August Things

You guys how is it August already?!

Today I'm throwing it back old school blogger style... no affiliate links or taking 20 minutes to style a photo. I had to step away from all of that the past two weeks and it felt so good to be more present with my sweet little family.

I'm not sure if its the 18-month age or just a much-needed break from teething, but Rowan has been a total sweetheart lately. We purposefully keep him up later so we can enjoy a few more minutes of playtime during a busy work week.

Once he is in bed, its off to clean up all five thousand things he lovingly moved from storage bins (which I'm pretty sure we can never have enough of) to the middle of the floor.

Then, if we're lucky, my husband and I manage to make dinner and eat it by 9 PM.

Trust me, this is in no way a complaint. We're in the stage of life that we hoped and prayed for... It's glorious and exhausting all at once. I love it.

I feel like we're in a sweet spot right now. So much so that we're even contemplating getting our hands on a fixer upper and moving again. Could be fun, could be totally crazy. 

So what's on the agenda for August?

Charleston series: I'm so excited to launch a series on Charleston next week! I've had so so many emails from readers and friends who are visiting. I figure its time to put my recommendations in a few posts! If you're planning a trip and have specific questions you want info on, ask away in the comments!

DIY picture frame wainscoting in our dining room. So far we've figured out our measurements and purchased the trim, but I feel like we may be on track to finish this in about a month if we only work during nap time. Woof. I'll be sure to share all of the good, bad, and ugly as this project moves forward!

Eating a cookie cake the size of my face: All in honor of my husband's birthday, of course. 

Counting down the days until cooler temps head our way: Because holy humidity. 

I'll be back tomorrow with a return of my Friday favorites, stay tuned!

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Easter 2016

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

With no family in town and rain all weekend it was a low key holiday for us but as delayed as I am on this post, I couldn't let a holiday go by without sharing a few snaps for memories sake!

Lots of drool and animal crackers going on in the photo above. What can I say, we keep it super glam around here!

We opted out of the official egg hunt at Magnolia Plantation on account of the torrential downpour and my unwillingness to put a poncho on my kid. We eventually made our way there once the rain passed and what was left of the egg hunting crowd was on its way out, so I actually think it was good timing.

The petting zoo was probably the muddiest but biggest hit of the day with Rowan. He stared at the animals for a few minutes before charging at them and causing us to scoop him up before he sent the startled animals to crazy town.

We're looking forward to going back to the plantation on a prettier day for sure but it was fun to get out for a little!

And just like that, another holiday is on the books!

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How I Really Feel About New Years

I have spent approximately zero hours planning, making resolutions, or motivating myself for the New Year.

I am actually shocked I stayed awake until midnight on New Years.

I have taken zero pretty photos, spent less time on social media than usual, and haven't started writing any of the 15 blog posts I have scheduled in my planner.

I crossed one thing off of my growing to-do list this weekend: take our Christmas decorations down. I'm sad to see the house more empty yet I feel liberated reclaiming that space. Plus that's 347 less things to worry about Rowan ingesting.

I haven't thought for a second about the fact that I'm 4 days from celebrating my last year in my 20's or freaking out because my baby is almost one.

Instead... I'm living.

This weekend I soaked up every single ounce of time with my little family. I didn't pull out my big girl camera, but I did take a shitload of super high quality iPhone videos of my husband chasing my son around the house. Those giggles, squeals, and smiles could not have been accurately captured via a pretty photo. And they were what I needed after an emotional holiday, to say the least.

I'm eating all of the carbs and donuts I want.

I sat on the couch and binge watched The Affair instead of cleaning and organizing our house. 

And I feel pretty jazzed about it.

If any of you are with me on the "no resolution/living in the moment" thing, then I'm raising my coffee (or glass of wine, depending on the time of day/behavior of my wild child) to you.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years! I promise this space won't be neglected any longer- I think I'm ready to get back into the swing of things and suck less at responding to emails :)

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Rowan's First Pumpkin Patch

Because you haven't seen enough babies in a pumpkin patch this week... I'm here to help you out with that.

We may have taken more photos of Rowan this past weekend than any other in his little lifetime. It started with a visit to Boone Hall Pumpkin Patch with Jillian, her husband, and Violet.

Going through these photos (and the 34089 others that I took) were so entertaining, there are some gems and its hard not to share them all. I'm happy to say Rowan rocked his first pumpkin patch experience with his hilarious (and mostly judgy) facial expressions, killer hair style, hay consumption, and Southern smocked outfit.

Smocked Shortall sold out but from Smocked Auctions. Baby Sperry Top-Siders.

I think we got one or two photos of each baby looking at the camera, but the majority they are either playing with the hay or trying to eat it. And when we tried to get photos of the mamas and babies it was kind of chaotic, I guess we're in for it now that they are more mobile!

He already has the ladies chasing after him...

On Sunday we took some family photos at James Island County Park with the super talented Shannon Michele Photography. The weather was perfect and I'm happy to report there was no sweating in our Fall outfits! I can't wait to share them!

Rowan tolerated the photos for a while but we started losing him as the thrill of chewing on my necklace and grabbing all the spanish moss took over. I still can't get over how cute he looked in his outfit, more on that tomorrow!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

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Disney, Weddinging, and the week of no sleep

Y'all it feels so good to be home!

We had a wonderful long weekend in Florida but there is something about getting home and back into the swing of things that is rejuvenating.

I mentioned last week that Rowan was congested (thank you mamas for all of the recommendations!) but he is still feeling under the weather so we've got a Pediatrician visit, mountains of laundry, and errands on the menu today. Not only is he still sick but we think he is also cutting another tooth and going through separation anxiety as he would not sleep the past week unless we were holding him. So basically what I'm saying is give me allllll of the under eye cream and coffee today.

And despite all of this, Rowan was still his happy self during his Disney visit! We love the Epcot Food and Wine festival so we used it as an excuse to take Rowan to meet Mickey.

I'm pretty sure he recognized the characters since we let him watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while he eats his solids during breakfast and it was so funny seeing his reaction. It went from excited (babbling and smiling), to unsure as the characters got closer to him, and then to trying to grab and eat their noses. ha!

Rowan passed out for most of the trip "around the world," which was great because I got to stuff my face with spanikopita at the Greece tent, some delicious chicken dish I couldn't pronounce and sangria in Mexico, brats in Germany and pierogies at the Poland tent. Oh and a pumpkin spice funnel cake in the America section. So.freaking.good.

Nothing like taking family photos after you sweat in the Florida heat for a few hours. But seriously, this kid is such a ham I love him so much!

We also headed to the most beautiful wedding in Boca Grande on Saturday. The food was probably the best I've ever had at a wedding and the venue was straight out of old Florida. Think Rayburn House from Bloodline with a golf course view instead of the ocean mixed with Lilly Pulitzer. There were a lot of ridiculous dance moves that night.

We have so many fun things coming up... a trip to the pumpkin patch with Rowan's girlfriend Violet, visiting Ally's sweet baby boy, family photos, and more. Loving this Fall so far!

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend!

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Soaking it up

This week I'm taking a little time out from blogging to soak up all the cuddles and to plant way too many kisses on Rowan's cute cheeks as he will be starting daycare next week.

I'm feeling allllll of the feelings about this transition. Like many new parents, we've gone over what seems like a million options and have decided this is the best for now.

Photo by Caitlin Thomas Photography

I feel so fortunate to have spent so much time with Rowan before he heads to daycare, I know a lot of mamas don't get the same opportunity. I was able to see him smile, laugh, and roll over for the first time. I also got to watch him learn to sit up on his own and crawl and that has been an amazing gift of working from home that I do not take for granted.

I'm confident he will love having some babies to play with and a short break from Ruby's endless kisses. 

I'll be back next week and there are lots of things planned for this little space of mine! Happy almost weekend y'all!

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Fall To-Do List

With the official start of Fall just a week away and the cooler temps we've been having (insert praise hands emoji) its safe to say summer is long gone in my mind.

You'll notice a few of these are not that special but I'm setting my bar low because, mom life.

1. Fall Manicure. Okay so the only reason this has anything to do with Fall is because I want to go with my trademark Fall polish, Essie Smoking Hot. I haven't had a mani-pedi since.... before Rowan was born? YIKES. It's time.

2. Drink all the Lattes, Pinot Noir and Pumpkin beers. Last year I was knocked up at this time so I couldn't enjoy these basic luxuries. I pretty much accomplished this one already so we'll just go ahead and mark this as "in progress." Something has to get me through a full day of work and deciding which tool Mickey's Clubhouse gang needs for its mission.

3. Bake Pumpkin-flavored things. I may even try my hand at slow cooker apple butter. Look out y'all, getting crazy over here.

4. Visit the Farmer's Market. We go to the Farmer's Market a lot but there is something about chowing down on my kettle corn with a scarf on and a cool breeze that makes it so much better.

5. Take cliche pictures of my kid. Think photos at a pumpkin patch, sitting in a pile of leaves, in his Halloween PJs and costume. Yep, I'm going full-on crazy Fall mom here and I don't care who knows it.

6. Wear something other than leggings.I got totally annoyed with wearing leggings last year while I was pregnant. Here's to skinny jeans this time around!

7. Hocus Pocus. Classic Bette Midler, no explanation needed. It's the best. 

8. Read Halloween books to Rowan. So far we have Llama Llama Trick or Treat and Room on the Broom (which is SO cute, I love reading it to Rowan) but we'll probably add more to the collection, like this one.

9. Carve Pumpkins. Love doing this the week of Halloween!

10. Take lots of family walks. We haven't been able to do this much with the humidity over the summer, but Ruby loves when we all walk together and Rowan just chills in his stroller taking it all in.

Honorable mentions go to making lots of soups and chilis for dinner, apple picking, beating my husband at Fantasy Football, and stop being sad that I have no mantel to decorate this year (yeah right).

What is on the top of your Fall bucket list? Anything I should add?!

Linking up with Natalie and Annie!

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Rowan's Baptism

This weekend I put on heels, (tried) to hide my receding hairline, ate my weight in dessert, and hosted 25+ friends and family at our home all in honor of Rowan's baptism.

Being so far away from both sides of the family, we did not expect to have such a huge crowd of people there to celebrate with us and it made the day oh so perfect! Rowan was a total ham all weekend, he is at such a fun stage right now!

We took tons of family photos but I dropped the ball on taking photos during the party. And somehow I didn't take a photo of my son by himself in his adorable smocked baptism romper! Mom fail. I did take a few photos of the food though... I guess I need to adjust my priorities?

I whipped up three batches of buttercream frosting mere minutes before the first non-family guests arrived, so needless to say there were no pretty rose cupcakes but they were still delicious.

Of course it was hot as balls so no one stepped outside the house during the party to play lawn games, but I couldn't blame them. Thank goodness my kid has a winter birthday now that we are Southerners.

I felt like I was in party prep mode all last week so as special as this past weekend was, I'm glad I can finally put my feet up and put a dent in some of the leftover wine. I hope you all had a fab weekend!

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Our Fourth of July

There is something about a 3 (or 4) day weekend that is good for the soul. How can I get a few more of those?!

If you know me, you know I'm pretty holiday-obsessed. But the 4th of July will always be special.

This time last year we were telling our parents they were about to be grandparents, and making them swear to keep it a secret from the rest of the family for a few more weeks.

Fast forward a year, and we get to look at this sweet face everyday.

You won't see any photos of the fireworks we watched, the strawberry pie that disappeared before our eyes, or the wine that was consumed, mostly because Rowan had a full schedule and we had to keep up with his appearances.

Said appearances consisted of meeting another great-grandma, meeting my good friends from college including Louise and her sweet babe (instant bffs.. Seriously how are babies so cute together?!), his first trip to Siesta Key, and his first swim in the pool. He wasn't a fan of the beach, I suspect it's due to the 100 degrees with 100% humidity thing like his mama, but we'll try again in a few months.

 

He did tolerate his pool float when he figured out he could eat it so there's that.

Now it's back to the grind... making to-do lists out the wazoo and party prepping for this weekend! I hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July! Yay, America!

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Recent Things

Hello friends! I didn't intentionally take a blog break but we're crazy and decided to do Rowan's first flight and road trip in a matter of weeks so I kind of lost track of time!

First I have to say thank you to all of you who commented and emailed about my last post. I just want to clarify that everything is great in this neck of the woods! I think it's good to hear from other mamas going through the same thing, strength in numbers right?

So just to keep y'all up to speed...

+ Rowan is almost 5 months old! How in the world did that happen? He has been learning so much lately and is very social. Now I know why mamas love this stage!
 
+ He was a champ on our flights, even when we got in at 2:30 AM after multiple delays. He slept through all four flights (we had to connect) and although I was a ball of nerves, he did great. I did learn a few things along the way so I'll share those next week!

+ We finally hung some shelves on the walls in the nursery and I feel like we are more settled in the new house. It will be nice to be able to do more fun things rather than devote our entire weekend to cleaning and organizing... because who wants to do that four weekends in a row?!

+ I'm embarassed to say that I'm still debating rugs for our living space. Y'all I am the worst decision maker. I have seen some that I like but I can't commit. Hoping Home Goods might surprise me with something this weekend!

+ Currently planning a big picnic we're hosting next weekend! We're going to have a lot of family in town and friends stopping by, so we've got a ton of food to make. If you have any good appetizer or side dish recipes you love, please share! I'm sure I'll be losing my mind Friday night trying to prep everything.

I'm so excited to have more time for blogging and DIY projects now that things are slowing down a little! Thanks for bearing with my MIA-self lately!

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Memorial Day Weekend

I hope you all had a fun Memorial Day weekend! There is just something about 3-day weekends and vitamin D. I need more of both in my life. (If you saw how pale my legs were, you'd agree)

We got a lot of organizing done in the new house, more on that later this week!

I finally got to meet blog friends Stephanie and Caroline during their vacation here in the Charleston area. It was fun having all of the new mamas there to catch up in real life, rather than via text messages or blog posts. I wish I could say Rowan was his usual happy self, but some evil version of him I've never seen before made an appearance and caused me to miss out on the first part of lunch. More on that at a later date.

Aside from the bloggers and babes lunch, our Memorial Day weekend was very low key and exactly what we needed..

There were lots of cute smiles with daddy. (Side note: I get the stretch marks and Dad gets the cutest photos? This seems like a raw deal.) (Another side note: Ignore the tacky letters on the wall... the painters are getting rid of those stat!)

Moccs

We fell asleep in whatever position we wanted.

And we wore our red, white and blue in honor of the brave men and women that serve our country.

That smile! I can't even.

And just like that, we're halfway through the week!

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World's Most Unorganized Moving Day

Sorry for the radio silence y'all! It's been one heck of a long weekend.

I'm happy to say we survived the world's most unorganized moving day. And if you don't believe me, take a look at this.

We opted to go the cheapest route possible for this move, meaning no moving companies and minimal boxes. (Because who wants to buy boxes? We used some from my husband's office). And in case you're wondering... yes, we did pack, unpack, and repack boxes several times throughout the weekend.

That's right. Absolutely no preparations were made before the big day.

If there is one thing about moving, its that you learn how much shit you accumulate over the years and proceed to put much more in the trash rather than let it take up valuable box space.

If it weren't for my parents and my cousin who came to help, it would have been a week-long event. Or the friends who offered to help would have sprinted in the opposite direction.

Even just having Grandma around to keep Rowan occupied was indispensable.

We took a break from the moving madness on Sunday to enjoy the hot weather by the water. R slept through everything, including the mad dash around Trader Joe's for two buck Chuck (they can't sell alcohol at TJ's where my parents live) and speculoos cookies.

It's safe to say I'm exhausted beyond belief and our house is barely liveable at this point. It makes my type-A self cringe just looking around. But we're so excited to get settled in! I'm hoping once my office is fully set up I'll have a lot more regular blog posts, so thanks for hanging in there with me in the meantime!

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First Mother's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and got to spoil your mama (or be spoiled!)

Our weekend was such a whirlwind! Last night my husband asked if it actually was the weekend because we were so busy, it didn't even feel like it.

We haven't officially moved into the new house yet because we had some painting to do, which turns out is really hard to accomplish when you're trying to keep the baby away from the smells but need both of you there to help. We didn't get nearly the amount of painting done that we had planned but that's just another lesson in parenthood!

On Sunday we took a much needed break from most of the new home prep. My sweet husband made us a huge breakfast and a big steak dinner later that day, plus he got a cookie cake. All of said food is making me really regret stepping on the scale today but it was pretty glorious and worth all of the calories. At least I worked it off painting, right? I also have a much needed mani-pedi sesh planned for after all the painting is done... thanks babe!

Most importantly, I snugged this little dude, told him I loved him and kissed him a million times, and just felt so insanely grateful to be his mama.

The past three months of motherhood have filled me with so much joy seeing our little man grow and develop. It has also taught me so much about priorities and adjusting my expectations (yes, it will take you much longer to get out of the house but the more you do it, the easier it gets!).
 

I'm a pretty spoiled girl having these two (and our girl Ruby) in my life. And with that, I think this fulfills my sappy post quota for the year.

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Privacy, Watermarking and Blogging

FYI, this is not a Lilly for Target recap post. You're welcome.

This past weekend I was texting with some fellow mama bloggers turned friends and the topic of what photos we post of our babies, how we share them, and the fact that someone would be stealing their photos to use as their own came up. Though it had crossed my mind several times over, particularly as this little space of the internet I call mine has grown, this has been weighing on me more and more since Rowan came into the picture. Literally.

Dino Sleeper

I won't go too in depth because both Stephanie from Newlyweds:North and Megan from Willow & Co. outlined what I'm talking about in perfect detail, but it's dawned on me that I haven't been careful enough about protecting my photos. As a blogger, you should be watermarking your photos regardless of whether they are of your kids, vacations, DIY projects, or just a weekend recap. 

I love that readers want to pin photos from my blog but I know I need to be better about protecting them. That's not to say people want to claim my amateur photography skills as their own but it is important to protect your work and yourself.

And on that note, make sure to check out this post on ways to be safe on social media. 

As for the future, my mama bear side is telling me to scale back on sharing photos of my little man. I still plan on posting photos of Rowan, though less than I'd like and with a big fat watermark near his cute face for all of the reasons Stephanie and Megan explained. After all, one of the reasons I started this blog was to share our life for our families and friends who live far away to see. If I totally pulled back on sharing photos of ourselves, what is the point?

This blog is also about a lot of other things besides my son, which I suspect is why many of you stick around. Now that I am learning to be more productive during nap time, I promise more DIY projects, recipes, and fun posts in the future! 

I hope you all understand and make sure to protect yourself online and in social media! There is far too much crazy in this world. 

10

Our First Home!

After 8 years of moving, Charleston has won us over. As if 2015 hadn't been good enough to us yet, we're adding the purchase of our very first home to the list.

We're so excited for the new memories we're going to make in this place. I can't wait until Rowan can play tee-ball in the back yard or to watch him and Ruby play together.

I snapped a few photos of the interior so you can see what we're working with. This house is very builder-grade (most of the houses are in our little 'burb... womp womp) but I definitely see some spaces that I can tackle DIY-style.

Like those black appliances? This kitchen is brown and tan all over. Definitely going away at some point. But hey, I got my gas stove! 

For sure adding a fireplace between those windows.  

DIY wainscoting? Yes, please.

It's not a major reno, but the walls need some paint, the floors need redone, and the fixtures need replaced so we can totally handle that.

Paint, a (king size) bed, and dark hardwoods with an area rug. Perfect!

My list of projects is longer than my husband has the patience for, and they will definitely take time, but I can't wait to share them with y'all! There will be a few empty rooms for a while until I can make some decisions, something I'm notoriously terrible at, so I'm sure I'll be asking for your advice!


Now, let the paint color picking and packing commence!

Don't forget to link up this Friday with Stephanie, Laura and I for the first ever Can't Live Without It linkup!

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Baby's First Easter

Gorgeous weather, family, a cute babe, and lots of food. That pretty much sums up our Easter weekend.

For months Rowan's Easter outfit has been hanging in his nursery waiting to be worn. It was one of those outfits that you just can't pass up. Fast forward to Sunday morning as we were hurriedly getting ready for Church (we're never, ever on time) and our little chunker barely fit in it!

We squeezed him into it anyway with the cutest penny loafers ever, which kept falling off.

I can't even... That face! He naturally didn't notice his Easter basket but we had to document it anyway. 

I put on my face, switched dresses last minute because my post-baby body just didn't fit in my favorite coral dress like it used to, and posed for some family pictures.

Squinty eyes and all.

But one of my favorites from Rowan's impromtu Easter photo shoot... because his face and that lean is just too damn good.

 
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!

And in other, fun blog-related news... Stephanie, Laura, and I are joining forces for a weekly link up starting this Friday! It's super easy after a long week, just share one thing you can't live without! Note: Wine, Target finds, or the comfiest pair of yoga pants all count.

Hope to see y'all link up this week!

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