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Our Mini Family Photo Shoot

August 25, 2016 By Lauren

When we were in North Carolina this past week, we had the chance to do a mini photo shoot with the one and only Haley George, my best friend from college and an amazing photographer currently based in Nashville. Haley has documented so many parts of our lives, including our proposal and engagement pictures, parts of our wedding, our pregnancy announcement, our maternity photos, and Caleb’s newborn pictures. Seriously, this girl’s the bomb and you should check out her blog/website if you get the chance!

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Womanly Wednesday: Grieving Miscarriage

August 24, 2016 By Lauren

Welcome to this week’s Womanly Wednesday! In this series, different women share their struggles, bravely opening up about their stories so that other people would be inspired and encouraged. Make sure to check out the Womanly Wednesday archives to read other posts from this series!

A wave is defined as a disturbance that spreads through a medium.

Picture the ocean on a calm day. Gentle wave after wave meet the shore, predictably and harmlessly. And then one rogue wave crashes in and disrupts the balance. Maybe there was something that caused it – a change in the tide, or the wind, or an undercurrent. Maybe a storm is coming and the new roughness was fully predictable. Maybe nothing changed in the ocean or on the shore, and that rogue wave was just that… rogue.

There is a reason we say that grief comes in waves. Before or after a storm, the surf is rough and grief is raw. It sweeps you off your feet. But time passes and pain fades. You learn to walk in the surf.

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Five Nursery Essentials For Nervous New Moms

August 22, 2016 By Lauren

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PrepTheNest #CollectiveBias

There must be a million posts out there with lists of what to buy before baby comes, and I think I read and pinned every single one of those nursery essentials posts in the months before our little boy arrived. As a first-time mom, my mind was spinning with anxieties and fears about my abilities to care for a tiny human around the clock and I grabbed on to any shred of advice I could find to better prepare myself.

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Five on Friday: Our North Carolina Trip

August 19, 2016 By Lauren

This past week we headed out to North Carolina for my friend Taylor’s wedding and it was quite the adventure! To be honest, I was SO anxious about taking Caleb on this trip. He had a really rough few weeks before we left and it seemed like everything he’d ever learned about sleep just went out the window. I went into the trip thinking it might be mostly just survival mode, but he actually did great and we had a lot of fun showing him off.

Below are some updates and (mostly grainy iPhone) pictures from our weeklong trip t0 the beautiful North Carolina! I’m lucky my hubby and friend Haley take pictures because I only had about three pictures from the whole trip and had to steal theirs for this post!

1) Charlotte & Davidson, NC

Caleb did great on our plane ride out, napping in the stroller at the airport and then mostly just hanging in his carseat on the plane ride. I was super anxious about this so it was such a relief. He’s turning into quite the little traveler after a trip to California in July, this trip in August, and a trip to Baltimore for a funeral in September. I’m glad he’s been taking all these plane rides in stride!

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Womanly Wednesday: Heartbreak And Its Worth

August 17, 2016 By Lauren

A month before my 19th birthday, my boyfriend of 1.5 years left home to serve the people of South Korea for two years, and invite them to Christ. During this time we would only be able to communicate by handwritten letters, and occasional emails. To say it felt like the end of the world to my little teenage heart would be an understatement. I cried myself to sleep, missing him. And I remained adamant that I would “wait” for him, and we had plans to marry when he came back. But we also knew that it might not happen, and that two years was a long time.

Shortly after he left, I started my sophomore year at college, and made some amazing friends. Through one of them, I met a boy. We’ll call him Steven. From the moment we bumped into each other at his family’s cabin in early spring, I was smitten. We started Facebook messaging, which led to studying together at the library, which led to watching a movie at his house, which led to holding hands, which led to lunches on campus and late night chats. I fell fast and hard, and for the first time in the eight months since my boyfriend had left I thought to myself, “Maybe I could fall in love with some one else. Maybe there is some one else out there for me.” And that was scary and liberating all at the same time.

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Five Reasons I Invest Time And Money In Decorating Our Home

August 1, 2016 By Lauren

Since we moved into our house last year, I have loved spending time decorating the space and making it our own. But if I’m honest, sometimes I feel a little silly about how excited I get for these projects and how much time and money (or at least how much money I WANT to spend) we invest into these projects. Aren’t there more important things to worry about than how our homes look?

YES, there are absolutely things more important than having a tidy or presentable home. If you don’t enjoy decorating in the slightest, there’s no shame in that and you can still invite people into your home and practice hospitality in beautiful ways. But for me, these five reasons below make investing time and energy into decorating our home absolutely worth it.

Five Reasons I Invest Time And Money Into Decorating Our Home

1) It makes our space cozy for us.

Whenever I “finish” a space, it brings me so much joy to walk by it. I find myself admiring the little shelf I just styled or wanting to sit down, put my feet up, and snuggle that cute Target throw pillow while we watch some Netflix. When our home feels more finished and tidy, I enjoy being in it and want to spend more time there. Once we’d finished our nursery, I spent hours sitting in this chair, taking in that space and dreaming of our little man. Having that space complete made us feel ready and excited to bring home our baby boy!

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A Life And Blogging Update (PLUS A Fun Giveaway!)

July 28, 2016 By Lauren

One of my favorite parts of working in education is that life comes in seasons. The excitement and newness of fall lead into a perfectly-timed break at Christmas, followed by spring break just as we start to feel weary and need a break. Summer break is the best part because it gives us a time to recharge – to spend slow time with the people we love and soak in the long, warm summer nights.

This summer has been everything I’d hoped for. Jordan didn’t teach summer school so he could be home with me and Caleb and our days together have been more wonderful than I could say. We’ve done a whole lot of nothing in the best of ways and I wouldn’t trade our slow days of Netflix binging, baby snuggling, coffee drinking, house projects, and general silliness for anything. One of our biggest goals as a couple is to go against the grain and live slow, to say no to the whirlwind of commitments and activities so we can say yes to our family and the relationships and people God has for us. And this summer, we have done just that.

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Womanly Wednesday: Being The Other Woman

July 27, 2016 By Lauren

I have struggled with my self-worth since I was a child. I never could handle it if my ‘best’ friend had another friend. I was literally that person who thought “well if they have another friend, they must not like me.” Thanks to this horrible self-worth, I’ve made a lot of stupid choices with my relationships. I’ve dated sweet guys whom I’ve left because they weren’t enough. I’ve dated real jerks whom I clung to desperately even after multiple breakups and cold shoulders. I have really been a great definition of ‘hot mess’.

The worst, and somehow best, choice I ever made was becoming “the other woman”. I don’t mean this metaphorically; when I was 24 I began a relationship with a married man. I was under no illusion about his relationship status. I knew he was married. When we first met, there was zero intention of pursuing any kind of relationship with him, because, ya know, married. Fast forward a year, and completely out of left field he was oh-so-stereotypically Snapchatting me while he was out of town. Could it be more cliche?! Gross.

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Caleb’s Five Month Update

July 25, 2016 By Lauren

At this point, I can say with confidence that this whole parenting thing just keeps getting better and better. I love watching Caleb’s personality unfold and our days with him bring us so much joy. Jordan has been home for summer break and it has been so fun to spend our days hanging out as a little family. He goes back to work in a few weeks and boy oh boy will we miss him!

Due to a scheduling miscommunication, we still haven’t had our four month checkup (gosh darn pediatrician) but it’s on the calendar soon. Based on some math using a home scale, little man is weighing just above 14 pounds and seeming longer and leaner by the day (minus a couple cute thigh rolls/wrinkles). He’s getting so much more active and interactive and these last few weeks have been SO much fun!

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Five on Friday: New Life And A Beautiful Life Lost

July 22, 2016 By Lauren

Hi friends! I haven’t been posting in this space as regularly as we enjoy our last few weeks of summer, but know that I miss y’all and am excited to jump back into writing again soon. There’s been a lot going on with both my family and Jordan’s family these last few weeks, so here’s a few updates!

1) A Sweet New Niece

Jordan has two brothers (and a twin sister, so four kids total), and all of them have had kiddos in the last 6 months! First was Merritt, Jordan’s oldest brother’s son in January, then came Caleb in February, and as of July 4th, little miss Piper! Piper did keep us waiting a few days past her due date but she was so worth the wait. She’s so sweet and snuggly and my sister-in-law is doing a rock star job taking care of her and her two older siblings (even though her troublemaker older sister is pretty much getting away with murder these days). It’s crazy to look at Piper and think that Caleb was even smaller than her when he was born. Time flies by in baby world and it’s incredible how much Caleb has grown since he was a teeny-tiny little nugget like she is. Anyway, I love getting to snuggle this sweet baby girl and can’t wait to watch her grow up with my boy!