Toddler Busy Bag Exchange Round 2

You can check out the first toddler busy bag exchange by clicking here.  Here is what everyone made for the exchange today.  Thank you all for participating!

Potluck Picnic!

I made a weaving activity.

Jess made this color sorting activity where you can move the pom poms using a clothes pin.

Selena made a word recognition board.

Heidi made another color sorting activity utilizing fine motor skills.

Anjela made this ribbon with a button on the end to string different shapes and colors onto the ribbon.

Cami made felt monsters the kids can put together.

To Become as Little Children

In that moment, I felt so sad.  I felt like I could do better but knew that I wouldn't always.  I wanted to take it back but I couldn't and now those five little words have been repeated multiple times.  "Mommy, don't yell at me."  Ugh...I'm human, I get mad, I have a two year old running outside the house before I'm dressed, refusing to follow simple directions and not giving me five minutes of peace from the second I wake up to the second I lie down for bed.  But amidst all of that, I can't tell you how much I have learned and will continue to learn from my little boy.  As we sat down at the table for lunch together, I told him I was sorry for yelling.  His reply was, "I'm sorry I made you mad.  I'm sorry I made you yell at me."  This may have hurt more than the five little words in the beginning because I didn't want him to feel sorry for my choice to yell. I tried to explain that he didn't make me yell and it was my fault but there's only so much deep comprehension that can occur at his age.  Don't get me wrong...I know toddlers drive can us to our wits end but this stung.

Joaquin is wise beyond his years. He is so incredibly sweet and has one of the biggest hearts I've ever met.  As we played outside after lunch and drew with chalk, what else did he ask me to draw than hearts of course?!

After chalk was nap time and while he said "No, I don't want to take a nap," he said instead, "I want to cuddle" and grabbed a blanket on the couch to be with me. While he is still learning to follow directions, his heart has always been sweet. He says excuse me, please and thank you and he loves to hug everyone goodbye.  And forgiveness is a whole other issue!  Joaquin forgives me every time I mess up and never stays mad at me.  How does he do it?!  There's a reason the scriptures teach us to become as little children.  Matthew 18:3 "And said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."  These small children have the qualities of being patient, kind, meek, humble and more.  I saw this a lot teaching kindergartners as a teacher but I see it even more in my own child since I'm with him all day.  I know other parents and guardians of small children are learning all these same things.  I also know one day Joaquin will have to choose to put forth these qualities of love more than he may need to now.  Maybe I was sweet like him as a small child too and now everyday it's like it takes a conscious effort to continually develop all the named qualities.  

I don't know the whole point of this post other than how much it all struck me today and how much I really am learning about patience, love and forgiveness through the eyes and mind of a child, particularly my child. While it's difficult to see myself make mistakes and to learn the hard lessons, I am more grateful I am learning them at all!  

Wisconsin Dells toddler Spectacular 2015!

My friends are so brave.  So brave that when Jesus and I invited them to share a three bedroom condo in WI Dells with several other families and seven children under age 5 combined, they said YES!  We ended up with four families totaling 8 adults and 7 children.  We stayed at Wilderness on the Lake in a very spacious 3 bedroom loft with fireplaces, a jacuzzi, sun porch and fully equipped kitchen all overlooking the beautiful lake.  This resort has 8 waterparks in total so we spent the weekend hopping around and enjoying all the pools.  It was hard to get on much of the adult water sides due to watching all the little ones but I think the kids had the most fun of all! As did all of us adults. Here are some of our photos.

Feeding time

I'm 32!

It's funny to think I'm 32 because while that does sound a little old...it doesn't seem to affect me like 30 or 31 did.  Maybe I'm just over it and ready to be in my 30s!  Basically I'm saying this birthday didn't have a milestone feeling and it just felt normal which I'm ok with.  I want to thank everyone who took the time to tell me happy birthday in all the many different ways whether by technology, phone or in person!  It's a special feeling to feel loved on your birthday.  My kind husband even bought me Sigma makeup brushes and a bag of jelly beans from his work that I'm addicted to.

Still practicing with my Sigma brushes but so far I am favoring the kabukis with the rounded heads.  The  f84 works great for contouring with bronzer and the f82 is a great buffing/blending brush for me.

Here's how the day unfolded: My little family rolled our of bed at 8am and hit the ground runnin'!  Jesus set off for work and Joaquin and I had a bright and early dermatologist appointment.  No, my son does not have Michael Jackson disease, in case you've noticed and have been wondering.  But yes, he has been losing pigmentation.  Turns out it's eczema and not permanent!  Hallelujah on the not permanent part.  His tan skin is just too beautiful to lose!  He tends to break out in red eczema spots and then when the redness fades, so does his pigment.  We've tried many creams and a prescription shampoo and it was nice to finally get a prescription from the dermatologist who should have more knowledge in this area than all the other family doctors we've seen.  The cream should take away the redness and lessen the loss of pigmentation.  Turns out only the sun can bring the pigmentation back but it will come back.  It may take years but it will come back!  Then we ran some errands at Target, went to the mall to replace my iPhone screen protector and stopped at Sephora to get my present from my mom.  We got the Urban Decay Electric palette and all you have to do is google or Pinterest it to see how amazing it is!  I've wanted it for months but had to gain some confidence in my makeup artistry before branching out and I'm finally ready!  Then of course, we finished our time at the mall in the play place.  Here's my first colorful and relatively basic look with the electric palette but there are so many more looks to come!

Then in the evening, I took my husband on a surprise date!  I signed us up for a grilling class/BBQ party at Kitchen Window in Uptown.  We learned how to use a charcoal and gas grill as well as a smoker.  We made several delicious recipes using all the different cooking methods and got to eat every bit of it!  It was a really fun and new experience for us.  Something Jesus said we should even do more often...if it wasn't so expensive, I definitely would!  But perfect for a b-day celebration.  Here's what we made in photos...all delicious!

Prepping a marinade

Steaks fresh off the grill

Steak slider with sun dried tomato aioli

Chicken wings going in the smoker

Marinating the lamb chops

Smoked and grilled chicken wings with parmesan herb marinade

Grilled lamb chops with tzatziki sauce

Grilled white bean, feta, red onion and yogurt sauce flatbread

And now it's finally time for bed!  Happy Birthday to me, thanks to all of you!

Quick waterproof summer glow tutorial!

I am definitely planning on spending lots of time at the lake and waterparks with my toddler this summer so I've started looking into water proof products and a quick routine to give me that summer glow without a ton of makeup or time.  I'd like to share with you a quick waterproof summer glow tutorial I've created that takes less than 10 minutes.

Step 1: Apply Perfectly posh lip scrub (or scrub or chapstick of your choice) to exfoliate your lips.

Step 2: Apply a waterproof BB cream in the same way you would a moisturizer.  The one in the photo is Garner BB cream but it's not waterproof.  I've heard the Rimmel BB cream is so that's on my list before summer hits!

Step 3: It cosmetics Bye Bye under eye concealer under my eyes.  I have a huge blue vein under my left eye and this is the best product I've tried so far to cover it and while it's not perfect, it's great and it definitely covers dark circles and brightens everything up while claiming to be waterproof!  A good drugstore alternative for brightening is Maybelline age rewind concealer but it's not waterproof.    

Step 4: Set the under eye and any shiny spots of your face with Rimmel Stay matte translucent powder...I don't have a waterproof version of a setting powder to recommend yet!

Step 5: Any waterproof mascara but I'm loving Loreal Miss Manga right now. 

Step 6: Bronzer across your cheekbones, temples and tip of your nose.  Anywhere the sun would naturally hit your face.  I used Tarte Amazonian Clay bronzer because it's waterproof and has a subtle shimmer!  A cheaper bronzer I like that again isn't waterproof but has a little shimmer is Pop Beauty sun kissed bronzer.  NYC sunny bronzer is also a great universal shade for lots of skin tones but I guess I don't have a cheaper alternative that's waterproof to recommend just yet...

Step 7:  I almost forgot, I filled in my brows with Anastasia Dip brow which of course is waterproof! I also used the Anastasia brow brush with spoolie but I think the Sonia Kashuk eyebrow brush works just as well for a drugstore alternative. (FYI: if there's one thing I've learned as a makeup artist, it's learn to fill in your brows!  There are different methods so just pick what works for you.  I think the Sonia Kashuk retractable brow pencil is a good place to start for a beginner.)

And that's it!  Ten minutes and you're ready to hit the beach and the waterparks with long lasting makeup!  I hope you've gained some tips!

Anniversary Stay-cation

Oh to be in love. Just the idea of taking a stay-cation for our 4th anniversary was romantic before the actual event even took place!  We booked a hotel downtown Minneapolis, found sitters for our toddler and our dog and made a reservation at the Melting Pot.  What more could you ask for of an anniversary?  Upon arrival, everything we did seemed romantic to me: "Jesus, let's take a romantic walk through the skyways."  "Jesus, let's eat a romantic snack of croissants and cheese in our big bed."  All of my gestures got the same lovely reply from my husband: "Becky, it's not a romantic walk, it's just a walk to Target! If I go take a poop, will that be a romantic poop too?"  

Oh wait, now I'm exposing the real story!  Let me continue with the anti-climactic stay-cation for Becky and Jesus's 4th anniversary as a married couple.

Yes we made the above arrangements and everything fell into place for our little adventure.  We got to our hotel and enjoyed hanging out as the two of us without a child or a puppy.  We walked to Target and through the skyways but everything in the skyways was closed on a late Saturday afternoon. We searched and searched for a yummy snack as our dinner reservation wasn't 'til 8:30 and finally settled for the Starbucks in our hotel.  We bought some vanilla coke and a little plate of cheese, veggies, and summer sausage.  Little did we know that the summer sausage tainted the flavor of everything else on our plate!  We continued to relax and got to watch some un-interrupted TV about millionaires and the homes, watches and helicopters that they buy.  

Our parking lot view but there are still some skyscrapers.

Oh to have alone time!

comfy eh?

Finally it was time for our dinner reservation and I was very happy with my pink blush and makeup for the night.  I've been growing my pixie into a new style and even felt like I had a good hair day so here's a vanity shot but mostly to show off my Loreal color lift blush in rose gold for my makeup readers. 

We got to the Melting Pot and it was so exciting because we had never been there!  We ordered the four course meal of cheese fondue, a salad, our entrees and a chocolate fondue.  You get to dip bread, apples and veggies into a cheesy mixture and then cook your meats right at your table in the flavored oil of your choice.  Doesn't that sound and look amazing? 

Well...it wasn't.  The cheese wasn't even that good but maybe it's the flavors we picked.  The best thing I ate all night was my salad and it was just a wedge of lettuce topped with ranch, blue cheese and bacon.  Then for the meats.  Their suggested cooking times were not medium rare but raw.  As we let the meat cook longer, they just over cooked and became chewy.  The shrimp and Lobster turned our fine but seafood is always delicious when it's boiled!  Steak on the other hand is not delicious boiled and that's what you get at the melting pot.  Maybe we are food snobs because we would rather pay for a professional chef to cook our steak on the grill.  I was most excited for the chocolate fondue but by that point we had already left so much food we couldn't finish and I knew I would only fit in two bites of chocolate covered fruits and brownies before needing to fall over from being too full.  So instead we got a complimentary chocolate fondue for our next visit and I can't even promise there will be a next time.  I know people rave about the Melting Pot so don't knock it 'til you try it but for us, we tried it.

During dinner we checked in with our little boy only to find our baby sitter asking us how in the world to get him to sleep and to ask us what he keeps repeating.  He was repeating "I wanna go" because he wanted to go home.  Did I mention this is the first time we left him overnight and he's never slept somewhere else without us?  The next phone call, my little boy went from saying "momma momma" to all out bawling and my poor sitters couldn't make him stop.  Jesus wanted to go home and get him and just take him swimming with us at our hotel the next morning.  At this point, it was already after 10:30pm.  I was going to be the strong one this time.  We cannot go get him.  He has to learn to be away from us. We need time as a couple; it's good for our marriage.  But my husband always has a 6th sense for emotional things.  He doesn't make rash emotional decisions so if he wanted to go home and get Joaquin, when he's normally the tough one, I couldn't help but listen.  We told our sitter we were on the way and I left the restaurant feeling like a failure.  How could we have given in?  We need to be each others' priority even before our children and now are we choosing him before each other?  After our walk to the car and talking/crying to my husband, my feelings of failure fled.  Jesus and I are adults and we can do what we want and what we wanted was to calm our child and take him swimming so we did!  It was wonderful.  He gave us some of the biggest hugs when we walked in the door and he fell right asleep when we brought him back to the hotel.  He loved riding the elevator and getting ice from the ice machine.  The next morning we swam and finished our stay-cation in Minneapolis!

Our little one's arrival to the hotel

Peace

Splashing papa

Gender Reveal!

I was hoping to write an eventful post after my 20 week ultrasound in addition to revealing the gender of our baby but turns out ultrasounds are pretty uneventful to write about.  I mean, being there is amazing and watching the baby inside you move while seeing the little heart beating!  But to a blogging audience...what more can I say?  

I did want to do something creative for our gender reveal!  So back to the Mall of America we went.  The same place I announced the pregnancy to Jesus in a photo booth.  You can see the reaction photos here. But this time, no photo booth.  Our lovely friend Emily so graciously took some photos for us around the mall.  My inspiration for our shoot was this handsome couple.  

Notice I used the word "inspiration" and not a word like "replica," you'll see.  While our cotton candy looks nothing like theirs...it was still fun stealing their inspiration.

So...it's a girl!  Joaquin is getting a baby sister.  Before the ultrasound, every time I asked him if he wanted a baby brother or baby sister, he always said "baby sister!"  Maybe it's because Daniel Tiger and Arthur have baby sisters or maybe he likes saying that word more than brother.  Who knows?  But we are all very happy!  Now I need to buy baby girl clothes!  I've always noticed the girls clothing sections being bigger than the boys so I have a whole new world to explore.  I can't even wait to see how much Joaquin is going to love this little baby!

PS for those that like my makeup posts...how can I forget my pink makeup to celebrate the day?!