Love Day Recap!

When I think of love, I think of God. He sent his Son to die for my sins, and that's a beautiful, powerful, life-changing thing.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ~ 1 John 4:7

And sometimes I get too caught up in my life and my schedule that I forget that the whole reason I'm here on this earth is to show the love of Christ to others. And for me this year, Valentine's Day was a great reminder of this. 

Usually, Justin and I aren't huge fans of this holiday, but we did squeeze in a few unexpected & lovely celebrations this year. Saturday night we had a Valentine's Day dinner with my in-laws. Sorry for the blurry & poorly-lit photos, I didn't realize my flash was turned off.

A beautiful centerpiece made with carnations (my favorite flower)!

And just for good measure and keeping with this over-sharing theme, here's a picture of my carnation bouquet from our wedding.  (my sister's carried the white bouquets). 

Back to Saturday's dinner, it was truly a meal fit for a king (or queen!). We had steak, lobster, potatoes, and broccoli. 

My stomach just growled. Yum.

The following day we had a very special lunch with my family to celebrate my sister Lindsay's 26th birthday! (Lindsay's on the right, Taylor's on the left). I forgot to take my camera along - woops!

And as if all this goodness wasn't enough . . . I came home from work on Tuesday to find dinner made by sweet Justin waiting for me.

Homemade stromboli - complete with a heart in the center. 

Could my love tank be any fuller? 

 Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You. 

~ Psalm 63:3

How did you celebrate Valentine's day? Any unexpected surprises? And I probably won't be posting again this week, so what's on tap for the weekend? :)

Hello Again!

I took a little blogging break. And it felt pretty good. I actually debated shutting this whole thing down but then a sweet comment from Katie (Paisley Print Shoes) warmed my heart and all was right again in the blogosphere.


But if we're keeping things real . . . I'll let you know that my posts are going to be a bit more sporadic. Justin & I try our best to save up for projects but then sometimes the dishwasher breaks (twice) or there's a leak in the basement that requires our attention and, unfortunately, our money. As we start projects I'll be sure to share them though. Right now we're mulling over what our next project should be . . . we're thinking either the bathroom or our bedroom. I'll keep you posted once we've decided!


On a completely different note, a few weeks ago my mom, sister & brother came over for the weekend. And it snowed!

 Justin threw snow at me. Typical boy :)

Back of our house.  . . you can see my two planters never made it inside this year. Woops.

My sister's dog Sylvie love the snow! This was the only decent picture of her I was able to take. 

The rest of the time Sylvie ran around like a crazed canine.

Thanks for bearing with me everyone! Have a great Monday! :)

Birthday Wishes

My baby brother turns 17 on Sunday! I guess he's not really my baby brother anymore. More like my deep-voiced and armpit-hair-growing man brother. 

He and his best friend Albert and my mom are coming over tonight for a little birthday dinner celebration. So there will not be a regular post today because I need to get some cooking done before I head in to work. In place of my usual ramblings, I'm just going to post a couple random pictures of my grown-up fella.

And this last picture always cracks me up. When we were at Busch Gardens, Harrison & Justin squeezed into this little egg. Hilarious. 

Happy birthday Harrison! 


So what are your weekend plans? Any DIY projects in store? Tree decorating? Good ole' fashioned eggnog drinking? 

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

How was everyone's Thanksgiving weekend? Did anyone battle the masses on black friday and find some killer deals?


We spent Thanksgiving with Justin's family. And I can assure you I ate enough sweet potato casserole to last me for the rest of the year. But besides the amazing food, we really enjoyed just relaxing and catching up with the cousins (and the newest family member baby Miller!). 

Oh and my heart swooned over this centerpiece my mother-in-law made!

Right now I need to attack the piles of nonsense all over our home, start some laundry and wash the dirty dishes piled in the sink. 


But make sure you check back tomorrow to read all about our loveseat-hunting progress!