24 Hours of US Time

A couple weeks ago, Evan's Mom came to town for Evan and I to have a romantic getaway.  We had an AMAZING time together.  I knew that 24 hours of just us was needed, but I had no idea how needed until we hit the highway.

The second we left the house, Evan gave me a pair of "road trip" sunglasses and pulled out a bottle of wine.  We listened loudly to music, held hands, kissed (unsafe while driving I know), got a little bit lost (oops, that was my fault, I can't read maps) and finally arrived.

We went to Hot Springs together, which is about 45 minutes away from Little Rock.  Hot Springs is best known for its pure water ... the tap water is absolutely delicious! It's the oldest federal reserve in the USA and probably most famous for "bath house row."  People used to think these waters had healing power. I'll let you know if they work or not ... 

 Our Bed and Breakfast.  It was SO cute!

 Our AWESOME room ... right when you walk in to the room, a HUGE Jacuzzi.

 The COMFY bed.  It was SO tall, we had to climb up some stairs to get in.

After we checked in to the hotel and relaxed for a while, we went out to see the town.

 Behind me is the famous row of bathhouses.  They were SO pretty!  

I made Evan take some other pictures of me later because I realized I looked naked in this picture.  I know it's a romantic getaway and all, but that was for the privacy of our nice bedroom!
ALSO, like my cool "road trip" sunglasses?

 Quawpaw Bathhouse.  Where we took our "healing power" bath.

 The happy couple having fun on their 24 hour getaway.

 Handsome hubby!  Pretty springs all around ...

See I told you I was wearing clothes! (well at this point in the 24 hour period, haha)

After walking around for a good while, we went back and enjoyed our Jacuzzi.  It was so nice and relaxing.  We opened the bottle of wine Evan brought and talked while giving each other massages.  Reeks of romance huh?

We went out to dinner then came back and watched a Jennifer Aniston movie called Love Happens.  Have you guys ever seen it?  It was excellent but SO very sad! 

It's about dealing with a spouse's death.  So of course, I started crying and telling Evan I could never live if anything happened to him, etc.  UGH, it was SO very sad!

The next morning, we had breakfast brought in to our bedroom.  It was yummy, but we had to leave quickly because our "healing power" bath was scheduled for 11 am.

We showed up, paid our $45, and here was what was waiting for us ...

Yep, one big hot tub.  One remarkably similar to the one in our bed and breakfast room! 

Haha ... so Evan and I took a naked bath for $45 bucks.  Most expensive bath of my entire life!  We laughed it off and had a great time anyway.

The last thing we did?  Eat again! (of course)

The Food Network listed one place in each state to eat breakfast and in Arkansas, they chose the Pancake Shop in Hot Springs.  It was absolutely freaking awesome!  I got Banana Pancakes and Evan got sausage and eggs.  I highly recommend!

The fancy Food Network sign.

Taking 24 hours for us was so needed.  We had the best time together.  Even though it was a short 24 hours, and even though Liliana is such an amazing baby and we have tons of us time every evening, being just us two again was nice. 

 

Break from Tours: Happy Father's Day Evan!

Although I've been doing the home tours lately, I thought I should take a break for a couple posts.  First off, I wanted to blog about Evan's second father's day!  Also, Evan and I took a much needed over night date to Hot Springs while his Mom stayed with Liliana.  But for today, I wanted to chronicle Evan's second father's day.

Just a year ago, Evan had a 3 week old baby girl on father's day.  While we had a great day, I was studying for the bar and took 30 minutes off to play with them, but that was it.  This year, we spent the WHOLE day together as a family.  MUCH better!

This was one year ago on Father's Day:

 Liliana was 3 weeks old but Daddy was insistent on swimming already!

Look at Daddy totally in love with his girl already!

Father's Day together this year:

Daddy and Liliana had a GREAT time at the pool again.  Liliana kicks, blows bubbles, and gets SO excited when she sees her little water toys.  She is a definite water baby!

I tried my best to spoil Evan during Father's Day this year, especially since last year all I did was study.  This year, we were still REALLY busy painting, but we had the entire day together as a family and Evan told me it was absolutely "perfect."

For breakfast, I went to Shipley's Doughnuts early in the morning and got Evan the vanilla creme filled doughnuts that he loves.  He hadn't had one in YEARS because they didn't have Shipley's in Lubbock.  I brought him breakfast in bed:

Yummy, doughnuts and a Father's Day balloon from Liliana!

After breakfast, we painted while Evan's Mom watched Liliana for a while.

We lightened up our livingroom area ... the mud color is GONE!  The living room looks SO much better.  This isn't much of a Father's Day huh?   

But don't worry, we only worked for a couple hours.

For dinner, I made Evan a shrimp recipe that he absolutely loves.  He ate, ate, and ate some more.

This recipe is EASY and delicious.  It has such a different flavor, but it's awesome.

Recipe HERE. 

For dessert, I made a DELICIOUS Peanut Butter Pie recipe (Evan's favorite thing in the world after Liliana and I is Peanut Butter).  I've made about 20 different recipes but this one is definitely in the top 3, if not the top.  I got it from the Pioneer Woman, so no surprise that it's great.

Delicious peanut butter pie recipe found HERE.

We had a wonderful day together, at the pool, relaxing, playing, and having fun.  It was a GREAT Father's Day and that's very fitting for a GREAT Dad.

Tour of the New Home: Liliana's Playroom!

This room in the house was pretty much the biggest reason we bought this home.  I was quite adamant that I wanted a playroom in our next house.  In our last home, Liliana didn't have a place to call her own other than her bedroom.  The only problem with this is that babies don't tend to play in a room all by their self until they're older.  PLUS, I didn't like her being so far away all the time.  I like being able to play with her for a couple seconds and then go back to stir whatever I'm cooking.  This house though, had a great room right off the kitchen.  A room to call her on and I've been doing a BIG DIY project for it.

The theme for Liliana's playroom is Alphabets and Numbers.  I'm not quite done with it yet ... I still have to order some prints and get one printed of Liliana playing, but for now, I'm happy with the progress.

Before

During

This is what the playroom looked like the day we moved in.  We quickly put down an alphabet mat and Liliana's tunnel and tent (that she LOVES crawling through).  Unfortunately, the rocking chair in the corner had to be removed because Liliana wanted to climb on it and don't know if you've heard, but rocking chairs aren't exactly what we'd call stable ...

Today

Here is my alphabet wall that I am SO proud of!  I saw this idea of having unique letters on another blog and decided to make it my own.  I will be doing a post over this project by itself because I think it's so cool and other people might want to take the idea!

 A close up of the alphabet wall.

The toys!  Liliana isn't at a shortage of toys.  These are just the DOWNSTAIRS toys.  She has a whole chest worth upstairs in her room.  We've bought her ONE toy total out of those two bookcases.  Let's just say she hit the jackpot when it comes to family and friends wanting to give her things.

My favorite addition to this playroom?  The changing pad downstairs!  She never lays in this playpen so that's why I store the big toys in there, but I LOVE that I don't have to go upstairs for every diaper change.  If you have a 2 story house, I think a changing pad on each level is a necessity.

Well there ya have it .... Liliana's playroom is still a work in progress for sure, BUT it's a great start already and she LOVES LOVES LOVES being in there.

Next room: Kitchen/ Dining Room

Tour of the New Home: Study/ Exercise Room

I've taken so many darn pictures of the progress of this new home and instead of trying to cram a million pictures in to each post, I've decided to go room by room for a Lacefield Home Tour!

I've had a lot of fun setting up our new home, I really have, but I must admit it has been a ton of work and quite a lot of stress.  It has been EXPENSIVE to say the least.  I mean, our darn Credit Card company called us because they thought someone had stolen our card ... NOPE, just a few thousand dollars being spent by us! Ha.

I decided to do the tour from the front of the home, work my way around, and up stairs.  I'll finish with the biggest project of all, the front landscaping, but at the rate that I've had time to post, that might be in a couple weeks!  Sorry!

Without further ado ... welcome to the Lacefield Home!

Entryway:

 Honestly, I'm not too happy with the entryway.  I think the painting is too small for the area for now, but it'll be like this until we have some more money.  It definitely adds some life in the mean time!

 A close up of the stuff on the table.  LOVE this picture of Liliana and Mommy and Daddy's legs holding her.

This is the front room which is directly to the left when you enter the home.  This room is actually quite large and we still have a ton of empty space in it, but at least the paint color that they left was pretty and went well with our office stuff.  Here is the empty picture:

Before:

This is what the room looked like the day we moved in ... yikes.  I wish I could say it got better soon, but it stayed like this for about 3 or 4 days before we even had a chance to tackle it!

During:

After:

This is the way the room looks today!  The bookcase on the left has Evan's stuff and the one on the right has my stuff more.  My law school and college diploma are on the right and Evan's undergraduate and Evan's medical school diploma will go above his bookcase when we start making income again and can afford the big bucks that it takes to nicely frame stuff!

I love this little area ... this is our Aggie wall.  The picture up top symbolizes entering our time at Texas A&M, being at A & M, and then leaving A&M.  We had the best four years of our life there and being graduates from there is such an honor!  Once an Aggie, always an Aggie!

That's the front room for now!

Next: Liliana's playroom!

The New House!! (downstairs)

The house is really coming together.  We've had a few snafu's but nothing we couldn't tackle!  For instance we might have painted Liliana's nursery twice to get the right color.  Oh and, we might have painted the master bedroom twice to get the right color too!

The biggest snafu that we didn't foresee?  We couldn't get our box spring up the steps!  We have a queen bed (by choice not a king so that we can cuddle more every evening) and it would not fit up the stairs!  Our house was built in 1977 and the stairwell area is shaped like an L ... a narrow L.  SO we slept on our mattress in the middle of the floor for over a week.  Our solution?  We ordered our box spring in 2 parts!  I didn't even know that existed for queen beds, but $300 dollars later, I learned.  The good news?  Our bed is ridiculously comfortable and it's great.

SO, here is our house!  I figured today I would post pictures of the empty house and soon here I'll do an after post.  I feel silly saying it's an "after" post because I have work to do in every room still, so I'll call it a "this will do" post. Haha.

Truly though, I love our new home.  It's SO much space for us and everything is just stunning, especially our main area and backyard.  The kitchen, playroom, dining room, and living room are basically one big room.  It's just awesome.  And our backyard?  It's gorgeous.  You sit on your deck and just  look at beautiful trees and vines all around you.

Outside of the house ... 

I like, but don't LOVE the outside of the house.  I have plans for it...actually, the Groupon for Little Rock today was an exterior house cleaning for $20!  We have an appointment set for next week!  Also, we have some landscaping ideas, but we're pretty lost as to what to do ... so this is one of those "good enough for now" pics.

The livingroom.  

This is my favorite area of the home!  We really didn't nor do we plan on changing much in here.  We had to buy a few pieces of furniture, but it was all available at Target and Walmart so didn't break the bank too much.  

The front room.

This room is downstairs and we didn't really have any definite plans for it.  Since this home is so much bigger than our home in Lubbock, we have tons of extra space!  For now, it is functioning as an office and exercise room.  Eventually I want what I'd call an "adult room."  My godsister has an adult room in her house ... it has adult nice furniture and the kids are not allowed in it.  It's where she reads and drinks wine with her friends when they come over.  However, to be honest, this room will probably never be converted to that because the budget won't allow for it! Ha!  I have to fix something about this paint color ... it's not that I mind it.  But when the homeowners left, they left a million holes in the walls with huge scratches.  I don't know the name of the color either, so we'll probably  have to change it eventually.

My kitchen.

I love our kitchen.  My favorite part of it?  The granite countertops!  They aren't overrated, let me tell you.  I get so excited when I don't have to get trivets.  There is one project we have in this room, but it's not showing in this picture.  To the right of the refrigerator, there was a computer nook that I want to make in to a pantry.  I have no idea how we'll accomplish this, but it will be done because right now, I  have my food sitting on the open shelves and it's rather ugly.

Liliana's playroom!

I am SOOOO happy that we have this room, an enclosed playroom.  It's to the right of the kitchen in the above picture.  She spends SO much time in there already and it looks simply awesome.  My favorite part of it?  It's HER room.  It's not right next to a big livingroom, etc.  That way, she can be contained and learn to be independent while playing.  I think it's important for her to learn to do things on her own while Evan and I can accomplish things at the same time.

We also have a half bath downstairs which is awesome!  I would have been too irritated going upstairs every time I had to pee!

Next post I'll do the upstairs and eventually I'll post how the house is currently looking. ; )  In the mean time, isn't this the cutest little girl you've ever seen?  She has the most GORGEOUS face.  I mean, that skin is ridiculous.  Most babies get little acne or dry patches, but she's always been flawless!!!

Liliana got this adorable romper from my  best friend for her birthday ... 

she looked SO darn cute in it!

A Cupcake Themed Birthday Party

** Warning this post has a TON of pictures. Sorry I couldn't narrow it down more! **

A couple weeks ago, we had Liliana's cupcake themed birthday party!  I have to give myself some definite credit here because the party completely rocked!  I was moving in the process of it all so had strategically left only the kitchen items I thought I would need to bake 75 cupcakes.  I was convinced I would accidentally pack something I needed and it would be a mad dash to a kitchen store, but that didn't happen!  Everything went perfectly ... no mess up of any sorts!

Liliana's birthday was such a joyous occasion.  We had about 30 people come over to the house for it!  What can I say ... she's a VERY loved little girl.  When she was only 2 months old, I had already decided on the cupcake theme.  Apparently since then, cupcakes have become the most popular thing on earth.  At first I was a little bit upset about this, but after a while I figured ... oh well!  It only gave me more options on my purchases!

I started cooking for the event the day before.  I had a table of just regular food and wanted to keep that to a minimum as much as possible.  I wanted EVERYTHING to be about cupcakes, so I had: macaroni and cheese cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes, and of course, Liliana's massive cake that was shaped like a cupcake!

Although this was a TON of work, I also had a TON of help.  The afternoon before Evan's graduation, I got started baking while Evan's Mom started working on Liliana's cake.  For Liliana's cake, I didn't make anything fresh because I figured it would only be smashed (and lord was it!).  After graduation and dinner, Liliana's godparents came and helped us cook until one am just to have things set!  At 8:30, we were already up and getting ready.  My cousin was on the decoration committee, Evan's best friend was on the balloon committee, Evan was directing everyone, and I just kept baking! haha.

By 11 o'clock ... the house was ready for company:

 The cupcake table!

 Liliana's own birthday cake!

 Macaroni and cheese cupcakes!

 Chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes!

 Strawberry cupcakes and frosting (everyone's favorite)!

 The eating table, equipped with cupcake candles and pictures of the birthday girl!

 The poster at the entrance of the house!

The loot! (and we were actually missing about 10 gifts from this picture!)

As soon as people arrived, we started opening presents.  I know this is pretty rude, but Liliana was getting tired already and I wanted to make sure she had her moments: openign presents and eating her cake so we did those two things first.  Liliana opened her gifts and played with the toys (aka tissue paper and boxes).  Then she got her cake and had a BLAST with it.  Throughout the day, she ended up changing in to 3 different outfits because the darn frosting got EVERYWHERE! ; )  It was a blast.

 Opening presents with a cute booty in the air!

 Her favorite gift of the entire day ... this box!

 YAY for tissue paper!

 A mischievous look huh?

 Climbing into boxes is so much fun!

 That is one EXCITED baby!

 Mommy and Daddy giving their baby girl her birthday cake!

 Going to town on the cake!

 She's a very giving child ... why have it all for yourself when you can give some to 

Mommy and Daddy too?

 How come Mommy has frosting on herself?  What about the birthday girl?

 Oh yikes ... yeah she definitely got frosting on herself as well.

 Yikes and plenty on her hair!

 But there's nothing a bath and a nap can't cure! 

The birthday girl makes her big second outfit debut!

 Taking pictures with my parents!

The gorgeous birthday girl!

It was a birthday party I'll never forget and I hope one day Liliana can look at the pictures and get some laughs out of it ...