Time To Catch Up

I have been on a blogging hiatus of sorts for the last 9+ months. It used to be that my blog was one of the most important things in my life, second only to my children. I would stay up late at night working on posts and get up early and do it again all day the next day. This blog was my baby. 

When Chris and I got together, I slowly did a 180 and my blog became less and less important. Eventually, I stopped posting all together. I didn't realize it at the time, but I needed a serious break from blogging. I put a lot of pressure on myself when it came to my blog because it was my business and I wanted to be successful. The last post that I published was on January 4th of this year, my birthday. I quit posting on social media except for personal use and even that tapered down to a trickle. I just shut it all off and enjoyed what was going on around me. For months, I didn't even log into my blog. I didn't drown myself in stats, PR inquiries, design, posts, editorial calendars, etc. I just didn't care about any of that anymore. 

Over the last few months, I have found myself missing this space, this community. I made so many friends while blogging, became a part of this community that is pretty fantastic. I miss that, a lot and I miss expressing myself in this space, writing about whatever the hell I feel like writing about. I miss my readers (and I'm hoping there are still some of you hanging around!), and I miss the great opportunities that I was presented with because of my work on this blog.

I'm approaching blogging a little differently this time around; I have to remember that this blog is my part time thing and not my full time, only thing. 

So much has happened in the last 9 months and I can't wait to catch y'all up!

February: I accepted a job in the oil and gas industry. The company I work for is only a few years old and is growing like crazy. The opportunity was a really exciting one that I just couldn't pass up. I love being a part of something that is developing and expanding all the time. I currently supervise the most awesome team of billing coordinators and I sincerely L.O.V.E. my job! 

May: Chris graduated from UTI! Oh, what a long road that was! I am so proud of him; he worked so hard and stayed focused. He pushed through, even on the days that he didn't want to and he finished. It was definitely not easy most days, but we made it through together.

Also in May, we got married :)  I'll be doing a full post on the wedding at a later time, but y'all, it was perfect! 

June: In June, I had surgery. I'll be doing a more detailed post on my surgery at a later date, but for now I'll say this: I'm fine. 

July: My company moved it's headquarters to the Greenway Plaza area of Houston. For those of you who aren't familiar with Houston or where I live - that's a 45 minute drive from where I live, on a good day. I had to change my schedule in order to avoid major traffic issues so now I wake up at 3 a.m. in order to make it to work by 6 a.m. The struggle is real y'all. I'm learning to love it and the area that we work in is pretty hip. Also, I do have this awesome view from my office: 

August: I became "softball mom" to the cutest little 8U softball player I've seen! 

We made a big move in August also! We moved into our "for now dream house" (because our real dream includes a lot of land in the middle of no where!). We really  lucked out with this house; we love our neighborhood and our neighbors, the kids have tons of friends on our street and within the neighborhood, and our home is pretty much amazing! Chris and I still look at each other sometimes like, "Is this real?"

Then, our "baby" started his first year of "big kid school" and our little lady started 2nd grade!

The kids are both doing fantastic in school and they are loving every minute of it! I was worried that James would not adjust well because he is more on the shy side, but he has done so awesome! 

October: Our beautiful little girl, who is not so little any more, turned 8.

She's so sassy! :) 

There are so many other moments over the last 9 months that I would love to share with you, but it would take me another 9 months to recount them all. I hope you'll be satisfied with the highlight reel! I'm so excited to be back in the writing "saddle." A big thanks to all of you who hung on while I was on my little break!

Selfie Sunday

A few days ago I decided to clean out Addison's Leap Pad; She plays with it a lot, recording videos and taking pictures. The Leap Pad has all these cool features where you can decorate your pictures with accessories or just color on them. Addison is kind of obsessed with doing that.

One thing I didn't know is that Addison has apparently mastered the selfie! As I was looking through the photos I extracted from her leap pad, I couldn't help but giggle. This little girl likes taking pictures of herself, a lot!

There were so many random photos of her on her leap pad; I just loved these where she is making funny faces. Addison and I are known for taking pictures with funny faces. This girl is a beautiful mess!

My girl is on the verge of making a duck face; don't worry I'm going to have a talk with her about that! She looks so grown up in that picture and I don't like it one bit. Also, I'm not sure what is up with the picture of her eyes closed tight but I thought it was cute.

I'm cool with her having fun taking self portraits on her leap pad but I'm thankful she doesn't have access to the internet! I'm definitely not ready for that!

Do your kiddos like to take selfies too? 

Truck or SUV?

The subject of a new (or new to us) vehicle has been a hot topic in our home lately. We currently have two vehicles; a 4 door sedan & Chris' Ford Mustang is a project car and also his daily driver.

I love my car; it's perfect for driving the kids back and forth to school and we all fit in it comfortably on a day to day basis. Road trips, however, can get a bit tight and we don't have any extra room for friends or family. Once Chris is done with his car it will probably become strictly a track car for racing. We already know that we want to add to our family in the not too distant future. So - with his car on the track and my car seating only four - We need something bigger.

 

We've been shopping around for a few months and I think we've finally got it narrowed down! Chris and I both want a truck; we've both owned Chevy trucks in the past and loved them. However, I can't stop drooling over the Ford F250! We've also had our eyes on a few SUVs. While I'd love to have a truck for towing and hauling - I just can't get over the idea of having all the glorious space that an SUV offers. To me, a 3rd row seat sounds like Heaven!

 

So here are the vehicles that have made our short list:

 

Jeep Wrangler 4 Door * Ford F250 * Ford Explorer * Chevy 2500 * GMC Acadia

 

I have no idea which way we'll end up going. My last two vehicles (before my current car) were Ford - and they were fantastic. However, I loved my Chevy too! I've always loved Jeeps and Chris really loves the Acadia!

 

 

So, what I want to know is this - which would you choose?

What do you drive and what do you love or hate about it?



Creativity Overload!

My creative juices have really been flowing lately - so much so that I'm a little overwhelmed! I've been in the mood to create, decorate, DIY and so much more! I've got so many ideas in my head that I keep skipping from one project to the other! Does that ever happen to you?

When Addison was younger I became obsessed with making hair bows for her - and as it turned out I was pretty good at it! I even started a little online boutique and did really well. I stopped selling bows on the side quite some time ago but last week (and late last night!) I broke out the bow supplies and got to work. Today was "rodeo" day at school so of course my girl needed a new western themed bow! It was a simple little project but I love the way it turned out.

Chris and I have been slowly picking up pieces of décor for our house; I swear I must be the luckiest girl ever because he LOVES looking for unique pieces with me. If I want to go junkin' he is up for it every time! Just the other day we found a gorgeous item for over our fireplace. We both spotted it as soon as we got out of the car and I'm pretty sure we both decided right then and there that we had to have it. It really changed the look of our entire living room and it looks fantastic with our red furniture!

A want to roll up my sleeves and DIY has appeared right alongside my desire to decorate. I've been perusing pinterest like a mad woman looking for fun projects that would make a good addition to our home. To say I have found plenty would be an understatement!

 

 

 

I'm thinking that once we've "finished" (because are we ever really finished?) decorating I will do a room by room home tour here on the blog if anyone is interested!

Last, but not at all least, yesterday I broke out the DSLR! I've been itchin' to take some photos and my BFF was up for an impromptu photo shoot! I was giddy with excitement and I was able to capture some fantastic shots. Hopefully I'll have them all edited this weekend and ready to share with you next week!

How do you release your creativity?

Happy Friday, friends; have a fabulous weekend!

When Your Body Freaks Out On You

Has your body ever just freaked the hell out on you? Mine has. I'm pretty "in tune" with myself and I typically know right away when something is up, but about a month ago my body threw me a total curve ball.

It was right at Christmas when my body started screaming at me. You're pregnant! I figured that being pregnant was highly unlikely considering I had my tubes tied back in 2009 but I also knew that there was still a small chance that it could happen. I was experiencing every pregnancy symptom you could imagine. My breasts were sore, I had a constant headache, I could smell anything and everything. The thought of Mexican food made me gag (which is unheard of) and I puked after every meal. My super straight hair even went curly. 

Chris and I were convinced that I was pregnant. He ran out and bought a home pregnancy test and made me pee on a stick. It was negative. However, I wasn't discouraged because I knew from my previous two pregnancies that I don't get a positive from home pregnancy tests until around 8 or 9 weeks because my body is slow to produce HCG. 

My symptoms persisted and worsened. Chris and I spent hours on Google looking up symptoms and reading pregnancy forums. I took more home pregnancy tests and they all kept coming back negative. We'd had enough so I called my doctor and she ordered a lab test so that I could have blood work done. Because I had a tubal ligation, if I do get pregnant, I am at high risk of having an ectopic pregnancy which can be extremely dangerous. The blood test would tell us if there was any HCG in my body & would determine once and for all if I was pregnant. We were so ready to finally have an answer!

My lab work came back & my HCG level was at a 2 - anything under a 5 is considered to be a negative result. I wasn't pregnant. So what was the deal with all of these symptoms and where did this little bit of HCG come from? Even though a baby isn't in our immediate plan, to be honest, Chris and I were devastated. We weren't pregnant and we had no idea what was going on with my body. 

We felt as though we had waited forever (a couple of weeks is a long time!) for answers and yet we still didn't have any. After further discussion with my doctor it was determined that my hormones were completely whacked out and that caused me to have all of these pregnancy symptoms. I still have a hard time processing how it all worked because my symptoms were so strong. Finally, 12 damn days late, my cycle started and my symptoms are slowly dying down. Feeling pregnant when you really aren't seriously sucks! 

The last several weeks have been quite the emotional roller coaster but thankfully we made it through; I'm hoping and praying that I don't experience my body freak out like that again any time soon! Chris and I learned a lot through the whole situation though - like how important it is to us that we grow our family. Hopefully the next time I go in to see my doctor it will be to talk about a tubal ligation reversal surgery!

Has your body ever freaked out on you?

We Will Grow {2014 Word of The Year}

Last year I adopted a new tradition for ringing in the New Year. Instead of making a list of resolutions that I likely wouldn't keep (I still made the list and I still didn't keep the resolutions) I decided to choose a "word of the year." 

My word for 2013 was Change and boy did the year bring some changes! Some bad, some good, and some that were life changing. I could have never foreseen some of the events that took place last year, but I am very excited for the place I'm at right now and for what 2014 will bring. 

My 2014 word of the year is GROW.

While I was considering what my word of the year would be for 2014, Grow seemed most appropriate. I've started over in so many ways and I'm growing and rebuilding myself, my relationships, and in general - my life. 

When I told Chris that I'd chosen the word grow we ended up having a family pow wow (kiddos included!) about how we'd like to grow in 2014. 

Here is what we came up with:

~ As a Family

•  We've talked about adding to our family this year. We're considering adopting a dog ;) 

~ As A Person

• Our Education - Chris is doing excellent in school and *fingers crossed* I'll start back to school next week! I've worked really hard towards my degree to just not finish it and the time has come to get it done!

• Our Fitness!  We've both been pushing ourselves to get into the gym a couple days per week and we've been doing okay. However, we both have lofty fitness goals and we're ready to reach them. I'm super thankful we have each other for support on this one! 

~ Our Sea Monkies!

• We got the kiddos "sea monkies" for Christmas and Addison made sure that I knew she wanted to grow her sea monkies in 2014. We're working on it kid, we're working on it!    

~ Relationships

•  Although my relationship with Chris is not a new one, we are starting over and rebuilding after being apart for so long.  We are both looking forward to growing closer together in 2014. We have some big plans and we are excited to put them into motion! 

So what about y'all? Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you have a word of the year?

{This month's advertisement}

CHANGES ~ They Are A' Comin!

Hey y'all! Good Monday morning to ya! I hope you are all feeling as cheerful as I am this morning :)

My Birthday giveaway ended on Friday and it is now time to announce the winner!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats Cait!! You'll be receiving an email from me shortly! 

Okay, so many of you probably remember just a few weeks ago when I told you that I am embracing and encouraging change in my life for 2013. Well friends, it's already starting!! This change wasn't even on my mind when I talked about this before but I'm super excited!

This little blog here is getting a total revamp. In the next few days, there will be a NAME change, a URL change, and a DESIGN change. My social media account names will also be changing! 

Oh all that change! It's making my heart happy :) 

These changes should not affect you guys in any way - except you will notice that things look a whole lot different around here! I wanted to give you a heads up so that you can be expecting it. Once everything has changed over, I will post again and give you the 411 on everything so that you can familiarize yourselves :) 

I love all of you guys & I'd hate to lose any of you! Thank you for being faithful readers :)

Have a great Monday friends!!

Change

Change. It's a scary word right? I think that people typically tense up and get nervous as soon as they learn something is about to change. I'll admit, I tend to be that way too, but not anymore.

My word for 2013 is CHANGE.

This year I will not avoid change. Instead I will embrace and encourage it. I am making changes within myself and the way I live my life. I"m looking forward to changes in my husband's career. I"m hoping for changes with our home (hoping to sell our current home and then purchase a new one).

Many times in my life I've been afraid of change, of the unknown. This year, right now, I"m craving change in our life! Change can mean so many different things. I created the picture above to describe what change means to me. 

There are a lot of uncertainties in the foreseeable future for my family so I'd like to ask you to pray for us, if you pray. If you don't, maybe send us some good juju or something :)

This post is part of my 2013 resolutions.

The Eve of a New Year

Happy New Year's EVE! Are y'all excited about a fresh beginning, a new year? I am! It seems as though 2012 just flew by. I was talking about it with hubs and he says that 2012 feels like a big blur and he's right! I'm not a fan of life passing us by in a blur. We've both vowed to slow down this year and enjoy every single little thing.

I'm not making "resolutions" this year (except for the one above!) but I do have a long list of goals. I feel like there isn't just one area of my life that needs improvement, so why not work on all areas?

~Relationships~

This year I am going to put forth more effort into all of my relationships. I want to be a better mom, wife, and friend. 

I'm hoping to forge great friendships this year (especially with other bloggers!! ;) ) and continue to nurture the ones I already have. I feel like I"m not always the best friend I could be and I want to be better in that department! 

I'm going to spend more quality time with my husband this year. I'm going to make him feel special. I'm going to make "us" a priority. I am so blessed to have such an amazing man by my side and sometimes, I take that for granted. I don't want to be that wife.

I will be a better mom this year. I will be more patient. I will listen to them, even when they are rambling on about nothing. I will be thoughtful and giving of my time. I will spend time playing with them even when I have a million and one things to do. God has blessed me with these two beautiful children and I will not waste one single minute more. 

~Taking Care of Me~

Of course, like a lot of people, I want to lose weight and get in shape this year. Just like last year, and the year before. I'm turning 28 in just a few days; only 2 years left in my 20s. It's time to do this y'all, I'm sick of all this extra "cushion." 

Beyond losing the weight though, I will make myself a priority. I tend to put myself last on my "to do" list and I really have to stop that. I've realized that I am the glue that holds this family together and I have to take care of myself. Whether that means working out and getting fit or finding time to relax and pamper myself, I have got to remember that I have needs that must be met.

~Finances~ 

This year, finances are going to be a huge focus for us! Spend less, save more! So much easier said than done, but we already know where we need to cut back and how to save more! We have to drastically cut the amount of times we eat out a month (which will help with weight loss too!) and that will save a bundle! 

My husband and I are hoping to sell our house this year and purchase a larger one. This is especially important to me, so I'll be working very hard to save save save. ;) I'm also saving for a family vacation! We usually take little road trips close to home throughout the year, but I'm talking Disney here people! 

These are my main goals for 2013 and are the things that I will put the most focus on. In fact, I'm probably going to make a bullet list and print it out to go on my refrigerator!

  Do you make New Year's Resolutions? What are they?

Y'all - if you are going out tonight to celebrate, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be extra careful. 

I want to see how 2013 pans out for each and every one of you!

 

A Visit To The Farm

So on Sunday we made the trek to Brookshire, Texas (about an hour and a half!) to visit Dewberry Farm. I've been excited to tell y'all about our trip because this place is so much fun! Hubs and I took Addison to the farm three years ago, but Sunday was the first time we'd been back since then and it was also James' first  visit to the farm. There were a lot of new things to do but some of our favorite things from our first visit still remained!

Dewberry Farm is famous for their 8 acre pumpkin patch. Going out into the "patch" is so much fun and you get there via a tractor pulled covered wagon ride.

After the kids tired of rolling pumpkins and mom taking endless pictures (didn't take long I assure you) we headed back to the main area of the farm for lots more fun. There were pig races, pony rides, more photo ops (yay!), slides, a corn maze, a flower patch, a cow barrel train, and more! I can't help but to let my pictures do the majority of the talking for me.

Y'all this place is like Heaven for kids of all ages. There is so much for them to do and they can just run and play like the crazy wild animals they are like to pretend to be. Know this: the farm gets crowded. I recommend purchasing your tickets in advance in order to avoid long lines. We got there right at opening on Sunday and there was already a line wrapped around the very large parking lot. It was nuts! Don't worry, once you are inside it doesn't feel quite as crowded since the farm is so large.

We had such a great time on Sunday that we've already made plans to go back in December when Dewberry opens up for their Christmas season. The majority of the Fall season activities will be open and you can also pick and cut down your own Christmas tree. The 2012 Christmas season opens on November 23.

Have you ever been to Dewberry Farm? 
Do you have something similar in your hometown?
                                

Disclosure: My family was given complimentary admission to Dewberry Farm in exchange for a review on this blog. All opinions are 100% my own.

A 5th Birthday Celebration - My Little Pony Style

So it's been almost three weeks since we had Addison's 5th birthday and I'm just now getting around to sharing that with you guys. Yup, total slacker. Not really. Well, I am a slacker, but I've been busy not slacking, which is why the pictures haven't made it up here yet. ANYWAY.

I usually go over the top crazy for the kid's birthday parties but this year I kept it pretty simple. Addison chose a My Little Pony theme which was pretty cool since I used to play with them as a kid. She is into everything My Little Pony these days so it's fun to share that with her.

I made these cute invitations myself with My Memories digital scrapbook software (Use code STMMMS92554 for a discount)! Obviously the lips and mustache aren't part of the invitation; I found something similar on Etsy and I knew I could do it myself. I took the image that I created to Staples and had them print it out on card stock and it ended up costing me only about $4.

This was the cake & food table. The color of the table cloth doesn't come through well in this picture but it was an aqua blue like the polka dots on the napkins. Speaking of the napkins, I was so excited when I found them on clearance for less than a $1 at Walmart! We had a late afternoon party so I didn't serve a lot of food. We had chips with ranch dip, chex mix, a meat and cheese tray and a fruit tray with homemade fruit dip. Do y'all like fruit dip? I might post my recipe at a later time if y'all are interested. It's delish! Then of course we had cake! My mom is a professional cake decorator and she always makes cakes for everyone's birthday. Creating awesome cakes isn't her full time job, but she'd love for it to be someday.

I made this really fun photo back drop out of crepe paper. I used taped crepe paper to clothes rack on wheels and then I tied balloons at the bottom of the rack. I had big hopes and dreams of everyone getting in front of it and using it as a sort of Step & Repeat but that didn't work out so well. The backdrop was great, but no one used it! I forced the first group of kids that arrived to get a picture in front of it before I let them go outside to the bounce house! So mean, I know. ;)

I think the highlight of the party for the kids was the pinata and the bounce house, go figure!

This pinata was seriously tough stuff! All of the kids got to take a swing at it twice and they were really getting after it! Finally Dad just had to rip it open!

An almost family photo. Little man is no where to be found - if I had to guess he was outside jumping! I am really sad to say that we didn't get a complete family picture.

Also, you can see Addison's shirt pretty well in this picture and I wanted to let y'all know - I made it myself! I found an image online that I liked and printed it out onto iron on t-shirt paper and then I ironed it on to a white t-shirt. There are also little jewels around the pony but you can't see them well in this picture.

Since her party I'm finding My Little Pony scenes like the ones below every time I turn around.

All in all I'd say the party went off without a hitch. My sweet girl was thrilled with everything and in the end that is all that mattered to me!