work it kennedy: cardigans

When Holly asked if I wanted to look through the 6 month size bin of Addie's hand-me-downs, I had a few things in mind to borrow: onesies, sleepers, maybe a few rompers or cotton summer dresses.  Practical stuff.  Then I opened the bin.

I kept pulling out cardigan after cardigan.  Gorgeous little baby cardigans in every color of the rainbow.  Many of them hand knit, some with detailed embroidery.  And most of them never worn.  So I left her house with a few onesies, one sleeper, four pairs of patent baby shoes, and seven cardigans.  I have no self control.




Kennedy is wearing:
Pants and shirt: hand-me-down
Cardigan: hand-me-down Cakewalk
Shoes: thrifted by Mor Mor
Headband: DIY'd by me

a home

I am not a decorator.  While I like to claim that I am a lover of art and design (mostly of the clothing-type variety), home decor just has never done it for me.  As long as my house was clean and tidy, I never really cared about how it was decorated.

Then I became a stay-at-home-mom.

I realized that I never cared about how my house looked because I was never there.  I worked all day, and we went out of town on the weekends probably 50% of the time.  I suddenly had to stare at the space that I had created 15 hours a day.  As I spent day after day in our apartment, I realized the following:

1. Our apartment gets no sunlight.  We are on the bottom floor of a building, and there is a deck above our only light source.

2. The neutral "beach theme" worked when we lived on the beach.  Now that we were in an apartment with neutral walls and no architectural beauty, it was just drab and dull.

3. We have an incredible patio with so much potential.

I'll be honest; I found our apartment to be downright depressing.  Something had to be done.  

Of course, we have no money for this.  We certainly didn't budget to redecorate our living room any time soon, so I went to Pinterest to try to figure out what we could do on the cheap.

Here's what we did:

Step 1: Go green.  My mom and I went to Lowes where she bought me a house plant and some plants for the patio.  It's amazing how much a house plant brightens up a room.  I also made a commitment to myself to always have fresh flowers on our dining room table.

Step 2: Let there be light.  We got rid of the vertical blinds on our sliding glass doors!  The vertical blinds were not only an eyesore, they also prevented any light from coming through into the living room.  My mom and Cliff bought us sheer curtains from Ikea that we put up instead.  Now we can have privacy while also gaining what little light comes through to our patio.  And they look so much cuter!


Step 3: A DIY.  My mom gave us a blank canvas that she had in the garage, some old frames, and lent us her paint.  We decided to do a chevron design on the canvas and paint the frames a shabby chic style blue.  Word of advice.  Two engineers + geometric design = longest project ever.  Don't attempt this if you are married to a perfectionist.  I have to say though, we have some dang perfect chevrons.  As for the frames, I haven't figured out what I want to put in them.


Step 4: Fung shui.  My mom helped me move around our furniture to make the room cozier.  We put the couch at an angle in the corner and put a table behind it.  I love the way it makes the room feel.  The couch now faces the light from the sliding glass doors instead of the tv wall.

Step 5: A splurge.  Wouldn't you know it?  The month that we were working on all this, Doug received an award at work (go Doug!)  This award came with cash!  We decided to spend $150 on room upgrades.  We bought two new pillows for the couch and new lampshades.  I went back and forth on whether to DIY lampshades, but these puppies were $20 at Target.  With the cost of fabric paint, stencils, and crazy anal-ness that would have resulted, I decided to just buy these.

So, that's where we are.  It's still not a dream home or anything, but the bright colors definitely make the space happier.  I wish I loved home decor.  I wish it could be something that I cared about as much as my wardrobe, but I just don't.  So for now I'll be happy with lots of bright colors, pattern overload, and too many pictures of Little Miss Cuteness.

seven months old

My, oh my sweet baby child.  You are seven months old!



At seven months you:

  • Babble constantly.  You started out saying "mama" but shortly after learned "dada" and "baba."
  • Will occasionally scoot forward if you see a toy that you really, really want.
  • Sit up like a champ.
  • Fall asleep in your car seat.  Like, all the time.  Who would have guessed?  
  • Don't need a helmet!  We had our appointment with the pediatric neurosurgeon on Tuesday.  He basically said it was up to us.  "She does have a slight flat spot on one side, but she will get hair." We decided against it.  
  • Kind of wave? You don't actually wave at people yet, but you do the general hand motion.   
  • Eat solids!  So far the only thing that you didn't seem to like is carrots.  You make a disgusted face and spit them out every time I put some in your mouth.  We're still trying though.  

You love:
  • Daddy.  As soon as he gets home from work, you kick you legs and scream until he comes to pick you up.  If he tries to hand you to me to change out of his work clothes, you get really angry unless we follow him into the bedroom.
  • Singing songs, dancing, and anything musical.  We started going to Musical Storytime as the library, and Kennedy LOVES it.

You don't love:
  • Your stroller still.  And to be honest, I have just stopped using it.  We just take you everywhere in the Ergo.  I find it easier to navigate than a stroller.  Am I creating a monster?

Highlights of the Month:
  • A baby shower for Leanne and Matt's baby Abe.  You were the only baby there and loved getting all the attention.  Here are the adorable matching outfits that we dressed in...before you blew out in your car seat on the way there.  Thankfully, we brought a back up.
  • We went up to Santa Cruz for a family reunion with my dad's side of the family.  We had so much fun meeting cousins that we had never even met before and spending time with our aunts and uncles.
  • Meeting baby Jackson for the first time.  Kennedy looks like such a beast next to him.  He is so tiny and sweet and PERFECT!

  • Sarah came up from San Diego to visit us.  Of course, we had to go shopping.
  • Lots of play groups.  I feel like we've finally started to get our groove and figure out what works for us and what doesn't.
  • Visiting cousins out in Corona.  We got to see Addy and Jess on their way back to Utah!

our. family. ALBUM.

(how to lose a guy in ten days, anyone?)

When my mom and Cliff came down for Mother's Day, she asked if I would like her to take some family pictures of us.  Yes please.

So, here's what we did:
1. Went on Pinterest and found an assortment of poses that I liked.

2. Threw together some outfits for the three of us. (Special thanks to Auntie Mimi for not hating me for borrowing her dress without asking.  Ok, fine.  She hates me.)

3. Picked a location.  I have to admit that we cheated on this one.  When the Casey Figlewicz did our maternity photos, we took them at this park.  I knew that there was good shade and whatever.

4. Brought my mom's fancy camera.

5. Posed away!

Special thanks to Cliff for entertaining Kennedy in all the pictures!  She pretty much was smiling the whole time.

*warning: picture overload














Live Journal

So...apparently when I was in college, I had a live journal.  Remember those?  They were basically the blog of the early millennium.  I have absolutely NO RECOLLECTION of having one, but I did.  And I wrote in it fairly frequently.  I know that you would love to have a link to it, but it's far too embarrassing.  I used swear words, said mean things about friends, who was I???

Anyway, the good news is that it was incredibly wonderful to look back on my college years through it.  Although I was embarrassed for myself with every post, it is so cool to remember who I was, what I did, and see how God has transformed my heart since then.  He has molded me, grown me up, revealed sins to me, and changed me in so many different ways.  As I looked back on who Jesus was to me back then, it was saddening and also uplifting.  Have you experienced this before?

One of my favorite parts about my live journal was that I was actively writing in it in the midst of meeting Doug and getting to know him better.  Remember, we were friends for 2 YEARS before we started dating.  Here are a few excerpts (about Doug, not about me saying terrible things):


"Anyways, the bonfire last night was SOOOO much fun. so incredibly much fun that i can't even describe it. the guys are all so nice and friendly and it's the first time that i got to hang out with them and stuff so it was really great. one of them is really cute (Doug), so i'm off to stalk him online ;) 
later"



"today, i had two interviews, one over pancakes with a girl, and the second one with doug, the guy that i think it really cute. we went bikeriding up on a trail. it was insane. i think i'm in pretty good shape. i run three miles four times a week and i ride my bike to school, but pfft, that OWNED ME. i had to walk a lot of it... and I FELL!! yeah, i fell down a hill and got all muddy. and said a swear word... i was embarressing. but i made it through."


"Last night was muy fun. after I had picked mercilessly at all of my zits, one of the guys in AGO called and asked if Laura and I wanted to go get milkshakes. I was freaking out because my face was all pussy and nasty, but I had to go because cute guy (Doug) was going to be there. So i went, and it was so fun and we didn't get home until like 12:30 (late by lizzie standards)

what can i say..."my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" :)"



"I suck. seriously. I can't talk to boys. Everytime I see bike riding boy (Doug), I freeze up. I can't think of anything to say. I just stand there. and he's kind of spastic just like me and is always off in something on his own agenda. I guess we're not meant to be. But we seem so alike. I wish i could suck it up and try to talk to him."


"Wow, life is so weird. I was online, taking a breather after finishing my finals last night, and guess who called??? BIKERIDING BOY. That's right. He called and asked what I was doing. Then came over. That's right, he willingly came over to my house."


 I can't stop laughing.  Seriously.  If you don't journal, please do.  It is so much fun to look back on!