fall...in a forest...in murrieta

Can you believe these photos were taken just minutes from our house?  There's a little park/greenbelt right around the corner from Los Alamos and Hancock in Murrieta.  Who would have thought there would be such woodsy scenery so close to home?  It was a really fun setting for a photo session with Lyla and Cody.  Thanks to Ashley from LoveLockandCo for once again capturing some amazing photos.  These are just a few of my favorites.

brrrrr...it's 56 degrees

I know,  I know.  56 degrees outside is not that cold.  But when you've had a record long summer with temps well over 100 degrees, this weather feels pretty chilly.  So we're bundling up around here.  The weather here has been gorgeous.  The clouds in the sky have been very puffy (I think they're called cumulus?) which makes for stunning morning skies and breathtaking sunsets.  We've also had a few rainbows due to some scattered showers.  It's really been quite magical.  Not to mention that it's cool enough to enjoy my most recently discovered favorite: the pumpkin spice chai tea latte!  Thank you, Jesus, for giving me a substitute for the pumpkin spice lattes that I love so dearly.  I'm trying to stay away from caffeine as much as possible in these early weeks of pregnancy, so I was delighted to find out that this drink existed.  If you haven't tried it, you should!  It's so good.

Now for today's fashion.  Cody is wearing a gap beanie, old navy shirt, zara jeans, and ugg boots. These boots were Lyla's last year and now they fit Cody!  Lyla wears a long sleeve shirt from target, vest from zara, jeans from gap, and boots from h&m. 

Loving this boot weather!

coming june 2013

We are very happy to announce that we are expecting our third child!  Baby #3 will be due sometime in the first week of June.  What a great month to have a baby.  The weather will be beautiful as the oppressive heat of Summer will not be upon us quite yet.  I will bear the burden of a large belly in the lovely season of Spring.  I really enjoy this idea.  I also like to refer to this baby as our little "june-bug".  We have been getting the inevitable questions with this pregnancy as we have with the others.  I will just go ahead and answer them here for your convenience.

Question #1: Are you excited?  Yes, we definitely are!  This was a 'planned' pregnancy.  We knew we wanted a third child and that we wanted the age gap to be roughly the same as the gap between Lyla and Cody. 

Question #2: Do you want a boy or girl...or twins???  We will be delighted with either outcome.  While I am not necessarily praying for twins, I do find myself day-dreaming about a baby nursery with two cribs and two sweetly sleeping newborn babies.  Then, I wake up from my delusions and realize how much harder it is to have two at once.  Yikes!  Another daughter would be lovely.  Another son would be fantastic.  It's a good thing that we don't have to decide because I think it would be a very difficult decision.  Lyla, on the other hand, knows what gender she would choose.  She wants a sister more than anything in the world.

Question #3: How do you feel?  I feel pretty good for being in my first trimester.  I have had some bouts of nausea, but nothing bad enough to really complain about.  I have been feeling extra tired and I do miss those days back in my pregnancy with Lyla when I could take naps almost anytime I wanted to.  Things are much different now. 

Question #4: Are Lyla and Cody excited?  Lyla is ecstatic.  She has been praying for a baby sister for months now.  She can't wait to be the big (bossy) sister to another kid.  Cody doesn't understand what's going on.  I think he will catch on a little bit more as my belly starts to grow and we explain it a bit more to him.

This being our third time announcing a pregnancy, we decided to get a little creative.  Here's what we did.  We got Lyla and Cody t-shirts that said, "BIG SIS Lyla" and "BIG BRO Cody".  Both sets of our parents and trav's brother and sister were supposed to come to our house on Monday night for our weekly bible study.  The plan was to just let everyone walk into our house and figure out the big news from the shirts.  The way it actually panned out was hilarious.  Kandice understood the moment she saw Cody's shirt.  She said, "Oh, is there something I don't know?"  The other family members did not catch on so quickly.  Our parents were there for over half an hour and no one had noticed anything.  Finally, Trav's mom came up to me and asked, "So, who is Cody a big brother to?"  I gave her a shrug of my shoulders and a smile and she knew right away.  Hugs and tears.  My mother (on the other side of the room) still hadn't caught on.  I decided enough was enough.  I picked Cody up and marched over to her.  Here was the conversation that ensued:

me: Did you see Cody's shirt?

mom: Yes, it's very cute.

me: What does it say?

mom: Big bro Cody. 

me: What does that mean? 

mom: I don't know. (confused expression)

me: If Cody is a BIG bro, that means there must be a little one...somewhere.... 

She finally got the picture.  Hugs and tears.  Then the news was out to everyone.  It was great fun watching everyone's reactions.

a mad hatter tea party for lyla

We had a whimsical "Lyla in Wonderland" theme for Lyla's 4th birthday.  Here's the invitation that I sent out to about 18 of Lyla's closest girlfriends (16 were able to come).  I ordered these invites from partystarking on etsy.

Travis as the mad hatter, lyla as alice, and me as the queen of hearts.  It was not a costume party, but we decided to dress up as the hosts.  Lyla's dress and my apron both came from lover dovers clothing on etsy.  They are super cute and really amazing quality.  We will totally reuse them for Halloween costumes.  Trav's hat was from village hat shop in san diego.

The table.  This was the central highlight of the mad hatter tea party.  Every little girl had a place setting with her own tea cup and top hat.  The center of the table featured various teapots, pocket watches, and a centerpiece of red roses. 

The show-stopper was definitely the string of colorful paper lanterns that I bought from the paper lantern store. 

The raspberry tablecloth and purple chairs were rented from raphaels in san diego.

Travis painted a welcome sign on posterboard to let everyone know that "We're all MAD here!"  It was accompanied by the white rabbit of course.

We had painted signs to help guests know which way to go.

A small table also greeted guests that resembled the table Alice finds when she tumbles down the rabbit hole.  Sugar cookies featuring sayings like, "eat me", "take one", and "try me" adorned the food table too. 

Cake pops were baked by my dear friend, Melissa.  I added the wilton cake pop flowers that I purchased from Jo-Anns.  I stuck them in a round floral foamcore that I wrapped with green yarn so that it would look like a hedge in the royal garden.

My wonderful mom was in charge of the food table.  We had a variety of tea sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, fruit skewers, and vegetable trays.

3 different flavors of IZZE sparkling sodas were available with "drink me" tags that I printed on cream colored paper.  We put them in this cool vintage ice chest that belonged to Trav's grandmother.

Lyla greeting grandma cheryl and aunt kandice and showing them the way to the party.

I try to keep party games pretty simple.  Especially for a 4-year-olds party.  I figured it would be fun to have a simple craft the kids could do.  We had a hat decorting table where the girls could decorate their top hats with feathers, buttons, and ric rac.

The girls chose which hat dressings they wanted and travis and I hot glued them on to the top hats for them.  I ordered the felt hats from rebel daisy designs on etsy.

The hats turned out super cute!

All 17 girls sitting around the table enjoying their tea.  I used this recipe to make a decaffeinated hibiscus cranberry tea for them.  It got mixed reviews.  Some of the girls loved it and some said it was not so great.  I love how kids will give you their honest opinion.

Lyla's custom ice cream cake creation was from our nearby coldstone creamers.  It was a red velvet cake with layers of cotton candy ice cream.  The icing was chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.  The message on the top said, "Lyla in Wonderland".  In hindsight, I would have ordered a larger cake so that the adults could have eaten it too.  Whoops!  Lesson learned.

My mom passing out cake to all the little girlies.

The grand finale included the flamingo pinata.  I searched everywhere for a pinata that would go with our theme and finally found the pink flamingo online at hobby lobby.

I love watching the little kids trying to hit the pinata.  Their approaches range from ultra timid to freakishly aggressive.  Some are super coordinated and some of their swings are mostly aimed at the crowd.  Yikes!  Pinatas are always a festive (and slightly dangerous) way to end a kids party.

The mad tea party was such a fun concept to let my creativity run wild with.  I only wish that I had more time and money to put into it!  The party planning started about 5 months ago.  It began with a lot of google image searching and browsing through etsy shops.  I had all these grand plans of turning our backyard into the queen of hearts royal court complete with croquet and oversized decks of cards.  But, I had to scale way back when the spending started getting out of control.  My party "budget" was a joke.  I still believe that the party was a hit.  All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I know Lyla had the time of her life.  She was just glowing all day.  My sweet little Lyla is now a big 4 year old.  I can't believe how this past 4 years has flown by.  Now that the whirlwind of party planning is over, my first thought is...what should we do for her 5th birthday? 

All photos done by Kata Christian of mukibaba.

cody on the piano

"Jesus loves me" performed on piano by Cody Mitchell - 21 months old

a.k.a. the cutest version of "Jesus loves me" you will ever hear.