in december, i hosted a holiday home party for 31 bits. we didn’t get many pictures the first time around, except on the cell phone, so we weren’t about to let another party slip by undocumented. i found out about the business from an article a friend wrote about buying gifts that give back. when browsing their website, i noticed you could sign up to host a party. i’m hooked now of course.
i love to throw a party, that is for sure. however, in hindsight, i think i might have scaled it back a bit since my turn out was so low. but, you can’t look at it that way, i guess. i like to think of it as a nice party a few friends could come to. everyone took home something, which was the point, and i have been running all over town filling orders! it is like i am the local 31 bits dealer. you need a fix? i got it for you.
the party was low-key in a sense, since i basically moved all my indoor furniture outside, and ripped off the decorations from hazel’s first birthday party. {reduce, reuse, recycle!}
so here are the details of the party:
(thanks to my husband for the photography)
Most of the details are found on my pinterest page, garden party.
to be honest, i haven’t even thought about blogging. i read blogs everyday, but the self discipline has been lacking in my own backyard. a lot to keep me busy, and a lot to write about, but maybe my season has come to an end? we’ll see. but for now…
this is what i have been up to.
*hazel is now 21 months old.
and she is amazing.
she is learning, growing, and all those other things parents brag about. she is a remarkable little girl, but will always be our little baby.
(even though we refuse to talk to her in that voice.)
*i was really excited to hear about justin timberlake’s new record and tour.
(of course we are going.)
*this spurred us to book several other concerts this summer. john mayer is playing at the sleep train amphitheatre, then jason mraz in san francisco this september. the summer of the j’s.
*a friend turned me on to simple green smoothies. they have a month challenge in april to make/drink one a day. we’ve done well with it. i was so happy to find something to incorporate more greens and unusual foods into our diet. we missed the first week because we were out-of-town, but we picked right up with week 2. we have explored new food like chia seeds, coconut water and milk, rice milk, and added weird combinations like celery, halves of lemons, cilantro, and basil. some are better than others. we are finding it is a great way to get our green veggies each day.
*i heard about this interesting way to “weight loss” through a free online training called “live more. weigh less”. the videos are informative, and a bit long. however, i thought she spoke some truths in them. if you are hard-core, you can sign up for her 8 week, pretty expensive program.
*i have not run in 144 days.
*i recently hosted a 31 bits jewelry party. my hope is to return soon with a look at the party details.
thank you so much for sticking around this long, i hope to be back for more soon.
(and here i am, 6 months later to (finish) tell(ing) about it.)
i can hardly believe it. even several months have passed, and i am still in shock.
however, being one is something to celebrate. you survived a year with your rookie parents.
so, that is a pretty big deal.
i am not one to do something and not call it what it is. we knew we wanted to celebrate hazel and her year of life, but not say, “ooooohhhhh…it’s all for the baby”. i know the argument, “the baby is one, she won’t remember anything”. and that is true. she probably won’t. but we will, and we wanted to make it special with our friends and family.
and that is what (we think) we did.
hazel, you bring us so much joy that our hearts could burst.
this is a picture of the invitation. we used a girl named Katie-did-Designs, and we were really happy with the result. We found her through etsy.
i bought her adorable romper off of etsy as well. she looks so cute in them, that i couldn’t resist. the tiny toms cordones were a gift from some friends.
i can’t say i am super thrilled about the was the entrance to the park turned out. it was basically slapped together at the last-minute. we were not quite ready when people began to arrive. (image that!) so i think this is an area that could have used more work. the pictures are a collage of monthly pictures of hazel leading to 12 months. we used larger pictures on doilies and stakes to decorate around the area. we ended up giving a collage to all the grandparents. i printed them at walgreens, and they were super-duper cheap.
the frame with the craft h in it, hangs in hazel’s room. i literally grabbed it on the way out the door to see if we could use it somewhere.
her high chair is from ikea, and the little (mad hatter) hat is from disneyland.
you can view my pinterest board, here : the little ONE. most ideas are pinned there, with a few tweaks.
**side note…i have to mention that there was no way i could have done this alone. there are too many people to mention who helped, but i hope they know how amazing i think they are. from last-minute set up, blowing up balloons, wrapping sandwiches, watching hazel…the list goes on and on. and to those amazing people, we say thank you, and we couldn’t have done it without you.
oh man. is anyone still out there? i can’t believe i have let 2 months slip away and not written a single word.
poor baby hazey.
we did, in fact, pass the twelve month mark. she is thriving. busy. energetic. exploring. sassy.
must get that from dad.
we took hazel to the zoo for her birthday. she had such a great time. we were very impressed with all the different varieties of animals at our itty, bitty, local zoo. it was also wells fargo day or something, and we got a bunch of cool extras. like free popcorn and snow cones. cha ching!
of course we couldn’t let her birthday pass without a little sweets. and not just any sweets. freeport bakery sweets.
but, it looks like she hated it.
my mom and sister came into town for hazel’s birthday, and spent most of our time together chasing down the local food trucks.
or visiting san francisco.
no tub?
no problem.
in the sweltering heat of Sacramento, we made time for a little frozen yogurt.
man, it’s a drag that she doesn’t like to try new things.
teehee.
what month day recap would be complete without a hazel-made video?
hazel has learned a lot of new things, most being things which make a lot of noise.
whew. i made it through 12 months of posts. i am no savvy or consistent blogger, that is for sure…but i know i will be glad to have these memories to ponder later. or, they may become a really good form of blackmail.
my hope is to be back this week with some beautiful pictures of hazel’s birthday. taken, of course, by h and co photography.
how is it the end of august already?! i had grand plans to update my blog (or at least keep it current) and whoosh…there it went!
so here i am, trying to back track everything we did for months eleven and twelve. let’s see if i remember it all.
hazel started walking way back in the middle of her 10 month. well, we no longer have a walker.
we have a runner.
i used to remember what that was like. (running, that is.)
she doesn’t have the time for crawling. that’s for babies.
this month she has mastered the “wabble-catch” and has become quite fast on her little toes.
“buuu” (books) is one of her favorite things. she can sit for big sections at a time just looking at her “buuu”.
even in public places, with our favorite thursday friend, ms. song.
in celebration of our birthdays (but mostly mine) we made the trek to southern california. We stayed at grandpa’s house for the weekend, and Hazel loved spending time with her uncle zach.
i think he liked having her around too.
we even had the opportunity to take hazel to see great grandpa kohler. she tried to swipe a few of his 7 dwarfs, but i think we left with them all accounted for.
after our desert trip, we went down to orange county to tour some of our favorite local stops. for my our birthday, we celebrated at sprinkles cupcakes and disneyland, of course. hazel had the opportunity to meet mickey and minnie mouse!
disneyland was so much fun this time around. she was much more aware and really seemed to enjoy herself.
since fourth of july was sandwiched between our stops, we spent the day at a friend’s amazing pool. good thing hazel brought some reading materials. it was an amazing trip.
on our way home, we made a quick stop at the food trucks. i think it was the summer of food trucks.
it’s like our new favorite thing.
“hi! hi! hi!hi! hi! hi! hi! hi! hi!” is her favorite word. even to captain eo.
hazel has also become quite the snacker. i have NO IDEA where she gets that from.
hazel was able to spend some time with cousin, e. which is always so much fun!
ethan is so sweet and gentle, and then there is our adorable tornado.
as we were planning for her upcoming party, we made several stops at the park for “research”.
we also had a lot of prep work to do at home for the big day.
hazel has become obsessed with my phone. (bad parenting, i’m sure.) however, she is fully capable of turning it on, swiping her little finger to the page she wants, and then, obviously, recording her own video.
it’s like a (less severe) beautiful mind, i swear.
Today we were driving down the road when we saw this beauty:
The sign said free, and I thought, “hey! We can afford that”! We immediately stopped the car, and my mom and I threw it in the back. Of course our car was full, so my mom and sister held on to my treasure as I drove at a snail’s pace, with the tailgate open, all the way back home.
It turns out that the table is pretty awesome. It has 2 drawers, 4 stable legs with wheels, and a terrible paint job. Since jasen has become such the expert sander, we know that will be an easy fix.
But the question is this- what color do I paint it?
Yellow?
Teal?
Chalkboard the top?
Good ‘ol white?
welp…i am way behind. no surprises there. you would think that being on “summer vacation” i would have all this spare time.
i beg to differ.
i have no time.
ok, enough boo-hooing and on to the cute stuff.
10 months has been an active time for us.
she has developed some pretty sweet dance moves:
she even grooves in the high chair.
about 10.5 months she quit “cruising” and started with the real steps.
she is learning all kinds of fun things to do with her mouth. she has a lot to say these days.
she loves to look and talk to herself in the front facing camera.
her most impressive trick (taught by daddy) is the light trick.
hazel has also become a master sticky fingers when it comes to the iphone. i found this bit of evidence when scrolling through my phone.
we have a little goat on our hands. she loves to eat paper. i am hoping we shouldn’t be concerned. all paper needs to be well hidden from our little paper snacker.
we play a “where’s hazel” game at home as we “look” for her as she comes up with different places to hide. she is always up to some sort of shenanigans.
she has almost mastered the sippy cup. however, she still finds it quite entertaining to spit out her water like a fountain.
we still have an anti-crib sleeper. we’ve tried it all. but she screams and screams every time we put her in there. so we have worked out a “wedge” system where she lays in the middle of our bed, and we “wedge” pillows around her. she’ll even sleep in the guest bed this way. anywhere but her crib. it’s a mystery. however, we make it work. and that’s all you can ask for i guess.
in 10 months we have seen so much. hazel is an amazing baby and we are so blessed to have a growing, healthy child.
she is crazy, but she gets that from her dad. so, you can’t fully blame her.
we have a girl on the move. maybe that’s the theme of this month. movement.
she shall not be contained.
she is pulling herself up with no issues, and can almost stand on her own. she pushes around her little “car” and sometimes really gets some speed. walking seems sooo close.
because she is so mobile, picture-taking is all that more challenging.
take for instance, exhibit a:
or exhibit b:
yes, her animal print pants are out of control. she’s hazel and she knows it.
anyone?
hazel is also becoming more “talkative”. unfortunately, these are not the words i dreamed of her saying first.
you would think we would say, “no-no-no-no” all day long. maybe we do? some have told me it’s just a sound she makes. she doesn’t know the difference.
i beg to differ.
she is already too smart for her own good.
she is also saying hi to everything. hi and a wave.
to everything.
she seems to always stop once we pull out the camera, but i caught her on our walk one day. she also is saying what sounds like. “doppy doppy doppy do”. it’s so funny. i was not successful in capturing it. so, you’ll have to just trust me on that one.
we are still trying new foods. she is a really good eater.
she had “fun” with raspberries:
and we even tried a “teething” biscuit.
i wish it were a magical teething biscuit where it made teeth appear.
no luck with that.
we tried a “smoothie” made of some fruits i found in the refrigerator. she is getting so good at drinking with a straw. however, she often forgets to swallow and it overflows in her mouth. now, we wait a second and pull away.
right before easter, i was shopping at this cute baby store and saw this cup with a straw. i thought about buying it for her easter basket. but for some reason i didn’t. so, when i went back a few weeks ago, i found out they were sold out and backordered because of their appearance on a tv show called “shark tank”.
man, who knew i was a future trendsetter? crisis was averted when i found one on ebay, brand new in packaging, for retail price.
(it’s suuuuuuuuper cute, by the way.)
when we aren’t drinking out of straws, we are finding that even tables taste delicious.
there are still a few sleeping “challenges”. she still hates her crib.
i am hoping that being home this summer will help her find some sort of normal rhythms. having different sitters worked out so great this year, but i think the same “routine” with the same person may help the process of crib sleeping.
or i could be totally fooling myself.
there was some success with her sleeping in her go crib. well at least for a few hours. then, i had to climb down and sleep with her since there wasn’t enough room for us on the hotel bed.
we spent the weekend in santa rosa where jasen participated in a 100 mile bike ride through wine country.
i know. he’s crazy amazing.
we meet him for lunch at the park. he doesn’t even look tired.
jasen has spent thursdays (and recently mondays) with hazel while i was away at school. i took a few pictures (from his phone) of them having fun together on those days.
lastly, we had an amazing mother’s day. i say we because we celebrated as a family.
i woke up with a little something on my pillow.
it was perfect. it was something i never knew i always wanted.
lastly, we went to my favorite place in sacramento, ginger elizabeth’s chocolates. jasen had preordered some cupcakes for us to pick up, and of course we couldn’t leave without a macaron (or 5).
i am learning to never take being a mom for granted. i am so blessed to have an amazing family. i know this is not the case for everyone. my heart breaks for the broken relationships and hardships that affect those on mother’s day. i send a special prayer to those who mourn the loss of broken bonds between families or bonds of familes who never had a chance to be. however, i do take time to thank god for giving me this opportunity to be a mother. i pray every day that i am a good one.
99.4% of my pictures are taken with my iphone and slapped with a filter from instagram. i don’t claim to be a photographer or know how to take pictures.
one day i read about an on-line photo editing site called picmonkey.com. it is this super great site where you can edit your photos without having to make an account. i haven’t really had a chance to play with it, but in a few spare moments i came up with these:
and fun with the “stamps” or whatever they are called:
it has been like 3 weeks since we ran our half marathon.
i survived! yahoo!
were you concerned? did you think i feel of the levee? well, i am alive and well and have decided to give up running. more on that later.
the race snuck up on us very quickly. jasen and i became very “laid back” about the whole thing. training? nah.
we had plans to trade-off pushing the stroller throughout the race. then one day, jasen suggested we get a babysitter.
man, is he smart or what?
the night before, we went to our traditional dinner at hot italian. we sat outside and enjoyed our favorite pizza. and probably asked ourselves several times, “why are we doing this again”?
the morning of, hazel’s babysitter came bright and early and we made our way to the park. since parking is such a pain, we walked the 2 miles to the start. a pre-race warm up, if you will. we made a decision that we were going to just enjoy the race. take what comes. stop at the drink stations, and walk whenever we need to. having that pressure off our backs was amazing. knowing that we can finish whenever we want to, no matter what the time it is, was such a great feeling.
we lined up in the back and when the horn sounded we felt excited. before we knew it we had run 5 miles. just like that! i had some aches in my toes and was having a hard time trying to figure out what was wrong. later, we discovered my brand new shoes are too small. (thanks pregnancy!) when we reached half way, i remembered an “exercise” a friend told me about when she ran a marathon. before the race, she chooses 26 people to think about one for each mile. on mile 6, i choose my sister-in-law’s mom who is struggling with some health issues. it is amazing how your mind is lifted to somewhere else. it’s harder than you think it would be, but i am excited to try it again.
mile 6-9 were where i hit my stride. jasen and i made a deal that we didn’t have to wait for each other if the other was feeling strong. i realized if i ran really fast, i would get to the water stations quicker and then i could have a break. once i hit mile 10, the farthest in my training i hit a little wall. it was warmer than i would have liked, so i walked. and walked. and walked some more. i ended up finishing in the 2:27 time frame. definitely my slowest time. but, i wasn’t miserable. after a little rest, we walked the 2 miles back home, for a grand total of 17 miles.
this picture was towards the end of my training. i had a long day at work, and really didn’t feel like going for a run. especially pushing a stroller.
yes, especially that.
jasen said he would stay with Hazel and that i should go. and i am so glad i listened. i ran by this beautiful tree and couldn’t stop thinking about it. i ended up running back 0.25 mile and took a picture of it. i remember as i headed home, all of the wonderful moments i have had in running. and there were a lot. somehow, during this season of my life i have seemed to have forgotten. running has become more of a “have to” then a “want to”. who knows if i will ever be back to where i was. but, when i do run…i want to love it.
tomorrow a new point of view... 