oldies...

I randomly came across a folder of old photos. Nothing too exciting, so I decided to post my favorites.

I think this was in an old issue of Domino. I so badly wanted to recreate this tree!

French Pear Tart, AKA, the tart that gets you a husband.

I painted a wall in my dining room hot pink!!! Totally the wrong paint and the wrong color I wanted, but it was fun. who cares!

Back when everything was so pretty and girly...

T

Napoleon!

Noir, the Wonder Cat!

I'm Chuck Bass

My House!!! The house I bought as a single lady. Thanks Beyoncé.

My peonies!

My Grandma on her wedding day

We weren't even dating yet!!!

My glorious patio

The hammock!

Sia!!  Before she hid her face! Awesome concert.

Meeting Everett... On Mother's Day!

Happy Family

My little elf

Books I've Read in 2015

Hello... It's Me.... I was wondering if you ever read my blog? It's been over for months, but I thought I'd write my annual book review for you. (I hope you sang that to Adele's Hello)

Typically I set my reading goal to 52 books for the year. I have yet to reach that goal. And after doing some soul searching, I realized that with three small children, I should set my sights a little lower. So my goal for 2015 was to read 25 books. I read 16.  A little disappointing, but I'm cutting myself some slack.

With only reading 16 books, I was pretty selective, and I ended up reading all very good books. All the books I read got 4 and 5 stars. (Out of 5 stars)

Here are the books I read in the order that I read them...

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

by Gabrielle Zevin  (Hermit bookstore owner adopts a little girl, changes his life)

Landline

by Rainbow Rowell (Over worked, career obsessed wife and mom, finds phone in childhood room and can call her husband in the past when he was her boyfriend)

The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins  (Divorced and alcoholic woman,  loves riding a train and spying on people. Sees something bad happening at a house and become obsessed with solving the crime)

Still Alice

by Lisa Genova (Harvard professor gets early onset Alzheimer's and works to keep as much as her memory and dignity intact)

Aquarium

by David Vann (Single mom has a daughter and loves her and then freaks out when her own long lost father tries to come back into her and her daughters life)

First Frost (Waverly Family #2)

by Sarah Addison Allen (Waverly family is back with more magic and special recipes; follow up to Garden Spells)

Replacement Child

by Judy Mandel (True story of a sister who was born after a family tragedy to "replace" the daughter that was lost.)

Seating Arrangements

by Maggie Shipstead (A dad, a family, and a wedding. Chaos ensues.)

The Martian

by Andy Weir (Man gets stuck on Mars, has to find his way back to earth.) (P.S. This was probably my favorite book of 2015. It's a little slow at first and there is some science stuff that almost lost me, but once you get past that, you really start to root for this guy!)

The Heart Goes Last (Positron 0)

by Margaret Atwood (Man and woman living in a post apocalyptic world, find a better life in a special commune... but is it worth it?)

Summer Secrets

by Jane Green (Recovering Alcoholic woman tries to right the wrongs from her past; on Nantucket Island)

Eight Hundred Grapes

by Laura Dave (Girl runs to her family's winery after she sees fiancé with another woman. But her whole family is falling apart and the winery is in jeopardy.)

Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story

by Jewel  (Singer, Jewel Kilcher, writes about her life growing up in Alaska, her bad parents, and how she made it into the music industry)

Did You Ever Have a Family

by Bill Clegg (Woman loses her whole family in a house fire. But every chapter is written by someone who had ties to this family.)

Brooklyn

by Colm Toibin (Young girl from Ireland moves to Brooklyn to start a new life, meets an Italian boy and then suddenly has to go back to Ireland because of a death in the family. She meets an Irish lad while there. Who does she choose?)

Why Not Me?

by Mindy Kaling (More hilarious words of wisdom from Mindy Kaling. I love her)

Michigan 2015

We made our annual pilgrimage to Michigan to visit friends and family. Honestly, I think traveling with kids gets worse before it gets better. The boys cried a lot in the car, and that was even with stopping and staying in a hotel.  Tim just tunes them out, but I want to rip my face off!!!
But alas, it's all worth it, right? RIGHT?

It was a fun time seeing everyone, spending time at the lake and trying out paddle boards for the first time. They make nice boats for kids to sit on and get paddled around FYI.

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, and looked back on how crazy life has been in the last five years. Of course we wouldn't change a thing. Crazy suits us!

Let the torture begin! 

Michigan!

Cousin Mandy and Blair

5 years of love! 

My first born crush

My BFF Rachel and baby Silas.  Between us, we have 6 boys! 

Boy Crazy! 

Paddle Boarding with Grandpa Brian

Visiting Aunt Shar and Uncle Lance

Daddy Pillow

Great Grandma Trudy

The pool party is over. 

Golden Birthday Boy

Our sweet little Finn is 1 today on the 1st! Golden Birthday Boy! 

We love this little peanut so much. So full of smiles and happiness. 

Happy Birthday! 

First Birthday Invitations + Minted

We have an almost one year old in the house! Little Finnley Parker will soon be One in August! This past year has just flown by and it's so crazy to think that at this time last summer I was hugely pregnant and so ready to meet our little Finners.

I've been planning and thinking about having a little party for Finn, and as a family, we have come up with some fun ideas. The older boys think Finn would like to celebrate at Chuck E. Cheese's, but I have to remind them that the party if for Finn and not them.

When planning a party, of course you need some invitations! So when I was contacted by Minted to check out their Kids Birthday Party Invitations, I totally jumped at the chance. I've used Minted before for Christmas Cards and I absolutely love their designs and the quality is very nice. They also have beautiful art work too, which I happen to have a couple of art pieces from them as well.

There were so many cute invitations to choose from, it was hard to narrow down which ones I loved the best. But here are a few of my favorites...

See!! So cute! And so hard to choose just one design. I want them all!!!!  

We are so excited to celebrate our little Finn! He is such a sweetie pie, and deserves a really special day. 

Almost one! 

*I was contacted by Minted to write about their Kid's Invitations, I was not compensated monetarily, but I was offered credit to their store.