other errands and did some stuff at home (cleaned up garage, installed a couple of shelves out there, took some crap to donate at thrift store, cleaned up our STILL GROWING LIKE CRAZY tomato plant).  Saturday night my BF went to a friends for a couple of hours to watch UFC and then we just watched some more TV and called it a night. 

December 8th.... dozens of tomatoes still. We pulled 2 this weekend.

Sunday we (mostly I) decorated the tree, did some grocery shopping, and made butternut squash soup (from THIS RECIPE). It was a homey, chilly, turn on the heat kind of evening.  :-)

 

 A few of my favorite ornaments...

From top left: Mickey ornament from DisneyWORLD, my beautiful swap ornament, our teddy/boxer ornament we've had for years and makes me laugh every year, and the pickle (also from DisneyWorld/Epcot, the German pavilion, it's got a story behind it). 

Other random decorations I threw on the table, nowhere else to put them!

This coming weekend I am heading to Oregon for my cousin's wedding.  I am planning to get a couple of posts in before I head up there.  

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend! 

Weekend Coming Soon....

Hey guys... 

and welcome to new people from Mish and Kelly!

I had a weekend review planned but before I could get to it last night one of our dogs got himself hurt and I spent the time I was going to blog at the Animal ER.  :-(   

We're still not exactly sure what happened but I heard him whining and soon discovered a pretty nasty torn/ripped wound on his chest.  He ended up having to get some staples to close it up.  He was pretty drugged up and sad looking when we got home.  

Poor baby. I was so sad for him.  :-(  

This is an older pic from an elbow surgery... but I suspect we will see this same sad "WTF is going on?" face once he comes out of his drug haze.

  It seems like he slept well, and my MIL is home with him today.  It was a very superficial wound (even though it looked gory), so he should be back to "normal" in a few days.

Anyhow, I'll get something together and blab about my weekend tomorrow probably.   

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and a nice looooooong weekend!

We Gave Thanks

Hello, friends!

And welcome to my new friends from Mish Lovin Life and Messy.Dirty.Hair!

So, I'm still kind of on vacation, which (apparently) also includes blogging the past few days.  Work was really hectic this week (even for only 3 days) and I didn't get time to prep any posts. 
Anyhow, I'm stealing most of this post...from myself. (I wrote a pre-Turkey Day post on my food blog.)  My plans for the holiday turned out pretty close to reality. We ate a ton yesterday and will be having leftovers all weekend! :-)

I decided to try a couple of new recipes, along with all the old (delicious) standards.  

One of the Pinterest finds I definitely wanted to try were these cranberry and brie cups.  There are only 4 ingredients in this one, and they look so yummy.  I love cheese and fruit, and warm brie... mmmmmm.  I don't think you can go wrong with warm brie. (These were a BIG hit and I should have made more than i did!)

Source: celebratemag.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

One of my favorites every year is green bean casserole.  I literally just make it from the recipe on the container of French's Onions, and, actually, I haven't even looked at the recipe since I was a kid.  I just know what goes in it.  I like it to be on the drier side, with lots of crunchy onions. (It turned out perfect, and we never have enough of it.  Maybe next year I'll remember to make more!)

Every year we always have POUNDS of mashed potatoes (and gravy).  My BF and his brother are usually in charge of that.  We make them do the mashing.  (Correct, they mashed 15 lbs of potatoes!)

Another of my favorites (one of my very favorite foods actually) are the sweet potatoes.  This year, though, I really want to try this sweet potato dish I saw on Pinterest.  Roasted grape, goat cheese and honey stuffed sweet potatoes....umm, yes please!!  
(DONE, and excellent!  Next time I might try a different cheese, but the roasted grapes?? TO.DIE.FOR. We actually had quite a few extra grapes and ate them pre-dinner with some Havarti cheese we had in the fridge. OMG.)

Source: howsweeteats.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

We'll definitely have a turkey, but once in a while we also have ham.   Now, as I may have mentioned (haha), I'm no chef, or even much of a cook. The sauce for the ham comes from my Nana. It's just a small jar of grape jelly mixed equally with mustard. It might sound strange, but TRUST ME, it's sooo good!   What I've done in the past is buy a precooked (but not flavored) ham, lay a bunch of slices out on a baking sheet, cover them in the sauce, and bake for a few minutes, just to warm the meat and caramelize the sauce a bit. (No ham this year, but I'm planning to do this ham for Christmas dinner!)

And of course, DESSERT!  I have never made a pie... maybe next year.  But I will buy one, or three. Pecan pie (my fave), pumpkin is always good, and the BF likes apple. 
(Actually... my BF and his mom did the shopping and we had a cheesecake!? Weirdos. It was still delicious, but I need my pumpkin pie!!) 

I hope everyone had a great meal, with great family/friends, and is enjoying a long weekend...Like I am!!  

Four day weekends don't happen very often in my world so I am trying to take full advantage of it!  

See you guys Monday!!   

(Or maybe Sunday for Confessions, if I can get my act together!)

Valitar!

I don't think I mentioned in my Yellowstone post, but I was born in Cody, Wyoming.  

I spent the first 5 years of my life living on this dude ranch.

Due (I suspect) to being around dozens of horses from a young age, and then having a horse for a few years again after we moved to California, I've always loved them. 

I imagine if we'd stayed in Wyoming I might have a little boy like this by now.  :-)

Source: joaniemcmahon.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

 

When we visited the ranch this summer, the horse barn might have been my favorite part. The horses are so calm and serene, and a few came over to say hi to us.
Oh, and they are so soft.  I forgot how soft they are.  And how good they smell.  :-)

The point is, I like horses. 
So when I saw billboards around town for Valitar, I was intrigued.

My BF and I drove by one of the billboards together last week and we realized we were both interested, so we looked up some info online and settled on a night to check it out.

  I read the "story" of Valitar on their website (which is not very specific), but intentionally didn't watch any of the videos.  So I wasn't exactly sure of what we might see on Saturday night. 

That evening, we headed up the coast to Del Mar to attend the big event!  No photography was allowed as it might distract the horses, so all of these pics are courtesy of Valitar/Equustria Development, Inc. 
Saturday was only the second public performance (EVER!) of this show.  Kind of exciting!

This is what the tent looks like.  I've been driving past it twice a day for weeks on my way to/from work.

Some contortion starts off the show.

 

Once the horses join the show, it's kind of mesmerizing.

These guys were doing all kinds of stunt riding, racing around the arena. 
There was also some trampoline acrobats and 2 guys on rugged skateboards. 
Pretty crazy!

I really liked the trick riding, where the guys were jumping on and off of the horse, riding backwards, STANDING up on the horses backs!!

This was my boyfriends favorite acrobat... the rope lady. :-)
(There may be some more techniocal term for that...?)

We both thought this guy was really impressive. He did a lot of the stunt riding and was entertaining and engaging.

 This woman had 9 beautiful white horses running and dancing around in sync, with no harnesses/leads or anything.

Probably the most thrilling stunt of the night. 
He went underneath and back to the top while the horse was galloping around the arena. Yikes!
(Also, I loved this horse. Light mane, caramel colored with a few darker spots.  I wanted to pet him!!)

I really don't have anything negative that comes to mind about the show itself.  I was kind of expecting maybe a few more "WHOA! OMG!" moments.  But it is more about the beauty and grace of the horses (and the humans!), and relationship between them. 
Don't get me wrong, the guy going under the horse? The people standing on the horses backs and dancing? The guy being pulled by the horse on the mountainskateboard onto a ramp?  Those were all crazy, but the overall feel of the show is more "zen" than "cRaZy".  And I liked it that way. 

I didn't love the 2 people near me who kept whistling, that ear piercing,  sports game kind of whistle.  They mention no pictures because of the DISTRACTION it could be to the horses.  Not only do I think those whistles could have been, too...but they hurt my ears! Plus, one of them, a guy behind me, was also talking through most of the show. Not quietly.

Besides that the entire experience was extremely pleasant.  

All of the ticket takers and ushers were nice and helpful. 
The parking was easy (though a bit of a rip off at $9). 

The food & drinks in the concession tent were expensive (which is to be expected) but there was a pretty decent variety of snack type items to choose from.  We had an iced mocha and a piece of cake before the show. :-)

 The merchandise area didn't have a ton of options, but there were definitely a few cute shirts I liked.  I ended up buying a long sleeve t-shirt, but in large because no XL available (I've now determined it is going to be extremely tight, but wearable).  And it was $45.   Ouch.  I don't think there was anything under $30 besides the printed program.  (Of course, I still bought one, cuz I'm a sucker for a souvenir.)

I saw on their website that Valitar will begin touring to other cities soon.  If any of this sounds interesting to you, I suggest checking it out!  It was really fun and a great way to spend and evening with my boyfriend.  I think it's a great show to see for a date, or for a family night out! 

 

Disclaimer: I was provided 2 tickets to see Valitar, but all opinions are my own. 
They did not ask me to provide a positive review or to fall in love with the caramel horse. 

Weekend Rewind!

Here we are. Monday again.  Luckily, it's kind of like Wednesday this week! ;-)

This is gonna have to be quick as I was feeling crappy last night, so didn't take time to prep my post!

Friday...

I bought a couple more frames at Goodwill!  

I am planning to attack the map wall project over the 4 day weekend.  haha  Wish me luck!

I also bought this wooden carved cake plate thing....?

 It's kind of funky & big...but I like it!  I'll figure out somewhere to put it eventually.  

(BF is not a big fan so...going to need to be creative. I called and texted a pic from the Goodwill but he didn't answer so...too bad!)

Saturday... 

 - My BF got up WAY TOO EARLY and went dirtbike riding.

- My MIL arrived for her Thanksgiving week off. 

(I know we did not get the whole week off when I was in school!)

- I did some tidying up of the house, a bit of laundry, all that fun stuff... to the background accompaniment of Mary Poppins.  :-)

- Saturday night we went to the horse show, Valitar! (Post coming!)  It was a good time.

Sunday...

Nothing too exciting.  We switched our dryer door!  It's been opening "the wrong way" for the past year, since we bought it.  So that was actually kind of exciting.  haha 

(Oh, home ownership.)

A bit more laundry, sweeping etc with Mamma Mia in the background.  :-)

Started feeling kind of crappy toward the afternoon.  So I kind of lazed around while my boyfriend made some salsa to stock up the fridge.  Heaven forbid he ever has less than 12 condiments to choose from. ;-)

All grilled and ready to blend up salsa ingredients!

I'll be working from home tomorrow and then one more day in the office... and THEN?  

FOUR DAYS OFF!  Woo hoo! 

Linking up my weekend with these lovely ladies!

Letters & Fancies (TGIF!)

Hi friends, happy Friday!! 

Before I jump into my letters, 
I wanted to let you know I can be found somewhere else in the blogosphere today!

 I'm visiting over at Across The Pond today, with the fabulous Megan! 
She is one my daily read, and one of the first "lifestyle" blogs I ever got hooked on  
(which led me to all of <---THIS--->!!).  
I really wish I lived in Europe so we could have a blate!
Maybe when she gets back to the States. :-)
She is one genuinely funny and sweet lady. 

 

If you are visiting from Megan's place, HELLO!  
Welcome!  Stick around for a bit. :-) 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 
Dear Beautiful Horses... I'm coming to see you!  Apparently you are not only beautiful, but also talented.  I'm excited to find out exactly what that means on Saturday night, at Valitar!

Dear Ocotillo Desert... No crashing allowed for my boyfriend tomorrow, please.  He has to be back in time for Valitar. Plus, I've already been through enough of that crap, right?

Dear Pinterest... I am coming for you this weekend to decide what to eat/make/buy for Thanksgiving.  I'm sure there will be an overwhelming number of ideas, so I should probably narrow it down before I start. ;-)

Dear Christmas Decorating... I'm making some plans for you. OK, the ornament tree might be a bit advanced but I could definitely do the ornaments in the glass jar, and maybe the wine bottles.  Wonder if Gunney would sit still long enough for me to snap a pic like that!  :-)

Dear Readers... I've jumped to 100(+) this week.  Thank you all!  Assuming a lot of you came from my sponsorships recently, we can pretty much agree we will get along , since we read the same blogs. duh.  ; -)

Dear Boyfriend... I'm looking forward to our dinner and a (horse) show date Saturday night. It's been a while since we've done something new. yay! :-)

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Today's Fancies topic was inspired by all the yummy treats that are available in the fall. 

I think I skipped this week in the summer but I know I thought about doing "orange creamsicle 50/50 bars".   :-)

From Alison:   

Winter may not begin until December, but it feels like fall with each passing day. Let's serve up our must-have autumn treats before the season passes on Friday, November 16th. Whether its a snack or a drink, you can have lots of fun with this one!

Plaid Skirt by cynthia335 featuring illamasqua nail polish

Can you guess what autumn treat I chose??  Yep, Pumpkin Spice Latte.  :-)    
I love them.  

I was thinking candy apple, or maybe candy corn?  But when I saw this outfit it just jumped out as PSL!  Even a touch of green, like a Starbucks cup!  

The boots are beautiful!  Unfortunately they are $300. 

 I hope you are all having a great Friday and have some fun plans for the weekend!