a picture story {via instagram}

 Once upon a time...there were two little sisters...one was three and the other 6 months. They did almost everything together...from the moment they woke up to, the moment they kissed each other goodnight.

the three year old has a wild imagination and loves to play dress up and basically did everything a "grown up" did..i.e like grocery shop...(just in mini version) 

while the 6 month old is learning some survival skills of eating solid food and sitting up, army crawling everywhere and smiling a lot. 

the mom's day consists of homeschooling and breaking up "love fights"

these girls and their mama also do fun things like going to book signings and religious freedom rallys

But Sundays..ahh yes Sundays are the best...because mom gets to try new recipes and make the best butternut squash soup and yummy salads..and pack them all up for a picnic at the beach playground...to eat and watch the sunset with her girls. the end.

Fall...

is never complete without going to a farm, getting on a wagon and picking the perfect pumpkin that is your size. 

i absolutely love fall...and cheers to many more fall days to come. 

Sharing is caring + Carnival

Happy October!! This is my favorite month of the year and...the first week of October is my absolute favorite week of the whole year. There are so many great saint feast days this week...starting with one of my all time favorite St. Therese of Liseux (who we celebrate today!!)..and then St. Francis of Assisi later this week(!!). I always anticipate and look forward to this week. It is so special to me.

This weekend we did so many mini spontaneous things. It was a weekend of sharing interests and showing interests in what the other likes to do. When you show interest in what the person likes to do...your basically saying..."hey your pretty cool and totally worth my time." I've only been married for 4 1/2 years and by means no expert on marriage...but I think its very important that couples continue to show support of what the other person likes to do. Luckily for me...that meant getting up this Saturday and attending a cross fit/health booth and seeing the opening of a new gym...and even putting on one of Mike's smaller cross fit shirts to show support. He was so proud..and I was glad to make him so happy. In return, it meant he got to walk in the hot heat at a huge flea market with me on Sunday and show some interest in some antique goods. I feel so blessed that I am married not only to a faithful and dedicated family man...but that he is also my best friend.

On another note... we took Sophia to the carnival for the 1st time yesterday night. She had her first cotton candy and was incredibly courageous to try a few rides out...needless to say it was a magical night for her. I am so proud of my little girl... i know she really pushed herself last night and tried out a few rides (she is my very cautious little gal).

 

 

  

  

...Oh..and we went swimming and had an In & Out burger...anytime those two are involved...you know its a good one.

Random recap {TGIF}

Happy TGIF! I always wake up and sigh with relief on Fridays! It means we have the weekend uninterrupted with our favorite guy around here..aka husband.

*This week has been a good yet challenging week... realizing that sleep deprivation and me don't work too well together. I have been mothering and wife-ing around here like a zombie. But...last night I went to bed at the beautiful sunset of 7:30 PM and woke up today around 6:45 AM..with only a few minor sleep interruptions. I guess..i was tired. This is a total tangent...but I was laying with Sophia in bed at 7:00 PM and we were looking out of her window... and saw the most beautiful sky with pink streaks of the sun setting. She said to me, "mom..look at the sky it has pink lines...who painted it? God?" This girl is too good...I love the way she thinks.

* Mid week beach night breaks and trying new mexican food places are awesome. I think I had the best chicken taco this week. I'm still dreaming of them. I was obsessed with their salsa too.

*I made cauliflower rice this week for the first time. Husband has been crazy into cross fit  for a few months now and is on this paleo diet challenge...which means we are semi- paleo diet eaters around here too. I'm all about eating healthy, so we made some positive adaptations and its been really great. I'll try to share my recipe next week. It was actually quite tasty!

*Dropped Sophia off at her first atrium class {catechises of the Good Shepherd} and she absolutely loved it! She walked out with the biggest smile/hug for me and the first two things out of her mouth was, "I had so much fun mom. I had so much fun." Its always the best feeling as a parent when your child walks out with those words and it just affirms that you made a right decision (i guess having her two best buddies in the class doesn't hurt either, right?) This school is located literally 2 minutes from my house in a magical garden home with lots of fruit/vegetable trees. I love how magical it is. I had no idea this existed until this point.

*Made two crafts this week. Both for two little 3 year old girls who also turned 3! One is pictured below of Sophia wearing the crown of felt flowers.

* Zaylee has been tasting avocado this week. She doesn't seem to care for it too much right now.  She has been a night owl and early bird this week... i love teething. And... our once of week pooper has now changed to once a day pooper this week. We are totally stumped by this... I can't ever imagine going back to having a baby (in the future) one day pooping like a normal baby after having the luxury of changing poop only once a week. Sorry that was a lot of poop in one mini paragraph. Needless to say, she still smiles about a million times a day...and when she does..we all sort of turn into mush around here.

Reflection: Do small things with great LOVE.

My instagram pics from the week:

Hope you all have an awesome weekend! 

blue polka dots + heavenly talks {sunday best}

Yesterday, I had a special moment with my curious, brilliant, and very imaginative 3 year old. She found my special blue beaded cross that a very close friend gave to me when I miscarried my baby and asked me to tell her more about it. I explained to her that the cross was a special reminder to me of our little baby in Heaven. She then asked me what heaven was and asked if she can go there. It was so special and surreal to have this conversation with my little girl...and a great reminder she needs to know more of this great place called Heaven..so that she may desire sainthood daily. 

a time away in reflection

I have been MIA again from the blog...mostly due to the fact that I blinked and realized that my babies were growing up too quickly. I needed these past few weeks to get away from social media for a bit and re-focus on the good ol' reality of life. With a lot of traveling been done this summer and a surmount amount of household chores to be finished..but most importantly two beautiful baby girls and one wonderful husband later...i realized I need to spend more time living in the moment. 

I took a deep breath, prioritized, checked off a lot of unnecessary tasks in my life, stayed on task on things that needed to be done, unplugged my phone, and most especially prayed..and it did a lot of good to my soul. I was listening to a song the other day and I caught myself singing a long, "there is always sunshine after the rain.." and it made me realize how true that was. There is always consolation to the soul after a drought of desolation. And we have to remember when we are in the bouts of desolation that consolation will come... because God is good, right? Yes, he is so good...so merciful..and so faithful.

But in the midst of my chaos, I still took a lot of pictures :) So...here are a few of my growing babies. If you follow me already on Instagram, you probably have already seen these. 

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! 

We have been away on vacation to the east coast for the past couple weeks...and just got back this week. We are semi-jetlagged and very happy to be back home in sunny dry heat California. 

I love this picture I took of Sophia in Ocean City, Maryland a few weeks ago...it reminds me that summer was great..but it is coming to an end soon. I am so ready and excited for the fall! 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We will be busy cleaning, getting back to 'normal' and spending some fun time with friends!