Martha Metzler.com

I mentioned that Bud and I ventured to Vancouver last week and it was AWESOME! Homeboy slept like a champ in his pack n’ play (Christmas miracle) and we had a great time with the Pritz-Bennetts and Gammy. I love Vancouver and we hit some good spots. Granville Island is always my fav so we have to hit that up. We go to the Kids Market, Lee’s Donuts, and walk through the market. I can’t go to Vancouver without going to Granville Island.

The rest of the time we just hung around neighborhoods around Nomi and Graham’s place and ate at some yummy places like Burgoo and sat around chatting it up. I was so sad to leave, I just love being around my family.

We had a super easy drive there BUT coming back on a Friday? I would recommend it about as much as I’d recommend trying to invent an eye liner made out of lemon and pure acid. It took 5 hours and we hit A LOT of traffic……. like a lot.

Oh, and Bud in the sunglasses with the owl sweater with elbow patches? You’re welcome.

We had the best time with Gammy in town. Bud was just in heaven. Every time Gammy wasn’t in the room, he’d look at me with complete disapproval of my presence and say, “Gahmmy?” Appreciate ya Bud, don’t worry, it was easy bringing you into the world with 18 hours of labor, no problemo. 

We had so much fun exploring new places and old places, playing with puzzles, and having Gammy see our life out here. She even came to the book study that I host on Friday mornings. We were so sad when she left, Bud even wanders into the guest room saying, “Gahmmy? Gahmmy?” soooo come back soon Mama, for realz because I just keep telling him that you’re having a meeting with Santa because I don’t feel like explaining that one either.

We tried new restaurants. This is a yummy one, Boathouse19 in University Place. SO GOOD, plus Bud loved looking at the boats.

What’s with the green? St. Patty’s Day, duh.

Sam kept Bud one night so that Mama and I could go out for a girls’ night. We went to my favorite French restaurant, Creme Brulee. Of course when naked Bud saw we were taking pictures, he had to be in it.

We also explored Gig Harbor which is such a cute, quaint town and I scored big time at a consignment shop for kids clothes! I bought Bud 5 pairs of pants and 2 sweaters for $20!

Every morning Bud gets to watch a show while I enjoy a cup of coffee and Gammy loved this cuddle time.

And of course our living room floor has turned into the playroom so Bud made sure that he was going to wear Gammy out with wrestling, puzzle time, and puppet shows.

Since Bud is obsessed with baths, it was so fun to have Gammy be here to see just our normal routine instead of me just telling her fun stories over the phone.

If there is an open field, my son wants to run across it. But not without grabbing Gammy’s hand and making her run too.

Please don’t go Gammy, we love you!

Update: Robyn won! YAY! Treat will contact you soon!

I love giving gifts. It always makes me so happy to find the perfect, personalized gift for someone. Whether its a cool find at a thrift store or an accordion for my brother (yeah that happened), or a surprise trip to Seattle without kiddo for my hubbs, I prefer giving the gift much more than receiving.

One of my favorite companies, Treat, offers a bunch of personalized gifts like cards, mugs, and I LOVE their new desktop easels.

Lucky for you, Treat is giving away 3 personalized cards and 3 personalized mugs! What?! I know its an awesome deal. 

You can personalize 3 mugs (hello grandparents!) or send Easter cards! Man, the sky is the limit.

To enter, go to Treat.com and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite card is and who you would send it to. I will pick a winner on Monday and Treat will send you your gifts! YAY! 

 * Disclaimer: I have been compensated by Treat with the same fun stuff that the winner of this giveaway will get sooo we’re even 🙂 

I’m still on a journey towards gratitude and peace and yesterday was an opportunity for me to exercise that (I always find it hilarious that those little tests come in the least expected and most inconvenient times). I had a huge list of things to get done, laundry piling up, bags to pack for Vancouver, and meals to make. But my boy wanted to play, my car had to go to the shop, and life happened.

Lord I’m grateful that we can afford to fix my car. 

I’m grateful that we get to visit my brother because he’s within driving distance. 

Thank you that I have food in the fridge to make supper with. 

Thank you that we have clothes to wear and to wash. 

Thank you that my boy wants to play with his mama. 

And I felt the busyness melt away.

Then I started to become anxious about how Bud would sleep at Graham and Nomi’s in the pack n play. I am a bit scarred from our trip to NC for Christmas when Bud didn’t nap for 10 days and had a hard time sleeping. But I thought, hey, at least he’d get sleep here. Then from 7pm until midnight, somebody on post thought it was a good idea to practice FULL rounds of artillery shaking the entire house. We couldn’t sleep, Roy was freaking out, and I feared for the life of my china.

Lord thank you that this isn’t our every day life. I know these are drills and I don’t need to fear for the life of my child constantly. I pray for the families where these booms are their real, every day life and they fear for the lives of their children every night. 

Annoyance and anxiety = 0. Grateful heart = 1.

I’ve been getting up early in the mornings to have some quiet time of reading and prayer and it’s been my breath, my energy, and my survival. This morning I was reading 1000 Gifts and was spoken to by this quote, “I stop the spinning thoughts, the probing questions, the hands sorting, the laundry work, because God needs knees more than hands.”

Knees more than hands.

I’m headed to Vancouver today for a few days. Pray for safe travels and a time on my knees instead of hands.

P.S. Another giveaway tomorrow so stay tuned!!!

We have a winner! The scholarly Bud would like to announce that Tammy is the winner! I’ll turn in your info to Shutterfly and you should be hearing from them soon! Congrats!

Yall I love decorating for seasons. I drive my hubbs crazy because our garage is filled with seasonal decor and I get VERY into turning our house into a winter, spring, summer, or fall wonderland. I’m almost done decorating for Spring, I need to run to Joanns and pick up some tall yellow forsythias to put in the hurricanes and then I think I’m done! Obviously there are bunnies and eggs all over the house…… and Peeps.

Do yall decorate for Spring? Do you use pictures? I would use pictures from last year’s Easter but it didn’t exactly go very well. Well Shutterfly has come out with some very cool new products to decorate your home with. They have some awesome canvas prints which I’m always a sucker for. They also have some wall decals which would be perfect for a nursery or playroom.

So the best news is that Shutterfly is giving away this beauty, an acrylic block with your favorite picture in it! They will ship it to ya and everything!

All you have to do is visit the home decor page on Shutterfly’s website and leave a comment telling me your favorite item! I’ll choose a wiener winner on Monday! (why is it still funny to me to say wiener!?) 

* Disclaimer: I was compensated by Shutterfly with a product in exchange for this post, but you get to reap the benefits too because you get a product so you know you wanna enter.*

Yall- we pick my mom up from the airport Monday morning! I’m kinda freaking out. I’ve missed her so much and I’ve been counting down since February soooo IT IS HERE!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!

I’ve already started a bucket list of things for us to do while she’s here and Bud has mastered how to say “Gahmmy”. We have enough Pinot Grigio to last us to the apocalypse so our house is Gammy-ready.

Bring it on mama!

On Wednesday the man of my dreams turned 28 thus making me feel a little less like a creepy older woman married to a young chap. Yall- I can’t say enough about my husband.

He is so hard working. It’s 9pm and he’s still at the office working on a huge case BUT he ran home so that he could read nighttime stories to Bud, say family prayers,  and put him to bed. He has melted my heart with what an amazing father he is. He grabs me every time he walks through the door from work and I stare at the clock waiting for that hug.

He always keeps me laughing, he is super hot, he loves me better than what daydreams are made of, and he cares for this family with every inch of his heart and strength. I’m beyond blessed to have this man as my husband and best friend. He has such integrity and character, it’s kind of mind boggling to be honest.

Happy birthday boo, even if you don’t like birthdays.

This was the only picture he’d let me take of his birthday and I had to trick him by saying that I was taking a picture of the chocolate cake. womp womp.

Yall- I know I’ve mentioned Stitch Fix before but I’m still seriously obsessed. I’m not a shopper, I just don’t enjoy it. But I love having a few new pieces a year to keep me feeling semi-stylish (a stretch I know).

Stitch Fix has been nailing it, for realz. I got some questions from yall about where I got the outfit in the video of Sam’s homecoming. Um……… most of it? StitchFix.

Coolio green jacket? Yep.

Gray dress that I perhaps wear a little too often? Yep.

I don’t have any good still pics from that night because Graham was filming but here are some other times I’m wearing the dress and jacket.

I just put in for a Spring time “fix” (despite the fact there isn’t really a Spring here) and I requested some items that were belly-friendly so I’ll keep you posted if they come through with that!

Do yall have any belly friendly essentials that I’m unaware of? The only things I wore with Bud were the belly-band with my normal pants and some maxi dresses. I’m looking for some different items this time around so if you have a fav maternity brand, hit me!

While everything has its ups and downs, I’ve been trying to focus more on the “ups” lately. And I’ve realized there are some pretty badass things about living near an Army post! Bud is in little boy heaven with helicopters flying around, tanks to be seen, and a bunch of soldiers running around everywhere. I didn’t grow up in a military community so I’m in complete awe when we drive by the air field and see helicopters coming in and hovering above the ground. I’m not so thrilled when they do artillery and bomb drills during nap time and I hear my china shaking BUT it’s still kinda awesome.

So if you have little ones, take them to your nearest military base if you want to see them just go nuts over the cool stuff around. Or you can just come visit us, I’ll make you a coffee cake or something.