Mornings: the most wonderful time of the day.

I never thought I'd say this, not in a MILLION years. But I love mornings.

Out of all the somtimes-long hours of the day staying at home with my boys, THIS part of the day is by far the happiest and (gasp!) the most relaxing. Here's why:

Coffee.  First thing I do is make a cup of coffee. See right there I'm already starting my day on a high note.

Kids are happiest in the morning. And then we know it all goes downhill from there. Maybe it's because they are fresh off a 12-hour siesta, but kids are in the best moods in the morning. All smiles, all giggles, all joy. It's great.

Good Morning America.  First thing I do after I get the boys and get my cup of coffee, is turn on Good Morning America. I only watch about half-an-hour, but I love this ritual of feeding the baby a bottle, sipping on some caffeine, and getting my news headlines. Oh and I should note this is typically the first and last time I get to watch TV. So there's that.

The baby never is too far away though. Hi Ben!

Breakfast routine.  I love our breakfast routine in the morning. It is Cooper's favorite meal of the day, and he wants the same thing, prepared the same way, on the same plate, erryday. In fact, nowadays he likes to help. This may sound boring to you, but oh contrare! This equals no surprises (ie tantrums if all goes to plan) for mommy. And Ben loves sitting at the table watching his most-favorite-human-of-all-time, the Coop-man. It's awesome to watch.

Morning nap-time. As I type I fear this might be changing for me, but currently, Ben naps from 8:30-10:30 like a boss. So after the happiest of mornings (see above), I put him down for his morning nap and Coop and I have two-hours of quiet time. Usually I eat breakfast, check the computer, and he gets some coveted time of Team Umizoomi in. And before you judge me, he can count backwards from 30 thanks to that show, so I consider this an educational time.

And as quickly as the quiet morning came it is gone again. But I sure do cherish our calm mornings. Anyone with me on this? Or is the opposite story at your house?

7 Things I'd Tell My College-Aged Self

Happy Wednesday friends!

My Wednesday posts are few and far between lately, and if you follow those I do apologize. I blame the children. Who make me tired. I digress.

It's been funny lately, I feel like I've either ran into young women who remind me of what it was like to be an insecure 19-year old or I am just hyper-aware of them.

While at lunch this week I overheard a couple (hungover) college girls chatting about the night before; let's just say they were dehydrated from a crazy MONDAY night out. It was all boys, booze, boys, boys, booze. Listen, I get it, heck I lived it, but we all know that is a crazy road that leads to nowhere.

As I was sitting there, waiting for my friend to join me, feeding Baby B a bottle while picking out the chunks of banana in my hair, I found myself kind-of judging them; I mean, y'all, who goes out late on a school night? But mostly I felt sorry for them. 

It reminded me how little you know about yourself at this age. 

Young girls tend to look for affirmation in all sorts of wrong places, and adventures are gauged by the number of friends (and boyfriends) they have, or nowadays how many Facebook likes a picture gets. I mean how lucky was I to experience NO social media throughout any point of schooling? It's a self-esteem game changer. 

It got me thinking about what I wish my 18-22-year old self would have known.

1. Get to know you and learn to love yourself. You're young and this may seem tricky. But a good place to start is with your feelings, because in a brand new place all by yourself you will have a lot. Listen to what you are feeling, and work your butt off to understand WHY you are feeling that way. This can help you understand your insecurities so that other people can't use them against you. Be gentle with yourself, but always hold YOU to the highest standard. Don't let other outside influences determine your self-worth.

2. Find what you love. Spend time searching for what makes you tick. What brings you joy. If there's a certain class your drawn too, sign up for another similar one. And once you find that part of schooling that brings you joy, work your butt off to pursue that professionally.

3. Build your village and put them first, not boys and booze.  You will learn as much from your college girlfriends as you will from your classes. Building new friendships and being a good friend to others is a critical part of happiness. 

4. Assume the best in people. You hold yourself to high standard and others around you as well. But cut people some slack and work to have your first reaction be to assume people have good intentions. The other way creates bitterness and sometimes paranoia. Remember that your personal perspective is not always the right one. Give others the benefit of the doubt.

5. Don't take anything personal. ANYTHING. We women tend to do this anyways, but add on college insecurities and breakups and failing grades, and you get it, times can be tough. Just don't take it personal and refer to point number 1.

6. If you haven't got the message yet, work on you. You won't find the dream job, the dream man, or live out your dreams until you know, YOU. Knowing who we are and focusing on building up our character is the only way we can move forward and find success. Take part in activities that interest YOU, pursue YOUR interests, nourish YOUR friendships. Try to be the right person, and you will find the rest of the things you want in life will naturally fall into place.

7. Don't go out on a school night. Lauren, don't go out late on a Monday. Trust me.

Monday morning what-have-you's.

Happy Monday friends!

"Mom, you just farted in your mouth." 

I was just minding my own business feeding Ben a banana. To clarify: no burping.

"Don't talk to me that way!" 

I just asked him to wash his hands.

"It's okay Ben, here I am." 

To his brother when he is crying.
"Look mommy, I picked you a flower!"

You can see we are on the roller coaster ride that is having a three year old. Anyone else in this boat?

Some close friends and I have a monthly-ish dinner and rotate who hosts. This weekend it was my night. I went for a tapas theme and loved an excuse to get my table dressed up. Er, set. And what is it about fresh flowers that makes life a little brighter?

Appetizer Plates / Placemat / Jars / Table
I'm starting to focus on getting my master bedroom decorated, finally. This has fallen way to the bottom of my to-do list since we moved and I'm ready to hang things on walls and make it a cozy space. It needs it! I love this space from Megan's home at Honey We're Home. I'm a neutral gal and love her neutral master. How simple and classy?

Go get 'em today, friends.

Our Kitchen: Reno Series Vol. 2

I'm excited to finally get this post up!

We bought our house last July, literally negotiating the contract while in the hospital after we had Ben. How's that for multi-tasking? We bought it knowing we wanted to renovate, and our first step was the kitchen.

Looking back at the before pictures, I wonder if our friends walked in the house and then nervously wondered what the hell we were thinking. Because it was bad y'all. Truth be told we fell in love with the back wall of windows and the beautiful view, and just figured the rest of it could slowly be updated to the house we love. And, it has!

Here are before pictures from the family room, with a view of that gorgeous yellow wall and the kitchen is just on the other side of it:

This wall blocked tons of natural light and broke up the space. We decided to knock it down to create the open floor plan we wanted. This is a load bearing wall however, so we did have to incorporate column structures in the design.

After:

In addition to the kitchen (and fireplace) demo and reno, you can see all trim was painted white, floors were stained and window coverings installed. It doesn't even look like the same space! (Thankfully).

There was another wall running vertical to the one we knocked down and it separated a small dining room. On the other side of the old dining room was a sitting room; which would equal 4 total sitting rooms in the house, way too many. I decided right away I wanted to extend the kitchen into the "old" dining room, and make that sitting room our "new" dining room. So, we knocked down that wall as well. Why not, right?

After:

Our awesome designer came up with the idea to create a little desk space and a comfy reading nook, I LOVE this space. Behind this wall is a walk in pantry.

Oh my gosh the kitchen looks so bad in this picture. You can see how unnecessary that wall to the right was! We didn't change much logistic-wise on the window side of the kitchen, just everything on it. 

This window is such a special place in the kitchen. And a lifetime dream came true with that farmhouse sink. Best decision I made. 

I hope you liked the tour! 

We are so happy with the room now, the kitchen is the central, most used space in a house - and seeing it come together has been wonderful. Though I'd rather forget the days we used the laundry room to wash dishes and a hot plate to cook meals. Short term pain, long term gain was my motto!

Oh, and if you are in Denver and looking to renovate and need help designing the space, I highly, highly recommend Elizabeth Lord. She rocked, was easy, and did amazing! 

You can check out my Kitchen Inspiration Board here. I'll be linking the kitchen specifics very soon!