At Home

It always happens. The last week of summer is rainy and cool and ruins Labor…

As I recently revealed, we bought a fixer upper that we’re gut renovating. We’re legit…

James is turning three in September (tear), which means I’ll not only be shopping for…

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we welcomed a baby girl two…

I can’t believe I’m already talking about back to school shopping, and yet, it’s here.…

I was so focused for so long on having another baby that I honestly didn’t…

And having a baby! What were we thinking? I don’t know, but we need more…

We’re headed to the Bahamas to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday. It’s the first time we…

Summer is flying by. I hate to say that because honestly, it’s only just begun,…

Ok, so I admit it. I got cocky. I thought I had this whole tantrum…

In my mind, summer starts with Memorial Day weekend, so I’m already behind on my…

Surprise! We’re pregnant! Baby #2 is coming this August! We’ve been keeping the news secret…

When it comes to being all natural and avoiding toxins and all that, I go through phases. Years ago, before I was jugging a big job, motherhood, and a blog, I had lots of time to read every magazine and book and I went on a huge kick to get rid of all environmental toxins in our apartment, from replacing our vinyl shower curtain liner to buying all green, non-toxic cleaning products and clearing out kitchen of bad plastics. I eased up as life got crazier and I just got too busy to stress over it all. And realistically, some green cleaners just didn’t get my bathtub or toilet clean like Clorox. It was the same with my beauty products — as much as I was worried about certain ingredients, I pushed it out of mind because I just wanted my skin to be clear and my hair to be shinier and fuller, and my armpits not to smell or sweat, and I found the green, non-toxic products just didn’t get the job done as well, especially the natural deodorants.

I’m really enjoying coming up with these bucket lists every season (see my fall list…

Let me preface this by saying that I am by no means a relationship expert.…

Packing for a beach vacation is always my favorite thing to do, especially when it’s the middle of winter and I’m so over all my winter clothes. All those summer shorts, sundresses, and sandals feel fresh again. Plus, it’s the perfect excuse to pick up some of the pretty floral dresses and coverups that I’ve been seeing everywhere and lusting over. Still, since packing is never easy, I created a list of essentials to help make packing for your next beach vacation easy. Here’s what I’m packing for our upcoming beach vacation and a checklist with all the essentials you’ll need for yours.

Friday was my birthday, so this post is a few days late, but after a fun weekend celebrating with my boys, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the previous year and my goals from the one to come. I’m not sure if I ever shared this, but I love birthdays! I love celebrating other people’s and my own. I just feel like it’s one day (or in our house, week) all about you and celebrating your life and where you’re at and going. It’s like my own personal New Year’s in many ways — a chance to reflect, reset, set goals. And since my birthday corresponds with spring, I always feel really hopeful and like it’s a time of rebirth in some ways.

Before I had James, I loved rainy days. It was the perfect excuse to stay in my pajamas, binge watch Netflix and order takeout. But all that changed since becoming a mom. Every mom dreads a rainy day. Keeping kids entertained while cooped up inside all day is no easy feat and it’s hard to get a toddler’s energy out if they can’t run around outside. Little kids need the fresh air and without it, they become hyper little maniacs. Luckily, our nanny has found some amazing activities to keep our little maniac busy when it’s pouring and because it’s rained almost every weekend, I’ve discovered quite a few on my own. Here are my favorite rainy day activities for toddlers.

This March, Andrew and I will celebrate our five year wedding anniversary. I’m kind of…

Like many of you, when mid-January hit, we were ready for a vacation somewhere warm. Last year, after much debate, we decided to bring our then baby along on our vacation. I wrote a post about what I learned from our experience. Well, we just got back from another January trip to Florida, and I thought I’d share my vacation with toddler tips after surviving a beach vacation with our crazy two year old. While I felt more prepared and less panicked about traveling with James now that we’ve flown and vacationed with him a bunch, we still made some mistakes this time (and had some wins) and learned a lot.