casual fridays around the office. ;)

Little girls are great because you can "upcycle" their dads tee's into tiny little pencil & maxi skirts and it's hilariously cute. The best part is that it literally only takes 5 seconds and only takes knowing how to cut with scissors and sew one single, straight(ish) line. If all else fails, take comfort in knowing that you can do a shoddy job (as shown below), and your toddler will still feel super fancy.

Weekend Reminder:

Sisters spread out along the west coast.

Missing this girl even more than usual lately, it's a good thing she's coming to town in just a few days! Right now I'm mad at California and Washington for stealing away 2 out of 3 of my Sisters.

a million+1 iPhone pics.

An interview with a 2 year old. // Ivy

We've always talked about doing little annual interviews with our kids as they age each year so we can record their speech, their mannerisms, their funny (raspy!) little voices and face expressions, etc. How hilarious will that be to have as an adult!? Anyway, Ivy wasn't napping the other day (surprise, surprise!), so we decided to take advantage of the extra time and finally got around to doing it. I can imagine these videos will only get better once she can form clearer sentences and keep up longer conversations with, but for now I'm just going to be impressed that we got her to sit in that chair for almost 7 minutes. All it took was one demanded wardrobe change mid-video, 2 dinner mints as bribery throughout, and one flipped around camera screen to see her reflection from start to finish (in which she got all sorts of Honey-boo-boo-ish with!). We love you in all your crazy glory, Ivy girl.

A good reminder for the weekend:

And congrats to Casey Ann for winning the Cheerfully Charmed giveaway! :)

Sissy love.

     The sequence of pictures below just melt my heart into an Alex Mack puddle-- I think Ivy really is so happy to have a little sister to love on and I die watching the two of them get to know each other. While I was pregnant I had some sleepless nights worrying about how Ivy would react to the new baby and to split attention from us-- I'm sort of a "worst case scenario" thinker so I always pictured Ivy being very jealous and/or aggressive towards her. I pictured my days spent "guarding" the new baby and repeatedly demonstrating how to be soft. Surprisingly, it hasn't been like that at all. She has shown nothing but love and a lot of kisses and hugs towards Lola. But don't get me wrong, she has definitely acted out tremendously in other ways (like not sleeping, ever) and towards other kids to make up for it, trust me! Hey, I guess if she's going to choose just one kid to be nice to while she goes through this phase then I suppose I'm just glad she chose Lola. Nepotism at it's finest! (I make jokes to make myself feel better about the situation, but I think I really just need a hug.)

Some things I want to remember about their relationship so far:

Ivy very rarely calls Lola "Lola", and mostly refers to her as "BABY SEE-TA!"  or "LOOLAS!" The second Lo makes a peep while napping Ivy worriedly yells, "OH NO, BABY-SEE-TA!" and sprints towards wherever she is to check on her--she does this every single time without fail. Her concern is endearing until it eventually leads to Lo waking up.

Once Ivy has done her thing and woken Lo up, their favorite activity to do together is hold hands (pictured below). Ivy thinks its hilarious that someone with that tiny of a hand can have that tight of a grip and quietly giggles the whole time. Also, a few times a day Ivy will ask me if she can "Hold it!?" But by "hold" she means not hold, and by "it" she means Lola. In all the times that I've held Lola over Ivys lap, she has never once gotten tired of it--she could "hold" that girl all day. She'll take what she can get for now I guess, but I can't wait till they can interact and play even better together.

If I strap Ivy in her carseat before Lo, she anxiously starts to beg for her baby sister. A couple days after having Lo I wanted to take Ivy on a little one-on-one date. You can imagine my surprise when she started whining for Lo the whole driving time there and back. She loves having a little driving buddy back there with her.

One of their funniest interactions yet was while driving a few weeks back, Lola got pretty upset in her carseat and Ivy started off by sweetly telling her to, "Calm down Loola, ooooh you're OK! Shhh...Shhh." The crying didn't stop, and Ivy had had it I guess, so she sighed and yelled, "LOOOOOLAS, ZIP IT!!!" Geoff and I made the mistake of laughing for a straight minute after that, so now that's one of her favorite lines when Lo gets louder than she prefers. Who knew Ivy liked her peace and quiet? 

Keep up the good work Big Sister. Now let's get to work on your playground etiquette. ;)

Cotton Flower Press // Letterpress & Design

Now that all of our friends and family have (hopefully!) received Lolas birth announcement in the mail, I couldn't not show them off on here. They were designed and printed by Cotton Flower Press (my new favorite letterpress studio based out of Portland!) and I really, truly fell in love with them. I was ecstatic when Mackenzie got in touch with me about making them, partly because everything she creates is pure magic, and the other part being that she is an absolute breeze to work with. She must've known I was still kind of in survival mode when she contacted me, because she honestly made it so easy for me. She led the way and offered just enough ideas and options until we came up with the perfect design. She sent me pictures of the entire letterpress process as she went along (which is fascinating in and of itself!) and they very quickly turned out even more beautiful than I expected. In the end, I loved the mix of girly and modern colors & fonts, the darling little scallop and stripe detail, and the personal touch of nicknames at the top (we're big on nicknames). Thank you, thank you, Cotton Flower Press-- I am so impressed with you guys, and we will definitely treasure this sweet little card forever. 

Of course they were mailed to me in the cutest packaging with this sweet little card attached on top (and you can bet I'm framing it for one of the girls rooms!). Check out Cotton Flowers Etsy shop or site for prints, stationary, custom invites or announcements, and more.

Lola James // 2 months.

I didn't want to jinx anything at first, but I'm just going to say it anyway and cross my fingers, Lola is the smiliest, most good-natured baby. The past two months I've been sort of waiting for her to begin crying hysterically for hours in the evening, or start waking up every half hour in the night, and it just hasn't happened yet. (Ivy scared me into believing that that was the norm with newborns- phew!) I love looking down at Lo while I'm holding or feeding her and catch her smiling goofily at me from ear to ear--with her tongue out, her eyes practically closed, and those tiny dimples claiming their territory on those trademark cheeks. Life's been good with you in it, Lola James.

sugar fast.

A while ago I challenged myself to be nicer to my body; so I eliminated sugar, white flour, caffeine, and any other junk food from my diet for a couple weeks. (Which is impressive only because those four things are usually the foundation to my diet.) Aside from a couple slip-ups here and there, I'm proud to say that I did it! When I really needed something sweet and a stick of gum just wasn't cutting it, I opted for a bowl of berries or peaches over milk or plain yogurt. I must've been doing really good (for me**), because it tasted like a straight up blizzard! I'm glad I stuck to my little "junk fast"-- I found myself eating more vegetables and nutrient-filled snacks rather than empty calories, felt a lift in energy and mood, drank more water, didn't have a single stomach or headache, and mostly just felt a sense of pride for sticking to something for longer than 3 seconds. ;)

**I am the worlds biggest sweet tooth, choco-holic, soda-junkie, baker, and snacker in the world-- so you can imagine how difficult this was for me. I'm expecting a ton of virtual high-fives and down-lows.

Natural History Museum

Since last Friday was so rainy, I thought it was appropriate we spend the day inside learning about dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. Ivy had fun running around with her little friends that met up with us; Recker & Scout (and how convenient that their Moms are my friends, too!;). The museum kept Ivys attention for a couple hours, which is actually pretty good for her. I don't know if I'll go back anytime soon, but if I do-- it probably won't be until Lola (and Ivy for that matter!) can and will walk on their own. I'm claiming this museum trip my workout for the month. ;)

dance class.

A little over a month ago we put Ivy in a dance class at a cute little studio in town and I'm so glad we did. I think Ivy and I equally look forward to going to dance each week, I love it. I have so much fun watching her and literally cannot help but laugh out loud the entire hour-- she on the other hand looks forward to dance class so she can do naughty things like; hang on the ballet bar, smooch her reflection in the mirror, run from the teacher, free style with her tap shoes, smoosh her face up against the window that I'm watching from, and basically any other shenanigans she can think of. (Thank goodness for an amazing and perfectly stern teacher who I'm confident will whip her into shape!;) So yes, she's definitely still a little young for it all, but I'm hoping she'll come out of it a better listener and direction follower--she's actually made some great improvement the last couple weeks so I have to give her some credit. And hey, if she comes out of it learning nothing--at least she looks cute in her little leotard? ;)

Showing off something she learned at dance that day, no one is as impressed as she is over her tippy-toe ability ;)

faking fall.

110 degrees or not, I just can't resist making soup for dinner. It's simple, it's healthy, and it makes for the best lunch leftovers. I definitely try to cut back on making soup throughout the Summers, but I made a big pot of this black&white chili the other night and it got me so excited for cooler weather! What are some of your favorite recipes for Fall?

A labor day hike.

In theory, a late morning hike with the family sounded like the perfect Labor Day activity, however once we got to the base of the mountain we remembered just how deceiving an overcast Summer sky can be-- it was icky hot. We started to get a little paranoid about Lo, so the hike was short lived to say the least--I think it's generous to say we made it only half way up. Ivy seemed to enjoy "hiking" though anyway (ahem, sitting on one of our shoulders, collecting rocks on water breaks, and looking for lizards). I'm really excited to integrate hiking back into our weekends once the temperatures drop a bit. I remember loving (and somehow also hating) all the hiking I did with my family as a kid--It's a good thing to do together.

blessing day

Yesterday was a special one for Lola girl and our family-- she was able to be blessed at church and Geoff gave her one of the sweetest blessings I've ever heard (I may be a little biased though). Overall it was up there in the Top 20 Favorite Days as a Mama thus far, my only complaint was that most of my family was out of town (missed you all Sisters and Bryan!). We are so very lucky this little girly is part of our family forever, she is just a peach and we couldn't imagine life without her. 

Awkward living room mugshots of the fam before church is a direct result of 106 degree weather.