thanksgiving decor.

Hey everyone!
I also wanted to include a short little post about my Thanksgiving decorations.
I have the least {and when I say least I mean like nothing} decor for this holiday and was struggling to make our little place festive, without spending a bunch of money.
So, I made sure our Halloween pumpkins lasted till the end of November, took out all my nice wedding china {even if if didn't match}, made some fun placemats using simple paper, folded the napkins fancy like and waalaa-
it came together!


Do you like our mismatched chairs?! Still working on finding some to go with our table. 
 For the other parts of our home, I just sprinkled pumpkins throughout, lit a bunch of candles, re-used some wedding decor and made it work!










 You can check out my full Thanksgiving post here, to see how it looked with all the turkey trimmings!
Have a wonderful rest of your day!

xoxo

happy thanksgiving.


Hope you all had a wonderful turkey day!
Ours was pretty dang good.
It was the first time we hosted dinner, and man I can't wait to do it again next year.
It's kinda like a right of passage, and I think we passed!
From grocery shopping, baking the desserts, finding vintage silver for the table, making placemats and of course cooking all the food- Zak and I both had a blast. 
I couldn't have done it without him!

Some of the yummy spread.
Making some family recipes!


We had my parents and niece and nephew over and served the classic dishes:
- Turkey
- Stuffing
- Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
- Green Bean Casserole
- Salad 
- Pumpkin Bread
- Rolls
- Sinful Salad 
- Pumpkin Pie and Ice Cream 
:)
It was delicious!


My bar cart turned into a turkey cart, and I have no complaints. 
THOSE ROLLS. Gimme those buttered up babes right now. 
And the fire alarm only went off once, woot woot.
Poor green bean casserole, I'll try and make ya better next year.
But other than that little flaw, everything else came out great-
which was a little surprising since neither Zak or I had ever cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner.
I made these fun placemats and we had everyone write down things they were thankful for, which made for a fun conversation while eating.

I also made the napkins into turkeys. Yep, I'm that into the holidays. 




I think I'm going to do something like this each year- it was a fun twist on a formal table setting.
After we gobbled till we wobbled, 
{so cheesy, but I had to use it}
we visited for a while and then took the puppies for a nice stroll to walk off some of the food!


Being pregnant is so weird because I'm usually the first one up to get seconds, but this baby in my tummy makes me SO FULL! 
I couldn't even finish my plate. 
So just writing about the food makes me wish there were still some leftovers in the fridge right about now. 
Mmm.
It was a really nice day, and I was so so so happy to be able to spend it with both my parents.
I'm really close with them both, and it means the world to spend the holidays all together. 

Pop going to town 





And I couldn't end this post without listing out some of the things I'm thankful for-
so here it goes!
I'm thankful for...
- The Lord's love and many blessings
- My wonderful husband
- An energetic little babe growing in my belly
- The cuddliest pup named Romie
- Our downtown apartment that now seems much more homier than ever
- The re-gained health of my mom
- Time with my parents
- Seeing my niece, nephew and sis on a regular basis
- My fit and healthy pregnancy
- Dear friendships 
- People who care for abused and neglected animals
- Yummy holiday food
- Netflix {gotta love binge watching}
- The smell of pine needles from our wittle Christmas tree
- Sugar cookie candles
- But really all candles will do
- The crisp air in the morning
- Crunchy fall leaves, even in the desert
- Evening walks as a family
- Morning walks with Romie
- My loved ones safety
- This crazy medical school journey we're on
- Cozy sweatpants that still fit
- Diet Coke
- Pumpkin Bread
- HGTV's Fixer Upper- AKA my motivation to still go to the gym so I can watch it
- Anthropolgie's Holdiay Playlist on Pandora
- Christmas decorations
- Spending the holidays with family 
- A husband who keeps me laughing non stop
- Cute little baby clothes
- Trips to Target
- Skinny Cows and Smart Ones
- And this new AZ chapter in our life



I could seriously go on and on and on and on...
But I'll stop there and just say I'm forever thankful for the life Zak and I have-
through the ups and downs, trials and triumphs and everything in-between,
it's imperfectly perfect and I love it oh so much.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!

xoxo

all american girl.


Happy Tuesday everyone!
This past weekend we also celebrated our niece's birthday.
She'll turn 8 soon, which makes me kinda sad because I want her to stay little forever.
We ended up surprising her with kinda the coolest birthday present a little girl could ask for-
going to the All American Girl Doll Store!!!!!




My inner fan girl was freaking out the entire time.
We told her we were going to take some fancy Christmas photos and instead pulled up to the shop where we were greeted by a personal shopper who gave us a tour of all the dolls and their history.
Again, my inner child was freaking out and I could've bought a million things.
I used to collect these dolls, and I'm so happy miss Kennedy now does!
She ended up picking out her first doll named Grace.



And her story is that she's an American girl who goes to Paris to learn to bake,
so sweet!
Afterwards we went and had a super girly dinner in the bistro complete with bow napkins, a high chair for Grace the prettiest pink cake for Kennedy.








We ended the night getting Grace's ears pierced 
{yep you read that right, they have an entire doll salon}
and got her some super fun accessories.
It was a really fun and memorable night.



If you ever have the chance to stop in an All American Girl Doll store I totally recommend ya do it!
Happy birthday K! 
We love you more than you'll ever know!

xoxo

bumps, cuddles and best friends.


That's a pretty exciting blog title huh?!
I thought so too. 
Just wanted to give a little ole life update before the Thanksgiving craziness commends. 
Only three more days till the turkey tango, and I can't wait!
I got all my shopping done last week so I don't have to go out into the madness, the turkey is already defrosting and our new harvest table is in its finishing stage-
getting ready for her big Thanksgiving debut!
Anywho, this weekend was a good one, spent with lots of family and friends. 
We...
ate at a buffet
saw all of our siblings
went to some lovely vintage pop-up shops 
played a few games
cuddled lots
celebrated our niece's birthday
planned out more baby shower details 
sanded, stained and painted our table
ate at Qdoba, our old Omaha stomping ground
and took a sexy date night to Wal Mart.



^^ do you see Zak's plate of crab legs! Man I wish I could eat seafood. 




^^ I could have bought EVERYTHING! 
The older, most worn out and scratched up item, the better. 
I love antique shops so much.
Especially during the holidays. 


Here's my classy-bare-belly-bathroom-bump-selfie for the last two weeks!
This is week 25 and 26- even though I think I look bigger on the left lol.
I'm up 19 big ones, will be 27 weeks tomorrow and the babe is about two pounds!
And kicks like CRAZY. 
Only three more months to go, which is nuts to think about.
Pregnancy is flying by and we can't wait to have baby home with us. 
However, I am going to miss my bump a lot.
It's really the best thing ever. 


I love this photo because..
1. you get to see my favorite sweatshirt I stole from Zakary years ago that I wear daily in the winter.
and 2. you get to see how we do family cuddle time. 
Romie always works his way in the middle.
:) 
This weekend Zak and I felt like we just needed to get out of the house for a little bit,
so we climbed in the car and went to run some errands.
And you guys it ended up being like the best afternoon ever.
No one can make me laugh, make me enjoy Wal Mart or make me have fun going to two different dollar stores like he can.
More than husband and wife, we're best friends first and always will be. 
We met almost 7 years ago this week and instantly became inseparable.
And nothing has changed since. 
He makes doing crappy life stuff adventurous and fun and keeps me laughing the entire time.
He also likes looking at all the Christmas decorations too, which is the 1298437850290475 reason I married him. 
I love him so dang much it hurts. 
Okay sorry for the gushiness.
Some days are just really really good days. 

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

xoxox