preschool picnic

Last week, Adelyn's class had a pinic and a little program. It was fun (albeit, hot)!
In the week or so beforehand, she wouldn't show me any of the songs because she wanted it to be a surprise. :) She did so great and I am so proud of her!

p.s. The video is hard to hear because there was a lawn mower going during almost the entire thing

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catch-up

Wow....let's just throw it out there that it's been way too long since I've been on here.
Honestly, I found myself starting to live my life in "blog terms". I realized that if I'm starting to categorize our days in blog form, I should stop for a while. So I did. ;)
I don't think I could catch up on what's been happening the last 4 months, so we'll just say that we are loving California. We have some amazing friends who have become our family out here. Adelyn is loving preschool (next week is her last week before summer break!). Mason is as ornery and loveable as ever. Both are growing like weeds! Nick only has 2 classes--one year--of grad school left and then he is D.O.N.E. Yay!!! His first class was the day after Adelyn was born. So that puts it into perspective :) I am so proud of how hard he has been working, both in school and his career, he has had alot of his plate. I got lucky, people. ;)
I'll leave you with some photos from Adelyn's and my trip to Iowa in March.
It was fun :)
p.s....I'm posting a video next week from Adelyn's school picnic. :)

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adelyn's birthday

 

So our baby girl turned 4 at the beginning of January! Every single day, she does or says something that reminds me she's growing up. It freaks me out. She's a little girl now...not a toddler...or in the in-between stage of the 3's....she's 4.

{her birthday crown they made her at preschool....very papal like ;)}

{birthday morning balloon}

Nick and I took her out for dinner for her birthday. She wanted spaghetti, so she got her first Olive Garden experience. She loved it :) Afterwards, we had ice cream cake with our dear friends, Matt and Kendra, who were watching Mason for us :) They have a little boy who is the same age as Mason and just as obsessed with CARS, so it works out well ;)

She had been begging for a big girl princess bike, so that was her gift from us ;)

She is so fast on that thing! She loves it. When we take walks, she wants to ride her bike....makes it a little easy on me too ;)

We had a (princess) birthday party the weekend after her birthday. I invited her entire preschool class. It was so much fun! 7 out of 20 kids came...it was great getting to know the moms and put faces with names of friends she talks about! Between her school friends and friends from church/MOPS...there was about 14  kids who came. It was so fun!

We had a bounce house outside (would not have survived without it!). Opening gifts was an interesting experience....15 kids freaking out about each one and ripping through them....it was crazy.

Thank you so much to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

We are so thankful for the friendships she has made. :)

Adelyn had a blast and is already discussing next year's birthday party. It will not be as big as this one....maybe we'll do a low-key sleepover or something ;)

 

 

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adelyn's christmas program

First of all::

We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas :)

Secondly::
Adelyn had her preschool christmas program at the beginning of this month.

{the little boy next to her is one of her BFFs :) he is the sweetest}

 

It surprised me how hard it hit me that she's old enough to be in a Christmas program and how awesome she was!

I was laughing/crying through the entire thing. It was just so cute.

I may be a little biased...

;)

Just a heads up, I recorded the entire thing, so the video is about 6 minutes long.

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homemade moisturizer

 

Okay, so stick with me here.

For YEARS, I have been using different moisturizers for my face. For YEARS I haven't found ONE that I liked enough to purchase multiple times.

In college, I developed issues with breakouts and I have sebborhic dermatitis that flares up by my nose sometimes. It's annoying.

During nursing school, one of my classes had a discussion about ingredients that are put into moisturizers and cosmetics that can actually speed up aging and dry out your skin (isn't that counterproductive with moisturizers?)....and parabens, which mimic the estrogen hormone and can reek havoc on your body....among other things.

Ick.

I started using Arbonne last year and it reallyhelped my dermatitis, my face wasn't breaking out as much. I liked the lack of "ick" ingredients....

but the stuff is expensive and I felt like I was constantly applying lotion to my face. It was always so dry.

Then I started using Jenuinely Pure based out of Ames, IA....loved it, but the shipping made it ridiculous.

It clicked one day....why couldn't I try to make it myself without all the extra stuff and cost??

I started researching...mostly blogs is what I could find.

I decided to try oils for day and then blend and oil mix with raw shea butter at night.

Love. It.

I know, you would think isn't the oil greasy?

No.

If you're using the right oils, it absorbs into your skin...leaving it soft, not greasy or oily.

There are different oils you can use for different skin types.

People, my skin tone is better. My skin looks brighter. My skin is soft. I put on the oil mix (about dime-sized) after I shower or wash my face....I don't feel like I need lotion the rest of the day. It's awesome.

My mom even commented when she was out here that my skin looked great. :) That was wonderful. thanks, mom :)

I have had hardly any breakouts and I haven't fought the dermatitis battle in a long time :)

yay.

The shea butter at night is okay...I think, when it's gone, I might just do oil at night too because it definitely takes longer for my skin to absorb than just the oil.

SO....for daytime, here's what I've been using (I didn't measure, I just mixed into a little squeeze bottle I had)

 

sweet almond oil for the base

a few drops of Vitamin E

jojoba oil (it's also a carrier oil, so helps my skin absorb the oil mix faster)

2 drops lavender essential oil

 

That's it! No icky fillers or chemicals.

Plus, it takes forever to use up! I've been using the same mix for 2.5 months and am barely halfway through the bottle :)

yay.

 For night time I used the same oil mix, with a little coconut oil and some raw shea butter. I stuck it in the food processor and blend blend blend :)

That's it.

Okay, so my resources::

The best breakdown I could find was this blog post.

She did a great job summing things up....which was great because I was starting to get a little overwhelmed.

Then I found this blog post by Crunchy Betty.

She is one I started following and going back to as another resource.

I found my ingredients mostly on amazon and Mountain Rose Herbs.

Let me know if you wind up trying it...

happy experimenting ;)

 

PS::I do still use Arbonne cleanser because that's what I had left....but I'm looking for a cleanser like it (or Cetaphil) that cleanses without stripping my face.

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a party and a visit

Earlier this month, my mom and Grandma came out for a long weekend and for Mason's birthday party. Since his birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year, we had it the Saturday before :)
It was so much fun. We had a mixed CARS and Toy Story theme going on..

The cake was from Super Target's bakery...it was yummy :)

I made car and cowboy hat sugar cookies for favors.

Mason was overwhelmed between the people and gifts....the poor kid didn't know what to do! :)

On a more important topic...my mom and Grandma came for a quick visit. It was so amazing to see them and it was so incredibly sad to say goodbye.

 

I miss our families so much everyday, but having them come visit and then having to say goodbye again is like itching off a scab and having it hurt all over again.

(graphic, I know, but it's the only way I can describe it!)

We had a wonderful time with them while they were here...

thank you both for coming!

we love and miss you!

xoxo

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trick or treat

Let me just say that growing up, we didn't go trick or treating. This has never bothered me and I understand why my parents made that decision...but let me tell you, I think I was more excited about costumes and candy than the kids were ;)

 I made Nick pull out some of his cowboy gear and I scrounged in the closet for what could pass as western wear :)

{we stopped by to see Steve and Cindy and she took this picture for us (thank you!). The "creepy baby" is actually her childhood doll...and is actually quite sweet, but I get that on Halloween, baby dolls can be on the creepy side :) }

Mason was supposed to be a bum, but he turned out more farmer-ish.

There was much drama behind the "whiskers".

Adelyn wanted to be a princess (surprise surprise), so she picked one of her dress up outfits, I braided a crown and sprayed some glitter. BAM. good to go :)

Our friends, Jeremy and Meghan, invited us to join them at her Mom and Step-dad's for their annual Halloween shindig (thank you!)  ;) with her family...it was a blast! So many kids. Adelyn and Mason were in kid heaven. I didn't take any pictures, though....so I don't have any of the fun costumes the kids were wearing :)

Going door to door was so much fun. There were so many people and it was neat seeing all the different costumes!

I'm already excited for next year :)

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