introducing... baby holland!

oh my, oh my. let me just start by saying that it is very hard to have a blog and keep secrets. i didn't put up a blog post so many times because part of it was going to spoil the news. ah!

i'm going to have a baby! there. i said it! it's out. whew!

some of you may already know from facebook or just from me, but i felt that it was time to tell the rest of you. brock and i honestly couldn't be more happy! 

special thanks to my lovely cousin, emily for taking these photos!

i know you all want to know the deats, so let me get out the basics and you will have to wait for the stories in future posts.

baby is due june 22.

i won't make you do the math, i'm 16 weeks along.

yes, we will find out if it's a boy or girl. brock and i plan too much not to (and i have to know what to buy!).

we can find out in three weeks! eek! i might make you wait a few days, though...wink...

we have decided to go the midwife route and i promise an excellent post about this later.  

don't be a hater, i had morning sickness for about a week with no puking and have been feeling good about 92% of the time since then. 

brock has already been amazing. i am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband and i can't wait to watch him become a father. 

so there you have it friends. get ready for lots of baby and pregnancy posts in the future because that's what you are going to get! with other stuff, of course. more on that thursday. xo

special thanks to my lovely cousin, emily for taking these photos!

a little push + thoughts on multitasking

life is nuts.

i don't really have much more to say about it. you have probably noticed in my recent posts how overwhelmed i am.

and when i am overwhelmed, i tend to shut down and not do any of those things on the ridiculously long list i have. it's a shame, but that's just my natural instinct.

thankfully, i am quite a lucky girl. see, i have this husband. he's probably too good for me. he pushes me to be better. he works hard all the time. he strives for growth and progress. and he treats my like a queen.

i tell him every day i want to quit life. mostly school, but life would be good, too. and he usually says, "me too" {he also hates school}. but monday when i was feeling particularly overwhelmed he gave me hug and told me:

don't multitask. just focus on one thing at time. 

and you know what? it worked! i love to multitask, i don't know why. maybe it helps me feel more productive? but really it just creates a little chaos in my brain. i accomplished quite a lot on monday and have been taking to heart those words. it really does help to just sit down and focus on one thing at a time.

don't move on until you finish.

do the most difficult things first.

prioritize.

and reward yourself after you have accomplished all those daunting tasks {like with blogging or a quick break!}.

thanks, brock!

old picture from our honeymoon | grand canyon, nov 2011

planking fails and senioritis

i have senioritis. i want to drop out. i won't, though. i am one semester short of the pretty, signed document.

there's only four weeks left of school for this semester and  i feel like suddenly the clock has sped up into overdrive. there is so much to do, so many assignments i know will be coming up. not to mention finals. curse finals.

there are plenty of papers to write, online discussions, chapters to read, videos to make, presentations, you name it. oh yes, i must also find one more class to take next fall so that i can... graduate! and i need to apply for graduation, too. oh, bless.

dear people with the prospect of college in your future: college is great. if you are doing what you love. if you are just getting through to get the piece of paper at the end {like me in many ways}. i suggest a trade school. seriously, become a chef, or an artist, or a cosmetologist, or a mechanic. you might be happier.

dear people who have already graduated: do you not feel so relieved? honestly, do you feel like you benefited from the experience or do you feel like it was a waste of time?

ok, now i have ranted about my college experience and all the stress that is building up.

here are the plank fails i promised. hehe. these silly kids crack me up.. mostly max, as you can see. good times! {missing tucson + family}

spring break fun {planking}

so as you all know, i got to visit good ol' t-town for spring break. there was a lot going on. weddings, seeing family, seeing friends, dinner with grandparents, swimming, hanging, playing, fun.

probably the best day was our trip up to mount lemmon to play and hike. thanks to max {that's my sissy poo!} we started planking. if you don't know what that is, get out.

just kidding.

kind of.

it's basically laying in a horizontal fashion anywhere and everywhere you can. absolutely straight. it's hard sometimes. and here is our fun! {there's a lot, be warned}

clearly, planking is a family affair. everyone got in on it. it was silly, but we had a good time finding good spots! the winner of the best plank and spot: max!

did you ever get in on the planking craze?

plank fails to come. hehe

foliophoto {link-up} memories

it's a foliophoto day!

i hope you have been keeping up! if not, my last two contributions can be found here and here.

this week's prompt, memories, was pretty open to a lot of options. i chose something not so long ago, because it is one of my favorites.

camera: iphone3 | filter: orton via picmonkey

brock and i love love love camping. this was on our first trip camping just us two. i love camping with my family, and brock and i have been with some friends. but it was so great to go last fall, just us. we  drove up the mountain through all the fall-colored trees. we worked together to set up camp {in the dark}. we built a nice cozy fire and roast marshmallows. side-note: we wrapped them in a crescent roll sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and i loooved it. end side-note. and then we spent several hours just talking.

before the sun came up, we woke up and hiked to the edge of the site.mountain to watch the sunrise!

and then this picture took place. we drove down to the lake after a breakfast of fresh fruit and nuts and granola bars. and then we just took pictures. and this was my favorite. in case you can't tell, i took a sneak shot of brock taking photos.

next week is twins. oh buddy... i'm gonna have to get creative. 

foliophoto {link-up} street

i'm back! bet you have missed me, eh? i've missed you, too. i will tell you about my adventures upon recuperation {please tell me i'm not the only one who needs a vacation after vacation to recoup before life is back!}. but until then, i have to link up for foliophoto with christie! i have to.

because on my trip, we took a great picture for it. though i am actually in the picture, and didn't take, it was my idea, so i get the credit... tehehe. ok not. thanks daddy, for taking this!

prompt: street

subjects: ave, myself, max, tan, and brock.

ave and tan are my brothers, max is my sissy, and you all know brock.

this was on our trip up the mountain for the day. this is just the best crosswalk ever. we had to take a beatles shot just for the sake of it. and i love it! though i think we need to work on our frozen walk stance skills. ...wink...

brb - it's spring break!

well, in case you weren't paying attention to my excitement blowing up twitter, and even my blog, i'm going home!

so i won't be around for a week unless we have like super down time and i steal my mama's iPad.

i will probably be blowing up twitter and instagram though, {maybe vine?} so if you want to keep up with my adventure, check it out!

xoxo

instagram | twitter | vine

{i can't figure out how to link vine since it's an app, so just search for me if you are interested: tasminskye}

love the husband

i just wanted to say thanks to all of you, through texts and comments, on your hair advice. unfortunately, each one got about the same amount of votes! haha. it made me laugh. i still haven't worked myself into cutting yet, but it will either be monday, or neeeext monday.

that aside, i just want to let the world know that i have the greatest husband ever. don't be jealous.

we don't have a dishwasher, so we do dishes every night after dinner. last night, i was feeling especially drained and also had a killer headache.

sweet brock hopped in the shower super fast {we had just worked out before dinner}, while i was doing dishes, and then forcefully took over the massive pile - we hadn't done dishes all weekend - so i could take a relaxing bath. he knew what i needed before i even knew i needed it. and he made sure everything was cleaned and ready for me to just hop right in bed after my bath.

he is so thoughtful. i just adore him.

i really am not a fan of valentines, but i decided to do something this year. i can't wait to share it {it has to wait, in case brock reads this}. i have always been anti, but i think now that i'm an avid blog reader, i'm getting the bug. it's weird. i don't really like this feeling, but i am succumbing to it. don't tell anyone.

what are your plans for love day?

a craft to go with breakfast

i have something of a habit of wanting to make "beautiful" food. i never realized until my mother-in-law pointed it out to me last night. she said...

i'm not like you, i don't look at food and go 'oh how cute.'

true story. i do that. and even today, i was on my healthy pinboard looking for some meal ideas for the week and asked brock what he thought of the mexican haystacks.

'isn't it cute?'

that totally came out of my mouth. i just love food. i'm trying really hard to stay away from the delicious sugar.smothered, or fried.in.tons.butter, or just packed.with.amazing.things.i.should.never.eat. it's really hard because those things are so pretty! but healthy food is pretty, too! don't judge it just because it's good for you, ok? i have to try not to, so you should, too.

that all being said, i also love pretty dishes and pretty places. so i made some place-mats for our kitchen. i want to make tons and tons. but i just have one set for now. it was quite simple, once i got the dern thing cut {my fabric twisted a tad when i washed it and the stripes weren't straight. p.s. this was a test, you probably don't want twisting fabric for place-mats because you will wash them again and again}. i just hemmed up the edges and hand stitched a little on the corners. and ta-dah! sitting under the breakfast of champions. {will post later!}

what do ya think? si or no?
now i just have to say...
let's eat!

a happy home: one year without a fight

i thought since this is the very first post on the happenings in my home, i should explain why my home is such a happy one.

basically, brock and i have made it a whole year without a "real fight," {plus our dating months, engagement, and like 2 more months after the anniversary}. don't get me wrong, we've had some disagreements, but i can't call them fights because a] they never last longer than 5 minutes, b] rarely rarely rarely are we both frustrated at the same time, and c] they're just not fights.  so how do we do it? i shall tell you.

1. sometimes, you just have to act like children.
just because we're all adults doesn't mean we have to be mature all the time. it's exhausting! let loose and let go. children are care free and they do silly things. this is really only beneficial if both of you do it, otherwise the "adult" may get annoyed. so when the other one starts acting childish, join in! it relieves a lot of stress and you will eventually be laughing! if you start whining and pouting playfully during an argument, it tends to be hilarious.

2. when you are wrong, admit it.
this is super huge. but i feel like brock and i are pretty good at it. it's the reason our disagreements never last. this works especially well if you make a super obvious frustrated.defeated.obnoxious "you're right" face. the other will then laugh, feel free to gloat, and next thing you know, problem solved.

3. fights are better fought when only one is fighting.
this goes back to us not being mad at the same time. if the other one is laughing, no one gets hurt. on one hand this aggravates me to no end, but on the other hand, it totally lightens the mood {eventually}. brock would honestly have me laugh at him than comfort him if he makes a silly mistake even when he is super duper frustrated. i would rather be comforted, but he usually laughs and then i laugh too. win win.

4. be 100% honest. always. don't keep secrets {but you can keep surprises!}.
keeping secrets means you have something to hide. if you have something to hide, it's probably not good. if you are keeping something from them, you are not being completely honest. it's pretty straight forward. love without trust is a whole lot harder than love with trust. trust me {see what i did there?}. honesty makes those fights so much easier because you have nothing to hide. it makes resolving those fights much more possible because you count on that half of yours.  

5. if there's that one thing that bugs you, find out how it fits with yourself.
i know this seems silly, but give it a go. brock seriously loves to aggravate me. it's like his favorite past time. sometimes i wonder if he just didn't do enough of it to other girls in junior high. the picking and poking and the mocking. rawr! i go insane. i on the other hand am super dramatic. sometimes is totally subconscious, others i'm completely aware that i'm being ridiculously dramatic. brock aggravates because he likes to get a reaction out of me {he has admitted that several times}, and it works out ok because i usually like to be dramatic. it seems silly, but once i figured that out, i didn't mind his agitation so much. i still get dramatic about it, but it's more fun now.

and with that, we are fight free! there may be other factors, but these are the biggest.