show me your teeth

photo via etsy

the fair!

yesterday was FUN. duane, kingston and I went to old country buffet for breakfast. I'm really not a fan of their breakfast, but duane loves it and we hadn't been there since we started our diet (that we kinda fell off track with once we went on vacation, whoops). after breakfast I headed over to get my hair done. nothing fancy, just the usual blonde, a trim, side bangs, and face framing layers. I've been going to a new (MUCH CHEAPER) place for almost a year now and I adore the lady who does my hair, the only down fall of going to a cheaper (but still awesome) place is that they don't style your hair for you. so basically she blows my hair dry and I walk out with a hot blonde mess.

kingston took a late nap and ended up sleeping for FOUR HOURS. it was insane. usually he sleeps for a good 2 hours, sometimes 3. my sister jess & brother in law dave came up to hang out with kingston and I at the fair going on in town, so we waited & waited for him to finally wake up. we went to perkins for dinner and throughout the entire meal kingston was a crazy kid and getting up in everyone's face yelling "HIIII HII HI HI." he's so entertaining and people just love him everywhere we go.

the fair was awesome! kingston must have been wired after sleeping for 4 hours because he was SO excited about everything at the fair. he was jumping around and dancing like crazy - all while sitting in his stroller, haha. we walked around and checked out all the rides, games, food, and animals. they always have so many animals to look at and animal shows going on. kingston kept calling the horses and goats "dogs." hahaaa! they had an animal birthing center with a fake cow that kiddos could milk water out of, 2 huge mama pigs and all their adorable little piglets, baby chicks being born, and even a mama cow giving birth! it was crazy hot and humid out so I'm pretty sure our favorite (kingston's too!) part of the fair was the huge snow cones we got. deeelicious!

california vaca part 2

seaworld is going to be taking the place of my friday favorite's today. which, if you're reading this, I'm sure you don't mind considering the amount of amazingly awesome photos this post contains (and 2 sweet "movies")!

while we were on vacation, we spent a sunday funday at SEAWORLD. they have a huge sesame street waterpark area for kiddos to run around and splash and play in. kingston absolutely loved it, and we all loved watching him have the time of his life as he ran around with the big kids, get sprayed in the face and play peek-a-boo with a slide. there's no better feeling than to see your baby (toddler, actually) have SO. MUCH. FUN.

after kingston completely tired himself out at the waterpark, we strolled around and checked out all the aquariums. dolphins, whales, penguins, sting rays, seals, sea lions, fishfishfish, and sharks, to name a few. I'm terrified of sharks but I totally love them anyway. (seriously is it shark week yet?)

2 words: shamu show. holy awesome! I thought just watching the whales swim around in their enormous aquariums was amazing, then we watched the shamu show and I fell in love with those whales. I can't wait to go back and see it all again. so much fun!

kingston did amazing alllll day. we were all so proud of him, and it definitely helps make the day go smoother. before we headed back home to duane's fam's house, his parents spent a fortune on our dinner. kingston enjoyed our $8 slice of pizza and $12 pasta dish. duane and I even shared our slice of cherry cheesecake with him, and he probably would have ate the whole thing if we'd let him. the ride home we figured he'd pass right out considering our fun filled day (and that it was WAY past his minnesota bedtime) but he played and sang and goofed off in the back with me the whole way home. he fell asleep about 10 minutes prior to pulling into their driveway, haha. figures.

thanks for reading (and watching) about our awesome trip! I plan on looking back at this post next summer while we're patiently waiting to head off on our next california vacation. enjoy your weekend, friends!

california vaca part 1

it's a tad ridiculous the amount of pictures I took while in california for 5 days. I'm a little peeved that I only have 1 picture of myself but it happens, and I really need to work on getting in front of the cam. hopefully you all can take what I look like and imagine me in these photos with my cute fam.

thursday was spent at airports, in the air entertaining a crazy-no-way-am-I-taking-a-nap 18 month old and chillaxing at duane's parent's house in moreno valley. duane's mom set up the boys' old but sturdy crib for kingston in a room downstairs. the 2 hour time difference didn't seem to bother him too much during the trip or after, he's pretty easy going with going to bed and getting up at appropriate times. props to him on that! friday the whooole family (duane's mom & dad, older brother david, younger brothers matt & tommy, duane, kingston, myself) went shopping at a pretty awesome outlet mall. the highlight of that trip was an awesome frozen yogurt shop that I can't remember the name of, I just know that we had no idea what we were doing and were surprised to find out that the reason they only have one (huge) size cup is that they charge you by it's weight. that makes sense, huh? welp, I got a gigantic heap of birthday cake flavored frozen yogurt with sprinkles, and kingston and I loved every bite of it.

saturday I went with duane, his dad, older brother david & younger brother matt to the giants vs the padres baseball game in san diego. before hitting up the baseball game, we strolled down to the tilted kilt to meet some (old) dudes from their fantasy baseball league. cool. all of the guys and their wives were super nice and even paid for our drinks! they had a bunch of prizes to give away so we all won a few pinetar baseball t-shirts and coffee mugs. after a (free) beer buzz, the whole gang headed to the game. duane's dad bought us (freaking expensive) slices of pizza, and I pretty much took pictures throughout the entire game. I'm not really into baseball and had never been to a game before, but it was pretty cool they let me tag along.

monday was a pretty chill day spent indoors watching reality tv, running around after kingston and eating subway. later on that night duane, his younger brother matt and I went to play mini golf at fiesta village. I lugged around my camera and got a few pictures in between half rocking-half sucking on their 2 courses. I lost the first (super hard) round but won the second round of their regular course. duane was reading off our scores and his brother matt was shocked, "jaime beat me?!" bahaha.

stay tuned for part 2 which will include our nice little sunday spent at SEAWORLD. that's where all the photo goodness (of kingston) is, folks!

friday favorites

after watching aura's video in this post, I kinda fell in love with the song she used and have kinda been listening to it on repeat for a few days. you can check it out on youtube too!

a recent obsession of mine: color collective.
I will definitely be trying out this braided 'do by keiko lynn. that girl's hair is freaking fabulous!

if you read my makeup favorites post awhile back then you already know my least favorite makeup product is lip stuff. I decided to venture out from my $.98 ELF lipstains (they're so dry) and picked up a few of revlon's just bitten lipstains. I bought flame, passion, twilight, and frenzy. they're a thumbs up in my book! pretty colors, long-wearing, and they feel totally fine on my lips.

I should probably just start calling this series friday favorites + forever21 finds. I mean really...

1. owl cuff bracelet
2. peacock threaded filigree earrings
3. floral teardrop earrings
4. strappy leatherette heels
5. peacock pendant necklace
6. tribal print tank
7. tribal swing skirt
8. flowering sundress

oh and, I swear I'm working on a post (or 2) about our california vacation. happy friday!

because I'm too lazy to update about our cali trip...

soooo, we're back from california! we got back tuesday night actually, I've just been busy cleaning our messy apartment, unpacking & doing laundry, working, editing vacation photos, and trying to get back into the swing of things. we had an awesome time with duane's family in moreno valley and had an absolute blast at seaworld and at the giants vs the padres game in san diego! until I find the time and energy to finish editing all the photos I took, I'll leave you with a few cell phone pictures from the last week...

playing in his new cars blow up tent - that we had to leave at grandma & grandpa allen's.

drinking beer at the titlted kilt while duane, his dad & brothers meet up with the pinetar fantasy baseball dudes.

napping in the car on the way to seaworld, playing with his uncle's old toys, back home dancing to his fave movie.

dazed while grubbing on crackers and mac & cheese.

be back sooooon with (way too many) vacation pics!

friday favorites

aaaaand it's friday, again. time for some favorite things.

duane showed me this video of an old man absolutely LIVID about the casey anthony verdict. preach it, grandpa!

I'm still doing the 17 day diet and today is day 17, which means tomorrow my diet pals and I will start cycle 2 for 17 days. I've decided once cycle 4 hits I'm going to celebrate with these bad boys. my mouth is watering!

after a little convincing from my sister I finally decided to pick up the hunger games. I couldn't put the first book down. I loved it. I just started the second one so once I finish posting this, you know where I'll be.

I really want this handbag. simple and perfect!

I also want this makeup brush. I have a similar one from sigma that I use to apply my foundation. I've heard from some beauty gurus on youtube that they like the coastal scents brush better than sigma's. I'm thinking I'll have to test that out myself.

these eyeshadow kits are awesome. I already have a few eyeshadow kits with tons of colors that I never use but for some reason I really want both of these. one has matte colors and the other has shimmer colors. would I actually use these? who knows, but I still want them.

I have oily skin, so of course it gets ridiculous in the summer. I recently bought this "de-slick" spray, and I love it. I definitely see a difference when I wear it. it's pretty much a life saver for my face.

I'm really pumped for this weekend because on sunday a few friends and I are going to valleyfair which is an amusement park in the cities. I used to go a few times every summer but haven't been in about 3 years. I absolutely can not wait. I could spend all day riding rollercoasters (or any ride, really) and never tire of it. I hope the gals I'm going with can keep up!

the 4th!

we spent the 4th of july weekend at my parent's house! saturday night I went with my sister and brother in law to his family's 4th of july celebration. his family is the definiton of country. they're all so friendly and whenever they get together I feel like I'm going to a high school party. it's just so much fun. we spent the night watching kiddos play and devour piece after piece of watermelon, people take turns 4-wheeling and doing crazy stunts, dave's older brother jamie get everyone going with his karaoke skills, and watching the guys set off some pretty sweet fireworks. all while drinking beer and eating tons of awesome food. by the end of the night my sister and I were huddled together drinking red wine out of red plastic party cups while chowing down on a bag of sour cream and onion chips.

in my last post I mentioned that I was going to make 4th of july strawberries. they were super fun to make. everyone wanted a turn dipping, swirling, and making strawberry goodness. kingston was napping when we made them so I'm excited for next year when he can help out!

I kind of slacked at taking pictures this weekend. basically all I got was pictures of kingston in his pool. shooooot. I suck. I also really need to start getting myself in pictures but people are scared to pick up my camera so I'm going to have to figure this out somehow because this is my blog so I should probably be in some of the pictures. amIright?! onward to pool pictures...

(the view from my parent's house - I was peeking at all the happy tubers down by the river,
jealous I didn't get to do any tubing over the weekend. bummer!)

I spent a good amount of time tonight catching up on everyone's 4th of july weekends and other posts that I've missed over the last few days. it feels good to be back home, caught up with things I enjoy and just be able to relax on the couch and read the hunger games. I finished the first book in a day and let me tell you, I'm addicted. I pretty much CAN NOT WAIT until the movie comes out. I bet it's going to be awesome.

oh and, have I mentioned that tomorrow we'll be ONE WEEK away from leaving to  go to california to visit duane's fam? I'm sooo excited!