10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. at home play dates! i always forget how much fun can be had at someone else's house.  we had a fantastic time with christine and ebba at their new pad this week. love these ladies. and thank you for the stinky fish fertilizer and delish mint iced tea!
2. you know that adorable burton family i am always gushing about....well it was announced this week that we can be expecting another baby burton in the spring! congrats to you guys! oh so cute.
3. i have been an anxious mess this week with all the upcoming changes in our house (i will be reporting this amazing news soon!) and that hubs has yet again proved to be just the best! he knows just how to soothe my soul...and did i mention that he's doing all of this while completing week one mission quit smoking! he's so awesome!
4. oh sweet delicious cookies! so i used the island cookie recipe, but subbed the coconut out for dark chocolate chips and crasins.....holy smokes! so good!
5. went to an amazing fashion show put on by bika swimwear, the davidk space, and the cottage. thanks you so much to one of the greatest friends in the world for accompanying me and sweating it out....boy was it hot!
6. i can't believe that it's taken me this long but i finally discovered the greatness of groupon and living social this week.  while i have been members of both websites for quite some time now i have never actually purchased a coupon, well i don't know what i was waiting for! this week i scored a half off dog grooming and half off admission to leapin' lizards. i am hooked!
7. did i mention the dog grooming! hahaha stella was getting shaggy and stinky! now she looks like a prize winning pooch! the folks over at milton's grooming parlor did an amazing job. usually when i pick stella up from the groomer there is an underlaying tone of "don't bring that dog back here".....this time was a completely different story. i showed up ready for the worst, and found my dog (or at least i think it was my dog) sitting completely well behaved for kiki.  meanwhile kiki is telling me that she would like to show stella next year at a groomers show, that she was the most beautiful and unique dog she's seen in a long time. all i could think was..."are you crazier than the stella....because she's nuts".
8. i have to just give a shout out and major thank you to all the special ladies in my life from my friends to my mother to my step mom and mother in law....all of you have been just the biggest help with helping me handle the boy and his "tude".
9. after about a month off, between all the traveling and being sick, i finally got back in ballet this week... it was a huge eye opener to how much a month can do to your body. i ached, pretty sure i groaned, and tweeked my neck and ankle, but i loved every second of the torture.  this week i will be pushing my limits and taking two classes back to back....trying out a contemporary class right after ballet. i kinda can't wait! the only thing that i am afraid of is falling in love with the contemporary class! haha.
10. we are two days diaper free (with the exception of naps and bedtime) and have only had a few accidents. we even ventured out in public in big boy underpants! really proud of the boy and how fast he's growing up!

joys of parenting: a boys best friend

everyday at 4:30 on the dot socks, the neighborhood cat, starts his strut down the street to the neighbors house for dinner. and everyday at 4:31 when socks passes our house stella barks. she barks as if she were saying, "get away from my house! i hate you! hurry up, why do you walk so slow!" like face pressed up against the glass, attack dog style. and everyday at this time i tell stella to shut up. (which started when she was a pup and there was a great all girl punk band called "shut up stella")

well today was just like every other day. socks was right on time, stella lost her mind, and i yelled "shut up stella" from the kitchen.

except today stella had someone else on her team. from the kitchen i heard "bark bark bark" & "go away cat". this is what i came out to see.

stella sure is lucky to have a best friend that always has her back.

joys of parenting: poop mittens

this morning my sweet little boy let us sleep in until 8 o'clock, which was greatly appreciated since he usually is ready to start his day at 6:30. Well technically he was awake before 8, but he was playing so quietly in his room that the hubs and i decided to just let him be and enjoy just a few more minutes of snuggle time.

after a few minutes of snuggling, starting the coffee, and letting the dog out i decided it was time to get that little monkey and start our day.

upon opening ash's bedroom door i was first taken aback by the giant mess that he made. there were toys, books, diapers, and wipes strewn about his room.

as i made my way into the giant mess it hit me like a brick in the face, a really stinky brick in the face. POOP!

now i am not talking about a little dirty diaper here. i am talking about the overwhelming smell of poop.

as i got further into his room he jumped out of bed to show me the cause of stink. let's start with his hands. my son was wearing poop mittens. there was poop under his nails, in between his fingers, and clear up to his wrists. in sheer panic i raced ash to the bathroom and quickly de-pooped his hands. i scrubbed them and then covered them in hand sanitizer. let me just interject here that i am not usually the squeamish one in the family when in comes to bodily excrement. but i was totally freaked out by this whole situation.

after sanitizing the child, he pointed out to me that there was a pile of poop hiding out next to his book shelf. now i don't pride myself of my detective skills, but i just can't wrap my head around how all of this happened!

i figured the pile of poop wasn't going anywhere, so i decided to tackle the source of the issue. ash's butt was next on the cleaning list.

by this point the dog and the hubs had joined us in the poop cave. all the commotion was drawing a crowd. but it was a much needed extra pair of hands. plus the hubs super sensitive gag reflex provided an extra source of entertainment. as if all the inappropriate poop jokes were not enough. as we started discussing the literal "shit everywhere", we found more. poop smears on the door, on the drum set, oh and check out the pile over there......where did it go?

yeah that's right the poop pile was gone. and so was the dog.

moral of the story. shit happens. and sometimes the dog looks guilty. gross.

needless to say, i spent the following hours avoiding the dog.

Oh Stella...

So Stella, our 2 year old pup, is full of constant entertainment! For those of you who know my dog, you know what I mean, and those of you who don't, well let's just say that she should have her own TV show!
Stella has a little bit of a sensitive tummy sometimes. And by sensitive tummy, I mean expensive taste! She just can't handle inexpensive dog food... it makes her puke. I don't blame her!
So, since we are all eating healthier as a household, and I am on this whole food eating kick, I thought I would give making dog food a try.
I have known many people in the past that make their own dog food. My old boss used to feed his pure bread pups whatever leftovers were in the fridge. An old friends mom used to make Spanish style chicken and rice everyday for his dogs. But as of recently one of my closest, and more sensible friends Jessica, of BirdLime Photography, introduced me to the answer! SoJo's! So it seems pretty easy...just add chicken and veggies!


But I thought we would do an experiment tonight, before I spend $30 on a giant bag of feed. I made some chicken and carrots and mixed them with a small amount of her yucky food. You know just to see if she was interested....am I crazy of coarse she was interested.
Now normally, Stella LOVES carrots! Tonight, this happened:


She did eventually clean up all the carrot pieces that she spit out, and loved her little concoction. So the verdict.... I think that i need to buy the SoJo's!