Holiday Bath Bombs DIY with a Free Printable!

Searching for the perfect neighbor gift?? HERE IT IS! The kids can help and you'll love the results! Bath bombs are such a beautiful gift you can give and they are easy and cheap! My friend Natashia with Canary Jane has even created a free printable for you to go along with it!! To see the recipe, troubleshooting tips and the printable click to read more!

A Thanksgiving Tablescape to Remember

Back in 2015 Thanksgivingcame a little early for my family since two of my brothers were in town only for a couple of days at the same time. It was also the last time we'd all be together for at least a year and a half since my little sister served a mission for the LDS church that following January.
I couldn't have been more thrilled when my mom asked me to be in charge of place settings and decor.  I knew this had to be a big deal!

We decided to hold dinner and activities at my parents church since my siblings families have grown so much. Not my ideal place to decorate but we made it work!

 I'm not very traditional when it comes to holiday decor as my family knows (and rolls their eyes at) so I chose to work with a more simple muted color palate than your normal fall oranges, browns and yellows. This Thanksgiving tablscape is full of burlap, black and white, and touches of gold. I love how it turned out!!

How an MLM helped me through PPD

 

7 months ago I found myself in a really dark place I never expected to be. I had been waiting for my beautiful baby girl to arrive and she came and was amazing. The first few days in the hospital were bliss and everything was going great. "I got this two kid thing!" I remember thinking to myself. 

Rewind 3 years prior, my first child was so good and I was so happy and I had support and no responsibilities so I think my expectations of my second child were that this baby would be good and I knew what I was doing so I definitely felt confident that everything would be unicorns and rainbows!

Fiona's Blessing Day

 

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to bless Fiona with our friends and family and it was such a beautiful experience! I wanted to have a pink boho feel to the day and I knew I wanted some printed florals to play off of. My friend Natashia is an amazing artist and she had already posted some floral table runners/printable floral crowns on her blog and I knew they would be perfect for the tables. I asked her if she would create something for the backdrop and she made an INCREDIBLE and GORGEOUS floral wreath backdrop for me!

The Best Banana Cream Pie EVER

 Happy National Pi Day!!! To celebrate I thought I would share what pie means in this family. I didn't know how important pie was going to be in my life until I married my husband. It turns out his mom is the Pie Queen. For the last couple of decades she has gone all out for Thanksgiving baking all the yummiest pies for the entire family. Lemon Meringue, Pumpkin, Peach, Pumpkin Pecan, Strawberry Rhubarb, Pecan, Triple Berry, Peach Cream, Sweet Potato, Orange Cream, Chocolate Cream, Key Lime!

The Sweetest Sleeper

Is there anything sweeter than your baby girl sleeping? I submit that there is not! Haha! But really, my favorite thing is when my baby falls asleep in my arms. I know it's not good for sleep training but I currently do not care!! It does however make it hard to get anything done or help out my 3 year old when he needs me to build legos with him so I have to put her down sometimes! But Fiona is a very very light sleeper so it's a balancing act for sure!! In comes the DockATot. 

A Classic 30th Birthday

I had a really hard time deciding what I wanted to do for my 30th birthday. Some friends go skydiving or on amazing trips but seeing as I have a 2 month old those things were pretty well out of the question (maybe for my 40th!!!). But then it dawned on me! Why not relive my high school days a bit and head to Classic Fun Center in Orem?? It's really close to me right now and they have so much to do there I knew it would be a blast for the whole family!! We skated, did laser tag, played arcade games and played on the bouncy inflatables! And guess what?! They offering a 20% discount code on all birthday parties for my readers!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?? The code is "lifewithwings". Read on to hear how much fun we had and all the fun things you could do at your next birthday party! And for more ways to save at your next visit!

Love at Home!

I had the lovely Saudalia come and take photos of my little family at home and the results are amazing! She is so professional but knows how to get the important moments. I love every precious shot!

Fiona Fae: A Natural Birth Story

*Just a disclaimer that this is an in depth description of my pregnancy and birth of my daughter and I do talk a lot about the procedures. Although I do not go into any graphic detail I still suggest that if you are not comfortable with that or you have any triggers, to avoid this article*

(I do a lot of comparing to my sons pregnancy in this post so I've italicized the sections where I'm talking about his birth so it doesn't get too confusing)

Where do you generally start with a birth story? I guess Fiona's started back in January when I had my second ever miscarriage. It's hard to want to try again after that happens, it just really makes you think that maybe your body isn't ready, adequate, and in my case I thought maybe I wasn't fit and healthy enough?? Those are definitely not true thoughts but they ran through my head and gave me doubts anyway. Well I had my son and he was perfectly healthy and happy so I knew I could do it again and love any baby that came our way. We became pregnant with Fiona almost immediately after we started trying again and yes even though I was trying to be positive about it I still was very cautious of my feelings for the first 12 weeks which was hard because it kept me from being excited. After 2 or 3 ultrasounds and several chances to hear her heartbeat, I finally became very excited and let myself start wondering what the gender of this baby would be.

Hospital Bag Essentials

Well I am only 3 days away from this little lady's due date and finally packed a hospital bag two nights ago. Me and my husband thought I was in the early stages of labor so we frantically ran around the cabin trying not wake my son grabbing everything I thought I needed. Luckily (maybe not luckily??), my contractions subsided and I slept for a good 6 hours straight that night. Needless to say, the next day I went through the bag and made sure what we packed was what I really needed! I did a little organizing and now every time we leave the house we take the bag just in case.

DIY Christmas "Poo Spray" with Essential Oils

 Let's get personal here for a second. Real personal. Like in the bathroom personal. We all go, and we all have those times where it is really inconvenient to go because you know someone is going to smell it and know what you did. Even though every body does it, you don't need to let them know! Well, you could go out and spend $10-15 on a tiny bottle of that fancy spray stuff or you can use what you already have and make some for (almost) free! 

I had an idea for this months and months ago and wasn't sure if it would work but after some research and making some of my own concoctions I am proud to say that THIS STUFF REALLY WORKS! Ha! I'm serious! But I had another thought, this actually would make a pretty hilarious and awesome gift! Give it at a white elephant gift party or give one to all your neighbors! That way if you're ever over at their house you have no shame in what might happen in their bathroom. 

So I'm here to share with you 4 different recipes and some printable labels with instructions (found at the bottom of this post) for this awesome poo spray you can DIY to make everyone think you smell like Christmas morning!

Friendsgiving: A night to remember!

 I am bringing you such a fun post today! Perfect for Thanksgiving Eve! When Aleigh with For the Joy of Life and Natashia from Canary Jane asked me to help them host a Friendsgiving for some other bloggers I was thrilled!! I can't say no to planning a party, really it's a disease I have! I loved hearing Aleigh's story of how she decided to throw this event and it rang true with everything I've gone through in life so not only was it so fun but also meaningful! Especially since these two women had come into my life at the perfect time, a Friendsgiving seemed to be the perfect thing to do!

A Thankful Heart Series Part 3: My Family

I have had such a wonderful time with this amazing series I've been hosting with Aleigh and Natashia! It has been so good for me to list all the things going right in my life when at times it seems all I do is complain. If you too want to join in and get all the feel goods and the heart eyes in your soul make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom to see how you can join in on this series too! You won't regret it! 

  

A Thankful Heart Series Part 2 My Health

Welcome to Part 2 in the Thankful Heart series I am co hosting with Aleigh from For the Joy of Life! This is a link up party where we share what we're grateful for and invite anyone and everyone to join in so we can read what you are thankful for too!! Please join us and at the bottom of the post there is all the info you need to link up!! I've been loving this so far because it reminds me that there is so so much to be grateful for!

A Thankful Heart Series Part 1. Friends and Why They Matter

Happy November! 

This is such a fun time of year! We start to put up our Christmas decorations, the hustle and bustle of the holidays is in the air, we are changing our thoughts toward our friends and family and who is most important in our life and we start to reflect back on the year for things we are grateful for. 

This has been one of the most rewarding yet challenging years for me. Me and my husband had planned to make a big tropical vacation to celebrate our 10 years together but in December of last year we were told we it's time to expand our family instead. We almost immediately got pregnant in January but that same day I found out that pregnancy was not meant to be. A difficult couple of weeks later I was pregnant again! This baby decided to stick around and will be joining our family in only 4 short weeks from now! 

Not long after we got pregnant we were told we need to sell our amazing and beautiful home and build our forever home. I'm basically bawling my eyes out right now thinking about it because we have such amazing friends we found there and now we are supposed to leave all of them? But we asked again and got confirmation that that was supposed to be our families plan. We've since moved into my husbands grandparents cabin about 30 minutes away and it feels so far from everyone. I have had many moments of feeling alone and scared that I wouldn't have anyone close by that I could count on. 

Photo credit: RoxanaBPhotography

 

Fantasy Halloween Photoshoot in the Woods

We're still talking about Halloween, right? Well, if Pinterest tells me anything it's telling me we're not over it yet! I have already been slacking at this blog and I'll be sharing one more Halloween themed thing after this so... forgive me okay??? My good friend Brittany is no ordinary person. She has such amazing ideas and visions in general but when it comes to Halloween FORGET ABOUT IT. You will never have decorations as good as hers. Kidding! (But really, check this out for a little glimpse!). So when she asked me to take some photos of her girls for their Halloween costumes I knew it was going to be amazing! And I was immediately feeling scared I wouldn't bring her vision to life!

Vintage Halloween Party

Happy Halloween in ONE week!! I am not exaggerating when I say that Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday! Christmas is wonderful and I appreciate the spirit of the season but it is always so stressful! Halloween is the first of the holidays and you can make it as big or small as you want and there is no pressure. That being said, I think I am the queen of crazy, impractical ideas and then going to every length to make it happen even though no one would have ever noticed if I did anything. 

I had an idea a little over a week ago to throw a kids Halloween party in my new cabin backyard up here in the canyon. I couldn't shake the idea and I knew it would have to happen soon before it got too cold and all the leaves disappeared. Well on Monday I went shopping, Tuesday I put everything together and made the food and Wednesday I set up (with help of course!) and only started the party 30 minutes late ha!  

 I had the most help from my favorite local party store Zurchers! I'm always there first because they are almost always a one stop shop for me! They carry all the trendy, classic, character party decor you need! Plus a little extra! The pinwheels, broomstick and crepe paper festooning I made (DIY for that coming soon!) all came from Zurchers. I made the "All Hallows Eve" banner and had the other props on hand.

Hands Down The Best Chili on the Planet

So many of you already know but back in August we sold our beautiful home and moved into my husbands grandparents cabin in Provo canyon. Like IN the canyon. It has been a pretty hard transition for me (one word: BUGS) with living without most of our belongings, it's a smaller space, no washer and dryer and initially no dishwasher (we recently bought this and it has been a lifesaver!). 

With that being said, we couldn't have picked a better time to move here. We got to witness fall in all it's glory right outside our windows. I have never appreciated fall so much! Just this past week it got really cold too, but that's nothing a good hot soup can't fix!

Fairy Tale Maternity Shoot

Wow, I never thought I'd be starting yet ANOTHER blog! Despite all the blogs I've started they have all lacked one very important thing in my life and that is my family.  We are mom, dad and Drew with baby girl on the way in 8 short weeks! Eek!! But really, why haven't I ever blogged about our everyday life?? Just look how cute we are!