It’s Instafriday!  I’m slightlycosmo on Instagram if you want to follow me.   My goodness…I hardly took any photos this week!  I also stayed in my jammies three days this week.  Somebody needs to find her mojo again!

This is Hobby Lobby.  Hobby Lobby, what happened?  You used to seem like such a sensible, practical store.  And now you display Christmas trees in August?  You had more aisles of Christmas stuff than you had of Halloween stuff!  I’m a big Christmas fanatic, but this is a little much.

A cousin recently eloped, and in celebration she and her new husband had a reception in Chicago.  We had a lovely dinner and took an evening river cruise to Lake Michigan.  It was absolutely beautiful!  My only regret was that Tahd couldn’t join me.  We just couldn’t figure out care for our children.  I needed to be able to nurse Isla (or at least pump, which wasn’t really practical on a boat), so he kept the kids, taking them to the Museum of Science and Industry for a Mythbusters exhibit and then going back to my sister’s house for the evening.  It worked really well, but I definitely missed having him there.

The evening skyline from the lake side.  Breathtaking!

It’s been a little bit of a gray week with some rain and a few thunderstorms.

Sleepy!

After a giant debit card fiasco in which the bank changed my pin number (but they insisted they didn’t), we spent some time at the bank troubleshooting our problem.  Gabe marched in with his book and promptly found a comfy chair for the duration.

Sleepy.  Again.

She fell asleep holding on.  I thought it was cute.

How cute are these?  I practically squealed when I found them!  They’re way too big for her now, but hopefully they’ll fit later this winter!

It’s Instafriday!  I’m slightlycosmo on Instagram if you want to follow me.   I was a little light on photos this week – I think I was a little burned out from all the vacation photos and the fact that right after we got home from vacation Tahd had to go on a work trip, leaving me home alone with the kiddos.

We went to Chicago to hang out with my sister for the day and stopped by an anthro for inspiration and fun.  Actually, this was Thursday but I didn’t process the picture until Friday, so I’ll say it counts! 🙂

Is she not THE cutest thing ever in her peasant shirt, jeggings, and metallic gladiator sandals?

Shoes…I think they were clearance shoes from Target?

Our town has this fantastic downtown area, and they have a special event on the first Friday evening of every month.  We love participating, and at this particular shop Gabe was making a little collage poem.  He also made a piece of art in repousse style at our museum.  I don’t really know what repousse is.  I just know I have a metallic picture of a snake hanging in my living room.

We went to the state fair and Gabe’s uncle won the basketball game and let Gabe pick the prize.  He picked this giant exercise ball dressed in a Sacramento cover since we’ve been to Sacramento.  I’m trying to convince myself it’s a good thing that we have another giant exercise ball…

Fun beige and glitter manicure!

If I do a really big open mouth smile at her she does it back.

And if I scrunch up my nose at the same time she does it, too.

Gabe was moving so much he seriously looks like an amputee here…

And the piece de resistance… remember when I left my Magnolia Bakery cupcakes on the tour bus in NYC?  Well, my parents just returned from a trip there and they surprised me with NEW CUPCAKES!!!  Oh my goodness – YUM!  I promptly inhaled two and then collapsed in a sugar coma.  It was delicious and long overdue!

Another week, another instafriday!  On Saturday!  I’m super timely. I’m slightlycosmo on Instagram if you want to follow me.

We went to our town’s monthly festival and I found a few super fun shops I didn’t know about before! I may need to go back for some fun accessories before we leave for our upcoming trip!

Hawking the hair!

She has figured out how to blow raspberries and loves it!  I love the face she makes while she does it!

Happy birthday, Tahd!  He and Isla slept in on his big day.

Cake!  Oh my goodness – it was so good!

Loving her blue eyes and wondering if they’ll stay blue or change.

He asks a lot to hold her.  They’re awfully cute together!

She got her very first cut – on the dishwasher, of all places!  I didn’t realize there was a sharp edge underneath!  🙁  Thankfully, she’s fine! I’m still a little traumatized, though!

In spite of the fact that we’ve been trying to do this for years, Monday was the first time we tried out our town’s splash pad.

We’re glad we finally did because it was super fun!  Next time I’m going to wear my swimsuit, too!

Lovelies!

Tuesday I went on another massive (and much needed) cleaning blitz.  This time I worked in the visible areas rather than just the storage areas.  It feels like a breath of fresh air in here.  Or at least it did.  We’ve been gone this week and dumped everything when we got home and now it looks a little crazy again.

Partly, I think I need cleaning blitzes because when I cook I end up making my kitchen look like this.  No joke.  It went from spotless to this in 2 hours.

Love this stretched out nap!

We took our first of two road trips this summer, this one a quick one to visit Tahd’s parents.  Arby’s proved to be a good pit stop to nurse a baby and get a little snack!

I keep hoping she’ll turn into a committed thumb sucker.  So far, no dice.  It’s only casual.  But cute.

I love waking up in the country!

Just sitting around!

One of my favorite things to do while visiting Tahd’s house is go for a run. The country roads are so beautiful!

Especially at sunset!

They made me wish I could run faster so I could cover more ground and see more scenery.

I like running in cities, too, but there’s nothing like the country.

It has its own special magic!

It’s (insta)friday.  Yay!  I’m playing along with Life Rearranged.  If you want to find me on Instagram I’m slightlycosmo.

Mom took my kids last Friday so I could have a chance to declutter in the house.  I spent most of my time in the basement storage area and pantry, taking out eight boxes for Goodwill and four bags of trash.  The sad thing?  That’s just (some of) the stuff from my storage area.  I still have SO much to do in the regular living areas and closets!

I emptied all of these totes!

Thankfully my mom has offered to take them another time and I’ll hopefully be able to tackle some of the more visible areas!

Tahd had been growing a full beard for a while.  He decided it was done last week, but when he shaves off his beards he does it in stages. I think he likes to torment me.  He started with a horseshoe moustache and giant chops for sideburns, but I forgot to get a picture of it.  Next we moved onto the above look.

Classic.

This was his third look.  It made me cry.  They were not happy tears.

I wish I had a picture of her whole dress – it’s so cute!  It’s way too fancy for anything we ever do – kind of like a full lace flapper dress.  I only bought it because it was on clearance at Baby Gap for $12.  Love me bargains.  Love me Baby Gap.

Win.

I’m also in love with the fabric in this dress. Purchased from the Gap Outlet for me.  Another win!

Here we are (in our dresses) trying to stay quiet during church.  Staying quiet is hard, hard work.

Out for a run – it was roasty toasty but I think I did a total of 3.5 miles!  That included a walking warm up/cool down and a 1/4 mile walk in the middle, but it’s the longest distance I’ve gone in few years, so it felt really good.

At Daddy’s softball double header on Monday.  They won!

Gabe asked me if he could climb into her crib with her (she wasn’t asleep).  After several years of me climbing into his crib with him I figured it couldn’t hurt!

So sweet!

I did another run, this time in 100 degree weather.

When I came home I promptly planted my hot self directly in front of our industrial strength fan.

Happy 4th!

Check us all out on our electronic devices!

We ran some errands yesterday. We haven’t mastered the “napping” thing yet, and she basically collapsed into sleep at Target.  We’ll get the hang of this sometime, right?