The Monday Before a 4 Day Weekend

Happy Monday, or something like that...Last week Mini Fox was under the weather, I'll save you the details. Friday rolls around and we hear that she hasn't had any wet diapers since she woke up. And even then her over night diaper didn't have much. She refused to drink anything, Mr. took her to the doctor (I couldn't get home, insert sad face and getting no work done), and the doc said that if she didn't have a wet diaper in a few hours to take her to the ER.

Sick kids is just so sad...she just did this all day long, on who ever would hold her

 So scary trying to get a child who is lethargic and wants nothing to do with eating/drinking to do just that. We had said if nothing happened by 8:30pm that we would take her in, Good news, we did get her to drink enough liquids that she did have a wet diaper, finally...at 8:15pm. Cutting it close there girl!

The kids after they got back from the doctors relaxing together.

Mini Fox slept really great, so Saturday I got up early for my hike. Which turns out the trail was closed, so I went to my usual running spot and did 5 miles. I haven't really run since my half marathon, so I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't have much trouble getting in those miles.

At the car about to start

Half way point, stopped to take a picture before turning around.

I got back and the kids were already up and wanting breakfast, so no shower like I usually get in. A friend had told me about some cupcake pancakes that she made that her kids loved. It sound fun, so I used the idea of Pioneer Woman's recipe, but let's face it Mama doesn't have time for homemade.

I used our favorite pancake mix.

Added a few chocolate chips to some of them.

and out came these gorgeous things...They smelled delicious and I'm told they are very cake like. Baby Fox ate the chocolate chip ones by themselves, and then added some syrup to the plain ones.

I wanted Mini Fox to rest, so they watched Frozen while I cleaned up. We don't normally let Mini Fox use the pacifier, but when she's feeling a little under the weather, anything goes.

Caught them holding hands, so cute.

After the movie the kids had some pent up engery, so we took them to the park. My legs were pretty dead, so I was walking while Baby Fox rode, he didn't understand why I wasn't running next to him.

We had some friends over. Don't worry, full disclosure was given to them about Mini Fox's ailment the day before...they still wanted to hang out.

Sunday we headed to a the girl in the above picture 3rd birthday party.

She was so excited for cake

Not a happy camper...poor thing, the BRAT diet did what it said it would do, but then...well you know how that goes...

At Baby Fox's swim lessons, waiting patiently for it to be over.

We had my parents over for dinner. Actually my parents brought us dinner, it was awesome. Then we watched Sword in the Stone and called it a night.

 Good news, I have another Giveaway for you guys! This time $400 to my favorite store: Nordstrom! Now go meet some new bloggers and get in the running for some money. How would you spend it?

I would get this:

Swim Outfit

or this:

Toss up between these two swim suits. Same idea slightly different colors.

Swim Outfit #2

So here are the important details. Good luck and I hope one of my readers wins!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Prize: $400 Nordstrom Gift Card

Co-hosts: 101 Things I Love / The Palmetto Peaches / Parenting Healthy / Deliciously Savvy / 2 Just B You / Something Gold, Something Blue / Style Tab / The Fashionista Momma / TonieGirl / Peaches In A Pod / Stripes 'n Vibes / Rocks Fashion Bug / The Southern Texas Charm / Jenn's Blah Blah Blog / Prosecco & Plaid / A Good Hue / Foxy's Domestic Side / Chasing My Halo / Cameron Proffitt

Giveaway organized by: Oh My Gosh Beck! (Please email becky@ohmygoshbeck.com with any questions.) 

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter form to enter daily. Giveaway ends 6/4 and is open worldwide. Winner will be notified via email.

Are you a blogger who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your blog? Click here to find out how you can join a totally awesome group of bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Linking up with Faith, Heather and Daily Momvitity for Mommy Moments, Bella & Lisa for Weekend Link-up,  Meg for Mingle Monday, Erin for Weekend Snapshot4, B Loved Boston and Champagne & Suburbs  for Manic Monday, On the Daily Express and More Pieces of Me Monday Madness with Ashley at A Cute Angle

5 Things I Want to Do This Summer

Another Style Me Blogger link up, this time we're talking about Summer Travel Plans or Recommendations. To be honest we don't have anything planned for summer yet. The last thing we had planned on the books was Big Bear and we did that last weekend. But that doesn't mean I don't have big ideas :) So I'm going to start off with 5 things I would like to do this summer.

Do you see that cute seal on the rocks there?

We never went to the beach last summer, it was just too hard with Mini Fox, crawling but not walking and putting everything in her mouth.  Sometimes I think living so close to the beach, we just take it for granted, that it's so close.  When Mini Fox was born we had gone to the beach the day before:

I'm 37 and 6 days pregnant here, I gave birth the very next day. Crazy to think about.

This year we're definitely going to go to the beach. Just once, but hopefully we can go more often.

When Mini Fox was about 6 months old we took both the kids to the San Diego Zoo, I want to take them to the Zoo again this year. This time I think Mini Fox will enjoy it much more. We will NOT be taking the train, that just makes for  super long day!

He was done taking pictures...can you tell?

As usual we're throwing Baby Fox a Half Birthday. This year he wanted it to be a Spiderman theme. I made this invitation last week and ordered them a couple of days ago. I love that I'm starting to get used to using Photoshop Elements, no more paying people on Etsy for me! If anyone wants this invitation, just let me know! More then happy to just switch out the information.

Of course summer is going to end with Mini Fox's birthday, not sure about her theme yet. We were thinking princess, but is that too obvious? She does like Minnie Mouse, so maybe that...hmm...any fun suggestions?

 

I think we're going to try to take one over night or two night trip this summer too. Probably to San Diego, while we're there, we know someone on that Naval base, who said he would give us a tour of the base and the ship. When he told Baby Fox about that, he screamed YEAH!!! So I guess it's something he wants to do :)

 via

Last but certainly not least:

Take more pictures with the kids. Just of everyday life. I am so often behind the camera that I don't think to tell someone to take a picture with me...Most of the pictures I have are me taking a selfie with whoever is with me at the time.

May

April

March

 February

January

Shoes to Shiraz | Two Teens and their Mama | A Lovely Little Wardrobe | 
R Squared  | Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy 

The Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life |  Quilty Joy Joy

 Daily Style Finds | Making The Most of Everyday | Puppies and Pretties | She Thought She Could 

 Foxy's Domestic Side | Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After 

 Curls and Cardigans | Nick and Nik | Sprinkled Just Right | The Blondissima | X-tremely V

An InLinkz Link-up

Also linking up with: Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites,  September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday, 
April. 

Traffic Sucks

I wasn't planning on blogging today, I didn't have time to do anything last night and work has been crazy. But I did want to share this gem. It's raining here in Los Angeles. Like legit raining and you know what that means? It means my commute home looks like this:

See all that red? That's traffic.

The part circled in purple - That's Downtown LA (in case you were wondering)
The pink line at the bottom, that's part of my commute home.

 I'll blow it up for you. I took these at 2:30pm, and I still have an hour left of work. Pray for me.

I might never see you guys again! Okay, not really, but it's going to be a long ride home. In case you were wondering I commute about 100 miles round trip.

And because who wants a post full of Traffic photos besides the traffic guy on TV? My dad was all proud of himself when he came over last night and presented me with a selfie stick. I thought they were dumb and I was going to be a purist, but ya know what? I think they're fun. While you probably won't see me using this outside of my home, I present to you my first selfie stick photos.

Come back tomorrow for another Style Me link up, we are talking about our summer plans.

Also linking up with Amanda, for Thinking Out Loud and Vanessa and Penny for Thinking out Loud, Nicole at Treat Yo' Self Thursday

Simple Outfit + Some Randoms

Sad times here, no more Alison telling me what to wear. But don't fret, the Summer Challenge* is coming in 2 weeks! Come join me and the rest of the ladies as we navigate the summer wardrobe. But for now, this is a dress I picked up at Old Navy. I know, I know some of us Style Challengers said we weren't going to buy anything until the Summer Challenge (which I don't think we realized was going to happen so quickly!) Anyway, they had a buy two get one free clearance items...I had to, right? I found two things for the kids and then couldn't find a third...okay that's not totally true. I did find a shirt for Baby Fox, but it was only $2.50 and I didn't want to waste my free clearance item on something for $2.50. So you see why I had to buy this dress?

It's super comfy and I think it's the perfect dress for the Summer. The eyelets are what gets me, it makes it so I can do this super casual or dress it a up a bit for a GNO, add some cute wedges and a statement necklace, cute cardigan and I'm good to go.

*This is an affiliated link through Get Your Pretty On, I will receive a commission for everyone that buys the challenge through the link.

Onto some Random things lately:

• Guess what I found on Sunday?! I was unpacking the laptop backpack we have, and apparently I haven't used it lately (or in the last 18 months), because I was going through all the pockets and I freakin' found my lost camera! Seriously, it's been over a year and a half and I found it! It had some great picture on it that I thought were lost. I can not believe that I found it! I even bought the same one off a fellow mom in my area, so now I have two of the same camera. The way I look at it, you can never have enough cameras. I am constantly running from room to room trying to find my camera. Now I can keep one in my purse all the time and one around the house, perfect. You have no idea how happy that made me.

•  This whole no shopping thing is hard. Enough said, The girls said that they weren't going to shop till the Summer Challenge, not realizing it's this month, I told myself I wans't going to shop until the Nordstroms Anniversary sale, usually around the beginning of July. I can do this! I guess I'll have to shop my closet for the Summer Challenge*.

•  The outfit posts from here on out will be with my new Canon 70D camera! I can't wait to start using it. So far I absolutely LOVE it! 
• Side Note: Costco has all of the Canon DSLR's on a great sale, if you're thinking about getting one, I highly recommend that you go through Costco, best deal I found out there. (nope this isn't a sponsored thing, I just thought it was a great deal)
• Another Side Note: Can you tell I love cameras?

• I'm still having issues with my video editing program, Adobe Premiere Elements. Mr. thinks he figured out the problem. We'll see, I'm going to test it out this week/weekend. I'm still going to do the Vlog I took at the beginning of the month, I have the footage...it will only be 3 weeks later, but hey a day is a day right? You'll still watch it?

• Last thing while out getting dinner on Thursday we were walking to the grocery store to pick up some Hummus to go along with dinner, and he always has to stop by the dance studio to watch all of the ballroom dancing. He's been doing it since he could walk, get ready So You Think You Can Dance 2030, we're coming for you!

What are you randoms today?

Linking up with Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy, Tucker Up , Shopping my Closet and Molly and Carly for Let it Shine