Cafe de Valentine

I wrote this post mid September and I never posted it. Now that I've been back at work for over 4 months I thought I would add to the bottom my current schedule (things have changed a bit) and my current thoughts/struggles. I'd love the feedback from any other working Mom's. ******************************************** I am officially 3 weeks into being a full time working mom. It's probably the hardest job I've ever had. Parenting is a 24/7 job that I love and it brings me so much joy, but when we add all the things that I used to get done each evening, weekend & early morning outside of work to taking care of a little one that's a tough task. I will say that I had zero post-pardum depression and never even really had a difficult time transitioning to being a Mama. It came very naturally to me. I loved it from day one and there wasn't really anything for me to get worked up over. I will share with you, however, that transitioning back to work has been h...

So to preface all these photos, blogger has been fighting with me all week and I just now was able to get photos to load. They, however, didn't load in order. I am too tired to fight with it, so bare with me. We had four baby showers in total. We just had different groups of people and sides of the family and I get super overwhelmed at showers anyway trying to visit with everyone and being the center of attention is always a bit awkward, not to mention that we were blessed with four people/groups that offered to host showers and I felt much better doing four "smaller" ones than one or two huge ones. I will do a post for each shower since they deserve their own posts. I have tons of pictures from some and not so many from others (if I was in charge of taking them I didn't get a ton cause I was busy enjoying myself) This first shower was thrown by my best friend (Jill) and her mom (Lynn). She and I met in pre-school when we were 3 years old and we both turned the big 3-...

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...

Well I've been a bit crazy the last few weeks so I've been MIA from the bloggy blog. I figured I'd catch you up. Last Saturday the 13 th I threw a shower for our friend Candi and her sweet baby boy McLeran . Daddy McLeran is a pilot and while they aren't assuming that their little boy will follow in that profession they do expect him to like planes and appreciate that his daddy spends a great deal of time in one! With that said, his shower was an airline theme. The invitations were boarding passes, I didn't get a picture of them for a few reasons the main one being that I have no clue how to smear out my address on it. I will say they were REALLY cute though. The tables had white balloons (they were supposed to be clouds, although I'm not sure how many people got that). The balloons were coming out of these little buckets that had burp clothes that I ( more so my mother than me) sewed vintage airplane fabric down the middle of. The favors were little bag...

as 2009 is coming to an end, thanksgiving has passed us by, and christmas prep is in full swing; i wanted to take just a second to give thanks. i wanted to do this last week, but hubs and i actually were able to spend each evening together running errands, cooking, planning black friday shopping trips, and decorating our house; so it will have to be a week late. in no particular order what-so-ever i'd like to share with you the things that i'm ever so thankful for. both big and small. *my stead fast faith. it still shocks me that there are people who think that they can face this world alone. i can't. i know this, i embrace this, and i'm so thankful that i don't have to. God is good, i am not. *my fantabulous husband. he keeps me calm when i'm stressed, he keeps me laughing when i'm frustrated, he keeps me guessing when i want to have a plan. i love the balance, joy, friendship & love that he brings to my life. *family. sometimes it overwhelms ...

so i spent hours up loading all these photos from the wedding to realize that i loaded them backwards. so start at the bottom and work your way to enjoy them. sorry! i'll comment under each photo so you can read the comment, then scroll to see the appropriate photo. my internet is way to slow to start over. the end of the night, steven was ready to GO HOME, julie was dancing the night away! :) great friends! the girls: me, emily (grooms sister), monica, lynds. emily and her sweet sweet man. he's wonderful and i hope it works out for them both. all their friends from the river. they met when they were both river guides for the summer. this is their posse dancing with them both during the money dance. my hubs and the bride. steve-o and monana! the groom and i steven and his mom dancing during the $$$ dance daddy/daugther dance. there was a daddy/daughter slideshow playing while they danced. i cried. shocking! they had their sweet moment and then the music cut out into ...