Two posts in one week! (does that last one count?)

Disneyland...I Love You.

I love your ability to make me smile

laugh even...

I love the way you smell,

Oh, and the songs you sing to me.

I love the way you light up.

I love the way I feel when I am in your presence.

Yes, you are THAT good.

Most of you know, we went to the happiest place on earth!

I am feeling "un-funny" (pretty sure that's not a word)

and tired, and so....I'm not sure what my commentary will consist of for this post...we'll see

We got to our hotel, unpacked, and got the kiddos dressed up for the California Adventure trick-or-treat that evening.

Here is Alice in Wonderland, Mickey Mouse, and Spiderman

Love how they all looked...too cute!

Beckett refused to wear the hat longer than it took to take the first pic

Outside our hotel, on our way....

So CUTE

Love them.

Kammy had to take a pic of us :)

We're not in focus...which completely represents the way kids see us anyway :)

Love this shot, but look closely, see where I put the green arrow...

that's where the water once was. weird huh? they are re-doing all kinds of stuff in Cal Advent.

Kammy started her obsession with the peace sign for pics lately...NO idea where that came from!

BUT, I love it, how cute is that? haha!

After a looong super fun first night.

Wearing matching jammies.

Basically, after this pic, some stuff really hit the fan!

I'm pretty sure you all know Jameson woke up at 3a.m. unable to breathe.

Long story really short...

Brad took him to the ER.

he had H1N1 (they don't test for it specifically anymore, but that is what they diagnosed him with)

It was scary, but, after a steroid shot to butt, and a breathing treatment he was Much Much Much better!

Of course that put a kink in our DL trip...but, we made the best of it!

This was during my turn with Kammy and Beckett at the park

(we had shifts, Brad with J at hotel, then me with him)

Cutest sleeper ever!

We actually had a lot of fun! I hope we didn't spread the H1N1 to too many people on that first night ha ha!

I shouldn't laugh...sorry :) hahahahahaha

I didn't get a lot of pics after the first night, not sure why....Pushing a stroller, parking the stroller, holding kammy's hand with Beckett on my hip...hand sanitizer...pump for me, pump for kammy, pump for Beckett, on ride we go. Off ride, sanitize all three again...check! Find stroller... pull out camera (yeah right)

I hope to get some pics up of Halloween before Christmas.

WANNA SEE??

My sister's twins??

click here.

Green is the new pink!

My mom and I gave my sister (she was having twins, boy and girl) a baby shower about three weeks ago. We went all green! Eco-chic! So much fun.

We were amazed at how much stuff is "green" now!

The plates and cups were Bare by Solo

(click the green underlined part for link)

We had all natural soy candles and incense for prizes.

This beautiful cake made by Jami was soooo yummy!

Carrot cake.

beautiful don't ya think?

We decorated the tables with fresh flowers in mason jars.

Mint leaves, then blueberries (for the "boy" Bodhi) and raspberries (for the "girl" Lola)

filled mini mason jars. Pink and blue raffia to complete the jar...

...served as decoration, then doubled as the take home favor :)

We tried to stick to fresh foods such as fruit, spinach dip, asparagus, meat and cheese, and some natural sun chips :)

Luv these coasters...

Here she is in all her twin glory!

I had so much fun researching different ways to go about this baby shower. I came across quite a few cool organic, eco-friendly, or all natural products. One that I am in love with is these diapers:

(the diaper images are courtesy of the gdiaper website)

Aren't these the cutest??

They are cloth diapers for those who are not sure if they can fully handle cloth 100% of the time. And they are all natural and environmentally friendly :) NOt to mention the cute factor...seriously those ruffles?!! LUV THEM!

Check them out here.

I am considering them for Beckett...we'll see. Let you know if I do.

Oh! I can't forget this....

Lola on the left, Bodhi on the right.

They are beautiful! I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be in the room during the c-section to capture some awesome images for my sister.

Thanks Leslie... I love you!

For those who have facebook and have seen my many posts about this...

I'm sorry.

For those who don't, this may be new to you.

I have been struggling with some skin issues on my face for not quite two months now. I hadn't changed anything in products nor in my diet. It started out by feeling like my upper lip was burnt...or like I needed some chap-stick asap! Then I started noticing dark circles under my eyes. I of course being the female I am started freaking out and pointing it out to Brad EVERY morning. It went something like this:

Me: "oh my gosh Babe...look at me! I have dark circles! What? Me? OMG, I need more sleep. It must be from lack of sleep from Beckett wanting to nurse and just the exhaustion of having three now right???????"

Him: "oh, bummer...I don't know" back to t.v. or phone.

Me: "Do you see it??? I can see it, that's bad, oh man this is weird"

It sounded like that for quite a few mornings. Then one day I was headed over to my friend Megan's house and I felt my eyes burning and my forehead was itching and again my lip burning... Huh, weird.

Well that all progressed into full on flare ups. Every week to two weeks I go through a cycle, I can feel it coming on because of said symptoms above, then my eyes, forehead, and lip get super red, itchy, weepy, and dry, scab up, flake away...repeat cycle.

I don't mean to sound vein, but I am a girl and when it comes to my face...well, I am. This has affected me a lot. I don't feel like people realize just how much and that is ok, this is definitely not for pity :) I will not go into the depths of my emotions...I will spare you all that drama I'm sure you have enough of that yourselves ;)

I started googling my symptoms...pretty depressing. Seems that hundreds, probably thousands have these symptoms and have yet to find a cure. This is literally driving people crazy. People have done everything trying to figure it out...replaced everything, switched this to that, got rid of their mattress (wowza!) seen allergists only to have their allergy tests come back negative, have doc after derm, after doc after derm prescribe oodles of medicines and creams only to mask the symptoms and not solve them.

So what do I do???

Facebook it of course.

I have received some really awesome tips from friends on facebook and here is what I have tried:

no makeup...yikes

switched laundry soap to method free and clear

use castile Dr. Bronner's soap

only Vaseline on face during episodes...no other lotions or moisturizers

cleaned makeup brushes

new eye makeup

organic produce

and the latest is probiotics...highly recommend these...seems to really be helping out with the eczema on my hands!

So this weekend I had the worst outbreak yet...started on friday... peeked on sunday, still around today so I hopped out of shower, smothered on Vaseline...no makeup, threw on sunglasses and went to the dermatologist hoping...PRAYING that SOMEONE could look at me while I still looked like a monster.

My prayers were answered. Someone had just called to cancel and I got in right away!

Here is my diagnosis:

Perioral Dermatitis

Hmmmm...Interesting, considering the main issue is my eyes AND forehead AND upper lip...nothing around my mouth. BUT, I am desperate to try anything at this point and she swore up and down that is what I have. She prescribed Tetracycline antibiotic for a month and said I can know longer nurse... I was not ready for that. She said there is other less aggressive treatments that may or may not work so I could continue to nurse, but, I am on the brink of a break down with my self image at this point. I held myself together, grabbed the white slip from her, put my shades on and left. and cried.

I was not expecting to be so emotional over not being able to nurse anymore, Beckett is six months now and we had a good run while it lasted. I am VERY grateful for lasting that long and feel good about that, but I guess I wanted to give up nursing on my own terms and not so abruptly. I will take a week or so before I start the meds to indulge in a few more nurse/snuggle sessions and then call it quits. I just feel like he may be our last and I am not ready to nurse for the last time...sounds silly to some, but hard for me.

Anyways, I will keep you all posted on whether this works or not, I am EXTREMELY skeptical, but trying to keep a positive mood/energy. Thanks to all for your love and support and listening to me complain on and on about this :)

6 months and one day ago...

...we had another baby.

And I am so glad we did!

Beckett is my little chub.

He smiles non-stop, whether or not you do.

there is no need to work it out, he just offers his smiles to anyone he meets.

He and his thumb are make-out buddies.

Wears a size 3 diaper

weighs about 20 lbs...doc appoint on tuesday so I'll let you know exact after that.

He loves to travel! He takes round trips all around our family room...bum legs in tow (not quite the official crawl).

He gets up on all fours...rocks...and squeals. way cute!

Lucy and Budha have to get in line for a turn with their own dog toys.

can't believe it has been 6 months of knowing this beautiful little hunk full of smiles, squeals, drool, poo, some dog hair and an occasional veggie puff. We love him!!

Melt my heart...

This is Khloie.

My niece.

She is the newest little addition to my side of the family.

The day after she was born the Doc informed my brother and his wife that she is albino.

I say she is perfect :)

I can't wait to meet her, she is absolutely precious and beautiful and I LOVE her head full of white hair!

(pics courtesy of April's stepmom :)

I knew it was time!!! UGHHHH!

Remember this?? CLICK ME

Yup, it was time....time for the quarterly poo.

Strike 3,456,789 for ya Guinness.

xoxo

Love Mom.

(at least it was on the wood floor this time :)

Not much to be said about this pic...

(taken during Jameson's birthday party that I have yet to blog about)

just thought you might want a laugh.

I laughed out loud when I saw this one...

...then I saw chad's hand in dave's pocket

haha!

Bang Bang

OOOOOOOOH YEEEEAAAAAAAH!

She got the ears some rings!

Kammy and Jameson checking out all the earrings

She is SOOOO excited here!

Not sure about that thing in his hand...

(Which is tiny now by the way)

BUT,

still excited!

...Not so much here!

I had to put the camera down and hold her for ear #2

(there was only one person working of course)

So she is definitely NOT excited here

But Cute.

Showing off the Pearl

Just because.

Remember we had a third child???

Here is proof that he does exist...he has been MIA from this blog

but here he is about to enjoy his first bowl of rice cereal

Mmmmm...he could taste it already :p

The first bite.

The last bite.

The bowl.

The audience.

(kammy was busy watching the wizard of oz ;)

We're Back!!!

San Diego was beyond amazing! We are currently planning our next trip.

And the best part...

I have my computer back, and thanks to my wonderful husband, I have all my settings back as well :) I love you BABE!

So you, and you, and you (you know who you are) will be getting your pictures finally...thanks for being sooo patient and understanding ;)

So of course I have a stack of photos I would love to edit and post but that's just not fair to my clients waiting for their photos...so, soon I will get to do a REAL post with lots of pics and details I promise.

Until then, I will leave you with this one....

Yup, that's my girl in the pink bikini looking "oh so beachy and cute"

...doesn't it look like it could be a post card or something? haha!

See....

Nice and dreamy right?