happy st. patty’s day

Posted on March 22, 2016 by tandem in love

we are not much of a st. patrick’s day kind of family, although, hc is 15% irish. well, hc wanted to make corned beef and cabbage in celebration of st. patty’s day! so, we invited family over to enjoy a simple dinner and some beer, natch!

of course, i can’t have people over without some sort of fun decor in lieu of a holiday! nothing crazy though, because ain’t nobody got time for that. hahaha! i bought some balloons, green plates, i dug out some old decor, and decorated a sweets table and ta da! that was it. very simple.

my sister kim brought over the beer and dessert and we were set! everyone came over close to 7 and we served food right away and just chilled. it was a very calm, relaxing evening with some great food and drinks.

the kids had so much fun playing around. they ran around and screamed and did silly things. i love watching and listening to them play together. it’s so sweet that they are cousins and are so close to one another. they’re so silly and i love them being just that, giddy little kids having a blast playing together with no limitations.

well, it was a really lovely evening. hc and i had such a great time having them over {as usual}. the food was so good {thank you so much hc! you’re amazing!} and the company even better.

[ya always have to get some festive balloons!]

[we are so lucky to have one another!]

[i must always have matching straws…just my thing. 🙂 ]

[just waiting for the dessert to show up! mmmm]

[she really wanted her toy on the table]

[and she won. haha!]

[mmmmm delicious]

[yeahhhhh, that’s a very irish name. pshhh]

[love these two]

[love this one too]

[hc’s corned beef was soooooo delicious]

[i love vegetables]

[such silly kids…we tried to get a good pic…]

[olive was having a blast with all the balloons tangled on her but obviously auntie kim was not. haha!]

[hc chill in with my dad // we are alllllllmost done with our kitchen remode! yay!]

[sisters. oh my belly button is an outie. ugh]

[hc had to get in on the picture! can see olive photo bombing too? ha! plus, don’t mind the torn apart fireplace we are redoing]

xoxo

simple sunday

Posted on March 19, 2016 by tandem in love

it was a lazy sunday afternoon and we had hc’s family over for lunch. it was low key and chill. his parents, sister, and nephew came over for a relaxing day of hanging out. apparently hc didn’t know when they were coming over {kind of…he had a time in mind but his parents had a different time}. well, i will say this, hc is is the worst with communication and remembering anything and according to his dad, his mom is the worst communicator. so together, it’s a disaster.

hc texts me, to tell me that his parents were going to be there in 15 minutes {he was out buying groceries}. olive and i had been playing around in the house in our pj’s and when i received the text from hc, i shooed olive into her room to get her changed. as we walked into her room, in comes his parents, sister, and daniel! what?! that wasn’t fifteen minutes! it was more like one minute warning. ugh. so, they were in our house while hc wasn’t home because he obviously didn’t know they were coming over that early and i was still changing olive and still in my pj’s!

well, no worries. we greeted everyone and i excused myself and changed. olive was quite excited to see everyone! she’s become so silly. this girl is so sassy, bossy, and defiant. gah! life of a two year old.

anyhoo, hc finally came home with food and we hung out and did what family does. talk, chill, eat, and watch movies {hc and papa like to tinker in the garage}. hahaha! it was great to have them over. it was a fabulous sunday afternoon with the fam. cheers to family time!

[my funny gal]

[mmmmm, cake]

[being silly and blowing into the tube]

[my favorite treats]

[the best face olive would give with her auntie]

[my easter decor]

xoxo

february snapshots

Posted on March 15, 2016 by tandem in love

february was a great month. we had a lot of fun doing festive activities. i must admit, i was glad valentine’s day was mid-month because it meant the last of the holiday creativity was coming to an end. don’t get me wrong. i love getting festive, creative, and doing fun things with olive but i felt like it was non-stop since before halloween. we aren’t huge st. patrick’s day fans so it is nice to coast through this past month and not worry about deadlines, creating stuff, and just have fun together regardless of occasions!

anyhoo, we loved this past month for many great reasons. we had our gender reveal with our family and friends! we had so much fun creating boxes for everyone and sending them out through snail mail as a special surprise.

olive finally had her one year check up and it was a good one! she was toooooo cute and it was pretty cool to see her so grown up and very understanding of what was happening!

we also did a fun set up for the gender reveal through social media! it was great and oh so cute! we had balloons, festive outfits, banners, and each other! the pics turned out so stinkin cute! i loved every single picture we took!

well, those were some highlights of this past month. it was fabulous, fun, and filled with lots of love and laughter. i really am blessed. i am always thankful for mine and everyone’s health. i am so grateful for my wonderful husband who is the most fantastic partner and father. i am so thankful to God for my little olive and her, soon to be here, little sister. i am surrounded by friends and family who love us. life couldn’t get any better than this. truly.

[she’s so silly]

[bath time with this silly girl]

[love this sweet pea]

[sticky little fingers]

[she’s a riot]

[gender reveal]

[family outing]

[it’s a girl!]

[she’s a lovely doll]

[she’s the sweetest]

[my favorite salon]

[making her own valentine’s day cards]

[yummy treats]

[peek a boo!]

[my favorite macarons]

[super bowl sunday]

[i love her]

[valentine’s day breakfast]

xoxo

finally!

Posted on March 10, 2016 by tandem in love

two of my besties went and got 9-5 jobs m-f and because of that, i never really get to see them as often as i would like. it was always easy to see them on the weekdays because there was less chaos and it was much easier but our weekends are so tied up, which makes it a bit more difficult to make plans.

anyhoo, we finally made plans for brunch on a lovely Saturday afternoon. we hemmed and hawed over which place to try. we contemplated new places we haven’t tried, old places that we love, and we finally decided to go to an old favorite of ours! when olivia mentioned mhenry’s…i was sold. i haven’t been in months and i love eating there. it’s alway delicious, great service, and a fun environment. i love their bakery section in the front. it’s always so tempting to walk away with something to take home!

the wait wasn’t that long. thank goodness! it was only 15 minutes or less. we were seated in the back, i have never been seated in the back of the restaurant! i was a bit bummed because the lighting was soooooo bad for pics and it didn’t help that there was a ginormous red painting on the wall reflecting red hues everywhere! plus olivia’s red shirt and the red doors all around us. ugh!

anyhoo, we had such a fab time. really, it was. the food was so yummy and the company and conversations were even better! we were there for hours! it was perfect. we just relaxed, enjoy our tasty meals, and talked our afternoon away. it was great to catch up but what i love most about this group of ladies is that conversations flow so easily. we can gab and gab and gab non stop over everything. no matter how much time falls in-between, we are able to catch up causally on all of life’s happenings.

cheers to great friends!

[love, love these two so much!]

[i made dana smile for me so i could test my camera…got ya!]

[one of my favorite brunch places]

[love this girl]

[my most favorite dish there, ever]

[treats galore]

[my girls]

xoxo

brady and olive date

Posted on March 1, 2016 by tandem in love

we had planned a date and i was totally looking forward to kim, brady, and brooklyn coming over to our house.

in typical fashion, i crammed too many things into the morning. kim and i agreed on 11am but i thought she was going to text me when she left but instead, she text me when she was twenty minutes away! eep! i was totally in the middle of taking pictures with olive and we had so many outfits lined up and i didn’t want to cut it short. so, we sped through all the outfits {she’s become really accommodating, cooperative, and cute with taking pics}, i put away all her supplies {snacks, lollipops, pretzels, etc.}, folded and hung away all her clothes, cleaned up the props, re-set her room {yes, i do all this work for photos}, cleaned up everything, redressed olive, got myself spruced up, started prepping food, and i still beat kim before she got to my house! to give her credit…she did get a little lost, which favored on my side with time!

once she arrived, the gabbing began and never stops until she leaves. olive was still in her room and was being shy and didn’t want to come out. brady ran into her room, screamed, and ran out. olive was probably like wtf? hahaha! we then joined olive in her room to hang out. she was so intrigued with brady but slightly scared. it was oh so funny and cute. of course, miss brooklyn was as chill as can be. she’s such a great baby and so quiet and calm.

after we hung out in her room, we transferred out into the kitchen and living room. i started to set the table while the clan hung out in the living room. we sat down to eat, we chit chatted, and brady and olive were still trying to adjust to one another. they did finally start to get along and ran around, screaming, together. olive was just a bit overwhelmed with brady’s boisterous personality that she kept screaming at him to ‘stop right now!’. hahaha! they were seriously too cute together.

after a few hours of hanging out upstairs, downstairs, and everywhere, it was time for kim and the kids to head out. we were sad to see them go but had such a great time together! we looooove seeing this group of fab people. we love them so much! we will definitely squeeze in a few dates before the second babe arrives!

[you can’t go wrong with macarons]

[she was so intrigued and a bit scared by brady]

[how adorable is she??]

[opening up her gift from kim, brady, and brooklyn]

[how adorable is this gift for the new babes??]

[we need a little spring in our lives]

[table spread: pretzel buns, deli options, veggies & dip, fruit, and pasta salad]

[the beautiful girls]

[sweetest hugs goodbye]

xoxo

yay! mutts is engaged!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by tandem in love

the girl who was itching to get engaged finally did!

i am so excited for mutts! i have known this pretty lady for four years now and i am so happy for her! i get giddy when anyone gets engaged because it’s such an awesome period in your life. i loved, loved being engaged and i remember the euphoria, excitement, and pure joy you felt when it happened. so, when others get engaged, i get just as delighted!

i totally knew it was going to happen on the cruise they were taking together! i totally called it! on christmas day, anthony gave mutts a gift with a message that she needed to pick a date for them to go out on a really nice date. he purchased gift cards for her to get her nails done, for her to buy a nice dress, etc. everyone was speculating that this was when he was going to propose.

i was like no way. i knew they had this cruise planned for awhile and it was at the end of january, before their big ‘date night’. i felt that it was too obvious. anthony planning a date night as a big to do was just screaming to me as a distraction to him proposing on the cruise.

before mutts left on her vacation, i kept saying that anthony was going to propose and mutts kept denying it. she said he would lose his head if it wasn’t attached and there was no way she could see anthony bringing an engagement ring on vacation because he would lose it. i said, all the more for you to think he won’t propose but he will!

so i waited. she promised me if anything was to happen, she would definitely let me know! well, well, well. a few days after they came home from vacation, she text me a pic of her engagement ring! ha!

so, naturally, i had to take this girl out to celebrate! i was so excited to see her! her ring, of course, is gorgeous and she was absolutely glowing from happiness! we had such a great time catching up, talking about the ‘moment’, and all the fun planning that was happening!

congrats miss mutts! i am so excited and happy for you! you are now on a happy, thrilling journey! enjoy every moment, every second of being engaged. it’s one of the best periods in your life! mazel tov!

xoxo

happy super-valentine’s-lunar new year celebrations

Posted on February 16, 2016 by tandem in love

the day of the super bowl, we {last minute} had some peeps over.

we had been invited to a party but we weren’t really sure what we were going to do. then, we thought, why not just spend it together as a family, cook food, and relax? sounded like a grand idea, non? well that was definitely our plan! then a day before sunday, everything spurred together last minute. well, my family is always welcomed and they know that but everyone’s plans were in limbo as well. so, a small group of friends and family came on over and we had our super lunar valentine’s day party! woo hoo!

we weren’t going to see some of these people again before valentine’s day, monday was lunar new year, and obvs, sunday was super bowl. so, yes, we literally celebrated all three in one evening! haha! it was super fun!

hc cooked the most amazing items…savory, delicious meatballs, pulled pork sandwiches with a horseradish compote, and a corn salsa for dip. i made an onion dip with chips, guacamole, and everyone else brought over a dish! it was perfect for the small group we had.

we intermittently watched the game but us gals spent most of our time in the kitchen talking, while the kids ran around and played, and the boys were glued to the t.v. ya know, it all doesn’t really matter until half time comes on and then we really pay attention to the telly! ha!

[yes, we had a lunar new year, super bowl, valentine’s day party]

[please be mine]

[don’t mind the diapy sticking out. she had to be a part of the group so she insisted on standing on the chair to be with everyone]

[my lunar new year part of the decor and yes, we are still remodeling the kitchen but we are allllllmost done! yahoo!]

[the new year goody boxes for the kids]

[watching the game and eating and eating and eating]

[olive was having so much with the balloon with avery]

[yummy]

[opening their goodies]

[she would draw on the mask and then proceed to put the drawn, not dried marker part on her face. she pretty much stamped her face with marker each time she did that. haha!]

[such a modge podge kind of party! whoop whoop!]

the kids had such a great time, they loved their goody boxes, the food, and especially the desserts auntie kim brought! i must say, it was the best tri-celebration i have ever experienced, if i do say so myself. baahaha! anyhoozle, it was a fab evening. hc and i high five’d each other after everyone left. we truly love hosting and having people over and we truly had a great, great evening with everyone.

xoxo

easy vday treats

Posted on February 10, 2016 by tandem in love

oh time. it’s always so limited in my life but i always want to be creative and do something special, festive, and fun. i really wanted to whip up something sweet, simple, and cute for valentine’s day. i used to be obsessed with pinterest but now it’s an outlet for me to quickly find creative ideas or get inspired.

i jumped on pinterest last week and found a pic of valentine’s day chocolate dipped wafers. yummy! i just remembered seeing the pic but never clicked on the site nor did i dig any deeper. so, one day, while grocery shopping, i decided to make them! i mean, they are that simple that i didn’t even need to know what the ‘recipe’ called for.

i picked up vanilla wafers {i liked how the strawberry flavored ones looked but i am not the biggest fan of the taste…i am partial to vanilla!}, a bag of white chocolate morsels, and i already had different shapes of sprinkles at home.

i melted about a cup of white chocolate {maybe just a tad more than a cup} in a double broiler. i dipped some wafers and drizzled the others. i alternated between the two. as i coated the wafers, i placed each one on a large sheet of wax paper to dry. before i dipped the next wafer, i sprinkled each one with just enough fun and used different styles of sprinkles.

one after another, i coated each one and actually had a lot of fun doing so! they were turning out so lovely! i finished dipping the entire package of wafers and stepped back to look at all the festive prettiness going on. it is such an easy, quick dessert to make! i think next year, olive will be able to really assist me with making these goodies!

fyi, if you are interested in making these wafers for the masses {like giving them away to neighbors or co workers}, definitely purchase several bags of wafers. one package will probably gift 3-4 people. i was able to package 6-8 wafers per cellophane bag {festive valentine’s day patterns of course!} and give them to some family members and saved a package for miss olive to eat!

ta da! simple, easy, fun valentine’s day treats for everyone {ok, almost everyone}! i am looking forward to making these desserts next year with my little helper in tow {and my other little one, but that baby won’t be able to help just yet!}!

happy day y’all!

xoxo

a lovely day together

Posted on February 9, 2016 by tandem in love

i had a couple appointments in the city and hc took a half day so he could come with us! i love it when he’s able to do that!

i was excited to spend the day together and not have to do everything by myself or really, myself and olive. it’s always so nice to have hc around to help and be by our side. besides the fact that we just love him and love having him around!

we strolled into the office and olive absolutely loves the fish tank inside there. she is totally glued to it every time we come by for a visit. she loves to say, “look, fish!” over and over again, it’s just the cutest thing. this time, hc and olive waited out in the waiting room while i went in for a quick check up with my doctor. of course i did the dreaded weigh in {blah}, which is a bit stressful every time! we listened to the baby’s heart beat – yay! strong and healthy! we talked a bit about any issues and ta da! i was dunzo. quick and easy.

[heading to the doctors!]

[she loves the fish tank at the office]

after my check up, we made a pit stop at our favorite place to eat, southport grocery. oh how i love eating there! i sent my dear friend dana a pic text to tell her that we miss her. before dana switched to a nine to five job, we used to hang out there allllll the time. so it was fitting to send her an i miss you text.

[hanging with my babe]

[olive deciding what she wanted to eat]

[she’s so silly]

[taking selfies and yes, she’s swinging a knife]

[love her so much]

of course we had a yummy experience at the restaurant. i always enjoy my food and service there. it was a quick lunch because we had to mosey on our way over to olive’s appointment. she had her two year wellness check up down the street.

we got there early and waited out in the waiting room for a bit. olive was completely amused by their mini table and chairs. she had to sit and try out every single chair that was there like goldy locks. too cute!

we were called in and the nurse, as always, asked me to strip olive down to her diapy. i was completely amazed at olive’s calmness and willingness to cooperate. she let me take everything off, then the cutest thing happened…she asked me to put her headband back on! oh, she is usually ripping those things off, so i was in love with the fact that she wanted to wear it!

the nurse asked us to bring olive out into the hallway to get measured, weighed, etc. i was amused, now that olive is two, she gets weighed in and measured like a big girl! i said, “oh! no more baby stuff for you! it’s all big girl stuff now!”. olive was so delightful. she cooperated and was kind of entertained by it all! she happily stepped onto the scale to get weighed, she stood there like a champ to get measured, and didn’t mind one bit when the nurse stuck the metal rod under her arm to check her temperature. i was so proud of her! she even stood very still when the nurse measured her head.

the reason why i am so happy she was so cooperative was the fact that all the visits, all the way up to her eighteen month appointment, olive has been a nut! she would scream, cry, everything, when the nurse or doctor tried to do anything with her. this time around, she was just humming along and i was so excited to see the changes in her attitude and mood. she’s becoming such a big girl!

we got the ok from the doc, olive received one shot, and overall, i would say it was an awesome visit! although olive would disagree with the shot part. eep!

[at her wellness check up]

[poutastic]

[cutest little bunny ever]

it was such a lovely afternoon with my favorites. a wonderful time in the city, great news from all ends, and eating at one of our favorite places. i would definitely call that a successful afternoon date!

xoxo

january snapshots

Posted on February 5, 2016 by tandem in love

helloooooo february! oh my. january was a tough month for me. well, december was a very tough month for me. january was a bit better, concerning fatigue, time, and sleep but overall, it was a long two months of a lot of things. obvs, i didn’t do a december snapshot {or a november}, i couldn’t keep up with my blog posts, i was just too plain sick and tired to maintain everything, although i did my best, attempted, and tried. i think to an outsider, one might think i still did a lot but personally, i slacked on a lot of things.

i am so glad the first twelve weeks of pregnancy is behind me and i have had positive feedback on the growth of our baby {grow baby grow!}. man o man, did the first trimester of pregnancy during the holidays kick my ass! january was still a little rough because the sickness didn’t dissipate right away {which sucked} but i felt so much better and much more energetic.

january was very low key and very relaxing. we didn’t do much, i didn’t do much, and i was aaaaaaaa ok about it! i wanted to slow down a bit, not post as much, blog as much, and go out as much. i craved sleep {and still didn’t get much of it} and most of the time, i wanted to go home and put my pj’s on. how exciting, right?! anyhoo, here is a gathering of january photos. enjoy!