5 ON FRIDAY

Happy Friday! It has been a good week around here, some exciting news in our world....I finished an intense 20 week training program at work! So thankful to be officially done with training and for all the support I received from my new company over these past 20 weeks. Also, Matthew is so close to wrapping up his fall busy season and then it should be a lot slower for the rest of the year for him - woo hoo! Quick side note: with my new company and new role, my busy seasons will align with Matthew's busy seasons. That has it's pros and cons, but we will make it work! I'm happy that both of our non busy seasons will be at the same time!
| ONE |  We are having fall pictures made this weekend and I am thrilled to have them done so early so that I can get Christmas cards ordered within the next few weeks. Getting those in early means I can get them addressed and out the door at a reasonable time!  Matthew is wearing blue gingham, I have a burgundy sweater (fingers crossed I don't sweat through it lol) and I am hoping to find Reagan a gold bandana today! I love this color combination!

| TWO | Reagan will sleep on the couch for hours and then wake up and be very hyper for a good 30 minutes before she's back to side sleeping on the couch. It's hilarious and we love when she brings us toys to play with her. She's the sweetest!

This is her winding down, but still wants to play phase...she just lays on or by her toy for a little bit lol

| THREE |  Sweet Evelyn turned two weeks old yesterday and I got to get in some of the sweetest baby cuddles with her!  Back in April, Sarah and I went with Kathleen to find out what she was having, as it was a surprise to Braden. After we found out Evelyn was a girl we went shopping for baby GIRL clothes. Kathleen had planned a surprise party for Braden's birthday later that week and his present was a box of pink baby girl clothes to reveal to him and the whole family the gender of their baby. I picked up the cutest onesie that said 'My aunt is my BFF' and Kat had Evelyn in that onesie yesterday - so fun to see her in it!
Pictures from back in April

 and pictures from last night!

| FOUR | 

If you are planning a trip to Disney soon be sure to get in touch with my sister-in-law, Christina! She is a travel agent for Dream Makers Travel and has a ton of experience and knowledge when it comes to all things Disney!

| FIVE | 

We are getting our mums and pumpkins this weekend and I am beyond thrilled! Although this week it really warmed back up...it's close to the 90's today and it looks like it's going to stay warm until the middle of next week or so. Fingers crossed the cooler temps are coming soon!

Picture of last years mums, because they are just my favorite, also the cutest bumblebee.

Happy weekend!

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5 ON FRIDAY

5 ON FRIDAY | AMAZON FAVORITES

We are huge fans of Amazon Prime over here. We buy a variety of things on Amazon and most of the time, because of extensive research on our ends, we love our purchases. So I thought I would share a few recent Amazon favorites with you today.

ONE | Neato Robotics Botvac D3

As soon as we moved back into our house after having our floors done Matthew suggested that we buy a robotic vacuum. I was very hesitant about this at first. I thought it was silly to have a robotic vacuum when I could easily sweep and vacuum myself. Matthew was very intrigued (the tech side of it) and kept bringing it up not so casually in our conversations. I tried to get him to wait until Black Friday, because I was sure there would be some good sales on them around that time. Well being the researcher that he is, he found one on an Amazon Warehouse deal that was around half the original price. So we agreed that we probably wouldn't get it for much less than that on Black Friday and pulled the trigger. I have to say that it is probably one of the best purchases we have made in 2018! I absolutely LOVE it and gave Matthew full rights to say "told you so". It connects with an app on our phones and all we have to do is open the app and push start. When it's finished it will send us a cleaning summary and it's a blue print of the area it covered. I usually start it while I'm working at home or while we're outside. I should also add that Matthew has named him Arvie. 

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE Y'ALL. 

TWO | Cheese Grater, Vegetable Slicer, Nut Chopper

Matthew surprised me with this a couple of weeks ago and I have already lost count how many times I have used this. We buy block cheese and shred it ourselves (cheaper and better for you!) and our regular grater made a mess and and eventually broke. This thing is so handy and makes shredding cheese a lot easier. I have sliced some potatoes really thinly to make potato wedge fries too. Best part, it can all go in the dishwasher for an easy cleanup!

THREE | Vintage Persian Rug

We got one for our front door and one for our back door and LOVE them. The colors go so well with our decor and look beautiful against our new dark hardwood. It's not too much color, but just enough. I can't take credit for this though, Matthew picked them out. We have tossed around the idea of getting the runner size for our hallway upstairs, too! We put these on the bottom to keep the rugs from sliding.

FOUR | Make Up Eraser

I have heard a ton of good things about this make up "eraser" form different beauty/lifestyle bloggers and vloggers, so when I found it on sale a few months ago for $12.99 shipped, I decided to try it out. It works really, really well! It takes off my waterproof mascara so quickly. I don't have to rub each eye for 60 minutes to get it all off either. Disposable make up wipe removers never did that for me. All I have to do it use a little warm water on this and it does the trick. I have tested it a few times and used my toner on a cotton pad after taking off my make up and the cotton pad was clean. Like I said, I just use warm water with it and rub my make up off. After that I wash my face with my face cleaner and rinse my face off with water and my hands. I use it during the week and usually wash it on Fridays. When it goes back on sale I might grab another one to have one to use while one is in the wash.

FIVE | Rachel Ray 12-Quart Stockpot

I have made soups and sauces in this and LOVE it. It's hard enamel and nonstick, so basically it's perfect. I love the Marine Blue shade too!

Now tell me, what are some of your recent Amazon purchases that you just loved?!

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5 ON FRIDAY | AMAZON FAVORITES

6 ON FRIDAY!

| ONE | 

This past Tuesday my company organized and supported a Service Day. There were a couple of different places to volunteer at, but I chose Thistle Farms. Thistle Farms serves women who have experienced abuse, addiction, prostitution, sex trafficking, and homelessness, and provides rehabilitation and employment. It was a great morning serving along side of my co-workers and these strong women who have overcome so much. Thistle Farms has a cafe as well, so if you are ever in the area check it out!

 The cafe had the prettiest display of tea cups hanging from the ceiling. When Thistle Farms cafe was just beginning they put out a call for tea cup donations and they received hundreds of boxes full of mix matched tea cups from all over the world. Absolutely incredible to see the act of love and kindness through these tea cups.

Their mission...

"Thistle Farms' mission is to HEAL, EMPOWER, AND EMPLOY women survivors of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. We do this by providing safe and supportive housing, the opportunity for economic independence, and a strong community of advocates and partners.  

We believe that in the end, love is the most powerful force for change in the world."

You can shop all their products (all natural ingredients),that are made, right here in Nashville, here. Their products are also now in Whole Foods around the country. 

| TWO | 

My dad and I love succulents. So when I came across this wreath I had to share it with him. Now if we could just convince the shop owner to accept the $200 in Monopoly cash.

| THREE | 

On the topic of succulents, Amazon had a sale on their boxed succulents a couple of weeks ago. I scooped up a box of 12 ASAP and have been loving them. They were on sale for 50% off, so if you are wanting to purchase these at a good price, I would recommend waiting until they went on sale again. I was HIGHLY impressed with the packaging, the shape they arrived in (they looked perfect), and the variety of different ones. I am going to give my dad a couple of these, too! Okay, enough about mine and my dad's succulent obsession...moving on!

| FOUR |

My MIL introduced me to Hoopla a long time ago and I just recently downloaded it and started using it. Needless to say, I am obsessed! I have almost finished listening to my first downloaded book and I have already "checked out" another book. I've also saved about 10 other books to listen to over the next few months. I have heard many great things about Audible, but I didn't want to pay for another service. Hoopla is free and it has music, movies, Ebooks, and Audiobooks on there that you can "check out" as well! I just introduced my dad to this app and he has already found a few books to listen to. 

Here are the two books I have "checked out" and you can see the heart with the 10 in it showing my saved books. You can check out up to 10 books at a time. 

| FIVE | 

My girl and her underbite.

| SIX |

My two youngest sisters went back to school this week. I got the first-day-of-school pictures from my mom. Last first day of middle school (8th grade) and first day of high school (9th grade)....all the feels.

Have a great weekend! 

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6 ON FRIDAY!

5 ON FRIDAY

Happy Friday! 
ONE | I think Kait said it best in her Instagram post, but THANK YOU to all those men and women who have and are still currently serving, and to those who have lost their lives protecting ours, we owe you everything. This holiday weekend and it's meaning is not lost on me. 

TWO | This has been one busy week! My company's headquarters is in Indiana so this week a few new co-workers and my new boss flew into town for some in person training sessions. They were great, but that led to some long days this week learning all the new things! One of our activities involved a Mr. Potato Head, ha!

THREE | Wednesday after a full day of training I wrapped up a few emails and hightailed it to my parent's house to do my sister's makeup for her 8th grade formal. It's not cool these days to have your parents drop you off at formal so I quickly volunteered to handle drop off....we won't even talk about the 500 tears I choked back as she and her date walked into formal. How am I ever going to survive dropping my own kids off at kindergarten some day?! We won't tell her I sat in the parking lot a good 10 minutes after I dropped her off debating whether or not I was going to stay the whole time or not. 

FOUR | Last night my sister and I attended the Harry Potter concert at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center downtown and it was incredible! It was the fourth movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and it was really good! For someone who hasn't seen the first 3 movies, I was actually interested in it and now I want to binge watch the first three this weekend.

FIVE | We are having a cookout with Matthew's family on Saturday and my family on Monday. We are looking forward to all the family time this weekend! Also, the pool in our neighborhood is opening for the summer this weekend and I am so ready!

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5 ON FRIDAY

5 ON FRIDAY

Happy Friday!
| ONE | I got to work the other day only to find out the air was broken and they didn't have an ETA on when it would be getting fixed. So I turned around and headed back home to work for the rest of the day. Reagan wasn't complaining! I worked outside all morning until the rain forced us inside. 

| TWO | I saw this the other day on Facebook and literally laughed out loud. Reagan and I will take one for this summer, please & thank you!

| THREE |  Matthew and I recently purchased a movie pass and it finally arrived in the mail last week, so we have plans to see a movie or two this weekend! Does anyone have this? Unlimited movies a month for only $9.99 a month! That's such a good deal. We are looking forward to all the movies coming out this summer!

| FOUR | I have been spending most of my evenings out on the back patio, once the sun goes down and it cools off some, and I am LOVING it!

| FIVE | I am hoping to make a 'welcome' sign for outside our front door area this weekend. These are some ideas that I have.

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5 ON FRIDAY

5 ON FRIDAY!

Happy Friday!

ONE | Last weekend we headed to Cookeville for our best friend's graduation weekend! We stayed the night with them and went to his graduation and graduation party after before heading back home. Such a fun weekend with friends in one of our favorite towns!

 Rachel made this delicious strawberry cake for his graduation party and it was a hit! 

TWO | Every spring I look forward to my dad's peonies blooming. The true sign that summer is coming!!

THREE | The weather has been so nice this week, so the other afternoon I took Reagan around town with me for some errands and a stop by a new park we discovered not too far from our house! We also made a stop by Sonic for some happy hour half price drinks (strawberry limeade for me and water for Reagan!)

Reagan takes flower shopping very seriously

FOUR | I picked up this cauliflower pizza crust at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago and decided to try it one night this week while Matthew was out of town on a business trip. After a couple of bites it ended up in the trash. I HATE throwing food away and wasting, but I just couldn't do it! So leftover Olive Garden bread sticks for dinner it was. #carbsforlife

FIVE | Recently we purchased a new flat top grill and we have been LOVING it! Matthew is a pro with it and has made us some delicious meals. Last weekend we had burgers and hibachi chicken and steak with friend rice. I kid you not, it tasted just like the hibachi grill we usually go to. So excited for cookouts this summer!

Picked up this yum yum sauce at Wal-Mart and it is so good!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mama's out there!

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5 ON FRIDAY!