Forever and Always

relaxation.

2012-02-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

i love when levi doesn't have school. it's fabulous. especially when a three day weekend is involved. this particular weekend we went to the beach house with some old friends and it was great. minus the weather being a bit chilly, the sun was shining and the babes were loving each other just like they did as newborns. =)

something about the beach brings out the best in marriages, kids and everything else. i love it. thankfully we have a beach house we can go to anytime.

i love that we can see our friends after so long and things are exactly the same. unfortunately we don't live next door to each other anymore, but thank goodness neither of us live in utah. =)

isn't my family handsome? yes, yes they are.

i love the beach. and our friends. and levi not having school. one month until a week of spring break. and four days until we find out the sex of our kid!

lovey.

2012-02-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

it's valentine's day tomorrow. oh man. our plans consist of me making a nicer dinner than usual. other than that, we have already done all that we plan on doing.

the husband and i decided that we should go out on saturday to work best with his ridiculous schedule and our amazing babysitters. we haven't been out by ourselves in a while, so it was fabulous.

we also decided that this valentine's we'd rather be cheaper and get presents unlike last year where we didn't do presents and went to chef's table and spent waaay too much money on delicious food.

levi found a groupon for this thai place called another monkey downtown and it was delicious! i am not one for thai food especially while pregnant but it was good!

they did a great job presenting it too. i would recommend it for sure. definitely an adult place though, no kids.

levi got seafood curry, which he loved. too exotic for me, but it did look cool.

i got thai bbq pork, mango salad and sticky rice. also delicious.

we then found a living social thing for 2 tickets to man on a ledge for $12.00 so we went to that after dinner, it was good!

levi wants new basketball shoes for his present, {so romantic, i know} and i got part of my trip to utah and pearl earrings for my present. we also found a groupon for them {yeah, i pretty much stalk those apps on my phone}. $40 bucks for $175 earrings online. score for me. my first pair of real pearls. i am in love.

do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your ear btw?? it's a challenge.

also, i'm almost 19 weeks pregnant. woohoo. next week we find out the sex! i'm so excited! any thoughts on what it will be? levi's 100% positive it's a girl, so who knows.

i honestly feel that it's taking me longer to look pregnant than it did last time. which is unfortunate, because i like the actual looking pregnant part and not the "burrito baby" part as one of my friends so lovingly calls it.

utah-an.

2012-02-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

this past weekend, the man and i went to utah to visit our families and friends. it was fabulous. i have been craving utah food since being pregnant- which is weird, because that place is lame, let's be honest. but we had such a good time, and are sooo glad to be back home.

words cannot describe how excited he was to be going on the airplane. we had been looking forward to this airplane ride for weeks now to see "KASSIEEEEE" and "OSSSSHHH", his two favorite people in the world besides mom and dad.

just checking his email before we take off. he's a big kid. man....

i love when he gets to cuddle on me. it's a very rare occasion.

you know what i love about utah?? wing nutz. it's freaking fabulous. if you haven't been there, go there now.

funny story, we went to this piano bar saturday night, and kassie's dumb friends decided to bail/not answer their phones all day and evan's friends decided to not to come last minute, so it ended up being kassie & boyfriend, roommate & boyfriend, and melissa and best friend from efy, evan. as ridiculous as that story sounds, it's totally true. but it was a lot of fun. The music was good, the pianists were amazing, and the ice water was delish. Plus, it's always good to catch up with old old friends to & get out without the wee man.

later on sunday, we went to see some of our bestest friends for a delicious dinner. lucas and zak are bff's. and darci.... well she likes me, i promise.

then we might have been locked out of kassie's house, because they are very efficient, so the car seat entertained us in the freezing. it's cold there. holy moly.

utah was great. we saw old friends, brothers, sister's in law, and cousins. after being there, i realized i no longer have any desire to live there at all. after eating cafe rio, wing nutz, kneaders, red robin, mimi's cafe, and other amazing delicious places, i have gotten my fill of the cold, dreary land and am happy to be returning to the land of 70 degrees and sunny.

and just because you think we're so cute. here are some pictures we took on the plane because we had to sit outside our gate for 25 minutes before we could de-board.

someday the iPhone's front camera won't stink as much as it does now.

grand ol' time.

2012-02-01T21:41:00.001-07:00

today was a grand day. we started with a tea party. i'll be honest, i probably was more excited that zak because when do we ever go to tea party? especially as a boy. so it was mom's time to dress him up all fancy, tiara's or bow ties were necessary.

i have a serious problem with baby clothes. boy or girl. they're just so cute.

doesn't my friend throw such a cute party?? and she made all the food because she's a gourmet cooker. it was delish.

the kiddies had a fabulous time. i'm pretty sure zak enjoyed the toys much more than the actual tea party, but it was still so fun. especially because we got special 'adult' sandwiches as well.

then, to make up for mom letting us watch 'the horsie movie'/tangled two days in a row, we painted the side walk, ate dinner and then came in and paint in the bath tub. he loves coloring.

this is his "show me your smile" face. cracks me up every time.

it's pretty easy to make, soap, cornstarch, boiling water, and food coloring. he was digging it.

it was a good day today. we'll call it my one day this week of being a non lazy pregnant mom.

life in iPhone pics.

2012-01-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

i don't know why i don't blog anymore. i don't know if it's my lack of awesome things we do, or laziness, or being pregnant, or that i take a nap during nap time when i would usually blog or maybe all four. i think about it quite often but never actually do it. so here we go.

right now, i am 16 weeks pregnant. woot woot. and this is my first semi-tacky self portraiture. cool eh? i know, i look so pregnant.... haha according to baby center, our child is the size of an avocado {i don't know why they always refer to them as fruits and such. it's weird.} and on february 24th we find out the sex. i can't wait. levi is positive it's a girl, so i'm hoping he's right. {he was right last time, so who knows?}

any guesses?

besides being pregnant what else have we been doing while dad's gone?

well mom and her also pregnant friend like to eat delicious things together.

such as donuts, in n out and mounds of ice cream.

zak doesn't mind either because that means he gets donuts, some ice cream, hamburgers and lemonade. he's really gotten a sweet deal out of this. plus, he gets to hang out with his bff while mom eats, so it's really a win win.

i have still been going to school on the weekends.

which has been very thrilling. thank goodness this week is the last of this particular class because i'm very tired of sensorial life.

we have also been trying to keep the man entertained during the rainy weather.

by making a cozy bed in the living room to watch his new favorite show Cars 2 on.

making his "mimi" his "cake" aka cape. which he thinks is quite fabulous.

finger painting. his new favorite thing, unfortunately we don't do it very often because he gets filthy even with a smock on and it involves taking a bath afterwards.

playing on dad's "iPod". in particular he likes temple run, the "cookie" game aka frisbee game and dino rush. this also happened to keep him busy while i was making dinner. hence him lounging on the counter.

we've been shopping for baby things with friends just found out what they're having. and it's been so fun.

somehow the man has also developed an obsession with clothes. i have no idea where he got that from. but he refuses to wear anything but specific shoes and he knows all types of clothes and accessories, including but not limited to: sunglasses, sweater, jacket, shirt, bow tie, pants, pi's, sockies, shoes. he will also tell you what exactly he wants to wear that day and pick it out. he's going to be the little fashionisto in this family i can tell.

but he's just so cute, so as long as he matches, i don't care what he wears. =)

and last but not least, we have been looking at our wee one.

it's so crazy to me how it looks like a little person, i just remember last time, being like "what is that?" when we looked at the ultrasound.

i got very tired writing this, so it is time for my daily nap. hurrah for having a kid who takes amazing ones, so I can sleep too. but now you are all updated on our fantastically thrilling life. ta-dah!

wish list.

2012-01-13T17:01:00.001-07:00

i really should be cleaning our house during precious nap time. but instead, i am googling my new "must-have's"for having two children. it's really quite exciting actually, i wish that i could get it ALL. so, here is my list for the moment.

1. this AMAZING city select stroller. i will be buying it. we've started saving up now, because the price of it is very hefty, but to be able to put the kids in any way i want and have it still fit into places in this crazy city we live in over-rules the ridiculous amount of money. it's the same size as a single stroller, but more versatile and awesomer than a double/tandem stroller. there is only one store in SF that sells it, so i need to go test drive it to hope it lives up to my high expectations. =)

2. petunia pickle bottom diaper bag. specifically this one. amazing huh? i know. it makes you want to have a kid, just so you can use it. that's how i feel too. again, a hefty price tag. thank goodness for ebay.

3. j brand maternity jeans. i love j brand jeans. they fit amazing. what would be even more amazing is having a pair of them in maternity jeans. i can dream. these babies are $196. way more than i will be paying for a pair of jeans to wear for 6 months.

4. ergo baby carrier. i have been introduced to this amazing thing since living here, and i want it. i have a bjorn and it killed my shoulders to carry zak around it even as a newborn. this baby has enough padding/lower back support to make all my troubles be gone. especially since i will have to carry numero dos quite frequently due to chasing another one around all the time. this one is also expensive, {i'm sensing a pattern here} but apparently they come up quite frequently on craigslist.

that's all i can think of at the moment. not that i really should add anything more to that list, but i can dream. =) i love babies. especially ones that could end up being as cute as mine already is. =)

anything else that i'm missing mom's of two kids? what do you need?

p.s. i got an ultrasound yesterday and it put me a week and a half ahead! woot woot. it's a nice feeling being able to skip time. haha

weeeooo wweeeoooo

2012-01-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

that is the sound a "ire duck" makes. aka a fire truck. aka the man's favorite thing to spot when we're out driving. that and "whhhhhheeeeelllls" aka wheels.

lucky for the man, his mom has sweet connections and they got to go on a tour of the fire station today. i think their size was a bit intimidating at first, but then he was very excited and only wanted to go inside the truck. also lucky for him is that firemen are nice and helped him up and let him push any button he wanted up there.

sorry for the stinky photos, iPhone is as good as it got today {did i mention that my spouse bought me one for christmas?? he's so cool}

chillaxing. he looks like he owns the place.

this is zak's favorite friend. unfortunately for him, i don't think the feeling is quite mutual, but they still like to play together most of the time.

i wish he decided to smile in some of these, because he really was very excited.

anytime he gets to drive is like the best day of his life.

i have about 10 of these pictures, and he refused to look at the camera or let go of whatever he was holding on to. gotta love almost two year olds.

then most of our group left, and a very nice firemen helped zak up and let him loose in the driver's seat.

then another firefighter talked to him through the head phones.

he was a little concerned about where the sound was coming from. they also used the walkie talkie too, and that was pretty fun.

i love that he's now at the age where things are really awesome. and at that age where i can't tell him what we're doing ahead of time other wise he has a freak out until we actually do it. that's not quite as much fun, i have slipped a time or two by saying we were going to costco after nap time and he spent half an hour crying in his bed to go to "coscoooooooooo" until i came in and told him we weren't going there. {i don't even really know why he likes it that much, but he does}.

hopefully we'll get these germs out of our house soon and be able to start doing other fun things because the weather is fantastic here! i was a little bummed during the christmas season that it was not cold but i'm over it now.

new year- new life.

2012-01-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

ahhh, the craziness from christmas is finally over. not that we didn't enjoy it with our families, but it's always nice to come home into our own bed. even if that meant at midnight last night, {our child was not impressed with us}

i have been thinking about what ~~our~~ my {levi doesn't believe in resolutions, cool, i know}new year's resolutions will be since our awesome party at the lowry's on saturday, and figured, what better way than to write them on my blog? haha.

1. eat at least two fruits and veggies a day. i know that doesn't sound like a whole ton. but christmas has made me very lazzzzy.

2. work out at least three times a week. nothing else needed to say with that.

3. limit zak's mickey mouse watching to one 20 min episode a day. he doesn't need to be engulfed by mickey for hours, even though sometimes it's perfect because i get so much done.

4. cook at least 4 meals a week. i hate cooking. i feel like i should feel more domestic, but i don't, i still hate it. maybe forcing myself to do it will make me like it better. maybe.

5. get dressed at least three times a week. i LOVE sweats. but really, who wants to see me look like a slob all the time? no one.

6. read scriptures 5 minutes a day. that shouldn't be that hard really?

7. read a book a month.

8. reestablish our weekly dinner date night.

9. say "i love you" more.

10. figure out how to parent two adorable beasts. =)

the cat is finally out of the bag! we told our families on christmas and new years eve, so all of our friends can know now! i am officially almost 12 weeks, haven't been sick, and we both are very excited.

note: we did not text/tell anyone besides our families, so you all get to find out the same semi-tacky, impersonal way. sorry!

festive.

2011-12-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

oh man, it's been a while since i've blogged. what has happened?? let's see. levi had finals, did excellently, and we have been relaxing and partying ever since. that basically sums it up in about one sentence. our life is so entertaining.

on friday, we went to the oakland temple to see the lights and nativity. we took a friend and had a good time celebrating finishing this dreadful semester of school.

isn't his puppy hat so cute? this is the only hat he has ever worn. ever. and it's only because it's his "puuuppppy hat". big win for mom for picking it out.

"don't make me stand next to the water fall, it's too loud"

then we opened presents from grandma and grandpa lowry while skyping on sunday because we aren't going to be up there for christmas day. we have raised an excellent present opener.

tashina & markus gave him elmo, which he was very excited for. too bad that picture is blurry. he does love it lots.

then we went to this "winter wonderland" tonight, which was fun. not sure if it was worth the $25 bucks + $10 for parking, but it was enjoyable for the hour we were there.

they had a lot of cool exhibits from all over the world lit up with lights, and random ones like turkeys and such.

this weekend we go to yosemite & party hard for a day or two at the resort, swimming & playing racquetball, then we're off to grandma's for christmas & canada for new years! busy busy holiday and we are excited to get it rolling, if only levi never had school, then we could do it all the time. =)

festivities.

2011-12-04T23:42:00.000-07:00

the season is upon us. i love christmas. i especially love singing christmas songs in church, finding a cute christmas dinner outfit for the child, decorating cookies/gingerbread houses and ugly sweater parties. just to name a few.

we had a fantastic weekend playing with our friends. we went to an ugly sweater party yesterday and it was fabulous. we ate delicious treats, played the newlywed game {which my husband and i utterly failed at. i'm a little embarrassed. the only question we got right together was the "what would your husband say when he saw you in a swimsuit?.... sexy mama. yep, we're deep i know. oh, and the one about how many kids levi wants. which is six btw. it was pathetic}, had a white elephant exchange and got very inappropriate gifts, and basically had a lot of fun.

aren't we all just so good looking? self timer works miracles. =) oh, see that naked lady? just wait, she'll be here again.

one of our lovely friends found this gem of a picture at good will and decided it would be amazing as a present for one of us. yes, it is terribly inappropriate. please scroll down if you embarrass easily or would rather not look at a creepy, bald, naked picture. because once you look at it, you really can't stop. oh, and yes, she does have candy on her sensitive areas to sensor it.

yeah, they thought it was hilarious. they even hung it in the elevator when we were leaving as a little treat for those coming home.

zak was.... bored. during our entire night, though he took it like a champ. so instead of sitting with us, he decided to work out. and make mom take pictures of him.

tonight we had some friends over and decorated cookies & gingerbead houses. one of which turned out to be an utter failure.

the frosting in the stupid pre-made kit was too runny, so it ended up not staying at all, no matter how much you piled the stuff on. so the kiddies ended up just eating all the frosting and candy since it was going to go to waste. they're so resourceful.

but the kids did decorate some pretty amazing cookies =)

we just let him dip his cookie in frosting since he wouldn't be a very good decorator. which in turn, ended up being "i'm going to lick the bowl to get all the frosting and not actually eat the cookie". he loved it.

zak also got to hold a baby for the first time, and he was very excited. he's going to be such a good big brother someday. =)

i love christmas. now, i am counting down until the 16th. practicals & exams & finals are ruining my life, although not as much as if i actually had to take them. but christmas break is going to be awesome.

thanksgiving.

2011-11-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

we spent thanksgiving down in fresno at my grandma's house and it was lovely. we didn't do much but relax, eat WAAAY too much food, and play.

our official thanksgiving picture.

zak loves grandpa. a lot.

this is our random assortment of cheesy pictures from breakfast. my kid is such a hoot.

we also played with the duckies. zak loved to break the bread and throw it to them. and of course, they swarmed him.

then we went to the fresno st. vs san jose game. it was zak's first football game and he did remarkably well. the nachos from grandpa helped a lot.

the manly men.

the avid sport watcher.

all in all, it was a successful trip, and a great way to start off the holiday season!! i can't wait for the rest of it =)

preparing.

2011-11-22T12:31:00.001-07:00

my family and i decorated the house for christmas this past sunday. i have been loving it. and so has zak. he LOVES the lights on the tree, and immediately runs out to the tv room to see them every time he wakes up.

to start off our holidays, i found this gem of a picture from two years ago when i was pregnant. we were such weird cat people. who takes a picture in front of their tree with their cat??

i may or may not be wearing the same exact outfit as that time. haha, i'm that awesome. i feel like we look so much more mature now. =) also, the self timer was killing zak, he would smile after it finally went off, so he just looks thrilled to be there.

the beast was such a good helper putting ornaments on.

aren't his pj's awesome? i bought them 5 months ago at a thrift store for $1.00, and thought "how appropriate it would be for him to wear them while we're setting up christmas".

i love decorating for christmas. it makes me feel so festive. here are a few of my favorites around the house:

do you like how half of the tree has ornaments? the perils of having a child.... we have been making child proof ornaments out of pipe cleaners and beads and painted wax paper so those will be up on the tree soon.

i love this season!! we leave for thanksgiving tomorrow afternoon in fresno, and we can't wait! it'll be nice to see dad for more than an hour at night time too! =))

home sweet home.

2011-11-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

be prepared for the most random post ever. i was too lazy to go into detail about our escapades over the past couple weeks, so they are all smooshed into one post.

anyways, the last couple weeks have been a little bit crazy! the beast and i have been gone to reno last thursday through sunday and then in phoenix monday through friday, so it feels like we have not been home in ages! as for mementos of those trips, unfortunately, i only took two pictures, and only because it was my dad's birthday, so this is what we have to document those voyages:

we made grandpa ding dong's for his cake and did not want to share.

reno was excellent. my craft fair was fun, always nice to be inspired by other people's amazingness lol

and then, phoenix was super fun! we spent part of the week with grandpa, zak's ultimate favorite person, mom went shopping and bought all of her christmas presents while he napped, and my favoritest roommate and i saw breaking dawn at midnight in our pj's. it was so fun!

oh boy, that sweater i bought is not very flattering at all. i swear my arms are not that big.

then we came home, and pawned off the kid to go on a date with some friends. and it was awesome.

aren't they so cute??

one year ago this weekend, we came to san francisco to interview for dental school. ironically enough, it was pouring just like last time, so to keep with tradition, we decided to go to dinner at the same place we went last year and it was amazing.

this was our picture in front of it last year, preciousnesss.....

i will admit that it was so much more enjoyable without our child there. it's nice to get out and do things without him every once in a while. especially after having him by myself for almost two weeks. i think that we will keep up our tradition for the next few years we're here, because it was really fun to go back and see how much has changed in a year!!

and for your viewing pleasure, our child has now decided he loves wearing my shoes. especially the sparkly ones. feel free to judge him based on this picture. i laughed immensely when i saw what dad captured.

and why not complete the outfit with mom's jacket as well? i can tell he's going to be a dress up loving kid already.

well those brief pictures sum up the last several weeks for us, i should get better at posting soon!

next up: our christmas decorating we did tonight! =)

crafting.

2011-11-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

so this upcoming weekend, i have a craft fair i'm participating in up in reno. because of that, the past couple weeks have been spent furiously making crafts, and preparing for my first {gasp} jewelry party tomorrow. i'm so nervous for both. i just don't want people to show up to either and not want anything i've spent so much time making/preparing, that's my fear.

anyways, i've been working my soul away on headbands and bowties. so i figured i could post to the blogging world if anyone would like to see/buy some. =)

aren't these girls just to die for?? oh my goodness they're so cute. hurrah for my models, because zak is now too old to model headbands like he did last year. =)

these baby-toddler ones are $5.00

these young girl/adult ones are $7.00

these ones with more flowers are $9.00

and because girls have a hard time keeping headbands in their hair, i also make them in clips, but only have these boring ones to show. but these are $3.00

and now for the less cute but still cute boys, i have made bowties in all sizes and colors.

seriously, my kid is just so adorable.

i have lots more than these as well, i'm whipping out some christmas ones too, but they aren't finished to take pictures of. all bow ties are $4.00 a piece or 3 for $10.00

peak your interest? email me at pearlsandbeads1{at}gmail.com or come to my b*charmed party tomorrow night, or the craft fair this weekend. so many possibilities. =)

halloweeny.

2011-10-31T22:54:00.000-06:00

we have had quite the weekend of festivities here. we went up to reno, took family pictures from my momma, went to trunk or treat, and wore costumes quite a bit.

i will admit that our costume's for my parent's trunk or treat was kind of lame. but our kid looks awesome so that's really all that matters. he was a rock star, in case you couldn't tell. and he looked fabulous.

do you like his earrings? yeah, they're the center of reinforcement tabs that go on notebook paper. my husband's brilliant idea.

oh, and his leather jacker? $20.00. win for mom because he's styling in it.

our kid is an awesome trick-er treater. we taught him how to say "trick treat" and "punkin". and he would just hold up his pumpkin for people to give him candy. quick learner.

then we happened to pass these baby chairs, so he took a break from stealing candy. love it.

this morning, we went to our little friend's second birthday party, and it was awesome. isn't he so cutee??

for some reason he refused to have any expression or look at the camera today while playing with his friends. mom was being annoying apparently.

i feel like the comment "why so serious?" needs to be said during these pictures. yeah, i'm cool like that.

then this afternoon we went to trunk or treat in pacifica. we decided to dress up a wee bit more. wee bit.

my kid's face in this is awesome.

isn't my husband's eye liner sweet? he's so hard core.

for his lack of faces this morning, he made ridiculous faces tonight. love it. =)

although our costumes were not quite as cool as last year's, it was so fun this year! i love that the man gets excited for things now. it makes holidays so much more awesome than they used to be.

aaahhhhh.

2011-10-24T14:46:00.000-06:00

i know. you all have been anticipating when i would post pictures of our new place! you don't need to tell me. but we've had a very busy week this past week, with me single handedly moving all of our house monday and tuesday, minus the heavy furniture and the few odds and ends, done by my spouse and the lowry family, and then the rest of the week was spent introducing the canadians to our life.

{more on that in the future blog post}

but at last, your curiosity can be satisfied! prepare for way too many pictures. but i just love it so much. it's amazing.

dundun dun duuuuunnnnn:

the tv room. duh.

because we no longer have gigantic ceilings, or an awesome blank wall, my frame wall ceases to exist as awesomely as it was. so it's shrunken and not quite as cool. ce la vie.

dining room area. on the left is the door that leads outside to the "choo-choo's". i would show you, but all you would see is dirty handprints and nose smudges all over the door from stalking the train, and no one wants to see that. the door in the picture is the room to our "suite" haha.

my uhhhh-mazing kitchen. to say that i love it is an understatement.

the hallway down from the kitchen. at the end of the hallway is the guest bathroom, zak's room and the office.

these doors hold the washer and dryer and pantry. and the dryer actually works here, so that's an improvement as well. the other one took three cycles to dry clothes. pretty much the worst. besides not having a washer and dryer at all, of course.

now for our "suite":

our closet. which isn't quite as cool as the old one, but is still a walk in, so i liiike it.

the other side of the closet.

our's and the cat's bathroom. not a fan of that, but she does need a place where some person in our house can't eat all her cat food. no idea who that would be. but as a side note, i finally get to use my awesome shower curtain i bought.

this is the hallway from our room to the closet & bathroom.

our bedroom. well part of it, the other side is not put away yet, so you don't get to see that.

zak's room. which is in the corner, off by itself. did i mention that because he can't hear us anymore he doesn't wake up until 9:00 everyday?! it's AWESOME!

he loves it so he can see all the trucks pass by out of the window.

and i can stash all his toys in the closet so that they are not everywhere in our house. win win win.

the guest bathroom, next to zak's room.

this is my "where we've been" wall. each of the pictures is a place we've called home.

in order: san fran, reno, provo, lacombe.

now my least favorite room in the house. the office. probably because it has no decorations, and crap all over. in any case. scroll quickly over the mess we call the office.

this is our "front entry way" which isn't usually used by anyone besides us because you have to come in through the garage to get there. i'm also looking for a table to re-do to go underneath my pictures hanging, because it's a huge area.

a legit coat closet. awesome.

phew! you made it. and that is the end of our house. cool eh? and much more practical. the only downside is that we're right on the busy road, so it is much louder than our old place was, especially with the windows open. but we'll get used to it. =)

pumpkins.

2011-10-15T21:01:00.000-06:00

after finishing lovely super saturday {no more crafting for a very very long time}, the family and i decided to pumpkin shop, seeing as this is our last weekend to do it by ourselves this month. this is also our first time carving pumpkins with the child, {last year, we were kind of lame with all the holidays because he had no idea what was going on, we should have put more effort in} and he was not really impressed. he just said "ewwwwwwww" and refused to touch the guts. but being the ~~jerk~~ awesome parents that we are, we would drop seeds and tell him to pick them up, and he totally would. and then proceed to wipe his hands on everything to get the slime off. it was hilarious.

this is his "i'm so excited you're making me do this" face.

he did however, love to help dad poke holes. why do i feel that's such a boy thing to do?

again, very thrilled to be doing this.

"what the??"

"this is weird."

i am such a creative mom. in case you can't tell, his pumpkin says "zak". win for me. i should be a pumpking artist

however, it is levi's thing. he has a gift for grim reapers.

this picture cracks me up a lot. this is what happens when mom goes outside to put the pumpkins on the patio, and he's not allowed to come.

i can't wait for halloween. our little man is going to be awesomely dressed. his costume involved hair dye, makeup and holey clothes. any ideas of what he will be?

colbie.

2011-10-13T12:45:00.000-06:00

last night, i had the opportunity to get out on the town with some friends and go see colbie caillat in concert! she was UH-MAZING! and sounds exactly like she does on her cd's. it was so nice to not be a mom for a little while and just rock out.

look at how close we were!! we were in the first row right on the side of the stage, perfect seeing spot. don't mind our very crappy camera phone pictures.

don't mind our very shiny, sweaty faces. wearing a blazer was not a good idea for me last night.

andy grammar opened for her, and he was fabulous!! and sooo cute! just watch his music video, it'll make you happy. and if it doesn't, well rainn wilson in it should make you chuckle at least.

this one should make you happy too. i just think she is so gorgeous and talented. =)

go ahead, enjoy. and hopefully your day is a little "brighter" {mwhaha i'm so witty} now from watching these videos. =)

impatiently.

2011-10-11T16:20:00.000-06:00

i am waiting. and it's killing me. i want to move into our new apartment so bad. levi's not home until 9:30 {death} every day this week and it's super lame. so i basically just sit here and fantasize about having a door on my bedroom, and a wood floor when i can put some child's high chair instead of on the stupid {white} carpet.

i cannot wait. i wanted to move last week. {it's only across the complex, i mean, it shouldn't take that long} but someone vetoed it because he had lots to do. so we're getting our new place on monday. which really isn't that far away. but it's only tuesday today. i've thought it's at least thursday since yesterday.

it's on the first floor like ours, except you can access it from the outside of the complex! {if you've been to our place, you know what a pain it is to try and find our apartment}. and theres a pretty big grassy area outside our door, almost like a yard. except not fenced and next to a busy street, but still, that's better than what we have now. and it was only $100 more a month for 3 bedrooms and about 400 extra sq. feet. score.

{what that means, was that basically we were getting ripped off for having a fancy place called a "loft".}

they were painting the doors today when i went in to take pictures, so i couldn't put the beast down. which means i got crappy pictures, that do not show how amazing it is at all. but this might be the most awesome part of the whole place.

looks at how gigantic my kitchen is!!! and it has a dining area. and opens up into the living room. and i have a master "suite" complete with a walk in closet and bathroom. no longer having to go in zak's room to pee will be incredible.

and having an "office" instead of an "office area" will be even better. meaning, no one coming in and spilling my beads and unloading my craft stuff. every. single day.

we are incredibly blessed to have such an amazing place. now, to decorate. all. over. again. =)

18 mes.

2011-10-09T21:55:00.000-06:00

{isn't this sweater just to die for?? don't worry, you're going to see it again soon in our family pictures}

technically, the man's birthday isn't for a few days.... buuuut sunday is blogging day, so hurrah hurrah!

but snakary is will officially be 18 months very soon! it's exciting! i love the stage that he's at right now. it's so fun.

{he's just so handsome}

here are some highlights/quirks so i can use them someday in the future when i do his scrapbook:

- he LOVES mexican food {just like his mom}. if he could eat that every day, he would. and he usually has some form of it once a day. today was enchilada soup for dinner and a snack of chips and salsa, yesterday was a quesedilla, and the day before that was tacos.

- he will tell you when he is ready to go. that includes: going and getting your shoes {98% of the time they match, and he knows which are mine and which are levi's. i don't know where he learned that. must be the sparkly vs. non sparkly}, getting his shoes, sitting down saying "shoes, shoes" waiting for you to put them on and then continuing to say "bu-bye" waving. if you don't listen, he will go to the door and leave without you. then you know you need to be faster.

- he is OBSESSED with keys. when dad comes home he runs to him {not to give him hugs or say hello} but to pat his pockets down frantically yelling "keeeys keeeeyyys". and he only likes dad's. or someone besides mom's. he's very particular.

{notice the keys in his hand. obsessed, i tell you.}

- he still wears size 3 shoes. so no, his feet haven't changed size for over a year now.

- he loves to walk on his tippy toes. it's so cute.

- he can say way too many words. my favorites include "what did you dooo??" "nooo dank you" {we started that one after he kept shoving food away and saying "no, no, no, no, no!" he is now very good at being polite}"choooo chooooooooo" "oh no!" "mickeeyy" {i started him on mickey mouse club house as so we can go to disney land sometime and he will love it. so far, it is successful} and if it's not "mickey" it's "elmo", "meow, meow, meow, meow" {he and snickers are still BFF's}, "readyyyy go!" "up, peez, dank you" {said all in one breath, he says them all to get it out of the way haha}. "aaaaaaaamen" {he gets very excited when we finish saying prayers so he can eat} he says a ton more, but those are the cute ones.

- he can point to all of his body parts and articles of clothing when you ask him where it is.

- he will tell you whether the song on the radio is good or not. if it is, he will dance furiously, rocking back and forth in his car seat. if it is not, he will sign "all done" and say it until you change the song. not even joking. he's very opinionated.

- he can sing "tonight tonight" by hot chelle rae and "old macdonald". he also loves to dance to LMFAO's party rock anthem.

- he has become somewhat of a whiner. his mood shifts very quickly, and if you are not doing what he wants, you will know.

- unfortunately, he has become somewhat more attached to us. he no longer runs away without a care in the world. lame. he was so cool just going into nursery at church loving it. now he just cries and cries and cries. we have no idea to do with him.

- he loves to dip any food. it makes them taste so much better.

- he has a mohawk and it is awesome. we may be the coolest parents ever.

{we had a little photoshoot today in case you couldn't tell. he just looked so good in his outfit}

i can't think of anything else right now, but happy year and a half birthday love muffin! here's to 100 more =)

{cheeeeese}

bcharmed.

2011-10-07T14:48:00.000-06:00

i just got hired by myself to be a stylist for bcharmed jewelry! never heard of it? me neither. until i went to canada and my sister in law was selling it. LOVE it. it's totally my kind of stuff. blinging, cheap and cute. so now, i am officially selling it since my package of stuffs came in the mail today, buy some from me!! orrrr, if you want to make some moolah, sell it {if you host a party in october, you get 40% commission!}. or if you want free jewelry, host a party for me {if people buy $500 worth of jewelry, the hostess gets $100 worth of free jewelry}.

do it, you know you want to.

out of my new kit, these are some of my favorites. you can see all of the products here

i love pearls. a lot. especially brown ones.

you get this fabulous key if you sign up to be a stylist. yes mam!

the awesome thing about these are that the charms are all clips, so you can exchange them on a necklace or bracelet whenever you want!

you can order kid's initials, or spouse initials, or your own initials and wear them. in case you couldn't tell, i picked my family's. preciousness.

apparently the sun was all up in this picture. sorry guys.

this charm is my favorite. this saying is so popular now, why not wear it??

they also do bracelets too, but i couldn't take a picture of those on there. but they're fabulous! have i peaked your interest?? i hope so.

if you want to buy some as christmas presents, a just because present, or an "i've earned this for being awesome" present, email me at my new business {haha} email:

bcharmedmelissa@gmail.com

or go to my website, oogle my new favorite stuff and order it online: www.bcharmedstylist.com/melissalowry

since i know lots of you secret stalkers live far away from me. {wink wink}

surprise eh?

2011-10-01T22:49:00.000-06:00

my sister in law hates when i say "eh" when i visit canada. but i think it's awesome. and adds to my authenticity as a soon to be canadian. we surprised my mother in law this week during levi's break and it was hilarious. she almost cried, and didn't believe we were there. win for us.

the weather there was fabulous. i love fall. i do miss the seasons here, but then i just go to canada and i get my fix of all the seasons i could ever want.

i may have gotten a little excited about all the leaves.

so in honor of the lovely weather, i made us have a mini photo shoot in the leaves.

{don't you just love his face? it makes me laugh a lot}

we didn't really do a whole lot there, but spent a lot of time relaxing, hanging with our family and enjoying the beautiful weather.

but we spent some time visiting the animals. or "ammals" as snakary calls them.

while my sister in law and i got a couple's massage {yes, awesome i know}, the boys made a big pile of leaves and were loving it.

we spent a day in edmonton at the world's largest mall, enjoying all the kiddie rides for freeeeee. the child did a little better than on the previous rides at happy hollow.

grandma had this amazing "vroom vroom" that we spent a lot of time on. it was awesome.

it was a fun trip! we loved the fabulous fall weather and exploring the wonderful ~~town~~ city of lacombe. who knows who we will surprise next?! =)

happy hollow.

2011-09-26T17:53:00.001-06:00

is an amazing place. it's basically disneyland for babies. but smaller, with less people, cheaper, more zoo animals and better weather. ok, so it's not anything like disneyland, but it did really make me want to go there. anyways, with our SF zoo membership we got 50% off admission so we paid $12.00 to get in! they had lots of playgrounds, baby rides, and animals to check out. it was awesome.

we do not have a very adventurous child:

but once they got going he was better, and by the end he wanted to go again

then we went on the "choo choo" aka danny the dragon and it was awesssoommmeeee according to the "more, more, more" we kept hearing.

they have a farm like at our zoo, except it's not as busy, the goats don't headbutt you, and they chill enough for monsters to brush them. {if this place wasn't an hour away, we'd be there every week!}

too much.

2011-09-25T17:33:00.000-06:00

crafting. whoever said you can never craft too much was wrong. because you can.

i'm in charge of THREE crafts for our church's "super saturday" next month {if you live here and want to make any of these, come!} and have spent the last several weeks making, collecting, remaking, & collecting so that everyone can make them that signs up for them. let me tell you that i have to make all of them under $5.00 a piece, that was no easy feat either.

i found all these things on pinterest {what an amazing website BTW}, i'm pretty sure i have them all pinned so you can see where they're from on my boards.

so here were my inspirations, mine looks a loooot different because i didn't have instructions for several of them, but i'm pretty happy with them all.

unfortunately, i am not nearly as good of a photographer, so mine don't look as neato.

{the lighting in this one is awful! note to self: don't take pictures at 11:00 at night ever}

what do you think?

and because zak needs to be in every post, here is his update:

he has recently found a new love for coloring.

{that's red marker, not blood, all over his face. he thinks it's lipstick/chapstick which he LOVES to put on}

i also made playdoh this week as a new adventure for him. and he cried for 45 minutes when i tried to make him touch it. we have gotten past the aversion slightly, now he just pokes it. but he's doing pretty good for not even being 18 months yet. =)

i'm not biased at all, but my son is handsome. =)

p.s. levi finished his first quarter of dental school on friday. crazy eh?! it's flown by. during his week off, we're going on an adventure, details to come! {because i know you're all dying with anticipation to know what we're going to do}

temple.

2011-09-18T17:30:00.000-06:00

yesterday we had the pleasure to go here:

{the oakland temple incase you didn't know. my parents were sealed here back in the day.}

our stake had a temple trip, but with our child, we didn't actually go inside. but that's ok, we just watched the primary kids while their parents went in.

aren't my boys just so handsome?? yes, they are.

the weather was fantastic. we had an amazing time. and got some fabulous pictures.

my kid is so cute.

karma.

2011-09-16T10:57:00.000-06:00

remember how i posted about how my child being a daredevil & how he's going to break all his bones? well, the next day he proved my point. i'm not sure if it was karma for me writing it or what, but in any case it was suspicious.

to start off my story, i will say that he is not a climber. he hasn't figured out how to climb onto chairs or the couch, so i usually don't have to worry about him when we're out and about. however, last friday he decided to be a daredevil at his friend's house and climb a step up a bunk bed ladder while playing in their room. and then as he was getting back down, he fell. and smacked his face against the rung.

i didn't think anything of it until later that night, because he wasn't bleeding, and he just cried for a minute and then he was good to go. but when he was going to bed, my spouse told me to come here and check out his face:

{if gross stuff grosses you out, scroll down quickly}

{he doesn't even look like it's bothering him right??}

well it broke off so there was just the root left on saturday night, and then we went to the beach because we couldn't get an appointment anywhere to take him in. buuuuut luckily, someone we know goes to dental school and they have a pediatric clinic there.

after scoping him out, they took x-rays and then decided they needed to take the root out. {this is the part where mom leaves because seeing him strapped down to a surfboard and screaming bloody murder makes her cry}

{dr. dad helping out}

but it only took ten minutes, and while he apparently screamed the whole time {thank goodness for dads who can handle that stuff}, he calmed down and was golden afterwards, like nothing happened. now he just won't have a tooth there until he's seven.

today, we will put the bunk bed ladder up. and watch him play a little more closely. hurrah for reckless children.

best friends forever.

2011-09-15T09:10:00.001-06:00

this week we got to spend some time at the beach with some of our favorite friends from provo:

we spent a few days at the beach house-- playing, talking, eating sand, and being awesome. luckily the weather was fabulous until we were going home, so it was even better than expected =)

isn't this picture awesome? my son is going to be a surfer, just like his dad.

best friends. they even do the same things, at the same time. =)

he's so cute.

asher is much cleaner than my son at the beach. he gets down and dirty, sliding head first into holes.

exhibit a of dirtiness:

preciousness.

there was a park right next to the beach that we spent a lot of time at too. the boys were in heaven.

and because we couldn't leave without taking a photo together, enter the self timer!

we had so much fun playing together! zak and asher are going to be best friends forever!

blinging.

2011-09-08T21:59:00.001-06:00

two posts in one day? gasp! i know, my life is so thrilling that i need to post twice. but i had the privilege of wandering into this store with some friends down in burlingame today and i loved it more than i usually do online. i'll be honest, i've never actually walked into a store {shocking, i know}, i've only stalked their very expensive website.

and when we went in today, i fell in love. however, the only thing i could afford were some knobs for my dressers. however, my dressers don't even have knobs, and that was a terrible terrible thing.

so, the next best thing was....

dun dun duuuuun. the crib.

ta-duh!

{ew, there are gross baby fingerprints all over, don't look at them}
aren't they awesome? i laugh a little when i see them on there, but the baby loves them so that's all the matters.

but i will say that i bought three of them for a price of one {$8.50}, because i'm that good at scouring the sale rack. and because i always say, no post is complete without zakary, here you go:

can't you just see where he gets all his good looks from?? ;) minus my stink eye of course. haha also, his hair is mohawked in case you couldn't tell. dad cut it to be awesome!

re-do.

2011-09-08T13:19:00.001-06:00

ok.... remember how i said i loved my frame wall? i did. until everyone kept asking when i was going to put pictures in the frames. i figured the wall looked too much like it should have pictures on it {which btw, would be waaaay too big of a shrine to us, as much as i love looking at pictures of ourselves}, and not enough like decorations. sooo, i searched high and low, and found some unique-er frames to put there.

before:

oh boy, apparently i was missing a few frames in this picture. i didn't take any of it fixed, but it looks really bare here haha

unfortunately, this home depot doesn't have the same color paints as the one in provo, so i had to improvise, and do half and half.... i kind of like the variety. what do you think?

after:

hopefully no one will come in asking where all the pictures are anymore.

the more i look at it, the more i like the two colors together. they're pretty fun.

september equals

2011-09-06T19:21:00.001-06:00

fall. it may only be september 6th, but we are decorating for autumn already. and by we, i mean me. {like my spouse would ever decorate, or care to}. anyways, i feel like i can decorate so much better here than in our old place, or it could be that i have more time on my hands. either one.

here is my DIM {do it myself} for the day:

i made my first penant flag out of scrapbook paper. i think i still like the fabric better, but this worked. i cut the letters out with my cricut, so that made it a whole lot easier, and then modpodged everything to make it a little more durable.

i bought a packet of 300 sheets of seasonal scrapbook paper at Joann's for $7.50 today, so technically this cost me like $.25 or something ridiculous like that.

this is apparently a terrible picture, but i repainted these ugly frames i bought from the dollar store last year to be creme, and then wrote the "i heart autumn" on one, and found the other subway art on google.

and i bought the cool centerpiece last year from walmart for $5.00. i wish we had walmart here....

i can't wait to get more decorations. i love to be festive.

and because no post is complete without an awesome picture of us, please enjoy this moment my mom captured while we were modeling for her:

if looks could kill....

daredevil.

2011-09-01T22:29:00.002-06:00

my son has no inhibition.

this is him standing on the edge of the tub during bath time tonight.

{and yes, i am the awesome parent who took a picture of this}

this is him laughing after he slipped, slide all the way down the side, and went face first under water. he thought it was hilarious.

i've had several people this week tell me that i'm a very easy going parent {especially for being a first time parent}, and i have been pondering why {we always thought i would be the crazy one, and levi would be the easy going parent, but turns out it's the opposite, i let our kid climb in the bath tub, and levi freaks out. i might be kind of glad about that haha}.... anyways, my parenting belief is that: children learn from parent's reactions. if i make a big deal of something, he turns it into something 2 times bigger than i did {he's very dramatic} so i try to wait until i see his response before i do anything.

not that responding differently is bad, this is just what works best for me and the beast.

in any case, we have recently realized our child is going to be a daredevil. he is fearless. and when he crashes, 95% of the time, he just laughs it off. {or brushes his hands off, we taught him that's how to make things better, haha}. our kid will be the one with several broken bones when he's in elementary school, and he will think that having a cast is awesome.

hopefully you don't think that i'm a crazy parent planning my child's accidents, i'm just preparing for it ahead of time. he has the personality to be that kid already.

disclaimer:: i realize after reading through this post, it sounds like i let him do whatever he wants with no regard for his safety. that is not the case. when it is not a serious safety issue, i choose to let him learn and experience bumps and bruises because he will do it anyways and he think it's waaaay funnier when i get upset that i've told him "no" 900 times, and i personally would rather not get frustrated with him. please do not think that i am a neglectful parent who just sits there and lets my child do whatever he wants, we have spent a lot of time deeming what is "safe" and "not safe" and what is a battle worth fighting with our stubborn, independent child, and what is not. =)

famous.

2011-08-30T11:04:00.000-06:00

our child is going to be the next justin beiber. haha, probably not, but he cracks me up a lot. we've trained him well.

well enough to make him dance without music on command. we're so cool. haha.

sorry they're kind of long, i trimmed them but for some reason blogger won't upload the trimmed ones.

don't you love how you can make your kids do things you would never video yourself doing? we do.

actually, he's always been a music rocker, we didn't have a whole lot to do with him dancing, other than encouraging him to rock out when he wanted. hurrah for tricks!

sunshine!

2011-08-27T21:40:00.001-06:00

ok, as much as i say i love the weather here, it's gotten old. we happened to pick {literally} the only city south of san francisco that gets fog ALL the time. if you drive one exit down on the freeway, it's at least 10 degrees warmer and sunny. not even exaggerating. one exit. it's obnoxious. so when our lease is up, we are moving outta here!

so, we usually drive about 10 minutes south to enjoy the sunshine, walking down tree lined streets, eating on the patio at restaurants and going to the beach.

today we chose to go to the beach. it was awesome. i wore a swim suit. you may think "oh that's not a big deal, it's august you should be wearing a swimsuit", but it is. the average temperature of our city we live in is 63 degrees. not swimsuit weather. sweatshirt and boots weather {which i do love too, i will admit}. but sometimes, you just need sunshine & the beach.

doesn't he just look so happy? that's because he's at the beach.

this place is AMAZING! playgrounds, sand, grass, picnic areas, and warm {not deathly cold} pacific water.

doesn't it just look like heaven? it was. had it not been a bit windy, it would have been the perfect temperature of 75 degrees.

zak was loving it. being able to go from chasing birds to playing in the water, to going down the slide, playing with the kayaks etc. etc. he was golden for 2 hours.

we love warmer weather. if you live here, and you want to know our secret spot let me know!

p.s. do you love my new blogg-iness? because i do. it's tacky to ask i know, but i just like to look at it. it makes me feel happy. =)

birthday wins.

2011-08-21T14:31:00.000-06:00

it was my birthday on thursday. i turned 22 to be exact. for some reason i feel like i've been older than 22 for a long time. maybe it's that i have a child. or that everyone else we hang out with is significantly older. or that i'm so mature, i don't really know. but i was kind of shocked that i was only turning 22, so it wasn't a particularly special day. levi had school, and i had to teach a class for church that night, so we spent the day not together or doing anything fun. however, he did go to in n out and get me a burger when i was done teaching. and some donuts. so win for my spouse being awesome.

but he did surprise me with tickets to this on friday night {another win for my spouse}:

{unfortunately, i took no pictures of us dressed up all fancy to document the occasion. lame, i know}

that's right, he surprised me. usually i know all my presents. even if he doesn't tell me. i'm a very good guesser. but i was shocked. he's not really a musical kind of guy, so it was amazing. our night was a little more of an adventure, involving the place we were going to eat for dinner only being open for lunch, wandering around downtown sf trying to find someplace quicker to eat, and picking a gross place. waiting for buses in wrong areas {i hate public transportation fyi.}, getting out of the show at 11:00 to wait for the bus with creepy people. getting off the bus at 11:30 and feeling like i'm seriously going to get mugged. waiting for the other bus to take us to our car, and then deciding to walk back to it, uphill 8 blocks {during which time the bus never came}. note to self: never take the bus again. i'd rather pay for parking.

but minus those little quirks, it was a wonderful night, and a good show! any 12 year old that can dance and be the star of the show is amazing in my book.

as for my other presents {because i know everyone cares so much} my wittle brother got me these fabulous things:

my parentals got these sweet little diddies for me:

love me some raybans.

and my grandparents bought me this fabulous shirt, and contributed to my shopping fund. =)

i made off like a bandit this year. my family always treats me so well, love them. =) here's to another year feeling older than my age says. hopefully that won't always be the case, and when i'm forty, i'll still feel like i'm 25.

starry.

2011-08-17T09:45:00.001-06:00

i think i have finally found a balance in dental school-ness. zak and i have a different play group pretty much everyday, and after we socialize, i come home and do crafty things. it's working out well for me, because i don't feel like i spend my days in our house watching sesame street ALL day.

so this was my DIY this week:

i have been searching to find something to put in our bathroom {it's made for handicapped people, so it's huge} that would take up some of the walls.

enter joann's fabrics. their summer stuff was 90% off this week. which included these stars. plus, i had a 20% off your total purchase coupon. so i spent $2.23 total on the small ones, and $3.00 on the large one. which is a steal since the big one was $25.00 usually. score for me.

enter my left over spray paint from my frame wall:

i ran out of blue paint, so i had to be creative with finishing it, because i couldn't do a second coat.

the more i look at them, the more i dig the colors though. so i'm happy with my $5.00 craft. it makes my bathroom look so much better.

i love decorating. and doing it myself. i should start a business or something. haha. maybe....

p.s. my birthday's tomorrow. hurrah hurrah!

muah.

2011-08-12T21:19:00.000-06:00

there are some days in this house when i wish we didn't have a child. i could sleep in, eat when i want, watch what i want, go out on dates, go to the movies, exercise by myself etc. etc. life would be so much easier. and simpler. but then i look at how amazing my little family is, and i think that my life was so boring without being a mom to zakary. he's the best thing that's ever happened to us, and we absolutely love him.

how could we not with little moments like these?

only something really special brings out levi kissing on camera.

and he is.

i love these pictures.

and our wee little family.

so i guess i can deal with not sleeping in or going to the movies, and taking zak to the workout room.

because i get slobbery baby kisses whenever i want.

muah.

end table.

2011-08-10T17:46:00.001-06:00

remember this ol' thing? my score at goodwill for $7.00. my husband and i disagreed on how to paint it. i wanted to revert back to my trusty ol' spray paint. and he wanted to sand it down and stain it. i gave in, and he sanded the top and a door, and it has sat outside on our patio since the middle of june. it drove me absolutely crazy because it's huge, and was in the way.

so, levi lost. and i decided to do it my way anyways. and i absolutely love it.

this spray nozzle is the most amazing thing i've ever bought. makes painting so much easier.

my husband also came out and taught me "the correct way to spray paint" {like you paint a car apparently} and that made it much more even and smoother. he's so smart.

this is the first time i used a primer, and i would definitely recommend it. when i sanded afterwards, the color showed through very well.

this was also the first time i used a satin finish, instead of glossy. i would recommend that as well, and then add clear gloss at the end. it makes it much more smooth and shiny than just the paint.

first coat

second coat

finished!

it's hard to see in the picture, but it is quite sanded and rustic looking. it is fabulous.

and it's much better than the hideous mismatching wood it was before. my husband has somewhat renigged his thoughts on how spray paint sucks. it takes waay less time than actual painting and looks smoother.

win for me.

getaway.

2011-08-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

this weekend my spouse and i had an anniversary getaway in redwood city {about 20 minutes south of us}. it was incredible. the beast went to grandma and grandpa's for the weekend, and we spent the time basking in the sun, eating out, going to movies and buying motorcycles. i had forgotten what it was like to spend time just the two of us. and talk about things other than how awesome our child is.

i found us an amazing deal on a hotel on livingsocial for the weekend. it was a suite. with a huge tub and king sized feather bed, and included a delicious breakfast for each day. and a wine and cheese tasting as well.... next time ;) anyways, i rather like living large, i'll be honest.... it was very fun to feel rich and classy {and wear heels}for the weekend.

we spent our first evening after levi got done school, eating on the patio of a delicious restaurant and seeing Crazy, Stupid Love. i would definitely recommend it. not very predictable, and steve carrell did an amazing job.

saturday we went to filoli gardens. it's basically this victorian mansion with incredible decorations and incredible gardens. oh to be rich and be able to afford a house like this.

3 years later, and we're still so attractive.

we didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but it was amazing. just look at how lush everything is. have i mentioned how much i love living here? because i do. we both do actually, where else do you get to see places like this when it's perfectly sunny and 75 degrees?

we spent the rest of the day finding a motorcycle for the man. i actually rather like the one he chose. i feel it's a little more grownup and safer than the sport bike he really wanted. and you know, my nerdy husband on a motorcyle wearing leather is kinda sexy. tmi? probably. i had a very hard time looking at him on a bike without laughing, even when i was taking these pictures... but he is absolutely loving it, so that's all that matters.

sidenote: yes he was wearing shorts while riding this, and he did burn his leg on the exhaust pipe, or whatever it's called. he wasn't wearing pants when he bought it, but we are all about covering up so he doesn't crash and get all road rashed. don't you worry.

the motorcycle place took ages to get his paperwork done and bike inspected, so i ran to nordstrom's while levi was waiting and bought these bad boys as my anniversary present. {no, i don't usually buy my presents myself, but i told levi i wanted shoes, and he said "we can buy whatever you want", and in the essence of saving time, i just went by myself. and plus, i was very tired of sitting in that store} they're so melissa eh? and yes, they are much more fabulous and shiny in person, in case you were worried.

after we finished making our large purchases, we went to dinner at this place called saggio's. i found a groupon for them a few weeks ago, and it was delicious. and romantic. the kind of place that only serves beer and wine, no sodas. classy, eh? we sat on the patio again, basking in the warm weather and enjoying the slow pace at which they brought out our food. {not a place to ever go with our child} we were going to go see captain america, but it didn't start until 10:30, and to be honest, we were tired at like 9:00 {children ruin your night life, i tell you}. so we left, got dessert at this amazing little bakery and went back to go to sleep in our huge feather bed.

unfortunately, the spouse had to come home and study for a test today, so we left this morning after a delicious breakfast with unlimited fresh squeezed OJ, but it was a very good trip, even if it was short. it was so nice to be able to spend time together by ourselves. we need to do it more often.

loves.

2011-08-01T22:31:00.000-06:00

i have been pondering something awesome and insightful to write on here the last couple days, but i have got nothing. our life is boring. well, mine and zak's is. levi's is always fun and entertaining for him from 7-7. so instead of writing about playing on the playground and walking around half naked {baby... not me, i know you all were thinking that though}, i thought i'd share my love's of the moment. like oprah. except mine are better.

first off. sequins.

this is my new purse. it is metallic gold leather with fabulous sequins. and i absolutely love it. it was on sale at nordstrom rack, down from $375 to $75.00 and i knew i couldn't pass that goodness up.

i pretty much love anything shiny and "ridiculous" as my husband would say. but this was worth every single penny i paid for it.

2. peep toes.

i just bought these for myself today at dsw.com they were originally $69.00 on sale for $19.94, and then i had a $10.00 coupon plus free shipping, so i paid $10.82 total for them to be here tomorrow. yeah i basically rule at shopping. i've been looking for a flat i can wear every day to feel a little more dressed with my hanes t-shirt and jeans, and these had rave reviews about how comfy they were. so they better be.

3. boots.

as many of you know, i have an obsession with boots. and living in the land of perfect weather, i wear them quite frequently with my scarf, cardigans and skinny jeans. these ones are the most comfortable, delicious pair i've ever owned. i highly recommend them. they're called steve madden zoiiee, and they aren't outrageously expensive either.

4. apple.

when we sold my baby, i got a new computer as part of the deal. we couldn't just sell my car to buy levi a motorcycle, that would be just plain ol' unfair. so, i got a new macbook pro. and minus our wireless printer not working with it, it kicks trash. having never had an mac before, i am loving it. i highly highly recommend forking over the bazillion dollars and getting one. you won't be disappointed.

5. modern family

before we started watching this, i hated this show. it stole awards from glee, and the office and all of the other primetime shows i love. but then i decided to get the dvd's on netflix. it might be one of the most hilarious shows i've ever watched. more than the office, or 30 rock and i've been a big fan of those shows forever. do yourself a favor and watch it. just one episode.

6. maxi dresses.

i have been digging these recently. when they're fitted right, they're very flattering. they hide bumps and rolls, and when paired with heels, make you look much longer and skinnier than you really are. i found a blazer at h&m, and i basically switch dresses underneath and wear it to church every week.

7. clinique make up

i have ridiculously sensitive skin. if i get stressed, it breaks out. if i wash it with a different soap, it breaks out. if i use a different makeup it breaks out etc etc. so, i've used bare escentuals make up for ages because it never made me break out and worked good. until i met this bad boy. i've never seen my skin look so makeup free with makeup on. it makes my redness go away, and doesn't sit on top of my skin to make it look all "madeup". i'm in love. go ahead, go into macy's or nordstrom's and have them give you a makeover. you won't be disappointed.

8. this belly.

isn't it so cute? i just wanna squish him all the time. i don't know why his shirts up, he thought it would be clever while we took pictures with our spare time.

what are you in love with this summer? it's not really summer time here as it's always 70 degrees, but you know what i mean.

sold.

2011-07-26T22:49:00.000-06:00

i sold my baby today.

haha. just kidding. not that one.

my pride and joy.

i miss it already. the husband has been trying to convince me for several weeks now that he "needs a motorcycle" because he could 1. park at school 2. get home faster 3. pay less insurance 4. pay less gas and the list goes on and on. but i wasn't going to just whip out $6,000 for a toy that he can die on, so he suggested we sell the truck since it's not worth a whole ton now anyways. i said no.

it took him making a pro's and con's list several times. {and the only two cons were: 1. melissa has to drive the subaru & 2. levi will die} and me saying i want some money back from selling my baby to spend on myself. oh and he said i could buy whatever car i wanted in 3 years as long as it was less than $100,000. soo i figured it would take a month or two or three to sell it, since it's older and has some wear and tear.... but nope. it took 3 days. apparently it was meant to be for levi to have a motorcycle.

i miss it. it was my first car. it took my from hauling friends around in high school, through college, going on dates, having friends make out in the backa {you know who you are}, skiing trips, going from utah to reno many times, getting married, moving to our apartment, driving to canada several times, having a baby. moving to sf and much more. it was so huge and comfy, driving the subaru sucks. but it's only three years right? i just feel like a part of me is missing now, without my big mom-mobile. so long fair friend, i hope you provide many years of off roading to the nice guy who bought it.

freaky.

2011-07-23T23:30:00.000-06:00

meet sampson.

we are now creepy cat people with not one but two cats. i'd been thinking about getting a friend for snickers for a while now since she gets ridiculously lonely when we leave. today i finally did it. i went into petsmart looking for a kitten, one who is playful and little and cute, and came out with a 5 yr old boy who has slept the whole time he's been here. they were going to put him down next week. boo. but he's so cute eh?

he is such a boy. he's sat here, slept and totally ignored snickers. she hissed at him and he looked at her with one eye open like "you're soo immature" but he is very loving to us and i'm sure him and snickers will get along very well sometime in the future. as for right now, she's his babysitter, sitting high above him, making sure he doesn't move anywhere suspicious. i can't wait for them to be bff's.

boo.

2011-07-22T09:26:00.000-06:00

this is the first week i've ever been without the beast for more than 2 days. i miss him. i don't know what to do with my life without him being around all the time. i used to waste a whole lot of time before him, that i have realized.

mi madre came down on wednesday and took him for an indefinite amount of time until i can recover from my lovely shinanigans. after being in the hospital on tuesday with stabbing death pains in my abdomen/pelvis{with the beast i might add, i couldn't get a hold of levi at school... i was having a severe breakdown when he finally did show up 2 hours later}i was diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy and was ordered not to move for several days and that the chemo-like medicine they gave me would make me extremely nauseous {which it did. i haven't eaten a normal meal since monday}. thank goodness for fabulous people like mary-anne, sarah, lyndzie and my family who have brought me meals and taken my cute thing away so i could lie in bed and sleep.

also thank goodness that my child is a perfect angel for other people. at least that's what they all say. no breakdowns, no missing mom, he is happy as a clam without us for a couple of days. it makes for easy hand offs, but i do wish he cared a little more lol i guess i can't complain about it too much though.

here's to hoping my medicine is working, so i can go back to being a normal human being who gets dressed and eats.

t-minus 3 months.

2011-07-18T11:45:00.000-06:00

i'm counting down until the beast can go into nursery at church. 18 months seems ages away, but on that day we will celebrate and rejoice for the peace it will bring us. the man is now 15 months old. {i used to hate how people put their kids ages in months, funny how things change.... a year and 3 month, for those who hate it like i did}and he is large and in charge.

this past month has been a whirlwind for the man. after finally learning to walk, he took off. it took a week of the frankenstein arms, but then he was good. he rarely falls down and refuses to hold our hands now when walking unless it's on unsteady ground.

things that he loves/does now:

- he still LOVES his blankie. he now refuses to be taken out of his bed in the morning without his blankie and 4 ft shark.
- he LOVES animals. no matter what size. {giant dog, cats, pigeons, sheep} he will shout with joy, attack them and want to cuddle. he has been licked in the face by several giant dogs and he thinks it's hilarious.

outside our apartment is quite the animal area. the pigeons are a big hit for him, someday when he can run, it will be hilarious. we also have a cat, who drives both him and snickers crazy, as he can never pet her, and she seems to sit outside our window taunting the cat who is not allowed outside.

- he can say quite a few words now, including "momma" "dad" "sippy" "bankie" "titty" "booooo"- book "pppppppp"- up "reat"- treats "key" "teef"- teeth "hiya" "buh-bye". he is very talkative and give you a whole conversation if you talk to him.
- he is beginning to play by himself and i love it. no longer do i need to entertain him all the time, he can do it himself for a little while. he loves to play with him farmhouse and all the animals in it, put things in drawers/trash/toilets, ride his dinosaur, mix stuff in pots and pans etc etc.
- he is OBSESSED with buttons. on anything. elevators, air conditioning units, remotes, microwaves, phones, keyboards... he just wants to push them all.

since we live past the elevator, this is what our walk to and from the car looks like everyday.

- he is very independent. we have been to giant play places and he could care less if he leaves us. he does not look back or even try to find us for at least 30 minutes. it is awesome, but does make me a wee bit sad.
- he loves to put things on his head/around his neck. besides hats. which is very obnoxious, but it's so cute.

- he still wears size 3 shoes. which are for 6-9 month olds. he might have the littlest fattest feet i've ever seen on a 15 month old
- he LOVES mexican food. he will eat almost half a can of refried beans, just scooping them into his mouth off his tray or off the tortilla chip, he also loves tacos, quesadillas, chili beans and salsa.
- he is a very good helper. he usually unloads his bottom drawers and puts them all in his dirty clothes bucket about every other day or so. he will also unload the silverware out of the dishwasher whether it's clean or dirty. but he does know how to put his toys away in the bath and in his bucket, throw his diapers in the trash,and wipe down his high chair when he's finished eating so we are training him well.
- he still loves sesame street. mom can get a ton of cleaning done during that hour. it's fantastic.

as busy as he is now that he can move and reach and get into things, i love this stage of independence he has. being able to understand him {somewhat} and him understanding me is beginning to make life much easier. hurrah for ~~babies~~ big kids!

sucka punch.

2011-07-16T22:56:00.001-06:00

{every post needs a zakary picture right? and i don't know why he never has clothes on here. it's not like it's hot.}

this past week, i have gotten several emails from the Better Business Bureau about our moving company asking if we've gotten our stuff, what we're missing and if we've contacted them within the last week or so.

turns out they're a scam! they're apparently connected to three other previous scam moving companies that rip you off and are jerks and have "F" ratings on the BBB website. when i googled "globe moving and storage" this time around they had about 10 different complaints on various websites with the same story as us! except some people were 78 yr old widows, or didn't get their stuff for a month and a half etc. etc. and they all talked to the same lovely sales man named josh.

this may have made me a little excited. i may have copied and pasted my complaint form into every single rip off/complaint website i could find. i hope they get screwed. and i'm also glad i wasn't crazy for being psycho on them. turns out that's what they do for a living. classy eh? i feel like this should be an episode of white collar or burn notice and they should infiltrate the scammers and shut them down and give us all our money back. aahhh that would be the best day of my life.

genius.

2011-07-14T20:55:00.001-06:00

so the first week of dental school is almost over. i survived. i may have had a slight breakdown yesterday after coming to the realization that i have absolutely no friends here and nothing to do with my life besides clean, cook and play with my child but we're working on improving that. we have a dental school social thing on sunday, and i joined a mothers group today that has playgroups, and book clubs, and scrapbooking cluvbs, and walking clubs, and mom night's out so hopefully i won't be such a loser in the upcoming weeks.

however, i have used my immense amount of spare time to make my genius makeup holder i saw on a blog somewhere {sorry, i don't remember which one} , and on my pinterest.

it's pretty much the easiest thing in the whole world to make. ok, maybe not. but i used a shadow box i bought from roberts arts and crafts when they had a "everything in the whole store is 50% off" sale, so i got it for $10.00, but you can buy a picture frame and it will do the same thing. my brushes box came from an old tea bag container my mom gave me. i bought a piece of metal from home depot for $7.00 and a whole package of scrapbook paper from joann's for $10.00, {and got like 100 sheets in it, so it cost me like a penny}

i modpdged the scrapbook paper on and let it dry, not long enough because my magnets stuck to it, but we won't show you those pictures. anyways, then i hot glued magnets on the back of my makeup {MAKE SURE YOU GLUE THEM VERY GOOD}, which cost $2.00 for 8 of them, and stuck them on. super easy, and awesome. and gets all of my makeup out of my medicine cabinet piled up. i only put the stuff i use frequently on there, which looks like quite a bit apparently. don't judge me.

a little side story for you, one of my makeups may have fallen off it's magnet into the toilet today, and i did not notice until i peed on it. tmi? probably, but it was awesome. luckily it floated, but still. it was classy. hence, the "use lots of hot glue" comment. or maybe don't hang them over the toilet. one or the other.

but after all is said and done, it cost me less than $20.00 and is a cute and easy way to decorate/organize. just don't pee on it.

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2011-07-11T08:40:00.000-06:00

my spouse started dental school this morning. the moment has finally come. no longer will we be watching netflix all day, or going grocery shopping together.... or me going shopping without him and the beast, dang... i'm going to miss that. i regret saying i wanted him to go to school already... but it's only 3 years right? if everyone else can do it, we can too.

we can all tell he's thinking "why do you make me take pictures like this?" i got up and made his lunch this morning for the first time since we've been married. be impressed. and breakfast actually, although it was only a smoothie. i cannot guarantee how many times that will happen because he has to get up at 5:45 everyday. death. do you like his outfit? i picked it out. hehe.

anyways, we have spent our last days of freedom frolicking with our families. we spent the 4th up in reno with mi familia, but alas, i forgot the camera so not one picture from it. fail. but we spent the days at the water park soaking up the 105 degree weather, watching fireworks, and taking pictures for mi madre. it was a good ol' time, though i was very excited to get back to my cool weather.

after that, the lowry's came in to spend the weekend with us for levi's family orientation. we went on a sf dinner cruise on friday night, which was very fun. it was a little chilly, but we survived and got some cute pics out of it.

saturday we spent time at UoP getting a tour {where our child spent most of his time screaming for us to allow him to push the elevator buttons.... he's a little obsessed. and with a group of 20 squished into the elevator, it makes for a lovely time}, having lunch with the dean, and getting the low down on how miserable the next three years will be, and that we should be supportive. no seriously, that's what they said. nice eh?

trivia: did you know that pacific was founded in 1851? who knew they had dentists back in those days? did you know they have 200 chairs in their clinic to treat people everyday? it's a little insane to look at. and also, did you know they accept 140 people out of 3500 applicants? i don't mean to brag, but my husband is a genius.

after the uplifting messages about how dental school sucks, we decided to hit the wharf for some ghiradelli's sundaes. ummm.... they're incredible. yes, i have had them before, but the peanut butter, milk chocolate sundae is to die for! i could eat like four of them. afterwards, we headed up the golden gate bridge to sausalito, to have dinner on the wharf without all the nutso tourists. {because we are no longer tourists. hehehe}it was a grand ol' time, we will be going up there more often i think....

yesterday we spent the day up at the beach house with my grandma and mom, because the weather doesn't suck there, and her house is cooler than mine.

and today.... who knows what we will do today. seriously though, i need to find some friends now.

and to make your day just a little bit brighter:

happy monday!

too much.

2011-06-30T13:50:00.000-06:00

we have too much time on our hands here. today i have: watched 6 episodes of numbers, made a bunting flag, ~~painted~~ messed up a mirror, taken a nap, and made lunch & dinner. my husband's schedule is the same, except his involves a shower and fixing the high chair. classy, i know. not that i want to get rid of my husband by any means, but i need a schedule for my life... meaning he needs to go do something during the day.also, i need to find something to do during the day. i think not having any school to do is going to be harder than i thought. maybe the fact that i don't have any friends might have something to do with it too. in any case, i need to find something to do.

anyways, don't get the idea i don't love hanging out with my fandamily, i just need something more meaningful than netflix in my life. however, i did find out something helpful today:

never did i imagine my child being able to sit in front of the tv, but lo and behold elmo has the charm. he sat there for 30 minutes, just mesmerized. i feel like i shouldn't be proud of him for this, but i am. it's nice to know that there is something that entertains him for the time i am chopping onions and he's screaming for me to pick him up and put him on the counter.

doesn't he just look like a character? i love him walking around with his blankie though. it's precious.

the story of my life. if you could hear the noise going on between the two, when this was taken, you'd be impressed.

here is his flag for his room. it's awesome if i do say so myself.

the beast has been getting better at walking, so here is a video to prove that we are awesome parents. watch all the way til the end, and tell me you don't laugh at him. i had to cut off the end so i didn't look like a jerk.

poor baby.

obsessed much.

2011-06-28T22:41:00.001-06:00

ok. remember how i said i love damask print? well i still do. maybe a little too much. i have been re-doing some of my previous craft-scapades, to match our place, and i love them. and yes, they are all damask.

unfortunately, i cannot find my previous decoration pictures, so these will have to suffice.

my to do list:

my new menu board:

i have been dying to buy new sheets and duvet cover, blue and white is BORING. but all the ones i want are about $100. and those were the cheap ones. my husband said we need to "look at the budget" .... aka "we should not be spending $100 on random crap we don't need" so i conceded and said "what if i remake our headboard". with my coupons to joann's, it cost me $15.00. score.

my new headboard. my spouse actually said he "liked the fabric". who knew he would ever say that?

headboard:

next up: penant flag for zak's room. his room is so boring without my precious fishies i painted. i have no idea what to do with it.

next next up: our bathrooms. what can you do in a room that gets all wet?

p.s. the child walks now! 15 months later! he literally just got up and walked one day, like we knew he would. and also, he and the cat are a little out of control. they have escaped out of the house together twice. and he's only 1. i don't know who's the instigator but it's a little ridiculous.

for reals this time.

2011-06-23T22:34:00.000-06:00

sometimes i feel lame for posting my pictures on facebook and then writing a blog about it, like everyone who's going to read this has already seen them. but this gets more detail so i figure if you don't want to read it, you can ignore my posting about posts on facebook.

anyways, our movers got here on monday! hallelujah. now before you ask, no we did not pay them less/nothing, and no, i don't think we're going to get a refund despite how hard i try. they are jack&^%#@. and i hate them. the problem with moving companies is that the movers don't know what's going on, they just pick up and drop off stuff. and he wouldn't give us our stuff without us paying beforehand. sooo we paid them. the lovely learning experience is over now, thank goodness, but we all know: don't ever move with GLOBAL MOVING.

ok, i'm done ranting about those piece of junk people. we have spent the last several days unpacking, hanging things, cleaning and making our house much more liveable. and i have to say, i just love it. it feels so much bigger than our old place because of the tall ceilings, when it's only about 300 sq. feet larger, which i guess is enough to make a difference too.

this is the view i see while making dinner. scene: baby trying to snatch dad's new macbook. dad trying to keep him very far away.

most of these pictures will be the same as a couple posts ago, but with stuff in it.

the kitchen and dining room:

yes, these magnets are awesome. they entertain the child while i have to clean out the bath tub from little accidents during the bath.

the bathroom:

one thing i love about this place is how the bathroom is right next to the kitchen. i can clean up dinner and contain the beast in the bath at the same time because i can see him.

he has this new found obsession with lifting up the toilet lid and swirling his hands around in it. it's awesome. we need some locks. like in baby mama. haha i need to watch that movie now... if you haven't, you should. it's awesome.

the living room:

my frame wall is awesome. it's missing a couple right now, because i ran out of frames {the walls in this place are gigantic!!} it's also going to have an "L" in the middle of it too when i get around to buying it. i have been met with some resistance about the wall with no pictures in the frames, but i seriously love it. type in "frame wall" in google and you can see how popular it is becoming. and it's such a cheap, easy decoration! spray paint and thrift stores are a wonderful thing

this is my new couch. we bought it on amazon, who knew you could buy furniture on there? i didn't. it's much more awesome than the one we were going to buy at ikea.... so good thing it was sold out when we went.

this is my husband's pride and joy. i'm pretty sure i've never seen him so excited for anything in my entire life of knowing him. even us getting married might have been surpassed. he's saved up his money for about two years, but then it had to go to his ACL surgery, so he had to start over. and he finally had enough.

funny story about the tv stand. it was an entertainment center... but then someone bought a tv that was too big to fit into it. i almost cried. we bought that entertainment center in march and stored it waiting for our new place. it was awesome. but we spent more on the tv than the stand.... so the top of it went bye bye. it's ok though, i think it looks fine now, maybe even better than with the hutch with the window behind it.

the office:

my craft desk. a little disorganized due to levi not having a desk yet, so his stuff's on mine but it's so nice to have a place to put stuff! and this desk will be painted very soon. too bad my spouse won't let me paint his. i think he thinks i've gone a little nutso with spray paint. actually, i know he thinks that.... but for $3.00 i will take it. and it's awesomeness.

the beasty's room:

these applique's are awesome. i love how cute they are, and they don't take paint off, and are educational, someday we'll sing the ABC song while i'm pointing to them. i have visions of this =)

this is only part of his room, because we can't put his crib together due to the movers losing the bolts sooo it's all on the floor. i need to think of some decorations for his room. i'm envisioning a banner going across his window/wall, not sure yet... the walls here are just so tall i don't know how to cover them! and especially with not being able to paint, i'm lacking in ideas. any suggestions will be put in for consideration. =)

snicker's bathroom:

this hasn't changed much since we first moved in. i still love the shower curtain. i need some decorations for here too. what can go in the bathroom?? pictures will get all soggy, not that we've ever used the shower in there.... i need some ideas.

our bedroom:

our closet is awesome. i dig it immensely. i've been waiting my whole life for a walk in closet.

our room is seriously lacking in decorations. my awesome headboard i made a while ago needs to be revamped.... creme on creme walls just doesn't work. it was perfect with our navy blue walls, but unfortunately not anymore. i need to stalk some more blogs to decide what i can do for cheap in here.

so there it is... with all our stuff in it, hurrah hurrah! i am taking suggestions for stuff to add to our house, please leave an insightful/amazing comment for me to do!

zooness.

2011-06-17T21:31:00.000-06:00

have i mentioned that i love SF? it's pretty much awesome. we got passes to the SZ zoo for $100 bucks! for the family too, it's fabulous. anyways, since we have no furniture still {we talked to the driver today, he said he thinks he'll be here on monday. finally}we have spent several days going around the zoo. it's huge! like 4 times the size of the hogle zoo, and 100 times cooler.

also, i've been loving the cross process thing on picnik, it's also fabulous. for some reason i think it adds so much to pictures. fun fun. anyways, here are some of the awesome pictures from the zoo, in case you haven't stalked them on facebook.

i feel like we will be spending a lot of time here while my husband does boring stuff ALL day. it's pretty awesome though.

these are anteaters, baby anteater is on top of mommy anteater. who knew they were so furry?!

baby big kid.

2011-06-16T12:53:00.002-06:00

i feel like i haven't posted about the beast in quite some time. probably because all i've done is go on vacation and rant about our movers. {have i mentioned our stuff still isn't here??!} so, so i don't forget, here is the little man at 14 months now!

- he still does not walk. nor is he getting close to doing it by himself. he just started reaching for us so he could walk with us, sooo hopefully we're moving in the right direction. we may just have the laziest kid on the planet. we've tried all the tricks to get him to keep walking after we let go, and he just sits right down and crawls. it's ridiculous.

- he loves any corner of anything soft. usually it's his two blankies, {one of which we keep in the car to make for happier trips. he will literally sit there, rub the corners of it and suck his thumb and not make one peep, which is impressive for the child who talks ALL the time}but if the blankie isn't there, it's the corner of the washcloth in the bath, mom's pillow, dish towels etc etc.

- he uses almost anything like a phone, holding it up to his ear... things such as his toy cell phone, ours, remotes, muffins, his hand, etc etc.

- he can say "hi-ya"- hi "ti-tty"- kitty, "na-na"- banana, "momamamama"- momma, "dadadadadada"- dad "tank to"- thank you "uh-oh"- self explanatory

- he understands so much more than we thought he did, so far he knows the words: book, ball, ipod, shoe, shark, sippy, treats, bath, snickers, wait, all done, more, be soft, blankie, bed time, and others i'm sure, i just can't remember. we can tell with most of the nouns because he'll go get the item when we tell him to. i tried to get a video of it, but he gets distracted by it and refuses to cooperate.

- he loves his shark. best $20 at ikea we ever spent.

- he has gotten much better at not throwing things over the edge of his high chair, he now holds it out and waits for us to come get it, love that!

- he can point to what he wants! also love that!!

- since moving here, he's learned how to go backwards down the stairs. considering there's three sets of them, that makes it very handy.

- he has become even more ridiculously cheesy. he's very much the entertainer child and will put on a show for anyone besides his parents, especially at dinner time. that results in screaming, sporadic laughing, shoving too much in his mouth and somewhat choking/spitting it out etc etc.

besides the fact that he still does not walk, he is quite a little man. he's got his own agenda now, pulling us to where he wants to go and yelling when we don't listen. as much of a hassle it will be when he can walk, i can't wait! he's been crawling for 6 months!

so close yet so far.

2011-06-09T22:35:00.001-06:00

we thought by now we'd have 90% of our boxes unpacked, and would be living the california dream. are we you ask? nope, that's not the case. how many boxes do we have here? 20, the ones we brought with us on the drive. are we living the california dream? temporarily.... but not nearly as much as we could be.

{this is how i felt too while waiting all day for them... he actually just didn't want to touch the grass, but his face is awesome}

let's back up.... movers are supposed to arrive last monday-- tuesday as their back up day. when did they come? tuesday at 6:00 pm. did they tell us 24 hours ahead of time? no. did they tell us we were supposed to have 1/2 our payment ready in cash or money order? no. {luckily the guy took pity on us, and just took our $250.00 instead of $750.00. did they tell us it was going to cost double the estimate? yes, as soon as they got there. lovely. but we got it packed up and on it's way, starting to live the dream heading west. =)

{the end}

{longboarding with josh. apparently he thinks it's cool}

{snickers is worried. and hates being locked in her bathroom}

{stuffed to the brim. literally... there was stuff on top too. we figured, hey why not stuff the cars and the movers will cost less right? wrong.}

{this lasted all of getting to orem, aka 15 minutes}

{this was the rest of the trip. he was fierce. and bored. and very tired of sitting in the car after half an hour. needless to say, it was a long drive to reno}

when we finally arrived in reno, 10 hours later {it usually only takes 8} the child decided to sleep the next 24 hours. literally.... he took a 5 hour nap the next day when i was trying to go to home goods to score some things for our place, so we went to lunch at 3:00 instead of 12:00. he had had a fever the couple days before, and that along with the car ride made for an enjoyable move. it has taken almost a week for him to recover and not be as sad/whiny/miserable. thank goodness. i called the moving company to get our new estimate for the move, and they didn't have it yet. figures. nor did they know when it was going to get to our place. also figures.

we spent thursday with my fam and then drove down on friday morning... we got our keys, unloaded our stuffed car and then headed for the beach house to make the rest of our move peaceful and enjoyable. minus the pouring rain saturday, it was delightful. baby was slowly recovering, i had deeeelicious waffles with carmelized bananas at the cafe down the street and the sunshine was wonderful.

{doesn't that just look fake? it's not. it's our view. talk about fantastic}

our stuff was supposed to be here between saturday and tuesday keep that in mind... we went home sunday in case they came monday, so we wouldn't have to drive an hour and a half and slept like we have the rest of the past month it feels like, on air mattresses. monday comes.... no calls from the movers. i called over the weekend and left a nasty message saying i wanted my estimate and when it was going to be there. nothing.

tuesday comes, the last day our stuffs supposed to be here, and we're going to ikea to buy a fantastic couch, that has a hideabed and a chaise lounge. lo and behold, the movers call on the way! no, not to tell me that our stuff is going to be there that evening, but to say it won't be there until saturday... anger. and then ikea apparently doesn't sell our couch anymore until august. i may or may not have almost had a breakdown in the store.

after my slight breakdown, we ended up buying a kitchen table, i think my husband took pity on me and bought it because it was the only one i liked. he's so nice.

we also got some nightstands, and a chair for the living room, since we have nothing to sit on. it is thursday now, and we still have not heard from the movers, they were supposed to call back and give me a lower price because i was very angry, but they have not. story of our life. they probably took our stuff and ran. good thing it's not worth much.

anyways, getting past my extreme resentment for global moving & storage, california is awesome! our place is fantastic, and .3 miles away from Nordstrom Rack {woot woot}, Joann's, Target, Sweet Tomatoes, Home Depot, Chipotle, Starbucks, the mall etc etc. minus the thousands of cemeteries around, colma has a lot going for it. it's pretty much rad. it gets sunny around lunch time every day and is about 65 degrees all the time.

how zak and snickers feel:

while having nothing to unpack, i spent this past week thrifting away, and i am loving it! here are some of my scores:

i got this awesome lamp for $6.00, it was originally blue, so i painted it copper and then sanded it down to show some of the blue. i dig it. my husband does not like spray paint or seeing the sandpaper scratches, but i think it's kinda unique. also, i'm not sure what to do with the shade, but it does need to be cleaned, that's for sure.

i got this awesome treasure for $7.00! we haven't decided what to do with it yet, we're waiting until our entertainment center gets here, but it is awesome. check out the knob, the whole reason i bought it.

this high chair had a huge divet in the tray and was a nasty color oak. man, i should have taken before pictures. i filled it in with wood putty and painted it green to match our kitchen, and think it looks awesome. levi again, not a big fan of spray paint, but doesn't abhor it as much as he thought he would.

my sugar and flour containers, $5.00 a piece. yes and yes. they are awesome. and huge.

this crystal jar was $2.00. it had a lid with it, but levi said it looked like it should hold whiskey so i took it off. but i filled it with $3.00 marble things i got at target. it's going to go in our entertainment center cubby things.

i got this little gem for $2.25. right now it's our crap holder... i'm not sure what we will actually use it for, but it's handy to hold the receipts to things we're going to return.

and now, i am very excited to debut our house on here, please forgive the air mattresses, boxes and suitcases... i figured by now we'd have stuff settled at least, but no. so real pictures will come soon, until then you can see our makeshift house.

the kitchen. is even more fabulous in person. it's huge. and new. minus the sink, it's gay and tiny, but i can deal with that.

downstairs bathroom, which looks very bare from this picture. we need some decorating ideas for this. there's a rack going over the toilet, but we have no tools to put it up yet.

i do really love the colors in here though. i found some awesome tins in goodwill that match and have french stuff written on them, but i forgot to take a picture of them.

PANTRY. win. end of story. many dollars at costco later, and it's still not even close to being full!

midget closet but bigger! it is a dumb coat closet with no coat rack though, that we will be working on...

our living room. it need some stuff in it. like a couch {stupid ikea} and a tv and entertainment center. but it's still awesome.

the office/grandma's sleeping quarters for the last several days. i can't wait for my craft desk!

the stairs.

our closet. please disregard our tons of clothes on the floor/shelves. we were very excited to get our stuff out of the suitcases they've been in since the end of april, so this is much improved.

our room. you know you like our legit bed. the lamps look weird in this picture, but they're really cute in person, i'll have to get a better picture of them.

the view from our room. it looks tiny down there!

zak's room.

he has the sweet bathroom. and side by side closets for all of our camping stuff we never use.

i really love my shower curtain. i think i'm going to use this bathroom just so i can look at it.

the cat has claimed his bathroom as hers, and will let you know it if you try and pee in the middle of the night. you will almost sit on her.

this is zak's shark. he needs to sleep with it every night. and it is huge. i should post a video of how much he loves it, because it's hilarious.

our patio, with the flowers i bought. sunflowers, gerber daisys and begonias. i also painted those pots. well, the shiny ones... no plastic looking ones for me. we're legit here. =)

that is our place for the moment. it will get better with my superior decorating skills. haha, just kidding, but i am very excited to get going on it. hopefully sometime in the future our stuff will get here so we can do that.

man, i just scrolled up and this post is ridiculously long. sorry guys. least it's not only about our child for once right? =)

finito.

2011-05-30T21:42:00.001-06:00

this will be my last post ever from the house we live in now. so crazy to think that... our boxes are packed, junk given to DI, walls painted for kassie to move into, killed the fish we were selling today {turns out they only wanted the tank anyways so nbd}... now all we need now is some movers to come take it away tomorrow. finally! i feel like i've been waiting for this for AGES!

anyways, our vacationing is over. feels like we've been doing it forever. not like i'm complaining, but i'm pretty sure we've spent more time away from our house than home. how can we tell? because snickers becomes more and more neurotic the more we come home. poor kitty. she needs a good home, but i guess we won't be traveling for a while so we can keep her. i keep telling my husband we need to get a friend for her, but he refuses. now back to the details you really wanted to hear about, the middle of nowhere.

i thought for sure when my husband said they went to montana on vacation, it would be some resort like thing with things to do around it because it just has to be in montana, buuut i was kind of wrong. it's on a golf course... in the middle of nowhere. with nothing to do. and as we are driving the 11 hour drive there, we see this:

interesting story about this, the road we were on had NO gas for probably about 100 miles at least. this place called Ovando {we should have known by the name} had a huge sign for gas, and we were veeerrrrryyyy low so we pulled off to go to their little town. and this is what we saw. not only that, but we were about 30 minutes past closing time at 5:00. so no gas for us. however, you'll be happy to know that we did find one about 20 miles down the road. thank goodness.

you know you like this stoplight. how montanan's get it done. do you like the road that cuts across? oh wait, it isn't a road. do you see the ton of people coming from the way in front of us? nooo you don't. turns out there was construction about one mile ahead of this stupid light... good thing my husband didn't listen to me when i told him to screw it and go around like several other cars did. that would have been embarassing.

there are no bathrooms in montana. i had to pee. so i peed behind a bush, which is something i've never done before. someone also honked at me. i hope they got a good view of my delicious booot-ee. and this picture documents the view i saw as i squatted. you know you all wanted to know that as well.

i may or may not have been terrified of this place. i'm not a real country girl in case you couldn't tell. i don't hike or camp. i did not bring tennis shoes to walk in the dirt in. or jeans to get dirty. and then we passed some trailers on the way into the resort and he said that's what we were staying in. trying not to say anything rude.... i just laughed to myself, turns out he was kidding. jerk.

on a lighter note. my baby did sooo good in the car! i was a little worried from previous car experiences when he screamed the entire way to phoenix, but he was an angel! we kept feeding him and he was pretty much good to go. we let him out in the play place at mcdonald's {yes, i sacrifice my food so that my child can play around. mcdonalds may be the grossest fast food place ever}and he was a wild thing. when he got grouchy, we turned on some ke$sha and he was good to go, seriously though, he loves music.

dad is bored.

i don't have very many pictures of us while we were actually there, since it rained pretty much the entire time. ugh. luckily this was not like the previous lowry vacation which involved us 1. being married 2 weeks, 2. sleeping in a tent because there was no room for us on the houseboat 3. it raining the entire time while we are sleeping in the tent 4. me having a uti and thinking i was going to die. that time we went home early because i was going to have a breakdown. this time, we survived the rain because they had a pool. and a semi-mall with a store call herbergers {in between macy's and jcpenny, but terrible name right??} where we got some makeovers, and our own room.

but the first day we visited some other lowry clan and had a grand ol' time.

they have a fabulous yard on the lake, which i think i need someday. the little kiddos had a blast rolling down the hill, sitting in the innertube, trying to slide down the hill in the innertube. also, i can't say enough how badly i need a girl the next time around. madilyn is soo stinking cute.i'm cursing myself writing this, i just know it.

zak had a fabulous time with his cousins, last time he saw them at christmas, markus didn't do much, and thomas was too all over the place for zak to follow. buuut now that he can crawl, he's much more involved. the child LOVES to sit on the counter and watch us cook. i blame it on all the times he sat in the bumbo watching, but i'm not complaining, he literally just sits there, no squirming or anything. he also likes to drink soda {not pop}. or pretend to anyways.

we went to a firepit country-song singing party while we were there. and learned lots about montana history. i kinda dug it to be honest. they played guitar and the fiddle and were hilarious.

and that pretty much sums up the entire week. levi golfed his brains out, every day for 4 hours in the rain, and we either took naps, or went to the pool. not much else. it was very fun to see everyone and hang out without pressing things to do like graduation etc etc.

next post: leaving utah and coming to san fran! huzzah huzzah! huzzah huzzah! seriously though. i'm so excited.

miracle of miracles.

2011-05-17T18:39:00.000-06:00

mom and dad: for the win

lo and behold this weekend my son decided he liked food. it took us eating the food before him and then giving him a piece for him to realize he liked to eat. and not just sandwiches. refried beans, tortilla chips, cafe rio chicken and tortillas, ham, broccoli, alfredo pasta. it's amazing. after 3 months of him eating nothing but scrambled eggs and the all encompassing smoothies {i pretty much juiced every type of vegetable such as beets, carrots, celery, peppers, spinach and blended it up with some strawberries, bananas, apples and some whey protein powder and that is what he ate every day}. this is awesome. you have no idea.

love. beach. barf.

2011-05-07T21:07:00.000-06:00

prepare for a picture overload. we returned from the beach this afternoon {yes, i know. i'm so prompt. i have realized if i don't do this blogging thing quick i don't do it at all. and plus my child went to bed veeery early from being sick and not taking a nap today, so i had nothing better to do besides unpack. which sucks.}

our trip was fabulous. every second of it, until today, was awesome. more on that part later. my parents gave us a trip to cocoa beach, florida for graduation, and i was much looking forward to it. my smart mom decided to buy him his own seat, which was awesome considering our flights were packed and he refused to sit in his seat.

this is what most of the flight consisted of. i figured with him being on more than 20 flights in his little life time that he would be used to it, but being mobile ruined that for us. we had to walk down the aisle about 200 times. good thing everyone thought he was just so cute, because otherwise he was just obnoxious to everyone else on the plane.

these are the reasons i love the beach, sorry there's so many:

i figured the babe and the boy {you can decide who's name goes with who} would be bored out of their minds at the beach, but they did fabulous! levi read many books and built moats and sandcastles, and the beast just helped destroy castles, ate seaweed and sand and played in the water. i was really surprised how much he loved the beach. takes after his mom, i think. there's a lot of these pictures too, have i mentioned how awesome my camera is? but they all prove how awesome he thinks the beach is. =)

one day we went to the kennedy space center to say we did something else besides just lie on the beach. the fact that i was roasted on my back made that decision easier too. {my husband doesn't know how to put sunscreen on me apparently, though he will say it's not his fault and my legs are just as burnt, which they aren't... but ok}. anyways, we had fun there, and learned lots! if you ever go, the imax movies need to be seen! they're awesome!

represent!

isn't he just so cute? yeah, he is.

doesn't he look like a little surfer dude? we bought that hawaiian shirt just for this trip. he cracks me up.

we ended the trip with the beast waking up at 7:30, unheard of this week, he woke up at 9:00 or 10:00 everyday, i should have taken that as a sign. and i thought he was troublesome on the last flights, he was impossible today. it doesn't help when people are not as loving and forgiving about his screaming either. but then we got on the plane from atlanta to salt lake, 4.5 hours mind you, and he happens to barf ALL over me within the first hour. twice. all down my shirt and pants. but not on my new TOMS thank goodness. besides the fact i was gagging and going to hurl myself, i was almost going to cry. i can't handle barf. spit up, poop whatevs, but i can't do barf. and it was bad. it was terrible. and i smelled like barf all the way home. and he continued to do it the rest of the flight and on the way home. luckily he didn't have much left after the first 7 times. and luckily he had his own seat so he wasn't ralphing all over us the entire time. after his carseat and clothes get washed, i will try and dull the lovely memory of this. but we're still glad to be home.