Wise Words Wednesday: Marriage First

"To keep the fire burning brightly there's one easy rule: Keep the two logs together, near enough to keep each other warm and far enough apart - about a finger's breadth - for breathing room. Good fire, good marriage, same rule." ~ Marnie Reed Crowell

The Hubby & I pre-kiddos in 2008.


In a week my hubby and I will celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Four years that have gone by in the blink of an eye. Lately I've been thinking a lot about marriage - about how it is our love for each other that holds our family together and is the driving force behind not only our happiness, but our children's as well.

Unfortunately, Andy and I don't get that much alone time together. We have only been on a handful of one-on-one dates since having Leila in 2009. It makes me sad sometimes. For us, it is hard to get a sitter because both sets of grandparents live over an hour away and we have to convince them to come stay the night with us if we want a night out on the town. And we are both awful at asking for help. Also, with us each spending 40+ hours/week away from the kiddos at work, we feel guilty ever leaving them outside of that. We shouldn't, but we do.

Last Saturday I had a little bit of a break down. I was SO excited for Andy & I to attend my friend's wedding together on Sunday. His mom was going to come in and stay with the kids. Unfortunately, on Saturday night she called us with the news that she was sick and wouldn't be able to make it. Andy ended up having to forgo the wedding to be with our babies. I couldn't help but cry about it. I miss being able to enjoy time outside the home with my hubby alone.

Needless to say, I know that we have a strong marriage even if we are lacking in the date night department. We are good about stealing moments together here and there and enjoying our evenings together after the kiddos are asleep.

I came across a great article the other day about putting your marriage before your kids. It has some good tips and tricks in it. You can READ IT HERE if you are interested.

Just Write {My Favorite Time}

"Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga! Gaaaaaaaa!"

I hear a little voice calling me from down the hall. I stretch my arms and legs out and yawn - a tingling sensation runs down my body as I slowly wake up. My eyes open to find sunshine spilling in through the sheer curtains of our bedroom window. I turn to my right and check my cell phone on the night stand next to me for the time. 6:36am. I smile at the realization that it's Saturday and I don't have anywhere to be or anything specific to do. I turn to my left and my heart skips a beat at the sight of my beautiful girl and my handsome hubby sprawled out with their arms above their heads and their mouths slightly open - breathing in unison and looking like twins.

"Ga GA GA!"

I roll out of bed and stumble down the hall towards the kiddos' room. I lean over the crib to find a happy, kicking little boy in a blue helmet. How can I possible wish I was still asleep when there is so much cuteness waiting for me? He squeals in delight at my presence and I scoop him up in my arms and smother him in kisses.

After a diaper change, Landon & I make our way back to the pillowy-goodness of my king-size bed. Scooting in next to Leila, I snuggle down with Landon in my arms. As I nurse him, Leila gives a big stretch and looks up at me and smiles. She snuggles a little closer to me, hugging her purple bear blankie tight. Still mostly asleep, the hubby also senses the family presence and rolls a little closer, spooning Leila. I play footsie with him under the covers.

In this moment, nothing else matters. There is no work, no technology, no to-do list, no priorities. For a few minutes on mornings like this there is just peace. And family. And love.

It is a rare occurrence, but it is my favorite time of the day.

Life Lately

Happy Memorial Day! I have spent the last few days away from my computer and it has felt great! I also hardly played on my phone at all. Instead I have been drowning in quality time with my family and with myself!

Here's what I've been up to lately...

• Last Thursday some of my girlfriends and I went to an Allen Stone/Eric Hutchinson concert. If you haven't heard Allen Stone yet, you need to get on it (I may be slightly partial since I went to high school with him). We had SO much fun! And it is SO not like me to go out on a work night (especially when I also have to wake up multiple times with a sassy infant). Totally worth it though.
• I got to leave work early on Friday to get a jump start on the LONG weekend. We BBQ'd with friends and enjoyed some much needed relaxation after a crazy week.
• I decided to save a few bucks and get a McDonalds mocha frappe instead of a Starbucks frappucino, which I was seriously craving. The verdict? The McD's version rocked my world! Seriously! Probably had a bazillion calories in it, but worth every last one.
• I have a new found cupcake obsession. My BFF has been sampling the area cupcakeries and she's got me hooked. On Saturday we saw via Facebook that one of them (which we hadn't tried yet) was having a happy hour special of $1/cupcake. We drove as fast as we could and bought a variety. Worst $7 I've ever spent. I could have made better ones from a boxed mix.
• My friend Ashley got married yesterday and it was definitely in my top 5 weddings I've attended. The food? A-FRIGGIN-MAZING! I seriously ate enough to feed an army and I savored every last bite. Shrimp & scallops & beef & pasta salad & fresh fruit & bread & a baked potato bar!!! The potatoes were served in martini glasses! It was so fancy. And we danced our booties off.
• Laundry & house work. I know it's lame, but I love being able to just hang out at home and get caught up on chores. It feels so good. 
• I haven't watched ANY TV over the past few days and I'm loving it! I never woulda thought.

Hope you all have had an amazing Memorial Day weekend! Thank you to all of you out there serving our country & my heart goes out to all of those who have lost loved ones who gave their lives to protect us.

Monthly DIY: Tissue Box Photo Cube Baby Shakers

I wasn't quite sure what to call this little craft, so I just went with "Tissue Box Photo Cube Baby Shakers." I think that covers all the bases. :-)



I got the idea for this craft from one of Leila's old daycare teachers who made a similar one for her when she was still a babe. All it is is a cube tissue box with some rice and/or dried beans inside covered with photos and clear packaging tape. But, I decided to up the ante of this project by incorporating our names and some quotes and taping off the edges with colorful electrical tape.



Cute, huh?

Best part about these? Landon loves them! And it doesn't hurt that they make a cute decoration, too.



Supplies needed:

• Empty square tissue box
• Dried rice or beans
• Six 4x6 photos and/or printed out quotes and/or scrap paper/post cards, etc. (whatever you fancy)
• Clear packaging tape
• Colored electrical tape (or you could try it with some fun washi tape or decorative paper tape that is all the rage right now)

What ya do:

1. Poor some rice and/or beans into your tissue box. Just enough to make a nice sound when you shake it. If you are using cheap dollar store tissue boxes (like I did), you may want to tape off the sides of your tissue box first so that no rice spills out the cracks (I learned this the hard way).
2. Tape off the hole on top of the box.  Yes, some rice/beans will stick to the sticky tape when turned upside down, but I added enough rice/beans inside that I figured this wouldn't be an issue.
3. Stick one photo or paper image (quote/post card/scrapbook paper) on each side of the tissue box and cut the edges that hang over. Make sure you center your photo as much as possible before chopping any off. I used double sided tape to sick my images down, but you can use whatever you would like - even just rolled up tape.
4. Once each side has something on it, cover the edges of the box with your choice of decorative tape. I used electrical tape that I found at Target (like this) and it worked GREAT! It has a nice stretch to it and was very easy to work with. But, I know that craft tapes are all the rage right now and it might be fun to use a cool design (check this site out if interested).
5. Your box/shaker should be a thing of beauty now!  If you just want to use this for decoration, you could probably leave it as is. But, if this will be a toy for your baby, you need to make it durable against sticky fingers and drool by wrapping it in clear packaging tape. It took me 3 wraps around each side to get it covered.

Put dried beans/rice in the tissue box and seal the hole with tape.


Stick photos on tissue box & cut edges OR cut edges & then stick on.


What it looks like before adding colored tape to the exposed tissue box edges...


Add pretty tape to edges of box.


If this will be a toy for your baby, wrap it in clear packaging tape.


Ta Da!


I made three of these shakers: one all about Landon (filled with beans), one all about Leila (filled with rice), and one with pics of our family (filled with a rice/bean mix). They each make a different sound when shaken and look great together. Leila loves stacking them up and Landon loves shaking them. :-)

And finally, a little video for your viewing pleasure.



Linking this post up with: Katie's Nesting Spot, Beyond The Picket Fence, Live Laugh Rowe, The Artsy Girl Collection, Days of Chalk & Chocolate, The Little Giggler

Do you need a good laugh?

If so, I would love to offer you some humor at my expense. You may already know about this via Twitter/FB, but I figure it is too dang funny not to dedicate a post to. Here goes the story...

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On Monday I took advantage of my lunch break to run some errands. First I hit up Shopko for a b-day gift and some supplies for a cool craft project I have in the works. Next it was off to the dollar store for a few more things. I left the dollar store with my bag of goodies and an extra hop in my step (who wouldn't be excited about spending $5 on 3 boxes of tissue, 2 packs of gum, a gift bag, and wrapping paper?). I grabbed my keys outta my purse, and hopped in the driver's seat of my car. Or at least I thought it was my car...

Why does my car smell weird?
{looks at empty passenger seat}
Wait a sec, where's all the stuff I just bought at Shopko? Oh crap! Someone stole my stuff!
But I know I locked so how is that possible?
{turns and looks in backseat, realizes there are no carseats back there}
THIS ISN'T MY FRIGGIN' CAR!!!!
{proceeds to frantically jump out of stranger's car}

Yeah, that's right. I got in a stranger's car and it took me a good 15-20 seconds to realize it wasn't mine. In my defense, this car was IDENTICAL to mine. Same make/model, same exterior/interior color, same year. And it was parked two cars down from mine.

Needless to say, I hopped in my car with my heart racing and said THANK YOU to God for no one seeing me. And then I laughed my ass off at myself. That's all you can do in that situation right? :)

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Other recent humorous incidents in my life? Here ya go...

A cubicle party at work! Yes, my co-workers & I are that cool.
Am I pregnant? Nope. That would be the wind blowing up my dress and giving me a belly. Got some people good with that one. :-)


On Sunday Leila fell asleep in the car on the way to Costco munching on corn chips. She stayed asleep as I carried her into Costco. And then she remained asleep in the cart! This is SO not my kid.


Life can be so entertaining sometimes!

7 Months

My boy turned 7 months old today. He looks like a one year old.







All about Landon Drew at 7 months...

• That smile? It continues to melt my heart & causes me to forget how horrible of a sleeper he is.
• That's right, still no sleeping through the night for this guy. He'll have a good night every now and then and then he'll have streaks like this one where he's up at least twice to chow down.
• Landon has always had sensitive skin with mild eczema, but lately it's been worse than ever. It looks so painful sometimes. Breaks my heart.
• Since I'm on a negative streak... Landon also suffers from some pretty severe constipation issues. The introduction of food over the last 1+ month has been rough on his tummy. Any pros mommas out there have some advice for me besides feeding him prunes?
• Ok, enough of that. Constipation, itchy skin, helmet... my boy could care less! He is still such a happy little (big) man! & so easy going! Love him.
• He weighs 20.3 lbs (84th percentile, I think).
• Wearing 9-18 month clothes (and the occasional 6 month onesie that barely buttons at the crotch).
• Favorite foods: prunes (good thing) and pears. Not so much: peas and green beans (mix in some prunes and we are good to go).
• Landon still hates tummy time. Hates it. This kid won't be crawling any time soon - if ever.
• He does roll over now, but prefers to spend his time just sitting up playing with toys.
• Actually, he prefers playing with things that aren't toys. Like paper. Or spoons.
• Landon is talking up a storm! Ga Ga Ga Ga GA GA GA! He's got the "G" down.
• He also loves to slap his hands on things. Put out your hand and he'll give you 5-10-15-20-25 and so on. Or he'll slap on your chest. Or his helmet. Or your face.
• Every now and then he'll give a big ole belly laugh, but mainly he just smiles his huge contagious smile and if he's really excited he'll inhale really deeply, making a squealing sound. Love it.
• My little nuzzler. Loves to nuzzle right into you. Such a cuddly snuggle bunny.
• Loves the bath. Loves to slap the water and kick and splash all over. 
• Landon is just becoming more and more fun each and every day.

Sooooooo long.


Leave me alone Mom!


Helmet Update:
Landon has taken to the helmet really well! We had one little bump in the road when he started wearing it through the night and we were washing it with alcohol (like suggested). Well, my sensitive boy had a nasty reaction on his cheeks to the alcohol. We had to take a couple of days off the helmet, apply some ointment, and let him heal up. Since then, we've only been washing it with his baby shampoo and letting it dry in the sun (when available). All is good! The downside of helmet life: the sweaty helmet smell (wet dog x1000), itchy scalp (Landon constantly tries to itch his head), and its just hard to snuggle a big chunk of plastic. The positive: we are seriously already seeing a huge improvement! Even the orthotist was impressed! I have NO regrets about doing this. :-)

And I must say that it does add to the cuteness factor!


I can't believe he's already 7 months old. Sigh.

Eyes

Linking up with The Paper Mama for her weekly photo challenge. This week's challenge... Eyes. After going through all of my amazing eye pics, I've decided to enter my Billy dog...



Something about this photo just strikes me. I totally captured him. And those chihuahua eyes just steal the show.

However, since I was scanning through my "eye" pics, I really couldn't just share one on this here blog. After all, eyes are windows to the soul, right? If so, I can see right into my loves in these pics...

High Five for Friday!

Gah! I'm so excited that Friday is here! I've got a weekend with my hubby & kiddos to look forward to and a great week behind me. Here are my top 5 moments from this past week...

1. Catching up on gossip mags in the sun. Yep, I actually got to enjoy 20 minutes of kid-free goodness to myself, soaking up the glorious sunshine and rotting my brain with celebrity gossip. It felt gooooood.

2. Andy made cookies. And this isn't in my top 5 list because the cookies were delicious. He tried out a healthy cookie recipe he found in a magazine and the recipe was totally wrong... he followed the directions to a T, but the dough was SO dry. He decided to bake them any way. They were HORRIBLE. And when they came out of the oven and we tried them, they were so nasty we couldn't help but laugh. And we couldn't stop laughing. The funniest part? They sat on our counter over night and Leila grabbed one in the morning and ate it. Stale and all. Then she gave one to Landon to try...

3. My girl. Leila has been SO funny this week. She is not a toddler any more - she's such a little girl! She's been cracking me up right and left all week with the little phrases she's learning like, "No I got it Mom" when I try to help her with something. And yes, she has moved on from calling me "mommy" or "mama" and now calls me "mom." I keep getting flashes of her as a teenager. It's freaking me out a little.

4. My latest purchases. I am absolutely stoked that bright colors are so trendy right now. I've always been a lover of color. This week I bought myself a fun yellow necklace at Old Navy (it was like $9!) and some "Tart Deco" Essie nail polish (it is seriously the most perfect creamy coral color). Love!

5. Landon's head is already rounding out! He is taking to his helmet so well (even though it makes his head super sweaty and smelly) and we are already seeing a serious difference! I am SO happy that we decided to just go for it and do this for him. I know I'll have no regrets about it whereas I may have had regrets later on down the road if we didn't take action.

Happy Friday my friends! I hope your weekend is a lovely one!

Linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk today.

All About Cloth Diapers

I've been cloth diapering for close to 6 months now, so I feel like it's time for me to dish on it - for those of you who are interested or may have questions about it. I am by no means a cloth diapering pro. I haven't experimented with all of the different varieties of cloth (only pocket dipes) and everything I purchased to get started has ended up working perfectly for us. I guess this isn't always the case with everyone. Sometimes people have to experiment to find out what works for them. Here's a rundown of what we use & love and how cloth diapering works for us. Overall, we love doing it and don't have any regrets.

First and foremost, cloth diapers are just so stinkin' adorable!


Our Cloth Diaper Schedule

• We are part-time cloth diaperers. Landon doesn't wear cloth at daycare (because of my laziness in not wanting to launder them on the days I work - we may eventually change this) or overnight.
• He wears them on the weekends and the 2 days/week that he is home with daddy.
• We wash the dipes every 2 days. So, if he wears them Saturday & Sunday, I wash them Sunday night after he goes to sleep (and is out of his last one for the day).

Cloth Diaper Brands That We Use - & Love

• BumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers ~ In my opinion, these are the mac-daddy of pocket diapers. They are thebomb.com! I read many, many reviews before purchasing a 12 pack of these bad boys (after finding a killer sale). Love them! Great fit on Landon, rediculously well-made, and wash great.
• SunBaby Diapers ~ These are by far the best bang for your buck. Whenever a friend asks me about cloth diapering and says that they are considering it, I tell them to purchase some SunBabies just to try it out. You can't go wrong here! The owner of SunBaby, Sunpei, has some of the CUTEST designs and they are a steal. AND, you can seriously double your investment on these puppies if you re-sell them later on down the line. Some of the hardcore cloth diaperers out there are willing to pay a premium for discontinued prints. My BumGenius dipes are probably the best made, but I always find myself reaching for the SunBaby dipes first for some reason.
• Jungle Roo Cloth Diapers ~ I only own one of these (you can read my review of it here), but I really like it a lot. It is SUPER soft and cute and so far, it works and washes well.
• Go Green Champ 2.0 Pocket Diapers ~ I have 2 of these. They are really cute and run a little bit bigger than the other dipes we own, which is GREAT for my chubster! However, over time the inside hasn't stayed soft and I don't really like the inserts that came with them.

Our Must-Have Cloth Diaper Products

• BumGenius Diaper Sprayer ~ A genius invention! This guy hooks right up to the water line on your toilet so that you can spray off the poo right into your john. I know it sounds super gross, but I swear it isn't bad at all (& I actually find it kinda fun - I'm sick, right?).
• Biokleen Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator ~ After spraying off the poopy dipes, I usually spritz them with this stuff before throwing them in the diaper pail. I had read a lot of great reviews about this helping with stains and smell and it is amazing. Completely cloth diaper safe, too.
• Planet Wise Pail Liner/Wet Bag ~ My fave wet bag pail liner. I line a kitchen garbage can with one of these and it sits right by our upstairs toilet. Dirty dipes go right in there and when I'm ready to wash, it goes in with the dipes.
• Kitchen Garbage Pail (7 gal) ~ No need for any fancy diaper pail. We just use a cheapo plastic kitchen trash can, line it with a wet bag pail liner, and we're good to go. Does it smell up our bathroom? NO! Dirty dipes do better if they have air flow reaching them - that way bacteria doesn't grow as quickly. I'm sure if I stuck my head in the pail it would smell, but after two days I honestly haven't noticed any stench in our bathroom.
• GroVia Magic Stick Diaper Ointment ~ If you use cloth diapers, you have to use a CD safe butt cream and we love this one.
• Country Save Laundry Detergent ~ You can't just use any ole laundry detergent when you cloth diaper. You want one that is CD friendly and won't irritate your baby's bum. I did a lot of research on this one. Country Save seemed to have consistently good reviews, especially according to my local cloth diapering Facebook group. And so far it's working great for us!
• Calgon Water Softener ~ We have extremely hard water, so water softener helps prevent detergent build-up in our dipes and gets them extra white.
• Dryer Balls ~ I throw these in the dryer with our inserts and it just helps fluff them and get them dry faster.
• 529 Baby Travel Wet Bag ~ This WAHM makes amazing wet bags! I have the cute robot pattern in a medium travel size. I keep it in the diaper bag so that if we are using CDs when out and about I can throw dirty ones in it.

How We Wash Our Cloth Diapers

• From Landon to the Pail: If he has a wet dipe, we pull the insert out of the pocket diaper and throw both in the pail - no rinsing necessary. If it's poopy, we dump what we can in the toilet and spray off as much as possible with the diaper sprayer. Then, we wring it out, pull out the insert, and throw in the pail.
• Washing: Diapers, inserts, and pail liner all go straight into the washing machine. We own a Frigidaire Affinity front load washer. Here's the wash cycle we use:
• Cold Quick Wash with 1/4 scoop of Country Save detergent (this cycle gets out all of the yuck before the hot wash)
• Hot Allergy Cycle with 1/4 scoop of Country Save + generous dump of Calgon
• Warm Rinse - to make sure all of the soap is out
• Side Note: once/month I add a tiny bit of bleach to the main wash cycle to keep the diapers extra clean and smelling fresh.
• Drying: Inserts go straight into the dryer and the pocket diapers hang on a drying rack (they dry pretty quickly, even in our cold basement, usually within a few hours).

Okay, so I'm sorry if this post is boring and information overload, but I hope that at least some of you out there can find it helpful. If you have ANY questions at all, ask away! I'd love to help! :-)

Wise Words Wednesday: Passion

"Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it." ~ Hardy D. Jackson

"Follow your heart, but be quiet for a while first. Ask questions, then feel the answer. Learn to trust your heart.” ~ Unknown

"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion." ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

I couldn't pick just one quote of inspiration today. This topic is deserving of more. Today I want to discuss passion. Not the passion you experience for your significant other or your children, the passion you feel towards life... finding your passion.

I have a vivid memory. I remember sitting in a circle on the floor in the 1st grade. The teacher was talking about careers and proceeded to ask us what we want to be when we grow up. We went around the circle sharing our dream careers with our classmates. Fire Fighter. Policeman. Doctor. By the time it was my turn, I still hadn't figured out what to say so I copied my friend who went before me and said, "teacher." I swear, ever since that day over 20 years ago I have put a TON of thought into what I want "to be when I grow up." And I still have no clue.

Once I hit the college years, the fact that I was clueless about what I wanted to do with my life stressed me out to the max. And my fears held me back from pursuing studies that may have interested me and this altered the path I'm on now. I think I may have even been a little bit depressed at the time. What is it with our society raising us to measure our worth by what our career is?

It seriously took me until just recently to realize that your life focus shouldn't be about your "career" or your "title." It's about finding your passion. Children shouldn't be raised to stress about what they are going to be when they grow up. They should be encouraged to explore things that interest them and find what makes them happy, even if this is outside of whatever career they end up in.

So, what do I want to do with my life? I want to find my passion. I want to encourage others to find what they are passionate about. I am content with where my life is right now. I don't love my job, but I  love that it is fairly stress free and when I'm not working I get to do things that I do love, like...

blog,
and play with my family,
and daydream about finding my passion.

The Art of Taking a Self-Family Photo

The other day on my drive home from work I got the brilliant idea to try to take a family photo with the timer on our camera. It was a beautiful day and my fam was home waiting for me, so I thought "why the heck not?" We have hardly any pics of the four of us together - and definitely not any good ones. Point blank...I'm cheap and don't want to fork over the $ for a professional photog. Lameness, I know.

So out into our backyard we ventured - me in my work clothes and the kiddos in whatever they were wearing that day. I did however make the hubby switch from sweatpants into jeans. I got some eye rolls for that one, but seriously, is a halfway decent family photo too much to ask for?

The Art (or maybe not so much) of Taking a Self-Family Photo

1. Set up camera on tripod and have a couple of your subjects pose in the photo area to set up the shot. Take a test shot (or several).

My super excited test shot subjects...


2. Set your camera to timer mode. We went with a 10 second delay after realizing it was set to 3 seconds and getting a fabulous shot of my ass (sorry, not sharing that one). With a toddler who doesn't want to take the pic to begin with at your side, press the shutter button and run to the rest of your family and jump in the pic.

I think we were all a little bit too excited. Hubby looks like he's jacked up on some-sort of happy pills (and trust me, he wasn't very happy about all this)...


3. Try again.

Fail. This time I took the happy pills. And Landon's got the back arch thing going on. Winning!


4. And try again. This time it gets a little tricky, though. Toddler will start crying, wanting you to "run to the other side of daddy." And when you don't do it, she'll get pissed.

Mommy & Daddy look ok, but brother got distracted by a sassy sissy...


5. Last try. Everyone is losing patience so you just gotta go for it. Keep your fingers crossed and say a quick prayer that everyone smiles (but not too cheesily) and looks and the camera.

I think this was the best shot we got. And it is FAR from perfect. My hair (& Leila's) is cRaZy from running into the photo. Lando-pie is distracted. Hubby & Billy look cute. Maybe another day.


Okay, so I mostly failed in the the self-family portrait project, but I will be trying again. Maybe I didn't get the perfect framable-hang-above-the-mantle shot that I was after, but we got some decent ones that capture US in the MOMENT. Nothing fake here people.

Any of you ever give the ole camera timer a shot before?

A day for da mommas.

Okay, so I thought this Mother's Day was going to be "bla." Andy had to work and I thought I'd just be managing the kiddos alone, hanging out at the good ole homestead. Instead, today actually ended up being fabulous! Yes, the hubby still had to work, but the kiddos and I took a little adventure up north to my hometown for some time in the country.



My bro & dad took my momma to a movie, so my sis-in-law and I hung out with the kiddos. The weather was fantabulous! We got down and dirty making mud pies, enjoyed "fishing" in a little stream, and went on a beautiful nature walk through the woods (in which I got chased by a swarm of mosquitoes - the downfall of my day). The day ended with a BBQ with the whole fam (minus my poor hubby) and some very tired, but happy, kiddos. Life is good.















I just got the kiddos down to bed and I feel like one lucky momma. As I tucked Leila in tonight she wrapped her arms around my neck and said, "Mommy I love you soooooooooooo much!" Life doesn't get much better than that.

I truly hope that all you mommas out there felt special and showered with love today!

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Oh! & my friend Megan has a little blurb about me on her blog today, so you should check it out HERE. :-)