Glamis Trip with the kids

Glamis is a place I grew up going to and to see my kids doing the same is both surreal and brings me a heck of a lot of happiness. It's part of what formed me into the person I am today and I know it will do the same for my kids. Getting away from electronics, having so much time to just talk and laugh with your family, play sand games, run and ride around the dunes, building fires, I mean everything I loved and those that know of this amazing place get to experience these unique opportunities that seem to not exist when we are just in our homes. Everything seems to revolve around a TV so this escape is serene.

We headed out with the kids just after Christmas to hang out with my family and some close family friends and it ended up being such a great trip. It felt so good to be out there again as it had been 2 years since I'd last been there as pregnancy and riding I'd say isn't the best mix ;) 

The boys did amazing, loved every bit of the endless sand pit they had to play in. They loved seeing Mama on a motorcycle and I'll say Greyson loved the Razor initially but that faded after a bit as it gets quite chilly riding and some get car sick so we think he felt a little of both but it faded quickly once he got out at Geo-Cach spot that my parents hid out in the desert. This is SUCH an awesome concept where people can hunt for these Geo-Cach treasure boxes of sorts, see all the fun items inside, sign the book and over many years time you'll have all these visitors that have seen your box, and all the other boxes out there to find and it's the history piece in the making! It could be filled with coins, toys or just random little treasures in each box (which is the case of the one my parents hid) but you can see all these awesome signatures of all the people that have found it. Love this concept, it's like a giant treasure hunt in the desert, who wouldn't love this!? Just have a GPS handle to find them as people have logged them so that there is a way to find them...pretty essential or else you'd NEVER find these things lol. I'll say though, although my family has never used a GPS in all the years we've ridden out into the dunes (My Dad is no joke a human GPS - we've rode miles and miles into the endless dunes and he always gets us back to camp with no problem at all, we do use it to find these Geo-Cach spots).

So even after all the fun we had, I say we'd need to stay one day longer next time as we didn't get time to go to Oldsmobile which is staple if you go to Glamis. We just found working in rides around naps was a little tough so we couldn't do everything we planned for. Now I know though that one more day would have done the trick. Regardless though, going on a nice ride with them and doing all we did was still awesome. The mere sight of them climbing on the exact sand dunes I did as a child was so nostalgic and made me feel like a real adult for some reason haha. Having Greyson roll all the way down a dune and Jaxon dig around and us bury his legs in sand and make sand angels of sorts, Jaxons were more like a a turtle trying to flip over off his bag but close enough to a sand angel that I used to make all the time as a kid!

The weather was perfect, just chilly at night so I'm thankful for the 27 blankets I brought in fear of the boys being too cold! Another thank you to the RV we rented as I would have about died in a tent. My brothers can do it without the blink of an eye but me...nope. Give me that RV! 

Always Grandpa's shadow!

Sunset for days

First time roasting marshmallows

Me and my boys :)

Returning to the blog/Christmas extravaganza!

I'm finally back in action here on the blog! I wasn't finding the time I had really wanted to spend writing this blog but now I feel it's time to pick it back up as I'm finding so many things I'd love to share but as I'm no longer have social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram I have no way to share! I felt like those accounts were taking too much time away from my kids as I kept scrolling through everything for too much time during the day so it was time for a change up. So now I'm even more excited to share the fun things we're doing over here as well as some new business ventures I'm interested in, so hopefully you'll all enjoy it with me!

So for my first return post I thought I'd share about our wonderful Christmas celebrations with BOTH our boys since little Jaxon was still growing in the womb at Christmas time last year and I was so ready to NOT be pregnant anymore...the constant back pain and incessant need to pee really gets old after a while. Not to mention the tedious finger pricking I had to do 4 times a day due to gestational diabetes, so needless to say I was done done done by this point. Thankfully Jaxon arrived just a mere 6 weeks after Christmas!

So this Christmas we participated in Operation Christmas Child again, which is an amazing organization giving these gift boxes to kids in need all over the world. As well as helping wherever else we could like with our home church. Always nice to find ways to give back and showing our kids the importance of it. We also enjoyed friends and family Christmas parties, gift wrapping, meeting Santa, church activities and baking galore (like the famous Tucker family Nuts n' Bolts) and then had the ultimate closing of Christmas festivities with a perfect Christmas morning opening gifts with the boys at home and then heading to my families home to celebrate with my parents and brothers. The boys received their annual Christmas eve gift from my parents with their new pjs and a special book for the night (absolutely LOVE this tradition). We then had dinner with my Lee's family for additional fun family time. Tons of amazing memories for us and the kids and we can safely say we have toys coming out our ears now after all this celebrating! Time to hide some away for a rainy day! We are so grateful for our families and the joy this season brings. There is something so unique about the Christmas season, regardless of the family time you have throughout the year it seems that during December it's something to treasure that much more. 

Church Winter Wonderland - Thanks Sweet Pea Vintage Rentals for this adorable truck photo prop!

Matching PJs is a must! Lee did not agree...bah humbug to him

Best giant Jenga set ever which doubles as dominos for kids that my brother made! (Coming soon to Etsy!)

Opening their Christmas Eve boxes from Grandma and Grandpa!

Christmas morning! 

Hope you all had a perfect Christmas with your loved ones!

9 month update and some water fun!

He was cracking up and thought it was too cute not to post :)

Well 9 months has brought us a bunch more laughs, cardio and excitement all around as his personality is just bursting through like no other. He's very attached to me right now which I hear happens around this 9 month mark but that doesn't make it any easier. Crossing my fingers he grows out of it shortly! His teeth are still trying to pop out so that's been a struggle as well but other than that he's such a fun little man!

Food: He's now eating both the Puffs by Gerber and we just got the OK to start with plain cheerios and he's loving it!
Naps: Same as usual- about 1-1.5 hours long twice a day and 75% of the time he'll take a 3rd 30 minute nap in the late afternoon and then sleeps wonderfully from 7pm to about 7:15am everything morning :)
Milestones:Pulling up on everything even easier now so walking will be here before we know it. He continues to do raspberries all the time which is hysterical (Where you stick your tongue out but you're kind of spitting at the same time...if that makes sense???) 

I decided, now that it's getting so hot, that it was time to buy a fun infant water activity play thing of sorts and was happy to find this awesome one called Banzai Splish Splash pool at Target, which is specific for the little ones. It doesn't show on Targets website as its just sold in stores but I did find it on Amazon which I linked above, it's just surprisingly more expensive on Amazon. It does fill up with about of inch of water in the bottom and then it has a bunch of holes to spray out water, along with fun blow up toys, a slide and a nice rainbow for shade. Totally perfect for our 90 degree weather!

This really is a great way to entertain an infant in the summer so definitely check it out over at Target!

Tie Dye DIY cover-ups and/or workout shirt

I thought I'd jump back to my younger years for a minute and see what kind of tie dying skills I could bestow upon all those that view this blog of mine. I mean, since I have all the time in the world, said no Mom to an infant...ever, I thought why not throw this fun messy project in the mix! So here's how my new little project turned out, not too bad!

 I tried out a couple different types of white shirts, the far left is a $2.99 shirt from my local craft store, middle is a basic Gerber Onesie and the far right is a Hanes super soft shirt that comes in a 3 pack at Target. So I started by washing them then did a little different of a design for each.

• Left- One spiral (technique pictured at the upper right)
• Middle - Was supposed to be the tiger stripe but ended up being more of just a blend of colors, which I actually really like!
• Right - Double spiral (Double over the fabric then do the same spinning technique as I shown above)

Mix your dye, per the instructions (I used the Tulip brand) and place 3 rubber bands in a start pattern for the spiral shirts (You should then show 6 triangles in which you'll color 2 triangles pink, 2 purple and 2 teal) and then use 3 rubber bands, for the image I got on the onesie just crumple and fold the onesie in half (Watch this tutorial) and put the 3 bands on a couple inches apart and color it as desired. 

For this shirt style, I cut about 2 inches below the bottom of the sleeve and cut quite a bit more up to the shoulder. I kept cutting more and more as I'd try it on after each cut and it kept looking to bulky, so just cut until its the fit you want. I also cut about 2 inches off the collar plus an additional 2 inches at the chest area to make it lower. Then fold JUST THE BACK of the shirt in half and make as many cuts as you want, do them a little shorter at the top and cut longer strips as you go lower down the back. Then just pull them to stretch them out a little. I then made one cut up the bottom right of the shirt and made a little knot so it would fit tighter.

For this style, cut the collar and the sleeves the same as above BUT after you've done that, flip the shirt over so you're looking at the back and cut the back further in than the front so you have the razor back affect. Now cut straight across from left arm hold to right arm hole so the collar is no longer attached. See the picture above. Then cut the left over razor back into 3 pieces, braid it and run it through the sewing machine to keep it together. Take an extra 2 inch piece of fabric from everything you've cut and sew it to the back color that you've just sewn the braid too. Then wrap it around, over and back around to cover up your stitching. I then did a blind hand stitch to hold this fabric in place. Voila! You're done!

I now have a couple of fun tops to wear to the gym, running errands, working in the yard, going to the beach, anything really when you just need to throw on an easy top and you aren't trying to impress anyone :). These will of course be impressive when you make them, but they aren't so much for a nice occasion. :)

Other than dying a couple of my fingers purple, I'd say this was a pretty accident free project. So with that I will recommend to double up on gloves! But if you happen to dye yourself, nail polish remover and a lot of hand washing got the color out.

Good luck!

8 Month Update

I'm loving how much Greyson's personality continues to come out month by month and now his brute strength is making an early appearance as well! He's just now 8 months and pulling himself up on to everything, he speed crawls through the entire house and is most recently going to each reachable window (we have low windows) and pulling out all the wood safety poles. I constantly find him playing with another one, so that has been a fun little trick of his.

Food: Still eating the same pureed food, we haven't advanced to finger food yet as his 2 teeth don't allow for much chewing
Naps: Changing a little bit, more often he's taking just 2 naps and those 2 are thankfully about 1.5 - 2 hours long
Milestones: Pulling himself up onto furniture now so I'm sure we'll have an early walker!

A little model pose action

So this month I decided to purchase the famous amber beads, the ones that so many moms are using these days, in the hopes it would help relieve some of G's teething pain. So after researching various brands I decided on the Baltic Wonder amber necklace and so far I'm glad I jumped on the bandwagon. I do have to admit I was a bit skeptical for a couple reasons...1. I wondered how these beads could really be powerful enough to target the pain, 2. I'm very impatient so if Greyson is in pain I expect whatever I buy to work instantaneously and I know that's not very realistic, but I still expect it anyway :) 3. I wasn't to keen on my strapping boy wearing a necklace - But he actually looks incredibly cute! He has this adorable little surfer vibe going now. As of now, I do think its helped as he has been less fussy during the day and is sleeping a bit better as well. I do wrap the necklace around his ankle at night to make it safer then him having it around his neck and that way is also allows the beads to be on him as close to 24/7 as possible. 

So those are just a few of the changes now that we're in our 8 month! Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

Mothers Day and Homemade Lemonade!

I will forever remember my first Mothers Day as a perfect day with Lee and Greyson, easy going, sweet cards and gifts, yummy food and although we had to sit for what seemed like HOURS to buy new bedroom furniture it was still a fun outing as a family.

I also decided to make some lemonade as we had (and currently still have) about 92 lemons on our lemon tree in our backyard, so thought I'd use a handful and what better way than making some delicious, refreshing lemonade?! I decided to add some frozen fruit to it as well to give it some extra flavor and as it got a huge thumbs up from my hubby, it means a definite success for me!

 Someone wanted to help with the cat food...thanks Greyson!

This is what you get when Mom and Greyson are bored at the furniture store...

So back to this delicious Mixed Berry Lemonade, here is how I did it!

Picked 8 lemons off our lemon tree- Washed them and cut them in half

Used my classic juicer and juiced all of them - You will want 3 cups of lemon juice (Don't mind the orange knuckles...I had just eaten some cheese puffs lol)

 I then poured the 3 cups of lemon juice into a glass pitcher along with 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water. I stirred it all up really well and then added an additional 4 cups of water and about 12 oz of frozen mixed berries and mixed it all together and put it in the fridge for a couple hours.

This is a shot from the top of the pitcher with all the berries floating in it

It not only tastes amazing but it looks so fancy-shmancy too!!

Recipe
3 cups lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
2 cups sugar
6 cups water
12-14oz Frozen Mixed Berries (or any other frozen fruit you like) - Mine had strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries

1. Juice all the lemons and pour into a pitcher. Add sugar and 2 cups water and mix well.
2. Add remaining 4 cups of water and mix together
3. Pour in Frozen fruit and stir together
4. Put in the fridge for a couple hours before serving

Enjoy!

7 Month Favorites

For the last week poor Greyson has been dealing with a rowdy cold, so schedules have been very off for the last few days. But one thing that hasn't been off is his enjoyment for his mound of toys that keeps growing in our living room. So as he catches up on some of his sleep this morning I thought I'd catch up and post his 7 month favorites!

I'd say his #1 favorite thing right now is his crawling!! He is all over the place now which has been really fun, but boy they aren't lying when they say you'll be constantly on the move once your baby starts moving. I can only imagine what it will be like when he walks! But hey, if moving more for me means burning calories without going to the gym then I'm all for it!

We bought a kit of several toys in it the other day at Target and he's been loving it! It has a bunch of fun colored shapes to play with and once he's older he can drop them into the shape slots, as well as the famous colorful rings and a xylophone (he hasn't quite grasped this one yet, so he just chews on the wand instead).

We also recently bought him this Zany Zoo activity center which he's been exploring a ton! He now goes from constantly flipping the little doors shut, that you can see above, to now pulling himself up to play with the beads on the wires at the top. So I'm so glad we picked this up as its helping with those many important motor skills.

 He's learned to flip the toy bucket over...Trouble is a comin'

I just can't resist this little face!! And yes...GO PACK GO!

Hope you all enjoyed this latest post and I have lots of fun posts in store, so stay tuned!!