Easter Style For Your Little Guy

We've literally just finished one holiday (like, literally, I'm still trying to get the green food coloring out from underneath my nails), and another is quickly upon us.

St Pat's was a lot of fun. We bought shamrock balloons, drank the heck out of some green milk and I suckered Cruz into a little photo shoot. I really just wanted to get one good shot for a St. Paddy's Day pic and then he goes and gives me this.

Tee // Moccs

I mean, come on. Seriously this boy.

But now that St Pat's is over, I can get back to figuring out Easter plans.

I think we are planning to go to my parents again for church, dinner and an Easter egg hunt with the kiddos. The best part, Nick's mom and man friend D come over as well so we don't have to feel bad about splitting our time and Cruz gets to see 2/3rds of his grandparents in one place.

Did I tell you how munch I love that our families get along??

Obviously I've been thinking about little man's Easter outfit for the last few weeks and finally have started ordering some of the items. I was just turned onto Next, an amazing UK company that one of my besties who is originally from Ireland buys from for her little guy. I have an order coming and cannot wait to get it. Seriously I think every item on their website is amazing. (After posting this, I was told Next has a US site. How did I not know this? Check them out here!)

Mix some of those items with some of my other faves and you have these two outfits that I can't get enough of. And you know I had to incorporate a little yellow into his Easter outfit, didn't you??

Navy Gingham Shirt // Navy Vest // Yellow Trouser // Suede Boot // Belt

Oxford Shirt // Bow Tie // Suspenders // Navy Chinos // Chambray Tom's

What are your Easter plans? Hopefully they include lots of good food, even more mimosas and being with the ones you love!

#tbt Happy Heart Day

Ok, can we just get this out there that I finally - finally -  feel cool now that I've used the #tbt hashtag. This is my first time. =) (but let's just skip over the fact that this was actually posted on Wednesday, although most of you won't get it until Thursday. Mmm 'kay?)

Let's move on.

As I was thinking about what to do for Cruz's Valentine's day cards, it made me think back on our last two Valentine's Days with this little love bug.

{2013}
Last year we had a mini photo session in his room and since we had a nanny at this time and didn't really need Vday cards to hand out at school, we made a cute little card to send to our family.

Could those feet be any cuter?? And of course little guys in jeans...just about the sweetest thing ever.

{2012}
Would you just look at this little stud? How cute is this pic? I still have it in my office at work because I love to just stare at all of his sweetness.

On the backs of the above pics, we personalized them with his cute little feet...into the shape of a heart, of course!

Any great Valentine's Day card ideas...I'm still at a loss and will more than likely be until last minute. Per my usual. #mommyfail

PS. Speaking of love, I would love it if you would show me some! I just got all fancy and created a Yellow Mango Life facebook page and twitter account.  Just click the links to the right and let's become pals. Thank you in advance. =)

Christmas Cheer...and A Lot of Other Christmas Stuff {Part Deux}

 

Alright, now onto the good stuff - the Christmas celebrations. As per our usual, we had four Christmases in four days. While it can be a bit hectic only getting to spend a day in each location, I can tell you we've done it this way for so long that we wouldn't know any different. Plus, I love being able to see ALL of our family over the actual Christmas holiday itself and not in the weekends before and after.

{If you are dying to read more about our early December happenings, you can find part one here.}

Here goes....

Christmas Eve3 (Sunday before - Christmas on the farm)
Sunday morning was spent on the farm in northeast Nebraska at Nick's grandpa's house. Per our norm, we had a day full of eating, drinking and playing cards. Cruz had a great time opening presents, not just his own, but helping everyone else there since he was the only one under age 26. He loved the black cat grandpa picked up for him in a gas station and did not like the Sully monster that came with his Monster's University movie. To be exact, I believe he said "Sully needs to go back in the box" no fewer than five times. That didn't stop uncle Mook from torturing him with it. Afterwards, we had to go check out the cows in the field and the masses of cats that have shown up to help grandpa "mouse" on the farm.

 

 

Christmas Eve Eve (Monday)
This was a relaxed day at Nick's mom's place which also included more eating, drinking and some Cards Against Humanity. Prior to all that nonsense, we made a trip to the movies - the guys went to Anchorman 2 and the ladies & Cruz hit up Frozen. This was the first time we've taken Cruz to a movie in a theater since he was still an infant and he was so good! I'm sure it didn't hurt that we had the biggest bucket of popcorn ever to occupy him.



 

 

 





Christmas Eve
The morning of Christmas Eve we headed to my parent's house and were the first to arrive so Cruz had lots of time to himself with Grandma and Papa. As soon as my brother showed up, he immediately took off my niece's jacket and revealed a "big sister" tee - ahhh, so excited they are finally expecting again as they have been trying for some time. This time next year we will have a little baby at Christmas!





Santa brought him the truck he wanted...a John Deere pick-up of course!

Christmas
After filling up with twelve three helpings of mom's egg casserole (seriously the stuff is bomb), we got on the road for Omaha to see Nick's dad's side. And as you can guess we had one last day full of food, cocktails and fun just relaxing with the fam and watching the kiddos open mountains of presents.

Ahh, my heart is just so full of love for our families after the holidays! We are very fortunate to have some of the best family to celebrate with and love every minute with them all.

Hope you all had the best holiday season ever. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

 

 

Christmas Cheer...and A Lot of Other Christmas Stuff {Part One}

I realize that I've missed the boat as far as Christmas recaps are concerned, but let's be honest, it wouldn't be me if I wasn't a little late to the party. Therefore, our 2013 recap will have to wait while I entertain you with all of our holiday details! =)

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I have to say, I really impressed myself with my Christmas cheer this year. I mean going from bah hum bug last year and not even having a tree to all-out decorating the house and just really embracing this jolly season.

Now don't go getting too excited, it's not like I hung a wreath from the grill of my car and blared Christmas music non-stop at any point over the holidays...that's just not me. Buuuuut we did go and get ourselves a real tree (even if I only half-assed decorated it), introduced C-man to Buddy the Elf & his friend Alpine the Reindeer, wrapped our hearts out while watching as many Christmas movies as possible, lumped four Christmases in four days, watched Cruz's first holiday program at school (little man rocked it!), took in a movie on Christmas Eve Eve (wouldn't mind making that a new tradition), adopted not only one but TWO families from Angels Among Us, wore our matching "Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals" shirts and found out we will have a new little Fuchser babe this time next year care of my brother and his wifey.

Phew. I'm tired just typing all of that.

Without further adieu, I figure this is as good a time as any to recap this past little holiday of ours. Let's get started with part one.


Cutting Down Our Tree (first real tree for the Mango family)
Ok, so we didn't get all Griswold and trek deep into the woods, selecting our tree straight from the ground or anything. But we did make our way to the local nursery to pick out a tree that was freshly chopped from their tree farm just that morning. Basically the same thing, right? Right. Little man had a blast with the large train and decor. We couldn't catch up with him darting all over the place as he just had to check everything out. 

Aftewards, at the gas station, he decided to sneak the biggest piece of jerky ever and it was out of the container and in his mouth before I could even swipe my card for his Gatorade.

Introducing Buddy the Elf (and his pal Alpine the Reindeer)
We had a great time introducing the elf to our little guy this year. While he wouldn't understand all of the crazy, fun Elf of the Shelf concepts you see plastered all over Pinterest, he did enjoy waking up and looking for his "elfie" every morning....and his mama had fun picking out locations for it. That is, when I remembered and wasn't left scrambling to throw a bag of marshmallows into a bowl for its make-believe bath. (Man, I had big plans for those marshmallows...)

 

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (school program)
His daycare concert was just about the cutest thing ever. I doubt I have to tell you that little man stole the show and sang louder and prouder than the rest of the kiddos. Just look at him belting it out next to the little dude with his finger up his nose. Future JT? ... Maybe.

 

Santa...I Know Him!  (first time seeing Santa)
Call me the worst mama ever, but this year - yes my boy's third Christmas - was the first year we brought Cruz to see Santa.  In my defense, the first year he was like a month old, so that just seemed silly. And last year, we tried, I promise we did. But after waiting in line for a half hour we finally got close enough for C to see Santa and he was not having it. At that point, I didn't even want to try and risk a full-on meltdown.  Therefore, when we were invited to brunch at my sister & BIL's country club, we jumped at the chance to get Cruz on the old man's lap. And he loved it.  Plus he actually told Santa that he wanted a "big truck" for Christmas - prior to the exact minute he was on Santa's lap all he would tell us is that he wanted "presents", but once he was put on the spot, I tell you the boy delivered and knew he had to let the big guy know what he wanted. Smart kid.

Holiday Angels (adopting an Angels Family)
One of the traditions our little family has been doing for the past four years is adopting an Angels Among Us family for the holidays. I just love getting my spirit on and heading to the shops to pick out some clothes, toys and much needed supplies for these families. This year, not only did we adopt within our family of three, but the brothers/sisters/in laws on my husband's side decided to forego buying silly gifts for each other for a white elephant and instead put that money to adopting another family AND my parents adopted another family as well. Seriously love them all for doing this! If you've been reading for some time, you know that Angels is near and dear to my heart and I've love being involved with this organization for the past five+ years.  And I cannot tell you how special it felt to deliver the gifts to these families and hear how excited they were to receive them and be able to provide a better holiday for their kiddos. Tis the reason for the season.


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At risk of this being an even longer post than it already is, I will stop there and continue on with more holiday festivities manana.

Hope you all had an amazing holiday season...just typing this all out makes me want to go back and relive it all again!