I love Isei!

The past few weeks Pen and I have been lucky enough to get to spend some quality time each week with our

friends Rebecca and Isei. We love swimming with them in the heated therapy pool at the YMCA in Ventura because it feels like a bathtub! This past Friday was super rainy so Isei came over and made sugar cookies. It was the perfect activity for a rainy day indoors. Penelope loves Isei so much and has so much fun hanging out with him. I don't think I ever see her laugh as much as she does than when she's with him!

Changing in the locker rooms

I guess they think nose picking is cool??

P loves Isei's kitchen

Making cookies this Friday

great job Isei!

YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY BABY!

 

You know some people say after babies start walking they are no longer babies--they have graduated into "toddlers," but P will always be a baby to me! Last week Penelope started taking her first steps all by her big girl self, but just recently she has taken some huge strides in her walking abilities...

 

Last night started like this

and by this morning she was doing THIS!

I better keep MY running shoes on too!

Celebrating with Eggs

This past President's Day we had a lot to celebrate... a birthday of a president and a birthday of our friend Jenny! We all went out for breakfast at Esau's Cafe on Chapala. This place is a perfect stop for greasy breakfast food in large portions (perfect hangover remedy). LOL

Happy Birthday Jenny!!!

A Royal Idea

I would love to do this with my stairs!

 I'm currently in the creative design process of revamping one of my upstairs bedrooms into both a playroom for Pen and an office. When we first moved in I was all about papering every square inch of the house, but I can't escape the ever lurking fear of having to one day painstakingly rip all that lovely (and expensive) paper down. So now my attention has turned to stencils! I stenciled Pen's last room at our old place and was surprised at how easy it was...
For this room I want to include a chair rail on the largest wall and paint the bottom portion with chalkboard paint. For the top I found a cute stencil (link here) http://www.royaldesignstudio.com/enlarged_photo.php?id=1677&view=1
I figure if the bottom part of the wall is gray this stencil design will look really cute in gray, yellow and white. I also have a floral rug in green and yellow which will tie in the rest of the room's kelly green accents nicely I think. I hope to get started soon and update with pics of the process, but for now check out these other great ideas from my fav stencil resource: royal design studio.

These walls have a paneled look done with a stencil. Very French, love it.

I heart this.

XOXOXO!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a blast playing cupid this V-day. Me and my lil Valenteeny Penelope made the rounds handing out these adorable boxes filled with chocolates for the adults and organic animal crackers for the kiddos.

Then we surprised James at the office with a box of chocolates from Sees
(I couldn't resist the tuxedo box!)

We also gave him a custom photo frame Valentine made by P herself,
next we stole him away for a Starbucks
and even did a little toy-shopping for Pen.

waiting for their lattes!

When I was little I was fascinated by snow globes
so I found this super sweet globe on etsy from the tiny tiara.
I thought this would make the perfect Valentine gift for P.

Pen's snowglobe from the Tiny Tiara

Happy Valentines Day everyone, many hugs kisses and chocolate.

Penelope is 15 months!

Penelope Pearl just turned 15 months old. It still blows my mind that we created this perfect little person. There is nothing better in this world than hearing her giggle, in fact we will sacrifice all personal self respect just to hear it! LOL I will have her new stats next week after her doctor's visit but just for a quick update on what she's up to these days: obsessed with her belly button and anyone else's, likes to mimic sounds I make (I caught her shushing me back yesterday when going down for her nap) and she loves to make the doggie sound "woof-woof", she also loves to take things completely out of containers and put them back in, she points at everything, signs for "all done", "more" and "hungry", and she has learned how to ride the slide ALL BY HER BIG SELF! Yay Penelope! She is growing up too fast. (sad face), but it sure is fun watching her!

She likes going through mommy's make up bag- Starting young?

Penelope sitting like a big girl while enjoying her snack at "Toddler Times"

Save time and money!

I have tried many dry hair shampoos, but this one takes the cake by a longshot.
It leaves your hair smelling great and costs less than five bucks
(when most cost more than $20)!
When you want your blowout to last a few more days
or if you don't have time to wash your hair at the gym-
or heck you just want a little extra volume try this stuff!