This and That

Here are some random things that have been going on:

On New Years Eve we got some snow in Southern California and everyone was very excited!!

We bought a car!! We had been sharing one old, small car for a long time and so we are very excited to have a newer, roomy family car that will allow our family to grow! It's a 2014 GMC Acadia SLT and we LOVE it!!

We've been upgrading some things in the house. Nothing huge or expensive, but doing things that make the house look so much better that are inexpensive and easy. Things I've been wanting to do the whole time we've lived here! We've changed out light fixtures, fans, toilets, faucets, etc. I've also done a couple of other projects on the side. 

I did a gallery wall in our living room...

And we painted the guest bathroom a sandy color, did the kids footprints in sand, had a friend make a "Nude Beach" sign, and I just framed some pictures of us at the beach for the guest bathroom. It's coming together nicely! The shower curtain and towels are blue.

I cut my hair!! Here are before and after pictures. It has lightened up a lot since I got it done but it's definitely not as blonde as it was. I'm kind of embarrassed about my hair in the before picture!! Yikes.

We're just really happy!!

Weekend Update

Today I am linking up for the first time (I'm on a linky roll!) for Weekend Udate!

On Friday, while Michael was working on painting the exterior of our house (before and after pictures to come)...

I went out to Orange County to visit my friend Kristen and her son Sammy. They moved away at the same time we did so we try to get together when she is visiting her family in OC. It was so good to see her! We miss them!

Later on that day, since I was in town, I had dinner at my parents house (my grandma is living with them this summer too) that my grandma made and then went to Michaels parents house so they could spend a little time with Emily before I headed back home. I gotta spread the Emily-love! They sent us home with a ton of cookies and strawberries too. Yum :).

I put those strawberries to good use in my oatmeal the next morning...

 The rest of the day I was cleaning the house and doing laundry. We had our friends Patrick and Ashley (they hadn't been out to see the house yet) and my brother Steven (who stayed with us for a few nights this weekend) over for dinner and then watched Act of Valor. I hadn't seen Pat and Ash in forever so it was really good to see them again too!

On Sunday morning we went to church (where I wore my first chunky necklace and Emily wore a new dress from her grandma)..

...and then came home and Michael and Emily both took naps. Then we headed over to our friends Brittany and Jaime's house for dinner. We love hanging out with them! They are some of our very best friends we have made while living here. Brit is the one who painted Emily's nursery too, btw. After dinner with them Michael had to go to work and I had to deal with a teething baby ;).

Anyway, so that's pretty much it for our weekend! We had a good one!

Friday Ramblings!

Do you ever have those days where you just feel like blogging but you don't have anything in particular you want to write about?? I'm having that kind of day. Emily is taking a nap, Michael is outside painting the house (yay!!) and Jexi and I are cuddled on the couch in the AC.

Last night I tried a new recipe I found on Pinterest and I can't wait to share that in one of my Take A Lookin At My Cookin' posts! It was sooo yummy!! My brother (who was here for the night) and Michael loved it too.

Emily has been LOVING her little jumperoo thing. I have a ton of cute pictures and video I will be posting of that.

Did I mention Michael is painting our house?! I am so excited about that! We moved here almost two years ago and our house has been a complete eye-sore with blue marks (no idea what it was) and splotches of spackle that Michael patched holes with when we moved here. It was just sitting like that, looking ghetto, forever! So, we are finally getting that done and doing it all on our own! Yesterday was the prep work and that took all day pretty much. We rented a spray thing and it seems to be going well. I go outside and check on him every once in a while but he sends me back inside because I point out spots he missed, lol!

Today (when Emily is done napping) I am heading out to OC to meet up with my friend Kristen and her son, Sammy! They used to live close to us when we all lived in Orange County but we moved one direction and they moved another and now we hardly get to see each other. She came over right after we had Emily but that means it's been probably about six months!

ANYWAY! I guess I just felt like rambling. Oh, and also? I've been on Pinterest a lot lately. It makes me want to so some serious crafting, shopping, and cooking!!

I am so so so excited that Meg is making me a new blog design! It has been such a fun process. She has been so patient with me. I am so indecisive! I recommend you work with her if you want a new design. She's great!

One more thing. I am linking up with Neely and Ashley this Sunday for Sunday Social so be sure to check that out and link up too!

It's Christmas Decor Time!

I finally pretty much finished decorating for Christmas! Everything takes a lot longer when you have a newborn who won't let you put her down for longer than like five minutes at a time but we are all set and ready for Christmas in our home! Usually we put red and silver ornaments on our tree but this year we were lazy and just put a few of our snowflakes with wedding pictures in the middle ornaments up and left it at that.

I love our stockings and the sleigh weights! One of my favorite traditions we do for Christmas is we fill up each others stockings. Michaels is always full way ahead of time and mine sits empty until like two days before...making me nervous as heck that he'll forget, lol. Poor guy, he works so much!

A pretty white house and nativity set on our china cabinet...

Another nativity set...

Our wreath...

Table runner with fall/winter scented candles!

There are other random things around the house but that's the majority of our Christmas decor!

Our Growing Pea Pod and a Halloween Rant

You know, I used to think that when people used their babies as a reason to not blog anymore that they were over exaggerating about how little time they had to spare. Now that I have my own baby, I totally get it. Emily is a complete doll but there are days when she will cry if I put her down at all and I can barely get a chance to eat, let alone blog and upload photos! It's nice when she does take naps during the day that last a couple of hours so that I can have a bit of a break and rest. Unfortunately, most of the time "rest" means doing things around the house that have been neglected. Sometimes I get to take a nap while she does.

With Michael being back at work it is up to me to take care of her pretty much 24/7 for anywhere between 3 to 6 days in a row. This past weekend I stayed at Michaels parents house for a couple of nights because I was a little overwhelmed by it all after having Michael home for a month to help.

I love being a mommy, of course!! It's the hardest but the best thing in the world. I don't know how you "mommy bloggers" have time, energy, or the motivation to blog every single day with pictures and funny stories. I'm not going to apologize for my lack of blogging though because even though I do enjoy writing and reading your blogs, it's simply not my top priority! I'm sure you can understand that!

My daughter > Blogging

Anyway, now for an update on the fun stuff!! Emily is 5 weeks old as of Sunday! She's growing really fast. She is probably about 9 lbs now (she was born 7 lbs 3 oz) and she's starting to chunk up- I love it!! She's also starting to make more facial expressions. Sometimes she smiles a little but I don't know if it's necessarily in reaction to something yet. I love her little noises she makes, too!

Halloween was really fun this year! We decorated the house with strobe lights, black lights, cobwebs, orange lights, and caution tape. It was awesome. The best house on our side of the street...in my opinion :). Too bad you can't really tell in this picture how it looked when it was dark!

My mom bought Emily her first Halloween costume. Hilarious! Her face in this picture looks like she is thinking, "Uh...mommy? A lil' help here, please?!" Hahaha! Our little pea.

We also had some family over for burgers, a movie, and to help pass out candy to all the MANY trick or treaters we get. By the way...when did it become socially acceptable to go trick or treating without even wearing a costume? I can look past those trick-or-treaters who are way too old. I can also look past the trick or treaters who look more like they belong on a street corner than at my door. I can even look past the trick-or-treaters who don't even bother to say "trick or treat" and just hold up their bags, buckets, and pillowcases. But to not even dress up? That's just plain lazy. At least put a mask or a wig on!! Okay, stepping off the soapbox now :).

Jexi Says Boo!

This was our first year at our new house for Halloween and I was so excited to hand out candy! Michael had to work so I was a little nervous because, you know, someone could totally barge in and murder me. But it turned out to be a fun night! :-)

I set up the front porch with orange lights, caution tape, and cheap strobe lights pointing toward the front door. Someone ended up stealing one of the strobe lights. I guess that happens when stupid teenagers are out and hyped up on candy and who knows what else...

I set up the inside just enough so that when I opened the door they would see a black light making cobwebs and a skeleton (that I made as a kid) glow.

I decided to try to make Jexi a costume. I tucked tissues into her collar and I guess you could call it a ghost. It was a hit. The kids loved her!

I ended up running out of candy and started handing out twinkies and otter pops, lol! Next year I won't be stingy on the candy! I was just worried about having too much and then eating it all myself. We ended up running out of otter pops and twinkies and I had to shut down at 7:45 pm. Nobody came to the door once the lights were out. All in all I learned to watch over our stuff, buy more candy, and Jexi is the main attraction!

I hope you all had a great Halloween!

BBQ At Our Place!

We had our immediate family (those who were in town, anyway) over for a BBQ for the first time on Saturday! We hadn't showed them the house since back when we were painting so we were excited to show them how much we had gotten done. Plus we had started decorating for fall/Halloween.

We also got to have our friends Kristen and Daniel over! We got to meet their new baby, Samuel! He is only three weeks old but he is a big baby!

Here we are eating our delicious carne asada that Michael cooked! We also had beans, rice, corn bread, cookies, brownies, chips...a lot of great food, thanks to everyone who brought something!

We got a picture of us in front of the house.

  It was really bright outside and we were trying really hard not to make squinty faces.

And after a long day of fun and entertaining, we both crashed. Little did I know that starting that night, my health would plummet and I'd get a horrible cold! No wonder I was so tired.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I've Been Tagged- Again!

Mrs. G from My Life in the Making tagged me to answer some more questions! Her questions are:

1. What are you being for Halloween? Do you have trick-or-treaters or go out trick-or-treating?

Nothing this year, I think. We aren't going to any parties and Michael will be working that night. I think the last time we dressed up was a couple years ago...but I do like to decorate for it!

2. How many kids do you want?

I want 2 or 3 and Michael wants 4. It will be interesting to see what happens!

3. What are you asking for Christmas this year?

It's a secret!

4. Were you named after anyone, or how did your name come about?

Well, my LEGAL name is Michelle and I have always gone by Shelley. I think my parents just liked the names..

5. Do you remember your dreams?

Most of the time, yes. I have very detailed dreams too. Sometimes it's a blessing but other times I wish I could forget!

6. If you could live in any other city/town, where would it be?

I'd live closer to the beach. We live in the desert now and it's too hot in the summer. We don't even have a pool or anything to help!

7. Do you like your naturally straight/curly/wavy/etc hair? Would you change it permanently if you could?

I have very straight hair naturally and it holds curls pretty well so I don't think I would change it. I don't have to worry about blow drying it or straightening it. I just curl it if I want something different.

8. What’s your favorite thing in your living room?

That would be either our new couches or our new tv!

We Have A Yard!

We are so happy to finally have a yard!!