After a week of being spoiled, I'm so bummed it's over!! I'm a brat, what can I say. I'm not sure about you but in my world, the actual birthday day is just a starting point right? ;)

So the day after, birthday money in hand, I went shopping during lunch and got sucked into all that is Versona. Do you have one in your area? It's like Charming Charlie's but I think it's a good mix of more of the "older" jewelry and accessories that my mom would like (ha) and a lot of trendy accessories. I was overwhelmed with the jewelry, scarves, shoes, purses, you name it! Super affordable too.

On Friday, my boss took the office to PF Changs for my birthday lunch then that night, Ronnie and I dropped V off with my parents and he took me to Kona Grill (my favorite!!). Good thing I was wearing an old maternity dress that day - I so needed that extra space. ha! I had some of the yummiest sushi AND we split a ginormous red velvet cupcake! The cupcake was ridiculously good and totally on the house for my birthday!

1. Starting Thursday off with crazy haired V! // 2. Shopping on Thursday!
3. Oh the goodness. // 4. Big ass cupcake // 5. Me looking poofy and lip color-less. Oh well. Real life, y'all ;)

Saturday was the birthday party dinner for me and my cousin who was turning 50 on Sunday. For the past 5 years or so we have celebrated our birthdays together with all the ladies in our family and I love that! I'm so grateful for my mom, aunts and cousins. I'd post more of the pics but I look pretty awful in most of them so lucky you, this is all you get ;)

1. my doll baby // 2. my presents!! // 3. me and my cousin, Mandy
4. Mom, tired V and me // 5. Mom made margarita cupcakes for us! // 6. Precious girl
7. Hanging out with cousin Milo // 8. Us with Milo & Amy // 9. V finally met cousin Connor!

Sunday, I shopped again! Ronnie graciously offered to keep the baby (during FOOTBALL, y'all!) and I met up with Kerbi and we went to Ulta and B&BW, then to Orange Leaf for froyo! We spent a long time talking and before we knew it, we'd been out nearly 4 hours! ha. This was my second time hanging out with Kerbi and I had a lot of fun with her! Maybe next time we'll actually take pictures. Afterwards I went home to take V off Ronnie's hands and she and I went to Old Navy and Target. Nope, shopping never gets old :)

Overall, best birthday week ever. And my thoughts on 30 now that it's been nearly a week?

Best age ever. It's like something clicked with me and I'm just completely loving it. So for all of you youngins, don't be nervous about 30, it's awesome!

   

Nails Files - the no name ELF

I have been so spoiled this birthday and I'm super grateful for all the thoughtfulness.

On Tuesday I got home to a pre-birthday gift in the mail sent by one of my bestest blog friends, Christina (go say hi!). This girl and I have so much in common and I know if we lived in the same area, would be at each other's houses all the time, going shopping, having play dates...Oh the fun we would have! I hate that we live so far apart!

The package included all kinds of ELF goodies: a nail file, nail buffer, nail polish remover pads, a cuticle pen and 2 polishes. She also included the prettiest necklace EVER. And you know how she knew I'd love it? She got the idea off of my Pinterest wish list! Such a good idea, right? You're so smart, friend :) Thank you again!!

So for today's Nail Files, I'm trying out one of the polishes she sent!

 

Funniest thing is that these ELF polishes don't have names! I'd seen them before and thought that was so weird! I however thought they were numbered at least. Come to find out, they all have the same number on them. Annoying, right? Oh well.

This one is a brownish taupe and actually looks much darker when painted on. I used two coats. I'm not sure it's a great look for my skin tone but I still really like it and it's matched well with my outfits the past couple days! Ignore my chipped middle finger nail ;)


Comparing outside to inside.

30 so far

I have to admit, the night before my birthday I felt sick to my stomach. The idea of it being my last night in my 20s made me SO sad. Like the end of an era, ya know? Ronnie was so sweet to comfort me even though it was so silly. He really is too good for me and handles my craziness so well :)

Ronnie went above and beyond this year - maybe because he know how much I was dreading the 3-0 thing. First I woke up to a decorated living room and kitchen and that was the sweetest surprise! But then he opened the front door and outside was a gift, balloons and cupcakes waiting for me from my MOM! She stopped by on her way to work and decorated our front door and the whole front porch with that yellow "Over the Hill" tape. It was dark out and I couldn't get good pictures but it was such a cool surprise!

Afer taking some pictures (of course) I went inside for the gifts! Ronnie gave me a Pumpkin Cheesecake cupcake from my fave place Saweet and a card with some cold.hard.CASH!! And with that I was ordered to go spend it on Sunday - while he watches the baby! My mom's gift was a box of Lime-a-Ritas (I've been dying to try them!), some candies and random little gifts and a pretty nice gift card to Old Navy. Do they know me or what? :)

Then after making it through the work day (why must we work on our birthdays?!), we went for a quick dinner since Ronnie had a paper to write. We went to one of my faves, Habanero's for burritos! Once we were home Ronnie did his homework and I played with the girly and then got her ready for bed. She crashed out by 9:30 with no struggle so I consider that her gift to me :)

 

My day was completely perfect.

 

And to make it even better, we're leaving V off with my parents tomorrow night and going out for a REAL date (sushi!!) which I'm so excited about! Then on Saturday I'm meeting my mom, aunts and girl cousins for dinner. The ladies in my family celebrate our birthdays like that every year. I'm seriously feeling spoiled! (and so grateful!)

 

Thank you thank you thank you for all of your sweet Birthday wishes yesterday!!!

Now that I'm actually 30, I have to say that it feels pretty damn good so far :)

my birthday

 

Happy 30th Birthday to little old me :)

 

Last year I celebrated my 29th while pregnant and on a work trip.

 

This year?

 

I'm celebrating tonight with my amazing, too-good-for-me fiance and our adorable 6 month old.
 

Life is GOOD!

 

P.S. Ever wonder how Violet got all that hair? After the above picture, I'm sure you will wonder no more! ;)
P.S.S. Thank you thank you for all the tweets and Facebook birthday wishes!! And huge thank you to Rhonda for this amazing post.

The end of my 20s!

Today I woke up to one of my favorite sights:

and that's only half!

Birthday freebies!!!!

My second favorite time of year (after Christmas, of course) has begun!

And thanks to Mishi, I now know of the greatest birthday freebie list yet. Check it.

 

So in exactly one week I turn 30, which really means:

THIS IS MY LAST WEEK OF BEING IN MY 20s, y'all.

And when I really think about that, I get a big ol' lump in my throat. I'm an overly sentimental girl in case ya didn't know so it's just an emotional thing for me. But instead of crying my eyes out and getting all negative over turning 30, I'm SO thankful for my 20s and all the milestones that have brought me to the life I have and love now:

At 24, I started dating this guy!

 

At 27, we got engaged in Yosemite!

 

At 28, I got knocked up!

 

I spent half of 29 cooking Violet!

 

At 29, we bought our cute, little house!

and best of all at 29, I became a Mom.

 

To say I'm grateful for my 20s is an understatement.
 

Here's to my last week of being a youngin! ;)

 

P.S. Don't forget to sign up for our Fall swap!

This is dedicated to the ones I love

This weekend was jam packed full of fun that included tons of eating, naps, lots of driving around and more eating. But it was my honey's birthday weekend and of course Mother's Day so all the craziness was worth it! Since I'm late on posting about the birthday and Mother's Day, I want to dedicate today's post to these wonderful people in my life!

Ronnie: You are my honey bunny and you protect me and love me every day. You're always happy, singing or just being goofy and since I've known you, I have literally laughed EVERY day. You give me massages, you cook our dinners, you love our dogs like they're our kids and for all of that, I feel incredibly grateful to have you. I don't deserve you many days but I'm glad you stick around.

Just 5 years ago, we were celebrating your 25th Birthday in your little old apartment and we had the BEST.WEEKEND.EVER. I will never forget how much fun we had and how in love I was with you. The amazing thing is, I'm still that in love with you and I still have that much fun with you. I can't wait to spend another 30+ birthdays with you! I love you, bubba - Happy 30th!!

See, always trying to make me laugh.

He was posing with his gifts and then showing off the kettle bells I gave him. ha!

Mom: I've put you through hell since the day I was born but you've never stopped loving me and doting on your "first baby". You have a heart of gold and I am beyond lucky to have you as MY mom.

You are the most compassionate, dog loving, non-judgemental woman I know. You're always silly and always creative and it sometimes upsets me that you don't realize just how creative and smart you are! You have dedicated your entire life to us and I hope I can be as wonderful of a mother one day! Happy Mother's Day to you Momma and I hope you always remember just how much you are loved!
                                                            

 

And last but not least, Marcia!! Without you, I wouldn't have the amazing man in my life that I do. You have welcomed me into your home and family since day 1 and have been nothing but sweet to me. I honestly will never know what it's like to deal with those dreaded "MIL issues" because you are perfect! Thank you for raising your son to love life like you do because that happiness always spreads to everyone around both of you. I love you, Mom Marcia and I'm so glad I got to spend Mother's Day with you!

Happy {belated} Mother's Day to all of you mothers and soon-to-be-mothers.

I hope you got the special day you truly deserve!!!

Holy crap!

I asked nicely for y'all not to blog much while I was away but apparently no one listened because I now currently have 612 unread items in my Reader!! Aaagh! And I was only gone since Sunday, you guys! ha! Y'all have seriously had a lot going on and I'm not sure how or if I'll be able to catch up so I'm hoping you'll at least tell me if you shared some major news while I've been gone!

But anyway...HI!!! I've missed all of you! I hope y'all are having a great Friday so far. I am currently near death and am just beat like hell after this work trip. We arrived back in town yesterday but were still required to come in to work today. Which between you and me, is totally ridiculous. And since I'm currently blogging at my desk I'm sure you can tell just how "busy" we are and how "necessary" it is that we're in the office today. Bleh.

So for now I have nothing terribly important to talk about so I'll just give a quick recap of my week!

last Saturday - surprise birthday party for Ronnie! It was mostly just a small family BBQ but there was lots of decorations, food, gifts and best of all, my sweetie was totally blown away and had no idea which was awesome! :)

  oh yes, we decorated the birthday boy too. ha!

and we made a ghetto cake out of his fave -DONUTS! He loved it!

and from Sunday-Thursday: I was in Fort Worth for our conference/trade show where we worked 12+ hours every day which was brutal, to say the least. Adding to it was the fact that I can never turn down more "networking", which always happened to be at the hotel bar and went on every night til at least 2 am. That, I do not recommend - especially when you need to work the next morning at 8. Ugh. And since I probably shouldn't post pictures I took at our trade show, I'll at least post a pic of the cuties we had set up outside the convention center. We basically did everything we could to show our attendees all the stereotypes of Texas :)

So come on, tell me what you've been up to!!! Help keep me awake because Lord knows I need a 10 hour nap right about now.

The Big 3-0!!

The love of my life is getting old. Poor baby will be turning 30 in just under 3 weeks! {Realize I say poor baby because *I'm* not looking forward to turning 30 but he actually is quite excited about it!}. I can't believe we met when he was about to be 24 and the first birthday we celebrated as an actual "couple" was his 25th. Oh I remember that weekend SO well. Best memories ever :) I even remember the gifts I gave him and he loved them! Now it's 5 years later, I know him 100x better and have NO clue what to get him.

I always ask him before a birthday or Christmas what he really wants and not what he NEEDS because I know he doesn't just go buy whatever he's wanting at the moment {unlike his shopaholic fiance} but he makes it so difficult and can never come up with anything. So after much questioning and bugging, this is the grand wish list he finally came back with:

1. A gift card to his favorite book store, Half Price Books

{this one's our favorite location. Picture via}

and

2. A Waterpik. Yes, a Waterpik.

{Picture via}

I know what you're thinking...How does she handle such a wild man!

I realize these are things HE wants but really, are they good enough for a 30th Birthday? I mean, the guy has tons of interests: football, basketball, science, working out, traveling...and this is his list?! Oy. We can go to Half Price or get a Waterpik anytime we want, you know? I just want to give him something better. He DESERVES so much better! But I'm stumped. So I have to ask:

What are some presents you've given your significant other?
I don't have tons of money but I'm open to all ideas and I appreciate your help!

Also, I just discovered Meg's blog, Life of Meg and she's hosting Mingle Monday today! Join in below!