A Couple Days Late....

But HAPPY EASTER!!

Piper's first Easter went off without a hitch! She was happy and cozy in her little easter dress, and she got easter baskets from not 1, but 2 Grandma Easter Bunnies! One full of clothes and headbands, and the other toys and books. 

She finally got to meet my cousins, who are still terrified of babies, but it was a lot of fun! It was great to see the whole family again, and not be pregnant and uncomfortable again like I was for Christmas. 

Added bonus, the day after Easter mama managed to score the most precious Easter basket at 60% off. So mama easter bunny will have a cute basket to fill for next year!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Being half irish and all, St Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is my favorite color (kelly green) EVERYWHERE, but I don't feel guilty drinking a Guinness in the middle of the day. Piper decided she needed to celebrate her St. Patrick's Day in style!

I'm glad I have such a fabulous little model at such a young age!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone!!

 Piper likes her bottle too ;)

First Christmas Cookies of The Year

On December 3rd, I am having 3 of my good friends, their husbands, and their babies over for a small holiday dinner party. We have all known each other since elementary school, and will all have children super close together in age. I decided on my day off today to do a test run on a batch of cookies I wanted to make for this occasion! They are called Peppermint Kisses, and this recipe was taken from Family Circle Magazine. Start to finish it took me maybe 30 minutes to complete them, and they are delicious! If you like peppermint I definitely suggest trying these!

Finished Product??

YUM!

Our New Casa!

Moving day on October 15th came and went. It was stressful and tiring, but the end product is totally worth it! The apartment is old, but it's cute, and we are doing upgrades to it that we were told we can take the cost off the monthly rent for the supplies/materials. First - a few before photos!

So, outdated and old fashioned, yes, but we love it! Here's a bit of the work we've put in so far :

 We painted the nursery before moving day! The color is called Luminary by Behr. Our nursery bedding is raspberry pink, brown, and orange, and we didn't want a typical pink nursery, so we went orange on the walls and love it!

This closet is right outside the bathroom on a half wall, and clearly visible from the bedroom. There is no door that we could get to stay up on it, so I made the green leafy curtain to contain all of our toiletries. 

We've done a few other things, but I have not taken pictures of all of our progress. We did however find time to put the Christmas tree up :)

It's That Time Again!

Christmas cards anyone?? I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by! It seems like a whirlwind since I got pregnant, and I can't believe in 2 months I will get to meet my sweet baby girl! Unfortunately she isn't set to be here by Christmas, so I had to find other ways to incorporate her into our photo card for the year.

Last year I joined the Shutterfly promotion for free holiday photo cards in exchange for a blog post. I was SO happy to see that they were doing it again this year. Especially since there were so many card designs that I loved. And I'm a big fan of the cards with multiple spots to put your photos, and Shutterfly did not disappoint in that department either!

Two of my faves were:

 Mod Merry Ornaments

Flurry Of Snowflakes (available in 4 colors!)

This year I decided to go with this card:

Cheers Filmstrip

They showed up a few days ago and they look amazing as usual. Shutterfly has never disappointed me with the quality of their photo products before, and this year is no different.

In addition to cards, Shutterfly has a lot of other holiday gift options! More and more people are going the route of personalized gifts :) 

Some of Shutterfly's Holiday Products available include:

FLEECE Photo blankets (how cool are these?!)

Holiday Greetings

Invitations

And of course my favorite:

Holiday Photo Cards! Go browse through their amazing selection :)

Wordless Wednesday

It's The Most Wonderful Timeeee Of The Year! Holiday cards ahoy!

I have a confession. I have never once sent out photo cards for any occasion. I have always loved receiving them, and this year, I'm going to do it! We are taking a family photo and I am going to be sending out actual photo cards, instead of the plain ol' cards you can buy from the store. And I'm excited. We just need our first snow, because I can't have a family holiday picture without snow! And I think there is a better chance of snow coming before us actually getting a christmas tree set up. 

What woke up this need you ask? I discovered through Kate over at Some Dreams Come True that this year, Shutterfly is offering 50 free photo cards to bloggers! This is a great opportunity to see if I will be joining the ranks of the photo cards this year, as I have been impressed with everything I've ordered from them thus far.

The first step for me was to browse the internet and see what was out there! I could just make my own in photoshop, but I'm so busy I forget to sleep half the time. I've ordered from Shutterfly in the past, prints of photos, and a photo book, and the quality has always been superb! And their holiday cards do NOT disappoint! So many designs to choose from! I'm going to have a hard time deciding! I made some test cards on the site, since we don't have our actual photo yet, and I love the way they turned out!

Everyone loves wedding photos!

Or maybe cards with our dear dogger Riley!

 The possibilities are endless. I hope that we are able to take our photo soon, so that I can get to the task of choosing my design! Or designs... since I'm really indecisive sometimes!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010  

You can also make tons of fun gifts for friends and family to go with your cards, such as:
Calendars and Personalized Mugs.
Who doesn't love something a little more personal?

I received a promo code in exchange for creating this post, but all the opinions are my own.

Also, if you haven't entered yet, I have 2 giveaways going on right now that end this coming Saturday, and VERY low entires on them = higher odds of winning!

    Lemon Pepper Panko and Chef Chiarello Cookbook Giveaway!

Hershey's Moderation Nation Giveaway!

Happy 4th Of July!

Ahhh 4th of July! I love fireworks! Going to a graduation party today, and watching the fireworks from almost a front row position in a neighboring town, should be a great time! And hoorah for a day off work!

One year ago today, it was 6 days short of my wedding day. I recall being so stressed out and nervous, but I allowed myself time to go out on the 4th to NOT think about the wedding for a little bit. It was so fantastic to relax (as much as I could) I cannot believe how fast this first year has flown by!

Hope everyone has a great day!

I have the greatest friends ever!

Twilight fans - have you heard about this?

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Tour is ready to take the nation by storm! Want to get into one of the events? Here’s what you'll need to do! Go to any of the Hot Topic locations listed below at 8:00AM on October 31st, 2009, and purchase a commemorative The Twilight Saga: New Moon Tour T-shirt. You'll get a wristband* that'll give you access to the event at the location you purchase your T-shirt from. Check out the dates and locations below to see if the tour is coming to a city near you! Please note, talent is subject to change.

Westfield Fox Valley

The Hot Topic New Moon Pre-Event to get wristbands begins at 8:00 am Saturday, October 31, and the queue line will be inside the mall, just in front of the Hot Topic store. Customers can enter the mall at entrance 2 between JC Penney and Sears. Starting at 8AM customers will be escorted into the Hot Topic store to purchase the exclusive New Moon Tour T-shirt for $30 to receive a wristband* that guarantees the opportunity to meet cast members from the film on 11/10.

*Taxes not included. Limit one wristband per person. Only 500 wristbands are available. 

I couldnt make it to sit there, since I have to work all day today, and I had to be at work at 615 am yesterday.

Both of my matrons of honor went and sat in the crazy lineup at midnight last night.

One because she is a huge fan..

The other because she didn't want me to miss this event.

Both of them are preggers, and apparently insane to pull an allnighter!

I now have one of the 500 wristbands :)

IM SO EXCITED!

The celebs for IL are Ashley Greene (Alice) and Kellan Lutz (Emmett) and a band performance by Anya Marina, who has a song on the New Moon soundtrack.

Yippeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Annnd

HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!!!!!!!

XOXO

This is Halloween Halloween Halloween!

I have not had any time to update over the past week. I've been on a work marathon since last week Tuesday. Thursday is my next day off! However, I did find time to find my Halloween costume for this year, so I figured a costume post would be fun :)

Halloween 1988

Yeah... unflattering angle, so I figured I'd cover up my goodies with that nifty censored logo.

Halloween 2005

Halloween 2006 - Bee Themed party. Me and my DH (dressed as B. Real from Cypress Hill)

And this years costume??

Let's face it, it's quite generic. We had all these great ideas, but haven't had the time to put them into action. However, it's pretty and will keep me warm, since it is always freezing on Halloween here!

Will for sure post some pictures after Halloween!

XOXO