Toronto

Kit is leaving today for Toronto for another speaking opportunity. I am always excited that he gets these opportunities to do something that he loves but I am always sad when he is gone. Ryder and I miss him so much.

So while kit is traveling, Ryder and I will be tackling some fall projects for the house that we can't wait to share with you. (Some projects for our mantel, front door, trick or treating, recipes... I can't wait!) So have a wonderful weekend and we will see you on Monday!

Kit Rae, we love you, we are so proud of you and we want you to hurry back!

wedding reception planning part 1

Our friends, Chris and Maxie, who were married this last June in South Africa, are having a California wedding reception here in December and I am heading up the decorations. I have this pressure to make it really beautiful and memorable with the realization that I am, um, not getting any smaller or less pregnant, so I want to work ahead.

Here is a snapshot from their wedding day that I am using for my inspiration for the decorations:

I love the turquoise and chalkboards and the rustic feel of it all together, so I am hoping to put my own spin on it. I am starting with one of my favorite things ever: oil cloth banners.

They have so many fun saturated colors that I know I can play on their rustic wedding feel.

Also, I found these chalkboards at Michaels and had used them for our fourth of July block party. Kit was telling me how chalkboards seem to be really big in South Africa and they were used all over in their wedding. So, to make the little ones that I have fit a little bit better for this event, I am spray painting them turquoise.

Before:

(I used painter's tape to cover the slate so that I could get an even paint line.)

After:

I am really excited about how things are coming together. This is the stuff about throwing a party that I love! There are more details that I am working on... I will keep you posted!

little pink presents

While Kit gets ready in the morning, we leave our bathroom door open, since he is in and out of it. I came around the corner and this is what I found:

And the culprit:

(Well you knew it wouldn't be Kit...)

Two seconds flat, our kiddo can get into more stuff! The best part was when I surprised him in the act of "rearranging" my bathroom drawers, he held one of them up to me with a face that said, "Hey mom, I found this little pink present for you!"

What a giver!

Food Network

Kit surprised me with a subscritpion to Food Network magazine and even though I have only recieved one issue, I am LOVING it. The FoodNetwork.com is a huge reference for me when I am cooking and so I know the magazine will help out so much. I have been having more and more fun in the kitchen so I can't wait to share some of our favorites with you. Kit and I have been making lists of recipes we want to try (His usually involves the grill or smoker and meat, and mine usually involves the stovetop or oven...) I can't wait to get started! Now if only I knew what we were having for dinner tonight...

Weekend recap...

We had some fun connecting with our friends this weekend. Ryder has so much fun with other kiddos, and it is always so good to be together with other friends!

With our friends the Thrashes:

And dinner with our friends the Salaffs:

(I got to be this precious little girls nurse when she was born, only a few months before Ryder was born, and by a very small world, our families have become fast friends...)

Thank you guys for sharing life with us! It was a wonderful weekend!

organizing memory books

I am our family historian. Kit is the primary photographer and movie maker but I am the writer and story teller and I keep all of our memories organized and written down. I love looking back through our life together (it's been almost 13 years now...) I started when we were in college and needless to say, I have quite a few books that document our life together. I have a journal for each of our kiddos where I write to each of them on a fairly regular basis, my own journal, and our family scrapbook that incorporates things we do as a family.

I made a book for Ryder that documented our pregnancy as well as his first year. This week I started one for our baby girl. (Oh my goodness, I still can't believe we are having a baby girl!)

I had so much fun getting pretty paper, with pinks and purples, so girly! I am loving it...

these are a few of my favorite things...

Girl clothes are so much fun, and I can't help myself from purusing the internet, thinking about our baby girl. It's funny, boy's clothes are so sweet because they are "little man", t shirts and button down plaid shirts and little jeans... oh watching Ryder and Kit look alike was so sweet, especially when one was barely 9 pounds! Girls clothes are cute in a very different way to me, I don't know why...

Here are a few things that melted me

(envisioning her in these just kills me!):

Oh my gosh I can't believe we are having a baby GIRL!!!

disneyland

Yesterday we went to Disneyland. We haven't been since June and it was amazing how much older Ryder is. He walked quite a bit more, he was more responsive to the characters that were throughout the park. He loved the decorations that were all geared toward fall and Halloween, there were pumpkins everywhere...

Enjoying some lunch of corn dog and apple slices...

His first time on "Small World". He LOVED it! He was pointing and dancing and laughing...

(I look like a hot mess...)

Spending some time in bug's land...

Just plain tuckered out after a 3 hour visit, he couldn't even finish his part of his churro...

It was so fun and I cherish these moments with my little man.

Weekend recap...

On Sunday we were able to attend our good friend's wedding. They are so happy and excited to share life together, and getting to witness them start this new chapter in their lives was really a blessing and we were so honored to be part of their special day.

We love you Jenny and Aaron! Welcome to married life!

a little secret...

We've been keeping a little secret...

On June 22nd we saw this:

On July 18th we saw this:

And on September 10th, we found out it's a baby girl!

(Can you tell we are a little surprised...? Not the best picture of me but man does it capture the moment!) My mom told us and that made the whole experience even more special. She is the best sonographer ever and in 33 years of ultrasound, she has never been wrong. Yah, she's that good...) I wouldn't trust anyone else to give us that kind of news. I love you MOM!

Ryder is his big brother shirt.

Heading to celebrate with our family for breakfast...

Needless to say our house has been filled with excitement and joy with our growing family, Ryder becoming a big brother (they will be about 23 months apart...) and the fact that it's a GIRL! Holy Smokes! We still can't believe it! We can't wait to share this journey with our friends and family.

Baby girl Rae is due February 2012.

To our baby girl~

You are wanted, waited for and loved. We can't wait to have you here with us. We already couldn't love you more!

We're back!

We had a wonderful time with family this last week. With Kit traveling, it makes the days so nice to have people around that love us, feeding us, helping me with bath times and meal times and then at the end of the day, he is tuckered out, and sleeps good. (Now if I could get him to nap a little better, that would be perfect, but I think he doesn't want to miss anything fun...)

Our nephews and niece are so sweet with him. They want to carry him and feed him and anytime they talk with him, all of their voices go 3 octaves higher. He loves them so much. When one of them walks into the room, Ryder freaks, like he hasn't seen them for weeks. He looks at me like he's saying , "Mom, can you believe it, their HERE!!!"

Even with all the distractions, I can tell Ryder still really misses Kit, especially at bath time, dinner and our bed time ritual. Those are the times that he and Kit are together the most during a busy work week. Also, if I had a nickel for every time he says "DADA", I would have a complete private school college education saved for! Well, anyway, Kit gets home late tonight and we can't wait to see him.

Things I would do with down time:

When Ryder would nap, I would look at Pinterest and make a little craft and recipe to do list. We went to Michaels and did some thrift store shopping for old frames and I can't wait to show you what we are doing with those... Also, I am helping with our friends California reception (they were married in South Africa and Kit was able to attend the wedding), so my brain has been having fun brainstorming the decorations, though I must say doing a large event is so different than a birthday party in your back yard. For all you party planners out there, I give you major props! Jamie and Kit, you guys are party planner extraordinaires!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful week and I can't wait to share more family projects and updates with you!

Kit, travel safe and hurry home!

We can't wait to see you!!!

kit is traveling...

Kit left this morning for two back to back trips, one to Kansas City and to St. Louis . We will miss him while he is gone, so we will be hanging out with our family this week. I hope that you have a wonderful week and we will see you when we get back.

Kit Rae, we love you and miss you. Hurry back!

trying to stay cool...

We have been having 100+ degree days and it has felt pretty unbearable to be outside. Even running errands is no fun because of getting in and out of the car in the heat... YUCK! So we have been trying new things that involve staying inside with the air conditioning and it has been working out pretty well. Coloring has become a new favorite, mostly because we get to put the crayons in and out of their container, but it can satisfy us for at least an hour, so we are happy campers! (Note the WE...)

It starts with the container: (Why I give him the whole thing, I have no idea, but I figure, why not...)

It goes like this:

Here is our finished product. (I can't think of the last time I colored and oddly enough, it is very soothing, so of course I got in on the coloring action...)

I had left over coloring sheets from last thanksgiving so that is what we colored. (I think subconsciously I am hoping that if we are focusing on fall subject matter, then it will start to get cooler outside... Gosh I hope it cools down soon!)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend staying cool!

small spaces...

We are always looking for ways to make a little bit more room, as well as getting rid of things that we are not using, whether it's with donation or sharing or just plain throwing things away.

Well, I have a drawer that has been vexing me and since space is a hot commodity at our house, and specifically drawer space in our desk, I finally decided to tackle it.

So it was a small victory but it makes a huge difference to me.

My huge junk draw went from this:

to this:

The drawer is now my "current project" and letter writing drawer.

I am hoping that I can keep it this way...

Hey, I can always hope!

YUM!

We made this recipe for twice baked potato casserole and this recipe for green bean baked fries and garlic dip last night. I got them both off of Pinterest. Man there are some tasty ideas out there and I liked these so much better than the baked potatoes we made last week. We grew up with twice baked potatoes and this is a great version of them, and the garlic dip that goes with the green beans was delicious, we could think of tons of stuff to put it on. I hope you have a chance to try them. Kit said he LOVED them both and is hoping that these become a frequent in our house... hey, that's a great sign right?

I am trying to branch out and make a new recipe every week or so... we will see how it goes.

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor day weekend. I spent saturday and monday at work, appropriately, in LABOR and delivery. Very long and I am very tired.

So it is always fun to catch up with blogs and Pinterest when I have been away from my computer for a couple of days. I am not up from my seat for two seconds and this is what I find:

And then later:

The funny thing is the computer is always on because we play music from our iTunes, and will watch episodes of Sesame Street and Shawn the Sheep and he loves our screen saver with family photos. Plus the computer comes with the added bonus of the mouse and the key board... The poor kid just can't help himself, it's all just too fun!

So this post is to say, if you have gotten any odd emails or comments either on Facebook, Pinterest, or your blog, Ryder did it...

ps: Happy 17 months old little man! We could not love you more!