Yummy!

And that's all I'm going to say about

Brett Eldredge.

 

Yummy!

Cuteness Explosion

It's been a busy, busy, busy week.

Actually, it's been a crazy few weeks.

I think if you looked at my blog posts from

the past few years, at about this time 

I say the same thing...it's crazy time.

 

So, since it's been a long time since

I posted one of these, and I'm in some

desperate need of a smile....

I give you a

CUTENESS EXPLOSION!

 

via

 

Oh my goodness!

Don't you just want to pick him up and

squeeze his little cheeks?

Adorable!

 

He made me smile.

Mission accomplished.

Back to School

Now that my kids have headed back to college,

I realized that I didn't do any post for those of

you with kids going back to school.

I've seen some cool ideas floating around the web,

so I thought I would share a few.

 

I know the beginning of school can be

frustrating for both parents and children,

but here are a couple ideas to help

you organize and ease the transition

from the lazy days of summer

to the busy days of school.

via

 

How cool is this homework station. 

It has clipboards, supplies, school materials,

just about everything you could think of to help get

you and your child organized.

via

 

This homework space is adorable and functional

Not too many distractions.

A nice flat, clean, well lit area is all you need.

Well, that and a chair, of course.

 

via

 

Make mornings less rushed by having a space

where children can store their backpacks, shoes,

jackets and maybe any supplies they will need.

The rushing around trying to find things frenzy

will be all but eliminated if you take a little time

the night before to organize.

 

via

 

I love this idea because this is an area where I struggle.

I can do most school preparation well,

but it always took me forever to figure out what to wear.

I love the idea of picking out a weeks worth of

outfits so you aren't running around looking for

a matching sock or a clean pair of pants.

Pick out 5 outfits on Sunday and be done with it

for the entire week.

 

via

 

And finally, any list you need could probably

be found in these kits that are available for purchase.

They have

good morning/good night charts

weekly schedules

school day schedule

important school numbers and contacts

important classmate/parent numbers and contacts

conversation tracker

 

And if you think of any list or chart that you may

need, this website will create it for you in you convo her.

(I personally thought important school documents

might be a good list to have).

 

So there you have it.

My favorites that I have seen lately.

Hopefully these little suggestions help you

transition to the school year with fewer meltdowns.

And moms/dads - I'm talking to you!

 

Oh - putting kids to bed at a decent hour doesn't hurt either!

Some More Santa Barbara

So when I left off, I had blogged

about day 1, 2 and part of day 3.

Day 3 (Tuesday) happened to be the day

that we did the most activities,

so after lunch and the mission we headed to

the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens.

 

We didn't have much time before the

garden closed (like 1 1/2 hours), but we

only had to hike 1 mile so it was totally doable.

 

Keeping in mind that I have been to

the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens,

I found the Santa Barbara  garden to be mediocre

comparatively speaking. 

It wasn't bad, it was just more natural looking.

It pretty much looked like my property

except that it had redwoods on it.

 

There were some cool parts at the garden,

like it had the dam and aqueduct that

directed water to the mission that we had just visited.

 

Being us, we had to take the usual

"weirdo" picture.

 

I do think Todd enjoyed the hike

more than yours truly.

There were rocks, and trees, and all

sorts of outdoorsy things.

I tend to enjoy air conditioned,

clean, low cardio activities.

 

After we sprinted through the gardens

we decided we needed to explore

Santa Barbara a little bit more,

so we drove up in the hills where there

are multi million dollar homes

and took pictures.

 

Hey, it made for a cool shot,

and we didn't jump out on anyone's lawn or anything

to take the picture.

 

When we got our fill of overly large homes

and winding roads, we decided to go back to the ocean.

We walked along the beach.

 

And we watched Outrigger teams practice.

Todd spoke to the coach and learned

a little more about the sport.

 

After it started to get darker and cooler,

we decided to go to dinner.

We found this restaurant that happened to be

there on the ocean, and it was amazing!

I didn't get any good pictures,

but trust me when I say the food was delicious.

We ended up finishing dinner around 9:30 PM,

and were so exhausted that we just went

back to our hotel room and crashed.

 

Not much happened on Wednesday because

Todd had to be at the conference from 7:30 AM - 9:00 PM.

He had the car, so I just stayed in my room,

slept in, ate and watched tons of tv.

 

Thursday was our last day in Santa Barbara,

and we headed home around 11 AM,

but we did make a short detour through Cambria.

We window shopped at a couple of different

stores, and let me tell you it took all my self control

not to buy anything.!

 

Cambria had some really cool shops

for such a small little town.

 

This shop happened to have succulents,

air plants and various pretty rocks.

 

I didn't get many pictures because

I was hangry, and that's all I could think about.

 

 

We found some sustenance at the local

alehouse, and with that, our vacation was over.

 

Six hours later we arrived home,

and ten hours after that we were driving

Lexx to have oral surgery.

 

I guess you have to go back to reality

at some point, but boy was it nice to

have some real R & R.

 

Santa Barbara Baby!

Todd and I had the opportunity to spend some time

together in Santa Barbara last week.

He was sent on a conference and asked me if I wanted to go.

I originally didn't think I would be able to get time off work,

so when my boss approved the time, I was elated.

We got there on a Sunday around 7 PM, 

checked into our hotel and then went to bed.

Todd's conference ran Monday through Thursday,

so we weren't able to spend many hours together,

but the time we were together, we made it count.
I can honestly say I got tons of R & R
on this vacation!

Monday, Todd had a BBQ on the beach with coworkers,

so he invited me and I was actually able to meet all the 

people Todd has talked about and worked with for 13 years.

Such nice people - he's a lucky guy.

Picture on the pier after the beach BBQ.

Of course we had to get desert after dinner,

and the plus...Yogurtland was about a block from our hotel.

Tuesday, Todd's work ended at noon

so we had the rest of the day to explore the Santa Barbara area.

First on the schedule, lunch on the harbor.

It was a beautiful day, and we sat outside eating lunch

for well over an hour just enjoying the weather and food.

After lunch we decided to explore the harbor a little,

so we walked almost to the end.

People were busy doing their water sports.

I had to take this random picture because I thought 

this sculpture was cool.  

It was a metallic like fish.

Ohhh shiny!

I like.

After we were done at the harbor

we headed over to Mission Santa Barbara.

This was one of the main things that I wanted to do

while in Santa Barbara was visit the mission.

I had read great reviews, and it didn't disappoint.

I just took a picture of this because it gave some

information about the mission, and I figured it was 

way easier to take a picture and have you read it

than it was to research and try and explain.

Of course, I had to make a fool of myself...

like always.  Sad thing is, you can't tell that that's

not my actual body.  My chubby little face looks

right at home on Friar Tubby's body.

The grounds were beautiful and perfectly kept.

And the sculptures and artwork were breathtaking.

I'm not lying when I tell you that I thought the chapel

was so beautiful that it actually made me tear up.

I have so many pictures of the mission

(like probably over 100) 

that I had to contain myself and only show you a few.

When we finished up at the mission,

it was around 3:30 - 4:00, 

so we decided to get a couple more activities in.

Stay tuned for 

the rest of the story! 

;)

Radio Silence

You may have noticed I've been MIA around the blog.

I was out of town for the week, and have some fun

pictures to share with you next week.

Today Lexx had four wisdom teeth pulled...

does this make her unwise?

Needless to say, my weekend is going to be 

spent babying my baby girl.

She is recuperating nicely, but in pain,

which is to be expected.

She'll survive, but it's never fun when you're on the mend.

Until next week, here is a picture of what I was dealing 

with this morning after she came out of surgery.

Alexxa + heavy duty drugs = GOOFY!

She wouldn't stop laughing and talking.

Sweet little thing.

Somebody Turned 45

We got to celebrate Todd's birthday with

his family last weekend.

As usual, we met at Todd's dad's house,

and his mother cooked dinner and made

birthday cake/pie.

It's been a while since the family got together,

so it was nice to be able to catch up with everyone,

and just a bonus that we got to celebrate Todd's birthday.

Anne and Dennis made tacos for dinner,

and they were delicious!

(Did you notice I remembered to take

pics of dinner this time?)

After dinner, it was time to eat cake and open presents.

Anne made homemade German Chocolate Cake

and a strawberry pie.

I think I could have eaten the cake all by myself.

Like always, Todd was spoiled.

But this year his parents bought him

Anson Belts.

I hadn't heard of them before,

but Todd was super excited because he had

planned on buying them for himself at some point.

What's so special about the belts?

They have microadjustability.

With normal belts, you have holes that get stretched out

and over time the belt no longer fits correctly.

The Anson Belt allows you to adjust your belt

within a quarter of an inch, and there are no holes

to stretch because the buckle ratchets close.

They truly are cool.

We didn't get to spend much time together

because almost everyone had to either work

or had something planned the next day,

but it was so nice spending time with family.