365 Photos in 365 Days: Week 29

 

The day before we left for California, Daniel's sweet cousin came to visit and brought her darling boy with her.  Isn't it wonderful how you gain a whole family when you get married?  I got lucky!

 

A little conversation between a girl and her Deda (her great-grandpa). 

What a difference from the Anni of last year who wouldn't dare jump off the edge of the pool.

 The reason we came to California... to celebrate Baba's 80th birthday!  It was a lovely celebration.

 After the party, we weren't sure if Anni would see her much-loved cousin again.  She cried the whole way back to the hotel, "But we love each other!  She's my cousin, and I'm hers, and we are each other's cousins!"  Well, the next morning, her family was able to make it to the same Mass as us... so the sweet cousins were briefly reunited.

Beach baby!  We found a sweet little beach called "Mother's Beach" where there are no waves, but lots of sand and water.  The girls loved it... we actually went there twice during our trip.

 Our farewell to  California.  We spent a few last hours at Deda and Baba's house, and then made the trip home to frantically get ready for my family's arrival in Colorado.

365 Photos in 365 Days: Week 28

The best way to get cooking done with little ones: let them help.  Definitely one of the slower ways as well, but we have so much fun when I drop the perfectionist in me.

 Happy Birthday to my love!  We picked him up at work and took him out for pizza and ice cream.  Oh, how my girls adore him!

Our apple trees are trucking along.  They may have fire blight, which is going to mean we might lose the trees or have some seriously expensive pruning to deal with this fall... but the apples will be okay, so we're going to enjoy this harvest as much as we can.

 

We drove up to Greeley to celebrate Daniel's birthday with his family... we always get the most beautiful sunsets over the mountains when we drive home from there.

An iphone photo for today... we spent the whole day picking out a bed (so we could move our old one down to the guestroom) and a new sink/vanity (for our molded-out basement bathroom).  It was exhausting... but so good to get it all done.

Monday we had some wonderful friends come visit.  Sweet little friends for my girls are worth their weight in gold!

"Toes, toes!"  Colette cracks up when I go after her little toes with mine.  This day was filled with getting ready for our California adventure!

365 Photos in 365 Days: Week 27

 My husband has been playing piano since he was Anni's age.  Oftentimes, he gets the girls ready for bed while I work, and if they finish a little early, I'll hear piano music drifting down the stairs. 

Just a cheesy grin for you... this girl is full of them!

 Oh, so, determined.  I don't think she actually finished climbing this, but her confidence at the playground has grown a hundred fold in the past year.

Peek-a-boo!

  

I know in 10 years, she will look like a baby in this photo, but right now, she looks so grown up!

 

First trip of the summer to our local splash park!  Colette was so intent on filling her little bucket up.  I did discover; however, she definitely doesn't fit in that 18 mo suit... time to dig out the 12 month one!

 

 A little kitchen dance party yesterday.  I love their wild hair and that looks Colette is giving her big sister. 

Radiantly You Review

Today we're going to talk a little Radiantly You.  When the company first starting showing up in my newsfeed, I was a little iffy.  Yes, I like my crunchy, all-natural stuff, but I like it to work, and it takes me awhile to convert from my routine. However, a fellow FOCUS wife, Kjersti, was selling it, and because I trusted her, and was pretty excited by her posts and the fact that everything includes very few, but high quality ingredients, I decided to give it a try.  The first round I bought myself some face wash and moisturizer, as I was just about out of both of my "old" bottles of each.  The first thing I really enjoyed was that they cost me equal or less than my previous kinds (I'm not that picky, so the old ones weren't anything super ritzy either).  I absolutely love the face wash, my friends.  In fact, I'm so behind on getting this review done, that the jar is just about down to it's last swipes, and a new order will need to be made.  So, yes, the fact that I actually liked it enough to get another jar = pretty excellent for me.  I'm not as big of a fan of the moisturizer, mostly because I don't love the smell.  However; I did see that they actually reformulated it and added just a touch of lavender, so I have high hopes for the future.

Next, here's my disclaimer.  I did receive some counter spray and tub scrub in exchange for this review.  I'm going to start with the counter spray, because I think it's my absolute favorite.  Before this, I was using a vinegar and water spray for a lot of my cleaning.  The first time I got it, I cleaned everything I could my hands on with it (bathroom counter, sink, table, everything in the kitchen... you get the idea).  That night, Anni was playing with it in the bathroom and spilled 90% of what was left on the bathroom floor.  Major bummer. On the plus side, there was nothing in it that could hurt her, annnnd our bathroom floor was quite sparkly clean.  

I have just a bit of show and tell on this one.  The main thing I wanted to try this out on was our table.  It gets super crusty (especially where the littles sit) more than three times a day, and my trusty vinegar ended up requiring a lot of elbow grease.  With very little effort, my grungy little table went from:

to:

Good stuff.  It has also been excellent for the drips of waffle batter on our kitchen counters.  After the incident where most of it ended up on the floor, I hopped on the computer to see if we could afford some more.  Yep, only $3.50 for a bottle of the concentrate... and once you have the spray bottle (which they actually just revamped, it looks like), you just pour, add water, and oi-la.  Definitely affordable, especially for the elbow grease it saves me.  And, again, I really like that I don't have to stress about the girls eating off the table (because we all know plates are optional when you're little).  The only downside is there is a shipping fee, so I do try to gather up and make larger orders to disperse the cost a little.

Next was the tub scrub.  I have a couple before and afters for this as well; though, they are a little harder to see with the white tubs.  Suffice to say, our bathtub needed a really good scrub.  Our bath mat had left some weird spots and we definitely had that tub ring (don't judge! these things happen), and, well, it was just looking yucky.  These photos are a little harder to see, with the white on white, but it's there.

 

So much better!  It's an old tub, so there are definitely some spots that may never come out, but this stuff is good, and, again, I love that I don't have to stress so much about the girls taking a bath after I've scrubbed it, or feeling like I have to triple scrub out the more chemical-laden cleaners.

My next foray will be into the world of the shampoo bars.  That; however, requires a bit of a detox from all of the old stuff... so it will have to wait until all the traveling is done this summer!  Oh!  I also saw that they have bug spray... definitely may need to be on my list for next time as well.

To summarize:

No nasty chemicals, it works, it's actually affordable (that one still blows my mind a little after previous adventures in organic cleaners and soaps), and you should probably go check it out yourself and buy some from Kjersti.   

The (weekend of the) Fourth

We started the party Thursday night, with some of our favorite friends and pizza on the grill.  This weekend was filled with family, friends, and lots and lots of activity.  My introverted side is ready for a cocoon, but the memories, and my sweet girls' smiles and flushed cheeks are so worth the weariness at the end of it all.

I love to have the girls all in matching jammies, sweetly cleaned up for bed.  Matching doesn't mean as much to my darling, and yet, they are still just as, if not more, adorable in his choices.

The fourth dawned, and my sweet girls got all stars-and-striped up, thanks to their Nonna's gifts of very American getups.  

Of course, getting dressed was quickly followed by playing with the hose and getting hilariously soaked.

Then came the: sit around half-naked until your clothes dry part of the day.  Anni's clothes had an extended wash and dry cycle after Colette spilled some water on her tray, and proceeded to grab the closest item (Anni's nearly dry dress) to mop it up.  Never boring around here, my friends!

Once everyone was washed, dried, and put back together, we trekked out to the park with my in-laws.  Anni rode her bike the whole way there... how in the world could she be so big?!

We headed back home just as the rain drops began to fall, and the men set the grill up in the entrance of the garage and proceeded to cook us a fantastic meal. 

 

That night, we went to see fireworks.  Anni has been talking about them since we went to the 3rd of July show in Denver last year (she loved it, it was fantastic).  This year, we went to a smaller show near us, and Anni, as she put it, "really didn't like it."  We weren't as close (some trees hid them from view), they were loud (not as loud as last year, but apparently it got to her more this year... at which point I kicked myself for not getting something to protect their little ears... don't worry, already ordered so we have them next time), and near the end, she desperately had to go potty, at which point she started shouting to everyone as we ran to the porta-potties "Help me!  Anyone, help me! I don't like it, I don't like it!"  Ah, well.  She has already admitted she wants to try again next year, and, while she didn't love it, Colette was absolutely enthralled.  All I have is the terrible photo below (we weren't close enough to get light from the show like last year), but oh, goodness.  She ooh'ed and ah'ed along with everyone else, and pointed, and giggled, and just generally had a blast.
  

The next day, we all headed to a Rockies game.  Here, Anni was as cute as possible as she cheered for our team, "GO Charlie!  You can do it!  Trust me!" and talked smack to the Dodgers, "Get out!  Go home and sit in your own seats!"  Ah, my baseball loving in-laws were so proud!  Colette mostly was passed from lap to lap and seat to seat and ran around with me in the air-conditioned food area. It was a bit long for this non-sports-lover, but I'm really glad we went.

Then, to round out our weekend, we went to bid adieu to one of the awesome digital campus missionaries that Daniel has worked with for the next two years.  He is headed off to join the Dominican order (you can find his bio here, he is "Jeff"), and while Daniel is really going to miss the joy he's brought to the office, we're so excited for his future!