The End of 2015 (Things I Meant to Blog About But Didn't)

Even though I feel like I either napped or wanted to nap throughout the last few months of 2015, we still had a lot of fun and excitement that is absolutely worth sharing. 

In early December, my mom and I went up to Buffalo to visit my sister and her precious children. Traveling with my mom is always the best and what made this trip even better is that my sister was under the impression that I was the only one coming. We surprised her so good by having my mom hang back and come down the escalator a few minutes after I did. It was so great. I was able to get the whole surprise on video and if only I could figure out how to get it from my phone onto the blog post I'd share it with all of you because it is the best. I also got to tell my sweet sister in person that I was pregnant which was super special. We came up with a sneaky surprise for this too -- which I also got on video and it is priceless. I really wish I knew how to get those dang videos on here...

Our timing was perfect because we got to attend this cutie's third birthday party. This kid loves trucks and tractors like you wouldn't believe so my sister threw the cutest construction-themed party - hard hats and all!

A few weeks before our trip, I saw a picture of my sweet nine-year-old niece making a duck face and I made it my personal mission to put a stop to this as soon as humanly possible. Here is just one of many chats where I was explaining to her that wholesome, happy smiles are totally in right now. 

I love these sweet weekend visits to give me a little dose of these guys and knowing we get to see them again in March made leaving them just a little easier this time.

I wasn't even around enough in November to share that we decided to get a goldendoodle puppy. On Thanksgiving weekend, we went and picked out this angel....

...and we got to bring her home for good just before Christmas -- quite the perfect little Christmas gift for us this year.

Her name is Abby and she is now 12 weeks old and full of energy and sweetness. The great thing about all this is that Taylor cat is actually adjusting pretty well to her new sister. I can't say she is thrilled with the whole situation, but thankfully it's going much better than expected.

Like I said, Taylor isn't thrilled as you can see by her facial expression above, but she is hanging in there.

We did the usual Christmas activities like going to pick out our tree, walking around our town to see the lights and taking too many photos of our pets near the Christmas tree...

We celebrated Christmas day at my parents house, hosted a small NYE celebration at our house and proceeded to enjoy our annual New Year's Day ritual of doing absolutely nothing.

Thankfully Abby went along with our lazy New Year's Day plans for the most part. Other than a few spurts of spastic energy, she was quite the snuggle and nap partner.

On January 3rd, we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was our last day before getting back into the swing of things with work and whatnot, so we had a low-key day at home and went out for a nice dinner that evening. With a little babe on the way, I couldn't help but think of how much will change in our third year of marriage. We have lots of decisions and changes on the way but I couldn't be more excited to experience it all with this incredible human being. 

The tail end of 2015 was a whirlwind and we certainly started 2016 feeling hopeful and excited about the new year. I hope yours is off to a happy and healthy start!

Thanksgiving Thoughts & Our Outdoor Makeover

Happy Tuesday! Just one day of work, guys. One day of work stands between us and the best day of the year. We can do it.

I've been loving every second of this week counting down and looking forward to the holiday weekend. I just love Thanksgiving. It's always been my favorite holiday and always will be. A day just for family, food and celebrating all we have to be thankful for? There's really nothing better.

We're staying in town this year and spending Thanksgiving at Jonathan's parent's house. I'm bringing dessert, obviously. I'm planning on a pumpkin bread and need to decide on one other option. Breakfast in bed on Thanksgiving morning is a given. We're seeing the new Hunger Games movie on Friday and plan on spending Saturday with my parents. I'm planning on squeezing in one or two long bike rides or runs with my man. The weather here has finally cooled down just in time for these few days of complete joy. Gosh, I can't wait. I'll leave work tomorrow afternoon and probably cry happy tears because I look forward to this holiday so much.

I know I'm all over the place, but believe it or not, I came here with a purpose and that is to show off our completed patio and outdoor space. It's safe to say I'm going to be spending as much time out here as possible this holiday weekend.

The farm house table is a dream come true. It's one of those things I'd pin on Pinterest thinking to myself, "maybe someday...." and here it is on our patio in all its glory. Jonathan knows a guy from high school who has started his own business making this kind of stuff. I sent him a few photos of what I liked and told him my main concerns were that the table seat 8 people and for it to be so that there isn't a bad seat at the table. You know how there's always a seat or two that gets stuck with the leg of the table in the way and when you sit there you have to kind of straddle the leg? I wanted to make sure no matter where you sit at this table, it's comfortable. This is why I had to get that last photo of the table legs. It's perfection. I wouldn't change a thing about the way it turned out.

I was a little concerned buying chairs for a table we were having custom-made. I was worried what we chose wouldn't end up matching or would be too tall or too big for the size of the table but I absolutely didn't want to end up with uncomfortable chairs just because they looked good. I love these chairs from Home Depot - they ended up working perfectly with everything.

This patio has been a work in progress for a while. We've tackled it little by little and slowly, we've figured out exactly how we want it. When I'm back here swinging on the hammock, there isn't anything I would change and it feels good to have it finished and to be so incredibly happy with the outcome.

A Few Things on Friday

Hello friends and happy April!

I've been a busy little bees this week prepping for Easter brunch and it feels good to take a break and pop in for a few things this Good Friday. I hope you had a wonderful week!

This is our second year hosting and we’re expecting about 30 guests – it’s going to be amazing. This means any free time this week is being spent baking, cleaning, putting together baskets for all the kids, shopping for food/fixings for the bloody mary & mimosa bar and prepping plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt. It’s all coming together quite perfectly and will be so worth it when we’re basking in all the love and joy in our home on Sunday.

The thing I love about Friday posts is that I can just list out some random things I feel like sharing which is good because I'm pretty sure that is all I'm capable of at this point in the week.

(one) I completed Erin's #1800MinuteChallenge on Tuesday and it felt pretty awesome. I actually finished at 1,811 minutes and it's cool to think how throughout the challenge I kept forgetting about the possibility of winning a cash prize if I completed the challenge. I was more focused on keeping myself accountable to get my 30/day of exercise in and while winning some cash to top it off would be great, I'm just really excited and proud of myself for finally getting into and sticking with a fitness routine. Yay!

(two) Jonathan has been slammed with work the last few weeks so I've been trying to get as much of the Easter prep done as I can myself without adding to his list of things to do. The other night though, he took a break and sat down to fill 100+ plastic eggs with candy for the Easter egg hunt we're setting up for all the kids on Sunday. This is great because I was starting to wonder when I'd have a chance to do it and he was so sweet chatting with me about where we'd hide the eggs and all. It was nice to watch him relax and step away from work for a bit.

(three) After seeing a handful of blogs raving about acai bowls, I decided I had to see what all the fuss was about so this morning, I traded in my usual egg white omelet and tried to put one of these together. I'd say it was a success and absolutely delicious. I probably could have added more frozen fruit to the blender because I think my mixture could have been a little thicker. Let me tell you though, this was a delightful way to start my day. It's cold, crunchy, fruity and left me feeling full and energized through lunch. The best part? I don't think you can really go wrong here with ingredients. Obviously you need the acai smoothie pack, granola and frozen fruit but the possibilities are endless for toppings and other add-ins. I'll share how much and what ingredients I used for my bowl next week but if you haven't gotten in on this goodness yet, you should probably give it a try.

(four) After blogging on and off for years, I am in the process of getting a custom blog design for the first time ever. I've always tried my best to design my blog to the best of my abilities but this year I realized that just wasn't good enough anymore. I want a space here I am proud of so Sarah is working on something for me and I can't wait to see it!

(five) In just a few hours, my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephews will show up on our doorstep and I can't wait to hug them! They're driving down from Buffalo and last night when I got in bed, I got this text from my sister.

Alyssa is my eight-year-old niece and a few years ago when I was up for a visit, my sister and I took her to Build-a-Bear for a girls day. She named her bear Alena and every time I spoke to Alyssa after that, she would give me updates on Alena and whatnot. It's been a while since we've even talked about her teddy bear but I thought it was the cutest thing that she worried I would be upset if she didn't bring it down with her. I love that little girl!

And that concludes all the thoughts I can form into words today. I have a bit more baking to do before the fun starts later. I hope you all have a happy Easter and enjoy time with family and friends!

13 Different Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day - you either love it or hate it. Sure, it's a "Hallmark holiday" and sure, you should make an effort to show love throughout the whole year, not just one day. This is all true, but there's no need to completely disregard it! Valentine's Day doesn't have to be about chocolates and roses and creepily large teddy bears. There's plenty you can do to celebrate that doesn't include over-the-top romance.

We typically keep Valentine's Day pretty simple and I like it that way. There's no pressure or stress, we just decide how we want to spend the day together and try to be intentional about doing little things to show our love.

(one) Use it as an excuse to bake (and indulge) in one of your favorite treats. When I was single, I used to make Red Velvet Cupcakes every year just because. It was the one time a year I would make these so it was something I looked forward to! Plus, it was really fun to give them out to friends/family/coworkers. 

(two) Do something together that you usually can't fit into your schedule. For us, it's going on a long bike ride. We love taking a bike ride on a Saturday afternoon and maybe definitely stopping for drinks along the way, but we usually aren't able to squeeze it in. I'm so looking forward to this tomorrow!

(three) Make brunch together at home and enjoy while watching your favorite show on Netflix. Any other Saturday, you might feel guilty staying in bed all morning drinking champagne but it's Valentine's Day so cheers to mimosas and knocking out a whole season of Friends on Netflix!

(four) Spend the day volunteering together. You'll enjoy the quality time and feel good about making a difference in your community.

(five) Avoid the crowds and cook dinner together at home. Valentine's Day is a good excuse to switch it up and try a new, fancy and/or more challenging recipe to cook as a team. 

(six) Show kindness to strangers. Pay for the car behind you at the drive-thru, leave a $10 gift card to Target in a random cart, make an effort to compliment people you encounter throughout the day. 

(seven) Love yourself. Use this day as a chance to do something for yourself - massage, pedicure, reading on the porch - whatever you've been wanting to do for yourself but haven't, do it today!

(eight) Send flowers to a female friend or family member

(nine) Learn how to make your favorite cocktail. Find a cocktail you've been wanting to make at home (for me this would be a Moscow Mule). Go out together to pick up the ingredients and spend the night at home drinking and chatting - no TV or electronics - just quality time together.

(ten) Game night with a group of friends or with your significant other. I love a good game night!

(eleven) Get active. Go on a hike together, play kickball with your friends, attend a group fitness class with a friend or your significant other, try a new workout. Whether you're alone or with someone, you'll be glad you did something good for your body (and soul)!

(twelve) Skip the roses. If you want to buy flowers for your significant other, why go with red roses when you could give them something more personal like their favorite flower or even a bouquet of the same flowers used in your wedding?

(thirteen) Have a dance party. There really is never a bad time to have a dance party. 

How are you spending your Valentine's Day? What other ideas would you add to my list?

Linking up with Sarah and Helene today!

Celebrating all the Things

Happy New Year!

It’s been months since I made an appearance here and I miss it, I really do. This year, I want to be better about writing and get back to blogging like I used to. You may even notice I'm changing up my design here to celebrate my return. It's a work in progress of course, but I'm excited.

The last few months have been so busy for us – full of weddings, trips, family gatherings and to be honest, we’ve also experienced some major heartbreak in our lives. I’ll catch you up on all of this eventually.

The holiday season has been full of absolute joy and fun for us – we hosted several holiday get togethers with friends, we were able to spend time on Christmas with both families, we hosted a huge New Year’s bash at our house and on Saturday, we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. I feel like we’ve been in a constant state of celebrating and it’s been pretty fantastic.

We were lucky enough to have our niece and nephew in town for Christmas this year, so we slept over at my in-laws house on Christmas Eve so we could wake up with the kids in the morning. It was pretty fun playing Santa and setting up all the gifts, not to mention getting to see the look on their faces in the morning. We opened gifts in the morning and headed to my do gifts and dinner with my siblings and parents in the afternoon. I worried a bit that we would feel stressed or rushed since my parents live an hour and a half from us, but everything worked out perfectly. It felt like a nice long day and I was so glad we made the effort to split the day between families.

We made the decision a few months ago to host a NYE party at our house to make up for not even seeing midnight last year. Don't get me wrong, last year was PERFECT. It was 2 days before our wedding so I wasn't about to get crazy anyway and we had my niece and nephews from Buffalo staying at our house. We watched Turbo with the kids and had a big sleepover in our bedroom -- I wouldn't change a thing about NYE 2014. 

With that being said, I was pretty psyched to go all out this year. I spent so much time on Pinterest getting inspiration for decor and whatnot. I even designed the invitation we mailed out to about 40 of our friends and family. We never expected this, but the RSVPs rolled in and next thing we knew, we were expecting about 50 guests! 

We hired a bartender, Jonathan bought loads of fireworks, we solicited help from friends for food and drinks and asked my mom to make her famous baked ziti for all these people. Thank goodness for everyone's help because I think we pulled it off quite perfectly. 

 
Last but certainly not least, we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary yesterday. It's crazy to me how fast our first year went by and how much happened in such a short time! It's been pretty hectic lately with the holidays and prepping (then the super fun clean up) from our NYE party, so we kept things pretty simple which was just what we needed.

After a morning of snuggling, mimosas and catching a few more Friends episodes (Thank you Netflix, thank you!), we did a few things around the house and ran some errands together. We went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and spent the evening talking about marriage and our relationship. We talked about the early months of our relationship and all the fun things we've done together. When we got home, we opened a bottle of champagne and sat down to read all the advice our guests left for us at our wedding -- it was perfect and so much fun to read what everyone had to say to us. It was the most perfect anniversary celebration.

Sadly, it's back to work for me today. I haven't worked since Tuesday of last week and it's been glorious, but I guess this party had to end eventually. With that being said, in less than 2 weeks we'll be in Cancun for a long weekend to celebrate my friend's wedding. In the meantime, we'll be getting use out of our NutriBullet and getting back in the gym because while the last few months have been fun, they have not been the healthiest.

I hope the holiday season was full of joy for you! I'm excited to be back and in the next few days, I'm looking forward to sharing our resolutions for 2015 and talk a little more about our first year of marriage.

A Few Things on this Good Friday

Happy Good Friday! I have been looking forward to this weekend so much I can't believe it's finally here. On Sunday, we're having 20+ family and friends gather in our home to celebrate Easter. We've been prepping for this brunch for weeks and I'm absolutely thrilled to be hosting such a special holiday in our home. Jonathan and I were talking about the weather forecast for the weekend and how we're supposed to get rain most of the weekend, but that it's supposed to clear up in time for Sunday, to which my husband said something along the lines of, "of course the weather will be nice; it's the resurrection...the weather is always perfect for the resurrection." Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man's soul?

I'm pretty anxious to get this weekend started, so let me share a few things and soon enough I'll be home baking some adorable Easter cupcakes.

A Few Words of Wisdom on my Mind

A Few Thoughts from this Week

• I'm still eating very low-carb and I'm thrilled to say I'm already down a few pounds. It's crazy how hard it is at first but how quickly you adjust to new habits. I'm loving it.
• With that being said, I'll be pushing pause on this whole thing for Sunday. Our brunch menu is shaping up to be too delicious for me to miss out on all the goodness. Cadbury mini eggs will be enjoyed and it will be well worth it. Then Monday, I'll be back at it.
• Speaking of food, over the past 6 months or so, I've turned my baking hobby into a bit of small business on the side and within the last week, I finally came up with a name for the little thing of mine....what do you all think of this?

• It's just a fun little thing for me to do on the side for now, but I wanted to at least have a name for it and I'm in the process of creating a small flyer to send with any orders I get to spread the word. Fun stuff!

A Few Links Worth Reading

• The Silver Lining of Awkwardness  (via Relevant Magazine)
• A Good Friday (via Landing on Love)

A Few Things I'm Super Excited About

• Giving our niece and nephew the Easter baskets we put together for them
• Baking vanilla cupcakes with  Nutella buttercream frosting tonight
• Joining our families together to celebrate on Sunday
• Relaxing with my main man later tonight
• Cleaning our house tomorrow (I know this isn't exciting to most, but we've been busy and it's way out of hand. Can't wait to get control over the chaos!
• Our present...our future...this amazing life

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend! 

Easter Brunch Inspiration

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Last week, Jonathan and I made the decision to host our first big holiday as a married couple at our house. We're going to host a big Easter brunch and it's already looking like we'll have close to 20 people joining us. I am so flipping excited about this. Lately, I've really started to enjoy cooking for and hosting people at our home and this is going to be our biggest undertaking yet! I'm already thinking of menu ideas and looking for decorating inspiration. Here are a few ideas that have caught my eye so far:

*I don't even like the taste of peeps but my goodness, this peep garland is going to be hanging in our house somewhere.

*This Easter egg garland looks like a craft project I can totally handle.

*Tulips are a must. I love all the bright colors and it's a perfect Easter flower. So bright and cheerful!

These little carrot cakes are too cute...

*I looooove this idea for utensils. I'm not a huge fan of orange napkins and green silverware, but together they look like a carrot and I just love it.

*It's looking like we may have somewhere around 20 people in our home, so I want to serve as many make ahead meals as possible. This French toast casserole is definitely on the list.

*Another make ahead idea...these Crustless Zucchini & Basil Mini-Quiches would be just perfect.

I don't know about you, but I'm suddenly really hungry. I can't tell you how excited I am to get all the details planned out. The thought of having our families together on Easter in our little home makes me oh so happy. I can't wait to see how it all comes together!