Heart Shaped Everything

Hope you all are having a great Valentine's week so far! We have another snow day so Brandon is home from work & Harper is putting socks on her hands every two minutes thinking it is her golden ticket to go play outside. I thought I would share some details on some of the fun heart shaped foods we have been cooking up lately, some super easy things that you can throw together in no time & hopefully your kids will love as much as Harper has!

These mini pizzas are the easiest. I just used a thing of pillsbury dough, pulled it apart & formed it into heart shapes. One roll of thin crust dough made three smaller sized pizzas & you just bake them according to the directions on the package. You can add any toppings you want, we did mostly just cheese but added a few heart shaped pepperonis cut out with a mini cookie cutter. This is my favorite because Harper loves helping make homemade pizza, especially putting the toppings on.

And then there's breakfast. You know my love for a holiday themed breakfast! Some XO french toast cut out with cookie cutters with some fresh fruit that is pretty much already heart shaped & you are good to go! ;)

Another easy treat that I love giving to friends/family is festive popcorn! I made regular white popcorn, sprinkled on a little sea salt, drizzled it in melted white chocolate chips & added some simple heart sprinkles before it hardened. You can get creative with this by adding pretzels, chex or m&ms, you know the drill! ;) You can also use almond bark instead of white chocolate if you want it to harden quicker. A perfect snack to throw little paper bags or mason jars to give as a sweet treat to the people you love! 

Happy baking & heart-shaping! ;) XO

Harper's Birthday Week

I can't believe my baby girl turns TWO this week! Yesterday was an emotional day for me, we switched her to her big girl bed & moved all of the baby furniture over to the nursery. I didn't expect it to be so hard, but I sobbed like a baby during it all & it only got worse when we put her in her new bed for the night. She has been acting so grown up lately, putting together sentences & acting like such a little girl playing with her dolls & wanting to help me with everything I am doing. Two years flew by & I feel like it is all hitting me at once. Can she please just stay this little forever?
These pregnancy hormones are certainly not doing me any favors.

You can read more about her big girl room here. I will share more details & pictures soon!

Onto less teary-eyed subjects, we are so excited to celebrate her birthday on Saturday! We are having a small party with friends & family, lots of yummy treats & balloons galore. All of Harper's favorite things. I can't wait to share more!!
For her birthday gifts, we are keeping it really simple but got her a few cute things that I know she will love. A numbers puzzle (since she loves her alphabet one so much!), new jammies, a fun bracelet ("beshets" are her favorite), some Mickey coloring books & the puppy book she always wants to read when we go to the bookstore! We also bought her a step stool from Ikea so she can do more in the kitchen with me like she always wants to. Plus it will be the perfect height for her to wash her hands in the bathroom sink when we tackle potty training. Of course, we are giving it a little makeover first!

Numbers Puzzle \\ Flo & Wendell Book \\ Striped Pajamas \\ Bracelet \\ Step Stool

We also have a ton of construction going on near one of the main roads by our house, so Harper has become totally obsessed with "diggers." I found the cutest set of toy construction equipment (a tractor, excavator, etc.) last week on Zulily that I know she is going to go bonkers for! Every little girl needs a few toy trucks, right? :) 

 

It's been a long day over here, we are ready to kick back & watch it snow. Monday is almost over!

28 Weeks

Floral Striped Top

How far along: 28 Weeks, rolling into the third trimester!

Gender: Girl

Weight gain: 20 lbs.

Maternity clothes: I've officially stretched out every sweatshirt that I own so I better slow my roll & stick to maternity clothes from here on out.

Stretch marks: No

Belly button in or out: Out

Sleep: Sleeping is good despite another cold.

Best moment this week: Passing my glucose test. Chocolate croissants for life!!

Miss anything: We had some beautiful weather this week that really made me miss a good patio beer. Or two.

Movement: This week's theme seems to be kicks to the ribs.

Cravings: Finally caved & bought a box of Pop Tarts I have been dreaming about for weeks. Contemplating trying a homemade recipe very soon! :)

Queasy or sick: This was a rough week, tons of heartburn, sick with a cold for the last few days & exhaustion is at an all time high.

Looking forward to: A whole week full of good excuses to have tons of chocolate & celebrating my sweet girl's second birthday!! Time sure flies when you're having fun.

The rest of our afternoon will be spent switching around everything in the girls rooms! I finally found knobs for Harper's dresser (pink floral & green glass) & I am loving the mismatched look. Wish us luck as we tackle the first night in the big kid bed tonight!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!! XO

Makeup & Skincare Favorites

These days, my favorite beauty products are really just chapstick, sunglasses & a hat. But since I do have to leave the house on occasion, I have a small stash of beauty products that I really love & am excited to share with you!

With any makeup or beauty product, I will rarely buy something unless I have heard rave reviews about it & I love hearing what other moms, bloggers or makeup artists recommend. So these are my picks, all are honest reviews, things that I love & things that work well for my (extra sensitive) skin.

Smashbox BB Cream \\ NARS Concealer \\ Philosophy Airbrush Powder \\ NARS Bronzer

Sonia Kashuk Blush \\ Stila Eyeshadow

L'Oreal Eyeliner \\ Buxom Mascara \\ L'Oreal Mascara

My makeup routine starts with cleanser, I use either Philosophy Purity (which leaves my skin feeling seriously so soft & kicks ass at removing eye makeup) or my new favorite, Yes to Grapefruit Correct & Repair Daily Cleanser (this is an exfoliator, but is amazing at removing all of my makeup, smells so good & has tons additional skin benefits). I use Olay Regenerist Serum under my makeup as both a moisturizer, wrinkle fighter & for the smooth, velvety texture it leaves behind.

BB Creams are my favorite. Really, it's like the best thing that ever happened to makeup for moms. One quick application evens skin tone & covers imperfections without looking like you piled on tons of foundation, they blend well & most of them have lots of additional skin benefits (like SPF or acne fighters). I've tried a few brands, L'Oreal is a great one but they have really limited colors (like light, medium & dark) which I didn't feel matched my skin color very well. I am loving the Smashbox Camera Ready BB (in Fair or Light/Medium depending on the time of year) though, it's a little bit on the thicker side but I really love the way it looks. I tackle dark undereye circles with Nars Creamy Concealer (in Vanilla), which I seriously can not say enough good things about this brand, all of their makeup is amazing (unfortunately a little on the pricey side though), including their Bronzer (in Laguna) that I have also used for years.

Philosophy Supernatural Airbrush Powder has been one of my favorite makeup products for years, my sis-in-law introduced me to it forever ago & I have loved it ever since! It is an easy-to-apply powder that covers really well & looks great worn alone. They recently discontinued the one I have shown above (tears were shed) but I was told that this may be the replacement for it, almost identical powder, just with a different applicator.

I love Sonia Kashuk blush because it has a really pretty matte finish & comes in lots of different shades of pink, plus you can find them at Target, which is always a bonus! And they last forever because just a tiny bit goes a long way. I don't wear eyeshadow very often, but Stila shadows are my favorite. They blend easily & last forever, plus the colors are so pretty & can double as a highlighter! My favorites are Kitten (for more of a nude pink) & Oasis (more of a nude gold), and on the rare occasion that I am actually trying to achieve a darker/smokey eye, I love their Jewel Shadow (in black).

I have used L'Oreal Liquid Eyeliner for years, I feel like it stays on so much better than pencils & the felt tip makes it easy to apply a very thin line of it. For mascara, L'Oreal Voluminous is my go-to since it is super affordable, which I love because it's probably the one makeup item I use most often. But my overall favorite is Buxom Lash & I especially love using the two of them together. And, I don't really wear lip color other than the occasional nude gloss, but I am mostly just a chapstick hoarder.

I hope you have found this helpful or maybe found a few new beauty basics that you may want to try in your next makeup rotation. I'm pretty loyal to these items but if you have something that is a must try, be sure to let us all in on the secret!! ;) 

For now, I am off to sniffle my way through the day as I battle my 60923849th cold of the season & attempt not to drown while I try my very first Neti Pot. Happy Hump day friends!! XO

Valentine's Day Love

It's February, more cold weather but lots of LOVE!

We are gearing up for a busy two weeks, putting together plans for Harper's birthday party & our Valentine's Day festivities. Always so much fun! I put together a little Valentine's Day gift for Harper, including a nightlight for her new big girl room, some fun heart straws from the Target dollar spot, this cute glittery kids wristlet (which hasn't arrived yet, but was too cute to pass up on clearance!) & of course, stickers!

Love You Nightlight \\ Heart Raglan Shirt \\  Neon Heart Stickers

Pink Necklace from J.Crew Kids Outlet

Stickers & balloons are really her favorite, yet sometimes most hated two things in the entire world. She wants more and more and MOAR of them, but then there is the slight chance that the stickers will not un-stick to something or the balloons will float away (or God forbid they will pop), in which, her world will fall apart.

In other random news...

I had my glucose test this morning so fingers crossed that I pass since I live on sweets these days. The orange drink itself never really bothered me, it's the four hours of fasting before the appointment & since mine was early while Harper was in school, that meant no breakfast. I hustled to Starbucks right after & grabbed coffee and the most delicious chocolate croissant of my life. I literally didn't even look at it, just started wolfing it down, totally expecting it to be an actual chocolate pastry but instead it was a regular warm croissant filled with melty chocolate. A pregnant girl's dream come true, really. 

Harper has been putting together lots of words & forming some sentences these days, which is nothing short of amazing. Some of my favorites are "whoa! look at dat!" or "here kitty kitty!" We also taught her to say "ice ice baby" & "like a boss" for no real reason, but it sounds seriously cute coming out of her mouth. 

And, chalkboard prints in my shop are still 25% off with coupon code BEMINE25 good though Valentine's Day! :)

Earmuffs.

Ever since Harper was born, even while I was carrying her in my belly, we have really put some effort into watching our language. If you've been reading this blog long enough, you'll know that I tend to let a curse word slip here & there, but I can honestly say that we've really turned it around since having kids. Unfortunately, there are always those times where words slip out in conversations with each other when we may not even know that Harper is listening.

Rewind to when we bought this house, it didn't come with a washer & dryer so we found one on Craigslist. I had dreams of owning a brand new set that is quiet & efficient, but at the time we had lots of other new home expenses on our plate, so we got a used set. It was an older, mismatched set that we bought, but it worked just fine, all except for the spin cycle on the washer. When the spin cycle came around, the washer would shake violently & attempt to shimmy it's way straight out of the laundry room. The sound could easily be mistaken for a helicopter landing on our roof. We dealt with it though, we just knew we couldn't run the washer while Harper was napping, but started to consider finally buying a new set because with the new baby coming, we knew naps & laundry were both going to be more frequent.

Then, a few weeks ago, my brother's friend who was moving out of state mentioned to him that she was in a bind, she needed to sell her new washer & dryer set because she couldn't take them with her. He let us know & we thought it would be a good idea, so we listed our set on Craigslist, with an obvious disclaimer about the spin cycle issue. We actually ended up giving our set away to the gentleman who came to look at it, their set broke just days before Christmas & they also had a baby on the way, so it seemed like the right thing to do knowing they were going to hate it during nap time too.

Anyway, we got so excited about our new front load washer & dryer, which could wash double the size loads of laundry & had an extra quiet spin cycle. Holla! Until out of nowhere, the dryer started beeping. A loud, high pitched, ear piercing beep goes that off randomly, whether the dryer is running or not. It beeps during the cycle, it beeps if the washer is running & that piece of shit beeps in the middle of the night after it has been turned off for hours waking us straight up out of bed. HOW!? 

It is such a nightmare because there is no way to predict when it is going to go off. We've done research & found out that all of the dryers of this model do this, it is a malfunction with the control panel (or something like that) which will require us to get a technician to come replace part of it for basically what we paid for it, which at this point, we may as well have bought a brand new washer & dryer! The only way to stop it from beeping is to unplug it, so just go ahead & picture me climbing on top of the dryer, sitting on it backwards & unplugging it with my feet since I can't get back there any other way because of my belly.

So between the two of us being totally dumbfounded about how this thing operates & constantly talking about why it beeps for no apparent reason all. the. time. Harper must have overheard a conversation or two. Because yesterday, after her nap, walking groggily down the hallway carrying her blanket, she heard the dryer.

Her eyes opened wide, she stopped in her tracks, clenched her fists & yelled "F*CKING BEEP BEEP!!!!"

Parenting at it's finest, folks. Time to invest in a new dryer, earmuffs for Harper & possibly a little soap for our mouths.

 Totally irrelevant picture, this is Harper covering her ears when we use the blender. It just seemed fitting for this post :)

27 Weeks

Black Maxi Dress \\ Happy Camper Tee

How far along: 27 Weeks

Gender: Girl

Weight gain: 15 lbs.+ (next weight check-in is first thing this week)

Maternity clothes: Yes (and wearing lots of my husband's tees these days too). Maternity favorites can be found in this post along with lots of cute dresses on my maternity style board.

Stretch marks: Eeek, not yet.

Belly button in or out: Out

Sleep: Sleeping well, still really loving my Bump Nest pillow, it has been amazing throughout my whole pregnancy so far.

Best moment this week: Fun in the snow! I also taught Harper how to unzip & pull off my boots that are nearly impossible to take off myself since I can't bend at the waist. It's pretty amazing, but probably takes me out of the running for mom of the year anytime soon ;)

Miss anything: Really really reeeeeeally looking forward to having more than one coffee a day once the babe arrives!

Movement: Lots of big kicks & rolls, we will find out this week if she is still breech.

Cravings: Still lots of fruit & sweets, but also random things like wings, sushi & popcorn.

Queasy or sick: Feeling good! Having some crazy heartburn & restless legs though, starting to feel like last pregnancy all over again.

Looking forward to: Valentine's Day & Harper's birthday, less than two weeks away & so many fun things planned! :)