Weekending

Last night as we were laying in bed with Nat between us (because old/bad habits die hard), B looked at me and said "I wish we could keep this weekend going". I had to agree. It was one of those really simple, really wonderful weekends. Two of them in a row. How lucky am I?!

Saturday morning, Natalie and I ran some errands and we picked up paint swatches for her big girl room :) Almost two years in the house and we're finally getting around to putting some color on the walls. Mr. Jon made the mistake of telling us he loved taping and painting and we plan to take full advantage of that!

Saturday afternoon we head over to Natalie's Godfather's house for lunch and to meet the new baby.  Greg and Terra welcome Bryce Ellington into the world on October 14th and I am totally smitten and my ovaries are totally killing me! Natalie, on the other hand, really wasn't sure what to make of baby Bryce.

After our visit, we went home and played outside and soaked in the beautiful afternoon.

Sunday, we woke up and Nat claimed she didn't feel well so B kept her home and I ran some errands, sans child, plus coffee, all by myself. It was glorious. B washed the cars while Nat played outside and I cleaned the house before joining them outside. B had mentioned wanting to hook the little trailer up to the old tractor so the kids could have tractor rides on Halloween. Of course I suggested we test it out early and it was hilariously fun. We couldn't help but laugh the entire time.

It was seriously a weekend for the books. And you know what the say, a Sunday well spent brings a week of content. 

Friday Five | Birthday Edition

This week was a big week for me, I hit the big 3-0 on Wednesday. So in honor of that, here are my birthday week themed Friday five.

1. B and Nat spoiled me rotten for my birthday! That husby of mine really knows how to make a girl feel special on her birthday! A new houndstooth scarf (Roll Tide!), silver charm bangle, Alabama pillow & throw blanket and planner pens made for one happy mama :) Plus Natalie was obsessed with singing happy birthday to her mother. That kid cracks me up!

2. Work friends. I work with the best people on the planet. What better way to kick off 30 than with a most beautifully decorated office, a new coffee mug, poptarts, Starbucks and wine! What can I say? My girls know me well :) 

3. Birthday lunch celebrations. Over the weekend, my friend Brian got engaged so we celebrated my birthday and his engagement with lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. It was the best :) I am totally in love with their (over 900 calorie - eek!) Italian Chopped Salad. But calories don't count on your birthday, right?!

4. Flower deliveries from best friends. I have seriously been blessed with some of the greatest girlfriends on the planet. These flowers arrived on Wednesday morning and they smelled amazing and were absolutely stunning! Thank you so much Caitlin and Lo!

5. Pasquale's Pizza. I literally requested cheese pizza for my birthday dinner. Pasquale's is this cute little [smidge nicer than a] hole in the wall place that makes the best NY style pizza. Seriously. My picky NJ husband loves their pizza. That says something, in my opinion. I am seriously hooked. If you live in, around, near New Market, MD at all - I highly recommend checking this place out! 

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes and love over on IG :) 

Y'all sure know how to make a girl feel good. 

Here's to the next decade!

30 for 30

I always thought this moment would feel so much bigger. 30. As a college student, 30 seemed so. dang. old. Not that long ago, I remember counting down until my sister's 30th birthday and making jokes about how ancient she would be. It's not nearly as traumatic as I had been anticipating. So in celebration of this 30th year, here are 30 random things about me.

1. Growing up, I never really liked my middle name. Billy Ray Cyrus and his achy breaky heart made Tori Rae an easy target. Children are so cruel. It wasn't until the last few years that I have come to appreciate it, not love it, appreciate it.

2. The eye roll emoji is easily my most used emoji followed closely by the monkey covering it's eyes and the heart eyes.

3. I shamelessly love Throwback Thursday. I think part of the reason is that it is an innocent way to embarrass my older sister. The more ridiculous the picture of the two of us is, the better. I guess sometimes we don't really completely grow up :)

Michelle and Me - Halloween 1988 (maybe '89)

4. Starbucks Dirty Chai (no foam, no water, 1 shot of espresso, 6 pumps of Chai) is my drink of choice year round. It is perfect. (Unless Natalie was up in the middle of the night, much like last night, in which case there will be 2 shots, 8 pumps... just saying.)

5. I am an incredibly shy people person. I once stumbled upon this article about the struggles of having an outgoing personality but actually being shy and it resonated with me in such a serious way.

6. I am terrified of spiders. It does not matter the size. Tiny or huge, they are all horrible and deadly.  Sometimes I am scared to shower if B isn't home because what if there is a spider in the shower. Thank God for dry shampoo.

7. I love Hocus Pocus and will watch it any and every time it is on tv.

#squadgoals

8. I only drink red wine. I don't drink white wine, ever. Two sips in, I have a headache. My favorite wine is Apothic Dark and I have been dying to try the Apothic Inferno.

9.  I eat the toppings off my pizza before I eat the slice. The only exception to the rule is plain cheese pizza. I can eat that the old fashion way. 

10. I love Alabama football. Natalie and I have matching Alabama shirts for the Iron Bowl this year and we're having an inaugural Iron Bowl watch party this year. #RollTide #RTR 

11. I worked for a fertility center for over 5 years. I left last August to work at a local hospital. I lasted 3.5 months before I contacted the physician I worked for to see what openings the fertility center had and I quit after only being at the hospital for 6 months. There is something about this place where I work that feels like home and I really love the work that I do. 

11a. I have way more fun with my coworkers on my team than one should probably have at work. I actually look forward to going to work and laughing with my team all day. They are a huge part of why I came back to SGF.

12. I love huge balloons and insisted on 40 inch 3-0 balloons for B and my joint 30th birthday bash. I also purchased some big balloons for Nat's birthday party. They are just so dang festive! I dare you to hold a 40" balloon and not smile.

13. I feel like for 30, I have an alarming amount of gray hair.

14. I am terrified about how having another baby will affect my body and have seen a therapist about it. I have struggled with body image issues since high school and it's hard to be 30 and still not comfortable in my own skin. 

15. I love How to Get Away with Murder. I am totally hooked. I DVR it because I cannot stay up that late but I end up binge watching it and staying up too late anyways. Last night I watched the first 3 episodes of season 3 (holy crap) and was so close to staying up to watch the other 2 episodes. 

16. My favorite drink when I have to be DD (or during pregnancy) is a Shirley Temple with extra cherries. It is a most legit substitute to a real drink.

17. Ben Higgins season of the Bachelor was the first I ever watched. I am now completely hooked on the show and love it. It's is absolutely my favorite guilty pleasure. 

18. If I ever hit the mega millions, I would quit my job and be a SAHM and have four babies. I would absolutely love to have four children if finances allowed it.

19. I love pumpkin but I do not love the pumpkin spice latte. I love pumpkin bread. I love pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin spice hot cocoa. The PSL does nothing for me.

20. I proudly know every word to Country Grammar by Nelly.

21. I was devastated when I found out I was having a girl. I cried. A lot. Now I really cannot imagine being anything but a #girlmom. Seriously. Give me all the pink and tutus and frilly girly things. 

22. I really enjoy rearranging furniture. It is something that I have always enjoyed and would do it more if it didn't drive B so crazy :)

23. I wait to enter my phone number/club card number until the cashier is done ringing up my groceries so that I can watch all of the coupon savings come off at one time. I find that so gratifying. 

24. I took Spanish for 13.5 years. I can speak absolutely no Spanish. As you can imagine, my parents are super proud.

25. I believe fountain soda is the best way to consume soda. 

26. I am a true Maryland girl and love to pick crabs and drink beer in the summer. I learned to pick crabs when I little and it has been so much fun to teach Natalie to pick crabs too.

27. I believe everything looks better with a monogram on it and, even though I kept my maiden name, I use what would be my married monogram just as often :)

28. I have three tattoos: a shamrock, a breast cancer ribbon for my maternal Grandmother and a Celtic heart knot. They are (mostly) discretely placed.

29. My dream dog is a French Bulldog named Chauncey, after Chauncey Billups. I have always loved him (and feel he looks a little bit like a French Bulldog, sorry Chaunce). His Letter to My Younger Self from the Player's Tribune is one of my favorite sports related things I have ever read.

30. I am an obsessive planner and I love hosting events. I have a pinterest board for every birthday and holiday. I love when my home is full of people I adore and the sound of laughter. There are few things better!

And that's that.

Cheers to 30 years, y'all :)

weekend recap | photo dump

You know those weekends where you don't really do anything but it's everything. We had one of those weekends. We kept it fairly low key but somehow still packed quite a bit into the weekend. 

Saturday morning we woke up and went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. That is one place Natalie is guaranteed to eat something without fuss! Girlfriend loves their pancakes and bacon :)  B caught this super sweet moment between Nat and me and while it's not the best picture I absolutely love it!

B had mentioned getting pumpkins at Mayne's Tree Farm. It's a cute little farm just up the road from us and we hadn't been there since around this time when I was pregnant with Natalie. So while it was incredibly windy on Saturday, we braved the pumpkin patch anyways to get pumpkins to paint and carve. It was fun to be back there with Natalie. It was too windy to carve our pumpkins outside on Saturday, so we opted to play inside and paint her mini pumpkins. This kept her entertained for about an hour which allowed B and I to clean the main level of the house.

Sunday we carved pumpkins, painted rocks and more pumpkins, played hard and napped harder.

Isn't he so stinkin cute :)

Clover and Princess Sofia :)

We also got a text that one of our favorite people on the planet, Mr. Brian, got engaged and to say Natalie was excited about Princess Julianna is a bit of an understatement.

a big congrats to Mr. Brian and Ms. Julianna :)

So that's our weekend in a nutshell. This week we are celebrating my dirty thirty, watching Hocus Pocus on repeat and prepping for a little cousin Halloweenie fun :)

family pictures | September 2016

As I mentioned in my beach weekend (photo dump) post, our friend and family photog, Monique, came with us to the beach. I was beyond excited when I found out she was coming. Natalie is obsessed with Monique's daughter Aysia and I knew Nat would be excited to have a playmate. Bonus to Monique coming: I have been really wanting some new family pictures before the weather gets colder. We had planned to take pictures at the beach but it would have been easier to herd cats than get Natalie to sit still at the beach so we opted to use the beach house as our backdrop. As always, Natalie was less than cooperative and, as always, Monique was still able to snap some incredible pictures.

I mean... come on :)

Monique even lugged her camera to the beach and snapped some great candid shots that I will forever treasure. She really captured Nat's spirit in these pictures :)

I cannot recommend M&M Photography enough. Seriously.  We spent about 25 to 30 minutes outside trying to get Natalie to take pictures and we are so thrilled with the final product. I don't know how she does it, but Monique always works miracles with our girl :) ...and somehow she gets B to cooperate too! 

Friday Five

Holy crud it's been a busy couple weeks and I really have no idea where the time is going. How is it halfway through OCTOBER already?! It's been some time since I have done a little Friday Five loving so here goes, here are five [really random] thoughts for Friday.

1. Last week I snagged Natalie and I matching Alabama shirts for the Iron Bowl this year and I am so dang excited about them :) #RollTide

2. Have y'all seen this article from Scary Mommy written by Rita Templeton of Fighting off Frumpy? The one entitled, "My Spouse is not my Best Friend". I have glossed over the fact that this has been an incredibly tough year for my marriage but this post really resonated with me, especially this part:

I love my best friends. They are dear and important and a vital component of my well-being. We've had some fun, hilarious, amazing times together. But as much as I adore them, I've never made critical decisions based on their circumstances. I've never cried with them as I watched our shared life crumbling beyond our control or fought like hell beside them to patch it up despite our differences. My friends can offer advice on major issues, but they're not as emotionally invested because - at the end of the day - it's not their life, not our life. And when I look at them, no matter how eternally thankful I am for their presence, my heart doesn't squeeze until it feels like it could explode.

This. So friggin much this. 

3. Birthday party planning and purchasing has commenced! I was looking for a banner for Nat's 3rd birthday party and I stumbled upon Paper Supply Station and quickly fell in love with this shop! Amanda is the absolute sweetest and she really helped me to bring my vision for Nat's decorations to life and I cannot wait for her party in November!

I cannot recommend this shop enough to anyone planning a party and looking for banners, cupcake toppers, paper straws or confetti! 

4. We got our family pictures back from Monique and I am so happy with them! I will share more of them next week once I snag a few that she took of Natalie at the beach itself but I couldn't help but want to share one! Although, if you follow me on Instagram, then you've gotten quite a few sneak peaks!

5. I have a new addiction: Reese's snack mix. The pharmacy in my building sells it and I am fairly certain it is magical and has the power to fix bad days. I probably buy it twice a week [Insert monkey covering eyes emoji here.] Pretzels - yes. Mini Reese's - yes. Reese's Pieces - yes. I'm totally chalking it up as healthy since it has 5g of protein per serving :)

Welp, there it is! My five random thoughts for the afternoon. We have a fun weekend planned with a big Dirty 30 birthday bash for B and me :) Happy weekending y'all!