She Knows Love...

When I look at the younger version of myself...
The "me" of my 20's...
I see a very shallow...
Self-centered...
Lost...
Woman...
Someone who thought she had the world by its tail...
I pity her...
Why would I pity someone who jets to New York for Valentine's Day?...
Shops as a hobby...
Never goes without working out 3 times a week...
A mani/pedi twice a month...
An immaculate home...
Because she didn't know love...
Because though she would never admit it...
She was sad...
Because she often wondered is this as good as it gets?...
By putting her happiness in the hands of the tangible...
She was never truly happy...
And then she married him...
She gave birth to them...
And everything that could change did...
And finally she knew love...
The kiss of a man she truly wants to be with for the rest of her life...
The arms of her children wrapped around her neck...
Complete and utter choas...
Days of failure...
Tears and frustration...
But always love...
Being the best Wife and Mom she can be...
Never enough...
But always loving...
Never doubting she's happy...

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Valentine Decorating...

The Mantel...

I let my boys help me decorate and used their little handprints in a wall hanging...

I used styrofoam balls decorated with tissue...

The Sofa Table...

And my favorite part of our decor...

An Aidan Kale original...

A priceless piece of art...

Our Family...

My definition of LOVE...

A Long Overdue Fashion Post...

For a while I just didn't feel like blogging about fashion...

Or what I wore...

I guess I was in kind of a FUNK...

I don't have a full length mirror...

I forget to take pictures...

The list goes on...

But lately I have felt the stirrings of a fashion post...

And today is the day...

All over blog land and pinterest I have seen awesome ideas for layers...

One of my favorites is the layer OVER the jean jacket...

I love my jean jacket...

LOVE IT...

I bought it from The GAP years ago and it is still my go to piece...

Anyway...

Today I tried this look and have to say I like it...

It is warm and unexpected...

Stylish...

Next time I am throwing a faux fur vest over it...

Yes, this is a picture of me in the bathroom mirror at work...

Color combo...

Gray, Black, Denim and Torquoise...

What do you think?

Christmas Recap Christmas Day...

Four little boys and one baby girl...

Gifts exchanged...

    Yummy traditional Christmas meal...

The first year my sister and her family lived back home...

What a wonderful gift to be able spend the Holiday together...

Getting to know these precious babes has been so fun...

Christmas Recap Christmas Morning...

There are no pictures of the best part of Christmas Morning...
In fact I completely missed it...

After Santa finished putting together and laying out the toys it was 1:30 am...
{BTW Santa doesn't wrap}...
Exhausted he/she retired hoping the children slept until at least 5:30...

At 3:00 am a little voice exclaimed from the hallway...

"Mom, there's a YOT of toys in there"...
It took me a few seconds before my brain registered the meaning behind the words...
And once it did I flew out of bed to find my baby pointing at the many Santa gifts that had been found and unfortunately played with...
I quickly gathered him and brought him back to bed but not before he woke his brother by announcing "broder there's a YOT of toys in there"...
My parents arrived at 5:15 am...
The boys were more than ready to get up...
And in the end I snapped a few pictures...
But I knew the best moments were those Kam spent playing early that morning...
Next year Santa wraps...

Christmas Recap Christmas Eve Evening...

The evening before Christmas...

Used to be a time for our big family and close friends to gather for sandwiches or chili...

Play board games and have a Yankee gift exchange...

As I have gotten older...

Had children of my own...

Lost those we love along the way...

Christmas Eve evening has changed...

We are trying to sort things out...

Find new traditions...

And this year when our big family gathered...

Though still aching from our recent loss...

We rejoiced in our recent addition...

Though I adore this baby girl...

More than anything else...

I was able to celebrate Christmas with these two people...

And I can't seem to find the words...

To describe how incredibly grateful...

Deeply grateful...

For the gift of more time with my grandparents...

When so many in Joplin were grieving...

I was able to hug them...

Wish them a Merry Christmas...

There really are no words...

Christmas Recap Christmas Eve Morning...

When I was growing up...

Christmas Eve morning was when my parents, sister and I exchanged our gifts with each other...

My sister and I always got PJ's from my Mom and Dad {unless for some reason my dad went out on limb and bought me a shower head}...

And sometimes a few other little things...

This year we adopted that tradition...

Giving the boys a few gifts from us...

And allowing them to exchange gifts that they picked out for each other...

Before you see these pictures however...

I must tell you I did not dress them for bed...

Of the 50 different sets of Christmas pj's my boys have...

I would have never chosen John Deere and a rocket shirts...

With that being said...

Here is Christmas Eve morning...

Ripping into packages...

Checking out the "goods" {why should Santa get all the credit?}...