This Fall

Fall is in the air and I LOVE IT!  It is a perfect 70 degrees and all the windows are open: it is wonderful. I'm not in school anymore, but fall still feels like the beginning of a new year.
To get the season going, we started back up with our Sunday night family walks. We used to do this every Sunday, but stopped once it was too hot to enjoy them! 

Today we had lunch at the park with Tony.  Charlie walked around like he owned the place.  He's obsessed and easily distracted by leaves, rocks and wood chips.  Most trips to the park include the constant battle of pulling things out of his mouth, but he has a blast.

He climbed all the stairs by himself!

This little guy turns 1 in less than a month!  Can you believe it?!

To celebrate my favorite season, I'm throwing a ladies' dinner party.  I'm excited to pull out my dishes and get together for warm comfort food!  Fall just seems like the time to get together with friends.

This fall I am looking forward to....

carving pumpkins

running outside

hot chocolate

soups
leaves changing colors

Halloween with Charlie

fall colors

jackets & sweaters

What are you looking forward to?

All About Charlie

This post is all about Charlie.

My heart just aches when I see this kid...he is such a sweetie.  I love having a boy. 

He is very much a mama's boy, but he loves his daddy too.
He still loves to play rough with dad and I doubt that will ever change. They chase each other around the family room and wrestle everywhere.  It's a bit of a mad house after dad gets home.

Favorite foods: yogurt, string cheese, fruit, noodles with spaghetti sauce, sweets, cheerios
He loves to read stories.

He loves to drag clothes and dish towels around the house.
He loves bath time.  He walks all around the tub and likes to knock everything over.
He has the cutest buns.

Don't you agree? :)

He likes dogs.
It just started that every time he's in a bathroom he's trying to put something in the toilet.
He says mama, dad, whoa and makes a barking noise when we read his puppy book

He loves to be chased.
He doesn't like to get dressed and often runs away when he knows it's coming.

He is a good sleeper (remember my past posts about that?)  He puts himself to sleep every nap and night!


We just started watching TV and he enjoys little bits of Sesame Street and Dinosaur Train.
He's always trying to get into the fridge.
He enjoys walks.
He sleeps with his froggy, a blanket and pacifier.

He is very vocal and jabbers all day.
He enjoys being the loud one and has a hard time when we're with a bunch of kids/people being loud.

He loves to get into the dishwasher-- he rushes towards it if he hears it opening.
He is a great walker!  Most of the time he's running more than walking. 

Nicknames: Charlie Brown, Mr. Brown, sometimes Chuck but I try to discourage that :)

Can you believe he's almost one?! 

Individual Cupcake Stands

I love dishes and particularly cake stands, but have you seen individual cupcake stands?  They adorable and would be so fun at a dinner party, special family dinners or really any occasion.  

This set (above) is on my Christmas wish list.  These come in a set of six for $38.95.  You can find them here.  The good thing about white is they would match any occasion or holiday. 

These are the Rosanna cupcake stands and can be found multiple places.  I found them here.  They are individually priced at $16.99 and come in white meringue, mint green and buttercream yellow. 

This set can be found in a few different places but I found it here . How fun are the domes?  These come in a set of two with one large and one small pedestal (as shown).  They're specifically labeled as cupcake stands so I'm not sure why pumpkins are pictured here, but what a fun way to decorate!

These are also great and are easier on the wallet at $10.95 for a set of six.  However they are made out of recycled paper so I imagine they are thrown away after one use. How fun would they be at a little girl's birthday party?  You can find them here

Do you love these too?

New Classes

This season our whole family signed up for classes at the gym.  Classes started this week.
Charlie is in a mommy and me type swimming class once a week-- too cute.  We sing a bunch of songs, chase after balls, learn how to kick and move our arms in the water and blow bubbles.  Charlie is still very serious when he gets in swimming pools, but I can tell he liked it.  The teacher said she allows both parents to be in the water so Tony will get in with us next time.

Tony was figuring out the camera until a lifeguard told him pictures were not allowed.  Another parent was taking pictures and when Tony passed the info on they pretended they didn't speak English...maybe they didn't but they seemed to understand when the lifeguard informed them as well :)

Our one picture before the camera was put away...

Tony and I started our indoor cycling (spinning) class Monday.  It's twice a week and a fun little date for us.  Can I just say I feel as if someone took a sledge hammer and hit me in between the legs?  Ouch!  I'm not used to balancing my weight on those hard tiny seats! I hear it takes a few times before you get used to those seats.  It was a great work out and we had fun pedaling beside each other. Yes we're probably that mushy couple at the gym, but at least we're not in matching outfits or anything!

We're looking forward to our new classes each week!

*Have you ever taken a spin class?

Temple Trip

We had a wonderful day yesterday! We planned a trip to the temple and were so excited. However, when my alarm clock went off at 3:30 AM I thought I had only blinked, but it was time to get up. We had a nice drive and stopped half way for breakfast and a stretch.

Tony and I took turns watching Charlie while the other went in to do a session. During my turn, Charlie and I went to a little LDS bookstore and explored outside. I played photographer for a little bit...

I have the drooly kid.
His two front teeth have both cut through now!

Tornado sirens started going off so we hurried to get inside and be in the waiting room. Balancing on my high heels with my temple bag, diaper bag and Charlie was a little difficult. When I got into the temple the sweet temple sisters were saying things like, "is your little cutie just wearing you ragged?" "he must be a handful!" I thought that was a little odd until I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror: my hair had been pinned back with bobby pins but because of the wind my hair was sticking up all over the place. It looked like Charlie and I had got in a fight and he won. So funny.


On our way home we stopped half way for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. This is our new tradition, thanks Tony. After a 1:00 session we get there at 5:00-- just before the dinner rush. Blessings of going to the temple... kidding kidding :)

After dinner we weren't ready to get back in the car, so we walked around the mall in hopes of finding Charlie some shoes. A friend had passed along a pair of her son's old robeez sandals and Charlie just outgrew them. They were the BEST shoes. They have soft soles, are easy to put on, Charlie can't take them off and doesn't trip in them. We needed another pair. We found these and I could not leave without them...
Are those just the cutest things you have ever seen?! I start talking in a high baby voice whenever I see them. I can't help it!

We had a great trip!

Project Gone Bad

When we got married, Tony had a house load of furniture so fortunately didn't have to buy anything. He had this antique bed which I believe belonged to his grandparents. I really like the the shape of the bed, but not the color.
It has broken in several places so we weren't too afraid to take a risk and try painting it.
We started spray painting the bed white...it was turning out so so cute!

Here I am modeling spray paint and boy shorts.

I was very excited
until it broke.

We tipped the headboard upside down (to paint the bottom) and that was too much for this old bed. In order to fix it, we needed to a welder. We found one but didn't think about needing to GET the bed to him! The bed didn't fit in our car. We finally had to ask ourselves how much money we wanted to put into this bed? If we're spending money to fix and paint it, we might as well look around for a new bed. Especially since there were lots of labor day sales going on.

Labor day weekend we went shopping for a new bed. I was pretty bummed because we weren't finding ANYTHING I liked. I knew I wanted a white bed but that ended up being harder to find than I thought. Tony suggested we get bunk beds :) At our last store, we were in the kid section and I found a twin bed I absolutely loved. Once you looked past the hot pink bedding and accessories, it really was a beautiful bed: white, clean lines, would brighten up our room, etc. Luckily, it came in the full range of sizes! So yes, our new bed is coming from a little girl's bedroom set.


Right now we are sleeping with our mattress on the floor. It feels like we're camping or something, but Charlie LOVES it. It's the perfect height for him to crawl and walk around. Unfortunately the bed rails are on back order so we'll be waiting until mid October (hopefully not longer) for the bed to arrive.

So in the end the project didn't work out, but now Tony and I have at least 1 1/2 months of fun sleep overs on the floor :)

Coming up for air

I finished this last night....I could barely breathe.

I didn't think I would finish it that night, but if you've read the book, you know you can't stop once you've started because every chapter feels like the last. I didn't have a guess as to how it would end even when I was right in the end!

I cried when I finished, but I usually cry at the end of books. I am easily lost in stories and feel like I'm friends with the characters. I'm sad this series has ended. I loved Katniss and Peeta, Gale, Finnick, Prim...really all the characters.

Tony and I both read the series. It was fun to read the same books and talk about them afterward. We haven't done that before.

These are a must read!