It was my dad’s birthday this past week and I wanted to make something with the Littles for his garden.  He and my mom have been working on an awesome vegetable garden that I will write more about later.  But since our Littles are a bit too little to do anything that requires too much skill, I went with painting rocks that Grandpa could add to his flower pots, as well as painting a little potted basil plant.

Super easy projects, and the

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If you know me, you know I’m not crafty.  Others in my family are, and are really good at it, but I’m not.

But I do like to do little things that make me feel like I’m a part of the handmade world, or that just make something feel special.

I’ve always been a sucker for stationary, gift tags, note cards, anything and everything paper related.  I love to write thank you notes, and wrap gifts.  But I don’t quite have the same kind of time to customize things like I used to.  But…

My youngest sister is brilliant.

Beautiful, creative, talented…..BRILLIANT!

And she can give a good gift card gift!  So often we struggle with what to buy someone for their birthday, Christmas, anniversary, you name the occasion and we have all scratched our heads endlessly trying to think of the perfect gift….and panicked when we get to the night before with still nothing.  (OK – maybe some of you perfect folks have not, but I for one have been there MANY times!)

So I love seeing what both…

Even when life is crazy, and you’re not sure how you will survive, for me I look at my Littles and am so thankful for each of them.  That’s not to say that they are perfect and that every minute is easy, but it is to say that they make my heart smile!

For my birthday last year, Addie (and Dada) gave me a sweet little necklace with Addie’s name.  Then when Hayden was born a couple of weeks later, they gave me a tag with Hayden’s name on it.  Now I know there…

Jen comes to us today from Tiny Oranges!  This is a favorite local OC blog find of mine.  Jen is as busy as they come, yet always up for sharing a tip or trick.    Jen has been a great source to me over the past year with fun local activities, products and tips, and great outings to take Addie on.  She is a Favorite OC Blog Friend and I most definitely encourage you to check out Tiny Oranges!!

Meet Jen of Tiny Oranges (and her DARLING family!)

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Manufacturing over 2000 products used by children and families worldwide, Bravo has some of the world’s most recognized brands in the sporting goods industry.  The products include a broad array of niche product categories including instant canopies, beach umbrellas, trampolines, skateboards, scooters, in-line skates and related products and accessories from cutting-edge brands including Pulseâ„¢, Quik Shadeâ„¢, Moto Shadeâ„¢, Airzoneâ„¢, Tony Hawkâ„¢, World Industriesâ„¢, Kryptonicsâ„¢, Hyperâ„¢ and Variflexâ„¢ to go along with licenses with outstanding partners such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Mattel and the Cartoon Network. We…

OK Bloom Woosie is such a cute Etsy shop, and the shop owner, Chio is an absolute doll!!   Leave it to my brilliant youngest sister with no children to once again steer me in the direction of a fabulous Etsy find!

Our girls were the recipients of the cutest little aprons for their birthdays!  Oh my goodness can you stand them??

Love watching the Littles in action at their mini kitchen (or mine) with their aprons on “helping” make dinner!!  Sooo cute!

I absolutely love…

Do roses need words?!?

I think they speak for themselves.

I love you.

Thank you.

Whatever the purpose, they speak it in spades.

Seemed fitting to share this photo with you since I needed to announce the California Blooms winner.

These were sent to me by a friend as a thank you.

They MADE my day, my whole week so far!

A BIG THANK YOU to my sweet friend M. who sent me…

It was a crazy busy week again (What weeks aren’t for moms??  Do any of you have a new found respect for your mom?? I sure do!) And I can’t believe it’s just over 4 weeks until the newest babe is here!  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t make a showing any earlier!!!  I love ya and can’t wait to meet ya, but you just go ahead and stay nice and cozy until March 9th, Pretty Please!

OK, onto the fun things from this week.  I actually had to edit this a bit because I saw…

I have a darling friend from college that I adore and love.

We lived in the same dorm, and she was as spunky as can be!  Always smiling, friends with the world, a total spitfire!

I’ll never forget visiting with her in her dorm room the first time and seeing her hooked up to what looked like a small refrigerator, and breathing into a mask…

My friend has Cystic Fibrosis.

When she came to visit with me…

I’m all about finding ways to make my life easier.

Not that I’m lazy, though I’m a little bit of that too…but truly on any given day, I’m going in at least 20 different directions at once. What mom isn’t!?!?

And to manage all those directions is one item that I can’t live without, my iPhone.  My calendar, my contacts, my 6 different email accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Starbucks, Camera are all on that phone…..ohhhhh to tell you all the apps that I use on a regular basis (stay tuned for a…

Happy Monday Everyone!

First off, a quick apology.  It seems Feedburner has been playing some selective tricks with the MFE Readers & Followers and randomly deciding who it wants to send daily subscriptions to and who it doesn’t, and it changes throughout the week.  So, we switched our subscription service this past weekend.  You will now be receiving your daily emails through Mail Chimp.  I’m doubly crossing my fingers that this solves the problem for everyone, but please let me know if anyone is stil having issues.

Thank you!!

Now onto the fun for…

These weeks keep flying by, HOW does that happen?!?!?  I must say, I LOVED my week off from cooking!!  Such a treat!  I can honestly say I have never done that before, but will definitely again.  It was obviously a little pricier than cooking every meal, but if you balance it between some lower priced places, it’s not too bad.  And fun for older kids too, you could have everyone pick a place for a night.

(And YES,  I Have posted

I am not a crafty person.

Wish I was.

But I’m not.

Wont even pretend to be just a little bit crafty.

Instead I like to find people that ARE crafty and toss ideas around with them, since I know the completed project will look MUCH BETTER coming from them rather than me.

The current project I was trying to figure out was cute Valentine’s T-shirts for the girls.  Usually I see something fun at Old Navy that is $5-8,…

I love finding things that make me feel good.  I know this sounds lame, and trust me, I LOVE being a mom and I LOVE our darling Littles – but there are still more than a handful of times that I long to fit in my cute jeans from pre-pregnancy, or pop on that cute pair of heels that I know used to turn a few heads…but I just don’t seem to get the same reaction these days.  Not sure why.  Do you think having…

Honestly, I have the BEST Book Club group of friends ever!
I so wish you could meet them as they are a FAVORITE group of girls!

They can multi-task like nobody’s business!!
And are amazing examples of what moms and friends should be.
(I can only hope that Addie & Hay will know friends as fabulous.)

Last night was our Holiday Book Club Party which is the one book club each year that EVERYONE makes it…

I am so fortunate to know a photographer like Sandy Heit!  Not only has she been amazing at capturing wonderful images of our children and family, but she is also a wealth of knowledge in helping me learn how to use this new beast of a camera that I’m swinging around these days! (To see more on Sandy, check out this earlier post).

Soap Box Moment for just a sec…

One of my most favorite characteristics in a professional is not being…

There is no better description for Juliska’s tableware, than their own description.
It truly could be “the most beautiful tableware in the world“.

And I’m not the only one to think so – House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Metropolitan Home, Martha Stewart Living, countless celebrities, high end department stores and my very own book club all feel the same way!

What I love most about Juliska’s products is that they are FAMILY FRIENDLY.
(And it doesn’t hurt that they are BEAUTIFUL and FUNCTIONAL too.)

David and…

I know you’re all anxiously waiting….I was tapping my foot impatiently myself Saturday morning waiting for Addie to wake up and be the “official Halsea contest drawer”.   And then of course life took us in a million directions, but the bowl of names patiently waited for us…and just before nap time Addie got to work….

Ummm, what’s THIS bowl of goodies?

WEEEEEEEE, this drawing stuff is fun!!

Let me see how big of a mess I can…