Halloween 2012

UP

Vancouver, I am liking you so far....

I love driving to work everyday because in the short ride I have, I go through what seems like a forest. It is full of all kinds of beautiful trees. Green is EVERYWHERE and it gives me the happiest feeling to be surrounded by so much greenery and nature. There is something that gives me the warm and fuzzies when I am surrounded by mother nature, God's beautiful creation. I feel so at peace with everything, even when my life is full of craziness. At my lunch break I have to sit in my car to pump (one of the many joys of being a full time working mom) and the best thing about it is my view. I lookout into a scenery of trees all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors and a marsh is in my view that is said to have blue herons visit. I look out my window at my office and just am surrounded by nature.

Downtown Vancouver is nothing to write home about. However, we are just a hop, skip and a jump away from downtown Portland and they have plenty to do there. We have already visited Saturday market twice, walked around aimlessly, played in a few different water "fountains, visited some fun stores and ate some yummy food. Portland is so big, eclectic and fun! The vibe is so different than San Diego. 

Chloe playing in the water in Portland.

There are so many family friendly places here! The brand new library is awesome. James takes the girls there every Wednesday for story time and to play in their super cute, modern indoor playground. We have been to historic Fort Vancouver a few times with beautiful victorian houses and cool history and a big open field for Chloe to run in. There are tons of fun, nice playgrounds everywhere up here! I have been told that within the last 2 years Vancouver has really been trying to become more family friendly. I definitely agree there is tons to do here with our little ones and I have to say that I like it very much.

Checkout how big that jungle gym is behind Chloe.
And that was only half of the size!

We are attending City Bible Church in Vancouver. Our SD home church was an extension of the church up here. So I feel like we already understand the principals and main mission of our new church and we fit right in. The kids church is awesome! Chloe loves her two year old class and is making friends fast.  They even have a nursery for newborns and a nursing room with a tv that plays the video from inside the sanctuary so you can still watch the sermon while you nurse. It is so nice because Emery seems to always be hungry at church and I would always miss out on a good chunk of the service.  We are starting to get to know people, we start attending a small group for young families next Sunday and I am so excited. It will be nice to have people to connect to here other than our family.

Speaking of family, James sister will be moving in literally next door to us. It will be awesome to have her so close to just stop by and hang out for a few since she is so busy with work and school. It is nice to have family so close to play with the girls. James mom just moved to Portland and is now only 20 minutes away from us vs the hour they were. They have been coming over often to help James take care of the girls during the day while I am at work.We are blessed to have family so close and available to help us.

We have made some new friends thanks to Instagram/blog world. We met with Alicia from upside down umbrella. Their little family is so cute and we already have lots in common. We have tons of fun things planned and I can't wait to hang out more. It is nice to meet people who are in the same life stage as you. Especially when you have little ones because things can come up unexpectedly and things are so unpredictable, so to have friends that understand is great. And Emery and her baby Chloe are close in age so I can't wait for them to play together! Thank you Instagram for connecting me to people whom I otherwise would have never met. Who knew, right? If any of you other bloggers who live here in Portland or Vancouver want to get together and meet up (play dates encouraged, Chloe needs friends!) just email me at shesaidblog{at}ymail{dot}com

I will do a post soon on an update of the girl soon, especially for you Mom! 

And since I posted pictures of Chloe, here is one of my happy Emery Rose just for good measure. 

Where are you Fall?

It sure doesn't feel like fall around here. The temperature is in the high70's/ 80's and the sun is shining brightly. From what the locals say, we arehaving an "Indian Summer" meaning that summer is sticking around latethis year. bummer. Although it does give us opportunity to check out our newcity and see what all the fun outdoor activities are available around here.

 I can't wait for it to start getting cool. I love thecrisp air and the hazy sky. Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up bya fireplace and sip hot cocoa. At least the leaves are changing colors intobeautiful fire reds, oranges and gold. It is nice to live in a place that hasactual seasons (no offense SD).

James and I are thinking about taking the plunge and becoming coffee drinkers. I NEED caffeine because baby keeps me up all hours of the night to nurse and I have to be at work and ready for my busy day by 8 am. The thing is, we don't like the bitter taste of coffee. We like the sweet stuff. I LOVE coffee ice cream, so if I can get a drink that taste like that but warm, we would be all set. What better time to start drinking coffee then the fall? For any of you coffee lovers out there, do you have any suggestions?  

I keep hearing about all these pumpkin patches that are starting up and I can't wait to take the girls. I want to hit up at least 1 every weekend. Seriously love getting out and about with the girls to parks and festivals and things of the sort. Especially places where Chloe can pet/see animals, her face lights up so big when she sees real life animals.  


I am also excited for fall because I LOVE fall wardrobe! I want to start wearing my boots, cardigans, scarfs, mittens and warm fun colored tights, so get with it fall!

Oh and we already have our theme for Halloween this year. We will be the characters from UP. James will be Carl, Chloe is Russel, Emery is Doug and I will be Kevin. I can't wait to see how our costumes turn out. I love when families dress up together, it is so cute.  If any of you have ideas for this theme, let me know as I am trying to put the costumes together on the limited budget and very limited spare time I have.

Family Photos

Finally have some photos of us 4 all together. We ended up using Jana Morgan as the photographer and let me tell you, she was wonderful! She was so patient with us, especially since Chloe didn't want to take any photos with us! The life of a toddler, too busy to sit and take a photo.

Anyway, enjoy!

Northwest Living

Hello lovelies! I hope summer has been good to everyone. I can't believe fall is already here! Although this 90 degree weather we are having sure doesn't make it feel like fall.

We made it up to Vancouver, Wa all in one piece. The babies did wonderful! Both Chloe and Emery were patient and calm, which was such a blessing for a 2 day road trip. We are loving our new house! It is so roomy! Plus we have a pretty little backyard that Chloe can play and run around in. She has made some fun animal friends back there too! We have tree frogs, snails, squirrels and more and she has fun naming them and spying them. She even asks us to go find snails with her!

I finally found a job after 6 weeks of applying. I start later this week working in an office! Thank you all for your prayers! God has been constantly blessing us throughout this big journey.
He is so good. We know He wants us here and He is constantly opening up doors of provision for us.

Chloe is getting so big and is starting to say full, small sentences. And Emery is trying to sit up on her own. She is getting to be so big too and she loves to smile and talk/coo (and so loud at that)! She is also teething like crazy. I will have to do more in depth post about the girlies soon.

We love our new church too! We attended City Bible Church in San Diego and they have a vancouver campus up here! Can't wait to get more plugged in!

We are loving our new life and missing our family back home like crazy. Its been bitter sweet.

Hopefully as things start winding down around here (and we start getting more and more boxes unpacked) I will be able to find the time to blog more! I miss it! And I know I have to keep our family and friends back hone updated on our new adventure.

-until next time!

Organic Baby Bjorn for Sale

This baby carrier is the original baby bjorn. It is made from organic cotton. It's ergonomic for your child. Properly supports your child's head, back and hips from birth. It is safe and user-friendly, easy for you to to put on and take off without assistance. Fully adjustable, Wide padded shoulder straps distribute weight evenly over back and shoulders. By tightening or loosening the bands for the head support, you can adjust to fit the child perfectly. The child can be worn inward toward your body or face out to the world. All adjustments can be made from the front so you wont need assistance. The front can be opened completely so your sleeping child can be lifted out without waking them up. - Baby Bjorn Website

ages: newborn and up
color: walnut- color shown in pictures
size: one size fits all

Bought this at Babies R Us for $100 asking $50 will be up in my shop as well!
Email me at shesaidblog{at}ymail.com if you are interested!

The move is all coming together nicely

The Lord just keeps opening up doors for our move up north. We are officially going to be residence in Vancouver, WA. We are renting a 1600 sqft 3 bedroom home with nice upgrades, super convenient location and a backyard! All for cheaper than we pay for our small 2 bedroom apartment now (oh the joys of living in expensive San Diego). We move at the end of August. We already told our work that we are leaving and now I am on a job hunt to start around the first of September. I am sad to be leaving Emery to go to work, but James will be home with the girls for paternity leave and James' mom is going to be babysitting the girls when we both go back to work. I am so excited that we will have such an amazing women to help us raise our children.

Please pray that I find a job soon. I hate this uneasy feeling of not 100% sure our finances are secure. Although if I don't find a job right away it is okay because we have saved up at least 2.5 months rent and bills money. And I have no shame in getting a job at fast food place or something to bring in at least a little money until I find a career.

Again sorry the updates are so short and choppy. It's hard trying to move across states when you have a 7 week old and a 20 month old. And trying to spend as much time with family and friends as possible before we leave. Talk about no time to do anything else! haha. I am definitely busy but it is a great kind of busy!

oh and please forgive my numerous advertisements of things I am selling.  You never know who could want it, though. We are really trying to downsize before we move!

Pillows

I actually found a little time today to sew some pillow cases my sister had been wanting to create for sometime now. Thank goodness my sister came over to help watch Emery while i did this or i definitely would never have time to get around to it. It was nice to be able to put off my chores, hand my baby over to her loving auntie and just focus on a little crafting again. :)
Arent these cute? I just love chevron pattern, especially yellow and white chevron! These are going right on my sisters bed. I would love a pair of these pillows for my living room....

photo shoot inspiration

For our little family photo shoot we are going to do royal blue, white and pink/fuchsia. I am so excited about the colors. I whipped up a quick inspiration board. Sorry, I didn't have the time to source these items, but they are mainly items from old navy and target and just random google images. 

I'm not dead, just busy...

So motherhood is not super easy for me. It never was with Chloe and it is even harder for me now with Emery added to the mix. However, just because it isn't easy doesn't mean I don't love it. Sure there are hard days where I don't even know how I can keep my eyes open because I haven't had a decent amount of sleep in the last month, but waking up to Chloe's smile and Emery's little coos are so wonderful and worth all the sleepless nights. I just continually pray to God for patience, energy, wisdom and grace.

We have been doing so much with the babies! Spending some good quality time with our families before we leave. We go to tons of parks and Chloe has officially fell in love with swimming, so we do that a lot now too. In fact, Emery had her first pool experience yesterday and she seemed to really like it! (And her little polkadot swimsuit was adorable, I just couldn't get over it.) Oh and Chloe also loves the drive in movies, so we can finally go to see a movie now too. We are also trying to go to some San Diego outings that we won't get to do once we leave. which means lots of beach time. :) 

And since we are leaving our families want to get photos done with everyone, meaning we have 3 photo shoots to do in the next month. We have already done one that didn't go so well because Chloe refused to stand still (or stand at all for that matter). So I finally just told the photographer to just take them, even if she is lying on the ground crying because I won't let her have Emery's bottle of milk. We will just have to look back on the photos and laugh (someday later down the road)....

It is hard to get on the computer to write a post when I am holding and nursing the baby or running after/playing with Chloe. So, please forgive the lack of post. Right now the most special thing to me is spending as much time as I can with these two little ones before I have to go back to work in September. 

If you use Instagram, follow me! That is the only thing I actually have time to update. And I post tons of pics of my babies on there! username: Schmitzel