i dressed up & threw a baby shower

another monday!  hope you had a good weekend.  ours was full of sunshine & all kinds of time spent with my homies.  me & two of my bestest girlfriends threw one of our closest friends a welcome baby party... and for this?  i did my hair, i wore some wedges & a frilly shirt.  obviously this had to be documented.

oh & you know what?  i have a newfound respect for fashion bloggers.  because put me in front of a camera & i turn into allll kinds of awkward.  where do you put your hands?  how do you not trip over your feet?  it gets real messy.

a few party details.  we were going with a mint & yellow theme & can i just say i ate my weight in bagels & honey/walnut cream cheese?  because i did.  nothing like a good party with tasty party treats.

and here's the man of the hour... little max kimble!  this kid is all kinds of adorable newborn perfection.  already love him so much.  congrats corinne.

pretty sure i have the best girlfriends ever.  so much love for these girls.

baby shower. BABY SHOWER!

this shower was beyond incredible & can i just say i have the best friends EVER?  seriously, way more than a girl deserves.  we had so much fun & played a game no one had ever seen before & ate delicious foods & drank out of cute straws from mason jars with sliced lemons & talked about babies & kids & pregnancy & labor & yeah... it was amazing.  and oh yeah, the game?  everyone LOVED it.  i mean, usually shower games are all awkward & no one wants to pipe up but this game was like yahtzee meets white elephant & involved candy winnings & stealing other people's prizes & do i get an award for run on sentences in this post?

my girls outdid themselves.  the decor was magazine-worthy & every little detail was done with care.  baby boy #2 was showered with so much love i had to stop mid-presents-opening & take a deep breath because my heart was about to explode from the warm-fuzziness.  thank you doesn't do this justice.

and the advantage of being a photographer?  you get to take all of it home with you in your very own camera to have forever & ever.

these are the girls who made it all possible... the brains & muscle behind the party, the hostesses with the mostestes {yes, i went there},  corinne, lindsey, heather & ann.  words don't even describe... LOVE YOU LADIES!

and thank you.

steppin' out & blogger partyin' it up.

two posts in one day?  new record.

i wanted to hurry it up & get this out there before i passed out of exhaustion.  actually, that's probably exactly what i'll do as soon as i hit "publish."  friday night was a blast.  i was really on the fence about going to the pnw blogger's meet up right up to the last minute... until mandy & jill told me they were coming to get me regardless of what i decided.  sometimes it's just easier to stay at home & get a good night's sleep, ya know?

in the end i'm super excited i made it.  i got to see some of the faces i know & love from the bloggy world, some for the first time & some for the 20th time.  so many of these girls have become some of my closest friends & good times are ALWAYS had when we get together.

first things first?  as soon as we rolled into portland & got out of the car, steppin' out pictures were taken.

{linking up with my girl mandy, over at harper's happenings.  

don't worry, she appears in this post later.}

apparently i'm still shoving this 30 weeks-prego-body into a whole slew of non-maternity american eagle stuff.  this outfit was all about comfort... jeans, t-shirt & flats.  and comfortable i was.

the party was bumpin.  and by that i mean there were like 10 of us pregnant girls among the fifty bloggers at the party.  that's a crazy ratio, yo.  we hung out & ate some food & mingled & lots of laughs & hugs & snorts were had.  actually, that was mostly just me snort-sniffing mandy's face {bottom left}... i don't know either.

we somehow managed to fit six of us into one hotel room.  two double beds & a queen air mattress & four out of six of us were impregnated.  that's gotta be some kinda record, right?

first thing in the morning it was all about finding a legit breakfast... and mother's bistro in downtown portland did NOT disappoint.

{pictured bottom right:  jill, chelsey, me, melissa, mandy & emily.  also, lauren, pictured top left, was there too!}

mmmm, breakfast food.

and that was our adventure.  i'm so happy to have met so many amazing girls through this little internet world of blogging.  i have spent countless hours im-ing, texting, & hanging out with the ladies sam calls my "internet friends."  there is never a lack of things to talk about as we all have a million things to say about our kiddos, our husbands & our lives away from those things.  no one judges when you carry on your conversation while facebook-status-updating, instagramming, or tweeting & in fact, that's usually what we're all doing when we're together.  because we're bloggers.

{all photos in the post are courtesy of mandy... thanks for letting me be lazy with the camera for once & allowing me to steal all yours!}

our week by iPhone - week 76

this last week was half vacay, half back to real life.  only not real life as we normally like to know it because p-ray was sick!  boo.  and on his birthday too.

spoiler alert, he's on the mend & things are lookin' up for the weekend.  here's what everything else looked like in iPics!

sunday.  started our gorgeous morning off with the fourth trip to target of the vacay.  not joking... we kept needing things like diapers & wipes & target just kept answering.  then we spent some time with a whole bunch of loose seals on the beach {c'mon, someone please pick up the "arrested development" reference!} & a crazy amount of birds on cliffs.  this picture of parker & me on the beach may or may not be my favorite of the whole trip.

oh yeah & we ate phil's bbq & it was crazy delicious.

monday. helping baby boy in my belly grow by eating this monstrosity of a burger.  the patty was half ground beef half {are you ready for this?} ground bacon.  yeah, you heard that right.  complimenting that insanity was avocado mash, an over-easy egg, pepperjack cheese & chipotle mayo.  heaven in my mouth.

after lunch we toured the retired aircraft carrier uss midway & parker got locked in the brig.  also?  after checking out the flight deck we recited every line we could remember from top gun, made way too many "goose" & "maverick" references & left with "highway to the danger zone" in our heads.  good times.

our last night in san diego was washed down with some tasty malts.  win.

tuesday.  the last day in san diego was gorgeous so what better way than to start it off at the hash house with ridiculously huge portions of brunch?  if you guessed this whole trip was about food, you were right.

after brunch & packing up we were off to the airport where parker LOVED watching the airplanes from our gate & movies from his dad's lap.  such an awesome little traveler.

wednesday. p-ray woke up with a fever, cough, runny nose & sore throat so we took it easy until i decided it was time to get him out of the house & bought him a sympathy sick-day-cookie-monster.  it only cheered him up for about five minutes & then we were back to snuggles & movies in bed.

thursday was probably the peak of parker's sickness.  he had a fever most the day & didn't wanna do much else other than stay snuggled up next to me.  every time he coughed he cried out in pain & told me his "neck hurts."  oh yeah, & it was the poor kid's BIRTHDAY!  finally sam came home & took a snuggle-shift {don't get me wrong, i love the snuggles... but i can only watch so much pixar!} & then decided we needed to get out of the house.

parker's birthday-night was spent celebrating with a walk around costco eating frozen yogurt & then enjoying the sunset from the parking lot.  because we're classy like that.

oh yeah, & that fro-yo was the only thing we got him to eat all. day. long.  poor little monster!

friday started off with parker's two-year check-up where he insisted on touching every germy toy in the waiting room.  awesome.  at least he was interested in toys & starting to act like his normal self again though, right?  we drove home on a semi-gorgeous day where parker proceeded to empty my cupboards & line up the goods.  i think he's feeling better.

the sickness continued to wane as he pulled silly faces on my bed while i got ready for my bestie's surprise 30th totally 80's birthday party!  yes, you are seeing lots of neon.  this party was insane... mostly because i literally felt like i had just walked back in time 25 years when we were treated to pop-rocks, bubble-tape & a slew of awesome 80's music & movie posters.  it was tubular.

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***photos edited via instagram.  do you instagram?  find me @amy_agoodlife & let's picture bond!***
that was our week!  how was yours?  i wanna see, so link up!

Game Rules:
1.  your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone. that's it!  you don't even have to have a picture for every day.  got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week?  link up!

2.  if you want to grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog do it.

and please post a link to my blog so others can come here to grab the code, too.
the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

Grab the code here:

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=142542" type="text/javascript"></script>

...and get on the linky here:

scenes from the san diego zoo.

today is our last full day in san diego & i'm trying to keep myself from preemptively getting depressed.  those rotten post-vacation blues have a way of rearing their ugly heads with me & i can only hope that maybe we'll be going home to some sunshine but i'm not holding my breath.  this trip has been so fun & i'm just not ready for it to end!

anywho, in the meantime here's a photo-dump from our day at the zoo last week.  i can't believe i didn't get a single picture with parker smiling because he pretty much had a perma-grin on his face the whole time... at least he did once he saw elephants.  it was kind of a temper-tantrum fest right off the bat from the car to the elephants because he wanted to see them so bad.  once that was out of the way, it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way.

{our san diego travel buddies christie, ryan & duncan}

{completely overwhelmed by the size of the zoo.  he was in animal-lover's heaven.}

{parker & sam both take their animal watching very seriously... apparently.}

{this little baby was not even a day old!  he had been born that morning.  so freaking cute.}

{and this is where he started to get tired.  but he pushed through it like a champ.}

and then this is the closest we got to getting a decent picture of the three of us.  parker was just not having the posing & we just aren't that great at all looking at the same spot at once, i guess.  but i have to include the family picture right?  

it was a blast.  parker is still talking about seeing elephants & "roars!" and snakes that say "hiss!" he's old enough to enjoy it but probably not old enough to remember it years down the road.

so?  i guess that just means we'll have to make a trip back!

our week by iPhone - week 75

don't hate me if i just breeze on through these pictures... i'm literally holding my eyelids open with my fingertips to stay awake long enough to post this.  we've been going non-stop on our san diego vacay these last couple of days & i wouldn't have it any other way.  we live for this time together as a family & for our vacations & i want to squeeze every single ounce of fun out of every single possible second!

but that doesn't mean i can't pause to recap what we've done.  here's what it looks like in iPhotos.

monday.  p-ray & i stayed home waiting for mr. fedex-man to deliver my rented lens from borrowlenses.com.  this big bad 24-70mm boy is gonna be mine all month.  size matters.  after the drop off was made we ran out the door to the mall to meet up with friends & do some shopping.  also, chipotle was eaten & my stomach was happy.

monday afternoon consisted of movie watching from on top of the toy box, bath-taking & sleeping with one's feet up.  pretty typical p-ray activities.

tuesday.  started the day off with some running at stroller strides but as the belly grows, the running definitely gets harder too.  afterwards p-ray played on toys until it was time for me to go get my hairs cut.  goodbye dead-ends.

the airplane wing + trees picture is courtesy of sam who flew out in a 4-seater cesna to a small town on the coast for work.  i always get SO nervous when he flies in those things!

tuesday night consisted of crazy parker antics... faces at dinner followed by throwing all his stuffed animal friends in his crib to go to bed with him.  he likes it to be a party in there.

wednesday.  we woke up an hour & a half after our alarm was supposed to go off & still somehow managed to make our flight to san diego.  we got realllll lucky.  parker was a total trooper of a traveler & my belly was made very, VERY happy by some in-n-out as soon as we landed in california.  pretty good day.

thursday.  our first full day in san diego was spent exploring the zoo where parker saw 99% of the exhibits from sam's shoulders.  he was in heaven.  his favorites were the elephants, the lions & the monkeys.  oh yeah, & the fish in the polar bear aquarium.

after the zoo we hit up target {for the THIRD time of our trip... not joking} where parker & duncan ripped things down off the shelves like the little mischief-makers that they are.

friday.  we crossed the bridge into coronado & spent some exploring the city & enjoying the sun.  parker was not a fan of the ocean water or the sand & was only happy as long as he was in his dad's arms.  on the way back to the hotel we happened upon the san diego lds temple & explored the gorgeous grounds... pictures don't do this place justice... it's unreal how beautiful this temple is.

friday night sam, parker & i hit up a padres game.  parker made it through all nine innings AND through the fireworks show at the end.  and?  he had a blast.  as in chatter-boxing the whole way home about "baseball!  fireworks!  so fun!"

love that little monster.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

***photos edited via instagram.  do you instagram?  find me @amy_agoodlife & let's picture bond!***
that was our week!  how was yours?  i wanna see, so link up!

Game Rules:
1.  your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone. that's it!  you don't even have to have a picture for every day.  got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week?  link up!

2.  if you want to grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog do it.

and please post a link to my blog so others can come here to grab the code, too.
the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

Grab the code here:

<script src="http://www.linkytools.com/thumbnail_linky_include.aspx?id=141587" type="text/javascript"></script>

...and get on the linky here:

steppin' out: it was ladies night.

i warned you guys there would be a post about my blogger meet up, what i didn't warn you about was the bazillion pictures that would be forthcoming.  but c'mon, we're bloggers.  it's what we do.

and by "what" i mean get together, talk & laugh loudly in a restaurant, mill in a mass to the yogurt shop, gather in the middle of the mall & laugh & eat yogurt like little girls {where are all the cute boys at??}, take pictures of each other doing weird & random things all while tweeting/facebooking/instagram-ing every second of it & then making our way across the mall to F21 to try on hats & clothes & eventually get yelled at for taking pictures.  i guess F21 is against a whole lotta free advertising from about 14 blogger-girls.  whatevs.

needless to say, fun was had.  many laughs {to tears!} were had & i was reminded how much it hurts to wear four inch heels from one end of a mall to the other but also how fun it can be to act like a crazy person in a herd of like-minded mamas.  the girls i'd met before became even closer friends & the ones i met for the first time have now been upgraded to "real life" friends as opposed to "internet" friends.  so that's something.

here's the rundown on the night & of course some pictures for a "steppin' out" post with harper's happenings which i haven't done in AGES.  hopefully this is the beginning of a resurrection of those posts.

i don't know how NOT to stand like mary katherine gallagher in front of a camera.  it's so awkward!

{yes i was really enjoying touching mandy's belly that much}

here's everyone, from left to right:

amanda, jill, chelsey, chelsea, fiona, melissa, mandy, me, ashley, mandy, emily, stephanie & kiara.

oh what F21?  i guess we got a few shots in before we were scolded.  winning.

can't wait to do it all again with this group of crazy fun ladies!

wordless{ish} wednesday: parker & duncan. best friends.

parker got to hang out with his best little buddy duncan while on vacay last weekend.  they're such good friends that they already coordinate their outfits together.

 and when duncan seemed bored sitting in his carseat waiting to go, parker entertained his little friend with colander-on-the-head jokes.  cause that's what best friends do.

{linking up with wordless wednesday at and then she {snapped},  baby baby lemon, the paper mama, & a little king & i}