Jenna Hipp Nail Polish...........

It has been a little while since I've last updated. I'll fill you guys in real quick...... Music and art class, play group, and tons of time at the beach. That has been our whole summer, so far. Since it's been pretty warm here lately, we have either been at the beach or soaking up free air conditioning at Target or Costco.

Which brings me to my topic today........

Now, I will admit that I am notorious for buying "impulse buys" when I'm at Costco (ie. tupperware, luggage, 12 lbs of greek yogurt dip). Last week we were doing one of our Costco runs and they had the Jenna Hipp Brights mini nail polish 8-piece set on sale for $7.99. Well, who would pass up a deal like that?!?! Not me.... NOPE! I'm the one that just stuck 12 lbs of greek yogurt dip in her basket. Plus, I had been wanting to try out her nail polish for a while.

Let me just say, I LURVE (love) these nail polishes! First, the bright colors are perfect for summer!! Second, they are "quick dry" formulated, and I'm not lying... they dry quick. They dry so quick that I actually painted Madeleine's nails with them, and I wasn't afraid she'd smudge them all over my sofa! The quick dry formula is great for applying that second coat, which was all I needed. Two coats... Hallelujah! I like that the nail polish is so smooth. I'm like Goldie Locks, I like my nail polish not too thick and not too thin. These were just right!

I was a little skeptical after I painted my nails that they were going to chip by the end of the day. I am one of those girls that is super hard on her hands and I always chip or smear my mani. It took me a whole five days to get my first chip and that was only because one of my nails broke. I also didn't use a top coat to finish, so maybe next time I'll try one. My next purchase will be her New Moderns collection, they look like some great neutral colors and would transition well for the fall season. And lets be honest..... I love a good Costco purchase!

Here are a few pictures of my nails, toes and the nail polishes I used:

Left: Ain't Life Grape; Right: I Surf With Boys

Jenna Hipp: Ain't Life Grape

Jenna Hipp: I Surf With Boys

So, it's a small and cool world....... My high school friend, Marie, works for HATCH BEAUTY, which is the company that makes and distributes Jenna Hipp's nail polishes, and they are the company behind the Beauty's Most Wanted products at Costco. How cool is that?!?! When she saw that I posted my new nail polishes she sent me a few more products to play around with and get my opinions about. I'll let you guys know later this week.

*You can purchase at your local Costco, Costco website (you do not have to be a member to purchase online) or Beauty's Most Wanted site.

**Disclaimer: I was not paid by HATCH BEUATY, Beauty's Most Wanted, or anyone else for this review. These are my own opinions :)

Fun Times with a Toddler......

This week has been pretty standard with our usual play group meet-ups, music class, and beach time, but this week we started an art class. Let me tell you, homegirl had a blast! The instructor set up 6 different art stations and they could do whatever they would like, for as along as they would like. We only had one little cry session, because she didn't want to share the basket of colored rings. (This whole sharing thing is going to be the death of me! I thought teething would kill me, NOPE!). I don't mean so sound braggy or anything, but clearly she was the most gifted child in the class, hahaha. Just kidding...kind of :) I didn't bring my phone into class but here are a few of her masterpieces.....

I'm already running out of fridge space. Any suggestions for a cute way to display kids' artwork? 

Well, that was the extent of our exciting week, so I thought that I'd share a few 'funny' Madeleine stories. I may over share with some of these stories, but I'm being honest and sharing all these new things I'm learning while trying to raise a gremlin toddler. Enjoy!

*This week Madeleine has been taking off her diaper during naps and at night. One night, she took her diaper off and when I went in her room in the morning, she looks at the dirty diaper in the corner of her crib, and says, "Oops!" I immediately say, "Bye!" and walk out of her room (Uh, who wants to deal with that mess before your morning coffee or Spark?!? Not me!). She responds, "Have fun!"
Ummmm..... Did she just sass me?!?! I had no choice, but to laugh :)

*She is really into hiding right now. Her new favorite hiding spot is under Chili's bed. She will physically pull up Chili's bed and get under it.

*Painted my nails blue while she was napping, and when she woke up and noticed my nails she said, "Ewww." <insert side eye glare>

*While I was putting clothes away, she managed to get her hands on some old lip liner and eye liner and make "art" all over the wall. Her reply when I catch her, "Uh oh," points to her handy work, and says, "Momma, Fishy!" I guess she was drawing a fish

*I've been trying to ask her on a daily basis about our friends and family, and show her pictures, just so she won't forget them. When I ask her where people are, she tries to say, "home," but it comes out "Hoooeee!" HAHAHA. If you follow me on Instagram you'll know what I'm talking about (nicolejordan14).

*While trying to tell her not to pull Chili's ears, I let out a fart, (yes, I'm human....I pass gas!). She goes behind me and lifts the back of my dress and says, "Poop?" and then runs laughing. I can no longer fart in front of her! I know have to run to another room if gas is a brewing, she has shamed me!!!!

Enjoy your weekend folks!

Beach Weekend.......

Hope you all had a great 4th of July, we sure did. On Friday, we were at our beach ALL DAY!!! Morgan woke up early and went down to set our stuff up, so we would have a spot. He said he heard people say they were down there around 6:30 setting up. NOPE, too early! Either way he set up in a great spot. After he set up he came back and made us his big breakfast (I LOVE THIS MAN!). After we stuffed ourselves on star pancakes, eggs and fruit we packed all the snacks and went down to our spot. We were down there 5 hours!!! Thank goodness for sunscreen and the umbrellas! Look at this little beach babe.....

After we came back, showered, and napped we went over to a friend's house to visit. There were puppies there that were actually her size and she went crazy!!! She kept saying, "puppa!!!" and kept trying to pick them up. She was even able to walk them on a leash. This kept her busy for a little over an hour... WIN!! I'm surprised she didn't try to take one home. (Chili sniffed her up and down when we got home later). Look at little Miss Liberty and her crown......

From there we headed back down to our spot on the beach for fireworks. By this time it was close to 9pm and Madeleine was getting a little cranky, so we had to bust out the big guns.... Ice cream! It's a holiday, right?!?! That satisfied her for the rest of the night and we were able to watch the fireworks. It was nice to lounge on the beach and watch fireworks all along the coast. It was a pretty sight! We thought Madeleine might get scared by the loud noises but she watched for about 10 minutes, and then started burying her feet in the sand. Hey, whatever kept her entertained!

Saturday we headed to Coronado Island, Breakers beach, to hang out with some marine friends. I had hoped that Madeleine would have napped during the car ride because it was a little over an hour trip. NOPE! So, I was expecting a toddler melt down at any moment, but she surprised us and did pretty well. I think the fact that there were a lot of kids helped us. Again, another long day at the beach, but a fun one! I even managed to play a few rounds of flip cup with Madeleine on my hip (classy!). I got no pictures because my phone died :(

Sunday was spent sleeping in and relaxing. Madeleine was so exhausted from the weekend that she fell asleep in her trike/scooter. Excuse her hot mess-ness, she had watermelon and a Plum Go bar on her ride.

Well, that was our weekend. I've gotta go get in a run and burn some of these calories off! UGH! See ya'll soon.

Happenings.......

OK, I may be one of those peeps that tries to blog maybe, twice a week. I am so bad about updating this bad boy. I actually get reminders from my best friends that I haven't updated. Oops!

Nothing too amazing is happening over this way. Morgan is about waist deep into his training. He is gone during the week and comes home on the weekends. When he came home last Friday, he looked like he had been in the sun for 24 hours and had aged a few years. According to him, they stayed in the water most days and it was brutal. My idea of being in the pool all day includes a swim up bar, but I guess this where we differ :)

The gremlin and I have been keeping busy by going to music classes and going to our play group meet-ups, our normal stuff. Thank goodness for music class!!! It's one of the classes that she enjoys and she doesn't want to leave as soon as we get, like gymnastics. Not only is she keeping me busy as a chauffeur, she has decided that she isn't going to nap. WTF?!?!?!? In fact, today is the only day that she has napped this week, which is why I am able to update this thing. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt or something along those lines. I am not ready for her to drop her naps! NOPE!! I thought I was going to die when she went from two naps to one. She better rethink her life decisions!!

During one of our play group meet-ups, the kids did a little glitter art. Mainly just some Elmer's glue and glitter. By the end of the day I had glitter in random areas of my body. You would have thought that I was 17 and just left a rave. But, the end project was cute. I can't wait for her to start art class next week!

I got all "creative" (meaning, I saw this on Pinterest) and made a cute snack!

Guess what?!?! I didn't kill my tomato plant and we are actually getting some Roma tomatoes!!! Maybe I'll plant some squash in the fall, but I don't want to jinx myself (After I picked them I forgot to water them for two days....Oops!). Baby steps!

Well, I'm going to wrap this one up, because I am rambling and I need to start prepping our stuff for the beach this weekend! Hope everyone has a Happy and safe 4th of July!!! See you next week.

P.S. I'll leave you with this cute little gem of Madeleine trying her hand at a contemporary dance :)

Hug Them Tight.............

I meant to write my post earlier today, and share with you all our new journey of teaching Madeleine "Sharing means Caring," but I received some sad news right after my run this morning. One of our Marine/Texas friends, Rich, lost his seven month old daughter last night. I don't know any of the details, except that it was sudden. With that being said, I found it a little inappropriate to talk about how we are "struggling" with the sharing game.

I cannot imagine what him and his family must be feeling today, tomorrow, the next few months, and the rest of their lives. My heart breaks for them and I hope that at some point they will be able to heal as much as they can. There aren't any words that I could express that would make them feel better, but they will be in my thoughts and prayers tonight.

To be honest, I have felt a sadness all day from learning this news. Now that I am parent and I hear gut-wrenching stories, like this one, it makes me feel all the emotions! It makes me look at life and cherish all the things that I might take for granted some days. It made me stop in the middle of doing the dishes, and have a jam session with Madeleine on the bongos. It made me let her stay up a little later than normal so we could play longer. It made me give her more kisses than usual. It made me rock her until she fell asleep in my arms.

So, for all you lucky parents out there, hug your kids extra tight tonight because there are some parents that won't get to do that tonight.


For any of you that knew Rich or are feeling generous here is the link to help them during this difficult time. Thanks!

http://www.youcaring.com/memorial-fundraiser/in-loving-memory-of-e-lynn-marie/195387

Soaking Up Daddy.........

This was our last weekend before Morgan starts some intense training. He will pretty much be busy during the week and some weekends. Boooooo!!! But, no complaining, he's doing something he's been wanting to do for a while and he's happy.

We tried to soak up as much time with daddy as we could. Meaning, mommy got a little break ;) HAHA. On Friday, we had mom's night out with the ladies from our play group. We went to the Cinepolis in Laguna Niguel to watch 22 Jump Street. This place is awesome but a little pricey! First, we had cocktails in the bar before the movie. Those cocktails weren't cheap, $15 for a small margarita, that was filled with tons of ice! Don't try to fool me!! The theater was nice and the seats were comfortable, and they reclined! We proceeded to have more cocktails during the movie. Why not! This also highlighted the fact that mommy can only handle about three cocktails before I want to go to sleep :) The movie was OK, but nothing that I would recommend people paying to go see, but at least we had Channing Tatum to stare at for two hours.

I may never go to a normal movie theater EVER! I have a kid so I don't get to the movies much, so I'm sure this is not a problem for me.

Saturday morning I watched Morgan make his weekend "blockbuster breakfast." I'm not a huge breakfast person, I like breakfast foods, but I'm more prone to make a big bowl of fruit and call it a day. I'm glad he enjoys cooking it on the weekends. After breakfast we packed it up and headed down to the beach. We packed up the cooler with lunch and snacks and hoped that Madeleine would cooperate and let us stay down there for a while. She did!! She's becoming quite the ocean lover. She runs to ocean and get about waist deep and then runs back to the sand. It's pretty darn adorable.

After naps were taken we grabbed dinner, because I wasn't about to cook! After dinner daddy wanted to grab froyo. He just learned this term and has used as often as he can <eye roll>. This chick was happy about her froyo.......

Sunday was spent relaxing, listening to music and grilling out. Oh, and watching the USA vs Portugal game.... WOW! It was the perfect weekend before the madness starts. See y'all tomorrow!

We're back............

We're finally back into a groove of our normal routine, since being back from Dallas. Madeleine had no problem getting back to a routine. I on the other hand felt like I needed to sleep for at least two weeks. But, Morgan and Madeleine insist on me being awake....bleh.

Our trip was great and successful! We saw tons of family and friends and I still fell like we didn't get to see everyone (I told Morgan I needed a whole month in Dallas, and he just looked at me like I was crazy). I was a little nervous that Madeleine was going to be super shy around everyone, and basically attached to my leg or hip, but she surprised me. She let people carry her, hold her (for as long as they could, she's a wiggle worm), and even let people take her out of sight range from mommy. Hallelujah!!!

One of our main highlights was going to Klyde Warren Park, in downtown Dallas. If you haven't gone, GO! It's a great park for kids of all ages and they have food trucks! Delicious ones! They had the fountains/splash pad open and I completely forgot, so we went a little hillbilly side and let Madeleine play in her clothes. Thank goodness I brought an extra set! Homegirl had a blast! I used to take her to the splash pads in Austin every week since she was about 9 months and I think she misses them! Oh well, she has the beach here :)

Besides seeing family, two of the main reasons for going to Dallas were for my best friend's baby shower and wedding dress shopping with my bestie. Both were great! I'll start with the dress shopping. We started off our day with getting our hair and make-up done for the day. We didn't want to spend an arm and leg to get it done, so we went to the Ogle beauty school. The hair part was great, some curls and we were good! Then, we got to the make-up..........It took FOREVER!!! Now, I understand that they are in the process of learning and aren't professionals, but good lord, 1.5 hours for make-up! I really wanted to ask the girl if I could do it myself because she was so slow and wasn't exactly the best. At the end I found out that I was her second person EVER <side eye>. Anyhow, after we were finished, Lindsay's mom, Cyndi, picked us up in the "bride-mobile." She decorated her SUV  with cute paper wedding decorations and played "Here Comes the Bride." HAHA. Cute! She also had champagne! HALLELUJAH!! From there we went to see the top contender for her wedding venue. I won't give it away because not sure if she wants me to share that, just yet. Lets just say it was beautiful and I hope she picks it!!!

Now, for the most important thing..... dress shopping. We went to this cute little boutique called, Patsy's Bridal Boutique. It was just the right place to slowly let the bride dip her feet in. She tried on about 10 dresses, and I fell in love with two, or at least the style. And there were a few times that I definitely teared up as I saw her standing there. I'm going to be a hot mess on the wedding day! She did not find THE dress, but I think she got a sense of what she liked and didn't like. Success!!!! It was the best bestie day!!!

The next day, we were on our way Austin to celebrate baby girl Rojas and April. I will admit I was a little concerned about how this was going to turn out. There were 5 of us that were hosting the shower and we were all planning this via text and email. I'll admit that there were two of us that were a little more controlling and the other three were more laid back. I won't mention names ;) However, it all balanced out! It was fantastic and most importantly, mommy-to-be was happy! We had it at Z-Tejas and they served us appetizers and cocktails. The food was great and did I mention they had queso...... lots and lots of queso!!! So much queso that I took a to-go container, hahaha. Here are a few pics....

I do have to do a shout out to Reel Popcorn for providing the strawberry and vanilla flavored popcorn for the favor bags. People were breaking into them before the shower ended! I even saved me some while I was filling the bags, haha. Also, Batters Up Cupcakery for the awesome cupcakes. She made some that were banana pudding flavored and they had real bananas in the middle!!! OMG.DELICIOUS.

Before the shower we had all been trying to get out of April what the baby's name was going to be. The only thing she told us was the middle name, Grace, after her mother. So a few weeks before the shower I asked her, "If Madeleine wanted to get her future best friend a monogrammed gift, what would be the initials?" I am not above using my daughter! She replied "K." I immediately replied back, "Kennedy is singing to me." Her reply, "Keep singing." So, I started calling the baby Kim Kardashian, hahaha. Fast forward to April opening her gifts at her shower. She pulls out a blanket that she had made with the baby's name, and it's, Kenadee Grace Rojas....... I WAS RIGHT!!!!! I got the spelling wrong, but I was right!


I wish I would have taken more pictures but my phone was running out of space and I kept having to delete pictures. UGH! Next time I'll back up my pictures before I leave.

I'm going to wrap this one up because I need to shower because we have mommies night out with the girls from play group! See ya'll soon!