Favorite Photos of June 2012

I was surprised how difficult it was for me to find twelve photos from June 2012 that I absolutely adored.  Maybe it was because Charlotte and I were in our "routine" without Justin or that I was back at work and she was in school most of the week.  But there is some comfort knowing that June, for the most part, was pretty boring and "normal."

So here they are, the favorite photos of June 2012 completely unedited.

We are living at my parent's house during our little 6 month stopover in San Diego. This is my mom frying up some fish outside.  My mom is the best cook ever and Charlotte and I both LOVE eating everything she makes!

My little brother was living at home as well.  (He has since moved out.)  But it was so nice having him around to play with Charlotte and give me a break every once in awhile.  Little brothers are the best!

It seems like every Navy wife I know has a husband on deployment.  So here is Charlotte with J and L whose dad was also on deployment at the time.  Charlotte absolutely loves playing with those two!

Here is a shot of all three kids in front of the San Diego Zoo.

Charlotte with her cousins at Chuck-e-Cheese.  That place is insane!
 

I love this photo of Charlotte relaxing in the play structure outside of the San Diego Children's Museum with my sister in the background.  My sister is amazing.  I think I would go crazy without her.  She makes life a lot less lonely with Justin gone.

Charlotte sleeping in her big girl bed.  With the whole family sleeping in one room right now (since everything is on it's way to Hawaii as we speak), I'm really starting to miss that big girl bed.  :)

Charlotte riding her tricycle after school.  I love this photo.  I love this little girl.  

Charlotte posing with a father's day card I made for Justin's dad. We met up with him, Debra, and Uncle Adam later that night for dinner at C Level.  Lobster mac 'n cheese.  Mmmmm...

At the end of the month, Charlotte and I flew out to Virginia to spend a week with Justin. We had a red eye and Charlotte only slept about 4 hours total.  But that didn't stop her from soaking every single moment with Justin.  Here they are reading  in bed together.

Charlotte is all smiles while Justin puts on her lotion.  And she HATES putting on lotion.

And she is still giggling while Justin combs her hair.  

As always, thanks for stopping by!

2012 will be the year... {a scrapbook layout}

If you're coming over her from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, welcome!  For Challenge #1, we were asked to make a layout about our goals and resolutions for 2012.  I've never done anything like this.  Most of my layouts are about my daughter or family events.  So it was a challenge in itself to scrapbook (1) myself and (2) something that was forward thinking.  But what better time to do new things than in the new year, right?

So with my trusty January Counterfeit Kit in hand, this is the layout I created.

The design inspiration for this layout was this "Design is..." poster I found from pinterest. 

I loved how layered all those patterns looked.  It reminded me of a more modern and simple patchwork quilt.  So with that image in my head, I went out to start on my layout.

I started with kraft cardstock as my base and then just started cutting strips and pieces of my patterned paper out.  Once I figured out where to place my paper, I began to machine stitch everything.  This was my first adventure in machine stitching paper.  Although I royally messed up in some places, some purposfully placed pieces of washi tape fixed that all up!

I printed my journaling on a piece of vellum to maintain an overall soft feel to the layout.  However, because the patterned paper behind the vellum was still a bit too bold, I just swirled some white acrylic paint on the back side using my paint dauber.  I used this same tecnique when printing my photo - print on vellum then paint the backside with white acrylic paint.

I decided to call this layout...2012 will be the year I finally find balance.  Instead of making another long list of resolutions which I will inevitably break, I instead want to focus on finding balance in my life - whatever that may be any give month.  We'll see how 2012 goes but I'm super excited. 

And since this layout was about balance, I thought that it was especially appropriate that I made my layout a bit askew.

As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope that 2012 brings joy and happiness to all of you! 

Project 100 Update.  5 down.  95 to go.

Yale, this is Charlotte. Charlotte, this is Yale.

This past weekend, we drove down to New Haven for the annual Yale-Harvard football game.  While we never actually watched the football game, we did find some tasty food at the Siliman College tailgate. 

We also quickly realized that there were absolutely no children around.  So we headed across the street towards the stadium.  There, we saw Handsome Dan and took a quick photo.

The rest of our afternoon was spent visiting my old favorite spots around campus and taking A LOT of photos of Charlotte.  Here we are on the shuttle back to campus from the football stadium. Charlotte loves singing "Wheels on the Bus" so this was definitely a treat for her.

Here she is sitting on a bench right outside of Welch Hall on Old Campus (my freshman dorm). 

Charlotte loved playing in the leaves in Old Campus.  At one point, they came right up to her knees! 

For lunch, we ate at the Ivy Noodle.  Henry, Mel and I would go here all the time for scallion pancakes and pan fried dumplings.  Sadly, the food was far from the deliciousness that I remembered.  But Charlotte enjoyed getting out of the cold for just a bit.

Our next stop was Morse College, my residential college.  It was renovated since I was there but still felt like home.

We briefly stopped by Cross Campus before walking along Wall Street, across Swing Space and then back to our car behind the Payne Whitney Gym.

And now, if you ask Charlotte what her favorite college is, she'll point to the Y.  Cause, yes, that would be Yale.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Happy Five Years

I still am not sure where the time has gone.  But five years ago, this was me and Justin.

I was in my second year of law school and just finished interviewing for summer law clerk jobs.  Justin was doing his nuclear power training with the Navy.  We got married in Annapolis, Maryland at the US Naval Academy.  A week later, we parted ways.  I went to Berkeley, CA and Justin went to Charleston, SC.

Five years later, this is our family.

I have since left my full-time attorney job and am staying at home with our daughter, Charlotte.  Justin is still in the Navy and started department head school this week.  Our family lives together in Newport, Rhode Island. 

Oh how we have grown and changed over these past few years.  But, for better or for worse, my dear and lovely husband...happy anniversary.  Five years done.  A lifetime to go.  I can't wait!