Friday Fun!

I am so thankful that we are able to escape the TX heat. Apparently, the day we left for CA the temp went up to 108 in TX. Got out of there in the nick of time -ha!

We are enjoying the mild weather here in CA. I'm so excited to be able to spend the next few weeks here.  The boys are so happy to be visiting - their auntie and uncle have lots of stuff planned out for them to do.  Number 1 on Michael's list is the Monterey Bay Aquarium followed by the San Francisco Zoo.  He's dorky like that.  Then I think he wants to go Gilroy Gardens.  Matthew is just content to follow along.  He prefers to stay home and play his Gameboy.  He's nerdy like that.

I can't believe how well Marky is sleeping here. I'm so happy! He wakes up for a feeding and goes back to sleep immediately.  And, he takes great naps without me having to hold him! Keeping my fingers crossed the this continues. He's having fun observing his new environment - always something new to see!

My mom took us to the Flea Market yesterday.  I haven't been to one since I was a little girl, and the boys have never been to one at all.  They loved walking around and looking at all the different things in the stalls.  Michael kept asking to buy a real knife.  Yes, that's going to happen. Matthew just went along with Michael.  Michael convinced Poh-Poh to buy him a couple of coconuts.  He can probably convince her to buy him the knife.

Marky has been eating so well here too.  I had to buy packaged baby food because I didn't want to lug the Baby Brezza with me. He is now eating green beans, squash and bananas. I tried to give him peas, and he spat it out.  After several tries, I went back to bananas.  I'll try again later today.

His second tooth broke through yesterday!  Yay!

I had to take Matty to the Dr. because he had been complaining about an earache since before we got to CA.  He, in fact, does have an ear infection. We got some antibiotics so hopefully his ear will be better soon. The Dr. remarked on how big his head was.  I nearly died laughing on the inside.  His exact words were, "Oh, he has a big head.  Is he OK?"

My Sleeping Beauty

Marky and Poh-Poh

Chaos

Thirty With Thirty Challenge - Week 2

This is the second week of the 30 with 30 Challenge at From My Grey Desk! It's been really fun so far.

Summer has definitely arrived in TX.  Hot, hot, hot!  So it's no surprise that shorts are what I have been wearing.  I love feminine pieces. I adore anything with ruffles - yes, I was really into the poet blouses. I also love anything that is flowy as you will see as I put my outfits together.

My 7 year-old son is my official photographer. Be jealous - my pics are going to look very artistic. You know, some with heads cut off, maybe a couple of other body parts missing. But I told him that the shoes are the most important thing.  Don't cut off the shoes!

OK - let's move on.

I forgot to mention that I don't wear lot a lot of accessories for a couple of reasons -

1. I have a 7 month old son who loves to pull on things
2. It's dang hot in the summer so those accessories get pretty uncomfortable and I'm all about comfort

Outfit #1

Top - Free People from Nordstrom Rack.  I got this on CLEARANCE. Score!

Tank Top - Old Navy
Shorts - From TJ Maxx
Shoes - Nine West.  I don't remember where I got them though.

Outfit #2

Top - Violet and Claire from TJ Maxx

Shorts - Same as above

Shoes - Guess from DSW.  I initially was not really into these at first and was ready to return them, but they grew on me.  Now these are one of my faves.

Weekend Recap

Holly Hotness!  The Texas summer is here.  This weekend wasn't too bad, but this week is going to be in the 100s all. Good thing we will be heading to California for 3 weeks!

It has been very nice to have some time off from work because I don't dread Sunday nights anymore.  It use to be that Sunday afternoons are all about getting ready for the week.

M and I dropped Marky off at my in-laws and took the boys to see Brave.  I thought is was good, but M thought it was just OK.  It was a movie about mom-daugter relationship than an actual story like most of the Pixar films.  I guess maybe I liked it better because I can relate to the mother-daughter relationship. I think the boys enjoyed it because there were funny parts for them as well, but I think their favorite thing about going to the movies is the candy and popcorn.

After the movies, their friend JT came over and they played the rest of the afternoon.

Sunday, we met up with the Chens in Richardson for some Dim Sum.  This was probably the best part of my weekend! I love Dim Sum.  I love the company as well, but I've been craving some real Chinese food and it was so good to finally get my fix. Michael and Matthew loves the steamed shrimp dumplings and M's favorite is the baked pork buns.  I love everything!

The girls were so infatuated with Marky.  Lauren and Hannah kept telling us how cute he is. It was so cute to watch. 

We just hung out the rest of the day.  Michael went over to his friend Daniel's house and Matty found ways to entertain himself at home.  He's so independent now.  I love it!

I did some mopping and vacuuming so it was a very exciting weekend for me. Ha!

Lots of swimming going on here.

SUYL - Dining Room

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner for her Show Us Your Life link-up.

We have a dining room, but we use it maybe once a year.  Well, the kids use it to do their homework once in a while when I have to separate them.

I like my dining room and I would love to use it more, but with 3 busy little boys, it just doe not fit our lifestyle right now.  Maybe in a few years we can use it for actual dining, but for now, it will sit there and wait or us.

This is the view of our dining room from our formal living room.  I love our family portrait, but we had it done before we had Mark so he's missing.  My hubs thinks it's silly, but I feel really bad every time I look at it because Mark is not in it.  We will have to have another one done this fall.

I hate our chandelier - it's the brassy kind from the early eighties.  I hope to replace all our brass fixtures one day. Since we don't use this room much, it'll do for now.

Here's a close up of the centerpiece.  I originally made this for fall decorating and never put it away after last fall.  It's now our permanent centerpiece.

This is what is on top of our buffet or sideboard or whatever you call it. Candlesticks are from Kirkland's.  I found the lantern at Homegoods for $10 and it came with an electric candle.  Love it.

 Close-up of the lantern.

I'll be getting some ideas from other bloggers, so this room might see some changes!

Keeping Up with Mark

This kid is hitting a development spurt!  Within the past week, he has learned to crawl, eat solids, climb the stairs, open cabinets, pull himself up, cruise along furniture or anything else he can pull himself up on.  Phew!  I thought I would have more time.  And he's a curious little booger.  He may be the only one out of three that I will need to actually baby proof the house for. Oh, and he got is first tooth!  Bottom left tooth finally broke through his gum about 5 day ago.

And boy can this kid talk. Blah, blah, blah. He's making noises and blowing raspberries. He just started imitating M with the noises.  It's the cutest thing!He's been saying dada for a few weeks now but I think he may actually know what it means now.

He's definitely a busy little boy and I hope I can keep up with him!

Thirty with Thirty Challenge

Today, I'm linking up with From My Grey Desk blog to join in on the "Thirty with Thirty Challenge." Here's the deal, 30 pieces from my closet to put together outfits to last me for 30 days. Sounds like a challenge that I can't walk away from for a couple of reasons -

1. It was will make me go through all the stuff I have in the closet and weed out stuff I will never ever wear again.

2. Since this girl is not currently employed, this will curb my impulse to purchase anything new.  My hubby is liking this reason!

Starting this a little late and I can't promise I'll remember to post every week, but I'll give it the ole college try.

Here's my first outfit - pictures will be iPhone pics since I'll have better luck at winning the lotto than try to convince the hubs to take pictures of me every week.

Top - Monteau from TJ Maxx
Tank Top - Old Navy
Jeans - Denizen by Levis from Target
Shoes - Nine West probably from TJ Maxx

Friday - Playing Catch Up

My little Matty turned 7 this morning  at 3:18 AM!  Happy, Happy Birthday to my most outspoken boy. I will have a post dedicated to his B-day at a later time.

Big "Hooray!"- Mark has decided that he will eat his rice cereal.  Yesterday, when I fed him, he looked like he actually wanted to eat the cereal. We fed him 2 more times yesterday and he ate most of what we made him.  This morning, I fed him about 1 tbsp. of cereal with about 1 1/2 oz. of formula and he ate the whole thing without making a fuss! Then for lunch, he had  little over that.  I'm so excited! If he keeps this up, we'll be able to move on the squash again.

The job hunting is going OK, but I'm struggling to stay positive.  I had interviews with 2 companies let week and walked out feeling good about.  Now, I'm not so sure.  There's lots of self doubt right now, but I just have to keep on going.  I'm hoping to get an interview with 7-Eleven next week.  Fingers crossed!

Michael had soccer camp 2 weeks straight.  He loves it so much. A quick update on his team.  I've been much happier with the team situation.  He gets to play so much more and he seems to enjoy the games so much more.  He seems lees tense out there on the field.  Yes, this team is not as good, but he gets to play and not burn up on the bench.

I'm so excited to go out to CA in a couple of weeks.  M is planning a Napa Valley excursion for just the two of us.  Can't wait.  Now I just have to con my mom or brother to take the baby for the night!

7 Months

Yes, this is a little late. You would think I'd be more on top of things since I'm now staying home, but I'm not. 


My baby Marky, you are 7 months old! There have been so many changes from 6 to 7 months.You are just so much more fun now.  You laugh so much more and smile so much more.  You see people do things and you want to do them too.  When Daddy shows you how to make certain noises with objects, to try to imitate him.

You are always looking at your big brothers and observe them so intently. You love to watch them play and talk.  Your face lights up and a big smile spreads across your face every time you see Michael.  You love both your brothers, but you prefer Michael.  And Michael just adores you.  He would do anything for you. You are the first person he wants to see when he wakes up in the morning.

Your little brain is like a big super-soaker sponge and I enjoy seeing you learn and discover things. You are not fully crawling, but you are certainly mobile.  You get on your hands and knees and propel yourself forward by launching your head forward.

You can almost pull yourself up all by yourself!  You love to stand up and when we hold you up on the floor by your arms, you are starting to make walking movements with your chubby little legs.  I think you will skip crawling completely and walk very soon.

You are a wriggle-worm. You can't stay still for a second, even when we are holding you!

You are a water baby for sure.  When we went on vacation, we put you in the pool and you loved it!  You were calm and we could have left you in the pool for hours!

Things to Remember:

• You are a horrible sleeper.  You wake up 1-2 times at night for feeding.  Thank goodness you go back to sleep right away - except when you poop.  Then you want to play after we change you. You surprised me last night by sleeping from 10pm to 5:30am, though.  This is only the 2nd time that this has ever happened.

• You still want us to hold you while you nap.  However, we've been able to put you down in our bed a few times this month.  I'm hoping to see some improvement here.

• We are trying to feed you solids, but you refuse it 99% of the time.  We've tried rice, green beans, and butternut squash.  you won't have any of it.  We will keep trying.

• You are taking 6-8 ounces of formula every 4-5 hours.  I'm not sure how that compares to other babies, but you seem content and the last check-up went well, so I'm not too concerned.

• You are still in size 3 diapers

• Your clothes size are all over the place.  You can still fit into some 3 months clothes, but mostly you are wearing 6-9 months clothes.

• I'm guessing you are about 18 pounds now.  We will update the stats when we visit Dr. Scott at the end of July.

Caught a monkey by his tail!

You love to eat paper!

All you want to do is stand up.

Living Room Tour

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner SUYL - Living Room Tour.  I love it when she does these links because I love seeing how people decorate.  Some people have "good eyes" for design.  I'm not one of them, so I love to see what people do and if I like it, I'll try to copy the look.  My style is somewhere in between contemporary and traditional with a lean towards traditional.

Anyway, with that being said, here's my living room - the room where we spend most of out time in.

This is our view from the eat-in area of the kitchen.  I'm not fan of the mirrored shelving, but taking them down would require too much work right now. This picture was taken a few months ago so some of the elements on the mantle has changed.

Close up of the current mantle decor 

This is a close-up of the sign on our mantle.  This sign reflects my sentiment exactly.

 A close-up of the shelves to the left of the fireplace

I realize I need to add some more decorative touches on the shelves because they are pretty sparse, but I'm a little intimidated because I don't want to look like a hoarder.  Hopefully, I'll  get some inspiration by going through blogs!