Happy 3rd Birthday Marcelo!

Yes my little Marcelo is getting BIG!  He turned the big 0-3!! I would say this little collage is a great homage to my funny boy. His smile in the above picture says it all.  I am gonna start some trouble!!! 

He was talking about a Superman party for months. A black and white Superman party to be exact. However, the black and white Superman (an Imaginext figure) was set to be his prize when he goes poopie in the potty. (which actually happened the day AFTER he turned three, but has not happened again since)

We invited Grandma and Grandpa down and they came a couple days early to hang out. Just in time for the Sunday farmers market.

My mom and Ernesto started a puzzle (1000 piecer and a backwards picture) and this sucked up all of the party prep time!  (haha just kidding mom!)

We did go the simple route on this party though. We hung out and let the boys play with "their" new toys. Big brother was right in there helping to tear open each present and was just as excited as the birthday boy (probably more!)

Grandma gave the puzzle a break (haha) and built LEGOS eeeearly in the morning.

 

Marcelo opened camo shorts and a shirt from grandma and grandpa, a new paint set, a "field microscope" for captured bugs and such. (This boy loves him some bugs!) A new book Harry the Dirty Dog.  Do you know it?  Its really cute. 

Oh and a few packages came in the mail which is always exciting. 

Did you send him these blocks? It didnt have a note so we have no idea who sent them??

Thanks if it was you and please let me know who you are in the comments below!

 
This new Spiderman "dart board" was a hit! (really magnets)
Like I said, we went simple for the party with an ice cream cake.  (thanks dad!)

 I plopped those figures on the cake and he was super excited!

Easy! (hey, I went all out on his party last year, so cut me some slack!)

Again with the big brother helping.  Mateo had been asking everyday if he could help with blowing out the candle (and opening presents) Marcelo always answered "sir" (meaning sure)

Of course whenever Marcelo got mad at Mateo (or me for that matter) he would tell us "You cant come to my birthday party!"  

You know what time it is right?

Yes all our parties are the same! Ha. We did switch up the dinner this time and serve chicken and carne asada tacos instead of our shredded pork, which has been a neighborhood favorite.

But the pinata ....always a pinata! 

Eight kids and 11 adults makes a good party, but I think in the future we are going to do parties in the park...or better yet our HUGE back yard that will have a pool, playground and trampoline!!! 

nope, no news on the house hunting.  Stay tuned!

June Yoga Challenge

YOGA INSPIRATION- MY NIECE KELLI

I started going to HOT yoga just before I found out I was pregnant with Paloma.

I bought a Groupon at Sacred Sweat (in East Atlanta) on a whim, not knowing what to expect. I was hooked on the sweaty workout after day 1.

I kept with it, going once or twice a week until I was 7 months pregnant, at which point I tapered off.

Paloma is almost 9 months (what what?!) and although I had started going to a few classes here and there again, I knew that I needed more. You see, I am a worker-outer. I have been since I was in high school

When I saw that Highland Yoga was opening a studio just a few blocks from my house, I was excited! The convenience factor for working out is HUGE!

One June 3nd I bought the intro package. One month unlimited classes for $25. What a steal!

To make it even better, I challenged myself to make it $1 per class, which means I had to do a class almost every day.

Well, here I am at the end of the month and I am feeling like a million bucks! I LOVE the classes so much. I must sweat a gallon every class.

The owner Elsie and her husband John have some strict standards for their teachers, and over the last month I have probably practiced with almost all of them. They are all wonderful!

I am addicted and will be continuing my practice!
We are heading to the beach in Mexico next week, so the yoga was a great way to get bathing suit ready body! Am I exactly where I want to be after three babies?  Of course not, but I feel good both physically and mentally and that is enough. 

 I highly recommend giving HOT Vinyasa Flow classes a try if you are looking to get stronger. If you are in Atlanta then Highland Yoga is the place to do it!

The House That Got Away + A Couple More (#househuntingatlanta)

How cool is this house?!? I was minding my own business making dinner last week when my agent texted me that this had just come on the market.

I went through the listing pictures and texted back "I want it." She made a 930am appointment to view it the next morning and I called our loan guy just to make sure everything was ready for us to make an offer. Yes, that is how sure I was.

SPOILER ALERT: There were multiple offers and they didn't go with ours.

But look at that cutout brick. Ughhhhhhhhh!!

Was it PERFECT? No. It was A LOT of work. A LOT! I didn't care. I liked the bones and the location.

The price was good too....not as good after we bid $15k OVER the asking price of course (and we still didn't get it) but good for this area and such a cool house.

Yep, it's a sellers market out there. And it's hard to believe, but we may not be the only people looking to buy a mid century modern house in Atlanta. Ha! I totally blame Mad Men! UGH! This could take a while.

Another thing is (as we are finding out) there are many investors out there ready to snatch up cool houses with cold hard cash. If this one is done up with all the best finishes they will be able to sell it for a nice little profit. (This is what is happening with the house we offered on back in January)

The floors would need changed out here obviously, but that isn't s huge deal.

Paint. A lot of painting.

Then the walls between the kitchen, dining and living rooms would need to come down.

The master bathroom is a great space. Combining the two little areas with sink and bath would make it BIG. Especially with the vaulted ceilings...but at this point you really just have to use your imagination.

Can you see it? Also, I would TOTALLY keep this green bathtub (and the matching toilet)! I don't want/need a tub in the master, so I would switch them to the kids bathroom though. Working in these vintage pieces would make the remodel so cool.

Here is the master, nothing spectacular, but those windows do it for me! Plus the vaulted ceiling makes it feel a lot bigger.

The kitchen is a time warp.

Those cabinets seem sooooooo country. I'm sure they original to the house, but it boggles my mind why they chose those cabinets with the architecture of the house.

Also the appliances are from 1959. Not surprisingly none of them function, so, remodeling the kitchen would be the top priority before moving in. (Im totally talking like we are moving into this house. I know it's already under contract, but just let me go on imagining ok?)

Holy storage!! The basement is humongous and almost doubles the square footage of the house.

One of my favorite parts is the little courtyard with the brick surround.

And off there in the distance is our the big back yard/forest. Soooooooo dissapointing. Ernesto did not care that we didn't get it because he thought it was too much work. This is funny, considering all the houses we are looking at need work. Good thing I have the final say on our offers. Ha!

We looked at a couple more this week, but both were missing some space.

This one was sweet and basically in HomeGoods backyard in Buckhead's (technically a Brookhaven address in Dekalb county) Pine Hills neighborhood.

It needed some work and in that neighborhood you could pour money in and not even be close to the asking price of other homes there. However, only two bedrooms upstairs and one down. (with the laundry) Plus living room was small too.  

Yard was great with woods and a creek (that the boys would have a blast exploring) along the side/back and BONUS bomb shelter! Underground maze and huge area to wait out the bombings. Very creepy actually.

Then yesterday we went to see this house in Briarcliff Woods.

We knew it wasn't ideal, because no basement. But! We decided it could be a great investment and why not make some money while waiting for our perfect house to come up? If this house had had a basement, we would have offered on the spot because it had a lot going for it.

Beamed vaulted ceilings in all of the rooms. Living room AND family room (gotta love mid century ranches!) a garage and .6 of an acre! That's a big yard!! Again with LOTS of work. Walls needed to come down, new kitchen, a roof etc.

I like the bones, and the low profile is cool too, but it needs bigger windows.  I think adding a peaked carport in front of the garage would make a huge difference to the curb appeal.  Dont' you think?Something like this.

Anyhoo.  We thought about it for 24 hours, which was just long enough for it to go under contact. Boy oh boy this housing market is nuts!

The hunt goes on! Stay tuned!

The Boys' School Photos 2016

We received the boys' school pictures in an email last week and I was so happy with what I saw.

The above picture of Marcelo makes me laugh.  So cute, but totally a forced smile. This is what I get when I tell them "look here, say cheese."

But this...THIS!

After a couple warm up photos, Beri Irving was able to capture the most natural, playful smiles of my babies.

Of course this is how I see them everyday (at least for a little bit!) but it's hard to capture.

SEVERAL of these pictures are going to be blown up BIG and framed.  Instant beautiful art!

The beautiful backdrop of the farm didn't hurt .

We were able to get in a few pictures too and I LOVE how they turned out.

Wow!  A picture where we are all looking at the camera!

Of course, I like the pictures where we are not looking too.  They are more REAL!

If you are in Atlanta, I highly recommend Beri for your next photoshoot.

Married FIFTEEN Years!?!?!?!

Now THAT just sounds weird.  Fifteen yeeeeears!?

 I wonder how that is possible?  Then I remember how old I am! HA!  We look like BABIES here.

All that we have done, everywhere we have been...remember the video I made for our 10 year anniversary?

I LOOOOOVE THAT VIDEO.  (good job self!)
I was pregnant with Mateo when I made that. Now look at us...

My perfectly imperfect family!  So much can happen in 5 years.  Life is a road with ups and downs and highs and lows. We have had some lows of course, but we are on such a high right now.  I am so happy to be sharing my life with this man and our three kiddos.

It was actually Ernesto's idea to write the "15 years later" and have Carolyn take a picture.
 "I new you would like this idea," he said.  Darn tootin'

After we took this picture, we left the boys at our neighbors (thanks Carolyn and Mark!) and finally tried Beetlecat in Inman Park.

 We sat outside and enjoyed... these chandeliers! They are HUGE! 

 Seriously, besides the beautiful decor, the seafood was. De.Lish.  Starting a meal with raw oysters s always a good thing! 

It was a long overdue date. We engaged in adult conversation and such.
With one tag-along. One beautiful sleeping tag-along.

She gave us about 45 minutes "alone."  She musthave smelled the tostones and ceviche. 

I'll never be upset to have this smile with me.  

Besides one child is a BREEZE especially at this age. Especially this girl.

Although I didn't get to a video this year, a recap of the last five years must be done! What a different video it will be.  A lot less traveling, but a lot more LOVE.  Like...3 TIMES as much LOVE.

And although my dream of a 15 year anniversary trip to Morocco didn't happen (20 year for sure!) we are taking a family trip to Mexico next month (not planned yet surprise surprise!) and hopefully staying 2-3 weeks.

So that will count...for something!