FLAMINGO PARTY

Over the weekend, we had a flamingo party at my parents house. It was complete with some of my best girlfriends, and lots of family. I've mentioned before the curse my birthday has, and even though my actual birthday isn't until Thursday, so far so good this year. There was a tornado about 45 minutes south of my parents house on Sunday, but it only sprinkled a little rain on us and we went on with eating, water gun (hose) fighting, swimming, and laughing. A HUGE thank you to my mom and dad for hosting, and working their butts off in the heat. I have said it so many times before, but I could never say it enough. I am ridiculously blessed with family and friends. Life is so so good, and I just know my 30's are going to be the best decade ever!

 My mom and I love to have a theme!

 

 Girlfriends!!

 Luna and Lola. Besties born one day apart!

 We finally got a photo of all 14 of us. Our family keeps growing and I absolutely love it. These people are my whole life!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Jammie Obsession

Donut Love 4 Piece // Black & Pink Striped // Floral Short Sleeved

Zebra Long Sleeve // Hammock 4 Piece // Elephant Organic Cotton

Beautiful Short Sleeve Set

It's no surprise we're obsessed with jammies over here. If I was a stay at home mom all week, I'd never put jeans on again. When we found out we were having a girl, I was so excited to dress her in all the cute outfits I always saw all over every store. Fancy dresses and tights, and super cute little shoes and baby jeans. She's never worn a fancy dress, and I think worn shoes twice. Now that we're in the thick of life with an almost one year old, I couldn't be more obsessed with her pajamas. All along I thought zip up sleepers were the shit. Not fuss, easy diaper changes, etc. But she is SO cute in these 2 piece pajamas lately. We are obsessed with buying all the jammies. Old Navy is still killing it with wardobe selections for babies, and now that Lola can wear toddler sized clothes, the selection is even better. I rarely shop at Carters, but DANG are those donut jammies cute or what? I ordered them online and had them shipped to the store, because who the F pays $8 shipping? And those hammock jammies are so right up our alley. I love when they're clean and she gets to wear them IN the hammock. Two hundred heart eye emoji's!

Long live the weekend!

Lola's First Sleepover

Saturday was Chuck's birthday, and we planned our third date night since Lola was born, and decided to go big. THREE dates in 9 months is not enough. Lola had her first sleep over at my parents house. I wasn't nervous, because I knew she was in great hands. But I did miss her very much. We dropped her off after her afternoon nap (or lack thereof) and went back home to get ready. It was so strange having a couple hours not worrying about when she might wake up. A couple hours meant plenty of time for me to choose an outfit. Or send a couple pics to friends and ask their opinion. Sidenote: I changed into both of these outfits 3 times each. I felt like a teenager going on my first date. 

 We decided to steer clear of downtown with the convention in town. So we went to Jekyll's Kitchen in Chagrin Falls. This is one of our favorite restaurants, not only because of the food, but because of the location. Beautiful to sit next to the falls during dinner! And, this is where we went the night we were induced with Lola. So it was rather fitting.

We were such party animals getting home at 10:30pm and going to bed at 11! Either way it was  nice to go out with my handsome 31 year old husband! Happy Birthday, babe. You're more then I ever could have hoped for in a husband and a father to our baby.

Meanwhile, someone was having a fun sleepover with Nana and Papa. One of my favorite things Lola does lately is love her Papa. It is the cutest thing to see her interact with him and say his name. I'm not even mad she said "Papa" before "Mama"

And someone slept all night, without her noise machine, until 7:15am! I see a few more (100) sleepovers in our future. Thank you Nana and Papa for always being such amazing parents and grandparents. Lola is a lucky lady.

 

Summer Family Photo's

We had family photos done a couple weeks ago. I originally wanted some spring family photos when Lola was about 6-7 months, but our first scheduled date, it snowed IN MAY. The second date was a down pour. So we settled for 
90 degree heat at 6pm on a Sunday night at almost 9 months old. 
But I couldn't be happier with how these turned out. I'm thrilled we 
found such a sweet photographer, who somehow managed to make it 
look like we weren't melting, swatting bugs away, and 
Lola wasn't unhappy with anything but eating cheerios. 

Thank you so much Ashley.

Me Time // Birthday Wish List

As a mom, sometimes you forget, or just don't have the time, to take care of yourself. Especially if you work full time, your days probably look a little something like this. Wake up, get ready, get baby ready, feed baby, drop baby off at day care. Get to work, forgot to feed yourself. Grab a bag of Doritos from the lunch room. Work all day. Run errands on way home. Pick up baby. Get home, unpack baby from day care, unpack work bag from work. Cook dinner (or if you're lucky, hubby cooks dinner) Eat as fast as you can. Clean up from dinner. Get baby in tub, get baby into pajamas, rock baby to sleep. Pack work bag for next morning, pack baby for day care. Put on your OWN pajamas. Sit down to watch a show and/or do more work from home. Fall asleep before doing anything for yourself. Including brushing your teeth. (gross!) 

 REPEAT for 5 days. 

This happens too much in our day-to-day life that us mom's just don't realize how important it is to take care of ourselves. Lately I've been trying to do at least one thing for myself after Lola goes to bed, or when she naps. I of course try to get my daily tasks of laundry and cleaning done first, but usually have enough time to paint my nails, or write a blog post, or even something as simple as cleaning out my purse or putting on a face mask. Sometimes I get really adventurous and go on a run outside! We don't realize how good it will make us feel to have those 15 minutes of doing something for ourselves.

And lately, sometimes even just buying something for yourself is enough.

 

I told you all I make lists all day every day. Well, of course I have a birthday list. Here's a few things I've been crushing on, and wouldn't normally buy for myself. Ok, who am I kidding? If all of these items were on Amazon, my cart would be loaded.

I'm ready for a new pair of Ray-Bans and these originals are what I've wanted for a while. But how awesome is this metallic purple polarized pair? Love them.

This Pajamas All Day tee has been on my list for a long time. Cause lets face it, mom's of babies under one year, don't wear real clothes. 

I am finally getting back into working out and running and in the market for new running shoes. I love my Brooks and Asics, but these Nike Pegasus are what I'd like to try for light running.

I kinda revamped my make-up recently. I started using a lot of Tarte brand items to get away from parabens. But there is no better lipstick than MAC. And I've been wanting this one in Velvet Teddy, with the matching lip pencil in Spice.

Speaking of make-up, how awesome are these colors in this eye shadow pallet? It's every color I would need. Lastly, I'm a sucker for colored pencils, and all my Prisma Color pencils are broken, tiny, and gross from college, so I'm in need of a new set, and how many of you are "adult coloring" in these cool new books that seem to be everywhere now? Is it terrible that I can't wait for Lola to be old enough to color?

So maybe this is just a list, or maybe these items will find a way into my house, but either way I'm glad I'm finally giving myself those 15 minutes a day to myself to just be me. And I hope all you mamas out there do too.

CHEERS!

30

So, I'm officially turning 30 this month. I'm actually kind of excited, because my 20's were awesome. And now, Lola's here and I'm totally ready to take on my 30's. I really don't think my life started fully until she made her debut. She is literally the light of my life.  I've been ready for this for as long as I can remember, and it is nothing short of amazing.
 

 I thought it might be fun to share "30 things" about me you may, or may not know. You may or may not care to know, either. 

 Ashley Sasak Photography


1.  I used to be a runner. I ran 3-5 times a week, anywhere from 3-8 miles. I've run 20-30 5k's, 2 half marathons, and a couple 10 milers. I don't have time (or motivation) to run anymore, but I was never sick when I was running, and felt like a million bucks.

2.  I shower every day. If I don't have time to shower quick in the morning, I shower at night. I just can't stand not feeling clean.

3. I write EVERYTHING down. I own 2 yearly planners, a desk calendar, a wall calendar, a weekly meal planner, and roughly 6,000 notepads. And I write only with a black sharpie

4. Chuck begged me for chickens for a long time, and then one day I came home to chickens. And they sort of grew on me. I wouldn't mind having a few more. I'm still a NO on a goat and a pig.

5. I've had a total of 9 surgeries. And 3 of them were emergencies.

6. When my eyebrows aren't plucked or waxed, I feel like my face is dirty, even if I just washed it.

7. Chuck and I wrote our own vows for our wedding

8. When I was about 12 years old, I accidentally hit a little kid in the forehead with a baseball bat while I was "in the hole" at one of my softball games. I still think about the sound to this day and cringe. (The little kid was okay by the way)

9. My birthday seems to have some weird curse. There have been too many crazy/bad things that happen around my birthday. A tornado, a concussion, a 7 day power outage. To name a few. 

10. I didn't have braces until I was 26

11. My first job I worked at a gym 

12. I used to have a thing for boys in bands

13. But moved on to BMX riders (the best decision)

14. Speaking of bands, I was a total groupie in high school. I've been to 100+ concerts. Mostly pop punk. 14 of those were New Found Glory

15. I'm addicted to two things for sure, popcorn, and twirling my hair.

16.  I own a lot of books I've never read

17. I used to paint. (The Notebook style) I still wish to paint again some day

18.  I'd choose vodka over beer or wine any night

19.  When Chuck and I visited Burlington Vermont 2 years ago, we sat on a swing overlooking Lake Champlain and decided, since we didn't go away to college, our children would go to University of Vermont and start a life there. So that we could have roots there and their life could be magical. We were dreaming before we even met Lola!

20. I'm not much of a "sweets" person. I like salty. Give me a bag of Fritos or Cheetos and it's over.  

21.  I'm not a picky eater at all. There isn't anything I won't eat.

22. Halloween is my favorite holiday

23. In elementary school, my friends and I all owned the same orange jacket, and we were literally called the Orange Coat Gang. Even the other elementary schools in the area had heard of us.

24. In high school, my friends, Laura, Ally, Melissa and I called ourselves The SLAM. Because our initials spelled SLAM.

25. Watercolor pencils are my favorite thing to make art with

26. I'm a pop punk fan all the way, even though I listen to almost all music

27.  I've known my whole life that being a mom is all I wanted

28. I'm a total TV Show junkie. My favorites include The O.C., Scrubs, Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives, Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Greys Anatomy, Scandal, New Girl, and Parenthood.

29. My dream job would be to create soundtracks to movies

30.  My middle name is Michael. I am named after my dad who's first name is Michael. And both my older brothers middle names are Michael. So, my name for 27 years was Shannon Michael Myers.