Last Friday Blair had two of her best girlfriends over for a little Val Day cookie decorating. In the past (here and here) I've had quite a slew of toddlers running amok at my house but with Blair and her two friends being the oldest, (and most skilled at frosting and sprinkles) I decided to keep it small. Plenty of other times throughout the year to have all the hooligans kiddos over! ;)

I was pretty excited because 95% of my Val Day decor was re- purposed from either some other holiday or last year's Val Day. The flowers were a gift for a shower I hosted and everything else I had on hand. Oh actually I guess I spent $5 on that chocolate cake...worth it!

Heart shaped PB and J for the girls.

Little did I know that the reason that B refused to eat her lunch was not because she ate too many cookies but rather because she had her very fist encounter with the stomach flu. Yup. Later that afternoon she puked three times while I was at the gym. Lucky Matt got to do clean up on aisle three. My friends were really happy to hear about this after they spent all morning at my house...

 Oh, and I'm sure the chocolate milk she downed at lunch settled really well with her. You know how good dairy is for the stomach flu!

But, coffee. Then decorating!

You better believe this was part of my cheat meal!

Do you guys have anything fun planned for your kiddos this Valentine's Day? I just loved celebrating this holiday with my sweet girl...let's be real this one is for the girls!

Annnnd it's Monday again. The weekends always go by too quickly! We debated going to the beach or not but decided to stick around at home since we are going to the beach next weekend. We got quite a bit done (my favorite!) and finished of the weekend watching the Grammy's with friends while crafting for Blair's party. BTW if you didn't watch the Grammy's you didn't miss much. It was a big snoozefest in my opinion. Here's our weekend in pictures!

Burned is an understatement. I put these in the oven for 30 minutes and it was supposed to be 5. Ooops. That's what happens when you don't set a timer. Oh, and the dog wouldn't even eat them. :/ More on the mini Val Day party I had for B later this week!

 My Mom and I spent an obscene amount of time (and money?) at Home Goods this weekend. This cake stand made it into her basket for my birthday. I'm on love! More on my purchases later this week!

We enjoyed a little Starbucks while out running errands on Sunday. Dirty Baby tagged along too (always). What did you guys do this weekend? The weather was SO nice!

It is safe to say that we I am in full party prep mode. Peppa Pig has taken over our house and although I despise character parties I know Blair is going to flip when she sees her decor. So, I guess it's worth it. ;) I am trying my hardest to make it "classy" Peppa and not buy everything at the party store in the Peppa Pig section. You catching my drift? More DIY decor and less store bought streamers. That's the best of both worlds! She gets Peppa and I can keep my pride. ;)

So with all that said I wanted to share Blair's third birthday party invites with you courtesy of the fab, Tiny Prints! This was the first time that I used a design that I bought from Etsy and uploaded it to a blank invitation on their site. It worked out perfectly and I love the finished product. Their paper is so thick and the scalloped edges add the right amount of girlishness.

Oh, and I'll have you know that I attempted to photograph these invites FOUR times before I got the shots I wanted. That cupcake right there is about two days old in that shot. First it was too dark, then too bright, then raining, and finally I used my iphone for these shots. I REALLY need to figure out how to work my DSLR. It's embarrassing.

Peppa Pig design by The Mason Jar and More on Etsy!

Ah, Whole 30 I am SO glad to be done with you. Well, kind of done. Last Saturday M and I celebrated our Whole 30 finish with a BIG. FAT. DONUT. And a Starbucks chai tea latte. And Girl Scout Cookies. And french fries and beer at dinner. A little over indulgent? Maybe, yes. Ask me if my tummy even hurt afterwards...nope. It's safe to say my stomach is made of steel.

I have noticed that my tummy doesn't love dairy but not enough for me to avoid it altogether. Honestly nothing else really seems to give me any trouble.

I wasn't sure what my diet would look like after Whole 30 but we decided to keep with it and allow for two cheat meals a week. I figure that it's not only what my trainer recommends, but also what my fertility doctor recommends. With all the weight training we have been doing I get to add a chocolate protein shake after dinner...mmmmm my saving grace!

As for weight loss that was a big fat joke. I lost a measly 3 pounds (SO annoying). And yes I know I wasn't doing it for weight loss (blah blah blah) but come ON. I was eating only whole foods for 30 freaking days and all I got out of it was THREE pounds? SO lame. I wanted to at least lose the 5 Christmas pounds I put on. :/

I will say that I am more conscious of what I put into my body. I find myself reading labels a lot more and reaching for fruit or hard boiled eggs instead of Pirates Booty or Snap Pea Crisps.

Overall I would say that I felt good knowing that I was treating my body really well but physically I didn't feel that much different (except for the beginning when I felt like hell from the sugar detox). I never had a crazy energy surge, my skin didn't "glow", and my sugar cravings never stopped. I'm content with 19 of my 21 meals a week being Whole 30 approved. I feel like it gives me just enough freedom without blowing it.

Oh and this was definitely our favorite meal...so bomb! Bacon, avocado, turkey burger sliders with yams as buns! Next time we are adding tomato but these were realllly delicious.

That's a wrap! Have any of you ever done this challenge? What was it like for you?

Even though it's not V Day yet I whipped up a little festive breakfast for Blair over the weekend (and you better believe I ate that french toast too!). I love cutting her food into fun shapes using cookie cutters and the heart was a perfect fit for this occasion.

garland made by Erinn over at Strawberry Swing and Other Things

I love making holidays special for B and I hope one day she can do things like this for her own kids!

Valentine's Day is creeping up on us and since I'm always looking forward to the next holiday I got started making Blair's valentines last weekend. If you haven't noticed I live for this kind of crafty stuff.

I stumbled across some valentines that I loved on Pinterest. I dumbed mine down a bit by not stamping out each valentine (who has time for that?!) and printing them instead. I also skipped cutting out felt hearts and decided to draw mine. I purchased the plastic animals at Target (60 for $7) and kept the extra for Blair to play with. I saw similar ones at Michales but they were 12 for $10! Target for the win.

And while I'm sure Blair would love the $2.99 box of "Frozen" Valentines, I enjoy putting forth a little extra effort. I'm planning on putting some organic animal crackers from Costco in little treat bags to accompany them. The only bummer about these is that they can't be mailed in an envelope. :( Luckily we see a lot of our friends throughout the week at church, Bible study, the park, library etc. but there will still undoubtedly be some hand deliveries. These are the valentines we made last year here and here.

What about you? Are you crafting your valentines or saving yourself some time? I guarantee you if I had a newborn we would be doing boxed valentines 100%!

This weekend started out fabulously...with Whole 30 ending! I celebrated hard with a crumb donut, chai tea latte, and sweets upon sweets all weekend. Surprisingly my tummy didn't seem to mind at all. I'll be talking about what our diet will look like now later this week.

We also celebrated my brother's 21st birthday at a local BBQ restaurant that we all love. Their bread pudding had my name all over it! One of our favorite ways to spend our time is with our family (really!) so this was a double treat! I broke all the rules and even had a beer. :) My Dad turns 61 (62?) later this week so we let him tag along too. ;)

sweet little nephew

cousins! and blair's half up top knot i've been loving. :)

helping uncle jake make a wish

i love this picture of me and my Dad. we were all watching Blair play in the courtyard before we called it a night!

We didn't have big superbowl plans and ended up hanging out at home with my brother and his wife. Our game day snacks were quite elaborate...3 boxes of girl scout cookies. I'm not really into football. And by not really I mean not at all so I crafted with my sis-in-law for Blair's birthday bash while the boys talked shop.

I've been a crafting queen over here and have some fun Val Day things to show you this week along with some sneak peeks of the birthday bash decor! Get excited. :)