girls weekend

a few weekends ago, my mom, heather and i jetted off to d.c. for our annual girls weekend. places we've ventured in past years have included a spa and antiquing in canada, and shopping and the theatre in chicago. this time, we included family visits, beautifying at my sister-in-law's fabulous new salon that just opened and of course, shopping.

michael and harper spent the weekend at home. this is the view i shared with my harper bean, when she wasn't too busy playing with her toys.

and this is where we spent our sunday, getting glorified and beautified, and getting the chance to play salon. heather and i haven't laughed so much in years. and we were instantly taken back to days of youth.

here's heather, skyping with her husband, tim.

here's my brother's attempt at using my camera, a little out of focus, as i step in as hairdresser.

nyla and callie got to join us at the salon for the day.

all prettied up. much love and kisses to our very talented sister-in-law, stephanie. and her salon is just amazing.

chris, my mom, me, heather.

kaelyn 1 month

kaelyn noelle. 1 month old. wide awake and smiley. and so compliant. and of course, adorably yummy.

and jacque's take with the camera, in her words "kaelyn looks just like you right now." just preparing for our next turn with a newborn in a short little while.

joy of love :: days 7 {generations} & 10 {spaces}

three generations of ladies with the middle name, elizabeth, after my maternal grandmother.

mary elizabeth. emily elizabeth. harper elizabeth.

a strong name. a strong generation lineage.

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lately, harper's favorite space is curled up in the very corner of the couch to watch mickey mouse clubhouse. usually with her taggie, and sometimes asking to be covered up with a blanket.

joy of love :: days 5 {love to hate} & 17 {staying in}

it has taken me since february 4th, when we received the e-mail for the day 5 prompt, to figure out what it is i love to hate about my husband. yes, there are things that irk me. we're not perfect. but, most of his quirks are things i've come to either love or just ignore because it's not worth the stress. i pondered and pondered and pondered in my head just what it was that really annoyed me, because there had to be something, right?! yes, some nights, his snoring bugs me, and i have to keep tapping him to gently wake him up enough to stop and perhaps roll over, allowing me a second or two to fall asleep before the noise wakes me again. but how do you photograph that? until today, as i was picking up the basement mess of toys did i realize what i truly love to hate. unfinished projects. and we have a whole mess of 'em in our house. there just never seems to be enough time to finish it all. what with our work schedules, michael's mba classes + studying, raising a toddler and preparing for a newborn, and trying to balance all that work and have to's with the fun things and the want to's. can you blame us for not getting it all done?

but, this project in our basement has been there since the kitchen renovation in july/august of last year. michael had to tear apart a wall in order to expose the plumbing lines for the upstairs sink. and then it just sat there open until last weekend when he started to repair it. and now, it sits again. until some day when he has time. but it also sits among the vacuum and the tool box and the tub of stuff to throw away and the wood boards with exposed nails that used to be the molding. all within the small area we now use as our play room, where harper spends a lot of time.

{sigh} i love, love, love him, but i hate this. and i know he hates it, too.

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and this is our latest version of staying in. putting harper to bed. sidling up on the couch in our jammies with a dvd on the tube. slippered feet propped on the ottoman and relaxing with a shared bowl of ice cream and strawberries. hey, baby needs calcium, right?!

joy of love :: day 12 {the eyes}

the eyes are the window of the soul.

english proverb

i heart faces {red}

happy heart day ♥

i'm not ashamed to admit it. i ♥ valentine's day. i love everything about it. i love the pinks and the reds and the hearts and the sappiness. i love love love it.

heart day has always meant something for michael and i. our relationship took it's initial leap 12 years ago. michael proposed 8 years ago. we've celebrated this day as our day for so long.

and as michael sits in class tonight, i instead got to share the happy heart day with my other valentines, harper and baby p. and maximus, too.

a quick post, but lots of love to go around. happy love day. ♥

p.s. the idea for these harper photos was stolen {gasp} from my friend, christina's, most recent post. check it out here and here. she was featured on 2 different sites last week. can't help it- she's amazing, and i'm lucky to have her as my inspiration and go to photog (among other things) friend. xoxo.

joy of love :: days 9 {passions & hobbies} & 13 {routines}

michael's passion is football. his hobby is football. really anything to do with sports, but fantasy football encompasses our lives from july, when the first ff magazines are purchased, to august, when the ff draft happens, to december, when the playoff draft is held, to february, when the superbowl finally wraps this long season up. it's college football, pro football, football stats and more knowledge than one should have on a topic, throwing around a football with friends when he can. i think he'd love to have a son someday so that he can coach a youth football team. so, why did he marry someone who has so little interest in watching sports overall? i'm learning, and i tolerate, but i guess this proves the point that opposites do attract. and i love him for his passions.

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one reason he may not have had enough time recently for his passions is because of this new routine- hitting the books. 10 years post-graduation from michigan state, michael started back up in school for his mba. he's in class 2 nights a week, often not getting home until 10 pm, and then reading and studying and completing homework assignments on the nights he's not in class, including hours away at a local uptown coffee shop on weekends to get things done without distractions. it's been challenging, and will continue to be once the new little one arrives, but we have the support of family and i am proud that he took the leap to go back. it's something he's always wanted to do, and when the opportunity presented itself, we couldn't pass it up. he's supported me in my career, and i absolutely do the same for him.

joy of love::day 8 {gift from the heart}

it was on my to-do list for a long time (this isn't infrequent, either) to have a wedding photo and our wedding invite framed. but, i just never got around to it. one christmas morning before our harper was born, michael surprised me with this. i was so shocked that i was sobbing uncontrollably. it meant the world to me that he listened and gave me a gift from the heart that i never wrote down on my christmas list. love him all the more for this, every single time i look at it.

joy of love::day 6 {who they love}

taggie {her tag blanket} and blabla {her monkey, made by blabla} (both so appropriately named) have been with her since i can remember. we don't go anywhere without them. and she can't go to sleep without them. it's one of the reasons i have signed up to take a sewing class- to replicate the most recently harper-coined "soft taggie" (to distinguish from the 5 other different ones we have) just to have a back-up should the forbidden ever happen. we've been close to losing taggie a couple times, but miraculously, she always finds harper. there are specifically 2 brown satin tags at different corners of the blankie that are the favorites. the thumb goes in the mouth, and the taggie is spun around until the brown satin one is landed upon. amazes me every time she can manage to find the specific one just by feel.

joy of love::day 4 {what they wear}

harper lives in her jammies. and loves to try on mommy and daddy's clothes, too.

snowmaggedon...or bust

yeah, we didn't get as much snow as anticipated yesterday. but school was still canceled. which meant a full day at home with nothing {ok, a whole bunch} to do! we took full advantage.

starting with some play in the snow while daddy cleared the driveway. playing in the snow, of course, means eating a whole bunch. freshly fallen snow is the yummiest.

maximus loves the snow. he turns back into his puppy self when the flakes start falling and the white covers the ground. he can't run fast enough.

who would've thought that chalk works well in the snow?! i like the way she thinks.

after we headed back inside, harper decided to do a fashion show with mommy and daddy's winter gear.

we made a batch of brownies, and gobbled them up after a soup and grilled cheese lunch. notice we haven't changed out of our jammies.

after nap, we pulled out the "music box" full of all kinds of instruments and similar items we use in our weekly music class, and jammed to some tunes.

and we opened our salon for some nail art.

and then washed it all off in the sink with lots and lots of soap.

took the time to enjoy the snowy, bonus day at home. reminders that we need to take the occasional time to slow down and really enjoy the beautiful little things in life.