Harper's 2 Year + Family Photos

Several weeks ago, our little family met up with Amanda over at Lulu Photography to have some current family photos taken. With Harper's second birthday being just around the corner, some photos to mark the milestone were in order. And as always, Amanda did such an amazing job capturing our little family, as well as Harper's two different color eyes; something I've found that some photographers fail to do. In each of the photos, Amanda was able to capture Harper's little personality perfectly and the pictures were without a doubt a true reflection of our sweet girl at this stage in her life. If you don't believe me, just take a look at them for yourself. But be prepared... there's a bit of picture overload because I seriously had the hardest time narrowing them down. They were all just THAT good! 

{Weekend Recap} Party Preppin'

Hello ladies, happy Monday! We had a pretty rainy and dreary weekend here in North Carolina. Despite that the rain put a hitch in some of our plans, we made the most of the weekend as it was and did some major party prepping for two parties we'll be hosting this upcoming weekend.

Friday after work, I headed home to do a little straightening up and cleaning. To my surprise, I came home to all of the laundry having been washed and dried and the house semi- cleaned. I was happy to let Kevin know I could get used to this. It's going to be a sad day when he starts pulling 12 hour shifts, 12 days in a row again but for now I'll enjoy every moment of his time at home and all it has to offer (; But back to the topic at hand...Since my to-do list got cut in half upon my arrival home from work, Kevin and I opted to pick up Harper early from daycare and do some running around. First we headed to Lowes (again) to pick up the hardwood flooring we'd ordered earlier this week for our first floor. Thankfully this go round, we were in love with the option we chose which means no more looking at flooring options anymore. Woot woot! After leaving Lowes, we headed to Walmart to pick up a few items I needed for Harper's birthday party. Once we grabbed all that we needed we made our way to my parents' house where we waited for my friend, Brittni, to arrive, then we all headed to Eden to try out a new vegetable restaurant. Sadly, the restaurant didn't end up being much, but the company was amazing and that made up for all the difference that the restaurant lacked. 

Saturday morning, I woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back asleep. So while Kevin and Harper remained steadfast in cutting some zzz's, I headed downstairs to deep clean the kitchen and clean out the refridgerator. About the time I finished, my parents showed up at the door bearing fresh basked biscuits from Bojangles. After they were devoured, Kevin and my dad headed out to the garage to work on putting some of Harper's new swing set together. What they thought would take an hour turned in to five so while the guys worked, my mom, Harper, and I spent the morning tidying up the house, cleaning out closets, and playing with Harper. Sometime around 3, the guys finally called it quits for the day so we all sat down and enjoyed a bowl of stew with each other before Mom and Dad headed home for the evening. 

Since Kevin was exhausted after putting together a large portion of Harper's swing set, I called up my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Brooke, and asked her to go shopping with me to get the remainder of the party items I was missing for Harper's party as I knew Kevin wasn't up for the task. She was all for it, so I left Harper with Kevin and my brother-in-law and Brooke and I headed to Greensboro. We made some quick stops at Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Target, Sams, and Homegoods before calling it quits and returning home with a car load of items that I may or may not have needed (;

Sunday morning we finally got ourselves up and in gear to make it to church. We've been slacking the last few weeks and it felt so good to be back yesterday. Following the service, we had our usual lunch at my parents' house then we headed to Walmart to pick up some groceries for the week. After leaving Walmart, we headed over to my in-laws house to drop off Harper for a few hours so we could accomplish a few more tasks like switching over Harper's closet from winter items to summer and preparing dinner for our family. 

To end our night, I threw some barbeque ribs in the oven and fixed up some corn on the cob and baked beans for dinner with Kevin's family and my brother. Everyone hung around until 9 or so eating dinner, devouring my brother's key lime pie, and watching episode after episode of Impractical jokers. After they left, Harper and I headed upstairs for her night time Bible story... Which seriously made my night. 

All in all, it was another great ending to an even better weekend. 

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And just as a little side note, thank you all for the feedback regarding another one of my design dilemmas last Friday. Since I couldn't get those galvanized letters out of my head, I headed back to Hobby Lobby this weekend to return the paper mache letters I had initially purchased and picked the galvanized letters up instead. Last night I finally got around to hanging them up and I am in LOVE!

They coordinate so well with these galvanized vases from Michaels that I grabbed up this weekend while out and about! 

{Five on Friday} Tidbits from the Week

Happy Friday, girls! It's been a while. Every time I seem to get back on the roll of blogging something comes up. Here lately we've been wrapping up some projects at the house, prepping for Harper's 2nd birthday party that will take place next weekend, & I've been planning a bridal shower for one of my lifelong best friends that will take place the day after Harper's party. & yes, I question what I was thinking in planning to host two events in one weekend! Needless to say, our days and nights have been filled with lots of chaos and craziness. But it makes for some great times and memories. But enough about that. I'll get right on to this Five on Friday post to share a few things that have been happening this week.

1. A Big Girl Potty
Back in the fall, my mom purchased Harper a big girl potty. I had all intentions of sitting it out for her to get used to but quite honestly, once it went in the bathroom cabinet, I just simply forgot about it. Then one day this week as Harper was tearing out things, she spotted it. So out it went. We sat it up in Harper's bathroom and now whenever she takes a bath, brushes her teeth, or just simply wanders in the bathroom she has to sit on it. So I can see potty training taking place in our very near future. Any of you ladies have any tips and tricks you can offer on potty training girls before we embark on this adventure?

2. Picture Sneak Peeks
As promised in my weekend recap, here are just a few sneak peeks from our family photos that were taken last Saturday. I can not wait to show the rest.

3. Burger Warfare
Back in March, Kevin and I tried out a new restaurant in Greensboro called Burger Warfare. It's a restaurant with a military slash robot kind of theme. It's definitely geared towards boys but the food is to die for and has simply became one of my favorite hamburger joints around. Last night, we met up with Kevin's brother and his girlfriend for dinner there and it made my evening!

4. A Minor Hiccup + My Hero
Every year, after my third grade students study economics, I have my class create a popcorn factory. They apply for a job in the factory, create an assembly line in which they pop, bag, price, and sort popcorn and then send it to our class store. From there my students set up a class shop and sell drinks and popcorn to our entire school. We've done this for the last three years and it's gone by without a hitch...until this year. Yesterday as a coworker was popping the popcorn, our school's popcorn machine broke. After a minor panic attack, another coworker called a parent at our school who volunteered to bring their popcorn machine. Only to then find out part of our popcorn supplies had expired. I mean seriously, it seemed like we'd just purchased them. So we sent our parent volunteer to the store to buy all the bagged popcorn she could find. We thought we were set but after finishing up all of our bagging, we only had 200+ bags of popcorn and were in need of over 500! But then the husband swooped in and saved the day! He hit up Walmart and Food Lion and came in with bags and bags of popcorn. In the end we had over 100 bags left over from our sale. What can I say, he's my hero!

5. Design Dilemma
It appears I have another design dilemma friends and I need your help. When we started working on our living room redecorating project, I just never could quite find any artwork to hang above our couch. I'm not big into painted portraits so I considered hanging an old window above our couch or doing a wall gallery. But then I already have a window hanging in our living room and I have frames around our tv so another gallery wall might be a bit much. So I had this genius idea of placing HOME letters above my couch. I initially planned on purchasing these large galvanized letters from Hobby Lobby but since our space isn't very rustic, I wasn't sure how they would look. After a little searching I came across these large 23.5 inch paper mache letters at Joann's. Yet, for a month now I've been checking back and forth and they don't have an O in stock. One day I just so happened to swing by Hobby Lobby and caught site of these 18 inch paper mache letters. Being half off, I decided to grab them up and try them out on our wall. From the side angle, I feel like they look okay but from straight ahead I feel like they look too small. What are your thoughts ladies? Should I wait and go back for the 23.5 inch letters since it'll fill in the space more? Could I add something else with the 18 inch letters to add more dimension to the space? Or do I go back to my initial plan and get the galvanized letters despite that I don't have a rustic space? All thoughts and suggestions are welcome! (And please, disregard the junk strewn everywhere :P)

{Weekend Recap} Lazy Days & Fun with Friends

Happy Monday, girls! I hope your weekends went by fabulously. Our weekend here in the Holt household was pretty low key. Friday we were supposed to have family pictures but with the chance of rain on the radar, we postponed them until Saturday. So Kevin and I opted to head to Lowe's Home Improvement instead to look at flooring yet again. After searching high and low for wood flooring for downstairs we chose an option we loved last week only to get it home and decide we hated it. Which put us  back at square one looking at totally different options than we'd originally thought we wanted. So is life sometimes.

Saturday morning, we headed to some other flooring places looking for another suitable option. Having found nothing, we headed back to Lowe's for the fifth time in a week and ordered the option we liked best out of the choices they had from the prior day. Let's pray it works out because at this point, I could rip my hair out at the thought of looking at more floor options. I seriously almost had a mental breakdown when we got to the car and may or may not have had a minor fit where I said at this point I didn't care whether we ever changed our floors or not. ha ha

Thankfully my poor attitude lifted after a visit with the in-laws and a quick lunch at Short Sugars with the family and my friend Brittni. The remainder of the afternoon was spent doing some cleaning, reading a book, and then getting ready for our family pictures. Which I might add, Harper was a total ham in. She did amazing at our photo session! I can't wait to share some of the sneak peeks  later this week. Following our family pictures, we headed to Greensboro and ended the evening with some family and friends at Texas Roadhouse. By the time we left the restaurant it was after 10 o'clock! We had seriously spent over 2 hours laughing and cutting up and having way too much fun! But sometimes that's just what life needs.

Sunday morning we woke up to clouds and drizzle. Not the best way to start the last day of the weekend. To top it off, Harper's eyes were matted shut and her little nose wouldn't stop dripping. So instead of going to church, we decided a morning at home was in order. Though I'm not going to lie, I felt extremely guilty to have skipped church for two weeks in a row. I vow to go next Sunday! 

We spent our day at home being lazy. We enjoyed lunch on the patio while the rain held off. Then we made our way back to our bedroom to cuddle in bed and watch Cars, Harper's new favorite movie. When she refused to nap after the movie, we decided to give up the fight and take a much needed trip to the grocery store. 

To top off our evening, we had some friends and family over for a taco night and watched Horrible Bosses 2. If you haven't seen it, it's hilarious! Though, I'll admit the language is a bit over the top with inappropriateness so be warned. But it's definitely a great movie if you need a good laugh. 

Here's to hoping you ladies have a great week!

{Weekend Recap} A Weekend of House Projects

Happy Tuesday, girls! I hope your weekends went well. Our weekend was pretty much filled with one home project or another but we still managed to cram in a little fun each day along the way.

On Friday after work I headed home to get in a little alone time with the hubs. These days, being able to just get thirty minutes of uninterrupted talking time, is pretty much a miracle. Kevin and I used our time to catch up, regroup, and discuss some of the projects we've got coming up here in the Holt household before heading out to pick up our girl and head down town to meet up with my parents for the monthly car show. Every second Friday in April-September, our town holds a classic car show for locals and it's always fun to meander through the streets looking at cars past, grabbing snacks from street vendors, and just enjoying time outdoors as a family.

Since a sudden onset of rain cut our evening short downtown, we ended our night with a movie at home with some of our friends and family. & Can I just say, we are beyond blessed to have friends and family who will drop everything to come hang out with us on short notice! Best friends and family ever!

On Saturday Kevin and I were up bright and early. We kicked off our morning with fresh sausage biscuits at my parents' house. After helping Mom clean up, we rolled out with Dad's truck and headed to Lowe's to pick up 50 bags of mulch for our front yard. Sadly, that wasn't enough and we were back again for 50 more! Might I add... that only covered our front yard :/ Eeek...

Saturday afternoon, Kevin, Harper and I headed to Greensboro to pick out hardwood flooring for downstairs and some new tile for our half bath. After three failed attempts to find anything we liked, we gave up and decided to grab dinner at Kabuto, a local Japanese restaurant. Following dinner, we headed to a few shops in search of items for our new mudroom area & thankfully, that search went much better. We were able to find quite a few things for our new little space that I can't wait to get started on this week.

Sunday morning, we were up again bright and early to head back to Lowes for more mulch. While there we took another look at the hardwood flooring and tile and finally narrowed down the hardwood flooring to three different options and even changed our minds completely on the bathroom tile!  Now to just make the final decisions... But since that took most of our morning, we ended up not making it to church and just headed on over to my parents' house for lunch.

When lunch was over we headed back home and spent the remainder of the day cleaning out closets and straightening up the house. At dinner I whipped up some baked spaghetti and called up some of the family to come help us eat. Then after the dishes were cleared we headed outside and took turns pushing Harper up and down the driveway in her little cub car until it got dark.

All in all, it might not have been the most fun we've had on a weekend but now that it's over, I'm so thankful we accomplished several of the things on our spring to-do list and got to spend time with those that mean the most to us. & don't you agree that our front yard looks gorgeous?!

{Weekend Recap} Easter 2015

Happy Monday, girls! Like most of you ladies, our weekend was filled with Easter festivities. This year Harper was all into the holiday and watching her soak up every minute of it made this mama's heart swell larger than I thought possible. When parents say having kids make the holidays more fun, they aren't lying.

Having returned home from our vacation late Friday night, Harper and I planned to sleep in Saturday morning. However, at 8am, my doorbell was ringing and my parents were standing there baring breakfast. On most occasions, I wouldn't be too much of a happy camper with that abrupt wake up call but the smell of some fresh baked biscuits sure did sooth my temperament (;

After breakfast was devoured and the kitchen cleaned up, my parents headed out to run their errands. Leaving Harper and I time to get dressed and ready to take the hubby some lunch at work. We were a bit late getting there so we just made a quick stop at McDonald's for some cheeseburgers and fries. Which was a-okay with this mama. I can never pass up an order of McDonald's french fries!

Saturday afternoon, Harper and I headed over to my church for their annual Easter egg hunt. I wasn't sure how Harper would do since Harper hadn't really had the opportunity to hunt for eggs. As you might remember, we took her Easter egg hunting last weekend but all the bigger kids snatched them up before she ever had a chance. Yet, Harper surprised me. As soon as she spotted the eggs, she went straight for them and tossed them in her little monogrammed basket. Watching her run around like a crazy person with a huge grin on her face filled my heart with joy.

Kevin had to work again on Sunday so Harper and I began our morning by joining him for breakfast at work. When breakfast was over, we rushed home to change into our new Easter dresses then headed to church for the early service. While at church I couldn't help but snap a few pictures of this cutie out by one of our blossoming trees.

Sunday afternoon was filled with the usual Sunday lunch at my parents' house. Harper was ecstatic to see that the Easter bunny had left her a few goodies at Nana and Papa's house. The only problem was she was so excited about her new goodies that she refused to sit down and eat lunch so our usual relaxed lunch was filled with a screaming toddler in the middle of a temper tantrum. Definitely not the highlight of our weekend.

Since Kevin had to work on Sunday, I kept Harper's Easter goodies hidden until he arrived home so he could witness her reaction to her "presents". And thank goodness that I did because she was so excited. And can I just add that yet again, the first thing she headed to was her new shoes (; A girl after her mama's own heart!

After the goodies were opened and put together, we headed over to my in-laws for an Easter Egg hunt and dinner. After hearing how much Harper loved hunting Easter eggs my mother in law ran out to the store and bought some just so Harper could enjoy her own private little hunt at their house. How spoiled our child is (; By the time Harper finished it was cold and getting dark, so we all headed in to devour some of my mother-in-law's delicious lasagna!

When supper was over, the guys headed out to see the seventh Fast and Furious movie while I headed home with my brother-in-law's girlfriend to start making some diy pillow covers for our living room. Here's a little sneak peek of how they're turning out. Don't you just love them?!

Hope your weeks go wonderfully!