He's getting so big.

It's been a long time since I've posted any photos of Cayden... I stopped doing Wordless Wednesday when I started Wedding Planning Wednesday and I didn't realize that was usually when I would post new photos of him! So, I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite pictures of him from the last few months. He's 19 months now, and getting so big. His vocabulary has just exploded lately and he's even saying 2 and 3 word sentences! It's so crazy that I can actually have a conversation with my baby boy. They aint lyin' when they say they grow up way too fast! He's going through this silly face phase and some of my favorite photos of him are these weirdly cute faces he makes, so bare with me here!

 At the park. The boy loves his slides! It's so rare to get smiley pictures of him lately which is why I super extra love these photos.

 Does my child have the most beautiful eyes and lashes or what? His huge brown eyes remind me of an owl so much sometimes, and this silly closed-eyes-lashes picture reminds me of a giraffe. And I don't know why I keep comparing my toddler to animals, but I still love these pictures!

 Hipster baby! This child is too freaking adorable in his little flannel shirt and vans. Also, he has the perfect hair here. I wish it would stay like this all the time. I swear, he's a direct descendant of Harry Potter... the boy's hair is always sticking up in a hundred places!

These pictures were just taken last week and I love the silly faces. He loves Clifford AKA 'Ruff Ruff' so when we saw this shirt of course he HAD to have it!

Can you guys believe how big my sweet boy is? It feels like yesterday I was posting his birthday story! I just can't believe how big his personality is and how independent he's becoming! Wahh! Time for a new baby, am I right?!? XOXO

Christmas cards!

Last Thursday we took our annual Christmas pictures and as usual, I've waited until the last minute possible to order our Christmas cards! This year I'm ordering from Tiny Prints and I'm kind of obsessed with their selection. I looked through all six (yes, SIX) pages of their holiday cards and chose a few favorites ones!

find it here

find it here

find it here

find it here

Cute, right?! I love the variety, too. They have everything... elegant black and white cards, Hello Kitty Christmas cards, pet friendly cards, and colorful, modern cards. In the end we decided to go with this one which was the very first one I saw and I love it! It had a spot for all 3 of our photos and I love the colors. They'll go perfect with our peppermint hot cocoa handmade Christmas gifts!

If you haven't ordered your holiday cards yet, make sure to check out their selection of cards here. Right now they have free expedited delivery to arrive by 12/23 or you can pay a little extra to have them rushed to you even faster! Happy holidays everyone! XOXO

Advent Calendar Days 5-11

I'm back for days 5-11 of our advent calendar! We had a loy of fun getting the house ready for Christmas this week. I swear, every December I have a perma-smile on my face until the New Year. I just love this time of the year... everything is so magical! Doing these activities as a family has really gotten us all in the holiday spirit and we couldn't be more excited for Christmas! I definitely think the advent calendar is a new tradition that we will be continuing year after year!

Day five: We did a few small things around the house to get ready for Christmas! We hung our snowman sign on the front door, put our poinsettia on the porch, and finished our Christmas mantle!

Day six: We baked chocolate peppermint cookies together! Man, these cookies were absolutely delicious. Dark chocolate, espresso powder, and crushed candy canes. We all gobbled them up! Cayden had so much fun helping daddy stir the batter!

Day seven: Can you tell this is when I got my new iPhone? YAY! No more scratched camera! That day Mando and I made our handmade Christmas gifts. We make something handmade every year for our families and this year we made peppermint hot chocolate in a mason jar. This Starbucks hot chocolate is amazing by the way. I've had about 5 cups since then!

Day eight: This was one of my favorite days just because it was so cozy. We are lucky enough to have a fireplace in our room and I love taking advantage of it! We played a few games of Uno by the fire and listened to Christmas music. By the way, I got my ass kicked at all 5 of those Uno games! Who knew I was so bad? Haha!

Day nine: Finally! We got our tree! I was so excited to bring that fat little tree home and I spent the rest of the night huffing our Douglas Fir. There is NOTHING better than the smell of a fresh Christmas tree!

Day ten: The next day we decorated our tree. Every year we pick out a new Christmas ornament and this year I got the little matryoshka, the big C is for Corona (Mando's last name), and Cayden got an ice skating cow because he is OBSESSED with cows right now! I still need to get a tree topper... can't find ours from last year!

Day eleven: My mom's neighborhood always has fun holiday events, and we never miss the Christmas festival. Santa comes to take pictures with the kids, there's hot cocoa and cider, a horse drawn carriage, a band, and they even bring in a ton of real snow for the kids to play with! Last year Cayden was only a few months old, but this year he was all over the place dancing and playing. He had a blast! I'm so proud of him for not freaking out when he saw Santa. He was actually really excited!

That's all for now! We have lots of more fun activities planned for this week and I can't wait to share them with you all next Monday! What are you all doing to get into the holiday spirit? Hopefully this Christmas season is as magical for you as it has been for us! XOXO

Advent Calendar Days 1-4

I've been meaning to do an advent calendar for years now. I have this cheesy store-bought Christmas tree made out of felt that I use as a countdown and I can't stand it, but I can never find the time to make one myself. This year I thought would for sure be the year... I even found the perfect one on Pinterest that I wanted to replicate! Then I got caught up in handmade markets, wedding planning, and you know, raising a toddler, and once again I just didn't get around to it. I wasn't going to bother doing the advent calendar at all since I didn't have an amazing handmade one, but at the last minute (literally on December 1st) I decided what the heck, I'll use the cheesy felt Christmas tree and do it anyway.

My sister, who DID find the time to make an amazing handmade countdown (see hers here) was kind enough to send over her list, and with that, some of my own ideas, and the help of Pinterest I came up with 24 advent activities. I really wanted activities that we could do as a family to get us excited for Christmas although some are more for Cayden and some for Mando. I'm going to share our activities here once a week through my Instagram pictures but  just to warn you, the camera on my iPhone is scratched (I have to wait until Dec. 7th to upgrade to the 4s, boo!) so you'll have to forgive the quality of my pictures until I get a new one!

Day one: Shop for Christmas decorations. We didn't need all that much this year, but we hit up Target anyway to see what we could find! We each picked out a new Christmas ornament, some stocking hangers, a candle, a poinsettia, and a new snowman sign for the front door! You can also see my cheesy Christmas tree countdown in this picture!

Day two: Date night. I wanted to reserve one night for Mando and I to do something alone so date night was born! We were supposed to go Friday, but my mom (who was going to watch Cayden) didn't get home until 11pm so we re-scheduled for Saturday. We went back and forth on what to do and in the end we decided to go to the movies. We are probably the most boring couple on the planet... we even saw a kids movie, haha! But it was nice to get out and spend some time together, and definitely needed!

Day three: Make a Christmas craft. Since day two was all about Mando, day three was all about Cayden! We busted out the fingerpaints to make a Christmas tree craft. I gotta be honest, Cayden was interested for about 30 seconds before running off, but he still gets excited whenever he sees the finished project hanging on our fridge! Hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

Day four: Have a special Christmas breakfast. Sunday morning I made some red and green pancakes for breakfast and cut them into Santa and Christmas tree shapes. It wasn't anything fancy, just a fun silly way to get into the holiday spirit! I love me some pancakes, yummy!

Anyone else doing an advent calendar this year? They are so fun! I'll be back next Monday to share days 5-11! XOXO

The best bubble recipe!

Although the weather has finally gotten cold in California, my little man always wants to be outside. Rain or shine, we bundle him up and spend some time outdoors each day. One of his favorite activities (like all toddlers) is blowing bubbles. I think we went through about 5 of those 99cent plastic bubble containers in just a few weeks! I experimented with making my own bubbles, but it wasn't until I stumbled upon this recipe via Pinterest that I learned the secret ingredient to amazing bubbles... corn syrup! A trip to Target for a $1 bubble wand and we were ready to start!

You will need:

• 6 cups of water
• 1 cup dish soap
• 1/2 cup corn syrup

Mix the water and corn syrup until completely dissolved. Slowly stir in dish soap. Store in airtight container.

These bubbles did not disappoint... The corn syrup holds everything together and really does make the best bubbles ever! We keep ours in a big Tupperware bowl with a lid out on the back porch and every day Cayden asks to play with his bubbles. And that big bubble wand from Target? Best dollar I've ever spent! He is entertained for at least a half an hour at a time, which in toddler time is pretty huge! We've been playing with them every day for a few weeks now and still have over half left so they do last awhile!

Next time your little one is bored, try making a batch of the best bubbles! Once you discover them, you'll never go back to store bought! Happy Monday everyone! XOXO

Wedding Planning Wednesday - Mini-Moon

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As the wedding gets closer, Mando and I have started talking about a honeymoon. Now obviously, the fact that we have a small child complicates things, and we went back and forth on whether or not we'd even bother taking one. In the end we decided we needed to do something, even if it is just small and local. The idea of taking a "mini-moon" was born!

I'm going to be honest, the idea of leaving Cayden really freaks me out. I've never been away from him longer than a few hours, much less an entire night or a few days. I just feel like he's still too young to understand why his mama is gone and I don't want him for even a fraction of a second to feel scared or abandoned. I know it might sound ridiculous to some, but this is how I think. I know that by the time the wedding rolls around I will have spent a night away from him (bachlorette party, night of the wedding, etc.) but I'll still be able to put him to sleep and see him the next morning so he won't really have any idea that I'm gone. Leaving on a mini-moon is going to be a HUGE deal for all of us, and I don't know how it's going to go.

With that being said, we haven't quite decided on whether we'll be bringing him with us or not. Obviously it would be ideal to go somewhere just the two of us... I feel like we both NEED that time and we haven't done anything like that in so long. As of right now the idea is to leave him home with my mom, but we'll see how I'm doing emotionally when the time comes.

Right now, we're just brainstorming on where we'd like to go. We are trying to find somewhere local enough to drive yet far away enough to feel like a vacation and we'll probably go away for 3 or 4 days. Since our wedding is on a Saturday, and Sunday is Mother's Day, we won't be leaving until Monday. San Francisco is out because we were just there, and we've been to San Diego way too many times. Some ideas we've come up with are Santa Barbara, Lake Tahoe, and Vegas. If any locals have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I just want something quiet, romantic, but still fun for a young couple who never gets out! ;)

Tonight I'm going wedding dress shopping again, and hopefully it'll be the last time! If I'm lucky enough to find the dress I'll tell you all about it next week! Happy Wednesday everyone! XOXO                      

Road Trip Day 5: Portland

After leaving the Redwoods, we decided to skip our stop in Eugene and just drive all the way through to Portland. It was already getting late and I wanted to get us to our hotel at a decent time. When we finally arrived around 8pm we just got settled and hung out for the rest of the night. It was so nice knowing that we could actually un-pack our bags since we would be spending the next 3 days there! At that point, we were so done with the constant packing and unpacking in hotel rooms!

The next morning we woke up and decided to go to the Japanese Gardens. I had actually saw a picture of this place on Pinterest and I knew I had to go! It's the most authentic Japanese garden in the world (outside of Japan of course). The weather in Portland was so beautiful; they say August is the best time to be there. It was a beautiful, clear, warm, sunny day. The gardens were very beautiful and peaceful. We saw waterfalls, koi ponds, a huge zen garden, and of course a ton of bonsai trees. Everything was green and covered in moss, it was so pretty.

 I snapped this picture from the Japanese Gardens. It's the perfect view of Portland and Mount Hood!

 The moss made everything feel so whimsical and delicate.

 Koi pond, waterfalls, and a bridge.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

 Japanese zen garden. I can't even imagine all the work that goes into maintaining this place!

After we left the gardens we spent the day in Portland looking at potential neighborhoods and houses.We spoke to a few realtors and locals to scope out the best areas to live in and we got a lot of great feedback. That night grandma baby-sat Cayden so Mando and I could have a date night. I forgot my camera and am still kicking myself for it! Downtown Portland is a dream and I wish I could show you all how amazing it is. The nightlife is just incredible, packed full of restaurants and bars. Most of them brew their own beer locally so Mando and I tried a few local blends. Portland is also the greenest city in the entire country so all the food comes from local sources and is just so fresh. We went to a bar and talked to a lot of super nice people and learned a ton about the economy, job market, best places to live, and schools. That kind of advice from locals is invaluable for us! We had such a fun time, and I think it really proved to Mando that Portland has the best of both worlds... beautiful scenery, quiet neighborhoods, and a hip downtown area with plenty to do.

The next day we went to check out the falls. There are a ton of waterfalls outside Portland, but the biggest and best one is Multnomah Falls. According to Indian folklore, it was built for an Indian princess as a private place to bathe. You truly cannot comprehend how tall and majestic this waterfall is; it absolutely took my breath away. Nearby there was another smaller waterfall called Wahkeena Falls so we checked that one out too. It was such a beautiful day; I swear the weather was like a dream there!

 I loved this plaque dedicated to the Oregon Pioneers. Took me back to playing my favorite game as a kid, Oregon trails! The other picture is a view from the top of the waterfall. The hike was SO worth it!

 Mando and I at Wahkeena Falls. It was hard to photograph well because the waterfall was so curvy and there were a lot of trees blocking the view!

Multnomah Falls. So stunning in real life. You can feel the temperature drop from all of the spray. We hiked to the bridge and to the top of the falls and the view just kept getting better and better! 

After visiting the falls we wanted to check out a neighborhood back in Portland. If you're anything like me as a child (read: BOOKWORM) then you grew up reading Beverly Cleary books and you know Ramona and Beezus lived in Portland. When I found the neighborhood that the real Klickitat Street was in I knew I had to go. This particular neighborhood (ironically named Hollywood!) had also been one that the realtors and locals recommended to us. It was like destiny. The homes were all vintage, victorians and tudors just like our neighborhood here in Orange County and we absolutely fell in love with the area. Then we went to Grant Park to have a picnic lunch which is home to the Beverly Cleary Scultpure Garden. The park was dedicated to her and is full of life-sized bronze statues of her main characters. It's also a splash park so we stripped Cayden down to his diaper and he had the time of his life playing for almost a full hour. What I loved most is all the families that were there with their children. Keep in mind this was a Thursday afternoon, in the middle of the day and it was packed full of young mamas like me and their kids, and surprisingly, A TON of dads! I think that made Mando and I the happiest... there were at least 5 dads there playing with their kids which you just don't see around here unfortunately. Everyone was so friendly and it just seems like the perfect place to raise a family.

Our last night in Portland was so sad. I was definitely not ready to leave. We decided to go back downtown to Cool Moon in the Pearl District for some local ice cream, all handmade in their shop. It was 100% the best ice cream I've ever had in my life. I chose this espresso ice cream and I'm literally salivating right now thinking about it. The sun was just starting to set and there was a ton of families out in another splash park enjoying their rare but gorgeous weather. It was then that I think we all realized that yes, this is definitely a place we could see ourselves living.

 Downtown Portland at sunset

 As you can see, we ALL enjoyed Cool Moon ice cream!

 In the Pearl district after the sun went down. This place was magical, let me tell you.

The next morning we packed up and left early. We took the 5 all the way home and only had to stop one night in Central California. I took this picture right as the sun was setting.



All in all, it was a great trip. There were some scary parts, some wonderful parts, and some parts that just made you stare in silence at how beautiful nature can be. I'm so glad we went and I have no doubt in my mind that Portland is the place for us to be someday. We won't even start seriously looking until after the wedding next May, but I feel like we have a long-term plan now and I finally feel at peace with the way things are going. I just can't wait to get back there! XOXO

Road Trip Day 4: The Redwood Forest

Even after arriving at our hotel at 2am, we were still up early the next morning so we could see as much of the Redwoods as possible. I think all of us were looking forward to this part of the trip to most (other than Portland of course). I've always wanted to see the Redwoods and I knew it was going to be beautiful. We ate breakfast quickly and were on our way. Our first stop was the Founder's Grove where the largest redwood tree once stood, weighing over a million pounds. When the tree eventually fell back in the 90's, it was so loud the whole town thought two trains crashed together. The tree is on the ground now and goes for miles, but you can see how huge the roots are. Being in that forest just makes you feel so small and insignificant, but in a good way. Even though there were a lot of people walking around near us, it's totally silent there because everyone is just in awe of how big the trees actually are. Near the forest is a place with a huge tree that I believe was struck by lighting resulting in a wide crack in the trunk large enough to drive through!

After spending some time exploring the forest, we drove to a little town nearby called Ferndale for lunch. There was one main street with the theatre, grocery store, butcher, and general store; it seemed like it came out of an old movie. Driving through the town we saw huge herds of elk just chillin' on the side of the road. It was insane.

The view from our hotel in Humboldt

The drive-through tree

The gorgeous redwood forest. I was obsessed with catching sun beams through the trees

Cayden loved the forest. He had so much fun exploring and climbing everything

You just can't even comprehend how tall these trees were. This was as far as the zoom on my lens would go!

Me and my honey resting

The roots on a fallen tree

More sunbeams

The Goliath tree. This was just the circumference of the trunk + the roots. The trunk went on for miles!

The road that runs through the forest

Tired boy napping after a long day of exploring

Herds of wild elk on the side of the road

Ferndale must be the smallest town in California!

After lunch we were finally on our way to our last stop, Portland, where we would stay for the next 3 days. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of that magical city! XOXO