My favorite (ok, and only) sister is currently halfway through her pregnancy with my 2nd nephew, Hudson. I could NOT be more excited for her, her husband, and my 1st nephew, Henry! Here she is a few weeks into this pregnancy…how pretty is she?
When she surprised me with the news of baby #2 several months ago, I knew I wanted to do something special for her, but I couldn’t decide what. Typically, when people give gifts to moms-to-be, they give them something for the child like a onesie, stuffed animal, or blanket. That’s exactly what I did when she was pregnant with Henry. However, this time, I wanted to gift her something she could use herself. I was on a limited budget, so I had to put on my thinking cap on and get a little creative!
I decided on mailing her a small care package including some things every pregnant woman would enjoy along with some of her favorite things. Everything I purchased came from my local Target. Of course Target always comes through. Here’s a peek at what I sent!
Last time she was pregnant, my sister’s nails grew like crazy because of the vitamins she was taking. I figured this cuticle pen could help keep her nails nice and healthy.
Everyone loves eos lip balm, and this honeysuckle flavor smells DELISH. Unfortunately, I think Henry may have gotten a hold of this and taken a bite out of it…that should be proof it smells yummy though!;)
Everyone loves cozy socks, and I figured this snuggly pair would be perfect for relaxing around the house (in her rare free moments!).
It’s important for everyone to drink lots of water, but I’m sure it’s extra important when you’re expecting! My sis’s fave color is green, so I thought this neon Nalgene would be perfect and convenient to ensure she gets plenty of fluids.
Early in her pregnancy, she was craving lemonade all the time. These crystal light packets are easy to pour into her Nalgene to flavor up her water on the go.
I’m sure pregnancy hormones do crazy things to your skin, so I slipped in a trial size Jergens Ultra Healing lotion to make sure hers stays moisturized!
Caramel Apple Pops are one of my sister’s favorite candies, so I added in a bag for when she needed a sweet treat!
I cut out neon tags for all of the items and tied them on with curling ribbon. Each tag explained why I included that item in the package. Above, you can see the caramel apple tag (You don’t have to be healthy ALL the time! Treat yourself to a caramel apple pop! (or two!)), the cuticle pen tag (Thank your vitamins for your long nails! (And keep them healthy with this!)), and the Nalgene tag (Growing babies need lots of water…so do their moms! Drink up!).
I also included a card with a message about how excited I was for her. I couldn’t find any specific “pregnancy” cards, so I simply found one that expressed what I was thinking: “I love it when good things happen to good people. Especially when ‘good people’ means you.” Couldn’t be more true!
I think in the excitement of pregnancy news, people jump right to gifts for the baby. However, I wanted to make sure my sister had a few things to make pregnancy more enjoyable and hopefully more relaxing! After all, I’ll have the rest of his life to spoil my new nephew!
If I had a bigger budget, I would have loved to splurge on something like a massage or a cute maternity outfit (probably also from Target…they’ve got it all), but I’m happy with how this little care package turned out! Hopefully my sis liked it, too! Can’t wait for Hudson to make his arrival this May!
Does anyone remember when we were inLaJolla? Well, already 10 weeks have passed since we were there! Crazy, I know! I still wanted to recap some of our time there, so I can remember it in the future! (I have a terrible memory….this may be the only chance I’ll have of any hint of memories of the trip.) When we last left off, my sweet mom (fondly known on the blog as Sassy Kat), was in town visiting us to enjoy La Jolla and take a trip to Disneyland. We also spent a day shopping around La Jolla, but one of the best days was when we went to the aquarium! Louis and I visited there a few weeks before my mom came, and I wanted to head back because I knew she would love it!
Sassy Kat loved looking at the relaxing, beautiful exhibits full of the sea creatures!
We even had a sweet little sting ray smile at us. 🙂
I couldn’t get over how vibrantly colored the exhibits, fish, and underwater plants were! It made me wish I could scuba dive to see them on a grander scale in the ocean as nature intended.
Let’s take a moment to admire how beautiful my mom is. She was totally rocking the Cali style!
Aside from her looks, she’s got a great personality. 😉 Sassy Kat is definitely a kid at heart! We were laughing our way through the aquarium, and I’m sure everyone there thought we were crazy!
We wandered outside to the balcony where you could touch starfish and sea cucumbers in the tide pool exhibits. We mostly enjoyed the beautiful weather, the breath-taking views, and being together.
Seriously, when I told you before that everyone probably thought we were crazy? I wasn’t kidding. We both share the philosophy that life is too short to worry about being embarrassed at the cost of having fun.
We enjoyed one last sweeping view from the aquarium and decided it was time to head down to the water to enjoy some lunch.
When I looked up our restaurant, it was only a mile or so from the aquarium. In Texas, that probably would have meant a straight, flat shot. However, I forgot we were in California. A 30-minute walk up, down, and all around mountains hills, we finally reached our destination! Guess we were burning calories for the food we were about to enjoy?
We couldn’t complain though, because the view on our walk was absolutely stunning, as usual.
Not to mention, I was with my amazing mom, and that’s ALWAYS a fun time!
We finally arrived at Caroline’s Seaside Cafe. If you’re ever in La Jolla, I definitely recommend checking it out! Our sandwiches were delicious, and they had a great assortment of soups, salads, and fresh, yummy dishes. The view was spectacular as well!
If anyone’s curious, my nail polish is “Easy Going” by Sinful Colors. It was a gift from Sassy Kat. 🙂
After our yummy lunch, we wandered down closer to the water. I understand why Californians want to be outside all the time! The sound of the ocean, the cool breeze, the sun shining down…it was all so relaxing. We spent some time sitting on a bench and just enjoying the environment and each other’s company.
Did I mention this is part of a college campus? There were students sitting all over the place studying textbooks and writing papers on their laptops. Um, can you imagine walking out of your dorm and being feet from the ocean? I loved going to Texas A&M, but I can’t deny La Jolla is definitely a little bit more beautiful than good ole’ College Station.
We were pooped after our long walk all around La Jolla, so we headed back to the hotel to rest up until dinner. Once Louis got off work, we all went to Torrey Pines golf course to pick up some souvenirs for my dad. He’s an amazing golfer (like got a full scholarship to play in college and grew up on a golf course amazing), so we knew he’d love some items from the famous course. I only wish he could have visited with my mom, so he could have played! I’m sure he would have dominated all the holes! While we were there, some super important putting championship was going on (how obvious is it I know nothing about golf?), and we were just talking and laughing away right by the players before we realized how quiet everyone else was. Oops. Very typical. Just living life and half the time totally unaware of what else is going on around us! Hopefully my mom and I didn’t embarrass Louis too much. As you can see below, the course was absolutely beautiful!
From Torrey Pines, we headed to downtown La Jolla for some more souvenir shopping. We happened to catch it right at sunset, and, as usual, it was breathtaking. We spent about 30 minutes just admiring the beautiful sunset, snapping pictures, and marveling at how stunning it was. I tried to capture some of the sunset below…my pictures really can’t do it justice though.I couldn’t have imagined a better trip for my mom to make out to La Jolla to visit us. The entire time we just laughed and had a blast being together. It was great to have her bring a piece of home out to California during our long trip. I’m so thankful we’ll always have these memories!
When one of my favorite people is within an hour of one of my favorite places, what else is there to do besides go to DISNEYLAND?! My mom has been with my dad before, but they visited in 1980! Check this out…
How much are you loving my mom’s purple tube top and my dad’s short white shorts? Surely not as much as I am. Anyway, as I was saying…it was Sunday, and we were heading to Disneyland!
How cute is my mom?? We were up early and leaving the hotel around 5:30 AM to get to Disneyland by park opening, and of course it started drizzling (for the first time ALL summer) as we were headed out. I’m pretty sure this Disney poncho is one Amy got on a Disney World trip in high school. Our family has been Disney fans for quite some time 🙂
When we finally arrived at the park, we hopped on a tram and headed to Disneyland!
How cute are they?
We were obviously super psyched to be there. We lined up on Main Street right in front of the castle, and as soon as the park officially opened, we headed straight for Fantasyland. My mom’s favorite Disney ride is Peter Pan’s Flight, so we wanted to make that our first ride of the day.
After boarding a magical flying ship to travel over London with Peter, we decided to enjoy the rest of Fantasyland. That included Snow White’s Scary Adventure (which actually seriously scares me), Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (which ends with the rider traveling to Hell…I can’t make this stuff up), and pictures in front of some various Fantasyland landmarks.
Dumbo, the flying elephant!Mr. Toad’s Wild RideTrying to pull the sword out of the stone behind Sleeping Beauty Castle!
Teacups from Wonderland!In front of the teacups and Matterhorn Mountain!
We also made sure to enjoy a couple of boat rides near Fantasyland. The first was Storybook Land Canal boats. This ride was so cute! We hadn’t been on it before, and it was full of miniature sculptures from various Disney movies. The sights may look unimpressive below, but they were beautifully crafted and the accompanying music and tour guide really made this ride special.
Sultan’s Palace from AladdinSleeping Beauty’s Castle (this one looks more like the replica in Disneyland Paris, I think!)
Another boat ride we had to enjoy was “it’s a small world.” No trip to a Disney park is complete without riding this classic at least once. Even though this ride is also at Disney World, the Disneyland version has integrated some Disney characters and princesses throughout their version of the ride. It was fun to try to seek them out in their respective countries and states! I won’t bore you with pictures of the inside of the ride, but trust me that it’s a happy, fun Disney classic!
The facade here is much larger than Disney World’s!
The happiest cruise that ever sailed!
Beautiful Mom!Handsome hubbs!We ran into Princess Merida outside of “it’s a small world!”
We then made the very unfortunate decision to go on Finding Nemo Submarines. We had heard great things about how fun it was. Nope. It was so crowded and claustrophobic. My mom immediately pulled out her fan to cool herself off, and poor Louis was so tall he could barely bend down far enough to see out of the submarine window. We thought the ride would never end.
Hot and cramped!
You may notice above that we all have on Mickey or Minnie shirts. I am always down for wearing character shirts, but Louis isn’t such a huge fan. My mom really wanted us all in Disney shirts for pictures though. She asked Louis if she promised to ride Space Mountain if he would bite the bullet and wear a Mickey shirt. He only agreed if she would ride Splash Mountain as well. Shocking all of us (probably herself most of all), she AGREED! Louis and I hustled over to the Disney store before she arrived and found the coolest Mickey shirt I’ve ever seen. Then, my poor mom was locked into facing her fear of thrill rides. After Fantasyland, we finally convinced her it was time to tackle her first terror of the day: Space Mountain.
I can safely promise to everyone reading this, that I have never laughed as hard in my ENTIRE LIFE as I did when my mom rode Space Mountain. I was laughing so hard I almost threw up. Yes. Threw up from laughter.
In line for the ride…
Too many great things going on in this photo.
My mom seriously SCREAMED the entire ride. She alternated between, “OH MY GOSH!!!”, “HELP!!!!!”, AND “I’M GOING TO DIE!!!!!!”. I told Louis later, I would have paid $500 for a video of her on the ride. It was probably the highlight of my entire summer.
After the thrill of Space Mountain, we decided something slightly tamer was in order. We hopped on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, and my mom promptly tripled my score! She’s like some sort of shooting wizard!
Saving the galaxy one shot at a time!
We then headed over to New Orleans Square to enjoy Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and lunch at French Market. On our way there, we stopped for a picture with Aladdin and Jasmine.
With mom in the Court of Angels in New Orleans Square!Our whole group!
Then, with a tummy full of yummy French food and after much encouragement from us, my mom decided it was time to tackle Splash Mountain. We lent her one of our Disney World ponchos and sped through the line with the FastPasses Louis had wisely obtained. The funniest part of this journey was after the drop inside the mountain in the darkness. Once we reached that drop, my mom started screaming, “I PASSED OUT! I NEED TO GET OFF THE RIDE! I’M PASSED OUT!” I had to control my laughter long enough to assure her that she was not passed out, since she was talking to me. I still don’t know how she convinced herself to get on this ride! I’m so proud of how brave she was! Check out what a champ she was…
After getting soaked on Splash Mountain, we headed to the bathroom, so my mom could change out of her wet clothes. She really came prepared! 🙂 Knowing that Space and Splash were over, it was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders! We set off to enjoy the rest of the day. First up was character pictures!
Goofy in front of his kooky house!Meeting the big cheese himself!Sweet Pluto!Princess Aurora!Princess Ariel!Mom enjoying tea with Minnie at her home!Mom let me join her and Minnie for tea!
After hanging around in Toontown for a bit, we decided to do some souvenir shopping before dinner on Main Street. As we were walking towards Main Street, I ran into a cast member I met on 4th of July. His name was Levi, and he was so friendly. He remembered me as well, and while we talked, I told him how my mom was visiting Disneyland, and we were spending the day fitting in all of her favorite things. He asked us to hold on for a moment, and when he came back, he told us he had put us on the list for VIP Fireworks viewing!!! We were soooo excited! I know it sounds cheesy, but I seriously think God had me meet him on July 4th, so I would see him again with my mom and be able to have VIP seats for her Disney day. Full of excitement we headed to look for my mom a Disney ornament and Henry some monogrammed Mickey ears! You’re never too young to start being a Disney fan, after all.
Louis being silly in the hat store!
We also stopped on Main Street to watch Mickey’s Soundsational Parade. It’s such an amazing parade, and while the princess float was going by, Belle noticed my mom and waved right at her! She was beautiful…definitely still my favorite princess!
Beautiful Belle!
After the parade, my mom treated us to a delicious dinner at Carnation Cafe on Main Street. We enjoyed the special of the day (Shrimp Alfredo Penne Pasta), and Louis ordered Mac ‘n Cheese (because he’s a big kid at heart).
Carnation Cafe
Not long after dinner, it was time to grab our snacks for Magical Fireworks Spectacular and head to our VIP seats! The view was absolutely incredible. The show was so beautiful, and I’m so thankful my mom got to experience it with us from our amazing seats.
Disneyland Fireworks
After the Magical show, we strolled over to enjoy Fantasmic! in the Rivers of America. Finally, we enjoyed a late night ride on Haunted Mansion and snapped some pictures in front of the castle as the park was closing for the evening.
The beautiful castle with Walt waving goodbye for the night!After a long, fun-filled day!
It was such an amazing day, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it! I loved how my mom was brave enough to ride Splash & Space Mountain. I loved how we got to meet so many characters. I loved that we opened and closed the park. And I LOVED that we got VIP seats for the fireworks. We had SUCH a blast, and I love that we got to experience Disneyland with my mom! Hopefully next time we head to a Disney park, it will be with the whole family!
About a month ago (already a month!?!), my wonderful mother, Sassy Kat, came to visit us in La Jolla! I was so excited to see her and spend time showing her around where Louis and I have been living this summer. She flew in on a Saturday, and Louis and I were so excited to greet her at the airport!
Louis obviously helped me make made the “welcome” sign as my artistic skills are those of a 4-year old (and that’s being generous). As soon as my mom landed, we all hopped in the car and headed down to the La Jolla Cove for dinner and a beautiful view of the ocean! First, we grabbed dinner at The Prospect Bar & Grill, where Louis and I have dined before.
We had a great time catching up and enjoying dinner until the live music for the night showed up and played so loud we could barely think! Once the music started up, we finished eating and decided to walk along the cove to see the seals and waves. Of course, we wanted to snap some shots in front of the water, which led to this series of pictures.
We are constantly laughing when we’re together 🙂
I was SO happy she was finally in La Jolla! I promise Louis was there, too. Need proof?
Am I blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people or what? We enjoyed the (cloudy 🙁 ) sunset down on the shore cliffs after we climbed under a fence to get closer to the water. Such rebels, I know.
We got a couple to take this after we awkwardly laughed and talked for about 15 minutes behind them while they were probably trying to enjoy a romantic sunset. Oops. Also, how cute is Sassy Kat in her scarf? Such a Cali girl.
We headed home after that though to hit the hay early because we had BIG plans for Sunday. ALL DAY at DISNEYLAND! Don’t worry…that’s going to get its own post entirely. 🙂
Stay tuned to read all about our VIP day at Disney!
Last weekend was AWESOME. Louis took off work Friday (and I quit, so my last day was Thursday lol), and we headed home Thursday night. We arrived late, but we still stayed up until the wee hours of the morning catching up and laughing!
Friday morning my mom had PT, so Louis and I enjoyed cinnamon rolls with my dad and watched a crazy rainstorm move in. Once my mom got home safely, we headed over to visit my favorite sister and favorite nephew! My dad picked us up some tacos for lunch, and we spent the afternoon laughing and playing.
Lolli & Henry!
Louis picked me up in the afternoon, and we drove to Huntsville to watch Louis’s little sister graduate from Sam with her education degree! We celebrated with Louis’s family and a yummy, late dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was a rainy, stormy, fun day!
Saturday was probably my favorite day of the weekend! First we woke up and enjoyed bacon, fruit, and my dad’s yummy homemade pancakes.
Pancakes & Bacon!
After a delicious breakfast, we got ready and headed out for Henry’s 1st trip to the Zoo! It was a beautiful day, hardly any crowds, and SO much fun! I’ll let the pictures do the talking…
This picture taken from the parking garage shows how beautiful the weather was!When we first arrived we watched Amy & Travis help Henry feed the giraffes from a private platform! It was so neat…they were right up next to them! The giraffes were SO beautiful…I think they may be my new favorite animals!We walked around and watched the elephants, lions, and bears enjoying the sunny day! Also, is Henry not the cutest baby you’ve ever seen?Since it was Mother’s Day weekend we made sure to get a shot of the Moms in our family! This was Amy’s 1st mother’s day!
As if these pictures don’t show how much fun we had, I also shot a couple of videos while we were there! Henry is growing up so fast, I try to take little videos whenever I can. I want to remember each stage of his life forever!
The first video showcases Henry’s FIRST EVER CAROUSEL RIDE!!! He was so cute and waving to everyone as he passed by. I think he really loved it! Pretty sure that means he’s ready to visit a Disney park soon, right Amy & Trav? Also, my dad, my mom, AND I were all standing there taking videos and pictures the entire carousel ride…it was pretty obvious Henry’s the first grandson/nephew.
This video shows my mom (Lolli) and Henry playing around! My mom gets to see Henry super often, and you can totally tell he loves her so much!
After a great day at the zoo, we headed back to my parents’ house for homemade fajitas, Chuy’s dip, and guacamole. It was super delicious, and I’m pretty sure I ate myself into a food coma. After a short nap though, I woke up and enjoyed Hitchcock with my parents. If that movie is accurate, Alfred was one WEIRD dude. It was a good movie though. 🙂
Sunday morning, I woke up early with my dad to go get my mom donuts for breakfast in bed….our family tradition! I also gave my mom her Mother’s Day gift! She’s been redoing several rooms in their house to a sort of Pottery Barn look, so I gifted her with a mercury glass vase from there. I know everyone says this, but my mom is SERIOUSLY the best mom in the world. She deserves much more than one day to celebrate her because she is seriously incredible. I have learned so much from her, and I admire her for so many reasons.
Breakfast in bed (all faces cropped out to protect the innocent..err, makeup-less faces) & my mom’s mother’s day gift!
After breakfast we relaxed and got ready before we met Amy, Travis, & Henry for lunch at Red Lobster (Amy’s pick!). I forgot to take pictures there, but I did capture precious Henry drinking some water from his Dad’s straw. Amy also snuck her gorgeous face into this video. Enjoy.
When lunch was over, we relaxed at Amy & Trav’s house for just a bit, and then Louis and I hit the road. The weekend went by WAY too fast…just like it always does when we visit home! It was so great to see my family though, and I can’t wait until we get to visit again!
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