A Very Happy Un-Birthday To You

First I want to say a very special Birthday shout out to my sister in case she happens to read this today. "Holler at your girl! Happy Birthday!!"

Ok. Now on with the rest of the post. While I really should be spending time packing our bags for the week or more that we will be without all of our possessions I find myself wanting to blog. So here I am, blogging and procrastinating. We had a fun day yesterday. I threw a family birthday party for both Evareaux and Nakiah. Her actual birthday is on May first and his is on the 23rd. I wanted to do something so that the family could help us celebrate since we will be so far away so very soon. :( (This leaving family stuff is really getting to me.) :(

First I have to say that this kid is really amazing....

When I asked if he would mind if his joint party happened to have a Mickey Mouse theme he said he didn't.....and that he wanted it to be really special for his sister. Then when her big Minnie balloon popped he didn't bat an eye before offering her the special one he picked out for himself over to her. He is such a thoughtful kid. I can't believe that he is almost 10 and is so in tune to what would make the people around him happy. Seriously amazing, and it just comes naturally to him. I am so proud. When his real birthday comes Hottie and I will shower him with gifts because he deserves it!

Evareaux wanted three things for her big day.....Party hats, balloons, and Grandpa....and there he is, so her day was all set!...

She also refused to wear the outfit I picked out and chose to rock the tutu instead...until near the end of the day when she pulled it off and went commando (good thing it was just family.) I told everyone if we're not careful she'll end up in her birthday suit!

Can you believe that the grocery store bakery had a mini Mickey Mouse cake?! What luck! She couldn't quite blow her own candles out, but at least she got the basic idea and tried a few times....I totally get it, it's really hard to grin with delight and blow at the same time....

She was so excited about the Mickey cake but didn't want to ruin the design. So she ate it like a bread bowl and took a few bites right off of the top, avoiding any of the blue icing.

 It was a great day. The kids got some wonderful gifts that should help distract them from the big move. We also got to see lots of family (Which meant goodbyes I have been dreading. sniff,sniff.) But hey, we got the chance to come together and celebrate for these kids. That makes me happy.

Beach Bummer

One of the major downsides of us moving is that there will be no more summer days at the beach. Well, unless we take a vacation to make it happen. I was thinking that we'd be able to get in a few visits before June but since everything got moved up it's just not in the cards. Luckily I have photo after photo of our beach days, many of which I have used for layouts.

So whenever I miss the surf and sand I'll look at these, and probably miss it more...

 I used actual shells that Hottie and I collected...

So cute and Mini!

Hottie and I are already attempting to plan a vacation to the beach this summer sometime in August. But it is hard to think about since I will be SO pregnant by that time. I think I'll feel like a beached whale! Then again, it may be worth it just to feel the sand between my toes and hear the waves crashing. I will miss that so much.

What a Life

Looking forward to lots of down time with this little one and the new baby, once it arrives....

She really does have the best life. :)

I started out my retirement just right today with early morning dishes and laundry followed closely by a trip to Disneyland. Hey, it's all about balance, right? Sadly we only have one more trip to the happiest place on earth on the horizon. But with a busy, busy, BUSY lead up to our move I guess that's to be expected. 

I can't wait until this move is over with and we are settled into our new home. Once I can establish some sort of routine or new normalcy I feel like I will have the best in life. Is there a way to hit fast forward past all of the to-do's, sleeping on the floor waiting for furniture, and goodbye's? (I really HATE goodbyes.)

Retired

It's official, as of 11am today I am retired

 This is my retired face...

 I always had a goal of retiring before the age of 30 (Ok, not really, it's just funny to say.) It feels really strange and hasn't quite sunk in yet because I am focused on the ZILLIONS of things I have to take care of before our move. Still, I did say goodbye to my coworkers, many of which I have worked with for several years. Walked away from the pending art projects. Said my goodbyes to my perpetually messy office. Received my final paycheck. Strange. So strange to be walking away completely.

Here are a couple of the final chalk signs I made this week...

 It's pretty fun to work in chalk, you can do really cool stuff with the colors. I'll miss it.

 and lettering/typography has always excited me.

Oh well. On to the next chapter. I do plan to be creative every day. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't. My plan is to keep trying to break into the scrapping and crafting world. Hopefully one day I can find a way to turn it into a new career. I've never been so passionate about something as I am about scrapbooking. I think it's because it combines all of my favorite things...photography, journaling, art, working with my hands, recording memories, design...oh, and lots of super pretty products.

Chasing a dream is going to be my new job (oh yeah, and taking care of my house/family will fit in there somehow too.) ;) This is a luxury I never could have imagined I would be lucky enough to have in life (a big shout out to Hottie for making this possible. I love you so much for being on board.) I am thrilled to see what the future holds.

 These two things just speak to my heart right now...

(found on pinterest) 

and

(Instagram of a canvas found at Target)

The nice thing about my goals is that even if my dreams are never realized at least I'll have a bunch of full albums for the family. And a nice way to keep myself really busy creatively doing what I love. Wish me luck!

A Whale of a Time

Since we are leaving Southern California soon, (SO very soon) we are trying to do some things that we won't be able to do in Kentucky. Things I've never done before. Bucket List things (CHECK) Two of these things happened to be sea animal related. Yesterday we went to Balboa for some whale watching....

Nakiah was really excited about the binoculars.

 We followed a grey whale and it's baby for awhile...So COOL! The kids were super happy (I know, I know, our teen is just barely cracking a smile. Trust me, it means he was having the time of his life.) :)...

We saw a TON of dolphins. More than we could count. Seriously, HUNDREDS! They followed along and played with our boat for quite some time...

We saw baby dolphins too (is there a name for those?) (Ok. I just googled it...they are called calfs, but I think baby dolphins sounds much cuter, so I'm going with it.) and ones that swam sideways and upside down. Tons of them leapt really high out of the water and showed off as well. Being surrounded by these happy creatures was a serious highlight in my life. Magical. I just kept saying, "this is SO NEAT," over and over and over. I know, I am so poetic and clever. 

Nakiah was super duper excited and is not too cool to show it...

 unless his bro is around, and then he plays it a little more close to the vest...

 Oh, bro went inside the boat? "I'm the king of the wooooooorld," he yelled. (Has he even seen that movie? EVER? I have NO idea when he saw that movie!--Still it was cute!)

 He enjoyed every second, just like me...and BTW has THE BEST BOAT HAIR EVER!

 Oh, and we saw super lazy sea lions....

And in other whale news...

A couple of weeks ago while the kiddos were on Spring Break we made a short trek to Sea World....

 Too bad the kids didn't have any fun... :)

 Whoa! Can you believe I took this with my iphone?!...oh, and the trick is super amazing too...

I'm glad we got the chance to do some of these amazing things together as a family before we tackle new adventures Kentucky style. When we do I'm confident we'll still have a whale of a time, even if there are no actual whales to be seen.

Project Life

I've been telling you for a couple of weeks now that I would show you some of my project life progress. Here it is ... From up current back to around when I started. WARNING: This is a LOT of PL coming your way. Hopefully it won't bore you to pieces. :) (and sorry for the not-the-greatest photos...I have to figure out how to take better ones of these pages for future posts.)

I started in February after learning that I was pregnant. With that big life change and an anticipation of a big move across the country on the horizon I figured there was no better year to tackle Project Life. It will be one for the books! :) Lots of changes and lots of things we will want to look back on week by week and remember. 

I am keeping this really simple and using it as a great way to use some of my supplies that I love but haven't made their way onto a layout. Over the past few weeks I have really enjoyed the process. Maybe in a few more weeks I will walk you through the method I use to approach PL. By then I just might have it down to a science...one that works for me at least. :)