Happy Fourth Of July 2017

Posted on June 30, 2017 by sarahes852015

Anndd there goes the hat…There it goes again…^Caught him standing by himself!^Since I have been enjoying photography, I have liked to have little mini holiday photo shoots. I staged this little 4th of July mini shoot with the boys on the front porch. I realized that I didn’t get Jake a patriot t-shirt for the 4th this year when I was changing their clothes right before the pictures. I could have sworn I did too! But I figured what is more American than Cubs baseball anyway. So perfect. I had found some cute little decorations at Target and thought it would be fitting to have the little rocking chair on the front porch. This holiday photo shoot was a bit challenging with wiggly and moving Liam but I think I got some cute pictures.

Since we are finally in a nice schedule and sleeping all night regularly now, I have challenged myself to learn something new. I have decided to try my hand at editing some Go Pro videos. I have been interested in learning how to work with videos and recording some fun video memories with my family. So if anyone has and advice or suggestions on what software to use or which works best or some books or tutorials that are informative, feel free to leave any comments for me.

Hope you all get to watch some fireworks and celebrate our country’s Independence this weekend. Until next week, XOXO.

Father’s Day Painting

Posted on June 23, 2017 by sarahes852015

For Father’s Day we painted a cute little beer crate. I know painting can be super messy but with these Toddler Finger Paints, clean up is a breeze. Liam is still a bit small to enjoy the paints or use them without trying to eat the paint. Thankfully it is nontoxic. Jake really gets into the painting and all the different colors. He was so proud he painted all the screws in the beer crate for dad.

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After Liam failed at painting, he got put in charge of coloring the card the boys picked out. He also tried to eat the crayons too.

We got some balloons and Jake was sooooo excited about them. He even asked me to take his picture with the balloons. I knew he would be too excited about them to keep it a secret. 20170616_113218 The Father’s Day pool party I planned got rained out but everything the boys and I made for dad was a big hit. 20170618_153138 Delicious mini cuban appetizers. 20170618_194626 20170618_161543 ^It was starting to storm and Jake has been so scared of thunder lately. This ended up the best daddy and boys picture we could get.^ 20170618_185059

It was so much fun celebrating such a great daddy. Until next week, XOXO!

Happy Father’s Day

Posted on June 16, 2017 by sarahes852015

Since we could not make the trip back to my parent’s house for Father’s Day, I wanted to dedicate a special post to my own dad. He has always been there for me and is a great dad. I hope I can be there for him when he needs me as much as he has always been for me. Good dads always do so much for their families and work hard for them. He always has for us all. He is such a kind and joyful person and has set a great example for us all. And not to forget many words of wisdom he has imparted on me throughout the years… “To much is better than not enough.” (I def live by that one almost daily. haha) I love you so much daddy!

My boys tried their best to hold still and wish their Grandpappy a Happy Father’s Day. (Holding still is not one of their strong suits.)

WE LOVE GRANDPAPPY!!

I hope you know how much we really do love you! Happy Father’s Day daddy!

Until next week, XOXO

Mother’s Day Craft Idea

Posted on May 12, 2017 by sarahes852015

Last week we had a couple little craft days. I let the boys get super messy with some finger painting. Since they love getting dirty outside, I thought they would love being covered in paint too. And of course they did! I found the clay pots and thought it would be cool to have the boys paint them for their Grandmas this Mother’s Day. I wanted to include some flowers but I did not think they would ship well. I really love having the boys create gifts for all those special people in their lives. I am a big fan of homemade gifts. I think it makes everything so much more special even if its not picture perfect and it is so much fun to do together too. Here are a few snaps from the painting day. I had taken more (some cute ones when Liam was putting the paint bowl on his head) but realized halfway through I had forgotten to put a memory card in! But I still got a few pics of the painting.

Just a few plain unpainted clay pots.

Then it was time to do some painting. It was so exciting to see Jake concentrating so hard on his painting. He was working quite hard on making his pots pretty.

Liam needed a bit more help to keep the paint out of his mouth.

After the initial finger paintings had dried, I went back over the kid scribbles and added a little bit of painting details to make more recognizable pictures.

I thought the finished product was pretty cool. I hope all you mothers out there get to enjoy a nice Mother’s Day weekend with your families. Personally I am hoping Liam finally starts sleeping all night again regularly for me. I think we are stuck in a bad habit and I haven’t done a good enough job sleep training him. #momfail right?! Until next week, XOXO.

St. Patricks Day

Posted on March 19, 2017 by sarahes852015

This weekend we were celebrating St. Patricks Day with the boys in downtown Tampa. Nice weather and a green river made for a very nice afternoon walk. On Friday I got the boys some St. Patrick’s Day stickers which was alot of fun. They just love stickers. The hubby is not a sticker fan.

Then we had to complete the fun by putting all the stickers on little brother. Oh these boys!

Off to Downtown… Cheers from us…

“Jake come take a nice picture with me.”

Fine I’ll just take one by myself.^At least hubby wanted to take a cute picture with me.^

We found this bench with a xylophone built in it. How cool is that?

Hope everyone had a fun and green St. Patrick’s weekend!

Until next week, XOXO.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2017 by sarahes852015

I just wanted to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year by sharing some cute pics we took for Valentine’s Day with my little boys. We had a little fun with a mini photo shoot in my mini studio. I did not get organized enough to print up some of the pictures and send them out but hopefully everyone can enjoy them here on my blog.

The next set, I tried to use a new background but it did not turn out how I had hoped. At least the boys still look cute.

I made this super cute breakfast from some pinterest inspiration I had seen the past few weeks. I think it was a huge hit even though Jake did not appreciate the artistic presentation. He picked out the donuts because his special stuffed animal is Doughie Dog from the book “If You Give a Dog a Donut”. He woke up this morning asking for the Doughie Donuts. Annndd you know… If you give a dog a donut, he ask for a cup of Starbucks to go with it. 🙂

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with lots of love with everyone you see today and everyday.

Until next week, XOXO.

Valentines Day Wreath

Posted on February 10, 2017 by sarahes852015

To celebrate the upcoming Valentines Day, I made a wreath for our front door. I really like making little wreaths. With a super curious toddler running around, it is super hard to do alot of fancy/cute decorating for many holidays. A nice front door wreath can easily be made during nap time and its out of reach from little toddler hands. Double win! For this one, I added some extra foam on the original circle to make a heart shape. I am sure you can find already heart shaped foam but I could not and did not have alot of time to look around. I just used some wire to attach it to the ring.

I love how it turned out. I love flowers! I am cooking up a few delicious Valentines Day ideas for my boys next week. Here are a couple inspirations I have found.

A cute gift idea if you can get the kids to cooperate. Maybe I’ll try.

I just love this idea… sooo cute!

A cute way to decorate anything for a valentines day feel.

And finally mimosa… because they are always a good idea. 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. This week I am happy that potty training is going well, we have been able to play outside everyday, and my grandparents are doing better. Thinking positively 🙂

Until next week, XOXO

Christmas and the end of 2016

Posted on December 30, 2016 by sarahes852015

We had been on the road traveling for the last couple weeks. We set out on the long journey from Tampa to Chicago then down to Kokomo Indiana. Not that long by plane but we wanted to bring our wonderful Emma with us and she would get too scared on an airplane. So it’s a two day journey in a car with two boys under 2, a dog and a ton of stuff. I know I always over pack but I get so excited to wear something different! This particular trip was honestly very stressful for me. Liam pretty much never switched to a different time zone and stopped sleeping all night. Not his fault, he’s not 4 months yet and its alot for him to do. But I felt like I was on an opposite schedule than everyone else the whole time. I can’t wait for the day when our trips that mess the kids up are for fun vacations instead of just going to see family every time since they are far away. It was so nice to get home but I still wish I had more time to see friends. The couple of playdates I did get to have made me so happy to know that there are other moms out there like me. (You know who you are 🙂 )

It was a nice Christmas. I have been excited to start doing some family traditions of our own this year too. Some of my favorite Christmas traditions is making Christmas Cookies for Santa…

2016-12-15-12-03-02 2016-12-15-12-18-19 ^It’s a wonder we got anything made with this cookie eating crew.^ 2016-12-15-12-29-12 ^Jake was REALLY into licking the bowl! 🙂 ^ 2016-12-15-12-29-31 2016-12-15-12-29-48 2016-12-15-12-29-55 2016-12-15-16-11-25 ^Decorating time!^ 2016-12-15-14-38-36 2016-12-15-17-55-09 2016-12-15-21-03-37 ^Cookies and wine for Santa 😉 and carrots for the reindeer.^

It was a wonderful Christmas. So much fun watching my little boy get excited and open presents for the first time. 2016-12-15-22-27-35 2016-12-16-07-35-11-2 Another Christmas tradition I love is getting matching Christmas jammies and a Christmas book to read together on Christmas eve… 2016-12-16-07-38-49 ^Matching Christmas jammies! I ❤ these boys!^ 2016-12-16-08-20-50 2016-12-19-11-41-56 2016-12-20-13-15-11 2016-12-20-13-16-21

One of the hardest things for me about living in the south is no snow. I absolutely love snow. I was so excited to have snow to play in this year while visiting and even more excited that Jake LOVED it too. 2016-12-19-10-56-26 2016-12-19-08-52-24 ^Emma missed the snow soooo much too.^ 2016-12-19-10-59-09 ^The first steps out in the fluffy marshmallow world.^ 2016-12-19-11-00-08 2016-12-19-11-02-49 2016-12-19-11-03-45 2016-12-19-11-03-53 2016-12-19-11-03-54 2016-12-19-11-03-51 ^SNOWBALLS! Thank goodness for a waterproof phone case!^ 2016-12-19-11-06-22 2016-12-19-13-46-13 2016-12-19-13-46-44 ^Eating snow. “It’s delicious!”^ 2016-12-23-16-29-05 2016-12-23-16-29-57 ^Daddy and baby snowmen.^ 2016-12-20-16-12-53 ^The boys were thrilled about our matching Indianapolis Colts hats. haha.^ 2016-12-20-23-16-53

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are ready to ring in 2017 this weekend. I know I am going to dress up fancy and drink fancy champagne from our super comfy couch here at home.

Until next week, XOXO.

Family Christmas Card Pictures

Posted on December 9, 2016 by sarahes852015

A few weeks ago we all traveled up to Indiana for a wedding and visited my parents. My mom and dad own a Christmas tree farm which was super fun to grow up there. Over the past 3 years, I have been pretty sad not to get any Christmas tree farm Christmas card pictures, so I was pretty excited when it worked out that we got to take some family pics. Since it was quite an Indian summer this year a bunch of tree still had fall leaves on them. I loved being able to get some of the beautiful orange leaves in the background too. Everyone cooperated fairly well too… well we bribed with cookies. 🙂 The Christmas season is hard for me living in Florida. I really miss snow, and sweaters and boots and family. It just never feels like its Christmas and the holidays just sneak up on me. added-emma-2

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This little Santa helper has gotten all the Christmas shopping done, THANK YOU ONLINE SHOPPING! But I have been busy the past couple weeks with visitors and a sick baby. My little office is just a mess of amazon boxes. Lets hope Santa finds a way to get them all wrapped… hopefully during some good nap times!

Until next week, XOXO. Keep spreading holiday cheer to all! ❤

Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2016 by sarahes852015

Just wanted to post our pictures from Halloween fun down here. This year I made my little boys go as a theme with me. I thought it was really cute to go as Khaleesi from Game Of Thrones with my little baby dragons. I was hoping to find more Halloween costume activities down here but we pretty much struck out on that front. But we still carved some awesome pumpkins and dressed up and had some family fun.