As you may know, our family of 7 spent the month of August traveling across Europe. It was jam packed full of fun, adventure, and memories to last a lifetime! If you missed our first stop, you can read about our time in Barcelona here. After spending nearly a week in Barcelona, we started hopping around from city to city. Over the next 6 days we visited Nice, Monaco, and Milan.
Read MoreThis summer our family of 7 (5 kids 10 & under) traveled around Europe. We visited 8 countries in a month, and it was an incredible experience! The first stop of our trip was Barcelona, which just so happens to be my favorite stop of the whole trip! We are city people and feel at home when we are in big cities, but we also really love the beach. Barcelona was the perfect balance of city life and beach!
Read MoreOur family of 7 is gearing up for a month long vacation exploring parts of Europe. Now that all of the planning is done, I am shifting gears to think about packing. By nature, we are quite minimalistic, but even more so when it comes to packing for our trips. When you have a large family, I think it is particularily important to minimize that amount of stuff you’re carrying with you. It is hard enough to keep track of everyone and also fit everything into cars, cabs, etc. Reducing the amount of luggage will alleviate some of the stress on travel days.
Read MoreOur family is often known for prioritizing travel, and we’ve been fortunate to do quite a bit with our family over the years. We took quite a break from our big international trips when Covid hit and we simultaneously had 4 babies in 4 years, plus 2 cross-country moves. Life has settled down a bit for us, and we are finally ready to get back in the saddle.
Read MoreRon and I have always enjoyed traveling and exploring the world, even before we met each other. In fact, our shared love of travel was one of the things that drew us to each other nearly 13 years ago. I actually didn’t grow up flying and traveling internationally. I am from a small town in Oklahoma, and the first time I ever flew on an airplane was when I was 19 (all the way to Germany!). This ignited something in me though, and I quickly found a passion for traveling the world.
Read MoreIt is no secret that every one of my family members is an avid reader. So much so, that recently we decided to track how many books our family read in one single week, and we surprised even ourselves. We read a whopping 468 childrens books in one week (plus another 876 pages between Ron and I!)
First of all, why is reading so important with children? Well, I think we all know that children need to be able to read at certain levels to thrive in school, but it goes beyond that.
Read MoreIt’s Mother’s Day today. For most of my Mother’s Days, I’ve found it to be more of a sad day than a happy one. Of course, I am grateful for the kids I have and this life of motherhood. But days like today tend to remind me more of the one who I don’t get to mother my son Roman. I’ve only held him once, for just a few short hours. When I held him, it felt like he was with us, just asleep in my arms, just as any newborn would be. But as the hours went on, and he never cried out for me, never yawned and stretched, and his body became noticebly colder in my arms, reality quickly settled back in, and the pain would wash over me again. I desperately wished to be able to mother him in those moments (and every moment since). The truth is, while I am forever Roman’s mom, I will never have the opportunity to mother Roman.
Read MoreSweet little Jack Jack is 4 years old today! I know every year with every child, it’s hard to believe another year has gone by. Nonetheless, I feel the same about Jackson, and he truly does hold such a special place in our hearts.
Read MoreLittle Anders Martí is 9 months old today! Another month has flown by. Anders is such a joy to be around.
Read MoreSweet little Anders is 8 months old today! During the past month, Anders went on his first road trip. We drove 10 hours up to Yosemite and San Francisco. He did great on the car rides, but slept terrible in the hotels and airbnbs! But that’s okay, as soon as we were back home, he went right back to his good-sleeping self.
Read MoreI frequently get asked about various baby products and recommendations for different baby gear. As a mama of 6, I’ve amassed quite the opinions (and stuff) over the years! Now please keep in mind that I lived in NYC up until two years ago, so my mom-brain is wired towards space-saving, multi-functional, travel-friendly things. At the end of the day, you know what your needs are and what suites you best! But hopefully this will give you a baseline to start off of!
So here it is, my 12 must-have baby items:
Each and every year, we know summer break is coming, and yet somehow when it does arrive, we still find ourselves surprised! Pre-covid, I used to really dread summer time, unsure of how I’d occupy our time with the kids all home from school and me trying to work. So each summer, I’ve tried to have a solid plan and schedule for the kids to keep all of our sanity. I thought I’d take some time to share our Summer 2022 plans with you all!
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