Miss Personality

Miss Personality describes Kendall to a tee!

She is full of sass, I mean a lot of sass, stubbornness that's cute (most of the time), so silly I mean she can make me laugh multiple times a day and so incredibly loving.  I wish there was a freeze button, so I could enjoy her little silliness and sassy self.  Freeze time so she'd always want snuggle with me and think I'm cool, cause we all now in a couple years I wont be as cool as she thinks I am now!  I ask her everyday how she gets so cute and she tells me, from me...mom heart melted. 

 

Taking pictures is a way for me to freeze those special memories and all those little moments I never want to forget.  My older girls could care less about taking pictures but I still make them take some for me so that I have those memories and cause you can never have to many pictures of your kids plastered all over your walls.  But Kendall she loves to be in front of the camera which I love cause I love taking pictures, we turn on some music and she rocks out while I snap away, which always turn out to be some of the best pictures of her. 

 

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It has been raining like cats and dogs here in CA for the past 2 weeks, its crazy!  The flooding and really high winds has left us with a little bit of cabin fever!  So when we had a small break in the rain her headed outside for a little dance party and to get some fresh air.  Even just heading outside in your own front yard can be like a little vacay when you've been cooped up.

 

 With all this rain and crazy winds I am totally excited to be heading to Hawaii with my love in 19 days.  Oh it's going to be so amazing, so relaxing and so much fun.  If you've been to Kona, HI let me know of some good places to eat or visit.  I will miss the girls terribly, they will be staying with Jason's parents for that time.  They are going to have a blast with them but I'll miss them like crazy, this trip will be the second time we've been away from them for this long.  Anyone else excited to go on vacations with there husband but know as soon as they leave they will miss those kiddos like crazy, yeah me too, I'm already feeling that way.

 



Toddler/Kid App Review: Kidlo Land

* I was given the app for 6 months free in return for review, all opinions are mine!

If your kids are anything like mine then they like to play on the IPad.

My kids are allowed to play 30 minutes of IPad time a day, as long as they are good, there homework is done and there rooms are cleaned up.  We have 2 IPads, which can turn into a fight with having 3 kids but they do pretty darn good about sharing.  On our IPads you'll find educational games, we don't allow to many other games to be added that aren't at least teaching them something.

When Kidlo Land reached out and asked if we wanted to try there toddler/preschool age app for 6 months, I had to say yes.  With Kendall being home I try and do some tot school with her two or three times a week, for about 30 minutes.  I knew incorporating this app into our tot school would not only help this mama out but would also help her out in the process.  Its fun, colorful, musical and all things to keep kids interested while also learning, which is key for any toddler with the attention span of 5 seconds.  She can also play the app when we aren't doing tot school as well.

Since starting the app she has learned lots of new rhyming songs, letters, numbers, a little bit of adding, color sorting, matching and so much more.  I would totally recommend this app.  This app is the top preschool app for kids 5 and under (although my older girls play with it and love it as well), it includes nursery rhymes, abc's, phonics, stories, games, activities, colors, animals, etc.  They recently won Mom's Choice Gold Award, which for this mom who doesn't like to much IPad time thinks its awesome. 

I love that with this app you can download certain content that can be used without wifi , which is perfect for those long road trips, doctor office visits where you know you'll be there for awhile or long walks through Target when you want your kid to behave and walk around in silence (moms you know what I'm talking about!) 

If you want to try this app out here are the links

Download for IOS

Google Play Download

Amazon Appstore

The Kidlo Land app is free to download, and the free content is good but if you want the full version of the app you need to purchase a subscription.  The subscription to the games gives you full access to many more nursery rhymes, games and songs.  It really is a great app for toddlers and totally would recommend it. 



Catching little moments

The big girls are back at there first week of school after winter break.  As one of my goals for 2017 is to spend one on one time with each of the girls, its also to catch little moments of them, capturing those uninterrupted, not staged pictures of them.  I want to look back and remember there innocence, the natural expressions on there face and them just being them! 

 

 

As a mom watching your kids grow brings so much joy but also so much sadness, sadness because they are only this small for a short time.  I absolutely love watching them learn, discover & experience new things.   But as they grow older I miss that some of those things they did when they were little they may not do as they get older. I love that Kendall is my snuggle bug and when the day comes that she doesn't want to lay on me cause she's too big for that that's the day that my heart will break a little bit.  I don't want to miss any moments with them, which is probably why they aren't ever away from me for more than 24 hours.   Even though some days they drive me bad shit crazy, I wouldn't change this thing called motherhood for nothing!

 

When I hear people say "you better watch out, those girls are gonna be heart breakers" I cringe, not because I don't agree with them but because I don't want to think about my girls dating or having to think that someday they might get there hearts broken.  I don't want them to go through any type of pain, I know every parent feels this way about there kids.  I just want to bottle them up and keep them this small.  I know I cant slow time down, so Ill just enjoy these girls while there little cause they don't stay this small for long!

 

 

 

So on top of my photo of the girls each week, I'm also working on taking more lifestyle photos of the girls around the house or out, just being kids!  The animals might get thrown in there from time to time, you cant leave them out, there like our kids too.



Little Mama

Since I can remember Kendall has had a love for baby dolls.  Timehop likes to remind me each year that on her birthday when we go to the store to pick something out for her birthday, she always picks a new baby.  This girl has been obsessed with babies since her first birthday.  And that obsession hasn't went away,  its now gotten to us to her new baby, who she calls Ella (the one sitting in the high chair).  For Christmas she got a gift card to Target, she spent her money on new baby clothes (real baby clothes on clearance) and swaddle blankets.  Each morning her and her baby get up and eat breakfast together, they then get dressed for the day and either play or watch cartoons.  This baby has become part of her everyday life.  It is the cutest thing to watch her with the doll. 

She's the best little mama around, she treats her baby like a real baby.  She's so tender and delicate with them.  She rocks it like a real baby and it gets swaddled each night and tucked into bed with her.  I hope she never loses that motherly side of her and the wonder and imagination while playing with her babies.  I don't think her obsession with babies will end anytime soon, she's already asking for a brother for Ella, a new crib, stroller and more clothes.

Also if you know where I can find a good wood doll bed & wood stroller (that aren't super expensive) please let me know!  Thanks

 Kitchen: COSTCO / can food: HOME GOODS

Baby doll: WALMART / Beanie: CRAZY 8

Felt Breakfast: TARGET DOLLAR SPOT / High Chair: AMAZON



Cheers to 2017 & goals for the year

Happy New Year!

 

2017 you've come so fast, 2016 seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye.  There was so much to be thankful for in 2016, I celebrated turning 32, we spent our annual week at the beach, we celebrated Kaylee turning 7 with a donut party, daddy celebrated a birthday, we bought a house, we went on some camping trips, we celebrated Keira & Kendall's joint birthday with a kitty party and celebrated 4 Christmas' with family.  We did ring in the New Year with 2 family members sick, but here's hoping 2017 is the year of good health and happiness.

 

 

I am proud of how far I've come in my photography, I want to keep going with it and be able to learn more.  I want to be able to photograph some families or littles this year.  I don't know if I'm ready to make a full on go with putting myself out there as a photographer, I feel like I want to learn a little more first, my kids are the perfect practice.  I'm so happy that I was able to finish our #jesssistersproject52, where I took a picture of them each week for a whole year.  I've attempted the 365 challenge and the 52 week challenge in the past and never quit finished them, so I'm glad to say I was able to finish one.  Plus it's really fun to look back on the them.  I will be getting them made into a chatbook so we can look back on them when ever we want.

 

 

This year I hope to spend more one on one time with each of girls.  I get to spend one on one time with Kendall because the big girls are in school, so I hope to have more mommy / daughter dates with them.  I want to have that special bond with each of them.  Being a mom and splitting time between the 3 of them is hard but I want to make that a priority this year.

 

 

Our plan for the new year is to go on more family trips.  We want to go camping in our trailer once a month to new places.  For the girls to be able to look back on the all the fun adventures we had would be awesome.  The hubby and I are finally taking our honeymoon/anniversary in February to Hawaii, which I am totally excited about.  I haven't been since I graduated high school in 2002.  So here's to more family time and fun memories to be had.

 

 

For more date nights with this guy.  I love that on Friday nights when the girls go to there grandparents to spend the night that me and this guy get to spend one on one time together.  We tend to talk about the kids most of the time but hey what parents don't.  I want our relationship to continue to grow and our love to grow deeper.  We've been together since 2002 and our relationship has changed since then but I never want our love to fade, so we do have to work on keeping the spark alive and not falling into a rut.  I love this guy more than anything and all the hard work he does for our family.

 

 

And finally to continue working with small shops & some big ones.  We have loved working with small shops on instagram, watching there shops grow and knowing that you were apart of that.  We have been repping for 2 years now and have loved every minute of it.  Being able to also be apart of some big name shops like Skechers, Kent Bicycles & Crazy 8 have been amazing and we are so happy to continue working with them into 2017.  Thank you to all the small shops we rep for and to the big name brands that have brought us in, we love you all!

 

I'm sure as the year goes on we'll be adding to our goals and things we want to do but for now we'll start with these!  Hope everyone had an amazing New Year!