Category: my weekend in pictures

{So naptime went super well on Friday afternoon… She eventually went to sleep but there was definitely a dance party beforehand!}

{I know why so many pregnant women wear head-to-toe black: the bump disappears!}

{Enjoying some snuggles with Eloise.}

{The only way to end the year is with Snappy Dragon delivered!}

{Eloise was dying to get in on a game of Catan!}

{With family in town, we must have played at least five games of Catan!}

{Eloise loves her Paga! Isn’t it so fun when kids make up the names for grandparents? This one is definitely sticking around.}

{Eloise was all about the funny faces to entertain everyone at dinnertime.}

{And she loves her Grammie (or Mimi) so much too!}

{Eloise the jellyfish!}

{We took a family trip to the Aquarium on Sunday and it was so fun. Eloise and my sister loved the sea otters!}

{Thankful for these two as we started the New Year: Eloise and the bump. Also Sonnet James dresses are awesome as maternity dresses and absolutely work after the baby is born too!}

{Post-dinner shenanigans with Papa and Paga.}

Happy happy 2017! We were lucky enough to have my family – Paga, Mimi, and Aunt Yaya – come up to visit for a few days for a post-Christmas celebration. It was SO cold, but we had a good time staying in and watching football, and even venturing out a bit!

We (Eloise and I) were also so lucky to have Aaron home almost the entire holiday season (these past two weeks) even if we were sick for the first bit. It felt like a weekend every day which is much easier on this Mama! But, we are back to the daily grind starting tomorrow with Eloise headed back to school and resuming our normal weekly activities.

It is so crazy that the New Year is upon us since it has felt so far away for the past few months. Now we are kicking it into high gear and I will be ferociously hitting my to-do list before Baby Foot joins us in about 50 (50!) days!

How was your New Year’s weekend?

M

{And thanks to my sister for some of the pics!}

Not a huge weekend update, but here are a smattering of photos from our Christmas weekend!

{This kid! Eloise wants to wear her sunglasses all the time, even when it’s dark outside. And if there is even the slightest bit of light, she covers her eyes and says “too bright mama!” This is definitely a PNW kid and a true Seattleite!}

{We opened stockings and presents from Santa first thing on Christmas morning. Eloise was so sweet, and wanted to open and play with everything before moving onto the next present. This stretched Christmas out all day long which was fine with us!}

{This year’s Christmas table. It was so fun to use my late grandmother’s brass candlesticks, chargers, and crystal. We brunched with Aaron’s brother and some close friends, but Christmas dinner was just the three of us! It was fun to start creating our own traditions; thus far it is Chinese food for Christmas Eve and lobster for Christmas!}

{Feeling so blessed this Christmas with my little family!}

{Cheese! Eloise and Sadie were pretty excited about heading out for a post-Christmas dinner walk to see the lights around the neighborhood.}

{And today Aaron and I spent most of our day cleaning out the pantry. Nesting in full effect!}

We laid-low this weekend since we were all a little under the weather with nasty colds, but by Christmas we were all feeling pretty good! Celebrating Christmas this year was so fun since Eloise mostly understood what was going on and had a ton of Christmas spirit! She replaced her normal “happy birthday” which she says all the time with “Merry Christmas!” And we have a few days to recover before my family heads into town for a belated Christmas celebration!

How was your holiday weekend?

M

{Eloise and I made Christmas treats for our neighbors on Friday afternoon. We always give them our Christmas card in-person (usually Aaron and Eloise go out around the neighborhood one evening) and I thought it would be fun to add some sweet treats. We made this Christmas Chex Mix and this Pre-School Fudge. If I get my act together, I will share pictures of the final results!}

{Santa came a little early this year and left a new-to-us red car in the driveway! Just kidding, we sat at the car dealership all morning on Saturday. We are turning in our VW Golf Wagen in a few weeks (after the TDI scandal) and needed a replacement. I never thought we would have an SUV, but with Baby Foot’s impending arrival, it seemed like a good fit for us!}

{We went to our friends’ annual Bite Party on Saturday night where everyone brings an appetizer or dessert to share and then everyone votes on the best. We made this Dark Chocolate Tart with Sea Salt and it was pretty good! Note: if you like super sweet desserts, this is not for you.}

{We finally got our new fireplace done and it is all decorated for the holiday! The final piece was adding logs and lights to the firebox (eventually we may add an electric insert). I will be sure to share more pictures soon since it is so beautiful all decorated and Aaron did an amazing job!}

{I finally have a shelf – thanks Baby Foot! Enjoying a pre-barre bowl of cereal nearly hands-free. Sidenote: did any other mamas lose their appetites during the third trimester?}

{Weekly pizza night and Eloise is always eager to help roll out the dough. Aaron always lets her make her own pizza and it is the cutest.}

What a fun weekend we had! It is still super cold here (by PNW standards) and barely getting to 40 degrees most days but we are staying as warm as we can; it is this time of year we are so thankful for our radiant heated floors! Eloise seems to have picked up a cold which progressed over the past two days and now I am feeling stuffy… fingers crossed we will kick this before Christmas!

We are looking forward to a fun week before settling in for the holiday weekend! I can’t believe Christmas is just a week away!

How was your weekend?

M

{Eloise and I crafted on Friday afternoon and I am planning on sharing this week for Pinterest Christmas!}

{Our own Cindy-Lou Who! Eloise’s hair is getting so, so long, and I thought maybe we could get it cut (the first one!) later this month, but when I asked her about it the other day she said “no thanks.”}

{Aaron has been working so, so hard on this fireplace project – did I ever share that he is building a fireplace in our living room? – and he promised to get it done in time for Christmas. So we spent a lot of the weekend priming and painting so that I can decorate my new mantle!}

{We brunched with the Andersons this morning at an old favorite, Portage Bay Café, and Eloise has gotten pretty good at using a fork. Even though the restaurant was a little crazy busy, it was great to catch up with friends!}

{And Eloise was being super silly this afternoon… she has a pretty good sense of humor these days!}

Sorry for the lack of exciting pictures. After the excitement of the snow on Friday, it was pretty rainy and yucky outside which wasn’t very inspiring. We laid pretty low and got some things done around the house – good for us but didn’t make for great photo opportunities! I absolutely cannot believe that we are two weeks away from Christmas – I have so much left to do!

How was your weekend?

M

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{In case you missed it on my Instagram or Facebook, we are teaching Eloise how to play hide-and-seek. She is good at hiding (with some help) but staying quiet is definitely a steep learning curve!}

{Eloise, Sadie, and I have been walking around the block either before or after lunch these days since by the time she gets up from her nap in the afternoon it is basically dark. And just in the past week it we have gotten much colder, so its out with all of our winter gear!}

{On Friday I watched the Huskies win the Pac 12 Championship! Such a good game. Excited (and nervous) to see them play Alabama in the play-offs!}

{December means Christmas tree shopping. Eloise wasn’t too sure about all of those tall trees and spent most of the time up on Aaron’s shoulders. We did find a great tree though, its little but so cute! I decorated the top half while Eloise napped this afternoon, and Aaron and Eloise decorated the bottom half while I was at Pure Barre.}

{Christmas decorations all down from the attic! I am always amazed by how many boxes there are since it doesn’t seem like I have that many decorations!}

{Eloise sitting with her two ornaments she got this year. Every year as a kid my mom got my sister and I Christmas ornaments (many of which now hang on our tree) and it is a tradition I wanted to continue! Earlier in the week Eloise and I hit up Target and I let her choose her ornament for this year. Of course I couldn’t say no when she wanted lumberjack Santa and a lion!}

{I came home from my workout to find my two best people hanging Christmas lights. Well, Aaron was hanging Christmas lights and Eloise was dancing to the Christmas music! But then she got super distracted by my bag and insisted it be in the picture.}

{The start of the week means packing a lunch for Eloise! I have enjoyed this a surprising amount, but get back to me in May when I am packing her PB & J and goldfish crackers!}

We had a super chilly and festive weekend getting ready for Christmas! I was a little bah-humbug on Saturday and decorating anything seemed like way too much work, but by this afternoon, I was ready to get everything up. And as usual, the weekend went way too quickly!

How was your weekend?

M

{Eloise had her first dance class on Friday morning and she was so excited to be a “ballerina”! A few of her friends (& their mamas) are in the class too which makes it so much more fun. She had a blast and chatted about it for the rest of the day. Also, when did she turn into such a big kid?!}

{Aaron was busy this week on another big project for the house – a fireplace! We are both really excited about this one, just in time for Christmas!}

{And our old media center is now our new sideboard! Love this piece here! Now to just refinish that dining room table and chairs… maybe someday. Le sigh.}

{Eloise loved Karly this weekend whose house we crashed before having dinner with Ben & Sarah on Saturday. Thanks for having us Karly!}

{Of course, a game of Drawful after dinner. I won by a landslide and still unsure how I managed it!}

{Eloise loves these little bubbling fountains at the U Village, so we killed some time over there while we waited for the stores to open. Holiday shopping season has officially begun and it was already so packed! We did manage to catch the early Black Friday sale at Land of Nod though and order a few things for Baby Foot’s nursery, including the rug! Plus, I let Eloise pick out a stuffed animal for the baby and she picked the most adorable alligator!}

{I am finishing up a custom flag for a friend that I just love!}

{The bump and I made our Sunday afternoon class and since a fellow mama-to-be was there too, we decided it would be great to take a picture of the bumps! Pure Barre is hands-down the best pre-natal workout for me as it kept me strong during my pregnancy and helped immensely post-partum!}

A super rainy weekend kept us mostly inside trying to tackle a few projects before we head into the short holiday week. I am really excited for Thanksgiving at the end of the week and spending some time with my family (and away from the chaos of normal life, right?). I know once we get home we will be hitting the ground running and Christmas will be here. As much as I LOVE Christmas (seriously, LOVE!) I am not quite ready for it… Maybe I will be more excited to decorate post-Thanksgiving?

How was your weekend?

M

{Yes! Red holiday Starbucks cup. Completely made my day!}

{I started making a quilt for Eloise’s big kid bed. And I am not really quilting, but pretty excited about the project.}

{Eloise has been super into her pizza and sorting all of the ingredients into shapes. “Same same Mama” is what she always says!}

{Thanks to Aaron who peeled and sliced all of the apples that went into my apple pie this weekend!}

{Happy Friendsgiving! For the third year we got together with local friends for a super fun tradition. (see last year’s here) It was tough to see our Huskies lose to USC, but we had so much fun catching up with old & new friends. Thanks for hosting this year Jess and Cale!}

{We had a pretty rainy weekend, so no yardwork meant that Aaron started on another project for the house. Really excited about this one! I promise I will share once everything is wrapped up.}

After having a really nice and beautiful week, we had lots of rain this weekend which was sort of a bummer. But, we filled our weekend with lots of friends – PEPS and Friendsgiving – so it worked out pretty well. I am shocked that we are already into the middle of November and feel like I have a million things on my to-do list that I felt like I had ages to do… I guess that’s the holidays, right?

How was your weekend?

M

{Peek-a-boo! I see Eloise! She loves this game still! And it was all fun and games until she slid off a pillow and banged her head on the corner of my nightstand…a little cut but she didn’t even cry!}

{Manicure round 2. I haven’t had polished nails for months, but decided to bust out the polish for our Christmas card photoshoot this weekend. But, the first time around I mistakenly used a top coat instead of a base coat, so my polish started chipping like crazy!}

{Eloise post-photoshoot this afternoon. Her dress had pockets and she was obsessed! We got rained out on Saturday morning, but this afternoon was sunny and beautiful!}

{A little baby bump at Barre this afternoon!}

{Sometimes my meal plans don’t stretch to Sunday (or we are just tired of cooking!) so we headed out for dinner this evening. Love these two dates of mine!}

{I picked up this gooey caramel pumpkin cake from TJ’s for Halloween, but we didn’t end up wanting it until tonight. Boy it was so yummy!}

{I was editing photos tonight for the Shop and (soft) launched most of the Holiday Collection, so go check it out!}

{And as I was doing some online perusing tonight, I came across this on Brickyard Buffalo – it’s my flags you guys! 25% off and $3 shipping all week!}

We had a great weekend and, despite the photoshoot reschedule and the pouring rain on Saturday, we had a super productive weekend! And football-wise, it was great too: the Broncos won on Friday night and the Huskies won last night (in the looongest game ever…)! And we had the most beautiful fall day today, and I hope the weather lasts all week! I am in denial (still) about it already being November, but it’s been a pretty good start. Especially since Eloise wasn’t up an hour early this morning! Stupid daylight saving time.

How was your weekend?

M

{Eloise got a pair of black booties on Friday and wanted to put them right next to mine. Tell me this phase of “be just like Mama” will last forever!}

{Eloise and I ended up at a new (to us) neighborhood playground on Friday afternoon and she loved the slide!}

{We got a fun care package from a good friend & Aaron was pretty excited about it! We can’t get Red Gold products out West!}

{Eloise and I went to a fun crafting event at Land of Nod on Saturday morning. She made the cutest bat headband (which she wore all day!) and we were able to stay out of the rain!}

{Seriously. How cute is my bat-pumpkin?}

{And hey, we made it onto the Land of Nod Instagram feed! And, as a sidenote, I should probably retire that shirt until after this baby is born!}

{We give Eloise elderberry syrup whenever she is congested or has a runny nose (so a lot during the fall and winter) and it works wonders! But I was tired of spending so much on it, so I made some and it smelled so delicious!}

{Go Huskies! It was a tough game, but we are so, so proud of those boys!}

{Our annual family pumpkin carving party, and the first one that Eloise remembers. She didn’t love cleaning out the pumpkins but loved to see all of the faces Papa carved.}

{And Eloise was so, so excited when she saw the pumpkins all lit up!}

{If Papa is up in the attic, Eloise is right there at the bottom of the ladder waiting for him.}

{So many leaves… and Aaron just cleaned up the entire yard last weekend too! But he raked some up into a big pile and Eloise had so much fun!}

{And, the Cubs win! Excited to see them keep the Series alive!}

What a great weekend! We had the most magnificent fall weather, ever, on Friday which made the rainy weather on both Saturday and Sunday much easier to stomach. We partook in lots of Halloween festivities and Eloise has been in heaven. She is so excited for the big holiday tomorrow – a costume and tea party at school, the neighborhood Halloween parade, and trick-or-treating!

How was your weekend?

M

{Aaron came down with me to West Elm on Saturday to host my Pop-Up Shop! Thank you to everyone who called, texted, messaged, and came to visit on Saturday – it meant the world to me. Foot traffic was pretty slow in the store (it was sunny, there was a big UW game, etc.) so we didn’t have a ton of opportunities, but we did have a few sales and I was happy to see a few friendly faces stop by! I say it was a successful event and has me excited for my next event in a few weeks – I will keep you posted!}

{Feeling the love from West Elm Seattle. Thanks to Melissa for helping coordinate the event.}

{Post-Pop-Up Shop beers – IPA for him, root beer for me. Have you ever had root beer on draft? It is amazing!}

{Since it was sunny this morning, I convinced Eloise to help me re-plant my front pots with mums and clean up the deck a bit. Well, it didn’t take much convincing at all since this kid loves to be outside!}

{Post-barre snuggles with the bump and my two loves. Eloise has been super into her pizza lately and always wants Papa to help her make it.}

We had a really fun weekend that felt so productive! It was such a big time for me and The Shop, and I can’t thank everyone enough (especially my hubby who is my biggest cheerleader!) for the support.

And this morning we woke up to fantastic weather (again, we had great weather on Saturday too!) and I got to sleep in, lovely! We spent the rest of the morning outside cleaning up the yard after the big storm we had and generally just prepping for the fall. And after missing both classes last week, I made it to Pure Barre and it felt so great! Gearing up for a busy week and the last of October, what? Seriously. This has been the fastest month ever!

How was your weekend?

M