Facebook questions

So, I love facebook.

I have noticed people either love it or they hate it. OR they pretend they hate it and then they just quietly facebook stalk everyone they know. CoughEVERYMANIKNOWcough.

To me, its the connection. I LOVE that I can post pictures and they will be there for me to look at whenever I want. Facebook has given me my own time machine for my life. I love that I can go to Target, sign onto my fb and develop whatever pictures I want. I love that I can see friends' pictures. I love that I can feel involved in a persons life. I love that I can show people a little or big piece of my life, my work, my child, my husband, the fun. I love that I can support other people. I love that I can watch families grow. I love that I can regularly see the changes my clients have made to their homes. I love that I can promote my career as a realtor and have had so many leads from facebook. And I love that since I also have a TON of family in Italy who I see once every few years (if that) it is an awesome way to keep them included in our life.

I have never deleted my facebook.
I have only ever blocked two people from my fb (and it was only because I was in college and she was the mother of a friend I was making questionable decisions with lol and then this creepy guy).
I have unfriended a couple of people who lets face it, we basically friended each other because we knew of each others names.
I have removed a couple of people from my timeline as there is only so much drama and complaining that I can handle.

What has your facebook experience been? What do you love? What do you hate? Have you ever blocked someone from even being able to find your name on facebook? Have you ever deleted your facebook? What is your primary reason for having facebook?


The man, the myth, the legend...

MDW and 15 months

This past weekend was memorial day weekend. Lots of cookouts and daddy has a three day weekend so all is well in the world.
Saturday we had Dans mom and her husband Kenny over for a cookout. Lots of blowing bubbles and sidewalk chalk happened. Tori loves having company. Its just more people to dote over her and play. Win-win in baby world.
That night I had drinks with a couple of the ladies I pledged my sorority with. It was a lot of fun and super chill. Just had a couple drinks at Marion court... (who just remodeled their outdoor bar and it looks great, btw). Its funny how we only see each other like once every couple of months but it is so natural when we do. Like we haven't left each other this whole time.
Sunday... I had a crazy work day. I had a showing in York, then an open house in Lancaster, then we went BACK to York for a cookout with my family. So worth it. My client loved the house and the cookout with my family was so fun. I had a snapchat war with my sister in law which resulted in a TON of HORRIBLE candid pictures of the two of us being sent to everyone we know. The food was awesome, of course. Burgers, dogs, lasagna (were Italian, obv that staple was there), buffalo chicken dip, crab dip, wine, pies, cupcakes.. you name it, it was there. We also had a ton of fun playing outside with the kiddos, it was such a beautiful day. We blew bubbles, threw around a ball, spun kids in circles until neither party could stand. Good stuff.
Monday: Diffenderfer cookout. More burgers, dogs, dips, cakes. Beer. Friends. Beer pong. Horeshoes. Ladder ball.
I got to eat lots of good stuff and see every person I love all in one weekend. That my friends, is good stuff.

 

 

 

Tori at 15 months:

 

-RUNS

-Says "Hot" and I think is actually understanding what it means

-LOVES the bath tub

-LOVES to play outside

-Still only has two teeth

-Is thinning out (unfortunately lol)

-Still a total Momma's girl

-Has adorable curly brown hair

-Has kept her beautiful blue eyes

-Waves hi and bye to everyone (literally everyone) she sees

-Blows kisses

-Loves to sit at the front door and wait for daddy to come home

-Loves to people watch

-pinches and smacks when she gets mad (it is HORRIBLE.. so hard to ignore)

-Knows the ASL signs for "all done" and "more" and I think understanding them

-Loves applesauce and bananas (actually pretty much any food lol)

-Sleeps from 8pm-6:30 pretty much everyday. (6:30 is tough lol)
-Has a food dance she does while shes eating where she shakes her shoulders
-Likes to shake her butt when you sing a song to her
She. is. the. best.

Banana bars with Cream cheese icing

Sometimes I randomly have a baking urge that comes over me out of nowhere and Friday was one of those times.
I decided I NEEDED to bake something and it HAD to be with things we already had in the house.
We had bananas. We had a pack of cream cheese. They were AWESOME.

Banana bars:
-1/2 cup of softened butter
-1 1/2 cups of white sugar
-2 eggs
-1 cup sour cream
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 cups of all purpose flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp salt
-1 cup mashed bananas
-1 container of cream cheese icing (or make your own, as I did)

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 10x15 baking pan
*In a large bowl mix together sugar and butter. Add other items slowly (I mixed them all in one by one). Eggs, sour cream, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt. Add the bananas.
*Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool and then top with icing.

Cream cheese icing:
-8 oz Philly cream cheese
-1/2 cup of butter
-2-3 cups of powdered sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract

*With an electric mixer, mix all of the items together. Allow to sit while the banana bars are baking. Once bars are cooled, top with icing.

Hands on house with a 1 year old

Not worth it.
This is obviously by no fault of Hands on house. They said on their website 2 and up. I don't think any child under 3 would get it though.
My friend Lauren and I took our girls Tori and Demi there the other day for a girls day.
When you first walk in, its super bright and pretty and I imagine every kids dream right off the bat lol. The first couple of little areas when you start to go through the place were pretty boring, lift some flaps.. check out the animals underneath... the next part had some trucks for the kids to push around and stuff which Tori loves trucks so as soon as she found one small enough to carry around she was excited.
Face painting was the next phase. I think the kids were supposed to paint their own faces but since we had a 12 month old and 14 month old there, I took it upon myself to paint Tori's face. It was hilarious she sat there so still like 'mom, what are you doing?!'. I painted a nice big heart on her forehead and then let her paint her own face for a bit so she had some paint on her cheek, her ear...you get it. I do not remember being dirty when I was a kid lol. My mom would have freaked at the idea of letting her 1 year old paint her own face so I had to make it a point to let Tori do it lol.
Then: the most fun part for both girls: the grocery store. Both Tori and Demi loved walking around and getting groceries. They picked fruit and veggies out of the bin.. and then of course Tori wouldn't put the fruit back and had to hold her apples the entire time through the factory area and mail center, etc.
We finished the day off with some food and ice cream at friendlys, then back at our house for some playtime in the playroom. We had a really fun day.

Point: don't take your kid to hands on house until they are 3 lol.

Mothers day 2014

She has changed my life.

I love more than I have ever loved.
Laugh harder than I have ever laughed.
Listen better than I have ever listened.
Sympathize more than I have ever sympathized.
I have tried harder that I have ever tried.
Felt stronger than I have ever felt.

She brings out the best of me. I have a calm that I have never felt before.

Victoria Luna, I love you more than I could ever put into words.

Thank you for making me a Mother.

Thank you for being you.

14 months old and food

Tori is such a good combination of Dan and I. She is wild, sassy and funny (like mommy I think lol) and chill, smart and OBSESSED WITH FOOD (like daddy).
Victoria turned 14 months old a few days ago and it has been really exciting and scary watching her gain more and more independence. She tries (unsuccessfully) to put on her own shoes, she feeds herself her bottle at naptime and puts herself to sleep and she wants to feed herself real food. This is where mommy terror kicks in. Tori only has two teeth and she insists on eating anything and everything. The dr told me as long as she learns chewing etc the amount of teeth she has isn't that important, just don't give her anything super hard (duh). So, I cut up bananas for her to feed herself, she eats puffs, etc.. but she cannot eat fast enough. If you put 4 cut up pieces of banana in front of her she will not eat a piece of banana, she will take her hand, swipe them all at one time and shove them in her mouth. Every. Single. Piece. At. Once. If her eyes so much as water for a second because shes eating too fast I panic, my heart feels like its going to burst out of my chest, I hit her on the back... sometimes I have reacted like that so quickly and its nothing so she ends up looking at me like what the heck mom?! Why are you hitting me?! Lol.
Choking is one of my biggest fears. Seeing someone choke, not so much me choking. This obviously is extra terrifying when it comes to your child. Your very hungry all the time, will eat anything you put in front of her as fast as she can child.
The other day I actually said to her if she tried to shove that many bananas in her mouth again then I would never let her eat anything other than baby food for the rest of her life.

Anywho: on the house front: We are still unpacking and organizing. I am waiting on the curtains I ordered for Tori's room and then I have a wall decal to add and a shelf/her name in blocks to add to the wall and she will be all done. The living room I still need a few more things but it is coming along. We have the fireplace area decorated how we want and the new tv stand etc how we want it. We decided not to paint the downstairs right now because the last owners had the house repainted for the move and it just looks too good to paint over it, like there is really not a speck of paint out of place. So the last thing for the dining room right now is we want to change the light fixture. The kitchen is still waiting on its chalkboard wall and the playroom needs some color. We wanted to make this all happen before the housewarming parties so we will see. Yes, parties.. a family party and a friends party. Sometimes you must keep them separate lol.



Our new house: Before

Hello my loyal blog readers. What a couple of days. Unpacking a house with a one year is HARD. Not knowing where anything is is HARD. No cable since Saturday is HARD. Missing the exit twice on your way home from different stores because you forgot where you live is HARD. Now onto the bright side... (lol).
We love our house already. Like seriously, love it. Cannot believe it is ours sort of love it. Wake up so happy and proud to call this our home sort of love it.
Our neighborhood is so beautiful but we have only gotten to enjoy it two days since moving in since mother nature is a..... you know what I am thinking.
Our neighbors are all amazing. We have a cop and teacher right next door who have three kids, 1 girl and 2 boys... the youngest boy is only 2, so him and Tori are very close in age... their girl is 7 (going on 17) and loves Tori and has already referred to her as her bff haha. She has already come over for a play date where she follows Tori around and tries to show her the ropes of the neighborhood. Both parents are super nice and so friendly. A couple of houses down is a family with 6 kids.. 5 boys and a really tough girl (lol).,. and then right behind us is a teacher and her vice principal husband (also so so nice) and their two kids... a 13 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. They are just adorable. The little girl has already volunteered her babysitting services and the little boy "Bubba" is a wild man who is convinced Tori doesn't like him. At some point on Sunday there were about 5 kids just running through our yard like crazy kids, playing, pulling wagons, etc. I am sure those who have experienced this for awhile would probably say I will get tired of that but for now, I am really soaking it up. I love a family neighborhood, neighbors you can trust (and who drop off champagne for you with a note on it that says "Welcome to the hood" haha), kids who are going to babysit your child, kids who are going to grow up with your child.., ride the same bus as her, etc.. Grandview heights, I love you.
So, the house. One big thing we knew right away going into the home that we were going to change is converting the home from oil to gas. I called around and got oil prices on Monday and it confirmed that we absolutely need to do that. The price is just insane. I called and confirmed everything with UGI and we are expecting to get the contract in the mail this week to get everything started so for now we are committing to not using up all of the oil we have left (it heats both the water and heat) by not using the heat which of course then brings 30 degree weather this week where our house is freezing and we have small heaters running in Toris room (at night) and the living room(during the day). The previous owners of this home had their garage converted to a bedroom and their first floor bathroom made into a handicap accessible full bathroom because they had a son who was in a freak accident and paralyzed from the neck down. That part of the house is so beautiful and new, and then the rest of the house is old fashioned and beautiful. They took amazing care of the house and had the whole thing painted for the sell, etc. So here are some pictures that were featured on the MLS and I plan to do a room by room update once we move along with décor and painting and stuff.

Front of the house:

Back of the house:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

BTW, I want to do a chalkboard wall in the kitchen, do you think on this wall looking straight into the kitchen or in the picture under it which is the wall that has the door leading to the basement?

Downstairs full bathroom:

Tori's playroom:

Sunroom:

 

Living room:

Bedroom:

They all 3 look the same except the master has a large closet

Upstairs bathroom:

 

*And for all of you interior decorator types: let me know if you have any décor ideas! I pretty much have the kitchen set except for the chalkboard wall and Tori's playroom is done except for some wall décor. So I am open to ideas :)

 

I hope you enjoyed the 'before' tour. Enjoy this hideously rainy day.