Life Lately...

Has been a little overwhelming. Hence the no blogging. A quick rundown before I have to go...
-Scott played in his baseball alumni game for high school and shattered his leg in 9 places, he has been bedridden and drugged up.
-Little B has had a double ear infection and has been crying if I set her down for at even one second.
-Scott's brother borrowed his car and crashed it.
-We received a ticket in the mail of Scott running a red light. (not a big deal but annoying nonetheless)
and (drumroll please)
-my parents house burned down and they have moved in with us until it is repaired. - and though I have always had dreams of communal living, these aren't the conditions I imagined it under.
Please keep us in your prayers life at the Cheo's has been a little insane. I know God's up to something, just not really sure what.

LOVE this

for you my Scotty.

Creepy

Scotty and I LOVE making food together. Occasionally it gets a little out of hand. The other night we were making Valentine cookies. It came time to give Miss B a bath. I came back into the room and had noticed two odd amoeba shaped cookies on the baking sheet. After inquiring what the heck they were Scott informed me rather nonchalantly that he had resurfaced the Christmas cookie cutters and had made a "snow-star" and a "tree-man."

Love Day

My love day was fantastic. How was yours?

the morning started off sweet... flowers for me and our little B. heart shaped pancakes made by chef Scott.






then Scott and I escaped for some alone time and, wait, what does that say?


Oh Scotty.


Oh yeah.


Then, as if that wasn't enough Scotty surprised us and took us to Sea World with our new passes! (please notice the new necklace in the last pic)






Then we would up back home and Scott and B opened up their gifts.

Really For Real

Today I spent my day like this with my sick girl.



And I loved every minute of it.

Lately I have been learning so much about what it is to find contentment. Contentment in what we have, not continuously longing for more. It quite literally means; 1. the state of being contented; satisfaction; ease of mind.
2. Archaic. the act of making contentedly satisfied. What I gather from the second definition is that it's a process. It doesn't come naturally to most of us. We constantly want more than what we have. We are always looking towards the next big thing. And this is not necessarily negative. However, I've been learning the contradictory balance of "the act of making contentedly satisfied" and also being completely on the edge of my seat with what the Lord will offer me next. I find pearls of wisdom from the Proverbs.
"Proverbs 14:30
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

"Proverbs 15:13
A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit."




This one I found particularly encouraging.

"Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God."



this was after a yummy dinner with old high school friends



Love and I having a great time


Although it is a continual, daily decision to remain content, to take joy in the blessings, and ultimately to place our focus not on the fleeting worldly things, but on the eternal perspective, there ARE so many things here on earth to be satisfied with. The gifts that we have received from God. Let's concentrate on those, no?

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty”- Socrates

For Real Friday

A peek into my life based on random photos taken throughout my week. Enjoy!

met friends for lunch in Laguna, paused for some photos




Scott being, well, Scott


the morning routine


what happens when the Northrups come over for Mexican food night


boho baby


fun dinner at Tiff's


B cleaning up the joint


Miss B's craft


some pics from our playdate with our new friends Toni and baby Presley!!




It's been a busy week everyone! Keep calm, stay focused, and concentrate on the important stuff.

and i don't wanna miss a thing

I've done a lot of contemplating lately. Scott and I both have done a lot of talking and hashing out. What do we want our life to look like? When we grow old, what do we want to look back and say? What will our 80 year old selves say about our 27 year old selves. Did we live our lives to the complete fullest, recognizing that this day this moment would only last for a small split second in the grand scheme of our lives? Or would we just allow life to mozy on by us while we got caught up in the daily stresses and worries that we all have and wake up one day to regret it all? This has caused us to make some pretty interesting decisions. Decision #1 was obviously getting rid of TV, and I have to say that neither one of us miss it even in the least. Decision #2 was integrating different fun traditions during our week to look forward to that take the monotony of daily life- i.e. Sunday night soup, Miercoles Mexican night (it used to be Taco Tuesday, but now Scott has class on Tuesday so we had to move it to Wednesday, only nothing that has anything to do with Mexican food begins with W so we had to change it ok?) and even small little routines that we have- Mom does bath, Dad does bedtime with a song. Decision #3 has been to wake up every day together and do devotions with our coffee. Decision #4 has been for Brinkley and I to leave my phone and computer behind once a day and go down to the beach- or if it's raining into her room- and play together for an hour or so. I like going to the beach more, and I know B does too but sometimes you've gotta make do. All of this pondering came to a head tonight while I was doing my Monday night workout video. I thought to myself, "No one would really know if I only did 20 instead of 25 reps." Then I thought, "yeah but if I do 5 less reps per exercise I do, that's a heck of a lot of exercise I'm missing out on." And then I went so far as to think how less toned I would be at the end of the year, if I cheated myself out of that hard work. And then it struck me like a flash of lightning. No one would know if I skipped my hour playtime with Brinks outdoors one day. In fact no one would even know if Scott and I were just "too tired" to go in and get her one morning and let her cry herself back to sleep. No one would know if I got a babysitter so I could take off all the time on vacations with out her. (I am not referring to the occasional getaway, I recognize that this is deserved and pretty much needed) And it IS hard work. It's tiring. It's easier to hire help, or take off every chance you get, or do what's "best for you." But if I did all of these things, I would be cheating myself out of a heck of a lot of time without her. And Scott and I would be cheating ourselves out of a heck of a lot of closeness that we could have with her. And we would also be cheating ourselves out of a tight relationship that we could form with her early on that could last her entire life. So although it is a lot more work to pour ourselves completely into our parenting roles, I encourage you, mothers, your souls, just like my abs will be so much more refined.

not an uncommon day with my girl