Our Life Archives - Page 10 of 23

Category: Our Life

Christmas Book Club

Posted on December 21, 2021January 25, 2022 by Lauren Lane

This past Thursday, I hosted our annual girls’ Christmas book club at our house. Like so many other events, last year’s Christmas book club was done virtually over Zoom. So I was so excited to have everyone back at our house this year!

I love hosting this little get together because for me, it’s always the kick-off to the holiday week. And with so much time with family over the holidays, I love starting the holiday week with girlfriends.

Christmas jammies are encouraged. But, honestly, anything comfy does the trick. This year, the Chiefs played on Thursday night, so instead of having a Christmas movie playing, we had the Chiefs game playing!

I always choose a couple of appetizers/snacks to have for everyone. And we have so much fun sipping wine, eating snacks, and kicking off the holiday season.

Friday Favorites {12.17.21}

Posted on December 17, 2021December 15, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I feel myself getting caught up this time of year in trying to have the perfect Christmas. Mostly ideas of peaceful cookie decorating, picturesque holiday movie watching on the couch with the whole family and a fire going, and doing all of the festive things like visiting Santa, looking at lights. And then there are little things too, for me, like wrapping each present perfectly. And I can find myself, if I don’t catch it early enough, with these high expectations of what this time looks like for our little family.

The holidays, and pretty much all special events, are better when I lower my expectations. When it doesn’t go perfectly, I don’t want my kids remembering a mom that was flustered and upset. I want them to remember these special celebrations as moments of joy strung together.

So as we head into this holiday week, I pray for you, friend, a week where we let go of the reigns a little bit. We lower the expectations of our children’s reactions and actions, the perfect picturesque holiday scenes we have in our minds, and remember that the best thing we can give our kids is a happy, joyful mom in the chaos and mess of it all. (And then let’s just all plan to have a virtual glass of wine together at the end of the night. ☺️)

Happy Friday, friends. And Merry Christmas week! ~Lauren

We went and visited Santa a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t sure how this would go, honestly. I was prepared for tears. Harrison hadn’t visited Santa since he was 1, and obviously has no memory of it.

Let’s Look…Favorite Traditions

Posted on December 8, 2021December 6, 2021 by Lauren Lane

It’s the time of each month where I link with other blogs to share a little peek into some small aspect of our lives. I can’t believe this is our last link up of the year! This year, we’ve shared…

In January, we looked at our coffee stations.
February, we looked at our love languages
In March, we shared our perfect night in
April, we looked at our fridge and pantry staples
In May, we looked at our backyard organization
For June, we shared our summer bucket list
July, I shared the most horrendous bathroom organization tour ever
For August, I shared my favorite phone apps and phone case
September, I shared how I meal plan, including my favorite meal planning notepad
October, I shared a truly uninspiring look at our unfinished basement. I mean our holiday storage.
And in November, I shared our holiday meal menu.

This month, we’re sharing our favorite traditions.

I’ve written about some of our traditions in the past. For example, for Halloween, we celebrate with the cousins doing a Halloween carnival!

My sister and I have a couple of games that we remember from the school carnivals we would go to around Halloween that we always had so much fun with. We do fishing for prizes, a Halloween egg hunt, and a “cake” walk.

Who is Sawyer Francis

Posted on November 16, 2021November 10, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I talk a lot about Mr. Harrison Thomas and Baby J, proper name Jonathan Brooks. But our oldest baby is our fur baby, Sawyer Francis. Let’s talk a bit our oldest referred to most frequently as Soy Soy.

Sawyer joined our family (i.e. just me and Nathan) the year we got married. About a month after we got married. We hadn’t been talking about getting a dog, but on a Friday morning in November, Nathan sent me the sweetest pictures of baby golden retrievers. By Friday evening, Nathan had convinced me to drive to the middle of nowhere Missouri just to *look* at these little puppies. And by Saturday afternoon, we were driving home with the most precious puff ball.

Let’s Look At…Holiday Meals

Posted on November 10, 2021November 8, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Once a month, I link up with other blogs to share a little peek into some small aspect of our lives. This month, we’re sharing our holiday decor storage. Earlier this year, though, we shared…

In January, we looked at our coffee stations.
February, we looked at our love languages
In March, we shared our perfect night in
April, we looked at our fridge and pantry staples
In May, we looked at our backyard organization
For June, we shared our summer bucket list
July, I shared the most horrendous bathroom organization tour ever
For August, I shared my favorite phone apps and phone case
September, I shared how I meal plan, including my favorite meal planning notepad
And last month, I shared a truly uninspiring look at our unfinished basement. I mean our holiday storage.

Today, we’re sharing our holiday meals!

We don’t have a ton of traditions, but many years ago when we would always go to someone else’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, I started making homemade biscuits and gravy on Thanksgiving morning.

We cook up B&G and watch the parade until football comes on…

What’s Up Wednesday {10.27.21}

Posted on October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Time for my favorite post of the month. These are so fun to share a little sprinkling of so many things in our life.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: I’m trying a new recipe this week! Ginger Chicken & Spinach Ramen, and I’m really excited about it. Aside from that, we’re going to do a roast as well.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Baby J is showing more and more of his personality. He loves the book Brown Bear Brown Bear, and wants to read it constantly. It’s so interesting to me how different our little Jonathan is already compared to Harrison, who at this age was waaaaay more into it balls and all things active.

Day in the Life: October 2021

Posted on October 26, 2021October 27, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I marked last Tuesday to document a full day in the life of the Lanes. I little look into what our everyday crazy looks like…

Up early for Bar Method class! I get up before 5 if I’m going to do my work out class.

Let’s Look at…Holiday Decor Storage

Posted on October 13, 2021October 8, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Once a month, I link up with other blogs to share a little peek into some small aspect of our lives. This month, we’re sharing our holiday decor storage. Earlier this year, though, we shared…

In January, we looked at our coffee stations.
February, we looked at our love languages
In March, we shared our perfect night in
April, we looked at our fridge and pantry staples
In May, we looked at our backyard organization
For June, we shared our summer bucket list
July, I shared the most horrendous bathroom organization tour ever
For August, I shared my favorite phone apps and phone case
And last month, I shared how I meal plan, including my favorite meal planning notepad

Today, I’m taking you into our unfinished basement for a truly glamorous look at our holiday decor storage.

Are you ready for it? Ok…here goes.

Fall Bucket List 2021

Posted on September 24, 2021September 19, 2021 by Lauren Lane

It’s fall bucket list day! I love dreaming about what little (and big!) things I’m looking forward to each season. These bucket lists gives me ideas of things to do on the weekends, if we happen to have a free weekend and nothing planned. I pick something from our list to check off for the season.

Go patchin’ (that is pumpkin patchin’). Aside from the blistering cold weather on our patch day last year, this is one of my very favorite things to do with the kids in the fall!
Have a fall backyard bbq
Host our second annual Halloween carnival! With COVID last year, we opted to have the cousins come over for a Halloween carnival a la elementary school style bash. (Were we the only ones who had Halloween carnivals at school?? My sister and I have fond memories of this in our younger years.) With a cake walk (minus the cake), fishing for treats, Halloween egg hunting (because Easter shouldn’t be the only holiday with a fun egg hunt, right?)
Carve pumpkins
Trick-or-treating with the boys
Lots of fall walks with Sawyer
Hot chocolate and spooky movie night
Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and make our traditional biscuits and gravy
Watch a lot of CHIEFS games!
Make pumpkin spice donuts
Read at least one seasonal book
Lots and lots and lots of fall candles

So now I need to know, do you have any good fall seasonal books for me to read???

What are you looking forward to this season?

We are headed to the airport in the morning for a long awaited family vacation, so I’ll be gone from this little space of the internet this next week spending time focusing on my family and relaxing.

Lanes Lately – September 2021

Posted on September 10, 2021September 9, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Well I’m thankful that this was a four day week. Work felt like a five day week crammed into a four day week, though. 🙃 We don’t have much going on this weekend, except a friend’s birthday party for Harrison, and that’s kind of the way we like our weekends!

MAKING: I planned for EASY recipes for this week, getting back into our routine, and Nathan is traveling for work for the first time since December 2019. Tacos and spaghetti with meat sauce have been my go-to’s this week after being gone last week.

We realized on a walk last weekend that this is the first time baby J will go 24 hours without seeing him in his whole life.