Something Funny + Ryan Gosling

I maybe be a little late on this, seeing as I hardly ever get on my Tumblr anymore, and I haven't been on Pinterest lately either, but today I found the most hilarious, awesome, 'slap yo' knee' it's so funny thing I've seen in a while. A Tumblr devoted to both Handmade and Ryan Gosling. What an awesome combo right? If you know anything at all about "crafting", being crafty, DIY's, owning an Etsy or independent business, you'll get this. And even if you don't, I think we can all agree, this is something nice to look at reguardless! Am I right? ;) *I showed Bean, and while he understood the concept, he didn't find it at all funny while I'm simultaneously wiping tears from my eyes it's so hilarious* Okay, maybe that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but it is really amusing. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you, and urge you to check it out!

*My favorite!*

*And especially this one!*

I hope you get a little laugh out of this like I did! Like I needed another reason to love Ryan Gosling....xo, MB♥

Songbird Saturday #12: NYE Edition!

If you're anything like me, you're excited for a New Year. Yet, I find myself feeling heavyhearted about leaving this year. It's been such a wonderful year. 2011 has been good to my family and myself, but that makes me even more excited about what 2012 has in store for us. I know that God has big plans for this up coming year of our lives, and I just can't wait to be a part of it all! I thought I'd try to create a little playlist full of both New Years Eve songs, and songs you can dance too. Because who doesn't like to dance on NYE? Both of these lovely ladies, Rachel and Rubyellen, have an awesome tradition that I think I want to adopt! Family NYE dance party, that sounds like fun! Dakota really loves to dance, so I'm sure she'd have a blast. I hope your New Year's Eve is spent in something sparkly, with friends and family, dancing and counting down. I'm working on my resolutions post. Have you made any yet? What are your favorite New Years songs? I'd love to add more to my personal playlist! xo, Meghan

Christmas Festivities!

I hope it's not too late to be posting this? It's only a mere 4 days after Christmas, but it feels like much more! Truthfully, the first days after the holiday have me feeling bummed. What's keeping my spirits up is having Bean home for a week! I'm so thankful for the time he gets off around the holidays. With that being said, Christmas was a blast! I wasn't sure how Dakota would feel, or if she would understand the concept at all, but after waking up Christmas morning realizing that Santa had visited her and it was indeed all for her, each one after that kept getting sweeter. We had a total of 4 Christmases (including ours), 2 dinners, a Christmas Eve party, lots of snacks and lots of company. It was a crammed day to say the least, but so much fun. Dakota made out like a bandit, and now we're having a week of clean to make room for the new and pass on what we don't need anymore. It's really refreshing!

My favorite part about the whole day (aside from being with family!) was watching Dakota walk right up to her new kitchen, stick her cup full of milk in the microwave and start pressing buttons. Be still my heart! ♥ I hope your Christmas was as merry and Santa was good to you. xo, Meghan

Christmas Eve 2010 + 2011

Pardon my absence! We have all been sick/fighting colds for almost two weeks now and, with the excitement of the Holidays, we've had our minds elsewhere. Christmas was a big big hit in our house this year. Everyone's bellies are still thanking them for all the yummy Christmas meals we ate. We're all playing with our new toys and enjoying having Bean home for a week. We're taking our time getting things back in order, and savoring each moment of this wonderful season. I plan on doing a proper Christmas post this week, but until then...look how goofy we all look last year! ;) A lot changes in a year, but not the finger in the mouth!

Hope you had the most Merry of Christmases. xo, Meghan

Santa vs. Baby

This past weekend we took Dakota to see Santa. She loved him last year, and she seemed so excited this year. She "oohed" and "awwed", pointed and wanted to run up to him. But when her turn actually came, fear was all over her face. So maybe taking her while she was hungry, and sleepy wasn't the best of ideas, but I'm thinking that she would have done that no matter what. 

Ever since becoming a parent, I've learned time and time again that things don't go the way you always plan. In a perfect world, Dakota would walk right up to Santa, hop on his lap, and whisper everything in his ear she wanted for Christmas. Aside from the fact that she was scared, my dream scenario would require Dakota to know full sentences....which she does not! Despite our reassuring words, our gentle pushes to get her to just smile for the camera, and Santa himself telling her it was okay, all she wanted was Daddy. It was so sad, but I think we all got a little chuckle from it. Regardless of the tears shed, and the utter fear of the great jolly man himself, we had a good time. I plan on really talking him up this year when she sees all of her sweet presents, and probably every day until next year. Hopefully next year she will be more accepting of him! 

Truth be told...

I am a first born. So I'd like to think, that naturally, I'm an organizer. Someone who can't stand clutter, is always punctual, and never misses a beat. To a certain extent, I am these things (except punctual, I think you loose all punctuality when you have kids!). What really got me thinking about this was my Christmas list. I've had that bad boy written out since before Thanksgiving. I knew what I wanted to get, what  I needed to get, and where the best prices would be. I made sure my packages were here weeks before, to leave room for error. I've crossed all t's and dotted all i's. I've even had things wrapped for well over two weeks! So, I should be able to kick back and relax, right?

It seems that I've done so much ahead of time that I've left myself worrying that I have forgotten something, didn't do something, or didn't pick something up. I hate that feeling! It's just that everything has gone as perfect as can be so far, that I'm shocked. I find that this happens often, if I prepare everything to much in advanced. I'm left to twiddle my thumbs and wait around, and I just can't do that. I've found that if I've procrastinated up until, say the night before (hello middle school history fair!) then I feel like the next morning I've accomplished some great feat and that I've got it all under control.

Is there such a thing as being to prepared? Have you finished all your shopping yet? 5 days left! The excitement is growing over here!

xo, Meghan

Songbird Saturday #11

So, I had originally planned to post this playlist the Saturday before/after Bean and I's anniversary. That didn't happen, so I'm going to share it with you now! Before we officially considered ourselves dating, he made me a mix-tape. I remember the night he gave it to me, I went home and listened to it on repeat all night. And I'm sure several days after that...okay weeks and months. I still listen to it now, because some of those bands were/have become my favorite bands. Anytime I listen to a song from that mix, it takes me back to winter time, sitting in my room, looking at books, being awkward because we were young and well, awkward. I couldn't quite find all of the songs that he put on there, so I just added a few that have grown to our personal mix-tapes to each other throughout the years. Anyway, enough with the sappyness. Enjoy the playlist!

xo, MB

Christmas is in full swing!

It's true, Christmas is indeed full swing, but it has been for weeks now! I don't know how I let this post slip past me and sit in the drafts folder for so long. You can tell how old it is, because the Santa count-down is still on 25! 

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It's a tradition in our house that we go to the Festival of Lights/Christmas parade each year. This year was even more special because we got to take Dakota! She loved the floats, and the lights. Everything is so much better through the eyes of a child. We took the neighbors with us, and had such a fun time!

Christmas is so so close. My only hope is that these days before are super full of fun, love, and traditions. I hope they go by slow enough so that we can enjoy them (but not too slow!). xo, Meghan

An Engagement Story!

The full story....

Six days ago, I got engaged! It's all still so surreal, and I kind of have butterflies. The day he asked me was actually our anniversary. December 6th. He told me the night before that he had made plans, and he'd tell me in the morning about them. Well, the morning came and went and he hadn't told me. (I was kind of sad, because I thought he didn't want to do anything) But then mid day he told me that he had made an appointment to get our pictures taken with my lovely friend Heather. (We've had our pictures taken with her before, and they were wonderful, but it was my idea!) Anyway, he said we had to be there no later than 5:30. The entire day went by, and I told my mom "This just seems so silly, why would he do this?" "this doesn't seem like something he would do" I obviously give him NO credit! Well when he came home from work and wondered why I was still painting my nails and not getting ready, it occurred to me that maybe we really were taking pictures. I quickly got ready, but by the time we were out the door, it was already starting to get a bit darker. He brought the big heart that says "Grow Old Along With Me" that he gave me last year for our anniversary, and that just seemed so foreign to me. I'd never seen him really pay attention to that much detail, let alone plan an entire photo session, and bring props! When we showed up, the entire thing; looking back (because hindsight really is 20/20) seemed so strange! We walked around the most beautiful park, Dorothy B. Oven, where we have been countless times before. We posed, and posed, sat in the walk way, went by the fountain and saw a pug* (eep!), and I was having so much fun! I had, pretty much, forgotten that weird feeling I had when we first got there. Then we came to the gazebo. Heather led us there because it was "so well lit"...little did I know. We played around a bit, stood up, sat down, and then stood back up. Bean kept insisting we stand up. I kept saying "why?!" When we stood up, I grabbed his hand, and it was kind of sweaty. He kept looking at me, but not really, and then he looked at me, smiled, and got down on one knee! I will never ever forget his face, the sweetest face I've ever seen. Everyone was smiling, happy, and crying. 

*the actual proposal!*

As soon as I broke the news, everyone informed me they had known, for over a year! I can't believe everyone kept a secret that long. It was such a dream come true. We spent the rest of the night riding around town, calling each other fiance  and talking about our "dream wedding." It was the most magical night, ever.

*I told Bean one day that my dream engagement would be if a pug came running up with the ring attached to her collar, and I got to keep both :) Since there was a pug there, I just knew it was perfect, even though it would have been perfect without it.

xo, Meghan

Advent Calander//recap

If you guys are anything like us, you look forward to opening the advent calendar each morning! This is the first year we've done it in our house, and since Dakota is only 16 months and doesn't really understand it all that much yet, I've filled it up mainly for Bean. There's lots of things for all three of us to do, but a few special things just for him! ♥ I had originally planned to make our calendar, but time got away from me and this is what we have. I think it's cute though, and I think that I will make one for Dakota and future babies, and keep this one for Bean and I. No reason we can't all count down, right? :)

Day 1:// Let's make a paper chain!
Day 2:// First Friday? Then put up Christmas lights!
Day 3:// Festival of Lights!
Day 4:// Lets make paper snowflakes!
Day 5:// Poinsettia (which I forgot to pick up, wahh)
Day 6:// "Let's run around town like we own the streets"
Day 7:// We can go print our Christmas Cards!
Day 8:// Trip to the bookstore!
Day 9://Go thrifting for sweaters!
Day 10:// Build a gingerbread house!
Day 11:// Ornament: I crammed a bomber type hat ornament into that tiny box!
Day 12:// Put Dakota is her Christmas footie pj's and read Christmas stories to her!

Of course all these days also had some candy inside! Are you doing an advent in your house? What have you filled your days with?
xo, Meghan

Fridays are for:

one//two//three + download//four//five//six

I'm currently drooling over these pretty ways to wrap presents. I've had all of my presents wrapped and under the tree for at least two weeks now, and I'm beginning to think that was a bad idea. You might remember me saying that my mom got us a pair of snow white kittens? Well, they have taken to the tree like wild fire and all I hear is them in bags, ripping bows off, and chewing holes. Nothing is stopping them! If worse comes to worse, I'll have to rewrap everything again, but that would be fun! Especially with these pretty inspirations. :) Happy Friday!
xo, Meghan