A Family Photo Shoot

There's a good chance the above photo would've been on this past year's Christmas card. But between buying a house, trudging through my first trimester of this pregnancy, and chasing around a toddler after working all day, I did not get around to sending them out. It happens.

Our friend, Dave of The Wedding Format, shot these lovely pics last Fall and just recently posted the edited batch on their website. More photos from our family shoot can been seen here.

We are so happy to have this special day captured on film and so blessed to know such wonderfully creative folks:) Be sure to check out The Wedding Format's additional services! They're doing some pretty beautiful & unique things with photography, food, & decor for weddings and other special occassions. xx

Nicole's SPECTACULAR Baby Shower

This past weekend, I had the honor of hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Nicole. Our babies (& future cousins/ buddies) are due a month apart and like us, Nicole and her husband decided to opt for suprise in waiting to find out the gender.

Since I didn't have a pink or blue palatte to work with, I was inspired to keep it natural, neutral, and classy. Much like the Mama-to-be:)

 Our dessert selection included:
- Dark chocolate Neopolitan layer cake w/ Nutella, strawberry, & vanilla buttercream frosting
- Neopolitan spritz cookies with marshmallow buttercream frosting
- Rice Krispy treats made with sea salt and browned butter

All credit for the food & fanciful spread goes to this lady—Leslie Poyzer—one of the most talented homemakers I know. A self-taught baker & crafter, Leslie heads up wedding production & desserts for The Wedding Format in addition to being a regular contributor for Meredith publications like D.I.Y. Magazine.



Crackers served with Englishwhite Stilton cheese w/ peaches, Cotswold Double Gloucester w/ onions & chives, and Honey Gouda from Trader Joe's.

The Mama-to-be, Nicole!

No baby shower is complete without playing some corny shower games. I searched for some good ones and settled on Mad Libs, "What's in Mommy's Purse, Celeb Baby Names, Scattergories, & Wishes for Baby.

I'm pretty sure Nicole left Iowa feeling super blessed by all the goodies, gifts, & girlfriends in attendance. We are super excited to meet your little one!!

33 & 34...

Not much longer now... It feels like all of a sudden, everyone (including strangers) are asking when my due date it. "July 22nd, so probably August," I tell them. With Ruby, I went a week over my due date. 41 weeks and no dialation.

I would really like to not have to be induced this time around, so I'm starting a "regimen" in the next couple weeks that might help me avoid that experience again (more details on that later). My induction wasn't horrible, but being able to labor at home for as long as I can without being hooked up to a monitor just sounds so much more appealing.

In other news, we finally moved the crib into the baby's room. Ruby got a "big girl bed" at IKEA last week and has been sleeping in it since. I've laid down with her a few nights to help her fall asleep. Only once we've found her playing with toys in her room after lights out. The transition has gone surprisingly well, even though it breaks my heart a little. My baby girl is growing up too fast...

Now that Baby #2's room is coming together, I'll hopefully assemble a little room tour blog post soon. Stay tuned...xx

Jason & Sara's Wedding Weekend

This past weekend kicked off the first of a handful of weddings we'll be attending this year, half of which Wayde will be attending as a groomsman. Yep, my husband is a pretty likeable guy.

Jason has been a friend of Wayde's since high school and Sara we've got to know & love through Jason and church. The festivities took place around Burlington, IA.

The wedding day got off to a rocky start (for me, at least). I discovered after putting on the dress I had bought weeks before the wedding that there were some unslightly black streaks all over it. My only assumption is that is must have got shut in the car door on our way out. Thankfully, I had a backup ensemble, even though it was a little more casual than I would have preferred for a wedding.

That incident was followed up by Ruby taking a tumble on the sidewalk outside of our hotel room. There was blood. There were tears. There was a monster fat lip. I remembered that lavender oil was good for such abrasions, so I applied it to the site of Ruby's crash. I would say that within an hour, the swelling went down so significantly that the only visible indicator of what side it occured on were the little scrapes from the actual fall. My first real essential oils testimonial?

Jason & Sara couldn't have hoped for a more beautiful day. It was sunny—not too warm or windy. The weather was PERFECT.

“We are all a little weird and life is a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” - Dr. Seuss (a quote read during the ceremony)

Sara has such ecclectic & quirky taste (which I love), so I was really looking forward to how she would put special touches on their big day.

The tables were numbered with the covers of vintage Harlequin romance novels and name cards were old library withdrawal slips.

The cake looked like it was straight out of the pages of a 1960's Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. Selections included chocolate, lemon raspberry, and Nutella. It was DIVINE, as you could imagine.

Our sweet Ruby stealing the show:) She did such a wonderful job of sitting still through the ceremony & making friends with guests at the reception. To know her is to love her, truly.

Thanks, Jason & Sara, for letting us be a part of your special day! xx

30, 31, 32...

With weeks left to go in the single digits, my prenatal & chiropractice appointments are increasingly more frequent now. Baby seems to be doing well, but this Mama continues to have her share of back & hip pains to endure. Don't get me wrong, I understand this is for such a short time and for such a great purpose, but "ouch".  

Add in a 20+ lbs almost 2 year old who likes being carried around by her Mama, and well, you get it. I just can't resist Ruby's sweet little arms reaching for me while pleading "I WAHN CHOO". 

Otherwise, I'm doing pretty well. Trying to take care of myself. I put on enough weight between prenatal appointments for the Doctor to tell me to cool it on the snacks. Since then, I've been experimenting with a whole foods/ low sugar diet that hasn't been terribly strict, I must add. So far, it's helped to give me a little more energy and a lot less weight gain.

I have also been experimenting with some natural remedies, more specifically, Young Living products. A few people in my world have already been using them and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Wayde got me the Everyday Oils Kit for Mother's Day and I've been using at least one or two every day since. Maybe I'll write a review at some point...at least they smell nice.xx

Shark Love & Burger Lust

Every Memorial Day Weekend since Ruby was born (that being 2), our little family has made a tradition of going to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.

Now that Ruby can identify animals by name, we were super excited to take her this year!

Ruby doing her best monkey faces!

 The Sno Cone might have been Ruby's favorite thing at the zoo...

I'm so happy that Wayde captured this photo, complete with shark lurking ominously above our heads. Here's hoping that Ruby's "Mama's girl" phase lasts forever<3>

After a full afternoon at the zoo (and hauling around my 32 week prego belly), Wayde sweetly suggested that maybe we don't have to do this zoo trip every year, to which I agreed. As great as it is, we found ourselves taking many of the same pictures from last year and awkwardly shuffling through crowds (with stroller in tow) that were bigger than we remembered. 

I guess I would consider an annual trip if we could always end the day here...



Louis M's Burger Lust Cafe. We got the referral from a friend and this place DID NOT disappoint. Even the staff were excited to hear how much we loved our burgers.

My parmesan encrusted special topped with swiss cheese & morel mushrooms. Too good to even think about tainting with ketchup. And if you know me, that's saying a lot.

Not that we even had the room for it afterwards, but since we were in town, we trekked across the city for some eCremery goodness. You only live once, right?

We fell in love with their cardamom ice cream last year and enjoyed the Shark Bait (sea salt carmel w/ chocolate covered pretzels) & strawberry basil selections this time around. Until next time, Omaha...xx

28 & 29

Hello, third trimester! Sometimes, it's easy to forget that you get an actual human baby at the end of this deal. And with the more frequent aches, discomforts, and late-night bathroom visits, I am reminded how near this event is actually taking place.

TIP: If you want to speed up a pregnancy, put off the really big stuff like assembling the baby's room or picking out a name (both of which we have yet to accomplish). But I'm not stressing...yet.

Can I just say how super voluptuous my hair looks in that 29 week photo? It's certainly not due to the prenatal vitamins because I have been doing a horrible job staying on top of those.

Also, have you seen Call the Midwife? I blazed through Season 1 on Netflix this week. Such an endearing show. And such a different viewing experience to watch late into one's pregnancy.

Stay tuned to see how much I balloon in the next 10 (or more likely 11) weeks of this pregnancy. That is if I don't give up on my whole maternity series in general. So...humbling. xx

A Peek Inside...My Wardrobe!

Welcome to my wardrobe! I haven't been able to bridge the time/space gap to Narnia (yet), but for the first time in my married life, I have my own clothing quarters. 

And since this is the only pocket of our home that I can claim entirely as my own, I decided to make it as girly and boutique-y as possible:)

It would seem to be practical to use the top shelf for more productive storage purposes, but creating the feel of a shop that you would want to shop at makes the whole daily clothing selection time just that much more enjoyable & inspiring. Try it and see if it doesn't enhance your experience!



I love having the Instax-Mini camera, but all my snapshots have been living in a box since they were taken. So, I stuck them up with some washi tape ($2.99 at Hobby Lobby) which has made the inside of my closet door anything but drab. Plus, I'm looking forward to adding more pics to this installation! 

Another quick & useful way to fill up a wall space is to create a necklace display using 3M adhesive hooks. They're noncommittal and take hardly any time to put up.

And that's my wardrobe! Not the most enlightening post I've ever published to this blog, but it was a fun little project and one that I get to enjoy every day. xx

Are there any fun or unique ways you utilize storage spaces by putting your personal touch on them?

KC Anniversary Weekend!

Last weekend marked Wayde & my 5th wedding anniversay, which is just totally surreal to say the least. We wanted to go somewhere we didn't feel obligated to meet up with friends or family and since we've never been to Kansas City together, Kansas City became the destination.

We got some solid recommendations from friends ahead of time and found ourselves on W 39th Street, a hip little area full of kitschy shops & restaurants. Late lunch at d'Bronx followed by coffee and dessert at Rm. 39.

Rock Candy was a vintage boutique we popped into. Though I'm not in the market to buy a lot of clothes right now (28 weeks pregnant, hello!), Wayde had a few sweet finds by the end of the day.

I'm super thankful that my guy enjoys and could kill more time in a secondhand store than I even could.

We also checked out Donna's Dress Shop, which is pretty much the ultimate new & vintage ladies clothing boutique. Like, if I ever aspired to be a boutique owner, Donna's would be the living example of what I would like to open. Even the shop girls were dressed to the nines with their retro hair & ensembles.

Boomerang was another shop we hit, which reminded me of a Buffalo Exchange/ Ragstock type place. Wayde walked out with a pair of Allen Edmunds shoes, so he was a pretty happy camper.

After checking into our hotel, we walked towards the Power & Light district for dinner. There are few restaurants worthy of a 45 minute wait, but the Drunken Fish is one of them. I had Asian lettuce wraps, BLT sushi (yes, you read that correctly), and green tea fried ice green. Bloody fantastic.  

We stopped in a fancy grocery store for some snacks where I stumbled upon this selection of local, flavored milks from the Shatto Milk Company. I got a pint of the cotton candy. Seriously, cotton candy flavored milk!!

It was kind of a bummer for this pregnant lady to fall in love with so many food & drink items this trip and not have ready access to them back home:(

Since we didn't do any major traveling for this trip, we splurged on our accomodations by staying at the beautiful Hotel Phillips in downtown KC. And I am so glad we did.

It was actually more cost effective to do the in-room breakfast package which included valet and a $35 food & beverage voucher. Room service just might be one of my favorite things in the world.

Nothing like a lazy Sunday morning eating potato pancakes while watching HGTV...

Later that day we hit The Plaza, bought stuff at H&M, and grabbed some more food at Westport Coffeehouse before hitting the road home. We did NOT visit the art gallery which apparently is the thing to do while in Kansas City. Maybe next time...xx