Weekend Highlights

sweater | leggings | nikes

Literally, getting highlights was the highlight of the weekend! Actually, there were a lot of great little moments from this past weekend. Besides getting my hair done and running a few errands to the grocery store, we didn't really leave the house. We had no plans for the weekend and sometimes those turn out to be the best ones, am I right? 

My friends and I were chatting (on our What's app chat... love that app!) about how our weekends have changed so much since having kids. A few years ago we would all have Friday or Saturday night plans to go on a date or have a girls night. These days it is a treat if we get a date night or even stay up past 10pm for any reason on the weekends. Is it sad? Actually, I'm enjoying this stage of life a lot. I'm more of a home body, so staying in especially during the winter months appeals to me. 

I'm also loving the quality time with my boys (all 4 of them including Bill and Charlie). Camden wore his pajamas all day yesterday and I decided to let my OCD self sit back and fight the urge to get him dressed for the day. We played with play doh, built towers with blocks and leggos, read books, danced, ran around the house, baked cookies, ate cookies... It was a really fun day! 

Yes, I'm enjoying this stage of life a lot. I wish I would have taken more pictures to share, but I was busy taking mental pictures of all the fun we were having. I did snap chat some of it (@Lindsay Rumple) so there's that ;) 

Even though we didn't do much, I actually accomplished a lot!

-made crock pot broccoli cheese soup AND crock pot lasagna (both from my favorite crock pot recipes post)

-baked chocolate chip cookies (and ate half of them... oops!)

-got my hair highlighted

-went grocery shopping and made a meal plan for the week

-did a few loads of laundry

-decluttered a few rooms and made a pile/bin ready to go to Goodwill

-played with and cuddled my babies... That one is definitely the best highlight of the weekend!

Oh, and it was in the 60s and sunny on Saturday! It felt like spring! I know it was just a tease, but it got me really excited for spring time!

How was your weekend? What were your highlights?

Week in Review

This week was a pretty productive one. We finalized our paint colors for the house. The painters start on Monday and could possibly take all week to finish! We are having them paint pretty much the entire downstairs, upstairs hallway, our bedroom and bathroom. It will be a big job and is the first big project we will have completed with the new house (besides getting blinds put in a few weeks ago). I can't wait to share a few before and after photos! There will be a lot of little projects over the next year and hopefully early next year we will start the kitchen renovation. I'm excited to share the progress with you guys!

Besides that, I decided it was time to spend a little money on some spring shopping. I've been so good about not really buying anything for myself since we moved. Bill and I have put a budget together for tackling house projects and of course, having another baby isn't cheap! Thank goodness for Target prices! Each piece I got (pictured below) is under $30! I also picked up some new make up / beauty products that I'm excited to try out. I will post a review soon!

dress (not maternity) | denim jacket | bag | sandals (only $19.99!)

Oh, and I added a few links to my side bar to the right. I've added a few recent post links and a "shop my closet" widget so you can view what I've purchased recently along with a few staple items and accessories in my closet (which include the items above). 

I did really well with the meal planning this week! I am very proud of myself. On Monday I made this cheesy enchilada rice skillet on Monday. It was really good and I think next time I'll add some cooked chicken to it for more protein. But, it was really filling on it's own! We had plenty of left overs for the next day. Wednesday I made this slow cooker maple dijon chicken and broccoli. It was so easy and the chicken was delish! I plan on making these oven baked fajitas tonight which will be an easy weekend meal!

Yesterday, I had my glucose test which was about as fun as a root canal... Ok, it wasn't that bad and I've never had a root canal so I can't compare. It's really starting to hit me that we are actually going to have another baby soon! I feel so behind on getting ready for baby #2. His nursery right now is just a bunch of tubs with Camden's old clothes and baby things in them. I'm really hoping to start to get my act together over the next month. I've got some ideas on furniture for his room and have a few items on my wishlist that we need to just pull the trigger on already. 

Last Saturday, we took Camden to his first swim lesson and let's just say he wasn't too thrilled about getting in the water! The instructors did say that it was normal for his age to cry a little off and on the first time, but that it would get better each time he went. Hoping tomorrow will be better!

This weekend my parents are visiting which I'm very excited about! We don't have any big plans, but it will just be nice to have them around to help out with Camden and a few little house projects.

Hope you all had a great week and happy Friday!

Week in Review + March Favorites

Can you believe it's the 1st of April already? Sorry, I have no witty April fools jokes for you today, but here's a little recap of our not so exciting week:

Monday, Cam and I just took it easy and pretty much stayed in our PJs most of the day after the whirlwind Easter weekend. The rest of the week was filled with work, a few house projects and eating lots of left overs and Easter candy (seriously, the candy needs to stop!). I had a happy mail day and received my new Solly wrap and Covered Goods nursing/carseat cover! I can not wait to test them out with baby #2! 

I've slowly been working on organizing Cam's old clothes bins and baby things and putting them in the new baby's room. I'm working on a list of some items I still want to purchase for baby #2 and plan on posting them on the blog soon!

Plans for the weekend include Cam's first swim lesson Saturday morning! I'm anxious to see how he will react to the water. He loves baths, so hoping he just thinks the pool is a big bath! Other than that, finalizing our paint colors (finally) and maybe taking a family outing to the local mall. It's going to be pretty chilly this weekend in IL, so we may just lay low and stay warm!

Since I don't have a very exciting WIR this week, I also wanted to share my March Favorites in this post. One of my goals for the year is to step up my beauty/make up/hair routines and try out some new products. These are just a few products that I've either been using for a while or newly purchased that I've been loving this past month:

1. I recently bought this TRESemme Keratin Smooth conditioner and have been loving it! It leaves my hair really soft and smells amazing!

2. I've been using it's a 10 spray leave in conditioner for a while now and just have to include it with this months favorites because it has helped my dry hair so much this season! I typically spray it on my damp hair after the shower before I comb through and will sometimes spray the ends after I blow dry. It's a little pricey, but you can get a smaller bottle for less. However, I totally think it's worth the price!

3. I recently picked up this L'Oreal Telescopic mascara as a recommendation from a YouTube beauty blogger and I really love it! I use to use Maybelline's Full and Soft, which has a very bushy brush so I was a little nervous about trying this new one that had short, hard bristles. However, I find that the small, harder bristles help to separate my lashes more and it stays on all day with no smudges!

4. Another more recent find was this Maybelline Baby Soft Instant Pore Eraser. I've been putting it on my face after lotion and before BB Cream or foundation and it really helps to smooth out my skin and hide my pores. It leaves my skin feeling like velvet!

5 & 6.  I've been using Neutrogena face lotion for a while now and have really grown to love their skin products. I use this Deep Moisture day cream with spf 20 during the day (duh!) and this Triple Age Repair night cream before I got to bed.

Have you tried any of these products?

I hope you all had a great week and happy Friday!

Shop the post:

Our Week in Review

It was a pretty good week that seemed to fly by! 

I am currently 25 weeks pregnant and will be 26 on Monday. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going by! Although, I'm starting to feel more like 30+ weeks... I'm hoping the 3rd trimester isn't too rough on me!

My parents were in town this past weekend and it was so nice having them around. My poor mom, however, caught the stomach bug while she was here and was down for the count for a good 24 hours. I felt so bad because I knew it was killing her not to be able to play with Cam! She was feeling much better by Saturday night, so Bill and I were able to sneak out right before Cam's bedtime for a date night! It had been a while since we went out to dinner just the 2 of us. We went to Catch 35 in Naperville and shared the crab legs and fillet meal. It was soon good! I completely forgot to take any photos of my date night outfit, but ended up wearing this tunic with my maternity skinny jeans and booties. 

On Sunday after my parents left, Bill, Cam and I went for a little afternoon home decor shopping at a few stores. We ended up getting some new kitchen table chairs at World Market and I'm loving them. They are definitely more sturdy than our old ones and will hopefully last through having 2 boys!

This week I signed Camden up for swimming lessons starting April 2nd! I'm so excited! I got him a few new pairs of swim trunks to celebrate (from Target of course).

I'm slowly starting to scheme some ideas for his new room too. Below is what it looks like now. We decided to leave the paint color since it's a pretty neutral tone. I'm keeping all his grey and white decor the same, but hoping to add some pops of blue and green in there at some point. Since we had to leave all our window treatments at our old house (part of the contract), I had to find some new curtains for his room. I found these cute grey and white striped curtains at Target that go perfectly!

I also picked up a metal, industrial looking letter "C" from Hobby Lobby (below image) to hang above his crib instead of the wood letters that spell out his name that we had in the old nursery. I'm hoping we can hang some decor in his room this weekend or next. 

On Wednesday, we finally had our blinds installed on the first floor! Hallelujah! We no longer feel like we are living in a fish bowl!

I'm so looking forward to the holiday weekend!

We are leaving for Bill's hometown this afternoon and will stay there through Sunday. I can't wait to get Cam all dressed up in his cute little Easter outfit! Oh, and eat all the Easter candy... :) 

I hope you all had a great week!

Happy Easter weekend!

Our Week in Review

Although, the weekend and beginning of the week were shot due to the plague of 2016, I will say the last half of the week ended quite nicely. 

* We had our paint consultation and I am so excited to get started with the paint process. Since we basically want to paint our entire house, it will take the crew a full week to get it finished once they start. We are hoping to pick out colors and finalize plans this weekend! I think a fresh coat of paint will make a world of difference! (PS - Yes, we hire painters... I guess you can say we aren't big on home DIYs...)

* I have succumb to the Easter candy... I was doing so well with resisting, but that huge seasonal candy isle at Target finally got to me. Anyone else binging on Easter candy this week? Just me?

* I made crock pot chicken nachos this week, which is always a hit around these parts. I simply throw in a few frozen chicken breasts, a jar of salsa and I cut up some extra onions (bc my husband and I both love them). I set the crock pot on low and let it cook for at least 4 hours or so. Then, I shred the chicken with 2 forks. To make the nachos, I pile a plate full of tortilla chips, melt some shredded cheese on top and layer on the shredded chicken, some extra salsa, sour cream, etc. So easy, delicious and filling!

* I decided that our little kitchen area needed some Spring time pep, so I grabbed some pretty flowers from the grocery store and also got these placemats for our kitchen table. Oh, and I picked up this happy mat for our front door. It's amazing what a few little brightly colored decor and fresh flowers will do for your spirit!

* How horrible is it that I did not dress Cam up in anything green yesterday? I have been so focused on his Easter outfit that I completely forgot about St. Patty's day! He seriously only has grey, blue, red and striped clothing in his closet...oops! #momfail

* My parents are in town for the weekend which I am super excited about! We are hoping to even have a date night this weekend while they babysit! It's been too long!

* I'm starting to get really excited about warmer weather. Spring and summer are just around the corner now. Camden can not wait to try out his new pool :)

Hope you all had a great week!

Happy weekend, friends!

Our Week in Review

I've decided to start posting a little review of our week every Friday (in place of a weekend recap), since it seems our weeks are more exciting than our weekends these days. Here's what we've been up to this week...

* Well, it was a big week for Camden (and for his parents). He started daycare 3 days per week and we've all been slowly adjusting to this big change. When we were in Ohio, my mom/parents watched him 2 days a week and Bill's mom/parents watched him one day a week so I could work and run errands. Now that we live further away from family, we had to look at some daycares as an option for childcare during the week. 

Drop offs have been a little difficult (mostly for me), but the smile I get when I pick him up is so wonderful! I love the reports and photos I get at the end of each day. It amazes me that they track eating, sleeping, activities and take photos of each child through out the day and send a full report to each parent/guardian everyday!

Of course, daycare does have it's downsides... On Wednesday night Camden woke up about 10:30pm throwing up and it lasted until after 1am. Seeing your baby get sick like that has to be one of the saddest things in the world. I just basically sat in the bathroom, holding him with a towel to his mouth for a while. We finally put the pack n play in our room with a towel down instead of sheets and he went to sleep about 1:30 and slept until 8am (which is late for him!). I'm not sure if it was the stomach bug or just something he ate? Bill and I feel fine (knock on wood), so I don't think it's that crazy contagious stomach bug going around. But, who knows! I kept him home on Thursday to recuperate and then took him today for a make up day since he was feeling much better.

All in all, our experience so far with his new daycare has been so great. The staff there is amazing and is one of the reasons we decided on this place. I plan on posting about finding a good daycare and what to look for in a daycare very soon!

* We had our window treatment consultation and are hoping to get them professionally installed in the next few weeks. We went with some white wood, 2" blinds for most of the bottom floor. We will be installing curtains in the dining room and most of the upstairs bedrooms after we paint (don't worry our bedroom and Camden's have temporary window treatments!).

* I made this crock pot lasagna and it was a hit! It was seriously one of the easiest crock pot recipes I've tried. I've been craving all kinds of pasta and Italian food, so it really hit the spot. I served it with a big salad and some garlic bread on the side. That's about as far as I got with making dinners this week.. I am struggling to find the time and energy to cook these days! Trying to get better at planning meals!

* Even though I am really trying to limit my spending over the next few months to focus on house updates, I had to take advantage of a few sale items I've had my eye on for a while from Nordstrom. I ordered this tunic in olive (on sale for $27.90! I also have it in the wine color and LOVE it!) and this cowl neck sweatshirt tunic (on sale for $28.80!) which looks super comfy. Both are non-maternity and seem to be bump friendly, so that's a plus! I'm hoping these are the last few cooler weather clothing purchases I'll make this season! Bring on the maxi dresses, t-shirts and shorts!

* Lastly, I finally got my hair highlighted and trimmed. It had been since before Christmas! I was nervous going to a new salon and hairdresser, but I LOVE the results! There's something about a fresh hair do that makes you feel so much better, am I right?

Well, that pretty much sums up our week! We are just going to have a low key weekend again. Maybe work on a few house projects, grill out if the weather stays nice (it's been in the 50s / 60s here), maybe take Camden to a park or explore our new town! 

Hope you all had a fabulous week and happy weekend!