thanksgiving.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. =)