a year and a half in review

Cole is 18 months today!

I meant to put something like this together when Cole turned 1, but I never did until now. I guess I'm making a bigger deal out of Cole "turning" 18 months that I did when he turned 1. But I feel like since he will be going to nursery this Sunday, it kind of is a bigger deal!! Anyway, can you believe that my baby is already a year and a half? When I look at this, and see how much he's grown and learned, it seems like such a long time ago that I had him. But at the same time it's gone by so fast. Crazy how that works.

Anyway, I'm excited that he's going to nursery on Sunday. He loves kids and he loves playing so I think it's impossible for him not to have a blast ;)

things to be happy about, pt. 2

cherries. {I heart summer}

switching it up with a side bun

that kiddie pool. lifesaver.

and gorgeous skies.

I thought I'd make this little list, because quite honestly, it's been a bummer of a week. And I needed to focus on what's actually making me happy this week instead of focusing on the bad. But just so you know, Steve accidentally wrecked our car last Monday and we found out today that it is totaled :( Our cute little Honda Civic is dead! So, we have to get a new one and cars are not cheap!! 

But, while I am focusing on the good, and not the bad, I thought I'd share this little story:

Monday evening, Cole and I were wrestling on the bed playing around waiting for Steve to get home. Lately, Cole loves to get on our bed or on the couch, sit up against the pillows and have a conversation with us, which he always starts with "ummm..." and then he babbles away telling us all of his important baby thoughts :) He also loves to pray now and it's just about the cutest thing ever to us. As we were playing around on the bed, he calmed down for a minute and folded his arms because he wanted to pray! I'm always up for saying prayers with him because it's the cutest thing ever, so we (I) said a little prayer that daddy would get home safely. Little did we know that Steve had gotten into an accident. Later on, after Steve was already 30 minutes late, he called me saying he gotten in a wreck. At first my heart sank. Luckily Steve was fine and no one got hurt at all (just our car) but I pray every morning that Steve will drive safely to and from school. The Dallas freeways are CRAZY and they scare me!! I didn't understand why this had happened when it was something I prayed for so diligently every morning. And even Cole and I had just barely said a prayer for him together. Why weren't our prayers answered?? And then it hit me: our prayers were answered. I never prayed that our car would live an endless life. I only prayed for Steve's safety. And he was kept safe. Not a scratch. And we're lucky enough to have such kind friends (Bekah and Jordan!!) who were willing to help us out, pick Steve up from the auto shop and bring him home. So really, for as bad as a car wreck could have been, we've actually been really blessed. And I am so grateful for that. I'm so grateful that our prayers were answered!

By the way, Happy Father's Day to my love, Steve. I'm so lucky to have him as the father of my child.

And Happy Father's Day to my own dad. I love you so much!

from my spot on the couch

This week was a fail when it came to making dinner! So sad; I think I only made dinner twice. Something about the heat makes me not want to make dinner anymore. And I think both Steve and I are over our "big salads before the main course" thing we've been doing since November. In fact, I think it's because I don't want to eat a salad (and the heat) that's making me not want to make dinner. Awful, I know.

Anyway, I was thinking about all of this as I was being lazy on the couch this evening. Cole was taking his post-church, evening nap (he slept til about 7 which always makes for an interesting bedtime later on)  and Steve was gone somewhere so I was left to take self portraits of myself and post them on instagram. And also some feet pictures, of course. I thought about how lazy I've felt and how all I want to do nowadays is just take pretty pictures. Everything else just stresses me out! 

Getting up early and taking Steve to school so I can have the car: stresses me out.

Waking up early at all: stresses me out.

Buckling Cole up into the car and taking him to the store and running errands: stresses me out.

Going to the pool just me and Cole: stresses me out.

I do all of these things anyway, but seriously how lazy can I be?! Well, here's to making this next week better than the last. If I can make dinner at least 3 times I'll call it a success ;)

ps, someone told me today that I looked very "one with nature" and "earthy." 

I think it's a sign that I need to just go ahead and become a certified yoga instructor.

Seriously though, I've been giving that a lot of thought lately!

A big green smoothie mess, daily.

When I say that I give Cole some of my green smoothie every morning, maybe you were picturing him sipping out of a sippy cup or something. Just in case that was the case, I thought I'd post these pictures. I don't have a sippy cup with holes big enough for the smoothie to come through, so at first I would spoon feed it to him, until he wanted to spoon feed himself. Which he did for a little while until he realized that it was much more fun to play with/in his smoothie than to drink it. So every morning when I ask him if he wants smoothie he gets all excited because he knows what this means. It means green smoothie dumped on himself, his tray, stuck in his ears, hair, eyelashes and ultimately means BATHTIME!! which he loves too.

So, when I say I give Cole green smoothie every morning, this is not just a morning routine, this is an ordeal, an event, a daily event for both me and him :)

Oh, and while I was typing this, Cole somehow opened up a dvd case, put it into the dvd player, turned on the tv, pressed play and started the movie. I am in shock. I have no idea how he figured out how to do this!! And his movie of choice? The Notebook. haha too funny. My crazy baby.

instagram: the past three weeks

I post pictures to instagram all the time. Emma would be so ashamed of me. I'm just waiting for her to get a smart phone though ;)

sunset in my rearview mirror // Cole playing with grandma :)

Cole's new baby flip flops. I LOVE them! // Johnny Carino's for dinner while Steve's parents were in town. (honestly, we took turns taking Cole outside to keep him entertained since it was wayyy past his bedtime. We pretty much spent the majority of the time outside :/)

sunset // the happy family out to dinner

Costa Vida!! // sunset. again.

quiet afternoon with my man // Cole playing in his kiddie pool for the first time! He loves it!

kiddie pool time. again. // barefoot. cliche, I know. But you know, why not?

me. excited. first day using WEN! // new key hook frame. Wondering where the car keys were every time we needed to leave was getting old.

Letting Cole play with the guitar. He's going to be a musician. // He found the Christmas wrapping paper and decided to turn it into a toy.

orange nails and a blue outfit :) // the moon. can you see it?

We went to Toys R Us and the baby chairs are what Cole thought were the most interesting out of all the toys there. So Grandma got him that blue one :) // going for a run with my fiji water

Stuck at a stop light. I just think the underpasses here look cool. // treating ourselves to some ice cream on a family walk.

dark chocolate covered acai blueberries. nuff said. // I was proud of my braids on Saturday :)

(follow me: @lovelovelulu)

Happy June!

June 3rd. 

I cannot believe that it is June 3rd already! The year is nearly half over!

This weekend has been fun and relaxing. Yesterday we didn't really have anything going on so we went out for a walk and I made this little video which is always fun for me. 

Now that it's June, those pretty pink flowers have bloomed in lots of the trees here. I love them so much. They make Texas so pretty and I will miss them whenever we move in a year and a half. 

This past week I also put together a new journal for me to write down inspirational quotes or any thoughts I might have. When I was younger, and used to listen to lots of different kinds of music, I would write down lyrics that I liked and I would try to be a poet myself ;) I even wrote a couple of my own songs and I want to get back into that and that's why I mod podged this new journal! I even have a new inspiration board right above my "desk" which I'll have to take a picture of when it's more finished looking.

We started the month off by staying up way too late last night which threw us off for the rest of the day. I slept in too late to make my smoothie in time for church (gasp!) and so I had it for dinner this evening instead. Breakfast for dinner. My favorite. We got home from church, put Cole down for a nap, and then we had a nap too and we all didn't wake up until 7 pm. Needless to say, it's been kind of a weird day!

So, Happy June!!

(ps, my poor niece Juliette broke her elbow yesterday :( Poor baby girl; I hope everything goes well when she gets her cast on tomorrow.)