The festivities started last night — Since my mom & dad were watching Zachary for the evening (including a sleepover!), Adrian took me out to see The Avengers at the new iPic theater in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park. We hadn’t had a date night in a while, so I was looking forward to getting out of the house. Especially with the whole bedrest business… I really enjoyed doing something special. :)

Anyway — the theater was amazing! What an incredible experience (yes, really an experience) if you really want to go over the top for a movie. The entire theater is made up of special leather reclining chairs and every customer receives a pillow and blanket. They have a call button if you want to order drinks or a snack (there is a high-end restaurant attached to the theater property), so you never even need to leave your seat! The movie itself was awesome… but I really loved the whole experience.

After the movie, we went out to dinner at The Dubliner, one of Adrian’s favorite restaurants at Mizner Park. He’s been there a couple times since his office is located above the shopping center. They have a mac n’ cheese dish that is made with Guinness. I’m a huge fan of any sort of macaroni & cheese, so I couldn’t resist! Adrian had duck with a black cherry balsamic glaze. Both were fabulous!

After dinner, it was still early, so we headed over to IKEA to buy my new office desk! I decided on the Hemnes desk and am really happy with my choice! We spent the rest of the evening chilling out in front of the TV and headed to bed early.

Sleeping late is the best part of having my mom & dad take care of Zachary, and I did just that! We did not wake up until 11am! It was great to enjoy a relaxing morning, and then we headed to my parents’ house for lunch and enjoyed some time with my mom, dad, and grandma.

I’m not sure what’s going on with my hair in that pic… LOL. But I look about as tired as I felt, which was very tired. The last month of pregnancy is not easy, but I’m glad I was able to have such a fun day! I’m wearing a handmade necklace that Zachary made for me at school. I love it!

Me and my boy, playing with his new Mobi Go that my mom and dad bought him. What a fun toy!

My beautiful mom! My dad actually took this photo with my camera, and I just love it!

I took some fun photos of me and Zachary goofing around with my iPhone. I love the iPhone camera, it can be like a photo booth! Wehad a lot of fun taking these cute images.

When Adrian, Zachary, and I went home, I got to rest (yay!) and Adrian and Zachary put together my new desk. Zachary especially had a really good time using his kid tools to “help” Adrian. I couldn’t resist snagging a shot of him helping out. It was adorable!

What a great Mother’s Day! I think this was definitely the best Mother’s Day since I got to start participating when I was pregnant with Zachary!

We have really enjoyed celebrating Hanukkah with Zachary the past week now that he is old enough to understand lighting the candles and says the prayers with us.

Here is my favorite photo from the last night of Hanukkah, which we celebrated last night. He is going to be so disappointed tonight to realize Hanukkah is officially over. I can’t wait til next year though – we are going to have so much fun!

photo taken with iPhone 4s and Instagram.

Captured with my iPhone 4s and edited with Camera+

We went out to lunch on the 4th of July to celebrate anniversary #7! We have also now been together for 9 years, too. I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade!

I took these photos outside the restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen – Zachary loved it!) with my Canon G11.

Then we all went home for a relaxing nap! When we woke up, it was time to head over to the Tamarac Sports Complex! The city we live in has so many great programs and one of the best is the 4th of July event. They always have live music, food, and fun for the kids at the Sportsplex each year. We usually catch the fireworks but have never actually attended the event to watch from the field. I am so glad we went this year. We plan to make it a family tradition!

Here is a shot I took of the live band, and a picture of us right before the fireworks began.

It was so hot outside, but well worth the great fireworks display.

Happy birthday, USA, and happy anniversary to me and my hubby! Love you!

All images were captured with the Canon G11!

I share pictures of Adrian & Zachary all the time, so this post is dedicated to my wonderful father! Here are two pictures of me and my dad, one from when I was a new baby, and the second one is from a vacation when I was about 15 years old!

I hope you’re all having a fabulous day! My family is heading over to my parents’ house for a delicious brunch and some presents, and afterwards Adrian and I are thinking about taking Zachary to the park.

I had a great morning – my little guy let me sleep late (past 9am even!) and gave me lots of snuggles, hugs, and kisses. He’s being a very good little boy this morning and playing so nicely and saying the cutest things. Zachary is 2.5 this month and such a big boy – talking so much, showing creative interests in music and art, and sooooooo much more! I feel so lucky to be his mommy!

Here’s a vintage photo of me and my sweet newborn old baby boy:

And here’s an iPhone Instagram shot of the two of us in the back seat of the car the other day on the way down to visit Monkey Jungle (photos from that adventure coming soon!):

Have a fabulous Mother’s Day with your families!

I’ve heard this song before, but I recently heard it again and it really struck a chord in me. This song is what parenthood is about. Thanks to Dar Williams for writing and singing it.

I hope you enjoy the music; the song is called The One Who Knows.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you get to spend it with those who you love the most! <3 xo

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Valen-tiny – mini heart garland/bunting

If you are a fan of bunting, but don’t have much room, this tiny heart bunting/garland is a perfect accent. I may give this a try myself. You could do this with different shapes, too, for other seasons, by cutting out circles, triangles, etc. Definitely a very adaptable tutorial.

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Paint Chip Valentines

Have any paint chips laying around the house that need repurposing? Make Valentines!  There are so many fun crafts out there that you can do with paint chips, and I thought this was a cute (and eco-friendly) idea.

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Wax paper crayon hearts

I love, love, love this! I seem to remember doing something like this when I was a child (though probably not as pretty, since this is a Martha Stewart activity). These would be such pretty sun-catchers and would be fun gifts to make with your child to give to grandparents and friends for Valentine’s (or any holiday, really).

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Love you heart bookmarks

I love this craft because it’s cute and seems pretty easy to do. I enjoy crafting, but I’m not what you would call extremely crafty… so I like the kinds of crafts that are easy, fun, and have a very pleasing result. You could vary this one up, too, by using photos in the middle of the heart, or colorful scrapbook paper (if you don’t have fabric) or anything else that you think would look pretty. The best craft projects, IMO, are the ones that are easily adaptable, and this one fits the bill.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed my crafty Valentine’s roundup! I’m not sure if I’ll actually have time to do any of these this week before Valentine’s day, but fortunately most of them can work for other holidays or events, too, so I’m sure I’ll get to them at some point. They look like they’ll be a lot of fun!

These shots are from Christmas morning, when it started snowing – Zachary was just entranced watching the snowflakes fall out of the sky. It was so beautiful!

I didn’t even wait to really get dressed. I headed out into the snow wearing my silly pajama pants! LOL! I had to make a little snowball to prove it was real. :)

And then proceeded to photograph the gorgeous landscape:

I loved how the snow looked on the mailbox turtle, and this leaf that was frozen to the driveway!

Adrian took a picture of me all bundled up in my winter gear, and I photographed Zachary checking me out through the window.

One of the reasons I love visiting TN is because it is so beautiful and picturesque! I love this setting with the gigantic pine tree and the horse and donkey frolicking in the snow!

There were a surprising number of birds out enjoying the snow while we were there. We saw red cardinals, doves, and other birds. I especially loved the cardinals, whose bright red feathers really stood out against the white snow and brown trees.

The image on the left was a lucky catch for me. I didn’t even realize I’d captured it until I was going through my images the other day. I absolutely love the way I’ve caught the bird with its wings out, mid-flight, getting ready to land on the bird feeder. In the picture on the right, I caught two more birds mid-flight as well. I really enjoyed photographing the birds in the snow.

We took Zachary out in the snow after it had gotten a bit thicker on the ground. Touching the white snow was a brand new experience for him. At first he wasn’t quite sure what it was, taking some time to investigate the soft, cold, pile of snow.

After a while walking around he decided that he absolutely loved it! I absolutely love the look of joy on his face in the image on the left, and his curiosity walking through the snow in the one on the right.

We had a great time playing in the snow. I loved seeing the smiles on his face as he enjoyed this brand-new, fun experience!

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