Small Dates = Big Heart Eyes

A few days ago The Best Thing happened. 

I was getting Lydia prepped for a late afternoon walk, around 3:45pm. Stroller out of the car, shoes on, wallet in hand. Suddenly the door swings open - Dad's home!!!!

As you can tell by the over-dramatic build up, this clearly never happens. Home by 3:45?!? Happy day!

So Dada joined us on our ten minute walk to the Dirty Store to get the best fro yo in town. 

(Dirty Store = small semi-ghetto gas station that shockingly has the most delish fro yo for $1.)

We just laughed and talked and played peekaboo with Lydia and I cannot even imagine how fantastic this summer will be when we can have all our evenings together. 

P.A.R.T.A.Y.

So now I'm on the hunt for free/cheap things to do during summer nights in Salt Lake! Any ideas??

We Have a 3/4ths Year Old, What What?!

So guess what...

3/4ths year olds don't pose for pictures, HA! ;)

The end!

PS Lydia Sue I'm already dreading your first birthday. STOP GROWING.

Pool Day with Bae. YAY!

In AZ, summer is basically synonymous with swimming.

Everyone has a pool and rarely do you have to worry about the water being too cold (but sometimes the water is too hot!). I have memories of swimming so much when I was little that my hair would turn green from the chlorine! 

My sisters and I would play mermaids and dolphins and underwater tea party princesses for HOURS. In junior high and high school we would pool hop, aka jump in one pool, hop the fence, jump in the next pool, hop the fence, etc etc. Ha! Needless to say, swimming brings a whole lot of fun memories and I'm excited to have Lydia as my buddy this summer! (Wayyy better than being 9 months pregnant like last summer.)

Isabel and her turtle. Love at first ride.

We will be doing lots more of this all summer!

Finders Keepers

A few months back I was walking with Lydia around our neighborhood and noticed an "Estate Sale" sign with about 11 cars parked out front this house. Basically an estate sale means (I think... correct me if I'm way off base here) that every single item in the house is for sale because the owners passed away or the bank took their home or something like that. Crazy! So I walk into this house and literally ever single item is organized with a price tag on it. Everything from rusted muffin tins to yellowed lace tablecloths to half-used floss containers. SO BIZARRE. And kind of sad! Years of memories from well-worn books and old fashioned dresses and handwritten journals, now just left for the public to come rip through and see what they deem as valuable. It was such a fascinating experience, and I probably spent way too long in there just looking at all of the hundreds of items. 

And of course, I left with a few scores! 

This wooden train set was sitting on a shelf in the back room. Fun! Vintage, colorful, big enough blocks that Lydia can't try to eat them, and $5!

It's hard to really see the detail in this picture, but I also snagged this ugly sweater! Purple and green and hooded and all sorts of fabulous 90s mess. 

*I double washed it before wearing it, don't worry.*

And lastly I saw this pretty print for $0.50 and could not pass it up. How sweet! The edges were worn  but I pressed it in a frame and now it looks brand new.

Do you know there is an entire slew of people who search online and in newspapers where estate sales are and then drive around town every weekend to rummage through dead people's stuff?? A very... unique crowd, I will say. A little rough around the edges. But in some alternate life I feel like maybe I would get into this kind of stuff?? It's just so interesting seeing what people collect and use and like and read and on and on.

That definitely sounded creepy.

No! I will only buy brand new sparkly things of good quality that are timeless in their style and will last me for decades.

NOT. I have such a soft spot for thrifting.

Oops! :)

Imaginary Closet

I finally found her... the denim skirt of my dreams!!!! As soon as I spotted her on J.Crew's website I thought it was too good to be true. Cute wash? No slit? Knee length? Get out. And bonus I still have a couple gift cards to J.Crew so huzzah! Free! I waited and waited for a sale and when I saw 30% off I pounced. Aaand tried on a few things because why not :).

J.Crew's extremely soft perfect basic tee fits right in with the relaxed 70s feel I keep seeing everywhere. I don't need another tee but if I did, this would be it!

Too bad peplum isn't around much anymore, because I think I am the perfect candidate for it! I don't really have a waist - I'm basically a rectangle. So a peplum gives me some shape!

Classic button ups always make me feel so classy! And I love this oriental collar. But to be honest I never wear them. I throw on clothes that allow for stroller walks and cleaning and sticky baby fingers. 

Tucked in or left out? Can't decide.

Stripes! My sister told me to stop buying stripes, ha. I guess I have too many? But this sweatery-shirt was fantastic. A little thicker than a normal tee but without extra bulk!

And closing out with a bright silk blouse, because I never know what to wear to church! I have tons of skirts and an excess of tees (see above) but together those look too casual! So some prettier tops would do the trick.

And that's a wrap for this Imaginary Closet!

Wheeler Farm

Thursday afternoon I dusted off my cowboy boots (literally, they were under my bed ;) ), and went with a couple other wives to Wheeler Farm!

Such a fun and free! way to spend a couple hours. Tractor rides, cows, goats, a humongous pig - seriously its snout was the size of Lydia's head - geese, and a six-day-old baby calf! 

Also if you were curious, yes Lydia's face was frozen like this the entire cow train ride. Just blown away by the greatness I guess ;).

Lydia's future husband.

And back home for dinner and playing with Dad! 

AND we passed by a Swig on our drive home. The soda gods were watching over us.

I am kind of convinced Lydia's going to be a dancer because she's my youngest sister's TWIN! They look so similar in everyway, from their rosebud lips to their squareish feet, and since Emma is an amazing dancer I think Lydia will be too! And look at that little pose! It's in her genes. 

To clarify, not my genes, Emma's. I can only dance if it's pitch dark and no one can see me ;)

Thorns and Roses

Skeptical of my (lack of) braid skills ;).

It's finally Friday! Longest week of my life, yours too? 

Here's a classic Sweet and Sour! I'll explain...

Growing up with three little sisters meant that each night at dinner was nonstop talk. My poor dad, HA. One person would start a story, another person would interupt with a different story, a third girl would laugh at some unrelated topic, you get the idea. It was a pretty hilarious slash unproductive half an hour every night where we literally had to institute a talking stick at one point - whoever was holding the stick got to talk!! LOL, girls. 

Another way my dad tried to combat this chaos was by starting Sweet and Sour when I was about 15. Each person at the table would go around and tell their Sweet from the day and their Sour.

(As you can imagine this worked out much better than yanking the talking stick out of people's hands.)

He later renamed it Thorns and Roses, which is great because it reminds me less of Panda Express and more of some fabulous kitschy thrift store.

SO!

Here is my Thorns and Roses list for the week!

Thorns: 

- Food poisoning is probably the worst feeling on earth. For a minute there kneeling by the toilet you think you might die, especially when it's 3:30am and you haven't slept the whole night and the thought of taking care of someone else (namely your child) in 4 hours just makes you cry.

- Continuing on with the gross theme, I found that a spatula makes an excellent scooper for everything from food on the floor to baby poop! *At different times.* Thank you spatula ;).

- Missing most of my gym classes (see #1)

- Computer totally crashing and subsequently thinking you've lost everything.

Roses: 

- Computer NOT losing everything - go computer! But accepting that it really is time to upgrade from your 2010 laptop. She is S.L.O.W.

- Trying to cut back on caffeine and realizing that caffeine free diet coke tastes pretty much the same as the regular stuff! Air five.

- Lydia clapping, saying "dada", and using the little walker! Go girl go!

- Watching Michael attempt to doodle what we were stuyding in the scriptures. Let me just say "fruit of thy loins" was... epic.

- Sleeping in and not going to most of my gym classes ;)

And that's a Thorns and Roses wrap! 

Peace out to le weekend!