My Life: Weddings, Baby Showers, and Homeschooling

I have about 5 different blog posts "in the works", but cannot seem to find the time to ever finish them. I'm just not one of those wonderfully consistent bloggers, at least not at this time in my life! Maybe someday I'll be, haha! Yes, I dream big...
Last week was a whirlwind of baby shower fun, literally planned the whole thing in one week! Of course, my genius friend Ashley over at House of Lovelock helped me and she's insanely gifted when it comes to decorating (which I am not!). I can execute someone else's idea easily enough, but to come up with the "vision" myself, happens to me only once in a blue moon. It turned out beautiful for my sweet friend, she's having her first baby and it's a boy. We went with a rustic, whimsical theme and most of the decor came from our houses or yard (cheap!). Seriously in love with this theme for any type of shower, you can do so much with it!

 That gives you a little bit of an idea how cute it was. Aren't the logs incredible?? I found these pictures online earlier in the week and died.

Like I said, I'm seriously in love... STUMPS... Who knew?!?!

Backtracking to a couple days before the shower happened, I got a phone call from Sky Mountain Charter and Josiah got in!!!! SO excited (and relieved)! It's a bit overwhelming at this point, figuring out what curriculum to use and all that, but I know it's also going to be a bit of trial and error at the beginning. Plus, I have a plethora of resources in all my lovely friends and neighbors who have all been doing this for awhile & it's just going to be finding out what works for us. The Lord has led me this far and I trust He's not going to stop now. :) Josiah's in his last week and half of school and I can't believe after that I'll officially have a second grader and a kindergartner! It's crazy how much time is flying by and I'm thankful that for at least this year I'll be able to enjoy having all my boys at home and watching every minute of their brains develop. Yes. That sounded weird to me too..
The Bible College had their graduation on Thursday and my sweet friend, who is much like my little sister (I used to babysit her, her brother and cousins ever since I was 12 and she was 5) graduated & got engaged!! It was beautiful and sweet and she is marrying a terrific guy! Check out her STUNNER of a ring

She asked me to help coordinate her wedding and I couldn't be more thrilled! I love weddings, I love planning, and I love her. Spectacular combo.
So today I will be driving up to my hometown of Paradise with her and a couple other friends to see my wonderful family and do some wedding planning/dress shopping (Eeek! LOVE wedding dress shopping!). I apologize for the girly squeal, but it's the truth. I'm a total girl when it comes to this sort of thing...
Two of my nieces are graduating, one from high school, one from the 8th grade. Like I said before, time is flying by! It's strange, clearly remembering and being at the birth of someone and then seeing them graduate high school. Like, really strange. And I'll be seeing my sister Michelle, whom many of you have been praying for, after her accident last March. She is recovering well, but please continue to keep her and her girls in your prayers. There is a lot of emotional trauma that comes along with what happened and while it's hard to see her go through it and not be closer in distance, I have to trust the Lord is working and is going to comfort and heal her in every way. He is good.
P.S. You should check out my friend Ashley's blog, whom I linked earlier in this post. She's one of those wonderful people who blogs multiple times a week, and has really delightful taste in pretty much everything. Plus it's just fun and she has really cute kids.

Weekend Post

Wouldn't you know, I've been working on this post for the past hour and I leave the computer for a minute, Elias comes over and erases the entire thing...Gah!!! So we took a 20 minute break and danced to MJ's "Beat It", just because I can't handle how cute Elias is when he dances to his favorite song, and what better way to cure any type of aggression slightly bummed out-ness.
Sooo, like I said yesterday I had a really great weekend. Cisco surprised me last week with a little getaway to Dana Point for my Mother's Day gift / super belated anniversary trip, for last years anniversary we never got around to celebrating. We stayed at the Blue Lantern Inn and I have to say, it was incredibly impressive. It's definitely a place worth giving a little shout out to! Besides being just downright lovely, it was wonderfully clean and adorable in every way. Even the two ladies who run it were uncommonly friendly and helpful and made you feel immediately comfortable. We went out for sushi that night and I fell in love with it all over again. It's amazing the difference of having "good" sushi and "amazing" sushi, cause there totally is! I've only had "amazing" sushi maybe 3 times, and all 3 times I left convinced I could happily eat sushi for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of my life.
The next day we went to the San Juan Capistrano mission and then up to The Lab in Costa Mesa for lunch and to do some shopping. While most of it was mainly "window shopping" I did find a few amazing deals at Urban Outfitters on jewelry

Can't beat a dragonfly pocket watch necklace for $10 and a gorgeous vintage looking cuff for $4.99! I also got earrings for $4.99, but those didn't make it into the picture...I was wearing them when I took it!
All in all, it was a great time together and we were excited to come home and squeeze our boys, who were happily having a blast with our friends Carrie and Frances. The perfect end to a perfect weekend: RAIN. I know. I'm weird. I'll be posting more on this later this week. My weirdness and my lifelong love for rain. :)

Where have I been??

I just realized the other day that it's nearly been a complete month since the last time I was on here! My, how time flies! I could've sworn it had only been a week...I'd love to say it's because I've been so incredibly busy and I have all these fabulous stories to write about, but truth be told, I just kind of forgot. Haha! I do have a few posts in the works that I'll get around to finishing up soon, and I promise to try and be better about posting on a more regular basis. I would also like to add, thank you to those of you who have left comments on here, I really do love hearing from those of you who take the time to read this! While I don't want to pretend my life is so awesome that everyone should want to read about my day to day, I do love feeling connected to people I haven't seen or talked to in years, even with my own family I don't get to see very often. And I do really love hearing feedback from all of you! I'll be back tomorrow with a post about my sweet weekend and later on this week with a few other things I've had on my mind lately. Until then, enjoy this pic I took the other morning of my precious boys sleeping. I don't know why, but I really love taking sleeping pictures of my kids...probably because I love watching them sleep and I know that is going to be one of those things I will miss when they get older. They are just so darn sweet...

Laundry Detergent!

Yesterday I made the laundry detergent and so far, I'm sold! I've only done one load with it so far, so I know it's hard to make a concrete judgment call. But that load came out clean, smelling like spring heaven, and super soft. Plus, there's that bit of inner satisfaction knowing that you used an all natural detergent that you made yourself....some may not find that wonderfully satisfying, but I definitely do.

So, I know it looks like a bowl of cheese got mixed into it, but it's actually grated soap. Grating the soap was the most "difficult" part of making this, if you can call it difficult. Who knew making your own laundry soap could be so easy?!
Here's the  laundry detergent recipe I used, which was actually taken from another blog I came across a few weeks ago, The Beehive Cottage. Super cute website! I used the Fels Naptha soap and I also was able to find all the ingredients at WinCo. I wasn't sure where to find Washing Soda, I'd never heard of it before, but there it was, right next to the regular laundry detergents, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding this stuff, wherever you're at.
Well, I'm gonna try out another Hourik recipe tonight...Chili relleno's! Happens to be one of my favorite things ever and hers are legendary...I'll let you know how they turn out.
Easter is just around the corner, I'm so excited! It's one of my favorite holidays, for many reasons. What are some of your favorite traditions and ways to celebrate Easter?

Levi

On Saturday, Cisco and I drove up to Modesto (a good 6 1/2 hour trip each way) to pick up Levi. We told the boys we were bringing them back a "surprise", to which they quickly responded, "CANDY?!" Hahaha. Apparently they spent the day guessing as to what their surprise would be. :) We left around 7am that morning and it really was a beautiful drive. We had considered leaving Friday night, to break up the trip, but decided not to...good thing. While watching the news that night we discovered that they'd closed the Grapevine due to snow, so we would have either spent the night in LA or been stuck in a not so great predicament. Here's a picture of the big snowfall they had

Yeah, it was definitely a mere dusting, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Road trippin!

The whole drive was incredibly green and thanks to all the rain California has had recently, even more so than usual this time of year. So, back to Levi, he's an adorable Yorkie and we pretty much fell in love instantly. He's such a mellow dog and while small, he's not "yippy" or cranky.

So we ended up getting home around 1am and the boys were all fast asleep. They woke up the next morning and the first thing out of their mouths was, "What's our surprise?" We did videotape their reaction, but honestly the initial reaction wasn't exactly climactic or anything. We took him into their room and they calmly observed that their surprise was a dog and that it was Levi, the little dog Aunt Kim and Uncle John had sent pictures of. Seriously. Calm.
Don't be too disappointed though, I believe their initial lack of excitement was due more to the fact that they weren't fully awake as opposed to them not being excited about the dog. Once they got up and moving they were definitely excited and couldn't stop saying how cute he was and how he was "the best dog ever!". It was more than satisfying to see how happy they were. :)

We had a little scare with him yesterday and had to make a trip to the vet, but it seems everything will be ok with him and I really hope so. He's pretty much the perfect dog, adores the kids, and we're all very much attached to him. When we brought him home from the vet Josiah was snuggling next to him and kissed his head. He looked at me and said, "Mom, you know why I kissed his head? Because I love him so much." Ugh. Heart melt...

Here's a picture of Josiah's play he had at his school on Friday. It was "Once Upon a Lily Pad" and Josiah was a snake. He had one little line he had to say, which he did very well at! :) I'm definitely gonna miss those little plays next year, they really are a joy to watch. The kids are HILARIOUS!

I know, it's not the best picture ever, but all I had was my phone and no zoom. But you get the idea.

I'm going to attempt to make my own laundry soap this week, I'll of course be posting on how that goes! I'm oddly excited about it though and have been looking forward to doing this ever since I came across the recipe. Which was a couple weeks ago. I know, what on earth has come over me lately???

Puppy Love & What I made this week...

Beignets. Delicious, incomparable beignets. If you've never had the pleasure of eating one, here's what they look like:

 

They are basically fried  doughnuts covered in powdered sugar, but fresh and hot, they are seriously amazing. And they are probably the most requested item I make! I'll add the link to the recipe I use, which is Paula Deen's, from Food Network. They are the best. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/french-quarter-beignets-recipe/index.html 

I would also recommend using Grapeseed oil and a deep fryer if you can get your hands on one. I used a deep fryer & the Grapeseed oil for that matter, for the first time this week and the oil made them very light and crispy (didn't seem as fatty as canola) and the fryer just made the whole process that much easier. Don't feel daunted by the recipe! It's seriously SOO simple and worth every minute of the effort!

I plan to write another blog, hopefully Sunday. I'm very excited to write this one, and will maybe include a video! Cisco and I are meeting up with my sister tomorrow to pick up our new little family member...a 5 year old Yorkshire Terrier named Levi. He's seriously the cutest thing! The boys don't know we're getting him yet (they caught on to the fact we're getting one, they just don't know when...I guess the leash and dog bed gave it away...), so I hope to videotape their faces when we come home with him. Can't wait!!!

Remodel

So today I came across the best website ever and the Graphic Fairy is now on my ever-growing list of heroes! I came across her website while reading through a bunch of blogs this morning...I think the original reason I was doing this was for creative ideas for decorating eggs...which turned into how-to's for cooking German food...which turned into redoing my blog.. If you have a blog, you've GOT to check it out, she has all kinds of adorable, vintage-looking graphics. Here's an example, a super cute picture of these birds that I'm in love with. How cute is this?!

I'm not naturally a graphically gifted kind of person, so if you're like me you'll love what she has. I'm helpless when it comes to "creating" a website, but if I have step by step directions and graphics already done for me, I'm good to go! :)
After reading/looking through a good handful of blogs I came to a few conclusions:
1. There's a lot of people with a lot of good ideas who happen to have really cute blogs.
2. My blog is so unorganized.
3. It seems there is a sudden trend of putting all your things in storage and moving your entire family to go live in Paris for a year. Seriously. Three, count 'em 3 different blogs all apparently got the memo and I'm just wondering what on earth is the deal? Is there something I'm missing? If any of you know this super secret, please, fill me in! Not that I don't think moving to Paris isn't a fabulous idea, I just don't get why everybody's doing it....
4. I"m moving to Paris. Just kidding!
 Hope you enjoy the remodel! I'll admit I'm a little in love with it. I know it feels like I just re-did my blog, but I just never fully felt it was "home". I definitely feel this is more me. I'll leave you with one last picture from the Graphic Fairy. Have I mentioned how great she is?