A Sneak Peek at our Family Photo Shoot

I am so excited for a little peek at some of the pictures from our family photo shoot this past weekend! 

I have wanted family pictures taken for I don't know how long now.  We put this together last minute when I noticed the weather was suppose to be beautiful this past Saturday and it turned out to be the most perfect Mother's Day gift I could have ever asked for!  We headed out on an absolutely beautiful afternoon to our friends house in the country.  We spent the afternoon having dinner and enjoying some sweet fellowship and then took some family pictures in the evening (since the sun doesn't set until 9:15pm now).  We had such a wonderful time running through the grass together and playing on the swings and slides, yes, all of us!  haha!  The kids had a blast and because we told McKenzie to 'twirl' her dress for Miss Krystal I think she was totally into having her picture taken.

A huge thanks to Krystal for doing such a wonderful job!  The pictures look amazing!  And I can hardly wait to see more. 

Check out her blog HERE for a sneak peek of our family photo shoot!

(Yeah, I didn't want you to miss it!  haha!)

Check out her work at

Krystal Martin: Whatsoever Photography Facebook Page

Also, Krystal would love to take pictures for you as well!  She is so easy and fun to work with, my kids were totally themselves with her and we all had such a wonderful time.  And her work speaks for itself, simply amazing and beautiful!

Mid-Way House Tour: Kids Bathroom

It's been a while but I'm back at it to show you another room in our house.  I skipped over the entry and hallway because it's a work in progress right now and honestly a complete disaster.  Once we've gotten the stairs a little furthered along I'll show you what it looks like.  So by passing that area brings us to the kids/ guest bathroom. 

This bathroom holds fond memories.  It was the bathroom.  The only bathroom in our house when we first moved in.  It was also my kitchen 'sink' and dish washing station.  Our only water source.  But boy oh howdy was I grateful to have a bathroom!  I could have been using an outhouse and hauling water. 

It also remained our only bathroom for quite some time, up until just recently actually.  And I should have gotten a before picture, but I didn't.  I was probably too embarrassed.  It was a mess!  I couldn't organize anything because it was only a temporary situation that all of us were sharing one bathroom.  But at the same time our master bath was not finished and so none of our items had a place to go. 

Well, I am so glad that we finally got our master bathroom put together and were able to organize and put together the kids bathroom.  I am happy with how it's coming along.  I am just in serious need of a shower curtain but cannot find one that I like.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated! 

I've considered repainting it.  Yes I know, brand new house, freshly painted and I am already wanting to repaint... what?!  I knew I shouldn't have used a color as bright as yellow.  I get tired of it too fast.  But when I put the cabinet together and brought in my old set of brown towels, I was okay with how it all came together.  So we'll see.  To tell you the truth, I already bought the new paint.  It's been sitting in our basement for almost a month now!  And I think it's the wrong color from what I was hoping when I picked it out.  Yeah, I'm hopeless when it comes to picking out paint.  That's why I can hardly believe I like all the rest of the colors in my house still. 

With all that being said... about a bathroom... here it is.  Welcome to the 6th room in our house tour, the kids' bathroom.

If you look here at the layout of the house, you'll notice it's quite a small bathroom.  Thus the reason why we had the door swing out into the hallway, which you can read more about here.

When we purchased this cabinet for storage space it came with doors on in, that's why you'll still see part of the hinges on the inside of the cabinet.  Once I could start organizing the bathroom I took them off.

I got these nifty wire baskets from Target.

And I found these baskets at KMart, they are used for the kids' toothbrushes and hair items, etc.

And our homemade soap.  It smells nice when you walk into our bathroom because of these.

And for now the basket on top holds the girls bows.

I love, love, love the sink in this bathroom.  And it works perfect in this small space to make it feel more open and larger.

It has some pretty nice curves to it too

The mirror, one of my few special finds from Lowes.  Oh how I wish I had a lowes to shop at through this whole building process, they sure know what woman want when it comes to building a house!

Like I said, we are in desperate need of a shower curtain!  Especially since this is our guest bathroom as well.

Okay, so we used dura ceramic tile in our bathroom.  This was the first flooring we put in and with dura ceramic you can chose to grout or not grout. 

In this bathroom we chose not to grout... bad decision.  If you ever use this stuff, which the product itself is great, always chose to grout.  It makes it look like real tile and the finished product is much nicer!

The must have handy dandy stool.  It's a must have for my Kenzie girl at least.  Another Target find.

This was our only option for a toilet paper holder in this bathroom since we needed something easy for the kids to get to.  I actually really like it though.

And you might be wondering what in the world that thing is on the side of our toilet.  We have had many people, let me rephrase that, we have had many guys confess to spraying our toilet with it while in our bathroom wondering what in the world it was for.  You can read about it here.

And our towel hooks.

Just a personal preference, I prefer hooks over towel bars.

And a must have, totally don't need item, a bathroom heater!  Oh yes, I love this!

So there is our kids bathroom.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.  And if you find me the perfect shower curtain let me know!

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Mommy and Me Mini Vacation: Part 2

I want to apologize up front for those of you who are not my mom and dad.  This post contains a ton of pictures and its not even all 400 that were taken on our mini vacation to So Cal.  :)  Yeah a little camera happy I say.  But my sweet little Janessa is a doll and I just couldn't chose, that and my parents want to see all the pictures I have of my kiddos. 

So there, don't say I didn't warn you!

In my first post, which you can check out here, Janessa and I made it safe and sound to my parents house for a little 5 day vacation to see my grandparents.  We arrived Thursday early morning, like 1 am early and headed home and straight to bed!  Thursday my mom and I ran some errands and packed up the car and as soon as my dad got off work we headed to the Time Share in Oceanside.

Playing at Papa and Grandma's house.

Looking out the window, so pretty and bright out there.

Introducing: The Look.

Everyone received this warm welcome from Janessa...

Even Grandma.  It's her 'who are you?!' look.  Pretty, I know.

'Oh, you're Grandma... okay I guess I can be happy now!'

All packed and ready for our drive to California!

Unknown to my Dad and I, we were about to have a great little, well BIG blessing down the road.  We stopped for dinner in Barstow and my mom got behind the wheel to drive the next stretch of the drive.  The plan was to stop in Corona (where all my mom's family lives) for gas and then my parents would switch drivers again and we'd make the last hour down to Oceanside.  Well my mom pulled off the freeway in Corona but passed right by the gas station and started heading towards my Uncle Danny's house...  As soon as we pulled up she announced that the family was having a birthday party for him and she told me and my dad to go inside (she stayed in the car with Janessa who was sleeping at the time.)  At this point it was already 9 pm and my mom didn't think much of our family would still be there.  So my dad and I walked up to the house and my dad knocked on the door.  Someone opened it and he stepped in and I followed.  Mind you, non of my family had any clue that I was here or even considering coming and it had been over a year and a half since I'd seen them.  It was a huge surprise for everyone, myself included since I had no idea there was a party that a lot of my family was at!  This little stop turned out to be such a huge blessing for me because it gave me the chance to see a lot of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins who I wouldn't have seen on this trip otherwise.  And boy oh boy did I make my Grandma's night (I think  :)  Had we been 15 minutes later we probably would have missed a lot of my family who were getting ready to leave but after we arrived everyone hung around for a while.  It was such a wonderful evening seeing everyone and introducing Janessa to them.  I LOVE my family!!  We spent a few hours until it was time to head down to Oceanside and we finally left my Uncles house after 11 pm and arrived and checked into our room well into the early morning, but wow, what a great night it was!  Janessa was such a trooper even though it was so late for her and she eventually showed everyone her sweet smile. 

Of course I didn't even think about my camera or to take a picture.  Thankfully my cousin pulled out his phone and got a few!

Janessa playing with her second cousin Taylor!

Cousins!  Carol, Kaylee and me

We made it to the Time Share and amazingly Janessa had a smile on her face even thought it was after midnight!

Getting everything to our room.

That happiness didn't last long and she was really ready for some sleep!  Enjoying the beautiful night with Grandma while I got her bed all set up.

The plan was for my Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom to come down on Saturday morning, and for Nathan's family to come up from San Diego for the afternoon/ evening.  So Friday was a day to rest and relax and hang out with Grandma and Papa.  We enjoyed, multiple times, In-n-Out and spent some time on the beach and getting our toes wet in the ocean, a first for Janessa.  Our weather was a-ma-zing!  Absolutely perfect and beautifully sunny, we couldn't have ordered it to be any prettier.  So we enjoyed a wonderful Friday together as a family.  Well a half a family anyways.

I mean, who can complain when this is the sight you wake up to in the morning.  Hello beautiful ocean!

Janessa getting her first look at the ocean!

And a mandatory lunch at In-n-Out

Someone feed me In-n-Out or I'll have to resort to eating their table!

I want food.  I want food!

Don't make me eat your finger Papa!

Finally!

Hmmm, not quite what I was expecting.

Awww, much better!

Yeah, I'm super cute!

Janessa's first time at the beach!

There's nothing like the feel of the sand on your feet.

sweet curls

Playing in the sand with Papa.

She was lovin it!

So excited about it all!

Me and my sweet baby.

Going to get out toes wet and see what she thinks about the ocean...

She loved squishing her toes into the wet sand!

burrr!

I know the photo is blurry but this was her reaction... she loved it!

Having fun!

Play time with Papa!

Beach Bum

What a view for dinner!  At our Time Share.

Saturday morning, having fun looking in the mirror.

The Look

Happy girl!

Sweet baby hand!  ~love~

Taking a walk on the pier with Papa and Grandma

She was so chill, and totally lounged in her stroller while we walked the pier.  She absolutely loved it all.

Beautiful day, great waves and the surfers were out to enjoy it too.

hello pelican!

I was so glad that my Grandma was feeling up to the trip down to Oceanside to spend some extra time with us!  Every moment is so special and cherished with her.  We're all here.  We're together.  And I love it.  We enjoyed a walk down the beach with my Grandpa and Aunt and Uncle and my Dad while Janessa slept and then some time hanging out on the deck talking and enjoying the beautiful view and weather.  Thank you Lord for these precious moments!

Four generations!

Snuggling with Great Grandma!

playing

Sitting with Great Aunt Linda

My Grandpa and my Dad!

But Janessa was still happiest when she was in Mommy's lap.  haha!

~cherished moments~

As my Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt and Uncle were getting ready to leave Nathan's family arrived.  We called them pretty last minute to let them know that Janessa and I were down there and I was so glad when everyone was available to come up and see us.  Nate's dad was sick but his mom, two brothers and their wives and his sister and her husband all made it up.  The best part, Janessa's 2 new cousins!  That's right.  Our kids' first cousins!  Amos, Misty and Sean's son and Zane, Monty and Jen's son.  We got to meet them for the first time!  It was so special and fun to spend the evening together.  We played and walked along the beach and had dinner together.  It made for a great last night down in Oceanside.

Janessa meeting Oma, Aunt Jen and Zane for the first time.

Showing Oma the best toy ever, the coaster!

Giving Uncle Monty the look.

Playing with Oma and Uncle Monty

Cousins!

'Who are all these new people.'

Playing with Aunt Misty while cousin Amos shows off his toddling skill in the background, at only 10 months old I might add.

Amos

Saying hi to each other.. they are too cute and just one month apart.

I might add, he was fine unless Janessa tried to touch him.  Then he ran to his Daddy.  And Janessa was like, 'finally someone to play with me who's my own size... why is he running away?!'

Little Zane man.

Zane with his Daddy

Oma and Erin and my parents getting dinner ready for everyone.

We woke Janessa up at the end of the night to get some cousin pictures.  Thankfully she woke up happy to say good-bye to everyone.  (and yes, I am totally burned from all the time I had spent in the sun that day.)

Totally love this, just missing Zeke and Kenzie.

Attacking her already!

Aunt Jen with Zane, Me and Janessa, Oma and Aunt Misty with Amos

Both Grandma and Oma

'hey, give my back my blankie!' 

cousin love!

Sunday morning we took our time packing up and then we headed back up to Corona to spend the afternoon with my Grandma and Grandpa at their house before heading back to Las Vegas.  It was so nice to spend a few more hours talking and spending time together and I got to see a couple of my cousins who I hadn't had the chance to see yet. Once again, blessed!

with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Always the 'face'

But a lot more smiles and happy faces by the end!

My Dad and my cousin, Steven

my cousin Kaylee with Janessa

Playing with Papa

Getting some play time in before our long drive home.

Last snuggle time with Great Grandma before we have to leave.

Even some snuggles for Great Grandpa!

saying good-bye

 All in all I was so blessed and glad that I made the trip.  The Lord truly worked a little miracle to make it all come together in such a short time and for us to see so many family members as well.  I am truly grateful to everyone who helped us and helped make the trip possible and for the chance to spend time with family.  Especially my Grandma and Grandpa.

At the airport ready to head back home.

Last snuggles with Grandma

Grandma got to come to the gate with us to wait for our plane, we'll take any extra time we can get!

Saying good-bye

Ready to head home and see Daddy, Zekey and Kenzie girl...