High Five for Friday

{H54F}

is an Emilie heavy one.

1. New haircut on Monday makes her look like a little toddler!

2. A Craigslist purchase and she ADORES her car, especially when her daddy drives her!

3. We briefly attended Jared's work picnic at the zoo, but it was cold, and rainy and Emilie was NOT impressed. She did greatly enjoy the bread to chew on though!

4. A throwback to teeny tiny newborn Emilie.

5. And finally, independent eating...at least attempting with the spoon...she was enamored. 

WWWW

 Here we are again for another What We Wore Wednesday! This actually happens to be a compilation of last week and this week, as I missed last week's WWWW!

Emilie also got her first official haircut. We thinks she looks a little like Madeline now.

Me: 

Purple top from Banana Republic

Lavender shorts from Target

Em: 

Baby Gap t-shirt

Grey Carter's leggings

Robeez shoes

Makeup and Birch Box

My BirchBox came! So excited to try all the new goodies.

My favorite product so far has been the Benefit Foundation. I thought at first it was tinted moisturizer/sunscreen, but I was pleasantly surprised when I put it on, only a couple drops needs to cover my whole face, and the coverage was beautiful. I'm definitely sold.

I like the face sunscreen moisturizer, and have been using the hair product. I have not tried the tan towel (I don't know that I would use that) or the lotion packets. 

I did make a new lipstick and mascara purchase. I am in love with this mascara. I like a natural look, and don't like the look of tons of makeup; I just feel like I look weird, or I'm trying too hard (just me). This mascara doesn't give me clumps and it just enhances my lashes, without seeming overboard.

I don't usually wear a lot of lipstick, but for some reason I just love it. I've always been fascinated with lipstick, and would use my mom and my sister's when I was little....even if it was to draw on the bathroom mirror. 

mascara: Grow Luscious by Revlon in Blackest Black

lipstick: Super Lustrous Lipstick in Coralberry by Revlon

High Five 4 Friday!

1. MY BIRCH BOX CAME! That is all. Produce testing and playing to come.

2. Just baby and me enjoying the a/c on our hot, humid Michigan summer day!

3. The birthday party supplies from Florida Grandma came and I got to open them as if they were Christmas presents!

4. I just get excited about making Emilie's lunches. She had kiwi, Michigan black cherries, cottage cheese, sharp cheddar cheese, and homemade banana bread with yogurt butter. YUM! That's like one of the most exciting parts of my day!

5. I finally got tired of having cold, albeit delicious coffee from the French pot press, so I had to break down and get a timed coffee maker so that once I feed Emilie, do dishes and eat breakfast I can actually enjoy a cup of HOT coffee. First world problems.

Linking up this week with the lovely, Lauren Elizabeth!

"I'll make it look like a Bonsai tree!"

And finally, we had the trees around the property trimmed. It's a big job, so they will return on Monday to finish, but already there is actually daylight in our back yard. This also exposes the terrible roof, but at least that will be replaced soon too!

H54F July 12

Well, it's definitely NOT Friday here, but I will post our collage of our week's shenanigans any way!

Here goes....

Finished and sent out most of the invites for Emilie's 1st birthday party. More on that in another post!

I had to include the over-photographed runner's view of feet, I couldn't resist. Annnnd, if you look closely, you can see my freaky ankles, which have been sprained so many times that they cave in; I'm not very good about working to strengthen them.

I made a delicious concoction for sweet potato seasoning and before I shook it I thought it made beautiful layers.

Emilie and I have been trying to hit up a few parks we've never visited before. These were bells you could ring with the top lever. She made a friend at the park too! A very friendly little six year old girl who was just enthralled with Emilie because, "She's the same size as an American girl doll!" :)

Lastly, Emilie and I couldn't resist this cute crab with sunglasses for 70% off at Joann's. It'll be a perfect little decoration for her party in August!

Sweet Potato Seasoning

Here's a lovely recipe from Perry's Plate for sweet potato seasoning!

2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons sea salt (I just used regular salt as I had no sea salt)

Here's what it looks like when you pour each ingredient in!

Love the layered look and I just used an old, washed out canning jar. This made for delicious sweet potatoes, seriously, the best! We've made sweet potatoes many times over, just using olive oil and salt, but this was to die for!

Emilie's 1st Birthday Invitations

So, the theme for the party is "Under the Sea". It's been a great theme for a summer birthday as there are so many options, and I'm finding a lot of summer things starting to go on sale.

I DIY'ed Emilie's invites, although I can honestly say I will probably not do that again. My biggest struggle was getting the text or image (I tried a lot of different styles) to not be so pixalated. While I can navigate a computer, I am not super literate on graphic design business, thus the frustration. Even with the final product, the text is still a little pixalated. I did have a lot of fun adding some sea shells with twine to the invites though!

The finished product.

Sea shells from Florida, twine, printed invites, scissors, and thread.

       I bought some colorful invitation envelopes at Staples and added some puffy fish stickers.

The invites were made with PicMonkey', and some great inspiration from Toronto Mama!

Thankful Thursday

What am amazing holiday weekend we had as a family. I couldn't be happier with our little family unit and the time Emilie got to spend with her daddy, he's the BEST!

Daddy's girl

Great Grandma

We got to enjoy an Independence Day parade, have a hamburger feast with fresh Michigan produce, eat homemade cheesecake, visit the splash pad and playground, go to the lake with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa, visit the zoo with family, and relax at home enjoying the beautiful Michigan weather!

Grossed out by the stinky sheep

In addition to our great weekend, I'm so thankful that my mom is recovering and feeling better. It's a long road of recovery, but it's a far cry from being on the ventilator in the ICU.

Doubya Doubya Doubya Doubya (In George Bush's voice of course)

What We Wore Wednesday! It is Wednesday, right?! Last week I posted on a Tuesday, I was just THAT excited!

Nicole:

top and shorts: Target

Sandals: Gap 

necklace: Target

Emmy:

white onesie: OshKosh

Jeans: vintage Jordache jeans circa 1985 (a la Mommy)

E is such a little ham, I propped her up on the chair and told her I was going to take her picture and she gave me that HUGE grin, love it!

Linking up with A Life From Scratch and Toronto Mama!

New News

Alright, so many things have happened in the last week and I wanted to give an update for everyone!

We refinanced our house for a lower interest rate AND to get cash to replace all the windows, roof, trim the trees and repair the fence, EEK! So exciting. Also....Jared is on the mortgage now, so we officially TOGETHER own our home! This is a big deal for us, and to top it off we'll have new roof and windows, a tax right off, and better energy efficiency all for less than the price of a one bedroom apartment! We certainly wouldn't be here without the help of family, so to all our family, especially the graciousness of my father THANK YOU!

In other, less exciting news....

1. I FINALLY finished Emilie's invitations and sent them out....minus four as I'm awaiting addresses. They are really cute, and it took me FOREVER to finalize the style, print, and add the embellishment, but what a fun project it was! Pictures to come soon!

2. I've started really working hard on losing the rest of this baby weight. I've heard that the last 10 lbs are the most difficult, for whatever reason. I ran my first, FIRST ever 1.5 miles! I know that's not a lot, but for me, someone who's never enjoyed running and has never run more than 1 mile, and that was a couple years ago, I was soooo excited! I've really gotten into the Couch to 5k program, mostly just to condition me to get into running, not really to run a 5k, but who knows!

3. I'm going to be trying a new remedy for my skin from LaurenElizabeth and see how that goes. I have a lot of trouble with my skin, and after having Emilie it's turned into combination skin...how lovely.

4. I went back to the classroom recently and put together lots of great ideas, to be posted under the "teacher" tab soon! I'm really excited about themes, and plans for the year AND for a bunch of new kids on my caseload...although I still haven't officially received my contract, which is frustrating, I am hopeful!

5. I am going to try this thing called Birch Box, which is only $10 a month (I'm paying monthly in case it doesn't turn out to be worth it) and they send a little box of goodies geared towards women, although there's a man's box too! I can't wait to get mine this month and share the contents!