Lion, Tiger and Bear - Oh My!

Mosaic Fall Family Festival 2012

I am not sure what I was thinking with Brent's lion mane but he was a super trooper and kept it on the whole time.  I love my husband.  

I mean really!  Look at that tiny little elephant with ol' G just chilling.

Big Slide!

G's first pony ride.  Be still my heart.

Thank you, Etta!

I'm sure you have heard the news that Etta James passed away today.  With her sophisticated jazz tunes she has left such a profound impression on romantics across the globe.  Of course her song, At Last is super popular and used in many weddings and such.  I wanted to put our little thank you out into the world.
Etta, you made our first dance magical!
Thank you.
Love, Brent and Franci.

  Photo by West Impression Photography

The Simple Life 2012

Twenty-Twelve is a year that I (Brent) want to live more simply.

I want to make life easier and more simply. I desire to get rid of clutter and objects that clog up my time, space, and life.

I wish for simplicity. Here are a few tasks that I'm going to start off with:

1. Clean out my Facebook Friends page.
2. De-clutter the junk drawer and my personal drawer in the hall.- It is really scary. 
3. Sell some unused books and perhaps my old guitar. 
4. Scan old documents into Evernote and shred them. 

Let's start with #2 tonight. 

Full Drawer

These are items that I'll keep for now. 

Items that I'm Keeping:

• Old Journals
• Plastic bags of foreign currency 
• Old Dell laptop, cords, and Microsoft CD's (I'd throw it away, but there is a lot of personal info on that old clunker. 
• Old Pictures
• Chinese language tapes and CD
• Old Walk-Man (hey you never know when they'll be cool again right?)
• Coin wraps for when my money pigs get full. 
• Check books
• Old class ring of my wife's (why is that in my drawer again?)

Trash Pile

Items Headed to the Trash Heap:

• Assorted headphones and power cords
• An award from an old job
• I-phone cover
• Watch instructions
• Empty ring cases from our wedding bands
• Old pair of glasses and case
• Old broken LG phone

I'll give away this book on FPU kit on my financial blog

Pile of letters from my wife I'll scan into Evernote

I got rid of a few items, but it's only a beginning of more to come. 

Action: What can you simplify this year? What can you cut out give you a happier and more simple life? 

I Love Working from Home

I (Brent) have been working from home for a few weeks now. Want to see what I've been up to? You can read my personal finance blog to find out. This was a big step, but now I'm doing what I love.

It's been a big change in our family dynamics, but one that we both are enjoying. I hope to contribute a bit more to the family blog as time goes along.

5 Things I Love About Working from Home:

1. Getting to eat lunch with my wife each day. 
2. I get to write and read every day! 
3. Working in my pajamas is o.k.
4. Play breaks with my son. 
5. No commute! 

Question: Are you doing what you love or moving towards it? 

G's Birthday Prep

It has already been one year since little G arrived on this planet.  I wanted to share with you some of the details of his birthday.  The theme was green (the color).  A few years back I saw some pictures of a kid's yellow birthday party.  Everyone wore a shade of yellow and there were yellow balloons everywhere; it was festive to say the least.  I wanted to create something similar for G.

We used evite.com for his invitation.  I REALLY wanted to design an original invite but we chose to go with evite due to the fact that we could communicate to guests and keep up with RSVP's very easily.
Here is what the evite looked like:

We were planning to have the party at a park but due to a forecast of rain we moved it to a local library.  It was a great find that I feel God gave us as a special gift.  The room where we had the party over looked a marina.  Sailboats and yachts galore!  But I have not even mentioned the BEST part of the birthday weekend.  

My parents flew in to surprise us and celebrate G's first birthday.  Their plan was to casually walk up to the party at the park.  Since they arrived Friday evening and the party was not until Saturday mid-morning they decided to stop by our place and reveal their scheming early.  I am so thankful they did...my mom helped me finish up sewing the birthday banner while I started on the cupcakes.  If they had not arrived I'm afraid we would have been up all night.

My sewing machine did most of the work for the "Happy Birthday" flag banner.  To make the banner I used this seemommysew tutorial.  For the application of the letters, I used hot glue.  My mom sewed on a small rope to the top to hold it all together.     

I made homemade "green" velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Green food coloring replaced the traditional red.  I created different shades of green for the batter and frosting with varying drops of food coloring.  My mother in law makes the best red velvet cupcakes, I used her recipe.  She was super sad she couldn't make it to the party, but her cupcakes were there.  

Be on the look out for the party pics coming soon!