Weekending in South Florida

This past weekend was just what the doctor ordered! Stephen and I have been going 110% lately and it's been stressful. Most of this is our fault from (me) planning too much but this trip came at a good time! Before I get into our trip, Friday, my co-worker an I threw a diapers and desserts party for 2 guys in our group whose wives are due very soon! Y'all. the amount of pregnant people in my group is out of control... we are now at 4 - the girl who threw the party with me is also super pregnant.

Anyways, we wanted to keep things small and simple since it was for guys so we got a conference room at the beginning of lunch, had a few sweet treats, had people bring a pack of diapers for each dad and then let them write funny things on diapers for those late night diaper changes. Y'all, those diapers were hysterical!!! With Stephen's help, I made a diaper cake for each dad and banners with their baby's name. It was a great little party and wasn't too baby shower-y for the guys ;)

My lovely co-host made these funny poop emoji cupcakes

The dad's showed up in legit the exact same shirt - totally not planned

After work, Stephen and I loaded up and headed down to South Florida to visit my BIL, SIL and niece. We thought Siena would be asleep when we got there but we were happy to see she was still awake - although, we totally messed up her sleeping because she was so excited to see us lol We hung out that night, caught up and played with Siena before going to bed. I have to say, at a little over 1.5 years, Siena is so much fun! She talks, understands what you ask and is so much fun to play with; however, everyone seems to say 3 years is the best age so I cannot wait to continue seeing her grow!

Anyways, Saturday we got up and the boys ran to Publix while Lauren, Siena and I hung out at the house. After breakfast, we got ready and headed to their community tennis courts for a quick round of tennis to warm up before the pool. We swam for a little before everyone got hungry and Siena needed a nap. Lauren and I ran out to pick up some BBQ for lunch (thank goodness I finished up the Bikini Series ;)).

Once we finished lunch, I decided to go lay out by the pool while the boys moved around some heavy items. After the boys finished and Siena woke up, they joined me pool side and we had a blast playing the rest of the afternoon. That evening, they had some friends over for a delicious cookout and fun baby time.

Sunday we got up and spent a little time with them before heading home. We had a lot to get caught up on so we skipped church with them so we could get home. Thankfully, I was able to get some orders done, do laundry and get things ready for the week.

I'm hoping this week won't be as stressful but we'll see ;) We're getting ready for our beach vacation this weekend - I can't wait! I hope everyone had a great weekend - linking up with Biana.

Five on Friday

We made it to the weekend and I can hardly believe it! Things have been non-stop since I got back from CA and honestly, it looks like it's going to stay that way until the last week of July. I told Stephen we I need to not plan anything for like 2 months starting August 1st lol This also explains why I haven't been able to get any more California posts up... maybe late July it'll happen? It's anyone's guess at this point.

One
Today is the final final day for my Tone It Up Bikini Series!! This was a strict, 8 week nutrition and workout program and it totally worked for me. I've always loved doing the Tone It Up YouTube videos but this was my first time doing the Bikini Series. It was 8 weeks of hard work and a lot of dedication. Did I mess up on my nutrition plan and miss some workouts? Of course, especially with all our traveling we did but for the majority of the time, I stayed true to the program and it shows. The most exciting thing for me is the new muscles I can see!! I've definitely lost inches, toned up, lost some weight and feel healthier.

After week 8, we all did the seven day slim down which is a very clean eating and intense week to de-bloat and make your muscles pop. This was probably the hardest week because I wanted sweets all.the.time. which didn't happen the first time I did the 7 day slim down. I'll be taking my final pictures early this morning - still not sure if I'll share them here but I definitely will on my TIU instagram account.

I thrived on this program because Katrina and Karena provided us with workouts to do every day and a clear guide on how to eat. If I don't have someone telling me exactly what to do, I won't do it... I need some rules to follow lol Even though it was a great program, I'm glad it's over. I am going to enjoy the looser eating and won't feel as much (self-inflicted) guilt if I do eat off the nutrition plan. I definitely will not be going back to eating the way I was (even though it wasn't that unhealthy) because I want to continue the momentum and not go backwards.

Two
To tack onto what I said above, TIU released their own protein bars at Target and oh my, they're amazing! Stephen wasn't super excited for me to get them since they're a little on the pricey side but very comparable to legit protein bars but I got 2 packs so I could have reinforcements for the 2 weeks I'd be gone at work conferences. I shared a picture on my TIU instagram and ended up being featured in their recent blog post about protein bars - how funny!

Aside from the excitement of the instagram picture, this post is super informative about what to look for when buying protein bars. I wish I had this months ago! I might not continue to buy their bars all the time but I will certainly follow the rules they gave us :)

Three
There are all sorts of people having babies within our group recently so today my (pregnant) friend and I are throwing a quick diapers and desserts party before lunch. We told everyone to bring a pack of diapers for 2 soon-to-be dads and stop by a conference room real quick to get some sweets. I stayed up Tuesday night making their diaper cakes. Stephen graciously helped me and cut the bunt banners I made with the babies names. Can't wait to see it all come together later today :)

Four
We are super excited to head down to my BIL and SIL's house for the weekend! We can't wait to relax, swim and spend time with our niece. I've gotten some videos of her swimming and she's a little fish so we're super excited to see her in action!

Five
Wednesday, we had been in our house for 2 years and so I wrote a big blog post about it. I had to laugh because Facebook reminded me that on that day 4 years ago, we got our wedding license! It's so funny to see how 2 totally different, yet really big days happened on the same day, 2 years apart.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

2 Years in Our Home

2 years and 1 day ago, we purchased our first home. After 2 years of being married and living in a tiny apartment that Stephen had for 1.5 years before we got married, it was time. We had a hard time deciding when to buy a house and settle down but the Lord taught us me patience during this time and gave us the most perfect house.

Our apartment wasn't the nicest, sure it was newly redone but we had 1 bathroom and didn't have common luxuries like a garbage disposal or an ice maker. Our neighbor downstairs was a creepy, old man who sat outside his apartment (right next to the stairs we had to go up) 24/7 smoking non-stop; it caused all of our belongings to smell like cigarette smoke. It was tough for me. We were in a terrible city and we had no friends where we lived. I hated it and put up a stink about it more times than I'd like to admit. We were constantly looking into other jobs because we didn't know how stable Stephen's job would be - within the company and outside of the company. At one point, Stephen applied for a job, within his company, in Denver - thankfully, that one didn't pan out.

One day, we volunteered with Stephen's company for an event at a high school local to us now. We saw this area and thought it was amazing. I said I could live in Florida if we lived here. Stephen pushed back and said the commute was too long. Months later, God gave us our answer and told us to stay. We knew it was time to buy a house and decided to look in the area that Stephen said we couldn't live. We fell in love. We knew this is where God was calling us to live.

I was extremely unhappy with the church we were attending so before meeting our realtor one Sunday, we decided to attend the church we would probably go to if we were in the area. We really liked the church and most importantly, there were actual young people! People our age and that we could be friends with. We were so excited at the possibility of Christian, couple friends.

After church, we decided to drive by a house before we met with our realtor. That house needed a lot of work but it was already pending. We decided to drive around the neighborhood to see if there was anything else when we randomly ran into one of Stephen's co-workers. He was telling us how he's lived here for years and a lot of other people from work lived around here. That gave Stephen hope for his commute. He also happened to inform us that the house down the street was being flipped and we should check it out.

We drove down the house and the painter let us see the inside. It was a mess and in the middle of complete renovation. We thought it was nice but we weren't sure... it was a little too big. Still, we got the owners information and headed out to meet our realtor. The house we met at was awful and when we told her about the flip house, she was very excited. She called and got a ball park price - it was within budget!! After looking at a few other houses, we decided we should take her to look at it. She liked it but we then put an offer in on another house.

The other house was smaller, backed right up to a flood zone and needed some work. The owner wouldn't budge on his price so we said no thanks. Thank goodness. We then turned our attention the the flip house, had some conversations with the owner about his designs and decided to put in an offer. They accepted our offer within 1 day and the house was ours! We were so excited - we found out we got the house while we were visiting my BIL & SIL for their gender reveal.

The house still needed to be finished so we waited a few months before closing. The owners were the nicest people you'd ever meet and we got along so well. We were so thankful they transformed this house into our home - we did some minor updates after moving in but nothing big. After 2 years, we still love living here. It is literally the perfect location, the perfect size and we live on one of the best streets. We could not be more thankful to God for orchestrating all of this for us! He has blessed us with so much - we are so thankful to have Christian, couple friends who are all in the same season of life right now.

Phew, I did not expect this post to be this long... 2 years in a house full of memories can bring out the emotions ;)

Linking up with Jessi

Weekending & Life Updates

Since it's been so long since I've written an actual blog post, I thought I'd give a quick update on things after I talk about our weekend.

Friday morning, I was up at 4 am in Nashville in order to get ready and catch my flight - even though it was super early, I'd rather go ahead and get home than get an extra few hours of sleep. Once I got home, I ran by work and dropped off these adorable flamingo hats to my friend and her sister - I'm so happy with how these flamingo hats are turning out and it seems like everyone else is loving them as well :) After getting home, I showered and fell asleep for 2 hours. Once Stephen got home, we did an Aldi run and a Publix run so we could get dinner and stock up for my 7 day slim down (more on that later). We finished up the night with Jack Reacher 2 - it wasn't awful but I definitely wouldn't pay money for it.

Saturday, we slept in and then I got up, worked out, made breakfast, finished another flamingo hat order (love how these colors turned out!) and then ran errands. I need to find a dress for my parents' vow renewal on the beach in a few weeks but finding a dress that fits, is within budget and doesn't clash with my sister's dress is proving to be more challenging than I thought. Hopefully, I can find something this week. I did stop in Bath and Body Works for their semi-annual sale to get some more hand soaps - I also ended up with a few Christmas gifts and this amazing candle... I couldn't resist!

After getting home, I helped Stephen get everything on our new shelf in the garage! We're both so excited to have everything consolidated on one shelf and room to open our car doors all the way. I don't know if I should be worried that the whole thing is basically full and we don't even have kids lol Afterwards, I cleaned the house, finished up laundry then made dinner. After dinner, we watched CHIPS which was pretty funny but again, I wouldn't pay money for it.

Sunday, we went to church then I got right to work embroidering a purse and then different onsies for my friend. She is having a little boy and graciously brought me some old onsies so I could play around with my new designs. I cannot wait to share them with y'all after she gets them next week (I'm making her wait until her lunch sprinkle next Friday ;)). We took a break and ran over to our friends' new house to drop some things off and so I could see the place. They bought a flipped house and it's the most adorable thing ever! I can't wait for them to get settled so we can have some parties!

On that note, knowing our friends would be moving into their first house, we wanted to surprise them with a welcome home basket. We were surprised with one by the couple who flipped our house and thought it was so sweet - and they gave us some necessary items for moving in. We decided to fill a basket with cleaning spray and a paper towel roll, a bottle of sparkling peach cider to celebrate, some LED lightbulbs, a funny dish towel that was so them, grilling seasoning for future cookouts, CA playing cards we picked up in San Fran because we love playing Nertz together, Ghirardelli chocolate from San Fran for a moving pick me up and a delicious smelling candle. I was super excited when everything fit in the basket perfectly and our friends loved getting the basket :)

On another super exciting note, Saturday we were given the all-clear to share that in December, we will be getting a nephew!! Our niece, Siena, is going to be a big sister and we couldn't be more excited for their growing family! Knowing this one is a boy makes things more fun and exciting for sure! I knew what to do with Siena but a boy is a whole different ball game. Let's just say, I won't be volunteering to change diapers while he's still super little like I did for Siena lol

If y'all haven't noticed, I've been traveling the past 2 weeks for work. For the first time, I was able to attend a conference in Napa, CA and Nashville, TN - they were both so much fun and so informative but I am thankful to be home. Towards the end of last week, my boss and I kept saying we were conferenced out. I can't wait to get back into a routine, get caught up at work and get caught up with my friends at work for the next 2 weeks... then we'll head to vacation at HHI! Looking forward on my calendar, we're packed until the end of July - I love having stuff to do, especially when it's fun but we're ready for a break.

Lastly, I mentioned the 7 day slim down above. The past 8 weeks, I've been doing the Bikini Series with Tone It Up. It's an intense fitness program along with very nutritional eating. I've followed along with it as best as I can but it's difficult with traveling. This week is the final week and we're all doing the 7 day slim down - a super intense program with extremely clean eating and intense workouts to help you de-bloat and tone up. I've already seen some amazing improvements over the past 2 months - healthier eating, gaining muscles I've never had before, losing the weight I put on since getting married, gaining confidence and feeling so much better overall. I love this program and it definitely works if you stick to it! Can't wait to see how the rest of the week goes! I should be posting my results at the end of the week on my fitness instagram.

If you stuck with me until the end, thank you! I know this post was super random and long. I'm hoping to get back into regular posting these next 2 weeks and recap my trips. Linking up with Biana.

San Francisco | Day 2

I'm interrupting our normal Five on Friday to bring you the 2nd part of our San Francisco trip! This day, we woke up early and were 2nd in line for breakfast at Honey and Honey Cafe which was delicious! The restaurant definitely got full very quickly so I'm really glad we got over there early - they also had the best fresh-squeezed orange juice that they made right in front of you. After breakfast, we walked over to get our rental car downtown then loaded up our things and headed for the Painted Ladies. This area was so pretty and picturesque San Fran. We had lots of fun utilizing the tripod here lol

Once we were done with the ladies, we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped and took pictures in Chrissy Field (that's the name of the sundae we always order at Ghirardelli's lol!) before driving over the bridge to take more pictures at basically every stop along the side of the road. We seriously couldn't have asked for a prettier day or clearer skies!

Thank goodness for the tripod!!

Once we were done with our pictures, we headed over to Sausalito for lunch. We decided on Napa Valley Burger Company which was ah-mazing! After lunch, we continued to walk around the little town, got some ice cream and took some pictures. It was an adorable little town and the perfect stopping place before heading to Napa :)

After Sausalito, we headed to Muir Woods to see the Sequoya's! Stephen was super excited about this part of the trip - we had a great time here and were so amazing with how big the trees were! It was the perfect hiking distance and there were a few trail options. When we first got into the park, there was a new baby fox den and one of them came out to play!!! It was literally the cutest thing ever! I wanted so bad to scoop him up and take him home with me... I told Stephen I could hide him in my sweatshirt on the flight back ;)

Before going to Napa, I did some research on Julia's blog to determine what spots we needed to hit. She highly recommended The Fremont Diner which was on our way to the hotel. It was the cutest little diner and had a delicious sounding menu! Since I'm trying to stay good on my nutrition plan, we split the pimento cheese appetizer and a salad. After dinner, we made it to our hotel and crashed.hard. We were passed out by 8pm and slept 10 hours. It was glorious and the perfect way to help me get on Pacific time. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Come back next week for my recap of Napa!