the. ripple. effect.

fact: 27 cents a day can prevent a child from suffering from severe malnutrition.

wondering how such a small donation can make such a dramatic effect?

small donations create big impacts through their rippling benefits. When a single child gets enough to eat, she is likelier to stay well and stay in school. Because she is well, her parents can go to work, the family's income is stable and they avoid medical costs. Which in turn leads to a stable family life which in turn leads to a prospering family who can then help contribute to a thriving community. Thriving communities help build strong and more peaceful nations.

That is what 27 cents a day can do for a child. a family. a community. a nation.

If you are looking to make a small donation to a worthy cause: Click here

my. birthday.

today is my 35th birthday. part of me can't believe it...35 years? really..? where has it gone? every year passes faster then the last. so today amongst the hustle and bustle of things I take a moment and pause to reflect on what I'm most grateful for at 35 years of age:

my relationship with god.

my parents. I love my parents with all of my heart.

my loving and sexy husband.

my crazy adorable Jack.

cheesecake with fresh strawberries (mind you - I ate an entire cheesecake this week)

my health. (maybe I shouldn't of listed cheesecake right before my health)

the smell of Spring.

the laughter of Jack vibrating through the house.

the quietness of being alone.

receiving so many phone calls today from friends and family to wish me happy birthday, just to hear their voices made me smile.

being inspired.

the morning walks I take with Jack and Mike.

fresh flowers in the house.

the awe inspiring miracle it is to be pregnant and feel this baby

move inside of me everyday.

the happiness I feel on this next journey of my life and all the wonderful and beautiful things that await us, our family.

meet. max.

meet baby max.

jack is obsessed with baby max.

jack takes baby max to the grocery store.

to school.

in the car.

on walks.

bicycle rides.

feeds him.

takes him to bed.

baby max goes e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e

I wonder if the obsession of baby max has something to do with the impending arrival of a new baby. hmm.

big. and. bigger.

31 weeks pregnant or 1 week shy of being 8 months pregnant. but boy do I feel H.U.G.E!

I had my Dr appointment last week and Dr Yamashiro said "well, erin you are measuring on the large side of normal." What the hell does that mean, I thought? Large side of normal??? So I asked him and in layman's terms he told me that a woman who is 31 weeks pregnant normally measures anywhere from 28-32 cm and I am measuring right at 32. So not out of the normal, just the "large" side of normal. is that suppose to make me feel better??

and lately I have begun to feel it. I feel great but boy do I feel like my stomach sticks straight out, it isn't even a basketball shape, Mike said it looks like an egg. These photos I took don't do it justice, it sticks straight out like a brick. Nonetheless, I just pray every night that it won't be a 10 lb baby. When I was born I was over 10 lbs so it could happen. Lord help me if this child is that big. Help me. Help me. Help me.

san francisco. part II

back to our trip home: we went to my nephew Nate's 4Th birthday party in San Francisco. Nate loves pirates so the theme was pirates! Aye matey!! They had it at this great place that had a fabulous indoor and outdoor play area with a fantastic playground! My brother and his cute wife - Cory and Steph - hired a pirate guy to come and entertain the kids, it was a blast! Nate and Jack are like two peas in a pod when they are together and they especially had fun dressing up as pirates and running around together! All the kids had so much fun!

After seeing all the kids dressed up as pirates, we decided we needed to as well!

Steph, Cory, myself and Mike

Nate and Jack running around playing swords together!

They were so enthralled with the pirate guy!

There were so many fun and cute kids there.

One of the most precious pictures of the day: Jack with his arm around Nate

Nate was the cutest little birthday boy pirate.

My adorable niece Abby as a little pirate princess.

Jack is eating cake here, but what I love about this photo is his little pirate earring in his ear.

After the party, we came back to Cory and Steph's to hang out and this was the cutest picture of the whole day!

Two best pirate buddies!

Always so sad to leave San Francisco, truly my favorite city. If you have never been it's really a must, one of those "have to go" places before you die.

eye.candy.

I came across these adorable kid lunch boxes, aren't they awesome? Jack doesn't need one right now but eventually. I think they are so great because they come in compartments and have their own storage containers so no more sandwich bags! Plus you can change the front covers out. They are from yubo and you can find them here!

exhausted. big changes.

exhausted is an understatement. but that is the only word that comes to my mind. for those of you who don't know, I returned to work full time till the baby comes....I'm in my second week and to say it's been an adjustment is putting it to lightly. to be honest, I have cried more days then I haven't cried. it's been a huge struggle for me to adjust to this. on top of everything else I am still owning and running my photography business as well. those sessions have been moved to weekends now but I am feeling stretched to the limits and emotionally and physically spent. I have spent countless hours wondering what I can cut back on but everything I am doing either has to be done - i.e. cleaning the house, working full time and the flip side is everything else is my heart and soul and what I live for. i.e. my family, taking care of Jack, my photography. I simply can't give one up for the other. so hence the lack of blogging. so enough of the pity party - I keep telling myself I can do this for another 10 weeks till the baby comes and I can. I know I can. one day at a time. right? lots of deep breathes and lots of praying.

and since I don't want to end a post as a "debbie downer", this photo brings a smile to my face.

this is how we found Jack sleeping one night, I think it was around 10pm at night, we always go into check on him before we go to bed ourselves and look how we found him. picture courtesy of daddy.

mikes.birthday.

Thinking back to when I was growing up and my own birthdays, I would always wake up the day of my birthday and my bedroom and the entryway to my bedroom would be decorated with crepe paper and balloons, every single year. It didn't matter how old I got, 10, 14, 19 years old. It always made me feel so special, waking up to the first thing you see - balloons and crepe paper. How could you not smile waking up to that? Every year birthdays were always a big deal in our house. At the end of the day depending on whose birthday it was, it always ended with a great family dinner and the best part - a delicious birthday cake with candles to blow out and everyone singing out of tune the happy birthday song. It was the best! I loved birthdays at my house.

So when it was Mike's birthday today I continued the tradition that my own parents started with me and while Mike slept in, Jack and I got up and decorated with crepe paper and party hats...after decorating and learning it was daddy's special day, poor Jack he couldn't take it anymore, he just had to go wake up his daddy! So Jack and I put on our party hats and woke daddy up, Jack jumping up and down on the bed, I probably would of joined him if I wasn't hugely pregnant at this time but it was so cute to see how excited Jack was to celebrate his daddy's birthday. We started off the morning with made homemade french toast with strawberries topped whipped cream and it was delicious!

To celebrate, we went up to Park City and bummed around and had a good time. Just finished a delicious dinner and an even yummier birthday dessert. Mike's request was cheesecake and strawberries!

Happy Birthday sweetie!! Jack, Baby #2 and I love you SO much!!

best.buds

Going home was great, on Saturday we drove over to San Francisco with my parents and spent the day in the city going to my little nephew Nate's birthday party and after the party we came back to my brothers house. There is this gorgeous park down the street from my brothers house, it just goes on and on and on with so much to see and do...so we took Jack and Nate there to play. These photos are from our time at the park.

This was the last photo of the day...can you tell by Mike's face?

This was the cutest thing ever, Jack had something wrong with his zipper so Nate said "i can fix it" and he bent down and started helping Jack...you should of seen these two. It was adorable!

This photo, how cute are these two together?

My niece Abby and I in the above photo....we had a great time, seeing Jack and Nate together pulled at my heart strings as it always does. Every single time we leave Nate, Jack has such a hard time and I'm so not kidding. This time, he woke up the first morning we got back around 5am and walked out of his room crying and convulsing saying "I go see Nate. I go see Nate. Ma, pleaseeee, I go see Nate, my friend Nate, where is my friend Nate." It just was so sad that I started crying and Mike was trying to soothe him, he repeated and repeated it for 10 minutes, just sobbing....it was awful to see how much he missed him. They really are such best little buds. Some day...someday.....that is what is in my heart....someday.