Valentines Day

Roses Are Red

Violets Are Blue

I love my family

through and through

Happy Valentines Day! I had a great day! I woke up extra early (which some of you may know is quite a struggle for me ;) lol) I made my hubby breakfast. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but it didn't occur to me in my foggy state until it was already almost gone! I made french toast stacks with nutella, strawberries, and whipped cream! It was delicious! 

I always struggle on what to get Ryan for Valentines Day. It's not like he cares about flowers, cards, or chocolate really... well maybe chocolate! But anyway, so I asked him what he wanted this year, and he said a DecORation of Love! Well, he actually said a decLARation- but i definitely heard DECORATION! haha. So I bought him a HUUUUUuuuuGE "love" sign! Just Kidding!

I decided that this year I really would declare my love and I sat down to write an epic love letter. I couldn't think of a better way to express my love than to put it to pen and paper... well ink and printer... but you get the idea! I poured out my heart to him in hopes that it would convey even the slightest amount of love that I had hoped to portray. I am so very blessed to have him as my husband and eternal companion. He is the greatest gift to me that I have ever been given- and I thank God every day for him. 

This is what Ryan got for me, plus a move night to see Safe Haven. One rose for each year of our marriage! I love him to death!

This is what we got Hailey for Valentines Day! Cute little new shoes! Pink and sparkly! just like our little girl! We love her dearly and are so blessed to have this chance to raise her and get to know her. She is full of surprises and adventure. Life has no dull moments with her around! 

(Kohls sale for $13 plus a $10 coupon!)

(on Valentines Day! with her new necklace too!)

(this is her signature funny face!)

(isn't she just DARLING! we sure think so!)

Mr. & Mrs.

Does anyone else just LOVE pinterest? Because I do! Especially for DIY things! As you all know, Ryan and I have bought our first home and are moving on March 29th! We are so excited- but I think that my excitement over getting to decorate my own home is the most apparent! A while back I saw a tutorial on how to make Mr and Mrs pillows- which I absolutely ADORED and wanted to make myself. Well, as our bedroom-to-come is collecting together I had a different idea that I think I like wayyy better! 

I have turned old shutters into our headboard and I made this Mr. and Mrs. sign to attach in front/center of the shutters! I can't wait to see it all come together for real. For now- here is a picture of the items all in one spot. Now just the curtains and mirror to go!

I got he board at Home Depot for like $6! I then painted it vintage cream and then stained it in streaks on top. In a word doc. I found a font I liked and printed the words in size 450 to fit as much of the page as possible! Then I took a razor cutter pen thing and cut the letters out. I used the paper as a stencil by spray gluing it down, painting the words, and peeling the paper back off! Worked great (although, I think the glue stuck better to my fingers and nails than it did to the paper and wood...)! I also go the molding strips at Home Depot for about $1.50 a piece (2 pieces). I cut them down to size, painted them brown, and used Gorilla wood paint to secure it. WARNING: this glue dries cream colored- it's a good thing the background was the same color! Be careful of oozing sites!

A Desk To My Liking

Re-doing furniture has become my new obsession! It's so rewarding to find junk and see a vision of creativity! Then to actually bring the vision to life! It's so much fun! I love it! So here is my desk that I bought for $98 at Chartruese and Co.

Here is the finished product! Tell me what you think!? It's painted with the same color as my dresser, but then I spray painted the hardware black. Then last week when I was at Home Goods with my mom, we found some wrapping paper that was printed from an old newspaper! I mod podged it on! I LOVE the way it turned out! 

ReVamping Part 1

Hello all! I've been busy prepping for our new house! Take a look at what I've been doing! This is just the first of many revamping posts! I found this dresser on the side of the road. It was pretty dinged up and had scratches all over it and words etched in. So I took it under my wing and re-did it! What do you think?

Patience Pants

Now that our travels and adventurings were over it was time to get back into the schedule of life. Ryan's 9-5pm job and home-based web design business from 8-10pm. My pampered chef, nanny, mother, and wife duties. On the first weekend of January we went out to visit some new homes with our realtor (who also happens to be our neighbor and my 12th grade AP Gov teacher). We fell in love with a beautiful 3bed 2bath condo! We were a little disappointed in the lack of yard space, but we felt this was a good thing for us right now in our lives. So we put an offer in and the seller accepted all our conditions! The only draw back is that we have to wait until April 1st to move in... Ohhhh my it is going to be a long 2 1/2months! But this is good. This gives us time to get ready, buy furniture, build our savings back up, etc. (check out the link to the listing of our new home!)

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/662-Gateway-Dr-Se-Unit-218_Leesburg_VA_20175_M51365-82099

Which leads me to my next item of business- we bought a new car! Back in July we bought our second car- a brand new 2012 Red Ford Escape. I LOVED that thing! It was the best car ever!!! But we decided after much prayer and thought that it would be better for us to be frugal now that we are going to have a mortgage payment. So we traded my beautiful, wonderful, awesome SUV for another Toyota Carolla. I know it's for the best, and I know we will be better off with this decision. But it still makes me sad. On the other hand- now Ryan and I have matching cars! How cute! :P

Which leads me to my last item of business- My new years resolution! In a one month span from Dec to Jan I was pulled over twice for speeding at 20mph OVER the limit. Both times I was lucky enough to get away with just warnings. The first one wasn't even a written warning. The second one was. So I decided that this year and with this new (used) car, I am going to be a better and more careful driver! I just get so impatient and annoyed with other drivers!!! But I digress... I WILL be a more cautious driver! So far, it's going well! And I have found that this new goal of mine is decreasing my stress levels- who knew!

A New York New Years Fallacy

As many of you know, Ryan and I have been saving our money to buy our own home since we moved in with my parents. Well, we had set a specific goal and decided that if we could reach this goal by New Years, that we would celebrate by going to New York City for a weekend- just the two of us! Well, we reached our goal! So we left Hailey at home with my parents (so blessed to have willing and loving grandparents and aunties to watch her)!

(our drive to NY)

Ryan and I drove through non-stop snow all the way to my Aunt Sue's house in New York on Saturday, spent 2 freezing cold days in New York City, and drove back home New Years Day. It was a lot of fun! We got to see a lot of things! Our favorite adventure was a biking carriage tour through central park! It was so great! Our guide was from Africa and had a sweet accent! He showed us a ton of historical sites and talked all about the history, the fame, the excitement over certain parts of the park and surrounding buildings. It was pretty awesome!

Our first day we walked all over Times Square and went through the M&M store! We ate at a great little italian restaurant right there too! We did our Central Park Tour and we also did some shopping, and went to a comedy club night... which was eye opening to say the least.

(Parker, Ryan and I about to embark on our journey through Central Park)

(LOOK! It's BALTO! Gotta love that dog!)

(the tunnel thing between the two fountain statues)

(Us and our Guide... he insisted on standing next to me... lol)

On day two we went to Grand Central Station, 9/11 memorial, Empire State Building, and my fav- Potbellies! We also went to see Radio City and Rockefeller Center!

(TS)

(TS.. not sure what his face is all about)

(TS.. not sure what my face is all about)

(Grand Central Station)

(Empire State Building)

(The ball)

(Ever seen Project Runway??? This is the fabric store they always go to!!!)

(Not sure what this was- but there was a matching woman on the other side of the mall entrance. They spare no details....)

Now, most of you think that we were actually IN Times Square on New Years Eve and perhaps even looked for us on screen. But I am a tad ashamed to tell you that we were not there. We spent too much time site-seeing that day that by the time we got over to Times Square, they had already blocked it off and wouldn't let anyone else in! So we decided that we'd seen enough anyways, we'd seen the ball, we'd seen Time Square. So we went back to my aunt's house and spent new years eve with them! And we had a blast! No regrets! So I am sorry if you are disappointed, but we like our boring old married life :)

(Ryan forgot his Church clothes, so when we went to church with my aunt and cousins, Ryan had to borrow Parker's clothes... Lookin' Spiffy!!!) 

(At the train station waiting to head into the city!)

Ryan and I decided we were meant for a quieter life. We couldn't do city life. Too much. Too fast. Too loud. 

Christmas Catch-Up!

Well now that Christmas has come and gone, I've finally got a moment to jot down all about our excitement! It's been pretty crazy around here!

So in December Ryan, Hailey, and I went to Hurricane, Utah to spend Christmas with Ryan's family! It was a blast! We got to spend a week and a half out there! We went snow tubing, to which Hailey did not particularly like. She mostly just liked sitting in the tube and having me drag it around everywhere I went. There wasn't much emotion in the process. I think she was too cold to feel. But I thought she looked adorable in her snowsuit attire! What do you think??

Hailey enjoyed spending time with her two cousins, Delilah and Jonathan. Delilah is a year older than her and Jonathan is about 10 months younger. She and Delilah were both Queen Cutenesses and we all had fun watching them interact. They liked to watch videos on the ipad/iphones together and run/roll, climb, etc. Jonathan is still so young that he can't interact much with Hailey and Delilah, but Hailey made a point of not leaving him out... literally... She pointed at him a lot! She also renamed him DaDa. It was so cute to watch her try to play with him or feed him. Unfortunately the timing wasn't so good and Hailey happened to be learning where eyes, nose, and ears are.... poor Jonathan.

As Christmas Eve came around, Hailey came down with some kind of flu and we spent the whole night running her to the toilet every 20min. Eventually it slowed to every hour. And then she finally passed out from exhaustion. My poor baby! It was so heart wrenching to watch! But on the other hand the experience only confirmed my suspicions... we have a roadrunner/energizer bunny for a baby. In between puking, she never stopped moving. She didn't hold still, wimper, moan, or cuddle like most sick babies.. no, my baby continued to run, climb, slide across floors and tables, laugh, smile, then PUKE! It was insane! Not to mention it being the middle of the night. Uggg. So glad that's over with.

But not everyone was left untouched by our sicky germs. Hailey gave it to Ryan and his sister's family, who gave it to me, who had it the whole 2 plane rides and 4 hour delay in an airport home, who gave it to my sisters once we got home, who gave it to my parents, who gave it to my cousin who came to visit for 2 days. Who knows how many others on the plane and in the airport I gave it to... lesson learned. Don't travel. And if you do- wear a mask and gloves and burn all clothing when landed.

(Hailey and Delilah all dolled up for Church in their christmas pea coats!)

(three cousins!)

(Hailey and Delilah giving hugs! They are inside a mini ottoman together)

(comparing sizes)

(afro circus baby!)

(Grandpa and two of his Grandbabies on Christmas morning!)