Happy Happy Birthday!

This weekend my mom turned 50! In honor of this amazing woman, my step-sister, Lila, and I helped throw a party on Saturday. We grilled out, had tons of food and a super yummy Costco cake (seriously people, if you haven't had one, you are definitely missing out).  More importantly, we had a fantastic time with family and friends.

All 4 of Rob's kids and their spouses/significant others and kids (it was so so good to see you guys!) were able to be there along with other  friends and family (Nick was in Utah and all 3 of my brothers were dispersed in other states as well).

I'm just now thinking it probably would have been a good idea to get a group picture of everyone who came,  but I didn't even think about it...

updated grandkids picture (for now, anyway!) left to right: Scarlet, Naveen, Adelyn, Evelyn, Noah and Lily.

Some of the ladies in attendance left to right: Dena, Jane (Mom's friend since grade school), Monica, Diane (aka mom), Chris, Ann and Veronica (Noah's other grandma. aka Ita)

Happy Happy Birthday, to my favorite woman in the whole wide world and my best friend (aside from my husband of course!) ;)

I love you so much and am so thankful for you!

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Happy Father's Day, Nicholas

Happy Father's Day to one of the most amazing Dad's EVER!

We love you so much.

xoxo

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Minnesota visit

Last weekend we were in MN with Nick's family. Alan and Steph flew out from AZ with Nora, so we had all 3 of these sweet sweet girls together! How fun, right? :)

It was a busy 3 days of visiting grandparents and seeing friends (how refreshing that was!)  :)

As always, it was so hard to say goodbye. I think Adelyn still misses her cousins and especially Nora following her around  :) (by the way, Steph got a great video of Nora on the stairs, you HAVE to see it). Needless to say, we are definitely looking forward to the days when we will all be within driving distance of one another :) We miss you all so much and can't wait to see you again!

One more picture of the three cutie patooties...

 

p.s. I'm playing around with our blog look...I'm sure I'll got back to something more simple, but for now I'm having fun experimenting :)  Let me know if you think it's totally hideous...I don't have the best eye for this stuff!

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spaghetti face

somebody really...

...really...

...REALLY...

...LOVES spaghetti!

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laundry experiment

I quit using fabric softener about a month ago because Adelyn's eczema was getting worse. Last week it got so bad her skin was RAW and blistering. I finally took her to our dermatologist to make sure that's what it was in the first place. They recommended a few things and prescribed a cream. I didn't use everything they recommended, but I did use the cream for 2 days and her skin is 100% better and I haven't had to use it since. Cetaphil and Aquaphor are still a nightly routine, though ;)
ANYWAY...I have been using Tide free and gentle since before Adelyn was born b/c I couldn't stand the perfumes anymore...but after I stopped using the fabric softener, our clothes were coming out of the dryer wrinkled and I could definitely feel a difference in the cloth too. I started researching alternatives so we could get some wort of softness back in our clothes. There are SO MANY opinions and recommendations out there that I was on overload...so I went back to some basics.
I had heard that vinegar and/or baking soda are a good alternative, so I found a "recipe" that combined them both (4c water, 2c baking soda, 2c vinegar)...I'm also trying vinegar solo right now and then I'm going to compare and see which one I like best :)
I'm sure people have more ideas, so let me know what you have found that works...

(If you are curious, I'm not ready to start making my own laundry detergent. I don't quite trust that the homemade stuff will get my clothes clean enough)

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