Small Things Are Big Things

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time then you know I love family traditions! Our Easter Morning Picture of the kiddos is one of my favorites!!

Easter 2007 (Eli 7 months)

Easter 2008 (Eli 1.5 & Cora Jane 2 months)

Easter 2009 (Eli 2.5 & Cora Jane 1)

Easter 2010 (and Easter morning). (Eli 3.5 & Cora Jane 2 & Cy fetus)

Easter 2011 (Eli 4.5, Cora Jane 3 & Cyrus 10 months)

This one is my favorite this year…

Learn How to make these lil’ ditties over at my craft blog She’s Crafty at OC Family!

Happy Easter Time!!

(Mondays I like to share something I got. We all like to share a good deal, splurge, unique find or fun activity. If you got something awesome (or lame) recently and blogged about it, be sure to leave me a link to the post in the comments!)

REALLY!!

Through the awesomeness of Blog Crush Hot Hubby and I got the opportunity to go to Nieuport 17 in Tustin to try out some of the house specialties. We hired a sitter and donned our Sunday best ready to try some steak. It was a-maz-ing!! Take a look…

  

Little did I know Nieuport 17 has been thriving in Orange County for 42 years and was the first steak house in Southern California to serve a rib eye. The place is absolutely beautiful – dim lights, walls covered in aviation memorabilia and an atmosphere of lived-in luxury.

Hot Hubby loved the rib eye best, I loved the mushroom topped filet…

 

I ate at least 15 of these little brie bites. Really. If I had more foresight I would have loaded my purse with any of the extras! Really!

I wish I had a picture of us all dressed up, but we were too busy scarfing down the food for a self portrait.

Oh well.

Guess we’ll have to go back on another date night. Wanna come? Double date!

To see way better pictures of the restaurant check out this post from the Sippers, my favorite photography duo!!

Nieuport 17 is located at

13051 Newport Ave, Tustin, CA 92780

Open Monday-Friday: 11 am | Saturday: 5 pm | Sunday: 4:30 pm

714-731-5130

Follow Nieuport 17 on facebook

Happy Earth Day!

Now lets get out into the “earth” with a family hike in Whiting Ranch.

Whiting Ranch is a great place to go in good weather (it’s closed in the rain and 2 days after it rains). It’s loaded with trails for hikers, bikers and horses!

The going can get rough but the trails are totally doable with a jogging stroller…

It really feels like you’ve stepped out of Orange County and into the wilderness!!

 

Be sure to stop for all the fun things you see along the way. I love hiking because it isn’t so much about the destination, but the views along the way! We found horse tracks, bunny tracks, unique plants, all sorts of birds, bunnies, and bugs…

Of course we stopped for a healthy snack…

And ask another hiker along the way to take a family picture…

(heaven)

  I got a ticket last week.

For speeding and an expired license.

My license has only been expired since July… um yeah.

I first discovered the expiration at Hot Hubby’s kick a&$ bday party over at the Brea Improv in January. Then promptly forgot about it. I am in charge of keeping multiple humans alive, so getting it renewed just kept getting added to the forgotten list. Then I got pulled over and it became priority #1. Can you believe the officer didn’t give me a warning for the expired license?? I mean, I’m preggers (which of course I mentioned to him) with 3 kiddos in the minivan AND there was an adorable birthday smash cake I made in the passenger seat.

I won’t get into the pathetic details, but there were tears involved. A lot. Along with explanations to my little humans that went something like this, “I’m not crying because police men are bad… this is called a license… you need it to drive a car… police men protect us from bad guys… no, mommy isn’t a bad guy… mommy was driving too fast… even though he doesn’t seem nice you should still find one if you’re lost.” There were about a million dozen similar responses given while I’m sobbing. Full-on-sobbing.

Oh well. Time to renew my license.

I arrived at the DMV one hour before opening, at 7am, with the children in tow and armed with snacks (non-healthy ones to increase threat levels). We ended up being about the 10th person in line. Two hours and 31 dollars later I have a new picture and unfortunately a new weight on my current license. I was even complimented multiple times for my well behaved children… which totally makes up for my last trip to Jo-Ann’s when my children may have been possessed.

On the way out I felt like giving the waiting line high fives. Like in a sports movie when the underdog just won the Big Race. Yeah, I survived and thrived at the DMV with 3 kiddos AND I’m pregnant! Woo hoo! Good game. I should get a prize or at least a raffle ticket for the chance at a big prize. Instead I remind myself it’s just another day in the life of a Mama! This time I came out on top and I’m going to savor it. Because heaven knows next time I could be that “poor pregnant lady wearing two different shoes with snot all over her shoulders smelling like poo with 3 screaming children.” And there is that ticket I’m still waiting for in the mail. Don’t you just love that they don’t tell you the total? It comes a month later in the mail so you can cry about it all over again.

On the way home went to the post office to drop off some Lid orders and left the kiddos in the car. Is that super bad… or just kinda bad? It’s cold and misty out so its not like it’s a hot day, they stayed buckled in their car seats and the car was locked. I was inside for exactly 3 minutes. But I feel kinda guilty.

At least I didn’t get a ticket.

 

Side Note:

If you live in Orange County (or are willing to travel here), my fellow OC Family blogger is giving away a week at science camp. It’s open to kiddos age 5-preteens who are obsessed with science and it’s worth $300. Check out all the details to win a week a science camp here!

I was starting to stress a bit about Easter outfits… my matching thing.

For some reason I had a vision of grey and white polkadots… have no clue where that came from, but oh well. I searched a bit on the net to no avail, then thought it would be fun to make something. I even requested an easy lil’ girl skirt pattern from my friend Julie, she has all girls, and she delivered with this lil’ ditty. I was just about to head out with the troops to search for some fabric when I thought I would check Old Navy’s online store.

Um, yeah.

Found it all. For $50!!

See…

Don’t you think Old Navy should have a ‘family outfit coordinating search’?? I would use it everyday every holiday.

Me and Mrs. Duggar.

Enter coupon code ONSPRING today and tomorrow (15th & 16th) to get 20% off your Old Navy online purchase!!

I cannot confirm or deny the purchase of this from anthro to go with my Old Navy dress.

Be sure to enter to win those adorable earrings here!!

 

I’m always making fun things for She’s Crafty over at OC Family. And I just love to share them with you!

Recently I made these adorable earrings.

They are beyond easy to make. (check out simple the how-to details here)

I made enough for me and some extras to giveaway!

You can win:

Dainty shell circles in pink (perfect for Easter) or

Smooth river rocks in green (perfect for St Patty’s Day… next year) or

Large mod earrings in black (perfect for a night out) or

Etched silver flower earrings (perfect for everyday)!!

How to enter:

Just leave one comment at the end of this post with a list of which ones you would like to win! i.e. If you like black the best and sliver the least your comment would look like this: Black, green, pink, silver. If your name gets picked I can try to get you the one you want the most.  (I have 3 pinks, 2 greens, 1 black and one silver… so that makes 7 winners!!)

One comment per person.

Giveaway ends Monday April 18th so I can try get them to you before Easter basket time!!

Good Luck!!

We REALLY do wear our Lids all the time around here, and of course I’m always snapping pictures. Somehow they just don’t make it to the blog… till now! We’ve added Lid-Tastic Tuesday! Every Tuesday we’ll do a flashback post of pictures I never got to put on the blog.

I know! I haven’t posted the earring giveaway!!

I’ve been feeling blah.

Nothing crazy just tired and making a human in my belly while trying to keep alive 3 other little humans and loving on my big hubby human.

I promise it will be up tomorrow!!

(Don’t forget you can get $4 off your Eli’s Lids order by entering EASTER BASKET as the coupon code at checkout!!)

Now flashing back almost 4 years ago, May 2007, to my final Lid prototype…

I worked so hard to get the perfect Snowboarder Lid pattern (the visor is in the back). Thanks for loving our Lids as much as we do!!

Did you notice the boys are matchy matchy?? Why does it make my heart smile when families match??

I’m off on a hunt for coordinating Easter outfits. Wonder what I’ll find!

If you want to check out something pretty cool – Check out our friend Jason’s blog about him building homes for widows in the rural mountains of Kenya!! The videos are pretty awesome!

Also, remember how we voted for WaterCan to win the $20,000?? Looks like they won!!

My friend Marcy from The Glamorous Life Association is involved with a great charity called WaterCan. They help provide clean drinking water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education to the worlds poorest nations.

  

If you go here and vote for WaterCan, Naturalizer will give them $20,000!! You don’t have to sign up for anything and it only takes a half a second! Do it now. Ok… Like right now!! Marcy also has a 25% off discount code for Naturalizer here!

 

If you live in So Cal: Sunday Ford is hosting Fabulous Fords Forever at Knott’s Berry Farm. They will debut the 2012 Ford Mustang, which Hot Hubby is pretty stoked about… he had a mustang in the pre-marriage pre-minivan days. Let me see if I can find a pic…

It’s free and they may have some discount coupons for Knott’s for ya! Meet me there!!

 

Yesterday my mom was over for some crafting! I made something adorable and something horrible. Oh the nature of DIY!! (post coming soon)

Here are a few Easter crafts I did years ago. They are super quick and easy…

Surprise egg and Decoupage eggs…

(this was pre-nice-camera-days, can ya tell??)

  

Speaking of Easter… have you filled those lil’ baskets with love yet?? Why not ditch some of the candy and get a Lid instead?? How about a $4 off coupon!! Just enter EASTER BASKET as the coupon code while checking out.

  

(kiddos in their Lids last Easter!)

You’re Welcome!

I was organizing pictures and came across these. Looks like something happened unbeknownst to me during Saturday morning waffle making.

 Check back tomorrow because I’ll be giving away about 6 pairs of these…

Another random post!! Must be “Pregnancy Brain” or maybe I’m finding my new style!

We REALLY do wear our Lids all the time around here, and of course I’m always snapping pictures. Somehow they just don’t make it to the blog… till now! We’ve added Lid-Tastic Tuesday! Every Tuesday we’ll do a flashback post of pictures I never got to put on the blog.

May 8th, 2010…

If you ask my hubby he’ll tell you the father/daughter relationship is unexplainable. But I think I CAN describe it in a few pictures…

Thanks for flashing back with us!