Thursday, October 31, 2013

Five on Friday

Is it just me or did this week fly by? We've had a great but busy week here in our neck of the woods! I know I can say I am a little sleepy after last nights fun! Hope you all had a great and Happy Halloween! We sure did!!


::1::

I cannot tell you how happy I am about finding Promised Land milk here in FL!! Best milk known to man! If you have not yet tried this stuff....go RUN to the store now and see for yourself!! Thank you FL for bringing us the best! I feel like I am home in TX :)


::2::

On with the food items...Ya'll this cake is NO joke! Seriously. There is only five ingredients and it was beyond moist, beyond delish, and beyond heaven. Make this cake! I fed Paisley and made this at the same time so if I can multi-task you certainly can make this! P.S. its even better the next day!!


::3:: 
Ok, I am seriously freaking out about my new blog design!!! EEEEK!!!! Please check out my new look! The design was made by Vanessa over at GirlyandPretty . She also happened to be my Carabox partner and redesigned my blog for part of the "Fall in love with the season" theme. I am sooo thankful and sooo in love!! My favorite is the "About" Page. She did an excellent job folks! Stay tuned for a special offer next week :) You wont want to miss it!!


::4::
I need to still get photos edited and a post about last weekend, but I wanted to share a little sneak peek of last weekend and our trip to Sweetfields Farm. We drove about an hour north last week for a little outdoor festival filled with so many activities and so much fun it was unreal. Best part was seeing Paisley light up over everything!! Best day so far!! We did her 9 month photos and our family photos and I cant wait to share them with you all, especially because it was my first time behind a "real" camera :) 



::5::

Happy Halloween! We had a blast last night! We took our little mouse "trick or treating" next door to our neighbors, and ventured around the neighborhood at my in-laws. I would say Paisley had a lot of fun! Cant wait till she is bigger and we can do more :)






Happy weekend friends!




Surprise Date Night!


Lets just say that this date was way looooong overdue. I have been asking the hubs for months if we could steal away or a few hours, but with working on this house it left no time to do anything all, and lets just say I was overly excited when the hubs called yesterday and said get dressed up and be ready by 4:30! I somewhat went into panic mode thinking of having to get myself ready and a little one ready by a certain time. Since having Paisley, being fashionably late is how we roll!!


All that to say, we had a wonderful time, and I somehow came back feeling refreshed again. Its amazing leaving your baby behind and how young you can feel in those few short hours. I felt like a young high school girl again, getting to go on a special date with her boyfriend :) Anyone else ever feel like that when you get a night out as just grown ups?


The hubs took me to a great dinner place on the water that had amazing seafood alfredo and cobbler, then we drove to the beach and sat and watched the sunset. We live in FL and I was so quickly taken back by how peaceful and serene the water is and how we have not made it to the beach in months. I almost forgot how much I really love the beach. After dark, we ventured on over to Publix to grab candy and Promised Land milk, because no night is ever complete without candy....well at least in our house! And we topped of the night by catching up on our shows and eating candy!


The hubs did a great job! I am one lucky wife :)


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Under Construction!!

Hello Lovely Friends!!
Please excuse a brief interruption! I am getting a new blog design!! My site should be up and running later today :) Cant wait for you all to see the new design! It looks FABULOUS!!!


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Winners Are...

Just want to say thank you to all the ladies that entered the giveaway!!
Here are the winners....


Thank you all!

Easy Peasy Flat Out Amazing Pumpkin Spice Cake

This cake is no joke!! I made this tonight for dinner with my in-laws and I wont share how many pieces I had ;) It was seriously that amazing!! Moist and pure heaven.

The best part is....*drum roll* it was super easy and it took me five minutes to throw together and 25 minutes to bake.

Ya'll ready for this....


Ingredients:
Box of Spice Cake Mix
Can of Pumpkin


1/2 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
3 Eggs
1 tsp Cinnamon (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting (optional)


Directions
1. Preheat oven and grease a 9X13 pan
2. Mix all ingredients well 
3. Pour batter into pan
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes
5. Let cool
6. Frost


Thats seriously it! I promise you wont regret making this cake!!
 Perfect for this fall weather, and I mean who doesnt love Pumpkin Spice!?


Enjoy!!

Last Chance

Tonight is the last chance to enter my giveaway! If you havent done it yet, you have just a few hours left!!! EEEK!! I cant wait to announce the winners!!

Enter here

Good luck!!

Monday, October 28, 2013

All the Lessons Learned in Motherhood Thus Far


Hi friends!
I wrote this post a while back as a guest post for Ashley over at A Nelson's Nest and wanted to share a few tidbits that I learned since I became a mom. I was a nanny for many years, and the oldest of lots of children, but something about when they handed me my baby made me so unbelievably excited but also freaked out by everything that was to come. When I babysat, those kids came with an instruction manual so to say and here was my beautiful baby girl and I was having to write the manual for her. Talk about scary! Its been quite the ride, but I love being a mom more than anything else and I am so blessed by our sweet girl!


   The week of my due date I was counting down the moments and hoping that at any second I would go into labor, but as my due date came and went {I went to the beach on my due-date}, time seemed like it stopped and I was praying and trying everything imaginable to make that baby come. Anyone else with me? No, I'm the only one? Okay. Excellent.

The day of my due-date
Little bit about me:
 I am a first time Mom, though I am the oldest of many, many children, and was a nanny for seven years, so having a baby felt simple. I thought I knew exactly what was up a head, and boy has my mind been blown several many times. I have the greatest husband, the cutest pup, we live in sunny, hot, Florida and I am a Worship Leader. There is hardly a dull moment in our crazy, chaotic lives, and honestly I wouldn't change a thing. Paisley is the highlight of my blog, almost every post is for her, but truth be told, sometimes I just have to write about everything else in-between the girl that stole our hearts. 


I thought today I would share a few lessons that motherhood has taught me in this short, crazy, fun-filled ride I am on. Please feel free to add to this list too :)

Teething really sucks. I really wish that someone would have told me way a head of time, what I was getting myself into. Paisley just cut two teeth and it has been anything less of glamorous for us, or well, for me. She has stopped eating, stopped sleeping, stopped nursing like she normally does and she has become constipated all.the.time, all the while, she seems happy during the day. Its been a rough ride with these little toothers and I cant imagine how much worse it might get. Eeek! Prepare yourselves Momma's because even though they are in tremendous pain, you will be wishing that you could hide out in your closet all day, praying when you open that door its all over. Seriously. 
Breast pain. I am sure you all are sighing about this and wishing we could skip thism, and yes, really for my sake I wish I could skip this, but holy heck does it hurt. I joke with my husband that its almost as bad as contractions! No lie. When you have bleeding, sore, cracked nipples, the whole shebang, its sooo not fun at all. I knew it would hurt to some extent, but this is pain that literally takes your breath away sometimes. Breastfeeding for us has been up and down, up and down. You can read about the madness herehere, and here. I couldnt imagine giving my baby anything else, but its definitely given us our fair share of trouble. Who knew it would be so hard and so complicated?


Sleep deprivation is at its all time finest. Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!! Luckily, well until recently, Paisley has been a great, natural sleeper. She practically was sleeping through the night when we brought her home, and then the teeth started appearing and all that "sleeping" went out the window. Now she is up every hour to three hours sometimes. I honestly dont know how you mothers out there with babies that wont sleep, do it. I remember doing all nighters in college, and yes, I was messed up for a few days, but this takes exhaustion to a whole new level. They say sleep when your baby sleeps, but how is my house going to clean itself? Clearly, I am going to be the one that has to do it, and when you ask, while the baby is sleeping. Duh. Aint nobody got time to sleep while baby sleeps.
Multi-tasking. I am a great multi-tasker, but now with a baby, multi-tasking takes on a whole new meaning. Who knew that you could nurse your baby, while eating, while putting on make-up, while emailing, while making phone calls, or while, lets be honest ladies, using the restroom. You learn to do many a thing, when you have a baby. Its a great thing that God wired us woman to be able to have so many "open windows" so we could save the world all in one breath. Thats how it feels sometimes am I right??


Baby blues are for real. I really hate this subject, but I wish more than anything someone would have talked to me about this one. Let me be real for a moment. I thought I would totally be exempt from this one, and thought no way will I go through that because I will be able to see and hold my baby and life will be grand. Boy was I wrong. The day my mom left, every emotion and every hormone in my body just had a hay-day. I remember just sobbing and sobbing for weeks, and I honestly dont even know why. I missed being pregnant at times, even though I felt so uncomfortable for half my pregnancy, but every thought about being pregnant, her moving inside of me, hearing her heartbeat and doctors visits made me just bawl. I have no idea. I should have been happy she was here, but there was a part of me that just really missed having her be inside of me and being connected. When I had to return the hospital pump I cried. I cried all the way home from my six week doctor check-up, I cried when I thought of my mom not being able to help me, and sometimes I just cried. Sometimes it felt as if I had no control over my body and it would just cry. There would be no rhyme or reason for it. I fear having another baby and having to deal with the "baby blues" because for me, that seriously was the worst part about the whole process. Its the one thing that I do remember clearly. I dont understand why more woman dont speak out. We all experience it, most I should say experience this and it would be so much more helpful if we had other outlets besides just husbands and mothers to help us through the roughest part.


Sex after a baby. Yes I am going there. For me, after having a baby, I felt so un-sexy and so not in the mood a lot of the time in the beginning. I ended up with a few stretch marks and that was enough to put the brakes on and want to be covered from head to toe. And the loose belly fat from being so stretched out made me feel anything less than desirable. It does take time getting use to again, but let me tell you a secret... have fun and get a little crazy and get a little outside of yourself, and be the wife that you were before you were a mother because how do you think that baby got there in the first place?? Just because you have a baby doesnt change anything or who you are. Your body may look a little different, but you aren't a different person, you're a mommy, but you are still that same wife too :)


You learn to love deeper. Before Paisley arrived, so many people told me that you will never be able to understand what love is really like till you have a child, and they were right. I love my husband dearly, more than words could ever really say, but the love that I have for Paisley is something that I never thought I could feel. I cant even explain it, but she has definitely taught me to love so much deeper and so much harder. She makes every bad day totally worth it, and one smile completely turns my world upside down. Having a child is one of life's greatest creations and rewards. There is no greater love than the love you have for a child and meeting them for the very first time. 
"You" goes out the window. We can all just laugh here because I know that I am not the only one who feels this way. I cant even remember the last time that I got full on ready, took a long hot shower {if you are a momma-to-be, enjoy this now!!}, shaved my legs and my armpits, did the works. I am 100% ok if Paisley is dressed to the nines while I have at least managed to get my teeth brushed. Most of my days consist of a fast shower, throwing my bangs back, mascara, blush and a little powder. My routine use to take me 45 minutes to an hour and now it takes me about 20-30 minutes. That is some big improvement y'all and my parents are probably secretly shocked for this girl being such a girly-girl. A baby changes everything :)


 You get to experience the world all over again. Its true. There is so much excitement when I get to see and learn "new" things all over again with Paisley Grace. If i were really honest, I would tell you I am so overly giddy about Christmas coming up and celebrating her first Christmas. We seriously will be going all out this year because I am so excited!! There is so much that I have forgotten about in life and she seriously makes me live everything out like it was the very first time. I have definitely learned not to take anything for granted. Its like having a baby has given my life a whole new fresh start and I am in love. I love being able to see the world through her eyes. Its the best feeling and the greatest experience you will ever experience. 
Lastly, You learn to let the small things go. I had all these grand ideas when Paisley came and how I was going to have a strict schedule for her to be on, and lets face it, that lasted about a week before I decided that was ridiculous. By nature, I am a busy body, and my life is go, go, go all. the.time so trying to stay put all day, every day in one place was incredibly hard for me. Its taken me some time, but I have learned to not sweat the small stuff and be so uptight. If Paisley naps, she naps. If she doesn't get an afternoon nap in, its ok. Things that I said I would never do, I do. Its funny how you have all these preconceived notions in your mind and when you are in the midst of it all, it all changes. If it makes your baby happy, then so be it. A happy baby equals a happy Momma!!




Mommy & Me/Weekend Recap


I cant believe that I am going to say this, but I am kinda happy that Monday is here!
I say this because between a last minute move, getting settled, family coming to town and a busy, busy non-stop weekend, I think Paisley and I need to catch our breath. Today was the first time in a long time that I had to make myself get up and get going, and while I was forcing myself out of bed, Paisley is still sleeping! Last night was the first time that she has slept all the way through the night since I dont even know when :) Tired girl! Tired Momma!


My cousin came to visit this last week and we had a blast! Friday we ventured down into downtown Tampa where we had lunch and tea at the Oxford Exchange and then for a special treat on the way home we stopped by the best place called Schakolad. Friday evening we spent time on the beach, well, eating at the beach but still it was nice change of scenery. Saturday we spent most of the day at a place called Sweetfields Farms where we did Paisley's 9 month photos (post to come). The place was amazing. It was everything that Fall represented and while it was slightly warm it didnt stop us from having any fun!! Paisley LOVED the baby goats and everywhere they went she crawled right along the side of the fence. She watched others feed the goats and insisted she try as well. Its amazing how smart she really is because anything that anyone did around the goats she picked right up on and did the same!


Paisley also took her first 3 steps Saturday! My baby is getting soo big and Im afraid I am in big trouble!!!


Sunday we spent the morning at church followed by an afternoon of naps, hanging up decorations and topping off the weekend at Cracker Barrel.


I would say this weekend was a blast and it was also the first weekend in months that we were able to get out and go do something other than working on our house! It felt beyond good. I feel the stress melting :)


I hope y'all had a great weekend!!





 If you havent had a chance to enter into my giveaway Wednesday is the last day to enter!!

Have a great week!!


My Everyday Love

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Five on Friday!

Hey Y'all! 
No normal Five on Friday post here today since I have family in town and we literally just got moved, but we are completely moved and settled :) Be watching for pics next week!!

LASTLY, if you have not yet entered into the giveaway do so now because time is running out my dear friends! Good luck!!

I will resume to regular blogging mode next week.
Have a great weekend!!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Mommy & Me

Woah Monday how did you sneak up on me so fast!?
 Im sure y'all are tired of hearing about this but we are MOVING TODAY!!!
Our house isnt nearly finished but we have to be out of the condo we are renting so while there are few things left to do at our house, we are moving in and will finish tomorrow and some the next few weeks! I am so ready for the stress to be over and for everything to be unpacked and to feel like we have a normal life again. Im sure Paisley will love feeling like she has something stable and structured again instead of running from place to place. Pics will come soon enough :) The good news about all of this is that my cousin comes Wednesday for a few days so that means time away for this girl and some desperately needed F-U-N!!
I also feel lame because I didnt get any pics this weekend with my mini, so to suffice I will post some of my favorite photos from the day she was born :) 
AND, if you havent entered into my giveaway go check it out and enter to win some amazing skincare products!





Happy week Y'all






My Everyday Love

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Five on Friday

Y'all we have till Tueday to move! Its getting so close and so surreal! Im ready to feel like I have a normal life and a husband again AND my cousin comes to visit Wednesday for the weekend! Im ready for next week to get here all ready, but first my favorite part of the week a little....




My little peanut turned 9 months on Tuesday! My does the time fly. The days are long and the years are short definitely rings true. 




Paisley thought that the day after she turned 9 months she would start doing a little something like this.....this is how I found her after nap on Wednesday! Im in trouble y'all!!




Im hosting my FIRST giveaway ever!! If you like to try new skincare products or you would like to see just how great Rodan + Fields is, enter the giveaway for a chance to win a "mini facial" package!! No lie, I am loving this product line and boy does it work wonders!! 



With renovating AND a baby, trying to healthy right now just plain doesnt exist. Im on the hunt to try and find easy, quick, healthy lunch ideas. Any recommendations? I tried the herbed cheese and tomato bagel and it came out delish!!



Florida has somewhat started to get the memo that its Fall!! Its been cooler and less humidity and I am oh soooo excited!! Its still a little too warm for boots, but you can bet that within a few weeks I will be digging those babies out!!



Have a great weekend Y'all!