a fun Valentine's project to do with your little one!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I thought I would share a fun little project I did with Henry this morning that you might want to try at home with your little one. My Mom is an elementary school teacher and always comes up with the best creative ideas- this is something she did with us when we were little and it's neat to be able to do it now with Henry.  You can also find variations of this project all over the internet from blogs to Pinterest, so if you missed Valentine's, you can always tweak it to fit the occasion.

It's easy as can be- simply take an empty toilet paper roll and bend it into the shape of a heart. Have your child press it into washable paint, and then stamp it onto paper. You can have them go crazy with tons of colors, or stick to red like we did.

If your little one can't yet sign their name like Henry, you can do it for them. Be sure to date it too, so you can always remember when your kiddo created their masterpiece.

Happy Valentine's!

New Year's Weekend

Oh, Arizona!  After a bit of a rough morning we decided to spend Saturday afternoon at the park in my parents' neighborhood to cheer up a bit. It was a beautiful day- 77 degrees and sunny. What a New Years' Eve, right? It was a lot of fun watching Abe and Hank throw the football around (the photo of them makes me laugh) and Henry enjoyed playing in the grass since most of it up north at our house is dead due to the freezing winter conditions. I love that you can drive a short two hours one way and be in snow, and turn right around the other way and head towards heat. Pretty cool.

We spent the rest of our New Year's laying low, eating and laughing. It was the perfect way to ring in 2012! We're currently dealing with some family stuff- my Grandma isn't doing too well- so being together was great. Plus, Henry brings a smile to everyone's face. I was so tempted to wake him up at midnight for a little smooch but my responsible side won out.

Whatever you did, I hope you had the happiest of New Year's Eves! Here's to a great 2012. 

Light Parade 2011

Everything is so much more fun with Henry around, and that goes double for the holidays.  Even though we still have a month until Christmas, we've been having a great time adopting new traditions, and making old ones our own. Every year our town has a light parade, and it's a lot of fun to get bundled up, get some hot chocolate, and watch all the floats go by. One of the things I love most about living in a small town is all of the tradition and fun the holidays bring, and our town really seems to come even more alive this time of the year. We had a great time at the parade, and I think Henry did too (minus the fire engines' sirens- he HATED those). It was a fun night though- cold but not too cold, crowded downtown but not too bad- and a good time was had by all!

Happy almost-December, everyone!

What happens in Vegas...

...stays in Vegas, right? I kind of feel that way because I don't really even know how to begin summarizing this past weekend, but I'll try my best! It was so, so much fun. Friday Anita drove up from Phoenix and picked me up, and we drove the three and a half hours to Vegas. The drive was quick and I don't think we even had a pause in our conversation. It's funny because Anita and I have been acquaintances for almost a decade- we go all the way back to livejournal days. It's only been in the last year or so that we've actually been hanging out...about time! ;) So yes, we had a great trip up there, and when we arrived we were greeted by Brittney, Vanessa and Andy. Interestingly enough outside of Anita and me, this entire trip was all based off knowing each other online. Brittney and I met from blogging years back, Vanessa and I the same, and Anita and I met Andy on Instagram. However, we all know people and have mutual friends from "real life" too...talk about a small world. All of us ended up walking across the street to Fashion Show Mall to shop for a bit, then we came back to the hotel and got ready for the evening. We ended up eating dinner at Holstein's. I got the vegan burger and it was really delicious but fell apart a little too easily. But besides that pretty great. Afterward we headed over to the Marquee in the Cosmopolitan, but not before admiring the Chandelier Bar, pictured below. I pretty much fell in love with that place. We stayed at the Marquee for a bit, but then decided to get a little crazy and venture off the strip to a local dive bar (via a cab with a driver that sounded EXACTLY like Larry's bff Jeff from Curb Your Enthusiasm), and afterward found ourselves dancing until 3:30am at Piranha, a gay club across the way. To say the night was insane was an understatement. My calves are still sore today from the 3-4 hours of non stop dancing. It was really one of my most favorite nights out I've ever had, and I'm still smiling about it today.

The next day we slept in for awhile, then headed to lunch and ended up shopping well into the evening. Saturday night we found ourselves at TAO, but for a short time. I think at that point we were all sick of being hassled about our tattoos (drunk people + a group of heavily tattooed girls is a recipe for annoyance on our part), so we ended up going back to the hotel and hanging out for the rest of the night. I slept in Brittney and Vanessa's room the first night, and then Anita and Andy's the second, and that night the three of us ended up talking until 5am! I kept thinking that I should probably try and get some sleep, but it was just way too much fun staying up like we were 12-year olds at a sleepover.

The next morning the other girls headed to the airport, and Anita and I eventually headed home. I can't even explain how amazing it is to see my sweet Henry after being away from him for a couple of days. I swear he was bigger and he was definitely making some new little noises. I sure love having fun with my friends, but nothing beats coming home to my boys.

Here are just a few photos from our trip. I'll tuck the rest away into a "what happens in Vegas..." folder on my computer, and look at them from time to time when I need a laugh. ;)

Las Vegas & the 4th of July

This past weekend my little family and I took a mini-roadtrip to Las Vegas. This was our first official family vacation since Henry was born, and it was definitely eye-opening as to what is needed (and what isn't) in regards to traveling with a little one. We have lots of vacations coming up in the next couple of months so this was definitely good practice.  Overall the trip was really fun - as fun as Las Vegas can be with a 7.5 month old - but Hank and I switched off having "baby duty" so each of us could have a good time with his family. We swam at Mandalay Beach (real sand and a wave pool, love it), worked out in the hotel's gym, ate such good food (and way too many sweets), and shopped a bit too. This time we stayed at THEhotel, which is an all-suite boutique hotel and part of Mandalay Bay.  It was gorgeous, and one of my favorite places we've stayed at in Vegas. Our room had a living room/sitting area, two bathrooms, and a gorgeous bedroom that overlooked the pool. We were able to watch fireworks all around Las Vegas from the comfort of our room, and it was really and truly magical to celebrate the 4th like that.  I wasn't sure how Henry would feel about it, but he ended up being mesmerized, face and hands pressed to the glass. It was definitely a happy 4th of July.

Here are just a few photos from our trip -


































and some photos from my iphone, too!