Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Valentine’s Day Home Tour

Well, I guess the title of this post is a bit misleading since we limit our Valentine’s Day decorations to just the living room and kitchen, but you get the point. 

Confession:  I never decorated our house for Valentine’s Day until last year.  Crazy, I know!  I started because I wanted to do something fun for the kiddos to acknowledge the holiday, and also, because, well, #TheTargetDollarSpotMadeMeDoIt.  Pink has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember, so it’s really hard for me to resist all of the fun things that they have for VDay every year.  And, of course, placement is on point because you just can’t help but see all of the pink and red and white goodness right when you walk in the door.  Those people definitely know what they’re doing!

With that said, all of the holiday decorations you see in this post are, in fact, from the Target Dollar Spot.  The only exception is the “All You Need is Love” sign, which is from Marshall’s, and the pink flowers… those are from Hobby Lobby.  And yes, they’re fake.  If you’re ever looking for fake flowers, Hobby Lobby is your store!  These babies honestly look just as real in person.  And if you wait until they’re 50% off, they’re not even all that expensive!  

In addition to the decorations, you'll see that we have our seasonal book crate stuffed full of Valentine's Day books and books about Love.  I like to change out the kids' books so they can have festive books right at their fingertips, and it also gives them a chance to read books that would otherwise get lost in their massive collections.  You can see the post about our seasonal book crate here.

Enough chit chat... here are the decorations!
























I hope you enjoyed!  And if you're looking for some treats to bake for the big day, look no further than my Strawberry Crinkle Cookies.  They are only four ingredients, they are so easy to make, and they are delicious!  

So tell me, do you decorate for Valentine’s Day?

Valentine's Day Home Tour 2016

*Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk.



 

Monday, January 30, 2017

Fancy Benefit Ball Weekend + a Thank You

Well, I’m happy to say that things are on the up and up in our household!  We had a wonderful, wonderful weekend, and it all kicked off Friday when our prayers were answered.  More on that later…

Friday evening my parents picked up Jacob and brought over pizza since I had pretty much been through the ringer and was half dead by then.  Haha.  They stayed until B got home and the kids and I were so excited to have him home.

Saturday I spent the day cleaning and tidying and catching up on the bunches of things that had gotten neglected during my busy, single-momming week.


We had our benefit ball Saturday evening, so we got all dolled up and headed out for a night of good food and dancing with great friends.  My red dress that I had longed for didn’t end up arriving in time, so I decided to go with the sequins.  I must say, I’ve never worn a sequin dress before, but I felt great in it! 





The ball kicked off with a cocktail hour.  We grabbed a couple of drinks from the bar and mingled with friends, old and new.  The program started at 7 with dinner.  We were seated at a table with my parents and one other couple.  The food was made by the very best chef in our entire city and everything was amazing.  Everyone received a filet and chicken, potatoes, squash and zucchini, and green beans in some kind of amazing sweet sauce.  I was most excited about the filet, but it was a bit too undercooked for my taste, so sadly I only had a few bites of it before giving up.  For dessert, the chef had prepared little chocolate cakes served with whip cream and fresh blackberries and it was divine.



The program ran until a little after nine and then it was time to party.  We refilled our wine glasses and headed back to the ballroom for more mingling and some dancing.  I haven’t danced that much since my brother’s wedding a few years ago, and my feet were killing me by the time we left, but it felt amazing to get out there and let go after the crappy week that I had last week.  We ended up shutting the place down and then it was time to head home since we knew a certain two year old would be creeping into our bed in just a couple of short hours.   











Sunday morning was lazy… we ended up laying in the bed until about 8:45 and then we headed downstairs for breakfast and a little meal prep for the week ahead.

We had lunch with Brian’s family and then spent the afternoon playing outside.  It was pretty chilly this weekend and our crazy children wanted to play outside without their jackets.  Why is it that kids seem to be immune to extreme temps? 







Sunday evening my parents had a party to go to, so we were on our own for dinner.  We ran a couple of errands and then ended the weekend with breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel.  B and I got the kids to bed early and he and I spent the rest of the evening binge-watching some shows since he was gone all week last week.





Every bit of the weekend was perfect.

And I want to say thank you so much to all of you who saw my post last week and prayed for us.  I know I was extremely vague in that post, but I didn’t want to say too much until we had more information.  We had a bit of a scare with Olivia last week.  We took her in for one issue and the doctor ended up finding an infection, which lead to another potential serious issue.  The doctor was worried that based on what he was seeing, Olivia could possibly have something anatomically wrong with her kidneys, so we had to take her for a couple of different tests at the doctor’s office as well as a visit to the hospital for an ultrasound so they could take a look.

He gave us some pretty good odds, saying that we had around an 85% chance that everything would come back normal and around a 15% chance that something could be wrong.  Of that 15% chance, there was a 3% chance that it was something extremely serious that would require surgery or a transplant (just NO), and of course, that is all I could focus on all week.  Needless to say, it was a long week waiting to find out, and I had to go through all of it alone since Brian was out of town on business.

I took the day off Thursday for the appointment and Olivia was a total champ at the ultrasound.  She wasn’t one bit amused, but she didn’t scream or cry either, so we called it a success.  And the very best part of this whole story is that the doctor called back first thing Friday morning to let us know that everything is totally normal with her kidneys and that her infection has also cleared!  Our prayers were answered in a big way, and we thank you all so much for thinking of us last week.  God heard all of you loud and clear and for that we are incredibly thankful.




With that, I think this is where our crappy month is going to finally turn around!  Happy Monday, everyone!  My babies are healthy so it’s going to be a great day!

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.