Celebrating Moms

 

 

This weekend we celebrate mamas. Our mamas, grandmas, mothers-in-love, mamas to be, all mamas.

My mom has SO much love for her kids. She poured that love into everything she has ever done for me and my sister. She goes out of her way everyday to make sure that we know how much we are loved. It takes 10 minutes to get off the phone with her when we are done talking just so that she can throw in one last I love you, I miss you.

 

My mom is a pretty spectacular lady. She is the kind of person that people don’t easily forget. She is strong, she is brave, and she is opinionated and she’s not afraid to let you know that. She still lives in the small mountain community that I grew up in and she might as well be the mayor. She knows everybody. She is featured in the news paper at least once a month because of something she has done with her work. She is a librarian, and she loves that too. She is passionate about what she does and it shows.



She has battled, and beaten breast cancer and then climbed a mountain just to prove she was better for it. She has traveled the world, and lived and worked on a farm in Israel. She has experienced heartache and pain that she didn’t deserve. She taught me how to read and to love books, she taught me that scrambled eggs with lots of cheese are the only edible eggs. She sat with me at bedtime and talked to me about things I was scared of. She is the first person I call when I am sick or nervous. She is the reason why the smell of earl grey tea and lavender face cream will always remind me of home.

My relationship with my mom has not always been easy. We have been through a lot together, I have said things that I knew would hurt her, on purpose. She is the only person that I have ever really screamed at and that is not something that I am proud of.

My sister says that my mom and I can’t always understand each other because we are exactly alike. And you know? She might be right. If I could show the people around me as much love as my mom has shown me, then the greatest blessing in the world would be to be like her.

 

 

Wedding Wednesday ~ It's All in the Details

Our wedding day, as of now, is one of my most favorite memories. The most important day of our lives so far and I am extremely proud of how it turned out. Since I wasn’t blogging while we were planning I’m going to continue to back track to wedding details so that we can remember the year leading up that wonderful day.

 

 



When Nick and I started wedding planning our first step was to create our vision. We had to imagine what our day would look like and then figure out how to piece all of it together.

 

I’m not going to lie, this was no easy task. Mr. M {ahem} has a difficult time visualizing things that aren’t in front of him... But that's ok. It challenges me to put more thought into my ideas and come up with creative ways of convincing him to like what I like, so I can get what I want. Which is always the end goal right?
 

It was easy to decide on our theme. We knew we wanted to get married in Napa. So of course our theme was what I like to call "Vineyard Chic". We spend a lot of time in Napa and it’s a place that we both love so that part was a no brainer. The problem was that Napa is not cheap. We are young homeowners with student loans to pay and we didn’t have endless funds to blow on a wedding.



We are both Type A crazy people list makers, and excel spreadsheet lovers. So, we were able to budget pretty easily and set off to find a venue that we both loved, that we could afford, that was near vineyards. We couldn’t believe some of the pricing at some of the places we toured. A $15,000 minimum for just the bar tab? No thank you.



Our goal was for our entire wedding to be a direct reflection of us. We wanted our guests to look around them and think "they would do that." We are both very traditional in the sense that we wanted to incorporate traditional wedding events and well... traditions, but to make them our own at the same time. I also wanted to be able to make almost all of the decorations & accents myself.

The Photos
We both agreed that we didn't want to see each other the day of the wedding. We didn't talk or text except to say good night and a quick mushy text the next morning.

I'm not a fan of the "first look". I feel like it takes away from that once in a lifetime, magical moment of walking down the aisle and seeing each other for the first time. Instead, we did a "not-so first look" with blind folds. The photos turned out very Fifty Shades of Grey but I'm happy we did it. All of the nerves and anxiety of the day melted away as soon as I heard Nick's voice {and got to kiss him}. Everyone including the photographers were laughing. It was fun to do something different.

The Flowers
We didn't want typical wedding flowers. We found a florist who totally understood us and created exactly what we wanted. We wanted real wine grapes to be incorporated into our arrangements. I originally wanted peonies, but they were out of season and extremely expensive. She was able to fake the peony look by using white cabbage roses and accented them with hydrangeas that turned out perfect.

My bouquet represented my "something old." The florist used a piece of lace from Nick's grandma to wrap the stems and then wrapped my mom's rosary around the entire thing. It was beautiful.



The Gifts
We agreed that we would not spend a lot on our wedding gifts to each other.  We wanted them to be from the heart and more meaningful than a piece of jewelry or a watch or something. The challenge was to give something homemade.

I did a bridal boudoir photo shoot and slipped some super sexy {and tastefully done} photos into his card to read the morning of the wedding. Not going to share those... But I do wish I could have seen his face when he opened his card!

His gift to me? Amazing. Melt your cold feet, make you cry like a baby, amazing. I opened my gift and literally bawled my eyes out. Nick made a box, lined it with black satin, and filled it with a piece of every special memory that we share. He had saved ticket stubs from different sports games, my plane ticket from our first vacation to Hawaii together, a photo of the gas station we were at when I let the first "I love you" slip, the cork from the champagne we opened the night he proposed.. and so many more. He attached a little note to each item explaining why it was special. At that moment, I was certain that there was no better man on earth. Not one.

 

For my bridesmaids, I hand painted a monogram of their fist initial onto a champagne glass and bedazzled it of course. I bought them each a bottle of Bridesmaid wine from a vineyard in Napa {except little Lexie who got a bottle of sparkling cider} and ordered them each a monogrammed necklace with a Swarovski pearl from Etsy. I got one for myself as well to wear on the wedding day. I love me a good monogram.



The Ceremony
Since we couldn't get married outside of the church by a Catholic priest we had to look for ministers to marry us. I felt weird about having someone marry us that hardly knew us at all and so we started thinking about other options. Turns out that anyone can be ordained online by filling out a quick application and paying $10 for a certificate. Boom. Done. We asked Nick's cousin if he would do the honors and we wrote the ceremony on our own. It turned out beautifully and was completely us.

 

My dad is an extremely talented wood worker. It's not a job, but a hobby, that should be his job. I'm constantly bugging him to set up an Etsy shop. Nick and I asked him to build us an arbor to get married under, that we could later put in our backyard. He built the most beautiful piece of art. When I showed our florist a photo of the arbor she cried.

For our unity ceremony, which would typically be the lighting of the candles in the church, we did a wine box. We each spent about $100 on a bottle that we individually selected, that we knew would age well and locked the bottles in a box with letters for each other to open on our 10th anniversary. Just to make it interesting, as we were sealing the box, Nick's dad threw in a $100 bill to go to whoever's wine is the best. It's nice to know that I'll  be $100 richer in 10 years.

My dad also made the box. He told me the next morning that he had used the wood from the cherry & apple trees that grew in the front yard of my childhood home. Trees that I played under every summer growing up. Cue more crying. If my husband isn't the sweetest, most thoughtful man alive, then my dad is.

The Reception
Our wedding venue had an amazing barn wood book case that we could use to decorate. We assigned by wonderful Mother-in-love to that task and she did a beautiful job. Most of the items she used were things that I either made from Pinterest and Etsy inspirations, or bought from Etsy. It was a beautiful way to personalize the reception venue.

We have an extremely talented friend with one amazing voice. We both knew from the beginning that we wanted her to sing our first dance song. I always knew that I wanted Alison Krauss' "When You Say Nothing At All" to be our wedding song. Nick wasn't sold at first {typical} but after much pouting and playing the song on repeat he warmed up to the idea. He surprised me with the news on my 25th birthday. Do we see a reoccurring theme here? This man has the sweetest heart.

We went back and forth about how we wanted to do our guest book. I definitely didn't want a book for people to just write their names in. I mean, what's the point? The book will likely end up in a box in the garage, and who really cares? Instead, we enlisted yet another talented friend {he's also the guitar player you see above }who makes these great wood prints to make us a guest book. He designed a grape vine graphic with hundreds of little grape leaves winding around a large piece of wood for people to write their names in.

Nick loves whiskey. So rather than have a groom's cake, since he doesn't like cake, or sweets at all really, we put a cigar and whiskey bar on the patio. I personally didn't have any whiskey or a cigar, but I loved this idea and I think everyone else did to.

When we were planning I kept thinking about how depressed I was going to be when the wedding was over. I was already dreading coming home from our honeymoon and resuming real life. But you know, as wonderful as the whole thing was? I'm happy it's over. I'm so happy to be married to my sweet husband and to be living this real life of ours. I love looking back at these photos and reliving the day over and over. But for now? I'm ready to go to our friends weddings.

{Quick side note: Pandora must somehow know that I'm reliving these memories right now. It just played our wedding song and the song I danced with my dad to. Back to back. You're creeping me out internet.}









 

Life Lately - A photo dump

Our schedule is packed. Want to hang out? We're booked until mid June.

Our weekends are full of all kinds of wonderful fun but sometimes it feels like we are ever at home.
Waking up in my own bed on a Saturday morning? Heaven.
 As per usual we were nonstop busy and this month. Here's a photo dump and a recap to wrap up April.

 

We started the month with my sister-in-love's birthday celebration. She missed the photo op.

 

Each April our group of friends celebrates the opening of baseball season with a season home opener tail gate at the coliseum. I look forward to this day allllllll winter.

My husband is the cutest barbequer there is.  

 

We spent the first real warm weekend with the family in Napa. We spent Saturday tasting at 3 wineries. One of them an old favorite and two we had never been to before.
 Mr. Hubs and I joined our first two wine clubs and are now impatiently awaiting our first shipments in the fall.

We started last weekend with Rodney Atkins & Lady Antebellum at Shoreline. We toasted to George Jones and I got a lump in my throat with Lady A sang to a fellow pregnant mama in the front row.

One of my long time friends from home and her son came down to visit this last weekend. We spent Saturday in San Francisco. He's 5 and had never seen the city before. He was mesmerized and called all of the buildings "hotels". Cute.

It's so much fun to see things you've seen a thousand times for the first time through the eyes of someone else. Especially a child.

 

 

 

We took him to see the seals on the floating docks and to the aquarium at Fisherman's Wharf, and to the Rainforest Cafe. Amazing. He was on total sensory overload and couldn't even handle the idea of eating food with a giant moving elephant wagging it's huge head around right behind him. Although, when the waitress came to take our order he confidently said "oh and I'll have the fish please". I almost spit my Arnold Palmer all over his cute little face. There is no "the fish" on the kids menu.

 

He wasn't a fan of the guys on the street that paint themselves silver and stand still like statues and then all of a sudden bust out with robot moves. Because, silver robot men are scary. He hid behind Auntie when we passed by those guys.

 

 

Sunday Uncle Nick drove us all to the park in his sweet Camero. I've never seen a little boy so stoked about anything. Anything. He wasn't so big on the park and I'm pretty sure Uncle Nick had way more fun on the playground than he did.

He's just a big kid himself.

 

 

May is about to be a whirlwind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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A Day In The Life

I am all about routines, schedules, planning.

　

I’m Camille and I’m a calendarholic.

　

I enjoy my own routine so much, and I enjoy learning about other people’s routines too. I always love reading "day in the life" posts. For now we are kid-less and our routine is simple and focused around us. Some day I’m going to re-read this post and laugh at {and envy} myself.

　

My husband is a Project Engineer which means he is on construction time and has to be out of the house before the sun comes up. He is so disciplined. It’s a quality that I really admire and wish I had more of.

　

My schedule allows for a little more flexibility than his. I work in community management which means that I don’t necessarily work a 9-5 job. It means that I sometimes work a 9-11 job. 11pm that is. Part of my job entails traveling to various cities across the greater Bay Area to attend Board meetings at my properties. I love what I do. I don’t love coming home to a dark house.

　

Are you ready for this? Let’s go.

　

5:50am - Nick's alarm goes off and he's up and in the shower {he literally flies out of bed. I don't know how he does it}. He lets the puppy out of the crate and takes both dogs out to potty. I wake up to two wet noses in my face and a kiss from the husband as he walks out the door.

　

7:00am - I'm still lounging in bed, maybe still sleeping & definitely snuggling with my two fluffy boys. I pull myself out of bed, turn on the news and jump in the shower while the dogs eat breakfast.

　

8:30am - I pour my coffee, choke down a vitamin and I'm out the door. My commute is about 40 minutes in the morning and most times I'll call my parents or friends to catch up. Other days I'll listen to an audio book {I'm a huge nerd. I love listening to books}.

　

9:15am - I make it to the office and commence the work day. Emails, phone calls from homeowners, emails, coordinating various vendors and contractors on projects at my properties, & EMAILS. Usually around this time I get a sweet text from my husband that makes me smile like a goon and want to squeeze him.

　

12:30pm – When we brought the puppy home we agreed that I would be going home for lunch to let him out to potty and play outside of his pen. We're trying to wean him from these midday breaks, so as of now I'm only going home every other day. If I don’t go home sometimes I'll work through lunch and eat at my desk, or go out with some of the ladies in my office. Sometimes I skip lunch all together. It's a bad habit.
 

5:00pm - I'm out of the office as quickly as possible. I head to my Bar Method class or work out at the gym in my office building. The evening commute around here is no joke. {Neither is the Bar Method. Holy ouch.}

　

7:00 pm – One of us will cook dinner and we’ll sit down at the bar in the kitchen to have a glass of wine and talk about our day. That usually involves filling Nick in on some kind of office nonsense and hearing funny stories about his crews. While we eat we'll watch an A’s game or one of our favorite shows. {We’re loving the Americans, Nashville, & Grimm right now, and impatiently waiting for Son’s of Anarchy to return.} I’ll usually throw in a load of laundry or re-run a load in the dryer. I love the sound of clothes tumbling in the dryer.

　

9:00 pm – Snuggle time. I love this time of night with all 3 of my boys. Since Nick has to wake up so early he’s usually out long before I fall asleep. Laying in bed next to my sleeping husband and two snoring dogs, I try to take time to give thanks for this life of ours.

　

We’re not too exciting, and our schedule can become monotonous. But we are blessed.

　

Saturdays? Saturdays are for sleeping in and French press coffee.

 

 

 

Baby Fever

I have a fever. Baby Fever.

 Mr. Husband and I have decided that it is time to make a little human and all I can think about is our little baby to be. Thanks to Pinterest I already have the entire nursery planned {boy & girl} and I am ready to start painting and shopping. Like, now. 

I ran to Target as soon as I tossed my last pack of birth control and bought a big bottle of prenatal vitamins. Overzealous or not, I want to make sure that our tiny person has everything necessary to succeed.
 Even as a fetus.
Even as a fetus that doesn't exist yet.

Let me just say.. these vitamins are just out. of. control. They are HUGE. I'm not a big pill person, Nick has to fight me to take an Advil, and I am struggling to get these suckers down. But, I'm happy to do it every day, in the name of having a baby with 10 fingers, 10 toes, a just one set of eyeballs. {Kidding.. sort of.}

I went to the doctor and they ran some pre-pre-natal blood tests to make sure my thyroid was normal and that I still had immunity to Rubella. Which I do, thanks to those lovely middle school immunizations. Both of those are things I never would have thought about so I'm glad I went in to talk to the doctor ahead of time.

Wish us luck.. here we go!

 

Backtracking - Engagement Photos

 

One of my best friends in the world and Maid of Honor in our wedding is an extremely talented "wanna be" photographer. When we got engaged I knew right away that I wanted her to take our engagement photos.

We took her to Napa for the weekend and shot the photos at the in-laws house which made them extra special. She also did them for free in return for a weekend of wine tasting. Can’t get much better than that!

Here are some of my favorites.