Happiness Lately

I posted this quote on Insta a while back, but I find myself going back to it quite often. When I think things suck or I'm feeling overwhelmed, stressed or crabby - I just think about how great my life is. I'm fortunate to have the most amazing friends and family, a great husband, blessed with a rock star kiddo, a career I thoroughly enjoy...and so much more.

Sometimes it's just nice to reflect on those things.  Because the best things in life, aren't things.

A little bit of my happiness lately...

These two - my entire world all cuddled up in this little picture. I am more in love with Nick lately than I have been in the last 12 years of our relationship. He is my original main man and the one person I go to with everything. And Cruz. What a fun, happy, smart, loving little guy we were blessed with. Loving this stage in his life - there is something new every day - new words, actions, faces. And I just love how great Nick is with him and how much Cruz absolutely adores his daddy.

This food - it's so like me to feature food as something that makes me happy. Really, Katie? But...I have been craving this dish from J. Coco ever since eating the entire thing and basically licking my plate clean enjoying it like a lady last week on our anniversary date. It was a chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella cheese on a bed of heirloom tomatoes and onions drizzled in a balsamic sauce and sprinkled with feta cheese. And yes, it was as amazing as it sounds...and looks.

That new toy - last week Nick decided we didn't have enough "age appropriate" toys for little man. Enter a trip to Toys R Us on a random weeknight, where I had to talk him out of buying this kitchen (manly kitchen if you ask my husband...see, it has a grill and a pizza oven), a work bench AND a motorized car. Fortunately, he listened to me (and later praised me for not letting him do that). And Cruz? He is absolutely.in.love. with it. We play with it every morning and night. He loves handing mama a coffee cup and bringing the coffee pot over to fill it up and then give me a breakfast hot dog. And me? I enjoy playing house with him quite a bit more than I should.

This wallet - last weekend when we were back home at our local watering hole (aka Skinny's Corner Bar), I noticed an all-to-familiar tractor sticker residing on my dad's worn out leather wallet. When I asked him about it, he told me Cruz had put it on there a few weeks back...and he just didn't want to remove it.  (Internally, this made my heart melt. Papa loves his grand babies so much.)

This cheeseball and that shirt - if you know me, you know I just love t-shirts with fun sayings. Suffice it to say that when I saw this one on Etsy - I just had to get it. Lord knows this kid is the center of this little ole blog. I'm lucky to have found this hobby as a place to document our life and everything about this little guy.

These girls - I'm pretty lucky to have three amazing sisters. Granted, I may not have always thought they were "amazing" let's just say, but I love that we are all so close now and have a pretty dang good time whenever we are together.

That bath and this picture - I can't get over how absolutely adorable he looks in this pic. I mean, those lips! Bath time is a fun time for him and I, but my favorite part is how after I wrap him up in his towel, he has to have a few minutes of snuggle time in the rocking chair. Ok...if you insist.

Then again, a few minutes after the snuggle time mentioned above, this same innocent little boy was on the changing table grabbing at his "dinger" as it's referred to in our household and proceeds to question,

"Mama, dinger?"

And I said, "yes, that is your dinger. Please don't mess with it."

Then he said, "big dinger!" (with probably more enthusiasm than it warranted)

Me: "um, let's hope for your sake."

(Thanks to his daddy for teaching him how to use opposites - big and small - evidently that lesson was used in the context of his body parts. I suppose boys will be boys.)


Just a little of my happiness to share with you. Happy Saturday!