halloween decor

Here is a quick peek into the Halloween decor I have up in my abode.

My goal is to buy a few pieces every year until I have a pretty rad set-up.

Let's start at the from door....

In the "entry" hallway....

Some fun artwork I did with the kiddos....

Light-up ghost and glow-in-the dark skeleton wind-up toys....

Kid A loves the ghost, because it changes colors.

Glitter skull....

 With light-up eyes....

On my coffee table....

Gotta have a spider web....

My dining room table....

Close up of one of the "bloody" candles....

Not a HUGE collection, but it's a start.

And not that I mind, but I've noticed over the last few years that glitter has become a BIG trend.

Do you decorate for Halloween?

8 years ago today....

....I married my best friend.

We had a whirlwind romance and got married less than 8 months after starting to date.

And we were young, he was barely 23 and I was a fresh faced 20 year old (barely).

But we knew that we loved each other and that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.

 

It hasn't always been rainbows and sunshine.

Life has thrown us our fair share of curve balls, but by God's grace we have made it through each and every one.

And have come out stronger in the end.

Bryan is everything to me.

He is my best friend; my favorite person.

We have the best time together.

Sometimes in deep conversation; sometimes in belly laughter.

He is the father of my two beautiful children, and dang it all if I don't see his face EVERY time I look at theirs.

 

I can honestly, without a doubt in the world, say that I love him more and more as each day passes. 

There is absolutely no one in this world that I would rather wake up next to every morning.

No one that I would rather go to sleep next to every night.

No one I would rather raise a family with.

No one I would rather make a life with.

Happy Anniversary, B!!

I love you!

monday misc. :: sick weekend

Within 2 hours of coming home from school on Friday, Kid A got sick.

 She had a yucky 24 hour stomach bug/fever.

So, the hubs quarantined her and himself into our bedroom, so that he could take care of her and not risk Baby LL or myself getting sick.

Sure enough, in the early morning hours of Sunday, he caught it.

Good thing is, Kid A is over it and hopefully the hubs can come out of his hidey hole tomorrow for our anniversary.

And let me tell you, after sleeping on the couch for a few nights, I am more than ready to get back into my comfy bed.

During a trip to Target with Baby LL, I picked up some Clorox wipes and have been using them like crazy.

Clorox wipes, you are my life now. :)

It was/is very hard to not be able to be around Kid A or the hubs, but I have spent every waking (and sleeping) moment for the past 3 days with Baby LL.

He is SUCH a happy baby, and has the greatest disposition.

He even took a 2 1/2 hour long nap with me today.

 Thanks for that buddy, mama really needed it.

 

I love this little guy!

I also realized that he LOVES his stuffed giraffe (it plays Twinkle, Twinkle).

It's half the size that he is, but he's loving quality giraffe snuggling time.

 

During our Target excursion we also picked up a little somethin' somethin' for the little dude.

He'll be 5 months old later this week and we got the green light from the pedi to start solids whenever we wanted.

And seeing that this little boy can eat something FIERCE, we will be starting rice cereal  this week.

Just waiting for daddy to get better, so he can watch (and I can have a photographer).

 

Late  last week I took a little shopping trip to Anthropologie  to use the gift card that my mama got me for my birthday.

Here are my shopping spoils.

I actually received the vase and sugar bowl as presents.

 I still have a bit left on the card, so I will be headed back soon.

And yes, I have already put the mini colander to use holding our tea bags.

I haven't been very hungry today, but I'm craving a BIG bowl of Cheerios (with ice cold milk) something fierce!!

And seeing that this weekend didn't go as we planned, I thought  the following sentiment was appropriate.

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diy :: wall art

Remember this post from awhile back?

Well, I have FINALLY made some progress on my oh-so-sad piece of wall art.

Here are the deets....

The aqua frame came from my baby shower earlier this year.

We used it to take pictures with silly props.

The butterflies in the corners were made using a butterfly template found on the interwebz and scrapbook paper.

Just trace and cut, that's it.

 

The big mum was made using toilet paper rolls.

I cut them in even pieces, painted them with a pumpkin colored acrylic paint, and hot glued them together.

An easy, yet time consuming process.

And last, but not least, the fabric "l" was picked up last week during a birthday shopping trip to Anthropologie.

 

I'm thinking about possibly making the mum bigger, or moving the "l" over some, or putting something else up there to fill in some space.

Time will tell.

inspiration workshop! - favorite accessories

It's time again for another Inspiration Workshop! post, brought to you by Gussy Sews.

This week's prompt is Favorite Accessories and let me tell you, it took some thought.

I LOVE accessories!!

Handbags, headbands, scarves, nail polish, jewelery...I love it all.

I decided to go ahead and post pictures of some pretty jewelery that I found on Pinterest.

Something that I've been noticing in regards to my taste in jewelery, is that I love "natural" jewelery.

I love pretty rocks and turquoise.

Or things that are nature inspired, such as pieces with birds on them, or feathers, or trees, or other animals.

So pretty.

And as the years have passed, I'm finding myself more and more drawn to gold jewelery.

Enjoy the eye candy!!

monday misc.

This past weekend was wonderful. 

A lot of hanging around the house, reading and napping.

I love my weekends with my family.

Even if we don't have any major plans, I get giddy as Friday progresses, thinking about spending time with my favorite people.

The week ahead is going to be a busy one.

I have three mornings of work scheduled.

Kid A has her very first field trip on Thursday, where she will be visiting a tree farm to do all sorts of fun Fall things with her classmates.

And on Saturday, we have the Fall Fest for Kid A's school.

I'm really looking forward to that one.

I used to love when we would put on Fall Festivals when I was in school.

Definitely looking forward to some fun family time.

I will also be making sure that I carve out a little time to go spend my birthday gift cards.

Anthropologie and Barnes & Noble, here I come!

I am currently reading this book.

It's about a girl who is a zombie.

Yes, you read that right.

She's not being attacked by zombies.

She is one.

It's definitely an interesting idea and I'm curious to see how this book pans out.

I have several upcoming posts that I'm looking forward to sharing with you, including one showcasing my Halloween decor, and a few talking about a few habits I've recently picked up, that I hope will positively impact my health and wellness.

Stay tuned.

Advice to live by....

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Tonight seems like a homemade burgers and fries kind of night.

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Hope wherever you are in your day, you're smiling!

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vulnerability like you've never known

Thursday was rough.

Actually rough doesn't even do the day justice.

Baby LL had his four month shots on Wednesday and judging by how the rest of the afternoon went, I thought we had dodged a bullet and were in the clear.

When he got his two month shots the rest of the day was pretty bad. 

Baby LL and I laid in bed, while her nursed, for hours.

But the next day he was a-okay.

This time around he did wonderfully the day of the dreaded shots.

He only let out one cry during the shots and was quickly pacified when I picked him up immediately afterward.

The rest of the day passed and the only difference from any other day was that he napped a little more.

So this mama did a premature victory dance.

And taunted those vaccinations with a, "TAKE THAT!!".

BIG mistake.

Thursday started off okay, but it quickly went downhill.

I was supposed to work on Thursday morning, but left halfway through my shift because it was pretty evident that all I was going to be doing was try and pacify my cranky baby.

On the way home, he fell asleep, so I ran by the grocery store.

He stayed asleep through my quick jaunt in and out and didn't wake up until we walked in our front door.

That's when the proverbial sh!t hit the fan.

He went through major periods all day where he couldn't be pacified.

I gave up on trying to get anything done in the late morning/early afternoon.

Every time I thought he was calming down, something would set him off.

Talk about a bad mama day.

We're supposed to have all of the answers.

We're supposed to know how to calm down a screaming baby.

We're supposed to have the magic touch.

Right?!

Well, I didn't have any of those things and that made me feel like a complete failure as a mom.

Rationally I know that me feeling that way is absurd.

I know that I'm a good mom and I care about my babies SO VERY MUCH.

But I am human.

And I don't have all of the answers.

And sometimes I have an off day, when I don't feel good and I'm cranky and no one can make me feel better.

So why do I expect that my kiddos won't go through the same thing?

And why do I blame myself for that?

Because....my kids are the most important things in my life.

 Because....they own me heart and soul.

Because....when they hurt, I hurt. Emotionally and physically.

Because....I want to protect them from EVERY single bad thing out there.

Because....their joy is my joy. There is nothing like seeing your kiddos belly laugh.

Because....my life is completely entwined with these little beings. 

And has been since I first heard their heartbeats and felt their little kicks in my tummy.

I have come to realize that this feeling will most likely NEVER go away.

Even as they grow up and become independent, I will always want to save them, but I won't always be able to.

And I really don't think that I'll ever be okay with that.

Why don't they tell you in parenting classes/books that becoming a parent makes you vulnerable in ways you can't even imagine until you're there?

Oh, and by the way, so far we've had a MUCH better and calmer Friday....

friday funny

This made me seriously laugh when I saw it.

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Oh the potty humor!

Gets me every time.

inspiration workshop! - red

I'm a day late getting this out, but I guess it's better late than never, right?

This week's prompt for the Inspiration Workshop! put on by Gussy Sews is RED!

While thinking about this prompt the thing that kept popping in my head was, hair.

I distinctly remember when my fascination with red hair began.

The year was 1997. The movie was 'Titanic'.

Yes. I fell in love with red hair after seeing Kate Winslet with it in 'Titanic'.

After seeing the  movie in the theater multiple times, I tried (successfully) to emulate the color on my own head.

Over the years I've gotten red put in my hair multiple times.

So far, my favorite was a couple of years ago when my sister, who is a hairdresser, did my hair really dark all over and put streaks of bright red in on top.

I loved it!!

The picture doesn't really do it justice.

Trust me when I say that it was BRIGHT red and AWESOME!!

One day I WILL get the nerve to do an all over BOLD red.

{via}

SO pretty!!!

If you could do any color in your hair, what would you do???