I was obsessed.

Last month we were driving in the car, cruising down the road into the countryside, headed to a new (to us) pumpkin patch, when out of the corned of my eye I see this old abandoned tiffany blue house.

I jumped a little in my seat & said "Oh my gosh! That house! Honey, did you see that old house back there?! I love it! It was perfect! We have to come back there and take pictures! Oh!! For the Christmas card! I have to go back there..."

And  TJ just looks at me like "Ok, babe, sure. Whatever, just calm down"

Now, we were about 20-25mins from our house, in a nearby small town, driving on an unfamiliar, quiet country road & I had no idea where EXACTLY we were right when I spotted that house but I became obsessed right in that moment and just knew I had to find my way back within the next few days.

Fast forward 4 days, it's a weekday, the boys & I  wake up to get ready for school &  I realize, yay!

Isaiah has the day off!! So what are our plans for the day?

FIND THAT BLUE HOUSE!

I dig through their closets & the ridiculous amount of clothing they own and find these coordinating sweaters that I had totally forgot I bought them!

Perfection!

I pack a lunch, some fruit snacks for bribes & off we go.

And guess what!? I found the house!

And these are the photo's I managed to get from the two whiney & freezing cold children ;)

Isn't the house wonderful? I love it

So, I did it!

I got some shots for our Christmas Card!

:)

And I'm SO EXCITED about mailing them out this year b/c in August of this year I won a bloggy giveaway and the prize was 50 amazing cards from Doodlebug Dezigns!!

I can't say enough good things about this company, seriously.

Amy is so sweet & so friendly and was an absolute pleasure to work with. 

Since I had won the giveaway I was unsure if it'd be ok to come up with something more custom together or if she'd prefer me to stick to a pre-designed layout (which are all absolutely darling!!) and she warmly reassured me by saying "Do not worry about that because we still want them perfect- even though you won them!"

Isn't that awesome!?

I had so many ideas in my head and when she sent me the proof and I made some changes or something else I wanted to incorporate popped into my head & I contacted her, Amy was ever obliging to make my dreams for this card come true.

And when they were done she shipped them off to me & they arrived in TWO DAYS!

These are by far my favorite Christmas cards that we've had and I can't wait to be able to show you guys on the blog & hand them out to friends & family this Christmas :)

To Write Love on Her Arms.

Today is To Write Love On Her Arms Day.

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. 

TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

To Write Love On Her Arms Day is a day where anyone can write the words love on their arms, to support those who are fighting against depression and those who are trying to recovering. 

On this day, just write love on your arms, and show it off, other people will ask why you have love written on your arms, and you tell them you are supporting to write love on her arms day, and how its benefiting a non profit organization helping stop depression. 




On November 13th 2009, thousands of people nationwide will be writing "love" on their arms.

Why?
To raise awareness of depression/self mutilation/suicide.

Every year there are over 33.000 suicides in America.

Firearms are used more in suicides than in homicides.
It has been calculated that for every suicide, there are about 20 suicide attempts.

On Nov 13th, by simply writing "love" on your arm, you are giving people something to question.
With every question comes an answer.

And with every answer comes a sense of hope. 
♥ 

make love the movement ♥ 

♥

I love that I control my happiness.

I control who & what I let affect me.

I control whether or not I let somone’s opinions influence the way

 that I live MY life.

I live in this moment & this moment is my life.

 I am beautiful.

I am a child of the King. 

I am fearfully & wonderfully made. 

You are too. 

Believe it. Live it. Love it.

Hide N Seek

Do you see the wallet the in this picture??

Yeah, I almost didn't either :p

I was unloading my bags from the cart into the car (WHY bags with an "s" I'll never know, I went in for ONE THING people! And left with $45 worth of stuff. Every.single.time.) and when I glanced over to make sure I had gotten everything, something made me take a closer look. Thank God for that closer look!

Like Target doesn't get enough of my money as it is! ; ) LOL!

What's the latest big mistake you almost made?

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

heyyyy, itsa mehhhh marrrrio! {{and luigi too!}}

oh yeah, and we can't forget about Toad! ;)

Halloween was a blast this year, we had so much fun & I think the boys costumes ended up being a hit, what do you think?

I hope all of you had a fabulous Halloween, and if you still have some leftover candy, eat a Twix for me wouldja? They're my faves!

:)

Happy Fall Y'all!

We visited a couple pumpkin patches this year, because the boys just couldn't wait till the week of to carve their pumpkins, oh the anticipation!

(we usually wait until 2-3 days before Halloween so they don't get all mushy/moldy/buggy)

So the boys & I stopped at a roadside patch to pick out a couple smaller ones that they could paint last week and ohhh boy did they paint! ;)

And then "finalllyyyyy", (in the words of Isaiah), we headed out this past weekend to pick out our big pumpkins!

 Last night we sat down to our annual tradition of carving the Jack-o-Lanterns to stick on our front step before Halloween.

Like last year, we usually watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while carving but this year I was so bummed to find that I had forgotten to set the DVR when it had aired the night before, aww man! 

But that's ok, we went ahead and carved those pumpkins anyway ;-)

Isaiah drew the face on his own pumpkin & then had a little help from Mama carving it b/c WOW, our pumpkins were solid this year!

Malachi on the other hand dictated to me exactly what he wanted drawn on his pumpkin's face & Daddy carved out his masterpiece for him. They both helped scoop out the icky guys & are so excited to bake the pumpkin seeds tonight, we've been letting them soak in salt water, yum!

While TJ always likes to get creative with his pumpkins (and does a ridiculous job each year!) this was my first time attempting something other than 2 triangle eyes, a triangle nose & a toothy grin.

I ♥ Hello Kitty so naturally I just had to give her a try. And while she turned out a wee bit wonky, she's still recognizable right? haha. :)

How did your pumpkins turn out? Anyone try anything "fancy" for the first time like me?

(fancy used in the loosest way possible lol!)

I hope everyone has a super fun & safe Halloween 

this year!

my first makeover!

This weekend a friend on Facebook posted that she had an old dresser that they were getting rid of and if anybody wanted to come over and get it, they could!

I  was downtown thrifting at the time, and actually lusting over THIS piece of vintage furniture, so when I saw that she was giving away a FREE vintage piece, as soon as I was done I decided to swing by the house and check it out.

As soon as I saw it I had visions of what it could be, I wanted to paint it and use it as a tv stand in our living room!

I had purchased this paint from the "oops bin" at Home Depot some months ago and didn't have any plans for it as of yet, but now? I did! And I was so excited!

 I begged asked TJ to go by and pick it up and bring back home to me so I could get to work on it.

This was my first major project & I was excited!

:)

That night I went out and bought some sand paper and wood putty (it had some gouges in the top of it) and raced back home to get started.

All day Monday I painted and waited, painted and waited until alas! It was finished.

The spray paint I got for the hardware didn't turn out quite as orange as I had hoped...

It actually looks more like a rusty red in person.

So, I'll be going back for more spray paint to fix those but for now I'm loving this little pop of color in our lives!

What do you think?

hey, guess what? I saved a life today.

It was easy, You can too!

And there were snacks! 

Y'all know how I love a good snack! ;)

When we were kids my mom used to faithfully visit the Central Valley Blood Bank every 8 wks and donate blood.

My brothers and I LOVED going with my mom when she gave blood, let me tell you why. 

The blood bank has a "refreshment area" where they have you sit for 15mins after you donate to make sure you feel A-OK before you leave. After my mom was done donating we got to leave the kid zone (where we sat reading & watching movies) and go sit in the refreshment area with her. 

There was popcorn, every Hostess snack you can imagine, ice cream, juice, soda, chips and we would CHOW DOWN.

Now, I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to be stuffing our faces but they let us and lemme tell you, it was yummy.

Those memories are a big part of my childhood 

(& not solely b/c of the free popcorn & soda, although that OBVIOUSLY played a huge role) 

but also b/c I thought it was so cool that my mom was helping save someone's life by doing something so simple.

I hadn't donated before today due to restrictions 

(recent tattoo, piercing, pregnancy, nursing)

 but today for some reason it just dawned on me that I could indeed, DONATE BLOOD!

So I went. 

It was super easy, it barely hurt more than a pinch and it took up a mere 40mins out of my day.

Awesome right?!

Here's something else to think about.

Every 2 seconds, someone in the United States needs blood.

That's a whole lot of blood right?

Say (god forbid) you were in an accident and lost a lot of blood...you would expect to receive the blood you needed in order to be treated & get well, right?

Where's that blood coming from??

DONATIONS! 

:)

Check out the 10 Ten Reasons to Donate and then click here to find a place where you can donate & become someone's hero.

Also?

You get a cool sticker to wear.

See?

DO IT.

tonight.

these 2 girls, are going to

  to go see

these 3 guys, 

who you probably remember looking like this,

;)

IN CONCERT!!

The 12 year old inside me who has been waiting for this moment all her life is SO much more excited than I could express to you right now!

LOL!

WOOOOO!

mmmbop!

San Fran Snippets.

This weekend my boys & I took a day trip to the bay area to go visit my brother and dilly dally in San Francisco for a bit! 

The morning of the trip Malachi woke up with a fever & wasn't feeling so well 

but being the great mom that I am (insert sarcasm here), 

I dosed him up with Tylenol and off we went!

Well, turns out that bringing a sicky 3yr old on a trip to a chilly & windy city isn't the best of ideas when you're looking to have a grand time snapping photographs of the eclectic city or trying to do ANYTHING really that doesn't involve holding or cuddling the little sickling. 

Buuuut, that's ok.

;)

In the end I did come home with a few fun photos, I got to eat a fresh crab, we drove across the  

Golden Gate Bridge & my boys actually got to ride a cable car for the first time.

Isaiah even hung on the side with my mom! He had a blast :)

 First up was a visit to my brother Joraie in Hayward!

:)

We heart him.

And then we were off to San Francisco!

 

The weather was gorgeous on our way in,

 but as we neared the bridge it got really foggy!

So, between wiping boogers and grabbing for my camera as I realized where we were, this is the shot I got. ha.

Lamesauce.

  

But once we were in the city is was sunny again,

Hooray!

The highlight of this trip,

aside from me getting to eat one of these delicious bad boys,

was getting to ride the cable cars!

 

ding! ding!

  In line at the depot in Ghiradelli Square.

Patiently waiting his turn, it was a long line!

WooHoo! We're on!

:)

Isaiah had such a great time riding it, I think we were on it for about an hour but he was still disappointed when it was time to get off! 

haha!

But this little guy? 

 Not so much,

He was ready to go home ;)

So home we went.

Thanks for the fun San Francisco,

See you next time!