My Ikea Wishlist...

This weekend we are going to Ikea....kid free! It's a small miracle that we worked it out, but the boys will hang out with my parents for the day while we ride up with Ben's parents for a day trip to Portland, just to go to Ikea. They've never been and the one time Ben and I went together year's ago we didn't even know there was a downstairs section besides the warehouse, so we only saw the showroom. I went in November during my girl's weekend, and have been wanting to go back with Ben to check out a few things ever since.

We've been building a list, and by "we" I mean me. Here are just a few of the things I want to check out. We may buy a handful of the cheaper items or we may just eat Swedish meatballs and browse. Either way, it's kind of fun to see what other people are shopping for sometimes, so I thought I'd share what's on my Ikea wish list.

Mama's Weekend Out

On November 1st I was able to go on my first weekend away from my boys, without my husband. There were 5 of us all together that escaped to Downtown Portland for a weekend getaway.

{Kai took this photo of me while we waited for my ride}

Jamie, Aimee, Rianna and I left Eugene late Friday afternoon. We ate on the way up and then stopped in Oak Grove to meet up with Carina. She was at the "Puckett Love Shack", a gorgeous home owned by here aunt + uncle where Carina lived before she got married last year. They put on a lot of social events, but this was "First Friday" a casual potluck style gathering of friends, family and extended acquaintances on the first Friday of the month.

We gathered by the fire inside, got a tour of the house, and eventually went outside to the barn. It was such a fun time and the 4 of us with kids were relishing the ability to have long adult conversations with no interruptions and not having to get back home for bedtimes.

{Top: Jamie, Carina + I. Bottom: Shandell, Jamie, Rianna, Aimee}

Afterwards we headed to our hotel, lugging all of our stuff with us. We packed a lot of snacks and drinks. We unpacked, settled in and just enjoyed each other's company. The drive must have worn us out because we were all headed to bed before midnight. 

{In the barn @ PLS: red lighting courtesy of the toasty warm heat lamps}

Saturday morning we took our time getting ready. I snuck in a quick FaceTime chat with my guys.

Then we all split up for a bit. Carina + I went to coffee at Barista with my best friend from High School, Lindsey who lives in the area. It was great to catch up, as always. Afterwards we met up with Rianna + Aimee who were out shopping. We hit up Nordstrom Rack, and then Forever 21 and H&M at Pioneer Square. We have a Forever 21 in Eugene but it's probably a quarter the size of the Portland one, plus we had no limitations on time and no kids to tend to.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to meet up with Jamie who had to tend to family business nearby. Then shopping again! I'm not a big shopper, but I just thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect of it. We had a great time. 

That night we went to dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery. Everywhere we went was nearby, we walked about 8 blocks from our hotel to the restaurant. During dinner there were a few mishaps, a spilled drink and a forgotten order so they brought us a free dessert and gave us the 40% employee discount for our "troubles", we were all thrilled, being the budget conscious ladies that we are.

Afterwards we spent more time at the hotel, and tried to go to sleep around midnight. However, our room was situated right next to the pool and weight room. The tv in the weight room was blaring nearly all night and then the sound of weights clanking on the floor woke us at 6am. A friendly complaint from Jamie and we got a free breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, it was quite delicious. We were feeling pretty blessed by 2 discounted meals in a row.

Once we checked out we did some more shopping downtown and I was about to drop. The constant walking and lack of sleep was catching up to me. I still had a good time, I was just exhausted. Then we headed to Ikea, which is probably the last place you'd want to go when tired…but we don't have one so it was a must! I budgeted pretty tight so I only got a few things; some grey curtains that I'm super excited to put up along our sliding glass door once we paint the back living room, a few kid's room storage items, and a couple little toys to give the boys when I got home. I had only been to Ikea one other time, with Ben, YEARS ago and we didn't even realize there was more store downstairs. We went through the showroom and then thought the downstairs was just a warehouse for picking up your furniture. Imagine my surprise when I encountered miles more of Ikea goods. It was a little overwhelming but pretty exciting. Ben + I are already brainstorming a day trip there for just the two of us. 

We said our good byes to Carina and headed back to Eugene. I got dropped off at home just before 7pm Sunday night. I was so excited to see my sweet boys already in their jammies, waiting by the door for me to get home. Ben had the house ready for me to come home and relax in, cleaner than it was before I'd left. I missed them a ton, but was so grateful to take some time out for myself.

Thanks so much to Jamie for orchestrating the trip and to all the other girls as well. I had a great time visiting with all of you, I can't wait for next year!

Seaside mini-vacation

Over the summer some of our best friends, Michael + Megan, invited us to go on vacation with them to Seaside. They were gifted a week stay at the World Mark Resorts the previous Christmas. We didn't have enough vacation time to go during the week in October so we joined them during the weekend at the tail end of their trip.

We were excited about having the minivan in time for the trip, but the check-engine light came on the Thursday before. I took it for a quick free diagnostic and it was having a cylinder misfire. We knew we didn't have time to get it looked at before leaving, but Ben's parents generously loaned us their Tahoe for the weekend, so we were still able to go!

On Friday when Ben came home from work we loaded up and got on the road as soon as possible. We made a stop about halfway through at Bridgeport Village to eat a picnic style dinner I had packed and let the boys move their legs. They have a great play structure in the center courtyard. We climbed back in the car and headed to Seaside. It seemed like it took forever, it was nearly 8pm when we arrived. 

Once we got there we moved some things around to accommodate our needs in the extra room to get settled. We let the boys stay up late to wind down from their excitement and visited with Michael + Megan. Things got complicated when we went to put the boys to bed because I had packed only half of the baby monitor. Thankfully my techno-guru husband figured out that we could do a FaceTime audio-only call between our phones and mute one so we could hear them but they couldn't hear us. It worked great!

We stayed up late talking and poor Ben had to go in several times to soothe Des back to sleep, but once we went to bed he stayed asleep for a good long while. The next morning the boys came running out to the living room, where we were sleeping on a murphy-bed, wanting to play. We were SO tired. 

After a leisurely morning and a great breakfast made by Michael, we decided to head out to the beach. It was a short walk from our room to the beach access since the entire resort is right on the Seaside Promenade.

{the view from our room and a view of the resort from the beach}

{lots o' selfies}

In addition to half the baby monitor, I also forgot sand toys. So we brought some dishes and big spoons with us instead. They worked well-enough and the boys (all 4 of them) had a blast playing in the sand. It was warm and only slightly breezy, a beautiful day on the Oregon coast. 

We ate a really late lunch after cleaning off all the sand before heading out again. Michael + Megan had planned to take the boys on the carousel by all the shops down the street. Malakai only wanted to ride on the bench so he had to wait a couple rounds, but Desmond went on right away. He looked nervous when it started moving but got more comfortable and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Afterward we walked by the shops and Michael bought a bunch of deep fried desserts that we all tried. The consensus was that they were disgusting. Desmond fell asleep on Ben's shoulder on the walk home, so we let him snooze while we relaxed and thought about dinner.

The boys ate dinner and went to bed a few hours later. We ate a really late dinner and stayed up talking into the night. 

Sunday we woke up to clouds and fog that wouldn't burn off. We relaxed most of the morning. The boys colored, played video games and read. Michael made paper airplanes for Malakai and he was instantly hooked.

{checking out the foggy beach}

We took the boys to the small play area and game room at the resort and then decided to go for a walk on the promenade.

{caught instagramming}

{Michael, Desmond, Megan, Ben, Malakai, + I}

Malakai got sick of walking pretty quickly but we enticed him to go further by pointing out the swing set on the beach. Megan got this adorable picture of us that I just LOVE.

On our walk back Malakai + I found a caterpillar. After Kai tried holding it, Michael set it free.

{the boys LOVED air-hockey, Megan + I keeping each other warm, Kai with his new friend}

We relaxed some more back in our room until dinner. Megan and Michael made some amazing meals  (including Puerto Rican style plantains!) and introduced us to some yummy snacks over the weekend. Megan also read stories to both boys a few times which they loved. She even brought a childhood favorite of her own to share with Malakai called Mr. Pudgins.

After dinner we packed up our circus and headed home, but not before Megan loaded us up with a ton of food to take home with us and the most amazing brownies of all time!

{sunset from our room, back on the road}

We loved every minute of it and count ourselves blessed to have such awesome friends that would invite us to come share in their vacation with them.

growing my first garden

Most of my growing up was on a large ranch just outside the city limits from where I live now. We almost always had a garden. We at least had pumpkins if only from tossing the previous ones out into a patch of dirt somewhere.

The last 4 years we've lived in homes with plenty of yard space for gardening, but I didn't take the time to try my hand at growing something on my own. Most of my hesitation came from having little to no success at keeping house plants or easy plants alive. I'd often forget about watering them or keep them in the wrong type of environment.

A good friend of mine has a very impressive vegetable garden and I finally decided to take a try at growing my own. We already had the raised beds, one full of strawberries that I decided to pay closer attention to this season. Of course the weather here didn't cooperate very well for strawberries and then I ran into a few pests: strawberry snails + sugar ants. I used google and surveyed my facebook friends who advised eggshells, coffee grounds, and human hair! Coincidentally I had just cut Kai's hair so I used all three and was able to save a lot of the strawberries. They turned out okay, but I've learned that ever-bearing strawberries should be moved to new spots and who knows how long those berries have been in the raised bed since they were here before we were.

On Memorial Day weekend I decided to plan veggies in our two other raised beds. A couple weeks before Ben was sweet enough to clear the beds of weeds and debris, then we worked together to add more nutrient rich soil. I planted Jack-o-lantern pumpkins, sweet dumpling squash, "slicer" tomatoes from starts, carrots, and sugar snap pole peas. I built a lattice out of bamboo arches and gardeners twine for the peas to climb. It only cost me $5 which was much cheaper than buying lattice or something premade for them to climb.

About 10 days after planting, the first sprouts started to come through. I was so excited that my garden was actually starting to grow!

Malakai and I would go out every morning and check on the veggies. He loves helping...



I was surprised by how fast things were growing, especially the pumpkin leaves, which were visibly bigger every day!

{I made markers out of a cut up milk jug}

Another week went by and everything continued to grow as I kept the weeds and pests at bay. I didn't use any chemicals, just suggestions I found through google and  knowledgable friends.

I did my best to keep up with the watering, but as our summer schedules got busier it got more difficult. Thankfully we've had pretty cool weather so nothing scorched. Ben then set up some sprinklers on a timer thanks to some timers that his dad let us have. Now we're able to water the garden automatically at 5:30am every day. On particularly hot days I turn on the sprinklers for a bit in the afternoon or evening too.

About 6 weeks after planting our garden had filled the raised beds!

{towering tomatoes + climbing sugar snaps in the background. spreading pumpkin + squash up front}

A little over a week ago it became evident that my garden was trying to take over the world...

{those tomatoes have cages in there somewhere + the pumpkin is creeping into the yard}

I had my friend Jamie come over to look at my garden and give me some advice. She was so sweet to help me out. She advised me on how to contain my tomatoes and how to tell when things were ready to pick. 

{peas + maters}

The next day I went to work on tying up my tomatoes with the gardener's twine I had from the structure I made for the sugar snaps to climb. I weaved some of the smaller branches back in to the cages and tied the heavier ones to the cages. Then I tied them up around both plants a couple times for added support. I also trimmed some of the limbs that would have just snapped from the weight of the fruit anyway. I also harvested 50+ sugar snaps. It took me about 45 minutes which ended up being a rather large and lengthy pain in the back. Gardening while pregnant isn't easy!

Earlier this week I picked another 50 or so peas and spotted a pumpkin forming! I'll be picking all the carrots this weekend + planting more in their place.

I shared the sugar snaps with our extended family and will probably have enough to pick new ones at least once, if not twice more. Now I'm just waiting on the tomatoes to get big and red while I pray that bugs + birds don't get to them first! Any tips are greatly appreciated.

I wish I could say that growing our own food has inspired Malakai to eat more veggies...but it's just not true for us yet. He at least tastes them before spitting them out, we'll keep trying!

What's growing in your garden?

Happy Weekend everyone!

photo friday: snow + sun

The weather in Oregon is often described as mild. Truly we don't get many crazy storms and our temperatures are rarely at either extreme. What is not mild about the weather here is it's moodiness. Often, not just in the spring, it will be pouring down rain, then the sun will come out, then about 20 minutes later it will do something random like hail.

The last couple of days we have had snow. We rarely get snow, so it turns most of us adults into giddy children, or scary drives. Maybe both. On Wednesday night is started snowing here just after 10pm. Yesterday I took Kai out to play in it, but it wasn't enough to keep daddy home from work. Although all the local and surrounding schools were closed. ((snow day!))

By 11:30am a lot of the snow was gone and it looked kind of like this (but with even less snow)....

Beautiful, sunny, even a little bit warm if you were right in the suns rays. Then at 11:45am, I kid you not, it looked like this...

and I thought maybe Ben would have to head home early to make sure he didn't get stuck at work. It was sticking instantly, the wind was blowing tons of snow everywhere. Malakai + I watched it happen in a matter of minutes while we ate lunch. I anticipated that Ben would get to play in the snow with us after all, but then by the time I got Malakai down for his nap, about 12:20pm, it looked like this...

See, moody weather. It totally amazes me that it can change it's mind so quickly! By the time Ben got home around 4pm everything was gone but my mushball of a tiny snowman.


Then, last night, around 8:30pm I was sitting on the loveseat with my back to the window when Ben came in from the other room + whispered, "Look outside! Look outside, right now!" Not only was it snowing again, but it had been snowing long enough to accumulate an inch or two already. I LOVE surprise snow! It quite by about 9pm and I don't think it snowed again all night, but it stayed very cold and in the morning our yard looked like this again...

But it's just after 1pm and I bet you can guess what it looks like outside now. If you're thinking sunny and dry, you'd be right. What a strange, strange couple of days it has been. It has certainly kept me on my toes!







P.S. totally unrelated, but in case you missed it, Blabla Kids offered a discount to my readers until Feb. 28th. Just wanted to remind you before the deadline gets here!

Go Ducks!

Today is the National Championship Football Game. Eugene, Oregon is buzzing with activity and excitement for our University of Oregon Ducks.

{Kai's 1st UofO outfit, Oct. 2009}

Ben sent me the following tweet just a little while ago:

Before our move last March we lived on University Street. Obviously, we were right on campus. Our house was a short 6 blocks or so from Mac Court. It was convenient to be within walking or biking distance from where we were working at the time, and it was nice to have plenty of restaurants and other amenities. Once we were expecting Malakai, it started to become a nuisance. Our college aged neighbors were loud late into the night, the traffic on game days made it impossible to get anywhere. 

So, while we support the football team on their big day, we are so thankful to not be in the middle of what will surely be a wild + crazy night on campus.

Tonight we'll watch the game on the other side of town with some family. Dressed in our best green + yellow.  

{At the game, fall 2010}

{my fave of Kai's game day shirts, 2009}

We might even have to let Malakai stay up past his bedtime for this momentous occasion. Then we'll head home to our quiet (hopefully) cul-de-sac for a good night's rest to return to the regularness of tomorrow.

Go Ducks!

a golden afternoon

Yesterday after Malakai's nap we headed out to pick up daddy from work. I didn't realize it was raining until I walked out the front door because the sun was streaming so brightly in to the back of the house moments before.

As we hurried to the car Malakai kept saying "wah-der, wah-der!" He was so excited that he let me buckle him into the carseat without a struggle as he watched the thick drops hit the windows.

Once I started driving down our street I saw the brightest rainbow I'd ever seen. Living in the Willamette Valley where it often rains while it's sunny, we see a lot of rainbows. This one was so bright you couldn't even see through it like most. I tried to capture it on my cell phone, but was largely unsuccessful.

I found myself wishing I could capture the beauty of the rain with my camera without having to worry about the drops on the glass getting in the way. 

Besides the leaves, my favorite thing about fall is the golden afternoons. When the sun is starting to set and everything lights up with a warm glow. 

I still find myself staring at the simplicity of the changing weather. Clouds + sunshine come and go quickly around here. I drove through a heavy rain under a dark cloud for the first part of my drive and it had already moved further east by the time I picked up Ben. Just in time to let the sunset shine through a few thinner clouds. 

{angry rain clouds to the east, happy bright clouds to the west}

And because of the lovely end of daylight savings it got dark promptly at 5:30pm. 

Other than the colorful leaves, what else do you love about the fall?