THe land of 10,000 lakes.... and 10,000 family members!

I have to admit- I learn something new and humbling every day since I've become a mom!  Serve me up a fresh baked humble pie because before I was pregnant I always though "I'll never have a messy car when I have kids" and even a few weeks ago I had every minute of the flight with Olive to Minnesota planned to a capital M!  I am an extreme list maker and play out actions in my head before I go to bed like they are basketball plays- for the most part I think we traveled quite well but holy shit traveling with a 6.5 month old ALONE is unlike anything you could ever prepare for completely! HAHAHA

With that said- here's to you mothers of multiple children who fly frequently!  MAD PROPS!

Little Olive knew something was up- and loves helping me pack! haha really she just loves when I pull her around in the Laundry basket and let her roll in my clean clothes!  I have been waiting for months to finally put in her warm clothes- all the ones she's never worn!

I swear that 75% of the suitcase was her stuff! From little bitty vests to jeggings and fluffy slippers this girl was rocking incredible and cute styles and I was left to a shoe box sized area! hahah and no outfit for my cousins wedding planned :| eep

So the flight to Minnesota could not have gone better- the few minutes leading up to getting in our seat went like this

1. Got there way over an hour early

2. Angry check in counter lady

3. Long ass security line and baby is now 20 lbs- already sweating.

4. Get selected for random screening while olive proceeds to pee- alot- I can tell.

5. I ask to change her before pat down- WW3 ensues between nice TSA and not nice TSA lady.  I had to explain to them that since she has started solids if I don't change her this instant she will shit and I will flip my shit because it will be EVERYWHERE- this happened twice this week already.

6.  Everyone freaks out, lets me change her, and the TSA pat down lady is training. No lie this shit takes 30 minutes.

7. we get dressed, get to our gate, plane is full- gotta check the carseat, about to board with 1000 evil stares.

8. Olive shits. Im holding a 20 lb stink bomb, boppy, and bag that has now been repacked 6 times because of TSA.

9. Change olive (which involves everything falling on the floor and stressing me out because of the germs hahah), walk the plank, board the plane with everyone angrily staring.

And then God blesses us with an empty seat in a row with a 2nd grade teacher! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

 Sippin my juice.... with my mind on my bunny and my bunny on my mind!

 This little Olive has so much personality and seriously thinks she's "big people".  This girl just unpacked and got settled in no time.  

Mommy barely got any room and the adorable teacher next to us kept getting kicked because Olive wanted to spread her legs out straight and not touch ANYTHING! To freaking funny.

While we were in minnesota we proceeded to se EVERY extended relative and in one day actually went to like 10 different family members houses.  Oh yeah it was a crazy whirlwind fun trip!  

Since it was a long trip I'll just share some highlights!

We went with Gammy, Papa, and Papa's relatives to the first and only distillery in MN!

    

We went to Cousin Tara's wedding and took a million pictures.  So many times we would start taking a picture and someone would say "I want in", "oh wait for me".  this happens a lot with our family!

Take 1

Take 2

 Take 3

And my favorite- the one where Olive is the ham and the only one looking hahahah!

 And the most precious hilights of the weekend- time spent with Great Papa Art and GG (great grandma Jan).  Melted my heart how much he couldn't get enough of Olive.

It was an amazing trip but by the end of the 5 days Olive and I were missing David soooooo much and for once we could tell he really missed us too! It was nice to come home!! We came home to a spotless clean house and flowers... god I love him!

Can't wait to share more of this past weekend with soup making and all the sewing fun we had!

~*XO*~

Cutest Punkin in the patch!

I have been meaning to catch up on the last few weeks- and now that we are back from Minnesota I can start to share our crazy fun adventures over the last month!  About 3 weeks ago David and I took Olive to her first pumpkin patch and farm with my dear friend Maigon and her Adorable son Donovan and husband Justin!

The kids just adored the petting zoo!!

 And this was 1.2 seconds before a goat "goosed" me and tried to make my dress a snack.  David even had to brush off the left over oats he left on the back of my dress.

 And it was right about here that I started sweating like crazy and swearing at AZ for being so stinking hot in October!

 Little Olive is so fearless! She just wanted to pet and jump on everything!  I wanted her to pet the goat but she was going through this phase where she grabs hair and doesn't let it go and then shakes it violently- the last thing I needed was an ass to kick us in the face!

 We went to go let the kids pick out their own mini (cheap $2) pumpkins when we stumbled across this pumpkin throne! It was perfect to prop the little ones up in and of course our little ham just loved her little chair!

 We actually got to sneak in one of our few family shots before the water truck came by and almost drenched the jogger strollers HAHA

 Olive picked this adorable pumpkin with a curly long stem!  Truthfully I put two in front of her face and she grabbed the curly stem one! (of course it was my favorite too!) I've been letting her "pick things" a lot lately so it was quite funny!

It was an AMAZING day with both of our families spending time together and full of a bunch of hilarious moments.... the only not hilarious thing but what made the day memorable forever is I got food poisoning from a chicken sandwich I ate at lunch.

I survived a goat trying to eat me, the extreme heat, and avoided snakes in the punkin patch but was taken out by a sandwich!  best first punkin patch experience ever!

Love this girl!!!!

Keep posted for our Minnesota adventure!

~*XO*~

Where has October gone?!

So needless to say- I haven't written in like 3 weeks.  In that timeframe I got food poisoning, went to Minnesota with babykins, and have been working on a bunch of personal and work projects! 

(more info to come!) 

So I think I will have to Blog the next 5 days just to catch up on everything that has been going on!

First let's flashback to this time last year!!!

FLASHBACK to 2012 ahead!

So this was me last year.  I look back and think "I wish I could be that size again!!" lol even 18 weeks prego!  This was an amazing week! We met with the builders design center to choose all the fab fixings for our house (which were limited because we were on a tight budget) and it was the week before we got to find out what our little baby straight legs was!!  

Ultimately we went with an amazing new grey tile (that looks like a grey river is floating through the house) in the kitchen and hallway downstairs (of course- we couldn't quite afford the hardwood) and then carpet in the whole upstairs minus the bathrooms!  

(Don't mind the mess- this was just after we painted and were cleaning up!)

We went with all steel appliances and a gorgeous grey granite with white and silver sparkles that catch your eye like fish gills!  It's not quite as modern of a look as I was hoping for- but it's the perfect balance between my modern desires and David's rustic side with the earthy undertones in everything! David calls our house the "50 shades of grey house".  I have never read the books nor has he, but we painted almost all the rooms and hallways and they all ended up looking like different shade of grey (gorgeous grey)- but hey a girl knows what she wants! Here's the before and soon to post the after- I'm so behind!

Our house is definitely a work in progress, we have very little decor throughout the house- just mainly furniture!  But come Christmas time you better look out! Just to let you in on a little secret- my decor colors are silver white and teal- I told you I love grey! haha

Well dear folks-keep posted!  Tomorrow is going to be the best day EVER! We are going to the farmers market and are going to make 4 soups to freeze for the fall and winter months!  I will post recipes and pics! I'll also share some fabulous snapshots of little olive from our Minnesota adventure!
God granted my wish and gave us snow!

~*XO*~

"A whole lotta spooky things happened there"! ~Hocus Pocus

OH MY OCTOBER!!!  It's officially October!  Today kicks of the start of merriment that is HOLIDAY DECORATING!  Now I am not a huge Halloween decorator, and my fall fare is relatively limited (but it makes a statement :) JUST wait until Christmas though!

 Our simple fall table- don't mind the kid parade in the background!  once we get an entertainment center I have plan for kid friendly toy camouflage! haha!

I love the feeling of fall!! The pumpkin EVERYTHING including my morning pumpkin smoothie!  I used to live off pumpkin smoothies for like 6 months when I used to train for various races- nothing beats vanilla almond milk, banana, some sort of protein powder, and a big heaping scoop of pumpkin!! Right now I use Raw Meal Vanilla Chai!  This stuff is actually really yummy- their chocolate leaves something to be desired but their organic products are AMAZING!  

My goal is to lost my remaining 15 lbs before Jan 1 so I can get back into race shape and do some triathlons before the wedding next March!  This stuff will hopefully help me get there...mmm pumpkin..

Moving on!  

FLASHBACK AHEAD!!

I can't believe a year ago this time I was about 16 weeks pregnant with my little shmoopy Olive! Have I mentioned I love fall?!

This chalkboard was so much fun to make because it was all about the fall things I loved!!  I can wear these pants now- but they are just as snug as they were in this picture and not half as decent looking!  This picture only mildly showed it but this was the WORST week of pregnancy sickness I had.  I was nauseous for the first 22 weeks but this week really kicked my butt- but this was also the day I got notice that I was hired at Pier 1.  Now those who know me would laugh, because I actually have a B.S., M.S., and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and was doing cancer research before I moved back to AZ but the only job I could get at the time was working at Pier 1- like when I was in college hahah!  But I'm not knocking it because I had a job, paid my bills, made some great friends, and OH MY GOD got to smell fall scents every day while working at my favorite store ever! 

Oh how I missed those little kicks! 

Well flash forward to 2013 to this week!  Little punkin and I went on one of our first morning walks where it was actually cool!  Cool enough for Olive to dawn a sweater (that used to be mine as a kiddo)! We love our B.O.B. Jogger and I can't wait to get out and run when it's even cooler!

We were jamming out to pandora and looking at all the houses being built in our subdivision!

Of course a sweatie selfie!  A long way to go to get back into race shape but at least I'm rocking the hollywood shades like the old days!  

Stay tuned for more of my house organization fiasco and I'll keep you posted on the training!  I hope you all are enjoying fall and can get out there and enjoy the crisp air!!

~*XO*~