Valentine's Day 2017

I love and always have loved Valentine's Day.  I know sometimes it gets a bad wrap for being a Hallmark holiday, but after a post-Christmas/New Years lull, I am always ready for this light-hearted and PINK celebration.  My mom always made is special for us growing up with pink breakfasts and new outfits or gifts (and still does. She got me the best little gifts this year :)) so I've tried to carry that tradition on with my little family.  First up, I had a little Valentine's Day Tea Party for the girls in our family on Sunday:

Everyone brought a little treat to share, which made it so easy for me!  I made these little heart sandwiches.

The party was a success!  Kaylee loved having all of her favorite people there (although she kept saying to me, "it's okay if boys come mom.  They might like it.") 

Monday we did this little craft to give to grandparents.  She is so into gluing, so it was the perfect little Valentine to make.

Valentine's Morning...when you wake up to donuts!  I got donuts for Kaylee and Gerald.  I left Gerald a little bag of treats and same with K.  

I opened the fridge to a breakfast sandwich and this note, yum.

Lollipop lips were a hit.

I had a doctor's appointment, so here we are waiting in the car for Gerald.  (If the dress looks familiar, it's because it was her Christmas dress.....)

After the doctor's, we went to a favorite spot to play with puppies :).  We don't have a dog, so I really try to keep Kaylee around animals as much as possible so she's not afraid and learns how to treat them and as I have to tell her 24903482 times, "Be gentle"

After puppies and the gym, we went home to a heart scavenger hunt!  She loved this so much that I think I'll do it with even post-its or shapes.  I hid about 10 hearts around the house, and she had so much fun finding them.  Not pictured is our everything heart-shaped lunches (:

Each heart had a little message.

:)

Kaylee went to my in-laws, and Gerald and I finished up the day with a college basketball game, which is about as good as it gets for me!  We saw a really good game and ate junk food, perfection.  

Hope your day was filled with LOVE!

Workin' It Wednesdays

 I'm so excited about this new link up!  There are so many facets of our lives that we as women and mamas work so hard at, and I love that we are going to share some of those things once a month with shay and erika !!  Thanks for the fun link-up :)

Okay, New Years Goals!!!  I actually JUST did a post about this that I probably should've saved, and you can find that here.  I basically talked about some things I want to work on for the New Year, as well as some things I did last year and continued.  First up, I'm going to share this cute little goals template that I made for my family:

It was super easy.  I just did some fancy lettering and two pictures that I copied and pasted, if you need something that looks a little fancy to keep you motivated like me :)

Some things I try to keep in mind while goal-setting:

*I think it's so important to hold yourself accountable, your family members accountable, and expect to be held accountable by your loved ones.  For example, if you REALLY want to work on your fitness this year, I think it's great to have someone you love say, "Hey! Remember we were going to hit the gym more this year, let's start and go now." 

*Pick a goal that makes you happy, makes you feel good, and betters those around you.  You want to do good, AND do well.  

*Lastly, don't set yourself up for failure!  I think I really find joy and success from goal-setting because I make them feasible. I feel like the most common resolutions include exercising, so If you want to exercise more, but don't really do so now, then find a 5K that scheduled for 4-5 months from now, not the marathon your city holds in a few months.

I'm so excited to see how all of you ladies work your New Years Goals!!!!

Fashion Wish List

I think being pregnant makes me love clothes even more in that, "we all want what we can't have" sort of mantra.  I am so aware and grateful of the miracle my body is creating, but that doesn't make looking at Pinterest fashion any easier #LOL....Here are some of the looks I've been loving, and some shoes that I'm hoping to rock this spring:

I saw SO many cute sweaters this year that would be perfect with leggings.  I love this outfit!!

Sweater and a beanie, the best winter combo.

I've been doing a lot of long tanks and cardigans, and I thought this one was super cute.  It's a little lighter, so I think it could even carry over into spring!

Open shoulders were huge this year!!! I was seeing it every where and think it's such a cute look, so I hope you're back next year!!

Love this scarf, and I have gotten lots of scarf wear so far this season :)  I've been playing around a lot with a new sweater scarf which has been fun.

Black jeans!!!! I don't have any, but I'd love for them to be a fall purchase in 2017.  Am I getting ahead of myself here??!

And everyone's favorite, a leather jacket.  Love these and that they have a hood!

Okay, three spring shoe hopefuls:

I've heard really great things about these, and I feel like they could be good for walking/park.  I'm not sure how hot they'd be, or if I love the way they look, but I've read several bloggers including a fav, Kate, talk about them.

I really love the all black Nike look, and feel like they could be in my future!! I've been seeing a new trend with these all black shoes with leggings/cute work out outfit, and I feel like they would work with capris or shorts nicely, too.

And lastly I feel like open toed booties are the best transition from winter to spring!! I don't have any, nor do I know that I'll have much use for them this season, but I love these.

Kaylee Lately

Kaylee will be three in a few months, and it's been a minute (don't you just love/hate that expression!?) since I've posted about what she's up to, into, etc.  So, here's what's up with my almost three year old:

Kaylee is tall and she is a talker, like talks and talks and talks, so people are always asking me if she's three or four.  Then, they watch her throw a tantrum over me making her wear shoes in Target and they quickly see that she is very, very much two.  

She LOVES her babies.  She takes really good care of them. For instance, every night she has a back pack, diaper bag, and often a lunch box on her night stand full of stuff they may "need in the night" oh and luggage, sometimes there is luggage for the babies too.  She still doesn't LOVE any one show, but Mickey is a big hit, and a little bit more Doc McStuffins.  Sofia is typically good, too.  It's funny that she will see a show, that I think is targeted toward boys, and says, "that's a boy show I don't want that."  I don't know where that's coming from??

I so often say she's like a sour patch kid, first she's sour, then she's sweet.  She will be having a TOUGH morning or day or what have you, and then do or say the sweetest thing, like, "Mommy you look beautiful in that shirt."  or "It was really fun this morning when we went to the library.  Thank you for taking me."  Like so SWEET, yet SO SOUR, too.  I love sour patch kids so this analogy makes such sense to me #LOL

She's smart....she is only allowed her pacifier in bed or the car.  She came down with it one day, so I sent her to her bed if she wanted to have it.  She came down with a sleeping bag, crawled in, put her pacifier in, then said, "now I'm in a bed, so I can have my binki."  OH, okay.  You win.

She makes friends, and has a particular drawing to babies and like 5 and up year olds I'd say.  She will meet someone and weeks, I mean several weeks later she'll ask about them by name.  I'm thinking her future will be in a job that's memory intensive, because hers is crazy.  Like even waitresses from a place we went months ago, we'll walk in and she'll ask if Sam will be there to bring us food.  Cracks me up.  Sometimes she'll be yelling from her bed before going to sleep, "What was that girls' name from the mall park??" And we maybe hadn't been to the mall park for two weeks, so I have no idea, but she'll eventually yell the name down.  

I love this little girl who challenges me, loves me, and makes me so proud to be a mom!

New Year Goals

Last year, I worked on doing monthly goals, which was great.  It got a little redundant, but I'm super goal-orientated in that it just works for me.  I don't think I'll do monthly goals.  If I give myself a deadline or define something as a "goal" it's motivating, for whatever reason.  I typed up a cute little family template with goals for each person in our family, as well as family and marital goals.  And it makes.me.happy.  Like stationary and pens.  We did only three per person,  so it's nothing overwhelming.  I thought I'd post a few that I couldn't fit into my three, so here are a few:

one.
Be more flexible!  I know there is going to be a time frame, probably a long one, where we aren't on a good schedule after the baby comes.  I know this, but I want to prepare for the uncertainties of learning what type of baby he will be, and figuring out our new normal.  Going with the flow more in 2017 is a big one for me!

two.
Write more.  I love blogging, but I also love writing/journaling about more, um, serious stuff, for lack of a better word?  It makes me happy, like goals and pens and stationary, and I want to do it more in 2017.  My FAVORITE writing quote is:

It was on the cover of the journal I took to Ireland (and wrote in every day while I was there) and it gives me all the feels!

three.

I'm always trying to get rid of stuff, and it often feels like we have outgrown our little home, even after we let stuff go.  So, I'd like to pick a "Declutter Day" each month.  From toys that haven't been played with to clothes I've had trouble parting with, I'd like to do this every month, and of course be intentional about what's coming in the house, too!

A few 2016 things I'm proud to have done and want to continue:

1. Kept up with exercise and eating healthy (most of the time)

2. Read lots of good books

3. Making special memories with my family

*List of three's seem to be my favorite!?

Hope your 2017 is off to a great start!!

xo

Christmas 2016

Better late than never......Here is how we celebrated the birth of our Savior!!  I did a post about all of our festivities leading up to the big day!   It was a fun one, and seeing the holidays through the eyes of my almost three year old was truly the best gift.  She's starting to get it, and we had so much talk about Jesus, Santa, Elf on the shelf (and explaining 394830482 times where she goes at night).  It was JOYOUS.  

Okay so here's how the Tyler's did Christmas this year:

I talked about our annual trip downtown, which we typically do on Christmas Eve, but my mom was hosting this year, so we did the day before.  It was so fun, and there was a lot more activity since it was a couple days before the big day!

Every year, we do Christmas Eve with the Griffin's it's loud, big, and FUN.  We always do some sort of gift exchange, and this year we filled socks and picked them.  My mom got Kaylee her own to pick, and she helped everyone else open their's, too :).  It was a great celebration!! 

Christmas morning was so fun.  Kaylee ran to check if Santa ate his cookies (she was a little sad he didn't save her any milk)...we also checked to see if the reindeer ate their food, which they did!  

Playing with some new toys :).  I made a breakfast cake, so we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and Daddy before heading over to my parents for presents. Next, we were off to my parent's house.

So.Much.Stuff!!

We laughed, because when I asked Kaylee to say her thanks, she turns to my brother and said, "Thanks so much for all my stuff, Uncle Ryan." LOL  We had fun playing, and the boys made us breakfast which was GREAT.  Kaylee was all worn out and took a good nap before heading over to Christmas #3 with the Tyler's!

Kaylee got a FUN rollercoaster that she loved showing off her skills to two of her favs.

The Kosts came to our house after they celebrated at my parents, and we rested up for a busy day with our three big girls!

A little down time beforeeeee

SKYZONEEE.  My other pictures wouldn't load, but the girls did great and had so much fun.  Kaylee and Gracie were red and sweaty.  We have lots to cram into our day together, so we did shopping, lunch, and Gilmore Girls during nap :)

Kaylee kept saying, "But I don't want Gracie to go back to Virginia..."

It was such a fun holiday!