Motherhood is:

Rolling this all back onto the holder:

And still loving your kid afterwards.

Evening with Elnett Girls Night Out!

I was contacted by the amazing people of L'Oreal to host an Evening with Elnett girl's night out. They sent me tons of hairspray to try and let me tell you, its awesome. Up until recently, it was only available in Europe, but often snuck into the US by stylist. It is an aerosol spray that honestly left my hair looking silky and without fly-aways. 

I did share with my friends since they sent these gorgeous gift bags and all. 

We started the night out eating yummy, girly treats.

Cranberry Brie Bites that I made 3 times over Christmas!

And Cranberry Mojitos. Delish.

We took a bit of time to touch up our hair and watch how-to videos provided by stylist, Johnny Lavoy. The awesome thing about these hairstyles are that they are easy, but gorgeous. Exactly what I need with 2 little men needing my attention. 

Check out these looks that use Elnett hairspray before New Years! There is a Modern Chignon, a Audry Hepburn-Inspired French Twist/Updo, my fave, Defined Waves and also some Royal-Inspired Hair Looks. 

We had a limo that picked us up to take us to the Shecky's Girl's Night Out event in DC. 

We were greeted by the L'Oreal Elnett car. How cool is this?!

Naturally, it was a prop for a photo op.

L'Oreal had a salon set up where they we're giving updos using Elnett.

I need my hair to pouf up like that.

My fun neighbor girlfriends!

Shecky's sponsors hooked us up with fab swag bags.

Headed home after such a fun night!

It is a very rare day that I don't wash my hair. Since having Callan, I don't always dry and style it, but I always wash. I look like I fought with aliens when I wake up in the morning with all the cowlicks abound on my head. When I woke up the morning after our night out, my curls were still in tact. I looked so different, in fact, that the hubs said, "you're hair still looks good!" Know what that means? I'm an Elnett fan for life. If I can wake up and use the 30 minutes I usually spend on my hair with my boys, I'm sold!

The Evening with Elnett was sponsored by L'Oreal Elnett along with Mom Central. I was provided product to sample and giveaway along with compensation for party supplies. 

Ghost of Christmas past.

I'm finding it hard to believe just how much my life has changed in the past few years. 

2008 - Spent Christmas in Georgia

Decorating our house for little man's first Christmas

That year, I would learn just how incredible Christmas could really be when celebrating it with my child.

2009 - Spent Christmas in New York

(This was dress rehearsal while packing  for NY. It was way too hot in California to wear that in December!)

That year, I would learn just how difficult it is to live across the country from your family once you have children.

2010 - Christmas in Virginia

That year, I would learn just how magical your first Christmas in your own house could be and how awesome it is to see your child run down the stairs to find his gifts.

This year, I still am in shock and feel completely blessed to have 2 healthy, happy boys to spend Christmas with. I can only imagine the joy that has built every year will be even stronger celebrating with them both!

I am going to enjoy time with my family and eat lots of crap until I have to kick this postpartum bod into high gear come January 1! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and find time to relax and snuggle those you love.

Merry Christmas, Y'all! 

Christmas round these parts

My collection of Christmas event pictures keeps growing because I haven't posted any! 

Thanksgiving weekend, we went to get our tree at a quaint local tree farm Lowes. (I know, so non-Christmas spirited)

Callan slept through the entire event. 

Its our tradition to get Starbucks while decorating the tree. When I walked out of the store, hubs was snapping pics like paparazzi.

Hubs + the beast tree.

Cooper's first drink from Starbucks, a kids hot chocolate. I just adore the grin in this picture!

The living room in a very washed out, horrible kinda pic. The tree here is mostly gold ornaments. I am totally not kid friendly. Like when I yell, "don't touch my balls!" to Coop as he goes to put his tiny fingers around my huge, red Crate and Barrel treasures.

This little Santa countdown to Christmas is one of my fave decorations.

This is the entry way table. I decorated this for the winter wonderland baby shower and ended up leaving it because I just liked it so much! 

The dining room and silver/white tree. The silver bells on the table are a family tradition. My Mom gets us girls one every year, just like her Mom does for her!

And we even gave the bathroom shelf a wee bit of love!

What's Christmas without a disastrous flour mess while making cookies?! 

Now I have the rest of the week to get this house ready for our 11 Christmas guest! Its going to be a crazy one! 

Callan's Newborn Pictures!

My awesome friend just so happens to be an AMAZING photographer and took Callan's newborn pictures for us. She takes newborn, family, children, senior...you name it pictures! 

I am loving the pictures she took of my sweet little men!

This adorbs hat was made by my sis-in-law, Gia Bella Hats and Such. Contact her if you want one like this. She does special orders!

Leilani was so sweet to stay for 3 hours waiting on this little monkey to hold still and sleep! 

But it totally paid off to get cute shots like this! Eek! 

So we decided instead of waiting on him so be sleeping for all the pictures, she got some open eye ones.

This is one of my faves! 

This one makes me laugh. My brother made this guitar for Cooper and it made a good prop! 

Cooper's precious big brother face is priceless! This one went in the Christmas card for sure.

If you are in the Northern Virginia area, you need to book an appointment with Leilani for pictures! Check out her website to see her work. You won't be disappointed! 

Winter Wonderland Baby Shower

Last weekend, I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law who lives near us. She is due in February with her first little one that will be Cooper and Callan's 5th boy cousin! 

The theme was Winter Wonderland with plenty of blue, white and silver. Tissue poms and paper lanterns decorated the chandelier and dot garland hung from the ceiling. 

Desserts were meringues, cupcakes, powdered donuts and white chocolate covered pretzel rods. 

We used white marshmallows for decoration before people put them into their white hot chocolate.

Each guest took a pacifier necklace when they arrived. If they said the word "baby" they had to give their necklace to the guest that caught them.

Luckily, I have a lot of silver Christmas decorations that we used. These are my collection of silver bells that my Mom gives all of us girls each year.

Its a BOY! 

My pretty sis-in-law, Katie

Coop snuck up from the basement, where he was hiding with the boys, to help open presents.

My Mother-in-law and sister-in-law, who helped out with the shower, with the preggo mama and me.

I had an absolute blast planning the shower and now I want to be a party planner. I have a knack for going overboard on 1 specific theme. Hehe.