mandyjoyloves

From the weekend.

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Here are a few photos from our weekend….

Before school on Friday, Hadley looked so cute with her hair. She has been wanting to do different things each day for school and I love that! She used to be an all hair down or all hair up type of kid. Now she’s branching out with new things.

After school and work, we visited Daddy at the fire house. He picked up an extra shift so it had been two days since we had seen him! We love going to the firehouse!

After dinner, we had a movie night! We made a fort, with pillows and her favorite blanket. The movie was Yes Day, and we watched it on Netflix! I made a small candy charcuterie board for us, a few new things she’s never had before and loved. One being unicorn marshmallows, yum!

Saturday morning after her shower, she’s been really into this Kindergarten workbook we got her when she was in preschool. Doing school work on her own? Awesome.

Saturday we worked on our front yard. After living here for almost three years now, we’ve been wanting to rip out all of the shrubs and old pine trees. In the top left photo, the tall half dead tree came out, the green weird tree behind the lamp post, and lots of other things. All came out!

The before photo on the left, is a great photo of all the random things that were planted we think when the house was built. The after photo on the right is a great shot of how much you can actually see the house now!

We are obsessed with how different the house looks! It’s only been a few days, and every time we come home or leave, we still look at the house like wow look at the changes! We have more to do, but the big things are pretty much done. With the exception of the huge pine trees that are not pictured here. Those bad boys are coming out this week!

Hadley was excited she can reach the garage door pad. She still looks so little though! She stayed outside with us all day, helping, playing, etc.

On Sunday, to end the weekend we did the Heart Mini! We ran most of it, and little Miss Hadley rode her bike for the entire three miles! She was such a trooper!

The weather was so nice over the weekend, and we got so much accomplished and had fun doing it. Huge thanks to my BIL/SIL for all the help! We have so many plans on sprucing up the front yard now, can’t wait to start!

Around here.

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around here tried a new recipe that was delicious! Pizza chaffles! The recipe can be found by clicking here. If you don’t already know, my husband and I are super picky eaters, and we both loved this so much!

around here it’s been so fun having Kevin join me for runs and workouts! We went to a new trail this week.

around here Hadley had her first softball practice. It’s going to be so cute to watch her play!

around here it was beautiful outside, we played soccer and I see something you don’t see game. And, I cannot get over how green our grass is already! Kevin cut the grass for the first time this year too!

around here I don’t care how old she gets, I will never tire of watching her sleep. Wish they could stay little forever!

around here made a chai latte for the first time! It was so good and easy! The recipe I used can be found by clicking here. During the warmer months, I’m going to try it iced too!

around here went outside and brought some flowers inside. So pretty and the house smells like spring.

around here she is just so cute in her school uniform. She loves to decide how to do her hair each day, and I’m so glad she’s finally gotten into the habit of trying new ways to do her hair. Just love her.

around here I’ve been doing random workouts the past few months. Sometimes I’ll run, walk, or do HIIT workouts. I use the Nike Training Club app on my phone which is awesome. It’s free and has a variety of different workouts to choose from. Download the app here.

around here we visited Daddy at the firehouse. He worked a double shift this week, so we just had to go visit. It had been awhile since we came to the firehouse anyways. Luckily it wasn’t very busy, so we got to hangout for awhile.

TGIF!

Have a great weekend!

Easter decor.

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Easter is right around the corner! I love decorating for just about anything! Easter reminds me of fresh flowers, springtime air, and childhood egg hunts. And let’s not forget to mention, brunch is the main course of food yum!

These tablecloths brighten up the living room so much!

I couldn’t figure out where to hang this wooden Easter sign with the white bunnies, so I put it on the bar cart table. Looks okay there for now. I originally had it on the back of the front door, but every time we opened it the sign would bang super loud so I took it down.

The bathroom! Changing out the shelves for each season / holiday is always fun and festive.

The fireplace is always a favorite part of the house to decorate. I could go a lot more wild with the mantle, and fill it with lots of more items but I kind of like the simplicity of it. I love to have the kids’ photos on there, and have a few small items that are festive.

One tradition that I’ve always loved even as an adult is coloring eggs. All of my aunts and cousins used to get together the Thursday before Easter at my Grandma June’s house. We would all bring fish sandwiches, or my Grandpa would order cheese pizza, and we would all color eggs. Now we color eggs at our own houses, but it’s something I still enjoy doing as an adult with the kids.

Birthday project – Week 1/52.

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It’s my birthday today! And I’ve started the birthday project for the next 52 weeks. So here it goes…

As I mention last week in this post, I’m going to be doing 52 weeks of self care for a fun birthday project. And here is week one. Read magazines for an hour all by myself. I love to read magazines! Especially girly ones, health ones, DIY ones, and one of my favorites Better Home and Gardens! So today, for a full hour of uninterrupted time I got to read some magazines. And I enjoyed every 60 minutes of it.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

This is week 1 of 52.

I am attempting to tackle 52 weeks of self care projects for the next year.
You can follow along here on the blog, or on Pinterest.

Day In The Life 2021.

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Yesterday was Ali Edwards first day in the life for this year. What this is, is a day that Ali as a blogger designates two days each year to document your life. Take photos, write text, capture anything you feel is worth capturing for the day and then either blog about, scrapbook about it, etc. However you choose to document the day. In years past, I just typically take photos on my iPhone, or big girl camera (DSLR), and post them on the blog. It’s a fun thing to do, and look back on the years and see how things change and evolve.

Here’s a look into my day in the life – March 9, 2021.

Started off the day with a workout with my favorite person. Loving it that he’s been joining me! It’s an even bigger motivator to have him along side this journey.

After I finished working out, took a shower and posted this before makeup photo. I hesitated posting this but figured what the hell, this is a day in the life and this is what I look like in real life. Who cares!

The above photo is a pretty standard photo of what my bathroom looks like when I’m getting ready. I have my huge bottle of water, makeup case and hair dryer on the top of the toilet. My SIL got me a new hair dryer for my birthday, so I still have the old one on top of the toilet and the new one on the bottom. But still, this is pretty much what the left side of the sink looks like.

As I drove into work, the sun was a shining! It was beautiful shining down on my sunroof in the car. It was glorious! I cannot wait for warmer weather, there’s just something about warmth and sunshine that makes everything brighter!

After work, I managed to get home in time to make lunch. On the menu this week was Keto cinnamon muffins, they would’ve been delicious if I would’ve followed the recipe correctly! The recipe linked above calls for 12 muffins, so I halved it and forgot to half the salt part and doubled it! So needless to say, these muffins were super salty! And I am not a salt fan as it is, so this was a bust. But I’d love to make these again with the right amount of salt!

Hadley had her very first elementary school project due this week, a leprauchan trap! Dad was in charge of all the hot glueing, and Hadley loved every step of this project. I cannot wait for more school projects to come, and to teach her how to organize and plan these out! I think Mom and Dad enjoyed this project, just as much as Hadley did!

Final leprauchan trap! We hope she catches that little guy, we made the trap very inviting for those little leprauchans!

Next up, softball season! Breaking out the bat and balls, and practicing hitting. If you follow me on Instagram, you can see in my stories yesterday how well Hadley is hitting the ball! Can’t wait for her first season. She was supposed to play last year, but the season got cancelled due to the dreaded “C” word had just came about.

Dinner last night was chicken club lettuce wrap. I didn’t take a photo before we devoured it, but it’s become one of our favorite keto meals. Instead of using a tortilla as a wrap, we’ve been using shredded lettuce or the big head of lettuce. What I usually end up doing is putting it all together and eating it that way instead of a wrap. Sort of like chicken salad I guess.

Dessert most nights for us is an Atkins bar, we put the caramel nut bars in the freezer and eat it like an ice cream bar. So good!

Watching the news, Channel 19 is my least favorite but it’s what we had on last night. The lady on the screen is my least favorite, just one of those news people that drives me crazy haha

I just love doing a day in the life each year, it’s fun to just focus on something else for a change! I love it when Ali Edwards does these day in the life days, and she also does a week in the life too! If you’d like to follow along, here is her blog Ali Edwards blog. Thanks for being such an inspiration Ali!

Lollipop Soccer Recap.

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Hadley finished her very first grade school sport soccer this past weekend! Kindergarten lollipops! She played two sessions with a team from her school, all in kindergarten. She enjoyed it so much. The above photos were from the first session, and it was a big learning curve for most of the girls. Even her big brother and sister got to see her play one of her games. With the pandemic going on, spectators have been limited. She loved wearing soccer shoes, the shin guards, socks, the whole get up.

By the second session, all of the girls improved tremendously! Kevin helped coach for this session, and Hadley loved every minute of it. With his firefighter schedule, he only missed two games! By the last game, it seemed like the team was finally getting the hang of how the game is played and then the season was over. It was such a great time for Hadley, and I hope she continues to try out different sports as she grows up.

The whole team! Well, two girls were missing, but most of them are pictured above. I can’t wait to watch these girls grow together through the school age years. Most of them are playing softball together in a few weeks. I just love this time in our lives. I’ve been waiting for twelve years to experience all of this, and it’s finally here, and I’m enjoying every second of it. I know it’s going to be over before I know it, she’ll be graduating high school and I’ll wish for these kindergarten years back again. Just love watching our kiddo grow up!

Around here.

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around here Kevin started working out with me and it’s been awesome! I’ve been begging him to join me for months!

around here picking up the babe after school, she’s always so happy! With her little red ICEE mouth.

around here hung around outside on my birthday, the weather was beautiful!

around here had a great birthday at home with my little family!

around here we made a recipe binder! If you watched my stories on Instagram this week, you’ll know how it all came together. The recipe box wasn’t working for me anymore so I went the binder route with tabs!

around here slowly started back to running. One morning was super cold, and even though my legs felt frozen it still felt so good. Even Kevin joined me on some runs this week!

around here did the weekly car wash! Nothing but sunny skies in the forecast for awhile.

around here put up a new saying on the letter board for St. Patrick’s Day coming up!

Happy Friday and bring on the weekend! It’s been A week work wise, very very glad it’s over. Lots of workouts, and with my husband joining me on occasion, good food, made a recipe binder, celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday sort of, celebrated my birthday, finished Bloodline on Netflix, started and finished Ginny & Georgia on Netflix, and went to Target with my kiddo.

The highlight though was the food. This past week I’ve been so lucky to have Kevin home most days and he’s been cooking like Betty Crocker around here. We made a meal plan for the week, and for the most part stuck to it. We ate so good, and it was all pretty much healthy. It helps so much when your partner eats better and works out with you! I’m loving it!

I’m so glad the next few days are nothing but sunshine in the forecast! It still might be a little bit cold out, but the sun shining makes it so much better! March has only just begun, and it’s been jam packed so far!

Have a wonderful weekend folks!