Lovelies

Today I am swooning over ::

1. Chocolate Chip Cookies. I posted a couple of months ago that I couldn't bake Chocolate Chip Cookies for the life of me! I thought I was a failure. Turns out, it was my oven that was to blame and not my domesticity because our oven in our new place always bequeaths us with nice gooey and crisp morsels. I always feel fat after eating 5 but the next day I could eat double that after having put them in the freezer. Mentally, I feel like they're not as bad for you if they're cold. I tell myself that frozen fat isn't half as bad as rich warm fat.
2. That Pillow. Can you read it? "CRAP. I'm awesome." I need that.
3. How adorable is that foxy? I saw it on pinterest today and I just about died. That little critter would look so cuddly in Ev's arms. Ordering that pattern right away.
4. Our bed. Last night I told Jared that I like making our bed in the morning. It reminds me that someone shares the other half with me. And that's very special to be able to hold hands with someone while falling asleep.

***for the record, Voldemort has not been seen in 2 days. Ahhhh!

she could take the easy route...

but nah, she likes a challenge. It doesn't matter where she wants to go or what she wants to get, she will always ALWAYS climb OVER me to get to it. Props to her. She could go around or in most cases take a direct shot, but mama didn't raise a fool - Ev works hard for her money {or toys}, so hard for it honey, so I better treat her right.

Um...husband was on the computer doing school stuff all day, so that left me with only one thing to do. Snap a gabillion photos of Evy Rae. So be prepared for picture overload. I know, how much more loaded can this blog get of the babe but trust me, I have to stop myself from posting 5 times a day. She turned 8 months yesterday. Now that she's mobile her personality is really coming to life. That girl is a crack up. Me and her daddy don't know how we got along without her.

Voldemort

For the past 2 weeks we've had "he who must not be named" living with us. We don't know how or why he arrived, but one morning he showed up. He comes out on the town with us uninvited and very impolitely accompanied us on a lunch date with Ev's new little friend. Despite our best efforts to ditch Voldemort, it looks like Ev is keeping him around. Oh well, not much we can really do about it.

sunday morning in this home..

...went something like this. Evy Rae was up and at 'em at 6:12. She and I played until 7:45 when we jumped on the bed to wake dad up. We made scones from scratch and lathered on the jam, peanut butter, syrup and honey. As a family of three we laughed the morning away, mostly at the crazy long-legged girl who is furiously fast on her knees. We avoided getting dressed. Played some more. Ev and I took a drive around the neighborhood to admire the changing leaves [and to get her to fall asleep in her carseat...]. We went to church. We had a Sunday meal together. That was our day.

Last night at a world-wide conference held for all the women of my church, I learned some very valuable tools to help me find greater fulfillment in my role as a woman, wife and mother. Some simple yet valuable words of wisdom were relayed by President Uchtdorf when he said "find wonder and light in the smallest circumstances" and turn "the mundane into the majestic."

Right now the Oakden Family future is anything but certain and far from magnificent. And there is nothing extraordinary about what I do each day. I'm not busy scheduling marketing events for marathons, running a company website, managing inventory like I used to do. My life now is pretty mundane. But the flip side is that it simply is magnificent. So so so magnificent. And I do find it completely AWESOME that I get to witness someone exploring the world for the very first time and finding joy in something so simple as a waterbottle.

for me and for her

I haven't lived in a place with all 4 seasons since the college days, so I am anxious for the sound of crisp leaves and radiant red and orange hillsides. But mostly I'm so excited for the wardrobe change. What makes it even more exciting this year is that I get to double dip in the fall wear by not just [dream]shopping for me but for Ev too.




































Isn't all that stuff GORGEOUS? Oh, be still my heart. I wish I could snatch all these beauties up.
All items from ZARA.

Last night I told Jared that all I wanted for my upcoming birthday is a gift card to Old Navy. Are any of you laughing at me like he did when I said that? Because I'm serious. Old Navy is where it's at. I know the rest of the world might be crazed about Target's Missoni, but do people not realize that everyone and their mom is going to be wearing the same shirt, dress, scarf, etc? I'm flying under the radar this fall fashion season and swiping up these bad boys:

Yes, yes. I've had my eye on these pieces for over a month now.
I hope this proves my point, JO. You can buy them all for your sweet wife, if you'd like. I promise I'll look good in them. And when I look good, it makes you look good. It's a win win :)

saturday

Have you noticed that most "cool" blogs have the following formula for a title: noun+and+unrelatednoun. Examples of this would be Cupcakes and Cashmere, Tatertots and Jello... uh, my mind is blanking at the moment but I know there are a billion more. Just a side thought that I think is funny. What two words would I pick to describe me?  Cheap and fun? No, that sounds a bit risque... anyway.

This Saturday morning it is dreary outside with a temperature of 58*. It's 11am and Ev and I are still in our pajamas [It was finally cold enough for me to justify putting her in cute thermal ones. hooray!]. She's still on the mend, can't you tell? Fever is gone but smiles are few and far between. Thank you all for your thoughts. Jared's at work today, so she and I are at home without a car. It's rather nice actually to be stranded. I have an excuse to do nothing.

So far I have used my time to plan meals for next week. Ever since moving here our grocery bill is far more than what our totals were in LA. And it's not because things are more expensive. They're actually cheaper. How goes the math on that? I've tried everything I can think of to reduce our bill. I make a list. I stick to the list. I plan out our meals ahead of time so I know what I'm making . We buy frozen and canned veggies now instead of fresh. I sometimes half our chicken breasts to make the meat go farther. I don't coupon. Mainly because I'm intimidated by it and from what I can see, we wouldn't buy any of those things advertised like puddings, cheetos and depends. Tofu seems like a cheap source of protein. So far with that we've made asian noodles and, believe it or not,...tofu tacos! That is what will happen with a person who has no idea what to do with tofu. Anyone have cheap recipes or grocery lowering tips?

to the hospital we go

Can you guess where we were last night? The ER for a fever bouncing from 102-104. It was awful. Let me say that there is nothing worse than having a nurse gag your child with medicine, telling you that "you think you're choking them but you're not" and then having Ev hurl it all up. I got put into a hospital gown because how drenched with vomit I got, if that gives you any idea of how the nurse WASNT choking my baby. Even worse - trying to stick a catheter in a 7 month old baby - TWICE but failed. oh, it was awful. I felt so so bad for my little girl, but I think Jared was the most upset. I can't wait to see what the bill is going to be for the motrin they gave her. What would have cost us $8 in the drug store is probably going to be an arm and a leg. I don't even want to think about it. The numbers make me sick. I so regret taking her in, but I was a new mom freaking out.

It's up.

HERE.

rise and shout

She's pretty proud that she can now pull herself up in her crib. What this means for her: heightened screaming capabilties, increased mobility, mom and dad coming in to check on her more frequently. What this means for us: delayed bedtimes due to the 50 times we have to pry her hands off the rail and lay her back down, cranky baby for delayed [or missed] naptimes, and that she's growing up too fast!

4 times too many?

I think we might need some counseling on this one.

We've gone to Sprinkles 4 times in 10 days.

But how can you not if you get a free cupcake everytime you go?

date night

It's 7pm. Jared's still at school and I just laid the baby down. Do you want to know what my first thought was after having my arms free for the first time in 6 hours? "Hot-diggity-dog, I can't wait to get my hands on that carpet spray and dab the heck out of those dirt stains!" Seriously, I have never come across a carpet cleaner so legit. It will get anything out. And I really do get that excited to spend my evening on my knees in the companionship of a Folex bottle. Which now has me thinking about how drastically different my definition of "fun" is now in comparison to 8 months ago to 5 years ago.

The other day when Jared and I were driving along the Potomac, we saw kayakers cruising along the gentle rapids of the river. It looked like fun. We both chatted about all the outdoorsy stuff we could get in to here - mountain biking, kayaking, hiking, camping, etc. The trees are so lush they practically force you to fall in love with them and beckon you to lay beneath their branches and live in the woods forever. But then we heard someone babbling behind us and we both reasoned that maybe we won't get the opportunity to experience all that we want to in that department. That would require a babysitter, free time and money. After feeling a little bit sad for ourselves, we decided to have a date night of our own at home. The date began with crawling lessons, followed by lullabying our beautiful baby sleep, making chocolate chip cookies together and cuddling up watching one of my all time favorites "Lars and the Real Girl." The evening wasn't much different than any other night for us really, except for the fact that Jared helped me make the cookies this go around and that we told ourselves that it was a date. And honestly, I think that made all the difference - mentally telling ourselves that we were on a date. Is that nuts-o or what? And truth be told, I'm glad that I get to have my hands full of dirty diapers rather than movie theatre popcorn, find comedy in little giggles rather than on screen, get excited about Ev trying out creamed corn for the first time rather than me having my mouth full of a tasty restaurant dish, and that the most dressed up I get these days is for church and not an evening out. But still... I think if Jared and I continue on our path of date-night cookie dough eating extravaganzas followed by 2 hours of sitting on the couch, we could very easily find ourselves looking like dough, and not in a mouth-watering way either. We've got to find some things for us to do together at home to qualify as date time besides blotting stains out of the carpet and watching youtube videos. Can just two people play games?

I'm off to blot carpets. Atleast listening to Adele while doing so makes it sound cooler, right?

So movie epic. Girl at home alone. Head banging, screaming and dancing her heart out with a broom in hand. Except I will have headphones in, there will be no head banging but lip syncing and a spray bottle in hand rather than a broom. 

land that I love

We all three experienced Arlington National Cemetery for the first time together as a family. It really is as beautiful as the pictures make you believe. I am so anxious for my little family to grow so I can put my history degree and patriotic spirit to good use with all these national field trips we have been taking.