In Real Life: Week 47

Hello, friends! Here’s a peek at our week 47…

Have you ever seen a more beautiful rainbow?

I wonder who lives in the condo with that open window. Probably someone very interesting to live in such a nice place.

I see what you did there.

Shut up and take my money, Container Store.

Thought I’d pop into Safeway “real quick” to grab a few things on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. BAD IDEA. Moving e-cart to the top of the list of things I’m grateful for this year.

Cloudy autumn days make me want to curl up and take a nap.

Many of the trees around here are almost done losing their leaves.

Goooooood morning.

Since I was the only one who wanted apple pie at our Thanksgiving this year, I put my energy into making apple tarts instead.

And then I topped one with whipped cream and ate it with bacon for breakfast, because of course.

I had some extra puff pastry, so I made cinnamon twists for those apple pie-haters, too.

We had a pretty mellow Thanksgiving day, just the four of us.

I butterflied, brined, and grilled a chicken, rather than a turkey.

Jack “helped” me make rolls.

Proofin’. (Recipe here. Easy peasy, and 100% worth it.)

It’s not Thanksgiving without stuffing, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes, too.

I’m so grateful for this cheesy kid.

Silly me… I thought we were going to take a nap together.

Tradition dictates that soup must be made the day after Thanksgiving.

It is known.

And if there’s time, fresh egg noodles must be made, too.

It’s easier to cut the dough into noodles if you roll it up first.

Trust me.

You’ll want ’em pretty wide, for maximum chewy goodness.

Let ’em dry for a couple of hours.

Then toss ’em in. Not all at once, though, or they’ll all stick together.

Then take a cue from your lazy house cat and take a luxurious afternoon nap.

Living on the edge after baby bedtime: watching Beauty and the Beast and folding laundry. Aw yeah.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Have a great week 48!

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In Real Life: Week 46

Hello everyone! I’m going to be honest… our week 46 was pretty lame. I have been sick for most of the week, so I’ve barely left the house and haven’t taken many pictures. But I’ll share what I do have, because hey, it’s real life.

We got some real rain this week. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

Jack’s actual birthday was on Tuesday. I know everyone says this, but it still amazes me that it’s been a year already. But, also cliche, I can hardly remember what life was like before him, so in many ways I can’t believe it’s only been a year. (And moms everywhere nod their heads.)

I have kind of assigned myself the role of work-birthday-celebration-organizer. This week I hosted the first of what I hope will be a monthly birthday potluck. Joe brought these awesome meatballs that had a surprise ingredient in the sauce… grape jelly!

I kind of inadvertently wound up with a Samsung tablet – lucky me! And even though I initially balked at the idea of using a coloring app, I’ve actually really been enjoying being able to use that side of my creative brain without having to pull out a book and all the pencils and the sharpener, etc, etc.

I was down for the count on Friday, and simply could NOT keep up with this kid. My house may never recover.

Especially since he is always into EVERYTHING.

It’s a good thing he’s cute.

Silver lining: I got to binge-watch The Deuce. I wish I was half as talented as Maggie Gyllenhaal.

And honestly? That’s it for this week. This is day #5 of not feeling well, and I still hardly feel like I’m getting better. Hopefully I’ll have more to share next week.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Much love,

-Jess

In Real Life: Week 45

It’s been a whirlwind week 45! Let’s take a look…

I highly recommend taking a drive through the woods any chance you get.

Don’t be afraid to pull over and just breathe for a little while.

Embrace the feeling of smallness.

I spent all of last weekend purging/cleaning/organizing James’ room in preparation for moving Jack into it soon. It still isn’t perfect, but it’s a whole lot better than it was.

Fancy tea is fun.

My little Jawa.

We got these new home sleep study machines at work, so I was a guinea pig and wore it for a night. It was surprisingly not uncomfortable, and come to find out I actually have mild obstructive sleep apnea!

Cloudy mornings make for epic sunrises.

What my mornings at the office usually look like, complete with the happy light and all.

Construction of the new hospital building is really starting to progress!

Learning to feed oneself is a messy business.

Evening chills.

Baby butt!

These autumn leaves can hang on as long as they want to.

For realsies. They’re my favorite.

Brothers. ❤

When the two gorgeous bouquets our nanny gave us started to wilt, I took them apart and made my own arrangement with the flowers that were still good. Didn’t turn out half bad, if I may say so!

The highlight of our week was definitely having Grandma and Auntie Meggie here for Jack’s birthday party.

They pulled off a huge surprise by bringing my BFF, Savannah, along too! I was totally shocked when I saw her at the airport.

Since she’d never been to Santa Cruz before, we had to show her the sights!

Look at that seagull. Walking around like he owns the place.

Whoever you are, Allison, wherever you are, I hope you are at peace.

Capitola has so much personality.

I think it’s safe to say that she likes the beach.

Not a bad place to have an afternoon snack.

I took them down to the last Food Truck Friday of the season.  (Get the YOLO fries, trust me.)

What a good daddy.

Then Saturday was the big day!

We went with a Dr. Seuss theme. Inspired, honestly, by Jack’s love of his stuffed Thidwick the Moose.

He looked so cute in his little hat…

…but of course, he wouldn’t keep it on. But he did enjoy the cake!

His little onesie was pretty fun, too.

I had so much fun celebrating with him!

And we have so many new toys now!

I can’t tell you how happy it made me to have my family here to celebrate with us.

Birthday boy PASSED OUT once we got home.

After the party, the ladies got to go to the annual crab feed!

None of us had ever been to one of these before, so it was a new experience!

When they say all you can eat crab, they mean all you can eat crab.

The hall was FULL. And once the food came out everyone dug in and feasted. It was such a cool community experience!

Come to mama.

In crab(hog) heaven!

Leave it to me to cut myself with a crab shell.

My mom always makes instant new friends.

Next year I’m bringing a lobster hat.

Then after dinner, there was dancing! I will forever be a sucker for a live band and a packed dance floor. It’s in my genes.

And after we’d had enough fun, we capped off the night by enjoying the glow of the boardwalk from the cliffs. Perfect.

It was truly an amazing weekend. I am so grateful.

And now it’s back to the grind for week 46! Have a great one, everybody!

In Real Life: Week 44

Here’s what our week 44 looked like…

I started my solo Sunday by getting breakfast at The Verve.

Their bathroom floor is neat.

Then I went down to the cliffs to enjoy the waves for a while.

The bark of a tree worn smooth by the ocean.

Somebody had a good time.

Step in, if you dare.

Frozen dumplings make a damn tasty single-lady lunch. Homemade spicy tahini sauce makes it even better.

I’ll admit: I’ve been looking forward to dressing Jack up for Halloween basically since last year.

Is there anything more adorable than this baby Yoda?

He wasn’t too sure about the hat, though.

We had a hard time keeping it on, actually.

We skipped trick or treating this year, since we didn’t need the candy and Jack wouldn’t have understood it anyway. But we did drop in to a little party our friend was kind enough to host.

I suppose I should be grateful that they waited until November 1st to bust out the Christmas cups.

My latest little crafting project.

These little owls were fun to put together!

It rained this week!

Thank you, Costco, for making this tasty lunch so easy to throw together.

Don’t smoke, kids.

Baby is enjoying his early birthday gift from Grandma Carrie.

Side note: how is my baby almost a year old?!

“Love all, feed all.”

Fancy-looking, but so simple. And delicious!

Mom’s night potluck!

Have a great week 45!