Busy Weekend, Like All Of Our Weekends Seem To Be

Happy Monday! Party week going on over here, something Mr. coined a while back - the week before a party he doesn't see me because I'm so busy getting ready for the party, so he calls it party week. Thursday we went to a friends house for dinner. Their daughter is just the cutest. She just turned 3 last week. Her Mom and I have been friends since 7th grade, crazy right?

Yep there's that crown again on Mini Fox

Friday was my day off, I had a few things to return so off Mini Fox and I went to the mall after dropping Baby Fox off at school.

Baby Fox grew and picked his own carrots at school, he pretty much at them before I could even get a picture of them.

Friday night was low key, some swimming and some dinner you know the usual.

 Saturday, I went on my usual hike, but it was so foggy that I didn't take any pictures, boo! Oh and we took a wrong turn and ended up walking an extra 1.5 miles, oops! Back at home pancakes for the kids and cheese omelet for Mr.

Mini Fox thought it was hilarious to run into Daddy with her stroller, with three phones I might add.

Then wanted up, up, up.

Girlfriend was still hungry after her pancakes and part of Daddy's breakfast too.

Baby Fox dressed himself. I said that sweater vest might be a little hot for you to wear today, he said, well it's a tank top, so it's fine. (This is his Christmas vest he wore 2 years ago, LOL).

Mini Fox is just too cute, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and wearing her matching princess crown.

We did swim lessons on Saturday instead of Sunday because Baby Fox's teacher was out of town, so we went with a new teacher to keep up with the weekly lessons. Since we've been swimming in our pool this week, Baby Fox has gotten leaps and bounds better, at least we think so. Here's on lap doing freestyle

And one lap doing the backstroke, he's a zigzagger...but hey it's something right?

Mini Fox eating her raisins and watching brother swim.

We headed to do some errands afterwards and Mini Fox was so thirsty she wanted to just sit and drink...yep she's in the trunk, too hot to sit in the car to drink.

We rewarded all of our hard errand work with some of this...

Line was long....Baby Fox and Mr. got out to use the restroom.

But first Mr. got some water for this girl, finally...she almost fell asleep waiting, it took that long.

After naps, Mr. wasn't feeling good, so I thought I would get the kids out of the house for a couple of hours so he could rest, we picked up my mom and went to dinner.

Mini Fox insisted on sharing the chips and salsa.

We spoke with Ampa on the phone, he was too tired to come with.

Ice cream for dessert

 

and some hugs, these two kill me they are so cute together.

with some running around, get all that energy out kids!

Sunday I actually vlogged, so you'll see that hopefully on Thursday's post. But we went to church. Let me tell you, church with two little humans, hard work! Usually one of them, and when I say one of them, I mean Baby Fox, goes to the "toy room" aka kiddie care, but he wanted to come in with us, and both of them were crabby the whole time. I don't think I heard one word...okay maybe a few, but mostly it ws trying to wrangle baby in a 2 foot space. Not fun.

Anyway, back at home we ate lunch and took naps. Then my parents came over for some swimming and dinner.

yep I made my sister use the selfie stick to take this picture, haha

My boy loves him some watermelon, I had no idea he liked it that much. Although everyone was saying it was one of the best watermelons they had ever had.

You'll have to tune in on Thursday to see what we ate, it was delicious and a meal worth repeating, hopefully soon!

I'm so thankful for Mr. and all that he does for our family. I am lucky to be married to the best man and to see him become a father made me love him even more.

How was your weekend?

Linking up with Faith, Heather and Daily Momvitity for Mommy Moments,  Erin for Weekend Snapshot4, B Loved Boston and Champagne & Suburbs  for Weekending, and Monday Madness with Ashley at A Cute Angle

Style Me Bloggers - How We Share our Home

Happy Friday! Today is one of my off Fridays, so I'm off doing errands with Mini Fox prepping for Baby Fox's birthday party next weekend! Yikes, so much to do...why do I always wait till the last minute?!  Anyway...Back with my Bloggy Besties, for today we decided that we were going to do an exchange. We wanted to share either something from our home with them, or something that reminded us of home, it was really up to interpretation. I decided I was going to help my Bloggy friend decoration her house, head on over to Katie's blog to see what I gave her!

I got a pretty awesome gift from Deena! She decided to send us stuff that we can't get here in the States...she stuffed this thing full of goodies! Look how pretty that card is! I'm fairly certain she used her artist skills for that one. It currently sits on my fridge, so I get to see it everyday and remind myself how talented my friends are.

Let's break down what was in the box:

Her cute note. She decided to send all of the things in Canada that we can't get here in the states, how sweet is that?!

The box was completely stuffed, it was pretty awesome.

A closer look at everything

I can tell you that all of the candy went FAST! The kids begging for candy, haha!

We opened the Kinder Eggs the next day and I took a video for you Deena.

Mr. ate the chips the next day. Funny story, when we were up in  Tahoe there was someone there from Canada and we had been talking about our favorite chips. She said if she cold chose any chips she would pick the Ketchup chips from back home. We sort of laughed at her and said really?! Ketchup chips...then a few weeks later we get our very own bag. You better believe I sent her a picture of our very own bag, she was jealous. :) Mr. said they were really good and that he could see why they were her very favorite chip. Deena when you come visit us, don't forget the ketchup chips!

Mr. approved

Thank you Deena for sending such a thoughtful gift to share your home with us! Now go check out what everyone else gave each other.

Don't forget to enter the $200 giveaway to Gap brands, you could get a lot with that!

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

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

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

Sprinkled Just Right 

An InLinkz Link-up

Linking up with Erika, Andrea, and Narci for Friday Favorites, September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for Oh Hey, Friday! April and the girls for Five on Friday, and Jennie for Friday Favorites

Get To Know Me Through Vlog #5

I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the video this week, and then Helene from Helene In Between said she was going to be a You probably didn't know link up, so I figured I would do a Get To Know Me Tag from Youtube. Then I realized, we had two birthday parties, both of which would be during nap time so I wasn't going to be able to do it then. I really wanted to get this out for this week, so I did a Vlog and answered questions throughout the day. Click on the Youtube icon on the bottom right, and it will take you to Youtube and you can see in the description box the questions and the times I answered them, in case you don't want to watch the whole video. Have a wonderful Thursday!

Don't forget to enter to win $200 giftcard to Gap Brands! You know you want to! 

Also linking up with Amanda, for Thinking Out Loud and Vanessa and Penny for Thinking out Loud,Lulia, Stephanie and Sarah for The Ladies Collective, Annie and Natalie for Thoughts for Thursday and Joey and Kristin for Stuff and Things

The One with a Guest Post, Outfit Style, a Giveaway and a Link Up

Happy Hump Day! Back with the Style Bloggers today for another link up, feel free to link up any outfit of choice, we'd love to get some more ideas! Okay this is going to be an information heavy post for ya 'all. You might want to go get a coffee.

But before I bring you my outfits, head over to Courtney's Blog, she asked and I answered. She always has the best toddler activities that she does for her daughter, can you come to my house and plan them for us too?!

Okay, now onto the outfits.

Day 1

I bought all of these things from previous challenges, yay me! Alison said to add a denim vest or shirt over it, but too hot here to add any more layers so I didn't. I love this shirt, I want it in every color, do you think that's okay? Please say yes.

I swear when I do my make-up I feel like it's caked on, but then when I see the pictures, you can barely see it, crazy how much make-up people in magazines must wear, right?

And the tradition continues, I swear I don't tell him to take these.

Day 2

I've wanted a printed shirt, but couldn't find just the right one. I didn't want one with some saying that I didn't truly believe. I finally found this Paris one and thought it was perfect. It's from Target, and I tried to find it online but came up empty, *insert sad face here* and an extra bonus, it is made from the softest material ever, I don't want to take it off.

Side Note: I also bought a Captain America shirt so I could twin Baby Fox and his Super Hero Obsession.

Mr. said he thought this shirt was super cute. Love it when he compliments my outfits.

And another one for ya...silly Mr.

The girls and I decided it was time for another giveaway! This time Alison said she wanted to participate too! Go check out my other bloggy besties and see how they styled their outfits.

 Puppies & Pretties // Daily Style Finds

Shoes to Shiraz // A Lovely Little Wardrobe // Making the Most of Every Day

Two Teens and Their Mama // Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After

A Little Bit of Cheer // Nick + Nik // Foxy's Domestic Side // The Mishaps and Mayhem of a Solitary Life // Quilty JoyJoy

Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy // Get Your Pretty On

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Link up with us every Wednesday, we want to see your outfits.

 

 Shoes to Shiraz | R Squared | Two Teens and Their Mama | 

Confessions of a Frumpy Mommy | A Lovely Little Wardrobe | 

Mishaps and Mayhem of Solitary Life | Puppies and Pretties | Daily Style Finds | 

Making the Most of Everyday | She Thought She Could | Foxy's Domestic Side | 

Quilty Joy Joy |  Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After |

A Little Bit of Cheer | Nick and Nik

An InLinkz Link-up

Also linking up with Pumps and Push-ups, Because Shanna Said So, Get Your Pretty On, The Pleated Poppy, Tucker Up , Shopping my Closet,  Molly and Carly and  More Pieces of Me and On the Daily Express,

Show and Tell Tuesday: My Yard

Linking up with Andrea for another Show and Tell Tuesday. Today's topic is My Yard...I've shown you the before pictures of our yard, it was pretty nuts.  We were dealing with things like this:

Front Yard

Part of the Back Yard

Back in May of 2012 we decided to do a backyard reno. Actually that's not totally true, we really decided in January and it took us 5 months to make any decisions. That's the truth.

So this part is going to be really picture heavy, as I feel pictures are best describe what we went through to get our backyard. The first few days are when you saw the biggest differences.

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The pallets of pavers they sent to our house, and there are 6 more not in this picture, crazy right?!

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Coping around the pool! Plus some pavers!

 

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Tile in the pool!

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And the moment you've all been waiting for.

Sidenote: These were taken a few days ago, So almost three years after our reno, so the plants have had some time to grow. I did not attempt to clean up the kid toys, this is life right?

The table and chairs were given to us by my parents when they moved out by us, as they did not have any room for it. Lucky for us right? And that umbrella is the same shape as the table and pretty awesome!

In case you were wondering about the pool gate thing. We decided since the pool is so close to our house, that we would gate in the door, that way the kids can play in that little area if they wanted to.

Standing in the backyard looking towards the front of the house (the "right side" of the yard in all of those pictures up there). Can you tell the kids like to play in the dirt right here, it's the perfect height for them, they move the dirt from one area to another. We had no idea this would become such a popular area when we built it.

Again the table and chairs are from my parents house, lucky us right?

This fountain is just across from the table and chairs. The Jasmine vines behind there are so pretty when they are in bloom.

Baby Fox has a rock collection and he keeps them in here so the gardeners don't throw them away like they did last time. We do not keep water in the fountains as it's too much to take care of. We usually fill it up if we're having a party.

Same area looking towards the backyard.

Now onto the front yard. We haven't really done much work out here, other then let the plants grow on their own.

Cleans up nice right?

We have some beautiful rose bushes in our front yard, they line our property and our neighbors.

The other side, some more rose bushes.

We just bought those bulbs at Costco and planted them here, we had NO IDEA that they would be so massive, and so darn pretty.

Another fountain we don't keep filled.

This Japanese Maple tree is my absolutely favorite tree. The colors on it are gorgeous all year round.

And there you have it, our front and back yard. We put the pool cover on the pool on Sunday, so now there is that there. Usually we have to keep it on the pool till August or so when it's warm enough at night and hot enough during the day to keep the pool nice and warm, around 83°-88°.

Also linking up with Jasmine, Tuesday Talk and Mommy Moments