our first family camp trip

we just got home from our first family camping trip and it was so much fun! we were able to take my in-laws motor home (this being THE ONLY perk to it sitting my backyard for 9 months....) which was not a really good idea because now i am thinking "tent camping? what's that?" oh well. maybe one more motor home trip and then back to the cots and camp stoves for us. but i still love that camping too :)

we went to Morro Bay State Park for more of a stay-cation. we have camped at the lake so many times and it was going to be hot hot hot so we opted for the chilly weather of morro bay. and boy was it chilly. yesterday the high was maybe 58 and we were freezing! our fire kept us warm but have you ever camped with a toddler? there is no sitting by the fire. or relaxing. we were chasing and running and playing and catching our crazy girl.

we went for an early coffee, on a walk, to the park, to dinner, out for a cinnamon roll, took a long nap, hit some golf balls, made smores, played on the golf course and just had the best time.

i love my family

 you know, just relaxing on the table

 her first smore

 watching and learning to roll like Roo :)

 so happy!

i'm pretty sure we are the cutest. family. ever. 

ps-setting your camera for 50 photographs on continuous timer could be the best way to get at least one good picture. i propped my lens on my cell phone and we tickled and laughed and got this amazing shot. christmas card worthy i'd say!

meal planning

i've decided that meal planning is an option i need to try. have to try. when you have a husband who works anywhere from 40-60 hours a week (more often than not it's 60) you have to be ready with food at all hours. boss man arrives home with a hungry belly at 8 pm. hours after M and i have eaten, showered and put our jammies on. not going to lie, we are both usually in bed: her asleep and me with my kindle or computer. or catching up on RHWOC. ew. but so good.

anyways, back to meal planning. if you are like me, a busy crazy mom, then planning a grocery list with meals already written down is very helpful. and if you're like me, you pin all these amazing meals, crafts, ideas, outfits...and never do anything with them. i have so many things pinned on pinterest that i need to try.

so during todays nap, when i wish i was napping too, i got on my yumminess board and started planning. i made my list of groceries, wrote down three new meals to try and added one meal i know is a pleaser. so i am ready to hit the store. on sunday. ha. i have a few things for tonights and tomorrows dinners. now, how to display this lovely meal planning? write it on the calendar that hangs on the fridge? which already has a million other things on it... or use my vintage chalk board and find a cute place to hang it? i love this idea. now where to put it....



in other news, we enrolled M in preschool for the fall and are so excited. you might be thinking "wth? she is only 17 months old!" we know, we know. and believe us, we've heard every opinion of every person who thinks they know better. and hey, you may know better. but we don't care :) we know our family and we know what's best for us. so, that being said, M will be spending two mornings a week at the Montessori school. she is so active and smart, i know with the utmost confidence that she will soar!!  and this mama will get a few hours of undistracted errand running and cleaning. yippee!

we took M to the beach for the first time (she thought the ocean was the most amazing thing ever!!), we went to visit our cousins in the bay area last weekend, had a few playdates this week, went swimming at grandmas and another crazy week coming up! mommy and me, gymnastics, dr's appointments and i start my ivf injections. that's all i have to say about that. yikes.

dr's office let down

ever been let down by a dr? call and feel like they have no idea who you are...when you just spoke to them last week? ok, so maybe a regular family dr or specialist you see once a year won't remember you. but a fertility dr you have been speaking to for months? a fertility dr you are paying a crap load of $$$?

he's the best around.

he's ranked 7 in the US.

he is great at his job.

his staff is crap at their job.

i. am. so. annoyed. frustrated. irritated. and i should not be. not when i am just beginning this process and need to be stress free for the results i want. i begin my injections next friday and have an appointment that morning. hopefully they have what they need for my appointment, know who i am and are nice :)

or they won't like me very much.

that mom

so i am sure many of you, if not all of you moms out there, have the moment when you think "gee, i hope i am never that mom..." well, today i had that moment. and i haven't had very many of these, maybe only 2, since i became a mom. i saw a pin on pinterest the other day that was titled "turn in your parent card: parent fails." today i think i thought that silently to myself at the park...ok, i whispered it to my friend.

so we're enjoying our morning at the park with a friend and all of sudden, through the giggling of our kids and nice calm of our conversation we hear a mom yelling for her kids. now i mean really yelling. like sitting on the lawn with her friend and just yelling her kids names. she obviously did not want to get up or leave the company of her friend to walk over to her kids, who were playing nicely with M and B, to tell them it was time to go. so after about 10 minutes of her yelling a name, walking over to load the car, yelling the other kids name, chatting some more with her friend, her friend yelling her kids name and blah blah blah, i said to the little girl "i think your mommy is calling you" and she said "yeah" and so the yelling continued. just when i thought she was walking over she stopped short by about 20 feet, must've decided that was just too far, and yelled again. this time with some other words besides their names. yikes.

now, i know that not every second of this joyful journey we call motherhood is perfect and pretty but come on....if you are alone at the park and you want to yell from a football field distance to your kids, go right ahead. but when there are other moms and kiddos, keep calm and walk over to your kids :) and if they should choose not to listen, pick them up and walk away. we won't think you are mean for picking them up kicking and screaming and taking them to the car. it happens to all of us :)

Stretched Thin

i've been feeling stretched thin. very thin. like thinner than pancake thin. we've had work being done on the house, projects, appointments, sh!t with our fertility office and just more stuff. the work on the house was installing AC. which is a miracle. an expensive miracle. but thank god a friend of the family is the business and we scored a great deal. projects would be our yard. we did tractor work.

m was obsessed. we sat outside on the patio and watched daddy for hours. and more hours. it was a dirty dusty mess but the yard looks so much better. and once we add sod and pavers it will look amazing. a work in progress! boss was so happy to be back on the tractor and working on his house :) he loves projects.

aunt rachel ran a marathon two weeks ago and we went to cheer her on! she did AWESOME. awesome is an understatement. i would die. i would crawl to the finish line. she kicked 26.2's ass.

we waited at the fence for an hour and when we saw that yellow shirt coming we were so pumped! m made her a sign and we cheered like we had never cheered before!!

 i received all of my ivf medication in the mail yesterday. and i'm scared. needles. lots of needles. and lots of syringes. and meds. ew. i am not looking forward to it. i am so happy of what we pray the end result will be but to get from here to there is not going to be fun. or easy. it is going to test my willpower daily. but i have to do it. and i will do it.

we also found a little place in Paso where we can get into the salinas river. there is a little trail at the end of a col-de-sac and we had so much fun. it was pretty windy and chilly but we discovered that babies don't care how cold they are. if they want to be wet and have fun then they will!

warning label for top-loading machines

are you aware of the dangers of top loading washing machines? i wasn't either. i came across an intsagram account that led me to a wonderful mother's blog. The Hebb family needs our help to bring awareness to this danger.

please write a letter, as a concerned mother, or just someone who would like to help. it will only take a few minutes out of your day :)

BELOW IS THE INFO DIRECTLY FROM TIFFANY'S BLOG POST:
_____________________________________________________________________________

PLEASE HELP support the bill by writing a quick hand written letter to any of the following senators, it doesn't matter what state you live in
*If you cant write a letter, an email or phone call will work too, but a hand written letter is best.  

Oregon State Representative Joe Gallegos
900 Court St. NE H-484
Salem, OR 97301

  or

Ron Wyden-Oregon U.S. Senator   
Washington D.C.
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C., 20510
tel (202) 224-5244
fax (202) 228-2717 

or

Utah U.S. senators- because I am from Utah and Ollie is buried there. My little brother also wrote to the U.S. senators about the bill...so hopefully these senators will hear all about the bill.

Orrin Hatch
 104 Hart Office Building
Washington, DC 20510  
Tel: (202) 224-5251
Fax: (202) 224-6331 
Email Orrin Here  

 
Senator Mike Lee

316 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510 
Phone: 202-224-5444
Fax: 202-228-1168

 Email Mike here 


Example of a letter

Dear Senator Orrin Hatch,

I support the washing machine warning labels and feel this would help to bring awareness to parents of the danger in their own home. I also support mandatory locks on old and new washing machines.

Sincerely, Tiffany Hebb- concerned mother 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

i have sent my letters and if there is anything more that can be done, i will be sure to help spread the word. i am always thinking of the Hebb family and their sweet Ollie.  :)

easter

we had (have) two easter celebrations this year; one yesterday afternoon and one this afternoon. m hunted easter eggs....why do we say hunt?...weird. she though it was pretty boring. i think. once she discovered how to open the eggs, she would pick it up, hold it to her little ear and give it a shake. a smile would pop up on her face, she'd crack it open and gobble up whatever candy was in it! some eggs didn't have candy and well, those eggs were put directly back where she found them. all complete with a frown and a little grunt. this girl is too much!

she absolutely loves to explore. nonie has the best backyard to explore. little pathways, lemon and tangerine trees. she would crinkle her nose up and sniff sniff sniff the lemons hanging on the tree and if she could find a good one laying on the ground, she'd pick it up and put it in her easter basket.

 she looked like such a big girl in her pretty dress and bow. which i couldn't believe she actually left in her hair!

 this is her frown when the egg had a dollar!

love my sweet family