infertility stamp

This was the first infertility stamp issued in March of 2008 by Portugal. So many people I know are struggling with infertility. I pray for their perseverance and success every single day.

rita konig home in manhattan

The rest of her sweet house here.

alaina kaczmarski's chicago apartment

My favorite space right now is Everygirl's Chicago Apt. I love the colors of her place and how she incorporates a lot of bargain pieces with a few expensive ones. Here are a few pics and the 

entire tour of her beautiful place is here.

Beautiful light streaming in her cute office space.

Love all her details, like lining up her nail polish. The colors look so pretty in the space!

images: theeverygirl

this week

I loved this documentary from Sebastian Junger on HBO “Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington”  which explored the question of what drove Tim Hetherington a photojournalist to document war zones in Africa, Afghanistan and finally Libya, where he was killed by a mortar round in 2011 at age 40. It shows how much he was drawn to connect with the people he was documenting and how he couldn't stop returning to war torn countries to tell their stories. A slideshow of some of his haunting photos here.

Also a great read from Anya Yurchyshyn......

How I Met My Dead Parents

You think you know your mother and father, who they are, and what they mean. Then they're gone and the photos and letters they leave behind tell an entirely different story.

image: nytimes

long read via: buzzfead

  

Boston

So sad about the tragedy in Boston. I loved this quote and post that have been running around the internet. It seems like a lot of times people focus on how America is corrupt or going downhill. When tragedy strikes though it puts the spotlight on just how many truly good, caring and compassionate people there are.

and below a facebook post by the comedian-actor Patton Oswalt

"I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity.

But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths. 

But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."  

babysitting

I just got back from Britt's after babysitting Noah and Emeri for 4 days. Britt and Andrew went on a church retreat. I love when I can give Britt a few days break without the kids. It's great for me to have the kids alone because that's when I really get to know them. It's funny as I had just spent a week with them during Easter but I find out way more about them when I play mom :) They change so much at this age that it helps me to get to know everything about them. Here is what is happening with them now.

Emeri

1. She loves Mandarin oranges and carrots and could eat them all day. She loves cheese which is the opposite of Britt who would never eat it. She does not like chocolate....crazy I don't think I hardly know anyone that doesn't like chocolate! Her other very favorite things, she loves, loves Pepperoni Pizza and popcorn. She would go to the pantry all the time and say snack, snack, snack. I would pull every item out and she would say no, no, no unless it was one of those things....haha! 

2. She is an awesome sleeper!! This is new as last time I took care of her she woke up several times a night. I would put her down at 8 and she would sleep until 8 the next morning. That was heaven! The amazing thing about it too is she is not in her crib anymore. She started climbing out at 18 months. She is in a toddler bed so I thought when I put her down she would just get up and start playing around but thankfully for some reason she doesn't.

3. She loves my iPad. Her favorite thing to do on it is play music and dance. She found a song on one of the kids games I put on it and she would play it all the time and dance to it. So cute!

4. She also started something new when I was there which is she would wave her hand at me and say come on, come on Mom, when she wanted me to go somewhere with her. Lots of times I would just follow her into the closet of her room and that was it....ha! She also said "can I please have it" for the very first time!

5. She likes taking off her clothes, the exact thing that Brittany did at her age! So most of the time when we were inside she would just wear a diaper. The only problem with that was she started to take off her diaper too! Well that wasn't going to work so I had to put her in timeouts for that. Brittany had just started timeouts with her since she is old enough to understand a lot now. She has a little red chair and she was good about sitting in it when I put her in it. After a few times of being in a time out she stopped taking her diaper off. Thanks goodness as I was panicked there for a minute thinking we were sure going to waste a lot of diapers!

6. She loves waking Noah up in the morning and immediately goes and jumps on his bed. When Noah was Emeri's age when I would babysit he would come and jump on my bed to wake me up! 

7. Emeri is afraid of dogs {i was just like her when i was little} and still hates to wear bows!

Noah

1. He is a great eater and loves almost every kind of food. A couple of his faves are butter toast {that's what he calls it} and broccoli. He must have got that from me as those are my favorites too! 

2. He sleeps in now!! He used to be the earliest riser sometimes up at 5:30. So happy that phase is over! He also liked to stay up late if I let him.

3. He's good at playing by himself.  He will take his cars and make a zooming sound. Some kind of race is going on in his head as he can entertain himself like this for quite sometime. I just not quite sure what the game is :)

4. He deals well with his little sister who doesn't understand sharing yet. Emeri has a little meltdown when she has to give Noah a turn with something fun. He is so nice and usually gives her an extra long turn. That really helped me out when taking care of them. 

5. He thinks there are monsters in his room and doesn't like the dark. I had to do quite a few monster room checks when I was there :)

6. He loves people and is so social. The minute he would see a child at the park he would go up to them and make friends.

7. Love that he is out of the crazy little boy phase! He was my super helper with Emeri and just a joy to be around!

funny girl

Toddlers go through so many different phases good and bad but my favorite one of Emeri's is her latest. She thinks everything is hilarious and constantly looks up at you and giggles! She finds the stairs in her house are especially funny. When I walk up and down the stairs with her, every step she takes she looks up and laughs like it is the funniest thing in the world! She learned to walk the stairs about a month ago, which was a little scary for Britt since she is so small. She kept crawling over the gate so there was no delaying her mastering the stairs. This all started in December when she was 19 months old and started climbing out of her crib. Goodbye to the fun days when she would wake up and play in her crib for awhile! Now she just hops out and finds mom asap. Watching her climb like a monkey reminds me so much of her mom when she was her age! A picture and a video of all her happiness :) 

                                     

                                           

election almost over. I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Wow, so glad the election is tomorrow! I never remember seeing so much hate in any election before. I guess though with social media it is blasted in our face on a daily basis. I just can't understand why people don't want their candidate to win because they like his POLICIES instead of making it so personal. Both sides are guilty of this. People just generalize and say the candidate they don't like is all about one thing and then scream about it every day. I happen to think the candidate I am not voting for is a very nice man and has a beautiful family. I'm not voting for him because I don't agree with the POLICIES he wants to enact. I do not think he is evil! On a positive note a few things I did like from the election.

The cutest trick or treaters!


Love this video,definitely how I feel now.


The Obama Campaign Scares Supporters with Fake News Report

and links to a couple of more funny videos....
One on Presidential Mom Jeans and the presidents that wore them
http://www.buzzfeed.com/amyodell/presidential-mom-jeans-a-retrospective

Lastly a video of the Best and Worst Moments of the 2012 Election
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/the-best-and-worst-of-the-2012-election

       

happy halloween!

Noah was so excited to be Spiderman this year! He has seen all his movies and cartoons over and over. He told Britt last year on Halloween night that this year that is what he wanted to be. He had seen a Dad dressed up like Spiderman that night and he pretended to spin a web for Noah. He couldn't stop talking about it how cool it was! I got his costume about a month ago. I let him try it on once to see if it would fit and of course he had to try out all his excellent Spiderman moves. Whatever Noah is for Halloween the minute he puts on his costume he is immediately in character. I remember the year Britt was so sick and pregnant with Emeri and he just had this kind of funky car costume. He didn't care though. The minute he put it on he was zooming around the house pretending like he was a car. We had been pretty depressed because Britt was so sick but he made all of us lol that night! As for Emeri this year she was a lot harder because she basically doesn't like anything on her head and almost all costumes have headpieces  The one thing she will wear is a light hood. She does try to pull it off like when we try to put a bow on her but when she pulls straight up it won't come off like a bow. So the one costume that worked was Little Red Riding Hood. So that was it and she seemed pretty happy with it!

Matt and his friends continued on with the Super Hero theme this year. Matt being the Joker and his friends as Batman and Robin :) Danielle did not get dressed up this year which is a first since she was a little girl. Her life as been crazy lately with travel and her wedding. She always has the best costumes! Looking forward to having her back in the swing of things next year!

march 2012 rewind

I went to Britt's for St. Patricks Day and we did a lot of picture taking and cookie making. Love every minute I get to hang out with these kiddos!

Noah's favorite part, dipping in the cookie dough :)

or maybe putting sprinkles on.

get in my belly...yum!!

A striped and flowered bathing suit I got Emeri so she is ready to 

hit the beach in the summer. Love her big big eyes!

Noah loves soccer and is always up for practice. He can't wait 

for this fall when he will be playing on a team.

A moment I don't want to forget and saw many times in Emeri's first year.  

Attached to her Mom in her front pack to always be close to her :)

A kiss in the park ♥ as we say goodbye to March.

february 2012

Catching up, from the many months I missed!

First up Valentines 2012

 Back in the days when Emeri would wear a bow...haha! 

Love the way Noah looks out for his little sister :)

Emeri's favorite little red chair. It is just her size and 

she loves to sit in it and feel like a big girl!

She always keeps an eye on her big brother. He has been known to 

get in a bit of mischief once in awhile :)

We also went camping in Death Valley in February with Danielle, Tom and his parents. 

So great having them close by so we can do things like this.

Tom and his Mom made us their delicious campfire tacos 

with homemade salsa. So yummy!

Tons of beautiful scenery 

My beautiful Mom turned 84 this last February 10. Still is as healthy and active as ever!

Noah & Liam...buddies, celebrating Liam's 4th birthday at the end of the month.

They are so much alike and always have so much fun together!

Jump House Fun

My sweet girls ♥

My little buddy who always keeps us entertained!

recipe fail

Wow I haven't done a blog post since June. Was so busy with Danielle's wedding and enjoying this summer. With Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook it sometimes seems unnecessary. Yet, there are times I like to put down my thoughts which work better on a blog. A lot has been going on but first I wanted to post about this recipe I just tried. Cup of Joe has been posting recipes with the catch title The Best You Will Ever Have!  When I saw "The Best Brussel Sprouts You Will Ever Have" come up I had to try it. Brussel Sprouts are my fave. This recipe included Fish Sauce which I have never used but had been meaning too. I love fish and so I read what was in the bottle of Fish Sauce and it said it was made out of anchovies. I thought to myself this is going to be good because I love anchovies and I can eat them right out of the package. I chopped the herbs and garlic for the sauce and then opened the jar. Wow it was the worst smell ever! I couldn't figure out what was going on since it was made out of anchovies and I love them. I thought maybe after I put in all the ingredients it would change the taste. So I left the sauce in the fridge overnight to marry the flavors. Did not work! In the morning it was still horrible and had to throw it out. Wasn't about to serve it to my guests. I ended up roasting the Brussel Sprouts at 425 with olive oil, garlic pepper and salt and sprinkling them with parmesan cheese. My usual way of cooking them. So much for trying to put a new spin on them. Britt called me the next day and said she had tried 3 recipes on my Pinterest page and they were all amazing. So funny because one of them was a brussel sprout recipe. Guess I should check my own recommendations! Here are the 3 taste tested and husband approved recipes that Brittany made. 

Toasted Sesame Ginger Salmon

Oven Roasted Potatoes 

Caramelized Brussel Sprouts

family fun

Over at the blog nyctaughtme she has the funniest post about what she got her husband for his Birthday. He doesn't like her to get him presents and he doesn't like celebrating his Birthday. So she picked out a few gems for him at CVS. It reminded me of my brothers when we were teenagers. On Christmas Eve at 5:30 p.m. a half an hour before the stores closed for Christmas Day, my brothers would panic and run over to our local drug store to buy presents for the entire family. They always put off Christmas shopping until the last second. Needless to say their presents were hilarious, just as hers are!

photo: nyctaughtme

Emeri's 1st Birthday Party

Emeri's 1st Birthday Party was this last Sunday. Before this I babysat Noah and Emeri for a week and the whole time I was taking care of them I kept thinking how will Brittany be able to plan her party. I seriously felt like I didn't have a free moment. Noah goes strong all day and Emeri only takes one nap. During her nap time I would eat. The only other time to do crafts and get a party ready was after the kids went to bed. Too bad at that point I would crash from exhaustion! She clearly has more energy then me because even with the kids going a hundred miles an hour she manged to put together a cute party for Emeri. 

Here are some of my favorite moments.

Emeri digging into her smash cupcake.

Her beautiful cake and pretty table.

Birthday hats and pink lollipops. 

Emeri's sweet birthday outfit! Her daddy picked it out. She is just about to pull her bow off  here. I love her in bows but we have to distract her to get a picture with it on. She is so not a fan!

Here is the 12 months of Emeri that Brittany has been working on since she was born. Every month a pic of her in a onesie with a different fabric as a background.

I really loved how Brittany did the Bubble Station. So cute! The kids had tons of fun using it 

as you can see below.

Noah looking to annihilate the cupcake pinata.

then grabbing his candy booty and running to put it on the table and then back for more....lol!

My mom eating cotton candy for the first time in her life!

Emeri clearly in heaven with frosting all over her face. The rest of the kids wetting their appetite for the big cake. A happy happy day for all, but shed a tiny tear that one year is gone by already!