new year's resolutions

Every year I make a bunch of new year's resolutions and every year I make it until January 3rd before they are so over with. My resolutions for 2015 were no exception. 

I really did make a valiant attempt to bring my lunch at the beginning of the year. It just didn't last and not because Brandon didn't try to help me. I just didn't care enough. I rarely had an opportunity to take lunch anyways so packing lunch seemed moot. I failed miserably at separating work from home until I left my job and started working for the hospital. I guess I needed that clean slate to really set realistic work/life balance goals. In changing jobs though, I have been better about bringing lunch since the girls I work with now make lunch time a priority and actually have time to eat lunch. It is amazing the difference between private practice and outpatient hospital settings. The whole day is much different. 

This year I am opting to have an open-ended resolution, one that is fairly vague without any real set parameters. In 2016, I want to focus on happiness. I told Brandon a few weeks ago that I thought I was having a quarter life crisis.  I did not, in fact, save the drama for my mama. I had a minor meltdown into my glass of wine while I complained. 

I want to make a better effort to do some things that make me happy. 

So here is what I am going to focus on: 

(1) Dating. I want to spend more time with my husband that does not involve a tiny human. I love Natalie to pieces, don't get me wrong, but I married Brandon for a reason. I like him as a person. We don't go on dates. Ever. Our last date was the Turnpike Troubadours concert and that was a group outing. In 2016, I want to focus on spending more quality time with him because he makes me happy. 
(2) Watching. I want to carve out a little me-time to watch trashy quality television. After all, the Duggars are BACK! I need to stop going to bed after I finally get Natalie settled. There is absolutely no reason that I shouldn't stay up until 8:30 9 on a work night to watch a little tv. Hell, maybe 2016 will be a rebellious year and I will see 10pm on a regular basis. Dream big, my friends, dream big.
(3) Brunching. I love brunch. I don't eat it nearly enough. This could mean brunch with my husband (reference goal #1), brunch with my little family or brunch with friends. It just needs to happen more often especially since we live near so many great brunch places. I mean, I'll be 30 this year and what self respecting 30 year old doesn't brunch?! I enjoy it FAR more than dinner outings and breakfast drinks are delish. Irish coffee, anyone? 
(4) Hosting. I love planning parties and hosting gatherings. I love having my home filled with friends and laughter. There are few things better than that. It needs to happen more often and it doesn't have to be anything complicated. I see more potlucks in our future. 
(5) Fixing. B and I have a laundry list of things we want done around the house. We talk about them all the time. I am hoping in 2016, instead of talking about some of them (hello, dining room lighting) we can put plans into place to get them taken care of. I know not all of our list will be done this year, after all money doesn't grow on trees, but it will be nice to sort out maybe our top 3 or 5 and get them done.

So to recap I want to date, watch, brunch, host and fix in 2016 because I think those are things that will make me happy. I don't think those are absurd things to do more of in the new year. Who knows - maybe I can knock a few of those thing out in one day every now and then. Can you imagine? A day date of brunch, tv and home projects while Natalie is at daycare?! Be still my heart :) Perhaps 2016 will be one of our best years yet!

Christmas 2015

I hope everyone had a holly jolly time celebrating the Christmas holiday with family and friends. I know we did :)  I still don't really think Natalie understands what is going on but she is at such a fun age in general that it doesn't really matter.

I took the day off on Christmas Eve to spend time with B and wrap presents. We went to one of his coworkers houses to pick up a second little kitchen for Miss Natalie. She loves the one she got for her birthday and we keep it in the playroom but when B's coworker said she was giving away theirs, we knew we had to scoop it up for the basement. Natalie loves it! 

Christmas Eve we had breakfast for dinner which is one of my favorite traditions because breakfast is my absolute favorite meal of the day.  I love being creative with meals for holidays and pinterest is a wealth of cute ideas! This year I made snowmen pancakes, complete with bacon scarves and whipped cream snow :) I think Natalie was a fan!

Natalie got to open one present on Christmas Eve which is one of my favorite traditions. As the tradition goes, she got new pajamas and a Christmas book. Spoiler alert: it was one that had come in the mail a few weeks ago that she had seen but that we had not read yet together. I had wanted to include a movie too, but it slipped my mind until just a few days before Christmas. Instead of braving the stores, I checked Netflix and found a bunch of movies that she would love. Mama win indeed :) We put on our new jammies and snuggled in for popcorn and Christmas movies on Netflix.

Christmas morning was so much fun and I know the best of this is yet to come. At this age Natalie gets so excited to go downstairs in general, so I can't wait until she is excited to see if Santa came :) Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I totally killed it in the gift giving game this year. (Just wait, Bibs and Pop Pop, your presents are coming for the Epiphany!) Natalie made out like a bandit this year even though she had just had a birthday. 

We continued the Christmas celebration with tea and snuggles, Christmas movies and playing with our new toys. Brandon and I made a killer dinner of steak with garlic shrimp, mashed potatoes and snap peas. We offered Natalie a little sampling but she was more interested in chicken nuggets. Pick your battles, they say.

Overall, my little family had just the best little Christmas :) Saturday morning B and Nat went to NJ to celebrate with his family and I stayed behind and had a little mama's staycation weekend which I will be recapping tomorrow :)

so this just happened...

The weather outside is super dreary today. It's so foggy and overcast and such a buzzkill. However, this gloomy weather inspired me to give the blog a little face lift this morning. I decided I was done with the black and gray and, even though I really loved my chalkboard, I wanted something bright and happy for 2016 and beyond. 

So out with the old and in with the new...

A few of my favorite blogs have a little "hello" or "hi" or "welcome" text on their sidebar picture so I tested the waters and I really like how it turned out! 

I also updated the Facebook cover page and photo to match it! I am really loving the simplicity of it more than I thought I would. I updated some of the fonts and spacing and it just feels much cleaner and looks so much more appealing!

What do y'all think?

weekending

You know those weekends where you have it all planned out in your head and you're beyond excited for it and then the weekend comes and it's NOTHING like you had planned in your head. Welcome to our weekend. 

Saturday morning Natalie cried hysterically when we even mentioned going to gymnastics. We are opting to cancel the rest of her sessions. It's not worth the fight. Between birthdays and holidays, she hasn't been to (an entire) class since the beginning of November. The one class she went to, she had a killer meltdown and we left barely halfway through it. Brandon and I talked about it and between cold season happening now and winter [read: snow] in Maryland really starting in January, chances are good there are going to be quite a few closings and missed classes in our future. We plan to start her back up in April. Hopefully by then she'll be more excited for class again and we'll be past all the colds and snow.

Regardless of the tears, we had made a reservation to see Santa and I was not going to miss it. Yes, you read that right - reservation. Our mall has the option to reserve your spot to see Santa. They offer 30 minute windows starting at 9AM.  And when you make your reservation you're given a time (for us, 9:19) and they ask you to show up about 5-10 minutes before your time. It made the Santa process super easy. Well... at least the line process. Nat was not so thrilled about seeing the big guy. 

However, on the upside, we made it through the process without any major tears. So, there's that. After meeting Santa, we headed to Barnes & Nobles. Natalie was beyond precious. She wanted to sit with her mama and read books. I melted. 

Saturday afternoon the town fire department brought Santa through the neighborhood and he brought gifts to the kids whose parents signed them up for it.  If only we had known! Natalie was more excited to see Santa then and kept waving and saying "Merry Christmas". Go figure.

That afternoon Natalie took a mean nap which lasted entirely too long and she did not want to go to bed when bedtime rolled around. I took her into our room to snuggle while B watched the Cowboys game but she was out of control. I fell asleep before she did. Brandon came to bed around 10:30 and the girl was still ready to rage. 

Sunday we kept things pretty low key thanks to Natalie's late night party for one. We snuggled and watched football. My Redskins now have sole possession of first place in our division :) Granted, the division is terrible so there's that but first is first! And as no weekend in complete without a major meltdown, I have to share this picture of Natalie throwing the fit of all fits. The reason behind it might be my favorite yet: Brandon told her she couldn't play with tampons. Toddlers are so weird...

Last night was another late one for Nat and me. She didn't fall asleep until a little after 10. We have her sleeping in a big girl bed in the playroom (long story) and I am starting to think it might be wise to make the transition to her big girl bed that's in her room. I mean, with Nat's upcoming trip to NJ with Brandon this weekend, I don't see her sleep schedule getting back on track anytime soon so it's not like we can hurt anything. In the mean time, thank goodness for wine and strong coffee. 

the guys behind the blog: December 2015

I love this little series link up with Heavens to Betsy and while late to the show, I am happy that I started to participate. It's such a cute way for people to learn more about B. I find it so fitting that my 400th blog post would be about the guy who was part of the inspiration behind the blog in the first place :) I am sure B is happy that I opted not to use that picture from our engagement pictures again this month!

1. What's on your Christmas list this year?
A bunch of random stuff: a sweatshirt, a winter hat, etc. Nothing too crazy.

2. Did you believe in Santa as a child? Do you have any funny Santa stories?
I did believe in Santa. My brother and I used to leave out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Well, my bother and I noticed that the "reindeer" bites on the carrots looked awfully similar to out pet hamster's bite. I probably knew Santa was not real for two years or so before I told my parents. Also, ever since he was about 5 years old, my brother would always find the hidden Christmas presents. He even called me one year, "Hey bro, wanna know what you got for Christmas?" I do still believe in the spirit of Santa Claus though...

3. What is a Christmas tradition you hope to pass on someday?
My mom always made a Christmas stocking for our pup, Cooler. He even knew it was his and would sit by it under the tree and cry for it to be opened. Always thought that was pretty cool. 

4. Do you open presents on Christmas morning or a different time?
Christmas morning

5. What is your favorite Christmas song? Movie?
Serious Christmas song - Little Drummer Boy
Funny Christmas song - Dominic the Donkey
Movie - Christmas Vacation

Love that man of mine :)

Natalie Says...

Every now and then I want to share some Natalie moments here so that I can quickly find them and look back on them. She is so funny and quirky and brave. I never want to forget any of these things. Here's to hoping I remember to write them all down!


10/10/15: Brandon's brother Evan came to visit and, per usual, brought Natalie a sweet treat: mini cupcakes. The morning after his arrival we were sitting at the dining room table having breakfast and Natalie was reading her Pantone colors book.  She was on the last page where there are different pictures and we were asking her to find things.  "Where's the monster?" "Where's the bird?" "Where's the broccoli?"  Evan chimed in and said "Where's the cupcake?" Natalie picked her head up from the book and said "in the kitchen!" and pointed behind her towards the kitchen. 

10/11/15: We've been working with her on introductions and she is embracing this to the extreme. We practice shaking hands with her and saying "nice to meet you".  We also work on saying "Hi, I'm Natalie." This morning we were snuggled in bed and she sits up and grabs my hand to shake it and says "Nice to meet you. Hi! I'm me!" She even put her hand to her chest to indicate that she really meant herself. Bless her heart :)

11/22/15: We were doing our Thanksgiving shopping and she was being my helper. She asked what was next on our list and I told her the ham. We walked through the store, she was playing a game on my phone. We got to the meat section deep freezers and I was looking at the hams. I told Natalie we had to pick a ham. She froze, said ut-oh and then threw up all over herself, the cart, my phone and the floor. Once she stopped, I started to clean her up and I asked if she was ok. Her first response: "ok, where's the ham?" It was as if nothing had ever happened. 

11/24/15: She had to have routine blood drawn. She was amazing and brave and I was so proud of her. She let the MA check her arms and she watched calmly as they stuck the needle in and drew the blood. She was patient and sweet. She thanked the MAs and high fived the staff when she was done. She didn't cry, flinch or whine. She was amazing.

12/4/15: We were giving Natalie a bath and she was pretending to be different animals. We would ask her what sound does a ___ make? And she would make the sound. Brandon asked her what sound a dinosaur makes and she roared. Brandon asked her if she was a dinosaur and she said "no, Tim is." I love that she remembers that Tim loves dinosaurs. 

12/13/15: Brandon asked Natalie if she was a baby, she said no. He asked if she was a big girl. She said no, she was a big sister. Perhaps she knows something we don't... 

12/14/15: I was wearing a shirt that a friend made me that has illustrations of the three of us. I asked her who each one was. She pointed to Brandon on my shirt and said "Daddy". She pointed to me on the shirt and said "Mommy" and then she pointed to the little girl and said "that's Nattie" and then pinched my shirt to be holding her hand and shook it saying "nice to meet you."

12/15/15: Natalie emptied her goldfish into one of her play kitchen pots and made me "soup" for dinner. She kept saying "here mommy" and "you feel better?" It was so precious.

oh hello cold season

I am sorry for the radio silence over here. It's been a rough few days. Natalie has had a cold brewing for over a week and it hit like a Ronda Rousey punch this weekend. And thanks to her generosity, now mama has it too. Woof. Daddy has been trying to avoid us like the plague and I can't say I blame him. 

In lieu of a weekend recap, I am opting for a little photo dump of what life is like with a sick Natalie... spoiler alert: it's not much different than when she isn't sick :) 

first time watching the Little Mermaid :)

oh you know, just pretending to be Hank...

I was home with Nat one day last week and caught her laying her books down in a row. I found it a bit odd but let her do her thing. Then on Sunday I found her laying her blocks down in a row. I am starting to think that the little miss has a little OCD like her mama :) 

doesn't everyone wear sunnies in the house while organizing?

Hopefully we'll have this thing kicked by the middle of the week and life can resume it's normal programming. We have Santa to visit and cookies to make and those things absolutely cannot be done when we have colds! Until then we'll be laying things in rows, pretending to be puppies, watching Disney movies and reading our favorite books :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Secret Santa: Mommy & Me Book Exchange

The ladies from Sweet Turtle Soup, Chasin' Mason and Everything's Hunky Dorey are at it again with their sweet Mommy and Me book exchange!  This was my first year playing along and I am so happy that Nat and I got involved :)

I was excited to be given Stephanie and Connor from Wife, Mommy, Me and even more excited when I checked out her list! It was so fun putting something together for her since the books Connor wanted are some of Nat's favorites :) Nat and I wanted to include a little extra surprise to make it special. As a follower of her blog, I know Stephanie is a big Christmas lover so we included a 2015 ornament :)

Natalie and I loved getting our books in the mail!  Natalie has not gotten over her birthday so finding a wrapped gift was icing on the cake for her!

Jenny from the Chronicles of We hit the nail on the head with the bonus addition of stickers! Natalie loves them!  She has been super obsessed with stickers lately.

We have read Bear Stays Up a few times since the books have arrived!  Natalie loves telling me who all the animals are.  She is such a smarty pants!  I have been reading a little bit of mine every night and love having a glass of wine and a giggle :) Thank you Jenny!!

family pictures 2015

I mentioned last week that we had Monique from M&M Photography take family pictures for us about a month ago during my nephew's 4th birthday party. We only had about 15 or 20 minutes and Natalie wasn't very cooperative but I am beyond thrilled with how they turned out! I was hoping I would have enough self control not to share them before our cards go out but I don't :)  Here are some of my favorites!

These pictures really capture my curious, sweet, sassy girl and I absolutely love them. 

I don't have many pictures of me and Nat and this is easily my favorite picture ever taken of us. Monique really captured the joy that is being that little girl's mama.

And because no post is complete without a year to year side by side...

2014

2015

It is crazy how much my little girl has grown in a year! 

If you live in the suburbs of DC, I suggest checking out Monique! She has a few more openings for family pictures before Christmas!

thoughts on holiday cards

We weren't planning to do holiday cards this year but when I realized that one of our favorite family photogs, Monique, was going to be at my nephew's 4th birthday party, I couldn't resist the opportunity to sneak in some suuuper casual family pictures.  Bonus: Shutterfly AND Tiny Prints had just sent us a bunch of discount codes so it seemed silly not to send out cards! And seriously... how cute are some of the designs this year?!

Shutterfly

A few days before the party, I created an album using google photos and I shared it with Monique. I knew exactly what pictures I wanted to try to capture and I wanted to make things as easy as possible. Monique understands two very important things about my family: (1) Natalie is wild and (2) Brandon hates having his picture taken. Last year Monique captured some great pictures in record time using my family photo pinterest board and it was so quick and painless that Brandon left feeling quite happy with the process. I was hoping to recreate that seamless process by having picture ideas pre-selected and pre-sent to Monique to move things along even quicker! Hmm, I guess Monique understands three things about my family: (3) I am an organized control freak :)

love this family picture ideas :)

What did people do before pinterest came along and simplified finding family picture ideas?  While Natalie was really not in the mood for pictures, only playing, the day of the party, Monique did captures some of the sweetest moments! I cannot wait to reveal the final product, but I want to send them out first! I will leave you with last year's card though :)

 It's crazy how big that little stinker got in a year!