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Monday, August 29, 2016

Seven


Today is mine and Eric's seventh wedding anniversary!  My how times flies when you're having fun (and moving and buying homes and getting new jobs and having babies!).  I don't feel old enough to have been married for seven years and then I remember we were just babies when we got married!!  I had just turned 21 and Eric had just turned 23, we were SO broke and saving every penny for our wedding.  Our wedding was so "young", it was thrown together and VERY pink.  It was just so centered around our love, nothing fancy-just so much love.  We also got married before Pinterest existed.  Pretty sure Eric dodged a bullet there.  Our wedding did not look like what you see on Pinterest these days!!  I bought my wedding dress for $150 from a wedding shop that was going out of business.  It was tried on by many other brides, but I had it cleaned and I loved it.

Eric and I have been together for eleven years and I am still so madly, deeply, and unconditionally in love with him.  Life has gotten much more complicated (and full) in the last eleven years!  I am so proud of our humble beginnings, our triumphs, and where we are today.  Our life looks a lot like what we had hoped and dreamed of as two teenagers who were crazy in love all those years ago.

I love you Eric Brown, you're my soulmate, my best friend, and my better half.  And because it's our anniversary, I'm using it as an excuse to dig up some old wedding photos!  You're welcome :).  I know our wedding photos aren't Pinterest worthy but I do really love them so I have to share a few :).  Also, OMG we look so young!!!





Xo

Marisa

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Why you need to date your husband... Again!


As mothers, our lives are filled with work, errands, housework, children, and other things that take up ALL of our time.  Somedays I seriously miss my old fifteen minute drive to work because I miss having even a tiny bit of "me" time.  I have even fantasized about driving to work (alone) where I would turn off the Disney princess CD and just drive in silence.  Ya know, and then get to work and miss my babies terribly!!  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being a stay at home mom and I don't take it for granted.  But we can all agree, life gets busy and we don't always get time for ourselves.

As mothers, we are just SO busy all the time!  And sometimes this busyness leads to a disconnect with our spouses.  Eric and I are celebrating seven years of marriage this week and while we have a wonderful marriage and I truly believe he's my soulmate, I do miss just being "us" sometimes!  Exhaustion and just plain old busyness can make you very unromantic.  I ADORE my husband, but sometimes when I'm wearing a tiny persons boogers on my shirt, my hair is in a greasy topknot, and I'm in desperate need of a shower I forget to show it.

Eric and I have been together since I was 17, that's 11 years!  I think back to when we were dating and I am immediately filled with feelings of love, lust, and passion.  We were so in love and had so much passion for our relationship.  We still have a wonderful relationship and I enjoy him so much.  BUT I know that we could be even better if we both put in a little more effort.  We recently went on a little day date and it was an AMAZING refresh!  We went to lunch (and ate on the most beautiful patio) and then walked through the homes at the Street Of Dreams.  We held hands and chatted, it was like we were teenagers again!  I want our relationship to always be a priority, not only for us but for our daughters as well.

So, I have decided to start dating my husband.  Again.  And you should too!

I thought it would be fun to share a few things that I have planned for Eric and I in the next few weeks.  They aren't super extravagant or expensive, but I know that it will be so good for us to take more time to really focus on us.

1. Plan a date night at least once a month.  Now for the hard part: finding a babysitter.  Ask a family member to babysit or trade babysitting with friends that have kids.  I am a part of a local moms group on Facebook and I often see moms post that their high school or college daughters are available for babysitting.  And if all else fails, BEG your friends to give you their babysitters number!

2. Go on a day date!  Even if its to run errands together.  For us, it's easier to get a grandparent to come over for a few hours during the day than at night (plus it's easier when they don't have to do bedtime).  Ask grandma to come over and run to Target and Costco just the two of you.  Grab a Starbucks on the way and remember when you used to always do those things together!

3. Feed the kids and put them to bed an hour early.  Then have dinner just the two of you.  If you're feeling really fancy, light some candles and play some romantic music.

4. Make or buy a special dessert and enjoy it just the two of you once the kids are in bed.

5. Buy a new game or puzzle to do together.  Eric and I used to love playing cards!  I'm thinking a game of rummy is in our future.

6. Exercise together.  Even if it's a walk around your neighborhood with the kids in the stroller, you'll get to chat and you'll feel good about getting out.

7. Put a little note in his lunch, briefcase, or car.  And then imagine the look on his face when he finds it!  And along with notes... If things get super busy and you feel like you're not getting enough one-on-one time to connect, write him an email.  It doesn't sound romantic, but he'll love seeing it pop up in his inbox.

8. This one might sound funny, but you mamas will get it and it's something you can do all the time.  Remember to touch your husband!  Some days I have little bodies hanging off of me all day and at the end of the day I just want some space!  I forget to scoot closer to Eric and cuddle him on the couch or kiss him just because.  The power of touch is strong and will go a long with with your man.  Hug and kiss him when he walks in, touch his arm when you're talking to him, or give him a little smack on the tush as he walks by :).

9. Get dressed up for him.  I have fallen into the mom uniform of yoga pants and a top knot, super sexy right?  Every once in awhile get dressed up and remember what it feels like to look pretty!  Make him remember you're more than just a mama!

10. Do things you know he likes.  Poor Eric is the only male in our house so he's usually roped into doing lots of girly things.  I try to make sure to watch a baseball game or talk about our investments here and there, two things he could do all day everyday :).  Sometimes before Eric leaves for work, he'll make me an iced coffee and stick it on my nightstand.  Opening your eyes and seeing a yummy coffee first thing is the BEST!  It's so thoughtful of him and I am so appreciative.  Remember to go that extra mile every once in a while!

I hope that these were helpful and that you find a few things to do with your man!

Xo

Marisa

And before I sign off, because I know you always read my blog posts babe,  I love you more than I'll ever be able to express.  You're my better half and going through life with you is extra special.  Oh and I still think you're the hottest guy around with the very best bum.  Thank you for being mine and happy seven years bay!  Xoxo, M


You can see this entire photo session here!

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Littles Style // Fall Favorites


Ahhh summer is almost over!  And if I am being totally honest, I am kind of devastated!  This has been the best summer ever.  Ever, ever, ever.  We have jam packed our days and squeezed in so many fun activities.  My girls even have little suntans (a first for Sloan!).  But as we know, all good things must come to an end.  Sloan goes back to preschool in just a few short weeks and while I know it will be so good for her and she's so so excited, I think I'm really going to miss her!!  We've been busy getting her all prepared for school (which she loves because girlfriend loves shopping as much as her mama does).  I thought I'd share some of my fall finds from clothes to accessories (like Sloan's darling new backpack)!  I've also been having lots of fun trying all of our new goodies on the girls! ((Links for all of these items are at the bottom of this post!))

Hello Baby Brown Fall Favorites

The light pink dress and oatmeal cardigan are from Boden and I'm actually doing an amazing giveaway with them on my Instagram right now!  Make sure to check it out!

A bow obviously completes every outfit so I've been stalking up on fall bows as well!  I'm loving  Emmy's Pretties,  Mag and Mae Co,  Ellia May Designs,  Gugu Baby Boutique, and  Zozu Baby right now for fall fabrics!




Xo

Marisa



Monday, August 22, 2016

A Day In The Life // Our Daily Routine


So many of you have asked me to post more about our daily routine and I always find myself looking over my shoulder thinking you must be talking to someone else?!  Our life isn't all that interesting, but we do manage to always pack some fun into our days.  I'm finally sitting down to share more about our daily routine, hopefully I don't bore anyone too much ;).  This is generally how our days go, but I am also pretty flexible.  If we're having a blast somewhere, I don't think twice about pushing nap back.  And summer has definitely made mama a little more relaxed on the whole schedule thing!

The girls usually wake up around 8am (give or take fifteen minutes) and I don't wake up until they do.  I wish I was a morning person and woke up before them to get ready, but that's just not me.  I love sleep!  And I've also found that whenever I do set an alarm and wake up before them, they hear me (or sense me) and wake up early.  So we all get up around 8am each day.  I always go into Sloan's room first and give her a minute of cuddles.  Then we walk into Phayre's room together.  Sloan always says, "Good morning sister!!  How was your rest??" and Phayre lights up at the sight of her big sister.

We head downstairs and I get the girls both sippy cups of milk while they play in the playroom (our kitchen looks right into the playroom).  While they play, I make myself an iced coffee and get started on breakfast.  Both girls are loving a fried egg and toast right now, but P's most favorite breakfast is yogurt and fruit.  We sit at the island and eat breakfast together while Sloan tell's us stories and sings us songs.  If you follow me on snapchat or my Instagram stories, I'm sure you've seen the milk water rap.  After breakfast, the girls head back to the playroom while I clean up the kitchen.  I eventually join the girls in the playroom and we play and read books for awhile.

Around 9:30am, we head upstairs and I get the girls dressed and brush their teeth.  There's usually laundry to be done, clothes to be put away, and beds to be made.  So I run around tidying up the upstairs while Phayre follows me around saying, "Mama! Mama! Maaaaaama!!"  Phayre usually get's sleepy around 10/10:30am so I rock her to sleep while Sloan either plays in her room or has some iPad time in my room.  Once P is down, I try to squeeze a workout in, shower and get ready, or I just decide to ditch responsibility and play with Sloan.  If we have an early playdate or plans far away from home, P will just nap in the car or on me in the front pack or wrap for her morning nap.

Phayre usually naps for about an hour (hour and a half at most) and as soon as she wakes up, we run out the door to get errands done or play.  Home bodies we are not, so we get out pretty much every day.  Plus it's summer, so there are so many fun things to get out and do right now!  A lot of the time, I'll bring lunch with us and we eat lunch on the go.  Except for 2 days a week when Eric comes home for lunch.  Eric works pretty long hours, so when he comes home for lunch it's a great time for him to spend a little extra time with the girls.

Both girls go down for nap between 1:30 and 2pm.  We all read books in Sloan's room and then I head into Phayre's room to rock her to sleep.  While the girls nap, I clean the house up, answer emails, blog, or do other chores around the house.  The girls are usually up around 3:30pm.  They wake up within minutes of each other almost everyday... I think they sense each other.  I bring the girls downstairs and Sloan watches a cartoon for about 15-20 minutes while I make the girls a snack.  Then we play, read books, or do an art project (lately, we've just been playing in water in the backyard) until about 5pm.  We also have a park across the street from our house so if it's not too hot, we head over there to play.  A little after 5pm I start making dinner.  Eric is usually home between 6-6:30pm so I usually try to hold the girls out so that we can all eat together.

The rule in our house is "I cook, you clean."  So after dinner, Eric cleans the kitchen up while blaring the disney pandora station.  The girls run around the house and I take the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes!  Once the kitchen is cleaned up, we'll either play in the backyard or playroom or go on a walk around the block.  By 7:15-7:30pm, we throw the girls into our big soak tub (they have their own bathroom and have bathed in there maybe three times) for bath time.  They play until their toes are wrinkly and then we lotion them up, brush teeth, and put jammies on.

Eric usually takes P into her room and rocks her to sleep while I read Sloan a few books in her bed.  P is down by 8:15 and Sloan by 8:30!  Eric and I head back downstairs for some alone time and to catch up on our shows.  Pretty wild and crazy, my friends!

For those of you who asked about our daily routine, I hope this is what you're looking for!  Please post comments below if I missed something.  Of course there are cuddles and tantrums and 98273478234 outfit changes mixed in between all of this!  Our days may not be the most exciting, but we do have a lot of fun!



Xo

Marisa

Friday, August 19, 2016

Hello Baby Brown Basics Set // Miss Rubylocks

My good friend Julianne from Miss Rubylocks recently asked me to design a bow set for her shop and I jumped at the opportunity.  No secret here that mama loves bows!!  I had so much fun choosing the perfect fabrics and I love the way my set turned out.


Florals and polka dots are my two favorite patterns so I knew I had to choose one of each.  I wanted fabrics that could easily transition from summer to fall and I think I nailed it.  The floral fabric is dreeeeamy, I cannot get enough of it.


Once I found the perfect floral and dot fabric, I started looking at solids.  Chartreuse is one of my most favorite colors right now so that was a must.  I stumbled upon the prettiest dusty rose fabric and knew that was the perfect color fabric to complete the set!  These bows really can go with so much, the perfect set of basics!


I hope you guys love this set as much as I do, I'm so happy with how it turned out!  You can purchase the set here!  And make sure to take a look at all of the other goodies Miss Rublocks has to offer (Julianne basically offers bows in every fabric imaginable)!

Xo

Marisa




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Thursday, August 18, 2016

The Girls Right Now


Well it's no secret that my blog posts have been few and far between lately.  The girls have just been WAY TOO MUCH FUN this summer.  All we do is run around and play.  Very little gets checked off my to-do list each day and I wish I could say I was mad about it, but nope.  I'm having way too much fun!  I thought I'd do a quick catch up on the girls as they're changing SO rapidly!

Phayre is 12.5 months old, which is crazy because I still have not processed that she's one.  She's walking right into toddlerhood and this mama is not ready at all.  And by walking, I mean really walking!!  Girlfriend is walking up a storm these days!  She took 33 steps today!  33 steps right across our garage!  She still crawls sometimes (when she feels like it), but for the most part she's walking!  I love the drunken wobbly new walker walk, I think it is just the cutest ever.  She's also talking a bunch.  She says "hi" and "bye" to anyone who looks her direction.  She also loves talking to Eric on the phone while he's at work and says, "hi dad!" and "bye dad!".  It's seriously way too cute.  She calls all dogs "boo boo" since thats our dogs nickname.  She yells "BABY!" when she see's a baby, which is very cute but also kinda breaks my heart because even she knows she isn't much of a baby anymore.


Phayre still loves food (shocker, I know), she can eat about twice as much as Sloan at any given meal.  I weighed the girls this morning and they are only SIX POUNDS APART.  Crazy how different they are (in seriously every way possible!).  I'm not complaining one bit about having a good eater though!    Sloan is still picky and a total string bean.  While I'm glad she likes a lot of healthy things, our options are still pretty limited.  Thank goodness for ranch dressing, she dips everything in that stuff.


Phayre doesn't know a stranger and will let anyone hold her, but she is such a mama's girl at heart (and I love that).  She loves me so much!!  She follows me around all day saying, "Mama! Mama! Maaaaama!" and when I pick her up she lays her head on me and then gives me kisses.  She totally thinks Sloan is the shit though.  She watches everything Sloan does and tries to copy her.  Oh and she thinks Sloan is hilarious.  All Sloan has to do is look at P and she starts cracking up.  Then I try to do the same thing and she looks at me like, "Mom, what's wrong with you?"  I should probably get used to my daughters doing that to me.


Sloan is three years and three months old and is having an "I'm a three year old and I'm either going to be the sweetest thing ever or I'm going to be a major ass hole" kind of week.  Sloan is SO incredibly loving and affectionate, which is one of my most favorite things about her.  She is also very sassy lately.  And having a really hard time listening.  I feel like I repeat myself allllll day long so we're really focusing on that and working on it right now (hello sticker chart).  She rarely gets into too much trouble though because she is so sweet with Phayre (it is definitely her most redeeming quality).  They play together all day now and I couldn't be happier about it.  They're constantly kissing and cuddling and making me wish I had a sister!  There really is something so incredible about that sister bond.


Sloan's imagination is on fire right now.  She has an imaginary friend named Mahara and an imaginary daughter named Gizabelle.  She takes care of Gizabelle all day long, it's so sweet and freaking hilarious.  She is super interested in the interworkings of the family tree so she regularly tells me I'm Gizabelle's grandma.  And then sometimes when we're in public, she screams that I'm grandma and will only refer to me as grandma.  We've gotten some real fun looks with that one.  Best damn looking grandma around though if I may say so myself ;).

About two or three weeks ago Sloan conquered her MASSIVE fear of water and I cannot keep her out of the water now!  The last few weeks have been amazing, she's constantly swimming, jumping in the pool, and just having the best time ever.  Phayre is very much a water baby so we've been beating the heat one pool sesh at a time.  The girls are also obsessed with our new blow up flamingo pool, and if I'm being honest I'm totally obsessed with her too (plus she's more than 50% off right now).


So yeah, summer is treating all of us pretty darn good.  Sloan is getting ready to head back to preschool so I'm trying to prepare for fall and for life to go back to normal.  Which means I'll have to start staying caught up on laundry and making dinner regularly #bummer.  But until then, it's all play, very little work, suntan lines, sticky popsicle faces, and late night walks around the block.

We heart you summer!

Xo

Marisa




Welp, we know she's mine :-P








This adorable swimsuit is by Minnow Swim (I'm obsessed!).

Monday, August 15, 2016

Mediterranean Pasta Salad


Recently I had the most amazing pasta salad from my local grocery store.  I knew I had to recreate it and I am so happy with how it turned out.  I don't mean to toot my own horn, buuuuut toot toot!  It was amazing!!  I knew I had to share it with you guys and bonus it's SO easy.


What you'll need:
-12 ounces cooked farfalle (bowtie) pasta
-1 cucumber (diced)
-1 pint cherry tomatoes (halved)
-1/2 red onion (sliced)
-1/2 cup pitted kalmata olives (I cut them in half)
(I didn't add these, but you could also add sun dried tomatoes or diced bell pepper)
-1 container (5 oz.) crumbled feta cheese
-3/4 cup balsalmic dressing (I used a 'white balsamic and honey' salad dressing from my local grocery store... you may want to use a little more or less dressing)
-1 teaspoon honey
-pinch of red pepper flakes
-salt and pepper to taste
-chopped basil (I topped the salad with a ton of basil because I love basil, add as much as you'd like)

What to do:
1. Cook the pasta, drain, and then run cold water over it for about 30 seconds so that it's no longer hot.

2. Put the pasta in a large bowl and mix in the cucumber, tomato, red onion, olives, and feta cheese.  Mix well.

3. Drizzle the balsalmic dressing, honey, salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes over the salad and mix in the feta cheese.

4. Top with chopped basil.

That's it!  Easy peasey right!  This salad is perfect for a weeknight dinner or a barbecue with friends.  When I made this salad, I also made grilled chicken (which I marinated in the same balsalmic dressing that I used in the salad).  Oh and rosè paired very well with this meal :).  The only downside of this meal is that you can't really make it the day before, the veggies get pretty soggy.

I'm obsessed with our  outdoor wine glasses, plus they're on sale right now!

I hope you guys enjoy this salad as much as my family did!

Xo

Marisa

Oh and shocker, our resident foodie LOVED this pasta salad!



Sunday, August 14, 2016

Summertime and the livin's easy

We have been out and about and soaking up as much of the summer sun as we possibly can.  My blog posts have been few and far between lately (I'm sorry!), we've just been too busy having fun!  Before I know it, the sunshine will be gone and I'll be pulling out our sweaters and preparing for another cold Oregon winter (and finally blogging regularly again).  So until then, I'm ditching all responsibility and having fun outside with my babies!

Last week, my friend Lindsey from Lindsey Wiatt Photography told me she had an idea and asked if she could borrow the girls for some photos.  The girls are no strangers to the camera and we all know I LOVE PHOTOS!  So, I said heck yeah!  We met Lindsey at the park and she had the absolute cutest watermelon session set up, which was of course followed by a tin tub bath.  We also squeezed in a few family photos, because oh em gee the light was just gorgeous that night!  The photos turned out SO cute, I'm so excited to share a few of them with you guys today.


You can save 10% on Phayre's romper over at  Lunaby Baby with code BROWN10 (or anything else in their store!).  














My dress is sold out, but  this one is similar (and the same brand)!


My shoes are SO cute and actually really comfortable.  These ones are the same, but have a lower heel.  


Eric and I are celebrating seven years of marriage this month so we had to get a few photos of just us two <3.