Blurb Book

I finally got my first Blurb book in the mail this week and boy am I in LOVE with it!! If you aren't familiar, Blurb is a website where you can design your own book and order it whenever you are finished. I decided to create a Blurb book documenting each year of photos. I am obsessed with taking pictures and my photo albums from the past two years have started taking over way too much space in my bedroom. That's when I started looking into creating family photo books. After researching the different possible sites to make a family photo album, I decided to go with Blurb. The reason I chose Blurb over many of the other websites is because it gave me the option to create my own pages without predesigned layouts. Although it takes a little bit longer, the end result is totally worth it!

Here are some pictures of what my book looks like, but, to be honest, the pictures don't do justice.

My front cover....

This is a standard size book and I used their hardcover image wrap option with premium matte paper inside. There are pictures on the back of the book as well.

Since this book is for 2013, I included pictures from January-December of 2013.

I also included special pages each month with Riley's monthly baby pictures like this....

I was able to add text for special events like Riley's baptism....

This book includes every picture that I love throughout the year of 2013 and takes up way less space than a bunch of photo albums.

I was able to include vacation pictures....

Fun activities that we did as a family....

Photo shoots....

Holidays....

And random pictures as well....

I ended the book with New Years Eve so that I can start our 2014 book off with January 1....

Needless to say, I am so pleased with how this book turned out!! It took me a few months to create the book and figure out how to make layouts in Blurb, but the end result was worth it. Now that I know what I am doing, my next book shouldn't take me as long. I started with 2013 so that I could include everything from when Riley was first born. I'm still a year behind, but once I'm caught up I can create the books month by month as we go. I'm so excited to have started making these family yearbooks! I know I will appreciate it in the years to come.

Life Lately

This past week has been full of tons of FUN!

We started the weekend off with a date night celebrating 4 years of marriage....

I love this guy!! We went to dinner at Casbah and the food was delicious!

Riley's new bedroom furniture arrived and she had a blast just playing inside the boxes....

She insisted that mama and dada join her....

On Monday, Matthew and I got to meet our baby for the first time....

He or she already looks exactly like Riley from the ultrasound, but we can't wait to meet our little guy/girl in Decemeber :)

After the ultrasound, we had a fun day at the park....

And even played in the creek....

On Tuesday we met up with my friend Shaina and her daughter Bel at Round Hill....

Riley got adventurous and started running in and out of this huge circle of water....

She had a blast!

Yesterday we went to the mom and me class at the library then went with my friend Julie and her daughter Nina to the pool in USC....

I didn't take many pictures, but this pool was AWESOME!

Riley was in love with this slide....

She just kept going down it over and over again!

Such a fun week and a fun weekend ahead with LUKE BRYAN on Friday!!! Wooohoo!

Happy 4 Years!

Four years ago to this day, I married my best friend and life has never been better! Happy Anniversary to my amazing husband!! I will never forget our beautiful wedding day.....it was truly a fairy tale....



I love you so much!! To many, many more! XOXO

Hands Free Mama

I just finished a really good book called Hands Free Mama by Rachel Macy Stafford.

I found this book extremely inspirational. I have a serious love/hate relationship with technology. I love my cell phone just as much as the next person, but it is also a serious problem in today's society. Needless to say, this book is all about putting down the phone and enjoying what really matters in life! 

There is nothing I hate more than going to the park and seeing a parent sitting on the bench with their eyes attached to their phone while their child plays. This is even more evident at the play area at the mall. I swear some parents take their kids to the park or play area just to get some one-on-one time with their cell phones. Instead of enjoying the smiles and laughter coming from their children, they are too busy checking social media. Those are also usually the kids that run around acting out and I can't even blame the kids....they have to act out to get any bit of attention from their parents. I get so frustrated, but they are only hurting themselves in the long run. They are missing out on quality time that they could be enjoying with their children. They could be laughing and learning about their child and one day they will wish they had that time back. I love watching my daughter play. I love getting down on my hands and knees and pretending with her. I get to see how her little mind works and I honestly love just watching her because I know she will never be this little again.

I remember coming home from the hospital with her and leaving my phone on silent for weeks....I just sat on the couch and stared at her. I didn't care what was on Facebook or Instagram because the little girl in my arms was way more important. I'm not saying that I'm perfect at this because I have my flaws too, but I do try to keep the phone to a minimum. The one reason I do keep it with me most of the time is because I love taking pictures of little things that Riley does. Pictures are the one thing that I insist on taking because I want to remember every little moment with my children. I document everything and I love that!

As Riley gets older, Matt and I try to carry on conversations with her. Her vocabulary isn't huge and she often times talks and we have no idea what she is saying, but it is the cutest! Just the other day, Matt called during his lunch hour and asked to talk to Riley. I heard him asking her how her day was, what she has been up to, what she had for lunch etc. She talks back, but most of the words don't make any sense just yet which is really cute because you can tell that in her head she is making sense. When Matt got home from work he told me how his one coworker was asking how old his daughter was and was surprised when he said that she was two. She mentioned that she overheard him talking on the phone and assumed that she was a teenager because he was talking to her as if he knew what she was saying. He proceeded to explain that he just likes to talk to Riley and let her know that her day is important to him and that he wants to build a strong relationship with her. I was touched when he told me that. We are building a foundation for our kids and I never, ever, ever want them to think that there is anything more important to us. One day Riley will be in grade school and her teacher will ask her to describe her parents and things that we enjoy. I never want her to say that one of the things I love most is my cell phone. I want her to be able to talk about how we play together and have dance parties in our pajamas. That is what I want her to remember.

If you are one of those parents who struggle with keeping your phone down, you need to read this book! It will change the way you see things and hopefully give some light as to why you need to let go of the phone and pay attention to what really matters. It is truly a great read :)

Weekend Recap

One of my closest friends, Emily, is getting Married in Jamaica in November so this weekend we had lots of pre-wedding celebrations for her! On Friday night, we went to Painting with a Twist for her bachelorette party....

I have been friends with this same group of girls since high school and every time we get together we have such a good time!!

The bride-to-be....

Babies and marriage :)

Our final product....

not too shabby ;)
Painting with a Twist was seriously such a blast and we already talked about doing it again sometime! Such a great night!!

Saturday morning we went to our favorite breakfast spot....The Beach House!

Then went to the pool for the day....

And Sunday was Em's bridal shower....

So happy for Emily and Nick and jealous that I won't be in Jamaica in November to celebrate!

Wiltshire Park

Happy Friday! Yesterday was gorgeous so I decided to take Riley to a park with a new little spray area called Wiltshire Park in USC. I knew they had a spray area with a huge sandbox attached to it so I came prepared with buckets, shovels and stuff for her to play with. The best part? This park is right down the street from my house and I didn't even know it....it literally took us 3 minutes to get there!

Riley went back and forth between the sandbox and the water area and had such a good time!! I honestly don't know which one she loved more. We spent the whole morning there and I honestly think she would have loved to spend the entire day there!

She spent so much time just filling her little bucket with sand then dumping it out....

In the spray area, I don't think she ever stopped giggling and smiling....

The water would turn off and on at intervals and every time it turned off Riley would run to stand right on top of one of the sprinklers like this....

And as soon as it would turn back on it would shoot up and hit her in the face and she would just scream and laugh her head off....

Needless to say, we will definitely be returning to this park A LOT more!! We had a blast!