Happy 29th Birthday, Devin

To the guy who, in the last year, made us laugh a lot, worked hard so I could stay home with the kids, built a playhouse for the kids, funded our pool installation (more on that soon!), wrestled with the three kids even after long days at work, and served God. 

We love you, Devin!

(And here are some fun snapshots of a recent trip to Graeme Historic Site & Park, which Devin suggested we visit......and then had us listen to the audio walking tour where we learned about a governor in Pennsylvania in the 1700s. Being almost thirty is VERY fun 😉)

Devin's 28th birthday | Devin's 24th birthday

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Getting Ready for Cozy Holidays

*This post is sponsored by Iffei Official, and I genuinely love this company and what they make! Affiliate links included.

Normally I'm a strict no-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving type of girl because I want to keep gratitude front and center for as long as we can, leading up to Thanksgiving! But this has been a weird year and (in case Pennsylvania has another full-on shut down!) I've even started Christmas shopping. WHICH IS SOMETHING I NEVER DO IN NOVEMBER. 

You might also like: 6 Prep-ahead breakfast bakes for Christmas morning | No-egg Christmas cookie recipe for toddlers | DIY Advent calendar

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Our 8th Anniversary

Our 8th anniversary came during a week of protests, riots, and looting here in Philly, and in the middle of a pandemic. There was so much going on in the world, and Devin and my hearts were heavy with the pain of injustice and brokenness. To add to the more serious world issues, on our actual anniversary, an insane thunderstorm ripped through our area and took out our power and shattered our glass table on our back deck. We literally spent hours picking up glass from the deck and the grass around it, because high winds + shattered glass = KIDS YOU HAVE TO WEAR SHOES OUTSIDE FOREVER BECAUSE IT'S BURIED IN THE GRASS AND HOW WILL I PICK IT ALL UP. Then, Devin tried for hours to get our generator up and running.

Not exactly the most fun anniversary.

But in spite of the ridiculously bad week that our anniversary fell on, it's been an incredible year of marriage. Year 8 was a good one: we moved to a new house, FINALLY sold the old one, had Riley, and laughed together a lot.

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Happy Birthday, Devin

Welcome to 28, Devin!

You're the perfect balance of strict and fun in parenting. Emma runs to greet you when you get home from work, but Aiden and Emma know you're the one who won't let them get away with things (like whining or complaining!). You're even good with babies, which is a huge deal. You change just as many diapers as I do when you're home, and you're incredible at keeping Riley happy on your lap so I can eat my dinner without a mildly upset baby in my arms. (If that's not true love, what is?!)

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8 Productive Things to Do When Stuck Inside

I want to feel productive.

I also want to have fun.

But I'm stuck inside/away from people for the next 14 days, or wait, maybe 8 weeks, or wait, maybe forever. Who knows. And after a few days of social isolation, it can really get to you! Your ideas list might be running low, your toddler craft supplies can only be cleaned up so many times before you lose your mind, and you need some inspiration.

Other inside things you might like: Easy baking with kids | Apple cinnamon breakfast bake with just a few ingredients | 3 hard-to-kill houseplants to order online 

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Choosing Our Christmas Tree

This past weekend, we bundled up and headed out to a new-to-us tree farm that's owned by friends from church. If you're in the Philly area, you have to check out Watson's Tree Farm in Warrington, PA. They were super knowledgeable in choosing a tree that would stay alive through til Christmas (apparently the first tree we picked out only lasts 3 weeks! Who knew?!) and would be strong enough to hold ornaments on the branches.

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Thankful List | 2019

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

It's tradition to share a list of what I'm grateful for, and this year is no different! It's so fun to look back and see that in 2014, I was thankful for camping trips just me and Devin, and last year's list included Aiden talking about good guys and bad guys.

Here's what I was thankful for in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. 

What I'm thankful for this year: 

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Bonfire Nights

**Affiliate links used. 

Devin and I have been talking about getting a fire pit since we moved in over the summer. We had fires at our old house before we had even moved in (and here's some delightful proof from 2012! Gotta love the awkward old blog archives!). Our old house had veryyy little grass in the backyard, so our best/most recent fire pit was just a hole we dug with rocks around it. We weren't worried about messing up the yard, since it was already such a patchy yard. (It made it easier to burn scrap wood, fallen branches, and other home renovation wooden leftovers!) At the new house, we have actual grass! A yard that gets sunshine and doesn't require 15 gallons of bug spray just to go out amidst the mosquitoes? YES PLZ.

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Peddler's Village in December

There is something magical about tiny lights at Christmastime. My regular-sized, 60-watt bulbs in my dining room chandelier: not magical. Little mini lights wrapped around literally anything: veryyy magical.

It's science, or something. I don't make the rules. That's just how it is.

If we can head out into the actual freezing cold to see some pretty lights, you totally can too. May this inspire you to at least Google pictures of lights (or look outside again and see what lights your neighbors have put up). 😉 

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Around The Tree + Holiday Style

*We received a complimentary watch from JORD Wood Watches. All opinions are honest. Of course. Enter my giveaway here to get $100 off any watch!*

Hope you all had a restful Thanksgiving weekend! One of our Thanksgiving weekend traditions is to get a tree and decorate it; if I'm going to pay cash monayy for a real tree, I want to be able to enjoy it as long as possible! (But you all knew I am a cheapskate, so that logic shouldn't come as any surprise.)

We picked out our tree Friday night and got it all set up so that Saturday morning, we could start in with the decorating. Aiden started right in with pulling out the ornaments and started hanging them........mostly on the same branch. We added some lights, turned up the Christmas music, and had a blast, playing with the kids and decorating the tree.

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Space for Being Grateful | Thankful List 2018

While the rest of you adorable friends are putting up your evergreen mantle decor and all the lights and stockings, I'm still over here playing Grateful (by Elevation Worship, of course) and talking about Thanksgiving.

I know, lame.

I'm no quitter, though, and because I started the "thankful list" tradition in 2014 (and did it in 2015, 2016, AND 2017), you better BELIEVE I'm back again this year with another one. Plus, how FUN is it that in 2014, birth control and Spanish dictionaries made it on the list.

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Movie Monday (Or, My new favorite weekly tradition)

It's no secret that Devin and I are huge fans of Friday date night. I've shared fall date night ideas, Christmas movie date nights, how we've brought a toddler on our dates, and how to brainstorm date night ideas. Spending a set-aside "date night" is important to us, but really, the point is that we're spending quality, real time together. So, besides getting out of the house for a fun activity on a weekend night, we have also started a weekly tradition that I love!

Movie Monday.

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Fall Date Ideas (Or, Enjoy the Outdoors Before It Snows)

This past week, both little ones have been sick, and it's been so hard to watch them be so unhappy!  After continuously prepping doses of Motrin, offering them applesauce and juice (only to have it rejected 108 times), and holding them close because all they want is to be in your arms.....I am ready for a date night.

(I'm also REALLY thankful they're feeling better.)

I'm ready to get out of the house and leave them in the capable, loving hands of their grandparents. And I'm ready to do all the fall sheeet because, hello, I just spent what felt like YEARS trapped inside with inconsolable small humans.

Of course, I'm really tempted to be cynical about doing fall stuff, when EVERY dang picture in my feed is a baby in a pumpkin patch. But I'm going to stuff that cynicism down and invite Devin to join me on some of these fall-related dates, because repressing your sarcastic side is what all the Be Your Best Self books recommend! (Jk. I wouldn't know. Mostly because I don't read those.) (Also I will probably take the typical kids-in-a-pumpkin-patch photo, too, so go ahead and lump me in with all your #basicmoms.)

Anyway.

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Exploring Local | Maple Acres Farm

 Just a few days ago, we were sweating as we walked through a local farm, and now I'm wearing rain boots and long pants and sipping hot coffee. (Ok, September, I see you with those weather-mood swings.)

Last week, we didn't have a babysitter for our typical Friday date night, so instead, we all headed out for a little adventure as a family (this Friday night outing more along the lines of my date night with a toddler post. And, if you want a laugh, read my post on date night from 2013!)

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Kayaking at Peace Valley Park

Last Friday, Devin and I borrowed his parents' kayak and headed out on a date. Devin looked up a park near us that had a river, and I thought that that was our plan. But when we dropped off our kids with my sister-in-law and her husband to babysit, they told us that you couldn't actually kayak there, and that we'd be better of at Peace Valley.

That simple change in plan felt like a big deal to me--suddenly I was like, should we even go? Peace Valley is a little further, which means more wasted time driving, and we don't even know if the borrowed kayak has a permit and what if a park ranger doesn't let us in......We went to the trouble of scheduling babysitters, and it felt like high stakes: the one evening a week we spend just us (though we've done "dates" with a toddler in tow) might go totally awry.

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2018 Staycation Checklist

Yesterday on Instagram, I shared about how two of our favorite couple friends came back for a Philly visit! (Remember when I talked about when great friends move away?) When we found out one of the couples was coming into town, Devin and I decided to make it a full on reunion and invite our first married friends, Courtney & Isaac, to come stay with us so we could all hang out. There ended up being only one night of overlap (where I got this group picture), and the rest of the extended weekend was the best mini-vacation...here at our place! 

Here's what we did: 

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Our Six Year Anniversary

We got married June 3, 2012, a day that had thunderstorms in the morning which gave way to beautiful, warm sunshine, allowing us to have our ceremony and photos outside. Every single June 3rd since has been cold and/or rainy here in Philly, so it's clear just how generous God was with the weather that day. (Our ceremony / our reception.)

Devin and I decided to do a whole-family "anniversary day trip," since we had just celebrated his birthday just the two of us. We had a few ideas, but spontaneously decided to go to an amusement park 1.5 hours away. Spending the overcast, cool day all together was glorious, along with riding on the ferris wheel, monorail, and other kid-friendly rides. Devin and I laughed a lot and carried our babies and pushed the stroller up lots of hills and ate ice cream and it was all just so wonderful.

After our fun and tiring-in-the-best-way day, we put the kids to bed and (to the sexy soundtrack of Renovation Realities, DIY channel's best renovation dumpster fire) talked about what our favorite parts of marriage are. We discussed what areas we both need to grow in, and we both listed what we're excited about for in the future. In the stillness of conversations before bedtime, being real about our successes and failures and the challenges: that right there is how I want to reflect on our six years of marriage.

6 years down, 74 more to go 😉 

(Let's talk about how hard it is to get a picture with little kids WHEN THEY'RE ACTUALLY SMILING. Clearly we've got more goals to add to the list for this next year! Haha)

More anniversary posts: 1 year | 2 years | 3 years | 4 years | 5 years

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10 Unexpected White Elephant Gifts

The white elephant gift exchange is my favorite part of our small group Christmas party. (You can call it yankee swap or whatever you want, but it's the game you play by these rules.) One year, Devin literally made a t-shirt with one of the group's inside jokes on it. The next year, he gave a flashlight, a dirty hardhat he found in our basement, and his grandfather's hand-me-down sandals, labeling the ensemble a "DIY Miner's Kit." I don't remember if I was the only person hysterically laughing.

The goal is to be creative and give something that falls in AT LEAST one of these categories:

• inexpensive
• potentially useful
• good for laughs or straight up WEIRD
• kinda cute. 

Whether you've got a holiday gift exchange planned, or if you're looking for a surprise gift for the person who already knows what else you bought them...

This list is for you: 

1. Baby wipes, chocolate syrup out of the back of your fridge, and glitter, all in a bag with the label "Date Night Kit."
2. A Ron Swanson mug that's funny even if you don't watch the show. 
3. An enema. (Devin literally almost bought an enema one year to wrap up as a gift for our small group's party. I almost died.)
4. The kitchen gadget you don't use anymore. 
5. Small box of tea + a mug in a trash bag. 
6. This unicorn-head mask. 
7. Really, any mask. 
8. The dad-bod fanny pack. Make sure to select "extra hairy happy trail" at checkout. Jk. That's not an option. But it should be. 
9. A really good-smelling candle + $5 Dunkin donuts giftcard, in a random Amazon box that would suggest "I put zero effort into this gift" (WHEN IN REALITY...)
10. 5-10 rolls of toilet paper. Unused, obviously. 

What are some ridiculous or cute or useful gifts that you'd give at a white elephant gift exchange? 

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Christmas Movie Date Nights

*Updated November 2021

Devin and I have this tradition where we watch a Christmas on Thanksgiving night and almost every single night leading up to Christmas. It makes the evenings feel festive, and I love discussing which one on our list to watch.

You have to be in it to win it, though. Request the DVDs from the library, dig through that $5 bin at Walmart, check your local thrift store...Don't just approach this all casual like, "Let's check Netflix to see which ones they have" because I guarantee you'll be disappointed and end up spending $5 on OnDemand/Youtube/Wherever You Pay To Watch Movies and let me tell you, those $5's will add up quick.

To be fair, this is a list that Devin and I watch together. I've shared our family-friendly list of Christmas movies here!

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Thankful List 2017

I'm so thankful for this little family. 

For the moments when Aiden gently kisses Emma's head. 

For the sweet baby snuggles with Emma at 3am. 

For the fun impressions Devin and I do of Aiden (like "Emma POOOOOOP"). 

For the way Aiden is interested in everything--the small bug crawling by outside, the lift-the-flaps in a book, the sound his hammers ("hameems") make when he bangs them on the wooden steps. 

For the way Devin and I are a team in this. 

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