new things and fresh starts:

photo c/o michael cameneti

as we are desperately waiting for spring to...spring here in ohio, i was thinking today about how

 excited i am for a new season. for a fresh start, a time when things are awakening and coming alive all

 around us. and as exciting as this is in nature, it is even more so spiritually. i'm thankful the God i serve

 is a God of the new, a God of fresh starts, and second chances. no matter how many "springs" i need

 in my life, he's there, ready to cause the barren places in me to bloom, to come alive and give me that 

new beginning. and today i'm just thankful for that. for his grace and mercy and never ending love. 

3 things:

three things i want to be better at:

1. laughing more   2. loving more  3. being confident

we all have areas we can grow in, recently these three areas really struck a chord with me. 

i'm thankful that i don't have to figure out how to get better at these things on my own 

but that God is right here with me guiding my steps and helping me along the way. 

you don't have to share them with me but any areas you've been feeling challenged 

in lately? area's that you're really striving to grow in? well, i'm trusting that you also 

find help and direction from God. 

photo c/o hollie marie photography 

yo gabba gabba:

this is pretty much an exact redo of this post here. even down to the bad, low lit, iphone photos.

this time we were blessed by some great friends with tickets to see yo gabba gabba live. of course

paisley loved it! we don't really watch the gabs that much anymore but she was still totally into it. 

i never get over the expressions in her face and the excitement that she shows for pretty much

everything she does. it just blesses my heart! she's so expressive, and fun and i just love doing

fun things with her! #proudmama #hashtag and i have to admit it was pretty amazing seeing

dj lance and biz's fresh beat of the day live. 

have a great weekend! 

babycakes:

                              

{image}

in august our family went on a disney cruise {which was amazing} and the last day of the cruise we

stopped over for a few hours in orlando and went to downtown disney. i grew up going to disney 

almost every summer so that place holds such a very special place in my heart! 

while we were there we stumbled upon a little bakery called babycakes. being a vegan for almost 5

years i had heard of this vegan, gluten and nut free bakery before but never had the pleasure of getting

to eat at one. my family was so excited when we came across their little satellite bakery in orlando at 

downtown disney that we got one of everything they suggested and it was SO delicious. 

sooo...my dad got me their cookbook for christmas and i am just so excited to try some of the recipes, 

but i'm also a little nervous. i've heard baking gluten free is pretty tricky and that the ingredients can be 

slightly finicky. have any of you ever baked this way and do you have any tips you can share with me?

if so please do tell, i am all ears and so excited to bake!

*and if you want to purchase this amazing cookbook you can get it here.
  

merry christmas:

merry christmas everyone! i hope this christmas is filled with love and peace

for you and i hope you are reminded that God loves you so much, he sent his 

one and only son as a baby to save your life. best. gift. ever. 

christmas pics:

i don't know why i can never seem to get christmas pics of us out on time! i want to do it every year but 

i just end up getting so distracted i never get around to it. a couple days ago i decided i was going to 

do a little christmas photo shoot with pais and send out christmas cards. i took the pictures got the 

card i liked all made up online and when i got to the check out and saw what they were going

 to charge me for shipping to have them in time for christmas...i decided we didn't REALLY 

need christmas cards. haha that's what i get for procrastinating so long! so here is a little 

out-take from our christmas shoot the other day. nice, right? my little paisley and her 

faces! did you send out christmas cards this year? tell me your secret if you did!

pax:

i have to admit that i haven't thought about blogging much at all for the past 5 days. last week on 

thursday my sweet precious nephew paxton west was born! i could not be more in love. he is my 

second nephew and my heart has expanded more then i ever thought possible. i love these sweet

little boys so much! and dare i say it...i have a bit of baby fever! hopefully pax will hold me off 

for a little while. either that or i need to seduce my hubs. ha! hope you had a great weekend!!! 

getting to know you:

answering a few questions today from my getting to know you series. these questions were asked

in this post here and you can catch up on the rest of the posts in this series here. 

q: what nationality are you? 

a: i'm 50% italian, and a little hungarian, and german. i think?

q: where do you mainly shop for your clothing?

a: forever21, gabriel brothers, target, urban outfitters and h&m

q: how tall are you?

a: i'm a shorty pants! 5'3". i wish i was a little bit taller, wish i was a baller, wish i....never mind

q: are you a model? 

a: HA! no. again the height thing is kind of a obstacle

q: how long have you been married?

a: going on 8 years! we were babies when we wed. you can read about our love story here. 

q: what is your husbands profession?

a: he is a pastor! crazy huh? he is the creative and young adults pastor at our church.

i'll answer some more questions later but these were just some of the fun ones i wanted 

to answer today! ok now you're turn tell me something unique about yourself!

christmas decor:

1,2,3,4,5

now that thanksgiving is over i'm feeling quite inspired to decorate for christmas! most of my 

decorations are hand me downs, or things i bought the first year of my marriage, 8 years ago! 

i feel like our home has a very traditional/eclectic christmas feel and i really don't love it. 

i'd like to overhaul all my decorations but i can't even imagine where to even start!
 have you ever decided to completely changed your christmas decor? i'm feeling
 slightly overwhelmed. maybe i'll wait till next year. {wink}

thanksgiving:

i'm spending today in milwaukee, wisconsin with my husbands wonderful family. i genuinely

hope you all have a joyful, peaceful, bellyful (see what i did there) thanksgiving.

embrace the holiday! tell and show the people you love how grateful you 

are for them and most importantly remember to thank God for 

all the amazing things he's blessed you with. 

happy thanksgiving!!

cozy day:

{image}

i'm officially declaring today a cozy/lazy/do absolutely nothing day! i was planning to drive 2 

hours to ikea to pick up paisleys bed but after last week and the weekend i think i better give

this body a little rest and just chill! last night we had my sis-in-laws shower and it was SO fun.

 i really loved decorating it and had a ton of wonderful help from my mom, my sister-in-law and 

her family and even my real life bloggy friend jillian. it was a huge success and i can't wait to 

share some of the photos with you. i just love parties! so instead of driving to ikea today we are

 going to veg out, eat whatever's left in the fridge and watch lots of disney movies. if only my

couch looked as cozy as this one! happy monday everyone!

grace:

“My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 corinthians 12:9-10

just letting this scripture wreck me today. i'm so thankful that his grace is enough no matter what 

i'm facing, that he can show off at his greatest when i am at my weakest. trying to come to a 

point in my life when i realize it's ok when i'm weak, or when i struggle because in those 

moments it's actually when i'm strong, because he is in me and he is strong. 

ending and beginning again:

change can be scary. i think it's more the "norm" for people to not embrace change, but i guess i'm 

just not quite the norm, because for as long as i can remember i've enjoyed change. it excites me. 

theres something so adventurous about beginning new things. that doesn't mean i'm not often
 intimidated by the unknown and the new but i really do try my best to welcome it with open
arms. having said all that i wanted to let you know there are some big changes coming! 

why am i making these changes you ask? well, while i've used blogger for almost 2 years now and

 have been mostly content with their services, the last couple months i've been finding myself less 

and less satisfied/borderline frustrated with some things that i can't do anything about. i've been

 wanting to move to wordpress for quite sometime now and the frustrations caused in the last few
 months have just pushed me to bite the bullet. 

the reason i'm changing the name of my blog is...well to be frank i've never liked the name of 

this blog haha. when i started love.life.babies. i really never dreamed that it would turn into what

it has. i really didn't think anyone would read it and more so created it for myself. to provide a

little place in this web universe to be creative and write about the things i love. as this blog has

continued to grow i've wished more and more that i had named it something different. sooooo 

since i'm moving over to wordpress it seemed like the perfect time to make a little switcheroo. 

while we end this portion of our journey and begin new again i can only hope that you will
all continue with me! i appreciate all my readers SO very much and i would be so sad if you
didn't. i think it will be a fun adventure for us all. i'm not exactly sure when the official change
 will take place but i wanted to give you all a heads up about it. thanks for listening. 

xo 

{photos c/o hollie marie photography}

project clean house:

confession: i am a terrible housekeeper. no really, TERRIBLE. cleaning is one of my least favorite

things to do. in the world. so a lot of the time it just doesn't get done. i'm not proud of this in the

least. i always wanted to have a home that someone could pop over at anytime and it would be 

no sweat off my back. however if someone tells me they are about to pop over the sweat starts

pouring down my back because i know i have about 20 minutes to do a complete overhaul on

my house. not a good thing. so i've decided to try {again} and change this about myself. which

is why i created this "clean house" schedule below. praying this time i stick with it!

i know some of you creatives out there are looking at this thinking a schedule? for cleaning?

yeah that's not for me. well it's not something i would think fits my personality either but clearly

i haven't been able to keep a tidy home without it so...why not give it a shot eh? what's the worst

that could happen? my house doesn't get clean? well that is nothing new. have you ever tried a cleaning

schedule? did it work for you? or did you eventually shred it to pieces and flush it down the toilet? 

xo

{photo c/o hollie marie photography}

getting to know you: love edition

continuing on in this "getting to know you" series that derived from this post here. 

today i'm answering a question that's been asked to me bunches of times 

and that is...how did my husband and i meet? 

alright so here's the scoop. after high school i went to bible college in singapore. yes, singapore as
in the complete other side of the world. my aunt and uncle were the directors of the school and i 

thought it would be an adventure to do my first year overseas {and an adventure it was, but that's a

whole notha story}. after my first year was completed i decided to come back to the states and finish

my schooling at their main campus in tulsa, oklahoma. little did i know this would be where i met the

love of my life! so, my family moves me out to tulsa and one night my brother and i decide to go to the 

mall. of course we walked into that one really cool store where we all shopped 10 years ago, express. 

as i'm checking out at the register i notice the guy behind the counter. he's a hottie. he's kind of rock n'

roll meets prep school and already i'm smitten. i later found out my hubs thought my brother was my 

boyfriend so he was not even considering me as a lady friend. ha! as he's checking me out we small talk

a bit and find out we are both attending the same bible college! holla! from then on noah and i became 

good friends. so good, that he hooked me up with a friend of his from work and we would go on double
dates! haha. but the whole time i was wishing i was dating him. finally around christmas time our school
 had a winter banquet and he asked me to go. i was beyond excited. that night i pretty much fell in
love and within a few weeks {on christmas day to be exact} he asked me to be his gal. 9 months later
 he asked me to marry him and now we've been married going on 8 years! definitely married the best
 guy in the world. he's more then i deserve and i really mean that. he's a 10+ and i'm a lucky girl.

{ps he has lots of tattoos and i think it's really hot.} 

catch up on previous "getting to know" you posts here.

xo

happy birthday paisley:

happy third birthday to my beautiful paisley grace. i genuinely can not believe you are already three,

i'm not sure how time has flown by so fast. i love you more then i could ever express with words. 

from the moment you were brought into this word you stole my heart. i spend almost every minute 

of every day with you and it's still not enough. you have the sweetest spirit, the happiest demeanor, 

and the funniest faces i have ever seen. your personality and your sense of humor make you a true

joy to be around. i can't remember what life was like before you entered our world and i really don't

mind. since you've become a part of our family things have only gotten better, more exciting and 

happier. i love you paisley grace and so does your daddy. we will always love you for ever and ever.

you are a true beauty inside and out and i'm so thankful God gave you to us.

 happy birthday my precious, precious little girl. 

xo

momma 

seeds:

wow. this statement is speaking volumes to me today. i know this could mean a lot of different

things to a lot of different people. but to me, today, this is saying seeds are a lot more powerful 

then they look. they are small but they are mighty. they seem insignificant but greatness lies 

inside. you just have to stay planted, stay rooted, watered and in the light and the greatness 

inside will come out. for me this means staying close to Jesus. staying rooted in his church 

that he's called me to. staying fed by his word and watered by his spirit. the tree is in the

 seed. and for it to flourish i must stay planted and rooted in him. amen.  

xo 

pick a pumpkin:

paisley had been seeing some pumpkins on the porches in our neighborhood and thought they 

were super special. so i decided to take her last week to pick out a few and as it always

tends to be with with paisley it appeared to be the most exciting day of her life thus 

far. i just love how everything new we do amazes her and her endless array of 

animated expressions. her facial expressions are one of my favorite things 

about her. my precious little girl.

happy monday! 

xo 

faith:

just letting this speak to me today. selah. 

{if you haven't yet, enter this fabkids giveaway here.}

summers end

we have had such a fun and adventurous summer. i'm kind of sad i wasn't blogging the last several months

 because i couldn't share it with you! would you believe that this sweet little girls favorite 

things to do were: 1.) dig in the dirt, 2.) hunt for frogs and 3.) play soccer. 

might have a little tom boy on my hands! 

she does also still love dressing up like a princess, having a tea party and putting on pretend makeup. 

maybe she'll just be the perfect combo of a girly girl and a tom boy.

i wish summer could go on forever! 

happy labor day!  

xo