NYE 2018

All love holidays at least most of them. New Years Eve isn’t necessarily my favorite holiday, but I do love a good party. Celsey and Shawn hosted us for NYE, and we had a really fun time. 

We made pizzas in Shawn’s pizza oven. We thought it was a really fun idea except the weather was not ideal. Shawn and Adam froze their booties off cooking for us. We had a lot of other yummy appetizers and drinks. 

The martinelli Jell-O shots ended up being more of a funny joke than anything else. The kids liked them at least. 





We toasted the new year at 9pm and planned to call it a night. The kids went to bed and we ended up staying up chatting until after midnight. That makes two years in a row that we plan to call it a night early and end up staying awake past midnight. 

This years celebration was a lot of fun and made me enjoy the holiday. Along with the holiday comes the actual new year. I love the opportunity to set new goals and set myself up for a new year. I like to start by picking a theme word for the year. This year my word is BRAVE!

oNecklace offered a piece of meaningful jewelry. I chose to get a bracelet with my word for 2019. I’m excited to wear this throughout the year to have a daily reminder of my word. 

I also did a vision board for the first time. I did it in the back of my planner so I could look at it often. 

How was your NYE celebration? 

Do you choose a word for the year? 

Halloween 2018

I have a few mixed feelings about Halloween. I like to dress up with a group without spending a ton. We always have a costume contest at work. Our team started planning our Sesame Street costume pretty early this year. We had a fun time making the tutus and getting everything all put together. We had many of the characters and a few special guests with our costume. Drew was a good sport to be Elmo although we really didn't give him a choice.

Book club for October was the night before Halloween so we decided to wear costumes. A few people put their costumes together last minute and they all turned out so great. It was fun to dress up and celebrate the holiday while talking about the book.

Celsey always has the cutest ideas. The Flinstone family was so great. All the costumes were perfect. Her mom had us over for soup before trick or treating in their neighborhood.

I love a good family theme.



Halloween was a little chilly. Rem wanted Amanda to warm his hands by blowing on them.

Mid week Halloween is a little tough, but it was kind of nice to be done with it pretty early. We had a fun time celebrating, and the kids made it even more fun.

blogging the bach...5.10

This has been one of my favorite seasons of paradise, but it's coming to an end.

who's watching-Celsey and I have been watching on Tuesday nights.

They waste no time getting right to the end of this which I guess is actually a really good thing.

Annaliese is ready to get engaged and keeps talking about it. She talks first and goes on and on, and the look on Kamil's face says he isn't going to propose. He tells her he loves her but isn't proposing. They leave together but not engaged. 

Jordan and Jenna have both been all in for a long time. She was super freaked out going into the final moments. He calmed her down. She expressed her feelings. He expressed his, and they got engaged.

Chris and Krystal seemed to be on the same love page. He acts like he has doubts, but I think it was just a weird edit. He loves her. She loves him. They get engaged and facetime his family. 

That's a wrap on the show. 3 couples leave engaged or happy.

At the reunion show we find out..

John and Olivia didn't make it because he's been facetiming Chelsea.

Colton and Tia are finally on the same page and happy to be friends.

Astrid and Kevin talk things out in the hot seat and say they both still love each other and want to be together.

Kendall went to Chicago after Paradise. She and Joe talked, spent time together in Chicago and LA, and Chris Harrison offered him a spot on Dancing with the Stars in LA

Kamil is the worst and breaks up with Annaliese on the show. It is kind of the worst.

Jenna and Jordan are still engaged and planning a wedding next summer and ask Chris to officiate.

Chris and Krystal are emotionally in love and planning to move in together.

The bloopers are just ok and paradise is over for another season,

DIY tips for the holidays

*sponsored post

Anyone who knows me very well knows I have a severe case of I can make that syndrome. I do enjoy making things, but sometimes it gets me in a little trouble. This article features some great tips to successfully do it yourself.

Do It Yourself Gift Ideas for Christmas

By Aurora McCausland

The Holiday season is definitely one of the best times of the year. The weather gets a little, or a lot, colder and makes you want to stay inside with a cup of hot chocolate with mini marshmallows, snuggling under a warm blanket with your loved ones. It’s also the season of giving. Planning the holiday season and the gifts you’ll give to the most important people in your life is one of the best, and most exciting, parts of the holiday season. Having a lot of people to love is such a blessing, but it can end up being a bit of a financial burden when the holiday season comes around. The impending financial investment can put stress on a lot of people and take a lot of the joy out of the season.

Do it yourself

If you find yourself falling in the category of people that are struggling to find a way to afford all of the gifts you want to give the people that you love, consider a do it yourself route for some, or all, of the gifts you’ll be giving during the holidays. When people think of a “DIY gift” they often think of refurbished gifts that are lopsided and wonky that will gather dust in your basement from going unused, until you throw it away a few years later. Or they imagine the infamous “love coupons”, redeemable for back rubs and coffee runs. That isn’t the way that do it yourself gifts have to be, though. You can easily create something that will last a long time, will be cherished and appreciated by the recipient, and will bring you a great amount of joy during the process. Making something yourself makes it mean a lot more, and the people that receive your gifts will feel the same way upon receipt of their diy gifts.

Repurpose what you already have

Perhaps the most inexpensive diy gift idea, can also be one of the most difficult to figure out how to do effectively. We tend to think of the things that we already have as “junk” or unusable. This just isn’t true. The beauty of repurposing something that you already have is that you’re giving something a new life. Great things that can be repurposed include any sort of hardware or wood leftover from projects that have either gone unfinished. Or perhaps, you bought a little bit too much wood when you fixed your fence over the summer, leaving you with the perfect materials for a diy gift for someone that you love. The things that you can create with wood are endless. If you’re particularly ambitious, you can try and create something like some simple furniture, such as a new bed frame or a small coffee table for the living room. These are gifts that don’t take very much experience or knowledge to make, but are incredibly useful and will be loved for a long time. If you feel like choosing something a little bit more simple, go ahead and try your hand at making wooden wall decor.

Restoring antiques

One great resource for DIY gifts, is antique shops, thrift stores, and yard sales. You can often find unwanted gems that you can restore into something new and beautiful. Think things like reupholstering old and dingy furniture, painting over old and ugly canvas paintings, or using old bedding for the fabric, if you happen to be handy with a sewing machine. It’s important to keep in mind who you’re making a gift for. Your husband may not appreciate a new sign for the kitchen, but your mom or mother in law would. Knowing your audience is important when preparing gifts for the holidays, whether you’re making the gifts yourself or not.

Take care of their chores

Is there a task that’s been lingering on your loved ones’ to-do list indefinitely? It might be a matter of cleaning out the garage, getting new tires on the car, or fixing a dilapidated fence. Taking care of something like that might seem obvious and mundane, but for many people it’s an amazing gift. It shows that you cared enough to invest some time and effort. It also shows that you notice what they do and what they need, which makes it beautifully personal.

Think about what your friends and family really need

One of the best things about do it yourself gifts is that you can really cater to exactly what the recipients of your gifts need. If you have a family member who needs a new tv stand, you can make one much more inexpensively than you could purchase one. If you have another member of your family who is crafty, finding some vintage fabric that they could repurpose themselves could prove to be an invaluable gift.