Category: Our Life

Photo Diary: A Spectacular Christmas

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We had a magical Christmas. It was quite the departure from our first Christmas with Harrison, where we spent the whole day home with the stomach flu and exiled from all family’s houses. This year, we did Christmas morning at our house. Harrison could have played with his kitchen set from Santa the rest of the day. Then we did Christmas brunch at my parents, and we were lucky enough to have my sister and brother-in-law’s family here for Christmas this year. They split their holidays between KC and South Dakota, where my brother-in-law is from. And then finally, we finished out the day with Nathan’s family for dinner and round three of Santa and presents. We had so much fun watching the excitement and wonder in our little boys’ eyes.

This is going to be a whole bunch of pictures capturing our day, including Christmas Eve services. Buckle up!

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A Year in Review: 2019

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I love looking back at old pictures. Putting together this post let me re-live so many happy moments, including watching our little baby grow up before my eyes. We had a wonderful year, really getting into our groove as a family of three (four if you count the dog!). Here’s how our year unfolded…

In January, our year started with Christmas! Yes, Christmas. Harrison shared his stomach flu with our whole family for actual Christmas Day, so our year started with a make-up Christmas Day with my family…

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Friday Favorites {12.20.19}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s my last Friday Favorite post of 2019! I’m going to take next week off to allow myself a mental break. Time to spend with Harrison, Nathan, and family, and to allow myself to recharge for the new year, so I can bring you even better things in 2020! I hope you’re taking some time away too!

This past week we have been busy getting ready for Christmas, visiting Santa, and best of all this time of year, we got our first snowfall! Nothing makes it feel more like holidays than a fresh coat of snow on the ground. It was magical and beautiful! Which brings me to my first favorite…

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Closet Transformation with Elfa

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Almost a year ago, Nathan gifted me with the most perfect gift to date. Being a super organization lover, he gifted me a closet transformation with Elfa at the Container Store. This is no way sponsored. We paid for this transformation ourselves. I’m sharing this product today because I love it. And when it comes to a beautiful organization for a closet at a reasonable cost, Elfa does an amazing job.

When we were re-doing Harrison’s room in preparation for him to join us, I knew we needed the best use of space for his tiny closet. I loved the way it turned out. It maximized space, and drawers, and we can move bars around over time to grow with him. So when Nathan gifted me a new closet, I was so excited! The Container Store helps you design your space just the way you want it. Long hanging space, short hanging space, drawers of different sizes. I got my dream closet at a bargain price. If you’re looking at doing an Elfa organized space, the Container Store has an Elfa sale the month after Christmas – so even better, we got the whole space for a discount. That means that the sale is just around the corner! So if you’ve had a space you’ve been wanting to organize, now is the time!

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Friday Favorites {12.13.19}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It happens every year it seems. I await the holiday season with such great expectation and excitement for the wonderful things this time brings: time with friends, many coming into town for the season that we only get to see once a year, holiday parties, family events. But at some point in the season, maybe you feel it too, the expectation of being everywhere for everybody starts to catch up with me and starts getting me down. That I just simply cannot be everywhere, and attend every event, and make every important person in my life happy, AND be the kind of mom and wife I want to be to my family – not to mention just taking care of my own mental health. Ugh. And that’s where I’m at right now. At a crossroads of choice, knowing that I just simply can’t do it all right now, but I struggle internally with feeling so guilty that I can’t be there for everyone. Anyone else struggle with that in particular during the holiday season? Maybe this is why when January comes, it feels so good to just exhale and not have the go-go-go of the holidays.

I love having this little corner, though, to reflect on the little things that I loved in the past week. Things that made me smile and brought a little bit of joy and re-centered me over the past week. Wishing you, friends, a peaceful weekend.

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Favorite Children’s Christmas Books

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Harrison is in a stage where he’s really loving reading. He has favorite books, and ones that he doesn’t ever want to read. There are ones that he likes to read to himself. Just last week, his daycare sent us this picture from nap time…

I love switching out our bedtime books with the holidays coming up or a change in the seasons. There are so many Christmas books that I remember from my childhood that I adored, and wanted Harrison to grow up with, and there are also some new books that we’re loving this holiday season.

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Thanksgiving Traditions

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I love having traditions to look forward to during the holidays especially. I remember in grade school writing about our holiday traditions. I vividly remember writing that one of the traditions of our Christmas was literally the spot that I would sit as a kid on the fireplace and open presents Christmas morning. My parent’s fireplace still reminds me of Christmas morning, and I think there’s something special about having that simple little memory to hold on to for forever.

As Nathan and I have started our own family, though, we want to have traditions that our family grows into and looks forward to each holiday season. A few we have already started, but I’m always looking for great, new family traditions to add to our own holiday magic! Please share what your favorite family tradition is in the comments!

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Cutting the Cable Cord

Posted on by Lauren Lane

You want to know what the final straw was with our cable company? It wasn’t bad service. It wasn’t that our bill had increased by 100% since we first subscribed. Nope. Something much more simple. It was the first weekend of football season, and Nathan found out that weekend that we no longer had NFL Red Zone because our cable provider was in negotiations with….whoever produces NFL Red Zone. Yup. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

In about a week, we had swapped the cable cord for an Apple TV, and a different internet provider. And I don’t think I’ve ever been happier by our non-cable, cable. Here’s the path that we went down…

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Let’s Look At…Your Entertaining Ideas

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s one of my favorite days of the month! It’s “Let’s Look At” day with Shay and Erika  , and I LOVE reading through these links getting a glimpse into your lives! Today we’re looking at entertaining ideas.

Let’s just take a moment and pause right here. I don’t consider myself an entertainer. About once a year, I have people over to our home for Book Club…really, wine club. The rest of the year, we have family over haphazardly to join in on a meal, but I don’t consider my gift in life entertaining. I bust out the paper plates, everyone serves themselves, and we do the couple of dishes from the main meal at the end of the night.

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