February Favorites!!

I'm linking up with Ashley today for Favorite Things!! She hosts a link up on the last day of every month. You share your "favorites" from the month.  

So here are my favorite pictures, recipes, moments, etc...from February 2013!

1. Brent's birthday was on the first:

2. Brent and I started going to Barry's Bootcamp together pretty regularly and it has definitely become an addiction for both of us! Quick results come from those crazy hard workouts. 

3. I had a Valentine Heart Pennant Banner giveaway on the blog and made 4 banners for 4 lovely ladies! My kitchen and dining room got taken over with glitter, burlap, and hot glue! Brent was glad to see me put away the glitter b/c he always had it on the bottom of his feet and I think he even ate a spec or two...on accident of course! It somehow migrated from the kitchen counter onto our plates one night. 

4. Since the weather was relatively mild most of this month, we ventured out to the park a handful of times. I love watching Rowen at the park! He loves it. Some of the biggest smiles I have seen have been when we have been there! He loves being outside and his favorite thing at the park the past few weeks/currently is going down the slide and walking around and  collecting sticks!

5. The day before Valentine's I watched Valentine's Day( the movie ) while making delicious red velvet oreo truffle bars. They turned out great and were super yummy! If you want the recipe, go HERE!

6. Valentine's Day

7. I got bangs! 

8. Brent and I had a fun 36 hours in Memphis!

9.  I captured many many smiles from the cutest 15 month old I ever saw!! He turned 16 months 4 days ago!! 

Here's to a wonderful month of March!!

Meals for the week, kites, and flowers!

Brent and I usually make a list of meals for the week every Sunday night but I always forget to post them. Well, I remembered this time and I also have some pictures of last nights meal! 

Last night we had barbeque chicken quesadillas with mexican rice and black beans. This is a yummy quick meal. Especially since I bought a package of fully cooked grilled chicken. 

He LOVES mealtime and is such a great eater!!

It felt great here today. I think it got up to 61 degrees! Rowen and I of course had to get outside and enjoy it so we headed to Parmer Park(our go to place to play outside). There were 2 kids flying kites there b/c it was kind of blustery and he went crazy! He started squealing and pointing and made a amd dash right towards them. We sat and watched the kites flying around for a little bit. I foresee a kite in our future for this summer! 

I'm Linking up with Lauren and Tiffany today for Tuesday Topics...2 flowers.

I definitely have 2 favorite flowers!... Alstroemerias and Hydrangeas. 

These are alstroemerias. They come in all different colors. You can find  them at just about every grocery store. And they last for so long!! I bought these a few days before Valentine's Day and they are just now starting to look a little droopy but not bad as you can see. They usually last for about 2 weeks before drying up! Next time you want some fresh flowers, you should give these a try!!

My other favorite...hydrangeas!

I had my bridesmaids carry these in my wedding and also had some in my bridal portraits! 

Have a happy Tuesday!!

weekend update!

.   

{FRIDAY}

Brent and I headed to Memphis Friday morning but before we got out of town, we had to drop Rowen off at his grandma's house. She was going to watch him till Brent's mom got off work. We dropped him off around 9:30am and hit the road. Brent had a few meetings in Memphis lined up for Friday so he thought I should come along and make a little one day trip out of it! Memphis is only about 3 hours away from us and it's not a bad drive at all. I just don't really don't like road trips!

 We got there around 1pm, grabbed some lunch, and Brent took off to his first meeting. I sat in the lobby at the Peabody and watched the ducks swim around in the fountain. Waited some more and some more for our room. I had planned on when we got there, I was going to take a nap for an hour or so but check in wasn't till...4pm! Ugh. After an hour of waiting, they had our room ready which was actually an hour before we were technically allowed to check in. That was nice of them. 

{hotel lobby, pretty light fixture in our room, night light UNDER the night stand!}

{I love how there is duck stuff everywhere! There were even ducks on our bathmat...bottom left picture)

If you don't know about the Peabody Hotel you can read about it HERE. It's a very famous hotel.

After we dropped our bags off, I headed down to the spa b/c Brent had scheduled me a massage!! It was so nice! That's one of those things that I don't do for myself often at all. It was so relaxing and just what I needed!!

We headed to dinner before going to the Grizzlies game. We decided on sushi! I think I could live off of sushi. We hadn't had it in a while and it was ssoooo good!sea

I got the spicy tune roll and the crunchy shrimp roll. Those are probably my 2 most favs! Brent got the crunchy shrimp roll and a noodle bowl. 

Neither of us had been to a professional basketball game so we were pretty pumped! It was actually really fun and the Grizzlies WON!

Yep! We totally got photo bombed by that little tweenager! I guess he didn't think it through that I would see his face when I looked at the picture. So when I turned around and said "real cool" to him, he was caught off guard and looked a little embarrassed. I laughed cause I didn't care and actually thought it was funny! 

We decided that we are definitely going to go to another game! Those 2 pictures in the middle are kinda blurry cause the halftime show were The Beale Street Flippers! They were awesome!! Go HERE to learn about them! We left town Saturday afternoon but not before eating at Rendezvous!

 To Be Cont...I am taking Rowen to the park before it rains so I will finish up the weekend later!

{A little Inspiration}

I really like today's inspirational quote!...

So with a little bit of positive feedback from some of y'all, I have decided to try "inspirational mondays" as a link up starting next Monday! So be thinking of a quote that you would like to share! It can be about anything...something that you love or something that you think someone else would love reading. I am looking forward to reading quotes that inspire y'all! And I think that this will be a great link up to look back over a few times each week! The link will go live @ 8am EST( every Monday )...just a heads up! 

*I know there are quite a few link ups out there but I don't think there is one like this and all you have to do is post 1 inspirational quote! That's it. It can be part of your main Monday post of can be a post all by itself like mine! I have made a button that I will  have available on next Monday's post so we can share it with all our other bloggy friends in case they want to participate! 

Happy Monday!!

Don't forget to enter the GIVEAWAY! Just a few hours left!

Click HERE for the original post or just enter below...

I have noticed that I have been using a certain handful of products lately and I thought I would share my love for them with one lucky person! 

1. Well this first one isn't a product but it's one of my must reads each month. I love Women's Health magazine and have been reading it for years. It's chocked full of nutrition advice, beauty products, health articles, must-haves, etc...etc...It's an all around great magazine! 

2. Dove extra hold hair spray. I have been using this hairspray for probably 4 years now. It's fantastic. It holds all.day.long and doesn't make your hair stiff as a board. And it smells great too! I don't think I will switch to a different brand anytime soon.

3. Baby Lips. So I have seen 100's of commercials for this stuff over the past couple months and I thought nahhhh, I have tons of lip balm. Well I passed by it the other day while in Walgreens and grabbed one to try. Love it! It glides right on and leaves my lips super silky! I tried the clear with the scent of peppermint. It's nice and refreshing. And it has SPF which I really don't care about( I know that's bad )but that's an added plus!

4. Garnier Fructis intensely smooth leave in conditioning cream. I discovered this product last year while at the beach. It's awesome. I put it on my towel dried hair after showering and then comb through my hair to distribute it equally. It leave mu hair super soft and sleek after blow drying. It actually stay sleek till the next time I wash it. It doesn't leave my hair feeling heavy and it's nice that it's a leave in conditioner! 

5. Essie nail polishes. I love this brand...probably more than OPI. It stays on for a long time. They have awesome colors and each bottle lasts for a really long time! The sparkly ones are my favorites at the moment. 

{So one lucky reader will win all of these products! And as far as the magazine goes, you'll be getting the newest one available. And the nail colors... pick between pink, gold, or blue and I will send you that color along with a sparkly one to match.}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Happy Friday!! and a GIVEAWAY of some of my favs!!}

Happy Friday!! This week flew by. I can't believe it's already Friday...yay. Brent and I are headed to Memphis this morning after we drop Rowen off with his family in Lebanon. Brent is headed down there for business and wanted me to tag along! So we decided to make a little 24 hour trip out of it! While he is in his afternoon meetings, he scheduled me a massage! Woo Hoo! When he gets done with everything, we are going to grab some dinner and then head to the Grizzlies game. I have never been to a professional basketball game so I'm pretty pumped. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun! And of course we will be eating at Rendezvous before leaving town. Rendezvous is the best barbeque ever in all the U.S....says Brent and a ton of other people! haha. I have never had it so I am looking forward to that experience. 

I can't have a Friday post without some pics of my sweet thing! Here are a few pictures of Rowen from this past week...

ANNNDDDDD on to the giveaway!

I have noticed that I have been using a certain handful of products lately and I thought I would share my love for them with one lucky person! 

1. Well this first one isn't a product but it's one of my must reads each month. I love Women's Health magazine and have been reading it for years. It's chocked full of nutrition advice, beauty products, health articles, must-haves, etc...etc...It's an all around great magazine! 

2. Dove extra hold hair spray. I have been using this hairspray for probably 4 years now. It's fantastic. It holds all.day.long and doesn't make your hair stiff as a board. And it smells great too! I don't think I will switch to a different brand anytime soon.

3. Baby Lips. So I have seen 100's of commercials for this stuff over the past couple months and I thought nahhhh, I have tons of lip balm. Well I passed by it the other day while in Walgreens and grabbed one to try. Love it! It glides right on and leaves my lips super silky! I tried the clear with the scent of peppermint. It's nice and refreshing. And it has SPF which I really don't care about( I know that's bad )but that's an added plus!

4. Garnier Fructis intensely smooth leave in conditioning cream. I discovered this product last year while at the beach. It's awesome. I put it on my towel dried hair after showering and then comb through my hair to distribute it equally. It leaves my hair super soft and sleek after blow drying. It actually stays sleek till the next time I wash it. It doesn't leave my hair feeling heavy and it's nice that it's a leave in conditioner! 

5. Essie nail polishes. I love this brand...probably more than OPI. It stays on for a long time. They have awesome colors and each bottle lasts for a really long time! The sparkly ones are my favorites at the moment. 

So one lucky reader will win all of these products! And as far as the magazine goes, you'll be getting the newest one available. And the nail colors... pick between pink, gold, or blue and I will send you that color along with a sparkly one to match.

Just enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New blog design!!

Y'all I am LOVING my new blog design! I think it's so cute and I loved being able to chime in on each and every little decision. If you are wanting to get a new design or are just curious about it, hit up Kate @ eloquent graffiti! She is awesome. Or just go ahead and head to SCRAPCAKE DESIGNS. I did a little research before making a decision on who to choose to help me design a new template. I loved her portfolio, we were already blogger friends, and  some blogs that I read have been designed by her and I loved the look of them. So it was a pretty quick and easy decision. BUT I am totally saving you time and telling you to just go with her! haha. 

I had a few colors in mind and she asked me to send her some fonts that I liked...and that began what you see now :) After every little thing that she designed, she would send a picture of it over and have me look over it and I would let her know if it was just like I wanted or if she needed to tweak a few things! She totally didn't disappoint on any part of the new template journey! I couldn't be more happy about it and I just love opening my blog and looking at everything! haha. It's just so pretty! 

{LOVING & PINNING and repeat...}

Happy Wednesday!!

It's that time of the week again...linking up with Jaime for WILW and with Michelle for Oh, How Pinteresting.

 and

I'm LOVING...

that my mom and I hit up our first consignment sale of the Spring/Summer season last night! And boy, was it an awesome one!! We have our favorites and this has been one of them. I consigned in it so we got to shop early last night @ 6pm. We got clothes( of course ), swim trunks, toys, a sandbox, a brand new super cute inflatable pool, shoes, and much more. Here are just a FEW of the items we got sweet Rowen...

Polos for $4 each?!! Yes, please! 

A few of the jon jons...

P.j.s and swim trunks. I don't know why but that little dog with glasses makes me giggle! I think he's so cute.

I'm LOVING...

my bangs...still! I have gotten use to having something of my forehead now and a lot of times, I don't even realize they are there. My hair stylist called me yesterday just to check in and see how I was liking them. I told her I LOVED them and they look just like I was wanting them too! Hopefully I will keep liking them! haha.

I'm LOVING...

my little animal lover. I think Rowen gets his huge love for animals from me! Since Brent was off of work Monday, we decided to take a trip to the Zoo! Rowen loves going and I am so glad it's so close to us. It only takes about 25 minutes or so to get there. Most of the animals were very active so he really enjoyed that! The lynx were probably the friendliest to us. They came right up to the front of the cage and just stared at us!

I'm LOVING...

girl scout cookies!

I probably wouldn't have bought any this year but Brent came home last week with 6 boxes! haha. I lady was selling some for her daughter at his work. Since we have 6..well now 4 boxes, I always have to say "No thank you" to those sweet little girls who squeal "Do you wanna buy some girl scout COOKIES" at the entrance of the grocery store. Do you know what I'm talking about? Whenever I go to the store, I dread having to walk past them and tell them I already have some...they probably don't believe me! When I said that to one of the little girls over the weekend she replied with "you can always use more!" What?! Nice one but I'm not buying more cookies little girl! Anyways, he got the thin mints, samoas, and do-si-dos. They're all so good! Takes me back to when I was a girl scout :)

I'm LOVING...

my moisturizer! I feel like it is always hard to find a good one of these. But I am really enjoying my Origins Starting Over age erasing(!) moisturizer right now. Give it a try if you are looking for a new one...at least go get a sample!

And now on to the Pinning...

OH How Pinteresting Pins:

{Party Poms}

Source: brightnest.com via Rachel on Pinterest

                                                {Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice}

               {Yummy}

Source: Uploaded by user via Rachel on Pinterest

                                                                   {Love this!}

Source: beckyhiggins.com via Rachel on Pinterest

                         {Peep S'mores!}

Source: Uploaded by user via Rachel on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Rachel on Pinterest