11.27.2013

Insta Fall + Happy Thanksgiving

 I am so excited tomorrow is Thanksgiving. 
It is one of my favorite holidays!
(Who am I kidding....I pretty much love every holiday!)

I haven't done an Instagram phone dump in awhile, so here is our Fall so far through my phone.

November is so, so, so pretty in Nor Cal. That is when Fall really shows up.
 
Wine, Ben & Jerrys and a Chick Flick. Gotta love a Girls Night In.
 It has only rained a few times this Fall. We need more rain!
 Fall means Pumpkin Bread every week. Recipe {HERE}
 We have had such warm weather this Fall. All the kids on our court have been playing outside after school. Kiddos ages 2 thru 13, playing tag, riding bikes/scooters & climbing trees together. I know I have said this before, but I LOVE where we live.
 Kate had a birthday party at the Roller Skating Rink. Her first time skating. How cute is the pipe helper? Totally helped out Kate.
 I had a girls weekend in San Fran with 3 of the girls on my court (told you I LOVE where I live!)
We set up some cheese/wine by the firepit at our hotel.
Cocktails before dinner. I love lemon drops :)
We went to dinner at The Stinking Rose....can you say GARLIC?
 SUCH a FUN night. Can't wait for our next girls weekend!
 View from our hotel room. Can't complain.
 We went wine tasting with Kevin's co-worker & his wife (Hi Brendan & Emily!) 
So much fun.
 
Kristi Yamaguchi had a book signing at our library for her new children's book. So cute!

 I also got to hear Bethany Hamilton speak at a Teen Esteem Event. She is a doll!
 The day Luke turned 14 months old, we got the hosptial bill from his birth. UGH. So annoying. 
14 months later?!?!? Really?!?!? Thankful for insurance, we only have to pay $1500 of an over $25,000 bill. Yikes.
 
 Like Father, Like Son. 
I am kind of obsessed with Brussel Sprouts. Roast them with some Balsamic in the oven. Ahhh. So good!
This kid is into EVERYTHING. Including getting into my spice rack. ALL THE TIME.
 The fall colors have been so pretty lately, that I have been taking the kids on leaf hunts to view all the pretty leaves.
The Japaneese Maple in our front yard is slowly starting to turn. It's the last one on our court to change color. 4 of our neighbors have the same tree & theirs have been orange/red for weeks. Every year ours is the last & changes slowly. I love it.
 The night we had our family photo shoot, Kevin & I had a date night since we were all dressed up!
 Surprise, Surprise, I had a lemon drop ;)
 I've mentioned it a few times before, but I am part of the Hormel Foods Extended Family Preferred Blogger Program.
What does that mean? They send me stuff  to review!
They sent me a few salsas this month. Can't WAIT to share one of my go-to Fall/Winter recipes with you next month using Salsa.

Luke has been getting his 4 K-9 teeth for the past month. These are teeth 13-16 for him.
He was an amazing teether with the first 12 teeth. These ones? KILLING Me.
It's like having a newborn again. He wakes up every night crying because of his teeth. 
So, either Kevin and I take him downstairs & give him a cheese stick to gnaw on. 
The cold cheese helps his teeth. Then we put him back to bed. UGH. I want my good sleeper back!!!
 
 I had my Rodan + Fields launch last week. I made my favorite Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Caramel Bars. YUM. Need to blog the recipe.
 I don't have any photos from my launch party, but it was FUN! 
I had about 18 girls from my school over to hear about Rodan + Fields and to check out the products.

If you want to buy some products, click HERE
 And, if you do want to buy products, I HIGHLY recommend signing up for PC Perks.
It is a one time fee of $19.95 and you get 10% off AND FREE shipping on all your orders.
You can sign up for PC Perks HERE.

 I have only been doing this little business for a couple weeks and it has been so fun!
My team is growing! If you are interested in joining my team and earning a some extra spending money each month, send me an email:
melissa_larson17(at)yahoo.com

Last week I did a quick photo shoot for my sister & her little family.
How cute is Jack? He was born 6 weeks after Luke. 
I have had so much fun photographing him the past 14 months. 
This is my new favorite photo of him:
 Family Fall bike rides to dinner:
 My college roommate, her husband  & their 7 month old baby girl came to stay with us over the weekend. They flew in from Boston (she is a professor at Harvard). We haven't seen them since last November when they came to visit. We had so much fun!
 When we have guests over, I make Monkey Bread. 
(I also make it every Christmas morning)
Recipe {HERE}

 We have been having a mellow week at home enjoying the week off school for Thanksgiving Break. We stayed in our jammies until noon everyday this week.
Love this kid.

Reason #786 I love Nordstrom:
I also love you because of THESE cute boots I just got.
Wearing them tomorrow on Thanksgiving!
Nordstrom is also having a huge online Thanksgiving sale right now, check it out here!

Speaking of shopping, I am  LOVING all the dresses at Loft right now. 

We have 3 Christmas parties this year. 
So, I ordered 3 dresses from Loft because they are having a HUGE sale right now.
{ThisThis  and This} Can't wait for them to arrive. Hope they fit!
Today, you can save 40% off all your purchases at Loft! Score!
Click HERE to shop!

And, speaking of Christmas, my girls know about my "No Christmas before Thanksgiving Rule"
Yesterday, they asked to watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. 
Then, they were acting very sneaky & said they wanted to put it in DVD.
Well, they really put in Charlie Brown Christmas. 
They thought they were SO funny. 
And, of course I let them watch it...some rules are allowed to be broken :)
 
FYI:
We are going to postpone December Pinspired....too much Holiday craziness.
 But, we will be back in January.
Mark your calendars for January 3rd for the next Pin-Spired Link Up!

Hope you & your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 
I am so thankful for such awesome blog readers like you!

11.26.2013

Jack Jack's Incredible 1st Birthday

I've been meaning to post about my nephew Jack's 1st birthday party 
that  helped my sister with.

She decided to do an Incredibles theme because her son Jack, is often called Jack Jack, just like the movie!

Here is the invite that I made (I changed the Incredibles i into a j)
{Invite available HERE}

I love making these 12 photo invites. I made the same style for Luke's 1st Birthday, Claire's 1st Birthday & Kate's 1st Birthday!

My sister had planned on having Jack's 1st birthday at a local park. 
But, then the morning of the party, it started dumping rain.
Of course it was the only time it rained this Fall. 
My sister wasn't sure what to do, so Kevin and I offered to have the party at our house.
I had the yellow lanterns up still and then just added the red ones I had from Luke's Nautical Party.
(It was the weekend after Claire's Tangled Party and I still had all the yellow streamers up throughout our house, so that worked out well!)

 Dessert Table:
I made a photo banner & a Jack Jack Banner:
One of their friends works at Pixar, so they got the movie poster. Isn't it awesome?
 I made some cupcake toppers:
The food table:

The rain stopped just in time for Jack to have his cake outside :)
Time for cake!
 He was not a fan of the cake. He would only take 1 bite.

 Happy 1st Birthday, Jack Jack! 
We had so much fun at your party!
 +++++++++++
If you didn't see, the winner of the $400 Black Friday Giveaway was chosen!
Check it out HERE!

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