It's November, y'all!

I'm so pumped for November, if only for the cooler weather! My big girl turns 6 next week, I can hardly believe it. But, before we enjoy the month of November, let's recap the month of October, shall we?

Lily started to giggle in October. She talks more & smiles all the time.


I found out my name is on the 10th Anniversary Fantasy box. If you know me, you know I'm a HUGE Britney fan. This made my month!


I made these yummy omelets for Sunday brunch. Recipe here.


Lily went for her 3 month checkup. DR said she's a month ahead on everything! She is already trying to crawl!


My girls continue to grow closer and closer. Gracie loves being Lily's big sister. <3


Paul got free front row endzone seats from Davin Joseph of the Tampa Bay Bucs for building an entire gym for a local high school. It's the second year in a row Paul has done this. :)


We had such a great time at the game together. It was a well needed grownups night!


We go on nightly walks now, thanks to the cool fall weather.


I took Lily's 3 month photos in her Mouse costume. The cutest little mouse you've ever seen!


Lily went to the park for the first time and liked the swing!


She also went on the slide with her big sissy. The girls had a great time at the park together. :)


Lily enjoyed her first Halloween! Even tho she slept thru the entire thing. haha


I also enjoyed playing dress up! Meow!


I made Jack O Lantern burgers for Halloween dinner. Kids & Hubs loved them!


And last but not least, my spooky little family. Paul as SNL's Drunk Uncle, Jordan is a Zombie Banana & Gracie is a Lalaloopsy.


October was a fun month! Looking forward to November. Family, friends, yard sales, Thanksgiving, Birthday party, Fall weather, etc, etc. Lot's of good stuff to look forward to. Hope you all had a nice October & a fun Halloween!

Little girls are love

Yesterday, Lily turned 3 months old and had her monthly checkup. Her dr says shes a month ahead on everything for her age. He's amazed at how she's already trying to crawl and scoot across the floor. She can already turn herself in a complete circle when shes on her tummy. It's pretty unreal! I love watching her discover new things everyday. We also learned she has colic. I also had colic as a baby, so maybe it's because I also had it? She has had some issues with sleeping alone the past few weeks due to it. But, last night she slept in her crib all night long without any issues. I'm so glad! I enjoy being able to move around in my bed without having to worry about disturbing her or anything. She's such a happy smiling baby too. I've never seen a baby smile so much in my life! Just seeing her smile, lights up everyone around her. She's so sweet!

Since finding out about her colic, I went on the ol google hunt for help. Which led me to Gripe Water. The following day, after a long night of no sleeping we went out and got some, which I now refer to as magic water. As soon as it was in her, like seconds, it was working. Her hiccups (which she gets two times a day, at least) are gone and shes no longer in any kind of gas pain. This stuff really is magical! I highly recommend it to fellow moms whose babies are colicky. Believe me, you'll thank me later.

Gracie's birthday is right around the corner. We are having her 6th birthday party at Laser Tag this year. She's been asking to do this for about two years now. When Jordan had his party there two years ago, she told us she needed to have her 6th birthday party there too. She has every birthday party planned for the next 3 years, in her head. haha. She's so funny! Next year is Legoland!

This week I need to get Lily's 3 month photos done. I have a bunch of ideas, I just need to get it done! Fingers crossed it doesn't take me three weeks. lol

Anyway, that's it for now. Currently marathon-ing through Revenge season 2 on Netflix. Love this show!

The Mama VoxBox Review

So, I received the Mama VoxBox from Influenster a couple weeks ago and now am getting around to writing my review for all the products I received in the box. First off, I received all products complimentary from Influenster, I was not paid to test these products, it's all for fun!

In this VoxBox I got:

POND'S Luminous Finish BB+ Cream - I actually like this product. It smells nice and has pretty good coverage. But personally, it's not enough for my skin. It's definitely smooth and applies nicely but it's just not for me. I will continue to use it and try it out a little longer, maybe it will grow on me over time. I like what I use normally and wouldn't switch to this product. It's too light for my liking, it just doesn't provide enough coverage for my skin. But that doesn't mean it wouldn't work great for someone else.

belVita Mixed Berry Soft Baked Breakfast Biscuits - I was really looking forward to tasting this! Unforunately my husband is a snack freak and ate it before he went to work the morning after I got it. LOL. He's such an ass! But according to him, it's VERY good. SO GLAD he enjoyed it. Jerk. ;)

Annie's Microwaveable Mac & Cheese Cups - This product seemed weird to me so I didn't want to eat it. LOL. I gave it to the snack king, aka Paul and he said it was awful! So, there you have it. Two big thumbs down.

Dr. Scholl's Comfort Insoles - I LOVE these! They are so soft and feel like you're walking on a cloud. I'm definitely going to buy these. I want them in every pair of shoes I own! Go buy these, ladies! Totally worth it!

So, there you have it! Thanks again to Influenster for sending me these products to test out. It's always fun being apart of these reviews.

Bedroom door makeover

You guys, it's October! Lily will be 3 months old this month and I start planning Gracie's 6th birthday. Unreal how fast time flies right by! Anyway, over the weekend I finally said to myself enough is enough and decided to paint my bedroom door. I had been thinking about painting it yellow for months and months but while I was pregnant I was so busy doing so many other things that I just never got to it. So, since Hubs was off work all weekend, which btw is very rare, I decided to get that mini project done!

Here it is before. It used to be painted in chalkboard paint but being that this door (like all my doors) have panels it really was pointless and a waste of paint to make it chalkboard. But of course I didn't think about that until after I painted it. Figures, right?



Annnd after! Yellow is bliss. :) I used the same yellow paint from Lily's nursery.



I took this wider shot on a different day then the first picture, so the lighting is different.



I'm much happier with it now and it really adds some more happy to my kitchen! :) My next project for the house is to refinish this chest/coffee table in my living room. I'm going to either do it black like the rest of the wood in my living room or a very dark wood color. I haven't decided yet. I'll be working on this project next week!



Other than that, I'll be back later this week with some product reviews from the Mama Vox Box I got from Influenster! Stay tuned! Happy October! :)

Starting to look like fall around here!

Alright, so it's only starting to look like fall inside of my house. Outside, it's still hitting the mid-90's. I love decorating for fall, it's probably my favorite holiday to decorate the house for. It's so simple and fun. I'd like to print out some cute things to put in frames but I've been slacking. Sooner or later. Hey, I have a almost 2 month old who likes to sleep during the day and stay up all night. BTW, it's 2:30am and I have a wide awake infant. Hoo-ray.

I mentioned in my last post that I moved around the living room. I actually decided to remove the dining room area for the time being and moved my table into the kitchen and eliminated the chalkboard table I made, just for now. You never know what mood I might be in, in the winter.

Fall dacor.


Wide shots of my living room. Feel free to click them for larger shots.



You can view shots of the living room, how it looked before with the dining room combo here.

Garden clean up

So, during my pregnancy, well for the major majority of it, it was crazy hot outside, so my outside garden fell at the waste sides and eventually become overgrown and an eyesore. After a month of giving it the stink-eye every time I would walk out of my house, or pull into my driveway, I finally got on it and cleaned things up. Lucky for me, the major issues were just overgrown grass, which is usually pretty easy to rip out. Also, the ground was still a little damp from the night before's thunderstorm, so that also made for easy weed pulling.

I didn't think to take pictures of the before yucky garden till I was half way done with the front of it. What can I say? I was finally pumped to get it done and over with.





And when everything was done.





Love my elephants! Yup, they are even in the garden.



This week we got sidewalks put in our block. Every other block in my community had them expect us! So glad we finally have them.



Annnd here is a wide view of my house. Isn't that screened in porch awful? It's getting ripped down in the Spring and let me tell you, I've been waiting for that day to come for years! We'll finally have the money to get that project taken care of, I'm secretly counting down the days till it's gonzo.



So my plans for next Spring is to attach a Pergola to the front of the house, after taking down the porch. I also would like to repaint the house a light gray and paint my front door a fun color. I'm thinking either green (obv!), teal or coral. I have a while to think about it and lots of paint colors to look at until it's time so I'm sure I'll pick something fun. I also think it will be easier to change the front door color every couple of years or whatever than having to paint the house because I get sick of whatever color it happens to be at the time (aka: I'm sick of my house color right now).



I also changed things around in my living room. I'll share all of those shots in my next update. Happy Hump Day!

Last month, in quick review

Hey! It's been nearly a month since I've last updated. With that said, my sweet baby girl Lily Jade will be one month on Thursday! Time is really flying by. I remember feeling crazy miserable the last month of my pregnancy and just wanting to be done with all of it and then the last night in the hospital when I just felt so uncomfortable because I wanted to be in my own bed and now it's already been a month since she was born. I gotta say that she is growing beautifully. Her dr is very pleased with her progress and says she's absolutely perfect, not like I didn't already know that or anything. ;)



Lily's welcome home baby party was a success. Everyone had a really nice time & Lily also got some really cute gifts. I made all of the decorations myself, as you can see in the picture. My niece Taylor and I made all of the food, except for the chicken strips we had catered by PDQ and the pasta & potato salads my mom made. I even reused the garland and the banner in Lily's room after the party. It looks so cute in there!



See, cute right? In other news, Gracie started Kindergarten yesterday. We found out that Gracie's teacher is the same teacher Paul had for Kindergarten. She said she remembered Paul but I mean, that was 20 years ago so I doubt she did, she was probably just being nice. I actually already knew her from when I worked for before & after school care at Gracie's school before she was born. She remembered me too, but that I believe because it wasn't that long ago. haha



I also made Lily's birth announcements and ordered 100 of them from Shutterfly since I got a free coupon from them in the mail. I can't wait to mail them out once they get here. Here is a preview of what it looks like, without me actually posting the real thing. I wanna mail them out before I post it here. I also took Lily's one month pictures, which I used some of in her birth announcement. I'll share those pictures next time I update.



That's it for now. I'll update again soon, I have a cool project I'm going to be working on in the living room pretty soon, well a couple different projects in there and also I'll share all the details for Gracie's room makeover I have planned for November, as a birthday present. Lots of projects coming up!

Introducing Miss Lily Jade...

She's here! After 5 minutes of pushing, our sweet baby girl made her entrance into the world. We are so smitten and floating on cloud 9 with pride. She's 100% healthy & I'm also doing great! We couldn't be happier. <3

She's almost here!!

Welp, it's officially at the waiting game point. I'm scheduled to be induced on Monday (7/22) at 7am. Three more days. I can't believe it! I actually just had a little scare about 30 minutes when I went to the bathroom (TMI!!!) and wiped and saw my mucus plug. I kinda freaked because I had been losing a little here and there over the past few weeks but this time, it was A LOT. So, I did what every pregnant woman nowadays does and ran right to google to ask what to do. Directed me to babycenter and yahoo! questions which both said to call my OBGYN and ask about it just to make sure, so I did. My dr said that yes it is my mucus plug and to keep my eye on if contractions get going and they are 3-5 minutes apart, then to get to the hospital. I'm not having any contractions right now, just feel little L moving around in there. I really just hope I can wait till Monday. Paul already made the work schedule for next week and has the week off, starting Monday. So, hopefully she'll stay put for Daddy's sake. Fingers crossed.

In other news, Paul & I decided that with this pregnancy (I don't remember if I mentioned this before) we'd prefer if no one came to the hospital except for my parents, Gracie & his Mom. The only people I'll have in the room with me during labor is my mom & Paul. I wanted it to be a much calmer laid back experience this time. Last time, with Gracie, it was a circus! Everyone I know who could fit in the room was there and it was very overwhelming. I didn't even expect that many people to STAY in the room but by that point I didn't really care either.

So, with that said, we know we still have lots of family and friends who will actually want to meet Baby L once shes born, so we decided we're going to have a Welcome Home Baby Party, about two weeks after L is home. We are expecting around 20 or so people, which is a lot nicer to have in our home at one time, then a continued train of people coming and going at the hospital or a few days after she's born when we get home. Doing it all at once will be much easier for everyone. But mostly for L and I.

Of course, the little interior designer inside of me is screaming to get out and decorate something and with this party, I'll be able to get my fix. Here are a few ideas I snagged from Pinterest for the party.


Pinned from here.
-- I obviously won't be doing EVERYTHING in the image above, but I'm definitely sticking with the Yellow/Pink color theme and also love the streamers & banner. I'm going to also try and do something similar to the bunting on top of the cake, but with cupcakes instead. I have lots of ideas!


Pinned from here.
-- I'm going to do the paper dot garland and poms above the food table too. I'm making all of it myself tho.

I'm just going to do simple food for the party. Finger foods like fruit, veggies, chips & dips, cupcakes, etc. Paul wants to get chicken strips from PDQ and my mom is making potato & macaroni salads. But it's really just going to be a easy little lunch get together to introduce L to everyone. I'm looking forward to it!

I can't believe my next post will be a birth announcement! Time has flown!

Nursery Reveal

I know, I know, I've been MIA for nearly a month! First off, Baby L is STILL in my belly. She hasn't made her grand entrance into the world or anything. What happened was Gracie decided she should "clean" mine & Paul's laptops and wound up killing them. She completely burned out the power button on Paul's to where his wouldn't even turn on anymore. On mine she killed my keyboard. I could turn it on but not access anything because I had a password login for mine. So, I was screwed. I took it to a local PC repair guy who my family has used in the past and he got all of my personal files off the hard drive for me (thankfully, that was a-ok!) & put it into my now new laptop. It isn't brand spanking new but it's nearly exactly like my other one and does everything I need to do so I'm happy! Then in the mist of all that, our AC in our house broke and we were without AC for two weeks. This happened right before we left for our Babymoon. The inside of the house got up to 87 degrees nearly everyday, it was awful! Then I ordered an iPhone 4s off eBay and was told it was ready to go and when I got it, it wasn't. It was still locked for my phone provider, so we had to shell out more money to get it unlocked and THAT took another 2 weeks. So, I didn't have AC or a laptop or a phone for parts of June. June was the worst, can I just say that?! Ugh. Anyway, the nursery is DONZO! I'm so excited to share every inch and every detail! Here we go...

Before we start, you can see before photos here and the original plans for this room here.

This is the view as you enter.




As you enter and turn left, you'll find the crib on the stripe wall. I bought the yellow lanterns at a party store back when we had the Gender party and KNEW I'd reuse them for the nursery. I made the pompoms myself and found the art on google.




I'm so in love with how all of it turned out looking after it was all put together. I love that elephant head!


To the left of the crib. I made the alphabet art myself.


To the right of the crib. The top picture is L's first ultrasound images & the art under I made myself, it says her name (revealed! gasp!) and under that I put "Pretty little flower... From the name of the flower, a symbol of purity. She is like the beginning of all things - wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities." Then her letter L in bubblegum pink, it actually matches the color of the heart in the alphabet art.


Her crib & bedding.


Her dresser. Top drawer. All organized. Blankets, socks, wipes, pacifiers, lotions, soaps, towels, etcetc.


Middle drawer. Clothes that will fit now and cases of wipes.


Bottom drawer. All diapers. There are actually a lot of clothes that she will grow into underneath all of that. We really made out like bandits at our gender reveal party. I don't think we'll need diapers or wipes for a very very very long time. Under the crib is FULL of diapers in all sizes. We are set!


To the right of her dresser. The rocking elephant Paul found at goodwill LONG before I even started on the nursery. Such a great find! I think we paid 5 bucks? And her diaper holder, full of diapers.


On the opposite side of the room facing the crib is the wall we (my dad & I) built for the washer/dryer. The art above it was made by Gracie, Paul & Jordan.


To the left of that is the window back in the little nook, where I put a trio of laundry baskets. It all fits perfectly!


L's diaper bag that my parents got me. I love it so much! Vera Bradley. It's perfection!


Inside. All ready to go to the hospital. Blankets, take home outfit, beanies and extra onesies, as well as other random goodies tucked away.


That's it! Feel free to ask questions and leave comments! I'm so happy with how everything turned out, it's so beautiful and a perfect little nursery for our new baby girl.