A DAY AT THE BEACH

If I could have even one beach day a week, I'd be a heck of a lot more sane as a mom. There's something about the beach that just does it for me. It's my happy place, along with the mountains. So naturally, I had to take my cute little kids have them experience it too! Last time we took Kai to the beach (in Hawaii last summer), he was terrified of the waves and would run as far away as he could. This time around he loved it! Presley ran straight into the ocean and was fascinated with the waves, watching them run over her feet over and over again. I don't think there's much better in life than that little babe in a swimsuit, with her tiny feet running in the sand. I'm trying to convince Kolby to move us as close to the beach as possible, as soon as possible :) #wishmeluck

We decided to hit up Santa Monica beach because it's always been on of my favorites. Something about the view of that pier at sunset is just magical.

Kai sat in the sand and got to work with his toys right away. I think he honestly could have sat there allll day happily playing. It was definitely a successful day, and we can't wait for more beach days in June when we go to Hawaii!

Here are some photos we snapped. I'm hesitant to share some of these since I still have my #mombod, but the good news is that I started working out 2 weeks ago and these pictures are even more of a motivation for me to tone up and get lookin goooood for our next trip.

P.S. I'll be posting soon about our days at Disneyland and tips for surviving with 2 tiny ones!

PRESLEY'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

My sweetest of sweet baby girl turned ONE this last weekend. How in the world did this happen? She was just a teeny newborn yesterday...AH! Everyone who i've told can't believe she's 1 either. She's just so tiny and looks like a 6 month old!

This girl is on fire though. She's been walking since 10 months and is full of energy and sass. I think my favorite thing about her is the way she wakes us up in the morning...i am so not a morning person, but this girl wakes us up by patting our face and nuzzling into us to wake us up. I love opening my eyes and seeing her sweet little face looking up at me, happy as can be. She makes our mornings heavenly!

Anyways, we did the cutest little photo shoot for her birthday. I hung up a pink sheet, threw her in a gold tutu, shirt, and crown, and snapped away. Side note: trying to get this girl to sit still for a photo shoot is probably one of the hardest things I've ever done, but we just snapped a million pics and crossed our fingers that a few would turn out! Kolby helped me make the crown (he is the best crafter, so much better than me!), and he even wrote out the letters on her shirt (we used gold glitter glue).

As for the cake, this was my first time doing a homemade cake and I must say, it turned out SO good! I will never make a cake from a box mix ever again!  I made a fresh strawberry cake and it literally tasted like the freshest strawberries in cake & icing form. Everyone who tried it said I should start a cake business and sell it...ha. #humblebrag So I'll be posting the recipe this week! It wasn't the prettiest cake since it was my first time attempting to do a frosting pattern, but it wasn't too horrible ;)

And here are some of my favorites from the shoot we did: (I probably should have attempted to do her hair, but it's about as wild as she is!)

These pictures make my heart melt and I can't stop looking at them! 

We had a busy day on her birthday with the photo shoot, then off to one of Kai's friend's parties, then back home to spend time with my dad since he stopped by on his way home from a business trip. My grandparents stopped by so we all sang to Pres while she ate some cake (she loved it) and then Kolby took off to a Jazz game so my dad and I ordered pizza (one of Presley's favorite foods). I hope Presley had a fun day and felt special! She is such a beautiful little soul and brings so much joy and laughter to our family. We can't wait for another year with her and feel like the most blessed parents in the world to raise her. 

Happy 1st Birthday Pres-bug!! 

SAYONARA 2016!

2016 is gone! It was an extra sweet one, because we got our Presley Taylor babe. She has added so much laughter and joy to our lives (because of her funny little personality) and as cliche as it sounds, we truly don't know how we got so lucky. It's been one of the hardest but most fun years and I can't wait to see what 2017 has in store for us!

Here's a little video summary I made of our 2016. Make sure you have the sound up to hear the music that goes along with it :) This is my first video I made in iMovie and so there's lots of mistakes (like no music at the end) but oh well, I'm learning how to make videos and I love it! This is my new hobby for this year!

Here's a few things 2016 taught me...

1. Take more videos! And take them in landscape mode vs portrait mode :) (sorry the thats why the video is so tiny). I've been so focused on becoming better at photography that I completely forget about taking videos. Somehow we only took 2 short videos during our entire week in Hawaii... what was I thinking?! After making this iMovie, I realized how rarely we take videos, so this year I'll be changing that :) 

2. Live in the moment and put your da** phone down (esp around the kids). Sometimes I have to rest my back or just relax for a minute and I lay on the couch. I go right to my phone because it's just habit, and honestly when I'm around kids all day it's nice to see/readadult stuff on instagram and facebook. Usually when I do this the kids run up and want to play right away. But they don't want a mom on their phone. And I don't wanna miss something cute they do because I was looking at someone's vacation pictures....ha 

3. Live every day like it's your last with your family. Love hard. Not to sound scary, but as a nurse I see how quickly accidents and death can come. You truly never know when it's your last moment with someone. So I'm hugging my kids harder and giving them all of me, no excuses. 

4. A clean house can wait. Kids are messy. Like, so messy that you spend an hour cleaning up breakfast and then suddenly it's lunch time, and then you spend an hour cleaning up lunch time, and then your 2 year old gets into the flour and dumps it all over the floor....And you know what? That's ok! Kids will be kids, and there's no reason to stress about it. My new "mom goal" or "mom expectation" is just to keep them alive everyday. And the house...well...that can wait. They'll only be 2 and 1 years old once so I want to soak up every second of it!

5. Check your receipts. This year, I got over-charged at Target and Walmart over 20 times. Just check them as your walking out of the door, even though it's a pain to go back in!

6. You can't make everyone happy. You are not pizza. But seriously right? I saw this quote on Pinterest and absolutely loved it. So much truth there. Just do you :) 

7. Always pack an extra pair of clothes for BOTH kids. You would think I would know this after the third "incident," but no. Yes 11 month olds still have blow outs. And yes sometimes toddlers throw up or get soaked from something. So don't be "that mom" aka me and always forget an extra outfit. 

WHAT TO GET YOUR PARENTS FOR CHRISTMAS ($25 AND UNDER) AND OTHER PEOPLE TOO

Every year I struggle with what to get everyone for Christmas. Particularly my mom and dad! Well here are some ideas that I feel like most parents would like, hopefully they help you too! They might even help you shop for your husband or friends too :) Most of these are under $25 so they're budget friendly too!

1. A customized photo calendar, blanket, mug, or other item with pics of your kids on it. What mom and dad don't love more things with pictures of their adorable grand-babies on them?? If you don't have kids yet, just do a collection of pictures of you and your siblings, or a photo book of a favorite family vacation. This year I made my mom a cute calendar from Shutterfly with a million cute photos of Kai and  Pres. She's gonna love it! It was actually free and I just paid $7 for shipping during a promotion they were having. Shutterfly usually has good deals (subscribe to their emails) but sometimes I just google "free photo calendar" or "free photo mug" and find good deals that way:)

2. A heated blanket. This one is kind of random, but seriously who doesn't love a warm heated blanket during the winter? I found a nice one for $25 at Costco and am excited to give it to someone!

3. For my dad (and my mom since she's a huge sports fan too), I like to get them their favorite sports team memorabilia. My mom and dad are huge BYU fans, so I always get them BYU stuff. If you look online you can seriously find anything from pajama pants to dart boards with every sports team.

4. Kind of along the same lines as #3, stuff from their favorite TV show. My dad loves the show Suits, and last year my mom got him a mug that says "You just got litt up!" (a famous quote from the show). My husband loves Suits too and he wanted to steal it. Once again, its as simple as googling "Gilmore Girls mug" or whatever item you can think of and their favorite tv show. You'll be surprised what you find!

5. A foot massager (or any kind of massager). Because everyone deserves a foot rub! If you go to amazon and search "foot massager" they have good ones ranging from $20-$100.

As for Kai, here's my list for him right now:
1. Mr Potato Head
2. A mini play kitchen (great for imagination!)
3. Little Tykes cozy car
4. Shopping cart with fake food
5. A Buzz Lightyear and Woody (only $18 for both of them at Costco!)
6. Puzzles
7. More Disney movies
8. A fun Play-Doh set

I'm really trying to include some toys that will help him develop his imagination.

And Miss Presley? She's only 10 months and doesn't need much, but I figured she's gotta be tired of Kai's trucks and trains, so I did get her a Cabbage Patch kid doll (I LOVED these when i was little. Did anyone else love how their faces smell?!) and also a Disney princess Rapunzel doll...and here's why. This funny girl is obsessed with grabbing people's hair. She grabs hair every chance she gets, hence why I chopped all my hair off. Now she can go to town on that Rapunzel doll :)

And as an idea for a stocking stuffer or gift for those of you with teething babies, this Nuby nana nubs gum massager is a MUST.  It looks like a little banana and is so cute. I gave this to Pres the other day at Costco, and no joke, she chewed on it the whole hour we were there. At one point she dropped it and started crying, so I gave it back to her and she was right back to happy girl. She finally has her first tooth coming in in the front, and I really think chewing on this thing makes her feel better. Plus her brother always eats bananas, and she wants to be just like him, so this banana teether is perfect! You can buy it here on amazon.

I'l be doing a giveaway for a teething necklace next week, so watch for that!

Be sure to follow Nuby on social media for other new products and giveaways.

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10 THINGS

10 THINGS:

1. My iphone recently got a virus and I lost all of my contacts and videos and photos. Thankfully I backed up my photos and videos 3 months ago, but I had some priceless videos of Kai and  Pres from the last 3 months that i'll never get back ;( So lesson learned, save your favorite photos/videos once a week!!

2. Victory of the week: Price matching at Walmart and getting pomegranates 3 for $1. Yep 33 cents each. Big delicious juicy ones. Life is so much better with pomegranates! And they are a superfood for your body so eat em whenever you can!

3. I can't believe Greys Anatomy is still going. Most of the stuff they do on that show is so unrealistic (sorry nurse here, can't help it) but I still love it!

4. I just ordered this adorable red "JOY" holiday doormat from Target and it was only $9. They have so many other cute designs too I almost want to order another! Bring on the holiday decorations! (slowly though).

5. Does anyone else throw away tons of produce? I think we are the biggest produce-wasters in America. I buy so much in an attempt to be healthy, and we do eat some of it, but we throw away half of it most weeks :( I get too busy to cut it up or Kai won't eat it because he's so picky. Any tips on this?

6. I'm so happy to have finally found a nursing job that I love. I'm learning so much every time I work and that's the best part for me. I've still got my other nursing job so working 2 jobs and being a mom has been quite the challenge...

7. When to start playing Christmas music and put the tree up has been a big debate at our house. I'm a wait-until-after-Thanksgiving kinda girl, but I live with a Christmas-starts-at-12:01am-on-Halloween- kinda guy....ha

8. We found a new pizza place we love called Main Street Pizza in Provo. It's the best pizza buffet I've been to and the dessert pizza is to die for too. We'll be going there weekly now...time to dust off my gym shoes and get to work lol

9. So this new Lip Sense stuff...you guys it really is AMAZING. I've been wearing it everyday and it does not come off, even when I kiss my cute kids all day. My favorite is the "apple cider" color. Yay for new products I love!

10. Pres likes to chew on this Nuby teething set. It comes with 3 different textured toys for different stages of teething. We had one of Kai's friends come over the other night (he's 2) and he chewed on one for a good hour haha. So even toddlers like them! They are great for massaging the gums and easing teething pain. I sure love seeing my baby girl happy! You can buy it here. Follow nuby on instagram @nubyusa to see all their other great products!