my kid is cuter than your kid...

…. and that is the truth and i don't feel bad about it. (i think it's fair to say that all parents feel this way about their own children!)

looks aren't everything though, and i know it. however he is pretty much amazingness, defined - his personality is spirited and his smile is contagious!

he is my "boom shakalaka" - kind of 

on the bigger side and a pretty funny guy

to drool is cool.

anyway, he is amazing.

i love him and the cliche is true: i cannot imagine my life without him!

moving right along, we were blessed with TEN glorious inches of glistening snow last night! wahoo! it's beautiful and I LOVE it! PLUS, it enabled me to work from home today and spend all darn day with baby james. the Lord works in mysterious ways, especially when in cahoots with my girl Mother Nature!

love the snow. loved the time with my bb!

happy weekend, all y'all! 

My Funny Valentines

I LOVE Valentine's Day. 

No, well yes, but not just Valentine's Day. I love all the lead up to Feb. 14…I can never get enough of the heart decorations and the fun and frolic that goes along with all things "LOVE-Y." Day of LOVE. 

I love love!!

So of course I love this jour d'amore! It's fun and healthy to celebrate LOVE in all forms. Neighborly, brotherly, sisterly, romantically, etc… love of all things! 

and what else do I LOVE? all the beautiful Valentine's CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!!! pinks and reds and whites, oh my! sugar in such darling colors and shapes (of hearts, of course!). I love it. and I cannot get enough! 

Anyway, enough about the candy. I just keep shoveling it in my mouth…doesn't last too long. The real loves of my life are my Jameses, and of course my sisters, parents, Nashy, and other friends and family (yes, you Jilly!), and dentists. Seriously, dentists (KG). :)

so, in honor of my loves, here are my Valentines… 

(yes I think this looks like Big J)

and my furry valentine, Nash

...Happy Valentine's WEEKEND - CANDY TIME!!!

weigh out there!

how often do you weigh yourself? do you let the number on the scale have an effect on your daily decisions as to what to eat (umm, NOT to eat!?) and whether you workout/level of intensity of your workout? 

I weigh myself at least once a day. I don't typically care what the number says, as I gage my body based on how my clothes fit and how comfortably I can move around and of course, how I PERCEIVE how i look. i just think the number can provide a little guidance for me like, "oh, 134… and I am happy with how i feel/look/fit in jeans at 134…" or whatever. I have lost all of my weight i put on during my pregnancy (yay), however just because I actually weigh a little less now than i did a year ago (when I found out I was preg!), does not mean that I look the same naked/in a swim suit/in clothes. I may weigh less, however I have much less muscle than i did a year ago (sad!) and am not as "small" and firm as I was. have you ever seen the comparison pics of like, a pound of fat versus a pound of muscle? its an incredible difference!! I wish more people would realize that scales do NOT have to be their enemy - if they just understood the make up of their bodies a little better, they might end up feeling more confident in themselves. just a thought.

so it's friggin freezing still today, Mon. Feb 10… when will it start to warm up!? oy!! I am waiting! maybe if I had a vacation on my calendar to loo forward to, this dragging-on of frigid temps wouldn't annoy me so much?? not sure. don't get me wrong, I enjoy winter, LOVE snow, and don't mind the cold, but this year we really got hammered early in December with sub-zero temps and I feel like we haven't really ever recovered. Global Warming? yahhhhh. no thanks.

our kitchen is just about halfway through its ugly duckling/beautiful swan transformation. we have the sheetrock up, taped and mudded (is that really a word?) and dust ALL over the rest of our house, so that should all be a great sign, right? I still need to post some of our pukey "before" pics so I can drop all y'alls jaws with the after, SWAN pics! weeeee!

this weekend I was able to crush some sales at Old Navy (best little baby clothes! and they had a killer sale on women's diggs! and the cashier dude gave us an extra 30% off because he thought baby james was so offing cute!!! yowwwza!), Nordstrom Rack (both big James and me bought some great shoes, etc), and Columbia! I also finally had my favorite salad at Twin Cities Grill… yum, it was delicious. rarely do I crave takey-outy food nor do i generally like to go out to eat, but I am telling you, this salad is DELICIOUSNESS. weird to think that the food at Twin Cities Grill is as great as it is and it's a restaurant at a Mall (Mall of America)!! that seems weird to me. Anyway, it was a highlight of my weekend.

here are a few darling pics that are always the highlights of all of my days. and nights. and mornings at 4 AM… :) 

new baby Grace Luelle… 

boys ARE awesome, especially this one!

3 months apart, James and Gracie Lu!

Buy low! Sell high! I rule the WORLD!

I think i have posted some/all of those pics already but I do not care. why do i not care? because they are so cute and fun that I feel they must be shared with everyone. all the time. many times. and then shared again. and again! :)

so it's monday and my mind is everywhere and i think this post reflects my current state of scatterbrain. day is almost over. phewf!

here's to a warmer tomorrow!