Five New Beauty Finds

 I've recently tried a few new products that I am loving and thought I'd share!

One

Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Foundation. This stuff is so great! It's full coverage but feels so light on your skin. Not like most full coverage foundations that feel heavy. It also really does last all day! It's amazing! I can't say enough great things about it. It's a little pricy at $42, but so very worth it.

Two

Estee Lauder Double Wear Instant Fix Concealer. This concealer is awesome!  On one side there's Hydra Prep serum for an instant hit of hydration. Helps smooth fine, dry lines and lets concealer glide on smoothly and blend seamlessly. On the other side, there's an extreme wear concealer that lasts 24 hours!

Three

CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream. I had never used a night cream before, but recently got into the habit of taking my make-up off at night before bed. I know I should have been doing that all along, but just hadn't forced myself to take the time to do it. My skin is feeling so much better since I've made this a habit and I'm loving how this night cream hydrates my face and has really helped with dry skin.

Four

Redken Color Extend Blondage Color Depositing Purple Shampoo. This was highly recommended by my hair stylist and I'm so glad I tried it. For someone with blonde, color treated hair, this is a must. It really helps to keep the blonde color from fading and it keeps the brassiness at bay.

Five

Mario Badescu Cleansing Milk with Carnation and Rice Oil. This face cleanser is so soft and gentle on your skin. If you have sensitive or dry skin, this is such a great cleanser. You can even use it on your eyes to get your eye make-up off. It's great and doesn't dry out your skin like so many cleansers do and what makes it even better... it's only $12 a bottle!

Do you have any must-try beauty products you'd like to pass along? I'd love to hear about them.



Five on Friday

Happy Friday!!

One
I've recently bought a couple cute Spring/Summer dresses for Avery. She ONLY wants to wear dresses right now, so I've been stocking up for Spring/Summer.

 The first is from Orange Poppy Boutique. I stumbled upon this site from an instagram sponsored post and I'm so glad I did. They have a bunch of adorable dresses and they're all so reasonably priced. When I saw this one, I just had to buy it.

I also just bought this adorable dress for Avery. Her 5th birthday is coming up later this month and this dress will go perfectly with her "Rainbow" themed birthday party!

Two
My mother-in-law and I took Jackson and Avery to see the new Dumbo movie this past weekend! It was SO good!! I can't wait to buy it when it comes out on DVD. When the movie was over I asked Avery if she liked it and her exact words were, "I LOVED IT!"

Three
We just got Jackson's Basketball pictures back from this past season. He looks so handsome and grown up!

Four

My neighbor next door sent me this picture last week. It's so darn cute! I love that we have such great neighborhood friends! The kids literally would play outside with their friends all day if they could. We are loving these Spring days where the weather is warmer and are looking forward to many more to come.

Five

Speaking of the warmer weather, this is where you'll often find Jackson these days. He is loving the basketball hoop we got him for Christmas! He plays all the time and all of the boys on our street play with him. It's so fun watching them all play together.

Have a great weekend!



Spring Break 2019

Spring Break for our kids started yesterday, and though we don't have any big plans, we did take them to do some fun things yesterday since I was off work. We don't have any other plans for the rest of the week, but the weather is supposed to be nice, so we're hoping they can spend a lot of time outside playing with our neighbor friends!

Yesterday, we took the kids to The St. Louis Science Center and then to a late lunch at Crown Candy Kitchen! We went with some of our neighbors and had such a fun time.

We're hoping to spend the rest of the week like this...

Happy Spring!!



Happy St. Paddy's Day

Have a great St. Patrick's Day and a wonderful weekend!

Five on Friday

Happy Friday

One

Avery had a play-date this past Friday with her friend Aubrei. Aubrei's mom picked them up right after school and Avery spent the afternoon there. They ate lunch together, played dress-up and dolls and had dance parties. They had a great time! Aubrei's mom sent me this adorable picture of them. They're too cute!!

Two

Jackson and Avery both had haircuts this past Saturday. Jackson gets his cut about once a month, but Avery only gets hers cut about every 12 weeks or so, so she was excited she got to get a haircut this time around!! Her hair feels so much healthier after a haircut!

Three

Jake and Jackson went to Monster Jam Sunday afternoon with our neighbors across the street! Jackson had a great time with his buddy Andy!!

Four

While Jake and Jackson were at Monster Jam on Sunday afternoon, Avery and I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies. It was a snowy day, so it was perfect for staying in and baking with my favorite girl.

Five
I saved the best for last!!

As I mentioned in a previous post earlier this year, Jake was laid off from his job on January 4th. A job he had been at for 12 years and a job he had done very well at. As I said, it was a shock and quite a disappointment when the company decided to eliminate his position. Though I work full time, he was definitely the bread winner, so to lose his income was definitely a struggle and one we were hoping wouldn't last long. Two months later to the day, Jake accepted a wonderful offer that we couldn't be more excited about. It has been a very long two months to say the least. Two months of constant job searching and interviews. But we are so thrilled he has been offered this wonderful opportunity and I'm so proud of all of his hard work and all that he does for our family! God was right in the midst of this trial and I'm so thankful for that. He knows just what we need when we need it and I truly believe this whole thing was a blessing in disguise, even when it didn't seem like it at times.



Biscuit Beignets

In honor of Mardi Gras, the kids and I made beignets over the weekend out of biscuits. They are super easy and SO good!

As a kid growing up, we made biscuit donuts on occasion and it was always such a fun treat. My mom would use a can of biscuits and cut a whole in the center of each one using a salt shaker lid (but I've used mini star or heart shaped cookie cutters as well, anything small will do.) Then she'd deep fry the donuts and donut holes in oil. We let them cool on a plate with a couple paper towels on it and then once they cooled, we covered them in powdered sugar. It was such a yummy treat!

When we were in New Orleans this past January, we had beignets for the first time and I couldn't help but think how much they reminded me of our biscuit donuts that we made as a kid. So I thought for Mardi Gras this year, I'd make the kids "biscuit beignets" since they loved the beignets so much in NOLA.

I just cut the biscuits into a rectangular shape like the beignets we had in New Orleans, and deep fried them the same way we always did as kids, and then covered them in powdered sugar. The kids loved helping make them and they also loved eating them of course!!!

Such a fun and yummy way to celebrate Mardi Gras weekend!



Five on Friday

Happy Friday

One
Happy First Day of March!! Is it Spring yet?? Around here it's not as we're expecting snow and frigid temperatures this weekend. I sure hope Spring is right around the corner though. I'm really ready for Spring!

Two

This past Saturday night we went to a wine tasting night at a friend's house. It was a lot of fun and we got to try around 10 different wines!

Three

This past Monday afternoon, I took Avery to get registered for Kindergarten! How is she already old enough for this?? She is SO excited to go to Kindergarten!

Four

In honor of Reading Across America week at school this week, Jackson had a school project to turn a potato into his favorite character from a book. He chose to do "Dog Man" from the Dog Man book series. It was a fun project and turned out pretty cute!

Five
My new favorite mascara is the Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara from It Cosmetics. It really lengthens my lashes and makes them look longer than they really are. It also doesn't clump. I got a sample in one of my ipsy bags and I'm loving it.