Party, Pool, Pictionary, Pizza & Putt-Putt

Whoa that's a lot of things in one weekend that start with a "P!" Makes naming this post pretty easy :) So, I'm feeling a bit tired today, but (as weird as this sounds) it's a good kind of tired, because I started off my day and my week with a 2.5-mile run this morning! My legs are now tired and sore, but I'm feeling good about it, and definitely glad I got up and did it! Week 5 of 5K training is underway. And now of course, let's rewind the past few days and do a bit of weekend recapping. Well, the weekend plus a Thursday recap as well...

THURSDAY
Pizza and putt-putt with the fiance, the twins, Lacey, Josh and Danielle at Fun Station! Their awesome Thursday-night deal is: buy a large pizza for $3.99, and get four games of putt-putt for free! Holy crap that's just too good to pass up, am I right?

FRIDAY
Tried out a new pizza place here in town, Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint, and it was so freaking delicious! I had a Portobello Pesto Pizza, and I loved it. Sooo yummy. And there were so many other options I wanted to try, so I can't wait to go back and get something different. Then we did some shopping at Walmart to get ready for the twins' birthday party the next day, and even found us all matching shirts to go with the party theme - get ready for pictures of those from Saturday :)

SATURDAY
Birthday party day for the twins! It was actually about a week and a half ago, but we waited until we could work it out the best, and it ended up being a great day for a party at the park! We had a Superman theme, so there was red and blue everywhere, and the four of us all wore matching Superman tshirts we found at Walmart!

After the party, we spent quite a few hours enjoying the beautiful sunshine at the pool, then cooked dinner at Josh & Lacey's house. Then while the kids all watched a movie, we played a couple rounds of our favorite game - Pictionary! One round of couple vs couple, and one round of boys vs girls. Always lots and lots of fun when we play Pictionary!

Picture of ALL the kids at the pool ;)

SUNDAY
The usual morning of hurch and lunch with my parents, then my Mama and I went wedding shoe shopping for me at DSW. Unfortunately, we didn't find anything, so I'm still on the hunt for shoes. Turning my search online now to see what I can find! Then Jeff and the boys and I enjoyed movie rest time for a bit, before the boys finally got restless and forced us back into action. We made a trip to Target (I bought a new dress, in a smaller size!!), then grabbed food from a new-ish place called Zacadoo's - where thanks to a coupon and kids meals being cheaper past 4 pm, all four of us ate dinner for a mere $8.94, and it was really good too! Score!

I then went to Kohl's while Jeff bathed the boys and got them ready for bed. I found a new dress for one of my upcoming wedding showers, and a potential leaving-the-wedding-dress. I just want to try it one with the proper undergarments (*ahem* my Spanks slip....) and see how it looks. I also got two cute, soft v-neck t-shirts, and since I had a coupon, and a couple gift cards, I only paid $4 for two dresses and two shirts. I love when stuff like that happens!

Now it's Monday morning, and I've got two full days ahead of me at work. I've been in training for the last three weeks, just sitting in my supervisor's office learning and watching. Today and tomorrow however, she's out of the office so I finally get to do some work on my own! It's a big responsibility, but I'm ready for it, and I'm ready to just do some hands-on training of my own. So wish me luck as I work on my own the next two days! Happy Monday morning, and happy start to a new week!

Oh, and here's my current mani, which I kinda love! This is the first time I've tried the free-hand painted clouds, but I think I did a decent job, and I will definitely be trying again sometime. Jeff also likes them, and says they remind him of the clouds from Mario (the video game), and I think he's right!

A bit chipped, because this is four days after I first painted them last Thursday...

Much Love,
Halie

*P.S. - This week I'm linking up with Glitter & Gloss, Sami's Shenanigans and Synfully Delicious.*

Putt-Putt On A Friday Night

This Monday morning is kinda off to a rough start (I mean, I just misspelled/mistyped 'Monday' about 5 times...). I was just so dang sleepy this morning! I overslept my early alarms, and by the time I woke up, it was too late for my early morning 5k training run. I felt bad I skipped it, but it might be good I got an extra hour of sleep today. I wish I could have gotten another hour actually! But I think it's all just due to a great weekend spent with my fiance, the twins and some great friends!

FRIDAY
Took the boys to Fun Station for some arcade games, pizza and putt-putt! We found a good deal, used some coupons and found some leftover arcade money from a couple of months ago, and so the four of us had a great little family night out, and did it pretty inexpensively. Score! Afterwards, we even treated ourselves to some delicious frozen yogurt, with coupons of course ;) After some cuddling and snuggling before the boys went to sleep, I then went home and stayed up watching a movie until 2:30 am! I was living on the edge that night...

SATURDAY
Did a bit of cleaning and laundry around the house (cleaned out under my sink, so I get to cross that off from my summer bucket list), then went over to Jeff's house. We all cuddled up together and watched 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' and the boys were just being so sweet and loving, and it was just nice to cuddle and rest a bit more. Then once the sun had come out, we went to the pool for a few hours with some friends. Later that afternoon, we went to a belated wedding shower in honor of Jeff's younger brother, who got married in Texas in the beginning of June. Back at home that night, we had a late dinner and then all cuddled up to watch a movie before the boys went to sleep. Then I stayed up kinda late again at my house watching a movie!

SUNDAY
After church, we had lunch with Jeff's family, then quickly got read to head back to the pool again. But first, we made a pit stop to look at a little house we're interested in renting. It's currently getting some work done (painting the guest bathroom, put new laminate wood floors in the bedrooms, new faucets & outlets...), but overall, we really liked it a lot! We're still thinking about it, but it's got some potential. Then we went to the pool to meet friends again, and we enjoyed a great afternoon of sunshine - finally!! We then went over to Josh and Lacey's house, and the boys grilled hamburgers, hot dogs and pork loin, while Lacey and I made the rest of dinner in the kitchen!

We're looking at the left side of this little duplex/townhouse, the purple one! :)

This was Jeff's plate - I tried to eat a little less than this as to not ruin all my hard work. 

We seriously had a great weekend over the past few days. I just felt so lucky and in love and my heart was so very full getting to spend so much quality time with Jeff and the boys. I am so in love with this man, and with his precious children, and I can't wait to get married (in less than 70 days now!), and become a little family. I'm so thankful for this blessing in my life!

I'm already looking forward to another fun weekend, and I can't wait to spend more time with these sweet little boys, and of course Jeff too! Just have to get through five days of work first, unfortunately... So let's just get to it and get it over with!

And here's my weekly mani, that I created to be sunny and summery, in order to add some sun in my life last week while the rains were just steady pouring down. And I think it worked, because we had a beautiful weekend finally of blue skies and bright sunshine!

Hope y'all's Monday mornings are off to a better start than mine. And hopefully I can pull myself together and get this Monday on the right track! Tonight my Mama and I are going to our wedding site to have a meeting with the florist, so I'm pretty excited for that. I'm still not entirely sure what I want, flower-wise, so I'm really hoping she can give lots of good advice and ideas, and help steer me in a more specific direction. Can't wait to see what she might come up with!

Much Love,
Halie

*Linking up with Glitter & Gloss, Sami's Shenanigans and Synfully Delicious*

Pleasant & Patriotic 4-Day Weekend

Well, I've been out of work and out of the blogging routine for the past four days, and it's been great. I mean seriously - super long holiday weekends are amazing, and definitely necessary for your sanity, and I enjoyed every single bit of it. What about y'all? And since I had such a long amazing weekend, there's a ton to catch up on, so today's post will once again be very picture heavy, and kinda light on the writing.

Let's back it up all the way to Thursday, for the 4th of July!

Actually first of all, let me just show off our dinner from Wednesday night that we made ourselves. Super yummy Turkey Santa Fe Stuffed Peppers. Sooo good. I'll be sharing the recipe tomorrow!

THURSDAY
I was house/dog-sitting all last week for my friend Lacey, and for some strange reason I woke up before 8 a.m. without an alarm. What is wrong with that picture? So I took the dog out and fed her, then I was quite productive for a few hours. I did some dishes, loaded and started the dishwasher, started a load of laundry, swept the house, uploaded and edited some pictures, bought new music on iTunes, made a new running playlist, and finally made my new playlist for the summer (another check from my summer bucket list!). And I did all that before 10 a.m. Impressive right?

Jeff came over around lunch time, and we made turkey taco lettuce wraps with the leftovers from our stuffed peppers the night before, then just lounged around for a bit watching National Treasure 2 on TV. We then went out and attempted to find cute matching shirts to wear, but no such luck. So we came back to the house and made our mac and cheese to take to family dinner.

My Granddaddy - the Birthday Boy!

My Mama made these super cute eagles as her surprise dessert treat!

My sister made these patriotic themed cupcakes, which were delicious.

We played a giant game of 12-person Farkle, and my Granddaddy-the-birthday-boy won!

And of course my sister and I had to take an unnecessary amount of goofy pictures, just like we always do...

The problem was however, that Florida couldn't get it's crap together to stop raining long enough to do any fireworks. Thanks a lot. So I didn't get to see any this year. What a sad 4th of July with no fireworks, right?! Oh well, Jeff and I already decided that next year, we're definitely heading back to St. George Island beach for July 4th festivities, and that will be awesome.

FRIDAY
I am honestly having a hard time remembering what we did on Friday...I know it was still raining, so I think we ran errands and stuff around town. Oh yeah - we went to Hobby Lobby and priced some silk floral stems for wedding purposes, bought a few cute glass jars, raided an awesome new thrift store of all their vintage books and a giant empty wooden picture frame, and a couple of other random things. And I got a wonderful little package in the mail from one of my friends from college. She lives in Tennessee now, and it's been a looong time since I've seen her. But she sent me the cutest little things! Later, we got Tropical Smoothie for dinner, and then went to Jeff's church to help decorate for Vacation Bible School, which is this week.

Set of fold-out, vintage Florida postcards, a wrap bracelet, hand-painted (by her!) cards, & a super sweet note.

SATURDAY
It was still raining (for about the billionth day in a row now...), so we did some more running around and found another cool new thrift store, where we scored this really cool wicker-basket-trunk-thing for only $15. The top of it is messed up, so we are going to try to figure out a way to redo it to make it look nice. We also shopped around town for what we want Jeff and his groomsmen to wear for the wedding.  The rest of the afternoon was low-key and boring, but then we went out for date night on a budget. We used coupons at Black Bean (local Cuban place Jeff hadn't ever been to before), then finally saw 'Fast 6' at the cheap theater here in town. And that movie was awesome!

We needed a pick-me-up after so much shopping. He got a Mocha, I got a Peach Green Tea Lemonade. Yum.

SUNDAY
Church and lunch with my parents, then Jeff and I spent the afternoon driving around town looking for 'For Rent' signs for our future place! We drove around for like three hours, took down about 30 addresses and numbers, and then started calling almost all of them last night. We're so excited about finding a place to live now, and hopefully the process won't be too obnoxious and difficult.

OK, so I think that about wraps everything up now, finally! Hopefully I didn't bore you all to death, and you're still interested in reading my blog again after all this... But even more than that, I hope each one of y'all had a great weekend too! I wish we could have had less rain and more sunshine, but hey, not every day can be perfect, so we just live with it and move on. And in the meantime, we just hope for sunny days and better weather in the future! The weekend was still good, despite the crazy amount of rainfall, and I had a great four days off of work.

Oooh, and one more thing - this morning I officially started using Hal Higdon's novice 5K training plan, to get ready to run my first 5K race this coming September! So follow along with me as I get ready for that! I'll be sharing my usual collages on Instagram, and logging it all with RunKeeper.

Happy Monday, y'all! And I almost forgot - here's the nails I did for my 4th of July festivities! (I did them like 2 days before I took the picture though, so that's why they're a little chipped already...)

Much love,

Halie

Pinstagram Moments

I took the day off work today in order to enjoy a nice, long four-day weekend. So Jeff and I are running errands and planning and researching all-things-wedding. The original plan for taking the day off was to hit up our favorite beach, but it's cloudy and stormy, so that's not gonna happen. So I'm just popping in real quick today to share some little moments from my life lately, through the lens of an Instagram filter. (Idea inspired by my good bloggy friend, Rachel.)

*Side note: I started using the word "Pinstagram" a long while back in order to make it fit in with my theme of starting each post title with a P. However, my dear friend Nicole told me I wasn't allowed to just make up my own words, but I say pish, posh. I like 'Pinstagram,' so 'Pinstagram' it shall be! :) Haha*

1 // This super colorful umbrella makes rainy days a little bit brighter

2 // I wish I could always gorge on delicious sushi, but that's not a healthy idea...

3 // Still obsessed with making this caprese for myself every chance I get

4 // Love cuddling up on the couch with my man and just reading our own books together

5 // We went through a phase of playing card games every night for about two weeks

6 // Random mani, showcased on top of 'The Hobbit' (which I finally finished on Tuesday, and loved)

7 // Got kinda emotional while writing graduation cards for my high school seniors

8 // Delicious cake tasting appointment at Publix, with the cutest wittle baby cakes around

9 // These beautiful purple flowers are blooming allll over the city, and they're so gorgeous!

I love sharing photos on Instagram, and following along with all of my blog friends as well. So of course I'd love for you to hop over and join me there! My username is HalieRenee88, and you can find me here.

Hope y'all's 4th of July celebrations yesterday were tons of fun! If you had to go back to work today, I'm so sorry about that, but no worries - the weekend is well within your reach. Happy Friday to all, and I'll see ya back here on Monday morning!

Patriotic Festivities

"It's Independence Dayyyyyy!" (Pleas sing to the tune of the classic Martina McBride song from 1994. That's such a great song, and don't you even try to deny that.) You know what else, it's also my super sweet Granddaddy's birthday today as well. Yes, he shares his birthday every year with our country's birthday as well. And so every year, we get to celebrate a national holiday, and a family birthday as well, so of course it's always lots of fun! 

I for one am super excited about today, and so I wanted to share some about what my day will look like!

First of all, I'm totally splurging on this healthy eating kick, and eating a super delicious meal for dinner tonight, including ribs, baked beans, potato salad, mac and cheese, and some dessert thrown in there as well. And I'm not going to let even one ounce of that deliciousness make me feel guilty.

Found via Google image search

Oh, and that mac and cheese I mentioned earlier, Jeff and I are in charge of bringing that, so I've scoured my "Pasta is my Favorite" board on Pinterest for the past week, in search of the yummiest recipe. And I think I've found the winner folks. We're going to be using cheddar, jack and mozzarella cheeses, and adding fresh crumbled bacon on top. Hello?! Who wouldn't eat that yummy, cheesy goodness?!

From the recipe post on White on Rice Couple blog

Moving on from food now, I will be rocking as much red, white and blue from head to toe as I can possibly manage - as long as that doesn't include my blue and white umbrella in all this nasty, thunderstormy weather. Come on Florida, get it together. I have some ideas in my head of outfits I can wear, but those are my backups. But first, Jeff and I are gonna hit up Old Navy to see if we can find something matchy-matchy to wear, and just be that sickeningly cute couple :) Now, I don't think it'll be quite like the picture below, but who knows? If we find it on sale, maybe...

Found via Google image search

In addition to my sporty red, white and blue outfit I'm sure I'll be wearing, y'all know I'm also gonna be rockin' some festive and patriotic nails as well. I actually already painted them two nights ago, but I don't have a picture right now, so I'll just wait for Mani Monday to share them with y'all. In the meantime though, here's a picture of some awesome nails, I only wish I had the talent to paint free-hand!

Photo found on the Pams & Kin Facebook page

Now what I'd like to be doing tomorrow afternoon before dinner is laying on the sand, with the sun shining bright in the beautiful blue sky, getting my tan on. But noooo, the weather in Florida has to be rainy and crappy all week long, so the chances of my preferred scenario happening are pretty slim right now. However, if I had it my way, this looks like the perfect spot to hang out on the 4th of July...All I would need is a bottle of sunscreen, a cooler of snacks and drinks, and a book to keep me company. And I guess my fiance would be a good addition too ;)

Photo found via Google image search

Oh sorry, I gotta jump back to food for a bit. Since my whole family (of 12) is eating together, we're doing it potluck style and each contributing, thus why we're in charge of the mac and cheese. So my mom is bringing some dessert for us, but she's keeping it a surprise and won't tell us what it is. We know it's festive in some way, but that's about it. Oh, and she said she's sure it'll end up tasting good, but she's not sure how it will end up looking, so who knows what she has up her sleeve. I'd love to see her attempt something as pretty and Pinteresty as this, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see...!

Photo found via Google image search

And of course at the end of the night, after gorging ourselves on some yummy food, and maybe playing a game, and definitely sitting around having weird, random, hilarious conversations, eventually there will be fireworks. Now, I don't actually know if we're doing them ourselves, or if we're going somewhere to watch them, but either way, they'll definitely be happening. And if they can look even a little bit like the ones below, I'll be a happy girl.

Photo found via Google image search

I'm so grateful and thankful for this country I was blessed to live in. I hope you guys know how lucky we truly are here in America! I hope y'all have a great 4th of July celebration today (and throughout the weekend too probably), and that you enjoy your time with family and friends! Happy Independence Day, and Happy Birthday America, and another Happy Birthday to my Granddaddy!

Plans, Books, Friends & Twins (Friday's Letters)

F-R-I-D-A-Y. Welcome, so glad you're here. (At first I tried to sing that to the tune of SA-TUR-DAY- HEY!, but obviously there aren't enough letters so it just didn't work out at all. At least no one heard me though...) It seems like it's been a long, rough week, and so of course I'm glad to see it come to a close. It's been a hot minute since I've participated in some Friday's Letters, so I'm hopping aboard that good 'ole train today and writing letters to people and inanimate objects alike. Fun times :)

Dear Blog Friends: You guys were so very sweet and encouraging on Tuesday when I was struggling and not having a great couple of days. So glad to have this little space on the internets where I can be honest and raw, and not fear opening up on here with y'all. Thanks again.

Dear Super Smooth Legs: I've shaved you five days in a row, and that's got to be some kind of record for me. Seriously y'all, I usually hate shaving, so even in the summer it's never this many days in a row.

Dear Jeff: The last two night just snuggled up on the couch, reading side by side has been really sweet and cute, and I like it a lot. Definitely wouldn't mind doing that more often :)

Jeff is reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and I'm reading 'The Hobbit.' 

Dear Lacey: I'm glad after two years of missing your birthday, that I finally got to celebrate with you at dinner last night! It's about time I'd say. Hope you had a great birthday! (I forgot my camera cord today, so I can't upload any of the pictures yet unfortunately :( I'll send them to you when I do though!)

Dear Fingernails: It's about to get real 'professional' up in here, because I just got lots of new stuff to practice my nail art hobby. But what I'm most excited about are the Bundle Monster stamping plates that just came in! Definitely looking forward to trying those out. My first attempt with them will most likely be something 4th-of-July related, so hopefully it turns out good!

Dear Twins: The last three weeks with y'all have been super fun! And even though we have to take you back tomorrow, you'll be coming back to visit us again for three more weeks at the end of the summer, and we'll definitely have lots of fun then too. We're already looking forward to it and making plans!

Dear Wedding Planning: For the next few weeks between the boys' visits, it's gonna get crazy again. We are now only 99 days away from the big day, and we've got a LOT to do still. After taking a little hiatus to play with the boys for three weeks, I'm super excited to get back at it again!

Dear White Denim Skirt: I'm real glad I can finally fit into you again, because you're super cute. Now I just need to find some more tops that I like, because I either hate most of the ones I own, or the few that I like are too big now - which I guess is a good problem to have. Looks like it's time to spend some of the gift cards I've been hoarding for wayyy too long!

Dear #OperationNoMoreJiggle: I'm sure we will be put to the test this weekend with all sorts of yummy food opportunities, but we must resist! This weekend we need to make better food choices, and eat healthier than usual weekends. It's time to get serious about this thing, and really start to working on getting rid of all this jiggly junk.

So even though we have to take the boys back tomorrow, we do still have a tiny bit of time with them first. Tonight we'll drive to middle Georgia to spend the night at Jeff's brothers house, so that will be good for us to see them, as well as for the boys to hang out with their cousin Libby. Sunday will be spent at home doing chores and laundry, and hanging out with my parents a little bit, because I've barely seen them in the past three weeks while the boys have been here!

I hope y'all have a good Friday, and definitely a good weekend, and I'll see y'all again same time, same place on Monday!

Much Love,
Halie

Python, Water Park, Beach & Pool

It feels like I'm still halfway sleeping, so instead of words (basically any words at all), I'm just gonna flood y'all with a ton of pictures from our incredibly busy but extremely fun weekend...Ready, set, GO!

FRIDAY
Took the afternoon off to go to the beach with Jeff and the boys. And we lucked out with perfect weather.

SATURDAY
Pool day with lots of friends for us and lots of friends for the boys.

SUNDAY
Wild Adventures theme park in Valdosta, Georgia. We did the water park section first, then did the regular rides and stuff as well. (Get to cross another thing off my summer bucket list, because one of them was to take the boys to a water park - DONE!)

Obviously, it was super fun and we all had a blast. But I definitely still need some more rest and recovery before I'm back to normal! I'm feeling exhausted this morning, as I'm sure you would expect, but it was super fun, so it is definitely worth it. I'm thankful for amazing weekends like this we get to spend with the boys, and memories we get to make as a little "family!"

Linking up with Glitter & Gloss, Sami's Shenanigans and Synfully Delicious.

This wasn't a perfect mani, but I still liked it! And this was a few days in, so there's some chips already...