Hi.8.Us.

Wow, it's been a while.

I checked the calendar and figured out that we've been home something like 6 out of the last 30 days!

We've been all over the freakin' place.
Let's catch up in photos, shall weee?

Baby girl was baptized with her cousins and our friends at the end of May!

We made some paper garlands to welcome summer on the cheap

I was feeling crappy, so I did a 3 day juice cleanse that totally rocked!
(You eat through it too, so totally breastfeeding kosher.)

Totally. 

We spent five minutes a whole morning(!) making matching t-shirt turban headbands.
It killed five minutes a morning of boredom and she looked pretty cute.
P.S. it only took five minutes.

We went to Santa Monica beach to watch my brothers play on the same team

 in a beach soccer tournament.
I spent a day wishing I could play in a beach soccer tournament.

Chris

Colby

And we experienced a whole new level of cute when my chilly bug borrowed her Amma's flannel.

Sunnies on while chilling with Papa. Later she stole his fancy hat.

 Road trip! We hit the road to South Lake Tahoe for ladies weekend with my mom and sisters.
Scarlett was amazing on the way there. She loves her new car seat. The drive back, however, my sister and I may or may not have stopped for a booze break when our babies took turns screaming the whole way home. #classymoms

We spent lots of time with this Minnesota angel face and his mama before he becomes a big brother!

Scarlett and sweet cousin Thomas discovered each other.
I died from the cuteness.

We celebrated 4th of July without Eric :( 

He had the day off but got called into work.
So me and this firecracker spent the day at a BBQ with our family and friends.
It was such a blasty blast!

We ended up driving home the night of the 4th at 9:30 (Ew.) because we decided that in two days we would hit the road again to Arizona. Totally last minute but we pulled it off! Our first day there was my and Eric's second wedding anniversary. Awwwww! We spent the day in the town we love, the place we started our life together, Flagstaff.

Happy anniversary to us! And look--Scarlett was there too :)

Snoozing away on Eric's back.

This was her first backpack adventure in the Ergo!

Clearly, a fan.

Flagstaff is a little slice of foodie heaven and we ate at all of our favorite places. Too much goodness. Hiking, delectable eats, sleeping in, snapping away to my shutterfly heart's delight--
best time ever.
Unfortunately, our anniversary wasn't the main reason we were there. I wish it was.
The next two days we spent in Prescott to attend the memorial services of the fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots. Talk about an emotional rollercoaster of a week. It was heartbreaking, humbling, you name it. Many tears as we went to pay our respects.

We spent some time in the town of Prescott as well. We had Scarlett in the stroller to avoid the intermittent rain, so I had my hands free and was snapping away with my beloved Canon. A man tracked us down and offered to take a family picture for us. He was a photographer in town to cover the memorial and he said he was impressed to see us with an actual camera and not just a phone. I thought it was pretty funny, but I was definitely grateful to have a shot of the three of us :)

So there you have it. 'Round the state and southwest world and home again. I'll try to update with more, uh, words tomorrow! But that's where we've been. The nomads are home again and it feels good to be sleeping in our bed!

It's like this

I am a stay-at-home mom.

Every month, I'm still paying off my student loan.

Every month, I'm a little more okay with that.

More often than not, I look like this^ A far cry from the every day dress up of salon life.

Today I made the bed and did two loads of laundry before 11am and I feel like a rock star.

I change out of my pajamas into clean yoga pants. Getting dressed, like a boss.

Clean is a relative term. (A little spit up never hurt anyone, right?)

My baby screamed at me for almost two hours this morning, and she still looked cute to me.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, my baby is finally napping, but I'm not because this might be the only hour I get to myself all day.

This might be the only hour I get to myself all day, and I just creeped on my baby in her crib because I miss her quite terribly.

I slept maybe 5 hours last night. Considering that my baby gave up sleeping through the night, that's effing awesome.

That last statement was not a sarcastic.

After cleaning out my closet, my wardrobe is almost exclusively tops that I can easily unbutton or lift up at a moment's notice.--Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm feeding my kid.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, my workouts consist of squats and bench pressing my baby. She quite enjoys it.

If you ask what I do all day, I will punch you in the throat...or employ very strong rhetoric.

The amount of stuff I can accomplish with a baby strapped to my chest is mind blowing.

I have full conversations with myself my baby.

I have been known to occasionally spend my daughter's entire nap time straightening my hair, because I may be at home all day, but damn it, I want to look pretty. It's the little things, people.

At this point, I can recite Green Eggs and Ham from memory.

When my nails are painted, I inexplicably feel like I have my shit together.

I am a stay-at-home mom, I narrate my activities and speak through stuffed animals.

I'm pretty sure my baby knows what time Kelly and Michael starts.

If I get out of the house by myself, I don't know whether to skip or panic.

I can hear a baby squeak through a closed door, music, and open windows with a washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher running at the same time. Basically, I'm a superhero.

My Instagram is a parade of baby pictures.

I hate Mondays because it means the maintenance crew outside the bedroom window is going to screw up my baby's morning nap with their lawnmowers and leaf blowers.

My husband makes fun of me because as soon as I put Scarlett down for the night, I immediately open my phone and go through old videos and pictures of her.

Occasionally there are days when I feel like I'm slowly going crazy. Everyday, I am so thankful that my husband works so hard so I can stay home with our girl.

I'm a stay-at-home mom--
It's a love-hate relationship and love wins pretty much every time.
It's kicking my ass. Daily.
I'm happy.
I'm a stay-at-home mom, hear me yawn.

My girl who loves trees

I have a new favorite thing.
Make that two.
One: We've been calling Scarlett "Shrimp" since...forever. So this shirt was an absolute must have.

Two: Going outside, laying a blanket down under the base of a tree and parking it there to enjoy the view. Baby girl loves looking at trees, which got me to thinking, she would probably love the view looking up at one. Best idea ever. She flipped. In a good way. Lots of happy flailing and faces like this:

Have I mentioned how much I love this kid?

Having a kid makes the smallest things so magical. It was giggles and happy toes for days!

This was actually my trademark move as a babe.

I quite enjoyed the view myself! It was oh so relaxing.

 

Best new activity ever? I think so. 

Summer Lists

My favorite list making notebook!

In high school, my best friend and I started a tradition--the summer list!
The last days of school we'd bust out some notebook paper and scribble down a list of summer goodness: restaurants we wanted to try, concerts we'd kill to go to, books to read, places to go--the plan for the perfect summer. Sadly, I skipped out on making a list last summer. I was in my first trimester (read: feeling like crap and constantly looking like I just ate a burrito) and hubby and I were working opposite hours, soooo we didn't really have summer plans beyond my solo trip to Minnesota.

This year though, I am determined to make this the most awesome, fun-tastic summer two people with a baby ever had. Eric and I decided that this would be "The Summer of Activity."
I want to be outdoors as much as possible, get awkward sun tans, take Scarlett to a forest (I think she'd lose it with excitement. Girl loves trees.), and try new things! I made Eric sit down and make a summer list with me and so far, this is what we've got:

Summer 2013
Swim, Hike, Walks--get outdoors! get exercise, get a funky tan, get some air
Cook at least one new recipe a week, be it a whole meal or a dessert (I've been in a cooking rut, so this is a big one and so far I've been rocking it! Gracias, Pinterest!)
Camping
Get to the lake. Often.
Head up north and take Scarlett to see the sequoias
At least one overnight at the beach
Spend some downtime at the library with my little bookworm
Read a book together ( book still TBD. Suggestions??)
Hit some outdoor concerts
Make the perfect mojito
Try a few local restaurants--these days if we go out, it's all about ease and efficiency, so we usually just hit up chains that we already know we like. It's time to expand!
Spend some quality time at the farmer's market and u-pick farms

That's what we've got for now, and hopefully we'll be adding more to it in the coming weeks. I'm loving getting a jump start on summer and I'm pretty sure that this one is going to be bommmbbb-tacular :) Suggestions to add, anyone??

Take me back to the sea

Ohhh what a week.  My brain is so fried that I don't even know where to start!
Since this week has been the official 12 week shitshow growth spurt (last week was just a "coming soon!" teaser. Not cool.), I'd like to harken back to happier times. Times when my baby was still sleeping and happy. And we went to the beach!

It started out cloudy and gloom-tastic, so we were long-sleeved up for the weather. Buuutttt the sun did not fail us and soon I was busting out the bathing suits. Yes--suits. Not plural as in "mine" and "hers." Her suits. Judge away (Scarlett definitely did). I've been waiting months for this moment and I needed beach pictures of both glorious get-ups. Tell me I was wrong, I dare you:

Middle picture all I can hear is "An outfit change? Seriously, Mom?"

Gotta love that ocean air! Scarlett wasn't too sure about actually having her feet in the water, but she definitely liked the sound of the waves. It made for a nice, cozy nap time once she was good and over the beach, and over it, she was:

"I am sooo over this, guys! Dad, let's get our nap on."

Oh to go back. It's already calling my name. Actually it was calling my name around 1am when baby girl went on a sleep strike. What does she want? Food and play time. When does she want it? Right. Friggin. Now. and every 2 hours from 1am- 10am.
Excuse me while I go hold sea shells over my ears and dream of a happy place.

I love this kid

Aaaaand we're back (said like this):

Where to begin?
Scarlett will be 12 weeks old on Tuesday but it's insane how much older she feels. She's so chatty and enjoys trying to stand (on our hands) and trying to sit up. Crazy kid. I swear, in the last week she has grown up so much! She's even more alert than before, if that's possible, and she's just a smiley ball of fun and sunshine. Today she sat on my lap while we had Dr. Seuss palooza and she actually sat and listened and liked it. I couldn't get her to do that just 2 weeks ago. Le sigh. (And now I can't get "Gox box socks" out of my head.) I'd be seriously depressed if this phase wasn't so much fun!

So we just got back from spending 10 lovely days visiting my family. My sister was in town from Minnesota with her little man and it was a great time filled with baby squeals and Tangled.

While we were in town, we went to the most fantastical, magical baby consignment sale you ever did see. It was a warehouse crammed with all things baby and if I didn't have an extremely unhappy baby looming over me, I probably would've done some serious damage. But I was on a time crunch and went in on a serious mission for an Exersaucer. I am happy to say that I scored a nice one for 40 bucks and it is officially Scarlett Approved:

"I don't know about this thing, Mama!"

"Oooo is that a butterfly?!"

"It is! That's a butterfly!"

"Helloooo, little butterfly!"

"Silly butterfly!"

What's that? Oh, just the sound of my heart melting to the floor. I'm sooo obsessed with these pictures, it's ridiculous. I want them framed. In every room in my house. Yes, I am absolutely that mom who's totally all about her own kid's cuteness. I happily admit it. Because come on, that is one freakin' cute kid.
More on our trip (and the beach!) soon!