Shopping Cart Hugs

When your baby is sitting in the shopping cart and reaches out to you for a hug <3

New Backpack!

I get a lot of use out of my backpacks. I really do. I load tons of groceries into them, squish them into the tightest spots (my locker at work!) and use them until they've worn down to nothing. Case and point :

It probably doesn't bode well for me that I always buy the cheapest backpack I can find. So when the time came to replace this one .. I spent a little bit more on one in hopes that it'll stand up to the abuse I put it through! 

Grateful for my new one! It isn't embarrassing to walk around with and is quite big inside! Yay :)

Old Friends

I had an incredible night the other day when I had some friends from high school over for a walk down memory lane. We stocked up on treats, opened a bottle of wine, and opened up our yearbooks .. So. Much. Fun!!! We played old paper games like secret letter and MASH and talked about old times. It was a really fun night. Our stomaches were sore from laughing and so were our cheeks! 

I'm so grateful for nights like these. I'm even more grateful for friends like these! 

Powder Room

We lived with one bathroom for YEARS. One bathroom + two adults + two children = stress. It was a sucky deal. And the bathroom was tiny. There was just enough room to squeeze in a bathtub / shower combo and a sink and toilet. If ever there was more than one person in the bathroom, it was cramped. Heck, if there was only one person in there, it was cramped. There was never enough storage for all our bathroom needs. It was just not fun.

Now we have a second bathroom. It's just a powder room, with a throne and a sink with a mirror. But that's HUGE. If I'm using the bathroom upstairs and a kid needs to poop, they can use the other toilet without me having to rush to finish my business before the kid has an accident. If my husband needs to shave and I need to use the facilities, he can use one bathroom and I'll take the other. He shaves and keeps his shaving supplies in the powder room, which leaves so much storage space free in the main bathroom. 

It's such a luxury, having two bathrooms!! I don't know how we survived on only one for all those years! It is a little more to keep clean but that extra work is so worth it! Grateful! :)

My Bathtub

You know how much I adore a hot bath. Every night. It's my way of winding down and relaxing with a great book. 

This bathtub makes my night time tradition that much better. I never minded the tub back at the apartment, we were good friends .. But this tub is just so big and deep and awesome. It's so much roomier! And because of the way it dips in the back, I can sink in and rest my neck comfortably on the edge for a built-in pillow feel. It's the best way to read my book and unwind in the gorgeously hot waters. 

So grateful for the upgrade in my nighttime routine!

Stairs!

I know I've been posting about the house lately .. I can't help it, this place makes me so happy!

Today I'm grateful for stairs. My soft, fuzzy, comfortably carpeted stairs. 

Easter egg hunts used to be on the sucky side at the apartment. We really only had one space to hide eggs, and it was a pretty open room. Luckily our kids weren't ever old enough for us to need to be creative with our egg-hiding, so having a small and open apartment was convenient .. But now that the kids are older, it's more fun to be a bit trickier with where we (er, the Easter bunny) hides the eggs.

I always dreamed about having stairs to lead a trail of eggs from the kids' rooms downstairs .. And this year, that dream came true! The eggs looked so pretty in the stairway! 

It really is the little things in life :)

Open Kitchen

We live in a home that has a fantastic kitchen / dining room feature, where there is an open counter that can be used as a breakfast bar, that looks over the dining room. It's bright and beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the house. I can be busy in the kitchen but right there with our company! 

One thing I love about it is how the kids can play on the counter (the breakfast bar side!) while I'm making supper. That way they're keeping me company but out of harm's way (and my way!). It's a great feature of the house :)

Love my silly goofs! :)

Grateful for this opened-style kitchen for the ease of being able to make a meal without the kids being in my feet .. But still being there! :)

The Letter C

Today's post is brought to you by the letter C.

Crayons, coloring, coffee and crowns.

Love mornings like this! :)

Our Backyard #2

This weekend, our kids spent every free minute outside, playing in the backyard. They probably got more outdoor play time this Easter weekend than they did the entire time we lived in our apartment!

I can't tell you how many times my heart burst with happiness. Like, tears in my eyes and the whole nine yards. Corny stuff, but my reality. 

My favorite part of our house is the backyard. It's not the biggest yard you'd ever see, and the deck and yard itself both need a bunch of work .. But we have a deck. And a yard. And a garden. And a tree! Our kids have a space to run and climb and laugh and shout. 

Grateful, grateful, grateful! 

Playing with their cousins this Easter weekend!

Looking for ladybugs in the garden.

Chasing Uncle Sparky!

My Backyard

I have a backyard. Not a tiny little 8X4 balcony that overlooks a hospital and is surrounded by potheads, but a nice little backyard with a deck and a tree and some nice neighbors. 

My kids have an outdoor space to run free in. And they just love it. 

I'm so grateful.

Email

Today, I'm grateful for the almighty powers of email! I've been able to keep in touch with friends from our old place, sending them pictures and updates on our new lives in the new neighborhood. I love being about to chat with them and keep in contact. I do miss seeing them in person, but email is better than nothing! :)