Love Hard Live Grateful: Mountains

Friday, January 15, 2016

Here are my first Friday Faves of 2016!

ONE

For Christmas, Justin surprised me with a new camera and lens. I am so spoiled by this man. He gave it to me the day after Christmas and I was shocked to the point of tears. I have been wanting an upgrade for a while now and he went above and beyond any expectations I would've had. I've already had so much fun playing with it around the house and am pumped to use it for my first photo session on Saturday! YAY!

TWO

Has anyone else seen these s'mores shaped marshmallows?? When we were grocery shopping in the mountains for New Years, my friend found them at WalMart! They are the perfect shape for a bite of marshmallow every time! I just love the face Ty makes when he eats his 'moshmawhao'!

THREE

Ty has been extra snuggly lately and I cannot say I don't love it. My favorite moments this week have been him getting on top of me and telling me he wants to snuggle. These are the moments that motherhood are made of.

My favorites are short and sweet this week. I am looking forward to the weekend--three days with my family (Thanks, MLK!).

Monday, January 11, 2016

It's been weeks since I've had this me time to catch up on the blog and IT FEELS GOOD TO BE BACK! We had the craziest holiday this year as we traveled all over for Christmas and New Years. When we got home from our trip to the NC Mountains to celebrate 2016 with friends, and it sure does felt good to be home and I took last week to get our kids and life back into some sort of routine! Traveling with two kiddos under two really is no vacation, but the memories we are making with them are worth the hours in the car with Curious George DVD's, fast food bags, crumbs in every crevice of both car seats, and turning around every 3 minutes to adjust someone.

Justin and I have been going to the mountains for New Years Eve for 5 years now. On our first trip to stay in a cabin with some friends, Justin had planned to take me to the Biltmore Estate to tour the Christmas lights, do a wine tasting, have dinner, and- my most favorite part- PROPOSE! Needless to say, it's a very special tradition for us. I am 100% a beach bum, but there is something we just love about the mountains in the winter. I love driving up the windy roads at a massive incline to a cabin with an amazing view and a porch with chairs for rocking. The cool air and a fire pit make it feel like New Years Eve to me.

When we had kids, we decided to take a break to get our bearings, but this year we couldn't resist the chance to get up there for NYE. I am so glad we did because Ty LOVED it! We got there just in time to make it to the cabin before the sun set on NYE. We decided to venture out once for lunch on New Years Day. We went to Lake Lure, which is a beautiful lake in the middle of the mountains. Other than that adventure out, we stayed at the cabin and played games, watched movies, enjoyed fire pits and s'mores, and sat on the porch soaking in the gorgeous mountain view. How I wish I could be back there now. There's no place like home, but the mountains aren't a bad place to visit!