When husbands away!

Husband had to go on a work trip last week which is something I dread every time it happens. Thankfully this was a short 3.5 day trip as opposed to his 12 day trips! I tear up just thinking about the 12 days trips. Husband being gone means several times a year I revert back to my childish ways like becoming afraid of the little noises in my house! Now, mind you, before I got married I lived alone and loved it. Phil is just so strong and manly that I never worry about someone breaking into our house until he's gone. Why is it that when your husband goes away there are more spiders to kill, gun shots heard (aka: fireworks, but hello, they do sound like gun shots!) and kid meltdowns than normal!?!

As much as I hate it when Phil is gone I know someone has to work to put coffee on the table, I mean food. Now usually I spend the time either at my house or I load up the car and head to my parents. This time I changed it up. My bestie Katie just happened to be home alone with her two kiddos this weekend too so I loaded up the car and had a sleep over at her casa. Our kids are almost the same ages so they played beautifully with each other and Katie and I spent the day catching up and sipping coffee. You know you can only get a sip in at a time when you have an almost 2 year old and a 6 week old! Memories were definitely made with this crazy bunch.

 

 

 

Playdates

If anyone has ever been a stay-at-home parent you know how necessary it is to have a grown up conversation at some point during the day. Not that I don’t fully enjoy talking to Owen all day, and hearing him say “da-da” back. Trust me, hearing my little handsome boy baby-babble melts my heart every time. Thankfully, I have a really, REALLY good friend, Katie, who has a baby just about Owen’s age. Fiona might be the prettiest little girl baby on the planet too. We get together as often as we can and just sip coffee, talk, and adore our littles playing with each other. This girl keeps me sane.

Now that our littles are starting to interact a bit more I’m more than entertained. Owen usually likes to grab at Fiona’s face, hands, or whatever he can reach and talk loudly at her. Fiona likes to quickly grab whatever toy might be between them and just grin at Owen. They always smile at each other and then are quickly distracted by whatever is happening around them. Which being easily distracted is a little bit like Katie and I. Sleep deprivation has that affect on mamas. Am I right?!

Here is a few different playdates with Fiona over the past few months.

 

 

 

Ringing in the New Year

 

 

As you can see, my New Years Eve was ridiculously fun! Husband and I spent the evening with several of our favorite people. We played games, BBQ’d some delicious kabobs, laughed so hard our stomachs hurt, and of course took WAY too many photobooth pictures! Okay, okay... You're right... You can never have too many photobooth pictures.  I agree! How did you spend your New Years Eve?

Gracefest AV

This past weekend I had a booth at Gracefest for my new business Stylefox! It was so much fun. I asked my bestie Katie Sottile to help me in the booth all day. She was AMAZING! She would jump at the opportunity to help customers in the booth, and since she is tall I had plenty of things for her to tie to the top of the booth for me. The booth was in a prime location too. We had a direct view of the main stage so we were able to see Mercy Me, Sarah Kelly, and The Afters. I can't wait to have a booth at Gracefest 2013!

BFF's

Do you ever have those days where you just need to spill what’s been happening in your life to a girlfriend? I hope everyone has at least one good girlfriend that can be that safe listening ear. I have Katie. Our best hangouts are when we stroll over to Starbucks and catch each other up on the good, the bad and the stuff that needs advice. We just had a catch-up session like this where we laughed (mostly at each other), drank too much coffee (is this possible?), and sympathized with each other because both our husbands were out of town on business. Oh how we love our hardworking husbands! Date days with Katie don’t happen as often as I’d like, but when they do I’m oh so thankful!

Cruising tips

Next week I’ll be MIA on my blog. The reason for that is I’ll be on a cruise! Husband and I, along with 5 of our dearest friends will be cruising to Catalina, and Ensenada, Mexico for 5 whole days! Pretty much all week I’ve been day-dreaming about this trip. When I say day-dreaming I’m including work meetings that I should be paying attention in. “Laura, can you fill us in on the advertisement’s for next month?..... Ummm Laura?....Are you okay?” Me, “Oh yes, the weather is going to be beautiful!... I mean…..” Caught!

Since I can’t think of anything else, I’ve decided to give you a few cruising tips. This will be my 4^th cruise so obviously I’m no expert, but hey I’ll give it a shot!

1. Check the weather at all your stops before planning your outfits. Usually cruises have more than one stop, so one place could be sunny and the next could be raining. For me if it is going to be sunny at one place and pouring at the next, I just pack my whole wardrobe.

2.Check-in online and fill out your Cruise Charge Account. Unless you want to carry cash and your credit cards with you everywhere you go on the ship, fill out the charge account. If you plan to have a soda, beer, or some other non-water drink the charge account is handy. Also, if you want to shop on the ship, Charge it!

3. Pack with rolling luggage. When you embark and disembark you need to wait in several lines. Baggage check line, passport check station, check-in line, etc. It kinda feels like you are at Disneyland but there is no cheery music being played and no one passing out churros.

4. Make 2 copies of your passports before leaving. Keep one copy with you when you leave the ship. It’s better to leave your actual passport in the safe in your rooms. Then leave the second copy at home, in case your passport gets stolen and you lose your other copy.

5. Tag your bags. Make sure each of your bags has your name, address, phone number, and cabin # on it. You can print your luggage tags online after you check-in. It’s worth it! You didn’t just spend 4 hours picking out our outfits for a 5 day cruise, to have someone 3 sizes larger than you try on all your clothes before reporting the luggage to the crew members. 

Have you been on a cruise? What are your tips???

Celebrations

This weekend was packed full of birthday celebrations. One of my best friend’s babies turned 1year old! We celebrated the day with them and watched little Blake utterly enjoy eating his birthday cake. Don’t you wish that you could eat cake like a 1 year old sometimes? Shoving handfuls of frosting in your mouth, smearing it all over your face and everyone around cheers you on because you are too dang cute! Who are we kidding, I still get frosting all over my face, in my hair, and on whatever outfit I tried to look cute in. Husband cheers me on when I miraculously don’t get food in my hair though. So there’s that.

My besty Aimee had a birthday this weekend too. We ate at Bucca De Peppos and oh-my-goodness there was an enormous amount of food! We ate some of that yummy food, caught up on missed memories, and laughed til our stomachs ached (which is a great abs workout, by the way). Then Phil and I took home everyone’s leftovers (it’s true) so we have enough food to last us a year. Here are a few pictures from our wonderful weekend.

Happy Monday

Hello everyone! Is it just me, or did sleeping in one extra hour make you feel completely rested? I think we should gain an hour every Monday. Yes? Who’s with me?! Well I had a wonderful weekend. Husband decided to be extra manly and went rock climbing on Saturday. That meant I was free to have a few of my friends over! We walked all around Long Beach, ate lunch, walked along the beach path, drank some coffee, and walked a little more. Apparently we love to walk. How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting?