Cafe de Valentine

I know I'm a bit biased about this little guy, but he's just the cutest. I love his facial expressions and his personality. Tell me that face below doesn't make you want to die. Ha! He was DONE smiling at me for pictures! And again... He LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba cartoon on Nick Jr. I mean, he is so into it you can't get attention for ANYTHING! He was watching it in the picture below. Nothing is sweeter to me than watching my husband play with him. They were playing hard and finally little guy needed a break. Tell me this doesn't melt your heart? No? Just me then huh? My sis-in-law took this one. I don't know what we were doing other than playing on the picnic table. {this is also the photo that made me realize I needed new makeup, separate post on that to follow} I love that he will come to me and that even with his Mama sitting right there he'll let me hold him and play with him all day. Katie was taking these photos and he wasn't too fond of the gras...

It only took us 2 months but our home office is finally done! When I say done, I mean functional and put together... I still have some plans for the wall decor. I also am not sure why some of these pictures look really pixelated on the blog, because the hard copies don't look that way. This photo shows the new hardwood floors. The desk & the book shelves. You can also see the drawers behind the desk chair if you look close. The book shelves were a cheap WalMart find. The back piece was white like the sides and shelves and we painted them dark brown to add some contrast to the tan walls and white shelves. The baskets on the shelves are from IKEA. I had actually bought 3 of them from there probably 6 years ago {maybe longer} and wanted some on both shelves, so my sister went and got us 3 more of the same kind. They hold random things like my camera software/manuals & cords, CD's & some random computer software, and extra picture frames. Each of the two side walls has ...

I've never tried to post a video before so I have no clue if this will work. I heard this song this morning for the second time on the radio. The radio announcer before the song said that the lead singer wrote this song after a rough patch in his marriage. I can't help but think as great as our marriage is, if we could be proactive about these things. I also wonder how many couples we do life with on a regular basis that may have issues below the surface that they never lead on about from the outside. Husbands and Fathers have a really tough job Biblical in the family. I can only imagine what's it's like to lead a spouse much less a family, but I also acknowledge that us wives don't always make this easy on the poor guys. Do we allow him to lead? Do we allow him to love us? Do we allow him to fight for us? Do we still allow him to dream? If we allow him to do so, do we make it easy? Do we speak to him as if he's still the love of our lives? Do we serve him as...

Hubs and I just finished the first day of our Couch to 5K training program. Oh wow. First, let me say that we downloaded the iPhone application which is really cool. Day one is a 5 minute warm up walk, with 20 min of running/walking, and a 5 minute cool down walk. The 20 min run/walk is 60 seconds running then 90 seconds walking alternated for the full 20 minutes. I figured 60 seconds was easy enough and the first couple were. I am not good at math, and I hadn't calculated in my head how many running sessions it would be to do that for 20 min, I think I had figured like 4 or 5 um, it was NINE! The iPhone app is really cool, you can load music to it so while it's counting your time for each session, you can listen to music. It also beeps at you at each session change to tell you to change from walking to running or vise versa. Since my fingers will be too sore to type this out tomorrow, I wanted to recap tonight: *60 seconds doesn't start out seeming like much, by cycle two ...

So let me tell you a little story... In the midst of the house remodel the last few weeks we had been noticing mouse droppings {see title of this blog post} in the work bench. We decided to invest in a few traps and hubs set them around the work bench. A few nights later we were preparing for the trash guy to come and loading up with the cans with the old carpet and padding. {side note: we pulled up so much carpet and padding that there wasn't room for it all in our cans, so we've had a pile in the garage and we put a little out each week to fill the cans until it's gone} I picked up a pile of carpet to put it out and I saw a mouse run out the pile. It took me a second to realize that it was in fact a mouse and it had run out of the pile of carpet I was holding. I won't tell you all the things I said and did at that point, but this is probably the part you wish there were photos or video of, because I assure you it was funny to watch. I did walk the handful out to the ...

Disclaimer: If you know me at all, you will find the following information quite shocking. You may want to sit down to read this post. Many of you know of my involvement in the Susan G. Komen Foundation & their local board. We had a great family friend lose her battle to Breast Cancer years ago and we have all been involved ever since. The local Komen foundation has their annual Race for the Cure event each October at Fresno State and the event gets better and better each year! I have helped with set up, tear down, site supervision, water stops along the race track, etc each year and loved it. You see familiar faces there year after year. You see kids race with win little medals. You see family and friends gather around survivors and those still battling for their lives. I've NEVER been to an event where I haven't cried. The only thing I've never done at the Race is actually Race! They have a family "walk" and they have a men & women's 5K run (they ru...

So our great friends J & C had there sweet boy Noah last week. We had been calling him Baby Mac not knowing his name, when he arrived we appropriately changed it to BIG MAC. The kid was 10lbs 6oz! Mama had a great pregnancy with some heartburn, and minor swelling toward the end, but everything else was smooth sailing. Two weeks before her due date at her weekly appointment her doctor checked her and she was dilated to 4cm. If you follow me on Twitter you know that I had been asked my Mom & Dad to be present for his birth and capture the moment in photos. At that point I got on call and packed a bag of clothes (in case I was in my work clothes when she called) & both cameras and had them in the car and ready. The following week at her appointment she was still at 4cm. The doctor was quiet shocked that her water hadn't broke yet, but we all carried on. The week of her due date came and went with minimal progress. The following week was Memorial Day weekend and was a fu...

This weekend hubs and I got that mini vacation I was longing for in last weeks post. We had planned a few months ago to head to the coast for a few days to camp with some friends. I took all of these photos with my iPhone. I edited them with the "Shake it photo" application. I have no idea how I left town for four days and FORGOT MY CAMERA! How does the aspiring photographer head to the beach and not take her camera? This was our home for three nights. I haven't been camping since early high school and I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed sleeping out under the stars. Yes, there is an air mattress under those sleeping bags so we didn't TOTALLY "rough it". This is a beautiful time of year on the coast. We are blessed to not live far. It's views like this that make me feel so small and yet in awe of the One who created it all. Our friends B & J lost there sweet baby in January at 20 weeks pregnant and we knew this month would be hard for th...