Birthday/Labor Day Weekend

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to celebrate my birthday with family and friends. It was such a wonderful, jam packed, fun filled weekend that left me feeling incredibly blessed and loved! It also included a lot of food, eating out, and cake. Always cake.

On Friday afternoon, a friend called me because they were headed my way for a sno-ball. The days of having a sno-ball from our favorite stand are numbered, so of course I said yes! Knowing I was going to eat cake that evening, I ordered a small. Might not sound logical but made sense in my head. Hah!

It was delicious, too!

That evening, we had a celebratory dinner with my parents. I wanted pizza but couldn't figure out where I wanted to have it from. There's a place in my town called Stonefired Pizza that is similar to the concept of Blaze at Disney Springs, so we went with it. It was delicious, too!

After dinner, we had cake and presents! I've stuck with the same exact cake for the past several years. This year, I changed it up to a strawberry/strawberry/strawberry cake from a local bakery. It was good, but I think I'm going back to my norm next year.

On Saturday morning, Jason made breakfast at home. The Mickey waffle is actually a new recipe for me - it was my first time trying Birch Benders Paleo Pancake mix and it was pretty good!

After breakfast, I met up with my friend Mackenzie for a little Junkin' Gypsies party. This was Kenzie's birthday gift to me and I had so much fun creating our new fall door hangers with her!

Blank Pallet!

Stenciling it up!

Finished product!!

I love Junkin' Gypsies so much! It's an awesome way to have a little homemade piece of art work (that looks amazing) in your home!

On Saturday evening, we had dinner with Jason's family as a two part birthday celebration (for myself and Jason's sister)! It was so much fun and the homemade meal Jason's mom made was delicious!

We also signed the traditional table cloth. After a lot of researching, we discovered that the table cloth goes back to 1995. It disappeared for a little while, then reappeared back in 2005 or 2006! I love fun traditions like that!

On Sunday evening, we didn't have church because of the Labor Day holiday, so we took that time to celebrate with my friends!

We had dinner at Walk On's, then came back to my house for cake and presents.

We might have reused the same cake because it was THAT good (and there was a lot of it)!

Twinning!

As an added side project over Labor Day Weekend, I also decided to spruce up our laundry room. The room felt drab to me and definitely needed a refresher. It was still the same off-white color it had been since we purchased the house and I wanted to change it to a more light and airy feel. I was inspired by our recent stay at the newly renovated rooms of Old Key West, so I went with it!

The color on the left is the cabinet color and the color on the right is the wall color.

Before...

After!

Although it doesn't look like much of a contrast between the wall and the cabinet in the photo, there is a slight one. The baseboards also received a little refresher and wow - the room feels so nice and clean now! I seriously love it!

On Monday, Brayden and I spent the entire day together (minus his nap). We swam, played with water outside, watched a little Mickey Mouse, and overall just had a great day together. During his nap time, I replaced all the doors to the cabinets and refilled them with items then after his nap, we went back outside for more water fun! We really had a great day together. I love soaking up those moments with him. They are passing by so fast, I love to truly live in the moment and enjoy my little guy while he's still little!

How was your Labor Day Weekend? Did you do anything exciting or fun?

Birthday Celebration Number One

If you've been around the blog a while, you know that we like to celebrate birthdays big over here. I feel as if a birthday is a special day and should be celebrated big...sometimes if not the whole month. Whoops. :)

Even though my official birthday isn't until next week, we spent this past weekend celebrating with my friends!

They took me out to Walk Ons for dinner. It seems as if Walk Ons has become a birthday tradition over here lately, because we've eaten there for the past few special occasions!

Prior to leaving for dinner, I took a picture of Brayden in his outfit and he was telling me he was "all done", even though he hadn't yet smiled for a picture. Silly kid!

I decided to stray from my usual and order the ahi tuna salad. It was just ok, but I don't think I'll order it again. Next time, I'll stick with my usual favorite.

Dessert did not disappoint, however! My friends knew my favorite - chocolate cake with peanut butter icing! This. Was. Delicious!

After dinner came gifts!

How adorable is this shirt for my upcoming cruise?! I can't wait to wear it!

Jason and Brayden gifted me with a pair of Fitbit bluetooth headphones and sadly, they didn't work for me. I was debating between the Aftershokz Trekz and the Fitbit ones and I definitely made the wrong decision with the Fitbit Flyers. I think I just have weird shaped ears because they do not stay in place. Thankfully Best Buy allowed Jason to return them and I'll order the other pair soon.

What's a birthday dinner out if the wait staff doesn't sing to you?!

My friends really are the best! We had a blast at dinner as usual!

Along with the shirt, they also gifted me with a certificate to have my nails done before our trip as well as a couple of face masks!

 For my actual birthday, we will celebrate with brunch at Palo on the Disney Fantasy and I cannot wait!!

Do you like to make a big deal about birthdays or is it just another day?

Hurricane Harvey Birthday Weekend

My oh MY what a weekend! This is the third birthday weekend I've shared with a hurricane and each has its own set of stories to tell. Perks of living off the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, right? :)

Despite the storm, tornado, and flash flood warnings from Hurricane Harvey, I still managed to make the most of it all and enjoy my birthday weekend!

On Friday afternoon after work, I took Madalynn to the vet to have that spot on her face checked out. I was seriously nervous that something was VERY wrong, but thankfully it seems fixable. They told me that a cracked tooth became infected and the infection spread up into her sinus cavity and presented as a sore on her cheek. I'm taking her in today to have that tooth surgically removed and everything should resolve itself! (Say a prayer for her today if you think about it! Thank you!)

After returning home from the vet's office, I decided to take my chances on a run as I figured Saturday's forecast wouldn't allow for one (well, outside at least).

The run ended just a few minutes before the first outer bands of Harvey hit our area.

The heat index was at 85 degrees which actually felt pretty nice compared to the heat index we've had the past several weeks!

On Friday night, we had dinner with my parents at one of my favorite restaurants, O'Charleys. We somehow managed to maneuver between rain storms and made it to and from dinner without any mishaps!

Dinner was delicious as always and afterwards, we returned to our house for cake and gifts!

Y'all, this CAKE is amazing. I've had this same cake for the past several years and I look forward to it every year. This one is chocolate with whipped peanut butter icing. OMG.

Side note, how am I already 35?! What the heck.

Jason had to work on Saturday, so Brayden and I spent the day together! We played with #allthetoys and once the rain stopped (for the time being), we made our way outside to pull weeds!

We were in and out several times throughout the morning in between storms. While I did all of the dirty work, Brayden had a ball playing in the mud puddles, dirt, and water. This kid is 100% all boy and I love it!

On Saturday night, my friends and I had dinner at Rotolo's! Despite the off and on rain, it didn't really start to get bad until Sunday.

Sunday morning was my actual birthday and that's when all of the fun began! I made breakfast for Brayden and I, then we headed to church.

While there, my friend put me to work in the coffee shop! I've worked the coffee shop off and on for the past several years but never learned the big machine. It's actually easier than I thought!  Latte, anyone? :)

Midway through church, we were alerted to a flash flood watch that continued on throughout the day.

The bad part about this whole situation is the fact that the roads in my town flood...BAD. Even with just 20 minutes of a hard rain, it's impossible to get around town. So, instead of having dinner at a restaurant after church, we drove to my house (which is right down the road from my parent's house) and had takeout for lunch!

We decided on fried chicken! I seriously love fried chicken but hardly ever eat it, so this was truly a treat!

After lunch, my friend Kim stayed to hang out and we basically laid around and watched the weather channel all afternoon during Brayden's nap! Sounds thrilling, right? 

My family and friends also know me all too well! The majority of my gifts were Disney related! :)

Despite the crazy storm and weather, my birthday weekend was a fun one and definitely one I won't ever forget! Also, I'm very thankful that our area didn't receive much damage from this storm system and hope it continues to stay that way. SO many prayers to our Houston neighbors who can't say the same right now. :( My prayers and heart goes out to you guys as sadly, it still isn't over.

I hope you guys all had a great weekend and if you're in the Houston area, stay safe! My thoughts and prayers are with you guys!!