Weekend Wrap Up

Our weekend was busy but definitely a fun one! We had a lot going on!

Last Wednesday, I decorated Gretchen's birthday table. 

 I always decorate her a fun table for her to wake up to on her birthday morning. Except now, she stays up later than I do and the last two years she's come home to her table being decorated the night before. The smile on her face though was the best when she saw that I had remembered to do it. 

I always just use birthday things we have left over from previous parties. 

Her very last night as a 14 year old. 

She woke up 15, and opened her present that morning before we all had to rush out the door! 

Thursday night was her school musicals opening night. Gretchen was in the ensemble, and did such a great job. She's committed so much time and effort, so many Saturday afternoons and weekday evenings. It was a relief to see it all come together and turn out so well. 

I had to leave at intermission to pick up Megan from gymnastics, but we came back and caught almost half of the 2nd act. 

And it was fun to surprise her with birthday and opening night flowers from us and from her Gee & Papaw. 

I was off on Friday, and Gabby had a grooming appointment. I dropped her off, went to the grocery store, home for some errands, and back to pick her up. 

DJ came hom Friday night with corsages for Megan and Adalyn and invited them to our church's Daddy-Daughter Dance. 

He showed them how to put on their corsages; we ate dinner and got the girls ready to go. 

Megan opted for a romper instead of a dress and she looked so cute. 

Adalyn wore Megan's dress from last year and looked adorable. 

They were ready to go have some fun! 

And I was excited for a night home alone! 

They came home and showed me the glasses they got, other toys and crafts, as well as a charicature drawing. It was safe to say they had the best time! 

Saturday morning, DJ took Adalyn to her last pfutsal game, and Megan and I were off to a horse riding birthday party. 

Saturday night, we went back to Gretchen's play for their last night. Since Megan had missed most of the play, she wanted to see it again, and I was able to catch the portions that I missed on opening night. 

We spent our Sunday sleeping late, meeting some families for babysitting, watching football, and ended with a family dinner. 

My Current Make Up Routine: The Good & The Bad

I've changed up my make up routine over the last several months, and I'm trying to play around with a few different brands. I've used Young Living's Savvy Minerals since it came out, and I've loved it. But, since the Fall when I found out they were discontinuing the line, I started grabbing a few of my old go-to brands, and now I'm slowly working back toward cleaner brands and just figuring out what works for me. 

I love make up, but I tend to keep my look really simple and easy. I also really want to use as many clean brands as possible, but I also want to give myself some grace because sometimes it is easier to run to the store than it is to wait patiently for an order. 

I received Charlotte Tilbury's moisturizer for Christmas and I really love it. It's more than I'd spend on msyelf so I had never given it a try, but I could immediately tell a difference under my eyes within a few days of using it. I alternate between it, and the Sandalwood moisturizer from Young Living. 

Last Fall I started hearing a lot about Toups & Co and I'm really impressed with how clean this brand is. I ordered their sample pack of foundation to find my shade. I wear almond. The medium pack came with 4-5 color options that I could try. I went online, and ordered the larger size foundation that I color matched to. Pro- it's definitely a clean brand and super similar to Savvy Minerals. Con- the size is only 1 ounce, so I'm not sure how fast I'll go through a bottle. I do tend to wear foundation daily. Their shipping was super fast though, and they do have a rewards program. 

I plan on slowly tossing out what I currently have and trying more products from Toups & Co. 

I'm currently using Tarte pressed powder in the Medium shade. 

I'm obsessed with Savvy Minerals dark multi-tasker. Honestly, this is a product that I'm going to be really sad when I can't get it anymore. (I need to stock up because this small container does last about a year for me.) I use it to fill in my eye brows. 

I went back to my old favorite- Nars orgasm blush. 

When this is gone, I will try some Toups & Co blush though, but I do love this color. 

I ordered Toups & Co neutral eye shadow to try out, and I do like it! It just comes as a refill and not in a real container. I plan on buying their larger eye shadow compact but wanted to start with a small one to see what I thought before splurging on a bigger size and more colors. 

I use Tarte's bronzer. I actually use this on my eyelids, and then cheeks, and anywhere else I need to contour. 

Honestly, I regret buying it. As soon as I brought it home, I could smell that it has fragrance in it. It was one of those products I grabbed because I wa sout of my Savvy Minerals bronzer and just needed something quick. 

It's not a horrible product, but since I really want clean ingredients- I don't prefer it. If you don't care about that, then it's a really great product- ha! 

The Tula eye balm is a product I use when I need a little under eye lift. I don't use this daily. I'll use it when I need to refresh my make up for a night out. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with this too. If I use it daily, then I notice that my skin turns a little red, but it also works and gives the illumination of a lift. 

I'm using Nars concealer. I don't hate it- it just doesn't have clean ingredients. I'll be making a switch over to Toups & Co as soon as this bottle runs out! 

Okay, this mascara is amazing and it's super cheap. I've used "clean" mascara's for years and just get frustrated with them. I ordered this on a whim, it's not clean, and I don't even care- it works so well! I use it with my heated eye lash curler and love it! 

Okay, I hope that was helpful! I actually love all of the products! I just don't love all of the ingredients! I feel like this post was half helpful and half not, but it's something I wanted to share and I want to be honest with you guys, as I slowly switch back over to cleaner brands, I'll share more! 

Gretchen's 15!

It's hard to believe that this little girl came in to our lives 15 years ago and changed our entire world. 

A few days ago, I was really trying to remember if I enjoyed the stage of having little babies. Part of me feels like we were so busy, trying to learn how to navigate life, managing work, figuring out our family, taking time for myself... all the things- did I really enjoy having babies?

Because babies are hard! I will always remember when Gretchen was 7 months old and she was crying in the middle of the night. DJ was away at a football game and I was just exhausted. I called him at 2 am, because I just didn't know what to do, and I guess somehow I thought he could help.

As I was total mom-guilting myself in to thinking that I didn't enjoy having babies and that time when they were little, I started looking back through pictures and the memories just flooded in. And gosh, I did enjoy it. 

I remember my mom asksing me what stage was my favorite and I would always say- I really like this stage. "All of them" really became my favorite answer, and I really do think I enjoyed every stage.

She's been a teenager for a few years, and 15 is a big one! This is the year she's going to learn to drive a car. Maybe this will be the year she has a first date or a first kiss. But gosh can I just say how thankful I am that she isn't boy crazy- ha! 

I really am enjoying this stage too!

Gretchen is kind and thoughtful. She has a big heart and is always willing to help. She loves theater and the stage. She loves school. She has her head on her shoulders in ways that I couldn't have imagined when I was 15. Her high school classes are planned out. She has her eyes on a few collages; she wants to go to law school. 

She loves God, and gosh that's my biggest parenting win ever. All of the girls have accepted Christ and have been baptized. She loves church and the activities. 

She has an amazing group of core friends. We've talked about how friendships will come and go while she's in high school, and she told me "as long as I have these 4, i'll be okay." Her perspective just blows me away. 

Gretchen, we love you big 

Costco Haul

Last Friday I had to go to Costco for groceries. We needed snacks, some dinners, some produce- just a little hodge podge of all the things. I feel like I purchased a lot of little things, and I don't think this will last more than a week. I'm hoping I can stretch what we have plus this haul for 2 weeks, because we have a camping trip and the next time I go back, I just want to stock up for that trip. 

I was trying to be very careful with how much I spent. I feel like I can go to Costco and easily spend $400.00 and I was really trying to spend less than that. I did, but not by much. 

I grabbed these because Megan can easily take them to gymnastics and get some protein in. Adalyn eats them too, but mostly digs out the raisins and M&M's. 

I bought applesauce from Target last week, and Adalyn asked me to buy it again becasue she liked it better. Megan said she preferred Costco's applesauce. So I guess I'll just alternate when we run out each time. 

Eggs. 

I much prefer Costco's brown eggs, but these were all they had, so  I went ahead and grabbed a pack. 

I picked up potatoes. We kind of go through phases where we eat a lot of potatoes and then we don't, but honestly we can get a lot of different meals out of potatoes. Since I'm trying to stretch our groceries for the next two weeks, I figured potatoes could go a long way. 

I grabbed these "cheetos" for the girls to pack in their school lunch. 

I prefer Kerry Gold butter, but again, I was trying to save a few dollars, and as long as it's grass-fed I'm happy. 

I grabbed more of our favorite chicken nuggets. The girls will eat these for a weekend lunch. Megan takes these to gymnastics for her dinner snack, and even DJ eats these. 

I use to buy these, and haven't found them in a while. They're a super quick easy dinner. DJ's out of town right now, so give me all the easy dinners!

I started buying Costco's big bag of chicken breasts in the Fall. I use to buy their packages of organic chicken breast, but you usually get 2 in a pack, and for a family of 5 it wasn't as budget friendly. I can sometimes get away with only using 2 depending on what I'm cooking and the size, but if we make grilled chicken, then I need to use more. 

The girls love this sausage for their breakfast. 

We've always loved this turkey breast, but they've recently changed it's shappe. It was more oval, and now it's rectangle, and that drives me bonkers because it feels more processed. Is that strange? I'm still buying it because I haven't found an alternative, but the girls like it, and I think it's just me that thinks the rectangle shape is weird. 

Gretchen has her school musical this week, and they needed snacks for the concession stand- I picked up a box of candy bars. 

I grabbed go-gurt's for snacks and lunches. 

Bananas for my morning protein shakes. 

Grapes for snacks and lunches. 

Oranges

Peanut butter- we love this brand because it doesn't have added oil. 

Milk. 

I always get a big bag of these chocolate chips. I'm determined to actually bake with them rather than eat them straight from the bag. 

I use avacado oil in all of my baking and lots of my cooking! I grabbed this huge bottle! It was $15.00 which was a great buy! 

We love this deep dish pizza and since DJ is out of town, I knew it would be a quick dinner for us! 

We still have some orange chicken left over from my last haul, but we were out of the individual bags of fried rice. I'll heat up 2 bags to have for dinner with our orange chicken, but Gretchen and I both take these for lunch too. 

Roast..... I always buy chicken and hamburger meat, and last time I grabbed pork chops, so I grabbed roast this time. Plus, I can throw it in the crock pot and come home and dinner will be done. 

We love their muffins. I cut them in half for the girls' breakfast, and they also freeze well. 

I've tried so many brands of lotions and even though this isn't the cleanest, I always come back to it. Plus, it was on sale this week. 

Alright, that's my random Costco haul for the week! What are you going to try? What's something I should try?