Author: amandaquenzer

28-year-old mother to two under 2 and three furbabies, wife to Mark, and lover of slow mornings and quick wit.

what i wore :: vol. 1

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I believe it’s safe to say I’m not as into self-portraits as I once was. I took these pictures WEEKS AGO and felt sooo awkward. I then let the photos sit around for forever and now I’m editing them and wondering when I developed a double chin. But I still love styling outfits as much as ever, so here we are. 😉

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Bandana :: Target
Dress :: Old Navy
Jacket :: American Eagle
Boots :: Target
Purse :: Target (…my true mom colors are showing. So much Target.)
“Momma” bandana :: Die Trying

bad bitches gotta eat donuts.

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The older I get the more I realize I have little to no self-control.

I’ve started so many diets. Like, it’s embarrassing. I decided to try the Military Diet just to kick start my “usual” diet (a mix of low carb and intermittent fasting) last week because I thought “Hey, I like everything on this list and it’s just 3 days. Easy Peasy.”

Not easy peasy.

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Day one: Mark brought me home a donut first thing in the morning. It was a pink donut with sprinkles and he knows that’s my favorite. (I’m Homer Simpson at heart.) Don’t let anyone tell you that there are only five love languages because there are six and the sixth is Food. So like.. I had to eat the donut. Rules is rules.

Day two: I told the fam to just do whatever they wanted for dinner. They chose pizza. I had one bite of cheese bread dipped in marinara. Then I scarfed the whole thing in ten seconds flat, my new personal record.

Day three: Mark wrangled kids all day so I could tackle cleaning our closet. A distraction! I could totally get through the day without cheating! I proceeded to make him lunch and ate three of his fish sticks and a large spoonful of mac and cheese.

See? No self-control. BUT I did lose 3lbs! Honestly I don’t feel too bad about it. Bad bitches gotta eat donuts. (Babe, put that on my headstone when I die please.)

hi. yes. hello.

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The hardest part of jumping back into blogging is doing just that…jumping.

Honestly, these days when I jump I piss myself. #thanksDexter

We’re sneaking past the tiny baby stage with Atlas and I’m finding myself with a little more time on my hands. I’ve already cleaned and re-organized our entire house (shout out to Marie Kondo) except for the kids’ rooms and our closet but I’m not a brave enough woman to get to those yet. All in due time.

I want to do something for myself, because that’s been hard the last few years. See, when you have 3 kids in 3.5 years you quickly go from being your own person to just being Mom. Which is fine. I own this role. I’m not great at it, but I do own it. ha! My life is preparing food that won’t get eaten, squeezing into high-waisted jeans, shouting “You’re fine, shake it off” every three minutes, and cleaning up poop.

So much goddamn poop.

So here we are, and I’ve vowed to at least blog once a week, even if it’s something as simple as a quick journal entry. (Sorry though, no “dear diary” shit here. It’s pretty much just lyrics I currently love.) It’s something for me, even if I’m struggling with where to start.

Here’s a picture of my most normal child to kick things off again. Cheers.

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port aransas: our first family vacation

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With the opening of Lunar happening soon, Mark and I realized our downtime is about to decrease significantly and a family vacation before all the madness seemed like a good idea. So we booked a vacation in one day…and we left one week later. haha.

The drive there was partial hell because, I mean…9+ hours in a car with two toddlers. I don’t think I need to say any more. But we had so much fun once we got there!

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Solid attempt at a family photo. 😉

– amanda

momma + cora + dex

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Being a mom to two under two remains the hardest thing I’ve done. Our first year was very tough for me emotionally and there were multiple times I wondered what the hell I’d gotten myself into. And then, almost overnight, things got easier. And easier. And then things got fun! And I know now that we’ve made it out of the toughest part.

Back in April, Ashley of Aspen Blue Photography (a photographer I love and have known for years) offered mommy and me sessions, so I snatched one up and had photos done of me and my babies to celebrate the fact that we are all alive and thriving. I told Ashley I had very low expectations because I knew a 2.5 year old and a 1 year old totally weren’t going to sit and smile for the camera, so we would take what we got. And I’ll be damned if she didn’t get the sweetest smiles and silliness from my little devils.

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Thank you for these photos, Ashley! They mean the world to me. ❤

 

– amanda

um hi.

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Boy howdy.

It’s been a minute.

I have no good excuse. I’ve had time, I have things to blog about, I just wasn’t feeling it for whatever reason. Since my last update (in FEBRUARY WHUT?!):

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– Dex turned one! He is such a handful but he has developed the FUNNIEST sense of humor for a one year old. And he’s currently the size of a two year old but it’s fine. 😛 We had a cute little diner-themed party for him, complete with a cheeseburger cake.

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– We announced our next adventure: Lunar Music Supply! This is Mark’s dream, Mark’s baby, I just made her look pretty. ❤ We’re still awaiting inventory (hoo boy, that’s quite a story) but should have our doors open soon. My dude has been working HARD on this since last October and I’m stoked to watch everything come into fruition.
Follow us here: insta. fb.

– We briefly debated having one more baby. It was short lived. haha.

– I LOST WEIGHT! (*kicks a chair over in excitement*) Mark and I started the Keto diet and I’m a believer. It’s totally changed the way we eat and we no longer have random health problems. We’re both feeling pretty fantastic.

– I ditched my capsule wardrobe. Not because it wasn’t working, but because I accomplished my goal: Find my style and have a wardrobe with functioning, easy to mix-and-match pieces. It took me two years, but I can officially say I not only love every item in my closet, but I love the way everything fits. And I know what I like! I can walk in any store and pinpoint which items I would gladly wear on a daily basis.

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– Our family grew! Cora and Dex are racking up on the cousins. Selah Ryan was born March 17th, and Easton Dwayne was born July 20th. Building that toddler tribe, y’all.

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– My sweet Baron was diagnosed with cancer. We have roughly 2-6 months with him, depending on how fast everything spreads. I can’t imagine a world without my Brown Bear, but we’re taking everything one day at a time and spoiling him while we’re able.

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– We did some traveling. Austin in April with Cash and Heather (we spent a weekend there and it wasn’t near enough!), and Port Aransas with the kids in June. I’ll share our Port Aransas pictures in another post because they’re totally still on the camera. Whoops.

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– I got some tattoos. And they’re fucking beautiful. Brandilyn Dunning at Blackmint Collective is the tits. THE TITS. She’s officially my forever-artist. ❤

– I’ve changed hair colors like 14 times and gave myself bangs randomly on a Sunday morning, it’s whatever.

 

Here’s hoping my next post isn’t 4 years from now. *thumbs up*

– amanda

shot out into the sunlight

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voyage

 
For the first time in almost a year, I finally feel…stable.

I started taking Paxil about a month ago after being tired of feeling like I was drowning 24/7. I’m not sure if it’s the meds or that the kids are getting easier to manage, or maybe the combination of the two, but I feel genuinely happy and less batshit crazy lately. I worry less and play more. I yell at my kids far less. I don’t feel like I’m buried in chores and I’m finding more time for myself.

Yes.. TIME FOR MYSELF! The dream.

Dex has started taking one long nap a day instead of two shorter ones, so he and Cora nap at the same time now for 2-3 glorious hours. 3 hours to myself every day! This is something I dreamed of months ago. Yearned for. NEEDED. And Dex is now walking (still a little wobbly, but we’re there) so he can keep up with Cora a little better and they entertain each other more. I can cook dinner without someone losing their mind now, guys!

I also joined a couple of 2 under 2 mom groups on Facebook and wish I had done it sooner. It’s so nice to know I was never alone and most of these moms feel like they’re slowly going crazy too. Every now and then there’s a reassuring post from a mom whose kids are now 4 and 5 and you can see how much easier things will eventually be. Hope! haha.

And now I’m coming out of the fog and seeing that we’re going to make it. I don’t regret going the 2 under 2 route one bit, but man this last year has been one of the hardest of my life.

– amanda

3 Products I love: January

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I always love seeing what products other bloggers love, though it’s usually things like beauty products or food. Don’t get me wrong, I love those things (there’s a beauty product on today’s list!) but the products I REALLY love here lately are the things that make my life easier. So here are three things I’m digging this month. 😉

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The iLife Robotic Vacuum

We have three dogs (two with long hair) who are in and out of the doggy door all day and two kids under 3, so you can imagine what our floors can look like if they’re neglected too long. I was using our cordless Dyson every other day spending about half an hour just knocking out our downstairs, which is primarily hardwoods with some tile and a huuuuge Moroccan rug that of course sheds like a bitch. I put off getting a robot vacuum for so long because A) I was afraid it wouldn’t work in our messy household, and B) they’re stupid expensive.
I saw a few friends post about their iLife vacuums and when I finally looked it up, I was shocked that it was under $200 AND they make one for pets. I hit “buy” so fast, but I was still hesitant when it arrived. I actually kept the box out because I just knew we would be sending it back.
It took one week before Lupita had me sold. Yes I named her, slapped some googly eyes on her, and consider her one of my best friends now. I like to give her a few words of positive encouragement when I empty her “purse” in the mornings. We run her at night after we go to bed and I get to wake up to clean floors, then I run her in our bedroom when the kids go down for a nap…otherwise they chase her. The kids love Lupita too. Once a week I do a quick once-over with the Dyson so I can get the stairs and behind the kids toys, but it takes all of 20 minutes for me to knock that out.
I’m in love with a robot vacuum and I don’t care who knows it.

 

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Shea Moisture African Black Soap

I joined a few beauty groups on Facebook recently and constantly saw girls talking about this so I decided to give it a shot after having breakouts off and on ever since I had Dexter. I’ve exclusively oil-cleansed with coconut oil for two years now, so it dried out my face a little at first but a good moisturizer took care of it pretty quickly. I already see a huge difference in my skin! I’m a fan. (And it smells good!)

 

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Carbona Fat and Cooking Oil stain remover

As if the robot vacuum wasn’t the most “mom” thing to share ever, I’m sharing a stain remover. Not sorry. My family has a real knack for getting grease on their clothes (*cough*MARK*cough*) and this stuff ALWAYS works. Even for set in stains that I don’t notice until the shirt has already been washed and dried…which is what happens 9 out of 10 times. haha. I just rub a little bit in with an old toothbrush, let it set for a few minutes, and toss it in the wash like usual. Life saver.

Cheers to less messes and clearer skin in 2017. 😉

– amanda