Currently

Inspired by a fellow blogger..

Making: a blog post.

Cooking: Completely homemade banana cupcakes with molasses icing. I will def post the recipe.
Reading: Nothing but I want to be. I need to finally commit to something.
Wanting: a vacation. I have friends on an all inclusive in Mexico right now and its making me dream of Dan and I's honeymoon.

Looking: at the computer and tv (Orange is the new Black)
Playing: Pandora
Sewing: absolutely nothing, I don't know how to sew anything but a button anways.
Wishing: for more motivation.
Enjoying: Sam Adams Belgian Session
Waiting:  for Danny to get back from Bocce so we can cuddle
Liking: the weather today.

Wondering: when is the best time for another baby and why is it so hard to know?
Loving: Our house. Dan just asked me TODAY if I still love it.. we are always randomly saying how much we do and we had a lot of fun showing it off this weekend.
Hoping: The weekend gets here fast.

Marveling: at how much Tor is learning lately. She is picking up words left and right.
Smelling: the air conditioner
Wearing: pajama shorts that are very, very short and should never be seen in public and my color run t-shirt
Following: Celebrity baby bumps. Totally into all of them.. Mila, Snooki, Hayden.. Im on it.Noticing: How other kids behave. I find myself noticing and wondering how every parent ends up parenting so differently. Crazy.
Knowing: This weekend is going to be a lot of fun. My mom is keeping Tori overnight on Saturday so Dan and I can have friends over :)

Thinking: this post was harder to do than I thought!
Opening: Another beer.Giggling: At how crazy people get during our Bocce games
Feeling: Happy & Tired

Downstairs bathroom

So yesterday my mom came up and spent the day with us to help catch up on things we needed done in the new house. When I say 'spent the day with us' I mean the entire day. Like I picked her up at 9:30am and she stayed until 9:30 p.m. Shes crazy. We have our housewarming parties coming up pretty soon... a family party... which is in a little over a week and a party for friends which is the week after that. Those have been our motivation. We got SO much done.
One of our projects was to get the downstairs bathroom done. I am a total sucker for a gray room. In our old house Toris nursery was gray with splashes of pink and blue. I loved and had to have another gray room. Downstairs bath it is. Dan painted it gray (we have a white mirror, toilet, sink, etc...& then silver toilet paper rack, etc) and then by the end of the night, mom and I had found a PERFECT yellow and white valance at the Christmas tree shops that is just the right amount of pop against the gray. I am obsessed with the bathroom.

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.