NEW FLOOR! | Rug Pad USA

 **Rug pad c/o RugPadUSA. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

If you follow me on any of my other social media interfaces, you might have seen updates within the past couple of months of our house! We've done so much since we moved in that it looks like a completely different home!

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Monkey's on the bed | Olivia + Ocean

Visit Olivia + Ocean and enter OLIVIAANDSUE at checkout for 10% off your order

I----------t's photoshoot-on-the-bed season! As soon as it gets chilly outside, I opt for photos on my bed because, to be honest, it's the easiest spot to tidy up in my entire house. Now that Barrett's nursery is finished, I might stray there for a few photos this season, but today, it's the bed and our favorite swimmers ever, Olivia + Ocean who now carries little BOY swimmers!

I cannot TELL you how excited I was when Danielle told me she was opening a line of boy swimmers! The girls practically LIVED in their O+O suits this summer, so I knew that I needed one for Barrett, stat!

The quality of the boy trunks is every bit that of the girl's suits. I'm not worried about it stretching out, fading, or falling apart one bit!

I did make it out of the house to a local rec center to test his new trunks out.

He LOVES the water, which made our little Mommy-Son date truly enjoyable! I loved watching him splash the water all over himself and get adventurous crawling around (he is SO mobile!)

And he's so cute, you'd better believe he got a kiss afterward! ;)

I will forever back Olivia + Ocean 100% because it's a product and a business I really believe in. Not only does it sell modest, reliable, quality swimwear made entirely in the United States, it also donates a portion of its profit to water.org.

And I love this snippet from their About page:

"We believe swim time is a special time for parents to bond with their babies. It definitely has been for us! Our swimwear is meant to celebrate the magical childhood memories made in the water. "

I couldn't agree more. So many of my favorite memories were made in the water and I'm glad to know that we can make these memories in suits that my children can be their energetic little selves in and not have to worry about how long they'll last or they will actually keep my children covered, whether they're swimming in a pool, running through the sprinklers, playing in the sand, or jumping on the bed!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! And don't forget to stop by Olivia + Ocean before you close your browser (if you haven't already. I've linked back to them about, oh, 100 times in this post...)

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Mesa, Arizona and surrounding cities including Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, and Tempe. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

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Giveaway | Yellow Quakies

Hey-oh! Hi guys! Our family just got back from a family vacation to visit Andrew's parents and I am LOADED with pictures! So, while I work on that, may I interest you in a giveaway?

Remember this post from a while back?

Remember how it was all about doing service with your little ones? Well, it was all inspired by this heart-stamped piece of jewelry from Yellow Quakies.

This necklace has become so much more than a pretty accessory. It has become a reminder to do something for someone else and forget yourself for a little while. And I make sure I put it on every Sunday to remind myself and my family about it. Yesterday, we made rolls together to deliver to a friend who's having a hard time right now (because who doesn't love delicious home-baked rolls?!)

c/o my iphone and my husband's AMAZING photography skills! ;)

Not every service project we do together is a big one. A couple of weeks ago, our service project was to call an Aunt we hadn't talked to in a while. The service was probably more on Aunt Lauren's part because I'm sure she didn't anticipate talking for so long, but I want my children to know and understand that giving of your time just to talk with someone can be a service and that service doesn't always have to be some huge undertaking.

Anyway, I'm really excited about this giveaway because the necklace really is so cute and Shaylee is a woman of many talents. In addition to jewelry, she paints, and is a videographer. Seriously. Talented.

So make sure you visit my instagram to see how to enter to win!

See you on Friday!

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August 2016 Family Photos | KC Film and Photo + Roots Floral Design

Family Picture time! I loved preparing for this shoot you guys. Truly. The outfits sorta just came together of their own volition. I spent less time on this dress than just about any other dress I've ever made (which is really saying something!)

But the story behind this shoot is HILARIOUS. It's one of those "hilarious" stories that's not funny at the time, but sorta funny looking back on it. Let's just say, it involves a change of date, a car out of gas, bad timing, a really, REALLY bumpy road at 30 mph, a car breakdown, and a 4-year-old learning a valuable life-lesson about not touching water when you've REALLY got to go (luckily she learned this lesson after the shoot, and the car ended up being an easy fix).

Even though there were A LOT of things that went wrong with this shoot, my photographer, Kallie worked her magic and still somehow managed to produce some beautiful shots of our family. And those floral crowns from Roots Floral Design? SO in love.

Don't the floral crowns from Roots Floral Design just add the perfect little touch? Plus they smelled REALLY yummy!

The best parts of the whole experience happened while we were in the car, though.

After we hit the horrible, horrible holes in the road that broke our car and continued our way up the dirt road, Andrew was cursing under his breath, I was covering my eyes (like the monkey emoji), Chelsea was startled from sleep, not sure what Barrett was doing, but Alexa could be heard going "uhhh-uh-uh-uhhhhhh-uhh-uhhh-uh" over the bumpy road. It was hilarious!

And while we were driving back down the dusty road, Chelsea said the sweetest prayer. She prayed that we would be safe, that we would have a good time, and that Daddy wouldn't hate Family Pictures. Haha! It really was the sweetest prayer I've ever heard.

Thank you so much to Kallie for taking our photos, and thank you so much to Roots Floral Design for our Floral Crowns! I really flipped your world upside-down when I asked you to make our crowns a day early!

And I'd be remiss if I didn't say a big thank you to this guy for totally going with the flow and all the ideas I had for this shoot, from the location to the floral crowns. He is so supportive and perfect for me. I sure do love that soccer-playing, hard-working, fun, hunk-of-a-man!

his smile still melts me. also, there's a photo-bomber in this pic. did you notice? ;)

Susan is a birth photographer/videographer serving Mesa, Arizona and surrounding cities including Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, and Tempe. Considering a photographer for your birth? Contact Susan for EDD availability.

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Service Ideas for you and your Toddler | Yellow Quakies

the honey bear on the table has absolutely nothing to do with this post.
This post has been compensated by Yellow Quakies. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A few weeks ago, Chelsea had kinda a rough day at church. It's true! She has those days, believe-it-or-not. ;) I was sitting in the third hour of my church meetings (Relief Society) and I heard wailing out in the hall. Of course, I recognized it as my daughter's, so I went out there to take care of things. Chelsea was sitting on her teacher's lap, her arms restrained, screaming her head off. I mean, this was wailing and gnashing-of-teeth-level, guys.

Turned out that Chelsea lost it because she really wanted to sit by her little friend in class, but her teacher (who had been suffering from a migraine all weekend, poor woman!) had said no because they were disrupting the class, and that was just totally unacceptable to Chelsea that day!

As you can imagine, I was feeling pretty bad for the teacher, and I felt like if I didn't do something, this experience would turn Chelsea against her teacher and put a HUGE strain on the relationship to the point where we'd have these kind of meltdowns weekly. So I decided that Chelsea and I would do something about it!

photo c/o Chelsea's teacher who still doesn't know it was us! shhhhhhh...

We heart-attacked her! Well, it wasn't totally a heart-attack because Chelsea wanted stars and flowers, and suns, too. The funny looking little man was my idea :)

Chelsea and I had such a great time drawing the shapes, cutting them out, and writing nice things on them, then sneaking up to their house to tape them to the house, and Chelsea ESPECIALLY loved ringing the doorbell and running away as fast as we could! We walked home, piggy-back, with huge smiles on our faces and warmth in our hearts.

I decided that I wanted to experience that warmth with Chelsea more often and so, have made it a Sunday tradition! I call it "Service Sunday!"

The hardest part of Service Sunday is coming up with the service activity. Luckily, I know a number of fabulous moms (you fabulous moms in my FB mom support group!) and @servetogether who helped me out! So here are a couple of ideas that I came up with myself, + some from my mom friends!

Heart-Attack someone's door

Bake cookies for someone

Color a picture for someone
Write a letter to someone - we have a couple of cousins on missions we love to write to!
Make a "Just Because" card for someone (click for printable front and inside - print front, then flip paper over to print the inside)

my printer wasn't working for some reason, but i wasn't going to let THAT stop us!

Go visit a nursing home
Go to a food pantry
Take flowers to someone
Take sandwiches to the homeless, or just sit and talk a while
Have a FREE lemonade stand!

So often it's not how you serve, but who you serve. Try doing some of these projects for your local police department! Those guys have been catching A LOT of flack recently.

I'll definitely put some activities on repeat, but I also don't want it to get old.

This necklace from Yellow Quakies will forever be a reminder for me and my kids (especially Chelsea) that when we give service, our hearts are full.

Good luck this week, friends! Go find someone to serve, and make sure to stop by Yellow Quakies - @yellowquakies - to say hello and see what else she has available! I am currently crushing on her Custom Couple pieces!

P.S. Chelsea was WONDERFUL in class the next week!

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