Ethan.

My little man is 3 today.

I don't know where the days have gone and how he has grown so fast. 

Three years have flown by.

I enjoy each day more and more as his personality grows and shines.

I love him more than I ever dreamed I could. 

Happy Birthday E!

Kids are Weird.

I found this photo while I was going through my recent pictures.

Ethan had eaten these apple slices and then proudly displayed the leftovers in our windowsill.

No explanation, no reason that I know of.

Kids are just weird sometimes. 

A Lovely View.

This is our view for the next week.

God is such an amazing creator!

Don't you agree?

Even Jacob can't believe how beautiful it is.

We are so fortunate to be staying in an amazing beach house in Encinitas, California.

Family will be trickling in all week to relax, play at the beach, eat good food, and spend time together.

I'm so looking forward to what this week will bring and the memories we make as a family.

It's a lovely life if I do say so myself. 

I'm linking up here...

I Love Summer.

Don't you?

Happy Weekend Everyone.

Here and There.

My head is full of random thoughts today.

I thought summer would be relaxing but I'm finding out it's not.

Don't get me wrong, I love summer.

It's my favorite season.

I love being outside, in the sun, playing in water, seeing friends, going on vacation.

It's just the days seem to fill up faster than usual and we're home less, which makes me a bit crazy sometimes.

So I feel a bit out of sorts and all over the place and I thought I'd get some of what's in my head out and on this here blog.

I'm getting my hair cut and dyed tomorrow and I don't really know what I want to do with it.

I started to let my bangs grow out but we're having family photos taken in a week and I don't want that awkward "you're growing out your bangs" look. Know what I mean?

Should I cut the bangs? Let them grow? Chop off my hair all together?

I don't know.
Help!

I'm not using my diaper caddy anymore.

It really came in handy since the boys share a room and changing Jacob in the middle of the night on the changing table was not an option.

I didn't like the caddy being out in the living room all the time but what are you going to do. Our house isn't huge.

Today I finally cleared out the basket full of baby stuff and found a new purpose for it, my crafting stuff.

All of this was in a box and I would have to dig around for what I needed.

Not any more!

Everything has a little compartment and home.

It makes me happy.

I don't enter blog giveaways very often, but I am entering over at these two blogs and you should too.

the olive tree.
burlap and basil.

Go and enter now!

The prizes are great!

We leave for a week long vacation at the beach just 1 week from today.
My parents, sisters, brother in laws, and neices will all be together in one big house overlooking the ocean.
I don't plan on doing much and I'm pretty excited about that. If this doesn't prove to be relaxing I don't know what will.


I love this little munchkin and his red hair and blue eyes.

Is anyone else obssessed with bowls, organizing tools, and paper goods?
I can't walk out of Target without buying all these items almost every time.

Ok, that's all.
I feel better now.

A Day at the Park.

Yesterday Brett and I took the boys to Irvine Regional Park.

If you live in the area and have never been there, I highly recommend it. 

The park is huge and there is so much for kids to do.

It only costs $3 to get in, during the week, and most of the stuff is either free or really cheap. 

Well all but the food. That's why we brought our own.

What I didn't bring...my camera! What? If you know me, you know I never forget my camera, so phone photos it was for me. Thank goodness for fun camera phone apps.

Anyway, the boys loved the park and we all had a really good time.

The park is full of peacocks, random I know. Right when we pulled in there were two just hanging out, so we stopped to say hello.

Then we headed off at the little zoo they have. It has a petting zoo also which is always awesome.

After the zoo we walked around the park a little bit and found a nice stop for lunch.

They have a little train that takes you around the park and pony rides too.

Seriously, what more could a little boy ask for?

It was a good day.

Can you tell?

The River and The 4th.

Our 4th of July didn't go as planned. 

My parents have a house in Arizona along the Colorado River and that is where we had planned to spend 6 whole, wonderful days. 

Turns out the boys got sick, the a/c was doing them no good, and we needed to come home early.

It was not one of our funnest (is that a word or not?) trips ever.

We did manage to have a little fun and I have pictures to prove it.

I seriously think my sisters and I have the cutest children ever. Sorry everyone.

They also happen to be very white, which means loads of covering up.

 It was my sister's birthday while were there, so of course we had to make a cake.

 

On the morning of the 4th we packed up and headed home. 

Jacob had been up all night and I knew we needed to go home.

As we were driving home I told Brett that we had to make the best out of the week. He had already taken off work and there was no point in wasting his time off by being bummed out over our canceled trip.

So when we got home Brett headed to the store for food and the nearby firework stand.

We're lucky to be able to do fireworks in our neighborhood and Brett put on a good show. 

This next photo is not the best picture I have ever taken, actually it's pretty horrible, but the expression on their faces is priceless.

I'm not sure how he did it but Jacob fell asleep right in the middle of all the noise.

Although our 4th didn't go as planned we had a great time.

The kids loved the fireworks and we wouldn't have been able to do them at the river. 

Things always seem to work out in the end, don't they?

I hope you had a wonderful 4th too.