family

Gender Swaying

September 13, 2018 5 Comments

Gender Swaying – a term I wasn’t privy to until recently. But as Ryan and I began thinking about having our third and final child, the idea of swaying the gender female was appealing since we were already blessed with two rambunctious boys. I did a little bit of reading about the Shettles method, diets, supplements, etc. I found a lot of the diet and supplement information online to contradict itself– literally opposite advice floating around the Internet. Some women are even inserting lime juice and vinegar up their vaginas! Yikes! No thanks! I decided to try and…

Wrapping-up Summer

August 9, 2018 No Comments

I just thought I’d pop on here to share a little bit about what we’ve been up to this summer! I feel like I just haven’t taken the time to write like I used to; partly because of our house remodel hell we were in for a year, partly because being a mom and having any sort of a social life is time consuming and I’ve put my blog on the backburner! Aloha from Kaanapali We semi recently spent a week in Maui with my parents and my brother’s family to celebrate my mom turning the big 6-0! Instead…

Life’s Gripes and Grapes | And a Unique Wooden Watch

February 1, 2018 No Comments

Anyone who’s married knows marriage isn’t always a cakewalk. I think that’s good though because if it were, there would be no opportunity for growth. Constant cakewalking=stagnant relationship. My goal in my marriage is to always be evolving and growing with Ryan. I have an expectation that I will gradually know him more and more deeply as the days go by and sometimes the fastest way to do that is to experience adversity together — it’s the silver lining to crappy situations. Everyone goes through tough times in his or her lives and most people choose not to share…

8 Reasons I Love Being a Boy Mom

January 2, 2018 No Comments

Let me start this off by saying that this post is not a dig at girl moms or to say being a boy mom is better. Nor is this meant to imply that I wouldn’t love a daughter one day, because of course I would. What I’m sharing today is simply all the things I love about having boys. I can shape them into gentlemen This is probably the biggest one in light of all the recent news stories on inappropriate male behavior. I didn’t participate in the social media #metoo frenzy for various reasons, but I’ve experienced my…

Message to the Judgmental Natural Birth Moms

December 14, 2017 No Comments

Note: This is an old blog post I found in my drafts. I edited it a little bit since my writing style has changed, but my feelings on this topic are the same. Dear random judgmental mom at the grocery store, On a casual shopping trip to Trader Joes, you successfully ruined my day. I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but you did. My 10-month-old Porter was sitting in the shopping cart eating samples, happy as a clam. Just prior to bumping into you, a kind stranger told me that he looks like Prince George. We’d gotten this before;…

Mitchell Family Holiday Photos 2017

November 1, 2017 5 Comments

Photo shoots are HARD when you have a four year old and a nineteen month old. With Porter, we were dealing with smile refusals and attitude problems. With Preston, we were dealing with just general crazy behavior that mostly included running away when we put him somewhere to stand or sit or even heaven forbid we hold him and he isn’t diving head first to the ground. I tried bribing with food, but it was ineffective. Somehow our photographer managed to capture some moments that made it look like we have our *ish* together, so thanks for that Jacki…

Hey Diddle Diddle 1st Birthday

March 20, 2017 No Comments

First birthdays have always been a big deal, but millennial moms have taken it to a whole new level if you ask our Baby Boomer parents. What can I say? That’s just how we roll… Preston’s first birthday was definitely not as detail oriented as his big brother’s was because it’s just harder to plan parties with two kids in tow (second child syndrome) and also, Preston had Croup just one week earlier so we were a little distracted. Still, I wanted Preston to have a special first birthday. I decided on a Hey Diddle Diddle theme because Preston gets particularly excited whenever he hears…

California Mom's guide to Gibson Ranch Country Park

February 24, 2017 No Comments

“We passed through Sacramento on the way to Tahoe” was a statement I heard often during the six years I lived in Orange County and later, Los Angeles. It was said innocently, but it always kinda irked me because my hometown has so much more to offer than your average passer through town and I never understood why more people couldn’t make the distinction between Sacramento and say, Modesto (no offense to Modesto). Home to over a million residents, the Sacramento region has an NBA team, a United Soccer League team (there’s talk about them becoming an MLS team) and…

8 Relationship Tactics that Keep us Strong

February 14, 2017 No Comments

After being married for 5 ½ years (together for 8 ½) I wanted to offer up a few tips for keeping the relationship strong. We’re no experts in the world of marriage and by no means are we perfect, but I feel like we’ve found a groove to where I can honestly say we are happily married and I could actually give some marriage advice. Relationships aren’t a one size fits all thing; we are all unique, but I still think some of these could be transferred into any relationship. WE ARE KIND; WHEN WE’RE NOT, WE SAY SORRY…

All you need is Love and a JORD Wood Watch

January 19, 2017 No Comments

Valentine’s Day has always seemed a little silly to me. I never understood why society needed a designated day to celebrate love. After all, Ryan and I celebrated each other all the time with dates, sweet notes, random flowers, and just laughing and enjoying life together. It sounds like it was all sunshine and roses because for the most part, it was. We very rarely had any sort of an argument and we did everything together! We wrote love notes; he brought me random bouquets of flowers; we had date nights every single night, even if that just meant…