keeping on...

since I happened to bring home some fabulous little trinkets from our family trip to the city, I decided to make some limited edition pretties. I think they turned out quite lovely...and did I mention how much I love my little sister? She has a heart of gold :)

I am in love with the flower/leaves one...it has me so excited for fall! And I can't wait to see the holiday items in Ann's shop. Her headbands are pretty all year long, but I especially love her holiday pieces!

If you'd like to keep up with hair pretties, you can find them here. :)

winding down.

Desperately need to get to sleep because we are just hours from when Isaac is going to wake up for round 1... nursing..and then it will be a little break before round 2...to be handed over to Billy for a jar of baby food?! He is the funniest 1 year old I know! I really need to wean him from both! Any tips on that would be greatly appreciated!

Today (yesterday technically) we made a little family trip to San Francisco. I would have loved to have gotten to do more shopping, but that was not what this trip was about :) And with all those cute faces I can't complain. They all did very well for it being such a long day...I'm so glad we got to escape once this summer...even if it was just for something so small!

Quick little picture of the boys sitting on the Golden Gate bridge...it was so hot out there, but it made for a fun memory!

back. for now.

So. I am thinking of making the transition to a private blog. I have been thinking about this for quite some time and I just really wish there was some nice middle ground where it wasn't either EVERYONE or just those on "the list"...! It feels so extreme on both ends :) But nonetheless if you'd like for me to add you to read the blog please just send me an email or let me know! Thank you.

I guess in blogger world I have some catching up to do! Isaac's birthday party has come and gone and so now we can rest as far as parties...at least until November! My sister and 2 of my brothers all had the stomach flu but bless their hearts they each all still came by! They just LOVE Isaac so much and Isaac is a little obsessed with them as well!

This is the first time in the history of our family parties that we were able to do an outside party! I wish I had gotten pictures of everything but I thought I would have time before the party started and then we had some early arrivals and it just kind of slipped my mind...not to mention we had to wake Isaac up right before the party started so then we were in a mad rush getting him ready to celebrate!

All in all it was a great night. Isaac loved all his presents and he loved his cake too!

little one.

So the day has come and gone...sweet little Isaac turned 1 year old!

Billy went to work super early but it was nice because he was able to skip a lunch and just come home after 8 hours.

We just had a little celebration as a family...I still felt a bit sick but I am so thankful that the worst of it was over with because I just wanted to spend the day snuggling with my baby.

Isaac has been his own person since day 1...he didn't look like anyone and he certainly let us know he had his own agenda from coming 2 weeks early down to his refusal to eat the first 3 days of life and his non stop crying...we'd just never quite met a baby like Isaac!

But I am so thankful for him every single day. We named him Isaac because it meant "filled with laughter" and to say he has filled our lives with joy would just not be doing him justice.

I remember those first few months with him...I'd just lay awake at night at stare at him, taking a million pictures in my mind because I never wanted to forget how sweet and content he looked....or the way he smelled...or the little dinosaur noises he made...

Isaac I love you more than you could know. You are literally an answered prayer...happy first birthday my sweet, sweet son.

Reminiscing.

So. Excuse my extra whiteness and dark circled eyes! This is 5 days before I gave birth to Isaac and not only was I physically exhausted I also had anemia!

I just remember taking this picture like it was yesterday. Billy and I were on our way out the door and I said to him, "One last pregnancy photo" even though Isaac wasn't due for 2 more weeks! Well, I was right! Because this is the last picture I have of being pregnant with Isaac.

This day last year I was just out and about trying to get things done..going to the bank, paying our PG & E bill and I decided to buy new curtains, so off to Target....all of this while I was in labor! The contractions just didn't feel that strong or consistent to me...but sure enough, that night we checked into the hospital at around 3 am and Isaac was born the following afternoon.

Its just crazy to me to think that was just a year ago...and here sits Isaac up at 1 AM with me and it just feels like he has always been here.

So Colby and I both spent the day throwing up :( but I started feeling so much better just recently and I even ate some chicken noodle soup..and Colby, he started feeling better even earlier thank God. Now..here's hoping NO ONE else gets sick! Isaac's birthday is tomorrow!!!

Besides...I think 3 stomach flus/food poisonings in a month period is more than my fair share of being sick! Billy says I need to stop being so clean and then I won't get sick as much. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about and then I said I wanted water to drink. He said, "do you want ice?" and I said, "No. Ice from the freezer is dirty." And he said, "That's what I'm talking about!" ha! Maybe he's right. Heck. I'll lick dirt at this point if it means I don't have to spend another day in bed!

little model.

Okay. I don't think its fair to be 15 and look like this. Whatever happened to awkward stages? Kids nowadays look so grown up! Guess my little sister Tamiko is no different! She came over today to take the hair pretties home for her and my sister Tierzah. She hung out for awhile so I had fun dressing her up in all my nonfriendly to babies and breastfeeding clothes and taking her picture.

Thank you everyone for the sweet comments on facebook. My message box filled up with hair pretty love...you are all too kind! Hair pretties were a nice little distraction from the looming fact my baby is almost 1! Other than that not too sure what will become of them! We are still focusing all manpower over here. In fact we are about to sign a contract and start to work on a new logo for a fabulous local photographer. So excited!

hair pretties...

As long as I can remember I have been wearing pretties in my hair. Probably to distract people from staring at my not so pretty face! haha! :) But really. If I don't have a clip, a headband or a flower or SOMETHING in my hair I just don't feel right. I tried to take our last Christmas photo with just my hair down...it didn't happen. Literally while everyone was sitting in the car waiting for me I ran back inside and put on a thin black headband with a little bow. You can't even see it unless you are looking for it but for some reason (probably the reason being that I have bad, unruly hair) I just feel better with something on my head.

In fact, for our spring session with Joey I brought 2 hair pretties because I couldn't decide on one! Even had a custom headband made for our wedding. Oh wait, I even had one made for our rehearsal dinner. What can I say? I love them! I also have a fabulous little collection of these.

Well, last night I did the unthinkable and instead of buying pretties I made some! They didn't turn out too shabby for a first timer...I even broke down and cut bits of my Liberty of London tana lawn fabric to back the flowers. And of course when Colby and Micah woke up the next day they said, "Mom. Those are so pretty!" (they are the reasons I call them hair pretties). Micah learned it from Colby who since he was 2 used to tell me I was "pretty" if I put a flower in my hair. :) Actually, maybe Colby learned this from Billy because he always loves when I wear flowers in my hair too :)

To me they are a simple pick me up. They don't require any work (like makeup), you can just throw one on and go...

So. Enough babbling. Here's some photos I took of the headbands and thanks for all your sweet comments and the messages you sent on facebook. While I made these pretties for my little sisters, a few of these are on their way out the door to new homes. It's so fun making something so small that can bring a big smile on someone's face. :)

cry baby

lately I've been a little emotional. Hmm. Can't imagine why!

Well, my little brother turned 18 last month and while we gave him gifts I felt bad that he never got a birthday cake or anything...it was right around the time we were battling the stomach flu part one and so yesterday I decided we finally needed to get him a cake.

So off we went to get Hot Wheels party plates and a 1967 shelby mustang hot wheel to put on top of the cake. We brought it over to my parent's house and while I'm busy serving cake my little sister decides to tell me Billy is FEEDING some to the baby.

Isaac has never had cake before and he wasn't supposed to have any till he turned 1! And it was supposed to be a Cakes By Request cake, not this little fudge one from Bel-Aire. So I did what any normal mom would do and cried.

Not only did I miss getting to see his cute little face taste cake for the first time I was just sad Billy didn't even think to ask or tell me he was going to do it or anything. Yeah. I'm a baby.

Whenever I have fed the baby something "new" (popsicles, watermelon, corn on the cob...) I always wait to do it when Billy is home. If the baby makes a new face or takes a step I am snapping 500 pictures and recording it on the phone to send to Billy. I try my best to make sure he doesn't feel left out and I just wish he would have thought about how I probably wanted to see Isaac's first taste of cake. Oh Billy.

In other birthday news, I also ordered some Cheekeyes for Isaac. I bought some a year ago for my pretend daughter and finally decided to order some more "boyish" ones for Isaac.

I think the dinosaurs might just end up being my favorites. I love the clean lines with the subtle pops of color. I had purchased Cheekeyes before from Oompa but this time I used the contact page on the Cheekeyes web page and I must say they had excellent customer service.

problems.

So. I think I have serious issues. Like when I just even THINK about Isaac turning one I go into panic mode and I feel like someone should be rushing a paper bag over to me to breathe into. Or I think about stealing him and running away because if we run away then he won't really be one?! See. Issues people...I need help!

It's a good thing that I have slowly accumulated a billion things for his birthday or else I'm not sure at this point I'd be able to do it! I guess I felt safe buying things then because the party still felt SO far away..but now that it is so close I feel a bit like becoming a recluse.

Don't get me wrong. I am happy he is growing and healthy...I am just so sad because it is all happening way too fast. And because I already have a 7 and 3 year old I KNOW it's not ever going to stop. He is just going to keep on growing and I just wish he'd stay a baby a little bit longer.

So. Continuing with birthday month post #2...we also bought Isaac an Avalisa "I love you" canvas. Actually, I bought 4. One for each boy and one for our future 4th baby?! (or one to make a nice baby shower gift to someone else's baby :)



I first saw them in this nursery and I still haven't decided if I'm going to let the boy's paint in the o's...what do you think?

*And if everyone could continue to pray for my friend and her family it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.*