Hermit Crabs

A couple week ago my dear sister in law gave my kids some Hermit Crabs for Olivers birthday. I never even knew you could have a crab as a pet. Apparently you can get them the the pet store and they come all painted like this. So cute don't you think? Well at least when they stay inside the shell. Eeee, they kind of creep me out. Lily insisted that hers slept in her room with her... A couple hours later she came down and said she could hear her crab moving around a lot and it was scaring her. So we moved it down stairs :). The kids sure had fun with them though. They held them, cared for them, and even had races with them. The pink one proved to be a winner. Oliver grew quite attached to his until one day the little crab got sick of him constantly poking at him when he was inside his shell. So he gave Olly a nice hard pinch on his finger. That taught him :). The excitement lasted about a week and they soon forgot about the poor little things. As a result we sadly lost poor Amy (the pink one). So we decided to give her a proper barrial. But first we had to see what she looked like outside of her shell.   Dear Amy, you brought us so much joy for the entire 8 days you were with us. We will never forget your creepy little eyes and your scratchy legs that kept us all on our toes, literally. Rest In Peace dear Amy, you will be missed. All in all it was a great little lesson for the kids. Helped them learn the value of taking responsibility for their own pets and the consequences if they didn't.

Family Pictures

Getting family pictures is always such an ordeal especially with small children. First you've got to pick the location, then decide on a wardrobe color scheme. You've got to pick the best time of day which is sunrise or sunset. We go with sunrise of course :)... I'm kidding. I don't even know the last time I saw a sunrise. I'm definitely not a morning person. Anyway, so then you've got to get everyone ready and make it to the location before it gets too dark. And the kids all have to be well fed and in a good mood of course. Good luck with that one.

So last night we attempted this yet again. We were rushing out the door hoping to catch the sunset. Oliver had food all over his face, dirt on his pants and hair was a mess. As I'm chasing him around with comb in hand, Brooklyn's crying because she's hungry, tired and needed a diaper change. Lily was complaining about her shoes not fitting right. Sean was on a phone call (work related), and I'm sweating like a pig running around trying to make it all happen.

We get to the place, set up the tripod and timer and away we went...

of course it's not possible to get one where everyone's looking at the camera...

or smiling.

We got all kinds of fun ones though.

Some muscle man pictures.



One with the kids and their grandparents. Love this one.





We got the cheesy smile ones...



The bad angle ones. You know as a women, you've got to be standing just right in order to look your thinnest :). Gotta love the ones that make you look 50 lbs heavier.

Then you get the ones that are just right. Not trying to brag, but I did like how the wind blew my hair just at the right moment and the lighting was just perfect. Then of course I was standing at the right angle covering up all my extra post pregnancy curves I've got goin on. Sean keeps telling me he likes me with a little extra junk in the trunk so I guess that makes me feel better.

Here's Sean doing his famous cover boy pose. We could all learn a little somethin from this guy. Look how he puckers his lips ever so slightly and uses his soft bedroom eyes to top it all off. Utter perfection!



We captured a sweet "mother with her kids" picture. With Oliver picking his nose, Brooklyn looking like she has gas and Lily getting impatient with all the picture taking. Turned out just about right.



Oh now here is another great one by Mr. Sean Escobar himself. Wow! Is all I can say. Just WOW!





This one I'm definitely framing!





Adorable father son picture. Absolutely LOOOOOVE this one. This pretty much sums up their relationship. Oliver couldn't be happier than when he's just hanging out with his dad.

And of course we had to through in a couple lovey dovey ones.

I took all these pictures with my very own camera. One of my goals this year is to get better at photography so I can take great pics of my own family. I have the Canon T3i and I LOVE it! We used a cheap walmart tripod this time because I forgot mine back in SLC (we took these pics in St. George if you couldn't tell). I used a couple different photoshop actions I bought from Pure Photography & Design and some free ones I got from the Pioneer Women. Also I use Photoshop Elements which is the cheaper easier version of photoshop.

Comfy Mom Shoes

One things for sure. My high heel shoes I used to ALWAYS wear are a thing of the past. I went from these ridiculously high stilettos...

To a slight decline...



To a small platform shoe...

To a barely there heel...



Until finally deciding that I just can't do heels anymore. I mean how in the heck can I wear heels when I've got a baby attached to my hip and I'm constantly chasing around a 3 year old.

So I've learned to love flats :) Here are a few of the pairs I bought recently.



Funny thing about these shoes is I was searching for Tom's on Amazon and I accidentally searched for Bob's instead, haha. I never knew there were such a brand, but these ones came up and I just LOVED them, so I bought them right away. I'm kind of an Amazon fan if you haven't noticed. I signed up for Prime which means you pay something like $80 a year and you can get everything free 2 day shipping. It really comes in handy because you can pretty much find anything on Amazon. I buy school supplies, clothes, jewelry, shoes, toys, craft supplies, books of course and even some foods. It's nice when you've got kids and you don't always want to make that dreadful trip to the store. It comes right to my front door :)

I got these from Target.





And I absolutely LOVE my new crochet Toms!!! They are by far my favorite shoes. So cute and SOOOO comfy which is really the most important to me these days.

I got these ones on Amazon too.

And these cute yellow ones from Modcloth.

So there ya go. A few cute and comfy shoes for all you moms :)

Placenta Encapsulation

I've been meaning to do a follow up post on my placenta encapsulation. People have been asking me if I noticed a difference. The answer is YES!

I felt surprisingly good after having a baby. Healed up fast, no post partum, energy was great and bleeding was minimal. The biggest difference I noticed is how nice my hair is. Usually about this time I start losing a ton of hair. Right now my hair feels fuller and healthier than ever, not to mention LONGER. Usually I'm wearing extensions to try to make up for the dramatic hair loss. So I'm pretty excited about that! Here's a quick picture I tried taking of my hair.

Now I'm not sure if the placenta pills could have any affect on baby, but Brooklyn is by far my easiest. She pretty much slept through the night since birth. How amazing is that? Could possibly have something to do with delivering her naturally, I'd like to think so anyway :). She's just so pleasant and happy ALL the time. I've enjoyed this new born stage more than I ever have in the past. All I can remember with Lily and Oliver as new borns is that I was EXHAUSTED!!!! Being sleep deprived sure clouds the whole experience.

Another thing I've noticed is that Brooklyn is incredibly alert at only 3 months. She's already grabbing things and putting them in her mouth. It's amazing to see!

One more thing that we've done differently this time around is avoided vaccines. Now I know a lot of you out there might think I'm crazy or a horrible mother, but trust me, we've made this decision after doing extensive research. We aren't against them all together, we do plan to do them eventually. We're following Dr. Mercola's plan which suggests you wait until the child is 2 years old before starting. Also, we will have her get one at a time instead of getting multiple shots all in one visit. Read Dr. Mercola's article HERE.

St. Patricks Day Fun

We had a fun filled weekend down in St. George celebrating birthday's and St. Patricks Day. We had some friends over, my in-laws and my mom here.

We all wore our green...

I tried to make a clover in Lily's hair but it didn't turn out as cute as the one I saw on Pinterest. She didn't like the way it looked either so she made me take some of it out.

We added a little St. Patty's day flare around the house...

Lily and I made a rainbow fruit plate with a pot of gold at the end...

We had a REAL Irish meal with corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes. My mother in law did all the cooking and it was AMAZING!!! She's an incredible cook!

Made a yummy green jello dessert. Just mixed up some instant pistachio pudding, mixed in some marshmellows, canned pineapple, and cool whip. SO yummy!

Enjoyed great company.

Here's my mom with Brooklyn.

We sang Happy Birthday to Oliver.

Then I made everyone sing Happy Birthday to me :)

After everyone left we set up a Leprechaun trap with the kids.

The Leprechaun was supposed try to go inside to get his pot of gold. He would then step on the popsicle stick which would cause the door to slam shut trapping him inside. This is my first year actually doing something fun for St. Patricks day so the kids were pretty excited about this. Lately Oliver has been waking up every morning at 5am and coming into our bed. We told him that if he wanted to catch the Leprechaun he had to stay in his bed ALL night. It actually worked!!! Now if only we could come up with something every night to keep him in his bed.

The next morning the kids woke up all excited to see if their trap worked.

I guess Lenny the Leprechaun really had to pee (we used green food coloring in the water, and green washable paint for the foot prints, make your hand into a fist and put the paint on the pinky side of your hand, then use your fingers to make the toes).

Unfortunately Lenny the Leprechaun was too fast. He got away but left a note and some magic potion for the kids. The potion (green koolaid and sugar) would bring them good luck, but grown ups aren't aloud to drink it because something strange would happen if they did.

Then later that day we had a delicious Shamrock Shake, my own healthy version of one anyway.

• Fresh Pineapple
• Spinach
• Silk Coconut Milk
• Banana
• Green Apple
• Ice