Monday, September 28, 2009

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.
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This beautiful cake made by Jami was soooo yummy!
Carrot cake.
beautiful don't ya think?
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We decorated the tables with fresh flowers in mason jars.
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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...
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...served as decoration, then doubled as the take home favor :)
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We tried to stick to fresh foods such as fruit, spinach dip, asparagus, meat and cheese, and some natural sun chips :)
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Luv these coasters...
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Here she is in all her twin glory!
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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....

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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!

Monday, September 21, 2009

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:


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 :)

Saturday, September 19, 2009


6 months and one day ago...

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...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.
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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.
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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!!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

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 :)


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

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 :)