Baby Reef Had a Photo-shoot!

What I Love Wednesday will be back next week! In the meantime, check out this precious pup child of mine! This little man has my heart! Side Note: Don't judge my photography skills! I've never claimed to be good with a camera though it doesn't help that this guy couldn't be still for longer than 3 seconds!

Baby Reef and I both hope y'all are having a stellar week so far!!! XoXo!

Three Day Weekend Recap!

Happy Tuesday - May the odds be ever in your favor! Ha Okay Okay I'll admit I finally read The Hunger Games trilogy and now I will never every forget the line! More on the books a little later in the post! How was everyones Labor Day weekend?! Ours was a mix of housework, fun, and relaxation! Honestly, quite a perfect 3 day weekend, if I do say so myself!!

Friday evening we went to dinner with my hubby, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece! Jen and Marin were visiting from NOVA since my brother-in-law and nephew were having a boys weekend in Baltimore at a car race! It gave us a chance to celebrate Jen's birthday a little early, as her birthday was actually yesterday! We had dinner at my old serving stomping grounds, California Pizza Kitchen, and were actually lucky enough to have Jonathan {a very close friend of ours} wait on us! I hadn't been there in so long and it was great to see old familiar faces! Dinner was great and the company was even better! Marin will be 4 in a few weeks and she is seriously one of the smartest children I know! She ordered her own drinks and dinner and made us color for a solid 10 minutes. If we stopped she informed us to keep going! She's too precious though and if a child like her asks you to color... well you do it, no questions asked, even if you're reaching across the table to do so!

My SIL and My precious Niece! 

Saturday, HELLO SEPTEMBER 1st, I slept in later than normal. I may or may not have been up late reading and finishing Catching Fire! Once we got up and moving I celebrated the first day of September with my very first Pumpkin Spice coffee! Ohhh the smell... Ohhh the flavor... ignites so much excitement for the arrival of fall! After being lazy for a bit, the hubs and I decided to do some yardwork! We cleaned off our patio, picked up debris from the roofers, cleaned out the shed, cut the grass, and pulled weeds! It was actually quite productive and we even threw away junk that was taking up room in the shed! After our hard work we ate a late lunch, lounged a bit, and then got ourselves together for our typical Saturday night date night!

Pumpkin Pumpkin Pumpkin! 

The Oceanfront was hosting their annual American Music Festival this weekend and since my uber awesome boss gave us a residential neighborhood parking pass we decided to check it out! We had dinner at Prime 103, which happens to be the restaurant of an old high school friend and then ventured out to the beach! We knew Carbon Leaf was playing a free concert and since I knew who they were, that's where we went! While we were out, my neighbor called asking if we would let out her dog, Aldo, who happens to be a chocolate lab, because she wasn't going to be home during the night. I told her we wouldn't just let him out, we would let him stay with us, so he and Baby Reef could have a pup sleepover!

Listening to Carbon Leaf

The pups watching TV before bedtime! Yes, Im aware we need a new TV in the bedroom, but I've had that one for 20 years!!!! And it still works! I can't get rid of it until it dies! 

Sleeping at the Sleepover! 

The pup sleepover was a hoot! They played and played or more like Baby Reef harassed and harassed and eventually we got them to calm down. They both jumped on the bed to watch TV with us, or more like Todd, as my nose was now stuck in Mockingjay! They did finally go to sleep, only to wake us up jumping on the bed at 8:00 in the morning! My future life flashed before my eyes as I knew this was what it would feel like to eventually have real children! Jumping in the bed, waking us up early on a Sunday! Ohhh Joy! We spent the rest of the day being pretty lazy, ordering pizza, and watching TV.

"Mom we want to play... NOW... it's daylight! "

Yesterday, the hubby had to work but was home by 9:30 a.m. so we had the whole day together, which really consisted of another lazy day, not that I have any arguments! I paid bills, worked on my blog, washed clothes, meal planned, went to the grocery store, snuggled with Baby Reef, watched the Virginia Tech game and finally finished Mockingjay! And can I just say, that I was kind of disappointed in how it ended! I don't want to spoil it for anyone, just in case you haven't read it, but I really was hoping for a sunnier ending! Regardless, the books are an emotional roller coaster and I couldn't help but feel protective over Katniss, much like some of the other characters in the book! The hubby has Fall baseball stuff going on this week, so I'm hoping to Red Box the movie and relive book one! I hope it meets my expectations as the first book was really awesome!

My Whole Life right there! 

Anywho, enough of my rambling on about my three day weekend! I hope all of you had stellar ones as well! Even though we didn't do a TON of stuff I really appreciate the days when we are able to relax. I know in a few years we won't have that luxury so I want to soak it up as much as I can!

XoXo,

Tackling the Front Yard!

Now that the weather is warming (not that it ever got COLD), the grass in the yard is starting to grow... FAST! Needless to say, I am not proud of the lack of care we have given to our front yard! Since we moved in I have hated the three azalea bushes lined under the first floor windows. They bloom for maybe a month and the rest of the year they look a mess, but we have not been able to decide on what we want to put in their place or what we want the landscaping to look like, period. It is something we would like to do ourselves, but I am seriously contemplating hiring a landscaping company to do it for us!

This is what the front currently looks like:

As you can see it just lacks curb appeal and that drives me nuts! I've been googling the heck out of "landscaping ideas for small front yards" and came across a few (very very similar) ideas that I liked.

**Please forgive me in advance, as I have NO IDEA the names of bushes and trees! Y'all will have to bear with me! **

I really like the smaller round bushes underneath the windows with the pops of colored flowers lining the front of the bushes. I also really like the topiaries, however since our door is not centered in the middle of the house it would look silly with just one. I'm all about symmetry.

This is pretty much along the lines of the first idea. I am really in love with the lush green grass! If only we could get our yard this perfect!

With how small of a space we have I know it won't be difficult to do or expensive, which is a total win win situation, it's just finding the time (hence why I wouldn't mind hiring someone else to do it)! The backyard is a whole other project in itself. Since that is Baby Reef's playground we have to make sure we don't plant anything that is poisonous or that he would be tempted to dig at or up! Every now and again he gets a wild hair up his behind and decides he wants to dig holes! Daddy doesn't like that one bit!

For now I think I have a very doable idea for the front! Now I am really excited to, hopefully, get my ideas rolling, and tackle this to do!

Hope you ladies have a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!!! I'll see  you gals on Monday!!!

XoXo,