6 months. 6 of the very best months.

November 30th 2012
samson is 6 months old today. 6 months! that went a whole lot quicker the second time.  this little man is sitting up and starting solids and always finding a way to grab his sister’s hair when it’s in reach and pull it ever so hard (it starts young, huh?)
i love this little mister. all babies are miracles, but samson is my miracle. and i can’t imagine life without him.  the past 6 months have been such a joy. thank you for joining our little family, samson boy. you make us feel complete.
and just so you know, mister samson, you have also made this little girl below the happiest. watching you two interact throughout the day is my favorite. 

hey, it’s christmas! vol. 3

November 29th 2012
hey guess what? hey, it’s christmas has a 3rd volume out! you can download it for free or stream the music HERE. i blogged about the first 2 volumes the last few years and i love that they are still doing this! a fun way of supporting local and somewhat unknown musicians from around the country! you can check out all the artists who participated at the bottom of this page. 
enjoy! 

roma, italia {part II}

November 28th 2012
…see part I, HERE.
^^^the colosseum was unreal. someday i hope we can go back and finish our tour ;)
because eleanor was determined to explore and wander 
and discover it all on her own so we left our tour group after about 20 minutes 
of trying to make it work and just wandered about behind her.
^^^trying to explain to eleanor that she needs to stay in her stroller
 because we were stopping just to look at the map for a minute.
 it was cold and starting to rain and we were lost 
and papa was trying to figure out how to get us back to the hotel.
(sigh.) this was a really fun moment. 
^^^one of the three gelatos i sampled in one day. (oink oink.)
next up! florence!

roma, italia {part I}

November 28th 2012
…i finished sorting through the rest of our photos from italy last night. 
so, you ready? because here we go!
rome, part I :: 
a few things worth noting: we ate the most delicious homemade pasta at da francesco’s (thank you for the rec, angie!) we tried gelato on practically every corner but our favorite, hands down, had to be san crispino’s (thanks to a number of you from your recommendations here on the blog and on instagram!) and can we talk about the sistine chapel for a minute? because seriously, i don’t think i’ve ever seen something so beautiful. it blew my mind! thank you for that, michelangelo. we also went to church while we were in rome and while i was maybe bouncing a baby in the back the entire time, there is something pretty cool about finding members of your faith half way around the world and feeling like you’re home.  even if i couldn’t understand a word of what was being said (although josh did translate most of the meeting for me)…  rome, you’re pretty great. thanks for showing us a good time! 

ps. for those who have inquired on past italy posts, the beige hat i am wearing (and basically wore the entire trip) i found on GILT, the brand is hat attack. :)

*the photos i took at the sistine chapel have been removed from this post. i apologize to those they offended. 

rockstar giveaway! (closed)

November 27th 2012
today we are excited to be hosting another giveaway with our sponsor, sole society! if you missed out last time, sole society is giving away 3 pairs of shoes to 3 lucky winners this week! the great thing about sole society is that they introduce a new on-trend shoe every day to members (it’s completely free to join) and most pairs start at $49.95 with free shipping both ways! to enter to win, please visit sole society and register if you aren’t already a member. then come back here and comment below telling us which pair is your favorite. the 3 winners will be drawn at random and announced next week.
sole society is also offering $20 off your first pair of shoes to US readers with the code ROCKSTAR20  until december 15th! and be sure to check out their cyber monday deal which runs all week!
UPDATE! 12/8 :: congrats to our 3 winners below! please email me your contact info!
rockstardiaries {at} gmail.com