easy canvas prints

My parents are currently living a bicoastal life, spending half of the year in their home in Orange County, CA and half of the year in an incredible apartment just 2 miles from my house. They've been doing so since June 2013 -- the month Trace was born. Every time they leave California and come back to North Carolina I get so excited and generally make them a welcome back basket of some sort and put it in their apartment before their arrival.

Knowing for a long time that the next time my parents would be back in NC would be in late February, I'd been racking my brain, trying to come up with something to surprise them with in their apartment.

In comes Easy Canvas Prints.

While I was back home for Christmas I took a picture of my parents with all 3 of their grandchildren. It's the first picture they have with all of them together and I know how happy this made my mom, so I decided to take my favorite picture of them all and have it printed on a canvas for my parents to hang in their apartment.

c/o

Last night I picked my parents up from the airport. They're back! And they LOVE their new 8x10 canvas of them with all of their grandchildren.

***

Easy Canvas Prints is currently offering 50% off canvas prints, 60% off wall displays and buy one canvas get one free. To redeem coupon code click here.

five on friday

Linking up today...

Don't be fooled by all of the pictures that I take with Trace... This is the reality of taking pictures with a baby. He loves to play with and pull on my hair with his tiny wet fingers, which ensues a knee-jerk response of my hands to fly through the air and peel my hair, strand by strand, from his tight grip before my hair ends up in his mouth. It hurts like a mother and unfortunitely he gets great satisfaction out of this, as you can see below... His concentration level is admirable, I suppose......

A few weekends ago we decided to grab our Mexican Train game and beverage of choice and head on over to our neighbors house for a casual night of fun. Once well into our night, Bryan dropped his popcorn all over their kitchen floor and proceeded to fall out of his chair. Needless to say, he had the "24 flu" the next day! It was awesome.

During one of my massively bored days at home I drank 2 cups of coffee, ate a large plate of power greens and decided to put my insane amount of energy into lining my pantry shelves and reorganizing everything. I bought 9 baskets at $10.00/each... Which means I spent nearly $100.00 on freaking baskets for inside my pantry. Although they look nice I'm pretty positive I could have gone to h&m and walked out with a good amount of clothes for that price. Eh, whatever. I'm super geeked about my pantry and show it off to just about everyone who comes into my house!

Ladies, if you have a newborn or are pregnant -- do yourself and your child a favor and buy them a 2 pack of the Aden + Anais security blankets. They are so soft, they are breathable and they come in cute colors. These security blankets are perfect for playing peekaboo, for calming crying fits and for assisting in putting your child down for naps/bed. They are also great for car rides and general comfort. We keep one upstairs in Trace's room and one downstairs in our family room, so that where ever we are, Trace has access to one. His new favorite thing is to eat it, as you can see in the picture... I plan to buy 2 more - 1 for the car and 1 extra, incase we lose one or one is in the wash, etc.

Trace now has his very own large personalized rolling duffle from Personal Creations and I'm totally in love with it! It's huge and there are so many zippered pockets. Very patriotic, right? Love!

a shoe box and a menu

When I was little I would get so excited for Valentine's Day.

I'd decorate a shoe box, take it to school and proudly display it on my desk.

As my shoe box filled with valentine's from my classmates, I'd be so happy.

Happy that I got lots of valentine's & happy that several of them were accompanied by candy.

Fast forward to this year...

This year I filled my shoe box with my favorite Valentine to date -- baby Trace!

This was our 3rd Valentine's Day in our house.

Bryan has made it an annual tradition to create a homemade menu and make us dinner.

While I rocked Trace to sleep that night, Bryan set the table and got to cooking.

At the center of our delicious meal was the puzzle that we worked on while snowed in that week.
A romantic meal at home while the babe slept upstairs... it was the perfect evening!

Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day 2012

Valentine's Day 2011

#snOMG

We were hit with quite the snow storm last week.

It ended up being the worst snow storm to hit the area and we got 8 inches of snow.

Mind you, it literally never snows here, so we were so excited!

Bryan's work closed down for the majority of the week and we were officially snowed in.

There's no way that we could have gotten out of our neighborhood.

And we loved every second of it!

... oh, and it's going to be 70 degrees here by the end of the week :)

super bowl xlviii

Last weekend we hosted our 4th annual Super Bowl Party

Seattle 43 : Denver 8

7 months

7 months as of January 26, 2014

Weight - 18.4 lbs.

Clothes: You are wearing all 6-9 month or 6-12 month clothes. Your pj's are all 9 month.

Sleep:  You sleep from 7:00pm-7:00am and have always taken 3 naps/day -- 9:00am, 1:00pm, 4:00pm. Your morning nap is always your longest, ranging from 1-2 hours. Your afternoon and evening nap ranges from 30 mins-1 hour. The day that you turned 7 months old "you decided" that you didn't need your 3rd nap of the day, so you are down to just your 9:00am and 1:00pm naps, of which are both about 1.5-2 hours long. Due to losing this last nap, you now get your bath at 6:00pm, bottle at 6:25pm and you're asleep no later than 6:45pm.

Health: You've had your cranial band for 5 weeks now and are doing very well with it. You wear it about 22 hours/day and don't even realize when it's on. We've gone back for several adjustments and are already seeing a very noticeable change in the shape of your head. Also, you were diagnosed with Eczema at your 6 month appointment. You have it on your shoulders and sides of your torso and I've noticed within the past couple of days that you have a few patches that have sprung up on your face. I put special lotion on you, we always have your humidifier on in your room and you've now gone down to taking a bath every 3 days, which has helped clear up your dry, irritated patches of skin dramatically.

Diet: You now get 4 bottles/day and eat 3 meals/day. You're still on Similac Sensitive. You take 3 5 oz. bottles throughout the day (7:30am, 11:00am and 3:00pm) and 1 8oz. bottle as your last bottle at 6:30pm. You eat rice or oatmeal cereal mixed with formula at 8:30am. I make all of your baby food out of organic vegetables and fruits and have made sweet potato, green bean, peas, carrot, squash, red apple, fugi apple, banana and pear thus far. You love everything! You eat vegetable baby food at around 12:30pm and fruit baby food at around 5:00pm.

 Baby Gear Love: Baby Einstein jumper, stroller, Bumbo with tray, Tiny Love play mat, Aden + Anais lovie

Likes: smiling, talking, sucking fingers, playing with feet, baby food, getting a diaper change, going on walks, playing with all of your toys, bouncing in your jumper, sitting up, falling over and onto your belly, standing, fake coughing, blowing raspberries

Dislikes: evening-time, boredom, Nose Frida

Crying: You cry now. And I think I've figured out why! You're one smart and sneaky cookie, my son -- You have realized that your crying and whining gets you what you want. Whether it's a toy you dropped or can't reach, dad's or my attention, if you want picked up, if you need your diaper changed, etc. Crying is definitely your way of "talking" to us and the second we tend to your need/want, you quit crying or whining. You're onto us and we're onto you! 

Milestones: Eating 3 baby food meals a day is an incredibly huge milestone to reach. So is the fact that we've weaned you down from 5 bottles to 4 bottles, with a goal of no bottles at all come summertime. About a week after you turned 6 months old you sat up for the 1st time and have loved to sit ever since. You cut two teeth, your central incisors (lower middle), right after you turned 5 months and just a few days ago I felt your gums and realized that you're cutting your maxillary teeth (upper middle)... well, you've really just cut your right one, but I can tell that your left one will be coming any day.

Dear Trace, I think I say this every month, but this month really was my favorite thus far! You aren't a newborn anymore and that's a good thing... for me anyway. My days are filled with so much laughter and so many "conversations" with you. You've gotten so much more vocal and funny! When Dad and I tickle you, blow raspberries on your belly or kiss your cheeks you giggle like crazy. It's so easy to make you laugh, and hearing that precious sound is definitely my favorite. I love your baby babble. I know you've said Dada a few times, but it sounds more like an accidental dadadadadadada than anything. It's the cutest ever! You've also learned how to get your way by crying and whining. Very smart, little dude, very smart of you. Because it works just about every time. With every breath you take, I love you more and more. We're really starting to be able to tell who you look like, which is a complete combination of both Dad and I. We think you have your dad's eyes, lips and toes whereas you have my eyebrows, nose and face shape. Sadly, we just discovered that you have the Hanahan family ears -- please don't hate me too much. Blame Papa! But those large ears of yours sure do hear well, and that's what matters. Rocking you to bed before naptime and bed is the best part of my day. You are so still. Just a complete cuddlebug. But I also love that moment right after you've woken up and I walk into your room. I sing the same song to you every time I enter -- rise and shine and give God your glory -- you hear that song 4 times a day and I'm convinced that it's become part of your "waking up" routine. You wiggle around and get so excited when you hear it, knowing that Mom's just come into your room and that I'm about to scoop you up to bring you downstairs to eat and play. If you had a motto, I think it'd be 'eat hard. play hard.' Because you do both so incredibly well! Keep it up my little stud, you're on a roll... Ps. Your poops are gross. Like, really gross. Like, 6 wipes gross. Real food is quite the game changer in this realm. Can I potty train you yet?

Scenes from the past month!