Wordless Wednesday-Now where did he go?

Ever walk into your child's room to check on them before going to sleep only to not see them sleeping soundly in bed? Yeah we have those nights too. Most of the time it's my youngest and he is usually just asleep on the floor next to his bed, behind the door, in the middle of the floor. You get the idea. 

But the other night he wasn't in any of his usual places so I automatically went to my daughters. 

I almost walked out looking right over him. 

 Can you see him?

For more inspiring photos, check:  The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

iHeart Faces photo challenge-White

I haven't participated in one of these in a little while and quite honestly I miss it. I love photography and need to get back into it. What better way to jump back in them participating in iHeart Faces weekly photo challenge. 

This weeks challenge is White.

 

My sweet baby boy <3 

I love this white sweater with the little teddy bear ears on his soft skin.

To participate in iHeart Faces photo challenge simply click the link under the button below and head on over to their site & link up.

http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/08/photo-challenge-white/

Sunset Sunday

Welcome to week two of Sunset Sunday! 

Today I have two pictures of two different sunsets. The first one was right after we moved here. I was driving home from the grocery store and happened to look out my window to see this. I had to pull over and take a picture of this sunset. The colors may not be spectacular but the rays coming off the sun made my jaw drop. It's moments like those that make me stop and ponder what really lies beyond. 

  And this one was last night, again driving home from the grocery store. Seems like a pattern that I go grocery shopping in the evenings.

Two different sunsets, both spectacular in their own ways.

I would love to see your photos of sunsets, once you post be sure to come and link up so I can share some love on your posts!

Entering the world of Pre-K and 2nd Grade

I am not sure who is more emotional about my baby girl starting Pre-K and my son starting 2nd grade, them or me. No I lie, I know who it is, it's totally me. Ummm, wait I take that back. That only applies to my son. He has no qualms about walking into school with his head held high and ready to tackle the world that is a new school. I am beyond proud of him for this.

My husband waited in the car with the two little's while I walked in with my oldest. He had mentioned a few times last night that he was worried that he wouldn't remember where his classroom so I reminded him where it is and the room number but I couldn't just let my little man walk in alone on his first day of school. That just not how I roll. So in we went, hand in hand. He was very quiet so I think he was a tad nervous but once we got to his room we said our goodbye's and off he went to an empty seat. My sweet boy chose a table right up front.

Now my daughter, that's another story. She may be cute, shy, quiet and totally princess like but she is also quite dramatic and has some anxiety to her. So I prepared myself for the tears, the no mommy I don't want to stay, the please don't go and the screaming. But what I was faced with was the complete opposite. I am still in shock over what an easy transition this was for her. She immediately sat in her chair and started coloring and smiling and did shed a single tear when I said goodbye. She was so calm and I was so proud. Of course I didn't actually leave until five minutes after I said goodbye. I kept peeking into the window and checking on her but she was fine. She was just sitting at her table coloring, totally in her element. I couldn't be more proud of my baby girl.

At seven last night she crashed, I guess the day wore her out.

All in all it was a GREAT first day of school for my babies.
By the way I was doing just fine, no crying from me after dropping my babies off. That is until I talked to my Dad and as soon as he asked "so how are you doing" the tears just started to flow. I blame him LOL

Wordless Wednesday-Turn that frown upside down

I can't help but find my baby girls sad face adorable. I mean she does the full on pout complete with the mouth, the eyes, even her nostrils flare. All I want to do is pick her up and hug her and give in to what ever she wants. Oh I know I am going to be in trouble in the future LOL

For more inspiring photos, check:  The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles, The Centsible Life and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

Sunset Sunday's

Since moving out here I have been able to view some spectacular sunsets with little to no obstructions. Being a Cali girl this is semi new to me. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere or have some major bucks coming out your yahoo, seeing a sunset in full with nothing in your view sight is a rarity. Oh yes I can't forget to add unless you live near the beach. We were fortunate enough to live near one a few years back and I wont utter a single complaint about living there. It was awesome. 

I am getting off track here. I have been taking pictures of the sunsets here almost every night. Probably a tad over board but I can't help it. Every time I see it it amazes me over and over. I've been thinking WHAT can I do with the hundreds of pictures I am taking. No one is getting to experience it's greatness but me. And well that's simply not fair (at least that's how it works out in my mind). So here I come, to you, to share the awesomeness of sunsets. The last breath of the daylight, the beautiful scenery, the awe inspiring rays of sun that make you think, wow this is amazing. 

My goal is to make this a weekly thing. Every Sunday I will come on here and post a picture of the night priors sunset. I would do Sundays but then that means posting pictures at 8 o'clock my time and most people are tucking their kids in to bed and I don't want to take away from that or ruin an opportunity for others to join me.

So here we go, the first of many to come, Sunset Sunday's.

I invite you to join along with me. Feel free to include a description of what a sunset means to you or anything you'd like to say. This isn't so much a Wordless Wednesday type of meme. This is a talk all you want or talk as little as you want, just as long as you share a picture of a sunset. Whether it be edited, non edited, what have you, it all works!

Once you post be sure to come and link up so I can share some love on your posts!

Where Do You Go When It's Time For Escape?

Jessica from Kick in the blog asked her readers the other day Where Do You Go When It's Time For Escape?

My initial thoughts were I run far far away. Getting some inspiration from Forest Gump there. If you can't tell I am a bunch of randomness and sarcasm when I am initially thinking out answers in my head. So now onto the real answer.

A book is my first and preferred escape. When I need some me time I can always find that while reading a book. I am the type that gets completely involved while reading. Sometimes it literally feels like I am in the story and there is no one else around me that can disturb me. So it's best for me to read while the kids are asleep. That being said it is still my favorite way to escape.

Another way I escape is through music. I play it loud, and when I mean loud I mean where you feel it in your chest loud. One of the best parts about listening to music is that my kids will escape with me into my/our little world of lets dance like a fool and not care because were awesome like that. And it is awesome. It usually brings out lots of laughter and smiles and you can't beat that. 

The bathroom. Yes I will go to the bathroom sometimes if I feel things might get a little out of hand (emotionally) and sit by myself for five minutes and just breath. And you know what it helps. Some people might laugh or scoff but go try it and come back here and tell me how you feel after doing it. Five minutes may not seem like a long time but when you are sitting by yourself concentrating on your breathing it will feel like so much longer and the relief felt after doing it is tremendous. 

Those are my top three ways to escape. What are yours?

Clothes shopping for children

For me half the enjoyment of clothes shopping for my little's is getting home and trying it all on them. There are so many cute styles out there it can be overwhelming sometimes so I tend to keep it simple and not go overboard. Sometimes that is a little easier said then done, especially if you are shopping with all of your kids so just remember if things seem to be going haywire you can always come back OR you can shop online. 

Sometimes you can get a better deal if you shop online. Many retailers will offer a special discount only good online. And keep your eye out for free shipping offers. If they are running a free shipping offer remember that you can still use an online coupon in addition to the regular promotions going on. 

I took my son shopping out here a few weeks ago and was quite unimpressed with the selection of boys clothes. We did manage to get a new wardrobe but that was after visiting four separate stores. So to avoid the hassle of running all over the place for my daughter I looked online. 

My go to place was The Children's Place and it just so happened that they were having a free shipping promotion so I knew I would at least be getting the same price as I would in the stores minus the cost of gas. Some of the best times for clothes shopping is as retailers are bringing in new seasonal looks because the prior seasons looks will all be on markdown. Because of this I got items that were normally 15-20% more and I also had a 15% off coupon.

I even snagged this adorable backpack for only $10.80 after their regular sale and coupon. I saved $6.15. We also got the matching lunchbox that I saved $2.88 on.

Here's a breakdown of what I saved:

Six shirts normally $10.50 each received for $5.10 each 

Lunchbox normally $7.95, received for $5.07

Backpack normally $16.95, received for $10.80

Pintuck shirt normally $19.95, received for $10.20

Two jeans normally $14.00 each, received for $10.20 each

Scarf normally $8.95, received for $5.10

Total savings over $62.00

And that's not counting the free shipping. 

Now while the wait for the items to come by mail can be hard, especially if you are one of little patience (like I tend to be sometimes) but one thing I have to say about The Children's Place is they are awesome at getting orders out ASAP. We received our order only four days after placing it online. Told you, awesome! And what fun would it be to look at all these new clothes without having a mini fashion show put on by my daughter. 

So without further ado I would like to welcome baby girl modeling some of her new clothes.

This is my favorite outfit, I think it's hers too. Can you tell she loves scarfs

 

Little man wanted to get in on some of the action 

Wordless Wednesday-Who needs a pool

When you have a hose! 

For more inspiring photos, check:  The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom, BrainFoggles and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.

If you have a Wordless Wednesday post I would love to visit it.

Wordless Wednesday-Lighting, thunder & rain...oh my

Here is my not so wordless Wednesday post, and with a video instead of pictures. 

Yesterday was quite eventful. My youngest and I flew home last night and in addition to seeing lightening out the windows we hit a little bit of turbulence. Of course my youngest slept through it but I instinctively grabbed his hand as my stomach felt like it was being thrust up into my chest. Gotta love turbulence eh.

My husband met us at the airport and we began the drive home. Normally it would be a twenty minute drive but we had to fly into Tulsa because the previous flight was full. We knew there were storms coming but we did not expect it to be as bad as it was. 

We stopped a few times because the wind was so bad and the rain looked literally like someone was dumping buckets upon buckets of rain. I'll admit, I was scared shitless yet completely fascinated. 

Seeing as getting pictures during a storm is hard, especially when you're using a cell phone I took two short videos. 

Wordless Wednesday-The park on a hot day

It's been so hot since we moved that we've been pretty much hiding inside just to keep cool. But we HAD to get out. Despite the heat I took the kids to the park to help break everyone's cabin fever.  Excuse me while I do a little bit of picture over load right now.

Does this place not look friggin awesome or what!

Tire swings are the bomb, oh yes I just said the bomb

There was a chair swing so I had to get on & join in on the fun.

For more inspiring photos, check:  The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, High Impact Mom  and Zensible Mama and link your own photo stories.