Wednesday Whereabouts and a Recipe!

Here's just a little of what we've been up to lately:

Snuggling in bed...

Lots and lots of home decorating...

Making the move to the crib... finally!

Enjoying my new Kate Spade Bow Earrings!!!

Rocking puppies to sleep... heart. melts.

 
Oh and btw, this boy will be starting SCHOOL next week.  Yikes.  We had been planning on him starting in the fall, but a place opened up at a school that I love and he's going to start on Tuesday.  I've been running around like a crazy person getting forms from his doctor, getting him a little lunch box, procuring a nap mat, and having it all monogrammed of course!

Amidst all the craziness, I did manage to whip up a fun little Valentine's Day snack though.  Tomorrow we will be having some friends over for a playdate and I wanted something fun, festive, and most important - easy for us to snack on.  This sweet popcorn treat is a combo of several ideas I've seen floating around, but can most recently be credited to Amanda at Dixie Delights, who always has the best ideas.

This isn't truly cake  batter flavored, but I like the richer vanilla flavor that adding cake mix gives to treats like this and rice krispie treats.  Hope y'all enjoy it as much as we have!


Valentine's Day Candy Popcorn
*Makes 8 Servings

Ingredients
1 bag popped popcorn
About 6 ounces melted almond bark
2 Tablespoons yellow cake mix (I used betty crocker gluten free)
1 tablespoon vegetable (or canola) oil
Red food coloring
About 1/2 bag of Valentines M&M's


Directions 
Pour popcorn in a large bowl.  Melt almond bark and add just enough red food coloring to turn it pink.  Stir in the cake mix and about a tablespoon of oil to thin it a bit.  Pour over the popcorn and stir stir stir! I just took off my jewelry and used my hands.  Then pour in the m&ms and toss it together.  Pour out over wax paper to harden a bit and then store in an airtight container.  Enjoy!

 

When he tasted this, Phillip kept saying "wow, wow, wow Mommy!  This is a good dinner!" :)

Wednesday Whereabouts

As I type this I am surrounded by the most delicious smell... I'm making shredded beef tacos for dinner. If they're as good as I think they're going to be, I'll share the recipe next week.

Hello, my name is Laura and I am a popchips addict.

This is Natalie's face when I walk into the room.  Just kidding.  This is her face when Mickey Mouse comes on the TV.  I only wish I was this cool.

While the boys were gone, I got to spend a lot of one on one time with this cute little miss.  I think she enjoyed being the center of attention for once!

I also had a girl's night in with my sister to catch up on Downton Abbey.  She let me pick our poison, so of course we had bubbly.  This was my first time trying the Freixenet Rosado and it did not disappoint!

You're looking at two projects I tackled here:  first, I gilded our mirror, and second I DIY'd this little Valentine's garland.  And in case you were thinking I'm the least creative, you should know that I shamelessly copied this from Amanda over at Dixie Delights.  She is extremely talented!  I did have to make the letters myself though.

Just another picture of my cutie who is getting so big.

I've been continuing on my organization kick and I tackled this hot mess.  It's still not worthy of an after pic, but we're getting there.

I finally used my Vino2Go wine sippy cup that I gave myself for Christmas, haha! I bought one for a friend and thought what fun would it be to booze it up at the playground alone??

Wednesday Whereabouts

This has been a busy week, but not in the usual way. Natalie had a really rough time of it last week and we've been focusing on potty training the last couple of days, so I don't have our usual volume of pictures.

Showing off his new underpants!!!

A happy girl again, modeling a new outfit mommy got at Target!

Dr. Phillip is obsessed with the new doctor kit I got him. $3 at Toys R Us after Christmas sale!!!

Wearing my new monogrammed wayfarers from Pineapple Grove Gifts.  It's way overcast here, but I wore them anyway!

Random question, and I know I'm way behind the times here, but I've yet to order anything from Bauble Bar... thoughts on the quality??  I have my eye on a couple of their necklaces, but they're not THAT cheap, so I'm just wondering if y'all think they're worth it.  Thanks!!

Wednesday Whereabouts

This week we've mostly been up to hanging out around the house with Natalie being sick. The weather has been awfully cold and yucky too, which hasn't helped.  Last weekend, though, my two sisters and my hubby were sweet enough to throw me a little soiree for my thirtieth.

Here's the recap in pictures:

My outfit for the night: Lilly Pulitzer Elsa Top in Sweet Nothings, Seven Roxanne Skinny Jeans in black, Tory Burch Reva flats in Caribbean blue, Kendra Scott Elle earrings in fuschia.

My two sisters, AKA hostesses with the mostest!

There was some very bad bowling (on my part)...

Lots of fun with friends including Bestie T...

More bad bowling, but boy don't I look serious?!

Two delicious cakes: one carrot and one red velvet...

Some fun singing with friends at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar (if you're in Houston, Austin, or Fort Worth you should go... so much fun!)...

Maybe just a little bit of embarrassing dancing on stage...

Some embarrassing shots with these awesome glasses purchased by one of the sisters...

And somehow this was my only picture with Brian!

Wenesday Whereabouts: Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Wednesday and happy birthday to me! I had a little birthday dinner with my family last night since everyone was off work.  I wanted a picture with both of the babies and these were the best that we could do, ha!

Today has been pretty uneventful.  Got up at six and the littles and I stayed in our pj's and watched a movie.  Then we had lunch with my mom.  The real celebration will be this weekend.  My sisters are throwing me a party since I'll be the big 3-0!



I found the cute pictures I took of the littles together on Christmas morning... they were still on the camera along with about 200 other pictures I have to go through!

I mentioned that we took a little weekend trip this past weekend and we travelled to a resort outside of Austin called Horseshoe Bay.  It was a really nice relaxing trip other than the four hour drive.  We had a little apartment at the hotel, which I've decided is the only way to go with two little ones.  There were two bedrooms, which was awesome for nap time, and even a living room so we could all hang out in the evenings after the kids went to sleep.  We took almost no pictures though!  I did manage to snap a super cute picture of Phillip snuggling a little bunny at the petting zoo they had and we did some silly poses at a fun light festival we walked through.  I also managed to get to the spa for a pedicure while we were there.  Before you go thinking I'm too fancy, I should tell you this was my first in over 6 months!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm off to finish reading an amazing new book I'm reading.  I'll tell y'all all about it tomorrow if I can finish it tonight!

 

Wednesday Whereabouts

We've been busy! Somehow I've been managing on extremely minimal sleep and we've been cramming in the holiday fun, ha! Here's a little photo recap of the happenings - warning picture overload!!

Riding on the zoo train with GiGi... it was cold!

The train tunnel at the zoo was filled with lights and decor for Christmas and Phillip didn't know quite what to make of it :)

I wore my new Lilly Elsa top (Bloomingdales still has this top on sale if you wear an XS!!) twice in one weekend... don't judge!  Pictured here with Seven Roxanne Skinny jeans in black and my magenta Tory Burch Reva flats(old but similar here).

A little impromptu photo sesh by the tree!

A visit from JoJo (Brian's mom).  They LOVE her!

My cutie in a santa hat, enough said.

Phillip made ornaments to give as gifts to his grandparents and great grandparents.  This was actually a total success!

We stayed off pinterest and just used good old fashioned salt dough.

We painted pottery at our local Mad Potter. 

We made a platter for cookies for Santa.

And Phillip painted a tile of his own so I could add a few finishing touches :)

No cute outfit links here... don't judge, haha!

I'm not particularly artistic so I think it turned out pretty well... especially considering my helpers!

I got terrible pictures, but we went to Zoo Lights at the Houston Zoo with Phillip's bff.

He had a great time!

By the way, do y'all like the new look around here? I've been wanting something a bit simpler for a while now.