thank{full}

my heart is full

my tummy is full

my fridge is full

 

a house full of love and laughter

full of memories and family

 

I have a lot to be thankful for.

But, what makes me the happiest,

is having my family,

all of us,

together and healthy

under one roof.

 

Seeing everyone interact,

and laugh and play.

seeing them love my daughter,

and my daughter loving them.

 

I feel full

{and not just from the turkey}

and feel fortunate to have

this family.

 

recently, I was able to get everyone together for a little family photo session

with my favorite

willow brandt photography

she captured my family in a way that makes me tear up

preserved memories forever

we had not had family pictures taken since the twins were born

so this session was very special to me.

 

  papa and his grand-daughter

 the whole family

 the kids

 my brother and his beautiful wife

and their fur.baby buster

 the twins...

otherwise known as Lauren and Alex

 

and this picture explains it all

the start to this family.

the glue to our lives.

I love you so much mom and dad!

 

hope everyone had a very happy thanksgiving.

 

more pictures tomorrow from our turkey day...

 

 



sponsor

Sponsorship.  Advertising.  Guest posts. Giveaways

ALL very important tools to help you GROW your blog and business.
We all know this. 
Not only can it help increase traffic but it puts you out there to meet some of these incredible bloggers.
I have been dreaming big, goal setting, soul searching, reaching out for guidance and advice.

One goal of mine | to offer advertising on my blog.
After after a lot of research, I feel it is time.  It's calling my name. 

So without furthur ado...
Pocket Full Of Lovelies will now be offering Sponsorship...

Interested in sponsoring Pocket Full of Lovelies??
How about a product review by myself or my exceptionally sweet 3 year old?
Is guest posting your thing?
Or simply want a rockin good place for a giveaway?
You are in the right place my friend...

Questions?? Hit me up, m'kay?
pocketfulloflovelies@hotmail.com

What you can expect from ME and this here bloggie...
3-5 awesome posts per week wait, no I can't even promise that, but I'll sure try!
ok, ok, just kidding...
no really, here's the skinny.
all cash flow from said sponsorship, goes to help pay for more sponsorship
on higher traffic blogs, thus more exposure for my little lovelies... YOU!
let's work together and GROW, and rock out while we do! Sound good?

Let's talk Deets shall we???

All righty love bugs.. Let's do this!  Head on over and let's get this party started!

a little blog stalking + and a wishlist

I haven't had any time to post on my own blog because I have been too busy stalking reading thoroughly, the comments section to one of my fave's bloggity blog living in yellow | secret post.  If you haven't heard or read this blog or particularly this post... head on over.  BUT do so when you have some time on your hands.  It will take weeks a few hours and a lot of laughs, tears, angers... It's that real!

My own confession.. I am in love with Christmas. 
No, I wasn't always a Christmas lover... not until my precious bundle of joy showed up did it become such a special holiday to me...  I love to see her face on Christmas morning.   I love decorating my house, glee Christmas on Pandora, Christmas baking, outdoor lights... It really is the best time of the year. {besides the frigid cold temps. ugh!}

The other fun with Christmas is the shopping that ensues.  Yes, it's fun BUT it's also friggin expensive.  Every year, I promise myself that I AM NOT GOING TO SPEND THAT MUCH ON CHRISTMAS.  Because frankly, we just don't need the stuff.  We just celebrated a birthday for one, and the amount of items that my 3 years old receives from family is beyond impressive.  I still have toys from last year that haven't even made it out of the boxes..

So this year... I AM NOT SPENDING THAT MUCH ON CHRISTMAS.  I don't want a spoiled brat on my hands here ya'll. 

The hubbs and I rarely, ok maybe the first year we were married, exchange Christmas presents.  My husband is a tight a*@ doesn't like to spend money, which is a good thing because I love to spend money, so we balance each other out.  With that being said, I am ok with focusing our funds on our little because isn't that how it should be? 

But, in case anyone wants to know, I do have a secret little wishlist that if anyone was buying me presents, or if I had some extra moolah laying around I would buy myself a little som'n som'n. {and no that's not a hint to the hubbs}  As I was saying, I'm dying over this bag from better life bags.  I have been eyeing it for a while and one day, yes, one day she will be mine!  I'd take this little cutie too.  Yes!  And the fact that you get to customize your bag with her fabric choices and that it's handmade, and the whole story behind her shop.  I love!

I'm really digging leopard these days.  Like really... -------------------------------->>>>>
like this watch or these shoes.  Loving that leopard goes with practically anything and looks too dang cute!  I have a leopard scarf and I wear it like every.day. for reals.  speaking of clothes, perhaps I should quit drooling and do the mountain of dirty laundry I have laying around.  Yes, that is definitely what I should be doing.

Oh! and I have a semi-important announcement this week.. you won't want to miss.

and because what's a blog post without a random date night instagram photo?  here you go!  you're welcome.  and that would be said leopard scarf again.  Yes. every.day.  and my mountain man and his no shave November addition to his face {is it almost December yet?} 

 

Ok laters lovelies...

A First...

As expected, we woke up to one very nervous little on Tuesday.
the FIRST day of pre-school.
I believe the first words out of her mouth after waking up for the day...
"I don't want mommy to drop me off at school today!"

Before 8:00 we had 3 major melt downs.
melt-down number one | breakfast choices
and melt-down number two | outfit choices
and last melt-down | the picture taking

She was so nervous and it broke my heart.  She was so scared to start school and be without her momma.   But at the same time, she wanted to go so bad.  She had been talking about this day for months.  Ever since we attended an open house this summer, she has been "saying" she's ready.  But on Tuesday, she was just nervous.  It was so hard to see this anxiety portrayed by my baby. I told myself to suck it up.  This was going to be so good for her in the long-run and she needed this. 

The drop-off had me the most worried.  Would she walk in, get distracted, and then I am supposed to just leave?  Would she scream at the top of her lungs?  Would she cry the whole time?  Would they call me and tell me to come get her?  {see where she gets IT?}

She walked in, looked around and was obviously intrigued.  Her teachers welcomed her with huge open arms.  I decided to make my exit, she caught me, and said, "Momma, where are you going" in the saddest little voice.  A quick hug and kiss and I was out the door. 

After picking her up, the teacher said she did great!  and I was relieved and I think she was too.  She has been telling me stories, singing me songs she learned, naming the kids in her class.  But, when I told her she gets to go back on Thursday, she started to tear up.  It may take some time for her, and that's ok.  Such a big step for such a little person. 



 

I actually did succeed at a few smiles...

 

 

Presley Jane

3 years old

 

my favorite color : PINK

I love:  Daddy

My best friend: Daddy

favorite TV show: Dora

When I grow up I want to be:  Cinderella

 

Love this daddy's girl...

and so proud!

life lately + a shop update

Lately I have been...

sick kid care taking

friday night football watching

car searching

fence building

volleyball playing

house cleaning

night-time working

target shopping

puppy school going

phone call making

busy momma

 

and Lately...
I have been doing a lot of dreaming

business planning

hand-making

partner-ing

 

I have kept my business plan hush-hush.

mainly because I had no idea what I was doing

however, now, with a little help from some influential people

I feel good about where things are heading.

 

So what's to come of the pink jellybean?

first off, the pink jellybean is no longer!

I know, I know. I said I had a plan.  Hear me out.

I have decided to streamline the bloggie and the shop!

so from here forward the shop will be

Pocket Full of lovelies | The Shop

and this shop will reside at Store-envy instead of etsy.

I will continue to sell dresses

however
will have sales 2 or 3ish times a year.

At this time, we won't be taking custom orders!

With these sales, I will offer many different sizes and a couple of different styles/colors of onesie and T-shirt dresses,

but once they are gone, they are gone!

Also, a portion of these sales are going to go to charity.

{which I will be announcing at a later time}

Between sales,

I will now be offering newborn photography props.

I have always done these for local photographers,

and will now be offering them in my shop year-round for all of you amazing photogs.

Think headbands, tie-backs, swaddles...

bow ties, neck ties, crochet goodies...

and a few other things I have up my sleeve.

Something about newborn photography that just gets me beyond excited

however, try as I may, I am not good at taking the picture

just love to style the picture

so here is my chance.

and yours too.

to let me help you style your photos, of course.

 

As things unfold, I will be sure to keep
all of you updated right here.

 

 

 

 

all right people, from the words of my 3 year old

Peace Out!

yes, she said Peace Out to our dogs this morning
as we left the house.

{shaking my head}

 

 

 

 

those silly things you do as a parent + a recipe

As a parent, I find myself doing and saying some things that I never thought possible.  Conversations and creativity that I never imagined.  One particular time of day that requires a lot of creativity is dinner time.  My little sweet-ums is a PICKY eater.  Very frustrating when all your 3 year old's menu consists of are ahem... chicken nuggets, pop-tarts, yogurt 50/50, and occasionally fruit-but her likes there are ever-changing and I can't seem to keep up.  I buy banana's for the week and all of a sudden she doesn't like banana's she wants grapes, I buy grapes for the next week, and it's "I don't like grapes, I wanted strawberries!"  Ahhh, makes me want to pull my hair out. 
 
Lately, I have been trying to encourage Presley to eat what we are eating because I get tired of making 2 meals.  One that Phillip and I eat, and one for the princess.  We have been trying to sit down as a family, at the dinner table, no cell phones, limited TV and just EAT.  In other words, no distractions because my 3 year old is easily distracted to say the least.
 
 Most of the time, Presley is less than excited to eat what we are eating BUT I have been encouraging her to at least try what we are having.  Usually, getting her to try the food is a battle so we developed a "cheer" system.  Which goes a little like this.

"Presley, if you take a bite of that lasagna noodle, I will cheer for you!"
and after she takes the bite, Phillip and I scream, shout, YAY!  YOU DID IT!  and that usually encourages a few more bites, but the reward has to get bigger. 

Dinner time these days, has turned into a full on cheerleading squad.  Now, she asks for it.  Bargains with us.  And we are the dummies that agree to it.

She will hold up her spoon with a bite on it and say, "Ill eat this, but you have to spin for me!" and when she does, we get up and cheer and do a spin and clap our hands.  She now prefers, "pom poms" when we cheer.  So, we hold up imaginary pom poms as she takes said bite.  I am sure our neighbors think we are nuts.  And well, we probably are for encouraging these behaviors but it gets her eating and that gets me happy.

This week, I tried a little something new in hopes to appease my pre-schooler.  Instead of the same old meatloaf, I put them into cupcake liners thinking Presley would think that they are the bomb dot com.  I have seen the idea floating around on pinterest and the world wide web {like that?} but never stopped to read one because, well I love my adapted over time meatloaf recipe and what's left besides putting them into cupcake liners.

so, Here's my take of meatloaf cupcakes.

I like to use ground turkey in my meatloaf, come to think of it, 9 times out of 10 I prefer ground turkey over beef in my recipe's.  I also, thanks to some late night conversations at work {thanks Annette} have started putting oats in my meatloaf, and honestly this is where the magic happens.  Makes it Awesome Sauce!  For reals! And then all the usual stuff, some onion, some onion soup mix, 1 egg, and a little BBQ sauce.  Mix it all together, and pour into your cupcake liners.

Bake on 350 for 25 or so minutes until the meat is cooked throughout.  I then make a glaze of BBQ sauce and brown sugar and pour over top and bake another 5 minutes.

I whipped up some mashed potatoes {no, not from the box this time} and then put them into a large ziplock bag and frosted my cupcakes!  Sprinkled a little season salt on top and there you have it!

I was rather pleased with the results, and thought to myself, Yep! I've got her now! She is going to love these cupcakes.. And for the moment of truth.  She took one look at it and said "what's this?"  a cupcake of course!  "no, that is not a cupcake"  Yes! Yes it is, go ahead and try it, it's very yummy.  "mom, I only eat cupcakes with sugar in them" and that was that!  While daddy and I scarfed down these sugar-less cupcakes, the little miss had a cheese stick and mandarin oranges. 

I am thinking my days of cheering at dinner time are not going away anytime soon.  What about y'all?  Any silly quirks you do for your littles?  I'd love to hear them!

VOTE...

enough said...

the biggest thing I ever MADE...

Well, not me exactly.
No, a lot of contractors, and guys who have crazy amazing talents..
 
That's right!
I {well, we} built a house
and it's to date the biggest thing I have ever made.
Yes, I will go ahead and take credit from here on out.
You know why?
Because building a house is a roller coaster of emotions...
It's fun, scary, pricey, unknown, unsure...
but now... ALL WORTH IT.
 
Last year about this time, we decided, "let's put our house on the market and see what happens?"
We lived near our hometown, but not in. 
And we knew at some point before the peanut starting school,
We would have to move to get in the school district.
So may as well start, Right?
 
Lucky for us, our house sold, happy dance...
However, and maybe I was being too picky, but I just couldn't find the one!
I wanted to find a house where we could expand our family, and live there until our kids were grown... and while there were several that could have worked.. I just never had that A-HA moment.  At about the same time when I was starting to think I would have to settle, our realtor mentioned that a new builder in the area was going to be building in the neighborhood that was our #1 pick...
{funny how things just seem to work out.}
 
But wait, ummm...  What do we know about building a house? And isn't that ridiculously expensive.. We were clueless, but, we had a meeting with a builder.  He said all the right things and more importantly all the right numbers, made it sound terrific, we negotiated, agreed on price and a few short weeks later, were signing papers and writing checks.
 
The process itself, is pretty crazy.  I was absolutely in awe of how fast things went.  I mean of course I drove by everyday to check out that days work and yes, took pictures of every step.  I am sure the guys who worked on my house were very appreciative of the many pictures and drive-by's that I did. NOT 
 
We were able to pick paint colors, tile, floors, cabinets, carpet, where we wanted electric outlets.. Ahh.. It was overwhelming to say the least.  BUT, I think we did a pretty good job because I love how it all came together.  I am a very indecisive person and sometimes I would think "OMGee, is this all going to look ok together, maybe we should change fill in the blank. 
 
All in all, the building took a mere 4 months to complete in the dead of winter, might I add.. 
We had so much love and support during this process.  From our extremely considerate friends who took us in during this time and made the best roomies, and for my dad, who did all the dirt work and dug the basement and saved us a         S!%* ton of moolah... thanks daddy-o..!
 
 
 

The first choice that we would make..  Where would we build our house?  We knew the neighborhood, but which lot?  hmm... hard choice.  Ultimately, we went with the biggest back yard and with neighbors all around so that we wouldn't have to be in a construction zone in the future as more houses were built. 

 

Isn't it purdy?  Our little peice of real-estate.  The place that would soon house our family and memories for years to come!  

 

 
You see that giant pile of rock?  Ya, well that's not good.  Makes the basement harder to dig and will automatically up charge the price of your home.. I remember when signing our contract, the little clause at the bottom that said something to the effect of 'this price not reflective of rock removal including jack-hammering, ram-something or other dot.dot.dot'...I looked at the hubbs and said, "will we hit rock?"  His answer, no there are houses all around, we will be fine.  And, well we sure did!  So, thanks again daddy and sorry to my neighbors.. oops! 
 

and there's our basement... ^

 

 

The builder told us that his guys would have the house framed in about 4 days.. 4 days?  We called his bluff, no way! 

In one day! 

 ONE DAY,

we came to check the process and this was what was done! 

holy smokes...  impressed!

 

 

Freshly painted, and trimmed and cabinets in place...

We were turning cart-wheels this day! 

yes in the house...

 

 

All buttoned up as the hubbs called in.. roof on, sealed, no water can get in, and best of all..

It looks like an actual house. 

 

 

And with the exterior paint color we chose...

I learned a lot during this process, like I will never do it again! {ok, ok, it wasn't that bad} 

 
 Can I tell you what I did for 4 months while living with friends?  I pinned and searched and dreamed and decorated and re-decorated and shopped... now that we are in the house, I am continually decorating and DIY-ing to get it just right, but it is a process.  And I am on a budget {who isn't?} I would love to share my decorating, room by room, because that is pretty much what I am up to these days.  This house. Oh yea, and a puppy and a 3 year old! 
 
The hubbs and I love to DIY and have really done some incredible things to the house.  I'm a pretty lucky gal to have a hubbs that can pretty much make anything I ask him to and he has pretty good house sense too {like fashion sense, but only with a house, you get it?} I can't wait to share some of his projects as well.
 
So tune in for what's to come. Hopefully, you can find some inspiration and some decorating.on.a.budget tips and projects as well.
 

All righty my little lovelies..

 

The little sugar dumpling is with grandma this morning, which means I have a few hours to myself...

And what does every momma do when their little one is out of the house?

Yes, we crank the tunes and clean like mad crazy because it is the only time that after you are done cleaning, everything is actually still put away?

Uh-huh, momma's.. I see you shaking your heads!

 

and Dixie land delight is on just in time...

off to pat my knee obnoxiously and skip around the house while doing a little dusting.

 

It's the little things!

 

 
 

all things fall...

My favorite time of year..

scarves

boots

pumpkin spice lattes

changing trees

football

beautiful weather

octoberfest

fall baking

thanksgiving

I love it all...!

 

Being in my new house, I was especially excited to decorate for fall..

 

I think the mantle turned out pretty great really.

and I only spent $12

which is definitely my kind of decorating.

I bought the white pumpkins and vases at dollar tree

the leaf garland I had from last year.

the fall floral spray I bought at Joann for 50% off bringing them to a whopping .99 each

had burlap and a black sharpie on hand

as well as an old picture frame.

a little stenciling and hot gluing and

voila!

 

 For my dining room,

I scored more leaf garland for 50% off at Joann and loaded up

had some old decorations mixed in with the new

a burlap table runner for my seriously to.die.for dining room table

{a post on that coming soon}

some chalk board paint,

some pumpkin decorating,

a pumpkin towel from gordman's for 1.99

and my love, pumpkin soap from bath and body!

Yumm

 

and the best, my pumpking scentsy warmer.

I'm loving pumpkin roll, autumn sunset, caramel pear crisp, and apple press...

Yes, you guessed it my house smells ah-mazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

and what we've been up to this Fall..

check it out!

 



Happy Fall Y'all!

What have you been up to during my favorite season?