Five Books I Love to Read to My Boys

My boys love to read, Boden especially. We can sit & read book after book all day long! I sat down to write a post about some of their favorite books to read…but that would have been a really long post & contain way too many books! I thought that I would share my favorite books to read to them instead.

I believe that my love for reading comes from being read to a lot as a child. My mom always read to us & bought us the best books! I hope my boys love reading as much as I do, which is why I am always adding new books to their collection. I don’t believe you can have too many books! Here are the top five books I like to read to them:

The Wonderful Things You Will Be as you can see, our copy of this book is quite loved! My mom bought this book for the boys when I was very early in my pregnancy with them. I think it was one of the first gifts they had ever received! I love the rhyming in this story, the message that you can be whatever you want to be & the illustrations.

I Love You the Purplest this book was a gift to the boys from my cousin. I had never heard of it before, but it has become so important to me. I can never get through this book without tearing up & getting emotional. It’s relatable to me because it is about a mother & her two boys. It definitely pulls at my heart strings.

Made for Me I bought this book for Sean to read to the boys (which he does) but I like reading it to them, too! It is nice to have a book from a dads perspective, because a lot of books are about moms and their children. This book takes you on a journey through the day-to-day with a dad and his child. Perfect for dads to read to boys or girls.

Mama, Do You Love Me? and Love You Forever these are two books that I remember from my childhood because my mom read them to me when I was young. Mama, Do You Love Me? is a story about how a parents love is unconditional & wholehearted. Love You Forever is another book that makes me emotional when I read it. It’s a beautiful story that illustrates parenthood & shows the incredible bond between a mother & her child.

Do you have any of these books in your collection? What are your favorite books to read to your kids?

xoxo

Favorite Toddler Toys Part 1

I’ll be the first to admit that my boys have tons of toys. It’s hard not to spoil those little buggers! Plus, it’s just so fun as a parent to watch them get excited & explore new things. I’ve mentioned before that I’m drawn to toys that are more sustainable (wood, recycled plastics, etc) but our boys have all different kinds!

I’ve decided to split this post into two parts. Part one will focus on smaller toys & part two will feature larger ones.

It was really hard only choosing five of the boys’ favorite toys, they honestly play with them all! For the sake of keeping this post on the shorter side, I picked the ones that are most played with at this time. Here are the top five smaller toys that my boys are currently loving:

Grimms stacking rainbow & nesting bowls: These have been a big hit since they received them for their first birthday. They get played with everyday & I love how they are open-ended. We have the smaller wooden rainbow & I have my eye set on the large one! rainbow, bowls

Green Toys: Boys + trucks = heaven. At least, for my boys! We have almost every vehicle made by Green Toys & the kids love them all. Their absolute favorites would probably be the rocket ship & fire truck.

SpinAgain: The SpinAgain from Fat Brain Toys…my kids are nuts for this thing. I don’t know what the obsession is (whether it’s the bright colors or the way the pieces spin as they go down the pole) but either way, the boys can’t get enough of it. *this toy was actually in it’s own little quarantine for a while because it was constantly getting fought over.

Toy Story figures: I think it’s pretty cool that Toy Story came out over 20 years ago & it is still loved by kids today. We have five of the “real size” character toys & the boys really enjoy them.

Wooden chunky puzzles: We have two chunky animal puzzles that the kids are obsessed with, I find the pieces all over the house! It’s the cutest thing watching them try to fit the pieces in the correct spot & making the animal noises. The puzzles we have are by Janod.

*BONUS* Skip Hop zoo backpacks: Okay, technically not a toy but the boys really enjoy putting their things in these backpacks and wearing them around the house! We have the raccoon & the sloth.

What are your kiddos favorite toys? Do they have any of the ones mentioned above? Keep an eye out for part two of this post, coming early next week!

xoxo

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

Photo via Google image search

42 Favorite Things

The last time I wrote a post with some favorites was back in 2016…in my very first blog post!  (You can read my “Get to Know Me” post here if you missed it!)

I thought it would be fun to do a “favorites” tag & see if some of my favorites are still the same! It would be even more fun if you copied & pasted your answers in the comments :)  here we go!

1. Favorite ice cream flavor?  Haagen Dazs Coffee

2. Favorite food of all time?  Pizza

3. Favorite soda?  Coke

4. Favorite alcoholic drink?  Not a big alcohol drinker…but I don’t often turn down champagne :)

5. Favorite flavor coffee?  One with a lot of chocolate? Haha

6. Favorite Harry Potter movie?  Love them all! But If I had to choose…The Half Blood Prince

7. Favorite scary movie?  Scream

8. Favorite chick flick?  Bridget Jones’s Diary

9. Favorite TV show?  Too hard to pick!

10. Favorite classic movie?  Some Like it Hot

11. Favorite band or music artist?  Chris Young

12. Favorite music genre?  Probably pop or country music…but I really like all genres!

13. Favorite boy band?  One Direction

14. Favorite state you’ve visited?  Washington is the best state!

15. Favorite country you want to visit?  There are way too many!  But France has always been high on my list.

16. Favorite way to travel?  Airplane

17. Favorite theme park?  Disneyland

18. Favorite thing about traveling?  Sightseeing

19. Favorite breed of dog?  Black lab, of course

20. Favorite season?  Fall

21. Favorite animal?  Elephant

22. Favorite thing about spring?  Green grass & the flowers starting to bloom

23. Favorite wild animal you’d like as a pet?  Hmm…no thank you

24. Favorite Olympic sport?  Swimming

25. Favorite football team?  Seahawks

26. Favorite board game?  Ticket to Ride

27. Favorite thing about school?  Lunch? haha

28. Favorite age? So far, 28 has been pretty great! (Hey, that rhymed!)

29. Favorite Christmas present?  I’m thinking it will be these baby boys this year! :)

30. Favorite video game?  Uncharted

31. Favorite fairy tale?  Cinderella.  But anyone who knows me knows that I love all fairytales!

32. Favorite department store?  Nordstrom

33. Favorite place to shop?  Cuyana

34. Favorite perfume/cologne?  Daisy by Marc Jacobs or Gabrielle by Chanel

35. Favorite makeup you can't live without? Probably a tinted moisturizer or powered foundation 

36. Favorite shoes?  Love my Adidas sneakers

37. Favorite outfit you have?  Frame jeans (how I miss them!) with a Cuyana tee

38. Favorite article of clothing?  Right now…maternity leggings

39. Favorite piece of jewelry? Wedding/engagement ring

40. Favorite thing to wear to bed?  Since becoming pregnant…Sean’s boxers & a soft t-shirt

41. Favorite candle scent?  Bath & Body Works Sweater Weather

42. Favorite holiday?  Christmas or Halloween

What are some of your favorites?!  XOXO