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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

THREE THINGS

Happy Hump Day! Tomorrow is the first day of fall and I am more than ready for some cooler weather. It was over 100 degrees again this weekend. We have a lot going on in the next couple of months: kids activities, holidays, and road trips are a few things that I am most excited for. I feel like so much has changed lately or will be happening in the upcoming weeks and months that there’s so much on my mind. Today I am sharing three things:

Lex had her second dance class Saturday. We just watched the first week and Saturday she went into class without me. After she warmed up she participated and came out with a big smile and said she wanted to go back next week. She has a hard time warming up to new people and situations so I expect a few weeks before she really hits her stride but once she does I think she will really love it. She loves to dance and only wants to wear a ‘twirly dress’ lately, so fingers are crossed that she warms up sooner rather than later.
They broke ground on our new house Monday. We are excited to watch the progress over the next number of months. Once we have the keys we have so many projects to tackle. Some need to be done sooner than later like window coverings and the back yard. Others will take awhile to complete. A major priority for us is getting the kids playroom together shortly after moving in. I’ve been searching pinterest for ideas (you can follow us here). I’d love to see your favorite toy storage or organization if you have suggestions!
The kids are scheduled to take Christmas card photos in a couple of weeks and I am frantically trying to decide on a theme and outfits. I originally had one planned and am second guessing myself. I can’t help but wonder if I should go more seasonally neutral so I can display the photos year round. You can see last year’s photos here.

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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Uh-oh!

uh-oh

(unrelated, but I love this photo of Lex)

Last week I had a major uh-oh happen here on the blog.

You may have noticed that all posts from 2016 have now vanished. They will not be coming back, unless you know some magic way to recover them that I am not aware of.

I ran some updates behind the scenes which resulted in first being completely locked out of the site. In order to gain access, I let my hosting company restore back to the last back up they had, which let me back in but resulted in a major mistake – I found out I did not have a nightly back up happening here on the blog. Even though I was able to get back in, I lost everything I did in 2016! A major uh-oh indeed!

I am bummed to be missing the content from the first half of 2016 but looking forward to what the rest of the year has in store.

Oh, and now I have nightly back up so this kind of thing won’t happen again!

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Friday, October 9, 2015

FIVE TIPS FOR PLANNING YOUR WEDDING

photo credit: Emily at EME Photography

Today is our five year wedding anniversary! I loved planning our wedding! It was so much fun. Although not an expert, I thought it would be fun to share five tips for planning a wedding of your own on our fifth year of marriage.

1. Hire a wedding planner. Hiring our wedding planner was ~~one of~~ the best things we spent money on. She was worth every penny we paid her! Our wedding planner did so much to make sure every detail was perfect. Even if we only had her the day of the wedding, we both said she was worth her fee. I recommend hiring a wedding planner who passes on vendor discounts to her couples. It is hard to find, but SO worth it if you can find one and love her work! If you think you can’t afford a wedding planner but find one who passes discounts to her bride, you will find you save more than her fee; at least we did.

2. Decide early on your most important elements. In the event you don’t have an unlimited budget, decide early on what you want to prioritize and where to spend more of your budget. For us, we chose things that we would have forever, photos, and what would be photographed most frequently, flowers, dress, etc.

3. Don’t try on a dress more expensive than what you are willing to spend. Stop looking when you’ve found ‘the dress’. If you try on a dress out of your budget, without fail, that will be the dress you fall in love with. Save yourself the heartbreak and don’t try it on in the first place. When I found and purchased the dress, I stopped looking at dresses altogether. I didn’t watch Say Yes to the Dress on TV, skipped over the dress section in bridal magazines, etc. I tried as much as possible to avoid seeing something I might like better.

4. Ask potential photographers to see a complete wedding album, not just a best of portfolio. You may find someone whose work you love when you see only a single element or two but realize their whole wedding portfolio doesn’t quite stand up. Ask to see full albums up front, if they won’t show it, move on. There are no d0-overs, so you need to get it right. Luckily for us, I knew our photographer and have always admired her work. I’ve had friends who have used her and have seen multiple weddings she has done. Hiring her was an easy choice.

5. Try not to be a bridezilla and show gratitude to those who have helped make the day special. We all have our moments. I had mine at our rehearsal. In general, try to enjoy the experience, it goes by fast. We had a small wedding, our vendors were amazing and I would use or recommend every single one again. At our reception, I offered all of them cake and cookies (we had a cookie bar as favors) and they were genuinely appreciative of the gesture. Little things go a long way with your vendors; be sure to thank them.

There you go, my five tips for planning a great wedding! Now if you’ll excuse me, I am off to pick up our anniversary cake from Piece of Cake Desserts! You can see a few more wedding and trash the dress pictures here.

If you are in the Phoenix area and would like a list of our vendors, send me an email, I would be happy to share!

This post is not sponsored or affiliated with any company mentioned.

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Wednesday, September 30, 2015

THREE THINGS

sneaky peeky…

photo credit Marnee of Marriott Photography

1. Until 10 days ago, I had not really given much thought to Christmas card photos. I received an email from Marnee about Christmas sessions and decided it was a good time to get them done since Dylan had a day off from preschool last week. I wasn’t really sure how it would go. Lex is a bit of a wild card when it comes to taking her picture, you never really know what you are going to get. You can see what I mean, check out the last couple of sessions of her first year photos here and here. Thankfully they both did a good job and I cannot wait to see what Marnee got. As I was writing this post, she released a sneak peek – I cannot wait to see the rest! This has the making to be my favorite photos ever! And as an added bonus, I will have our Christmas cards back soon, major score; considering none were sent last year-oops!

2. I have s-l-o-w-l-y been clearing out baby gear, toys and anything we no longer use. My closet, the kids closets, the bathrooms, the kitchen – really, nothing is safe. And then I heard about Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and decided to read it. I’m within a few pages of being done and have really liked it. She gives some good advice on how to get into the right perspective when cleaning out your belongings. I know I haven’t followed the book to the letter, mostly because I have been purging for awhile, but her method really helped me when purging my bathroom last week. I can’t wait to tackle more of the house using her method. When you are ready to do some purging around your house, I highly recommend her book!

3. I got my hair done yesterday and went ‘dark’ for fall. I have always been blonde so this is a big change for me. It’s not real dark, but pulls in more of my natural color so it’s less maintenance. So far I am really liking it, but have a feeling I will be back to bright blonde by summer!

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Tuesday, August 25, 2015

END OF SUMMER SHOPPING: PEEK SALE

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and make a purchase from the site, I will earn a small commission from the sale. This does not cost you extra. I appreciate your support of this blog.

With the exception of “Where’d they get the red hair?” The question I am most often asked is where I shop for the kids, especially for Lex. You may have noticed one of my favorite stores for the kids is Peek. They have some of the most unique styles and always have my favorite tees for both Dylan and Lex. What you may not know, is my favorite time to shop Peek is when they have a sale! The end of summer sale is the perfect time to stock up on some sure to be favorites for next year. Here are a few of my favorite Peek sale items, many of which we already own.

For the girls…

Floral Romper – Bubble rompers are my favorite (okay, so are dresses, and shorts & tee’s) on Lex and we are quickly outgrowing them. I was pleasantly surprised to find Lex fit into this romper for the 4th of July. Even though it was chilly, we paired it with a sweatshirt and sandals and it was so stinking cute. I know it won’t fit next summer so we will wear it as far into the fall as we can. (Romper is now sold out online, check local stores)

Land That I Love Tee – I love this tee paired with these shorts. We have both and it is the cutest outfit. I will be sad when she outgrows this one. It also comes in bigger sizes, tee here and similar shorts here.

Stella Tank – This tank (sold out online, check local stores) and the pink shorts make for a REALLY cute outfit. It’s so versatile you can pair it with almost anything and have a stinking cute shirt for any outfit. This tank comes in bigger sizes too, you can find it here.

Seaside Shorts – I’ve had my eye on these shorts since they came out in the spring and now that they are on sale, picked up a pair. Peek shorts tend to run a little big, so I am hopeful these may still work for us next spring too!

For the boys…

Surfers Have More Fun Tee – Peek spring and summer tees are my favorite. This tee would for sure become a fast favorite in our house. Baby tee found here.

Colorblock Board Shorts – I have been eyeing these all summer long. I just love them but since Dylan is so thin have passed them up thinking he would be too small, these are a definite maybe for next year.

Surf USA Sweatshirt – I love the ripped neckline of this sweatshirt. It already looks so broken in and cozy. Perfect for cool summer nights or fall nights when you are still dreaming of summer.

Locals Only Tee – Dylan has this tee and wore it a couple of weeks ago in California. I absolutely loved it with shorts, a hat and flip flops. Baby tee found here.

I hope you enjoy the last bit of summer. I can’t believe August is already almost over!

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