Mikey Turns Three

Today Mikey turned three. Where has the time gone? I feel like I just had him yesterday. Mikey was born at 35 weeks because all of my fluid leaked out and he's been on a roll ever since.

Mikey is my daily challenge. A fearless and strong little boy that gives me a heart attack at least twice a day. He is all of the things a three year old should be. My little Mikey is full of so much mischief but he's also a sweetheart...

You may have seen him on snapchat flat out ignoring me but it's all in love. His personality is so funny. From birth Mikey hasn't really been here for any games. He's a man trapped in a three year old body.

For his birthday we did all of his favorite things. We colored, ran around, ate french fries and pizza (and cupcakes!) and we played with his new monster truck. He was in threenager heaven.

I love that Mikey is the complete opposite of his sister. It keeps things fun and interesting around here. Watching him grow and change has been such an amazing blessing. Happy Birthday to our sweet boy!

32 Things to do Before 33 : BIRTHDAY Countdown

Remember when I did the 31 things to do before 32? Well I didn't actually do it but I blogged about wanting to do it. My year got kind of thrown off when I got pregnant and I forgot all about my little list of things to do.

Thank God for do-overs. And birthdays.

Here I am again celebrating another birthday (on Super Bowl Sunday, #keeppounding)! I'll be 32 on February 7th and I am very excited. For some reason I get excited about my birthday now more than I ever did when I was younger. This year is especially special because the Carolina Panthers are playing in Super Bowl 50 (and Beyoncé is back in the halftime show!)! 

I was born and raised in the Carolinas so I'll be watching the game and celebrating my birthday at the same time.

Anyway - I thought I would create another list of things to do before my next birthday. A mix of some of my old goals and new goals too - here is all I want to do, see and experience before turning 33...

1. Watch the sunrise
2. Learn photography
3. Go to a concert
4. Learn to braid
5. Journal 

6. Get a massage

7. Paint my nails every week

8. Cut my hair

9. Volunteer for a good cause

10. Speak in public

11. Be kind and Give grace

12. Complete 32 random (or not so random) acts of kindness

13. Social media fast

14. Plant a small garden in containers

15. Read a novel

16. Read a self help book

17. Complete Bible Study

18. Color more

19. Paint a picture

20. Fix sewing machine and use it

21. Send a letter (or two or three)

22. Mail out Christmas cards

23. Discover a new place

24. Stand next to the ocean (or an equally beautiful large body of water)

25. Join a Pilates class

26. Practice Yoga

27. Take a dance class

28. Run a 5K

29. Take my husband on a date

30. Host a Thanksgiving dinner

31. Pray more. Worry less. Love hard.

32. Watch the sunset

Have you ever done a birthday bucket list before? What would be on your list?

Savannah's Rainbow Dash Birthday Party

My baby girl is five. I feel like it was just yesterday that she was born. Time is surely flying. For Savannah's first birthday I planned a cute cupcake themed party. We were living close to family and they all came to celebrate her big day.

We moved to Texas a couple days before she turned two and on her birthday we celebrated with ice cream, burgers and fries. Just the three of us.

For her third and fourth birthday I still wasn't really feeling planning a party so she invited a couple of her girlfriends to do different activities. Her third birthday party was at Chuck E Cheese at ten in the morning (we had the whole place to ourselves, perfection) and her fourth birthday party was at a local ceramic painting place.

As her fifth birthday approached I kept thinking about how big of a deal five was. You're no longer a 'baby'. That's a big deal. I wanted to throw her a party that would be fun, colorful and easy on the pockets. I think I succeeded. The kids had a blast, it was a bright beautiful day and we spent less than $300. I consider that a win. There were 15 kids and 14 adults at her party.

To keep things easy we decided to go with pizza, applesauce, sugar cookies and cupcakes for the menu. I packed a cooler with juice boxes and bottled water.

The sugar cookies were a big hit. To make these I purchased pre-made pull apart sugar cookie dough and sprinkles (also known as colored sugar, sugar crystals...). I baked them according to the package directions. They came out perfect and fit the theme of her party really well.

I ordered three dozen cupcakes from the grocery store. They also made the birthday ribbon for her sugar cookie platter. It was tossed in as a freebie with the cupcakes.

As her party guests arrived they were able to create a pony mask of their own. We found these pony masks on etsy and had them printed on card stock. The kids used crayons and stickers to decorate their masks and they used yarn to tie them to their little faces.

Once their mask was done they had the opportunity to take a picture in the photo booth with their mask. I found My Little Pony photo booth props on etsy and had them printed on card stock. I found the sticks (and the yarn for this party) at Hobby Lobby. 

The photo booth was made from disposable tablecloths (the bigger size) found at Dollar Tree. My husband hung the table cloths using two command hooks and lots of tape. 

After all of the posing was over we headed over to the gym for a pony race. I made ponies using pool noodles (and yarn and ribbon) that I got on clearance at Walmart. The ribbon was purchased from Dollar Tree.

These ponies were supposed to have eyes and ears but I got sleepy somewhere around eleven o' clock and decided that they were fine just like this...

The kids had a great time racing each other while my husband went to pick up the pizza. It was the perfect activity for this age. When the party was over it was hilarious to see that in all the race pics Little Mike was out front. He's a fast one...

We used streamers to create the lanes for the pony race.

After all of the ponies were tired from racing it was time to eat. The pizza from Dominos was actually pretty good. 

Before heading out to the playground we sang Happy Birthday to Savannah, ate cupcakes and I passed out all the favors. The favors consisted of rainbow colored bubble wands I found at Walmart on clearance ($3 for a pack of 6), candy from the candy bar and a Rainbow Dash paper craft (that I found for free on Pinterest).

After this we headed outside to the playground. The children played until our party time was up. It was great. I could not have asked for a better day for my little girl. She was so happy with her party and talked about it for the next couple days. 

It was so nice to see all of her friends and get to know some of their parents a bit better. Her party was held at the youth center on the base where we live. There is no cost for renting the facility on a Saturday, winning.

If you're planning a party for your little one I highly suggest searching Pinterest for freebies and etsy for affordable printouts and invitations. Of course if you can make things yourself that's always great too. 

How do you think we did? If you came to Sav's party thank you for prancing over and spending the afternoon with us! :-)

Birthday Part Two: Date Night

Ugh. My computer has run out of memory and has been tripping. I apologize for the infrequency of posts but I hope to have my little situation resolved soon. Jesus be a terabyte.

Anyway. My birthday celebration continued on Saturday. My Mom and I (with the kids) went shopping during the day. We had a blast. I don't get girlfriend time like that often and I thoroughly enjoyed going from store to store and out to lunch. There's something about beautiful weather, a clean car with a full tank of gas and time out and about that makes me happy.

After shoe shopping the day away we headed back home. I opened all of my gifts before getting ready for our night out. Savannah and Little Mike gave me a card with a single one dollar bill in it, so sweet.

Since I didn't know exactly what my husband had planned for the evening I decided to wear a tuxedo blouse that I scored on sale years ago from Black House White Market. I paired it with some leather leggings and some of those strappy lace up booties that are in style right now.


We started off at dinner. I had been wanting to try out a japanese restaurant here so we headed there first. The food was okay and the service was slow. Luckily, my date was handsome and full of fun conversation.

Our next stop was to the SoHo Wine & Martini bar. There aren't enough good things to say about that place. There was live music, attentive and talented bartenders and pretty drinks. The drink below tasted just like a spiked Oreo cookie, yum!


I also really liked their mojito and the chocolate strawberry shortcake martini. I would go back there in a heartbeat. We ended the night dancing at a riverwalk hotspot before grabbing cake and more drinks at another popular place downtown. 
I had so much fun. I'm looking forward to our next adventure out. We already have a couple places in mind that we want to visit.
Happy Birthday to me. Cheers to 31!

Birthday Part One: Chuck E. Cheese

The weekend is over and I'm 31. It was a blast. I can't wait to share more about my birthday weekend with you. We got things started on Friday with a little family fun at Chuck E. Cheese. Savannah said she wanted to throw me a party so after school we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch.

We played games, learned how to Do the Chuck E. and ate pizza. Here is Savannah (with a brief Little Mike cameo) going through the new dance. She was so cute!

CEC is one of our favorite places to hit up during the week. You get so much access to Chuck and all the fun. It was the perfect way to kick off my birthday weekend. 

It was so sweet of her to "throw" me a party. If you're looking for something fun to do with your kiddos during the week remember Chuck E. Cheese is an awesome choice. Has your child tried to Do the Chuck E.? 

31 Things To Do Before 32

This time last year I was preparing for my 30th birthday and a trip to Vegas. I'll be 31 on Saturday and I cannot help but think about where I was last year. I remember being so excited about entering my 30s. Now that I'm entering the 31st chapter of my personal book I can say that everything I was told about 30 was true.

I feel more confident and inspired. I'm more open to the idea of new things. During my Flirty30 I accepted a lot of things that I resisted in my 20s. I decided to be more fearless and positive. Last year I experienced a freedom of peace knowing that I cannot always control everything. I spent my entire 20s trying to be in control and I plan to spend all of my 30s letting go.

In the blog world I saw many people doing the 30 Before 30 challenge. I thought it would be fun to give myself a list of things to experience this year. I'll call it my 31 Before 32. My goal here was to keep my list realistic and fun. You won't see any international trips for my family of four but you will see some little things that would make all the difference to me.

I love Birthdays because they are like your own personal New Year. (that's kind of exactly what they are actually...) I'm looking forward to completing the things on this list. Who knows, if I finish this with time to spare I might make another list. I have always wanted to become fluent in another language and I forgot to add my personal training certification to this list too. 

What do you think of this list? Have you tried one of these challenges? What would be on your list?

Happy Birthday Savannah...

Woot! Woot! It's time for a little family turn-up!

My baby girl turns four today!

I can not believe how fast time has passed. I feel like it was literally just five minutes ago that I was bringing her home from the hospital. Now she's a big girl.

This morning before school I made her the ever so popular "birthday pancakes". She loved them. We put a four candle in them and sang happy birthday before she went to school. She got to open one of her gifts from us - tickets to see the Fresh Beat Band. Her squeals were out of control.

I took Frozen themed cupcakes to her class. After school she'll try a gymnastics class before our evening family party. I can't wait! Saturday is her birthday party with friends. I'll share all the details on that after the celebration. She's having an "artsy" party.

These days my four year old is all about Disney princesses, bouncing and twirling and telling me the news of the day. She likes to pretend that she's on the news, it's funny. I should tape one of her stories for my YouTube channel….

I am so proud of the big girl that she's become. Just as sweet as can be...

BabyM Turns One (Photo Heavy)

On Father's Day weekend we celebrated BabyM's first birthday. We decided to make it a family affair by having a small low key party with just the four of us. I can not believe he is one already. Time truly does fly. I feel like I just had him yesterday.

I kept all of the decorations simple and easy. When Savannah turned one we were living near family and she had a huge party that hit our pockets deep. Call it second baby syndrome but I was more than happy to have this low cost family only party.

To add a special touch to his birthday I took his photos myself. This was my first time ever trying my hand at a real photo shoot. I think his pics turned out great. I was really happy with them. I now understand why you only get about 6-10 shots from a photographer, LOL! I edited the pics using picMonkey. Oh. And taking his pics made me want a DSLR even more. Maybe for Christmas?

During his one year well baby appointment the doctor was pretty pleased with how he's grown. Remember BabyM was born five weeks early?! Look at him now. So big and strong! He talks a lot and is standing up but hasn't decided to walk yet. If he's anything like his sister he'll wait until he's good and ready to walk which could be a couple months from now. (Savannah was 14 months when she decided to walk.)

Speaking of Savannah, here she is serving (and enjoying a lollipop). She has been such a great big sister this past year. She plays so well with her baby brother. Every now and then I do have to remind her to share but other than that I am so happy that she didn't put me through any of the nightmares I hear about toddlers reverting when a new baby comes home. Shout out to Sav for being such a big girl!

How do you think my pics turned out? Any photographers have tips for me?

Vegas Recap: Flirty 30 Day Three

Our last day in Vegas was bittersweet. We both agreed that we could have gone home that morning and been happy. Since we weren't leaving until the following morning we decided to venture up the strip to check out some of the sights. 

I kept the look for the last day very natural and relaxed. Here I am dancing on one of those moving floors. We realized that Bellagio had one that puts you right on the strip. Very convenient.

I can't get over how amazing this hair color is. Gorg! If I do say so myself...

We ended up spending a lot of time in the MGM. I actually flipped a dollar into $20 in there. I was excited, LOL! I really liked the MGM. The vibe there was so young and fun. We have LOTS of photos from this trip. I feel like a photo dump would be slightly offensive and too much to bare. I think I'll occasionally slip some of my favorites into some upcoming Thought Bubbles posts.

Sunday morning when we woke up the view was so peaceful and serene. The sky was so many different colors. It was beautiful. Our shuttle picked us up (a little tardy) and we were on our way to the airport. In true Vegas fashion one of the other passengers had to throw up so the shuttle driver obliged him at a red light and opened the door. It was gross.

My husband was like, "Don't touch anything. He's either drunk or contagious." 

My view from the plane on our way home. Gotta love Southwest….

And my last footage round up from our trip…

I hope you enjoyed my Vegas trip as much as I did. I have a lot of fun and exciting things coming up on the blog in the month of March. Thanks for reading!

Vegas Recap: Flirty 30 Day Two

Day Two got off to a great start. I had read lots of reviews about Hash House a Go Go and I really wanted to eat breakfast there. We got dressed and headed over to the Quad to get in line for a table. 

This was my look for the day. I am in absolute love with my sweater coat. It was perfect for the chilly temps. My scarf is a gift from my Mom. I've had it for years and I thought it was a nice touch to the coat. What do you think?

On the way to breakfast (It was like a five minute walk) we passed by a star that said "Diva". My husband spotted it first and pointed it out to me. Was he trying to tell me something about myself? LOL! I had to take a pic next to it!

During our wait for a table we chatted it up a bit and hung out. There were tons of people waiting. The restaurant was cranking people in and out though. I don't remember our wait being extremely long, maybe thirty minutes or so. When you don't have kids with you a wait doesn't seem that bad. 

At breakfast I ordered the The Tractor Driver combo. I am a sucker for pancakes and potatoes. This was so amazingly delicious. Do you see how big that pancake is? I couldn't eat the whole thing but I wanted to. I enjoyed a mimosa with my breakfast. Our server was great. He let us know that it would be a longer than usual wait for food because everything is cooked from scratch to order. Yum!

At the table next to us there was a girl celebrating her 21st birthday. I told her it was my birthday too. She must've told the waiter because before he gave us our check he bought this out to the table. Nothing like an ice-cream sundae to start your morning on your birthday...

After walking around the Forum Shops in Caesar's Palace and doing a little shopping (mainly at the Nike store. Jeanette Jenkins has me obsessed with Nike gear. I blame her for my recent addiction) it was time to head back to the room to get ready for dinner.

We (I) took a little bit longer than expected getting dressed. I can't believe it but I didn't get one pic of my entire birthday dinner look. I did manage to get a quick pic of my handsome hubby though...

Here I am from the torso up at dinner...

I wore a skirt and crop top sequin number with some strappy shoes. It was cute. The food was even better than what I had on though. I got the lamb. He got a porterhouse steak. Our sides were brussel sprouts and truffled mash potatoes (i would smack somebody's mama right now for some of those). This is the best dinner we've had in a long time.

We had an amazing view of the Bellagio fountains at dinner. You'll see a bit of that in the video below. Before leaving our server gifted me with a birthday dessert...

After dinner I changed into something more comfortable for gambling, dancing and drinks. My husband took the pic below and he cropped it to oblivion before sending it to me. Sorry about that...

More random footage from day two in Vegas is below. I am living this trip all over again in these posts.