the loves of my life...

my boys

Seattle

The other day Josh and I made a trip into Seattle to go to the courthouse to FINALLY get my name changed. It has been such a mess, we've been married for a year and a half and I'm still legally a Thomas!! The first time we went to get my name changed we noticed that Josh's name had been misspelt so we had to go back to the courthouse to fix it, they then had to send the form to the state capital and then enter it in Seattle again :( Then they sent the correct form to us and I went to get my name changed and didn't notice that they had spelt my first name wrong and.... anyways.... long story short I'm still a Thomas so we went to Seattle to try to get it fixed once and for all!! We ended up making a day of it and had a blast.

After going to the courthouse we went to Jimmy Johns, which I love... I had been to Jimmy Johns a few times in Iowa but Josh had never been and he loved it too. Jay however wasn't too impressed, haha:

Sweet little baby!

We had Jay in the front pack and decided to take a walk through Pike Place Market.

I LOVE walking through the market...

The fresh fruits and veggies always look so beautiful

YUM!

But we didn't get any of the beautiful fruits or veggies... we got something much less healthy...

some fresh doughnuts!! haha

We seriously had such a blast at the market, so many vendors were telling us all about Seattle's history and hotspots... went with it and were tourists for the day!

While walking to the ferry we saw one of our favorite spots....

We figured since we had been eating so healthy all day (haha!) that we would stop in.

How stinkin' good does that look?! Well let me tell you... it tasted just as good ;) I love gelato.

We ended up having time to waste before the next ferry so we stopped by the arcade on the way to the boat and took some pictures in the photobooth. We don't have a working scanner right now or I would be showing off the cute pictures we took, maybe someday!

Here we are at the arcade... I was just expecting to run to the courthouse and come home, I'm not exactly "photo ready" but I had to get a picture of me with my sweet little boy. Jay did so good in the frontpack and looked adorable in his little bear suit.

I think this picture is so hilarious. Jay kept making this surprised face, priceless.

We had so much fun hanging out in Seattle that we are thinking we might want to do it again on Josh's next day off. I love spending time with my boys!

Date Night

One of the fun things about blogging is the people that you "meet" and things you learn about from them. I found Jennifer's blog awhile back and when she wrote about "The Great Date Experiment" that her church in Northwest Arkansas was doing, I wanted in. It is really important to Josh and I to make our relationship a priority, especially now being new parents it's really important for us to make that conscious effort to put aside time for "us". Josh and I went on our 1st "Great Date" on Monday night and had a really good time. One of the fun things about the date was that there is a guide so we didn't have to do a thing to prepare or plan for the date! We went to the Harbor Public House (or "the pub") for dinner, the rules were that the waitress had to choose our meals for us. It was so funny to see the waitress's face when she came to get our order and we told her to pick... no pressure!! We were really excited to see what we would get and here was our surprise dinner:

Bacon and Blue Cheese Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

Asian Salmon "Rice Bowl"

Josh and I thought that they both looked super good so we shared each of them, YUM!! Good work waitress :)

Here we are at "point one" of the date

Our next stop was supposed to get us doing an activity to talk, there were a lot of options to choose from but since the nearest bowling alley is 45 minutes away and playing catch in the dark didn't sound like too much fun we took our questions and went on a drive past the condo we used to live in to talk.

*this is the point of the date that I stopped taking pictures because we were having so much fun... so I've resorted to using googled images for the rest of the post to make you feel like you were there, haha!*

Our next stop was Safeway, we were supposed to buy each other a dessert that the other had never tried and meet back at the entrance. I got Josh:

Ben and Jerry's ChubbyHubby

(I just thought the name was too funny and neither of us had ever tried it)

And Josh got me:

Samoas Ice Cream

Josh and I had so much fun doing this date and really are looking forward to our next "Great Date" If you're interested in trying it here is the PDF link for the first date: Great Date 1!

ENJOY!!

what a difference a month makes!

Here is Jay's 1 month picture in his crib next to the sleep sheep:

And here is Jay's 2 month picture we took of him in his crib next to his sleep sheep:

I cannot believe what a difference a month makes! It is so fun watching him grow... I love watching him smile and coo trying to talk to us. Jayden is wearing size 3month clothes, he usually only wakes up once a night to eat and then just falls back to sleep. Jay loves when people talk to him, he tries to talk and coo back *so cute!!* Jay also loves laughing... if you are looking at him and you start laughing, he'll start laughing too :) Jay loves taking baths, looking at lights and going for walks but most of all... Jay loves cuddling (and believe me I'm totally fine with that ;). It is so hard to believe how much he has changed since we brought him home and I know there is much more change ahead so I'm trying to cherish every minute, which doesn't leave much time for blogging. I promise I'll be better... I got a few complaints and to tell you the truth that was really flattering. I do this blog mostly as a journal to remember this special time in my life so if anyone else gets something out of it, that's awesome! Well friends, Josh just got home from work so I'm going to go spend some quality time with my boys :) Nighty night!

last week in one post

Well hello!! It's been a little while since I last wrote a post, sorry we've been busy and loving it. Let's see... where do I begin? Last Wednesday the ladies of my church threw us a beautiful baby shower for Jayden and Josh tagged along, it was so much fun! Our good family friend Sarah (I was actually one of the flower girls in her wedding!) hosted the shower at her gorgeous home on the south end of the island. I am always in awe of the waterfront view from her living room and love watching the ferries cross in front of her house, it is so breathtaking. We played really fun and original games that I have never played before, I was cracking up... and Josh got a sneak peak into what a "shower" is like. Here is a picture of the cake, look at those frosting babies...

The diaper cake Sarah made us (SO cute)

...you can kind of see the view I'm talking about here, I should have taken a better picture of it

The yummy brunch

Claire, mom and I

Sarah did such an awesome job throwing a great shower, her house was decorated in blue's and yellow polka-dots and rubber duckies... so cute!! It was fun catching up with people that I pretty much only see on Sunday and was fun having Josh there to experience a shower. He thought it was quite a mysterious thing, I had a few bridal and baby showers and he always wanted to know what went on at one, haha!

So this post is basically a catch up on last week since I didn't blog at all and it's kind of random but here are some cute pictures of Jay baby.

The other night he was super fussy. I nursed him, changed him, burped him, sang to him, did the mommy walk around the house over and over, put him in his vibrating chair... nothing would do it... and then I had an idea, I put him in his bouncy chair and turned on The Little Mermaid and no joke by the time they showed Ariel's face he had stopped crying!! Josh thinks that Jay may have a thing for redheads!

I love that Josh is always up to work out with me and I love working out with him, we always push each other and end up doing more than we would alone (well, at least I do more than I would alone... mostly because he is such better shape than I am, I try to push myself not to look like a wimp next to him) Yesterday my brother, Brenton, had the day off of school and went for a walk with us. Jay loves going on walks or I should say that Jay loves riding along during our walks... I can't blame him, it looks cozy! Jay's stroller is a jogger and it is awesome... Josh calls it the Phantom, which makes it sound so luxurious, haha! It's pretty funny because when we were picking it out he just started calling it "The Phantom" and I thought that he just randomly made that nickname up but it turns out that on box it said phantom which is the color... we're dorks... we know...but we love it and the nickname is here to stay!

Here we are with my mom's naughty little puppy, Sadie

Look at my sweet little bear!

We made a stop downtown and visited mom at the candy shop and she took a break with us.

Look at all of those yummy treats at my mom's candy store!

I wouldn't let myself be tempted... I've gotta work off that baby weight/badonkadonk, haha!

mom, brenton, Jay and Josh

we also went to Subway on our walk... I'm pretty much addicted to Subway

...a baby and a puppy... is there anything cuter?!

(maybe if the baby wasn't starting to cry in this picture:)

I love when Josh has the day off and we can just hang out as a family! Last night we tried some new kinds of sushi and were pleasantly surprised...

our little family

*poor Josh looks like he has a black eye :( He has a clogged tear duct

He is such a goof ball, I LOVE it!

And last but not least my lovely sister... ClaireBear

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, it's Super Bowl Sunday and we had a blast! Josh picked the Saints to win in his work's Super Bowl pool so you know who we were rooting for. We got all decked out for the big game and had some yummy snacks. Here are a few pictures from our night:

I made this little "Go Saints" onesie for Jay

and here he is wearing it

Mommy and Jay

Our little family

I love this picture, Josh is so good at getting Jay to look at the camera for pictures!

Did anyone else get teary eyed watching Drew Brees and his little boy after the game? I thought it was so precious watching Drew talk to his son and soak it all in with him during the post game celebration (even though the little guy probably had no idea what was going on). I mean look at this picture...

How cute is that?! I love the earmuffs... very smart!

And... I think it's so cool when athletes give the glory to God and remind people that they didn't make those huge achievements on their own. Good work Drew and Go Saints!

Britt's Beauty Picks

It was “Show Us Your Life” this last Friday at Kelly’s Korner. The "Show Us Your Life" topic this last week was Beauty Tips-favorite hair and makeup products, I know I’m a little late but better late than never right?! Here are some of my favorite products that I can’t live without…

I love lip sauce (also known as lip gloss or lip balm for those of you that are new to the term :) I'm a lip sauce junkie and always have it on hand, these are a few of my favorites:

C.O. Bigelow's mentha lip shine in Pink Mint (sold at Bath and Body Works)
Rosebud/Strawberry Lip Salve (sold at Sephora and Urban Outfitters)

I also LOVE BareMinerals Buxom line and have loved every color I've tried so far

I love BareMinerals, it is the best foundation and makeup line that I have ever used.

RareMinerals facial mist by BareMinerals is a misting spray that you spritz on your face after you've applied your makeup, it really sets your makeup and is super refreshing... I love it!

I used to be addicted to DiorShow mascara but I was surprised at how easy it was for me to switch over to Cover Girl's lastblast mascara. Lashblast is such a high quality mascara for such a low price and for around $8.00 you just can't beat it!

I can't believe that I bought this but it was TOTALLY worth every penny. I love this face brush from Clarisonic, I got a gift certificate for a facial last Christmas and they used this on my face and I was totally sold... it left my face feeling so clean and exfoliated. Plus, it's one of Oprah's favorite things!!

And for Hair this is my #1 must have:

I love Brocato but I really LOVE LOVE LOVE this Cloud9 Blowout Serum, it is a heat activated styling serum and protects hair from breakage. The Serum is super lightweight and doesn't weigh the hair down, plus it smells awesome!!

...and that's all I got!!