happy 5th birthday my dear olive!

Posted on November 27, 2018 by tandem in love

wow…i can’t believe it’s been five years since this beautiful girl has joined us. it’s surreal. my life changed when she was born. of course it did. but what i mean is…life had meaning. life had purpose. life was fulfilling with her in my world.

in your younger years, you wander. you wonder. you live life self centered. as a mother…you realize that this {having children} is what life is about. my heart is so full and the love that i experience every day is like no other. i feel so incredibly blessed to have her as my child and so fortunate to be able to do this. to raise kind humans and do my damndest to raise someone who can make a difference in this sometimes dark world.

sooooooo, olive’s birthday party turned into a surprise party because i went off of something she said a few months ago. she had watched something on her iPad and said to me, “i want a surprise party!”. i said, “how am i suppose to throw you a surprise party while you’re in the house?” she says, “i’ll just go in my room and when i come out, everyone can say ‘surprise!'” bahahahahahaha! ohmergawd…i LOVE her!!!

so, last minute, i told her guests that it was going to be a surprise party! it worked out perfectly! hc dropped the girls off at my sister, thuy’s place, in the morning. hc and i hustled and decorated the house for the party, readied the apps, and the guests started to flow in. about 15 minutes after the party started, my sister shows up with olive and ellie.

i was so excited. i couldn’t wait to see her reaction! i heard her say to thuy why were there all these cars at our house. ha! she walked in and everyone yelled ‘surprise!’. her facial expression was priceless! i was in heaven seeing her so elated! afterwards, she greeted all her guests and made her way around.

olive chose her brown horse theme. she talked about it for months. months!!! it was the first time she chose her theme, so i was in a bit of a pickle because i have always been the one concocting her themes. now that she is independent and opinionated, she expressed exactly what she wanted for her 5th birthday party and i had to go with it. i was a bit stumped but in the end, i figured it out and we had the most wonderful horse themed party!

side note: i went to party city to get some horse themed balloons. uhhhhhh, i didn’t know they carried NOTHING horse related. whaaaaaaaa?! so, as the young male teenager was ringing me up, i asked him if that was a poop emoji balloon on the wall. he said yes. so i said to him, “i will get that balloon. i can’t believe you guys don’t have anything horse themed for my daughter’s birthday party. i’ll get the poop emoji balloon because i think it’s horse’s shit that you don’t have anything else i can get.” yup. i said that to him. he found it funny too.

well, i hope you enjoy the pics! we had such wonderful time celebrating our baby girl turning 5! happy birthday olive. we are so utterly blessed to have you in our lives. thank you for being you. we love you to infinity and beyond!

[mini horses with mini crowns]

[the balloon that stood out. she loves hello kitty!]

[my story about the poop emoji balloon above. tassels by glamfete]

[flowers by my sister kim]

[daniel and auntie missy]

[stop horsing around!]

[terry, dan, and agata]

[calligraphy place cards]

[bandana’s for our guests]

[banded flatware inclusive of the party theme]

[easy cups for kids or adults!]

[horse favor bags]

[a party staple]

[i love our fireplace]

[i heard her asking about all the cars in the driveway…]

[i love her facial expression when she saw everyone and mine!]

[i love this]

[she’s oh so sweet]

[y’all…i love her so much!]

[greeting her guests]

[she’s so sweet]

[cousins]

[with ba]

[grace, annabelle, and edwin]

[gramma and olive]

[backdrop by glamfete. she’s such a princess!]

[oh how i love her so]

[i can’t post enough pics of her]

[this is sooooooo ellie and olive]

[olive showing off her beautiful unicorn painting]

[here comes the cake]

[happy birthday day to you!]

[make a wish!]

[she’s so silly! her cousin bennett gathered all the horses around olive]

[they’re so cool]

xoxo

brunch with matt and johann

Posted on November 19, 2018 by tandem in love

we love these guys! hanging out with them is always so fun.

we had planned for a dinner at our house but everything that day was so topsy turvy. i forgot about plans to have the fam over for pumpkin carving that evening, so i asked matt if they could do brunch instead and they so graciously agreed to change the plans for us. plus, the weather was so unfavorable for our christmas mini photo sesh that morning, that those were cancelled. it was one erroneous surprise after another.

well, all eventually spanned out quite well. we made it to brunch early and had a wonderful time with matt and johann. we ate at oyster bah, a place we’ve never been to, and enjoyed our experience. as usual, we gabbed and gabbed and gabbed with one another while the girls were too cute and sweet.

the girls were dressed in their christmas outfits and looking so darn darling. so many strangers loved their looks and commented on how cute they were. well of course!

our hangs with matt and johann is always a good chunk of time. we love spending it talking and catching up. sometimes our brunch get togethers can be a couple hours. i am thankful i have two girls that can hang. olive is always so good and ellie can lose interest after an hour or so. once that happens, i usually attempt to entertain her until we leave {by walking around, typically}. she’s our short tempered, stubborn, tenacious babe. she loves to love and loves to hate. when this girl wants something, she won’t wait and will definitely let you know!

after ordering our entrees. manger, and drink after drink, we were ready to go. it’s always so lovely to hang with these two. i absolutely love their dynamics, humor, and friendship. until next time matt and johann! we love you guys!

[hc, matt, and johann]

[coloring away]

[cheers!]

[she’s so sweet]

[i love this babe!]

[playtime by the stairs]

xoxo

fall mini sesh

Posted on November 14, 2018 by tandem in love

once we passed some major milestones for these girls {first birthdays…pregnancy…where we pretty much took photos together every year}…i am now signing up for fall photos every year! it’s a perfect way to document your growing family and to look back at the beautiful pictures and remember the sweet moments.

we had a full day…i had an eye appointment to blog about, so that took some time in the morning, then we had a neighbor’s kid’s first birthday party south of us, then from the birthday party, we had to jet to our family photos up north. it was a whirlwind that we mastered. our timing had to be just right because the photos were timed with the photographer and if you were late, you lost out on your time.

i definitely didn’t want to lose out on any time whatsoever. so, we left the party early and got to our location with 10-15 minutes to spare – the great part?! we were the first subjects, so we gained that time with our photographer, tricia! we were so lucky to have almost 25 minutes with her {it was a 15 minute session}.

the girls were great {minus a few ellie moments} and we were able to get in a lot of different shots. olive has become such a ham {ahem…i wonder how???} and really entertained us.

tricia at patricia anderson photography has been our photographer since before olive was born {5+ years!}. she is local and i highly recommend her! we love her patience, artistic view, and quick turn around when it comes to the pics.

i am so excited to share! happy fall y’all!

[grace]

[our tribe]

[this one melts my heart]

[our glamour shot]

[this is everything!]

[my girls]

[my heart melts!!!]

[daddy daughter]

[they’re so sweet!]

[she’s such a ham!]

[ellie being calm for a second by herself in the tall grassy field]

xoxo

trick or treat ’18!

Posted on November 8, 2018 by tandem in love

halloween 2018

halloween always brings back vivid memories for me. i remember my halloweens so distinctly; like the years where it was freezing cold, which halloweens were so warm you didn’t need a coat, houses that gave out the big candy bars and what costumes i wore. i loved the spooky shows, cartoons, and sitcoms that would create story lines around halloween. it was all so wonderfully, hauntingly good.

halloween has always been a faaaaaaavorite holiday of mine. i thoroughly enjoy the lighthearted goodness of it…not so much the scary, creepy, gory part of it but the spooky, fun, childish, change of season piece of it. the changing of the leaves, the chill in the air, and the tradition of trick or treating excites me!

ellie napped during the afternoon and i was hoping to get over to my dad’s house by 3pm but that did not happen! hc came home early and we fiiiiinally headed over to my parent’s house by 4:30 pm…so late! the temp was amazing…it was near 60 degrees and that’s like summer in october! i am sure we missed a bunch of trick or treaters going over so late but chest la vie. we waited for my sister, thuy, to come by and once she arrived, we snapped pics and went on our merry way with the girls to have some fun trick or treating.

i walked along with the gang for a bit and decided to return to help my dad out. one, i looooooooove to hand out candy but two, i wanted to make sure i did that part because my dad’s knees are the best and i didn’t want him to walk up and down the stairs to answer the door.

once hc and the gang returned, we poured over their treats and turned on the telly to watch some fun halloween cartoons! we answered the door a few more times and then the trick or treaters tapered off and then we gather together for dinner.

oh, we had so much fun! at the girls loved knocking on all the doors. little elle belle tried sooooo hard to keep up with her big sis. it was so heartwarming to watch them hit up each house in their own unique way. olive running ahead and ellie trying to catch up to olive. oh how i love them!

i’ll declare this halloween a complete success!

[ellie’s current favorite pose]

[my beautiful girl in her pegicorn costume]

[this is definitely a treat]

[can you guess hc’s costume? if you can, in the comments, i’ll give you a starbucks card!]

[olive was on fire! running house to house!]

[the girls with their super aunty]

[ellie was constantly trying to catch up]

[she was always two steps ahead, or maybe ten steps ahead!]

[hc consoling ellie after she fell down a step…poor babe!]

xoxo

pumpkin carving

Posted on November 7, 2018 by tandem in love

every year my family and i carve pumpkins together! it’s a fun tradition that makes the holiday a little more special. we love ordering pizza or putting together a quick dinner and then carving pumpkins in hc’s heated garage.

the fam came over with apps and we noshed on food until the pizza arrived. we ate and drank and ate and talked and ate and hung out. after our early dinner, the kids were begging for desserts. i said no dessert until i was done in the kitchen {cleaning up, washing dishes, etc.}. i’m sure they were rolling their eyes in annoyance…hahaha! i have a process for everything.

fiiiiiinally we served dessert – festive cookies, ice cream sandwiches, chocolate ice cream, salted caramel cupcakes…it was all so yummy! olive thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate ice cream. i have to say, it’s the cuuuuuutest thing to see her admire reagan so much. she loves copying him and doing anything he’s doing. olive wanted a cookie but when she saw reagan eating chocolate ice cream, she had to have it too. i think she thinks he’s the coolest {literally}.

the kids and adults then went outside and carved their pumpkins. ellie colored hers {she was a pro!} and olive asked for a scaredy cat cut out {which hc obliged}. the boys wanted intricate designs and ended up just bringing their pumpkins home to finish. it was a school night and they had to go.

overall it was a fun afternoon! it always is with family. i love spending the holidays with them and they honestly make our world go round. life is good when it involves them.

[like wtf? hahaha!]

[just enjoying her ice cream]

[cousins are the best!]

[intense coloring]

[she was sooooo into it!]

[olive’s pumpkin coloring]

[the gang hard at work]

[i drew the outline and hc cut it out]

xoxo

school costume parade prek5

Posted on November 6, 2018 by tandem in love

i love cute little things like a costume parade at school! it’s just wayyyyy too adorable to watch! these young school days have my heart, i love how sweet and innocent it is. i look forward to moments like this!

hc and i split our duties. hc dropped ellie off at my parent’s house {plus, he was going to take off to work after the parade} while i took olive to school to get her ready for her parade! i also hauled her class treats in the biggest bag ever and i couldn’t wait to give them to the teacher to pass out to the students. i was so excited…maybe just as or more excited than olive! hahaha!

once we arrived at school, i fixed her up, attached her wings, gave her a hug and ran outside to where everyone was gathering for the parade. i adjusted my camera settings and waited for hc to join me. the parade started on time and i couldn’t wait to get olive’s attention. as i waved to her and yelled her name, she gave me a happy, shy look. she usually does that in situations like this. it’s so hard to read her reaction!

the kids circled around the park outside and then grouped together for class pictures. it was so fun to see all the kids costumes. i must admit, the polar express conductor was a fav! the little boy was so cute with his mustache, so flippin’ cute!

after the parade, hc left for work and i went home to grab ellie belle and couldn’t wait to come back to school to pick up olive and hear about her halloween fun filled day at school!

[olive seeing us and waving]

[my pegicorn]

[a little creepy, but the only way i could post her class pic…pardon the blurry faces!]

[staring adoringly at her!]

[dada and his girl]

xoxo

class room treats

Posted on November 5, 2018 by tandem in love

firsts are always special to me, so my girl’s milestones make me happy and i love documenting it.

halloween treats have always been a personal favorite of mine. ever since i was a kid, i loved putting treat bags together. i can’t explain it but i know that it’s sooooo fun for me! i love gathering cute little toys and candy to create a bag that is unique and fun for the kiddos.

of course, we were at target and that dollar section will get ya! i grabbed a bunch of items and continued throughout the store to grab additional things {outside of what i needed, natch}. when we arrived home and gathered the items we purchased for the treat bags, i realized i had far too many items but alas, i wasn’t going to run back to target to return dollar items! so be it, my treat bags were a bit overzealous and i loved it!

olive is on this hello kitty kick {thanks mcdonald’s!} and loves to wear anything hello kitty. she opted for this fabulous outfit {that you will see below} to create her goodie bags. you go girl!

she actually assembled all her classmate’s bags by herself and i was so proud! i did the lettering and the sealing but everything else was all her! i was so excited that she was excited to put together each bag. as she did, she kept saying, “my friend will like the orange glow stick” or “she will love chips!” it was so cute that she was thinking about her different classmates as she assembled each bag!

we had a blast putting everything together and i hope all the kids loved what was inside as much as i did!