Flourish + Fun

We are starting to feel {somewhat} settled, thanks to our amazing family members! They did everything from helping watch Emma to unloading boxes, arranging furniture, and brought us home cooked meals. We have really enjoyed settling into our neighborhood and meeting our new neighbors too. We had one neighbor bring us a plate of cookies, and last night had some of our other sweet neighbors invite us over for dinner for Chicken Pot Pies, do they know the way to our hearts or what ! It was soooo good! But in between our family & friends helping, Kyle {and amazing Uncle Chris) has been slaving away working on the house and getting us unpacked {he has this week off work}. I have continued working full time throughout the move. The first two days I didn't work from home, I had to go into his cousins office to work and take a break from the overwhelming atmosphere of boxes and scarce internet. But today I started to work from home, now that my desk is set up properly, and I even had...

This past weekend we moved from Santa Monica to the Central Coast. But {believe it or not} in between packing up our place, getting the U-Haul, working, and unpacking boxes I headed to San Diego and celebrated a bridal shower for one of my dear friends Barbara. She is getting married this Summer and I couldn't be more thrilled for her. Her bridal shower was cheerful, bright, perfectly coordinated, and gave me the sugary high that I needed to make it through the weekend!    {all incredible details by our hostess with the mostess Venus, pictured above in yellow}

Do we have to get out of bed today?

It's here, the end of our stay in Santa Monica. This weekend we pack up the U-Haul and head up to the Central Coast. Today we are playing with Noni & Auntie Lynn, cruising around our gorgeous beach side community, and soaking up the sun {while packing a ton of boxes in between}. Heading home, Em with snuggle puppy.

Before our big move we wanted to soak in as much fun as possible in Santa Monica. As one of our last hoorahs our besties took us out to an AMAZING dinner at Tar & Roses . It was seriously one of the top 5 meals we've ever had {and we have been to a lot of places, remember hubby is a major foodie and does design for high end restaurants} so believe me when I tell you it was awesome, and we will be back to visit this place. The menu selections were insane, so many mouth watering choices especially the Bruschetta Charcuterie and cheese mix and match blackboard plate! We added the popped corn, bacon, brown sugar, and chilli on the side, ordered a bottle of wine, and then started on our main courses. We had duck breast, lamb belly, and hanger steak, along with roasted beet, feta, tarragon, and horseradish... to just name a few items. We finished the meal off with Portland's best espresso, chocolate yogurt mousse, strawberry shortcake and honeycomb ice cream. I am craving it ag...

My sweet parents are just slightly {understatement} into Jerry Seinfeld. When he had his TV show on air, they watched every episode and since have become even more into the reruns, they know every single episode. But if you have ever seen him live he takes it to a different level of funniness, and you understand what I'm saying when I say he is HILARIOUS.  This weekend we headed to Hollywood to the Pantages Theater to see Seinfeld perform live. The theater is amazing to say the least, it is ornate and pristine and I could sit there for hours just looking at the ceiling. But once the lights dimmed and Seinfeld took the stage, I could barely see {and didn't care} because my eyes were watering from laughter and my face was so scrunched up from giggling it didn't matter where we were. 

I must remember this article for when Em starts to grow up. It literally brought me to tears reading it, thinking of how I will probably be treated by her at some point and realizing that I myself have treated my parents like this. Now that I am a parent, I feel awful for the way I treated my parents at different stages in my adolescence (and shoot probably still do one-offs). How pompous, how selfish, and how vain I must have been at times, slamming a car door, ignoring them too busy with my friends, or acting out at times for no other reason than because I was in a teenager-funk. Mom and Dad, sorry for being lame, as you know it comes with growing up, their is really no other way to put it. But you'll have to offer up some advice for me when Em gets to that stage of her life. I already remember Mom, you saying to me that teenagers have to act out and try to distance themselves from the nest, it's their way and God's way of learning their independence. But I still ...

Today is a day that brings with it very mixed emotions. It's Elsie's last day with us {so sad}. She has been such a wonderful friend, babysitter and teacher to Em. She stepped in to take on full-time when another babysitter dropped out on us, last minute. She never called in sick. She was always available to come early and stay a little late, within reason of course. But most of all she was consistently sweet, kind, gentle, fun, playful, and lovely to our sweet little Emma. She exudes grace and lives out her sincere Faith. Emma shrieks and claps when she shows up. She trusts and loves Elsie. Not an evening goes by that little Em doesn't include Elsie in her bedtime prayers and nigh-night wishes. We wish we could keep her as our permanent babysitter, watching little Em forever. But she is off to get married {yay! this is where the happy emotion comes in} and we're certain moving on to bigger and better things. We wish her the best in her new role as a wife and we wil...

Ah, beautiful blossoms springing up in LA this week! I am going to miss this place...

Music! Bunnies! Beautiful Satuday mornings! Picking oranges at Nana & Papa's...   More Music!   Cousin Lunches!   Meanwhile Daddy & Uncle Chris were painting our new house, remodeling in progress! More, and more music!       Cass was on a roll...  Cousin playtime...  And tired after a whirlwind week, nigh-night!

We had our final horrah with our friends in Santa Monica this past weekend weekend. Our best friends The Fendy's threw us a going away bash at West 4th & Jane. We had a blast. Outtakes are below.

We've been going a-million-miles-a-minute lately.... but in between the errands, work schedules, meetings, renovations, and trips, here are a few moments captured via my iPhone to show some normalcy. Em loves asking for the "mirror, mirror" and then swaggering over to check herself out, always with a smile. Singing itsy-bitsy-spider... it's her favorite... she says "more spider, more spider" ..."okay" Getting crafty and making a fun mess {with Elsie}! {sans Em} After a failed attempt to celebrate our wedding anniversary on our actual anniversary {6 years married, 10+ years together} hubby executed a re-do, and set up a surprise date night at Milo & Olive & Yummy cupcakes . Car trips... whether running errands, heading to the central coast, or driving back and forth to our other second new home {Home Depot} we have been in the car a lot. Acting a little bit shy, somewhat coy, and starting to be slightly scared by a few thi...