Five Friday Favorites.

Thanks be to God it is Friday. This has been a long week. As my son approaches 3 years old he is starting to challenge and test my limits more and more. I feel some days it is a constant battle between the two of us which is just plain exhausting. Winter is slowly sucking away my soul my child needs to get out and run and THIS week really pushed me over the edge because it snowed twice and then way sunny and then was sleeting and then sunny...

On a more positive note I thought I would share with you some of my favorite things I have seen across this crazy space we call the web this week.

1.I just discovered the blog I love you more than Carrots a couple of weeks ago. She is adorable has two boys and is pregnant with her third boy. Yesterday she wrote the most honest beautiful post,you can read it here. It is truly so hard to stay home with kids and us SAHM do not always get the credit we deserve.

2. Me and My family have a little vacation planned for my 30th Birthday. I am on the market for a cute swim suit I love these two 

 Shopbop

 Victoria Secret 

3. I love finding new cute headbands for Pippa to wear and people always ask me where I find them and the answer it Etsy, Etsy, Etsy... I just ordered her this cute little one that I think will be cute and light for summer at a shop called Kindred Oak 

4. After 4 and half years of marriage our bowls that we received as wedding presents have started to disappear either they have been dropped chipped or lost in the move we are in need of more bowls. I love these simple white textured one from Antropologie

5. Lastly I am totally in love with a baby shower featured over on my favorite blog Lunchpailsandlipstick I love idea of a casual backyard party with a fun food truck of course this has now got my mind racing for Pippas first Birthday party... how gorgeous are these images 

This past week...

Happy Monday! Im in a particularly good mood this Monday because the weather has actually been nice. It was sunny and mild and glorious. I am going to do a big phone dump this morning. We have had two busy weekends last weekend parts of my family were in town that is my little brother below holding Pippa he came with my stepmom for a long weekend and was so great with Pippa and especially Kael 

 Pippas Christmas present from my sister arrived this week and it is darling. I have been looking at the Tiny Arrow shop for such a long time I am so excited to have one of her headbands of my own I can't wait to use this for Pippas first birthday pictures. How adorable is her packaging?

 On Thursday Pippa got her little ears pierced I have been wanting to do this for a while so when she had to go in for the second flu shot I thought no better time to get it pieced so our doctor did it. She cried..like really cried.. but was over it in 5 minutes and now they look adorable so glad we did it.

 This is how she feels about it..

This weekend we drove home to Philly and spent the weekend with Pippas Godparents and two of our best friends. Their daughter Brynn is a month younger than Pippa which is so fun we have been calling them Cher and Dionne from Clueless for obvious reasons and are secretly hoping for them to be best friends for life.

 

Just two girlfriends out for a day of shopping

Enjoying the nice weather eating outside 

 Pippas with her Godparents

 Here are all three of the kids together it was such a great weekend since having kids we normally have to say goodbye to friends at 6 to put them to bed or deal with totally cranky babies this weekend was fun because once we put the kids to bed we could stay up late chatting. One of my new years goals was to spend more time on true friends and this.  weekend was a great start to accomplishing that goal throughout the whole year.

Kids Art

Has anyone been watching the Bachelor? I am so conflicted one minute I am hating Juan P and mercilessly making fun of him and the next I am thinking aww what a sweet guy ( he cries real emotional tears when they go home - just stop it right now it is so sweet ) I am hoping the Nurse Nikki wins because I feel like she is being real - this " Im so sweet and nice " act from the girls in fake and getting old, we are watching for the drama ladies not to see sweet girlfriends politely date the same guy. I have been trying to do more arts and crafts with Kael lately the winter is long and terribly boring some days so when I saw this simple Valentine's Day themed art project that we already had the materials needed to do it I got excited. All you need is some paper ( we used canvas that I had left over from stocking up during a sale at Micheals ) red paint ( or honestly any color ) and a toilet paper roll bent into the shape of a heart. It was fun simple and something cute to hang on our gallery wall of kids art in the playroom. This is a picture of Kaels finished product

Pretty good for a almost three year old I was pretty impressed.

Speaking of hanging pictures in the playroom I have been trying to pick two or three mix with Kaels ( and in the future Pippas ) art and hang above the fireplace in the playroom and it has been so tough. SO MANY cute prints out there here are a couple of my favorites of my playroom inspiration board on pinterest

 I wanted to put the one above in Pippas room but just couldnt because Kael AND Pippa are my favorites works of art and I couldn't find it in blue or a color that would go with Kaels room so I will settle and put it in the playroom gotta keep it equal haha.

Weekend Recap/ Phone Dump

Good Morning!! The sun is shining here in Northern Virginia and I am ready to start the new week! Our weekend FLEW by it was overly packed ( especially for us who love to relax on the weekends ) Friday was Valentines Day and we were still pretty snowed in so I kept Kael busy with making cupcakes and doing a fun Valentines themed art project that I found here. I will share more on that tomorrow! Below are some pictures of us enjoying the snow ( I am using the word enjoying very loosely ) Kael and Jay absolutely love it while me and Pippa are much happier inside drinking a glass o wine ( just me she is still on a milk diet )

Here are some sweets for my sweets. It was actually a book and a pillow for each the last thing my wound up toddler needs is candy.

 I found this card from Husband J at Paper Source when I was picking out the kids pillows and knew I had to buy it. He is always yelling at me for browsing the internet before bed instead of resting my mind 

He got me a laptop case that I have been needing we purchased a new laptop in the fall and I have been without a case. I love this one is matches my diaper bag except it is in a fun bright red instead of black.

 My sweet boy icing v-day cupcakes ( obviously he had to wear this spiderman costume too )

 On Saturday we met up with my sister her family and my little brother and his girlfriend who were in town visiting for the weekend at the Natural History Museum. Kael LOVED it. Made me realize I need to take him into DC more often and check out the museums

Then last night we took the kids to see Disney on Ice - it was awesome Kael loved it. Pippa however was TERRIFIED of the loud music and the characters voices. Jay ended up standing at the top of our section by the usher for the show. I felt bad but afterwards he said he loved it and felt like Dad to the rescue so I guess it wasn't so bad haha.

 Here are some snaps of us before the show sorry for the crappy quality it was dark in there and my phone is horrible lately

Happily my stepmom and little brother are in town staying with us till tomorrow so Kaels marathon weekend continues till tomorrow when he will for surely be WIPED out for the duration of the week. I hope you guys have a great Monday!!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Happy Valentines Day! This is going to be a short post because I am going to spend the day with my three funny valentines. I thought I would pop in and leave with you with my favorite quote that speaks so much to me. I don't know if I have said much on here about how me and my Husband came to be together but I feel like I knew from the moment I laid eyes on him from across the room during a school talent show in 10th grade that this person was going to be my Husband. At the moment I wasn't aware or mature enough to realize it. We were the best of friends- so drawn to each other despite the craziness and dramatic flairs of high school, looking back and remembering the moment I saw him there was a piece of me that knew. No matter all the adversities that came ( such as colleges in Pennsylvania and Florida ) our way we always remained Friends and once we decided to make an attempt at a romantic relationship we never turned back.  When I laid eyes on each of my children the first time I had that comforting feeling that I had known them all of my life and that my soul was just waiting patiently for them to come and fill up my heart. I am so lucky to have all three of them and try to show them everyday not just Valentines. I hope you have a wonderful day with the ones that YOU love!

If You Can't Beat Em' Join Em'

This is a lesson in life - the fact that there is now 7 inches or more of snow outside my window right now is Gods way of teaching me how to gracefully bow out when I know I have been beaten. Mother nature you win, you have reared your ugly head many many times this winter and we are all accepting defeat now please just bring your sun! Happily Husband J is home from work today so that is a positive and Kael is thrilled to go out in the snow and this is the fluffy beautiful kind so I may just join them { If you cant beat em join em }. Tomorrow is valentines day and though this is definitely not my favorite Holiday of the year I am excited to give Kael and Pippa their valentines and I have a bunch of fun activities planned for Kael I will share a super easy one with you here on Saturday! 

While browsing J. Crews crewcuts line for spring clothes for Kael I came across Mara Hoffman for Jcrew girls and almost shed a shopaholic tear -the stuff is ADORABLE. Pippa wont be able to fit into this for another year but I may have to get something and save it for her for next summer because it is THAT adorable. 

This dress is not by Mara but UMMM it is gorgeous but also super expensive and would cause Husband J to stroke if I actually bought it. I would literally wear this dress myself just adorable!

 

I hope all of your who are covered in snow stay warm and if you are bored I am currently reading a really funny and ridiculous chic lit book called Crazy Rich Asians which got great reviews in People Magazine { cold hard news source I know } and I have by flying thru it!