Going To The Chapel

I am so on a wedding high right now. We got to attend two very beautiful weddings yesterday...both couples were very deserving of a happy ending and we are so excited for them in this new phase of life. The unfortunate part of having two weddings, both of very dear friends, on the same day is that you can't experience both weddings from beginning to end. Sadly, I have no photos to share of the new Mr. and Mrs. King's wedding day (although I have seen a preview of images from the photographer...stunning!), but I did have a few I wanted to share from Mr. and Mrs. Cappiccie's wedding.

Guy and Samantha Cappiccie (sorry Samantha...its going to take me awhile to not use your maiden name) have been good friends of mine for a very long time. Samantha and I met in sixth grade. She actually is the one who encouraged me to go to her church which honestly shaped the rest of my life for the better. She introduced me to all of her friends and this group stuck by my side in middle and high school and then later on in college as well. Even though life's circumstances have separated our group, it still feels like old times when we are all together again. I love this group of friends so much and it hurts my heart that we weren't susceptible to growing apart after high school, but I guess it happens to the best of us. 

Oh, and a little bit of background about the bride...she writes for Oregon Bride magazine so I think we were all expecting a lot from her in terms of decor and ideas. Oh and she has been talking about her wedding day since I can remember. Josh laughed because throughout the ceremony I would say, "I knew Samantha would do this...oh see that, she always said she would want that..." Honestly, this girl did not disappoint, she really did put together the perfect party. Alright, enough of the blah blah blah and on to some photos of the day. 

The Venue

{King's Raven Winery}

{Photo courtesy of Josh}

{Photo courtesy of Josh}

{Photo courtesy of Josh}

{The Maid-of-Honor + Bride after the speech}

{Melissa + Eden were fast friends}

{Eric + Justine...photo courtesy of Josh}

 

{The girls....we missed you Alicia!...photo courtesy of Josh}

Wasn't that a beautiful wedding? Now if only I could have stopped oohing and ahhing over all the details to actually take some photos. Yeah, did you notice, Josh decided to take over as photographer for the day for a majority of the photos. I am starting to wonder if he should have taken up photography instead of me. Good job my hunka hunka burning love...you officially rock as a photographer. 

To Kristen + Ryan King and Samantha + Guy Cappiccie...thank you all for letting us share in your special day. Your friendship means so much to us and we are so very happy for you. Thank you for sharing us with each other so that we could enjoy both of your blessed unions. Have fun on your honeymoons! 

LimeBerry - Coming Soon!

The opening is getting closer...the inside looks a million times different than it did when we first leased it. The boys are hard at work making sure everything is taken care of in order to open as quickly as possible. 

The last proposed opening date was July 1st. 

I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but fingers crossed! 

Put The Lime In The Coconut

Exactly three weeks ago we celebrated my mom's birthday. She turned 41 again...just saying. For her birthday I knew I wanted to make her something involving her absolute favorite ingredient, key lime. My mom actually spent some of her childhood in Key West, Florida so this is a way that I can help her reminisce a bit about her past.

My inspiration started when Eden, from Sugar and Charm, did a week of key lime treats and crafts (seriously I know I have mentioned her a whole lot on here, but I absolutely admire her fantabulousness). Then, while pinning my life away on Pinterest, I found this image.

via

Now, I'm no key lime lover, but doesn't this look delicious? To elicit a bit more drool I decided to switch it up and use an Oreo crust instead of graham cracker...yeah, I totally live on the edge. The Oreo crust reminded me of all the mud pies my mom made when I was a kid so I thought, "why not?!" 


Here's the recipe I used, with my adaptations as well.

Key Lime Pie Fudge
Recipe: Slightly adapted from Sugar Cooking

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 1-1/4 cups finely crushed oreos (about 24 cookies)
• 3 cups or 4, 4-oz bars of good quality white chocolate, finely chopped
• 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon finely grated Key lime zest, about 5-6 Key limes
• 1/3 cup key lime juice – freshly squeezed is better
• Dash of salt

Directions:

1. Line a square 8"x8 baking pan with foil or parchment paper, extending it up and over pan (this helps you get it out of the pan later). Butter sides and bottom of the pan, especially the corners. Set aside.
2. To make the crust: Preheat oven to 375. In a medium sized bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Add crushed Oreos and toss to mix well. Spread evenly into the baking pan and bake for 4 to 5 minutes or until edge is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
3. Stir white chocolate and sweetened condensed milk in a large heavy saucepan over low heat just until chocolate is melted and all the lumps are gone. Remove from heat and stir in zest and juice and salt. Spread mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
4. Cover and chill for two hours or overnight (longer is better to help it set). Lift the fudge from pan using edges of foil. Peel off foil and use a heavy non-serrated knife to cut the fudge into one-inch pieces. (Tip: Keep a damp kitchen towel handy to clean off the knife after each cut. This will keep give your fudge a cleaner appearance.) Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week (this made me nervous so I kept mine in the fridge and it seemed to keep really well).

I added little slices of key limes to the fudge for a fun little presentation when I gave it to my mom. She loved it! I would call this a success. 

Seriously, just looking at photo is making me think that maybe I should give key lime another try. I love the key lime slices...they are just so gosh darn cute. Also, here's a little tip...if you get a bag of key limes (to all you local folks, I found these at Winco of all places) and have some leftover after making this fudge you can use it on all sorts of dishes. I added some juice and zest from some of the limes to chicken and it was great. It had a slight sweetness and then the slight sour taste of citrus. I think it would taste divine on fish as well. 

Let me know if you end up venturing into the world of key limes...it was definitely a new experience for me, but most definitely a happy one!

9 Months

Yes, it's true. Eden has been a part of our lives for the amount of time I was pregnant with her. Both went so quickly. Pregnancy was fairly easy, with a few bumps along the way, and parenting has been just the same. This past month flew by even more quickly now that she is moving so much. It is SO SO SO hard to keep up with her. I try to keep an eye on her at all times, but boy is she quick. I am so thankful that she has learned how to take naps because we both need that break in the day. I always miss her while she sleeps, but it is nice knowing that for a couple of hours every day I don't have to worry about her trying to stand and then falling over. Yep, this girl has no clue that she shouldn't just try to stand up without something to help her along. I'm most definitely a stress case to say the least.

Oh, and this months photo was the hardest one to take yet. It took three different "photo shoots" to get a decent shot (and it's still not perfect!). At one point, tired of having her crawl away before I could take the photo for the zillionth time, I put the sticker on her back thinking at least you could see some of her body. No dice. I really have enjoyed using her Aden + Anais swaddle blankets for the backdrops to keep things consistent, but I think I am going to have to glue them to the ground if I actually want them to remain flat under her. I am much too stubborn to admit defeat.

Oh, and not sure if you all noticed this, but look what crawling, standing, and walking do to my poor girl..

I don't even know how she got that! I feel like a bad mommy. Maybe her knees are just building up resistance to the wood floors she is crawling on all day long. Yeah, I am sure that's it. Oh, and see how Eden is not her usual bubbly self in this photo? It's because she only laughs for her daddy just had a bunch of shots in both legs to make up for the 6 month shots she missed due to chicken pox. Poor baby.

9 Month Stats
Length: 26.75 inches ~ 25th percentile
Weight: 15 lbs. 15 oz. ~ 5th percentile
Head: 43.6 cm. ~ 40th percentile

Eden Rae, here is what you have been up to lately:

You are now crawling on your hands and knees
You can put yourself in a sitting position all by yourself
You pull yourself up on EVERYTHING
You love to walk (using our fingers for assistance)
You started pulling yourself up in the crib so we had to lower your mattress
You say, "mama," "dada," and "buh" (pretty positive this is Bella, and it was your first word)
You require a taste of every food before you will eat
You have a definite love hate relationship with food

You love green veggies, squash, sweet potatoes, bananas, avocado, black beans, egg yolk

You are STILL toothless (which got you the nickname "gramps")

You know how to play ball and tug of war with your sister

You are so very talkative and happy...this hasn't changed since you were born

You took your very first "big girl" bath (cast iron tubs+sweet little baby heads=recipe for disaster, which is why it took us this long to get rid of the baby tub)

With all that said, less than THREE MONTHS until this girls birthday. Yikes! We are definitely enjoying each moment that we have left with our baby, but so very excited to see what each new day will bring. We love you E-Rae!

This is the expression she gave when we put her in the big girl bath

...And then we lowered the mattress

Please excuse Mt. Laundry in the background and focus on crawling baby

Her new favorite toy, the dishwasher

Playing peek-a-boo with dolly

Eden says, "have a happy Wednesday!" 

Father's And Birth Day

Happy {belated} father's day to all you dad's out there! I had planned on doing a father's day post where I got to talk all about the father's in my life and tell you why they are pretty neat and all that jazz. Well, father's day turned out a bit different than we originally planned and honestly it was THE BEST DAY!! Here's why...

Check out that hair!! 

Close your mouths people, it ain't mine! I'm very happy with the one I got thankyouverymuch and don't need another one...well, not now anyway. Actually, this is our niece (and Eden's cousin) Stevee Lynn. Josh's sister and brother-in-law just welcomed their second daughter on father's day. Yeah, pretty much this gift beat out the tie as a gift this year (okay I didn't actually give anyone a tie). Seriously though, I am in love with this girl. She makes the SWEETEST little baby sounds and I pretty much melted every few seconds. I'm in big trouble. Good thing I am the aunt so I can spoil her all I want. 

The trip to see this little bundle was quite adventurous. We found out that my sister-in-law, Danae, was being admitted to the hospital around 7 p.m. and were on the road by 10 p.m. Getting on the road ended up being much more difficult than anticipated. Packing for three last minute was not my idea of a good time and now I remember why I enjoy being known as the crazy one since I typically way over plan everything. Darn me and my attempts at being a little more carefree and a little less organized. Oh and also, we got pulled over. Good news, it wasn't for speeding. Bad news, it turns out we have bad wiring to our headlights and we need to get it fixed...not so feasible when you only have one car. 

Anyway, no one cares about those boring details so I'll just keep showering you with pretty pictures of my niece's birth day.

{Hello "noisiest" photo EVER...hospitals have some seriously poor lighting, but couldn't resist this shot of daddy Paul holding his baby girl.}

{This is her namesake, Grandpa Steve}

{Big sister Peyton meeting Stevee for the first time}

  

{The hospital makes these signs...so cute!}

{Apparently this is how Eden feels about being choked by her cousin}

{You know I had to include this one...Eden only sleeps like this now. Poor girl had a rough night with being at the hospital at 4 a.m.}

And of course I can't end without saying...Joshua you are the best "dada" a girl could ever wish for. Thanks for loving our daughter and for being a father that is always involved. I know you work hard every day to make sure you can spend quality time with your baby girl. Eden is most definitely a daddy's girl and honestly it couldn't make me happier! We love you!

And to the other father's in my life...my dad, my father-in-law, my grandpa-in-law and all of my grandpas in Heaven...thanks for always being there for me and for being great examples. I can't believe how blessed I am to have all of you in my life!

Alright, I have a whole lot of stuff to catch up on after our whirlwind of a weekend, but I will most definitely be back with Eden's 9 month post (which is 3 days overdue...). 

The Lime To My Berry

Well, uh, sorry to leave you all hanging there. I know a lot of you had some questions regarding our newest venture (if you missed our announcement last week you can read about it here) so I am back to answer them. 

Question: Do you have a location already? Where is it?

Answer: YES! We actually picked out our location months ago (more on that in a minute) and a few weeks ago construction started. To answer the question about location, it is located in West Salem. For those of you that are local, it is in the Westgate Shopping Center, right next to Great Harvest (rather convenient for a bread lover like me!). 

Question: When did all of this happen?

Answer: Honestly, the initial idea came up about 3 months ago. There were quite a few hurdles that we had to deal with which kept us from moving forward as quickly as we would have liked. Yes, we have learned a whole lot of patience during this process. There were actually times where we didn't think it was going to work out, but thankfully we stayed strong (oh, who am I kidding, Josh is the only one who stayed positive throughout the process) and in the end it worked out better than we could have imagined. 

Question: When will you be open?

Answer: Um, Josh? Seriously though it is up to how smoothly the rest of the process goes. Things are going great right now (knock on wood), but we are willing to bet that there may be unforeseen issues/inspections/hold ups that may push things back a bit. With all of that said, the most I am going to say is mid-July. Don't hold us to it. Either way, I will keep you all updated as the opening gets closer.

Question: Are you crazy?

Answer: Okay fine, no one really said that, but I am assuming that at least one person was thinking it so I figured I might as well ask it :)

For fun, here is a little sneak peek at the "before" of the location that I took right before we made our offer.

Hey - It's my diaper bag!

It feels so good to be able to share all of this with you! It has been so hard not saying anything. Thank you all for your support and encouraging words, we are holding on to every word because we most definitely need it. You people rock our socks off.

Hope this answers all the lingering questions...if not, leave us a message in the comments or send us an email, we are happy to answer!

Four Fantastically Fantastic Years

Today marks our FOURTH year of marriage. Time sure does fly. Since I gave you a sneak peek of our wedding on our last anniversary, I thought I would do something a little different this time around. See, four years ago we planned a wedding that fit us perfectly. It was quite traditional, our colors were red/black/white, we were married in a church and had a reception at a golf course...definitely everything I had thought my wedding would look like. Ironically enough only four years later my taste has changed drastically. 


If you look around my house you will find I am not really all that traditional. While red, black, and white were my favorite colors (and I still love them...GO BLAZERS!), I definitely lean more towards a spring/summer palette. In fact I would probably go with gray/yellow, blue/yellow, or even go with something way different...whites/creams and a hint of green (think succulents). Also, my venues would be totally different..well, except I am still really happy that we got married at our church. For fun I found a few images on Pinterest (where else?!) that reflect what I would envision my wedding to look like if it were today.

The Dress

Bridesmaids

The Decor

So, uh, honey...wanna go ahead and renew our vows for our 4 year wedding anniversary? You don't mind right?


Well fine. It's fun to dream anyway. Happy anniversary to the bestest friend and partner in crime ever. You are such a great husband and a fantastic daddy. Bella, Eden, and I love you with all our hearts!


Oh and just because I know you are curious...to celebrate our anniversary we went on our first date (well besides our dates that consisted of grocery shopping and Target runs) in a year. We watched went up to Bridgeport Village, watched Kung Fu Panda (Josh cried), ate at Pastini, and browsed through a bunch of shops. Sadly, this was the first movie we had been to together in a VERY LONG TIME. At least a year if not more. Seriously it was so much fun to have a date night with just the two of us...but really we couldn't wait to get back to Eden, we just enjoy her way too much. Thanks mom and dad for letting us get away for a few hours!




{P.S.}
If you are on Pinterest feel free to follow me! My user name is Mallory Crain. I love seeing what inspires everyone. 


Also, I still have a few invites left so if you want to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon (you know you do!) let me know...all I need is your email address and I can hook.you.up. Yeah baby.

A Thank You, Frozen Yogurt, And An Announcement!

Wow. You guys are amazing. You knocked our socks off (funny expression by the way). I honestly didn't actually expect anyone to make it through that entire post, and truthfully I didn't think I could be blessed even more than I already had been. See, there's me doubting again. I need to realize that I can't doubt God's power. Anyway, all of the encouragement we received after that last post really meant a lot to us. I am just sitting here with a goofy grin on my face because I am just so gosh darn happy. So, thank you. Seriously. You rock! Oh and to the anonymous person...love you too, just wish I knew who you were. Glad we are friends though ;)

Alright, I know you didn't come here to listen to my sappy ramblings. You will have to hold tight though, I have one last thing to show you before I reveal our newest venture. 

One thing I have been promising to show you is my parent's self-serve frozen yogurt shop. They opened LIMEberry last August and I must say that I certainly do appreciate having an endless supply of frozen yogurt and toppings at my fingertips. Oh, in case you were wondering my go to combination is: Reese's peanut butter yogurt on the bottom, chocolate and vanilla swirl on top, M&M's, Reese's peanut butter cups, oreos, and a pump of Reese's peanut butter sauce on top. Absolute perfection. What? You don't think that's healthy? Well, I'll have you know that peanut butter has protein and chocolate has antioxidants. See, I am healthier than you think.

Alright, back to the subject at hand. I finally got a few photos of their location and wanted to share them with you. Before they opened, they had given me the opportunity to help design the shop and was I ever ecstatic! Unfortunately I was rather pregnant at the time and so busy with work that I couldn't do as much as I would have liked. I did send them a mood board and then they would consult me on their choices (some that I approved and some that I didn't...sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn't). Basically I showed them my vision (which also came together by listening to what they had envisioned as well) and then let them choose things accordingly. Here is the mood board that I sent to them.

LIMEberry Board by MalMal3 on Polyvore.com




We were looking for a fun, modern, and clean looking frozen yogurt shop. At the time the concept of self-serve frozen yogurt was very new to Salem so we got to really run with our ideas. As you can see the color scheme was lime and hot pink (I am sure there is a technical name for the pink/purple they are using, but I'm too lazy to find that out). Alright, here are a couple of "after" photos of the space.

I think you can see the "vision" translated into the space. It definitely isn't exactly the same, they had to make some changes to the original vision to fit the budget and location, but I still had lots of fun helping out with the design of a commercial space. It definitely stretched me a lot, and while it was similar to designing homes in some ways, there were definitely a lot of differences. 


ANNOUNCEMENT, ANNOUNCEMENT, ANNOUNCEMENT!!!


I've made you all wait long enough. After many months of some serious planning we have partnered up to open up our own LIMEberry location! 


Seriously. I know. I am still in denial. Shock is a word I use often. If you asked me 6 months ago what we would be doing with our lives, this would definitely not be it. However, we are SO EXCITED about this new venture. 


To answer the question that I know a lot of you probably have....yes, Josh will still be doing real estate. Honestly, we both LOVE his career...but there is one part that we don't love. The income. When real estate is good, it's real good, but when real estate is not good...well, it means we may not see a dime for all of the work for months. Obviously things are going to be a bit insane around our household for awhile, but we still feel its the right decision. I will be husbandless a lot, but its a sacrifice we are ready to make for now. We have been blessed with a lot of family time lately, but we know it is time to change things up a bit. Family is still a priority, but Josh needs to be able to provide for us. So, things will most certainly not be easier for awhile, but there is no doubt in our minds that this is right. We are learning how to handle this new lifestyle and making a commitment to one another that we will still make time for lots of fun family time. 


Alright, now is when I open it up to you. If you have questions please ask. While we all know I try to be very open on here, when it comes to the business there is going to be a lot that I will have to keep under wraps. I hope you understand. Since it is such a big part of our lives I am sure it will find its way on here every once in awhile. If I get enough questions I'll do another post to answer all of them since I am guessing there will be others asking the same thing. 


Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers. We are excited and a bit apprehensive about this new stage in life, but can't wait to see where it leads us! 

These Are My Confessions

So, the last few months have been hard. We are talking harder than walking in 5 inch stilettos while pregnant. We have gone months without any income at all. While we had saved up enough to make it for awhile JUST IN CASE, well, that just in case happened and then it kept happening. 

We chose for me to be a stay at home mom, and we still don't regret it. Wait. Stop there. Yes, I had a VERY hard time with this aspect. Here I was sitting at home when I knew perfectly well that I could get a good paying job and support our family. However, Josh gently reminded me MANY times that we went down this path because it's where we felt God had lead us. If I were to just run back to working full-time we would just be saying that we didn't trust God...and that is absolutely not what we wanted. So, I submitted. It was not easy. I wanted to run and make some money because I was really scared. 

There was a time when we were first married where we were in a tough spot. That doesn't even compare to where we are now. This time around we have a baby and NO income. When we struggled the first time it was just the two of us and we still had an income, just a whole lot of student loans that sucked the money pit dry. Sadly, the first time we let our money situation tear our marriage apart. Thankfully, it healed and we are in a way better spot because of it. This time is different. This time there have absolutely been moments where our emotions are so raw and there are times where I get so frustrated that I lash out at the one person who I love with all of my heart. So what's the difference? We have taken this time to learn. Having not even a penny to your name teaches you to be so very creative. When you don't have money you can't spend money (brilliant, I know) so you quickly become resourceful. I have made food out of nothing more than thin air (well, that's how it seems). 

Want to know the best thing that has happened to us during this short time in our life? We have learned to truly appreciate the friends and family that God has blessed us with. No seriously, we are BLESSED. I know, I know, we should have noticed them before, but it's different now. Having people bring us food, clothing, prayers...it is so humbling. For years I have let my pride get in the way of letting God use the people He has placed in my life to bless our family. Whenever I heard the phrase, "can we pray for you?" My immediate response (in my head not out loud), "Who me?! Save your prayers for someone who really needs them." Yeah, this is not easy to admit, but it is honest. Seriously, if I had swallowed my pride for a bit I may have really been able to appreciate the relationships I have with those around me. 

Alright, here is the thing I need to say. This post wasn't meant for you to feel bad for me. Please don't. Really, I just needed an outlet to get all of these thoughts and feelings out in the open. Also, as I had mentioned before, I felt that I couldn't truly put my heart into this blog until I had been completely honest. Obviously I can't share everything on here, but this was such a big heavy thing weighing on me and it was time to let you all know where this family is at. We are so well taken care of and are going to be fine. That's the other thing...we believe we have a way out of this mess...and yes this does mean a new job. For those of you who have stuck around through all this blabbing will now know that HOPEFULLY tomorrow I will be letting you all in on our newest venture. Some of you already know, but many most likely don't. We have stayed kind of quiet about life lately just to protect ourselves. However, I think we are in the clear and as long as I get a thumbs up from the other half then I will most definitely announce it. So, hang tight...I will be back! 

Thanks for any of you that are still reading, although I don't blame you if you zoned out within the first sentence. I created this blog as an outlet for myself and I am most certainly taking advantage of it. 

Photo Smorgasbord

It's been awhile. Get ready for a picture heavy post. Yep, just going to go ahead and shove a bunch of days into one big, giant blog post because that's about all I have time for. I have so many more posts that I need to write, but I keep reminding myself that Eden is only a baby once in her life and sometimes she is more important. So, here is a little bit of what we have been up to this past week. Oh and I keep writing and re-writing a bit of a confessional post because I think it's time for you all to know whats going on over at the Crain household. Things have been a bit...insane lately and I feel like I can't sit here and blog unless I am being completely honest with my readers. So, be expecting that sometime soon...as soon as I can sort out my thoughts and feelings and write them down legibly.

I know I have mentioned that my baby moves a lot, but seriously...she never stops! She even sleeps in the crawling position. Thankfully she has started to learn to love cheerios so I can get her to sit in her highchair for a short amount of time while she happily eats away on them. This is usually the time that I get in a super fast shower. Thanks to my Facebook friends I had some great suggestions on how to get a shower with a very mobile 8 month old...so far bringing the highchair into the bathroom and putting cheerios and toys on the tray has worked wonders. I'll do anything for a shower each day.

f/2.2, ISO 800, 1/80
Into Bella's food & water for the 5,201,365th time...

Friday we got the chance to babysit our friends 2 month old baby, Owen...Eden sat and watched him during his entire nap. 

f/2.2, ISO 800, 1/125

On Sunday my dad organized a surprise birthday dinner for my mom at Marco Polo (for you locals...great food, but a little pricey for my taste, granted I am el cheapo). I wanted to snap a picture of Eden all dressed up and ready to go, but hadn't realized just how difficult that task would be without Josh's help. That girl kept trying to dive off the bed (note to self: no more pictures of Eden in locations where she can fall rather far). I finally got a couple that captured her personality perfectly.

f/2.2, ISO 800, 1/80

f/2.2, ISO 800, 1/80
Thumbs up dude!

 And then she crawled away.

f/1.8, ISO 400, 1/100

My sister and her husband were in town visiting and our families all went hiking at Silver Creek Falls. The weather wasn't amazing, but it wasn't raining and around here that calls for a celebration.

f/5.0, ISO 400, 1/1000

f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/500

 I was in love with this moss that looked like it was dripping off of the trees.

f/2.8, ISO 800, 1/800

We saw lots of bugs including a big, scary ant hill (I now realize that the large amount of ants that invaded our house really aren't that big of a deal) and a cute little centipede.

Hope you weren't eating when viewing this....gag.

f/1.8, ISO 800, 1/3200

Josh, Eden, and I ditched the hike a few hours earlier than the rest of the crew (babies have needs you know) and on our way back to the parking lot we saw the cutest little boy that was lost. Thankfully we found his family, but not until we had gone quite a ways looking for them. That is one big place when you are trying to find people you don't know. The family hadn't even realized he was gone (it had been quite a long time). It made us realize that not everyone takes parenting seriously and it broke our hearts. I know we are bound to make many mistakes, but I pray we never are too consumed with other things that we forget about Eden.

f/5.6, ISO 800, 1/320

That same day we also celebrated Alicia's birthday with a BBQ at her parents house. Oh and a quick thank you to Charissa for taking photos! 

The birthday girl snuggling with Miss Kylie

 Let me give you a quick background. I have been friends with this particular group since sixth grade (well, technically one of them I met when I first moved to Oregon in third grade...hello Cindra!). We have done so much together, shared so many secrets, been a part of each other's weddings, celebrated babies...honestly this group has meant so much to me growing up, and still do. Sadly, we don't see each other as often as we once did now that we are supposedly grown ups and have busy lives, but when we do it is always fun and never feels like we have been apart. Hopefully I can sneak a photo of all of us at Samantha's upcoming wedding and you know I'll be sharing it here (Alicia, I'll have to photoshop you in)!

Kari and Kyle joined our group in college. They have the most beautiful girls, Isla and Kylie (you've seen them here before).

All the baby girls together.

Please ignore my creepy eyes, this was the best photo of everyone else...hey I don't always have to look perfect ;) Also, somehow I have always ended up being the odd girl out, guess I should have grabbed Josh for this one.

Things have been NONSTOP around our house lately. We have been gone every night of the week and every weekend...and looking at our calender we really won't be stopping anytime soon. 

Oh and want some fun news? Today is my mom's actual birthday...AND two of my friends are in the very same hospital having their babies right now. I get emotional every time one of my friends goes into labor. Honestly, I never used to be like this. I can't wait to meet their precious kidlets. 

Happy birthday Mom/Lola!

Alright, time to hurry off before the littlest Crain awakes.