Weekend Recap

This weekend was full of family celebrations. On Friday night we celebrated Addie's 4th birthday at an indoor trampoline park with some of her friends. Everyone had a great time!

Especially her dad.

Well, almost everyone...

On Sunday we went out for Easter Brunch and then Jake and I put our new dining room to use and hosted the family for an Easter egg hunt and a casual Easter dinner.

Oh, and there's this...

Sisters in sailor dresses 25ish years later.

Happy Holidays

Just wanted to drop in and wish you all a happy holiday! We are in Wisconsin visiting my in-laws for Christmas. If you haven't been following the weather, the Midwest just got pounded with snow! I'm so excited to have a white Christmas.

Yesterday I got to do a dreamy wintry maternity shoot with our cousins. Stay tuned for the finished product, but below is a sneak peek that I snapped of my camera screen with my iPhone.

The Big Surprise

As I mentioned last week, Jake got a big surprise this year for his birthday. I went behind his back and got the entire family (and some of his coworkers) involved. Jake's been wanting some new golf clubs for quite a while. It seems though, that there is always something more essential that we find we need to spend our money on.

I asked anyone in the family that normally exchanges gifts with Jake to send me Golf Galaxy gift cards in whatever amount they would typically spend on him. I put them all together and then saved up to cover the rest.

I started the scavenger hunt with Friday's blog post, which lead him to several coworkers desks and to a few random spots before he eventually found me in the parking lot of Golf Galaxy. When he pulled up, I handed him the final clue that explained how much everyone had pitched in and that he could pick out a new set of clubs.

I'd love to say that he jumped up and down like a contestant on the Price is Right, but that's not really Jake's style. He was really quiet and started sweating a lot. I honestly don't think it hit him until we left the store.

One of my favorite moments of his scavenger hunt was provided by our friend Paul. Jake headed over to Paul's desk for his next clue which read, "Take off your pants and meet me in the last stall of the men's bathroom". Paul had replaced the clue that I had sent to him to give to Jake. Jake said it took him a minute to understand that he was being pranked.

All in all it was a great birthday surprise. I neglected to take pictures, but on Saturday I slapped up some decorations, cooked Greek food, had a cake and invited the family over to celebrate Mr. Jake.

Please enjoy these instagrams of my man in all of his birthday glory.

Mama Joyce

Today is my mother-in-law, Mama Joyce's, 60th birthday! I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge how special this woman is to me. She's a great wife, mother, grandma, sister, nurse and friend.

We often joke that she keeps the post office in business, because she sends basically anyone who has entered her life cards for every occassion. She is queen of the label maker, and has harnessed its many uses.

With her caring and nurturing spirit, this woman was honestly born to be a nurse. Above all else, I am grateful to Mama Joyce for raising the man of my dreams.

Cheers to you, Joycie! I hope your 60th is as special as you are.

Christmas via Instagram

This weekend we decorated our humble abode for the holidays. Jake and I danced around the house to the Pandora Christmas station - each of us singing our hearts out. Jake's rendition of Mariah Carey's, "All I want for Christmas" could surely skyrocket him into Youtube stardom.

   I snapped some instagrams of our decorations. I failed to get a photo of Penelope in her Christmas PJs. I promise I will try my best to capture this before the season is over, it's a must see.

P.S. If you're wondering why the bottom 2 feet of our tree remain ornamentless? Her name starts with a P and ends with enelope.

No Place Lyke Home for the Holidays: Gift Wrap Guide

No Place Lyke Home for the Holidays will feature fresh holiday inspired ideas; from recipes, to gift wrap and festive decor - I'll be sharing my favorites this holiday season.
I've always been kind of awful at wrapping gifts. It may have sprung from when I was a child and would wrap random things around the house with toilet paper and give them to various family members as gifts.

Last year, I decided to take a stand. No more lumpy packages with enough tape to reinforce the Hoover Dam. I am a sucker for nice presentation, so learning how to wrap a pretty package was important to me.

I started with this video tutorial via Real Simple, which I found very helpful to get the basics down. Then I checked out this list of tips and tricks via my main woman, Martha Stewart. I ended up with the below monochromatic package using silver paper, silver twine and hand stamped gift tags.

This year, I'm hoping to be a little bit more adventurous. Below are some of my favorites from around the internet.

Think outside of the box for embellishments (tutorial here).

Let photos replace gift tags (via).



Give simple brown paper a little pizzazz (via).

Use black paper and chalk marker to give a chalkboard look (via).

Add lace (via).

Do you have any gift wrapping stories or ideas to throw my way?

Thanksgiving 2012

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my parent's house with a mixture of friends and family from all over. My mom spent 4 days cooking and setting tables to prepare for our wonderful feast. 

My brother-in-law, Adam, flew in from NYC to stay with Jake and I for a few days (which was awesome!). Together, Adam and I prepared a range of sides including: roasted chili lime cauliflower, roasted asparagus with toasted pine nuts and lemon zest, sharp cheddar and bacon corn casserole, sausage stuffed mushrooms and cheddar sage biscuits. Also, Adam made a pretty epic pumpkin tiramisu.

All of the food that we prepared was combined with my mom's scratch made mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, English peas with pearl onions, two different kinds of stuffing (my favorite was the cornbread sausage stuffing) and cranberry chutney. The main events were smoked turkey, fried turkey and filet mignon.

F o o d   c o m a. 

 We washed everything down with my dad's "Thanksgiving Dinner" cocktail which basically tastes like the holidays in a martini glass. I will see if I can get him to share the recipe here.

My sister and her husband, Mike, are due with their second daughter, Ellie, in early January. Since Mike's family was in town, we decided it would be the perfect time to surprise Britt & Mike with a shower. Our theme was "Thankful for Ellie". My mom ordered an adorable pumpkin shaped carrot cake that read, "Thankful for our little Punkin'" and I made a bunting and a "Thankful Jar" for all of us to fill throughout the day and place in Ellie's nursery.

All-in-all it was a fabulous Thanksgiving filled with dear friends and family and no shortage of food, great conversation or laughter.

Special thanks to the movie, "Brave", for teaching Addie to bend over roughly 55 times throughout the day and yell, "Feast your eyes!" (pictured above). Side note: I think Addie loves Kellie even more than her Rudolph.

Major photo overload, but with good reason -- lot's of beauty to capture.

How did you spend your Thanksgiving?

An Anniversary Celebration

This weekend, my sister and I (with the help of our husbands) hosted a dinner party in honor of our parent's 30th anniversary. Brittany made an incredible seafood bouillabaisse, together we made a roasted beet salad and some appetizers and I threw in some handmade decorations.

The traditional gift for a 30th anniversary is pearl, so all of us ladies wore pearls. My dad got my mom a gorgeous multi-strand fresh water pearl necklace (seen in photos below).

The best part of the evening was when each of us went around the table and shared our favorite memories involving our parents - there were some real classics. The recurring theme throughout each of our stories was my parents great love for one another and their awesome sense of humor that's kept them laughing through the years.

(toasting glasses from their wedding 30 years ago)

How cute are they?