Hiatus. Over.

Hey guys!

I had no idea I would be taking time off from blogging and Instagram, just kinda happened.

I have found myself extremely busy lately and I just couldn't make time to enjoy blogging or posting on Instagram and stuff.

We have been going through a lot, financially, personal, and everything else you can imagine so the last thing I wanted to do was share that or pretend I was in a good place when I wasn't.

We are much better now and have crawled out of our tough space. All thanks to the Big Man upstairs! Countless sleepless nights, panic attacks, and crying in the closet when I finally told myself to stop worrying and give it up to Jesus, and as soon as I did things started changing for the better. My attitude (first and foremost), my husband and I's relationship* (for the better! much, much better!), our financial situation, the girls' behavior, I could go on and on.

What I'm trying to say, friends, is that the power of prayer and positive thoughts is so strong! And only you can decide when to turn your life around and decide to let go of your problems to let Jesus in control and to put your nose to the stone and get to work on fixing your problems.

I love you all, and I'm excited to get back into the blogging game!

*Note: My husband and I were always fine, we have just grown immensely closer and have realized what we have in each other. More in love now than we ever were if you can believe it!

Week 5: Something Someone Gave You

Hey guys!

Week 5 of the blogging challenge going well. So glad I made this challenge for myself and I am actually sticking to it!

This weeks topic is "Something Someone Gave You".

This is a toughie. I have a good amount of great stuff I've been given that really mean a lot to me. So I think I'll go with the most obvious and easiest one to talk about.

Harper Jane & Emerson Carlee

My sweet, sweet girls. Angels, if you will.

Some days I feel like I'm on cloud 9, and am so lucky to have these two precious babies to raise and keep forever. Some days I feel like I couldn't possibly be the one to do this forever, and that one day I'm going to wake up and its a dream because I don't deserve these little cherubs. Others I want to stand in the corner and bang my head on the wall, while inhaling cookies, and choking down razor blades.. But I digress.

I love my children so much. (repeat hourly 7-10 times)

Every day is a learning experience. I love my kids. Some days are easier than others, for sure. I love my kids. The terrible teething, terrible twos, turning into a threenager.. I love my kids.

But one day, I won't be banging my head on the wall, and trying to get a bathroom break away from the fussing and hysteria over whether Sofia the First, Toy Story, or Princess Elena of Avalor is on TV and they will be too cool for their mommy. I. Love. My. Kids.

They will always be the biggest blessing and the most precious gift I have ever gotten, and I have God to thank for that. I definitely consider them my "something someone gave me" because without my faith, and His forgiveness I would've never been able to have these sweet girls.

I can only hope He will bless us with more, but for now we are totally and completely in love, obsessed, happy, thrilled to be the parents to such smart, silly, gorgeous, funny, inspired babes.

What would your "Something Someone Gave You"?

XOXO

Caitie B

Week 4: A Family Member

Family means a great deal to me. I have a pretty small family, but married into a lovely, hysterical, and large family! My husbands family is fantastic.

My family, by blood, chosen, and married into, are seriously awesome. I love all of them! But the one I will be telling you about today is my amazingly, awesome, dearly missed, sweet, Godly Nannie.

Nannie Dearest

My Nannie. She was the absolute best person I have been lucky enough to know. So, let's take it from the beginning;

Growing Up in West Virginia

Born Janet Lee Mahan, that we lovingly called Nannie, she was the oldest of (I believe) 6 kids. She grew up in a shack of a house in the backwoods of West Virginia. Her mother wasn't a very present mom, and her dad was, apparently, married to a heinous woman. They called her "Evil Stella". She played mom to her younger siblings, and made sure they had everything they needed to go to school and to eat. Once she graduated high school she moved on to bigger and better things.

Virginia is for Lovers

At the age of 18 she moved to Virginia, where she met my mothers dad, Ronnie. They married and had my mom when my Nannie was just 20. With her high school education she was hired as a secretary at the Pentagon! I mean, think about that now. You wouldn't get onto Pentagon grounds without a college degree, and she only had her high school diploma from a tiny town in West Virginia.

Her and my Grandpa Ronnie divorced when my mom was around 10, and then, eventually, my Nannie remarried my now Popaw, who is an amazing guy. Unfortunately, my mothers dad passed away when she was about 20.

Meanwhile, my Nannie was busy at the Pentagon getting promoted!

Fast forward a bunch of years, my Popaw adopted my mom at the age of 24, my mom was married, moved to California, and had my older sister. She then came back to Virginia, where she had the rest of us, myself, Emily, and Joey. But while Joey was a baby, we found out my Nannie had breast cancer.

She retired from the Pentagon with the highest security clearance you can have. She retired because she found out she had the cancer. Her job was very secret, but from what I can piece together about her position was she was a head of a department that followed and made sure what countries had what parts that can become bombs, or any kind of thing that would be a threat to another country.

How AMAZING?! She grew up in the backwoods, no bathroom in the house, no air conditioning, no real mother figure, only her high school diploma, and she achieved all that!

She had a mastectomy. She was clear of cancer.

Retired to Florida

In 1998 my Nannie, her brother, and their spouses (my Aunt Terry, and my Popaw) decided to move down to Florida, because that's what is cool I guess.

And in 2000 we moved down to be with them. But then came the lung cancer diagnosis. Yup, this amazing woman, who already beat breast cancer, was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Thankfully another round of chemo and radiation, and the cancer was gone.

We would go over to my Nannies house almost every weekend. We had so much fun hanging out with my Nannie and Popaw. They would make us pancakes, and we would swim in the pool almost all weekend.

Then we grew up, and stopped going to their house every weekend. But, we definitely made time for them. We would go to Sunday dinner at their house and we always had Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve at their house. We would sing "Build Me Up Buttercup" to my Nannie and talk about poop at the dinner table.

Then in 2008, going in for her cancer scan, they found more cancer.

Stage 4. Lung Cancer.

Hearing your idol, your biggest fan, the biggest fighter you know with the kindest heart, say and actually come to grasp with the fact that this disease will inevidably take their precious life.

April 10, 2009

My moms birthday. We got the call that she had passed on to Heaven, because only the best, like her, get to go to Heaven. I woke up to my mom, sitting on the couch, and I just knew. My heart sunk. I couldn't see, and I swear I can't remember the rest of the afternoon. We had to deal with all the details with the funeral and stuff. Oh gosh, what an awful day.

Loss is never easy, and quite frankly it down-right SUCKS. I still think about her every day. I see her in my girls. She would love them so much, and she would be so happy to spoil them rotten.

Well, I think I'm done being depressing. Haha.

Love you guys!

Who is someone in your family who you admire? I'd love to hear.

XOXO

Caitie B

Week 3: Family

Family

Week 3 of my 52 week blog challenge is to write about family. One of my very favorite topics to talk and write about. I am a huge family person. Family. Over. Everything. I wholeheartedly believe that you can chose the family you want. Family isn't just blood, it's people who have been there and haven't left.

Let's Talk About My Little Family

My very own little family. Is this a dream? I can't believe that I get to wake up to and fall asleep with these three. I love my sweet family, my sweet husband and my two girls. They mean the world to me.

My husband is 29, and in November he will be the big 3-0!! I'm so excited, I want to throw him a big party with his buddies so he can see how much he's loved.

Harper is 2 and Emerson is 10 months. Isn't it funny how they can be so little and still have such huge, different, silly personalities? Harper is my laid back, go-with-the-flow type girl. Emerson is a little bit more high maintenance. She just likes to be held, and be entertained a lot of the time.

My Not-So-Big, Crazy, Awesome Family

I grew up with 2 sisters (one older, one younger) and a little brother. My mom and dad split up when I was older, about 23, and now my dad lives in Texas and my mom is only right the next town over.

My sisters, Becca and Emily, are my best friends. We share pretty much everything. I love being close to my sisters and having that bond. But, don't get me wrong, we're quite different at the same time.

My older sister, Becca, 31, is a Medical Assistant at a Pediatricians office, and she's definitely our most protective sister and the most blunt sister of the three of us. Never out of being ugly, she's just not afraid to speak her mind and that's something we love about her.

Week 2: Spouse / Significant Other

I am beyond thrilled to talk about this subject. #hearteyes

Here's a little of our back story:

My husband and I met almost exactly 7 years ago (on the 28th to be exact) on a dating website (I know right?). We met at a little Beef O' Brady's in between our two cities. We ate, and when the check came, he asked me to draw a picture for him on the receipt. I drew a picture of Mary Poppins, which he still keeps in his wallet today! *heart flutter*

If I'm being completely honest, the day I met him I knew he was the one. He took some persuading though, not a lot, but some.

Babies. 2010.

I am such a lucky lady to have this man to share my life with. He's 100% the ying to my yang, the peanut butter to my jelly, the sunshine on a rainy day. And more corny relativities. All of them.

He works all the time to make sure we have everything we need and want. Long, hard days. He's a crane operator for an electric company in Tampa, but does everything from digging holes to sitting in his crane doing intense pole positioning. He's up and out of the house, most days, by 5am, and doesn't get home until around 430-5.

I've never seen a greater dad. I'm not sure what I was expecting when we got pregnant, but he's beyond every expectation I ever had. Which made me fall even deeper in love with him. He lives for his girls, and it's the cutest thing ever! He's going to be the fun dad with all of their girlfriends, and the super scary dad to any "boyfriends" we have beating down our doors for our girls.

Having a partner in life the way I have him is the greatest thing I've ever experienced. We've been through a lot of trials and tribulations, but we have always kept each other the priority.

"I wish I could explain your eyes, and how the sound of your voice gives me butterflies. How your smile makes my heart skip a beat and how everytime I'm with you I feel so complete"

XOXO

Caitie B

Week 1: Why Start This Challenge?

Hello you guys!

I sure hope the beginning of 2017 has been wonderful for you. I can't believe it's already been 4 days. I'm not sure if it's the whole being an adult, being a parent, or being a living individual these days that makes it seem like time is just speeding by. I plan on trying to post every Wednesday on these weekly challenge topics. Thankfully I can get it done this week because I'm super duper busy this weekend, I have 8 people, 3 different places, 2 services, 1 day, and about 3 hours of travel between all of it. NUTS!

So, let's get to it.

The reason I'm doing this challenge is, in fact, to challenge myself to post more and to also be more grateful for the things I have and the things I can attain.

I'm starting this challenge because I feel like I have stuff to share with people. I have dreams I want to achieve. I have stories to tell, friends to make, a family to make proud, business to do, happiness to spread, more mommy moments to laugh at.. You name it.

I'm starting the challenge to be purposeful with my time and to share things I am currently doing/have done/will be doing. Whether it be family adventures, decorating, bragging on my sweet husband, cheering on my friends, interesting new purchases.. I never know what I'm going to be getting into from week to week, so I'm sure it'll be interesting to see the progression at the end of the year!

I love my life and the people around me. I want to be able to spread all the positivity I can! I have found what works for me to keep a positive mind set and I also have found how much it has helped me in my life and I'd love to share those things with you. Little tid bits of information or suggestions to help you stay positive.

In the past few sentences I have said "I" way too much for my liking, haha. In all honesty, I don't like talking about myself too much. I love telling stories, laughing, enjoying life, etc.

Here's to 2017!

XOXO
Caitie B

2017 Weekly Blog Challenge and Resolutions

Hi again you guys

So, this is something I have been wanting to do to up my blogging game. And since my amazing husband gave me a new laptop for Christmas I will be able to do more blogging once the girls go to bed, because I like to go to my room once they go to bed since I don't get a lot of alone time with two littles running around.

So, searching around Pinterest and found this sweet challenge.

I'm going to be attempting to do one of these a week along with other cool tips, tricks, life stories, and stuff going on in my life. Which I'm going to go ahead and assume isn't much.

2017 is going to be great. I cannot wait until the new year.

Its always so fun and refreshing to me. I hope I can hold to my resolutions this year!

My resolution last year was to have more "me" time. And that happened like 4 times, maybe. Haha, but that's okay. I think I want me time but I end up just missing my kids and husband. Silly right?

2017 New Years Resolutions:

Lose 80 pounds.

May sound a bit extreme and probably insane to some people, but I would like to lose at least that much before we decide to start trying for a third baby. I really think if I put my nose to the pavement I can do it! And trust me when I say, I do have that much to lose, if not more.

Grow My Business.

Some of you may or may not know that I have a mobile hair and makeup business. I mostly do brides hair and makeup for their wedding day at their venue so that they don't have to travel around before one of the most important days of their life. If you want to follow my Instagram it's @ido_hairandmakeup or you can check out our Facebook!

Blog More!

I would love to be able to post weekly and that's why I would like to do the 52 week challenge. But maybe (hopefully) post even more than that!

These are all going to be challenging and, along with 2 little girlies and regular wife and mommy duties, will keep me very busy. I hope that I can keep up with everything. Should be interesting to see!

Follow along and see what else my sweet family has coming up in 2017.

I pray for all of you to have a wonderful New Years!

XOXO

Caitie B.