a not-so-spooky halloween pj party

To say that I have a slight obsession with pjs would be an understatement. Both for myself and for my lil one. I may or may not go crazy every month holiday and buy all sorts of pjs for both of us. Halloween is no exception. And when I saw that Darci and Meredith were going to host a virtual Halloween Pajama Party linkup, i couldnt resist buying more pajamas joining (albeit a lil late). Ill spare you all the pictures this mamarazzi took and just share a few from this past week that I caught with my lil boy happy as can be in his jammies.

 

 

 

And because, lets get real here, any holiday gives me a good excuse to go on a little shopping spree, here are some other goodies that we may have collected throughout this month

Pajama 2 pack // Trick or Treat Longsleeve // Racoon Hoodie // Funfetti cupcakes & icing // Ghost pjs

If you havent already done so, you should defintely join the linkup so we can see your kiddos in their cute pj's, here's are all the info

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

5 on Friday + a winner

O*N*E
Well I promised that on Friday I would announce the winner of the The Little Mermaid Giveaway, so without further ado.....

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Maria!!!

Please make sure to email me your address by Monday September 30th, so i can give it to the sponsor. 

T*W*O
So after seeking out some advice from a few of my favorite photography bloggers, I decided to go ahead and rent the 50mm 1.4 from borrowlenses.com. Let me just say, OMG!!! I love this thing!! I havent even really had the chance to fully use it yet on a client/subject, but i played with it in my backyard on the dogs and i think im in LOVE! I cant wait to use it tomorrow on my new nephew. Thank you Mandy for your suggestion!!! Now if only i can convince someone to buy it for me for Christmas. Only 88 days to persuade someone, who will be the lucky winner? :)

my mother-in-laws black lab, Sophie

T*H*R*E*E
Im so proud of myself for jumping back on Weight Watchers full force! And not only because i can see a difference on the scale, but also because I feel like i am making better choices. Like right now, i just went on to plan what im having for dinner because I know we are going to a mexican restaurant since its my mother in laws last night in town. I tracked all the points, yes everything down to how many tortilla chips im going to eat, so that i know i will make a better choice while im at the dinner table. go me! (oh and look for an upcoming post where i will do a complete update on my progress thus far)


F*O*U*R

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Ive been thinking about what I want Matthew to be for halloween this year. Surprisingly hubs agrees with my idea, normally he has some kind of remark on it being cheesey. But you see my mom has been calling matthew "bam bam" for quite some time now. So i think it would be really cute if he was Bam Bam from Flinstones. I could even be Betty Rubble, or Wilma Flinstone. Highly doubt hubs would be willing to dress up as Barney or Fred, but I could give it a shot. lol. My issue is, we live in south florida, and EVERY.SINGLE. costume i find for kids is like a full body suit. Dont the makers realize that my kid might die of sweat? And come on, its Bam Bam for god sake! all he needs is a little skirt-like thing and a stick! but no, all the ones i can find look like this. Not only is it a full body suit, but the whole hair thing makes it look really weird to me. So i think i might just bite the bullet and shop for the costume on Etsy. It may be a little, read ALOT, more expensive to have someone make it, but i think it will look way better. Anyone know anyone that could make me a bam bam costume? Im sure it wouldnt be too difficult, and i could probably make it, but i just dont have the time or will power to try and figure it out.

F*I*V*E
Not only have I had major baby fever lately, but i think Ive also got a case of the "i wanna bigger house" fever too. The two kinda go together. You see i want another kid soon. Like would love to be pregnant before the new year (no we are not currently trying), but we honestly dont really have a big enough house to add another kid into the mix. Technically we could enclose the carport, which is what we have wanted to do all along. But 1) we dont really have the money for that right now and 2) that still wouldnt give us the space we need. Ideally, i would love a 5bd/3bath. I know, i like to dream BIG. But think about it 1-our room 2-matthews room 3-baby #2's room eventually 4-my home office and 5-a spare bedroom, or possibly baby#3. Technically kids can share rooms, so thats always negotiable, but i need a separate room for my office. Currently its in whats supposed to be a dining room. But technically we cant afford a house like that out east where we live now, and i really dont want to live out west if i can avoid it. So basically i just have to live with my baby fever and big house syndrome until someone decides they just want to give me lot and lots of money! any volunteers? Id be happy with something like this:

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Hope everyone has a great weekend!

If youre new here, leave a comment and ill make sure to hop on over to your blog too!

all hallows eve

yes, yes, we all know i procrastinate. no need to try and make up any excuses for why this is posting a week after halloween. I just couldnt give up the opportunity to post Matthew's First Halloween. We all know i have a thing for "firsts," but i promise to make up for it with lots of cute photos okay?

Lets also begin by telling you that yes, my son did have two halloween costumes. Honestly, I didnt do this on purpose. I wanted an owl costume that I thought was absolutely adorable, but then my best friends mom had to go and ruin it by telling me owls are bad omens. Great, just what I want, my son to be a bad omen, on his first halloween. So I gave up looking for another costume that would be just as perfect as the owl I originally had my heart set on, and figured I would go with the standard pumpkin for his first costume.

 

Adorable right? I thought so too. And I also figured it would work out because down here in SoFL you cant always be certain if it will be cold or hot on Halloween. With this costume, it would work either way. Hot? leave as is. Cold? add a long sleeve onesie and some cute pants, and good to go.

Turns out, after Sandy hit the Northeast, it brought some majorly cool weather for us down south. And the weekend before halloween, when my sis and I went to babies-r-us, all the halloween costumes we like 50% off already. And then I saw it. It stared at be from 3 aisles away. It was a giraffe costume. now note, matthew loves his sophie the giraffe. I wanted the costume so bad. But knew I had already spend the money on the pumpkin costume, even if it was only $14, thats still $14. But this one was $36 with $50% off. I told my sis, but what if he doesnt even like being in it? So what did we do? We dressed him in it right there in the store. And what did he do? He smiled! he actually liked it! OMG I had to get it.....and thats how he got 2 costumes lol

my lil girafee!

So, halloween night came and we went to my sisters neighborhood like we normally do. We brought the stroller because we new most definitely that matthew would probably fall asleep during trick-or-treating. When went out when it was his normal bed time, and surprisingly he did very well. He even made it to a couple doors either in my arms or in the stroller. 

 Something I noticed, people arent so generous with candy when they know darn well the kid isnt going to eat it, the parents are. lmao. But hey, we still made out with a decent amount of candy. And funny thing, even after Matthew had fell asleep, my niece Jenna insisted on asking at every door, "Can I have some for my lil cousin too?" I had to reassure alot of the givers that there indeed was a kid in the stroller she was asking for. Quite funny if I do say so myself.

I would say "Mission Completion!" (sorry Lil Einsteins is stuck in my head) for Matthew first Halloween. Im already planning on what we should be next year. As in a complete family costume. I totally failed on that one this year. I was just too involved in getting a costume for Matthew. But next year? ITS ON!

Dont forget theres still time to enter my giveaway!

ww: happy halloween!

Isn't this the most adorable pumpkin you've ever seen?!?!? When I came across a pin on pinterest for Disney character jack-o-lanterns I knew I had to do one for Matthew's favorite show; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

You see, Im somewhat of a pumpkin carving queen over here in my neck of the woods (no i dont literally live in the woods, just an expression) With Halloween being my second favorite holiday, Ive been known to go a little overboard with my jack-o-lanterns (and costumes lol). This was last years:

But you see, no one tells you that the whole pumpkin carving process completely changes when you have a kid. Even one who cant even carve their own pumpkin yet! Im used to gathering with friends, having a few glasses of wine, and carving my lil heart away. Well lets recap on what happened this year.

• missed our friends pumpkin carving get-together on Monday night because it interfered with Matthews bath & bedtime
• tried to do it last minute last night with just me and hubs but Matthew decided he didnt want to just hangout and watch us carve, he would rather scream the entire time
• hubby knew how badly I wanted to carve my pumpkin, so even though the first Heat game was on last night, hubs did matthews whole nighttime routine (feed, breathing treatment, rock, sleep) without me.
• which means I carved my pumpkin by myself and hubs now has a hallowed out pumpkin,  which i doubt hopefully he'll be able to carve tonight before we go trick-or-treating

Did you get to carve pumpkins this year? How did they turn out? Lets see some pics!

Oh and if you think you still have time to carve tonight and want to try another disney character here is the link I got the mickey mouse from

                                                                            Source: family.go.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Happy Halloween!!

his first pumpkin patch

So, being a new mom I have all these high expectations of firsts. First birthdays. First holidays. First bath. First steps. You name it. I think I began this obsession when I first found out I was pregnant. Literally the week I found out I was pregnant, I ran out and bought myself a brand new good quality DSLR camera so that I could capture all "the firsts."

Needless to say, this past weekend we got to take Matthew to his first pumpkin patch! If you follow me on instagram you might already know that we tried to go about two weeks ago and got rained out. And then the following weekend we were in Disney (post to come) so this was literally the last weekend we would be able to go before Halloween. And again, since this was my babys first pumpkin patch, it couldnt be just any old pumpkin patch. And surely not the pumpkin patch down the street, literally 2 mins away. I researched and asked around to my mommy friends where the best pumpkin patch around was.

via Flamingo Road Nursery Facebook Page

Now its hard for us southern mommies. When you live in South Florida, its not like you get fall weather, or apple orchids, or real pumpkin patches with hayrides. :( And this was the type of experience I was looking for. Luckily, one of my best friends suggested a local plant nursery out west where we could get the most "real" pumpkin patch experience in the south. So I convinced the hubby to make the drive out there, for the second time remind you. Luckily, due to Hurricane Sandy moving up the east coast (hope every one up north is prepared and safe) us south Floridians are experiencing our first signs of cool weather. It is absolutely gorgeous here the past few days. And made for a real "fall-like" experience at our "first pumpkin patch." This meant quite a happy mommy! ;)

We brought my niece along with us and it really helped make the whole day feel like we were creating a memory for Matthew, even though he probably wont remember. We got to pick out pumpkins, maybe even too many, go on a hayride, eat popcorn, get caramel apples, and enjoy the beautiful day outside.

Just a little something Ive come to accept, even with a great camera, a beautiful day, and a great "first experience" sometimes youre just not going to get a picture where the baby looks at the camera with a smile. lmao. Another thing Ive got to realize, even though I may have a hubby who puts up with all my high expectations of firsts' he just does not know how to frame a picture. lol. Hes learning though, I keep telling him "move back" and "take more of the scenery" and "I can always crop later!" (him and my sister have this same problem, you'll see in our pics at Disney she does the same thing lol) (i think I just used lol waaay to many times :P) anyways, continuing my photo dump 

All in all, i think it was a successful outing. We will definitely be going back to this pumpkin patch next year. And by then Matthew will be able to sit or stand by himself in pictures, opposed to having one of us have to hold him.

Now, onto to pumpkin carving! but thats a whole 'nother post. ;)