oh hey, friday | oh hey, blog

Unintended blogging break, sorry about that!

{ONE}

This last week, the weather has been amaze-balls and we've spent every minute possible outside enjoying the warmth and sunshine. Seriously, last Sunday, Gracyn's little neighbor friends came to get her at 10 AM to play and we all grabbed lawn chairs and set up camp at the end of the street. We just sat there chatting and watching the kids run around. Some ordered pizza for lunch, right in the middle of the street basically. It was glorious.

{TWO}

I was off work on Monday and decided the kids and I needed to do something fun. We packed up a lunch and headed to the zoo. It was cloudy and a tad cooler than it had been the day before but we ended up seeing quite a few animals. I don't LOVE the Kansas City Zoo because it's really spread out and you walk A LOT but it was a good day. We made it all the way to Africa to see the chimpanzees and they were so active! We even saw the two little babies running and playing.

{THREE}

Instead of blogging in the evenings like I usually do, Justin and I have been bingeing on Breaking Bad. Again. We've seriously started this series 2 or 3 times and just never got into it. We finally committed and have been watching a few episodes after the kids go to bed. It's only 5 seasons so we should be done soon. What should we watch next?!

{FOUR}

14 Weeks! Second Trimester! Yay!

We head back to the doctor on Monday to check on the little babe. Excited to hear a stronger/louder heartbeat and ask her to confirm I'm not having 5 babies because I feel way big which is terrifying considering I have a lonnnnng way to go.

{FIVE}

Thinking ahead to Baby #3, my major goal is to get Leighton settled into a big girl bed before the baby is born. I'd like to have her potty trained and weaned from her paci, too but let's not get ahead of ourselves, right?! Big girl bed first!

I really want to paint our existing crib and give it a facelift for the new babe. I also have 2 dressers I want to paint as well. I know I have time but I feel like I need to get cracking on a few of these projects, especially figuring how to safely and effectively paint a crib that will be manhandled by all three kids. Leighton gnawed on the side rails when she was teething (I would literally find splinters of wood in bed with her!) so I'll need to some light sanding for sure.

Lullaby Paint seems to be the product of choice from the pins I've been seeing but I also want to give chalk paint a whirl. The crib is currently brown and I want to lighten it up a bit, either white or gray. Lots of crafts and DIY in my future. I love it!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

My little loves throughout the years! These little nuggets sure have grown and I can't believe there will be THREE in next year's picture. 

2013 | Gracyn just a few weeks old!

2014 | poor girl was sick but you wouldn't know it. Still all smiles.

2015 | Leighton's first Valentine's Day!

2016 | lots of heart-shaped food and fun with the girlies...

2017 | patiently waiting for daddy to get home so we can finish celebrating! and eat more candy....

Valentine Slime

Happy Valentine's Day Eve! That sounds better than "Happy Monday" right? 

Justin and I actually got to celebrate Valentine's Day a little early thanks to our very special, amazing, wonderful friends who offered to watch our kids on Saturday night. I mean, straight-out-of-the-blue sent a text that basically said "bring your kids here and go on a date." 

Everyone should have friends like that. ;)

And we owe them. BIG TIME.

We dropped them off and headed to eat at La Bodega for some delicious tapas followed by ice cream at Glace and a movie. It was wonderful.

Back to the grind, today, though! We were itching for an activity and I remembered last year when we made real-life slime and decided we needed to make it again, Valentine style. I had plenty of liquid starch leftover from lat time (I'm not even sure what other uses there are for liquid starch so this bottle will probably last us a lifetime...) but I needed to get some more glue per this recipe. 

The only problem was, every place I checked was completely out of glue. Is there a glue shortage or something?! Target and Michaels were no help. I found one bottle of white glue at Walmart and scooped it up. It worked fine, but I think I prefer the clear so the slime is a little more transparent.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Clear Liquid Glue
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/2 cup Liquid Starch
• Glitter, sprinkles, food coloring (optional)

Instructions

• Pour water into a bowl and add the glue. Mix well.
• Add in any extras like food coloring or glitter. We used red sprinkles this time. Mix well.
• Add in liquid starch and stir. It'll start getting slime-y right away. The more you mix it or play with it, the better it is.

I set the girls up at the table with some paper plates and let them go to town! 

Anyway, it's super easy to throw together. Leighton played with it a whole 5 minutes (it was nearing nap time) but G gets a little more use out of it. We store it in a plastic container and keep it around a few days!

We have no big plans for tomorrow, the girls will have a few goodies for Valentine's Day and my one goal for tomorrow morning is to pick up delicious cupcakes for dessert tomorrow night. After we eat tacos or something romantic like that... ;)

It's Friday and 66 Degrees...

(ONE}

It's the most beautiful Friday. We are counting down we can bust out of here and go play outside. And wait for daddy to get home. He was gone again this week and we are more than ready for the weekend.

{TWO}

Officially 12 weeks along with Baby #3 and you can definitely tell. I took a few selfies with my handy-dandy tripod yesterday. They're as awkward as ever but I do love documenting how the baby grows throughout pregnancy.

I took photos every 5 weeks with Gracyn in my pre-blog life and we did real-life fruit and objects with Leighton. G helped me and it was actually pretty fun, but a lot of work to find and then eat a watermelon in the middle of winter...

The very convenient BabyPics App will totally suffice this time around.

leggings

{THREE}

I'm going to be in dire need of some new maternity clothes. The last two times I've been pregnant I was working in an actual office setting that required me to get dressed every day. Now that I'm working from home, I still put a bra on most days but I'm not nearly as put together as I once was.

That being said, I should probably make an effort to look less like a slob kabob and add a few new staples to my pregnancy wardrobe. Also, turns out, the wide leg maternity jeans just won't cut it this time around. I tried them on and they are so silly. I have one pair of skinnies that will work and definitely need to replace my maternity leggings.

Here are a few things I've been eyeing to get me through the rest of winter and into spring. Come the dead of July, I might not even be clothed because 100+ degrees and 9 months pregnant sounds pretttttty miserable. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED. ;)

Nothing fancy, Target and Old Navy for life, right?! I also just remembered the other day H&M carries maternity so I'll definitely need to do some browsing there.

{FOUR}

Before bed every night, Gracyn gets to watch a YouTube video and she recently found this movie trailer. I don't know why but I think it's hilarious and I can't wait to see it!

{FIVE}

Who follows and loves BabyGuyNYC?! I never used to (my total loss!) until about a year and half ago when my cousin and I went to his baby gear show at Nordstrom. He's hilarious and knows his stuff when it comes to baby products. He teamed up with his sister and they started Guidance Guide which is a community for parents. We got in as a brand ambassador for their Parental Guidance site that is launching soon. The site will feature real, true product reviews by real parents on everything baby/kid gear related. I'm so excited to get started and connect with other moms and dads! Stay tuned for more info and I'll be sharing more here and on Instagram once we're up and running!

Have a great weekend!

Yearly Photo Books from Shutterfly

I posted this photo on Instagram a few days ago and a couple of friends asked about the yearly photo books I make for the girls using Shutterfly. 

I started putting these together when Gracyn was born and am really glad I've stuck with it for each kid. It makes up for the half-empty baby books sitting on my nightstand. Which, by the way, I fully intend to fill in... some day. 

Until then, I'm glad I have this blog and these books to look back on! We just got Leighton's "YEAR TWO" book so it was perfect timing to get them all out of the closet and take a minute to look through them!

Also, Shutterfly has no idea who I am so this isn't a sponsored post or anything like that. They do have a pretty sweet giveaway going on on Instagram so I might try and win the grand prize but other than that, I'm just sharing because I really like 'em! ;)

Like I said, we juuuust got Leighton's new book and it arrived in this giant orange package. I always make a 12x12 hardcover photo book because I love the size of the pictures. Each girl has their own book for each year of life (Year One, Year Two, and so on) and follows "their" year in order. 

Gracyn's books run from February to January, always ending with her birthday. I need to put her YEAR FOUR book together which will start with last February (right after she turned 3 and end with her 4th birthday in January). 

Leighton's always follow the true calendar year (January - December). Her first page is technically Christmas because I like to highlight the major holidays but after that, it goes in order thanks to her December birthday. 

I'm a freak, I know. Feel free to arrange your books in a more sane manner. Ha!

Moving on. 

Happy mail day!

The cover is my favorite part because I love seeing how much they change throughout the year! Leighton as a fresh one-year old versus a two-year old. I then go cry in the corner because THEY CHANGE SO MUCH DURING THE YEAR!!!!!

The pages and layout are completely customizable so I usually go through and pick my favorite photos from each month and put them in a giant spread.

photo every month

The girls' first books are basically a recap of their monthly chalkboard/sticker photos (Gracyn / Leighton). G loves to have me read them and thinks it's so silly that she waited until she was  5 months old to roll over and laugh for the first time. Girlfriend took FOREVER to laugh....

Anyway, I just love them and they're such sweet mementos to have around the house. If you make one, or use Shutterfly for any other product, make sure to wait for one of their killer sales. You can usually snag them at 50% off plus free shipping (plus Ebates!) which saves a ton of cash. The 12x12 books are pretty spendy and I always end up adding additional pages but the discounts help for sure!

They're also great about mailing coupons or free offers (like a large 16x20 print or personalized calendar or something like that) and every once in a while Old Navy and other stores will hand out promo codes with your in-store purchases!

I plan to make books for Baby #3 as well. By the time the kids are grown we'll have 53424 photo books floating around the house but I'll be one happy mama! And surely the kids will appreciate them when it's all said and done, right?! ;)

Be My Valentine

Target and their $5 crafts come to the rescue! Again! I'm a big fan of picking these up every once in awhile to have in my back pocket should I need a distraction from all the fighting or a reason to turn off the TV.... ;) 

They're so easy to throw together and Gracyn takes stickers very seriously. Before we knew it, we were all sorts of festive up in here!

We got the first banner done, hung it on the mantel and decided it was missing something. We have approximately 1 million pom poms floating around the house (get your own here! join the party! they're not annoying at all! juuuust kidding. we love them.) so I sent the girls on a mission to find me all of the red, pink and white ones so we could make our own DIY pom pom garland. 

Now, I assure you, you don't need a step-by-step tutorial on how to make this yet here I am. Super easy. Because of said 1 million pom poms and a cheap sewing kit, we had everything on hand to make this really quick.

Mission accomplished! Plenty of festive poms to go around! I simply threaded a needle and and stabbed through the middle of each pom pom to string them on the line in whatever haphazard order Gracyn told me to do. She was in charge. It almost drove me crazy not putting them in a pattern but in the end, I kind of like the randomness!

Cute, right? This is the extent of our Valentine's Day decorations so I'm feeling pretty good about life so far. Next up, figuring out Valentines and a cute snack idea for next week's school party!

oh, hey friday!

{ONE}

First, thank you ALL so much for the love regarding our newest little bundle! Social media is a funny thing but I'm glad it exists we we can stay in touch with friends (new and old!) and have a way for family members to keep up with the kiddos.

{TWO}

Justin has been out of town for work again this week so my mom graciously offered to come down and visit. She's kept the girls entertained while I work and cook meals. She even picks up toys at the end of the day. Basically a lifesaver and we'll miss her dearly! #dontleaveme

{THREE}

The Super Bowl is (apparently) this weekend. Never mind the football game, can we talk about the food for a sec? We don't throw a wild party or anything but we do manage to whip up a few appetizers and snacks to enjoy while watching the commercials. That being said, if I have to eat Rotel and Lil' Smokies (Justin's FAVORITE EVER...) I might lose it. I love you, but no.

via

Instead, how about these bourbon bacon meatballs or cheesy wonton quesadillas?! The kids might also get a kick out of chocolate covered strawberries that look like footballs. Either way, we need to up our snack game this year.

{FOUR}

G has a Valentin's Day party at school and I've been scouring Pinterest for free printables to hand out to her little friends. These starburst ones are super cute. I really like these "hooked on you" and "smartie" valentines, too! There are a ton of options out there, we'll probably have a hard time picking just one!

via

{FIVE}

I'm not a huge cook but I've made this copycat Mongolian Beef recipe a couple of times (and again last night) and really like it. It can get a tad salty because of all the soy sauce in it (a low-sodium option might be better?) but love the flavor. Super easy ingredient list, too, which is always a win in my book.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I have big plans to take naps and let Justin handle bedtimes before he leaves again on Monday! ;)