I was reminiscing about so many things lately; college, living in FL, etc and thought I’d make a list of things that just make me SO happy!’do you ever do that? On a bad day, I like to think of at least 5 things in my life currently that make me happy to try to lift my spirits!

Do any of you do this?! Here’s 30 things that make me happy:

1. Sitting on the beach with a good book

2. Pumpkin spice lattes – of course 🤣

3. Countdown to Christmas on the Hallmark Channel 🎄

4. Feeling Baby G move around throughout the day!

5. Sweater Weather and Winter Candles burning throughout the house

6. Holiday baking 🍪

7. Chips and queso

8. Dressing up with Logan for any event

9. Watching Instagram stories

10. Decorating my front porch

11. Blue Powerade slushees at Sonic

12. All things monogrammed

13. Going to the movies and eating #allthepopcorn 🍿

14. Dropping off a fun surprise gift to a friend

15. Snuggling with our pups!

16. My grandma’s house and grandparents old house

17. Talks with Logan on a long car ride (not too many in a row!!)

18. Manis/pedis with girlfriends

19. Watching murder mysteries on ID Discovery

20. Enjoying fresh french baguettes and wine on the streets of Paris

21. The leaves on the trees changing colors in the fall

22. The crisp air in the first few days of fall

23. Seeing Baby toys around the house – it still doesn’t feel completely real and I love seeing them! 😍

24. Windows down in the car and screaming at the top of my lungs singing lyrics from the 90s and early 2000s on the radio

25. Any type of photo shoot!

26. Fresh flowers on the kitchen table

27. Decorating for ANY holiday but especially Christmas! 🎅🏻

28. Black Friday shopping with family!

29. Exploring new PGA golf courses with Logan

30. A clean house with a breeze from windows open!

What are things that just make you so happy?! I feel like my list could go on and on! 🤗

Kristi

Somehow, it’s already Monday and time to work again! I swear these weekends get shorter and shorter! I think we skipped fall weather and jumped right to winter because it’s been in the 50s and SO chilly! Where are our 70 degree days?!

Onto this past weekend and just a little bit of life lately.. it’s been busy with a little bit of relaxation which helps because I’m tired 99% of the time!

We celebrated Logan’s birthday last week and enjoyed dinner at Pig Ate My Pizza!

If you’re from this area, you definitely need to check it out in Robbinsdale!

Ashton and I hit up a “big baby sale” but unfortunately came home with only 3 things – all Christmas related of course 😊

I’m sure Baby will come after Christmas so they won’t apply (read Baby’s first Christmas jammies) but just in case!

I met one of my BFFs from college for some Mexican before they head out on their love to the west coast!

She’s a few weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy and it was fun to talk about #allthingspregnant especially the weird things no one likes to talk about! 🤣

I went to Bachmans Fall house with Jess and for the first time ever.. was SO disappointed! The theme “watercolor harvest” wasn’t my favorite and basically nothing was really decorated for fall!

I only took a few pictures because there really wasn’t anything to write home about…

I did love the little shed – which I usually do! It’s a cute set up and different!

The garage was made into a man cave/beer area and that was pretty sweet too!

Then we went into the house and it went a little down hill…

See what I mean?!

I just didn’t feel the “fall vibes!”. It was just a bit disappointing and I’m hoping they redeem themselves with Christmas this year!

We celebrated my littlest nieces’ first birthday with family and it was so good to get together!

She is such a doll, seriously and was obsessed with her cupcake!

I love ALL my nieces SO much! They’re also one of the reasons I think Baby G is a boy.. because I only have nieces! 🤣

Fast forward to another year or two when we’re ready for Baby 2 and this will be us…. 🤣🤣🤣

I have my first shower for Baby G this weekend with my dads side and I’m so excited to see them! There’s only a few of us on that side and we’re very close so I’m excited to catch up with them and visit 😊

That’s a bit of life lately around here! What fun fall things did you do this past weekend?!

Kristi

Today is Logan’s birthday and last birthday we’ll celebrate as just the two of us!  He hates when I mention “this is the last holiday just us two!” because according to him, we’ve had plenty of holidays just us two over the last 9 years!  And I totally agree!

I feel like I truly never knew what unconditional love was until I met Logan.  From the beginning of our relationship, it’s always been just us two – through the good and bad.

2011

We have never lived super close to family (my brother lives closer to us now though!) so we never depended on family throughout our relationship.  If we needed something, we figured it out together.

2012

So many times, anytime we got in a fight, I’d think it was over.  I was so used to everyone always “giving up” or “walking away” throughout my life that I didn’t know what it was like to see him stay.  He’d always laugh (after the fight obviously!) and say “No, it’s not over because we got in a fight….”

2013

Throughout the last 2.5-3 years, our infertility journey has certainly tested us and our marriage.  Through so many years of trying, our miscarriage, fertility testing, treatments and ultimately IVF, it was so disheartening every month.  We didn’t know if this was going to work for us (having a baby) – and if we’d be blessed enough to be parents but he always had the faith.

We got engaged on his birthday in 2014 – at our First Annual Crawfish Boil 🙂

When I’d cry to him and say “will this ever work for us?! will this happen for us?!” He always reassured me that it would, it had to! And if it didn’t, we’d figure it out because we were meant to be parents.

2015

He’s been my rock through SO much and truly is the love of my life!  I can’t wait to watch him become a father – he really will be the best!

I always said, the best thing I could do for my children, is give them a good father and I’m so thankful I am able to do so starting in December!

I love you more than words can say, Logan and am so excited for our BEST year yet!

Kristi

 

Ooph! I swear this weekend flew by even though we had a somewhat relaxing weekend! The more pregnant I get (26 weeks right now!) the  more tired I am! And I thought this was supposed to be the trimester of energy?! 🙂

Let’s chat about what we did this weekend:

We didn’t do a whole lot Friday night – Logan golfed and I got some stuff done around the house.  Boring night so clearly no pictures were taken! Ha!

Saturday morning, I got up early and went to get ANOTHER sample (yes, another! 9 times a charm!) from Sherwin Williams for the Baby’s nursery.  You might have seen this on my Instastories but I was having the hardest time finding a light (barely colored) gray for the walls!  I finally decided on Agreeable Gray – down to 60% color!

We hung around in the morning after trying more paint samples and finally deciding on a color before getting ready for my Cousin’s wedding.  Her wedding was in Wisconsin (about 2 hours away) and we went just for the day because we have two doggies at home!

The ceremony was beautiful as was my sweet cousin!  I can’t believe she’s old enough to be married!

After the ceremony, she had a “backyard barbecue” wedding and it was nice to hang with family and catch up a bit!

Did I mention it was 90 degrees?! Woof it was hot but thankfully the rain stayed away!

After the wedding we headed home and watched more Diners, Drive ins and Dives – this is literally Logan’s FAVORITE show. IF it’s on TV, we’re watching… even if we’ve already seen all the episodes!

Sunday, we prepped Baby’s room for paint and got on it!  We moved everything out of the room into the other guest bedroom and it literallly looks like an episode of Hoarders!  There’s literally 2 beds leaned up against the wall in there along with EVERYTHING else from the office.  It’s a treat 🙂

Logan did the majority of the painting – I helped with any areas that needed a little more paint but that’s about it! I kept offering and he’d just say “no, that’s ok!”.

He was really hoping for more color in the nursery because he’s literally insane all about colors but we compromised with a light gray (I wanted white and he wanted a dark slate gray).

That’s it! We smoked chicken for dinner and “enjoyed” the Packer game! Ugh, not too happy with that outcome!

If you have kids, tell me if you found out the gender ahead of time! Or did you do all gender neutral until Baby came?!

Kristi

Good morning and hello!

I’m currently getting ready for the Lilly Pulitzer After Party sale with a Pumpkin Spice Latte in hand because I am still exhausted from our fun weekend. Side note: my PSL is decaf so it’s clearly not helping the way I’d like 🤣  This is the latest the Lilly sale has been so it’s odd that i’m drinking a fall drink, looking at bright colors! Alas… I always give in 🙂

Why am I so tired from the weekend, you ask? Because we had our 5th annual craw-fish boil that we turned into a diaper party!  I’m not going to lie… we felt a little funny that we were throwing this for ourselves BUT Logan was insistent and honestly, why not?!

So we sent out invites for the party.. how cute are these ones I got on etsy?! And got ready for the weekend to come!  This year, we invited our parents which is something we hadn’t done before, and it was great to have everyone together!

Saturday  morning, we hit up the farmer’s market in downtown Minneapolis (the best one!) to get some veggies for a veggie tray and corn for the boil.  Ever since I brought Logan to it a month ago, he’s obsessed!

Afterwards, we came home and prepped for the party!  We usually do a few apps and a non-alcoholic drink (just lemonade) for people to snack on before the boil starts while we all chat.

I always love the idea of having parties (and seeing everyone) but always feel so bad that I don’t get a chance to mingle with everyone!  I always feel like there’s people i’m leaving out or ignoring – which is the worst – but I can’t be everywhere I guess… even if I think I can 😉

Logan got the boil going and it was a hit (as usual!).  He built the long table we use every year the very first year of our boil and it’s still going strong! We really only use it for this event and we literally just put newspaper down and sprawl out the boil.

Everyone stands around the table and eats with their hands. I know a few of you asked about more details; how it works, what you make for it, where we get stuff for it (since we live in Minnesota), etc. And that’s honestly, all we do!  We order crawfish from Louisiana and have it shipped here – everything else we buy local!

The place Logan orders the crawfish always throws in a few big seasoning packets so we’re set (and we also use Old Bay and Zatarain’s oil).

Everyone was SO generous with their diaper gifts and we couldn’t believe how lucky we are to have such great friends!

It’s such a fun time for us and Logan LOVES throwing this every year.  It’s funny that our first year doing it, Logan proposed to me during it and now, our 5th year, we’re celebrating a little Baby coming into our world this year!  God is good!

Baby kept moving around during the party and it’s such a great reminder that he/she is healthy and happy in there! Honestly, it’s just such a crazy feeling when I get kicked or jabbed 🙂

We enjoyed having our families together since it’s only happened for our wedding (aside from my bridal shower).

Our parents both live further away and they don’t live near each other so it’s hard to have everyone over just for a dinner! I’m sure there will be more times once Baby G is here which we look forward to!

Next celebration for Baby G is at the end of the month and I CAN’T wait! This is such a special time for us (I know I keep saying it) and I’m trying to cherish and take in every celebration and moment!

What did you do this weekend?! Have you thrown a diaper party before for yourself or someone else?!

And let me know what you scored from the Lilly Sale if you shopped! I always love seeing pictures or hearing what good deals you got! 😉

Kristi

Oye… I just looked at my last blog post and it was end of June?! Where has the time gone and where have I been?!  Lately, I feel like all I want to do is rant about my pet-peeves or share maternity fashion fails (it seems they’ve all been fails lately!) but who really wants to hear about that stuff, am I right?

So I thought I’d start off by catching you up on what we’ve been up to the last month! Warning: there’s a TON of pictures so grab your PSL and let’s go!

We spent a weekend in Eau Claire for a weekend golf tournament for Logan. I, on the other hand, hung out with my Mama, Grandma and Sister- in- Law!

I couldn’t miss hitting up my favorite place for shaved ice 🙂

And did a little baby shopping with my Mama.  I’m obsessed with this stroller… I could just see us strolling the streets of London and Paris with baby in tow. Legit, obsessed.

However, not so obsessed with the $1500 price tag. Obviously Logan was really excited about that! Ha!

It was nice to be back in Eau Claire for more than a few hours – however, this continued our no free weekends until end of October… Why do we do that to ourselves every year?!

We went to a soccer game in the beginning of August!  Logan bought tickets to the Tottenham Spurs soccer game earlier this year when he saw they were going to be in town (his coworker really wanted to see them) because we saw them with friends when we were in England last year!

What a difference a year makes!  We had started fertility treatments a little before the first picture and are SO blessed to be pregnant around the same time this year!

On a completely random note, the Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale is on Monday and I still can’t decide what I’ll really order! So many of you said you’d still order some pieces for next year and hopefully i’ll be back down to a smaller size by the time I can wear them.. so I might do that. I also might buy a few little girl shifts in case Baby G is a girl 🙂 And if not, then my loss will definitely be someone’s gain!

My Mama was in town helping deep clean my house (does anyone else’s mom do that for them?!)!  Since starting IVF in January, I am embarassed to say that I didn’t have any energy to clean a ton. I mean, I did things here and there of course, dusted, laundry, dishes, vacuumed, etc but nothing in depth!  So this was amazing!

We went to our friends wedding in town and spent time with friends!

A few things to note… A) So thankful for maternity dresses (this one is a maternity dress!) and B) We didn’t take a picture with the happy couple… sometimes, I just don’t think!

We ended our weekend with the 3M PGA Senior Tour that takes place literally 2 miles from our house!  My Mom and Dennis hadn’t been before, so they were stoked!  We’re excited because the actual PGA is coming here next year – hellllllo Ricky and Tiger! 😉

We had our 20 week appointment at the Perinatal Specialist downtown for a 2.5 hour long ultrasound and echo cardiogram – thankfully everything came back CLEAR and no concerns about Baby G! We’ve had so many “tests” that Baby has to pass with IVF so we’re so thankful that was the last big one for Baby!

One of my BFFs from college is back in MN for the summer – she’s been all over and unfortunately, I haven’t seen her much over the last few years BUT I got to see her two days in a row one week!

She’s pregnant too and we celebrated her BIG at her sister’s house one evening…

And then… she got married the next day!! I was so thankful that she included me in the intimate ceremony because I couldn’t imagine not being there when she got married!

It was so good to see her – she’ll be moving again in the next few weeks/months so spending time with her is definitely a cherished time!

My brother and his wife bought a house this summer – so we spent some time down there with my family!  We’re usually all together with my Mama but this time it was with my Dad and Step-Mom which was nice.

We spent time down by the beach…

snuggled my littlest nice…

And ended the night with some ice cream 🙂

I had a random coffee date with one of my favorites!

And a golf night (we’ve been pretty consistent surprisingly!) with another one!

Baby G even helped my golf game quite a bit! Must be that added strength 🙂

We celebrated our great friends and an amazing couple as they said their vows to each other!

I don’t know if it’s the extra hormones or what, but I definitely cried during this ceremony! I’m a crier – yes but I don’t know many weddings I’ve cried through and this one… wow!

Somehow, I don’t have a picture from their ceremony (guess I was too focused on it all!) but it was beautiful!

We got to see some of our very favorite people too – and reunited after almost a year together in Madiera, Portugal celebrating another couple! This crowd is seriously SO much fun!

I got my hair colored all one color – back to brunette and looking at these pictures makes me miss the blonder ends and lighter coloring…

Looking forward to seeing most of these girls again tomorrow for our boil! Yahooo!

I also noticed that I definitely don’t have a filter on for most of these pictures – nor have I touched them up at all – talk about sweating! When Whitney comes on, my husband goes a little crazy!

I also enjoyed a girls brunch with some lovely ladies!

We had my in-laws in town for our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair!

And even though it rained on our parade.. literally, we still enjoyed our day and ate all the foods!

I know, you’re probably wondering if I own any other dresses since I clearly wear this one A LOT but it’s a big maternity favorite around here!

The Nitro ice cream was definitely one of my favorites! We usually just get a sample but this year, we decided we needed to indulge more!

We got a few of our usuals like Sweet Martha’s Cookies…

And tried a few new items too – like the s’mores waffle (imagine a crepe) and pepperoni chips to name a few!

My sweet sweet SIL offered to switch jackets with me since she had a rain coat and I didn’t… although by the end of the day, we were all pretty wet!

Before they left for home, my SIL helped Logan put up the baby’s wallpaper – even though we still need to clean out the office/guest bedroom!

And I am SO in love with the gingham!

In this picture it looks more brown but it’s gray and white!

I thought maybe i’d show an inspiration board I made with my thoughts for the nursery, if you’re interested?!

We enjoyed some time at home this past weekend, finally but did see some great friends for breakfast one day!

We don’t see them often enough (have you seen how busy we’ve been?!) but it’s always such a good time when we get together!

And that’s all folks… ha!

If you’re still reading this.. good job! It’s been a busy few weeks and unfortunately for us, it’s going to stay that way until November BUT i’m hoping it means the time will go quickly!

As much as I don’t want to wish away this pregnancy at all – I can’t wait to meet our little one and see if Baby is a girl or boy! It’s killing me, y’all!

I’m off to work and get ready for our crawl-fish boil tomorrow – yes you read that right 🙂 Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and see you back here next week (yes, next week!) for more chats!

Kristi