Happy New Year!! 



How far along: 23 weeks tomorrow!

Size of baby: Just over 1 pound!

Gender: Our sweet baby Girl! 

Movement: She is moving all the time now. It reminds me of Hampton. He never seemed to stop and she is just as wiggly. 

We are welcoming a new year tomorrow. I love this time of fresh starts and new beginnings, opportunities and for us, we are going to welcome a sweet baby girl into our lives. It is an exciting time. Here are 15 goals I look forward to completing this year:

– Complete the Love Your Body Series and #100byVDay (it starts tomorrow!).

– Read 15 books

– Save $1,500.00

– Improve my photography with my NEW CAMERA!!

– Travel as much as possible.

– Read through the bible.

– Sell our house

-…and buy a new one.

– Try 15 new recipes.

– Organize and set up Hampton’s big boy room. and organize and re-decorate our little girl’s room.

– Brush up on my French. I just bought a couple of books to help me get started!

– Take more pictures. I already take so many, but there have still been times I regretted not taking any.

– Clean out our closet.

– Blog productively.

– Make new friends and spend more time with my old friends. Friends are everything (along with family and good food. :))

Well, there you have it! Some of my goals are super easy if I will just get organized. haha This year is sure to be a wonderful exciting time as we welcome our baby girl, travel, and hopefully sell our home. Yes, it is still for sale. Sigh.

Today, tonight and tomorrow, we will be spending time with family and friends while eating more food (Yikes). That LYB challenge is coming at the PERFECT time! I look forward to continuing my exercise journey throughout my pregnancy and the future. My TIU girls have been wonderful in helping me and encouraging me to stick to it. I am so thankful because it has made this pregnancy so much easier than the last.

What are some of your goals for the new year? Do you have big plans tonight?

Happy New Year!

Welcome to Rosie Hopkins’ Sweet Shop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan

Rosie Hopkins’s life is…comfortable. She has a steady nursing job, a nice apartment, and Gerard, her loyal (if a bit boring) boyfriend. And even though she might like to pursue a more rewarding career, and Gerard doesn’t seem to have any plans to propose, Rosie’s not complaining. Things could be worse. Right?

Life gets a bit more interesting when Rosie’s mother sends her out to the country to care for her ailing great aunt Lilian, who owns an old-fashioned sweetshop. But as Rosie gets Lilian back on her feet, breathes a new life into the candy shop, and gets to know the mysterious and solitary Stephen whose family seems to own the entire town she starts to think that settling for what’s comfortable might not be so great after all.

How far along: 22 weeks tomorrow!

Size of baby: 11″ and almost 1 pound!

Gender: Our sweet baby Girl! Still no name, although we have it narrowed down to two, and we are using a name that we have both loved forever, so I am really excited about that. I’ll announce when we have decided 100%. 🙂

Movement: I have felt a lot of movement this week. She even woke me up one night. 

Well I officially mailed out our last two Christmas cards yesterday morning. Raise your hand if you’re a super procrastinator! Today, I am wrapping a few last gifts and we are heading to a Christmas dinner at Ryan’s grandparent’s house. I can’t wait to see everyone!

Yesterday, my sweet blog friend, Sarah sent Hamp and little sister these adorable “Mommy’s Coffee Date” shirts! She has the cutest Etsy shop – Wake Me Up Designs, and you should definitely check it out!  I can’t say enough good things about her and her adorable little girl. Thank you, Sarah!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy time with your family and loved ones. Drink lots of hot cocoa and cozy up by a fire. Open lots of presents, but don’t forget the reason for the season! My family has so much to be grateful for this year and we are looking so forward to welcoming our precious little girl in 2015. I am thankful for all of you who read and support my little blog. I am so grateful to you for taking the time to comment and share my posts, but also to those of you who read along and keep up with my little family. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

We have attended 2 Christmas parties so far this week with a few more coming up! With both of our families living so close to us, there is always something fun going on. The holidays are very busy, but we love seeing everyone and spending time with loved ones that we don’t see as often as we’d like to.

Seeing all of my cousins this past weekend was awesome. I love getting together with them. Our theme this year was “favorite Christmas character,” So Ryan and I went as candy canes (real original, I know) and Hamp was a little Olaf. The cutest Olaf I’ve ever seen. We played games and ate yummy treats (including my Christmas cookies).

My brother definitely won best costume this year dressing up as cousin Eddie. He doesn’t hold back, and I love it! My sister won best hair by far, because look at it! It’s amazing.

Other than our other Christmas party stops, we are planning to relax as much as possible and watch as many Christmas movies as we can over the next couple of days.

How are you spending Christmas week? Have you attended any Christmas parties?

Christmas is all about traditions in my family, and I am so excited to establish new traditions in our growing family. This year I decided to have a night (that will normally be on Christmas Eve, but wasn’t this year) where we will bake cookies together while listening to Christmas music (turned way up, because there is no other way) and watch a Christmas movie. This year, I perused Pinterest for easy Christmas cookies to make with Hampton. I found this original recipe here, but gave it my own spin!