First Family Thanksgiving

My title is a little deceiving - obviously its not our first family Thanksgiving but it is our first Thanksgiving as a family of 3 (or 5 if you include the dogs). We are hosing both Thanksgiving and Christmas at our house this year because I did not want to deny any Grandparent their first holiday with their grandbaby (and I didn't want to travel with a baby and 2 dogs). So my family spent the long weekend with us! Which is good because we need some extra hands to help with the decorating.

Some of the best recipes I have found in the past have been on Buzzfeed and this year was no different! I used their Cranberry Relish recipe and their Sweet Potato Stacks recipe - which was a hit! Both the sweet potatoes and the stuffing were made in cupcake tins and my husband's suggestion for next year was to make everything in cupcake tins! Challenge accepted?!

Our Thanksgiving Feast consists of the following:

• Cranberry - Orange Relish
• Simple Mashed Potatoes
• Sweet Potato Stacks 
• Green Bean Casserole
• Corn
• Turkey Breast
• Stuffing
• Dinner Rolls
• Cookies
• Brownies

I hope you had a WONDERFUL holiday and I cant believe November is over and December is here! I love December because it is the most wonderful time of the year!

Lola a.k.a The Spotted Bulldog

If you ready my first post then you know I named my blog after my little fur baby Lola. We had quite the scare last week when we found out that she had/has right sided heart failure. And quite the shock to my wallet!

Here is Lola's story. We got Lola back in 2009 when she was 3 1/2 months old. At that point my husband and I had been together for 4 1/2 months. So Lola is our first (4-legged) baby together. Lola brought so much joy to us!

When Lola was in for her 1 year check up the vet detected a hear murmur and suggested we see a specialist. That's right, we needed to see a k-9 cardiologist. After that visit it was determined that Lola had pulmonary stenosis and would need heart surgery. After they opened her up they realized that her particular case was inoperable.

Pulmonic stenosis, also known as pulmonary stenosis, is a dynamic or fixed obstruction of flow from the right ventricle of the heart to the pulmonary artery.

Lola went on 1 medication and for the past 5 years she has responded really well! So well in fact that the cardiologist said her condition was better and that we no longer had to being her in every year. That was this past January.

Fast forward to earlier this month, she started to get winded easier, she wasn't really eating as much and early last week her abdomen started to expand. I had made her an appointment the week prior and we made our way in on Nov. 18th. The vet walked in an immediately knew something was wrong. They took her back for some tests and ended up draining her abdomen of the fluids that had been pushing on her lungs making it hard for her to breath. She had high blood pressure and a rapid heart rate. I brought her to the ICU for over night observation and the next morning she would see internal medicine.

Lola was able to come home on Nov. 19th but she still really isn't eating much. She is more than happy to take her meds but she wont eat. Other than they she seems to be doing okay, she is moving slowly and we are letting her sleep in our room in a nice, HUGE new bed. I am not sure how much time we have left with our sweet girl. She will forever be loved by everyone who has met her.

Baby Travel Essentials + Giveaway!

Today I am hosting my first giveaway! :-o How exciting! I wanted to host it before Thanksgiving because I am so thankful for all the gifts we received while I was pregnant and after. These are great products and I really hope you enjoy them!

So whats included?!

• Travel size Babyganics daily moisturizing lotion
• Travel size Babyganics pure mineral sunscreen (SPF 30)
• Travel size Johnson's Baby Head to Toe wash
• 4oz (120ml) Munchkin Latch bottle
• $5 Wal*Mart gift card

So enter below! You have one week, good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(for US residents only)

Turning an IKEA Spice Rack into a Cute Book Nook

So I really wanted to have this post up yesterday but I didn't have time to edit the pictures yesterday of last night so it's getting posted a little late. More on why later.

Alana's room is made up of some cost saving ideas and IKEA hacks I have found on Pinterest. One was dressing up an IKEA dresser. And today's post is about another.

IKEA has these wooden, unfinished spice racks that, with the help of Pinterest I'm sure, have quickly become just regular trinket racks. My favorite idea was turning them into a book rack/holder.

So I painted them to match her room and up they went! We utilized the dead space behind the closet door. Of course she is too young to read but by the time she can she'll have a little stool made for her that she can use to reach the top and middle one. And as you can see they quickly filled up with some of my old books and new books of her own!

I can tell she already enjoys story time; her eyes follow along, taking in all the pictures and colors. And now she is grabbing at the books to try and put them in her mouth! Babies are so funny!

Side note: We used these in our last house as extra storage in our master bath. They really work great for adding a little extra storage space!

Nursery Art

So I am finally starting to get around to taking pictures of Alana's room and the art I have hung in there. Unfortunately, the lighting was total crap yesterday! So I apologize for the bad pictures. We sort of have 4 areas showcasing pictures and art:

The first is above her crib - I ordered these pictures from etsy from a photographer in Ukraine. I love these pictures that were taken in Paris, France and that they have been changed to have the purple in them matches her room perfectly! They are 8x10 and my husband wishes we would have gotten the 11x14.

Then we have what I am calling the gallery wall - I decided to stop worrying about how the pictures line up as this will be something that we continuously add to. And I don't want to end up with more holes in the wall because this picture needs to move 2cm to the left. I bought all the frames on sale and I spray painted them the same gray so they would all match. I made most of these and here is how:

~ So Many of my Smiles: I made this using a design I found on my Silhouette machine and just changed the color and printed it using my printer.
~ A: Michael's Arts and Crafts had these small frames for like $0.25 and then I bought a set of scrapbooking letters and made that cute little piece.
~ You Are My Sunshine: I made this with my Silhouette too, the "sunshine" is actually raised and I love the look.
~ Mirror: I found this on sale too and I spray painted the pink on there to add a little somethin', somethin'
~ Street Lamp: The photographer from Ukraine included this card in her delivery so I framed it and put it on the wall :)
~ Hello, Love: This I found at Hobby Lobby

I have a few more pieces that I need to finish and get up there but it's looking good so far.

There is the area above and the top of her dresser that I posted before:

And then we have the most meaningful pieces of all, the hand made birth announcements that my mom made for me and for Alana. Mine is actually being fixed at the moment but below is Alana's! I am so thankful she has something like this to keep and treasure forever!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are having a great start to the week!

Busy Bee --- Buzz, Buzz!

I have been absent here for a few posts now and that is because I have just been so busy! We had a lot of visitors this weekend; my in-laws were in town to visit the little one, my bff came over for a night out and another one of my friends came over to join in the night out - it was a mini high school reunion! And then on Sunday we have a neighborhood holiday vendor event where I was showcasing how fantastic Nerium is.

I also got A BUNCH of Christmas shopping done! I went a little crazy on etsy this year but I am super excited about everything I got. I love to open presents just as much as the next person but I also love to watch people open their presents! I just love the holiday season! I think I am a little excited about Christmas this year because we're having it at our house for the first time. Ever since Matt and I began dating we would spend the holiday with his family one year and then mine the next. But I did not want to deny any grandparent their first Christmas with Alana so we said, "We're having it here, come if you want!" I am also debating putting up a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving because I don't think I will have the time to get everything up in the 3 December weekends before the 25th.

I am also staying busy with trying to keep my deal to myself about working out - pure barre twice a week and running 3 times a week (but sometimes I can only manage to run twice a week). I started pure barre this past weekend because their new location just opened; I have gone 3 times already and I am SO sore!

Anyway, that is what I have been up to, what have you been up to?

The Minion Family

I love Halloween! And I was super excited to dress up as a family this year. We went as minions and Gru!

Alexa a.k.a. Kevin
I was Kevin, the tall minion. My outfit was pretty easy to throw together. I ordered my overalls and yellow shirt from Amazon and I got my minion beanie from Etsy. For shoes I wore my black converse. And I just printed the Gru symbol off the internet

Overalls
Yellow long sleeve shirt
Minion beanie
Black converse (already owned)

Alana a.k.a. Stuart
Alana was Stuart, the minion with one eye. Her outfit was pretty simple too: a yellow onesie, blue tutu, socks and I made her little eye from a kit I got a craft store.

Yellow onesie
Blue tutu
Mudpie Mary Jane socks
Build Your Own Minion kit (seen to the right)
Yellow headband and bow (already owned)

Matt a.k.a. Gru
We already had most of his costume, all we had to do for this was order the right scarf and some fun foam for his nose. And I just printed off the Gru symbol for his jacket zipper.

Black pants (already owned)
Black jacket (already owned)
Black/gray scarf
Fun foam nose

And we had a Build-A-Bear Bob minion to complete the minion trio!

I hope you all had a super fun Halloween!

Gru Nose Tutorial
I bought a pack of sticky fun foam that included some skin colored tones and I cut it into a triangle pyramid shape. I fit it to my husband's nose..ish... Once I had the shape drawn out I scored it to make it easier to bend where I needed it and then took the paper off the backing and stuck it on! I think it turned out pretty great! However with the humidity the nose only lasted about an hour until it didn't stick anymore.  

Raindrops on Roses...

...and whiskers on kittens. Now is that song stuck in your head?! It's in mine :)

Sometimes I participate in a monthly link-up and this month is it all about our favorite things! Here is my current list of favorite things:

1 - Being a mom and having a daughter. When you become a new parent you are full of new emotions, schedules, and priority changes. My best friend said that she has never seen me look more happy than I do in the picture below (and she should know, next to my family she has known me the longest). Perhaps motherhood looks good on me! I read a quote the other day that went something like this:

The days and nights go by slow but the years go by fast

And it couldn't be more true! It feels like just the other day we were rushing to the hospital because my water broke 5 weeks early...fast forward today and our little sweet pea is over 6 months old! Where does the time go?!

2 - Traveling, well duh! We have a trip to Boston planned for early next year and I know with the holidays fast approaching that trip will be here before we know it! I am also trying to plan a big family get together for late Summer of 2016. I am thinking Florida! Alana needs her first beach trip to be someplace nice, not the shitty beaches we have here in Galveston.

3 -  Nerium AD! This stuff is the bomb DOT com y'all. I just love the way it makes my face feel! You won't be disappointed! But if you are, that's okay because Nerium offers a 30-Day money back guarantee! And if you are interested in getting free product (...this is the home of the brave and land of free gift with purchase...can you name that movie?) I can totally help you with that too!

4 - Running, I am finally getting back into my groove and trying my hardest to run 3 times a week. Its best if I can get home, changed and get back out the door within 15 mins or so or it ain't really happening. If I have Alana with me and I have to feed her before my husband gets home and then it's pretty hard to get off that couch. I also purchased another round of Pure Barre, they were offering a deal I couldn't pass up for their new location.

5 - Halloween! I was really excited about Halloween this year because we were getting to dress up as a family! We decided to be minions and Gru! I'll be posting how I got our costumes together later this week!

To join the link-up click here! And tell me what are some of your favorite things?