The last of Summer

Whew.  What a whirlwind wind-down last few weeks of summer we have had.

We have made the last few weeks count with plenty of play dates and park dates.  A little trip up to New York (which honestly the weather had it feeling a lot more like fall-  eek!).  Plus, a quick trip down to Virginia Beach to visit our great friends and their sweet little Vivian.

It has been exciting to try to cram in all the last minute summer adventures. In years past I have been so anxious for the change of seasons that I usually skip right over and jump ahead to the next season.   I love fall and wearing sweaters and cozy socks.  I love the chill in the air and cuddling up with a nice quilt and a cup of coffee. I was always looking forward to what was coming next.  I decided this year I would make a conscious effort to suck every last drop out of the season, most importantly the day and the moment I was in.

No more wearing Uggs in 80 degree heat to try to force the feeling of Fall.

I chased down the Ice Cream truck in the neighborhood because Nora just had to experience that this summer. We ventured out to the beach just to feel the sand one more time. We wore our favorite summer outfits, just one last time.  We ate our favorite summer meal on a blanket outside. Nora will never be this age again.  Next summer she won't get to wear the same swimsuit or little sundress.  I am sad to see my baby grow older but I am so excited to see the big girl she is becoming.  I understand so much more and yet still so little about what it means to live in the moment. I am trying.

But today is October 1st- and you better believe I had a cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee wearing house slippers and wrapped in a quilt.  Despite it being 80 degrees outside.

I can't wait for the excitement of fall.  Jeremy's mom is in town this week and that means I can get all of my Halloween decorations up in one day!  Hooray for grandparents!

Now for a photo dump:

 

     

Momma + Mini at my Dad's wedding reception

                      

  I seriously will never get enough of those chubby legs.

            

         

last days of summer in our favorite dress!

That was the last of our summer in a nutshell.  We are moving on into fall and I am ready to embrace it with open arms.  Nora has thinned out so much over the past year that she will actually be able to wear a lot of the same clothes for fall and winter as she did last year!  I am excited for practical reasons but also for sentimental reasons as well.  Jeremy left for Afghanistan in mid-October last year.  He didn't get to see Nora in all of her clothes.  I am about 100% sure he doesn't care about what she wears (unless it has an Under Armour logo on it).  Emotionally, for me anyways, this makes it seem like there was less of a disconnect while he was away.  

Bring on the pumpkin flavors of fall!!

Featured:: Fawn Over Baby

I was so fortunate to have discovered Melissa of Fawn Over Baby through my friend, Shayla's blog over at Moons & Junes.  This whole blogosphere community is blowing my mind with it's friendliness.

Melissa and I both happen to be Air Force wives.  We also love cute and functional baby fashion and happen to have little babies willing to indulge us in our obsessions.  I emailed Melissa to introduce myself and say a little "hello".  I offered to send her some bows for her adorable little McKenzie to wear, just to get the word out there.  As a super sweet gesture of "thanks", Melissa did an entire feature on her blog about my shop and bows.

So nice, right.  Internet friends are awesome.

Here are a few pictures of her sweet McKenzie showing off her cuteness.

The whole feature can be seen here:: Fawn Over Baby: The Sweet Bee Bowtique

In other exciting & craft related news, I am signed up for a craft show in November.  My brain is going non-stop thinking of fun ideas to display the bows.  I need to check myself though, if I do all of the things I have in mind I will never make a profit!

I am thinking of some fun displays like this chicken wire room partition.

I love these wine boxes for display as well as the dropcloth backdrop.  I could do so many fun doodles with a sharpie!!

I can't wait to order this stamp with my shop name and information.  I am going to stamp everything in sight.  I'm thinking brown shopping bags with a stamp, and business cards, and bow cards.  It's endless, really.  

Reign it in, Jansen.  Reign it in.

bethany beach vacation

we have returned from a wonder-filled beach getaway up to bethany beach, de.  nora and i loaded up our goodies and headed up to a beautiful beach house with some other moms and kiddos from our mom's group.  we ate an obscene amount of fried and sugary foods, and we loved every second of it.  

besides the obvious benefits of a beach vacation {sun, sand, boardwalk food} we also had the opportunity to experience the way five different babies and moms make it from sun up to sun down every day. lets be honest the most valuable experiences shared were those that pertained to the witching hours after sun down.  every single baby in that house woke up every. single. night.  

we were all exhausted and tired and exhausted.  it is one thing to deal with a crying baby in the middle of the night when you are at home.  it is an whole different beast when you are in a house full of others that are currently catching some much needed zzz's.  i tell you, those kids must have had a baton they were passing along.  or a spirt stick of some sort.  when one finally went to sleep, another took over with a cry that said "i am refusing to sleep in a strange house where there are other kids that i could be playing with right now, can i have more funnel cake and ice cream, i want to go to the beach and play in the water..." 

we all had hard nights.  and hard days.  the greatest part was how we all dealt with it.  i had copious amounts of coffee and dr. pepper to start with.  but in a more serious way it was great exposure to see how they all dealt with the difficulty.  it would have been so easy for us to all throw our hands up in the air and call the game.  the reality was, despite the difficulty we managed to laugh. a lot.  it was great to see the dynamic of moms and kids.  to take note of how they get their little one to calm down or stop bad behavior.  it was so nice to have someone be present and to see their ability to step in and calm nora (or other kids) down after a fit. that was when i realized, i may have become so invested in what i determined my parenting style would be that i began overlooking some simple solutions to problems that were annoying me like a pebble in my shoe.

the stairs. oh my gosh, the stairs.  i seriously freak out over nora going down stairs and slipping and falling.  so much so that i tend to just carry her down so that she doesn't fall.  insert the cycle of nora never learning how to go down the stairs.  we have practiced every method known to man and i deemed her too stubborn to learn to use the railing.  she wanted to go down free-for-all style.  

this house had stairs and no baby gate.  and there was one amazing momma that spent an hour working with nora on those stairs.  teaching her to use the railing and not giving up when nora yanked her hand away from the railing.  now my kiddo is a professional walker down the stairs.

patience.

and so that's what we did.  we were mommies to all the babies.  we fed and nurtured and played with all of the babies.  mommies got to finish a cup of coffee while it was still hot and fresh out of the pot, not after it had been microwaved five times throughout the day.  it was exhausting.  but so refreshing at the same time.

i can't say i am eager to *vacation*  with that many kids again, but i certainly came away from the experience with a new perspective on parenting.  and a whole lot of patience for my little one.

and for the best part of it all-  nora stinkin' loved the beach.  sand and waves and sun and all.

loving her orange sorbet ice cream cone

moms and babes

all of the kiddies!

it was a great trip.  i learned so much about the other moms that i spend my days with as well as so much about nora.  she is one smart and stubborn cookie.  i love her.

cuteness overload: more oklahoma pictures

i just received these photos from my mom's camera that she took during our stay.

they all make me miss home. and family. and chickens.

going on a chicken hunt

          

 

             

 

love my momma.

a little lately

we have been busy bees over here lately.

i have been working on an abundance of projects simultaneously which never really amounts to much progress.

i joined the local nova modern quilters guild (jeremy thinks this is hilarious) and have made a new quilting friend.  i also discovered an adorable & new local quilting shop that is right up the road.  (he thinks this is less hilarious).  admittedly i am a major novice when it comes to quilting. who knew all the work that went into matching up various fabrics and patterns??  i am working on a quilt for a special couple-to-be and i unknowingly chose a quilt pattern that is going to make me regret passing notes to my friends all through geometry.  but here goes nothin'...

i know they will love it no matter what so that helps the anxiety. i am really excited about the color palette though!

concurrent project #2 is a new deployment shadowbox for jeremy.  i had originally created one of these to showcase some of his photos and medals from his deployment to iraq back in 07-08.  when he deployed to afghanistan and accrued four more medals (my guy!) as well as some really awesome patches we thought it was time for an update.  along with each deployment he returned with an american flag to signify his time overseas.  one flag was flown over the u.s. embassy in baghdad, iraq. the flag from afghanistan traveled all over the country with him, on convoys, planes, and helicopters: he always made sure he had space to carry his flag in his 72 hour bag.  considering the significance of all of his memorabilia he asked for me to create a cohesive display.

challenge accepted.

the background behind each flag is fabric cut from each of his uniforms while deployed in iraq and afghanistan.  i wish i could claim the genius behind the idea but he came up with that all on his own.  crafty.

some stellar iphone photos to show off the work

we took up running walk/jogging/wheezing. nora loves being outside.  i almost died.  it hurts my ego seeing how out of shape i am.  for the life of me, i still hate exercise.

in the midst of all of this i am cookin' up a storm in the kitchen.  chocolate cakes, cookies, peruvian chicken, and a whole lotta' salsa. (take THAT exercise!)  i can't get enough of gina's recipes from skinnytaste.com.  that gal keeps it real.  and she loves zucchini as much as i do.  

win.

this cake has been made twice in the past two weeks.  i think he likes it.

nora and i are headed to bethany beach with some other moms and babes this next week.  it will likely be a special kind of vacation with all of those kiddos running around.  we are still struggling with mid-night wake-ups so this could be interesting. (there is not enough coffee in the world). hopefully we can squeeze every last drop out of summer so we can jump feet first into fall.  i am so ready for apples and cinnamon and sweaters and boots, oh my!

when did she get so big??

i am loving this whole mom/tot phase we are in.  late nights and all.

xo,

j

belated one year old pictures

i am so so so in love with these pictures taken by Mariah of Olive Juice Photography down at the devon boathouse in downtown okc.

mariah and i were friends waaay back in high school and managed to pick up right where we left off during my last visit back to oklahoma.  she is such a sweet momma of two little girls and an amazingly talented photographer to boot!  we had fun catching up and trying to get nora to smile.  and- let me tell you, those smiles were few and far between on the evening of her shoot.

to top things off, nora got a nasty mosquito bite on her ear the night before, leaving the ear swollen and red. those nasty bugs love my sweet baby.  despite the shoot taking place after nora's bedtime and the nasty bug bite, mariah managed to capture some sweet smiles from the little bee.

i love them all.

look how swollen her ear is!  poor baby.

                        

    

       

                              

         

       

cracks me up.

       

i sometimes have moments where i can't believe that this is my little baby.  she is growing up so fast.

going home again

nora and i set off on a little weeklong adventure back to the great state of oklahoma.  i love getting to take her back home to visit with family and friends.  somehow, seeing how much they love her makes me love her even more.

i love living away from home.  i love the space i have to grow.  i love how the distance has forced me to adapt and develop traits that i am not sure i would ever have discovered had i stayed in oklahoma.  i appreciate my local friendships and work hard to maintain them.  that being said, it is hard to be away from family.  i hate that nora doesn't get to stay at her grandparent's house on any given night, just because.  i miss getting a call to meet my brothers for lunch down the street.  i am jealous of my sisters getting to have morning coffee with my mom.

these feelings make my trips back to oklahoma pretty powerful.  the intensity with which i dive into the trips often causes me to burn out on "quality bonding time" at about day three.  we managed to pack in a whole summer's worth of moments in one week's time... and survived.

we celebrated my mamaw honey's eighty-fifth birthday along with her recent move up to oklahoma from louisiana.  i can't tell you how much i loved getting to go visit her throughout the week.  it was a great celebration with aunts and uncles and tons of cousins.  there was even a cupcake pinata, which nora was absolutely terrified of.  we took advantage of the gathering of relatives and took some great (some awkward) family photos.

mamaw honey with my mom and stepdad and the kids

we are so fortunate to have a large amount of family that all live close together in oklahoma.  i love getting to pack in so much quality family time when we are home.  it can be taxing and difficult to coordinate schedules, but it is always worth it.

i have realized after living away from family for almost eight years that it is important to fill that tank up while you can.  i know that those moments are necessary to help me get through rough days.

so, that's what we did!  fill 'er up!

my sweet brothers

mamaw honey with the daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters

my sweet gigi with nora


i love that nora is getting to play with something that was a part of my childhood.  this wooden rocker duck was made for my older brother by my dad.  it made my heart smile to see her playing with it.

my brother's have excellent taste in women - my sister/friend desirae (L) and my soon to be sis-in-law juice (R)

we spent the rest of the week doing fun things like swimming, jumping on the trampoline, and chasing chickens.  you know, typical oklahoma stuff.

ladies who sun

 

 

determination

now, if i could just get this little lady back into her routine.  she has been waking up every night since we came home!


xo- jansen